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“You think I’ll need it?” Still no fear.
“Probably not. But it’s always good to take one with you when you’re traveling through the forest. Just be careful, okay?”
She nodded.
“Think you can find your way back home?”
“Yep. I can find my way back from just about anywhere. Now my brother, Jacob, he gets lost worse than a goose in a fog.”
He chuckled at her analogy. “You’re sure?” What if she didn’t? Would he regret not taking her to Sadie’s? He seemed to have a lot of those kinds of regrets lately.
Her deep sigh reached his ears. “Wouldn’t have said so iffen I couldn’t.”
“What time you think you’ll be home?”
“I reckon not till supper time. I didn’t forget about your lunch iffen that’s what you’re worried about. I sliced some ham and put a fresh loaf of bread on the table for you.”
“I wasn’t worried about that. But thank you.”
She waved him away. “You’re welcome. Well, I’d better get iffen I’m going help Sadie with her cannin’. See you later, Michael. And thanks for showing me the orchards and for this here pear.” She heeled Macy’s sides and the mare started walking away.
Poor-decision regret snuck up on him again. The idea of her going alone tore at his conscience, making him rethink his plans for the day. He wanted, no needed to know that she got there and back safely. After all, he was the one who had brought her here to be his wife. She was his responsibility now. “Selina, wait!” He spurred his horse forward and caught up with her. “I’m going with you.”
She reined her horse to a stop. “Michael, I know what you’re thinkin’. But I really can take care of myself. Been doin’ it all my life. I ain’t scared of wild animals.”
“I know. That’s what worries me.”
Her lips curled into a smile. “Well, it’s sweet of you to worry about me, but I’ll be just fine. You go tend to them orchards of yours, and I’ll see you later.” She kicked Macy into a trot. Her braid swished like a horse’s tail as she headed up the hill and out of sight.
Hearing the confidence in her voice, he felt better about letting her go. “Lord, watch over Selina and keep her safe.” The woman was starting to grow on him, and that made him nervous.
Toward dark, Michael’s stomach growled. The sun was setting, leaving behind a sky painted orange with a few streaks of yellow. At the barn he unsaddled his horse and pitched him some hay, then walked toward his house.
Exhausted from a hard day of work, he couldn’t wait to get home, clean up, eat and sit down on the sofa and read first his Bible, then start on A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.
The steps groaned under his weight as he climbed them. He opened the door and stopped short. His eyes all but popped out of their sockets at the sight. Curled up next to Selina on the sofa was a wolf pup.
“Selina! What are you doing?” he barked.
Selina bolted upward. Her eyes blinked rapidly and her gaze darted about the room wildly before landing on him. The pup stirred next to her.
“What are you thinking bringing a wolf into this house?”
“Jumpin’ crickets. That’s what all the hollerin’s about? The pup?”
“That just isn’t any pup. That’s a wolf.”
“I know that. But there ain’t no way I was gonna just leave the little varmint there.”
“Leave it where? What are you talking about, woman?”
“Poor little thing had its paw caught in a small animal trap. Ain’t no way I was gonna leave it there to fend for itself and to keep on sufferin’ like it was so I brought it home and doctored it.”
“Se-li-na.” He drew out her name and scrubbed his hand over his face. “Don’t you know how dangerous that is?”
“’Course I do. I ain’t stupid, but I was born and raised in the hills of Kentucky and we got all sorta wild animals there, and I ain’t never left one to die yet, and I ain’t gonna start now. I’ve been tendin’ to them ever since I was eight and found that baby coon without a mama.”
“That—” he pointed to the pup still asleep on the sofa “—isn’t a raccoon. Those things are dangerous. You’re lucky its mama didn’t attack you.”
“I looked around for its mama. Besides, don’t you know nothin’? Iffen I were in danger Macy would have warned me by gettin’ all antsy, and the hair on the back of my head never rose so I knew I was safe.”
“You can’t go by Macy or the hair on your head rising.”
