Chapter 5 - Christmas Morning Without Their Mother
Hazel stopped directly before her father.
“You never read these.”
Silas stared at the bundle.
“What are they?”
“Letters.”
“To who?”
“You.”
That answer seemed to confuse him.
Hazel thrust them into his hands.
“We started writing them after Mama died because you wouldn’t talk.”
Silas did not move.
Thomas spoke next.
“Hazel said maybe if we wrote things down, you’d understand.”
“Why didn’t you give them to me?”
Thomas looked ashamed.
“We tried.”
Hazel interrupted.
“You were always busy.”
Silas’s face changed.
“How many?”
Hazel shrugged.
“Maybe fifty.”
Clara whispered, “Mine have pictures.”
Bennett said, “I only made three.”
Eli raised two fingers despite having written none.
Silas looked through the envelopes.
Different handwriting.
Different sizes.
Some had drawings.
Others were stained.
One simply said:
PAPA PLEASE READ THIS ONE
Evelyn watched something collapse inside him.
The train whistle grew louder.
Silas sat on a depot bench.
He opened the first letter.
Hazel began to protest.
“You don’t have to—”
“Yes.”
He read.
Then another.
Thomas stared at his boots.
Clara leaned against Hazel.
Evelyn did not know what was written, but Silas’s face told enough.
One letter made him close his eyes.
Another made his hand cover his mouth.
He opened a page covered in Clara’s childish script.
“What did this say?”
Clara stepped closer.
“I don’t remember.”
Silas read aloud softly.
“Dear Papa, I dreamed Mama came home, but she was mad because you were eating standing up.”
Bennett giggled.
Silas’s eyes filled.
Clara continued quietly.
“Mama hated when he ate standing up.”
“I remember.”
“You didn’t act like you remembered.”
Silas nodded.
“I know.”
The train arrived.
Passengers climbed off.
The conductor called the stop.
Evelyn’s bag remained beside Silas.
Nobody mentioned it.
The conductor shouted, “Eastbound!”
Silas looked toward Evelyn.
She waited.
He still did not ask her to stay.
And Evelyn refused to rescue him from that moment.
She lifted her bag.
Hazel gasped.
“Miss Mercer—”
Evelyn kissed her forehead.
“You are brave, Hazel Rowan.”
“No.”
“Yes. But bravery does not mean deciding everyone’s life for them.”
Hazel began crying.
Evelyn turned toward the train.
Then Silas spoke.
“Wait.”
She stopped.
Silas stood.
His children watched him.
He looked like a man approaching the edge of a cliff.
“I don’t know what I can promise you.”
Evelyn said nothing.
“I don’t know whether I am ready to marry.”
Still she waited.
“I don’t know whether this ranch will survive.”
The conductor called again.
Silas swallowed.
“But I would like to know you.”
Hazel covered her mouth.
Silas continued.
“Not the woman my children invented for me.”
His gaze held Evelyn’s.
“You.”
The conductor lifted his watch.
Evelyn looked toward the train.
Then toward five children.
Then at Silas Rowan.
“Are you asking me to stay?”
Silas breathed out.
“Yes.”
“For how long?”
“I don’t know.”
Evelyn almost smiled.
“That answer again.”
“It appears to be the only honest one I have.”
The train doors closed.
Evelyn stood on the platform as the cars began moving east.
Her old life disappeared behind snow and smoke.
Bennett cheered.
Hazel cried.
Thomas tried not to.
Silas simply stared at Evelyn as though he could not believe she remained.
She handed him her suitcase.
“This does not mean I have agreed to marry you.”
“I understand.”
“It doesn’t mean your children are forgiven.”
Hazel nodded seriously.
“It doesn’t mean I intend to save your ranch.”
Silas said, “Good.”
Evelyn raised an eyebrow.
“Good?”
“I think I’ve had enough people deciding my life without asking.”
For the first time, she laughed.
A real laugh.
Silas smiled.
And that smile frightened Evelyn more than his anger had.
Because anger was easy to resist.
May you like
Hope was not.
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