*******
Tobias stepped out into the hall and punched the far wall, before he realized his younger brother was standing there, barely registering the crunch of his knuckles. “That was harsh.”
“I wanted to make sure she didn’t get the notion to visit anymore saloons.”
“Not what I meant, and you know it. Don’t you think threatening her like that was a little barbaric?” Cade asked, propping himself against the wall to block his brother from getting to the front of the house.
“She asked me for an annulment,” he snarled, pushing past his brother, nearly knocking him to the floor.
“You’ve not really given her a reason to want to stay. She came out here with high hopes, believing she was marrying someone, who at least wanted a wife, even if she knew there was no guarantee he would ever love her. She didn’t even get that.”
“You know I didn’t send for her. Thaddeus did.”
“Then why did you marry her?”
“You know the answer to that, as well,” he snarled once again, finally walking off, leaving his brother standing there.
“You are ruining the best chance you’ve ever had at happiness,” Cade said, following behind him. “I warned you at the time, I thought marrying Rachel was a bad idea. You didn’t listen then, and you are apparently not listening now.”
“Don’t talk to me about Rachel,” he snarled.
Cade shook his head in frustration. “Don’t let Rachel’s memory ruin this marriage for you. It’s not like you were even in love with her, but I think if you would just let yourself be, you could be with Sadie.”
“Shut your mouth,” he snarled, giving his brother a look that would deter almost anyone else.
*******
Tobias stormed out of the house slamming the back door on his way, finally having lost his brother in the kitchen when he got distracted by the rest of the apple pie on the counter. By the time he had reached the barn, he was seething. He couldn’t believe it. Once again, he found himself married to a woman who didn’t want him, and this time was far more painful than before. Cade had no idea how right he was.
When he’d married Rachel, he hadn’t married for love. He’d felt like he needed a wife. He had thought they needed a woman around the house for the same reasons Thaddeus had sent for Sadie. After Rachel’s death, he had decided he would never marry again. He could manage with his brothers on his own. That had been four years ago, when Wally, the youngest of them, was only eight and Thaddeus was twelve. He hadn’t been dealing with babies, and Thaddeus was big enough to keep Wally out of trouble while the rest of them were working on the ranch.
While he hadn’t been in love with Sadie when he married her, things were changing, very quickly. That had been one of the reasons he had been nearly in a panic, wanting to get her back on that stagecoach. He had known the moment he laid eyes on her, when she decided she was through with him, it would nearly kill him. Right now, he wasn’t sure it wasn’t going to kill him, out right. There was no way he would survive watching someone else walk off with his beautiful Sadie.
He had been sulking around the barn long enough, he had started to calm down a little bit. Enough so, he could now hear the little voice at the back of his head trying to remind him, she had asked him for children first. It hadn’t been until he had out right refused to give her any, that she had asked for an annulment. That didn’t mean she was in love with him. Maybe if he agreed to give her children, she would stop fusing at him about an annulment.
He yanked the bedroll he had been using for the past three weeks down off the nail it was hanging from and walked over to the same empty stall he had been using to sleep in since she had arrived. He tossed it down over the fresh hay he had made sure to toss in there earlier, and plopped down. He’d have to remember to wash it again tomorrow. He hadn’t left the doing of it for Sadie. He didn’t want to have to explain why it needed to be washed in the first place. He wasn’t ready yet to tell her he had been sleeping in the barn for the last three weeks.
He wasn’t sure what had made him want to lead her to believe he had been bedding down with whores from the saloon. Maybe he had just wanted to see how she would react. She could ask any of his brothers, and they could tell her, he never touched the whores. It just wasn’t something he was comfortable with. It went against everything he was raised to believe. Something he had continued to drill into his brother’s heads after their father’s death. Sex was supposed to be between a married couple.
If sex was supposed to be between a married couple, why wasn’t he in there with Sadie, right now? Instead he was out her in the barn, tossing and turning, barely getting any sleep for the last three weeks. His brothers had made sure they were married. He just hadn’t been able to bring himself to take advantage of that fact.
Honestly, he was just plain afraid, if he touched her the way he wanted, she would run from him like Rachel had, for sure.
Chapter 4
Saturday, April 10
Tobias stood from his chair, turning to leave. When Sadie rose to follow him, he shook his head, not bothering to make eye contact.
“Tobias, I would really like to talk to you,” she said, following him, despite what he had tried to tell her with the gesture.
He shook his head again. “Not tonight,” he mumbled, continuing through the door to the front room.
“If not tonight, then when?” she asked, just a step behind him.
Rather than answer, he opened the front door and continued outside, never looking back at her. She dipped her head, returning to the kitchen.
Cade gave her a concerned look. “Are you alright?”
She shrugged her shoulders, taking her seat. “I don’t know,” she whispered in answer. “I can’t figure out what I’ve done wrong. Everything started out so well. I thought he at least liked me the day I met him. Now, I can’t even get him to look at me, much less talk to me.”
Cade shook his head. “It’s nothing you have done.”
She gave him a confused look. “How can you say that? He has barely spoken to me since our wedding day, and the times he has, it’s been because I spoke to him first and wouldn’t let him get away without doing so. And after that kiss…” she trailed off, turning a pretty shade of pink.
“He has things he has to work out, that have nothing to do with you.”
“What kind of things?” she asked, biting her bottom lip.
Cade sighed. “Things I really shouldn’t be the one to tell you about?”
She sighed, barely holding back the tears. “I would ask him, but he doesn’t even stay around long enough for me to try.”
Ezekiel, unable to take her sad look any longer, replied, “He made a serious commitment to a woman once. Things didn’t end well.”
She cocked her head to the side, giving him a pinched look, just feeling confused. “What do you mean, a serious commitment?”
“I really can’t tell you anymore. You’ll have to ask him,” he said, giving her a sympathetic look.
When he saw a tear slide down her pale cheek, he felt a strong urge to strangle his oldest brother. The man was throwing away what could possibly turn out to be the best thing in his life, if he would just give her a chance. He glanced over at Cade, begging for help with his eyes.
Cade sighed, and dropped his fork back to his plate, sitting forward in his chair, so he could prop his elbows on the table. “I don’t know if any of us have told you, but when our father and little sister died, some of the ladies in town asked him if he wanted them to take Josiah, Thaddeus and Wallace to raise for him.”
She glanced up, giving him a surprised look. “Why would they have done that?”
Cade shrugged. “He was only twenty, and had just inherited the largest part of the responsibility of running a very large beef cattle ranch. Of course, there were those that wanted to take the ranch over from us, as well.”
She shook her head. “That doesn’t really explain why they tried to take your little b
rothers.”
“Sure, it does,” Cade smiled at her. “They didn’t feel like he could handle all of it on his own. They told him he wasn’t much more than a child himself. Of course, if he had been a woman, they would have expected her to raise them.”
She nodded, finally understanding what he was trying to say. “How old were they youngest three?” she asked, looking across the table at Josiah, trying to imagine him as a child. As large as the man was, that was very hard to do.
“Well, our father and little sister, Jolie, were killed in a carriage accident a little over eight years ago. It was in late January, and there was snow and ice on the ground,” he said, thinking out loud. “Joe would have been twelve, Thad eight, and Wally was four.”
“And they didn’t think he could raise them? He had you other three for help. He didn’t have to do it on his own.”
“You are right,” Cade nodded. “He didn’t, and we have all worked together, including Joe, Thad and Wally, to make this ranch work, and to stay together. Unfortunately, Thad and Wally have had to grow up faster than most children, losing their parents so early in life. Josiah, as well, but I don’t think it affected him quite as much.”
She smiled across the table at the youngest two. “Well, I would say you have done a wonderful job working together,” she said. “How did Tobias react to that? Besides the obvious. The obvious being, he kept you together.”
“Well, he was not happy,” Ezekiel laughed.
“That is quite the understatement,” Cade said, looking very serious. “He called them all a bunch of interfering, busybodies, and told them to mind their own business.”
She laughed softly. “Yes, I guess I can see him saying something like that.”
Cade laughed with her. “Yeah, he told them he was going to keep our family together, and he did not appreciate their efforts to split us up.”
“Yes,” she nodded, tears starting to slide down her cheeks again. “That is one of the reasons I have already fallen in love with him. How much love he obviously has for all of you. Knowing he is capable of so much love and commitment, makes me wonder what it is that is so wrong with me.”
Cade sighed, realizing he had failed to distract her from her earlier thoughts. The other thing, as well, she had confirmed his suspicions with her confession of how she felt. She was already in love with his idiot brother, and the man didn’t realize just how blessed he was. “Sadie, there is nothing wrong with you.”
“Then why doesn’t he want me?” she asked, bursting into tears.
Cade took a deep breath, wondering how much trouble he would get in, if he just beat the day lights out of his older brother. Considering, the only person he really would have to answer to was Tobias, made the thought all the more tempting. The only thing really stopping him, was the fear it would just upset Sadie that much more.
Cade sighed, and leaned back in his chair. “I think he does want you,” he said with an attempt at a reassuring smile. He figured his wanting her was the reason he took off after dinner each night. If he stayed around, where she was close, he knew he would end up giving into his desire to have her.
She gave him a hurt look, that said she thought he was cruel. “Why would you say something like that? Are you trying to make it more painful?”
He shook his head, trying to find the right words. “It all goes back to that serious commitment Ezekiel was talking about. He wants you, but he is afraid to admit it. Until he deals with those fears, he is going to keep running.”
She turned her hands palms up and shrugged. “What do I do?”
“Unfortunately, right now, all you can do is wait.”
She sighed, nearly being moved to tears again. “I guess I’ll have to do as you suggest, for now.”
“I wish our mother could have lived to be here with us,” Ezekiel added. “She could give you better advice.”
She dried her eyes and tried to smile. “What happened to your mother.”
Cade got a sad look in his eyes and whispered, “She died in childbirth when our sister, Jolie, was born.”
She threw up her hands in frustration. “Until tonight, I didn’t even know you had a little sister that had died.”
“That was something else that was very hard on Tobias. Losing Jolie,” Cade grimaced. “That’s why the painting of her was taken down. So, he didn’t have to look at it every day. There’s a couple of photographs, but they have been stuffed in a drawer somewhere.”
“Was he that close to your sister?” she asked, just wanting to understand the man she had married as much as she could.
“Well, it’s a little more complicated than to say they were close. See, for a while, after Mom died, he had to take care of all of us, and run the ranch. Dad pretty much walked around in a kind of shock. It took him a while to get over our mother’s death enough to take things back over. Jolie was about six-months-old when Dad finally asked Tobias what her whole name was, and who had named her.”
“Tobias named your little sister, didn’t he?” she asked, feeling shocked.
“Yes,” Cade nodded. “He named her Sarah Jolene, after our mother. We called her Jolie from birth.”
“He took care of your sister for those six months, didn’t he?” she asked with a sigh. She had known he had a lot of love for his family. This had only confirmed that.
“Yes, he did,” Cade nodded. “I think in a lot of ways, the things he has been through, has made him rather serious. And very wary.”
She nodded her head, just trying to absorb everything they had said.
“There is another part to the story of my sister’s birth.”
She sat for a few seconds, just staring at the table, wondering what more there could be, before asking, almost afraid to do so. “What is that?”
“Those ladies that tried to take Joe, Thad and Wally, tried to get him to give them Jolie when she was first born. They told him she needed a mother to raise her, not a bunch of rough, ranchers.”
“Offering help is one thing. Trying to take a child from their family is an entirely different one.”
“They came back several times, trying to get him to change his mind. They used our father having so much trouble getting over Mom’s death as a reason for him to give her up, as well.”
She laughed. “I guess that didn’t go over very well, either, did it?”
He gave her a big grin, shaking his head. “No, he called them a bunch of busybodies that time, too.”
She sighed, drying her eyes once more. “I guess he has had a lot to deal with, in the last eight years.”
Cade nodded his head, “Yes, so just give him time. He’ll come around, even if he doesn’t think so, right now.”
She slowly nodded her head, getting up from her chair, to start clearing the table.
“Go on, and go relax, Sadie,” Thad said, taking the stack of dishes from her hands. “We will do the dishes for you.”
She gave him a smile, tears in her eyes, and mumbled, “Thank you,” before turning to leave the room.
Cade waited till she was out of earshot before turning back to the others. “I think the luck of the Irish must have passed us all by.”
Josiah nodded his head sadly. “It sure feels like it did.”
Chapter 5
Thursday, April 22
Tobias stepped through the swinging doors, eyeing the room full of people, and wondered for what was likely the hundredth time, why he came here every night. He would sit in the corner, all alone, a bottle of whiskey in one hand, an empty glass in the other. He never drank the whiskey. He just sat there holding it, so the bartender wouldn’t have him kicked out. The other patrons were so accustomed to his behavior at this point, they would leave the table in the back-corner empty for him, and then come by and refill their own glass with the whiskey in his bottle, every once in a while. Usually, by midnight, he would be out of whiskey, and ready to go home to his sleepless night in the barn.
He shook himself and made his way to the bar t
o make his purchase, before going to take his customary seat in the far corner. He raised his hand at the bartender without saying a word. The older man nodded his head, wiped a glass with his apron, and walked over to sit it down in front of him. He gave him, what could only be termed a confused look, and asked, “Tobias Townsend, why are you in here every night?”
He gave him a dirty look, grumbling, “Where’s my whiskey?”
The old man shook his wrinkled jaws, his full, gray curls bouncing on his head. “You have a beautiful, young wife at home,” he chastised, a curious pain shining in his own eyes. “Why would you want to be here, sitting in the corner, suppling the town troublemakers with a couple of shots a piece. I know I wouldn’t be here if I had something better to go home to.”
He looked up, giving him a dirty look. “Mind your own business, Henry.”
“That beautiful, young lady is going to get tired of you running off to town every night. You’ll be lucky if she doesn’t leave you soon,” the older man said with a shake of his head. “Mark my words. I’ve been there, and lived to regret it. You will too, if you’re not careful.”
Tobias growled, leaning over the bar. “Once again, mind your own business, Henry. Where’s my whiskey?”
He slammed the bottle down on the scarred-up wood of the bar, and gave him a forced smile. “Here you go, Mr. Townsend. I sure do appreciate your business. You come again, now.”
“Can it, Henry,” he grumbled, getting up from his barstool to turn and walk away, taking his bottle of whiskey and empty glass with him.
He probably hadn’t been sitting at his table five minutes, when the first of the bar patrons came by to get a free shot from his bottle. “Hey, if it isn’t Tobias Townsend. The only man in town afraid of a little, tiny woman. So much so, that he runs off every night to sit in a bar all by himself.”
When the man reached out to grab the bottle in Tobias’ hand, he clamped down on it, not letting go. “Oh, come on now. What are you going to do with it? You sure aren’t going to drink it.”
His Unexpected Mail-Order Bride (Historical Sapphire Springs Book 1) Page 5