Mail Order Misfit (Brides of Beckham)

by Osbourne, Kirsten

  "I see you as so much more than your leg." He stroked her hair as he spoke. "Do you want to know what I see when I look at you?"

  She nodded, half afraid, but she knew he wouldn't deliberately say anything to hurt her.

  "I see a very pretty lady, who is sweet, well-mannered, can cook like a dream, doesn't mind hard work, and who is willing to put up with my ways. She also just happens to have a hurt leg." He leaned down and kissed the top of her head. "She makes my heart beat faster, and I want to carry her off to my bed and have my way with her every minute I'm with her, but I know she needs a little time. She's worth waiting for." Whether he liked it or not, she was definitely worth waiting for. He couldn't have found a girl better for him if he had hundreds to choose from.

  Elaine felt tears prick her eyes at his words. What had she done in life to deserve having a man who saw all those things when he looked at her as a husband? "Thank you," she whispered.

  "We need to sleep. A rancher's day starts early."

  She nodded, sleepy. She'd slept very little on the train, because being unable to straighten her leg for that long had made her too uncomfortable. "Will you come home for lunch?" How could she tell him that she wanted to spend every moment with him she possibly could?

  He nodded. "I'll come home for lunch most days. I'll let you know if I won't be here, and you can pack sandwiches or something." He looked down at her. "You are asking so you know if you should cook for me, right?" He couldn't keep the eagerness out of his voice.

  She laughed softly. "You don't like to eat, do you?" Feeding this man would be a never-ending task, and she loved the idea of it.

  "One of my favorite things. Kissing you is up there too." He knew that making love to her would top everything else in life, but he didn't say that to her. He didn't want to scare her off so early in their marriage.

  He looked down at her head pillowed on his shoulder and noticed that she'd fallen asleep, her mouth slightly open. He smiled, happy she was able to sleep in the strange location. From the way she talked, he was certain she hadn't slept in different places often in her life.

  *****

  When Elaine woke the following morning, she was still stiff, but her leg felt much better. She knew she needed to get up to start breakfast, but he was blocking her in. Biting her lip, she wondered if she should just wake him or try to climb over him. Finally, she put her hand on his shoulder. "Colin, I need to start breakfast." The covers were down around his waist, and she did her best not to look at his bareness.

  He turned to her on the bed and buried his face in her neck, breathing deeply of her scent. He'd be waking to this beautiful woman beside him every morning. "I'm the luckiest man alive, you know." He nipped at her neck, wishing he had the right to just make love to her.

  "You are?" The sun was rising and the red glow of the sky tinted everything in their room a pale shade of pink.

  He nodded. "I am. I get to wake up beside you every morning for the rest of my life."

  She smiled, knowing he was just flattering her, but enjoying the flattery immensely. "Very sweet of you to say." She couldn't help but wonder if he'd be this amorous every morning.

  He brushed his lips against hers before rolling away and jumping out of bed, he pulled the clothes he'd dropped the night before on with his back to her. "What's for breakfast?" he asked.

  Elaine's face was flaming red. She knew she should have turned away from him when he dressed, but she just couldn't. She enjoyed watching him too much. "Eggs and bacon?" she asked. She hadn't thought about what she would cook for breakfast yet. She was too busy staring at him.

  "Sounds delicious! I'll go get the eggs and milk." He paused on his way out the door. "I'll start the fire before I go, so don't worry about that."

  She nodded, realizing her nightgown was tangled about her waist. What if he'd pulled her to him and felt her? She shook her head at her prudishness and climbed from the bed. She was going to be sleeping in his arms for the rest of her life. What did it matter if he felt her naked before the date they'd set?

  She dressed quickly in a fresh dress and petticoat, knowing she would need to get started early if she was going to do everything that she needed to do for the day. Walking into the kitchen she put the skillet on the stove and added the bacon strips to it. By the time the bacon was finished, Colin was back with the eggs and she mixed them up while he sat at the table watching her. "Do you like coffee or tea in the mornings?" she asked.

  He shook his head. "Just milk for me." He didn't want her to think he needed her to do extra work for him.

  She looked over at the milk bucket and nodded. "I may make myself some tea sometimes."

  He shrugged. "That's fine. I don't care, just so you don't make me drink it." He liked coffee but not tea.

  She laughed. "You don't like tea?"

  He shook his head. "Not even if you add a whole cup of sugar to it."

  Elaine glanced at him over her shoulder. "Do you have a sweet tooth?" She liked to bake and would be happy to accommodate him if he did. She loved the idea of baking treats for him after the kind way he'd treated her.

  "I do. My mother used to say that it was all she could do to keep up with my sweet tooth. She'd bake a cake, and I just wouldn't want to share even a single bite." He winked at her. "I still don't want to share."

  She laughed. "Well, it's a good thing there are just two of us, and I don't eat all that much." She looked forward to the challenge of his sweet tooth.

  "Yup. It sure is." He watched as she carried the plates to the table, pleased to see that she was moving much more easily than the day before. Once she was seated across from him, he took her hand and prayed for them. "You feeling better today?" he asked as he took his first bite of eggs.

  She nodded. "Yes, thank you. The bath and then a good night's sleep fixed me right up. I think I'm ready to tackle the list of chores I made for the day." The list was mental, but it was a long one. It was going to be a long day for her, trying to accomplish everything, and now she was going to have to make some sort of sweet as well.

  "Don't overdo it. I don't want you hurting yourself more." Even as he said the words, he knew they were the wrong thing to say to her. "Next week, when you're rested up, you can do more."

  "I won't be treated like an invalid." Elaine thought she'd made her position clear on that the night before. "I won't deliberately hurt myself, but you have to let me be the judge of what I can and can't do. You don't live inside my body. I do." Nothing set her off the way someone trying to baby her did. She needed to be able to do what she wanted and needed to do without risking censure.

  Her words seemed terribly provocative to him, but he knew she didn't mean them the way he was taking them. "I don't mean to offend," he said softly.

  She sighed. "I know. It's just something I'm very touchy about. I need to be allowed to live my life to the fullest."

  "I understand." He wished he could take back the offensive words, but he knew there was no way to do it. "I'll be back around noon for lunch. Will that suit you?" He stood and walked around the table, leaning down to brush his lips across hers.

  Elaine nodded, grateful for the subject change. "I'll have something ready then." She mentally scheduled her day, knowing she would probably not be able to do everything she wanted to do.

  As soon as he left the house, she mixed up several loaves of bread, leaving the bowl on the work table covered by a towel while she stripped the sheets from the bed, and washed all the dirty clothes she could find. She'd never actually used a washboard and scrubbed clothes herself before, so it was a surprise to her that her muscles ached so much.

  She hung everything on the line before hurrying back to the kitchen to punch down the bread and divide it into individual pans. After what he'd said at breakfast, she wanted to make sure that she had some sort of dessert for him for supper. She had the ingredients for a cake, and that would work, but she had a lot to do before she was ready to bake it.

  While the bread was risin
g again, she found the cream he'd been saving and cleaned out the butter churn. She understood the process of churching butter, and had seen it done many times, but she'd never done it herself.

  By the time Colin came in for lunch, her arms hurt her a great deal more than her leg did. He saw how she was moving and asked her about it.

  "I washed the clothes, churned butter, and kneaded bread. It's a lot of work for the arms." She ached in places she'd never ached before, but she was thrilled, because it meant she'd put in a hard morning's work.

  He chuckled softly. "Been a pampered city girl for too long?" He was glad her leg wasn't hurting her, but he understood that she would have to build up the muscles in her arms for the daily work she'd be doing there.

  She made a face. "I didn't want to be a pampered city girl, but I definitely was." She didn't mind him teasing her, and she was thrilled he wasn't upset that her arms hurt. She had worried that he would want to put her in a glass case like her mother, but he seemed to think some pain was reasonable and normal. She liked that about him.

  She put lunch on the table, sandwiches made from salt pork and the fresh bread and butter she'd made. She sat across from him after pouring them each a glass of milk. "What are you doing today?" she asked after he prayed for them.

  "Mending fences." He groaned. "I hate mending fences. It's probably the worst job on a cattle ranch, but I spend more time doing it than anything else it seems."

  "What about the winter? How do the cows eat when the snow is covering the grass?"

  "I drive out and throw hay down for them every so often. They don't have to work hard to find their food that way." He shrugged. "In the winter of eighty-five it was so bad I lost half my cattle, because of the bad snows. We're not expecting a winter like that this year. In fact, no one has ever expected a winter like that." He hated even thinking about how bad the winter was.

  She nodded. "It was a tough winter in Massachusetts as well." She took a bite of her sandwich, watching him as he ate. She wouldn't always serve sandwiches for lunch but with everything she'd had to do that day, it had seemed like the only logical thing.

  He ate it without complaining. When he was finished he stood and put his hat back onto his head, leaning down to kiss her. "Thank you for lunch. If your leg gets too sore, don't bring that washing in from the line. I can help with it when I get home."

  "My leg is fine. Not nearly as bad as my arms are." She didn't add that she needed to prove to both of them that she could do the job.

  "Good. Your arms will heal. I don't want you doing permanent damage to your leg." He walked toward the door, stopping with his hand on the door knob. "I'll be home about five for supper."

  "Sounds good. I'll have something ready for you." She had no idea what, though. She'd think of something.

  She found she truly enjoyed keeping the house for him and cooking the meals. Yes, it was hard work and made her sore, but she felt like he'd done so much for her that she should be able to give something back.

  She baked a cake, made a thick stew out of the salt pork, and made the bed. She wasn't able to get down on her knees and scrub the floor as it needed, and she realized that was one thing she may never be able to do. She wasn't certain how to deal with that. She could mop, of course, but mopping never got a house as clean as scrubbing it on your hands and knees. At least that's what her maid at home said.

  When Colin came in at the end of the day, Elaine was sitting in the rocking chair hemming the curtains she'd sewed. She'd done the majority of the cleaning she wanted to do, but when her leg started to hurt more than it should, she sat down to work on something that wouldn't hurt so much.

  He washed his hands while she got supper on the table, and he noticed she was limping worse than earlier. Once he was seated, he asked, "Is your leg worse tonight because it always is at night or did you overdo it?"

  She sighed, wishing he wouldn't worry so much. "It's always a little worse in the evenings, but I think I overdid it a little. I stopped once it started aching so badly and worked on the curtains, though."

  "Good. As long as you're doing what's going to keep it from hurting so much, I'm fine with that." He took her hand and prayed for them both, taking his first bite of stew. He sighed happily. "This is delicious. You really are a good cook." He was thrilled that he'd found her in that restaurant. John was an idiot.

  He'd eaten half his bowl and two pieces of fresh bread when a knock came at the door. "You sit. I'll see who it is." He got to his feet and went to the door, opening it wide. "John." He wasn't pleased to see the other man at his house, but he knew he wanted to show off his pretty wife.

  "I was out chasing down a cow that got free, and figured you were good for a bowl of beans while I was in the neighborhood." John looked past Colin with wide eyes. "You married?" The shock was evident in his voice.

  Colin nodded, letting the other man inside. "Have some stew with my wife and me." He couldn't wait until John tasted the cooking he'd given up. He wanted the other man to see what an idiot he was.

  Elaine went to the stove and served another bowl of the stew and carried it to the table. She placed it in front of John who looked up at her face for the first time.

  John stared. "You married Elaine? My bride?" He was obviously astounded that anyone would want her.

  "No, I married my bride." Colin took another bite of his stew while Elaine sat down across from him. He winked at her, letting her know that he was proud of her.

  Elaine's eyes met Colin's. She was terribly nervous with John there, but she wasn't certain why. The man was nothing to her, and she'd felt like she had a narrow escape by not marrying him, but he still made her skittish. Colin obviously knew what she was thinking because he winked at her again, his foot moving under the table to rub against hers in silent support.

  John looked from one to the other before taking a bite of his stew. "I wouldn't have let you go if I knew you could cook like this." His mouth was full of stew as he spoke, and he sprayed a bit across the table, narrowly missing Elaine.

  "You can't have her, John. She's mine now." Colin ate his stew while the other man glared at him. "You didn't want her. Remember?" The look he gave Elaine was filled with emotion.

  Elaine hid her smile with a bite of bread. She'd helped in the kitchen more times than she could count, but she'd never been the one to decide what she would cook and make the entire meal. It was a new experience for her. She mentally debated whether she should mention the cake she'd made in front of John, because she didn't feel the need to cast her pearls before swine, but she had a need to make him more envious of Colin.

  As soon as she finished her stew, she asked, "Would either of you care for a piece of cake?" She was on her feet walking toward the work table as she asked.

  Colin's head popped up and a grin transformed his face. "Yes, ma'am. In fact, there's no need to dirty a knife. Just bring me the cake and a fork." He laughed at the look on her face.

  John elbowed Colin. "Hey, she offered me a piece too!" He obviously wasn't willing to be left out of dessert.

  "She's my wife. I don't have to share the cake!" Colin smiled at her.

  Elaine couldn't help laughing. "You decide if you want him to have a piece of cake." She knew Colin would share, but she honestly didn't care one way or the other. If he didn't want John to have a piece, she wouldn't serve him one.

  Colin seemed to consider it for a moment. "Well, he is our guest, and the first one we've had since we married, so you can give him a small piece. Make sure mine is much bigger than his."

  Elaine grinned as she walked to the work table and cut them each a piece, making sure to cut Colin's piece twice the size of John's. She put the pieces in front of the men and said, "I was raised to be an obedient wife." She would obey for as long as there was someone around as a witness.

  She ignored John's protests as she limped back to cut herself a piece as well.

  Colin waited until she was sitting before he took his first bite. "This is wonderful. Yo
u could out cook any woman I've ever met." He closed his eyes savoring every bite.

  Elaine smiled. "Thank you, Colin."

  John was still staring at his small piece of cake, obviously upset that he didn't have a piece as big as Colin's. "Isn't the guest supposed to get the biggest piece?" he asked.

  Colin looked at his neighbor. "Not when the guest was rude to my wife before I even had a chance to meet her." He wasn't going to give in. He got the biggest piece and that's all there was to it.

  John frowned. "How was I rude? She lied to me!" He took a bite of the cake, obviously afraid it would be taken from him.

  "Did you ask her if she walked with a limp? Because if you asked her that, and she said 'no' then she lied. If you asked her if she was willing to work hard and cook, then look around you. She told the truth." Colin carefully kept his voice at an even tone and sounding reasonable. He wanted to hit the other man badly, but he wouldn't do it, because he knew it would upset Elaine.

  John glared over at Elaine. "Why didn't you tell me you could cook like this? I'd have put up with your leg."

  Elaine's eyes met John's. "Frankly, I'm glad you rejected me. I'm happy to have married the better man." She took her empty plate to the basin and poured in the hot water she'd been heating on the stove to wash the dishes with.

  As she washed them, she listened to the men talk behind her. "Why did you marry her? She walks funny." John kept his voice down, but it was obvious he thought the other man was crazy for marrying her.

  Colin took a deep breath as he tried to control his anger. "She's a beautiful woman who is already proving herself to be an excellent wife. What does it matter if she has an injury if she is a good woman?" He couldn't believe the other man would insult his wife in her own home.

  John stood up to leave. "I need to get home. You enjoy your wife." He walked to the door, slamming it behind him as he left.

  Colin walked up behind Elaine and wrapped his arms around her, burying his face in her neck. "I couldn't have chosen a better wife. John is just upset because he realized he lost out on the wife he really wanted."