His Surprise Bride (Mail Order Matrimony Book 1)

by Sarah Banks

  “Just had a bath,” he explained, thumbing over his shoulder.

  “In a creek?” She asked with a wrinkle of her nose. Jane had had plenty of cold baths over the years but never in a creek. That would take some getting used to.

  Gabriel chuckled. “No, not today. The creek when it’s hot out but the hot springs when it’s cooler.”

  “You have hot springs?”

  He nodded. “Not far.”

  “That sounds lovely.”

  “You don’t have anything like that in Tumbury?”

  Jane shook her head.

  “Maybe Thea can take you there tomorrow night.”

  “I’d like that. Thank you. Goodnight Gabriel,” she said and waited for him to drop his hands from her shoulders before she turned to walk back to the house. Her leg was so stiff and painful that she stumbled yet again, and he caught her yet again. Her cheeks burned with embarrassment. “I’m sorry,” she said, with mortifying tears stinging her eyes. Thank goodness it was dark enough that she didn’t think he’d be able to see them. But just in case she kept her head averted. “I am clumsy it’s true, but not usually this bad.”

  “It was a long walk earlier. I’m sorry that they didn’t bring a wagon or a horse.”

  “I can’t ride anyway. And I was already sore from sitting in the cramped stagecoach for so long. I thought walking would be a welcome relief. Seems like I overdid it a bit. I think I got it now,” she said, and he took the hint, dropping his hands from her shoulders again.

  “Goodnight,” she said again.

  “Wait,” he said.

  She turned and looked at him expectantly.

  “Wait here.” He jogged past her to the barn. Less than a minute later he came out on horseback. He was riding without a saddle and rode magnificently, stopping inches away from her. He held out his hand and she took a step back.

  “What are you doing?” She asked warily.

  “I’ll take you tonight.”

  “To town?” She asked dumbly and he laughed.

  “No, the hot springs. It’s only a five-minute ride. You can clean up and soak your leg,” he offered enticingly and before she knew it she had taken his hand. He pulled her up easily, settling her on the horse in front of him, and they began galloping into the dark woods.

  Chapter Five

  Although they entered the thickly wooded area at night Gabriel’s horse seemed to know exactly where they were headed. And in the dim light Jane noticed a well-worn path leading from the cabin clearing that even she could probably follow and not get lost. The terrain was a bit tricky though. First they headed up and then down and before she knew it Gabriel had pulled the horse to a stop and jumped down.

  The ride hadn’t pained her leg any more like she thought it would. How wonderful it would be to own a horse herself and travel for miles and miles without any pain. Up until a few weeks ago she had never even left Tumbury.

  “There’s a lantern around here somewhere,” Gabriel said disappearing for a few moments. Then she heard some scratching and a soft glow of light appeared.

  She struggled to get off the horse to explore the area.

  “Wait a second or you’ll hurt yourself and Bandit.” He came back to her and held up his arms. Jane hesitated for just a moment before setting her hands on his shoulders and he in turn put his on her hips and carefully lifted her down to the ground. She knew she blushed and was thankful for the shadows.

  Jane reached back and ran her hand down Bandit’s neck silently thanking him for the ride. The horse didn’t appear to notice as he snuffled the ground, moved a few feet away and began to graze.

  She turned back to Gabriel. “Bandit? What kind of name is that for a horse?”

  “It’s got a bit of history to it. I’ll tell you some other time. Come on, it’s getting late.”

  She was surprised when he took her hand but realized the ground was still a little uneven and he was probably afraid she’d fall. They left the horse behind, rounded a slope and there it was, a steaming pool of water lined with rocks.

  “Amazing,” she whispered.

  “Careful, it’s slippery.”

  The warning came a trifle too late. Jane’s foot slipped and she went headlong toward the pool of water. It happened so fast she couldn’t even produce the scream that had gathered at the back of her throat. Gabriel caught her before she hit the water and pushed her to the ground but he couldn’t stop his own momentum. She slipped safe and dry to the ground next to the pool but Gabriel fell in it, splashing hot water in every direction.

  Jane clapped her hand over her mouth as Gabriel quickly reemerged from the water, as fast as he had gone in, and found his feet. Standing, the water only came to his mid-thighs. There wasn’t a dry spot on him, he had gone completely under. His hair hung dripping over his eyes. He was in sore need of a haircut she realized. He looked like a picture of a sheepdog that hung in the Tumbury’s study. Then Gabriel shook his head, just like a wet dog would do and Jane couldn’t stop the peel of laughter that escaped her hand.

  “I’m so sorry,” she gasped but still couldn’t stop laughing.

  “You will be,” Gabriel said reaching for her. She tried to scramble out of the way but wasn’t fast enough. He hooked an arm around her waist and she screeched as he pulled her into the water. Then she sighed in pleasure. The water was warmer than she expected. It was lovely. She could already feel the heat seeping into her leg, easing the tight muscles and dulling the pain.

  She ought to feel uncomfortable sitting in what was essentially a tub of water with her clothes on while a man stood next to her, but she didn’t. For some reason she had felt comfortable around him the moment he had stepped from the cellar earlier that day. She couldn’t say precisely why. It just was.

  Gabriel lifted each leg, inspecting his boots with a sigh. “You ruined a perfectly good pair of boots.”

  “I’m so sorry,” she repeated sincerely, trying her darndest to keep a straight face although a giggle slipped out at the end ruining her efforts. Although it sort of sounded like a hiccup so maybe he hadn’t noticed.

  He glared at her. Water stirred around her as he stepped out of the hot springs onto the bank. “I thought I told you money was tight. Now I have to shell out coin for a stagecoach ticket and a new pair of boots.”

  “I truly am sorry. Thank you for saving me. That was very heroic.” She gave him a solemn look.

  He snorted.

  “I’ll make it up to you somehow.”

  “I don’t see how. There’s a bar of soap on the ledge somewhere. I’ll be back in five minutes.”

  “Five minutes! That’s not enough time for a proper bath let alone to soak my leg.” She leaned back, sinking deeper and resting her head on the stone ledge. Her nightgown and robe were billowing around her in the water and her worn, old boots were soaked and probably beyond salvaging but she didn’t care. “This feels divine. How about an hour?”

  Gabriel turned away from her. “It’s already late and I am a day behind in my work,” he said accusingly and she knew that he blamed her for being locked in the cellar half the day even if she hadn’t actually done the deed herself. They settled on fifteen minutes.

  “Can you bring me my bag? I’m afraid this is my only nightgown but I’ll figure something out.”

  “You can borrow one of Thea’s, she must be around your size.”

  Jane rolled her eyes. “Thea’s a twelve-year-old girl. We are not the same size.”

  “Well all I know is that you’re both small, but I’ll find something. Fifteen minutes,” he reminded her as he left.

  She waited until she couldn’t hear anything before searching for the soap. It was strange to bathe outside. She couldn’t imagine doing it in the light of day. She washed her hair first and then her body. Her nightgown and robe got in the way some, but she managed. There was no way she was taking them off without complete privacy.

  Gabriel ended up giving her a full thirty minutes to wash and soak and Jane was pr
actically dozing by the time he returned.

  “You didn’t drown, did you?” He called from around the bend.

  “No, would you feel bad if I did?” She called back with a smile on her face he couldn’t see but could probably hear in her voice.

  “Thea would be upset.”

  Jane shook her head and laughed.

  “Cover yourself, I’m coming ‘round.”

  Jane wasn’t sure how she was supposed to manage that, but she did sit up and hunch over slightly. Her nightgown was voluminous but it was white and worn and most likely see through in the water, but the robe added another layer. She wondered if he had been able to see anything earlier? She felt her face turn hot with embarrassment at the thought. If he had, he had been gentlemanly enough not to gawk or perhaps he was too angry about his waterlogged boots to notice. She hoped the latter.

  Gabriel appeared around the bend, his back to her. He tossed a bundle in her direction but well clear of the water’s edge. She could just reach it, a towel wrapped around a man’s shirt and her hairbrush.

  “What’s this?” She asked, holding up the oversized shirt.

  “You mean the shirt?” He asked. He still didn’t look in her direction, keeping his back to her. “It’s the best I could find for a nightgown. You’re right, Thea’s were too small.”

  She smiled.

  “Need help getting out?”

  “No thank you.” Her leg had loosened up quite a bit. If only she could soak like this every night. Hot baths had been rare in Tumbury, especially after her grandmother had died. She crawled up onto the bank her white nightgown and robe plastered to her. “Don’t look.”

  “I promise.” And Jane believed him.

  She started to peel the wet fabric away so she could towel dry before slipping on his shirt. She jumped with surprise when he said, “You never answered my question earlier.”

  “What question?” She asked curiously.

  “If you had anyone to go back to in Tumbury.”

  She froze for a moment. “Oh. No,” she answered, continuing to dry herself before pulling on the shirt and working on the buttons. It went down to her knees. Thank goodness it was dark out. She would be sure to douse the lantern before Gabriel turned around. “My grandmother died last year. But don’t worry, I’m going back. I have a plan.”

  “Why would I feel bad? You seem to keep forgetting that it wasn’t me who brought you here with false promises in the first place even though it was my name signed to the bottom of the letter.”

  “I don’t blame you Gabriel, I was just trying to reassure you that I’m not your responsibility,” she said softly reaching for the hairbrush.

  “So what’s your plan?”

  “To put it simply,” she said, “beg for my job back. I was a maid in the Tumbury household.”

  “Wait, I thought you said the town you lived in was named Tumbury.”

  “It is. Named after the Tumbury’s who live in the big house on the hill overlooking the town they founded. Not many people live in Tumbury other than the people that work there. The town really is only a stopping place for those passing through. There’s an inn, restaurant, bar, store and stable. Mr. Tumbury, his son now, owns them all.”

  “And you work up at the house?”

  “Yes, I grew up there.”

  “But you’re not a Tumbury?”

  She laughed and held out her red, callused palms, before realizing his back was still to her. “No, I’m not a Tumbury. My mother was a maid, my grandmother the housekeeper.”

  “So not just a big house on the hill but a mansion?”

  She shrugged. “Forty-three rooms.”

  He whistled.

  “And your mother?”

  “Died in childbirth with my baby brother.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “I was only four. Sometimes I think I can remember what she looks like and even sounds like but then I wonder if maybe I’ve made it up altogether. I don’t have any pictures of her, or my grandmother for that matter.”

  “And your father?”

  Her hand paused brushing her hair. “You sure are asking a lot of questions. I don’t mind but I hope you know that I expect you to reciprocate.” She set the brush aside and began to braid her hair. “My father was a stablehand. My parents weren’t married. Relationships between servants were forbidden but since servants were hard to come by in the middle of nowhere Mr. Tumbury, the elder, kept his housekeeper and maid and dismissed my father. Obviously I don’t remember him. My grandmother pursed her lips whenever I asked about him so I gathered she wasn’t altogether too fond of him or that it was a love match.”

  Jane had just finished braiding her hair and was about to tell him she was ready to go when he asked the one question that everybody always wanted to know the answer to.

  “What happened to your leg?”

  Jane wasn’t sure how much of that story she wanted to tell. It was a painful one but the past couldn’t be changed and she dealt with it the best she could. She tried as hard as she could not to let her damaged leg define her.

  “I was almost seven years old and playing where I ought not to have been. Since the Tumbury’s estate was so isolated from the larger towns they only had one big party a year and I remembered being so excited to see the grand ladies in their ballgowns floating around the dancefloor. I had been caught on the stairs many times over the years and always reprimanded for it. I was to stay below the stairs if my grandmother was to continue to be their housekeeper.” She gave a hollow laugh. “But I never learned my lesson for long. I just wanted to peek. I got in the way of the elder Mr. Tumbury and a woman who was not his wife. He was impatient as always, not to mention drunk, and he pushed me aside but I couldn’t catch myself and I fell down the stairs.”

  “Good God he ought to be shot!”

  Jane shrugged. “He’s long gone now. He wasn’t a particularly nice fellow, but I don’t believe that he intended to push me down the stairs. He was just angry at my being caught on the stairs for the umpteenth time and embarrassed that the lady he was with thought I was his illegitimate daughter because we shared the same coloring. It all happened so fast.”

  “So you remember all of it? I was hoping maybe you were young enough that you wouldn’t.”

  “Oh yes, I remember. The screams, mine, and the tears, my grandmother’s.” Although the pain of the fall and its immediate aftermath had blurred over time. “Do you want to know what I remember most?”

  Jane stepped around him, dressed in his shirt, her hair in one thick braid over her shoulder, hanging more than halfway down to her waist. She held her sodden nightgown and robe wrapped in the towel in front of her.

  His eyes met hers. “What?”

  “Being confined to bed for weeks. That was the worst part of it. Not the pain of it happening, or even the pain accompanying the limp after, it was not being allowed to leave my bed for what seemed like forever.”

  Gabriel reached forward and gathered a damp lock of hair that had managed to escape being braided and swept it behind her ear. “I’m sorry.”

  She gave him a smile. “There was some good that came out of it. When the doctor found out he was being called to tend to a child of a servant and not a member of the Tumbury household he took his sweet time getting there, and when he finally did arrive he too reeked of alcohol. He probably didn’t do the best job of setting my leg and I’ll never know if I had better care whether I would have such a pronounced limp or not, but I suppose that’s water best left under the bridge.”

  “That’s the good part?” Gabriel asked in horror.

  “Oh no, I haven’t gotten to that part yet. The good part was that the elder Mr. Tumbury felt so guilty about what had happened that he pensioned off my grandmother. He gave her use of a small cottage on a far corner of his property for the rest of her life and settled a small amount of money on her as well, not much, but plenty enough to live on and we lived a good life for many years in that little cabin until she
began to fall ill about two years ago. She didn’t have to work for someone else for the first time in her entire life. Instead she gardened, preserved, baked, sewed, read and played cards. My grandmother was happy. I can never be sorry for that and it would never have happened if I hadn’t been in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

  Gabriel didn’t ask any more questions. He doused the lantern and helped her onto Bandit’s back before swinging up behind her. She tucked his shirt around her as best as she could and leaned back against him looking up at the stars. For some reason it seemed like there were more stars here than she had ever seen in Tumbury.

  Back at the house he slipped her down from the horse. She looked up at him. “Thank you for taking me to the hot springs.”

  Gabriel nodded and turned his horse to the barn.

  “Goodnight,” she called after him.

  He lifted a hand but didn’t turn around. Jane went inside the house. Brandon was snoring something fierce and a laugh bubbled up in her throat. She went into Gabriel’s room quietly closing the door and thankfully muffling the sound of the snoring. She hung the wet towel, nightgown and robe, returned her brush to the washstand and searched through her bag for the liniment. Her leg already felt so much better. She never would have thought soaking in a hot spring could ease the tight muscles and erase the pain caused by days of travel and miles of walking so quickly and completely. She rubbed the liniment in for good measure and fell asleep the moment her head hit the pillow, no book necessary.

  Chapter Six

  Jane awoke early the next morning as she always did. And even though the sun was barely peaking past the horizon, it seemed like she was the last one up. She could hear the sounds of voices from the next room and smelled something cooking. She wrinkled her nose and quickly dressed, fixed her hair and brushed her teeth before venturing into the main room.

  “Good morning,” she greeted the trio.

  She got a grunt from Brandon and a good morning from Thea. Gabriel asked from the kitchen, “Are you hungry?”