Only the Heart Knows (The Brides Series) by Lena Goldfinch

Author:Lena Goldfinch [Goldfinch, Lena]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lena Goldfinch

Chapter 15

At dinner a few evenings later, Mandy sat at the table with her family, but her thoughts were far away. Thinking about Adam. He’d acted so strangely after church on Sunday. When last she saw him, his expression had seemed troubled. Upset even. She’d been preoccupied though with chasing Miss Judith down and trying to explain to her friend that she and Russell had merely been sharing a conversation in private, that they’d needed to settle some old childhood hurts.

Mandy still didn’t know if Miss Judith believed her. Her friend’s prickly attitude hadn’t softened in the least, though Mandy had followed her all the way to the post office, talking all the way.

By the time she’d returned to the church lawn, Adam was gone.

What had he been troubled about? Perhaps something had happened on his ranch. Something he’d ask her about in one of his letters... She could only hope. She longed for one of Banks’ letters. Anything to erase the feelings of embarrassment she felt whenever she thought about how she’d roped him in front of the whole entire town, practically. Even now just thinking about it, she felt the sting of mortification. Only, what if she was simply allowing her emotions to carry her away? Surely it hadn’t been as horribly embarrassing as she’d felt it was.

“I have something for you.” Darby waited for a lull in the conversation—at least it appeared that way to Mandy—to lean forward and whisper that little nugget across the dining room table.

Mandy swallowed thickly, excruciatingly aware that every head swiveled her way. The bite she’d taken of her mother’s delicious roasted potatoes suddenly tasted like nothing.

“You have something for Mandy?” Emma asked, her eyes alight with curiosity. Emma, who couldn’t keep a secret to save her life. Everyone in the family knew that. Or should have known.

Mandy glared at Darby, shooting daggers at him from across the table. He couldn’t have waited until later? Why tell her now? He swallowed, his cheeks suddenly a bit flushed, as if he was just now sharing her discomfort. Mandy wished her cousin had the power to lasso his words and reel them back in. He’d always been good with roping, if not with discretion.

“Oh, just some things from town,” he said, but his tone was overly dismissive, like a twelve-year-old boy rehearsing for his role as shepherd in the church’s annual nativity play.

Mandy widened her eyes in dismay, trying to signal a warning for him to stop.

It was too late.

Juliana had already picked up on Darby’s strange tone of voice. So had Mama. So had Papa, who frowned ever so slightly, perhaps wondering if he too should take an interest. He lifted his water goblet and eyed first Darby, then Mandy over the top. He appeared to be taking a wait-and-see approach.

“What things?” Juliana asked, taking no such approach. More often than not she had a mystery novel tucked under her pillow and kept her lantern lit well into the night, until Mama called down the hall to put out her lamp.

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