Reclaimed Love: Banished Saga, Book Two (42 page)

“Gabriel,” I whispered, fighting tears. I rose to stand in front of him.

“Is this what you want, Clarissa?” He watched me with a searching look, before he closed his eyes and whispered in a tortured voice, “I hate to think that I am acting no better than Cameron in taking away your choice by deciding that we would marry.” He opened his eyes again. “Do you want to marry me?”

“Yes,” I said in a strong voice. “Yes. I love you, Gabriel. I want to marry you and be your wife.”

A wondrous smile bloomed over his face as he caressed my cheek with his fingers. “Finally, you said the words.”

“I’ve loved you since last summer but was afraid to say it out loud. It seemed too soon, and then you were torn away from me. But, I am reclaiming you, my love.”

I placed my palms on his cheeks, leaning into him for the first kiss in nearly a year. I heard his soft inhalation. I had closed my eyes and hoped my lips would successfully meet his. His gentle lips were soft under mine, and I kissed him tentatively a few times. Suddenly he groaned, gripping me tighter and all thought fled. My hands dropped from his cheeks, and I flung my arms around his neck. His passionate response and kisses caused me to lose my breath, and I never wanted the moment to end. Unfortunately after a few more intense kisses with Gabriel caressing my back, he eased away from me.

“I…” Gabriel gasped, cheeks flushed, deep-blue eyes passion-filled. “I would beg your pardon except you started it,” he said in a teasing tone.

I blushed beet red and leaned into him for a hug. He kissed me gently on my forehead, gathering me close for a long embrace. I shuddered in his arms, amazed and grateful that I had not thought of Cameron while I had kissed Gabriel. I had felt no fear. Just joy.

“Are you all right?” he whispered. I nodded against his chest. He eased me away from him and gazed into my eyes in the fading twilight.

“I am fine, Gabriel,” I whispered. I paused, breaking eye contact.

“But?”

“I know we must marry.” I met his eyes. “I
want
to marry you.” I leaned into the palm cradling my cheek and kissed it. “But I’m terrified of what comes after the wedding.” My voice broke as I choked down a sob.

His eyes darkened for a moment. “I know, darling,” he murmured. “I wish I could give you all the time you need before our marriage, but I can’t allow any chance that Cameron could harm you again. Could attempt to claim you as his.” He paused, staring into my eyes and letting out a long sigh. “I know that makes me sound a hypocrite as I want you as my wife too.”

“I know you won’t hurt me,” I whispered.

“I promise to be patient.”

I sniffled and took a deep breath. “But that’s just it, Gabriel. I know it is completely irrational, but I don’t want you to have to be patient. I don’t want to be filled with fear. I want to feel only joy and impatience as our wedding approaches.”

“Life isn’t always kind, love.”

I took a deep breath, closed my eyes and then forced myself to meet his patient gaze. “I want a full marriage with you. And I am so afraid.”

“There is nothing I can say that will calm those fears. Only time. And only as you begin to trust again will you be free of such fears.” He wiped away a few errant tears. “I have something for you.”

“I don’t need anything.”

“Ah, but I have a need to give this to you,” he said in a teasing voice. “I asked Colin to find this in your room and to repair it for me.” He extracted my locket from his pants pocket, and I saw where the two pieces of the chain had been forged together. “This is like you, love. With patience, time and care, you will mend. This locket and the repaired necklace will be a sign of your strength and resilience. And of our love.”

“Gabriel,” I whispered, standing on my toes to kiss him. I had no words.

“Let me,” he murmured, turning me and clasping the locket around my neck. “At last, it is back where it belongs.” He kissed the nape of my neck and then turned me to face him again.

I stepped into his arms, content to remain in his protective embrace for long minutes. “Shall we return to tell the others?” I whispered as night descended.

“They know we are to marry, love,” Gabriel murmured with another kiss to my ear. “But, yes, let’s tell the others, and hopefully Colin has saved us some dessert.”

CHAPTER 45

GABRIEL POKED HIS HEAD into Colin’s smithy, the blast of heat causing him to gasp. He glanced toward the back of the room to watch Colin hammering with small well-placed strokes on a piece of iron balanced on an anvil. Holding one end of the iron with metal tongs, he thrust the long piece of metal into the fire to heat up the end, shrugging his left shoulder at the same time in an attempt to wipe away some of the sweat running down the side of his face.

“We need more air, Eddy,” Colin yelled over the sound of other blacksmiths working, the sound of metal on metal ringing throughout the forge. He pushed the piece of iron around in the now cooling coals, raising one arm to wipe at his forehead.

Gabriel looked toward a young man manning a large bellows. Eddy reached for the long wooden pole attached to the bellows, pulling air into the bellows and then pushing it onto the coals. The coals glimmered to life, each puff of air provoking a glow until they appeared bright yellow.

“That’s great!” Colin yelled as he yanked the piece of iron out of the coals and, in a fluid movement, turned toward the anvil and quickly began hammering again before the iron cooled.

He repeated the movement again from anvil to coals, and then to vise, where he clamped the iron, clasped the heated part and bent it in a graceful loop, forming an attractive arc.

“Colin,” Gabriel said and realized he wouldn’t be heard over the hammering in the smithy. “Colin!” he hollered.

Colin looked up, startled at the interruption. He lowered the pincers, left the iron clasped in the vise and moved toward the doorway. “Gabe, good to see you.” He mopped at the rivulets of sweat streaming off his forehead with his shirtsleeve and reached for a cup of water from a bucket by the door. “Let’s step outside, where it’s cooler.”

“And quieter,” Gabriel murmured. “I’d think you’d go deaf.”

“I probably will,” Colin said as he leaned against the brick wall of the smithy. “Everything all right?” Though his posture conveyed a relaxed mood, his eyes were alert.

“Yes, fine. Everything is settled for the wedding. I wanted to speak with you about a project for my friend Ronan. I need your help.”

“What can I do?”

“I think he would improve if he were able to leave his rooms more. And yet he is unable to because he can’t walk.”

Colin nodded, waiting for Gabriel to continue.

“I want to make him a type of wheeled chair, like I saw once in Boston. I could make the chair with sturdy wood from Seb, and you could make the metal wheels.”

“It would be expensive, Gabe,” Colin said.

“I know, but I can’t stand to see him squander his life laying in bed all day long. And I have some money saved.”

“I would think you’d want to use that with Clarissa.”

“She’s as concerned for his welfare as I am. I’m sure she’ll agree with my plan.”

“You didn’t cause the accident at the mine,” Colin murmured. “Why do you feel this need to help him?”

“If we hadn’t left Butte, he’d have been looked after by his mining friends.”

“He chose to come here,” Colin said as he stretched, leaning away from the side of the smithy.

Gabriel merely shrugged.

“Do you have a drawing? Dimensions?”

Gabriel pulled out a sketch, showing it to Colin.

“This looks a bit grand.”

“It may be, but if he is going to spend his life in a chair, he might as well be comfortable,” Gabriel said.

“I have to finish the project I’m working on. After that, I can start on this. Probably day after tomorrow.”

“Sounds good. Thanks, Colin.” They shook hands and Gabriel walked toward the mill.

***

“WHAT’S GOT YOU SO PENSIVE?” Sebastian asked Gabriel as he approached to stand next to him by the river. Gabriel stood staring at the mountains, a far-off look in his eyes.

“I’m imagining a design.”

“I thought you sketched all your visions.”

“Some I do. Others I picture in my mind before picking up a pencil.” Gabriel shook his head and met Sebastian’s curious gaze.

“Who’s it for?”

“My friend from Butte. Ronan.”

“The cripple.”

“I worry that he believes he’ll be bedridden for life, something I can’t accept. I need sturdy wood that will survive constant use. I mean to make him a chair. I need to order more maple from the East.”

“A chair ain’t going to improve his life none, Gabe.”

“A chair with wheels,” Gabe ground out. “He’ll have more freedom that way.”

“In his home, maybe. But he can’t get around town in that contraption.”

“He could on the streets,” Gabriel argued.

“And then, when he wants to go into one of the stores, how do you expect him to get up onto the boardwalk? Float up?”

“Listen, quit making this harder than it is,” Gabriel hissed. “I want Ronan to feel like he has a life yet to live. And he never will feel that way stuck in a bed.”

“Hmm … well, it’s your vision,” Sebastian said with a wry smile. “As for your friend, don’t get his hopes up too high, Gabe. Sometimes false hopes are worse than death.”

Gabriel glowered at him, nodded and strode away.

***

“RONAN, SEE SENSE, MAN,” Gabriel argued as he paced around Ronan’s small room and thrust open the window. “You need to get out of this room.” He leaned against the window frame, crossing his arms over his chest as he glared at Ronan.

“I’m not taking your money when you’re about to be married. You need to think about Clarissa now. Stop worrying about me.”

“If our positions were reversed, would you consign me to a life of bedsores, slowly wasting away until I lost the will to live?”

“Of course not.”

“Then don’t expect any different from me, Ronan. I know Clarissa, and I know she’ll agree with me. She was furious with me for even renting you a second-floor room to begin with. She’ll be delighted to search for a new home for you.”

“And when I’m down on the first floor? What will I do?”

“I’ve already made plans to build a wheelchair for you. You’ll have more freedom of movement once I have it built.”

“Gabe, it’s too much,” Ronan protested.

“What was your father? Did he teach you a trade?” Gabriel spoke over Ronan, ignoring his protest.

“I haven’t done it in years, and I don’t have the tools.” At Gabriel’s silence and intense stare, Ronan half smiled. “He was a cobbler. A good one, too. But there wasn’t much need for four cobblers in our small town, so I left.”

“So your brothers would have a chance,” Gabriel said.

Ronan nodded.

“Well, I have room in my shop. I’ll see about building you a bench you can work at, and I’ll ask around about tools. If you’ll be working in the shop, we should look for a rental room nearby.”

“Gabe, it’s too much. I can’t ask you to do this.”

“You haven’t. I’m offering. And I know you and I will have one of the busiest storefronts in town.” Gabriel grinned as he scratched his chin. “We’ll have to see if Clarissa or Amelia can think of a name for our business. One that will pique the interest of the passersby.”

“Gabe, I’ll be renting workspace from you, nothing more.”

“You’ll have a chance at a decent future, Ro. That’s what counts. I’ll get to work on the chair and workspace after the wedding. I won’t be able to do much until then.”

“Thank you, Gabe. I couldn’t ask for a better friend.”

“I know you’d do the same for me,” he said as he clapped Ronan on the shoulder. “Now, start eating. You’ll need your strength if you’ll be working every day.”

Ronan nodded, a smile breaking out.

Gabriel glimpsed hope in his eyes for the first time since the accident.

CHAPTER 46

I STOOD IN FRONT of the mirror in my bedroom, staring at myself. I banished thoughts of Boston and my mama’s vanity, of my dreams of having seen myself reflected there on my wedding day. The ice-blue of the satin A-line dress highlighted my pale complexion. I twisted and pulled at my chestnut brown hair but was unable to force it into a fashionable style today. I let out a huff of frustration as I dropped my hair, watching it swing nearly to my hips.

“May I come in?” Amelia asked as she poked her head into my room. “Oh, you look lovely.” She frowned a moment. “Though your hair is a mess. Give me that,” she said, grabbing for my comb. “Did you never learn to do your hair?”

“Only simple styles,” I said as she shoved me into a chair so she could work easily. “I generally had a maid.”

“Hmm … quite a life you had in Boston. A maid, a cook,” she murmured.

“Maids,” I muttered, then bit my tongue. “Yes, life was different there. Not better though.”

“I hope you continue to feel that way after winter rolls in,” Amelia said as she styled my hair into the fashionable Gibson Girl hairstyle. “There, that should do it.” She looked at me affectionately. She wore what I imagined to be her best summer dress, a striped yellow-and-cream-colored cotton dress with a red belt.

“I can’t believe today is my wedding day,” I whispered.

“Be thankful it is,” Amelia said. “You never know when that horrid man might show up. It’s better to have Gabriel’s protection.”

I glanced away.

“Why the face, Clarissa?”

“I hate that I have to look to a man to protect me,” I said. “I would think, by now, a woman would be able to live the life she wanted without a man.”

“Are you saying you don’t want Gabriel?”

“No, of course not. He’s the reason I’m here. I don’t want to imagine my life without him. It’s just that I hate anyone thinking I am marrying him solely for protection.”

“There are a lot of reasons for marrying, Clarissa,” Amelia said. “Not everyone is so fortunate as to marry for love while also knowing that the man will do all in his power to protect and honor you.” She watched me for a moment. “I would think you’d be thankful to have such a man.”