He laughed. “Not barns, bairn’s umm baby speak.”
“But babies don’t speak, they just make noises. Our sister Katie told us that. We have two babies here, you know.”
“Well now do ya? Maybe girl babies don’t speak but Collin here told me you two were setting up towers just so he’d have to knock them down.”
“Did he really say that?”
“You heard him with your own ears now, didn’t ya?”
The two little girls looked back and forth at each other and Ian tried not to crack a smile. He felt the shift in the air as someone came up behind him and the lad looking over his shoulder started to bounce and say “mamma mamma mamma”.
“See lassies, now he’s telling me that his mam is behind me. So I’ll bid you two a good day now.”
He turned to see Carol in a pale pink day dress. While she had been lovely right off the train, this pressed and polished version of his wife-to-be all but took his breath away. “Ah there you are, lass. Did ya have a bonny rest?”
“I had a good rest yes, thank you. What are you doing here, supper isn’t for another hour?”
Ian handed her son to her as the child had been leaning toward her and he was afraid the wiggling child would work himself loose from his hands. “I thought if Miss Ethel could spare you, maybe we could go for a walk and have a bit of a talk. I’d like ta show ya the town and our house if I could. As well as speak to ya concerning our life after the wedding tomorrow.”
“Oh, let me go tell Miss Ethel where we’re going. And get mine and Collin’s wraps.”
“Aye lass that would be fine. I’ll wait for ye right here with these two fine lassies.”
The twins giggled. “You keep saying funny things.”
“Aye, and that is without trying it is. What do ye think it would sound like if I tried to say funny things?”
Carol hurried off as Ian sat on the divan and entertained the twins with a story from Scotland about two lassies who found a wee fairy prince named Collin.
Chapter Three
Carol walked by Ian’s side through the town of Silverpines as he led them toward the house that would be their home the following day. She was nervous, not because she didn’t think that Ian was a good man. She was convinced that he was just from the few words they’d exchanged and watching him with the twins and Collin back at the Howard House. No she was nervous because tomorrow that man would be her husband. “So Ian, what do you expect from me after our wedding? I mean you said you were looking for a wife and a family, but you didn’t much say what you expected of me after we married.”
Ian looked down at her and she couldn’t help but smile. The big man had insisted on carrying Collin and her precious little one had been jabbering and pointing the whole trip. Ian had talked to him as if he could understand what the baby was babbling and it had endeared the big Scotsman even more to Carol. “I don’t expect anything from ye lass, but that ye look after me and the wee bairn and provide me with a companion to walk through life with. Is there something that ye expect of me?”
She shook her head. “Nothing special; like you said a companion in life, a provider and protector. I’d like it if you’d help me raise Collin to be a good man.”
“Aye Carol, I can and will do all that. We have to spend some time getting to know each other. I want to know your hopes and dreams. I want to know what ye like and don’t like. I want to know you like I know no one else.”
Before Carol could answer and tell him she wanted those things too, he pointed to a quaint two story house set at the end of the block they were walking down. “There is our house, lass. Let me show you the inside.”
Carol looked up at the home it was the only two-story in several blocks of single smaller houses. “Why do you have the largest house on the block?”
Ian smiled. “This home was supposed to be for Jeremiah and his bride, but he bought her a house beside her sister. As the assistant mine manager, he asked me to move in here and make sure the new miners and their families and the widows still living here are all taken care of, and have someone to come to if they need anything. While not officially your job, I would appreciate it lass, if you would bring any concerns or needs you might hear of to my attention. I used to keep my ear to the ground at the local saloon but knowing your feelings on the subject, I informed the saloon owner and his wife I wouldn’t be there again. So I’ll need to find other ways to hear what I need to head off problems before they become problems.”
Carol couldn’t help but think again of the differences between Ian and Carl. Ian had heard how Carl’s betrayal at the tavern back home affected her, and decided to not set foot in the local saloon where his workers frequented, even though it meant he might miss information he needed to do his job. Carl had left her sick and with his child to see to his own pleasures. Yet how could she be sure this man who claimed he’d take care of her and her son wouldn’t turn out to be just like Carl in the long run? How could she afford to let her heart loose and take a chance? She couldn’t, and no matter what he said or did, until she was convinced it wasn’t an act she would keep her heart safe and behind the walls she’d built since Carl’s death.
They entered the home and Carol could see that someone had recently cleaned it. The lack of dust on any surface and the scrubbed and polished look of the floors also told her that person was a woman. Perhaps Ian wasn’t as different as he seemed. If he’d had a woman willing to clean for him, perhaps his letter asking for a wife and family wasn’t an indication of his desire for a family as much as it was just another thing he saw as necessary for his job as Assistant Manager.
Almost as if he could see what she was thinking, Ian indicated the room. “As you can see I had the place cleaned. I paid several of the widows in the area to come in and make certain the house would be up to a woman’s standard of cleanliness.”
“I see, may I ask you a question, Ian?”
“Aye lass, you can ask me anything ya want at any time.”
She looked him in the eye, not sure how to ask what was in her head and yet desperately needing to know if she was his consolation bride. Finally she just let the question flow out of her mouth. “Why me?”
Ian’s face showed his confusion at her question. “I don’t ken what you’re asking me, lass. What do ya mean, why you?”
She bit her lower lip in nervousness. “I mean, it’s obvious that your job as the assistant mine manager puts you in contact with a lot of the widows of this town. Why did you write to Pastor Bing and me? Why not just choose one of them?”
Ian placed his hand on her lower back and directed her into the modestly furnished parlor and lead her to the settee. “Ye be right in saying that I have a lot of contact with the widows and daughters of the men who lost their lives in the mine’s collapse. One of the things Missus Sewell and Jeremiah want is to make sure they are well cared for. So I have gotten to know them over the last few months. Enough so to know that some of them aren’t ready yet to move on to another husband. They still hold the husband they lost in their hearts and that leaves no room for a possible match right now. Others are just too young or too old for me. I ken that sounds bad but I’m a man with some life experience and I dinna want a lass just out of her childhood.
“Some of the other widows are older than me and while that may not bother some men, it did me. I want a wife close to my own age. Those that are older are five or more years older, and it just made me uncomfortable. So I prayed about what to do and talked to my friend and one of the owners of the mine, Nathan Ryder, and he told me about Celeste’s House and that they were helping woman who needed a fresh start. That appealed to me, being able to help someone start over. It’s what Nathan’s grandfather did for me when I first arrived from Scotland. I fell in with a rough lot back in New York and would probably have ended up dead long before now if I hadn’t run into Nugget Nate and his wife Penny one night. So when they offered me a fresh start out west working in one of the Ryder mines, I jumped on it. Now
I can pay them back by helping someone else start over as well. Plus your letter, lass, it just spoke to my heart. I knew you were the one I was to help, you and Collin. Does that answer yer question, lass?”
Carol nodded. “Yes Ian, it does. I know it’s silly but I didn’t want to be someone’s second or third choice. I was worried you’d asked some of the widows and they’d said no.”
“Nay lass, none of them spoke to my heart like your letter did.” He stood and scooped up Collin, who’d been sitting on the floor playing with a wooden rattle that Ian had given him when they came into the room. Then he held one hand out to her. “Now let me show you our house, lass.”
She took his hand and was amazed again at his strength as he pulled her to her feet. Mining had been good to Ian MacGregor and he had the wide shoulders and large arms to prove it. Carl had been strong too, but his tendency to indulge his wants in food and drink had left him a bit soft in the middle. Carol couldn’t help wondering if Ian was as fit all over as he appeared to be. She blushed at the thought and hurried across the parlor toward the door, eager to explore the house she would call her own after her wedding tomorrow and keep her husband-to-be from asking her what caused her to blush. She fanned herself as she stepped in front of him.
She went back into the entrance way and saw there was a large staircase going up to the next level as well as a hallway running back into the house. Across from the staircase was a set of pocket doors similar to the ones that opened into the parlor. Carol opened them to see a dining room with a large walnut table and chairs that would seat about ten. There was a matching sideboard along the inside wall and a hutch full of fine china against the back wall. The front wall held a large window that looked out onto the front porch and the outside wall was mostly wood with a window that looked out onto the empty lot beside them. Carol went through the door beside the hutch and entered into a good sized kitchen with a small breakfast nook on the outside wall. Behind the table was a bay style window that also looked out onto the empty lot next door. There was a work table set in the center of the kitchen, and on the wall closest to the hallway was a new model gas cookstove and oven. Also a door she assumed went into the hall she’d seen earlier. There was a sink and pump along the back wall and the cookstove had a water tank attached to its side for providing hot water to clean up with. There was a door along the back wall that if it had a window she would have assumed it led outdoors, but it didn’t. So she opened it to see a pantry that was mostly empty, but there was an icebox; and in the middle of the floor was a trapdoor that Carol assumed led to a root cellar. She would need to go shopping before she could cook for her husband and that made her smile. He was a typical bachelor, she bet he ate every meal at one of the town’s restaurants or even at the saloon until now. “I’ll need to shop before I can cook for us, Ian.”
“Aye, one of the widow’s mentioned that to me yesterday. We can do that tomorrow if ye wish. I should have asked Missus Cutler to deliver at least the staples ye would need, but I dinna even think about it lass.”
She smiled at him. “That’s okay, Ian. Your job is to protect us and provide for us. Mine is to take care of our home and cook and clean. Shopping falls under my job, not yours. I wouldn’t have expected you to think about it.”
“Aye, but I should have. I wanted everything to be perfect for ya and the little bairn when you got here.” His face showed that he was truly upset that he’d not thought to fill the pantry. She walked up and patted his cheek.
“It’s all right, Ian. This is perfect. I’ll get to shop and meet the storekeeper. That’s an important thing for a wife to do in a new town. Now show me the rest of our home.”
Ian felt terrible. He’d wanted everything to be perfect for Carol when she and Collin arrived and the women who’d cleaned had mentioned that the pantry and cupboards were empty. Somehow that hadn’t even sunk into his brain that he needed to fill them. It was a testament to Carol’s kind nature that she’d tried to soothe his troubled mind by telling him she was happy for the opportunity to shop. He needed to do better. He was a family man now. He needed to think about things like food and supplies for his wife and child.
Carol was leading him by the hand as he followed her across the hall from the kitchen and into the study. “Oh look at all these books, Ian”
“Aye, the last mine manager had lived here a long time. He died in the first collapse. I was told his wife was heartbroken and the shock of it all caused her heart to break. She died not a month later. Doctor Hattie told the Sewell’s her heart gave out. So most of the furnishings and all the books came with the house.”
Carol walked up and wrapped her arms around him and Collin. “That’s sad. This town has been through so much in the last year. I don’t know how they survived.”
Ian nodded and put his arm not filled with the now sleeping infant around her holding her close. “Aye lass, they have but I’ve been here since October and have come to realize that the women of Silverpines are a determined group. For example, Missus Sewell’s fiancé was killed before the disasters by an outlaw, who then set himself up as the law here in town and demanded that she become his woman. Instead of giving in to the demands, she sent back east to a matchmaker and ordered up a husband who was also a lawman.”
“That was brave of her.”
“Aye, and when the disaster struck and the women in town realized they were falling prey to con men and thieves, they approached her and she gave them a mail order bride paper that they could place advertisements for husbands in. Most of the men ye’ll meet are here because the women sent for them. These are strong women willing to do what they must to survive. Even the widows you’ll meet that haven’t sent for husbands are a strong and courageous lot.”
He could see Carol’s forehead wrinkle as she thought about what he was saying. “I hope I can follow in their examples and be the strong wife and mother that I need to be.”
Ian reached his hand to her chin and turned her head up to look him in the eye. “Carol, I have no doubt ye are exactly that kind of woman. You traveled alone to not one but two strange towns for the chance at a new life. I’m the one who must live up to your strength, lass.”
Then he dipped his head and kissed this wonderful, strong and lovely woman who’d agreed to be his wife. “Let me show you upstairs before we have to leave. It isn’t good to keep Miss Edith waiting. Rumor has it she is a bit free with that rifle of hers.”
Carol giggled and it caused Ian to desire her even more. No, being married to this woman would not be a hardship. Giving her the time to fall in love with him before taking her to their marriage bed, that might be a harder task than he’d originally thought. He was already highly attracted to this lovely woman and every minute he spent with her made it more than clear to him that he was going to quickly and easily lose his heart to her completely.
He showed her to the main bedroom. “This will be our room when you’re ready. I’ve set you up another room if you wish it. I didn’t want you to feel any pressure to fill my bed until you were comfortable with it.”
She blushed and swallowed hard before biting her lip. “Thank you, Ian.” He saw tears pooling in her eyes again. “I’m beginning to learn that you are a very kind and thoughtful man. I believe I’m going to have no trouble falling in love with you.”
He laid the wee lad on the middle of the bed and pulled her into his arms. “Lass, I feel the same way about you. However, I know from the things ye’ve already told me that ye’ve never had a choice. I won’t pressure you in any way to sleep in this room or bed or anything that comes along with those actions until you tell me you’re ready.”
He was pleasantly surprised when she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled his head down to hers, kissing him with more passion than he’d allowed himself to display to her yet. It took everything within him to not devour her lips right then and there, but he did respond with the same level of passion she herself had shown. Then he gentled the kiss and stepped back. “Lass,
ye canna keep doing that if ye want me to honor my pledge ta ye.”
She giggled and blushed. “Leave Collin on the bed and let’s check out the rest of the rooms up here.”
Next he took her across the hall and opened the door he’d had set up as a nursery for the bairn. “This room be for Collin.”
Carol gasped as she stepped inside. Her eyes sparkled and Ian smiled, glad to know that his efforts had pleased her. “Oh look, there’s even toys and a rocking chair.”
“Aye, I carved a lot of the figures myself. It gave me something ta do of a night while I was waiting for ya both to arrive.”
She turned, holding the Noah’s ark boat he’d carved and filled with small wooden animal carvings. “You made this for Collin?”
“Aye.”
Again tears slid down her face. As she flung herself into his arms, she said, “I don’t know what I did to deserve a husband like you.”
He looked down into the amber pools of her eyes. “Nay lass, I believe I’m the lucky one. I get you and a strong son all from a simple letter. Ye and the wee bairn are the answer to every desire.”
She kissed him again and again until he had to forcefully separate her from him. “Carol, Mo Ghràidh, I dinna want to jump our vows. Ye can’t keep tempting me, Mo Ghaol. I donna think I can keep resisting ya.”
She stepped back, already knowing that this man was quickly claiming her heart for his own. If she wasn’t in love with him already, she was falling and falling hard. She turned and looked at the next room. It was a simple room with a single bed and a wardrobe and dressing table. She knew this was the room he’d set up for her. Yet she wouldn’t tell him tonight, as they both were too close to losing themselves to temptation but she had no intention of ever sleeping in that room. Then she opened the door at the back of the second floor and frowned. The room was completely empty. She looked at Ian who was standing behind her. “I don’t understand?”
Wanted: Family (Silverpines Series Book 20) Page 3