A quick look at her watch pin warned Annie that she was late for service. Pinning on her straw hat with its pretty pink-silk ribbons, she tilted the brim at a rakish angle and lowered the veil. The thin netting didn’t hide the brightness of her eyes or the warm flush coloring her cheeks. Now, if Kell kept his promise to slip away the moment service was over, she would have nothing more to worry about.
Today was so special. Since the town’s population had grown, Kell—with a little prompting from her, Annie admitted—generously offered to close down the saloon on Sunday and hold the church service there. It would be the last time. Their new minister arrived this week and would christen the church next Sunday.
Rushing down the stairs, Annie wanted everything to be perfect today. Unlike her somewhat public proposal of marriage, she wanted privacy to share her wonderful news with Kell.
Exchanging greetings with other late arrivals, Annie felt as if her heart would overflow. She had her dream of seeing Loving with its church and from Kell, more love than she had ever wished for. She stood for a moment at the open doors, seeing a very somberly dressed Pockets take his seat at the piano to begin accompaniment for the first hymn. Annie smiled at her aunt, who sat next to him, ready to turn the pages.
Her winter cold had made one more change. A most temporary one, Kell insisted, the first time Annie had asked. But the starch in her shirtwaist nearly melted when Kell took his place opposite the long bar, and the congregation settled to silence. Annie waited until he saw her, then she took a seat near the door.
She noticed that Kell was as nervous today as he had been the first time. Clearing his throat, he ran one finger around his starched collar. He had not told her what he was going to talk about today, but once their opening song was done and Kell began to speak, Annie closed her eyes.
The wages of sin. Kell’s voice carried well as he directed those in attendance to reform their ways and not lie, cheat, or steal. There wasn’t a cough, or a restless stirring, but Annie knew there were many who hoped that her husband would one day give up his saloon and his wicked ways.
Well, just a few of those wicked ways, she amended, and asked the Lord’s forgiveness for clarifying the request. She never wanted to give up the pleasure she found in Kell’s arms. She was a little misty-eyed when she looked at her husband again. Hell-raiser and heaven-sent man that he was to her.
He didn’t preach against drinking or gambling. But then, Annie knew he moderated the first and had never been reckless about the second.
As the closing hymn began, she slipped out the doors and went around back of the saloon to wait for Kell. Within minutes, he had his arms around her.
“Kiss me good morning, wife.”
Turning in his arms, Annie warned herself that one kiss would lead to others and she wouldn’t get him away. But Kell lowered his head, and she touched her mouth to his.
“Are we so long married, you think that’s a kiss?”
“Come with me, Kell. I’ll give you lots more.” She caught hold of his hand.
“Promise?”
For an answer Annie laughed, and started running behind the buildings, with Kell alongside her.
When they rounded the back of the boardinghouse, Annie stopped. Li stood hugging Fawn near the cottonwood tree. She no more wanted to intrude on them than she wanted them to see her and Kell. But Li spoke, and his words held Annie still.
“Say it again, love. You do not know how I have longed to hear those words from you.”
Kell, standing so close behind Annie, wrapped his arms around her waist and tried to pull her away. He had not kept many secrets from Annie since they had been married, but this was one that wasn’t his to share. Li had confided to him the frustrated attempts Fawn made to speak, often ending in tears that Li had been helpless to stop.
Annie resisted Kell’s gentle tugs. She hadn’t kept too many secrets from him since they had been married. If Fawn had not come to her, wanting so much, Annie would have gone and left them alone. But Fawn had come to her…
Leaning down, Kell whispered, “This is their time, not one for sharing with us.”
Eyes glittering with tears, Annie offered him a trembling smile and let Kell draw her along the back wall of the house.
And on the warm spring air, Fawn’s words came to them.
“Fa-wn I-love Li.”
“And Li adores—”
Kell silenced Annie’s sobbed cry of joy with a kiss, backing away until he was sure they wouldn’t be overheard. He held her close, rocking her, understanding how precious those words of love were for Li to hear. Not only for the healing they would bring to his friend, and to Fawn, but for the reminder that he had heard, and would hear, those special words of love every day from his wife.
“Love did that, Kell,” Annie whispered, drawing back a little to look up at him. “Will you come with me?” It was so hard to contain her excitement, which was bubbling and simmering with the need to be free. Knowing that Fawn was loved had been enough, but now Annie understood what a truly precious gift it was to express that love.
Skirting the garden and walking with Kell along the lane that led to the meadow, Annie basked in his adoring looks. Settled beneath the dappled shade of the newly leaved saplings, Annie closed her eyes and leaned back against Kell’s chest.
Kell brushed aside the fluttering ribbons from her hat hung on a limb above them, contented to let Annie find her own time and way to tell him her news.
“The town is growing so fast,” she began. “I’m glad that Daisy and Cammy opened the cafe.”
“Are you?” he asked distractedly, kissing a tumbling curl.
“There’ll be less cooking for me to do. Less work all around.”
“That’s important for some reason?”
Annie reached up and cupped his cheek. “Kell, have you noticed … something … anything a little different these past weeks?”
“Yes. I’ve still got this unsatisfied craving to count your freckles with kisses.” He planted several scattered ones over her cheek and nose. “And you’re becoming a stingy woman with your kisses. Especially those wicked ones I’m so fond of.”
Annie turned and within seconds had straddled his lap. Draping her arms over his shoulders, she complied by giving him one of those very wicked kisses, deep, and hungry enough to curl her toes inside her high-buttoned shoes.
When she broke the kiss, Kell looked into her eyes and said, “That is what I call a good morning kiss. And I’m going to confess that I’ve wanted to—”
With a little squirm, Annie shook her head. “I can tell by myself what it is you’re wanting. Please, I’m a respectable married woman. I do not plow clover in meadows.”
“Naughty, Annie,” he whispered with a voice filled with need. “We, love, do not plow clover.” He caressed her hips, settling her more fully on himself. “Remind me,” he continued, nipping her earlobe, smiling when she rewarded him with a most delicious shiver, “to keep you away from the doves. Mr. and Mrs. York do not plow clover. No hauling or hulling. No plantin’ oats. We’re not making the chimney smoke. I won’t be stablin’ a goose neck, a gully raker, a bald-headed hermit or a naggie.
“We, my darlin’, raise a little hell.” Taking her mouth in a sweet, wild kiss that left her breathless, Kell smiled. “And the only Jack in your orchard is me.”
“Kellian!”
“Annie!”
“You do this deliberately to keep me off balance.”
Seeing the laughter in her eyes, hearing it in her voice, Kell found that the rapid pulse in the hollow of her throat needed his attention. Nudging aside the pink ruffled edge of her shirtwaist, he paid proper homage to increase its rate, then lifted his head.
“Don’t you know by now that it works both ways? You’ve brought me to heel like a coon dog with his tongue hangin’ out. Of course, what the good Lord blessed you with might have something to do with it. It’s these freckles that drive me wild—” h
e kissed random spots across her face—“and this mouth that got me ready to sit up and beg for a taste—”
“No begging, Kell. Just be nice and listen to me and I’ll give you all the kisses you want or need.”
“Just so long as you understand that all Mr. and Mrs. York do is make love.” One look at the flush coloring her cheeks and Kell couldn’t resist teasing her. “I’d bet you’re blushing straight down to your belly button.”
“A bet you’d win,” Annie murmured, but she had to close her eyes against the desire that blazed in his. She wanted him so much, but if she didn’t talk to him now … “Kell, have you ever thought about your name?”
“My name?” Fully involved with opening the buttons on his wife’s shirtwaist, Kell wasn’t paying attention.
“Yes! Your name. Don’t be dense. I’m trying to tell you something important.”
Busy tracing the lace edge of her chemise, Kell thought to argue about what was important, but with the store of patience he had only for his lovely wife, he stopped. One look at Annie’s disgruntled expression and he had to bury his head against her curls not to laugh.
“A man should want his name to be carried on, Kell.”
“Don’t tell me. You’ve decided to rename the town after me.”
“No! Not the town,” Annie whispered, leaning back. She lifted his hand from her hip, hesitated, then set it palm side down over the curve of her belly. “You never said, and I never asked before, but do you want children?”
“Children? As in many?”
“Kellian, they come one at a time!” She moved off his lap and amended, “Sometimes there are two. Please, please say yes, Kell, because we are having a baby.”
Annie scrambled up on her knees, cradling his cheeks and lifting up his face. He appeared a bit dazed. “Kell, say something!” She scattered tiny kisses over his face, landing a quick, hard kiss on his lips. “Well?”
“Are you sure?”
His voice was soft, almost hoarse, but Annie heard the uncertainty, the disbelief, but mostly she heard the hope.
“I’m very sure that you’re going to be a father.”
Kell closed his eyes briefly, and took a deep breath. A father. He was going to be a father. A man with a great deal of added responsibilities. When he looked at Annie, her gaze was so anxious, he had to smile. Swiftly coming to his feet, he drew Annie to stand beside him.
“Are you happy, Annie?” he murmured, enfolding her in his arms.
“Very happy.” She rested her cheek against the steady beat of his heart. “I would like to keep this our secret for a little while.”
Kell cupped her chin with his fingers and gently tilted her head back. “I love you.” He sealed her lips with a cherishing kiss. Feeling her joy, seeing the excitement in her eyes made his doubt vanish, and he laughed out loud. Suddenly lifting her up, he gazed at her still slender waist, and when he saw her radiant smile, he began whirling her around until she shrieked with laughter.
As suddenly as he had started, Kell stopped. “I suppose you’ll want to build a school now.”
“A school? Why, Kell, I never gave it a thought.”
There was a hidden gleam in her eyes that made him shake his head. “I’ll just bet you haven’t.”
“What I’ve thought about,” Annie said, in a voice husky with desire as she bent to his ear, “is could we—”
“Annie! You’re going to be a mother!”
Annie nudged her nose against this. “I only asked if it were possible. You’re becoming a bit of a stuffed shirt, Mr. York.”
“And you, my charming wife, are too fond of wanton ways.” Kell shifted her until she was safely cradled in his arms. “You belong home. In bed. With me. All bets are off.”
“But who wins—”
“Ah, Annie, my darling Annie, this way we both do!”
Acknowledgments
While writing Darling Annie I asked the help of several people who gave generously of their knowledge and time. My heartfelt thanks to Louise Street Withowiski of the Young County Historical Commission in Texas, who shared her family’s history. A thank-you to the ever helpful research librarians of the Broward County Library in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. A very special thank-you belongs to Belinda Jank and her son, Tristan, who exceeded my ex pectations with their generous and continuous supply of information.
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Darling Annie Page 30