Miles watched her carefully, but never commented. She had no secrets to hide, so she opened the letter while the girls wandered over to the soda fountain, spinning on the seats. Her eyebrows rose as she read.
My dear Mrs. Markham,
It pleases me to inform you that I sold Gerald’s gun shop, as well as your house. Once all the outstanding debt was paid on the business and your home, I was left with a bit of money. I deducted my fee and am enclosing a check in the amount of two hundred, eleven dollars and forty-seven cents. Also enclosed is an accounting of the sale of both the business and your house, and the outstanding debts paid.
I hope all is well with you.
Richard Gatling Attorney at Law
She quickly glanced at the sheet of paper behind the letter, and grinned at Miles. “I am rich!” Adelaide handed the letter and accounting sheet to him and studied the check. Two hundred, eleven dollars and forty-seven cents! She never expected to get anything from the sale and had only hoped she would not owe more when all was said and done.
“Indeed, this is a nice sum. What will you do with it?”
“I have no idea. What do you think?” The relief she saw in his eyes made her realize he was concerned the money might cause her to leave, since she married him to get out of jail on a vagrancy charge. Of course she would never do that. She made marriage vows and did not take them lightly.
“Well, I think we should all go to the hotel dining room for supper and talk it over.” He extended his arm to her.
“That’s a wonderful idea. A bit of a celebration.”
He patted her hand where it rested on his arm. “Exactly.” As they passed the girls still spinning on the counter seats, he said, “Come on girls, we’re going to the hotel for supper.”
The Devlin’s Creek hotel was a typical small town building. Miles explained that it had three floors of rooms to let out and a small dining room. The four of them sat at a table near the window just as a middle-aged woman approached them, pad and pencil in hand. “Hi there, Miles. I heard you were coming back to town.” She looked at Beth Ann and Lizzie. “Are these your girls?”
“Yes.” He waved at his daughters. “This is Beth Ann and this is Lizzie.”
“Girls, you look a lot like your daddy.” She looked at Miles “Are they rascals like you were?”
The girls burst out laughing, and Adelaide had a hard time hiding her grin. Just what she was sure Miles didn’t want to hear.
Miles cleared his throat. “And this is my wife, Adelaide. We’re all pretty hungry, so I think we need to order our food.”
Once they’d ordered, Adelaide asked again. “What should I do with the money? Should I pay for the stove?”
“Absolutely not.” Miles stirred sugar and cream into his coffee. “Anything this family needs I will pay for.”
“That’s silly.”
“However you view it, that’s how it will be. When we’re finished here, we’ll go to the bank and open an account for you. Put the money in there and it will earn some interest. I need to cash my paycheck as well, and open an account.”
Adelaide rested her elbow on the table and leaned her chin on her hand. “Maybe I can pay for a new roof—“
“Adelaide. That is enough. We’ll put your money in the bank and forget it’s there. I don’t want to discuss it anymore.”
Foolish man. Why did men have to be so stubborn, and so prideful? If she had the money to make their life a little easier, why not? Although, truth be known, after her terrifying experience in Dodge City with losing her job, then fighting off Mr. Goddard who wanted her to sleep with him to live in his abandoned building, she was grateful to have a man who wanted to take care of her.
The waitress brought their dinners and Adelaide didn’t bring up the money again. She ate a lovely pot roast and potatoes dinner. What was even lovelier was she hadn’t cooked it. The weeks spent in the wagon gave her a fine appreciation for a well-cooked meal. Hopefully Miles would be able to get their new stove ready for her to use for breakfast. She was dying for flapjacks, or biscuits with gravy. And she could give her girls a decent breakfast, instead of bread and jam.
Her girls.
No, she didn’t want to think about that. She refused to let herself feel for the girls what she’d felt for Mary. Life was fragile and could be snuffed out in an instant. Mary had been a happy, healthy little girl from birth, then along came the influenza, and within a week she was dead. Adelaide shivered. No, never again.
Once they’d finished their supper, Miles paid the check and escorted them out the door. He slid his timepiece from his vest pocket. “We have enough time to open our accounts at the bank. Then we’ll head over to the general store and pick up the stove and supplies.”
“Pa, do we have to go to the bank?”
Miles regarded the girls. “No. It might take some time. Why don’t you go on down to the general store and wait for us there.” He reached in his pocket and took out two pennies that he handed to them. “You can pick out a piece of candy, but don’t be giving Mrs. Peters any trouble.” He pointed toward the south end of town. “Just walk straight down the boardwalk, and you’ll see the general store at the end of the second block. It’s a little bit further than the school house.”
Beth Ann and Lizzie held hands and skipped away. Miles turned to her and they grinned at each other. He held his arm out, which Adelaide took and they headed in the opposite direction. She actually preferred when he held her hand, but her arm linked in his was certainly a more dignified way for a husband and wife to stroll through town.
* * *
Once their business at the bank was finished, they walked to the general store where the girls waited and the wagon was loaded down with the stove and supplies. Miles hoped that with the addition of him, Adelaide, and the girls, the vehicle wouldn’t break. He could have asked Mrs. Peters to have the stove delivered, but he knew Adelaide was anxious to have breakfast in her own home.
It was twilight when they pulled up in front of the cottage. “Honey, I’m afraid breakfast will have to be bread and jam again tomorrow. I need Pa to help me get the stove into the house, and an hour or so to set it up.”
“That’s all right. We can do another bread and jam breakfast, right girls?” Adelaide turned to Beth Ann and Lizzie in the back of the wagon. Both girls nodded.
He jumped from the wagon and with the four of them helping the got all the supplies into the house. “While you put things away and the girls do their homework, I’m going over to my parents’ house for a bit. I’d like to talk over some farm issues with Pa.”
With those words, he gave Adelaide a peck on the cheek, with a quick, “Wait up for me,” whispered in her ear. .
The main reason he wanted to see Pa was to get ahold of the ledgers for the farm. From what he’d seen, this was a very productive and hence, profitable operation. That certainly didn’t jell with what his parents were telling him.
It took him some time to convince them to allow him to see the books. They promised they would have them for him in the morning, that they were not in good order and Ma wanted to go over them first.
He couldn’t get back to his house fast enough, craving the softness of his wife’s body to ease some of his frustration. He had a funny feeling there was something going on that his parents were hiding from him.
After closing the front door and locking up, he made sure all the lamps were extinguished before checking on Lizzie and Beth Ann. They both slept soundly. With a great deal of anticipation, he entered his bedroom.
Adelaide sat up in bed, her glorious hair in a thick braid resting on her shoulder. She was reading a book, looked up and smiled as he came into the room. “How did everything go?”
“Believe me,” he said as he shrugged out of his shirt and undid his pants. “You don’t want to know.”
“That bad?”
“I’m not sure yet.” He left his drawers on and climbed into bed. He took the book from her and placed it on the table al
ongside him. “Come here, wife.”
She put her hand up to stop him. “Um, before we . . . you know, I want to talk to you about something.”
God damn. The look on her face told him he wasn’t going to like this conversation any more than the one he’d just finished with his parents. He groaned. “What?”
* * *
Adelaide hesitated, not sure how to start. “I, ah, want to, ah, talk about . . .”
He took her hands in his. “Your hands are ice cold. What is it?”
“I don’t want to get pregnant.” She blurted out the words so fast she wasn’t sure Miles had even heard them. She peeked at him under lowered eyelids. He looked a little surprised, but not angry.
“All right. I think I heard what you said, although the words raced by me like a pig dodging the butcher. Just explain to me exactly what you mean.”
She took a deep breath. “I was devastated when Mary died. I swore then I would never have another child. In fact, when the sheriff told us in the jail that we had to marry, I had hoped to find a husband who was so old he wouldn’t want children.” She attempted to pull her hands from his, but he held firm.
Miles sat up alongside her and put his arm around her shoulders. “Can I ask you how you intend to carry out this plan?
Adelaide rested her hand on his chest so she wouldn’t have to look him in the eye. “I know men have these . . . things . . . that can keep a woman from getting pregnant.”
“You mean a condom?”
She nodded furiously. The word made her feel dirty. Lord, was she actually asking her husband to use one of those things? They were meant for prostitutes and other unsavory women.
He blew out a breath. “You do know they’re illegal?”
Moving back, she studied him. “They are?”
“When the Comstock laws were passed in 1873 they contained a ban on mailing contraceptive information—including condoms.”
“But. . .but don’t prostitutes use them?”
If his eyebrows went any further up his forehead they would disappear under his hair. “How would you know what prostitutes use?”
Heat rose in her face. “I don’t really know. I just assumed . . .”
Miles waved his hand. “They use other things.” He grinned at her expression. “And don’t ask me what they are or how I know. In fact, I can’t believe we’re having this conversation at all.” Anchoring her face in his hands, he lowered his head and took her lips in a soft, comfortable kiss. Obviously, he thought to distract her, and in a minute or so, she would let him know it wasn’t working. But for now, she would enjoy his kiss, since he was so good at it.
His arms came around her and he slid their bodies onto the mattress. Just a couple of seconds more and she would insist they continue the conversation. His hand moved and he cupped her breast, rubbing his thumb over her nipple. It felt so good, almost making her forget what she wanted to ask him.
Was there something she wanted to ask him? She would think about that in the morning.
The next morning she returned from driving the girls to school in the wagon to find her new stove in a prominent place in the kitchen and the men already gone out to the fields. Between the time she’d spent in Dodge City trying to survive after Gerald’s death, and the weeks on the wagon train, it would be absolutely wonderful to cook a meal on her own stove, in her own kitchen.
She dragged out her ragged cookbook handed down to her from her grandmother, who made the trek westward from New York many years ago. It was one of the few things she’d taken with her when she left her home to try her luck in Dodge City. Now she was happy she’d done that.
Opening the book, it was like Grandma was right there in the kitchen with her, guiding her hand as she’d done so many times when she was just a girl. The feel of the paper, the smells that came from the pages that had many an ingredient dropped on it, all brought back warm, happy feelings.
Warm happy feelings she was experiencing more and more lately. Although she’d been irritated this morning to realize Miles and his clever mouth and hands had distracted her from continuing their conversation about avoiding pregnancy. She certainly had awoken feeling warm and cared for. Especially when he’d kissed the back of her neck and cuddled with her before they arose.
She sighed. If only she didn’t have to worry about falling in love with him, or becoming attached to Beth Ann and Lizzie. How could a woman take care of the family she’d obtained at marriage and not hold them dear to her heart? In some ways she was afraid it was already too late.
Earlier, when she’d left the house with the girls and seen him carrying the stove in, his muscles bulging as he worked, the hair that always fell over his forehead making her hands itch to smooth it back, and the smile and wink he’d given her, butterflies had once again danced in her stomach as if she were a young girl.
Pushing all of that aside, she went to the pantry and began pulling out items to make a lunch for Miles, and start supper. When she was married to Gerald, she generally served him leftovers from the night before for his lunch, but with nothing left over, she decided on a vegetable soup and fresh bread for lunch and meat cakes and potatoes with canned tomatoes for supper. And, for a special treat she would make a dried apple pie for dessert.
She was humming happily when she heard the door open and soon she was surrounded by strong arms and a chin resting on her shoulder. “Something smells good. I didn’t know you were such a good cook.”
Glancing at him over her shoulder, she said, “There’s a lot you don’t know about me.”
He bent and captured her mouth, giving her a toe-curling kiss. “Ah. Just think of all the fun I’m going to have discovering all the little parts of you.”
Recalling last night and how many ways they pleasured each other, the heat began at her toes and sprinted like a race horse to her face.
“I love when you blush in the light of day.” He grinned. “So different from the woman in my bed at night.”
She slapped his hand. “Stop that. Your lunch is ready.”
Taking a deep breath to calm herself, she pulled two bowls down and filled them with thick fragrant soup and sliced the bread. She sat next to Miles and took her first taste. “This is really good, if I might say so myself.”
“Yes, you may say so because you’re right.”
* * *
Miles loved teasing Adelaide. She was such an active, sensuous bed partner, but in the light of day he felt as though she was almost a young, innocent girl. A definite puzzle, but something he loved about her.
Loved
He hesitated. Was he falling in love with Adelaide? That was certainly not something he planned on when he asked her to marry him back in Dodge City. He’d figured on another marriage like he’d had with Eve. Sex had been pleasant, but Eve had been much more reticent in the bedroom. While he was nevertheless sad when she’d died, his heart had not been engaged. He’d always thought of his marriage as peaceful.
Not so this time around. He’d never expected a passionate marriage where love was involved. But Adelaide was different. She was soft, warm, and loving. The girls had come around, and things were as peaceful as they’d been when Eve was alive. The only difference was he wanted to be around them more, wanted to help raise his daughters, not leave everything to Adelaide as he’d done with Eve.
And his feelings for Adelaide had grown into something stronger. He’d learned during the five weeks on the trail that Adelaide was a strong and competent woman. She was caring and compassionate. Now he found he missed not being with her all day, and spent a great deal of time thinking about her, looking forward to the end of the day when they would sit quietly, and talk after the girls were asleep, then come together in passion once they retired for the night. Yes, this marriage was more than he’d expected and he found it suited him just fine.
“I’ll be working here in the house this afternoon.”
Adelaide picked up the empty bowls and brought them to the sink. “Really? What wi
ll you be doing here?”
“I told Pa I wanted to go over his books. Ma’s been taking care of that part of the farm, but I want to see what I’m getting myself into. I still think something isn’t right.” He shook his head.
Adelaide kept herself busy with kitchen work, and then joined him at the table with her sewing while he poured over the books. From what he could see, the farm was doing quite well, and there was plenty of money to hire help. He stopped and gazed out the window. There hadn’t been any reason for him to return.
He slammed the book shut and Adelaide jumped. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.”
She laid the shirt she was mending in her lap. “Bad news?”
Miles stood and shoved his hands into his back pockets and walked to the window, staring out at the productive farm. “Hardly.” He turned and leaned against the sink, crossing his arms over his chest. “We’re here now, so it makes no difference, but there is more than enough money to cover the cost of hiring help.”
“I’m sorry. I know you detest farming.”
He walked to where Adelaide sat and pulled her up, wrapping her in his arms. “But then again, if I hadn’t left Missouri and found myself desperate for help with my girls I never would have married you.”
She tilted her head and smiled. “That’s very true.”
Should he tell her how he felt? That he loved so many things about her, he couldn’t imagine his life without her in it? That she was a wonderful mother to Beth Ann and Lizzie?
They still hadn’t resolved the issue of her concern about getting pregnant. It probably had been unfair of him to distract her the night before, but he felt in his heart another baby would help heal her.
They turned at a pounding on the front door. “What the heck?” Miles strode to the door and threw it open. David Peters stood at the door a frantic look on his face. “Mr. Ryan, you have to come to town. Beth Ann was bitten by a snake in the schoolyard. Mrs. Webster took her to the doctor’s office.”
Prisoners of Love Boxed Set: Books 1-3 Page 9