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Dark clouds obscured the sky the day before Sarah’s wedding, making the air cold and heavy. Was that why her stomach felt so queasy today? Or was it that every room in the mansion she tried to go in was abuzz with wedding preparations, so much so that one could hardly take a step without bumping into someone or something, and that it was hard to hear yourself speak? Even though the wedding would be held at the church, Mrs. Baldwin had arranged for a celebration to be held in their ballroom afterward.
No one asked for her opinion on anything as the details for the celebration had been decided weeks ago. However, an army of decorators had been called in to arrange flowers, scallops of ribbon, and bring in extra tables and chairs for the banquet. At the same time, more overnight guests, mostly relatives of the Baldwins’, were arriving, making it a completely chaotic scene. Between the snatches of time when Mrs. Baldwin graciously received them and introduced them to Sarah, her voice turned shrill. Especially while addressing her own children, Bruce and Maddie, who admittedly weren’t on their best behavior.
It didn’t help that Mrs. Baldwin was still reeling from her gown having been slashed into shreds. She had spent the rest of the night with a cold compress over the goose egg on her head. By morning it was considerably hardly noticeable except when she winced from pain. If Sarah didn’t trust Mark’s witness, she would never have guessed the innocent-looking Mathilda was capable of such a heinous act.
A headache formed at the base of Sarah’s skull. When yet another pair of guests was announced by the butler, she barely kept herself from screaming. But then she squealed in delight when they were brought into the overcrowded parlor. “Uncle Edwin and Aunt Nora!” Her father’s brother had always been a tease and sometimes a rapscallion. Uncle Edwin and Aunt Nora had spent time in jail after stealing priceless works of art and artifacts from various places, but they had since straightened their lives out and recommitted themselves to the Lord.
“Little Sarah, all grown up and getting married! Can you believe it, Nora?”
“And turning more and more beautiful with each passing day!” Nora added with a smile.
Sarah was sad that her mother’s side of the family couldn’t be here, but having Uncle Edwin and Aunt Nora at the wedding would help.
The more people that arrived, the more cross and demanding Maddie became, showing off before the guests by twirling around or chattering at them nonstop, until Mrs. Baldwin’s face became pale and pinched. “Maddie, sit down, please,” her mother admonished her for the umpteenth time.
Phoebe, who sat in a corner holding her baby, patiently coaxed Maddie over to play with Eve. When it seemed Maddie was finally focusing on someone other than herself, the adults in the room were better able to converse. However, that also meant Sarah and Derrick had to field comments and questions like “So, are you ready for the big day?” and “Hope you’re ready to become parents soon. Marriage leads to other adventures.” This came from Uncle Edwin, who ironically had never had any children. Sarah knew he was just being ornery. She was tempted to stick her tongue out at him, but refrained.
Derrick leaned in closer to whisper in her ear. “He’s right, you know. You’ll make a wonderful mother.”
She wasn’t sure about that, but she would certainly try.
Right now, though, all this talk about marriage and children was getting on her nerves. She needed some quiet.
Just then, the butler came in and announced another visitor. “A Mr. Frank Showalter to see Miss Baldwin, madam.”
Mrs. Baldwin frowned. “Maddie? Why would anyone come to see Maddie at this time?” She eyed her daughter. “You don’t have any friends by that name.”
Maddie shot out of her seat so fast, she nearly knocked over an expensive vase. “It’s the painter. He said he would come.”
Oh, the painter! With everything that had happened lately, Sarah had forgotten all about him.
Mrs. Baldwin stood and told the butler, “Please send him away. We don’t have time for—wait.” Casting a smile to her youngest daughter, she proposed, “Maddie, why don’t you go and get your drawings, then take them outside to show Mr. Showalter?”
Maddie squealed while jumping up and down. “Yes, Mother!” She ran out of the room like a lightning bolt. Mrs. Baldwin was left shaking her head at her daughter’s antics. “I apologize for my daughter’s atrocious behavior. She’s a very excitable child.”
“And she has something to be excited about with this wedding,” Phoebe added with a wink.
Mrs. Baldwin nodded, conceding her point. “Yes.”
Truth be told, Sarah wished that she could escape with Maddie. When Maddie came down the stairs carrying her wooden drawing case, Sarah hopped out of her chair. “That looks heavy, Maddie. Why don’t I help you carry it?”
“That sounds like a lovely idea, Sarah,” Mrs. Baldwin said. “Maddie could use some supervision with this painter.”
Whew!
Amy followed suit. “I’ll come with you.”
“Grand.” Sarah smiled at Derrick. “We’ll be back in a bit.”
“I’ll be waiting, my love.”
Several “aw”s from the ladies in the room followed.
“He’s quite besotted,” Phoebe teased.
“You’re a lucky man, Derrick my boy,” Uncle Edwin was saying when Sarah left the room. “Sarah’s the sweetest girl you could ever meet.”
Amy cast Sarah a sideways glance but didn’t say anything before walking ahead to greet the artist. “Hello again, Mr. Showalter,” she said once they reached the entranceway. “How are you today?”
The man’s eyes crinkled when he smiled. Holding a portfolio, he held out his other hand for a greeting. “Good, good. And you, uh, Miss . . . ?”
“Miss Flanders. Just fine, thank you.”
Seeing Maddie, he bent over and came face to face with her, holding out his hand again. “And good day to you, Miss Maddie. I hear you are preparing for a wedding in your family.”
“Yes,” Maddie said loudly, pulling on Sarah’s sleeve with one hand. “Sarah’s marrying my brother tomorrow.”
Mr. Showalter straightened to look Sarah in the eye. “I apologize for my rudeness for coming at such a bad time. Had I known the significance of it, I might have left you alone. But I’m leaving on the noon train tomorrow, and I did promise Miss Maddie that I would stop by.”
Sarah offered a warm smile and said, “It’s not an imposition at all. I apologize for neglecting to extend the supper invitation. It’s been a little crazy around here. We are certainly excited to have you visit, aren’t we, Maddie?”
Especially since this would keep Maddie out of everyone’s way.
“Shall we go out to the verandah?” Sarah led the way around to the back of the mansion, careful to stay out of the way of Mark, Chas Bryant, a man with red hair whom she didn’t recognize, Felicia, and another man with blond hair who wore a gold star on his vest. Sarah knew that Mark had called in his supervisor and now they were all getting together to form a plan for keeping everyone safe during the wedding. They had already been inside, inspecting the premises and determining the best angles from which to guard the reception. Maybe this was the reason for the butterflies in her stomach. The thought of walking down the aisle toward Derrick while knowing that someone wanted to take a crack at one of the Baldwins, or maybe even her, was terrifying.
Everything will be all right. Trust in the Lord, she reminded herself.
Forcing a cheerful tone, she invited, “Let’s sit down at the luncheon table, shall we?”
Mr. Showalter set his portfolio on the table and said, “You asked if you could see my drawings, but first, I would like to see yours, Miss Maddie.”
For such a vibrant child, Sarah was unprepared for the bashful way she unlocked her wooden case and peeked at the mentor from underneath her lashes. “I’m not very good.”
“Let’s just see about that.” Mr. Showalter reverentially took her drawings as she handed them to him. He didn’t say much else as he took his time looking at each one. If Sarah had to guess, she’d say that he seemed to like the drawing of a fawn hovering at the edge of a forest, ready to bolt—not that her proportions were right, but Sarah could definitely tell what the animal was. And the drawing of a bird on the ground, looking for food, was especially good.
Finally, Mr. Showalter spoke. “I like how you shaded in her feathers and beak here. And added depth to the ground there. Good job. That mama bird probably wanted to give her babies something to eat.” The next drawing he pulled over made him laugh out loud. “You caught that squirrel red-handed. I love the way you made his cheeks puff out all over.”
“He was a fun squirrel to watch.”
When he finished looking at all of Maddie’s drawings, he said, “You have talent, young lady. Pursue it.” He then proceeded to give her a few tips that he’d learned from trial and error that had helped him to draw more realistic-looking figures.
“Thank you so much,” Maddie said. “I’m really excited to try your ideas out.”
He smiled at her. “I really think you could make it as an artist. Keep up the good work.”
“Can I see your drawings now?”
“Sure, if you’re careful not to smudge them.”
After carefully handing her drawings back to her and helping her fit them into her case, he pulled his portfolio over and opened it. Maddie, Sarah, and Amy oohed and ahhed over each one. “These are magnificent,” Sarah said, handing a drawing of several bison back to him. She also liked the one of a rock standing tall in the ocean. “Where was this?”
“In northern Oregon. It’s called Haystack Rock for obvious reasons. I enjoyed seeing many things along the coast. I started in Seattle and made my way south through Oregon and to California. As you can see, I’ve made several drawings in each of the cities I’ve been to. I like nature, but what I find to be the most interesting subjects are people. That was why you found me outside of the café that day. I enjoy watching people as they pass by. Each of them is telling a story in their carriage as well as their expressions. Like this girl here.” He pointed to one of his drawings. “What is she doing?”
“She’s pulling on her mother’s coat,” Maddie said.
“Now look at her face. What is she thinking?”
Sarah looked closer. The girl was turned toward her mother’s side so that only one half of her face was visible. She was looking up at her mother, her eyebrow pinched and her lower lip jutting out a little farther than her upper lip.
“She’s not happy with her mother.”
Mr. Showalter nodded. “Very good. And why do you think she’s not happy with her mother?”
“Maybe she wants to show her mother a toy or she wants her mother to buy her a lemon drop.”
“And you’re making that assumption because of the doll in the shop window behind them, right? Along with the tied-up packages?”
“Yes.”
Mr. Showalter spread his arms wide. “So you see, I like to capture people’s emotions and sometimes thought processes, first on paper, then on canvas. Most people don’t realize it, but they wear their thoughts on their sleeve.”
Maddie scrunched her nose and asked, “What does that mean?”
“Their faces tell a lot about what they’re thinking and feeling. Like the girl looking petulantly at her mother. And like this drawing.” He sifted through the stack of drawings until he found the one he was apparently searching for and drew it out of the pile. Sliding it over toward Maddie, he pointed at it. “There. You see? Look at the boy in this picture as his pa hands him a coin. What does his face tell you about what he’s feeling?”
Maddie studied the picture for a few seconds, frowning. “He’s happy, but that isn’t his pa.”
Now it was Mr. Showalter’s turn to be confused. “How do you know?”
“That boy is in my school class. That’s Teddy Fielding. And the man is Mr. Morrison. Daddy buys horses from him.” She looked up at him, perturbed. “Why would Mr. Morrison have given Teddy a coin?”
Mr. Showalter shrugged. “I’m not sure. Maybe Teddy did a good deed for the fellow. Anyway, what do you notice about the man?”
Maddie looked back at the picture and said, “Mr. Morrison looks like he wants Teddy to do something.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Because he looks like he’s asking a question.”
“That’s right. His eyebrows are raised in question.” Mr. Showalter’s tone suggested that this was the first time he’d considered that the man might be asking a favor of the boy rather than rewarding him for a favor. Sarah was proud of Maddie for drawing that conclusion on her own. She would be sure to tell Derrick what a smart sister he had.
Studying the drawing more closely, she said, “This was taken at the train station, wasn’t it? I recognize the depot.”
“Yes. On a whim, I spent a few days there simply watching people and drawing them.”
“I didn’t see you at the station the day that I arrived in Denver. Did you see him, Amy?”
She shook her head. “No.”
“Either I had already moved on or I was in a corner, out of the way. I like to make myself as inconspicuous as possible. Of course, I always seem to draw a small crowd no matter where I set up my easel.”
“Hmm. Maybe that was why we didn’t see you. You were surrounded by a mountain of other people,” she teased.
Mr. Showalter chuckled, then said to Maddie, “Tell you what, young lady. Why don’t you keep this drawing?”
Maddie’s face contorted. “Why?”
“So you can study how I used the light to my advantage. And accurately draw people’s expressions. If you can learn to do those things, you’ll be that much farther ahead than half the would-be artists out there.”
“But I don’t even like Teddy.”
He chuckled again. “Believe me, you will someday.”
Maddie seemed to think that over before nodding and accepting the drawing. “Thank you.”
“You’re most welcome, young lady. And I hope to visit an exhibit of yours in a museum someday.”
The four of them spent the next few minutes talking about other elements in the drawing that made it of interest to the viewer and how Mr. Showalter had used the sunlight and shadows to capture the look of dusk.
“Looks like you all are having a good time,” a voice said behind them.
They turned to find Mark standing a few feet away.
Amy brightened. “Yes, we are. Mr. Showalter here was just giving us an art lesson of sorts.”
“And we’ve enjoyed looking at his drawings,” added Sarah. With a start, she realized that looking at the rest of Mr. Showalter’s drawings and discussing various aspects of art in all their mediums, along with being outside in the fresh air, had invigorated her and that her headache was completely gone.
And looking at Mark, whose handsome face showed kindness and concern for her, made a different set of butterflies flitter inside her stomach. The kind that made her catch her breath. With chagrin, she fought the attraction off. She was getting married tomorrow! With trembling lips, she said, “You should see his drawings. They’re very good.”
“I’ve already seen some of them, remember?” he answered with a grin.
“Oh . . . that’s right.” She flushed.
Despite her better judgment, Sarah found his eyes again. This time they were smoldering, and as his gaze dipped downward and fell on her lips, heat coursed through her. The air between them swelled into something so palpable, a person could almost reach out and touch it. And all the while, her heart tapped out a response as if using Morse Code. This couldn’t be happening. Why now? Why, when she had all that time with Mark in Virginia? Why hadn’t she seen her attraction to him then?
“I-I need to go back in to see to my guests.” Thanking Mr. Showalter one last time for his time, she fled inside the mansion, seeking the safety of Derrick’s arms.
