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

  “I’ll tell you what I see, Izzy. I see a young woman who has spent way too many days inside, never seeing the sunlight other than through a window, never breathing fresh air except on a shopping trip. I see a young woman so eager and ready to live her life, she’s coming out of her skin. That’s you, Izzy, a beautiful butterfly about to emerge from a cocoon you’ve been trapped in for much too long.”

  Isabel blinked at him. She could barely get the words out when she replied, “You’re right, Rodney. I am ready to fly. I’m ready to leave the cocoon, as you put it. I imagine myself as a caterpillar before now. It is so fitting.”

  He smiled brilliantly at her. “I’m glad you’ve taken this step to true freedom. I’ll always think of you when I hear of someone going on a journey. Or perhaps if I see a caterpillar crawling by.”

  She wrinkled her nose and waved one hand at him. “Oh, no. You shouldn’t think of me if you see a caterpillar. You should think of me when you see a butterfly. I have come out of the transformation. I’m emerging as something new.”

  He nodded, his eyes flashing with amusement. “You’re right! I should have thought of that. I’ll tell those caterpillars to hang in there. Someday they will be beautiful flying creatures.”

  Isabel grinned wide, sitting back. He did the same immediately after. “Do you often talk to little critters crawling by?”

  “I’ll be honest with you, my dear, I’d have to say no.” He laughed softly. “But maybe that will change. See? Everyone is changing. I’m in good company.”

  Chapter 7

  Solomon was nervous riding to the train station. The building wasn’t huge but it had two decent-sized rooms inside, one that was used for community meetings on occasion while the other one held the train attendant’s desks, the luggage area, and several benches for people waiting.

  Over the years, Steven’s Gulch had developed a reputation for being a hotspot when it came to entertaining festivals, plays, and celebrations. People often traveled from the neighboring cities and states to attend one of their events. He had no idea how it all started and hadn’t been a part of it. It had been that way since before he was even born. How the town held on to the reputation was a mystery.

  Freddie had seen him off that late afternoon with a swift pat on the back and a hearty, “Good luck!” as he left.

  He was nervous, he had to admit it to himself. His chest was tight with anxiety. What if she was a tiny little woman? She hadn’t mentioned her dress size or anything and far be it from him to ask. She hadn’t wanted to correspond too much anyway. He could be intimidating and he knew it.

  Solomon hoped she could look past that.

  He pulled up in the lot and stopped in front of a trough where the water and the horses would be mostly under the shade of a tree. He climbed down from the wagon and went to the front of the wagon to put the reins over the hitching post. He looped them once and turned away, giving the horse in front of him a pat on the neck.

  “I’ll be right back, buddy,” he said in a gentle voice. “Stay right here, won’t ya?”

  He crossed the dirt lot to the building and went up the five steps to the deck in front. He was glad to see it was empty. He went inside and saw the attendant who just nodded at him as he passed in front of him to get to the other side and go out onto the platform beside the tracks. He’d only gone through the building to see if there was anyone there.

  He pulled in a sigh of relief when he stepped out on the platform, a feeling that didn’t last long. The train wasn’t there yet but it would be soon. When Solomon looked to his right, a hand clenched around his heart and his breath caught in his throat.

  He forced a smile at Mr. and Mrs. McQuinn, Betty’s parents. They smiled back but the looks on their faces told Solomon they were most likely thinking the same thing he was thinking.

  Why are you here?

  He spun around when he heard the whistle blowing in the distance and hurried to the edge of the platform with his heart pounding in his chest. That tightness was still there and it made the pounding almost painful. His anxiety was at its peak.

  The train came at them, slowing down until it came to a stop. Three doors opened at the same time. Solomon was standing back in front of the middle door. No one emerged from there or the one to his right.

  But from his left, he saw a feminine leg extend beyond the stairs and a young woman in a brightly colored, form-fitting dress wearing a hat with large feathers jutting out of it stepped out.

  Solomon almost fainted. It was Betty.

  When Betty saw Solomon standing there, her face lit up like the sun.

  Solomon was overcome with a sense of dread, knowing she was going to come right for him. What were the chances? he thought. How could this happen? Was he being punished?

  Betty had broken it off with Solomon and he’d closed that part of his heart off. He didn’t want to reopen it. He had made a vow to himself in that moment that he would not be a part of Betty’s shenanigans. No matter how she treated him, he was going to be indifferent. She’d hurt him too much and he didn’t want to give her a second chance. Especially when he was ready to move on and had a woman he was very interested in coming.

  Betty darted toward him and before he knew it, she had grabbed him and wrapped her arms around him. She lifted up on her tiptoes and planted a kiss on his cheek.

  “Sol!” she cried out. “You came! I can’t believe it! I told them not to tell you I was coming back. I wanted it to be a surprise. But here you are. Oh, Sol, it’s so good to see you again.”

  Solomon looked down at her, that feeling of dread still hovering over him like a dark cloud. “B…Betty. What are you doing here?”

  “Oh,a you silly! You know I finished my studies. I told you I would come back to be with you.”

  Solomon frowned at her. “That’s not what you said, Betty. You said you were never stepping foot in Steven’s Gulch again. You said it was too small and old for you. You wanted a new life in the big city. That’s what you said.”

  Betty stepped back from him but kept her fingers laced together behind Solomon’s neck. She smiled up at him. He was surprised she wasn’t having an effect on him. If it had been five years ago, he would have been spinning her around in the air, laughing and telling her how beautiful she was.

  But not this time. He looked over her shoulder and was confused why Isabel wasn’t getting off. He twisted his head to see behind him but no one had come from those doors.

  Where was she?

  He felt his dread turning into panic when it looked like Betty wasn’t going to detach herself from him.

  Solomon reached up and grabbed her wrists, pulling her arms apart. Betty was taller than most women and was wearing heeled shoes that gave her three inches. He was almost able to look her in the eye.

  “Betty, I’m very glad you’re back, but please you…you must excuse me for a moment.”

  “But, Sol, you’re here for me, aren’t you?” She grabbed him again and leaned in, kissing his cheek for the second time.

  At that moment, a petite young woman with auburn hair and blazing jade green eyes stepped down from the train. She was bathed in full sunlight the moment she was out and her eyes flashed at him, getting his full attention.

  She was looking straight at them.

  Isabel Crane was a smaller woman. He estimated her to be a foot shorter than he was. She was petite but had curves about her hips that suggested she could bear many children. Solomon pulled Betty’s arms apart and peeled her off him, his cheeks blazing from the embarrassment of the situation and his thoughts.

  “Betty, please!” he said, exasperated. He gave her a pleading look that was met by a confused one. “It’s good to see you. Please excuse me.”

  Solomon moved across the platform, incredibly glad he was out of Betty’s grasp. He felt like he’d just been thrown in the trash bin. He hurried to Isabel, his hand extended.

  “Isabel?” he asked. “Isabel Crane?”

  She nodded, her eyes wide
, and staring up at him.

  He was distraught that she’d gotten that first impression of him. It wasn’t easy for a man his size to find a woman to be with. Now he had to deal with her thinking he was exactly the opposite—a man with too many women.

  “I’m Izzy,” she said, taking his hand. “It’s…nice to meet you, Mr. Bedford.”

  “Oh no, please, you have to call me Solomon. In fact, my friends call me Sol, so let’s go with that.”

  She smiled but it was wavering and afraid. She had a questioning look about her eyes that he wasn’t comfortable with. He swallowed hard.

  “I’d…like to take you into town. There’s some people I’d like you to meet. Very good friends of mine. I think you’ll like them.”

  Solomon tried not to hear the purposefully hushed conversation behind him that ended up being people screaming in a whisper that he could easily hear. He wondered if Isabel could hear them, too.

  It was Betty, fussing with her parents. That was one of the things that helped Solomon reconcile himself with what she’d done. Betty wasn’t a very good daughter. She wasn’t mean and hateful. He just felt like she’d always been very disrespectful of them. Regardless, they treated her like a teenager and always would.

  “I’d like that. I’m a little hungry, I guess.”

  “Did you get anything while you were on the train?”

  Isabel nodded.

  A sudden thought ran through Solomon’s head. The only way to get to the wagon was to turn and go past the McQuinns and that included Betty. He didn’t even want to see her face again right now. He wanted to go find Freddie and have some fun and laughter.

  “Do you have many bags?” he asked.

  Isabel’s face seemed to light up some. She nodded, turning her head to look behind her. There was an attendant bringing a cart to the car two down from where they were. He went in and brought out several trunks while they watched.

  He wheeled the trunks to them.

  The whole time this was happening, Solomon could hear the sound of shuffling behind him. It sounded like Betty was being held back by her parents as she was hissing, “Let me go, Mother.”

  Dread stabbed him in the heart when he realized Betty was going to come to them no matter what he did. He took the handle of the cart from the young man, who bowed at the waist and went through the nearest door to the train.

  The moment Solomon turned around, he was faced with Betty, who had the fakest smile on her face he’d ever seen.

  Chapter 8

  Isabel was stunned when she stepped off the train and saw Solomon Bedford in the position he was in with that woman. Had he mistaken her for Isabel? She had dark hair and was dressed like she’d just come from acting in a play somewhere rich people enjoyed going. And she was much too familiar with Solomon for someone he had supposedly just met.

  She watched in astonishment as he struggled to get the woman off him to come over and introduce himself. She didn’t know how to feel about that. He was obviously surprised by her affection but what did that mean?

  Isabel recognized the woman as the other one on the train when she’d been talking to Rodney. When he left the train, he doffed his hat to her and bid her a good day. Her eyes had roamed to the left to see this woman giving her a strange look. She couldn’t decipher the woman’s intentions at that moment.

  If she hadn’t been doing some sketching of the scenery she was passing, she would have been ready to get off the train sooner. But before the train even came to a stop, this woman had jumped to her feet, holding onto the back of the chair. She cried out in surprise, staring out the window. One hand flew to her mouth.

  Isabel knew she’d just gotten off the train. But to kiss a man in public after just getting off a train seemed very odd to her.

  She was also somewhat surprised by how tall he was. She was much smaller, but she didn’t think it would be too much of a problem. She knew she would feel safe with him wherever she went, that was for certain. He probably didn’t need a gun. He looked like he could swing an ax that would split a tree in one slice.

  He had introduced himself. She thought his grip was warm. His hand covered hers completely.

  When they turned and saw that Betty was standing directly in front of Solomon, Isabel couldn’t help the breath that caught in her throat.

  Betty moved her eyes from Solomon to Isabel and back. “So. Who might this be?” Her tone was icy cold and saccharine sweet at the same time. Isabel immediately disliked her.

  “This is the woman I’m going to marry,” Solomon replied with a confidence Isabel hadn’t seen at first. “Isabel. Izzy, this is Betty.”

  “Well, well, well,” Betty said, moving her eyes up and down Isabel from head to toe as if surveying her. “You’re going to marry her? That’s so strange!”

  Solomon furrowed his brow. “What do you mean, strange? Betty, let us pass, please, she’s hungry.”

  “Well, it was certainly interesting to see how she was behaving with that man on the train if she was coming here to meet you. I must say they looked so cozy together.”

  Isabel felt a sharp pain in her chest. She hadn’t come to Texas to be immediately attacked. She kept herself under control, sucking in her breath. “I just met the man,” she said. “We had a simple conversation. A friendly conversation.”

  “All right, all right, that’s enough.” Mrs. McQuinn came up behind her daughter and grabbed Betty’s arm. “You need to leave Sol alone, honey. He didn’t know you were coming. I don’t know how many times I have to tell you that. Come along now. Be a good girl.”

  Isabel watched the rage surge through Betty’s expression. “Mother!” she barked. “I am not a little girl and I am talking to my friends. Leave me alone.”

  “I’m afraid your mother is right, Betty, my dear,” her father said, placing one firm hand on his daughter’s shoulder.

  Isabel got the impression he was squeezing because Betty’s face changed and she looked submissive. Her shoulders slumped just a little. She still managed to give Solomon a defiant look. “I know you came to see me, Sol. I know you did.”

  He shook his head. “I didn’t know you were coming back. You can ask your parents. They never told me.”

  “You told us not to, dear,” Mrs. McQuinn said. “And we didn’t. But you didn’t say it was because you wanted to surprise him.”

  “Mother! Just be quiet! Oh! Sometimes you make me want to pull all my hair out!”

  Betty spun around and stomped away from Sol and Isabel, her parents close behind her. Isabel noted the apologetic look on Mr. McQuinn’s face as he walked away.

  Isabel turned to Solomon and he looked down at her.

  “I am so sorry you had to see that and go through it,” Solomon said, shaking his head. She could tell by his red cheeks that he was embarrassed. “I didn’t know Betty was coming back today. I didn’t think she was ever coming back. She left five years ago.”

  “Did you court her?”

  Solomon looked regretful. “I sure did.”

  “And she broke it off or you?”

  “She did. She wanted to go to the big city and have a lavish lifestyle in society. But I own my father’s businesses right here in Steven’s Gulch and I’m not leaving them behind for a life in the city.”

  “That sounds perfectly reasonable to me,” Isabel responded. She was beginning to like him. But she couldn’t help being skeptical. Betty was a beautiful woman and they had a past together. How strong was Solomon in his conviction to move on? “It’s too bad she had to come back at the exact time as I arrived.”