Within the Candle's Glow (5 page)

“Must be nice. I’d like to see it, ‘stead of sittin’ home.”

Jim shrugged. “Sure—next time I go to the cove.”

“I reckon I need to go along so Ella Dessa don’t get kidnapped ag’in.” Their papa winked and grinned at Samuel. “You two boys don’t go to fightin’ over her.”

“We’re not
fighting
.” Samuel gave a pronounced exhale of disgust and rubbed at a bug bite on his hand. “Jim’s ribbing me.”

“
Hmmph!
Both of you got that certain gleam in your eyes. Worries me some, you bein’ brothers.”

“I don’t have a
gleam
in my eye.” Jim muttered.

“Yeah, you do.”

Papa’s words shocked Samuel.
Is he saying Jim likes Ella Dessa
? He stood and ignored Jim.

Their papa pulled the ragged Bible toward him, opened the cover, and turned a couple of fragile pages. “Let’s see. What’s the Good Book
say ‘bout brothers?”

Samuel headed to the door. “I’ll be at the barn.” Before the door shut behind him, he heard Ella Dessa’s name and paused.

“She’s Samuel’s age. Papa, I’ve no
certain look
in my eye. She’s too young and shouldn’t have to walk home when I’m right there.”

“Son, I’m older than your mother, by eleven years.”

“I have my thoughts set on a girl more my age.”

“Who, Sophie Wald? The girl with her nose in the clouds? She’s chased you for years. I feel, if you
was
interested—you’d have married her ‘fore now. Did you ask her to the picnic?”

Samuel didn’t hear Jim’s reply. He hurried to the barn and got the tan puppy he claimed for Ella Dessa. He tucked it under his chin and petted its head and back. The contented pup snuggled in for a nap, unmindful a human cuddled it and not its mother.

“Papa’s right.” His breath stirred the fuzzy coat. He touched his lips to the animal’s head and smiled. The scent of hay surrounded it. “I must have that look in my eye, ‘cause I feel a whole lot of something in my heart, and it isn’t
willing
to stay there much longer.”

#

That evening, Ella couldn’t shake her worries about Miles Kilbride. After the evening meal with Velma and the six children, she slipped to the loft and went to her private corner of the crowded space. Velma’s daughters, Carrie, Mae, and Rosemary shared the loft with her, while the boys, Scott and Remy, slept along one wall below the loft. There wasn’t much space for privacy within the confines of the old cabin, and Velma had the only real bed, wedged into a corner of the cabin’s one room, along with a tiny pallet for Adam.

She sat with her legs crossed and opened a miniature wooden trunk she kept tucked under the tight slope of the roof. She drew out a handsome carved box and her mama’s precious worn Bible. Her fingers traced the rose chiseled into the cover of the box. She knew whose hands and artistic talent had created the unique and true-to-life design—a man named
Miles Kilbride
.

Memories of her mama flashed like bright scenes in her mind as she unlatched the cedar-scented box and fingered the few items. Mama’s hairpins, six of them, carved out of oak and polished to silky smoothness, felt cool to her touch. Ella sometimes wore them. Most of the time, the fear of losing them caused her to store them in the box.

She lifted a folded piece of yellowed paper, smoothed its creases,
and laid it flat in her lap. The faded ink was still visible. She whispered words written to her mama before Ella’s own birth.

“Dearest Meara, my friend, Logan, promised to deliver this missive to you this evening. I cannot slip away. I have the night watch over the new mining equipment. We leave in one week for North Carolina. Logan laughs at a teacher working in a questionable gold mine, but it is what I must do, right now.

“With every fiber of my being, I yearn to have you as my wife. There will never be another woman who will fulfill what I am as a man. Tomorrow, I am coming to ask for your hand in marriage. Parson Wheedon said he could marry us on Saturday.

“I will bring the hairpins to you. I have finished the carving on the box. It is my wedding gift to you, along with what is stored inside it. Keep it safe. It is our future.

“I have to know you are my wife before I leave. It will be my last trip. I promise. I just need to fulfill my obligations with Barringer, the mine owner. I dislike the lack of restraint showed by all when just flakes of gold are discovered. I will not waste my life on the love of gold. God’s gift of art and teaching anoints my talents.

“When I return, I will take what I have placed in your hand for safekeeping and buy a piece of land for us. There, I will build you a wonderful home and dig wild roses to plant around it. I will hide it from all eyes, so we can cling to one another. We’ll be concealed from the world. The scent of the roses will not surpass the way you take my breath away. I will go back to teaching, and you will lovingly nurture our children. Yours forever and ever, Miles Kilbride.”

Over four years ago, after discovering the letter in Mama’s Bible, Ella had hidden it in the carved box—a box made by a man now wanting to settle in the secluded cove. She’d have to see Miles Kilbride, talk to him, and hide facts he didn’t even know existed.

Tears dripped off her face as she bent over the letter. They made irregular splotches on the thin paper and accompanied marks left by tears before her birth.

“Oh, Mama, he’s comin’ to live here. What do I do? How do I keep the secret? Why didn’t you tell me the whole story? Why did God let this happen?”

The irony of it all swamped her thoughts. The passage of time had brought Miles into Beckler’s Cove, a long way from where he once lived. Above him on the mountain, without his knowledge, the woman he
had once loved lay silent in her grave. Whispering pines hid her resting place.

Ella covered her lips to keep sobs from breaking loose.

Years ago, Velma had been the one to point out a strange name written in the front of the Bible. The record of Ella’s birth, inked in Meara Huskey’s attractive handwriting, had recorded Ella Dessa
Kilbride
. The recorded date of her mama’s arranged wedding to Jacob Huskey suggested Ella had been born months too soon, or Meara had been in the family way when forced into a loveless marriage.

With a shaking hand, Ella wiped her face and squared her shoulders.

“Mama, you bore so much for me—torment at Jacob Huskey’s hands. He left the cove and me.” Her quiet words couldn’t reach the ears of those playing below the loft. “I can keep the secret. No one’ll ever talk bad of you. I know what you did to protect me.”

As she folded the creased paper, her thoughts drifted to the empty log cabin, higher on the mountain. Mama had suffered beatings at Jacob’s brutal hands. And after one of those beatings, with blood dripping from a smashed lip, her mama revealed how she was forced to marry Jacob. Her father had struck a deal with Jacob, combining his daughter and a piece of the land into one bundle.

“But Mama, you never tolt me Jacob weren’t my real pa.”

She could hear her mama’s whispered words. “Ella Dessa, never marry a man who don’t love you. Promise me that.”

Ella had no desire to judge her own mama, but she accepted the fact it was impossible for Jacob Huskey to be her father. Her mama had known him barely two weeks, before she married him against her own desires—forced into a loveless union by Ella’s grandfather. Mama had told her the story, but left out the telltale detail written within the Bible. The secret had been revealed in the front pages of a book Meara knew her detestable husband would never attempt to read. That single clue, accompanied by the love letter tucked into the Bible, had helped Ella figure out the truth.

Years ago, Velma had seen the strange record in the Bible. Now Ella prayed the woman had forgotten its existence.

Ella lifted the last item from the box. It was a tiny piece of fragile paper.

The memory of Jacob opening her mama’s trunk a week or so after the burying still made her tremble with fury and resentment. She had secretly observed the hateful man steal a drawstring bag, but drop a
folded piece of paper.

She later found the piece of paper that fluttered away, unseen by Jacob. The note revealed there was gold in the bag. It belonged to a man named Miles Kilbride. Her mama’s handwritten note said if she died, the gold was to be given to
Ella Dessa
.

“I’m glad I found out you ain’t my pa, Jacob Huskey,” she muttered. Carefully, she replaced the yellowed note and closed the box. She hugged the square cache to her chest and considered her choices. She imagined herself handing Miles the Bible and the box. She’d be able to watch his face and judge his initial shock and reaction.

No! Mama’s reputation would be soiled.

Miles Kilbride’s past love for her mama had to remain a secret. She’d be the only one who knew he was her
real
father.

“
G
iddap!” Walter Beckler clucked his tongue. The two horses stepped forward. “Now aren’t you glad I insisted we all go to the picnic?” He sat on the wagon box with Velma tucked close to his side.

“There weren’t no arguin’ with you,” Velma whispered.

“Well, I got your attention. No other man in the cove has done that,” he said with an air of pride.

Ella and the six children sat in the bed of the wagon. The rough ride bounced them against one another. To stay seated, even Velma had to grab hold of someone—Mr. Beckler.

The instant blush on Velma’s cheeks gave the thin woman some color, causing her to appear closer to her correct age, instead of ten years older. Even so, Ella figured there had to be at least a thirty-year difference between Velma and the storeowner. But the span of years and life’s tragedies might knit the two of them together.

Ella heard Mr. Beckler lost his wife to a fever when he was only thirty. He had never remarried. She assumed he’d appreciate a young wife. Velma had gone through years of torment at her husband’s hands, before he ended up buried alive while digging for gold near Dahlonega. The woman might welcome a mature man who doted on her.

As the wagon bumped along the trail, Velma’s oldest son, Scott,
studied the glow on his mama’s face. His hazel eyes grew sharp—much like a circling hawk’s penetrating stare. His eleven-year-old glare could alarm a polecat, so Ella nudged him with her elbow.

“Stop lookin’ like a crazed rattler.”

“We don’t need a new pappy.” His brow scrunched above the bridge of his straight nose.

“Oh, listen.” She whispered, “Wouldn’t it be nice to live with someone who
owns
the store?” She wiggled her eyebrows. “Why, I bet—you’d get candy every day.”

Scott grinned. The gap between his front teeth showed. “You might be right.” There was a conspirator’s undertone in his voice. “That’d make it all worthwhile, eh? I’ve seen the sweets he hides behind the counter where you stand. I think I’ll tell him to marry Mama. Like … next Saturday?”

“You’re silly. Don’t say a word to him ‘bout it. You might
spook
him.” She gave the boy an impulsive hug. “Your mama deserves to be happy.”

She was close to all of Velma’s children. Ella felt thankful her abusive stepfather had abandoned her and left the cove. The six children seemed like siblings. A fleeting consideration jumped through her mind.

If the time should come, and Mr. Beckler asks Velma to marry him, will I be welcome in his home?

“Why were you an’ Scott whisperin’?” Thirteen-year-old Carrie held little Adam on her lap and scooted across the wagon bed. With arms tight around the boy’s belly, she asked, “What’s the secret?” Her light-hazel eyes sparkled with interest.

“Let go!” Adam twisted sideways and bumped Carrie’s chin with his head. His chubby fingers plucked at her hands. His bottom lip protruded.

“No, you ain’t standin’ up.” Carrie rubbed her chin with one hand and held him with one arm. “Sit.”

Remy, Mae, and Rosemary sat at the end of the wagon, their legs dangling off the edge. Their bare feet brushed the tall grass growing between the ruts in the trail. They all turned to stare at Ella and hear the answer to their big sister’s question.

“
Shh!
” Scott mashed his finger against his lips and motioned with his left thumb at Mr. Beckler’s back. “We was talkin’ of the candy in the store.” His voice blended with the swishing noise of the rolling wheels and the horses’ hooves. “Figgerd we’d be allowed pieces—if we got to be family.”