Evelyn looked up at her with a smile. “Of course. What is it?”
Madelaine stopped for a moment, glancing at Evelyn nervously. Maybe she was overstepping her welcome if she started probing for answers which weren’t hers to know.
“You can ask me anything, Maddie. Just say it.”
Madelaine looked back at Belle and Simon, both contentedly sipping their warm milk. Their glowing cheeks were red from the heat, and their eyes sparkled as they enjoyed the extra spice and honey.
“Well… I see you with the children, and I was wondering… why don’t you have any of your own?”
Evelyn’s beaming smile instantly vanished. As soon as Madelaine saw the pained expression on her friend’s face, shewanted to slap herself. “Oh no, I’m so sorry! Please forgive me, Evelyn! I shouldn’t have asked. It’s none of my business…”
Evelyn shook her head and held up a hand to stop Madelaine’s flow of words. Madelaine could clearly see her friend’s inner turmoil even before Evelyn looked at her with sad eyes.
“I can’t bear children,” she whispered, lowering her head as if she were ashamed. Madelaine gasped in shock. “Caleb and I have tried to conceive since we got married eight years ago, but it just hasn’t happened for us. Truthfully, I think I am barren. I think I won’t be able to give him children of his own.” Her voice broke.
Madelaine turned toward her and pulled her into a tight hug—doughy hands and all.
“Please forgive me, Evelyn! I should have never asked. I feel horrible that I made you feel this way.”
“It’s not your fault. I always wanted children, and we dreamed of having a whole lot of them. Apparently, God has other plans for us,” Evelyn said softly.
Both women held each other for several heartbeats, sharing a silent moment. Infertility wasn’t something women liked to talk about. It was a shameful topic for any woman who was unable to continue their family’s lineage.
It was most unfortunate that in this very moment, a certain handsome face decided to show up in her thoughts, just as she’d decided not to think about him anymore.
Luke.
Madelaine couldn’t help the tiny flutter inside her stomach. On paper, he appeared to be everything a woman could want. He was strong, capable, and reliable, not to mention handsome, but Madelaine didn’t want to feel any of those things right now. Especially in this moment, much less after everything that happened just yesterday.
Granted, Luke had been very kind to them, bringing them to his house and allowing them to stay. He was probably Madelaine’s best bet in helping her with her problems. But she was also a little scared of him. As the town’s sheriff, he was a figure of authority, and Madelaine was all too aware of the lies she’d been telling him and everybody else about her apparent memory loss.
“These two are so very precious,” Evelyn said then with a warm smile on her face, as she looked at Belle and Simon. All the sadness was gone from her eyes, although Madelaine still felt a little guilty.
“They truly are. They really seem happy here. This house is so huge, they’d never have to leave and still never get bored,” Madelaine said, glad to change the subject.
“Yes. That’s true,” Evelyn confirmed as she fried up some bacon slices.
“Luke built this one, after the loss of his family. Maybe he’d hoped to have a new one sometime in the future. When he’s healed,” she said. When she saw Madelaine's surprised expression, she added, “He had a wife, Isabelle, and two small children. John and Elise.”
Madelaine gasped in shock, hiding her open mouth behind her hand. “Had?” she asked. “What happened to them?”
Evelyn averted her eyes, and Madelaine saw her blinking away tears. Finally, Evelyn turned around and looked directly at her. “They were murdered on the ranch, while Luke was at work in town. The men who did it burned the old house down. Luke has been trying to solve their murders for years now. That’s why he’s always gone.”
Madelaine felt as if a bucket of ice water had been dumped all over her. Slowly realizing the horror of what Luke must have been through, his outburst from last night made sense to her, now. Luke was not an irrational man, after all, and although she didn’t like the fact that he was denying God, instead of finding solace in Him, she understood. Sadly, all too well. It was heartbreaking.
“Does he have any idea who’s responsible?” she asked tentatively.
Evelyn shook her head and shrugged at the same time. “We don’t know. Apparently, a gang of horse thieves has been terrorizing the region for years, and Luke thinks that they might have been the culprits. In fact, he is almost certain of it. All the horses in the barn were gone.”
Madelaine struggled to process the news, especially the part about the gang of horse thieves, which left a bitter taste in her mouth. She’d long suspected Phineas of being involved with horse theft, despite not having any real proof of it, but Evelyn kept talking.
“This happened five years ago on Christmas Eve. You might have heard about it. It was in all the newspapers.”
“I do remember the talk in town about the tragedy, but I didn’t know the details,” she said truthfully.
“It broke Luke. He tries to stay strong on the outside, but something inside of him died with them that day. I do believe that’s the reason he’s changed so much. He is trying everything to find the men who did this to him.”
Then her eyes shot up to Madelaine. “You remember this?” she asked.
