“I know…I know. I watched you, Leah. I told folks you were the daughter of a healer, and more than a few of them sought you out. I told the young men at my mill to give you their business when they needed their washing done.” His words gained strength as he lifted his head and faced her.
“And then,” he said firmly, “I put my foolishness aside and determined to reveal myself to you. You were looking after Garlan’s child, and I thought to relieve your shoulders of all they’d taken on. That was the day I heard you were to be married. So I watched and waited, and I knew Gar Lundstrom would be a fine husband for you.”
“Why didn’t you tell me when I came to your home?” The memory of that time was fresh in her mind, and she recalled all too vividly his words as he’d asked to be her friend. Her friend!
He waved his hand as if to dismiss her question. “I was too ill at first, and then, when I spoke with you later and knew that you were a fine woman and a daughter to be proud of, I feared your contempt, because I had waited so long.”
Leah felt a presence behind her and glanced over her shoulder. Gar stood just inches away and his big hands came down to rest against her shoulders. The warmth was welcome, and she attempted a smile. “I didn’t hear you come in.”
“I saw the buggy in the yard, and it was time for supper, anyway.” He nodded to Eric. “I wondered when you would come.”
Ruth stood by the stove, her hands deep in the pockets of her apron. “Would you like to stay for supper, Mr. Magnor? There is plenty. It is only the family for this meal.”
“I’m not sure Leah considers me as such,” Eric said with a meager smile.
“Of course you can eat with us,” Leah said quickly. She rose from the chair and handed Karen to Gar. “I’ll finish up, Ruth. You go now. Take enough for Benny’s supper with you. It looks like you cooked plenty.”
With a last wistful glance, as if she would rather stay than leave, Ruth pushed the screen door open, her hands full with two covered bowls. Kristofer held the door wide as she passed to the porch, and then made his way into the kitchen.
“I didn’t hear the bell, Pa. Are we ready to eat?” His curious gaze touched upon Eric, then slid with apprehension over his father and Leah. “Are we having company?”
“Wash up, Kris,” Leah said automatically, waving him toward the sink.
“I did already, at the pump.” He sidled close to her. “Are you going away again, Miss Leah?”
His eyes met hers and she sensed his need. “Not today. Mr. Magnor just came out here to talk to me. He’s going to eat with us. Now find another plate for him, and some silverware.” Her hand touched his nape and she bent to whisper against his ear. “It’s all right, Kris. Everything’s fine.”
He did as she bid, and in moments they were settled around the table, Karen on her father’s lap. Gar spoke the words of thanksgiving over the meal, and for a few minutes, the three adults busied themselves with passing and serving the food.
“Your Ruth is a good cook,” Eric said, admiring the ample fare. He took another bite of beef and tasted it with obvious relish. “If she uses your recipes, I must have them for my cook, Leah.”
“I only fix what I learned from my mother,” she said quietly. “You probably ate the same food when…” Her voice trailed off as Eric’s fork clattered to his plate.
“I’m sorry.” His eyes were pained as he met her gaze. “I didn’t think of that. Of course. I didn’t have a cook in those days, my dear.”
“I think we need to speak of something else,” Gar said quickly. “Leah, you and Eric might do better to spend some time alone after supper. Now, take the baby from me. She eats more willingly for you than her papa, I think.”
Karen set up a clamor as Leah took her on her lap, apparently fearing that the steady stream of food from her father’s fork was ceasing. Gar was capable of feeding the child, that was a fact. But giving Leah something to occupy her hands while he led the conversation onto a different track was Gar’s aim, and for that she was thankful.
The talk was of the sawmill and the coming of new buildings in town. Eric spoke with respect to Gar, and Leah watched as her husband and father shared a conversation. Even that thought was difficult for her to fathom—her father was here in her home. He had claimed her as his child.
“Would you like to walk?” It seemed easier to stroll down the long lane than sit on the porch together. But even as they walked side by side beneath the tall maple trees, Leah felt distanced from the man who was her father.
“Why did my mother leave you?” It was what she had wanted to know for all her growing-up years, a question her mother had never answered, always sloughing off her need to know.
“She never told you?” Eric waited for her negative response, watching as her head shook once. “Then I must, I suppose. But, bear in mind, Leah, that I was a young man, and your mother was not always easy to live with.” He looked at her quickly, coming to a halt beneath overhanging branches, where the twilight had already brought lengthening shadows.
“She had moods,” Leah admitted. “She used to get angry easily, even with me. But…” Her mouth firmed as she tilted her chin and met his eyes with a challenging look. “I loved her, Mr. Magnor. She was good to me, and taught me all she knew, so that I would never be in need.”
“She was a good mother,” he admitted. “She did well with you, there’s no denying that. But as a wife, she was not an easy woman.”
“Gar says the same about me.” Leah’s laugh floated on the air as she recalled the words.
“You have an air of softness about you, daughter. Your mother—” He turned and walked on, and Leah kept pace. “She was more content away from me than in my company.”
“So she left you?”
He shook his head. “She left because I made a terrible mistake, Leah. I have no excuse. I was wrong, and I knew it as soon as it happened. We had an argument and I stormed out of the house. And I met a woman.”
The pause was long, Leah’s mind rebelling at the thought she could not escape, until it was spoken, the words falling between them. “You were unfaithful.”
He accepted her accusation with a nod. “Yes. Only the one time, but it was one too many. Or maybe she was looking for a reason to leave. I’ll never know, will I?”
“Did you look for us?” Somehow, the idea that he had let them go, that he had washed his hands of wife and daughter and gone on with his life, was not to be borne.
“Yes, I knew that she took you to Minneapolis and you lived there for a couple of years with her sister. And then when I went there, prepared to beg for a chance to make things right, she was gone. Berta said your mother didn’t want anything to do with me. She said Minna would never forgive me.”
“I have an aunt Berta?” As she said the words, a picture of a fair, buxom woman came into Leah’s mind. “Yes, I have. I remember a big house with a lot of men in it.”
“She ran a boardinghouse in the city. Still does, I suppose.”
“So you came back here and forgot about us,” Leah said bluntly.
“I came back,” he admitted. “But I never forgot. Yet, a man has pride, Leah, and I was blessed, or cursed, as the case may be, by more than my share.” He halted and turned to her, grasping her shoulders in his hands.
“I couldn’t bring myself to come to you three years ago. But now, I want to help you, and I won’t take no for an answer. What happened between your mother and me was another thing altogether. I can’t change that, but I can do this for you.”
“Help me?” For the long hours of this day, she had forgotten her situation, the sheriff and the detective from Chicago erased from her mind.
“I’ve already seen my lawyer, and he’s made arrangements to check into the situation. We have a firm in Chicago investigating it for me.” His touch was firm, lending her strength. It was a comfort, she found, and she allowed his hands to run the length of her arms, until their fingers clasped.
“I will accept your help,” s
he told him. “For Gar, and for the children, if not for myself. I’m needed here, Mr. Magnor.”
“Leah, Leah…” He shook his head. “Please can we find another name for you to use when you speak to me?”
“I don’t know.” There was too much to consider. She was weary beyond measure, her legs losing strength, her head drooping, so that she no longer looked at the man before her.
His sigh spoke of sadness, and she felt a pang that he should still suffer so for an indiscretion so many years past. “Come, I’ll walk you back to the house,” he said quietly, turning her around and releasing her hands.
They walked together, their steps in accord, and she did not protest when he took her hand and tucked it inside his arm. It was good, she decided, to lean for just these few minutes. Good to feel the support of this man who had claimed her.
Chapter Fifteen
“We won’t have to go to Minneapolis after all,” Leah said, rising from the breakfast table and walking to the sink.
Gar grunted his disbelief at her announcement. “Come here. You cannot just tell me such a thing and then walk away.” He pushed his plate aside and drank the last of his coffee, his eyes never leaving her. She had an uncanny way of provoking him with her remarks out of the blue. Like now, telling him that his plans for tomorrow were unnecessary. Especially when he had looked at the bedroom ceiling half the night, deciding how he could allot his workload for the men to accomplish during another two-day stretch.
She turned from the sink, wiping her hands on the front of her apron. “Eric Magnor says his lawyer has hired someone in Chicago to investigate.” She had the grace to look abashed as he sucked in a great breath of air, and she plowed ahead before he could utter a word.
“I should have told you last night, but after I cleaned up the kitchen, it was late. And then when I put Karen to bed, I only meant to lie down for a few minutes.”
He swallowed the ire he had been about to spew in her direction. It stung that Eric Magnor should be the one to come to Leah’s aid, and yet, the man had good reason. In any event, losing his temper would do no good, and so he summoned up a half smile.
“You didn’t even wake up when I took your dress off. That’s twice in one day I undressed you.” He watched as a flush climbed her cheeks.
“I thought you might not mention it,” she muttered.
“And why not? It was the most enjoyable thing I did yesterday.”
She grimaced as she met his gaze. “It’s been a hard time for you and the children, Gar. I’ll be so glad when it’s all over with. If everything goes well.”
He tipped his chair back. “What did Eric say?”
“We talked about my mother, and about why she left here.”
“Are you still angry with him?” Probably not, since the man seemed to do no wrong, Gar thought darkly.
Leah walked back to the table and leaned toward her husband, her hands fisted on either side of her empty plate. “I’m angry he waited for three years to claim me as his daughter. I’m angry he was able to sit back and watch me and never once offer me his friendship or his name in all that time.”
Those words brought a moment of satisfaction to Gar’s mind, much to his shame. So Eric Magnor would not get off scot-free, with Leah singing his praises.
“Why didn’t you recognize his name right away? Did your mother not use her married name in Chicago?”
Leah shook her head. “She called herself Minna Polk, and I thought it was my father’s name. But of course, it wasn’t. And then when I began calling myself a widow, I took my mother’s maiden name. I suppose that was how Mr. Magnor recognized me.”
There was deep sorrow in her look, as if she were wrapped in a blanket of misery, and Gar sighed for the pain she bore. “I would make it right for you, wife, if I could. But only your father can take away the sadness you feel. You must find it in your heart to forgive him, or it will grow like a canker and poison your soul.”
“He didn’t ask for my forgiveness, but I have given it already. I think,” she said with a sigh, “that, after all, I’m not so much angry as hurt.” Her eyes filled with tears and she allowed them to fall unheeded. “I have a father, Gar. I have an aunt in Minneapolis. There may be more family than that, for all I know. And here I’ve felt so alone all my life. Such a waste.”
She straightened and attempted a smile in his direction. “Ah, well. There’s no sense in mourning what might have been, is there? Now I have you, and the children, and a father who wants to help me.”
“I am more than willing to help you, too, Leah. But I’m smart enough to know that Eric has more influence than a farmer, and I care enough about you to let him take charge of this thing.”
He rose from the table and glanced out the door where his men were waiting for him. The horses were harnessed before the red wagon. “I must tell Benny what has to be done today, Leah. Then I’m going to work with the three-year-olds for the next few hours.”
“Will the men be in for dinner?”
“I thought we could take it out to them,” Gar said with a faint smile. “The small sorrel is tame enough for you to ride, if you’d like to try her out.”
Her eyes lit up, and for a moment the pinched look she wore disappeared. “I don’t know if I can.” She glanced out at the corral and then back at him. “But I’d like to try. If you think I can handle her.”
He couldn’t resist for another moment and his arms reached for her, his steps taking him to her side. She leaned against him and absorbed his warmth and the strength of his embrace. Her head tipped back and he took her mouth, his kiss a heated blend of lips and tongue.
“Just so, I would like to kiss you tonight, after dark, Leah. And much more.” He swept one hand down her back and formed her to his body, taking ease in her soft curves. “I feel like a married man who has not yet had a honeymoon,” he whispered, blending his breath with the puffs of air she expelled.
She attempted a laugh. “You are a married man who has had to take what he could get, piecemeal. I haven’t been much of a wife to you, I’m afraid.”
“You’ll do, Leah mine. You’ll do. What pleasure we have found together has only begun to whet my taste for you. Once our lives are sorted out and there is no more fear of your past in Chicago, we will settle down and be like old married folks.”
Her smile was welcome, and he returned it as she swatted at his chest with the flat of her palm. “I’m an old lady already, Gar. Past my prime and long in the tooth.”
“Ah, no,” he whispered, bending to kiss her cheek. “You are a woman in the very prime of life, and your teeth are perfect.”
She laughed aloud at his foolishness, and he was pleased. He’d banished the sadness she’d worn all morning and that was an accomplishment to be proud of.
“I’ll be back in a couple of hours to get you. The baby can ride in front of me on the horse and we’ll carry the men’s dinner in a couple of sacks behind your saddle.”
Her smile brightened even more. “It’ll be like a picnic this time, Gar. I’ll get out a quilt to take along. Will Kristofer ride with us?”
“No, he’s with the men.” Reminded of his duties, he released her and muttered beneath his breath. “You distract me, woman. I need to be about my work, and here I am smuckling in the kitchen with a beautiful woman.”
She shooed him away, flapping her apron at him as he headed for the door. “Go on with you. I’ve got a mountain of work to do, Mr. Lundstrom.”
“Papa!” Karen chortled from the high chair, waving a fistful of soggy bread in his direction.
He returned her wave and was gone, leaving the baby to turn her attention to Leah. “Mama!” she cried, holding up her arms to be taken.
“Yes, Mama, little girl. You are going down for a sleep, and I’m going to get busy. Your papa will be back in no time at all.” Leah glanced out the door, her eyes fastened to the tall man who gave instructions with waves of his arms and pointing fingers as his men listened.
His sho
ulders were wide and his chest full and muscled. He was a man to be proud of, and he belonged to her, Leah Gunderson.
No, Leah Magnor. For the first time she tasted the sound of it on her tongue, and it was good. She belonged. Not only to the man she watched, the man who had made her Leah Lundstrom, but to the man who had sired her. She was the daughter of Eric Magnor, his flesh and blood.
If his influence proved to be as far-reaching as many suspected, her reputation might be restored. And if her story could somehow be proved to be the truth, Gar would harbor no doubts about her. And if wishes were horses…
The mare pranced nicely, tucking her chin against her chest, and Leah laughed aloud at her antics. She’d ridden her share of horses in Chicago, traveling to visit patients who lived outside the city. But nothing had been as much fun as this gleaming, sleek piece of horseflesh her husband had seated her upon today.
She rode astride, her skirts rucked up so that her ankles were well exposed, her dress catching the wind and blowing about as the mare broke into a canter. Gar’s gaze settled on the length of limb beneath her billowing garment, and she laughed aloud. Her dignity was salvaged by the length of her drawers, and she felt warmed by his glances.
“You ride well,” he said, coming alongside her. “It shows that you have done this before.” Karen was tucked securely before him, his long arm clasping her firmly, and he slowed their pace as they spoke.
“But not with this much enjoyment,” she told him. “I was always in a hurry, or all worn-out on my way home. This is like having a holiday, Gar. Thank you.”
His smile widened into a grin, exposing his dimple, and she was gripped by an emotion foreign to her. Her regard for her husband went beyond admiration for his honesty and kindness, his stalwart strength and gentle demeanor.
This was different. As if a giant hand clasped her heart, as if her very being were held in limbo for these few seconds, she was enmeshed in the personhood of Garlan Lundstrom.
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