Chapter 14

Time flew occasionally and crawled occasionally, but summer had faded into fall. Melody looked around, realizing that she had done it. She had helped Tallis open his Historical Ranching experience and guests were loving it. They had full bookings for every week except the week before Christmas, the week of Christmas, and the one after Christmas. They would have been full then, but they’d let everyone know that because of a wedding the ranch was closed over the holiday this year.

Here it was, the first week of October. Diablo was fully trained. Cynthia was working full-time as a trainer and both of them were busy. Between work for the ranch, demonstrations for the guests, and outside clients that wanted the two young women to train their stock, they would not go hungry any time soon.

But today, despite all that, Melody was terrified. Because today she was about to get in a truck, drive to an airport, and fly in one of those airplanes to New York City. All because Tallis’ mother insisted that she and her bridal party fly there to try on dresses for the wedding. She once again thought how much simpler it was in the time she came from. You got dressed in your best clothes and went to the church and left as husband and wife. Now she had to be enclosed inside another machine while it traveled through the air.

Melody sighed as she saw the five women walking toward her. She had her future mother-in-law, Sara her maid of honor, Sheriff Kinkade who had become a friend and a bridesmaid, Cynthia her first ‘girl’ and bridesmaid, and Hannah, her groom’s cousin and also a bridesmaid. Melody sighed as she guessed there was no getting out of it now. She was flying to New York.

The women took her and put her in a truck and drove to the airport. Thankfully, she was flying in the Ryder’s private plane and was told that was much preferable to flying commercially. She just couldn’t get over flying at all.

But just like her first car ride with the Ryder women, they kept her entertained and soon they were in the air. As all her friends slept, she looked up to see Mrs. Ryder motion to her and whisper. “Melody, come back here and talk to me, I have something important to talk to you about.”

She wondered what it was this time. For the past few months, it had been one wedding detail after another. She was sure there was something else the woman wanted clarified. She slowly unbuckled the belt around her waist and carefully carried herself back to the settee-like bench her future husband’s mother was sitting on. “I’m glad they are all asleep, that gives me a chance to talk to you about your wedding night.”

Melody’s eyes went large. Now this was mortifying. This was definitely not something she wanted to discuss with Tallis’ mother. But the older woman laughed. “No dear, not that, though we should probably have a discussion about that before your wedding, but it can wait for now.”

“Mrs. Ryder, I’m a horse breeder and I know about what happens between a man and a woman. Well, enough about what happens.”

“Again, that’s not the conversation we need to have right now. Your statement however makes me know that there is a lot we need to talk about what you know happens. Because if you think what a horse experiences is the same as what you’ll experience, I’m shocked. Because there is so much more. But again, another time for that conversation. No, this one is about children.”

“I’m sorry?”

“In keeping with the agreement we made with Tallis. Let’s say that I know you come from a sheltered environment and may not know that there are ways to prevent becoming pregnant until you desire to be so. I just thought with everything you’ve been through and with a new ranch to run, you and Tallis may wish to delay having children right away.”

“Oh, I hadn’t thought of that. We want children, I know, but if we could wait a little bit, that might be nice too. Of course, we could just leave it up to God as people have done since the beginning of time.”

“You could dear, or you could go see a friend of mine when we get back to the ranch who is a doctor, and she could give you some pills that would decrease the chance of getting pregnant on your wedding night.”

“Really, I could just take a pill for that?”

“Well, take them every day all the time. It takes a month for the medicine to work, dear. If you saw her when we got back, you’d be safer on your wedding night if you kept taking them. Then when you and Tallis decided you want children, you just stop taking them.”

“Oh, that might be a good idea. Thank you.”

“I’ll set up the appointment for you and go with you if you want.”

“Yes, let’s do that for now. If Tallis doesn’t agree, I can always not go or not take the pills.”

“Yes, that is true. But I think he will see the wisdom in waiting at least until everything else is cleared up.”