Their hands did not drop, not for a moment, during that short walk to Sweet Grove. Kitty could barely believe it; the man she loved – and that loved her – by her side as she strode along the road and uphill that, Thomas had promised her, she would soon see the Bottom Field of the orchard.
Her hand twitched.
“Are you content?” Thomas asked her gently as they rounded a corner.
Kitty’s hand relaxed as she saw they had not yet arrived. “Yes, I am nothing but happiness.”
Another corner, and another twitch.
“Perhaps not,” she admitted. “I have to say I am rather nervous to see what reception I will experience there. I do not know how much Elizabeth knows about . . . about my past.”
Thomas did not seem overly concerned. “She will be delighted to see you, I am sure.”
“Perhaps not,” Kitty repeated. “For all I know, she is completely aware of what occurred, and has chosen to avoid me for that precise reason.” She swallowed. She had never doubted her sister before; why now? “Perhaps my arrival would merely be an embarrassment to her.”
“And perhaps,” said Thomas with a hopeful air, “she has been worried for you every single year you have been out of her sight, with no knowledge of where you have gone, and been forced to live in desperate hope that you are alive somewhere.”
The sun was at its peak now, and Kitty sweltered. What she would do to be under trees . . .
“You do not seem concerned about your reception at all,” she observed, chancing a glance at her husband. It was strange, this new stage of their relationship. It was as though they were courting again – or rather, courting for the first time. She was never entirely sure whether her words were out of line. “Are you not worried your brothers . . . after all that has happened . . .”
Thomas shrugged, but she could tell already with her growing knowledge of him that he felt more than he showed. “I think Jonathan would not have written such a letter if he had not wanted me to return. Admittedly,” and he laughed wryly, “his reasons may be just to scold me. He was always one for scolding, was my big brother.”
They laughed, but Kitty tightened her hand in his, and she received an answering squeeze. There was no knowing what to expect.
And they had not expected that.
“What the . . .” Thomas breathed.
Kitty, startled and ready to be surprised, jumped out of her skin as he stopped dead in his tracks. “What – what is it?” she said anxiously. “What have you seen?”
He did not reply. He silently pointed a finger at a sign which had appeared as they had walked down into the valley and around the corner.
The sign was painted a beautiful green, and it said: Sweet Grove: A Small Town with a Texas-Sized Heart.
Kitty’s breath caught in her throat. “We are here,” she croaked.
“That is new,” muttered Thomas.
They stood there in the baking heat, staring at the sign. Kitty could hardly believe it; three days ago, she did not know of its existence, and now she was standing with her husband, within seconds of seeing her sister again for the first time in five years.
She swallowed. Perhaps she was not yet ready for this.
“Are you ready?” Thomas once again seemed able to read her mind – a useful trick, she supposed, in a husband, but it could get tiring if she were never to have a single secret.
And then she checked herself. Secrets? No more of those; they had brought her nothing but trouble. It was Texan, Sweet Grove, Bryant honesty from now on.
“Kitty.” He was not rushing her; there was no force in his words. Just gentleness. “Are you ready?”
She nodded, not trusting her voice to speak.
They continued walking for another minute, and then as they turned a corner, Kitty gasped.
“Eden,” she breathed. “This is a paradise.”
There was no exaggeration in her tones. The luscious green grass stretched out as far as she could see, and as the breeze ruffled slightly towards her, she could smell as well as gaze on the rows upon rows of apples, their fruit small and sweetly sour. She could not see the end of it, and nothing disrupted the beauteous rolling green save a small smattering of houses near the bottom.
“This is no Eden,” said Thomas with rich emotion in his words. “This is Sweet Grove.”
Who knows how long they would have stood there; indeed, Kitty could have happily stood there for an hour or more, drinking it all in, wondering in the amazement of it all. Could have, but didn’t.
A woman was halfway up a ladder in the field nearest them. She was wearing an apron, and it had got caught on a splinter on the ladder. Her hair was long and full of curls, and it flowed down her back like a river.
“Elizabeth . . .” Kitty was hardly aware she had breathed it – indeed, she would not have known had Thomas not pointed in the woman’s direction.
“Elizabeth?” he murmured. “Are you sure?”
Kitty stared at the shape of the woman, struggling to pull her apron away from the ladder. “I . . . I do not know.”
The woman shrieked and fell from the ladder, dragging it down and crashing in a heap on the ground.
“That is her,” said Kitty firmly. “I would know that clumsiness anywhere.”
Thomas laughed beside her, and then did something he had not done that entire day: he released her hand.
“Well then,” he said with a smile. “Is it not time you were off?”
But she hesitated. It did not seem real; to be this close to her, close to another well of happiness she did not deserve to drink from.
And then the woman sat up. Her light blue gown fell lightly down to the ground, and the breeze ruffled it slightly. It was chance, and chance alone – or, as Kitty thought wryly, God’s sense of humor gone completely amok – that she had risen facing down the field, and her eyes immediately fixed upon two figures standing at the edge of the field.
One of them was tall, with a beard, and looked remarkably similar to her husband. And the other . . .
Another shriek, but this was one of joy, and delight, and wonder, and surprise, and confusion, and praise to a God that knew second chances were mightily hard to come by.
And so, when Katherine Morrison was a long way off, her sister Elizabeth saw her and ran towards her.
“Kitty!” Was the shout that engulfed Kitty as she was pulled into a hug by the woman she had not seen for five years.
“Elizabeth,” she breathed. Her arms were around her sister and she was being pulled tightly into a hug that threatened to bring her to tears. Elizabeth even smelt the same.
“I – I cannot believe it! You are here! You are alive!”
Kitty giggled, and it felt as though a weight was being lifted from her heart. “I am here.”
“You’re here!” Elizabeth repeated, staring as if she couldn’t believe her own eyes. “Years I have spent looking all over for you – sending letters, even going to many of the towns myself. And then you walk here.”
A rush of relief and joy filled Kitty’s heart. She had searched for her. Her sister had looked for her. She was wanted. She was welcome.
Elizabeth was still exclaiming, “You are here! At Sweet Grove! You are home!” Kitty was pushed backwards so her sister could look at her properly, and Elizabeth smiled. “You are home.”
Thomas watched with joy as the two sisters were reunited. After so much sadness, after so much confusion, after so much loneliness, the two Morrison sisters were together at last.
And yet – not the two Morrison sisters. He was so accustomed to seeing Kitty’s hand glitter in the sun that it took him a moment to realize there were now two sources of light. Two glittering bands. Two wedding rings.
“You are married?” Kitty cried.
Elizabeth blushed and said, “Well, it all happened hastily, I must say, but I – Kitty, you are married too!”
Thomas could not help himself. “We could not help it; three days ago we met, and – ”
“Three days – three days?”
If he had not known Kitty would never have allowed her sister to bodily attack him, Thomas would have felt quite in danger. Her eyes were daggers, and she had let go of her sister to glare at him.
“I am sorry,” she said without a hint of apology in her voice. “I think I may have misunderstood you. Did you say you first met my sister – my little sister – three days ago?”
Thomas swallowed. “Well, yes, but . . . it sounds far stranger than it actually was!”
“And where did you meet, exactly?” Elizabeth stared at him menacingly – or at least, as menacingly as a young woman who had more than a passing resemblance to his own wife could possess.
Thomas stared helplessly at Kitty, and she just grinned and shrugged.
“This is – this is probably not the time,” he said hastily. “Let’s instead talk about – ”
“Do not attempt to change the subject, sir!” Elizabeth was on the warpath now, and little would stop her. “Do not avoid answering my questions! Who do you think you are, to attempt so?”
“He is my little brother.”
All three of them whirled around to see a tall clean-shaven man stride towards them, a heavy axe in his hands and a glare on his face.
Kitty gasped and stepped behind Thomas, clasping at his hand, but he did not move. The man in slightly scuffed boots and a ripped linen shirt was well-known to him.
“Kitty,” he said firmly. “This is my brother, Jonathan.”
The two men came to face each other, a sister on each side.
“Brother?” Elizabeth glanced between one man and the other. “Brother, did you say?”
“This,” said Jonathan deeply, “is my younger brother Thomas.”
Thomas swallowed. This was not how he had expected it to go. To be sure, he had not presumed to have the same reconciliation his wife and her sister had enjoyed; hugs and tears were not the Bryant family way, especially not in its sons. But this . . .
Elizabeth was staring at him, and it was not a look of welcome. “Thomas – Thomas, the thief?”
His heart sank. Why had he expected it to be different? His one chance at complete happiness, and it was disappearing before him faster than the coolness of night in the morning.
“He has changed,” said a voice. It was coming from behind him, and without looking, he knew it was Kitty. “That may have been what he was, but that is not who he is.”
“Katherine, how could you possibly know?” Elizabeth hissed at her sister. “Four days ago you would not have been able to tell him from Adam!”
“But now I do,” she said, and smiling at him, Kitty placed her hand in his. “I love him. He is my husband, Elizabeth, and I know his past is behind him. As is mine.”
Elizabeth raised an eyebrow at this, but she did not have time to speak.
“We came here to be reconciled to you – to you both,” said Thomas, glancing between his brother and his sister-in-law. “But if that is not possible . . .”
His voice caught. His throat was too dry; the thought of losing his family again . . .
And then he saw Jonathan’s gaze flicker to something that glinted in the sunlight. Kitty reached up her left hand to push away a curl that had escaped its pin.
Thomas glanced nervously at his brother.
“That’s a beautiful ring.” Elizabeth smiled happily at her sister, but Kitty twisted her head in panic to look at Thomas.
“Yes,” Jonathan said steadily, not taking his eyes from him. “Very beautiful.”
Thomas’ blood froze in his veins as he desperately searched for the words to explain. How did you explain? A hand clasped his own, and he smiled weakly at Kitty.
“I expect,” continued Jonathan in an expressionless tone, “there’s a story behind that. I look forward to hearing it.”
Thomas swallowed.
And then he was swept into a hug, knocking his own breath out of him. Jonathan had dropped the axe and moved towards him so quickly he could not have avoided it if he had wanted to.
“Brother.” It was the only word Jonathan uttered, but it was enough. Thomas clasped his brother in a tight embrace, and then they released each other.
If Thomas had not known better, he would have said a tear was dashed away brusquely by his older brother.
“Well then,” Jonathan said. “You are back.”
“The beard has gone,” noted Thomas with a small smile.
Elizabeth laughed. “I insisted. He gave in, eventually.”
Thomas picked up his luggage and stretched out his arm for his wife. Kitty took it in a moment. “Gave in? I have never seen anyone with such power over my brother; you must tell me your secret.”
“Rescue me from a blazing inferno.” Jonathan spoke drily as he picked up Kitty’s luggage and started walking towards the houses.
“Blazing – what do you mean?” Thomas stared at them both in amazement, and Kitty laughed.
“It sounds as though we have missed out on a great deal,” she remarked as they picked their way through the orchard, green grass underfoot and green leaves overhead.
Elizabeth shrugged. “That is as may be. But as you can see,” and she pointed to where two women were talking excitedly and waving at them, “Mariana and Abigail have spotted you, and there will be no end of re-telling that particular story.”
“And where is Aaron?” The excitement in Thomas’ voice must have been heard by all of them, but Elizabeth and Jonathan exchanged glances.
Jonathan coughed. “He is not here.”
He stared at his eldest brother. “Not here? But – ”
It was the smallest of shakes, but Elizabeth indicated silently that the conversation was not to be continued.
Thomas swallowed. “Another time perhaps. See, Kitty, Mariana is waving!”
He could feel his joy inside his very heart, and it mingled and bled into the love he felt for his wife, his Kitty, her hand delicately and nervously entwined in his arm.
Kitty tighten her grip, and he squeezed it in return. “You have a few more people to meet,” he said lovingly. “My sisters. They will adore you.”
“I hope so,” she said nervously with a laugh. “I seem to have acquired a big family! I shall have to start learning names quickly.”
“Do not fret yourself.” Thomas’ voice was thick with emotion as he looked across at his brother, ahead at his sisters, and beside him at his wife. He was home. “There is always a chance to grow here at Sweet Grove.”
I hope you’ve enjoyed this novella in the Sweet Grove Stories series – read on for the first chapter of A Gamble of Love . . .