The look Ellie gave him then sent that lion roaring once again, and he wished he didn’t have to tell her about what he’d learned before he picked her up. “What’s wrong?” She was always so perceptive, of course she’d seen his face change.
“Mr. Goddard saw me in town today and let me know he’s almost finished with the documents we need to take to California. He said he’d bring them by this week. He’s also determined what judge presides in the area you grew up in, and he’s given us a personalized letter to him as well.”
Ellie tensed beside him, and he hated himself a little for popping her bubble of dreams and hope. “Hey,” he said as he placed a hand in hers while steering with the other. “We don’thave to go. You can leave it all behind you if you want.” Honestly, he wasn’t sure which he’d prefer. He wanted her to win this battle for her own sake, the only penance she’d ever get for the way her grandfather had treated her. Still, the way her face went pale whenever she imagined going to California, he’d breathe a sigh of relief if she decided to simply move on. “It makes no difference to me.”
They may have initially married for the sake of the trust, but there wasn’t a bone in his body that would regret it if she chose the latter path. Ellie looked down at their joined hands, quiet for a moment. “I want to go. I want this to be over. Grandfather only did this to dangle a carrot in front of my face and snatch it away. He was cruel, his humor sadistic at times. This is the only closure I’ll get, and I want my inheritance."
Her fire only made her more beautiful, especially after all she’d been through. “Then that’s what we’ll do.” Unable to resist one more, Micah leaned over and kissed her hair. She didn’t flinch or shy away, but he knew it was all he could ask at the moment. “We’ll pray for God’s guidance the whole way.”
After years of not being sure exactly where he stood with the Almighty, it felt nice to know he could surrender the situation to the Lord. His brothers had all lived with varying degrees of doubt and anger, but it hadn’t only been their love lives the Lord had worked in over the past six months or so. No, Isaac had found the ability to trust God cared about the small things in their lives as much as the big things, and he’d begun modeling praying nightly with the children and Louisa regarding those things. As for Jacob, the weight of anger he’d carried for years after losing Callie had lifted, rendering him able to wrestle with the Lord regarding the hurt he held.
With Truett Sutton as a father, all five Sutton boys had their share of demons to fight, but for the first time in his life, he felt equipped to wield a sword. Like Pastor Jim had said, the sameHal Day had told him for years, the hope of Christ on Earth was the same for him and his life. No matter what lay ahead for them, his confidence was growing that the Lord would go with them.
Chapter Twelve
Ellie’s face felt hot, her breaths quick as she felt the beads of sweat dotting her forehead. She stood with Micah in her and Louisa’s cottage a few days later with a blanket covering her canvas. “I feel so nervous to show you.” Biting her lip so hard it smarted, Ellie tried to stop the shaking in her hands and knees.
Showing someone your art was vulnerable at the best of times, but showing Micah? When no one else save Miss Lutken had ever even seen it? It felt like she’d laid her soul bare in front of someone and handed them a knife. Micah stood from the small loveseat in the living area, his body almost comically large in the small cottage. His very presence took up so much space, rendering her even smaller and more vulnerable as he moved closer.
Gently, he lifted his thumb and pried her lip from her teeth before placing both hands on either side of her face. His head lowered, placing a gentle kiss to her forehead and effectively bringing a calm she barely recognized to her whole system. What had been a kaleidoscope of emotions and fear a moment beforedulled, unfolding into the peace of a cool breeze on your face during the scorcher of a hot summer day. “I’m going to love it because you did it,” he said as he ran his thumb over her cheek. “You don’t have to be afraid - it’s just me.”
Inhaling his scent of leather, grass, and a little dust from the barn he’d been working in earlier, Ellie took a deep breath. “All right, here it is.” Best to get it over with. As much as she tried to look away, Ellie couldn’t move her eyes from his face as she removed the cloth over the painting. A look of disappointment or confusion in his eyes might have shattered her, but at least she’d know where she stood.
Still, what she hadn’t pictured was the pure and utter awe in his navy blue eyes. Her painting, one of the ranch as winter slowly made its way into spring, had felt cathartic to create. It was actually her exact view through the window of the cottage, with the wooden barn in the distance and the windmill and rolling hills dotted with cattle in the background. The sunshine beckoned flowers and greener grass from the earth, but the grass was still dotted between browns and greens for the moment.
Micah gasped, reaching for her hand as he knelt to move closer. “Ellie, this is…”
Her heart pounded as he searched for the words, hoping against hope they’d be positive. “It’s what?” Her words were barely more than a whisper. The canvas and paints he’d purchased for her that week were a statement of belief in her skills even when she’d never shown him. Would he regret spending his money on such frivolities now? “If you don’t like it, I can repay you for the supplies once-”
His head whipped toward her, but she didn’t so much as flinch. It was a testament to how much she’d grown to trust the man before her, the one who was so quiet and stoic around others but gentle and chatty with her. “Ellie, it’s beautiful. I think you’ll have magazines back East fighting over yourpaintings, especially when you and Louisa get some stories together to go with them.” He gestured towards the art supplies. “As for those, it wouldn’t matter if it was awful. You enjoy creating art, right?”
She nodded, unable to respond due to the lump in her throat.
“Then you’ll have art supplies for the rest of our lives, and you won’t pay me back a cent.” The hand he’d dropped a moment before lifted to below her chin, bringing her gaze up to meet his. “You’re enough, Ellie. Just as you are.”
Tears pricked her eyes, remembering the one time she’d ever asked Grandfather for art supplies after she’d finished her schooling with Miss Lutken. “Grandfather…he thought my art was silly. He said he wouldn’t spend anything on supplies, and he laughed at me when I asked.” She had felt humiliation when Grandfather had brought up the topic again in front of his business partner, Percival James. The two of them had made her feel even smaller with their cruelty over her ‘silly little hobby,’ and effectively squashed her desire to pursue it further.
Micah’s eyes darkened, and she saw the tension in his shoulders despite not feeling a bit of it in his touch. “The more you tell me about your grandfather, the more I wish I could somehow bring him back to life and plant my fist in his nose.” His words were calm, but there was a promise within them, one with grit.
His lips lowered closer to her, his careful question of whether she would welcome his kiss hanging in the air. She had all the ability in the world to pull back, but she didn’t want to. As his lips were less than a hair’s breadth from hers, the door flew open. Isaac and Louisa stepped inside as Ellie jerked her body backwards as though she’d been caught doing something bad.
Louisa’s eyes widened, her face reddening in a way which told Ellie exactly how much they’d seen, but Isaac’s chuckle behindher had the heat rising to Ellie’s own cheeks. “Oh goodness, I’m so sorry, I-”
“Don’t worry about it,” Micah replied with the tiniest bit of a growl under his words. Wrapping his arm around Ellie, he pulled her close to his side, and she did her best to draw from his calm and complete lack of embarrassment. “Ellie was showing me some of her art.”
At his words, Louisa’s gaze flew to the canvas Ellie had completed in watercolor, the one which showed the Sutton ranch in all its glory, and gasped. “Oh Ellie, it’s perfect.” She rushed forward and bent forward to study every detail, gushing excitedly over each one.
Ellie blossomed under the praise, moving from his hold to discuss techniques and inspiration for every piece, even down to including the cottage window panes in such a way to make a body think they were looking out a real window. As the women talked, Micah went to stand beside his brother. “Couldn’t have waited five more minutes?” His words were soft, barely more than a rumble so he didn’t embarrass Ellie further.
Isaac’s continued chuckle beside him told Micah exactly how little he regretted the intrusion. “It wasn’t intentional, but the timing was perfect.” Isaac sobered a little, gesturing out the door where Micah spotted a rig he hadn’t seen in the front yard before. “I figured you’d want to know Mr. Goddard is here. He has the papers for you and all the information you two need to go to California to plead your case to the judge.”
He spoke softly too, but Ellie apparently heard them. She rose from where she’d focused on the painting with Louisa, her once pretty pink cheeks now devoid of color. “So this is it?”
Mr. Goddard appeared in the cottage doorway, his suit jacket and tie still firmly in place. In his hand, he held a thick leather file folder with a strap holding it together. “Afraid so, Mrs. Sutton. If you want your inheritance, you’ll have to return home briefly. You’ll need to stand before Judge Edwards in Cartwright, as he’s the federal judge for the area.”
Ellie shook her head, her eyes flashing with a fight Micah wasn’t sure he’d seen before. “California isn’t home. It never was.” With another deep, shuddering breath, Ellie crossed the cottage to stand next to Micah. She stood close enough to touch him, and he wrapped his arm around her once more. “This is my home, and going to California will be a bump in the road to my future here.” He could feel her shaking, but she stood tall anyway. That was all right, she could shake all she needed to. He’d be steady for her for the rest of their lives, and he was so proud of her ability to stand now.
Micah removed his Stetson and bent to place a kiss to her blonde hair, pulled back into a loose bun at the nape of her neck. It framed her face, making her already delicate features even more beautiful after she’d filled out with a few months of proper food after her capture. “It sure will.” Raising his head, he hung his Stetson on the hat rack and reached for the folder Mr. Goddard carried. “Thank you for your help with this, sir. We appreciate it more than you know.”
