The Barefoot Bride Read Online Free Page A

of the bargain. I, too, am a widower, so I can very much understand your feelings. My heart isn't free either. Will you marry me?
    Your servant,
Seth Kendrick
    P. S. Directions to Fort Benton are enclosed.
     
    Molly had been composing her response to the Montana doctor's proposal when Nessie interrupted her. She still hadn't made up her mind what her answer would be. Over the months they had corresponded, the spring sun had done its work, turning New Bedford into a warm place full of color. Yellow lilies and orange poppies. Buttercups and violets. Always, everywhere, defiant clumps of dandelions. The wind-tossed sea provided brilliantblues and greens or stormy grays, depending on the weather. How could she even think of leaving it all behind? But the June day when she would be forced to leave Aunt Hattie's cottage was inexorably coming. She must move somewhere—and soon.
    Molly wished she were daring enough to accept Doctor Kendrick's offer and go all the way to Montana to become his wife. But she had never been beyond the boundaries of Massachusetts in her life. She hadn't the courage to go haring off halfway across the country on a whim.
    Maybe that was why she had fallen in love with a rough-and-tumble whaling man like James. Molly had seen the world through her husband's eyes as he sailed the seas. She had vicariously lived his adventures in the marvelous ports where his whaling vessel called. It had always been enough for her. But now James was dead. Any adventures she had in the future would have to be her own.
    “Are we going to Montana?”
    Nessie's question snapped Molly from her reverie and forced her to focus on the decision she knew must be made. She wanted to throw caution to the winds and say yes. But the words just wouldn't come. “I don't think so, Nessie.”
    “Good,” Nessie said. “I don't want to go away. If we go away, Da won't know where we are. He won't be able to find us when he comes home.”
    Molly hugged her daughter tight. If she said nothing, Nessie would eventually realize that her father wasn't ever coming back. But that seemed more cruel than forcing Nessie, even as young as she was, to face the truth. So Molly said, “Do you remember how I explained that Da died and went to heaven?”
    “Yes.”
    “Heaven is a wonderful place, Nessie, but when you go there, you can't ever come back. But Da can see us, and no matter where we go, he'll know where we are. And he'll watch over us from above.”
    Nessie's tiny brow furrowed. “Are you sure?”
    Molly brushed the soft bangs away from Nessie's troubled brown eyes. “I'm very sure.”
    Nessie's face crumpled. “I want my da!” she cried. “Why doesn't he come home?”
    Molly held Nessie and comforted her as best she could. But the little girl was inconsolable. Her tiny fists tightened in a death grip on Molly's dress as sobs wracked her body. Molly fought the welling emotion inher throat. She wasn't going to cry. She had done all her crying months ago, and tears hadn't changed anything. But still, one slid past her guard and fell in a hot stream down her cheek. And then another. Molly squeezed her eyes shut and buried her face in Nessie's silky black hair.
    Molly sat in the growing darkness holding Nessie until the little girl finally cried herself to sleep. Molly was startled when she finally lifted her head to find her son standing by the parlor door staring at her.
    “I was looking for you earlier,” Molly said. “Where were you?”
    “Down to the wharf,” Whit answered. “The
Mary Lee
is taking on provisions for another whaling voyage.”
    A shiver raced down Molly's spine. The
Mary Lee
was the whaling vessel that had seen James's ship go down. Roger Sturgis, the captain of the
Mary Lee,
had been James's best friend. Molly felt queasy at the thought that someday Whit would want to go to sea and be a whaler like his father. She leaned back in the captain's chair in which she sat and arranged Nessie more comfortably in her lap,