"I'm happy for both of you," Ruby said softly, wondering idly when her turn to be a mother would be. She could be carrying right that moment. It was the first time she'd really thought about the consequences of her nights with Lewis. She smiled, liking the idea of having a baby soon. One that looked just like his papa. She was startled to realize she had real feelings for Lewis. She wasn't sure it was real love yet, but it was definitely growing. He was good to her.
"Thank you! I'll give Cassie your best."
"I appreciate that." She was still staring off into space, dreaming about a tiny little version of Lewis when Penny waved her hand in front of her face.
"We need to eat some lunch. I'm starving."
Ruby grinned at her friend. "You're always starving."
"I know. Can we eat? Edna Petunia packed some fried chicken, and it's all I've been able to think about for hours."
"Of course. I need to figure out what to make for Lewis and me." Ruby thought about what she had on hand that would be quick to fix. It would probably have to be a sandwich so they could both get back to work quickly.
"Oh, Edna Petunia packed lunch for all three of us. She said you were probably about to waste away to nothing since you were only eating your own cooking." Penny winked at Ruby.
Ruby sighed. "I'm not a bad cook. I simply don't enjoy it like she and Sarah Jane do. Robert and James are thrilled with my cooking, compared to what Lewis used to make."
"I'm sure you're an excellent cook when you're compared with Lewis."
Ruby refused to be baited. "Let me go get Lewis so we can all eat together." She hurried to the back room. "Edna Petunia sent lunch with Penny for all three of us. Are you ready to take your lunch break?"
He nodded. "Let's lock the door for thirty minutes and have a real lunch. I need the break."
Ruby rushed to the front door to do his bidding. Usually they took turns eating lunch, but it would be nice to have a break together.
By the time she turned from locking the door, Penny had spread a quilt on the floor of the store, and she and Lewis were sitting on it, digging through the picnic basket. "That smells delicious," Lewis said.
Ruby joined the others on the quilt, taking out the lemonade and glasses the old woman had kindly packed. "Make sure you tell Edna Petunia that I'm doing just fine without her shoving food in my face every fifteen minutes. I won't see her until church tomorrow, and we don't need her to worry about me all that time."
Penny laughed. "I'll tell her."
They talked about how the boys were doing with their new grandmother while they ate. "Edna Petunia has those boys spoiled rotten. She told me that bastards need extra spoiling."
Lewis grew rigid. "My boys aren't bastards."
"Of course they're not," Penny returned. "Edna Petunia thinks all children should be bastards."
"Why?" he asked.
"Because she thinks bastards deserve extra love, and when it comes right down to it, she wants to shower all children with extra love. So she calls them all bastards," Ruby said. She'd finally put it together, and she was thrilled to understand the old woman for the first time.
"Why do bastards deserve extra love?" Lewis asked, truly confused.
Ruby shrugged. "I have no idea. That's a question only Edna Petunia can answer. She wants to think all of us are bastards too. I corrected her for the longest time, but then I finally realized that she wants us to be bastards. If it makes her happy, I'll be anything. She's been good to us."
He shook his head. "That's crazy."
Penny laughed at that. "No one ever claimed Edna Petunia was the least bit sane. She's lovable, though."
"She is that!"
As soon as lunch was over, Penny cleaned up their mess while Ruby unlocked the door, and Lewis got back to work. It was nice to take a real lunch for a change, but it was just as nice to get back to work. There was a lot to be done.
*****
Ruby forgot all about the letter from David until she was baking the following afternoon. She put her hand into her apron pocket and pulled the letter out. She briefly considered throwing it away, but she felt like she should at least read what he had to say. She'd spent a lot of years thinking she was in love with him, after all. She knew now she'd had no idea what love was, but she'd believed it then.
She slid the two loaves of bread into the oven before sitting at the kitchen table and opening the letter. Why would he have written her again? Wouldn't Maggie object to that?
"Dearest Ruby,
The last letter I sent was premature. It only took me three days to realize I was making a big mistake. It's you I love, and I always have. Maggie is nothing in comparison to you, and I won't have anything else to do with her. Please say that you'll forgive me. I've saved enough money for your train ticket home, and will send it as soon as I hear you still want to come home to me. Please, Ruby, forgive me.
All my love,
David"
Ruby stared at the letter in her hands for a moment, before sitting back in her chair, staring straight ahead. She couldn't go to him. She was married, and she had two boys. Even if she hadn't already married, though, knowing he was so fickle with his emotions wouldn't have allowed her to go back. What was he thinking?
She allowed her mind to compare her feelings for the two men for a moment, something she hadn't really done before. As much as she had thought she loved David, she realized that it had been nothing but a schoolgirl crush. No, she was in love with her husband, someone who provided her with constant emotional and physical support. Someone who had rescued her from the embarrassment of being jilted, and was a good father and provider. Not to mention he made her blood sing.
David was a boy, and Lewis was a man. She didn't need to marry a boy and start a family with him. If things had turned out differently, and she'd never received the letter saying David was marrying Maggie, she would have married him without qualms. She knew now, though, that her life would have been much more difficult as David's wife.
She belonged in Texas, where her sister, Mrs. Hayes, and Edna Petunia were available when she needed them for long talks. There was nothing left for her in New York except a boy who couldn't decide if he was in love with her or someone else.
She got up and whipped up the batter for a cake. The boys would be hungry when they got home, and as their new mother, it was her job to see to it that they were fed.
Chapter Eight
Lewis sat on the banks of the river with his boys, a picnic basket behind them, waiting for them to eat. Edna Petunia had insisted on feeding them lunch, so they'd taken the basket after giving Ruby her share. The woman was determined to fatten up the whole state of Texas, apparently.
"So what do you boys think about your new ma?" Lewis asked.
Robert shrugged. "She's pretty, and she's always nice to us, even when she's getting onto us. She's a good ma."
James nodded. "She is a good ma, but I don't think she's as pretty as our real ma." He sounded hesitant, like he was saying what he thought he should say and not what he was really thinking.
Lewis nodded at that. "What do you remember about your real ma, James?"
The boy shrugged. "Just that she tucked me in at night and kissed my forehead, and then one day she was gone."
James had only been five when she left them, so his memories weren't nearly as clear as Robert's. "What do you remember, Robert?"
Robert frowned, looking at the fishing pole in his hands. He was obviously trying decide what the best way to answer the question was. "I remember her yelling at me a lot. She did kiss us goodnight, but she threw things when you weren't home. One day she threw my cup at me."
Lewis closed his eyes. He'd known Roberta was volatile, but he hadn't realized she'd been violent with the boys. "I never knew that."
"She told me if I told you, she'd spank me. She said that you didn't need to know how she disciplined me, because you were never home anyway."
Lewis sighed. That much was true. Until Roberta had left hi
m, he'd been a traveling peddler, doing whatever he could to earn a living. He only went home once a month or so, long enough to check on his family to make sure they were all right. One day he'd gone home and found his wife had left the boys with his mother and filed for divorce. It had been a blow, but he'd always blamed himself for it, because he'd been gone. She'd said that was why she left.
"If I'd known she was threatening you, I'd never have left you alone with her. I hope you know that, Robert."
Robert nodded. "I do know that, Pa. You always made sure we knew you loved us." He smiled at Lewis. "I'm so glad we get to spend so much time together now. You never used to have time to take us fishing."
"We moved out here and bought the mercantile so we'd have more time together. Now that you have a ma, she's going to be able to help me run it as well." He looked at James, realizing he was the one struggling with Ruby. Robert had no problem with getting a new mother. "You know it's okay to love them both, don't you, James?"
"Both our new ma and our old ma? We don't have to pick?" The boy looked intrigued by the idea.
"No, you don't have to pick." Not that it would matter, because Roberta's new husband had given him a lot of money to take the boys out of the state and never see them again. Buying the mercantile and moving to Texas had been the best thing to ever happen to him and his boys. Other than Ruby, of course.
Ruby was everything he'd hoped she'd be and more. She was good with the children, a wonderful housewife, and a warm loving wife in bed. He couldn't believe how lucky he'd gotten. Roberta had been a nightmare from day one, but he didn't believe in divorce. Well, he hadn't then at least.
"I can love them both?" James asked, cutting into Lewis's thoughts.
"Of course you can! Do you think I love you any less because I have Robert too? If I have another child with Ruby, do you think it will make me love you less?"
James shook his head. "No, I guess not."
Lewis watched as James grew silent, obviously thinking. Robert seemed content to never think about Roberta again, and he suddenly understood why. He had worried about James having too few memories of his mother, but apparently Robert had too many.
*****
Ruby had supper on the table for her men when they arrived home. The entire house smelled of the baking she'd spent her day working on. She served country fried steak for supper, something Cletus had taught her to make. He'd told her that the Texas cattle were so thin and tough they'd been hard to eat, so on the trail, they'd started pounding the steaks flat and frying them, turning them into one of the tastiest things Ruby had ever eaten. It definitely wasn't a New York meal, and she didn't know if Lewis and the boys had ever eaten it, because they had lived in New Jersey until a few months before.
Lewis washed his hands, informing her that the fish had been too cold to bite, which sounded like a typical fisherman's excuse to Ruby. Why couldn't men just admit they hadn't been able to catch anything? When he walked to the table and sat down, he poked at the steak with his fork. "What is this?"
"One of the few Texas meals I know how to make. It's called country fried steak. Try it. It's delicious."
Both boys watched as Lewis took his first bite, obviously afraid to try something new, so they let their father go first. Lewis chewed it slowly, smiling. "The consistency is strange for steak, but it's really good."
Robert quickly took a bite. "I like this!"
James followed suit, declaring he'd eat it for every meal.
"How was fishing?" Ruby asked, cutting into her own steak.
"It was good. We got some good man-talking done, didn't we boys?" Lewis asked.
"Yes, sir," Robert replied. "Fishing is the best time for man talk."
James just nodded, applying himself to his meal, but Ruby was satisfied they'd talked.
*****
Ruby spent the following morning finishing up more shirt orders. She was pleased with how few she had left. Between the work she did in the mornings, and the work Penny did in the afternoons, they had accomplished a great deal in a short time. Ruby knew if she could keep working at the pace she had been, they would be caught up by the end of the week, and she would be free to make all the dresses her husband wanted her to make.
Lewis approached her at lunch time. "Let's lock the door and take a real lunch like we did on Saturday."
Ruby frowned. "I have a man coming this afternoon to pick up this shirt. I'll have to eat while I work. I packed you a lunch and put it behind the counter."
"That's not the kind of hunger I'm worried about." He took her hand and tried to tug her out of the store. "Let's go upstairs."
"I told you, I need to finish this. If it's not done by this afternoon, it will look bad for me."
"What does it matter?" he asked calmly. "You're not going to keep the business going anyway."
"It matters, because I gave my word. Would you go back on your word?" Ruby knew his word meant a great deal to him. Surely he could understand her word meant a lot to her as well.
"Well, no, but I have a family to support. You don't."
Ruby closed her eyes for a moment, annoyed that he would say such a thing. "That doesn't make my word mean any less. I'm sorry, Lewis, but you'll have to just make it through the day without a sex break."
Lewis turned his back on her and walked away. Why was she being so unreasonable? It wasn't like it would take hours to make love anyway.
Ruby watched him go, irritated with him. Why couldn't he see that her word mattered to her? She'd been working for almost a year to build up her business, and she'd never been late with a customer's order. She wasn't about to start being late now.
*****
After Mr. Clemmons stopped by the store to get his shirt, Ruby was too annoyed to be cooped up in the house. She needed to go for a walk to clear her mind. She had no idea why but walking had always been her solution when she became angry. After a few minutes in nature, she rarely remembered what she was angry about to begin with.
She grabbed her shawl and walked briskly out of town toward the Hayes' ranch. Mrs. Hayes would always be the person she wanted to talk to when she was upset, and she wanted to take them a loaf of bread. She knew it was getting harder and harder for the older woman to do anything as her due date drew closer.
Once she reached the ranch house, she knocked on the door to the small cabin, waiting for someone to welcome her. Instead of someone opening the door, she heard a crash from within. Ruby didn't hesitate to open the door. Mrs. Hayes was sitting on the floor, gripping her distended belly with both hands. "Are you all right?"
"No! I was having pains this morning, but I didn't want to send Tino for the doctor yet, because I was told first babies come slowly. Well, this one seems to be coming awfully fast." Mrs. Hayes had a single tear dripping down her cheek.
"I'll go get Mr. Hayes!"
Mrs. Hayes shook her head. "There's no time." Her eyes implored Ruby. "You're going to have to help me."
"But...I don't know anything about it!"
"I do. I've delivered a few babies. I'll walk you through it. I just need you to help me."
Ruby took a deep breath, hating the very idea of helping a woman give birth, but knowing she really had no choice. "Of course. What do I need to do?"
Following the older woman's instructions exactly, Ruby rushed about nervously, wanting to be anywhere but there.
*****
Lewis looked up as the boys walked into the store after school. "How was your day?" he asked.
"Good," Robert said. Robert always said his day was good. Never any more or any less. "Where's Ma?"
"She's upstairs, isn't she?"
James shook his head. "No. We looked everywhere. She always has a snack waiting for us, and there was no snack."
"We like the snacks she makes us," Robert added.
Lewis frowned, walking to where Penny was sitting in the corner of the store working as usual. "Did Ruby say she was going anywhere this afternoon?" he asked trying to keep his voice c
asual, as if he didn't suspect that his second wife had left him. What was wrong with him that he couldn't seem to keep a wife?
"I didn't see her today at all." Penny barely looked up from her sewing. "She probably went out to talk to Edna Petunia or something."
"Maybe. Listen, would you watch the store while I run over and see if she left me a note or something?"
"Of course!"
"Watch the boys as well." Lewis all but ran from the store, determined to find where his wife had gone. She wasn't the type to just run off, but he knew he'd made her angry that afternoon. Surely she wouldn't have used that as an excuse to leave him.
He went into their bedroom, searching for any clues as to her whereabouts. All of her clothes were still there. He opened the small box she kept on the dresser that held her prized possessions and picked up a piece of paper on the top. He read over it quickly, his eyes closing. So that's where she'd gone. She was going to New York to be with David.
But why had she left her clothes behind? And her money was sitting right there in the bottom of the box. She would have taken that, he knew. So where was she? Maybe she was letting Edna Petunia know she was headed back to New York. After living with the woman for a year, she owed her at least that.
He went back down to the store. "I'm going out to your house to see if I can find her. I'll close early. Do you want a ride home?"
"Can you give me five minutes?" she asked.
"Just meet me out front. I need to hitch up the buggy." He wasn't wasting any time. He needed to convince Ruby not to go.
He hurried off, the boys following him to the stable. By the time he stopped in front of the store, Penny was waiting out front for him. He jumped down to help her up, before running back to the store to lock up.
On the drive, he decided to quiz Penny in a low voice. "Tell me about David."
Penny frowned as she looked at him. "David? Ruby's beau in New York?"
Ruby (Orlan Orphans Book 2) Page 6