Birdie's Nest

by Linda LaRoque

Mattie shoved her into the chair and took Birdie’s perch on the desktop.

  “Mattie, how old are you and Joseph?”

  “I’m thirty-eight. Joseph is almost fifty.”

  Birdie nodded. Lots of women in this day and time had babies up into their forties. Mattie’s should be fine. When they’d first met, Birdie believed Mattie to be middle-aged. Since she’d lost weight and toned up, she looked younger and healthier. “Well, you need to get to the doctor for a checkup right now.”

  “No, not until I’m much farther along.”

  “Now, today or tomorrow. Believe me, early medical care is very important for the child’s health as well as yours.”

  Face radiant with happiness, Mattie conceded. “I will. Promise.”

  It suddenly registered with Birdie that Mattie should have been in the middle of a class. Her mood sank like a sack of rocks in the Brazos. “Where are your students?”

  “No one showed today. Can’t imagine why.”

  “Really? Didn’t you see the newspaper article about Detective Jenkins?”

  “Yeah, I did but didn’t think it would have that much affect on the school.”

  “I’m sorry, Mattie. I never dreamed it would hurt the school and you.”

  “Don’t worry about it. The situation will soon blow over and things will go back to normal.” Mattie shrugged. “If not, we’ll have other things to occupy our minds.”

  Birdie was just now learning about motherhood. She wasn’t sure she could just stay home and be a wife and mother. Not that she wasn’t excited. She was, though she was a little frightened too. Not about giving birth, but the responsibility involved. Nathan was darn good training. Oh, how she loved the little bugger. He was so sweet. At least she had Olivia, Bethany, and Sarah to help out.

  They waited until the next class was due to arrive. When no one showed, they tacked a sign to the door that read, CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.

  * * *

  Tad chased after Nathan as he crawled across the parlor rug. He was fast and squealed like a greased pig when he knew Tad was after him. Laughing, Tad scooped him up and tossed him over his head. Birdie came in the room wearing a pretty blue suit dress with a frilly white blouse. She grinned and quipped, “Better be careful or you’ll be wearing his breakfast.”

  Oh, yeah. He settled the boy on his hip and looked at his knees. They seemed to be relatively bare of dirt. His job was to keep him clean before they left for church. The more active Nathan became, the harder it was. He approached his wife and fingered the lace on the throat of her blouse. “Why don’t you ever wear your brooch? It would look nice with this dress.”

  She bit her lower lip and leaned close. “I’m sorry, Tad, but after thinking back, I’m afraid it had something to do with my time travel and that if I put it on I’ll disappear.”

  Disappear? Fear welled in his stomach. Could it be? “Well, let’s get rid of the thing.”

  “No. For some reason I know we’re supposed to have the brooch.” She shrugged. “I guess that reason will become clear at some time during our life.”

  He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and squeezed. “Don’t worry, sweetheart. Put it up somewhere safe in case Bethany decides to try it on or heaven forbid, our baby, if it’s a girl.”

  She laughed. “Little boys try on jewelry too, love.”

  “Egad! That cinches it. Maybe we should have Mr. Smith put in his vault at the bank.”

  “Not a bad idea, at all. I’ll see to it next time I’m in town.”

  Tad leaned close and placed a kiss on her lips. “Brooch or not, you are lovely this morning, love.”

  “Thank you. May I say you are especially handsome, quite the rake with Nathan on your hip.”

  “Hmm, yes, ma’am, you may. If I’d known women were so attracted to babies, I’d have borrowed one a few years ago to aid my pursuit of the fairer sex.” He leaned in and placed a kiss on her lips.

  She snorted. “Only women interested in marriage would be drawn to a man holding a child, Tad.”

  “Well, rats.” He grinned. “There’s only one woman I’m interested in attracting.” He wiggled his eyebrows and lowered his voice. “The one who kept me awake making love half the night.”

  “Are we ready to go?” Olivia entered the room with Bethany on her heels.

  “Yes we are, Mother.” He walked to open the front door. “Your carriage awaits, madams and mam’selle.”

  Bethany giggled as Tad handed her up into the surrey. “You’re so much more fun since you got married, Tad. Not nearly as stuffy.”

  “A happy marriage does that to a man, child,” Birdie said, sounding much like his mother.

  Tad glanced at Birdie and winked. “And I am one happy man.” After he’d handed Nathan in to Sarah, Birdie poked him in the rear with her parasol. He jumped and shot her a mock scowl. She’d have to stay on her toes or he’d be paying her back. To keep him from squeezing a handful of her butt, she turned sideways for him to help her in. He leaned close. “Spoil sport.”

  Olivia and Bethany led the way down the aisle at church. Birdie held Nathan, struggling to keep him from snatching feathers off her hat as Tad, hand at her waist, guided her along after his mother and sister.

  Sarah saw her dilemma and whispered, “Let me take him, ma’am.” Birdie handed him over. Before Sarah could move down the aisle, Nathan howled and lunged from Sarah’s grasp. Birdie caught him, pulled a feather from her hat and handed it to him.

  Several women around them chuckled and when Birdie looked up, they nodded in greeting. Even Mrs. Smith, the banker’s wife who’d been so snooty a year ago, smiled and dipped her head. Well, will wonders never cease? Maybe the women in town didn’t take note of the initials in the article, didn’t put two and two together or just didn’t care. Hmm, interesting.

  Mr. Smith pulled his wife back around and whispered, much too loudly, “Turn around. Ignore that woman.” He sniffed as if there were a bad odor in the church. “Dressing up in men’s clothes, indeed.” He glanced back and hissed at Birdie. “Hussy.”

  His wife gasped and pinched his arm. “Shush! People are staring.”

  Birdie stiffened and quickly glanced to see if Tad had heard. She relaxed. Tad was engaged in conversation with the man across the aisle. She scanned those in the congregation. Several men stared at her with contempt. She lifted her chin and glared at them until they lowered their gaze. Oh, boy. Finally the women were easing up on her. Now the men were against her. They probably thought she’d have their wives and daughters wearing pants. She snorted.

  Tad looked at her, furrowed his brow and mouthed what? She smiled and shook her head. Nathan dropped the wet feather and lunged for Tad. He cuddled him close and the baby laid his head on his shoulder and yawned. Tad gently rubbed his back and soon Nathan was asleep.

  When the service was over, Birdie ignored the rude stares of a couple of the men, Mr. Smith included. Just outside, Tad handed Nathan to Sarah and stalked after Mr. Smith. “Raymond Smith, I want to talk to you.”

  The man stopped and turned. “What do you want, Tad?”

  He shrugged out of his coat and tossed it to Birdie. “You called my wife a name in the church.”

  Birdie grabbed Tad’s arm. “It’s not really important, Tad. Come on. Let it go.”

  “No, sweetheart. Move back out of the way. This is my fight.”

  Mr. Smith puffed out his chest. “Yes, sir. I did. You need to keep a firmer hand on the woman.”

  His wife tugged on his arm. “Apologize to Mrs. Lockhart and let’s go.”

  He shook her hand off. “I’ll do no such thing. She’s a disgrace to womanhood.”

  Tad’s jaw was rigid as he spoke through his teeth. “No man shows disrespect to my wife. I want an apology.”

  Mr. Smith shrugged out of his jacket. “Well, you’re not getting it from me.”

  The man turned around and grinned. Before he could move, Tad landed a blow to his chin. He went down like a felled tree and didn’t get up. Tad
made eye contact with the men in the crowd that had gathered. “No man calls my wife names or is disrespectful to her.” He nodded to Mrs. Smith. “Remind your husband that I expect Birdie to receive an apology from him by tomorrow or we’ll be having another talk.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  “Tad, that wasn’t necessary. I’m not some little woman who needs protecting.”

  “Don’t nag at me about it, Birdie. You are my wife. I’ll not allow any man to talk to you or any woman in my family in that manner.”

  Olivia tapped him on the shoulder with her parasol. “Never thought I’d see the day when I’d be glad to see you fighting, but that man deserved it. I’m proud of you, son.”

  Birdie shook her head. What could she say? She suspected many men in modern time would have done the same thing. It was a first for her. She’d never dated that much and there had been few opportunities for insults. Of course, on the job, men she had to arrest talked ugly to her but since she couldn’t knock them out, she ignored them. When another Ranger worked with her, he might step on the guy’s hand or something and tell him to shut up. If a man insulted her on the street today, she’d probably deck him. Well, not now that she was pregnant. She wouldn’t take a chance on hurting the baby. It felt rather nice to have her husband standing up for her though. Warmth blossomed in her stomach and eased up to her chest. She scooted closer and wrapped her arm around his. He smiled down at her.

  As they neared the suspension bridge, she turned around on the seat. “Do you all mind stopping by the house to see how much they’ve gotten done?”

  “Not at all, dear. I must admit I’ve been curious.”

  For the first time Birdie wondered if her plan to move once the house was built bothered her mother-in-law. She’d not thought of the older woman’s feelings, just her own. “Olivia, do you mind us moving into town?”

  “No, dear. Every woman needs to have her own home.” She patted Birdie’s shoulder. “We’ll miss having you at the ranch, but expect we’ll all be visiting back and forth.”

  “That’s true. Now you’ll have a place to stay in town for social activities.” It would be good for Bethany to be able to attend more socials with Tad close by to supervise her activities. She grinned. No doubt he’ll love that, but in truth, he’d have done the same if they were still in the country.

  Tad stopped the buggy and helped them down. Sarah stayed with a sleeping Nathan. Birdie talked as she walked them through the house and described where bedrooms would be located on the second floor.

  Olivia was amazed. “You’re going to have four bathrooms?”

  “Yes, one downstairs, two upstairs by the bedrooms and a large one with both a tub and a shower connected to the master suite.”

  “My goodness. That sounds mighty extravagant.” Olivia turned to Tad. “Are sure you can afford all this?” Her eyes narrowed. “You’re not selling land, are you?”

  “Mother, you know I’d never do that. Building this house will not take away from the ranch, plus, Birdie has contributed all the money she’s made from her self-defense school and from working with Detective Ethan.”

  “Forgive me, son. I should have known you’d never do anything to endanger our means of livelihood.” She slipped an arm around Birdie’s waist. “I hope I didn’t insult you with my questions.”

  “Of course not. You’re the matriarch. It’s your job to keep up with things.”

  Olivia beamed at the title. “Well…I never considered myself such, as Tad’s the boss.”

  “Birdie’s right, Mother. We couldn’t function without you.”

  Bethany blurted, “Yeah, he’s the boss of me, that’s for sure. Mama always takes his side when it’s about me.”

  “He is the man of the house and has your best interests at heart, dear.”

  “Yes, but I’ll soon be seventeen years old. I think I deserve to be allowed a little more freedom. I don’t need an escort everywhere I go.”

  “We’ll talk about it later.” Olivia patted her daughter’s cheek. “Now, let’s get back to the surrey and go home. We forgot our parasols and will be as brown as field hands if we stay out here much longer.”

  Bethany walked ahead with her mother while Birdie and Tad followed a little way back. Olivia’s earlier comment worried her. “Tad, you’re not strapping your budget to build this house are you? I mean…you know I want it, but I don’t want to take away from your family’s security.”

  “No, sweetheart, the ranch is fine financially. Now, we may not be able to furnish the house right away.”

  “That’s not a problem. We can make do with very little—use crates for seating and put mattresses on the floor to sleep on.”

  “Whoa! I draw the line at sleeping on the floor. I think we can afford a bed and some chairs. For that matter, I bet there’s furniture in the attic we can use until we can afford to buy.”

  Two days later, Birdie rode out and found the construction site deserted. Where on earth is everyone? From atop Strawberry Birdie could see no work had been done since the previous week.

  Fifteen minutes later she dismounted in front of Mr. Teague’s office and tied the mare’s reins to the hitching post. The bell above the door jangled as she entered, and the delicious smell of aromatic pipe tobacco welcomed her.

  “I’ll be right there.” Mr. Teague called from his inner office. Birdie heard papers rustle and then a light tapping. She assumed he was emptying his pipe. Footsteps sounded against the wooden floor as Mr. Teague entered the outer office. When he saw Birdie, he stopped. “Ah, Mrs. Lockhart, I assume you’re here about no one being on the work site.” He stepped aside to allow her to enter and motioned toward a chair. “Have a seat.” Rather than sit, he leaned against his desk, arms folded across his chest. “I’d planned to ride out this afternoon and update you on the situation.”

  “And what is the situation?” Birdie knew, but she had to hear it from him.

  He cleared his throat. “The men refuse to work on your house because of…of the Detective Jenkins situation.”

  * * *

  “Birdie, the men will forget, or they’ll need the work in a few days, a week or two at the most. Then they’ll be back on the job.”

  In Detective Ethan’s office, Birdie faced him across his desk. “You really think so?”

  “Yes, I do. Those men have families to feed and winter is coming. They may not like working for you, but they’ll do it.”

  And idea struck her. Would they purposely do a lousy job? She opened her mouth to ask, but he held up a hand. “Those men have a reputation to uphold. They won’t do something to sever their chances of more work.”

  She allowed her shoulders to relax. “Is there anything I can do around here?” She reached for some of the paperwork on his desk. His hand stilled hers and she sat back. “So, it’s like that?”

  “Until things die down, yes.”

  Birdie stood. “All right. Come out for dinner on your day off. I’m sure Olivia would enjoy your company as much as Tad and I.”

  He pushed back from the desk, stood and walked to hold the door for her. “I’ll do it. Wouldn’t want to miss one of those fine meals.”

  “Are you busy this coming Saturday?”

  “Sure not.”

  “All right. We’ll see you then.” Birdie strode from the building to where Strawberry was tethered in the front of the building. No need for her to hide any longer since her cover was blown. Disguises. If only the people of this century could’ve seen her when she served the subpoena. She couldn’t restrain a giggle. The men would have had a heart attack, the women the vapors. Her giggle burst into a loud guffaw and people passing by looked at her oddly. No, what am I thinking? Men didn’t have heart attacks these days—they have apoplexy. She mounted her horse and the mare plodded toward Mattie’s house, Birdie grinning the entire way. The town would have something to add to her earlier misbehavior. She could hear them now. That Birdie Lockhart is peculiar.

  Nehemiah met her at the back
drive and took Strawberry’s reins. He ran an appreciative hand down the mare’s neck. “It be good to see this fine looking animal again, Mrs. Lockhart.”

  Birdie stroked the horse’s forelock. “She’s a sweetheart too, Nehemiah. Gentle and smart.”

  “I can see that by looking at her eyes. Now, you go on in and visit with Ms. Mattie. I ‘spect she’ll be happy to see you.”

  He turned his attention to Strawberry. Birdie smiled at the sound of his gentle voice fading as she walked away. “Come on, pretty girl. I’s gonna make you comfortable.”

  Birdie tapped on the back door. She didn’t want to startle Sadie again and have her throw flour all over the kitchen. She called out. “Sadie, it’s me, Birdie Lockhart.”

  Sadie opened the door. “Come in this house, sweet lady. Ms. Mattie will be mighty happy to see you.” The colored lady narrowed her eyes at Birdie. “Now, don’t you be paying any mind to what the mens in this town are sayin’ about your costume.” She chuckled. “Why the womens are right proud of you.”

  Birdie grabbed the woman in a big hug. Sadie hugged her back. “You a mighty fine woman and don’t be forgettin’ it.” In the next breathe, she yelled, “Ms. Mattie, you gots a celebrity out here come to visit.”

  “A celebrity? Who on earth?” Mattie appeared in the kitchen door. “Birdie! Come in here. I have so much to tell you.” She glared at Sadie. “You didn’t tell her, did you?”

  Sadie rose up to her considerable height and propped her hands on her ample hips. “Ms. Mattie, you know I don’t gossip ’bout this family.”

  “Sorry, Sadie. Will you fix us a pot of tea and lay out some of those delicious tea cakes you made yesterday?”

  Furrow lines appeared in Sadie’s forehead. “For both of you? I remember Ms. Birdie preferring coffee.”

  Mattie winked. “Yes, tea for us both.”

  Sadie beamed. “Be happy to.”

  Mattie pulled Birdie into the front parlor. “Sit, sit.”

  “What’s going on, Mattie?” Mattie sat down beside her.

  “I did like you said and went to see the Doctor—Dr. Floyd.” Her chin quivered.