She Proposed Marriage to Silent Rancher to Stop Her Aunt—He Said Yes Before She Finished Asking

Chapter 4

One evening, Clara discovered a locked drawer in Elias’s study.

She had been searching for a receipt.

Instead, she found the key.

She hesitated.

Then opened it.

Inside were letters.

Dozens of them.

All hers.

Letters she had written years earlier.

Notes about harvests.

Questions about books.

A silly message about a horse she had fallen from.

Even a pressed wildflower she had forgotten giving him.

Clara picked up one letter.

It was dated three years earlier.

She remembered writing it.

Elias,

I know you dislike dances, but if you change your mind, I will save you a place beside me.

Beneath it was Elias’s reply.

I wanted to come.

I was afraid you would see how much I cared.

Clara sat down.

She read another.

Then another.

He had kept every letter.

When Elias returned, he found her waiting.

“You kept them.”

He stopped.

“Yes.”

“All of them?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

He looked at her.

“Because they were from you.”

Her eyes filled.

“You loved me?”

Elias was silent.

Then he nodded.

“I never stopped.”