Amelia and the Bareback Rider

chapter Three

"He's a good man, Amelia." He shrugged. "I can just tell, I suppose. I don't think he'd take advantage of you."

Amelia shook her head. No, he'd never taken advantage of her.

"But it's still so . . . odd." Pa let her go and ran his hand through his hair again, the way he did when he was confused or overwhelmed. "No one saw him arrive. Or saw you two leave. And why this farm of all places? How did he end up here?"

"I - He -" Amelia took a deep breath. "It was meant to be. It's the only way I can describe it."

Pa eyed her for a moment and then shook his head again. "You're just as stubborn as he is, you know? You're determined not to tell me, and there's nothing I can do about that. All those books, I suppose."

"You bought me all those books," Amelia protested.

He nodded. "Most men want a son first. Several sons, even, to help them do the work. But I was so happy to have a little girl. Someone to stay at home, to read everything I never had the time or opportunity to." Looking away from her, out the open barn door, he ended softly, "I would have loved to have been a professor."

Her hand found its way to her chest, and Amelia opened her eyes wide. She had never known that. She knew her father liked to read to her when she was little, and, later, he always asked her to read to them at night, before the fire. A new book twice a year, one each for Christmas and her birthday. An unheard of luxury. But she had no idea that he hadn't wanted to be a farmer, that he hadn't wanted the life he had.

"Pa?"

Turning his back to her, he walked to lean against the barn door, still looking toward the cabin. "I wanted to finish school. To leave. To live in a city. Maybe even to write. Sometimes, working endlessly out there in the field, all you can do is tell yourself stories." He paused and scuffed his boot in the dirt floor. "I don't know what it is you think you can't tell me. I don't know what secret is so great you think that I can't understand it. Do you think it would have stopped me from letting you leave with him? He's a good man. If you had waited, if you'd introduced us proper-like, I would have given you my blessing. I would have let you leave with him."

Amelia put her head down, even though Pa couldn't see her. She knew he was wrong. There was one thing so great, one thing he couldn't imagine because the book hadn't been written yet, that would have prevented him from letting her leave with his blessing. A time machine.

Sharply, he turned about around. "I've sinned, Amelia."

"What?" Amelia's eyebrows went up.

"I'm jealous. Of you. Of him. Life here is full of disappointments. Drudgery, storms, lost crops, lost -" his breath caught "- lost children. Your mother is the only thing that held me here, that held me together sometimes. And you. And David. I hope in your city life, in your pretty house and your fine clothes, that Cooper does that for you. Holds you together. Gives you the life you deserve."

"Oh, Pa," Amy whimpered and ran to hug him. He wrapped his arms around her again. "He does. He really, really does. I love him so much."

"Then that's enough for me." He kissed the top of her head. "Here, help me with the rest of this hay."

Several minutes later, they walked back to the cabin together, Amelia sweating through her dress. But, for the first time since they'd arrived, a faint breeze was stirring, tickling at the hairs that had loosened from her braids and were sticking to the back of her neck. Cooper stood sharply when they entered, his eyes searching hers. She smiled softly and took the mug of water Ma held out for her. David was setting the table, and the chairs had returned from outside.

Pa, though, ignored the mug of water Ma held out for him, and strode over to spot where Cooper was standing. He put out his hand. "Cooper. I owe you an apology. I've behaved terribly. My daughter is lucky to have you, and you bring her all the happiness she deserves."

Cooper started to put out his own bandaged right hand, and Ma said sharply, "Ed, his hands."

"No." Cooper put up his left hand to silence her. "It's fine."

Even though it must have pained him, Amelia watched as Cooper shook her father's hand, firm and sure and strong, not even wincing.

That night, after dinner, Pa stayed in the cabin, lighting his pipe and stretching his feet out toward the stove, as was his habit even when it was not cold enough to need to warm his feet. It had starting storming, great buckets of rain, breaking the tension and the humidity in the summer air.

"Cooper, do you want a pipe? I have another one around here somewhere," he asked.

"Um, no, sir -" His eyebrows were high on his head.

"Call me Ed."

"Ed, sir. I don't smoke, and you shouldn't, either. Inhalation of tobacco smoker has been irrevocably linked to a highly increased incident of lung cancer along with being a major risk factor for several ailments." Amelia's shoulders tensed. Cooper was so flustered he'd technically just polluted the time line. Exactly what he'd agreed not to do, the rule he'd agreed to, the one he was actually better at than her. He'd even given it a name, what was it? The prime directive?

Pa chuckled. "I haven't known you long, but that sounds exactly like something you'd say."

Her shoulders relaxed, and then Pa said, "Amelia, go get that book on our bedside table. It's your birthday present. I hope you don't mind that I started it without you."

Humbled that her father had bought a book, hoping she would return someday, Amelia started to say that her birthday was still two months away, but remembered to hold her tongue just in time. Oh, yes, it had already been her birthday here. She would have to get used to that: traveling from one time of year and ending up in another. Amelia went to get the book. She smiled at the cover: Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne.

"Thank you, Pa," she said, putting her hand on his shoulder.

He patted her hand. "Sit down and read to us. It's a scientific romance, have you heard of that?"

"Actually, I've read one of Verne's other books," Amelia said, not wanting to seem ungrateful.

Pa nodded. "Yes, I'm sure you're reading all sorts of things before we do out there. Start at the beginning if you like. Or the bookmark."

The bookmark was near the end; Pa was almost finished. She would start there, so he would hear the end before she left. Opening the book, she started to read, "'But what then? What had he really gained by all this trouble? What had he brought back from this long and weary journey? Nothing, you say? Perhaps so; nothing but a charming woman, who, strange as it may appear, made him the happiest of men! Truly, would you not for less than that make the tour around the world?'"

Amelia looked over at the top of the page, as Cooper leaned back in his chair, too, and stretched out his legs. Unlike Pa, though, he wasn't staring off into the distance, lost in thought. He was watching her, smiling.

To be continued . . .