The rain poured down harder than it had in weeks that day as Jamie rode through the hills on horseback. Just minutes before he’d been preparing to wed Jane; now he was racing off to Lydie. His appearance, once fit to perfection, was now soaked to the bone. As he rode, sopping black locks fell into his face and he continually had to push them out of his view. The rain flew into his face, causing him to squint, but those sparkling brown eyes couldn’t be deterred from looking ahead to their destination.

The journey to Lydie’s little house from the church seemed to take forever. Above Jamie, the deep gray clouds filled all of the sky and dumped their contents onto Haverleigh’s countryside. A strong, swirling wind blew the leaves and branches of the trees until they shifted back and forth with the insistent breeze.

As he rode, Jamie’s thoughts focused only on Lydie and how he was going to reach her. He couldn’t believe what a big mistake he’d made, and if it hadn’t been for Jane he may have made an even bigger aberration, one that he would have regretted the rest of his life.

He was about half way there before he suddenly realized he had no idea what he was supposed to say to her when he arrived. Would she even want to see him? He didn’t know. He hadn’t even really talked to her since the day he proposed: how long ago that day seemed now. All those days he’d spent with Jane preparing for the wedding seemed wasted; oh how he’d wished each and every one of those days that he could have just gone out and played a game of pirates with Lydie and the children. Or Peter Pan. He would have given anything to just play Peter Pan one more time.

How was he to know that she wasn’t angry with him? What would he do if he found out that she truly did hate him now, just as she’d pledged she did that snowy Christmas night? Everything was so uncertain. As her little cottage neared and he could just see its hazy outline in the distance, Jamie only hoped that when he reached her the words he’d been searching for would come.

Suddenly his watch seemed to have sped up, for in an instant he and his horse were cantering up to Lydie’s front yard. Letting go of all his uncertainties, Jamie jumped off, still completely soaked to the bone and wearing his expensive suit. He wiped the black hair out of his eyes and called out as loudly as he could through the pouring rain, “Lydie! Lydie!”

Inside, Lydie sat on the ground next to the warm fire, thinking. She wondered what was going on across town at the church at that very moment. I suppose they’re man and wife by now she thought to herself, I suppose it’s all over now. But then she heard a voice from outside. A man’s voice. Jamie’s.

“Lydie!” she heard it call, “Lydie!”

But it can’t be Jamie. He’s at the wedding. Maybe it’s Lin Lydie pondered.

But the voice called out again, “Lydie!” and she knew it must be him.

Since her wheelchair was across the room, she just decided to leave it be and managed to stand up on her own. Straightening out her simple yellow dress, Lydie prepared to meet him. She hobbled across the room to the door, holding onto tables and chairs to steady herself. And then, without preparation for what was to come, Lydie opened the door.

Staring up at her from the front lawn was Jamie. Her heart seemed to melt at the sight of him and she didn’t know why. Something must be wrong, she determined, for he hadn’t even taken the time to change out of his expensive black suit. It was filthy now. Bits of dirt and mud had splattered up upon it during the ride and she was sure all that rain couldn’t be good. Black hair fell down into his face along with raindrops, but he didn’t bother to brush them anyway anymore. Lydie had never noticed how earnest his eyes looked, but maybe it was because they’d never looked that way before.

Clutching onto the doorframe for the support to stand, Lydie looked down at him sadly from her front porch.

Jamie gulped, “Hello, Lydie!”

“Hello, Jamie,” she called back rather quietly. There was a moment of silence before Lydie disrupted it asking, “What are you doing he-?”

Before she could finish, he interrupted, shouting out loud and clear, “I love you, Lydie!” As he said it, a huge weight seemed to be lifted off his shoulders and he repeated, “I love you and I always will love you no matter what you say or do! There’s no changing that!”

Lydie didn’t know what to say, so she uttered the first words that came to her lips, “But what about Jane?”

“She-” Jamie began, but this time Lydie interrupted:

“What about the wedding, Jamie?” she shouted out. They both had to practically scream their words if they wanted to be heard over the thundering sound of the rain.

Jamie shook his head, “It’s not going to happen and it never will. Jane called it off.”

Lydie couldn’t hide the little smile forming upon her face.

Jamie smiled as well, “I don’t blame her. Do you?”

Lydie shook her head.

There was another silence. Of course, it wasn’t really silence because of the rain, but neither Jamie nor Lydie spoke. She stood on the dry porch near the house’s warmth and he stood in the middle of her yard, getting wetter and wetter by the minute. But by this time, I suppose, he was so wet he couldn’t really get any wetter.

“So what now?” Lydie finally called out.

Before he knew what he was saying, Jamie shouted, “Marry me, Lydie!” But once he’d said it he didn’t regret it.

Lydie didn’t know what to say. She really was completely and utterly speechless.

Jamie faltered a little in his stance and repeated, “Marry me, Lydia Mae Everson!” One could see by now that he was beginning to grow a little worried. What man wouldn’t?

Lydie finally answered, with tears in her eyes, “You’ve already asked me this once, Jamie.”

“I know and I’m asking you again.”

“But I told you no.”

“I know that too,” Jamie sighed, “But I also know that you didn’t really mean it. I mean, you meant it when you said it, but if you really thought about it you’d change your mind.”

Lydie shook her head, brushing away a tear quickly and trying to hide it from Jamie, “I don’t understand.”

“You love me, Lydie! You know you do!” Jamie shouted, taking a bigger chance than he ever had in his life, “Don’t you remember how happy we were? Don’t you remember playing pirates? And Peter Pan? Don’t you remember the night you camped out with us in the parlor?”

Lydie shook her head, the tears flowing freely now.

“Don’t you remember the lake, Lydie? And the kiss? What about Christmas? Don’t you remember Christmas, Lydie? The pearl earrings? How you said you hated me when we both knew it wasn’t true?”

“Stop it, Jamie, stop,” Lydie whispered, though she didn’t know why.

“Don’t you remember when you were sick in bed with pneumonia? And you thought that it was Lin who cared about you the most? Everyone thought it was Lin, the whole town did. But it wasn’t Lydie! It was me! I was here the whole time, though you may not have known it! Do you know how worried I was? I thought you were going to die, Lydie, and I didn’t know what I’d ever do without you. Do you know how many sleepless nights I’ve spent over you? Do you, Lydie? Do you?”

Lydie shook her head and wiped away some tears.

“Tell me you don’t remember those times, Lydie! Tell me!”

“I remember,” Lydie admitted in a whisper.

“And I know I may not seem like I’d be a perfect husband at times! I know about all the schools I’ve been kicked out of and how my father has no faith in me! I know that sometimes I swear too much when I’m not in a good mood! I know I need to cut out some of my smoking and I know that I’m certainly, by no means, perfect!” his voice suddenly cracked as he said, “But I love you. I love you with all my heart, Lydie, and I’ll love you till the end of time no matter what happens to either of us.”

“I-I,” Lydie began, but she didn’t know what to say. All the memories he’d brought up seemed to swirl around in her head as she recalled how many wonderful moments they’d shared together. But she just didn’t know if it was enough.

“Don’t say anything!” Jamie called back up to her, running a hand through his sopping hair, “Not yet, at least! I know you’re probably confused right now, and I’m not surprised,” he paused and explained, “We never courted, and I’m sure that’s what you’re thinking about right now.”

He was right.

“But I don’t think that really matters,” Jamie went on, “People make up all these silly rules in our society nowadays that don’t really even make true sense. Why should a man have to be a woman’s beau before he asks for her hand? It’s nonsense! I love you and I don’t need to go through months of courtship to know that!”

Lydie brushed away some more tears, still not finding her voice.

“Tell me you don’t love me and I’ll go away and leave you be. If you can honestly speak those words to me, I’ll trust you. But just know that no matter what you say and no matter how far apart we may go through the years, I’ll never stop loving you, Lydie!”

Lydie couldn’t deny that she didn’t love him, though she’d been able to when he first proposed. No matter how hard she tried, the words just wouldn’t come. It was in that moment, she believed later, that things changed. It was in that moment that her previous mistake became apparent and she knew how she really felt about James Isaac Holden.

“So, I suppose this is the last time I’ll ever ask this,” Jamie said, getting down upon one knee, and in doing so completely ruining his suit pants and covering them in mud. Without any faltering or hesitation in his voice, he called over the pouring rain, “Will you marry me, Lydie Everson?”

As she looked down into his earnest eyes, Lydie knew what her answer would be. She slowly nodded and took a step forward, holding onto the porch rail for support for she still felt quite weak.

“Yes,” Lydie whispered. Tears ran down her cheeks as she repeated in a shout, “Yes, Jamie! Yes!”

No words can describe the bright smile that came over Jamie’s soaked face as he rose from the ground. All within a moment, he ran up the front steps and wrapped her in his arms, lifting her off the porch and down onto the grass with him. Encircled in his wet arms and standing beneath the pouring rain, Lydie became soaked almost instantly as well. Both were smiling and laughing uncontrollably, and Jamie continually covered Lydie in kisses. He kissed her cheeks, her forehead, her eyes, her hands, and finally, her lips.

And there they stood, in the middle of the muddy yard, during one of the happiest moments of their lives, on yet another, rainy day in Haverleigh.

And so, that was the beginning of the many, many years Jamie and Lydie would spend together. They wed not long after that day in a small, simple ceremony out in the fresh air like Jamie wanted, instead of stuffed into a little church. They moved into a nice and fairly expensive, yet modest, house Jamie ordered to be built on the other side of the Holden Orchard. There, they invited over Gracie, Leah, Demi, and Wesley each day so Lydie could teach them and act as their nanny once more. And in due time, Jamie and Lydie had children of their own: three, to be exact.

Jamie ran the orchard’s affairs, just as he said he would, and all though times were tough at first, with Jamie’s brain and a little luck, business was flourishing within a few years. After Isaac and Anne passed away, Jamie, Lydie, and their children moved into the large house left behind. And they lived there happily until the end of their days.

Joseph and Adele Fanning, always a very conceited pair, lived in wealth and comfort till the end of their days. Since Joseph had already become quite rich by the time Adele and he married, they were able to spend most of their time traveling abroad and exploring the world together. They never had any children though; Adele didn’t want to ruin her figure and Joseph didn’t care much for kids. But they lived a wonderful life, nonetheless.

Jane Walsh’s infatuation with Jamie ended after that day at the church. Although she spent a few more lonesome years by herself, she soon found a man that loved her as much as she loved him and they married soon after.

Ward Browning became Jamie’s business partner for a few years, and they worked on the orchard together. But he soon found that Haverleigh just wasn’t the town for him and moved away to another little city called Covington. There, he spent quite a few years courting numerous women before finding the perfect one for him.

Lin Myrick, true to his word, really wasn’t a marrying man. He never found that special someone, nor did he ever even involve himself in a courtship. He and Lydie stayed friends forever though and he became a fairly good companion of Jamie. Many days, he’d show up at Lydie’s and look after the children for her; he’d always loved children. He stayed in that little house of his in the hills of Haverleigh until the day he died without a regret in the world.

And so, the rainy days of Haverleigh continued, and with them the years passed by. And when Jamie and Lydie’s oldest daughter, Mae, turned thirteen Lydie passed on to her the pearl earrings she’d received that Christmas from Jamie so long ago. She told Mae how she’d told Jamie she hated him that night and how mad she’d gotten when she opened up the box to reveal the beautiful earrings.

“But why did you become angry, mother?” asked Mae as she gazed at the lovely pearls, “How could you not like these? They’re beautiful.”

“Yes, they are beautiful,” Lydie agreed.

“Then why did you yell at father?” Mae questioned, her dark brown eyes resembling Jamie’s almost exactly as she looked up to her mother.

Tears came to Lydie’s eyes as she answered, “I don’t know, dear. I just don’t know.”

Mae smiled, “You must have been quite foolish a girl to refuse him.”

Lydie wiped away a tear, trying not to let her daughter see, “Yes, yes I was a foolish girl. A very foolish one indeed.”

Jamie entered the room as Lydie spoke. He came to stand behind her, placing his hands upon her shoulders and kissing the top of her head.

“Your mother was a very foolish girl, and a very uncertain one at that,” Jamie told Mae with a grin, “But for some crazy reason I fell in love with her.”

Mae giggled.

Lydie smiled and added “And then one day he stole my heart away . . .”

THE END

So that’s it! I hope you enjoyed my little story and I’d like to thank you all for the wonderful reviews. My amazing reviewers:

R. M. Whitaker, Steph, Em Crosthwaite, aims80, Invisible Writer, Blue Johnson, Silvestria, FamousOneLiners, passion101, bandgeek026, anonymous, jules2206, hi, Limegreenqueen, Garnet-earth-Princess, MysteriousMoonlight, luelle, M. T. Duhaime, Lady Mystic Saria, sugaraddict13, babe anjwl, anamika, Thinking, anony, xoxxKatexoxx, and Lady-Notorious

Thank you all! Your reviews really did make my day and I loved hearing how you each felt about the story!

I’ve already started my next story, a historical romance taking place in WWII called The Story of Jude and Josie, and I hope you all will read it as well as any other stories I write in the future. I look forward to hearing from you all again!

Next, a few comments for reviewers:

aims80- Well, I think I answered your question with this chapter. The story ends here.

Railee- You scared me at first with that “yelling”! I thought you were really mad at me for some reason. lol. I’m sorry to keep you waiting!

I hope you liked the ending and I’m sorry you didn’t like the ending of “Jocelyn Peters”. I rather liked that ending myself. Of course, I don’t like to kill off characters, but I felt it was necessary in Red’s case. He’ll still always be one of my favorite characters. I don’t think I described him as wonderfully on paper as I did in my head. In my head, he was perfect. I liked how I made him out to be a dreamer and a loner. I’ve also always liked redheads, and for some reason I absolutely love the name Red. Of course, it would never really work for one of my future children though unless they just happen to have red hair. O well.

Of course you have my permission to send me an e-mail! I’d love to hear from you!

Till then, so long!

-S. Renee