Debra Ullrick - The Unexpected Bride

“Rainee?”

Her vision trailed toward Katherine, who smelled of baked bread and wood smoke.

“I am truly sorry, Mrs. Bowen. I am not normally one given to fainting spells. But this news has come as quite a shock to me. I am at a loss as to what to do next. All I know is, I cannot go back. I simply cannot.”

“It’s Katherine, and please don’t apologize for fainting. I certainly understand. I’d probably faint too under the same circumstances.” Katherine sat on the bed next to her and took her hand. “I am more sorry than words can say for what my son did. I want you to know you’re welcome to stay here as long as you wish.”

Once again, questions chased other questions through Rainee’s mind. Should she stay? Should she go? Should she take Katherine up on her offer until she had time to figure out what to do? The way she saw it, she really had no other choice.

She searched the woman’s eyes, seeking something. Reassurance perhaps? That all would be well? What she saw was a kind woman offering her compassion and a place to stay. Her chest heaved, expelling some of the tension in her body. “Are you sure you do not mind?”

“I’m positive. Now, why don’t I have Haydon bring up your things? I’m sure you’d like to clean up before dinner. I’ll heat some water so you can take a bath.”

“No, no. Please, do not trouble yourself on my account,” Rainee said even though a bath sounded heavenly. She did not want to give this woman any reason to send her back. And while she would not take advantage of Katherine’s kind offer and hospitality for long, she was grateful for the time to come up with another plan.

If only her mother’s words of wisdom would rise up in her, but they would not because Rainee had never encountered anything like this while her mother was still alive. How could either of them ever have envisioned this? The next-closest thing she had to a mother now was Jenetta. The older woman would know what to do. But she was not here. She was back home in Little Rock with her husband and three children.

Something Jenetta had said popped into her mind. “You hang on to that other Christian gentleman’s letter in case thangs don’t work out.” The other letter. Stems of hope sprouted through the darkness. She did have another option. Thank You, Lord.

Having received many responses to her advertisement, she had kept the two most promising letters. One she had responded to, the other, well, his letter was tucked securely in her trunk. Although it saddened her that things did not work out with Haydon, she would write the other man straightaway.

“It’s no trouble at all.” Katherine’s voice snapped her out of her musings. “I’ll start heating the water now. As soon as Haydon gets your things up here, you can come down and take a bath.” She smiled, stood and turned to leave the room. At the door, she stopped. With her hand still on the knob, she looked back at Rainee. “I really am sorry for what my son did. And I meant what I said about you staying here as long as you like.” Katherine’s smile seemed to hold a secret. But just what kind of secret Rainee did not know.

“Would you please take Rainee’s things up to Leah’s room?” Haydon’s mother pointed to the trunk he had placed on the porch when they had arrived. “She’ll be staying with us.”

His eyebrows slammed against the brim of his hat. “What do you mean she’s staying with us? For how long?” He could no more hold back the panic from his voice than he could hold back a raging river.

“For as long as she likes.”

Haydon recognized that smile. His mother was up to something. Just what, he wasn’t sure. But something.

He leaned over and grabbed the handles of Rainee’s trunk and hoisted it up. His mother opened the door and motioned him by. “Just what I need,” he spoke under his breath as he walked past her.

“She just might be.”

Haydon swung around so fast the trunk dropped from his hands and thudded onto his foot. He jerked his foot up, put it down, jerked it up again and put it down, all the while holding back the words he wanted to fling out in anger. Without looking at his mother, he snatched the trunk up again and tromped his way up the stairs.

“Haydon.” The sternness in his mother’s voice stopped him.

Halfway up the stairs, he balanced the trunk on his knee and turned his head toward his mother.

She shook her finger at him. “You be nice to my guest, and don’t you dare make her feel uncomfortable.”

Make her uncomfortable!

“Yes, ma’am,” he said as he turned and trudged up the stairs. This whole stupid mess stuck inside him like an infected splinter.

At Leah’s bedroom door, he stopped and called, “Rainee.” He made every effort possible to keep the irritation from his voice, when what he really wanted to do was take her and her trunk into town and drop her off at Mrs. Swedberg’s boardinghouse. But the older widow woman never had any available rooms. Besides, even if she did, his mother had already made it clear Rainee was her guest now, and that was that.

“Come in,” she said in that sweet Southern drawl of hers that drove clean through every part of him.

“I’m here with your trunk.” He pushed the door all the way open with his back and turned inside. “Where would you like this?” He refused to look over at her. Refused to let her get under his skin any further.

“Over here, please.”

He had no choice but to look now as she pointed to the end of the bed.

His gaze snagged on her hands. She still had on those lacey gloves. Why would she wear such fancy gloves in the house? This wasn’t some fancy ball.

Fancy balls.

Melanie.

Thoughts of his wife were always one careless notion away but exactly what he needed to keep from being drawn in by Rainee. For that, he was almost grateful to the memories. As fast as he could, Haydon set her trunk at the foot of the bed and turned to leave.

“Haydon?”

He looked back at her. “Yes, ma’am?”

“Thank you.” She put her head down and played with the tips of her fingers. “I want you to know that as soon as I can, I will be leaving. I am truly sorry for what your brother has put you through.”

“Put me through?” Haydon was instantly chagrinned at his uncharitable thoughts. Rainee was the real victim here. “What about what he put you through? You came all this way for nothing. When I think about what you must be feeling right now…” He shook his head. “I still can’t believe it. I’m really sorry, Rainee. Truly.” He found he meant it. No one deserved to be treated like that.

“It is okay, Haydon. I have a home for now. And one of the other Christian gentlemen who answered my advertisement offered me a home as well, so I am not completely without options.”

One of the other gentlemen? How many men had actually responded to her ad? Were there that many desperate men out there?

“I shall contact him as soon as I can send a post off and see if he still wants me.”

Haydon’s gut twisted into a hard knot. Who was this guy, and would he be good to her? Haydon gave himself a mental tongue lashing. What did he care what happened to her? He didn’t want her. What did it matter to him if someone else did? Then he made the mistake of looking into her eyes again. The vulnerability he saw there touched him deeper than he wanted it to. Although he didn’t want her, the truth was he hated the thought of this beautiful young woman, who was clothed with despair and innocence, traipsing all over the country to who knows where and into the arms of who knew what kind of man.

Against all rationale and his better judgment, right there, Haydon made up his mind to not let her go. To protect her from undesirables and to provide for her. “Rainee, I—”