Lucas reached across to shake Toby’s hand. “And is saving money all you had in mind?” His grin encompassed Helen and the man she’d chosen to wed. “Seems to me like there’s gonna be a few fringe benefits, too.”
Helen blushed. “You’re a wicked man, Lucas. We need help at the house and couldn’t afford to hire a man to help out. This seemed like the perfect solution to all our problems.”
Jennifer spoke soothingly. “Well, I for one think it’s a fine idea. Helen needs someone to look after her, and Toby certainly needs a wife to keep him in line.” She glared at Lucas. “As does my own husband. It seems to me that he’s getting pretty sassy these days.”
“Well, I just feel like the luckiest man in the world, getting Helen for a bride,” Toby said. “I’ve been thinking this would be a good idea for a long time now, and finally got the courage to ask her just the other day.”
“And I jumped at the chance.” Helen laughed at Toby, clutching his arm and cuddling close as he wrapped the other arm around her waist. “We wanted you and Lucas to go with us for the big event, maybe stand up with us as witnesses.”
“I’d be honored, and so would Lucas,” Jennifer said. “And I’ll bet if word has gotten around, you’ll have a guest list a mile long.”
A crowd of at least a dozen miners, plus several of the businessmen and towns folk of Thunder Canyon, were gathered at the gate of the parsonage when they arrived. Their small group blended with the others, calls of congratulation filling the air as the miners took this infrequent opportunity to celebrate.
The marriage of one of their own was a triumph for all, for if one man could find and win a wife in this place, surely there was hope for the rest of the women-hungry population. Toby was the center of a circle of his cronies, most of them residents of the boardinghouse, and no one was surprised when Ida made her appearance.
“You surely didn’t think there’d be a party without me joining in, did you?” She wrapped her arm around Helen’s waist and winked at her. “See? What did I tell you? You can’t be around a bunch of men for hours on end without finding one of them that’ll suit you.”
“Well, he does just that.” Helen looked at Toby with affection and he returned her look with hungry eyes.
“Who’s minding the store?” Lucas asked, scanning the crowd as several business owners made their presence known. “And who’s out at the claim, Sandy? We’ll have someone running off with our earnings if we’re not careful.”
“Everyone’s taken the day off,” Sandy said. “Once the word got around that there was gonna be a wedding, we all got slicked up and ready. Gave Sally Jo quite a shock to see almost two dozen miners lined up outside her shop, waiting their turns for a bath and shave. She did a few haircuts, too.”
“That’s ’cause we couldn’t see past the mop of hair you had hangin’ down your back,” one man called, and Sandy made a mock fist, waving it in the air.
“You’re just jealous, with no woman willing to give you a tumble, Rafferty.”
The men laughed as one, their spirits high as they watched Toby and Helen open the gate and walk toward the parsonage. The young preacher came to the porch and greeted them, and then turned his attention to those gathered in his front yard.
“Come on a little closer, folks. You can all join in this celebration.”
The crowd surged through the gate. Jennifer and Lucas found a place next to the bride and groom on the porch. Within minutes, the short ceremony was over, the bride had been well kissed by her new husband, and the miners were lining up for a shot at the blushing Helen.
“Just one little peck each,” Toby told them. “Don’t forget, this is my bride, and I can tell you right now, I’m a downright possessive man. Haven’t had a wife before and I don’t plan on lettin’ this one get away.”
The party spilled over into the parsonage, where the young wife served cookies and a hastily thrown-together punch. A few of the miners grumbled at the lack of hard liquor but were silenced by some who held a certain amount of respect for the church and the man who tried to keep this town in line.
For, more than the sheriff or the mayor, the young minister kept a tight rein on those who attended his church and made it his business to visit those unfortunates who were jailed for one reason or another. Everyone in town knew that the parsonage family was willing to help in a crisis, even though they were poorly paid.
So it was that they were held in high regard, and when two of the newest miners made an attempt to spike the punch, they were dealt with quickly and firmly.
After an hour, Ida called the group to attention and told them there would be food served at the boardinghouse right next door, that the wedding reception would continue there within the hour. As one, the men left the parsonage, carrying the bride and groom with them, teasing and taunting poor Toby to within an inch of his life, telling him of the shivaree they would hold after darkness fell.
“They won’t, will they?” Jennifer asked, and was shocked when Lucas only nodded. “You aren’t going to be a part of it,” she announced, and Lucas gave her a kiss that caused her arms to curl around his neck.
“I’ve got better things to do after dark,” he told her. “I’ve got a wife who needs pampering and I intend to take care of her…in the best possible way.”
“Lucas!” she chastised him for his bold demeanor, but he would not be halted, for he picked her up and carried her the rest of the way to the boardinghouse. Around them, the crowd ebbed and flowed and they were the center of attention for a few minutes.
The big table was set, platters of meat and crocks of pickled beets sitting side by side with bowls of potato salad and a huge pan of baked beans, hot from the oven. “There’s more where this came from, folks,” Ida called as she led the way to the feast.
It seemed she’d had some prior notice of the festivities, for she was well prepared. Ladies from the church brought in cakes and pies and one delivered four loaves of bread, already cut in sandwich-size pieces. A beef roast, thinly sliced, fit well on the bread, and crocks of butter appeared from the pantry. Fried chicken was contained in a huge basket, wrapped in a towel still steaming and smelling like ambrosia, as one miner said.
He received a ribbing from several who mocked his use of the word, asking him where he’d learned to speak in such a high-falutin’ manner. “I sure enough know what it means,” he said. “And I could name lots of other things that smell just as good.”
Before he could begin to list the objects of his affections, he was shushed by Lucas, who seemed to be the self-appointed doorkeeper of the day, holding the rowdy men down to a low roar when they would have begun a series of lusty remarks.
“We’re going to the hotel,” Helen confided to Jennifer. “All the men think we’ll be here, but Toby said we can sneak out the back door of the house and go in the back way at the hotel without the fellows being any the wiser.”
“Lots of luck.” Jennifer wished her the best, but she’d found in her days in this house that the men had various ways of procuring knowledge when it was to their benefit. If they wanted to locate the newly married couple, she’d warrant they’d find a way.
On their way home, snugly settled on the buggy seat, she brought up the subject to Lucas. He laughed, assuring her that the subterfuge would not work. The miners were already planning on raiding the hotel at midnight, and Helen and Toby had a long ride ahead of them. They were to be loaded into a wagon and taken outside of town, where they would be left in their nightclothes, with only a single blanket for shelter.
“That’s mean and hateful,” Jennifer said. “And how did you find out?”
“Who do you think took a tent and a stack of bedding a mile high out there earlier this evening?” Lucas asked.
“When?” Jennifer was still incensed.
“When you and Ida were feedin’ that gang. I got a new tent from the general store and a couple of horses from the livery stable, hauled it all out there and tied the horses to a tree at the edge o
f the woods, about where the fellas are gonna dump Toby and Helen.”
“Will they know the horses are there?”
“Toby knows. I told him I couldn’t do much about the shivaree, but I could see to it they were warm and isolated for their wedding night. And they’ll have transportation for tomorrow morning when they want to go back to the boardinghouse.”
“And what did he say?”
“Let me tell you, Mrs. O’Reilly, that man doesn’t care where or how he manages to bed his bride, so long as he can pull it off. And trust me, he’ll figure out how to put up the tent in no time flat and spread those blankets down on the ground in jig time. They’ll be like two bugs in a rug before you know it.” He grinned. “Toby owes me, big time. And he knows it.”
“So do I.” She looked up at him in the moonlight. “You’re so good to me, Lucas. I can’t tell you how happy you make me.”
“Well, that door swings both ways, ma’am. I predict we’re gonna have a time of our own tonight, complete with a nice soft bed and a candle lit by that bed, so I can see what I’m doing. I’m tired of searching for you in a dark bedroom.”
“You manage all right in the dark any other time,” she said. “What do you need a candle for?” And then she sighed. “Never mind. I don’t think I want to know, do I?”
He laughed, pulling the buggy up to the back door and jumping down. “Probably not, sweetheart. But I’ll be glad to demonstrate to you how much more fun we can have with the room all lit up.” He lifted her down and patted her on the fanny. “Go on in the house. I’ll be right there.”
“One candle,” she said with a haughty glare in his direction, and walked up to the porch, missing his answering remark as he led the horse toward the barn.
“At least four, plus the lantern.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
THE ACHES and discomfort of pregnancy seemed to be a small price to pay for the anticipation she lived with daily, Jennifer decided. For the knowledge that a tiny being was even now moving inside her gave her a joy she could not have explained, had she been required to give an accounting for the foolish smile she wore.
Looking at herself in the mirror in the mornings was an experience she had once dreaded, seeing the locks of disheveled hair, the still-sleepy eyes and the slightly petulant look of a woman who had been called from her bed at five o’clock, surely long before anyone should be forced to rise and shine.
Even that phrase, one Lucas used to little effect, made her cringe. She’d never been one to smile so early after daybreak, requiring a cup of coffee before she felt fit to face the day.
Now, however, she found that her face in the mirror was a reflection of the joy in her heart, and she relished each morning, awaiting the first small flutters, and then later on, the not-so-gentle kicks of a baby making itself known within the depths of her body.
And so she smiled, even Lucas commenting that no one had the right to be so all-fired happy in this world. But, even as he spoke, he held her tightly, careful not to squeeze too hard, lest he bring discomfort to his child. His hoots of laughter when the baby protested his eager hugs and their effect on the child’s mother only served to increase his joy. Nudges and wiggles against his back at night were cause for celebration so far as he was concerned.
Barely a night passed without Lucas holding his wife close, his very presence a plea for the love she alone could provide to his hungry heart. Without words, he pled his case, his kisses growing more passionate by the moment, his hands resting on the rounding of her belly, wherein lay his hope for future generations.
Jennifer was generous, he decided, in giving him what he needed. Indeed, some nights he felt guilty when he recognized her weariness, when she slept in his arms almost before the loving was over, and he found himself holding her close, her skin soft and warm against his own, her arms clutching him.
She amazed him with her strength, her stamina and her ability to accomplish so much in the house. Meeting him every evening with open arms and offering him a table heavy laden with food fit for a banquet, she gave him cause to feel the luckiest of men.
And now, she would bear his child, not as a duty, but in a joyous manner, as if she were the most blessed of women.
He watched her as she dished up his supper one evening very late in the autumn. The night air was cool and crisp, the kitchen warm and redolent with the scents of pot roast and apple pie, and his wife was weary. It showed in the shadows beneath her eyes and in the lack of balance as she turned from the stove, two bowls in her hands.
Lucas stood quickly and took them from her grasp. “Come sit down, Jen. I’ll get the rest.” He noted her lack of argument, the white line around her mouth and the flutter of eyelashes as she obeyed. Her chair seemed to welcome her and she settled there, watching as he served up the pot roast and poured his coffee. Her own cup held milk, cool since it had been kept on the porch in a covered jar.
“I’m glad that winter’s almost here,” she said, taking a sip of the creamy white yield from her cow. “Makes it easier to keep the food.”
“Also means we’ll be shoveling snow before long.”
“And that the baby will be with us in no time.” She sighed. “I’ll admit, I can hardly wait. I love knowing she’s there, inside of me, but I’ll be happier when I can hold her in my arms and see how pretty she is.”
“She?” Lucas asked, a single word holding a wealth of meaning.
“She.” It was spoken with finally, but softened by a smile.
“What if it’s a boy?” Lucas looked worried, she thought, as if having a son instead of a daughter might not be to her liking.
“Then I’ll love it even more, knowing I’ve given birth to a boy who’ll be the spittin’ image of his daddy.”
His smile was tender. “You really feel that way, don’t you, Jen?”
“You know I do. This will be the most welcomed baby in Montana if I have anything to say about it. After all, when the mayor of Thunder Canyon has a son, it’s cause for celebration. And even if it’s only a lowly girl child, the folks will still be ringing bells and carrying food out here to provide for you while I’m abed.”
Lucas looked forlorn for a moment. “It’ll be ten days, Ida said, before you’ll be up and around.”
“Ida doesn’t know everything there is to know,” Jennifer told him. “I’m young and strong, and I can’t imagine lying in bed all that time, letting someone else do for me.”
“You’ll do whatever the doctor says.”
“I probably won’t even see the doctor. I’ll bet Ida and Helen will be here and handle things all by themselves.”
“Well, before they’re done, you may wish you’d only had one man to cope with, instead of those two women.”
“Maybe.” He thought she looked smug, as if she knew secrets he had no way of determining. “I just want you to go get Ida as soon as things start to happen, you hear?”
He nodded. “My hearing is very good, ma’am. And on top of that, Ida would kill me if she wasn’t the first to know that her chick was about to hatch.”
“She’ll play the part of grandma well, won’t she?” Jennifer seemed pleased with that idea, Lucas thought. With the absence of her own mother, she’d clung even more to Ida Bronson, and he thought that the older woman had given a good amount of much-needed support to the first-time mother.
“She’ll be a wonderful grandma to him.” He got his last licks in with his subtle reference to the baby’s gender.
The meal was delicious and Jennifer was more than acquiescent as Lucas offered to clean up the kitchen and wash the dishes. He left them to dry on the sink board and she did not quibble, even though he suspected her hands itched to dry them and put them away properly.
LUCAS WAS RIGHT, for the first snow came just three weeks later. More than a foot of fluffy white stuff covered the ground when they awoke, and shoveling a path to the barn took Lucas almost a half hour. Jennifer came out, milked the cow and gathered up the eggs on her way back to the h
ouse. Lucas followed with the bucket of milk and strained it into the churn for her.
“It’ll keep there just fine for the day,” he said. “Tonight I’ll skim the cream off and by tomorrow you’ll have enough to make butter.” He looked her up and down. “You don’t think that’s too hard a job for you, do you?”
She shot a scornful glance his way. “When I’m so puny I can’t churn butter, it’ll be a cold day in you-know-where.”
He laughed. “You wouldn’t say a cuss word if it came up and bit you, would you, Jen?”
“Do you remember how long it took me to cure you of the habit?” Her lifted eyebrow was cocky, he thought.
“All you had to do was ban me from our bed, if I recall correctly.”
“I never did,” she protested.
“No, maybe not, but I got the message loud and clear. I knew I’d better clean up my talk or risk getting tossed out on my ear.”
She went to him, her arms sliding around his waist, her cumbersome shape making it difficult for her to stand as close to him as she liked. “Not a chance, Mr. O’Reilly. You’re not getting away from me.”
“Well, I don’t like to argue with you, but I’m planning on leaving you right now, ma’am. I’m due out at the claim, or Sandy will be wondering what happened to me. You’ll be all right, won’t you? No sign of the baby coming early or anything, is there?”
“I’m fine.” Her lips curved into the smile he’d come to seek out daily, and he held her as if she were the pot of gold at the end of his rainbow.
“I love you, Jen. I’ll be back early if I can make it, though I fear it’ll take a bit longer than usual, what with the snow. But I promise you, I’ll be home tonight.”
THE KITCHEN lamp was lit, the curtains pushed wide open, lest he not see the glow of the flame from far off, and she’d even done the chores on her own. Now Jennifer sat at the table, doing her best not to worry as she drank a cup of tea. The wind had come up and with it a new storm made itself known.
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