Chapter 14

K nock, knock .

Another one?

Jack registered the knock on Merritt's front door from where he squatted in front of the open door of her kitchen stove. He could still hear Merritt in her bedroom, rustling around behind a closed door, so he went into her parlor to answer.

"Happy Christmas!" Both Paul and Daniel stood on the stoop, wearing almost identical smiles.

"Hello," Jack said, even though tomorrow was Christmas. Word seemed to have gotten out in town that the beloved schoolmarm was traveling to see her cousins.

"We brought Miss Harding a Christmas gift," Daniel said. He did, in fact, hold a cloth-wrapped bundle in his hands.

"I can see that." It'd only been two days since the pageant, since Morris had been sent away, and Jack still found himself scanning the quiet street for any sign of danger. It was empty, only the rented horse and carriage waiting for Merritt and Jack, same as it had been for the past half hour. The horse had a bough of green holly with red berries tied to its harness.

Jack stepped aside so they could enter.

He heard Merritt's bedroom door open, and his heart sped up when she entered the room, a carpetbag in her hands, her face turned back to the bedroom, and her lower lip between her teeth in distraction. He'd been in her presence all morning, but she still affected him. He hoped it would always be like that.

She blinked when she registered her guests. "Hello, boys! Oh, please tell me that's one of your mother's famous fruitcakes, Daniel."

The boy pulled back the cloth to show that it was.

Paul pushed his hands in his pockets as Merritt exclaimed over the treat, taking it to the table where it joined a ham, a book of poetry, and some crudely knitted mittens. Her students had been stopping by all morning.

Daniel glanced at the other boy. "Paul's got a gift too."

Jack didn't see one anywhere. Was this another of the boys' competitions? Another way for them to harass each other?

"Mine's not…something you can see," Paul said awkwardly. His chin jutted up stubbornly. "I decided to apply for some medical schools, like you said."

Merritt squealed as if she'd received the best news ever. She came to throw one arm around the boy's shoulder. "I'm thrilled to hear that."

Paul looked a little chagrined. "I'll need your help to find some of those scalla—skrulla?—"

"Scholarships. Of course."

Daniel cocked his head. "Y'all are gonna get married, aren't ya?"

Jack's heart kicked and his mouth went dry. What an impertinent question! He'd been careful not to bring it up these past two days since he'd come back to Calvin. It was too soon, and he knew it.

But apparently the boy had no compunction asking about it.

Merritt glanced at Jack, and when he saw the quiet, steady happiness in her expression, the roaring of his pulse in his ears receded.

"Someday," she told Daniel—and Paul, who'd perked up for the answer too.

Someday .

Same way it did in unexpected moments every day, the love filling up his heart overflowed. Merritt was something special. And by some miracle of God's grace, she was his.

Daniel moved toward the door. "I might wanna be a doctor too. Gotta talk to my folks. Come on, Paul. Seems Mr. Jack's got a Christmas trip planned."

The boys trooped out the door with grins and waves.

"They seem to have worked things out between them," he murmured as Merritt closed the door and turned to face the room, beaming quietly.

"Partly because of you," she said. "They worked together to keep the children out of harm's way during the scuffle."

He shook his head. If she wanted to think something good had happened because of Morris's threat, that was her business.

"Are you ready for your Christmas trip?" she asked with a laugh.

"It's not my trip," he protested, but he couldn't keep up the facade of being perturbed when she giggled.

"Never say you're nervous," she teased him.

"I'm terrified."

Now she burst out in peals of laughter. "Tillie will be devastated if we don't go."

"I know."

He'd known that things would be different between them now. There was no pretend engagement, only a commitment to see where things led. Which was why he'd been shocked when she'd asked him to come with her to spend Christmas with the McGraws on the family homestead, a half-day's ride out of town.

Merritt turned toward the kitchen.

"I'll get that brick I've got warming in the coals," he said, trailing her.

"All right. There's one more thing…"

But she'd stopped short, right where he'd hung his coat over the back of one of her kitchen chairs. Bent down to pick up something off the floor. "What's this?"

He recognized the folded piece of paper even as she glanced curiously at him.

He stepped toward her, stretched out his hand. "It's nothing?—"

But she was already unfolding the paper, her eyes scanning its contents.

He turned away, let his hand come up to run through the hair at the back of his neck. Let out a gusty sigh.

Pride had kept him hoping she'd never see that piece of paper. Why had he put it in his coat pocket? It must've fallen out when he'd taken off his coat earlier. He'd been too careless.

"Jack?"

He had no choice but to turn at the soft query in her voice. She had the note open but was looking right at him.

He knew what she'd seen on that paper. The crudely drawn letters that Jack had tried to assemble into words. He'd used a dime-store novel he'd found beneath the bed in his room at the boardinghouse to help him with the spelling.

He'd given up halfway down the page when he'd realized the words that slanted across the paper, falling off their lines, looked more like something a first-year student would write than anything else.

He cleared his throat because Merritt was waiting on an answer. "You started liking your John because of his letters. I thought I might write a letter for you, but?—"

Here he had to swallow hard as she glanced back down at the paper in her hands. It was silly, but he felt a flush climbing into his neck. "What little schooling I had was in broken snatches. I couldn't finish."

Her eyes were soft as she stepped forward and came easily into his arms. There was a relief in burying his face in her hair, even as she spoke into his shoulder.

"He was never my John. Not in the way you're mine."

The emotion that was never far away swirled inside him in a dizzying spiral, and he held her that much more tightly.

"We should get in the buggy and go," he murmured into her hair. Because the longer he kept holding her like this, the less he wanted to let her go.

"Not yet, I want to?—"

But another sharp knock on the door interrupted her.

She wrinkled her nose as she pushed away from him. "We'll never leave if students keep stopping by."

But there was clear affection in her voice, and he knew how each student who delivered a gift made her feel valued and loved. As she deserved.

But it wasn't a student in the doorway when she opened it this time. It was the marshal. She had the baby in the crook of her arm, and a little girl with pigtails, wearing a coat that almost swallowed her, peeked past her thigh.

Jack's stomach did the same funny little shiver it always did when he was faced with a lawman, but he also had the echo of her words from the other night in his memory.

"Merry Christmas." Danna hugged Merritt and stepped inside. "I'm glad I caught you before you left."

"If you need a last-minute gift for Chas, I'm afraid I can't help you."

Danna pulled a face at her friend. "Actually, I need to talk to Jack."

She did?

For a moment, his thoughts tunneled into a negative spiral. She'd changed her mind about him. He wasn't welcome here.

He steadied himself on an inhale as Merritt came to stand beside him and slipped her hand into his. It was a reminder that whatever happened, he wasn't alone. Not anymore.

Danna appraised him steadily. "Wanted to let you know that Morris is long gone. I escorted him onto the train myself. My deputies will keep an eye out if he tries to return."

The last bit of tension from that situation dissolved like snow on a hot stove.

But the marshal wasn't finished. "I've spoken to several folks about what happened in the dance hall two nights ago."

That didn't sound promising. Jack's heart sank.

"Every single one of them mentioned how calm you were under pressure."

Her words had him blinking in surprise. He hadn't felt calm, not with Merritt within arm's reach of that thug, Morris.

"And I've been told you're looking for work." That matter was a bit more prickly. He felt Merritt tense at his side and realized she must've been the one to share that with the marshal. He couldn't fault her; he knew the two women were friends. It was his own pride that was pricked, knowing he didn't have many skills that would translate well to a life in this small town.

"I could use another deputy," the marshal said. "Some of the homesteaders are getting into disputes with the ranchers who have bigger spreads. Burns's attempt at getting his hands on that land was shut down, but he still plans to build another saloon. That'll mean more drunken cowboys. I think you'd be a good fit for the office."

He must've looked as bowled over as he felt, because Merritt hid a laugh behind her hand.

"You want me …to be a deputy?"

Danna looked as serious as he'd ever seen her, even though her hand rested on the little girl's head. "I'd be proud to have you working at my side. You've made a difference for a lot of people without taking any recognition for it. Maybe it's time you pin on a badge."

He promised to think about it, and she took her leave after a few words to Merritt.

He couldn't believe it. The marshal wanted him for a deputy? The job would give him the financial security he wanted to provide for Merritt and their future family. It would be a tie to Calvin, to the community here.

It felt too good to be true. Like God had dropped the biggest pot imaginable right into Jack's lap.

* * *

Merritt gave Jack a moment as he murmured something about getting the brick out of the stove. He seemed to need the time to get his head on straight.

It was the least she could give him. He'd seemed so surprised by Danna's offer. And she'd felt the relief shudder through him when she'd held him close after she'd seen that half-page letter he'd written. Like he was still waiting for the other shoe to drop. Waiting for Merritt—or the town—to find him unworthy.

Merritt said a little prayer for him as she went to her room and grabbed Jack's hat off the end of her bed.

She met him in the parlor. He'd donned his coat and was coming in from where he must've put his warming brick in the carriage.

"Maybe I can give this to you without interruption this time," she said.

She went to him, extending the hat she'd gifted him once before. "It was yours, always meant to be yours."

His nostrils flared slightly as he took the upturned hat from her, then he frowned as he realized there was something inside the crown.

He reached inside and plucked out the black leather gloves she'd tucked inside. "Merritt…"

"I wanted to," she said. She felt the echo of what he'd told her once before as his face held an almost disbelieving expression—a hint of the boy who'd never been given a Christmas gift before. It wasn't right, and she couldn't make it right, but she'd wanted to give him more than just the hat.

"Thank you." His voice was rough, and he cleared his throat and slipped the gloves into his coat pocket, pulled the hat into place on his head. He went to the sofa, where a brown-wrapped package rested. Had she walked right by it without seeing it?

"This is for you. Merry Christmas."

He'd been open with her about his lack of funds—and that he didn't want to visit a poker table again, not when he needed to clean up his reputation.

"You shouldn't have," she murmured. But she reached for the twine holding the paper closed anyway.

"Albert Hyer let me put it on credit. He said he knew I was good for it." Merritt was concentrating on folding back the paper, but she still heard the note of incredulousness in Jack's voice. Another sign of the folks in town accepting him.

The paper fell away and revealed a lovely lace shawl.

"Oh, Jack." Her eyes smarted, filling with tears. It was beautiful.

"Mrs. Quinn told me you'd bid on one like it at the auction until the price got too high. If you don't like it?—"

"I love it." She held it to her chest and looked up at him, letting him see everything she felt. It had been a long time since she'd received a gift like this. Impractical, beautiful, something given to her simply because she liked it.

Jack had given her that. Brought beauty and love back into her life.

"I can't wait for the weather to warm. I'll wear it every Sunday morning to church."

A hint of relief passed through his eyes. "I'm glad."

He tugged her toward the door. "We should go. Before someone else knocks on that door."

She secured her new gift safely in the bureau in her bedroom and found Jack had already lifted her carpetbag. "I'm ready."

Outside, he helped her into the carriage and took his time tucking the lap blanket around her feet, making sure the brick he'd wrapped in cloth was right beneath her to keep her warm.

And then the conveyance jostled as he climbed up beside her. His shoulder nudged hers as he settled in the seat. She tucked the lap blanket over his legs, and he clasped her hand briefly in thanks before he tapped the reins and the horse Merritt had rented from the livery sprang into a walk.

She tucked her arm through his, felt the cold winter sunshine on her cheeks.

"If you've never received a Christmas gift," she wondered aloud, "what about for your birthday?"

"I don't know it," he said. "The orphanage didn't exactly celebrate and neither did the Farr family."

There was no trace of bitterness in his voice. Only a hint of sadness, maybe for the boy he'd been.

"We could celebrate together," she said. "My birthday is in May."

He rested his cheek on the top of her head, his hat casting a shadow on her face. "I'd like that."

Mr. and Mrs. Hyer were walking down the boardwalk, arm in arm, and Twila looked up and saw Merritt and Jack in the buggy. She waved happily.

Merritt found herself beaming back. All those months ago, she'd attended their wedding and felt such a deep emptiness, thought of everything that her life was missing.

They traveled out of town, and the landscape opened up in front of them, only a dusting of snow hanging on from days ago, the mountains in the far distance purple against the horizon.

Jack had arrived in town in such an unexpected way. She'd expected John, and God had brought Jack into her life. A man she'd never have chosen, wouldn't have gotten to know well enough to discover his compassionate heart, the boy who had overcome a terrible upbringing to become a man of honor.

He shifted the reins to his left hand and moved his right so that their hands were linked together. He'd worn the new gloves and it made her smile.

She had the family she'd always wanted in Jack. And if God blessed them in the future, a house full of children.

She'd been given everything she'd dreamed of.

"I love you," she whispered.

She felt him stiffen for a moment, then relax. Would he ever stop expecting the worst? She didn't know. But the simple joy in his face every time he heard words like the ones she'd just said were enough for now.

He pressed a kiss on top of her head. "I love you too. I'll love you even more if you protect me from your cousins."

A smile stretched across her lips. "I think you've already won Nick to your side." And Drew, too, if he'd sent the youngest brother on such an errand to help Merritt and the schoolhouse.

"Nick isn't the scary one. Have you seen Drew's glower?"

She turned her smile into his shoulder but couldn't resist teasing him once more. "You haven't met Isaac yet."

He groaned and she laughed. She couldn't imagine a better Christmas than one spent with family and the man she loved.

"You've got your whole life ahead of you to win them over," she said. "Just be yourself. I fell in love with you. They will too."

His hand squeezed hers. "I'll try."

She couldn't ask for anything more.

* * *

Thank you for reading A Convenient Heart !