by A. J. Goode
Presently, she broke the silence. “How will your nieces react to our being married? We should have discussed this with them first.”
“Actually, Emily suggested it.” Adam smiled wryly and shot her an embarrassed glance. “I should warn you that she’s got quite an imagination when it comes to things like love and marriage. She likes fairy stories about princesses and brave knights riding to the rescue.”
“So she may not understand our . . . arrangement?”
“She will in time. Now Sophie, she’s got an entirely different kind of imagination. She dreams up all kinds of schemes and inventions that may well be the death of me.”
Caroline liked hearing his fondness for his nieces in his voice. He obviously loved the girls. “What happened to their parents?” she asked.
Adam’s hands tightened on the reins. “Their ma died when they were eight,” he finally said. “Rebecca and Samuel were so excited about their new baby, and no one expected any trouble since Rebecca had such an easy time with the twins. But her time came too soon and the baby was turned wrong. Samuel lost them both that night.”
She waited.
“Sam is my big brother,” he said after another long silence. “We came out here together and put both our names on the claim.”
So their father is still alive, Caroline realized. “What happened to your brother?”.
“He left,” Adam said shortly.
She waited again, but he said nothing more. They rode on in silence until he finally shifted on the bench and pointed into the distance. “My place is just around that next bend,” he told her, relief in his voice. “We’ll be home soon.”
“Home,” she repeated softly.
Chapter 6
Adam felt a flicker of guilt, but he wasn’t ready to tell her the truth about his brother. He could see the hurt apparent on her face at his sharp answer, and did his best to divert her attention to other matters for the rest of the ride home.
“Tell me about yourself, Caroline.” He flicked the reins, wishing they could move a bit faster but at the same time enjoying his conversation with his new wife.
“My parents died when I was not much older than your twins,” she told him. “I went to live with my mother’s brother and his son.” Her lip curled with distaste at the mention of her relatives. Adam pretended not to notice. “Uncle Roger has a small farm and works at different jobs in town from time to time. It was . . . it was not easy for him to have another mouth to feed. I am grateful to him for taking me in.”
But you’re family, Adam wanted to say, but he held his tongue. He wondered if perhaps her uncle had begrudged her the food on his table, which would explain why she was so painfully thin. He made a vow to himself that she would never be hungry again now that she was his wife.
“It’s lovely!” Caroline gasped as he drove them into the clearing around his home.
He tried to see the little cabin through her eyes. It wasn’t large or fancy, but it was indeed sturdy and well-built. He and Sam had added a large, sheltered front porch for Rebecca, with a simple log bench near the door. The barn stood a small distance behind the house, and his fields stretched out into the distance.
“You should see it in the summer,” he said, almost without thinking. “When everything is growing and the sun is shining down. Our Emily plants flowers all along the front of the house, and the vegetable garden over there is just bursting with good things. It really is a little bit of Paradise then.”
Just then, the door burst open and Sophie rushed out. “You did it!” she squealed. “You married her! Miss Morgan, d’you remember me?”
Emily followed more sedately, but Adam noticed that she was grinning hugely.
“I do remember you, Sophie,” Caroline said. “We spoke at the train station, didn’t we?”
She nodded eagerly and started climbing into the wagon.
“Whoa, there,” Adam called out. He jumped down and circled around to their side. “Easy, Sophie, give her some room to move.” He smiled at her to take any sting out of his words and turned to help Caroline. The instant his hands touched her waist to lift her down, he once again felt that strange sense of rightness that he had felt with her in his arms the day before. Gently, he placed her feet on the ground and stood there for a long, quiet moment, simply gazing into her soft brown eyes.
She licked her lips nervously. The sight of her moist pink lips sent a strange sort of quiver through his body, just as they had at that moment earlier in the day when Reverend Brown told him to kiss his bride. Adam had suddenly found himself entranced by the thought of tasting those lips, of feeling her body pressed against his in an embrace.
Just as he had done then, he reminded himself of his promise to keep their marriage as strictly a business arrangement. He let his hands fall from her waist and took a step back.
She shivered.
“Let’s get you inside and show you around,” he said. “We can all get better acquainted there.”
Caroline nodded, but paused on her way to smile at Emily, who blushed shyly. “It’s so nice to finally meet you, Emily.”
Emily bobbed her head and darted through the door, holding it open for the rest of them.
Adam heard Caroline take a deep breath as she looked around the inside of her new home. As he had done outside, he tried to see it from her perspective.
It was indeed small but tidy. Two chairs had been drawn up close to the fireplace, with a small table nearby. The cook stove and kitchen area was near the back, and there were two curtained-off doorways along one wall. Between the curtains, an angled ladder led the way up to the loft where the girls slept.
“You can put your things in that room,” he said awkwardly, pointing at the curtain to the left. It had been his brother and Rebecca’s room, but no one had ever mentioned moving the girls back down into that room after Sam left. It had stood empty ever since.
He had asked the girls to clean the room and put on fresh sheets before he left that morning. If they thought it odd that he and his new wife would have separate rooms, they said nothing to him about it, although he noticed the quick look they exchanged now when he mentioned the room.
“I am making dinner,” Emily piped up. “I thought you might be hungry.”
“Our Em is quite a cook,” Adam said proudly. “She makes biscuits that melt in your mouth.”
“You’ll have to show me your secret, Emily. My biscuits always turn out too heavy.” Caroline spoke sincerely without a trace of condescension in her voice, and Emily glowed with pride.
Both girls led her into the bedroom. Adam watched the curtain fall closed behind them and stood there awkwardly, not sure what he should be doing at this point. He could hear Sophie’s excited voice telling her all about the farm and how much she liked helping with chores, while Emily’s calmer voice interrupted with tidbits about the house itself. He worried that his new wife might be overwhelmed by their chatter, but he heard Caroline chime in from time to time with a hint of laughter in her voice.
He imagined her sitting down on the bed to unpack her meager belongings. Suddenly, a mental image of her popped into his mind, unbidden, of her lying in the bed with her hair spread out on the pillow around her. His fingers itched to touch those silken strands and pull her face close for a real kiss, not the impersonal little touch their lips had shared at their wedding.
Stop that! he told himself. This can never be that kind of marriage.
Chapter 7
Caroline didn’t expect to sleep well that night, but sleep claimed her almost as soon as her head touched the pillow. She hadn’t realized just how exhausted she was from her journey. She spent the night in a deep, dreamless sleep that left her feeling sluggish and somewhat disoriented when she woke up the following morning.
By the time she emerged from her room, Emily and Sophie were cleaning up after breakfast and Adam was nowhere to be seen. According to the girls, he had left for his job at the sawmill before sunup. “I don’t usually sleep this lat
e,” she apologized.
Emily set a dish of oatmeal in front of her and said nothing.
“Uncle Adam always wants coffee in the morning. Do you like coffee?” Sophie wanted to know. Without waiting for an answer, she plopped a large mug down on the table, sloshing the steaming liquid over the sides.
Emily sighed.
“Why don’t you both sit down with me while I eat?” Caroline asked. Once they had seated themselves, she smiled at both them and swallowed a spoonful of the oatmeal, which was surprisingly sweet. She took another taste and closed her eyes to savor the taste of honey that had been mixed into the simple meal.
“Would you like more?” Emily wanted to know.
“Yeah, Uncle Adam says you’re too skinny and we need to make sure you eat.”
“Sophie! Hush, you’re not supposed to repeat things like that!”
Caroline felt her face grow warm. Not only had Adam told his nieces that she was too skinny, he had ordered them to look out for her as though she were the child and they were the adults. “It’s all right,” she said, smiling to hide her embarrassment. “I suppose I am a bit on the skinny side. But I’m sure Emily’s wonderful cooking will fatten me right up in no time.”
Emily beamed.
“Now, why don’t you girls tell me a bit about yourselves? Do you go to school? What sort of chores do you have?”
For the next half hour, the girls’ words tumbled over each other with excitement. No, they didn’t go to school right now because, as Emily explained, their teacher had eloped with her dream man and left them without a teacher. Adam saw to it that they worked on lessons at home every day until a new teacher could be hired, which Sophie admitted to hoping wouldn’t happen for a long time.
The little tomboy explained that she liked to help her uncle with the farm work. She confided that she had been trying to persuade him to let her wear trousers to make it easier, but he had remained unconvinced. Unfairly so, according to Sophie. “I could get a lot more done if I didn’t always have to worry about my skirts and petticoats getting in the way,” she groused.
Her sister had taken over most of the household chores. She loved cooking, but she admitted that she wasn’t particularly fond of cleaning up afterward. “And I despise laundry day,” she said with a sigh. “Even though Uncle Adam washes all his own unmentionables and helps me with the bigger items, I still dread that day.”
Caroline’s heart went out to her. She hadn’t been much older than the twins when her own parents had died and she had been forced to move in with her uncle and cousin. She’d had to take over all those chores as well, but her uncle had been nowhere near as kind as Adam had been to his nieces. She suppressed a shudder at the memory of harsh treatment and ringing taunts she had endured from Roger when she failed at some task.
Still, she couldn’t just waltz in here and relieve Emily of her duties without hurting the girl’s feelings. They would have to come up with a plan for working together in a way that would take the burden off Emily’s young shoulders without making her feel unneeded.
In the meantime, Caroline was ready to explore her new home. She washed her dishes and helped tidy up the table before turning to her new charges. “Would you girls like to give me a tour?” she asked brightly.
Sophie insisted that she climb the ladder into the loft right away, but practical Emily wanted to show her around the living areas first. She showed her the root cellar and a small pantry filled with rows of jars and crocks.
“Did you do all this canning by yourself?” Caroline wanted to know.
“No, Ma’am. I made some of the jam, but Mrs. Brown came out to help with the rest,” she admitted.
Still, Caroline was impressed.
After they returned from the root cellar, Sophie dragged her impatiently towards the loft. The girls climbed up the ladder ahead of her, and she hesitated only a moment before clambering up after them.
She had expected a simple attic such as the one at her uncle’s home, but this loft bedroom was a pleasant surprise. The sloped ceiling made it difficult for her to stand up straight except in the very center of the room, but that didn’t seem to bother the twins. Their neatly-made bed was covered with a patchwork quilt, and the girls’ dresses hung on a tidy row of hooks along the opposite wall. A small pitcher and basin stood on a table near the row of dresses, with two wooden chests standing close by.
“It’s a wonderful room!” she cried, looking around.
They smiled at each other, obviously pleased.
“It’s been awfully hot up here this summer,” Sophie admitted. “On the nights when it got too bad, Uncle Adam put up a tent outside for us.”
“It’s very cozy up here in the winter, though,” Emily hurried to say. “The chimney comes up right over there, so it’s nice and warm most nights.”
“Well, I just adore it. You girls have done a wonderful job keeping it neat.”
Sophie seized her hand again and tugged her back toward the ladder. “Let’s go outside and show you the animals!” she urged.
Caroline carefully stepped around the top of the ladder and lowered her foot to the top rung. Going up was much easier than climbing down, she quickly realized. She hoisted her skirts up higher to keep from tangling her feet in the fabric, grateful that Adam wasn’t home.
Then she heard footsteps on the wooden floor below her.
“What the--” she heard when she was a little more than halfway down.
She gasped and yanked at her dress to cover herself while trying to scurry down the last few rungs. For a brief moment, it seemed as though she was going to make it safely down her dignity intact.
Then her foot slipped. She gasped again and twisted as her hand slipped free. She squawked and pinwheeled her arms wildly, clutching at the ladder to keep from falling, and then she plunged backward.
Instead of crashing into the floor, however, she suddenly found herself in a pair of strong, warm arms. She looked up into Adam’s eyes, dangerously close to her own.
“Oh,” she breathed, unable to think of any other words.
“Are you -- are you hurt?” he asked. He sounded rather breathless as well, she noticed.
“No, I . . .” her voice trailed off. She realized she was pressed against his firm chest and fought back a strange desire to trail her fingers across the flannel shirt and touch the muscles that moved beneath it.
He was staring at her lips with an odd look on his face. Slowly, his eyes traveled from her lips up to her eyes and back down again, and she felt a shiver run through her body.
“You’re trembling,” he murmured.
“Am I?” she whispered.
“Aunt Caroline!” Sophie skidded down the ladder, followed closely by Emily. “Are you all right?”
Caroline shook herself. “You can put me down now, Adam,” she said firmly. “Thank you for catching me, but I am fine.”
He set her on her feet, holding her close for one more moment before releasing her.
But she wasn’t fine, she realized. Nothing was fine. Not when Adam’s touch left her feeling this way.
Chapter 8
Adam was shaken by the encounter with Caroline. When he came home for lunch and saw her stockinged legs coming down the ladder, he’d been torn between the urge to do the right thing by looking away and a very human urge to keep gazing upon what was undeniably an enjoyable sight. In the end, he’d reacted instinctively when she lost her balance and fell.
He knew he held her in his arms just a little too long. As he placed her on her feet, he felt the shudder run through her body and he wondered what would have happened if the girls hadn’t come charging down the ladder when they did.
“I thought you might want to see the rest of the place,” he said now, taking a small step away from her. “There wasn’t much of a harvest this year with the drought, but I can show you the fields and the barn and introduce you to the animals if you’d like.”
“I’d like that. Sophie and Emily have been showing m
e around the inside.” Caroline sounded breathless.
Once outside, the girls led the way. The sun glared down at them again, baking the ground with its heat. Still, Caroline didn’t seem to be in a hurry. She took her time as they walked, pointing and asking questions along the way. He showed her the vegetable garden and the well, and explained some of the plans he and his brother had once had for the place.
“Sam wanted to clear-cut the whole area and raise cash crops like corn and wheat,” he told her, “but that turned out to be a lot more work than we expected. We started experimenting with fruit trees. Those are peach trees over there, and this is the apple grove on the other side of the barn. It’s been a slow process, but they’re finally starting to bear fruit.”
He introduced her to Max and Mae, the horses who had led the wagon home yesterday. She stroked their noses and showed no fear when Mae nudged her.
“Easy, Girl,” Caroline chuckled. “What’s the matter? You don’t like it when I pet Max?”
“She’s a bit spoiled,” Adam said. “She gets very jealous if she thinks Max is getting more attention than she is.”
“And who is this little fellow?”
Adam turned to see their fat little pony trotting across the pasture in their direction. He sighed. “That is Dumplin. He belonged to Rebecca, and he thinks he’s a dog. He follows the girls around and lets them hitch him up to their little pony cart for rides. If you think Mae is spoiled, just wait.”
She scratched Dumplin between the ears. He made a little sound of pure ecstasy that made her laugh out loud.
“I think you may have just made a friend for life,” Adam told her.
The chicken coop was next. He loathed their smell and would have gladly gotten rid of every single one of them if he could have gotten away with it. Recently, the girls had taken over the lion’s share of the work with the flock, for which he was grateful. They didn’t seem to care for the work, either, but there was an unspoken agreement among the small family that it needed to be done.