Jonny’s entrance, however, had been fortunate for her friends, for she had an idea that they had been up to far more tonight than just sitting around waiting for news.
It wasn’t like any of them to simply sit and do what they were told, to not take any action when someone they loved was in danger.
“Well,” Tommy said, “I have to get my wife home. But we will see you all soon.” He sobered. “I need you all to know how much I appreciate what you risked for us tonight.”
“Of course, Tommy. We’re a team,” Rhys said, hitting him on the arm as he and Emmaline also rose to leave.
They were nearly at the door when Minnie risked one look back at Ada, sitting there without drawing any attention to herself.
“One moment,” she told Tommy, touching his arm before she slipped around the rest of them. As she approached, Jonny also rose. When he walked by Ada, he said so softly that only Ada, and now Minnie, heard, “You missed a spot.”
He pointed to her hands, which Ada quickly folded in her dress, but not before Minnie noted the flecks of black that covered the underside of her thumb.
Minnie couldn’t help her triumphant grin. She had been right.
“Ada?” she said, and Ada lifted her brown eyes to meet Minnie’s.
“Yes?”
“I have something of yours.” She leaned down and placed the earring in Ada’s hand, the earring that matched the one she wore in her right ear.
Ada looked at her with concern in her eyes, but Minnie leaned down and whispered in her ear with a choked cry as emotion nearly overtook her, “Thank you.”
There was so much more she wanted to say, but she could tell that Ada wanted nothing more spoken of this. Her words would have to be enough.
With a squeeze of Ada’s hand, Minnie turned and rejoined her husband.
It was time to go home.
The moment they walked through the door, Minnie collapsed into Tommy’s arms.
She had held it all together until now, but suddenly the realization of how close they had come to losing everything nearly caused her to collapse.
Tears pricked her eyes as Tommy simply wrapped her in his arms and held her close.
“Shhh,” he whispered in her ear as he rocked her back and forth. “You’re all right. You’re all right now.”
His words belied his own emotion, however, as Minnie could hear the rapid beating of his heart beneath her ear.
“I was so scared, Tommy,” she admitted. “When he held that gun to you?—”
“To me?” he asked incredulously. “What about you, luv? I thought Blackwood was going to take you away from me forever.”
“Never,” she said fiercely. “Nothing and no one could take me from you.”
“Now that this is over,” Tommy said, stroking a hand over her hair, “are you certain about this? About us? I know you love me, and I do too, but that doesn’t change your life, so far removed from what you knew. I might now be working toward owning this shop, but a blacksmith will still never be able to provide you with the life that you’ve been accustomed to. We’ve been married long enough now that you know what it means to be with me.”
“What does it mean to be with you?” she said incredulously, leaning back just far enough that she could look him in the face. “What does it mean to be loved? To have a man who cares about what happens to me? Who is by my side, my protector, believes in me, hears me, understands all that I ever wanted and needed was a man who wants me for me and not what I can do for him?”
Despite the circumstances of that night, of the seriousness of what he said, she couldn’t help but smile as she shook her head.
“Yes, Tommy. I am certain about this and what it means.”
“Even if you have to cook and clean and help me in the blacksmith shop?”
“Especiallyif I will cook and clean and help in the blacksmith shop,” she said before her lips quirked up in a smile. “Perhaps now that you’ve tried my cooking, you’re interested in another option.”
Tommy chuckled at that, those playful dimples that Minnie loved so much appearing in his cheeks.
