Chapter Nine
Sally stood by the schoolhouse door, pulling on the edges of her coat. The weather had changed today, it was almost cold. Sally smiled to herself, she knew how changeable the weather was and she was sure that her wedding day would be just beautiful.
When the children were let out for recess, Sally took a step in and looked at the figure sitting behind the desk. “Miss Donnelly,” she called out.
“Sally,” Helen said with a smile. “How nice to see you again.”
“Um,” Sally began awkwardly. “I was wondering if you might like to come to the wedding, tomorrow?”
“Why thank you,” Helen replied. “But you don’t-”
“No,” Sally interrupted. “I want you to come, really. I know it’s kinda short notice, but I’m pretty sure that my Pa would want you to be there. And so would I.”
Helen stood up and approached the standing girl, “I know how hard this must be for you.”
Sally simply shrugged.
“You are a much bigger person than I was.”
Sally looked at the teacher questioningly.
“My Ma died when I was a girl too,” Helen explained. “And for a long time
it was just me and my
“So what happened?” Sally asked, getting caught in the spell Helen’s words were weaving.
“I acted like a spoiled brat,” Helen said bluntly. “And my Pa didn’t pursue anything with that lady. For the rest of his days, it was just me and him. You know I never got married because of that.”
“Why not?”
“My Pa took sick and I had to tend to him,” Helen responded. “I was too busy taking care of him and teaching to do much else. The few men that I did meet didn’t have any interest in taking up with a woman who came with a sick father.”
“So you ended up alone,” Sally concluded for her.
Helen smiled sadly.
“Till now,” Sally added with a smile of her own.
“Maybe,” Helen said shyly.
“He likes you,” Sally told her.
“I like him too.”
Sally took the teacher’s hand in hers, “So you’ll come to the wedding?”
“I’d love too,” Helen replied. “Thank you.”
Sally hurried back to her home. Her friends should be there by now. Abruptly she turned her horse around. She had another stop to make first. She rode to the graveyard. She lovingly touched the first two markers she came to, Ike McSwain and Noah Dixon’s. She then passed by two more small gravestones, to remember the children who died, the Hickoks youngest child, Cecilia, who was born too soon and the McClouds third child, Joseph, who died of scarlet fever.
Gingerly Sally approached her mother’s grave and knelt beside it, not feeling the cold, blustery wind. She whispered her apologies, hoping that Jasper was right, that her mother understood her misplaced anger. As she ran her hand over the rocks that covered her mother’s grave, she wished that she had a lily to put on it. Lilies were her mother’s favorite flower. She picked up one stone, noticing something lying underneath. It was a small crumpled piece of paper, worn thin by the weather. When Sally smoothed the scrap out, she drew her breath sharply once she realized what that paper was. It was one of her wedding invitations.
“Now who could have put that there?” she wondered aloud.
“Your Grandpa Tompkins did,” Buck said, coming to crouch beside his daughter. “He thought she might like it.” Buck took his daughter’s hand, sandwiching it between his own two. “I found him here one afternoon. He was telling your Ma all about your wedding.”
Sally looked up at her father, who lifted one hand to wipe a tear away from her eye.
“He doesn’t understand that she not there. She’s here,” Buck told her, making a fist and placing it against his chest. “Always.”
“Always,” Sally whispered. “But sometimes I still miss her.”
“So do I honey,” Buck said. The two of them sat quietly for a long time. Eventually Buck pulled Sally to her feet, feeling how chilled the hand he still held was. “So you ready to head home?”
“Yeah,” Sally answered. As the two of them moved toward their horses, Sally turned to her father. “Pa,” Sally began, anxious to get the words out while she still had the courage. “I’m so sorry for how I treated Miss Donnelly. I didn’t have any cause act like that.”
“I know you were just upset about your Ma,” Buck replied. He hoped that their talk had helped Sally to see that there simply wasn’t any way he would ever be able to let go of Jennifer. He just hoped that his heart was big enough to love two women, the way both of them should be loved.
“I invited Miss Donnelly to the wedding.”
Buck hugged his daughter, not saying a single word. He knew how much Sally’s invitation cost her.
“Pa?” Sally said questioningly. She hoped he wasn’t angry that she did that without his permission. As Rachel said, he had his reasons for keeping quiet. “Is that alright?”
“It’s more than alright,” Buck smiled. “Thank you.”