A Tender Moment Under the Stars: An Inspirational Historical Romance Book Read online

  The sheriff laughed. “I sure did. How’d you guess?”

  Solomon shrugged. “You’re the sheriff. I’d think it would be something you’d do. You investigate things and don’t like having questions hanging over your head. Even the smallest things. Like my love life. Soon as Eric comes in, I’ll be leaving for the day.”

  Solomon paused, pondering whether he wanted to show the sheriff the ad he’d written.

  “I haven’t told Freddie I’m sending the ad off today, though,” he said. “I guess that’s why he didn’t tell you that part of it.”

  “No, I reckon he couldn’t have told me something he didn’t know,” Jack responded, nodding. “You gonna tell him before you go to the post office?”

  “I might go get him.” He almost mentioned showing the ad to Freddie but if he did that, he was sure the sheriff would ask to see it. He decided not to show it to the sheriff or Freddie or anyone. He would take his chances that he’d written a good ad. As the sheriff said, he wasn’t a stupid man by any means. He could do more than write his signature and read a few lines.

  He prided himself on his poetic prowess, at least he had while he was growing up. He hadn’t found much to write poetry about in the last four years. It just seemed like all he’d done was work and pal around with Freddie and the rest of their friends. Nothing gave him the inspiration he’d had when Betty was with him.

  He pushed his old flame out of his mind.

  “You’ll have to let me know how all that goes,” Jack said, tapping his hat on the counter. “You hear?”

  Solomon smiled at him. “Yeah, I’ll let you know. I mean, if I find a lady, everyone is going to know, aren’t they?”

  “Yeah, they will.”

  “You think they’ll be real surprised by it?”

  Jack chuckled. “I think some will be very surprised, yes. And I’m sorry to say that even if you do get a new woman, those ladies you mentioned before are still gonna be upset.”

  Solomon’s grin turned to a frown and he pulled his eyebrows together. “They better not be. It was Betty that cut short our relationship, not me. And I deserve to be with someone, don’t I? Should I be sitting around waiting for Betty?”

  “Absolutely not. But a woman’s mind can be fickle and these women might not react the way you want them to.”

  Solomon shook his head. “I don’t care what they feel. It’s my life and I deserve to be happy. Not that I’m not usually happy anyway.”

  Jack nodded. “Yep. You do. I’m gonna pray for the best for you, Sol.” He plopped his hat back on his head and gave the big man another nod. “And if you or your new sweetheart have any trouble from those women, you just let me know.”

  Solomon’s grin was back. “You gonna lock them up for me?”

  “Don’t put it past me,” the sheriff replied with a solemn look.

  Solomon knew he was joking but he always enjoyed good sarcasm.

  “Talk to you later!” the man said as he headed back to the front door.

  “Yep. And tell Freddie to stop spreading my business.”

  The sheriff laughed, turning his head to look at Solomon before he went outside. “I think I’m gonna leave that up to you, if you don’t mind.”

  Solomon let out a laugh as the sheriff left.

  Chapter 2

  Isabel sat on the porch, reading a newspaper, late in the afternoon a week after her mother’s passing. She had been feeling particularly numb since then, her thoughts jumbled, almost as if a fog had come over her mind. She was lonelier than she’d ever been in her entire life.

  The friends she’d had through school had flocked around her, giving her comfort, bringing her food so she wouldn’t have to cook, some of them staying to talk. She didn’t feel the same bond with them now that she’d felt with them in the past but appreciated their efforts.

  She flapped the newspaper open in front of her and scanned through the articles and ads.

  For the last two years of her mother’s illness, when they both realized June was not going to recover and would only get worse, the two women had discussed Isabel’s options. They had both decided that the best thing for her to do was to get away from Virginia. Morningside was a lovely little town but it was small and there were no men there that interested Isabel in that way. She’d had friends and there was one boy from school who’d had feelings for her. But he hadn’t waited five years for her and she hadn’t expected him to. He was already married to another girl she’d gone to school with and Isabel was very happy for the both of them. They’d been among her old friends that came to visit.

  She’d even had the privilege of meeting a few babies she hadn’t been able to see before.

  When Isabel held her friends’ babies, she knew she wanted her own family. She wanted a husband and children like almost every other woman she knew. She knew of one of her mother’s friends who was a spinster at sixty, had never married, and had no children. She was one of the crankiest women Isabel knew. Isabel had always been under the assumption that it was children that made people cranky.

  Isabel dropped down the page till she found the matrimonial ads, the ones men in the West put in the paper to find a bride. She’d also picked up a copy of Matrimonial Times from the newsstand. She’d been scanning them for several months in preparation for her mother’s passing. Just in case.

  There was a new one in the paper, one she hadn’t seen before. The man was asking for a woman who was willing to have fun times, adventures, lots of happiness. It sounded appealing to Isabel, who wanted desperately to have fun in her life after the five years of pain and sorrow.

  He was wealthy, too, which wasn’t a necessity for Isabel but it certainly made things easier. She wasn’t destitute herself. Far from wealthy but the sale of her mother’s house and any valuable possessions inside would give her a healthy nest egg to sit on in case she ever needed it. She also planned to donate anything that wasn’t very valuable to the church or any of the less fortunate in Morningside.

  Isabel looked to the table next to her and saw that she’d neglected to bring out a pen. She pushed herself from the white wicker chair and went into the house.

  Stepping over the threshold, Isabel stopped and looked around. She contemplated for a moment how she had made a decision, she had found someone she wanted to write to and she was about to embark on a brand new journey in life. Things had been so quiet for the last five years. Just the sound of the house, her mother’s breathing, the sound of her pencils brushing over the paper as she sketched.

  She was going, perhaps, to Texas. To a brand new home and environment and people. Even the weather would be different.

  Isabel felt something in her chest that she hadn’t felt in a very long time.

  She felt the beginnings of excitement.

  She bit her bottom lip as she crossed the small living room to the hallway that led to the bedrooms in the back. She had to pass the kitchen and glanced inside to look at the clock hanging on the wall. It told her it was two o’clock. She had plenty of time to get to the post office before it closed at five.

  Isabel was barely able to contain herself. She couldn’t believe after all the talking and planning with her mother, she was actually going to go through with it.

  She giggled as she passed the first two doors, her mother’s bedroom to her right and hers to the left. She’d cleaned her mother’s bedroom out the first day after June was gone, sending her belongings and furniture to a nearby family in need. She kept only the mirror in the fancy frame that her mother loved so much and the jewelry box with the ballerina inside that she had given June for her fortieth birthday.

  The last two rooms were a study and a storage room, respectively. She opened the door to the study and went straight to the rolltop writing desk on one side of the window.

  “All right, calm down, Izzy,” she said. She bit her bottom lip and giggled again.

  Pulling a piece of paper from the slot where it was kept and taking up a fountain pen, she pondered what s
he was going to write. She wasn’t as exciting as she used to be. Should she be who she was before she was a caretaker for her mother?

  Isabel nodded to her own question. There was no reason she couldn’t go back to being her old self. She’d merely put her life on hold for her mother and there was nothing wrong with that. In fact, Isabel felt like June would probably be angry, if such an emotion was possible in Heaven, if she thought her daughter was wasting her life in mourning. That was not at all what June would want and Isabel knew it.

  She looked up and smiled, picturing her mother smiling back down at her.

  “I’m gonna make you proud, Momma,” she whispered. “Wait till you see all the babies I’m gonna have and the lovely home I will make with a good man. The beautiful paintings and sketches I will create just for you. And don’t even try to talk me out of naming my first girl after you. You know that’s not going to happen.”

  She chuckled and dropped her eyes back down to the paper.

  Dear Mr. Bedford,

  I was very interested to read your ad. I have been caring for my sick mother for the last five years and have not had very much fun. So to read your ad seeking a woman who is ready for adventure and fun, this is what I desire.

  I am twenty-three years old. I have auburn hair and green eyes. I am of Irish and American descent. My father was American and he died in the war. My mother was Irish and as I said, I’ve been caring for her for five years, and she has now passed away.

  I would very much like to come to Texas and have adventures. As a young girl, I was always doing something and I liked to play with all of my friends, boys and girls, doing rough and tumble things with the boys, and jumping rope and playing chase with the girls. Now I have left the childish ways behind and am ready for fun and excitement with a husband and, in the future, children. I would very much like to have a big family. I hope that this is also your desire.

  I am willing to come to Texas at any point in time. I feel it is easier to get to know someone face to face rather than through correspondence. I am not in need of money, as I have the house and valuables to sell. I am planning to leave Virginia in short time regardless, and would very much like to take this opportunity to have a destination.

  Thank you for your consideration.

  Truly Yours,

  Isabel Ann Crane

  She gazed down at the words she’d just written. She hadn’t mentioned that she was a sketcher and wondered if that might give him more incentive to bring her to Texas. She could think of many brand-new landscapes she could draw. The thought made chills spread over her arms and a smile come to her face.

  Isabel was ready for this change. She’d been thinking about it so long, it was almost a given that it was going to happen. So things were going as planned. And quite smoothly, as she hadn’t seen even one ad that caught her eye until that afternoon, one week after her mother’s passing. She’d been looking in the paper for months.

  It felt like God had a hand in it. She wouldn’t be surprised. She glanced up again, saying a quiet “Thank You” in her mind.

  She picked up the paper and waved it in the air, blowing on it for the ink to dry quicker. She stood up and went to the window, laying the paper on the sill so the sun would shine on it and dry it out.

  Isabel returned to the desk and pulled a drawer open to retrieve an envelope. She turned it over so the flap was down and wrote her return address in the upper left-hand corner. In the middle of the envelope, she wrote his name and then referred back to the newspaper for the address.

  A few minutes later, she was folding the letter and pushing it into the envelope. She used a stamp and a bit of wax to close it. It was tradition for her family and she thought it best to continue the tradition. The stamp had their family emblem from her mother’s native Ireland and the first initial of their last name – C – surrounding it.

  She hurried out the door, anxious to get the letter sent out. The sooner it left, the sooner he would get it. Isabel would have been perfectly happy to get a train ticket and her clothes and leave that night.

  But she would be patient. Much as she disliked waiting, she would be patient.

  Chapter 3

  Solomon stepped into the restaurant where there was a birthday party in full swing. People were milling all about, talking, drinking, laughing. He spotted Freddie, the man of the hour, in the back corner with two of their friends. He was talking frantically, his eyes flashing with excitement. He held the two young ladies’ attention completely.

  Freddie must have said the punchline because he threw both hands up in the air and a huge smile spread over his face. The two young ladies roared with laughter, both of them holding their stomachs.

  “You are so silly, Freddie! I just love you!” one of them said, leaning to give him a kiss on the cheek. “Happy birthday, you old coot.”

  “I’ll never be old, my dear,” Freddie responded, smiling wide. “It will never happen, you wait and see.”

  Freddie looked up directly at Solomon. His reaction to seeing him made Solomon feel a comfortable happiness that he’d grown fond of since befriending Freddie.

  “Solomon!” Freddie cried out, once again throwing both hands up in the air. Everyone turned and watched as Solomon walked through the restaurant. He felt like he’d been thrown into the spotlight and smiled as he passed by. He was grateful to see they all smiled back.

  “Solomon, I have been waiting forever for you to get here, buddy,” Freddie said, slapping Solomon on the arm in a friendly way. “What fun is to be had without the big man in the room? None, says I. And I won’t argue about it. Get you a drink! We’ve got beer, tequila, rum, whiskey, and some bottles of that fancy bubbly drink the rich people are getting their hands on. What’s that called, Coca-Cola? Here they have that in all the big cities now.”

  Solomon shook his head. He hadn’t heard of it. He thought maybe he should look into it and see what it was all about. “How’d you manage to get your hands on that?” he asked. If it tasted good, he would definitely invest in it for his general store. If he could figure out where to get it.

  “When I went out to Austin last spring, there was an article in the newspaper about it. Apparently, the people who’ve been able to try it are stinkin’ thrilled with it. I had to give it a try! Of course, it does help to be the mayor’s son.”

  Solomon nodded. “Ah. Political connections. I get it.”

  Freddie laughed, shrugging at the same time. “It has its perks, I reckon. So you want to try one?”

  Solomon couldn’t think of anything he’d rather do at that moment. “You bet I do,” he said, slapping his hands together and rubbing them. “I’m always up for trying new things.”

  “I know,” Freddie said over his shoulder as he went up to the counter and went to one of the two iceboxes standing against the wall. He pulled out two bottles and brought them back to Solomon, handing one to him and keeping the other.

  Solomon popped the top from the bottle, examining the contents. It was a dark liquid. He put the bottle to his mouth and turned it up. He was amazed by the sensation and raised his eyebrows, smacking his lips. “That is tasty!” he said. “And you got this where?”

  “I don’t know exactly where it came from,” Freddie admitted. “My pa got wind of some that was being bottled and shipped by train and bought a case. I doubt I’ll ever have another in my lifetime. Tastes strange.”

  Solomon nodded. “It sure does. But I like it. You think your pa would help me buy some for the store?”

  Freddie shrugged. “I don’t see why he wouldn’t. If you think it will sell.”

  Solomon nodded. “I bet it will. I like it.”