by Sondra Grey
“And, forsaking all others, will you remain only unto her for as long as you both shall live?” This time the church moved in a semicircular round in front of her eyes.
“I do.” Nicholas declared.
As the priest repeated the vows for her, Elizabeth struggled desperately to keep her voice steady.
Vincent stepped forward with the rings, and Father Gregory continued
“May these rings be blessed as a symbol of your union. As often as you look upon them, may you be reminded of this moment, and of the vows you have made and the strength of your commitment to each other.
May the Lord in His goodness strengthen your consent and fill you both with His blessings. What God has joined together, let no man put asunder. Amen.” Everyone around joined the chorus of Amen.
The priest declared, “You may now kiss the bride”, and Nicholas quickly brushed his lips over hers. He was about to turn towards his friends to take their felicitations when Elizabeth blacked out and slipped to the floor.
But Nicholas was quick. He dashed to her side and held her before she could fall to the ground, then picked her up in his arms as easily as if she was a child and strode out of the building.
Chapter Nine
W hen she came to, she was lying in a strange bed in a strange room. As soon as she tried to sit up, strong hands pushed her back into the soft bedding. Elizabeth tried to open her eyes, but the room swam.
Closing her eyes and giving in to oblivion was easier. Somewhere in a corner of her mind, she knew exactly what would help and where exactly in her doctor’s bag to find it. But submitting to the darkness was somehow more desirable.
Sometimes she floated to the surface of consciousness and heard voices around. One, in particular, was strong and comforting. It was the voice that had said I do it was also the voice that had said “I will send you back.”
Elizabeth woke with a start. The room was dark. A peach-colored moon hung right outside the bedroom window. Next, to the window, Nicholas sat lounging in an easy chair, his feet propped up on a futon. Elizabeth was still groggy, and her head felt heavy.
She narrowed her eyes and tried to focus on him. That was when she realized he was fast asleep and talking in his sleep. He moved his head from side to side and mumbled something. Elizabeth craned her neck to hear what it was that he was saying, but the only thing she could hear was a hiss. As if he was saying, “Yessss! Yesss!”
When Elizabeth came around next Nic was sitting by her side looking down at her. As soon as she opened her eyes, he took her hand in his and spoke.
“Elizabeth,” he said, and there was such tenderness in his voice and his look. The man could actually drive her crazy. One moment he was so furious with her, he could not tolerate her and the next he was gentle and caring. She closed her eyes again.
He fed her some water. It revived her enough to make her sit up in bed and ask for time.
“It’s just after dinner time.”
“Did you have your meal?” Nic shook his head.
“It was Greg’s turn to cook. So naturally, no one wanted to eat. He thinks food needs to be wholesome, like devotion to God. It need not be tasty.” he tried a bit of humor
“Father Gregory?” Elizabeth asked smiling in surprise
“Yeah, he is one of my wranglers. We do not have a regular priest here in Jacksonville. So, he doubles as that too when needed.”
Elizabeth thought back to how she had wondered about Gregory’s sitting on a horse
“Lydia?”
“She is fine. Just very tired. Martha gave her some of her herbal concoction and put her to bed…Elizabeth how do you feel?” Nicholas asked.
She nodded at him in assurance. She did not want to tell him that she had a monstrous headache and her limbs throbbed like they were being pulled out of their sockets.
“I feel better now. But you were talking in your sleep. Do you feel well? You were saying something like yes. Did you have a nightmare?”
Nicholas was taken aback of a moment. Then suddenly he forced a broad smile.
“You were delirious in your sleep. You must have imagined it.”
Elizabeth was pretty sure that among all the other dreamlike things she had been seeing in her feverish sleep that particular memory had seemed somehow more real. But she did not want to argue.”
“You are right.” She said smiling.
“You don’t look so well. But I know just the thing that will help you. Take off your clothes.” When he saw her eyes going wide with surprise, he looked back sheepishly.
“What I meant was that I am going to draw you a bath. You get ready for it. Martha unpacked your things earlier. They are inside that chest of drawers over there. And the water closet is just behind that door over there. It has another door that opens into the corridor outside. I will go out from there and fill up a tub for you.” Saying that he patted her hand and disappeared.
Ten minutes later when Nicholas came back, Elizabeth had fallen asleep sitting propped up on her bed. He woke her up and helped her to the water closet.
“Don’t fall asleep in the bath and make me come and get you there,” he warned before he disappeared. Elizabeth took his threat seriously had a quick bath. The water was steaming hot, and Nicholas had added some salts to it that not only smelled good but relaxed her. She was sore all over due to the long journey, and the hot water felt so good. However, she was scared Nicholas might come back any moment, so she did not linger.
He had been right. The bath had revived her. When the knock came, and she went to open the door, she was a different person. Nicholas pushed into the room with a tray on hand.
“The boys saved you some soup,” he said setting the food on a bedside table. Then drew up a chair for her to sit and took a seat next to her.
She took a spoonful tentatively then cringed
“He really is a bad cook. This soup is horrible.” She said then as he smiled back in glee she attacked the food.
As Elizabeth ate hungrily, he watched. She looked fresh and swollen from her bath and the chaste nightgown she wore covered her from neck to toe not leaving even a bit of skin bare. She looked too thin to be healthy. Nicholas wondered if she had had a decent meal recently. He had sent her more than enough money for the journey even considering she had bought Lydia along. Had she been so poor after the death of her father that she had not had enough to eat? For Nic that was unthinkable. He had grown up on a ranch and food had always been in high supply.
Suddenly that instinct to protect was back. Nic pulled her out of the chair and picked her up with ease.
“You need rest. You are lighter than a feather pillow,” he said and laid her down on the bed. Elizabeth, who had never had anyone look after her, felt guilty inside. He was so strong and so dependable that for the first time in her life she felt safe.
Nicholas drew the patchwork quilt around her tightly covering her beauty from his eyes deliberately. Though her nightgown was nothing but decent when he had picked her up, he had felt her soft curves and her tender body under his hands. That touch had stirred a tug deep inside his belly. He had not felt anything like this for a long, long time, since the time Jessica had so cruelly used him, and he was surprised.
He had to stay away from this girl. If he did not complicate things with emotions and sentiments and kept it a clean, uncomplicated arrangement, they could both be safe, even happy. He could handle that any day. What he could not handle was having any feelings for this lovely creature. Because he knew if allowed himself to fall for her he would be doomed
For a moment, he thought of distancing himself from her completely. But that was not possible. If he went out to the barn to sleep, Vincent would not approve. And though the man would not say anything out loud, his expression would say it all.
Besides if he slept out on the ranch on the night of his marriage the boys would get curious. They would not dare to say anything, but they would talk behind his back and spread gossip. So, he quietly lay down on the h
uge bed, as far as he could from his young new bride and mulled over his day.
Elizabeth had fallen asleep, and her chest heaved with her even breathing. Nicholas watched from the other side of the bed, and suddenly he was furious with himself. He had behaved like a lunatic. There had been no need to be so severe with the girl the very first day. He could have waited and seen what she said and did. After all, she was a mail order bride. And they were technically strangers. Only time would make them better acquainted each other.
Now as he saw her lying there, a small, frail thing in his huge bed he prayed to a God he had not believed in for five years, to make her well. He remembered how Jessica had looked, like a broken doll, when he had finally reached the foot of the hill and pulled her out from under the debris of that carriage. Then he deliberately shut that door off. Bringing to life those memories could never do any good.
Jessica was just a shadow from his path. And though the shadow would always mark the deepest feelings he could ever conjure for another woman, he did not want to make Elizabeth unhappy. He lied there quietly, resting his head on his pillow looking at his new bride. A nearly full moon hung right outside the window, and a gentle breeze blew in.
Chapter Ten
T he next morning, Nic opened his eyes to find the other side of his bed was empty. He quickly got dressed in his work clothes, pulled on his boots and went down the stairs that descended into a large living area.
On one side of it was a large kitchen with wide open windows and a door that led to the back yard. Next to the kitchen was a huge dining area with a long wooden table with two long benches along its sides. And the comfortable head bench, as they called it, that Xavier had made for Nic and placed at the head of the table. Next to the dining area was a small parlor where his mother had entertained her friends back in the days when he was a little boy, and his father was alive and taking care of things for them.
The staircase came down between the eating area and the parlor, and one could see the entire place as they descended.
Even as he sauntered down the stairs, he heard voices and knew the boys were in for breakfast. That was just perfect, the morning after his marriage he comes down to breakfast last, giving a room full of his men ample opportunity to make fun of him. And though they would not have the courage to do so in front of him, they would do it all the same when he was not around.
Besides, he had told them that he was getting married so that the Lord would save them from Greg’s cooking so that there would be someone who would take care of their meals. And now his new bride was missing. What was he going to tell them? These were hard working ranchers. They worked their backs off from sunup to sundown. They would have little patience for Elizabeth’s eastern sensibilities.
Suddenly a delicious smell of eggs frying assaulted his senses and his stomach grumbled. After he had brought Elizabeth home from the church, he had made Martha watch over her for the afternoon and gone back to finish some work. In the evening the men had eaten out in the open from the basket Martha had packed for them. After relieving her, Nic had taken up her vigil of Elizabeth. When she had woken, he had busied himself with taking care of her. As a result, he had eaten nothing the entire day. Now as he smelled fresh bread and bacon along with the eggs, his eyes nearly watered. God bless the man who had cooked that breakfast.
The men were all sitting at the table busy shoveling food into their mouths. Lydia was circling the tables passing around platters of food, bread, and fruit. Then he saw her, and it was like a vision from a dream. She was standing at the stove, clad in a drab cotton dress that made her look like a princess and a mob cap that covered her hair that he now knew was not brown but auburn.
She was busy at the stove, her long slender hands and her thin waist moved with the rhythm of her exercise. Then she turned and saw him watching and gave him a big happy smile. Her eyes lit up when she saw him, and her lips parted just a little. The impact of the gesture hit him hard in this midsection, and he felt the air whoosh out of his lungs. How was he ever going to keep things uncomplicated with her?
Suddenly he realized that they had stopped eating and were watching him with fear. What kind of animal did they think he was, to stop midway through their breakfast as he walked in. And what would Elizabeth think of him and his hold over his men? He decided to give them all a picture of conjugal normalcy so they could be assured that all was well.
He strode up to his wife, pulled her into his arms and gave her a sound kiss on the lips.
“Good morning my dear,” he said pulling a mug from a shelf above, scraping against the entire length of her body in the bargain. Then he went to take his place at the table.
“I need coffee,” he said to Lydia who was pouring it from the pot down the table. It looked and smelled strange.
“Er…Boss we don’t have coffee today.” Jim put in.
“But we have tea, and it's equally good,” Xavier said from the foot of the table. It was for the first time Elizabeth heard him speak and she was surprised by the quiet authority in it.
“Yes, it’s very good.” put in Larry. Nic looked around the table as if they had said they were leaving ranching and joining a circus. His men were content without their morning cup of coffee, they were having tea beside and praising it to heavens? Tea, for god’s sake! He looked around the table as Jim and Larry looked at him pleadingly, and Greg, Xavier, and Vincent glowered and dared him to contradict.
They did not want to hurt his wife’s sentiments by telling her that they did not drink tea but hot mugs full of thick coffee in the mornings. A few forkfuls of eggs had turned their loyalties around so drastically. Besides Elizabeth gave off that aura of such good-natured innocence that they had all been enamored with it. A few days with her and they would all be crocheting and ball dancing.
He would have to keep them away from his wife. She was a natural charmer, and they were already smitten. He would indulge them this once. But going forward he had no intention of making his wife into a sensitive fine lady. She was a rancher’s wife and on a ranch, hardwork came before sentiments. If she made a mistake, she must be told about it. For the time being, he decided to let it go.
“You have had a long and tiring journey. You must rest some more. Don’t cook lunch today. Greg will do it.” he declared in general to the room, and everyone including Gregory groaned out loud.
“I am quite recovered now. And I will rest after I have finished cooking. What time will you all be in for lunch?
Nicholas liked that. She was not a ninny. She was ready to take on her duties from day one, and it made him feel better. Besides a few forkfuls of scrambled eggs and a few morsels of hot fresh bread had now gone into his tummy and he felt more human. After he had tasted the bacon and eaten the perfectly cut melon, even he was ready to drink tea for just this once.
As Lydia came around to fill his cup, he decided to take care of that small detail too. It was important.
“What I told you yesterday at the station Lydia was absolutely right. I will not look kindly on any girl trying to seduce my men. I will not tolerate sad love stories, broken hearts and secret babies on my ranch. But at the same time, I assure that if you are ever mistreated in the slightest by any of my men, you only have to come to me, and I will not deal with the miscreant lightly. You may take all your loyalties to your mistress Lydia, but you will bring your troubles to me. Is that clear?”
The girl looked around the table in awe then bobbed a curtsy and moved away. The men all groaned, but no one said anything as they kept eating.
Was it disappointed he saw in their faces? And in hers? Lord, what was the world coming to. He wondered which one of them had already marked her and which one among them she had chosen. It was too much to think about, and so he rose from his place indicating to them all that the happy meal was over and they all filled out of the back door and dispersed.
As the men filled out, he gave them another of his shows of authority. This is my woman and my house, and I have ri
ghts here. He pulled her to him holding her loosely in his arms. Lydia quickly picked up the stack of dirty dishes and went out the back door after his men, leaving them alone.
Waves of sensations unknown to her up until now were coursing through Elizabeth’s body, but even through that, she was not unmindful of her husband looking at the people filing out of the kitchen. And while his proximity was playing havoc with her senses, he was just putting up a show for them
“Where could I wash these Jim? Could you tell me, please?
“Here, let me give you a hand,” Jim said, and Nicholas rolled his eyes. So, it was him. But he was so young he complained to himself.
“Don’t worry about Lydia. She won’t lead him along. She likes Jim because the only brother she left back in Cleveland is just his age and looks so much like him.” Nicholas was surprised at his wife’s perceptiveness.
“Breakfast was delicious. Thank you, he said letting go of her as there was no one to watch now. Elizabeth suddenly felt cold and abandoned, and he groaned at the disappointment he saw in her eyes. He had not meant to grab her like that in the first place, but she had felt so good, so sweet and warm and soft against his hard body. How was he ever going to keep this clean and uncomplicated?
“So, what did I do wrong?” she asked going around the table cleaning it.
Once again Nic was surprised at her perceptiveness. He looked tentatively at the back door from where the men had just exited. They had warned him strongly about hurting her sentiments.
“Don’t worry they are all gone now.” So, she had noticed that little byplay too, how his men had all bullied him into being nice to her.
“They are my men, and I am usually not this accommodating for their whims and fancies.”
“But you did it this time because you thought they deserved it and so did I? she asked with laughter in her voice as she moved around him busy at her work.
“We don’t drink tea.”