Sage: A Sweet Western Historical Romance (Walker Creek Brides Book 5) Read online

  Pearl Grant and her strapping husband, Daniel, stood nearest the aisle; Sage knew that Andreas considered the town’s newest doctor to be one of his closest friends. Behind them in the third pew, Pearl’s grandparents, Michael and Margaret McMaster, nodded a kind greeting, too.

  Sage smiled at them all and then turned toward the front as Andreas once more tucked her arm within his and glanced at her with such pride. Warmed more than she could ever say by the tenderness in his eyes, she knew she could face anything with him by her side. She had to tear her gaze away as the snowy-haired pastor, Reverend James Thomas, rose from his chair on the left side of the chancel to address the congregation.

  “Before we begin our service, Caleb Walker has asked me to share a happy announcement with you, the engagement of Andreas Hagen and Miss Sage Larsen.”

  At once a startled exclamation burst from some in the congregation, but Reverend Thomas raised his hand for silence.

  “Yes, it’s happened quite suddenly, but we all know the Lord works in mysterious ways—especially when it comes to the swiftness of marriages these past months in Walker Creek.”

  That pronouncement brought a soft ripple of laughter through the church, which made Sage feel for the first time that there must be more among those gathered that were pleased for her and Andreas than displeased. Greatly heartened, she turned to smile at Andreas to find his gaze hadn’t left her at all, his eyes filled with love.

  For her. No longer a pariah, but accepted into the fold and surrounded by people that she knew would defend and protect her.

  Grateful tears filling her eyes, Sage squeezed Andreas’s arm though she longed for nothing more at that moment than to give him a kiss.

  Right there in front of God and all those assembled, and Andreas seemed to read her mind as he leaned toward her. Only Caleb clearing his throat made Sage gasp softly and Andreas seem to remember himself, though Anita grasped Sage’s other arm and whispered in her ear.

  “Oh, I wish you had kissed him, Sage! It would have served those biddies right!”

  Certain that others around them must have heard her from their wry smiles and low chuckles, Sage felt her face aflame as Reverend Thomas thankfully raised his voice once more.

  “I’ve another announcement today…much prayed over but what my dear wife, Mildred, and I have decided is the right thing to do. We’re not as spry as we used to be, so the time has finally come for me to retire.”

  Again, another exclamation erupted, but Reverend Thomas raised his hand to quiet this outburst, too, and then gestured to the chair at the opposite side of the chancel.

  “You’ll not be left without a shepherd, I’m very glad to say. Soon you’ll have a new pastor to lead and guide you…the Reverend Chase Murray.”

  “Why, he doesn’t look like a pastor at all,” Anita hissed in Sage’s ear, gripping her arm all the tighter. “Look at that midnight hair and those stormy blue eyes, I’ve never seen the like!”

  “Shh!” Sage hissed back, surprised to see two pink spots of color flaming Anita’s cheeks as Reverend Thomas shook the new pastor’s hand and presented him to the congregation.

  The two men couldn’t have made a starker contrast, Reverend Thomas with his stooped shoulders and unsteady gait while Reverend Murray stood tall and straight beside him in somber black garb and a stiff white collar that bespoke his calling.

  “Thank you for your warm welcome, Reverend Thomas. You may be retiring, but I’m sure everyone here will be glad for your presence among us for years to come.”

  Sage felt Anita’s hand tighten on her arm again, and another quick glance made her guess that Anita must be thinking his low, husky voice didn’t sound much like a pastor’s, either. Sage hadn’t known her long, but she had never once seen the irrepressible young woman at a loss for words, no, not once. Her jaw actually dropped.

  “Reverend Murray has kindly insisted that Mildred and I stay on in the parsonage since he has no wife and children,” Reverend Thomas continued, shaking his head at the sudden burst of feminine surprise. “We’re much obliged to him, but with the rate of marriages in this town, well, I guess we’ll just have to see how long that goes. Now if you’ll take out your hymnals…”

  “No wife?” Anita echoed in disbelief, her hand falling from Sage’s arm.

  “No wife?” uttered at least a dozen other women, mothers and daughters alike, as the piano introduction to the hymn filled the church.

  Andreas grinned broadly at Sage and drew her closer so he could whisper in her ear.

  “Looks like our new pastor is Walker Creek’s most eligible bachelor now, poor fellow, and he’s welcome to it. I’m taken…have been since the very first moment I saw you. All we have to do now is pick the date. How about the Saturday after the St. Valentine’s Day ball?”

  Sage was so stunned that now her jaw dropped, such joy filling her that she yearned to throw her arms around Andreas to hug him tight. He looked ready to abandon all Sunday decorum and embrace her, too, but Caleb clearing his throat again, more strongly this time, made them both do their best to contain themselves.

  “I’d like to marry you today at this very service,” Andreas leaned down again to whisper, only adding fuel to the fire as the congregation began another stanza of the hymn, “but my sisters would never forgive me if we didn’t have a proper wedding.”

  A proper wedding. In this church where Sage had never thought she would be welcomed, everyone around them smiling as they raised their voices in song, her and Andreas’s excitement becoming infectious.

  Anita couldn’t seem to stand still, one moment peeking over her hymnal at Reverend Murray, whose rich baritone resounded from the rafters, and the next nudging closer to hiss at Sage.

  “Have you ever seen a pastor as handsome as him? I can’t believe he’s our new minister—no, I simply can’t believe it!”

  Anita’s imagination clearly not captured at all by a wedding, Sage tried to focus upon the hymnal she shared with Andreas, but the brush of his fingers against hers defeated her altogether. The rest of the service seemed to fly by in a daze, for when they sat to listen to the sermon, he clasped her hand, the warmth of him beyond distracting.

  She was almost relieved when Reverend Thomas intoned the benediction, though she knew she would remember for the rest of her life the wondrous moment when he announced her and Andreas’s engagement. Andreas had barely led her into the center aisle when congratulations came flying at them from all directions, even from a truly unexpected source, Mrs. Gladys Winchell, who came hurrying up to greet them.

  “Miss Larsen, please accept my family’s warmest felicitations—my husband, Milton, and my daughter, Winnifred, and myself. Surely we can let bygones be bygones, yes?”

  The woman’s expression strained though her tone had seemed sincere enough, Sage nonetheless nodded and extended her hand.

  “Of course, Mrs. Winchell. You’re very kind, thank you.”

  Their handshake a brief one, Sage felt renewed relief as Andreas steered her through the crowded aisle and outside onto the church steps, his whispered words clearly for her ears alone.

  “Caleb can be very persuasive—but perhaps her husband had more to do with her change of heart. He runs the feed store and often keeps late hours, or so he’s always told his wife. Seems that Beatrice gave Caleb a list of her regular clients, Milton Winchell’s name among them.”

  Sage’s shocked gasp made Andreas chuckle, but he kept his voice low.

  “Gladys won’t trouble you ever again, I’m certain of it. Not if Milton wants to ensure Caleb’s continued…um, discretion.”

  Stunned by this news, but glad, too, that Andreas had waited to tell her once they were outside the church, Sage realized with a start that they had lost Anita somewhere behind them.

  As Andreas walked with her down the steps, she glanced over her shoulder to see a tiny older woman standing just outside the door…her smile so filled with kindness that Sage felt a warmth settle over her unlike anything she’d k
nown before.

  At the same time, she heard the softest whisper, but it wasn’t Andreas murmuring something in her ear.

  “Take care, child…darkness still abounds, even at the happiest of times. Take care not to stray far from Andreas.”

  Sage sucked in her breath, not so much out of fear but that she felt a sense of warning even though the same comforting sensation of warmth lingered.

  “Sage? Did you hear me?”

  She blinked, meeting Andreas’s eyes to find him looking at her with some concern.

  “I said it’s cold out here. Let me help you with your cape.”

  Sage nodded, touched that he was so solicitous of her. He stared into her face as he adjusted her hood, and brushed her cheek with his thumb.

  “I love you, Sage.”

  “And I, you,” she murmured, for how could she not?

  Andreas stood so tall and handsome in front of her, the sunlight glinting like gold upon his thick blond hair. She remembered a teacher long ago in the schoolhouse she’d attended, reading from a history book about Norway and its Vikings. In less than two weeks, she would marry her own Viking and become Mrs. Andreas Hagen—oh, she couldn’t wait!

  And she wouldn’t be afraid, Sage told herself firmly as Andreas escorted her to the carriages where Caleb and Lily and the others who’d occupied the front pews were gathering.

  She stole a glance behind her to see that the diminutive woman with silvery hair and a simple brown dress was gone from the church steps—but she wouldn’t share with Andreas now that she believed with all her heart she’d just seen his family’s guardian angel, Tante Kari. Another blessing! Another miracle!

  Her guardian angel, too, it seemed, though Sage didn’t want anything to darken their happy day. She would talk to him later about the whispered warning, yes, when they had a chance to be alone—

  “Wait for me!”

  Sage and Andreas spun around as Anita hastened toward them in a flutter of woolen cape and white petticoat, the rosy blush of indignation on her lovely face quite plain to see.

  “Ridiculous! All of those mothers and daughters gathered like squawking geese around Reverend Murray, clamoring for his attention and inviting him to Sunday dinner. You’d think the lot of them had never seen an attractive man of the clergy before!”

  “Attractive?” Andreas teased her while Sage remembered all too well what had been said about Reverend Murray when Anita had done her own fair share of gaping. “I’ve never seen you so flustered at the sight of any gentleman—”

  “Hardly, Andreas! Just startled, is all. You have to admit he looks more like Lucifer himself than a man of God with that raven black hair—”

  “Don’t forget the stormy blue eyes,” Andreas cut her off, grinning. “I know, I heard, just like practically everyone around us, including him.”

  “He did?” Gaping in horror at her brother, Anita nonetheless drew herself up and surged ahead of them, tossing over her shoulder, “Of course he didn’t hear me. You only heard because you were standing so close by—and I don’t want to talk about it anymore!”

  Andreas’s hearty laugh ringing around them, he looped his arm through Sage’s and drew her closer as they approached the nearest carriage.

  “Someday Anita’s going to meet her match, and then we’ll see how fast she changes her tune about nothing mattering to her in the whole world except for becoming a great actress. Did I tell you Caleb and Lily have a celebratory lunch waiting for us at the Frederick Hotel?”

  Sage shook her head, the day so bright and wonderful that she felt she might burst from the happiness swelling inside her.

  First the church, and now on their way to dine at the hotel where she would not only be welcomed, but a guest of honor with Andreas by her side!

  Chapter Nine

  “Quite the fancy soiree, isn’t it? I’ve never understood the ladies’ fascination with balls and dancing, but if it makes Kari happy, then it’s fine by me.”

  Andreas nodded at Seth, such doings a wonderment to him, too. Other than the Christmas ball and tonight’s St. Valentine’s Day ball, he had never been to anything quite like it in Minnesota. There had been local dances, yes, but nothing on such a grand scale as this one.

  Pink, red, and white decorations were everywhere…hearts and roses and plump cupids with their arrows set to the bow. The punch was pink, the cakes and cookies decorated with pink and white icing, and all the women wore shades of pink, rose, and red, too, while the men, including himself, were dressed in their best suits.

  He smiled, laughing to himself at Sage’s reaction when she had walked into the Frederick Hotel dining room converted into a festive ballroom, her eyes as big as saucers.

  “Oh, Andreas, it’s so beautiful!”

  “You’re beautiful,” he had murmured, stunned by how lovely Sage looked in a burgundy silk dress that Mrs. McMaster had so kindly created for her. A deep rich color that had set off her fair complexion, and her upswept hair adorned with tiny, pink silk roses, the gold highlights in her brown eyes captured in the glow of the chandeliers.

  His sisters, too, couldn’t have looked lovelier in their new dresses, all bustled and bedecked in ribbons, bows, and flounces. Andreas glanced at the entranceway, but Sage, Ingrid, and Anita hadn’t returned yet from retiring upstairs to the ladies’ lounge—a perplexing pastime that seemed to require at least two or three women embarking together.

  “I’m going to head back to my beautiful wife. Enjoy the evening, Andreas.”

  Holding two brimming cups of punch, Seth gave him a wry smile and then walked away as Andreas glanced around the crowded room.

  On the dance floor, Caleb and Lily waltzed with other couples to the strains of a chamber orchestra imported from Austin for the occasion. At a nearby white-clothed table, Joshua—no doubt waiting for Ingrid to return—visited with Pearl and Daniel. Most everyone from town was in attendance, though a few gentlemen had abandoned their wives to seek stronger refreshment at the mahogany-walled bar adjoining the main foyer of the hotel.

  Andreas had heard a whisper of a rumor, too, that a poker game was taking place somewhere on the premises, much as had been done the night of the Christmas ball, which might account for some of the missing men. Another notable absentee was Reverend Chase Murray, who had left town after the Sunday service where he’d been introduced as the new preacher, to finish up some business before moving to Walker Creek.

  The man wasn’t due back for a couple weeks, which no doubt had put a damper on the aspirations of many a mother and marriageable daughter attending the ball. Yes, there were the Winchells seated at a distant table, Gladys looking perturbed as she surveyed the dancers while poor Winnifred appeared quite forlorn, a wallflower if ever Andreas had seen one. He couldn’t help wondering if that’s why Reverend Murray had disappeared—to avoid the awkwardness of it all and wait it out until the St. Valentine’s Day ball was done and over!

  Andreas took a swig of punch and glanced again at the entranceway, but there was still no sign of his sisters or Sage.

  He felt almost a punch in the gut from missing her so much. He’d scarcely let her out of his sight for the past ten days, other than in the evenings after he’d kissed her goodnight and watched her ascend the stairs to her guest bedroom.

  Caleb and Lily had graciously taken her in at their ranch that same Sunday, as the most comfortable—and protected—place they could offer after Sage shared with Andreas her belief that Tante Kari had given her some kind of a warning at the church.

  He’d been so stunned, he hadn’t known what to say as they were finishing up lunch. What had it meant? Beatrice had promised Caleb that she would give them no trouble. Kari, Ingrid, and Anita had all piped up at once—yes, and Pearl, too—that any such words from their beloved guardian angel were ones to be heeded.

  It never occurred to any of them that talk of Tante Kari might be strange or otherworldly, for she had touched all of their lives in special ways. Even now, Andreas felt a warmth fill hi
m at the thought of her, though he’d never yet been blessed with seeing her. Perhaps one day…

  “More punch, Andreas?”

  He started, so focused upon the entrance to the dining room that he hadn’t realized Joshua had approached him.

  “No thanks. Have you ever wondered why it takes women so long when they take off together to the ladies’ lounge?”

  Joshua shook his head, smiling. “One of life’s mysteries…and there are more in store once you’re married, though I wouldn’t trade a moment of them. Only three days away now.”

  Andreas adjusted his collar and grinned back. “I’m ready. Bring on those mysteries. I can’t wait until Sage is my bride.”

  “Good man—ah, finally. There’s Ingrid and Anita now.”

  Andreas strode after Joshua to the entranceway, perplexed that Sage hadn’t accompanied his sisters. As if reading his mind, Anita rushed forward in a flurry of shell pink satin and gave his arm a fond squeeze.

  “She forgot her reticule in the lounge, Andreas, not to worry. She told us to go ahead and that she’d be right down. Oh, just look around you! Isn’t it lovely? The ballroom? All the decorations?”

  He nodded, distracted, as Anita pulled him toward the refreshment table.

  “You and Sage have been dancing so much, she told me she’s famished. She wants some cake and some punch and a couple of those pretty iced cookies—”

  “What took you so long?” Andreas cut her off, though at once he picked up a delicate china plate to fill it with goodies—anything to please Sage. “I was about to come looking for all of you—”

  “Women’s talk, silly! The wedding, our dresses, and Kari and her baby. Who knows? She might arrive early and upstage everything!”

  “She?”

  “Of course. We’re going to have the sweetest little niece, I’m sure of it. Now come on. Let’s make sure Sage has plenty of lovely things to eat, shall we?”

  He nodded, but glanced over his shoulder all the same, Sage still nowhere to be seen.