Abigail (Angel Creek Christmas Brides Book 12)

by Peggy McKenzie

  He saw tears pool in Abigail’s beautiful soulful eyes. “Will, that’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.” She leaned in and kissed him lightly on his mouth.

  “I find that hard to believe, but in that case, I think I can go one better.”

  “I doubt that very much,” Abigail’s voice cracked with emotion.

  Chapter 18

  Abigail set off to walk Violet to the school with Lily and Baby Rose in tow. She reached the schoolhouse a little before the bell rang and was surprised to see the girls’ aunt waiting for them just inside the door.

  “Danielle, I wasn’t expecting you to be here after—”

  “After that arrogant jackass of a man threw me out of the house preventing me from seeing my nieces?”

  “Please, don’t talk like that in front of the girls.” She turned to Violet. “Go on into class, Violet. And don’t leave school until I come back to get you this afternoon.”

  Violet kissed Abigail goodbye on her cheek then turned to their aunt. “Goodbye, Aunt Danielle. I hope you learn to act like a lady soon. And if you don’t act nice, Santa won’t bring you any presents under the tree.” Then Violet turned rushed inside to find her classmates.

  “What have you been telling that child behind my back?”

  “Violet is a very smart young lady. I didn’t have to tell her anything about your behavior in our home this morning. And I’m not comfortable having this conversation in front of Lily or in a public place. Your outrageous behavior isn’t helping your case with Will. If I were you—”

  “Well, you aren’t me. And you are one to talk. You aren’t helping your case either by pretending to be in love with that man or putting on a front as a happy family. I know your story, Abigail. You and the captain have only known each other a month at best. I know the whole story and any judge worth his salt will see right through your little ruse of wedded bliss.”

  “Wedded bliss? Who’s getting married?”

  Abigail turned to see Miss Babcock standing in the hallway holding an armful of her students’ coats.

  Abigail knew the story of what happened between Lanora and Will that night. Will had made it clear he had no feelings for Lanora, but Abigail wasn’t convinced Lanora didn’t have feelings for Will. Especially when she caught the schoolteacher making eyes at Will when he came with her to pick up Violet from school that day.

  “This is not the time or the place to be discussing my private affairs. Now if you will excuse me, I need to get Lily and Baby Rose home.”

  Abigail headed out of the schoolhouse and retraced her steps back home. She wondered if this nightmare would ever end and whether Danielle would get tired of making trouble after she and Will were married. Surely then the woman would realize she hadn’t a prayer of getting these girls away from them. Why was she trying so hard to get custody of them anyway? It was clear she had no real affection for them and she said herself she had no intention of raising them. She admitted she intended to pass them off to a hired nanny. So, what was behind her dogged determination to get them away from Will? She wished she knew.

  She arrived home and put Baby Rose down for her nap and helped Lily get settled in her room practicing her letters and numbers on a slate board with chalk. Abigail and Lily practiced a little bit every day, so that when Lily started to school, she would be well ahead of what was expected of her.

  Now that the girls were settled, she could get about the business of cleaning house. She had always thought keeping house was tantamount to being an unpaid servant, but she found she enjoyed keeping a neat house. It gave her great pleasure when Will came home and noticed her efforts. Maybe that wasn’t so much about his compliments regarding her housekeeping skills and more about the way he looked at her when he spoke about it. Anyway, she was learning that a lot of her misconceptions about being a wife and mother were tainted by someone else’s experiences and it was sometimes hard to get a true feel for a situation when one was on the outside looking in.

  Abigail spent the rest of the morning doing laundry and mending clothes. Then came lunch and the dishes that followed. After the children were down for a nap, she still had to sweep, mop, and begin preparations for the stew they were having for dinner. It was all a lot of work, more than she ever thought she would be required to do, and yet, she found herself singing throughout the mundane chores. Maybe she had misjudged her parent’s marriage. She supposed she could have—

  “And what are you thinking on so hard?”

  She whirled to see her handsome captain leaning against the kitchen doorway and she blushed as wonderful sensations rippled through her body. “I was thinking about…” What was she going to say? She was thinking about how she had severely misjudged marriage.

  He stepped inside the kitchen and walked toward her. “You were thinking about…?” He repeated.

  “Christmas,” she blurted. “I was thinking about Christmas. You said we were going to get the girls a tree this Friday.

  “Is that all you were thinking about, Abigail? You look a little flushed. Does thinking about a Christmas tree always make you blush?” He reached out to her and pulled her into his arms. “Or was it something else that made you turn such a becoming shade of pink?” He leaned down and brushed her lips with his. She leaned in and kissed him back. Oh, how she felt sorry for her sisters. They too could have been happy with their choice of husband if they had fallen in love with someone like—her captain.

  “Abigail, I asked my commanding officer for some time off between Christmas and the first of the year. I thought that would be a good time for us to solidify our family.”

  “Solidify our family? In what way?” Abigail was a bit confused at Will’s meaning.

  “What I mean by that is...that I was thinking it would be really special for the girls...and us...to make special memories, if we got married on Christmas Eve. What do you think?”

  Abigail looked up at the man who was going to be her husband. “Christmas Eve? Oh, Will, I think that’s—”

  “A bad idea. I should have listened to Jeremy. He told me you wouldn’t want to get married right in the middle of the Christmas holidays. He said women liked to have their special day when all the attention was on them. I’m sorry. Truly, I am. It’s going to take me some time to—”

  Abigail leaned in and kissed Will’s mouth to stop him from talking. “You didn’t let me finish my sentence. What I was going to say before you kept talking—which is a habit of yours we will need to work on in the years to come—is that I think it’s a wonderful idea. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the beginning of our family with our girls than by getting married on Christmas Eve.

  Tears welled in Abigail’s eyes and Will leaned in and wiped them away with his thumb. “So, then am I to understand these are happy tears sliding down your face?”

  She slapped at his hand and leaned in to kiss him again. “Yes, Captain Bennett. These are most definitely happy tears.”

  Will grinned and picked her up and swung her around. She screamed in delight. Lily came running into the kitchen. “What’s going on? Are you having fun with Uncle Will, Abigail?”

  Abigail threw her head back and laughed at Lily’s question. “Yes, Lily. I most certainly am. I’m having the most fun of my entire life with Uncle Will.”

  Chapter 19

  Danielle sat in her hotel room and waited for her visitor. Her entire body hummed with anticipation as she thought about this morning’s conversation with Miss Babcock.

  “So, the schoolteacher and Captain Bennett have a past, do they? I think I can use that to my advantage.”

  A few minutes later, a knock on the door signaled her company had arrived. She took her time answering. She wanted to give herself time to gather her thoughts and calm her excitement. It wouldn’t do for the woman to see how much Danielle wanted answers.

  She stopped at the door and brushed the wrinkles out of her skirt, then smoothed her hair into place. Another knock signaled her visitor was growing
impatient. Good, the woman was as curious about her and she was about the little schoolteacher.

  Danielle opened the door wide and greeted her visitor. “Good evening, Miss Babcock. Please, do come in. It seems we have much to talk about.”

  Miss Babcock looked a little nervous and Danielle worked to ease her anxiety. “Please, sit down. How about a cup of tea?”

  She pointed the woman to a chair near the window next to a small round table. Danielle pulled up a second chair from the desk in the room and smiled. “I thought it would be a good thing that I get to know more about my niece, Violet. What better way to do that than to speak with the one person who is with her all day. Now, how about that cup of tea?”

  Miss Babcock nodded. “Yes, thank you. That would be nice.” The teacher sat in the chair and waited for Danielle to pour the tea. When there was nothing left to do, Danielle took her chair and chose her words carefully.

  “I gathered by this afternoon’s exchange, you and Captain Bennett have a history. I’d be interested in knowing more about the particulars.”

  The woman sitting across from here frowned. “Why?”

  It was a simple question and one Danielle wasn’t ready to be completely honest about. “Captain Bennett has custody of my nieces. And although I intend to rectify that misdirection of the legal system, I would like to know if there’s anything I should be worried about when it comes to the good captain.”

  “Worried about?” Miss Babcock replied.

  Danielle mentally rolled her eyes. For a schoolteacher, this woman was rather dense. She tried another way to get the information she wanted.

  “What I am getting at Miss Babcock, is that I want the very best for my brother’s daughters. The very best. And I don’t believe living with a bachelor in a military fort, who may have particular tastes, shall we say, is the best place for three impressionable girls.”

  “What kind of particular tastes?”

  The woman really was dense. Danielle was surprised she was able to find her way to school every morning.

  “Let me be blunt. I was under the impression you and the captain have intimate knowledge of each other and I want to know if you and he are still intimate with each other.”

  The woman’s shoulders sagged. “No. Unfortunately not. Since your nieces arrived, the captain has been quite standoffish.”

  “I see, and does that include his live-in housekeeper? What’s her name? Miss—”

  “Abigail Whittaker.”

  Danielle could tell by the rancor in the teacher’s voice she was not happy about the upcoming nuptials between her love interest and the housekeeper.

  “Well, apparently it does. Why else would the captain be marrying someone like her? I mean, Miss Babcock, the woman can’t even begin to compare with you. Your intelligence and beauty set you apart from all other women I’ve seen around these parts.” Danielle appealed to the woman’s vanity.

  “I couldn’t agree more, Miss Wilson—”

  “Please, call me Danielle since we are destined to be close friends. And what shall I call you?” She reached over and touched the woman’s arm in a show of camaraderie.

  “Lanora. My name is Lanora.”

  “Lanora. Such a lovely name. Well, I know we shall be great friends now.”

  “I’d like that. It’s not easy finding women friends in these parts. I mean one little slip of sleeping with a married man when you didn’t know he was a married man, and well—”

  “I can only imagine, but let’s get back to Captain Bennett, shall we? I fear he and Miss Whittaker may have been keeping company late at night in the same household with my nieces. I find that behavior inappropriate around young impressionable children, don’t you?”

  “Yeah, I guess so.” Danielle watched the confused look on Lanora’s face.

  “Then I think the best thing we can do as guardians—and teachers—of little children, especially little girls, is to make certain Miss Whittaker is no longer a bad influence on my nieces. We must get her out of that house and away from the captain, don’t you agree?”

  “Yes, I do agree. I mean, I had him first. How dare she come into town and pretend to care about those girls and take the captain’s attention away from me.”

  “Yes, how dare she,” Danielle purred. “Once we have the woman away from the captain and the girls, then I shall take charge of my nieces and you will have the captain all to yourself. Now, how does that sound?”

  “It sounds like a lovely idea, Miss—I mean Danielle.”

  “Good. So here’s what we need to do. The only way to convince Miss Whittaker to leave town is to prove to her that her fiancé isn’t good marriage material. I shall constantly place doubt in the woman’s mind and then you will lure the captain into your bed. Then I shall make certain Miss Whittaker witnesses the cheating captain in your bed with her own eyes.”

  “You mean, I get to sleep with the captain again?”

  Danielle saw the woman’s eyes glitter with lust. “If that’s what you want.” She found the woman’s unbridled joy at being in the captain’s bed again disgusting, but she’d keep that little tidbit to herself. After all, she didn’t care one whit what this jezebel did. All she cared about was breaking up Captain Bennett and his little housekeeper. If she could keep them from marrying, her chance to get the girls, and their money, went up considerably.

  “Oh, yes. I want.”

  “Then you must act quickly for I hear they are planning to marry soon, maybe even by Christmas. That means we only have a handful of days to drive a wedge between them.”

  “Tell me what I need to do.” Lanora leaned in as if their conversation was a big secret even though there was no one else in the room.

  Danielle played along with the dimwitted woman and dropped her voice to a whisper, “Here’s what you must do. I have managed to befriend the doctor and convince him I am in constant pain. He has given me a draught of laudanum. You will put this in Captain Bennett’s drink—”

  “But, how will I get him to have a drink with me? He barely even talks to me these days,” Lanora whined.

  “You are a woman on a mission, Lanora. You must figure that out for yourself...that is, if you are truly set on having the captain back in your bed.” Really, the woman was quite slow.

  “Alright, I’ll think of something,” Lanora assured her.

  “Well, see that you do. If you fail, you will lose your captain to the mousey little housekeeper, forever. You wouldn’t want that, now would you?”

  Danielle could see the woman was deep in thought. “No, I wouldn’t want that. Alright, I’ll figure it out. Give me the ladle.”

  “Laudanum. Not ladel.” Danielle drew in a frustrated breath and blew it out slowly to calm her growing irritation. “Lanora, it doesn’t matter what it’s called. Here it is. Two drops will be more than enough to incapacitate the captain. Don’t use the whole bottle or you’ll kill the man and you wouldn’t want that.”

  “Nope. I can’t get no satisfaction in sleeping with a dead man.”

  “Yes, well I suppose that’s true enough.” Danielle was at a loss as to what else she could say to such a bizarre remark.

  The woman laughed, a deep guttural sound that made Danielle uneasy, and for the first time, she realized the schoolteacher wasn’t just a dimwit, but her sanity could be called into question too. That would work to Danielle’s advantage. A stronger mind would have been much harder to bend to do Danielle’s bidding.

  “Lanora, remember. While you are working on getting Captain Bennett into your bed, I’ll work on Miss Whittaker. I’ll convince her that Will is known for his philandering ways and the girls would be better off with me. In Boston, they’ll have every advantage money can buy unlike out here in this forsaken destitute wilderness where they have no chance at bright promising futures. Once you accomplish your mission, I foresee Miss Whittaker heading back to wherever it was she came from never to be seen again.”

  Lanora giggled and Danielle smiled at the fevered
look in the woman’s eye. If Lanora did accidentally kill the captain with too much laudanum in his drink, would that really be so bad?

  She joined her companion with a wicked laugh of her own.

  Will had already spoken to his commander about his upcoming wedding so he was free to make plans for the entire week after Christmas without fear of being called to duty. The odds there would be any trouble were scarce anyway because of the new snowfall across the mountains and valleys. The one thing about deep snow, it prevented Indian raids and it prevented any other possible trouble makers from venturing out past their own warm beds.

  “Are you sure you want to do this, Will?” Jeremy had dogged him with doubts ever since he had expressed his intentions to marry Abigail.

  “I’ve told you a hundred times already, yes, I want to marry Abigail.”

  “But how well do you really know her? I mean, it’s only been a short while since you brought her to the fort and if you remember, she said this job was only temporary. What makes you think she will stay? You know what happened with Charlotte—”

  “Don’t compare Charlotte and Abigail. They are completely different women and Abigail is nothing like Charlotte.” It irked Will that his friend couldn’t just be happy for him, but he understood to some degree. Jeremy was the only person who stood beside him through all the heartache and emotional devastation Charlotte’s departure left, so he owed his friend some consideration, but there was a line he wouldn’t let even Jeremy cross.

  Jeremy kept pace with him. “I just hope you know what you’re doing, Will. I mean it hasn’t been that long since—”

  Will stopped short catching his friend by surprise. “I know precisely how long it’s been, Jeremy. Seven months, fourteen days, and sixteen hours since I found Charlotte in my bed with someone she picked up from the passing stagecoach. And, it was then she was happy to tell me what a lousy husband I was and how she found so much more pleasure in the arms of a passing stranger—no, strangers. If you will remember, it was then she ticked off at least twenty names just to rub salt into the fresh wounds she’d cut into my heart with her betrayals. But, I’m over her and the dirty business she was about. She’s gone and I will never lay eyes on that woman again. Now, if you could just try to be happy for me, Jeremy. Just try to put the past aside and see Abigail for who she is—a beautiful young woman with a whole lot of compassion in her heart for me and my nieces.”