Page 74 of Short-Straw Bride

Turning his gaze to the ceiling, Travis exhaled. He might as well get up. Sleep was well beyond his grasp now, and Meredith would rest better without him tossing and turning beside her. But, oh, how he hated to leave. One thing was for certain, though, if she would have him, he’d be spending all future nights in this bed with her. Their courting had gone on long enough. It was time to begin their marriage.

Careful to disturb her as little as possible, Travis cupped the back of Meredith’s head as he slid his arm out from under her cheek and eased away. Her mouth puckered into an adorable little pout as she grumbled her displeasure in her sleep before resettling. Tenderness welled inside him as he smiled down on her. What a precious gift he’d been given.

A gift he’d nearly lost yesterday.

His smile faded as he padded on bare feet over to the window and looked out over the predawn landscape.

How am I supposed to protect my family, Lord?

Twice now the measures he’d taken had come back to haunt him, and both times Meredith had been the one to pay the price. She could have lost her leg the first time, and yesterday she could have frozen to death waiting for him to find her.

All my life I’ve striven to protect those you’ve entrusted to my care. Yet no matter how hard I try, my efforts are never enough. What do you want from me?

As the first hint of light softened the sky, a verse from Proverbs illuminated his heart. “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”

Conviction speared through him, and Travis had to place a hand against the wall to steady himself. He’d been shouldering the burden of guarding his family since his father charged him with the duty fourteen years ago. And all that time he’d trusted only himself to take care of them. Rarely had he sought the Lord’s guidance. His father had always said that God gave man a mind and expected him to use it, but perhaps he had taken that admonition too far.

Travis glanced back at Meredith. Show me how best to take care of her. How to be a good husband, provider, and protector.

Hungering for direction, he crossed the room on silent feet and eased open the dresser drawer where he kept his Bible. Then he crept out to the kitchen, lit a lamp, and settled into a chair at the table. His brothers would be up soon, but right now the morning was quiet—a good time to listen for the Lord.

Not sure where to start, Travis thumbed the pages open to Proverbs. For much of his life, he’d clung to the wisdom of a particular verse in chapter 27. He ran his finger down the page until he found verse 12: “A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself.” That’s what he had been doing the past fourteen years, trying to predict what evil might threaten his family and taking steps to hide away from it. But the disquiet in his soul made him wonder if perhaps the season for that tactic had passed. He and his brothers were no longer vulnerable boys who needed to hide. They were grown men who could fight for what was right.

His gaze drifted over the page, not truly focusing, until the word brother caught his attention, just two verses up from where he’d been reading.

“Thine own friend, and thy father’s friend, forsake not; neither go into thy brother’s house in the day of thy calamity: for better is a neighbour that is near than a brother far off.”

Don’t forsake friends. Depend on neighbors. Your brothers might not always be at hand when trouble comes. Travis rubbed his brow, bracing his elbow against the table. Friends? Until Meredith had talked him into letting Moses help rebuild the barn, he hadn’t had any. Seth Winston might count as a friend of his father, but the old man only came around four times a year.

And neighbors? He recalled a few schoolmates who’d had farms in the area, but he had no idea if their families were still around or not. Hadn’t Christ said that except for loving God, the most important command was to love one’s neighbor? Kind of hard to do that if he didn’t even know who his neighbors were.

Another verse floated into memory, one about not only looking out for one’s own interests, but also to the interests of others. Travis began flipping pages toward the New Testament, but before he found the verse, something stuffed between the pages in Romans caused him to halt.

A straw. A broken, short straw.

She’d kept it.

He wasn’t quite sure why that fact make his heart jump around in his chest, but it did. His hand even trembled slightly as he moved to take it out of the book’s crease. The brittle piece felt thin and delicate in his rough fingers. He stroked its length with his thumb and thought of the wife it had brought him.

Meredith deserved better than a reclusive life. Whenever she talked about teaching on Saturdays, her whole face lit up. Myra and the children brought her such joy and gave her life a sense of purpose beyond daily chores. And she’d been right about his brothers, too. No matter how badly he wanted to keep them tied to the ranch, he knew the Lord had planted ambitions in them that could one day take them away. Jim had his carpentry and his newfound attachment to Cassie. Crockett had his preaching. And Neill? Well, the kid had an entire world of possibilities to explore.

“Travis?”

He swiveled toward the sleepy voice. Meredith stood in the doorway, her nightdress floating about her legs as she squinted into the lamplight.

“Is everything all right?” Her fingers clenched nervously at the shawl she’d wrapped around her shoulders.

Travis got to his feet. “What are you doing out of bed? You should be resting.” He closed the distance between them, thinking to lead her back to the bedroom.

“I missed you.” The hushed admission froze him in his tracks and drove all other thought out of his head.

She missed him? Beside her? In bed?

His gaze flew to her face to gauge if perhaps he’d misunderstood, even while his heart raced with the hope that he had not. She dipped her chin away from him, a delightful shade of pink coloring her cheeks.

“I . . . I was cold.” She still couldn’t meet his eyes, and he prayed it was because his heat wasn’t the only thing she missed.

Travis moved his hands up her arms to her shoulders, his fingers digging through her hair. “You know,” he said, probing her gently. “Now that winter’s here, you’re apt to be cold often. I’d be willing to help you stay warm on a more regular basis. If that was something you wanted.”