Sam and Meg waved goodbye as Hank guided the buggy toward Archer Ranch. As they turned to go back inside, Sam touched her elbow, guiding her up the stairs of the porch, and she shivered as tingles swept through her.
“Are you cold?” Sam asked, a concerned frown appearing.
“Oh, no, not at all,” Meg replied. Even though it was beginning to get dark and a bit chilly in the crisp, late summer air, she was surprised at how warm she was—especially since Sam had touched her elbow.
As she entered the house, Sam picked up the bags Hank had delivered and Meg held the door open wide for him.
“I’ll just take these right on up to your room,” Sam said as he started upstairs. Meg wasn’t sure if she should follow him or not, as she hadn’t had a tour of the house yet and still felt a little like she was trespassing.
She turned to go into the parlor and stopped just inside as she noticed a big, white sheet covering something that appeared to be a very large piece of furniture.
Glancing around the room, she didn’t see any other pieces of furniture covered and, intrigued, she peeked around the corner to make sure Sam was still upstairs as she slowly lifted the sheet on one corner of whatever it was.
As she pulled back the fabric a little further, past the rich mahogany at the base of the piece, she gasped in surprise and her hand flew to her mouth. The flicker of the lantern was reflected in a row of ivory—a piano!
Meg quickly dropped the sheet as if it had burned her and tucked it under the foot of the piano, as close to the way she’d found it as she could remember.
A piano! She did remember Sam saying that he could read music, and now she knew why. She had grown up with music, her mother an accomplished pianist, and she and her sisters had sung to her mother’s accompaniment almost up until she died. On the very last night before she passed, the girls had gathered around her in her room, and sang Amazing Grace a capella for the first time as Katie was unable to play the piano any longer, and it was a moment she’d never forget. Music was part of her soul, and her gift, she knew.
Why would he have the piano covered up? He’d asked in his advertisement for someone with musical knowledge or interest. If he loved music as she did, it was just one more check on the list of things she loved about him.
“All right, you ready to get started?” Meg turned to the staircase as Sam came downstairs and walked into the parlor. He sat opposite the settee where she was sitting, and even though she was on a mission, she wished he had chosen to sit beside her. Someday.
“Get started? Oh, getting to know each other,” he said. He crossed his legs, his ankle on his knee as he sat back in his chair and smiled.
“Well, yes. We have to do this systematically.” Meg handed Sam a blank piece of paper and quill that she’d retrieved from the small desk in the parlor while he was upstairs. “I hope you don’t mind. We need paper.”
“What do you have in mind,” he asked, his brow raised as he looked at her.
“I thought it might be helpful if we each wrote down the major points in our lives, things that a spouse of a couple of years might know about the other. Then, when we’re finished, we can exchange them and study them. Maybe even ask each other questions.”
“Like a test in school?” Sam asked, his smile widening.
Meg looked up quickly, anxious to see if he was making fun of her like Hank usually did. She saw only amusement in his eyes, along with interest.
“Sort of, I suppose, although I wasn’t the best student in the world. I always wanted to be outside, or singing.”
“Singing?” he said, frowning. “You have music training? I know that I mentioned that in my ad, but we hadn’t had a chance to discuss it.”
“In fact, yes, I do. My mother was an accomplished pianist and I learned to sing and all about vocal harmonies from her.”
Sam smiled, but Meg felt it wasn’t a happy smile—more melancholy. She looked from Sam to the piano, and decided that her first night as his bride might not be the best time to ask him about something that appeared to be painful. It could wait at least until tomorrow.
“That’s very nice. An appreciation of music is quite a…gift,” he said as he glanced quickly at the piano. Or at the sheet that covered the piano.
Meg couldn’t stop the yawn that came, and covered her mouth as she attempted to stifle it, fatigue flooding over her all at once.
Sam stood and said, “I should have thought how tired you must be. Are you hungry for supper? We could then just retire early.”
“Honestly, I’m not a bit hungry between the late feast and our tea. Are you? I could make you something.”
He shook his head. “No, no, it’s been quite a long day and I’m happy to retire, as well.”
“It’s still a little early,” Meg said, glancing toward the grandfather clock that was just about to strike seven o’clock. “What if we each retire to our rooms and finish the assignment, so in the morning we’ll be ready to start studying the answers?”
Sam’s eyes twinkled as he held out his arm to walk her upstairs. “Assignment, is it?”
She was flustered for a moment, then realized that he was now, in fact, teasing her.
“I suppose, yes, an assignment. We want to be successful at appearing to be a happy, long-married couple when your mother arrives, don’t we? This should do the trick.”
“Yes, yes, that is the goal, I’m afraid. And tomorrow, I have to figure out some way to convince her that I have a job other than as a bartender, too.”
“There’s always James and Suzanne to ask.”
“Yes, and a few more friendly offers from friends. I’ll explain over breakfast. Meet you in the kitchen around sun-up? Do you get up that early?”
Meg laughed…her job milking cows and collecting eggs for the past few years had trained her that early to bed and early to rise was in her best interests. A necessity, actually.
“Of course. I’m an early riser and truthfully enjoy it.”
“Hmm…as a bartender I am definitely not and early riser, but I’ve been practicing a change of habits for the time my mother is here. I’m just fortunate that Tripp found a replacement for me. I would have hated to leave him with no one to tend bar.”
Meg hadn’t considered that Samuel would have to leave his job for his mother’s stay. It appeared that things were a little more complicated than she anticipated.
“That will be fine,” she said as Samuel stopped in front of a door that she assumed was her room. The long hallway had two doors on each side, rather large for a house in town, and she looked forward to her tour the next day.
“I’ve left warm water in a basin there for you on the vanity. At least it was warm when I did it.” He laughed and stuck his finger in the basin, frowning as he removed it. “Not so warm now. Would you like something warmer?”
Meg went to the basin and lowered her finger in as well. The water was tepid, not cold, so she said, “It’s fine. Thank you. It was thoughtful of you.”
Sam shook his head as he set the last of her bags at the foot of her bed. “It’s the least I can do, Meg. Thank you again for helping me with this. If there’s anything I can get you, I’m right next door.”
“Thank you, Sam.” Sam closed the door behind him. “And good night,” she said under her breath, looking around at her new home.
Her heart beat a little faster as it struck her that this really was her home now. She shook any sadness out of her head and sat down at the vanity, raised her pen and started on her list for her new husband, anxious to see what he’d written by tomorrow.