A Headstrong Woman(103)

He had a nice reading voice, Alexandria decided.

“How depressing!” Anna exclaimed.

“No, it isn’t,” Alexandria protested. “It promises brighter days. Everyone goes through difficult times but only for a time. That’s what it means.”

“Hope, I believe, would be the theme,” Jonathon added.

“Exactly!” Alexandria nodded.

“Melancholy,” Anna argued with a shake of her head.

Alexandria threw her hands up and turned back to the sink.

“Happy birthday,” Lilly handed Jonathon a picture. “That’s Mommy an’ Anna. That’s Millie, me, and this is you, you eat a lot,” she said seriously as she explained the picture.

Alexandria chuckled and moved to glance over the picture. Jonathon was wearing his hat in the picture; something he never did in the house, and had a circle full of scribbles in front him. Apparently it was Lilly’s rendition of his healthy appetite. Alexandria laughed a full hearty laugh and hugged her daughter.

“I think it’s perfect,” she told her.

Jonathon scowled and tried and failed to bite back a smile. “Have fun at my expense,” he growled playfully, then added more seriously, “thank you for dinner.”

They assured him he was welcome before Alexandria invited him to share a quiet evening in the parlor with them. He smiled and followed Alexandria and Anna into the shadowed room. Anna lit several lamps and curled into an armchair before pulling a light throw over her lap as she opened a book. Alexandria moved to the window and watched as a drop of rain slid down the window slowly, met another drop, sped up, then slowed again. She sighed.

“What a dreary evening,” she commented restlessly.

“Care for a game of poker?” Jonathon asked.

“I don’t gamble,” she informed him.

“You don’t have to gamble.”

“Oh, well I don’t know the game,” she shrugged.

“Surely you learned it on one of your visits to the saloon,” his teasing elicited a laugh from Anna and look of mutiny from Alexandria.

“Will you ever allow me to live that down?” she asked him.

“Haven’t decided,” he teased.

Alexandria rolled her eyes; then smiled as she noted her sleeping daughter. “Lilly is sound asleep.” Lilly had climbed into his lap, placed a thumb in her mouth (a habit Alexandria had thought she was through with) and had fallen sound asleep.

“Lead the way and I’ll carry her up,” Jonathon offered.

“Let me have her. I think I’m going to go to bed early, it’s the perfect evening for it and I’m exhausted,” Anna said as she stood and put her book away. Jonathon carefully shifted Lilly into Anna’s arms. After Anna had left the room Alexandria suggested they move onto the front porch. Jonathon nodded agreement and lit two lanterns that hung on the porch.

“Care for more Longfellow?” Jonathon offered as Alexandria kicked her shoes off and pulled her knees to her chest.

“Please,” she agreed and closed her eyes as he read The Village Blacksmith. By the time he had finished, she was feeling drowsy herself.

“You look ready to fall asleep,” he noted.

Alexandria smiled, stretched and lowered her feet back to the porch. “This weather would make anyone drowsy,” she commented as she moved to lean against the porch railing. The rain had slowed to a light drizzle and Alexandria lifted her chin to enjoy the fine mist that blew back into her face. “This weather is good for reflecting isn’t it?” Alexandria asked as she leaned her cheek against the damp porch post.

“What are you reflecting on?” he asked as he propped himself on the rail so he could see her face.

“That I love this place. As difficult as it was with Elijah and then after his death, I wouldn’t change it. It’s become a part of me, this ranch I mean. And I know it sounds crazy, but those men out there are like my children, even though some of them are older than me.”

“So we’re all big kids huh?” his tone was teasing.

“No not you; I could never think of you as a kid, not with your knack for rescuing me.”

“With your knack for finding trouble someone needs to,” he told her. Alexandria smiled.

“Anything you would do different?”

“No, even though it was painful every time we lost a baby and then losing Emily… I’d do it all again for the good times.”