When Myles set out to make her his wife, he’d pursued her with every weapon in his arsenal, and within a month she’d agreed to marry him, and one month later became his wife. With Jason, she’d agreed to marry him in one day and became Mrs. Jason Colby before the week was out. And the only luxury he’d given her was a ring valuable enough to replace all the things Myles had ever provided.
But only one husband set her heart humming at one minute and left it with a dull ache the next. And only one husband made her whole body burn with need for him yet compelled her to deny herself that need. And only one husband touched her heart with tenderness and gave her daughter unconditional love. But he was her husband in name only, and that’s how it would be until the day they dissolved their marriage and she left this miserable town forever. Maybe at last the time had come for her to turn her back on gold mines, and flighty young brides, and Jason Colby, and all the complications surrounding her life with him, and return to Iowa and the way of life she’d once known.
***
In the light of a new day, Jenny shoved aside thoughts of leaving Colby and focused on the Dusty. With the discovery of a vein of silver ore, she was anxious to continue mining. She was baffled, however, why Myles had claimed that the Dusty was a producing gold mine when it clearly was not. But that didn't mean there wasn't gold in it. The fact that both Jason and Jack Bishop wanted to buy it also pointed to gold. If she could get to Black Hawk and review the records, maybe she’d find some answers. However, getting to Black Hawk without Jason was a challenge. He'd returned the buggy and old horse the town had given her because he said it they were unsafe, and she couldn't argue that. But that made her completely dependent on him for transportation, which she believed was Jason's true motive. It made it next to impossible for her to make contact with Jack Bishop to learn what he had to tell her.
Hearing a tapping on her bedroom door, she opened it to find Sarah Jensen standing in the hallway. “May I talk to you?” Sarah asked.
“Yes, of course.” Jenny stepped aside for Sarah to pass.
After they were seated, Sarah’s lips darted into a nervous smile, and she said, “Mr. Colby’s brother, Seth. Would it be possible for me to meet him soon?”
Jenny patted her hand. “I’ll talk to Mr. Colby. He’s anxious for Seth to marry so I’m sure he’ll be obliging in giving you a chance to see if Seth is the right man for you.”
Sarah said, hesitantly, “Do you think he’d make a good father, like Mr. Colby?”
“I don’t know,” Jenny said, feeling that little spark of pride again. “We’ll take one step at a time and see what happens.”
Sarah’s face became wistful. “I surely would like to be the first to marry.”
Jenny curved her arm around her. “We’ll keep that in mind.”
Sarah gave Jenny a hug and left.
That afternoon, for the first time in months, Jenny found herself humming instead of brooding while making custard pies in the big kitchen. She didn’t know whether Jason would approve of his wife taking over some of the duties of his cook, but a few of the brides wanted to practice their cooking skills and Jenny was anxious to know them better.
Cora Nelson, Maddy Jenkins, and Isabelle Herring gathered around while Jenny demonstrated how to make a fluted pie crust. "…and with your thumb and index finger you pinch the dough like this—" she turned the pie tin slowly while shaping the dough into curved ridges "—and you’ll have a fluted edge. Now you try this one." She passed a tin lined with pie dough to Cora. "And here’s one for you Maddy. And Isabelle, you can roll out more dough for the other two tins." The women went about their task with light-hearted chatter, and Jenny was thoroughly enjoying the interaction when she heard a wagon pull up and footsteps on the board walkway. Dusting the flour off her hands, she opened the back door. And stared in shocked surprise.
Jason stood on unsteady legs, a blood-dampened cloth wrapped around his head, his blood-stained shirt ripped open revealing a deep gash in a chest smeared with dry blood. Two miners stood on either side of him, supporting his arms. They helped him inside and lowered him onto a chair. After explaining to Jenny that there had been a cave-in at the Dusty, they turned and left. Jason started to remove his shirt, but when he lifted his arm, he grimaced and gave up the idea. “We were lucky," he said in a strained voice. "No one was hurt.”
"Except you," Jenny reminded him. She moved his shirt aside and looked at his blood-stained chest. “Those wounds need to be washed,” she said. “I’ll get some cloths and antiseptic." After gathering the supplies, she crouched beside Jason, who sat with his head tipped back against the wall, eyes closed. She touched his arm and he didn’t move. “Jason!” She took his face between her hands. “Jason!” she cried. “Look at me!”
He opened his eyes and looked at her. “Just get on with it,” he said, annoyed.
Jenny fetched a bowl of warm water and placed it beside him, then dipped a cloth into the water, wrung it out, and began dabbing at his blood-incrusted chest. “This is very deep,” she said, moving the cloth with extra care as it neared the wound. “We need to send for the doctor.”
“There is no doctor here,” Jason said, irritated. “Stop fretting and get some whiskey and patch me up the best you can.”
“Whiskey. Yes.” Jenny fetched a pint of whiskey from the cupboard, poured some onto her cloth and dabbed at the wound.
Jason opened his eyes. “Give me the damn bottle,” he said, taking the whiskey from her. He took several long slow swigs, waited a few moments, then took another long swig, near emptying the bottle, then set it down and closed his eyes again.
While waiting for the whiskey to numb Jason’s senses, Jenny glanced around at the women, who were gawking at them, and said to them, in a no-nonsense voice, “You came here to get hitched to miners, so you’d better get used seeing your man mussed up a bit. Now warm the milk and finish those pies.” The women returned to their cooking.
When Jenny turned, she found Jason staring at her breasts, a lazy smile crossing his face. “I'd like some warm milk—” he looked up at her “—your warm milk.”
Jenny tried to ignore his comment but the image his words evoked made her chest tight and her cheeks feel as if on fire. “I'm going to take off your shirt,” she said in an anxious voice while slowly peeling the shirt off his shoulders. “Am I hurting you?"
His smile withered, and he said in a lethargic voice, “Not as much as I was hurtin’ last night when you were nursin' Lily. You sure felt good.”
Jenny disregarded his remark, continuing to ease his shirt down one arm, then the other. She dropped it on the floor and stared at the deep gash that started at his collarbone and ended above his heart. “This wound will get infected if it’s not cleaned well,” she said.
“Then... start cleanin,’ ” Jason replied, his voice sluggish.
“Yes, well... Here goes.” Jenny passed the warm wet cloth over the wound, and Jason never flinched. He just kept watching her with burning eyes. After refilling the bowl with fresh warm water, she passed the cloth over the wound again. Satisfied that the wound was clean, she dropped the cloth into the water and patted the wound with a fresh dry cloth. “I’m going to put antiseptic on it now, then I'll take a look at your head.”
Jason said nothing, just sat staring at her breasts and smiling even as she dabbed on the antiseptic. After she’d finished dressing the wound, she stood up to tend to his head. As she leaned forward to remove the blood-soaked wrapping, she could feel Jason's warm breath wafting against her bosom, and she hoped he was too drowsy from the effects of the whiskey to notice how close his face was to her breasts.
He reaffirmed what she’d feared by placing his hands on her waist and saying, in a lethargic voice, “Could you lean a little closer? I’m beginning to like this.”
“Hush!” Jenny said, realizing Cora, Maddy and Isabelle had stopped what they were doing and were staring. The women turned away, and Jenny could hear their soft giggles. Part of her was glad the
y’d overheard a natural exchange between a husband and wife. Another part was relieved she couldn’t act on it. She feared that if she and Jason had been alone, as a distraction while she tended his wound she might have opened her blouse and let him have his way with her, whatever that might be, considering his pitiful state.
She removed the bloodied cloth and saw how deep the wound in his forehead was. “You need stitches," she said. "This wound is so deep it won't heal without them.”
“Then get a needle... and start sewin’,” Jason said in a drowsy voice.
Jenny stared at him. “You can’t be serious.”
He looked at her with wide round eyes and a goofy smile and waited.
“Well, yes, I can see you are.” At first Jenny was at a loss what to do. Then she remembered hearing her grandmother talk about stitching up her grandfather with heavy thread, and fetched her sewing box. Needle threaded, she leaned over Jason, primed to pierce his skin. When she didn’t, he looked at her with a lazy grin and said in a slothful voice, “Sweetheart... this thing’s... not gonna close... by itself... so if you get goin’ with what you have to do... I’ll busy myself... with what I wanna to do..." He draped his hands on her waist again.
Jenny noted that the women had left the room, and she realized they might not be the strong, self-reliant frontier women Jason had pegged them to be. For some reason that gave her the strength to get on with the job. Dousing the needle and thread with whiskey, she pierced Jason's skin. “Did that hurt?” she asked, before jabbing the needle further.
He smiled lazily and nuzzled her bosom. “Yeah.”
She ignored him, deciding to let him occupy himself in whatever way he wanted in order to get him through this. He’d probably remember little by the time she was through. Easing the needle into the flesh on the opposite side of the wound, she continued stitching, much as she would have stitched a hole in a sock... And he continued to nuzzle her bosom while making little plaintive noises in his throat.
He was also making her hand jerk. “Stop moving your head,” she demanded, “or you’ll have a zigzagged scar across your forehead.”
“Umm... you sure smell sweet... right here—” he shoved a finger between her breasts “—mind if I ask... what it is?”
“Lemon balm,” she said, trying to concentrate on lacing the needle in and out of his flesh. “I use it after I nurse Lily.”
“Umm... lemon balm... after you nurse Lily. I like that smell—” his hands came up to nudge her blouse open. “Yes sirreee I like that smell—" he tucked his nose between her breasts, inhaled a long draught and gave her a silly grin.
“You’re really not making this easy for me,” Jenny said. “You’re moving your head all around. And the other things you’re doing are very distracting. Could you be a good fellow and behave so I can finish?”
He looked up at her and said in a slow, metered voice, “You’re a good woman... Jenny Colby. You’re a good wife—" then dropped his hands, closed his eyes, rested his head back and said nothing more. And Jenny realized he’d passed out.
She finished stitching up the wound and dressed it, then removed his boots and lifted his legs onto a chair. Bracing her hand on his shoulder, she bent down and kissed him tenderly on the mouth, knowing he’d remember nothing the next day. But when she moved her lips from his, he opened his eyes, looked at her and said musingly, “I liked that.” Then his eyelids drifted shut.
It took Jenny, Su Ling, Cora, and Maddy working together to get Jason into bed. Jenny thanked everyone for their help and closed the door behind them. After feeding Lily, she checked on Jason, who lay stretched on his back wearing the same filthy pants he’d worn in the mine. The pants needed to come off, if only to keep the bed linens from becoming covered in grime.
As she stared at Jason's reclining figure, while deliberating how best to do the job, Su Ling came to the room and said, “I help you take dirty clothes off Mr. Colby. He too big for you to make ready for bed.”
“Yes, thank you Su Ling, I would appreciate that,” Jenny said, wondering if Jason was as sound asleep as he appeared. He certainly came to life when she’d kissed him in the kitchen. Still, they could not leave him in the filthy clothes.
Su Ling said sensibly, “You unfasten belt and pants and we both pull on pant legs.”
“Well... yes... I suppose that would be the way to do it,” Jenny replied, then moved around the bed and bent over her husband. “Jason,” she said, “Are you asleep? Maybe you could help Su Ling get you out of these clothes? Jason?" When she got no response, she took a long, slow breath and went about the business of unfastening Jason’s belt...
CHAPTER SIX
Jenny touched him. She had no idea what possessed her to do that, other than she’d never touched a man there before. True, she’d been married, but the dreadful intimate part of her marriage to Myles always took place under cover of darkness. And she’d never had an occasion to do anything but allow him to do the things he wanted, which were not pleasant. And when it was over he’d leave her be for a little while. Still, she’d considered herself a good wife because she let him have his way without complaint.
But she’d never expected, when she and Su Ling went to pull Jason’s pants off, that everything would come with them, leaving Jason sprawled on his back, naked as the day he was born. Su Ling left the room then, and she’d sat on the bed staring at her husband, the man she’d known was all male, but had not realized how very male he was. And that part of him was standing up like a flagpole. And that’s when she touched him.
Well, maybe not just touched. She’d been so fascinated by what she’d found that she did a little exploring... Until the thing started moving. She'd jerked her hand away and thrown the coverings over him. She didn’t touch him again after that, but she did stretch out on the bed beside him in case he needed something during the night. But he'd been sleeping like a baby, and he never knew she was there.
She awakened the next morning to the sound of Jason muttering under his breath—a curse—followed by the movement of him sitting up in bed. She pulled herself up and looked at a face she barely recognized. The dressing she’d wrapped around his forehead rested above an eye swollen shut and ringed in crimson. On his chest was a large black and purple bruise that crept from beneath the dressing that covered the wound, spread below his breast and extended down his ribs. Until now, she hadn’t noticed the scrapes and bruises on his shoulder and upper arm.
“How do you feel,” she asked, gathering her night dress around her.
“Like I was trampled by a bull." His one-eyed gaze moved to her pillow beside his, then to his pants and socks and underwear, folded and stacked on the floor. “You slept with me,” he said in a plodding voice.
“I was worried,” she replied. “You’d had a bad knock on the head.”
“What did I miss?”
“Just me sewing up your head.”
“I remember that, and the lemon balm—" he started to draw in a breath then stopped abruptly, and his hand came up to clutch his ribs.
“You hurt badly, don’t you?”
“I’ve had better days.” He looked at the mussed up sheets, then at Jenny. “I want to know about last night. Someone undressed me and slept in my bed, and there’s a hell of a mess on the sheets, and I want to know what happened.”
“Nothing happened.”
“Did we consummate our marriage?”
“You were in no condition for... anything.”
“When you were working on my head, I guarantee I was ready for something. My head may have hurt like hell, but another part of me hurt worse.”
“Well, by the time Su Ling and I got your clothes off, you were... very relaxed.” Jenny felt heat rush up her face. True, he had been relaxed, sprawled out on the bed like a drunkard in a stupor. But one part of him was on full alert.
He lowered his legs to the floor. Elbows on knees, he dropped his head in his hands and said, “I’m glad we didn’t consummate our marriage. I gave you my
word.”
His back was a patchwork of cuts and scrapes and purple bruises that ran from his shoulder blade to where the bed coverings twisted at his waist. She touched a large bruise and felt him flinch. Removing her hand, she said, “Maybe we should forget about working the Dusty. It’s very dangerous down there. You could have been killed.”
“I made a bargain with you and I intend to stick by it.”
“I don’t care about the bargain, Jason, I care about—" Jenny stopped short of saying, you, and said instead "—having a husband to protect me, not get himself killed.”
“We just need to do a little work shoring things up and it’ll be fine.”
“Well, we don’t need to talk about it now. Meanwhile, I’ve got to feed Lily.”
“Bring me some underwear first,” Jason said. “In the locker.”
Jenny handed him a pair of under drawers from the top of a stack in the locker. “You really need to stay in bed today and rest,” she said. “I’ll bring you a breakfast tray.”
“I have to go to the Dusty.” Jason threw the covers off and stood on wobbly legs. “Help me get these on.”
Jenny stared at his tall naked frame. Reaching for the under drawers, she crouched in front of him and guided first one foot, then the other into each leg hole. “You can’t possibly go,” she said, easing the drawers up his legs and over his male part, which, unlike the night before, looked as lethargic as the rest of him.
“I have to,” he said, grunting as he adjusted the drawers. “Those timbers are rotten and I’ve got to shore them up before someone gets hurt.” He moved very slowly toward the locker.
Jenny grasped his arm. “You absolutely cannot go anywhere today!”
He shrugged off her hand, opened the locker door and gingerly took out a shirt.
Colby's Child Page 10