Mail Order Baron (The Brides of Tombstone Book 3)

by Cynthia Woolf

  “Are you going to go see Matt or Julia? Though if you’ve missed any of your menses, you most certainly are expecting.”

  “I know. I’ve missed two monthly flows, so it’s pretty much a certainty that I’m expecting. I have a hard time talking to Julia. She’s friendly and all, but Ben still loves her. The house that burned down he had built with her in mind, not me. I shouldn’t be talking like this, but thank you for letting me cry on your shoulder. I know that Ben is your friend.”

  Lizzie shrugged. “Just because Ben is my friend, doesn’t mean he’s always right. And in this instance, he’s dead wrong and I intend to tell him so the next time I see him.”

  “Hopefully you’ll have more influence than I have.”

  “Molly, I believe he stays away because he’s afraid he’s falling, or has already fallen, in love with you.”

  Molly sat straighter, hope springing to life. “You really believe so? Maybe he simply needs a nudge in the right direction.”

  Lizzie narrowed her eyes. “Molly, I’m not sure I like the look in your eyes. Don’t go and do something you’ll regret.”

  “Believe me, if this works, I won’t regret any of it.” Molly stood. “I need to go. I have some shopping to do.”

  “Molly, what are you going to do?”

  “I’m going to seduce my husband into staying home with me. He always has breakfast with me. What if I greet him in a negligee?”

  “What will that achieve? You’ll have fun for one day and then the next day will be the same as usual.”

  Shoulders slumped, Molly sagged back onto the sofa. “You’re right. What am I going to do, Lizzie? How can I get my husband to realize he loves me? How long did it take Mal to realize he loved you? Is ten weeks too soon?”

  “With Mal and me it was a little different. He knew from the beginning, I was the one that needed convincing and I have to say I fell for him pretty fast. About a month is all it took for me to realize I love him and we weren’t married yet.

  “What am I going to do?” Molly tried and failed to keep the whine out of her voice. She was at such a loss as to what to do now.

  “I’m being a little devious here, but what if he thought someone else was interested in you?”

  “The only person I’m ever with is Gil. I spend more time with him than I do Ben.”

  “What if Ben came home to find you having dinner with Gil? It wouldn’t be totally out of line. He is supposed to protect you. You can simply pay him back with a nice dinner or two.”

  Molly fiddled with the strings on her reticule. “I don’t want to get Gil in trouble. He’s been very good to me.”

  “All the more reason for you to pay him back with a dinner. You can eat with him in the dining room at the hotel, so it’s all above board. But it will also get back to Ben that you did. You won’t have to tell him and he won’t have to see you to know about it.”

  Molly took a deep breath. She tingled all over. “All right I’ll do it. Ben isn’t planning on being home tonight anyway, so I’ll ask Gil to join me tonight.”

  Lizzie smiled. “Yes. This will work well. You’ll get your husband’s attention or my name isn’t Lizzie Brandon.”

  Mal came into the room. “What did I hear you two planning? Should I be worried?”

  “No dear.” Lizzie lifted her cheek for a kiss.

  Mal turned her head and kissed her lips. “Molly is family. I can kiss you on the lips in front of her.”

  Lizzie blushed prettily.

  “She blushes so well, don’t you think?” Mal chuckled and kissed her again.

  Molly laughed. “Yes, she does. I’ve been known to turn a little pink myself on occasion.”

  “So I hear,” said Mal.

  Molly sobered. “I guess you hear a lot more than I do.”

  Mal cocked his head. “Molly, I know Ben’s being obstinate right now, but he’ll realize what he’s missing out on by holding himself back. He’s afraid of being hurt.”

  “He’s being an idiot,” Molly snapped. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to take out my frustrations on you, but aren’t we all afraid to be hurt?” asked Molly with a shake of her head. “Sometimes you need to take a chance. He took one by placing the request with Mrs. Black at Matchmaker & Co. I took one when I answered the ad and came here and married Ben. He took one by marrying me. I want us to take another chance and see if we can love each other. Is that so bad?”

  “No, it’s not,” said Mal.

  “You have every right to hope for that,” said Lizzie.

  “Then it’s off to have dinner with Gil. Wish me luck.”

  “Good luck,” said Mal and Lizzie together.

  “Why did I just wish Molly good luck?” asked Mal.

  “I’ll explain later,” said Lizzie with a on his leg as he leaned on the arm of the sofa.

  Molly and Lizzie both stood and Molly went to the door. She turned back to Mal and Lizzie. “Thank you for being my friends.”

  She went outside where Gil was waiting patiently. As she approached the buggy, she saw him jump down and wait to help her up.

  “Thank you, Gil.”

  “You’re welcome, ma’am.”

  He climbed in next to her. “Where to now?”

  “Well, it’s about dinner time. Let’s go back to the hotel and have dinner.” She took a breath. “I’d like for you to join me if you don’t mind. I get tired of eating alone.”

  “I’d be pleased to join you…Molly.”

  She laughed. “Yes, finally you call me Molly. If I’d known asking you to dinner would get you to call me by my name I’d have asked you long ago.”

  He smiled. “Guess I am a little stubborn.”

  “I’d like to get to know more about the man I spend most of my time with. Shall we go?”

  “We shall.”

  CHAPTER 10

  Molly asked for the table she and Ben usually shared and was surprised to find it occupied by Ben and a beautiful woman with auburn hair. Her gaze narrowed and she felt a burning in her chest. I will not let him know how much he hurts me.

  “Never mind, we’ll take that table.” She pointed at one in the middle aisle, near the door. From there she could see what happened at Ben’s table, and he would have to see her when he and his companion left.

  “I don’t know how often you eat here, but Sadie the chef is the best I’ve ever known.” Molly kept an eye on Ben.

  “High praise since I know you came from New York, but I don’t know much more about you. You came here, married my boss and now he’s afraid for your safety so he hired me.”

  “That is pretty much the story of my life. Well except the reasons he wants you to watch over me but you know them, too. That’s why he hired you. To see that I don’t get killed. Though I don’t know why he would care. He never spends any time with me anyway. Did you know, Gil that I spend more time with you than I do with him?”

  “I’m sure he just wants to keep you safe.”

  “Well, he did hire me the best bodyguard he could have.” Flashing him a wide smile she reached across the table and squeezed his hand.

  “Uh hum,” said a voice beside her.

  She looked up into Ben’s angry face and withdrew her hand, slowly. “Ben, how are you? I knew you weren’t going to be home to eat dinner with me so I asked Gil. I didn’t know you would have a dinner partner of your own. For some reason you led me to believe you were working.”

  Gil stood as soon as Molly let go of his hand. “Mr. King.”

  Ben’s gray eyes were shards of steel and the vein in his forehead bounced with each movement of his jaw.

  She forced herself not to react to his expression. “If I’d known you’d be having dinner here and not at work, I’d have suggested we join you.”

  “I’ll talk to you when I get home, Molly,” Ben said through clenched teeth.

  “Certainly.” She is thrilled with his jealous reaction. “I thought I’d take a walk after dinner. Perhaps you can meet Gil and me as we walk.”
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  “Go home Molly, I’ll meet you there.”

  “At what time? If I can’t expect you home for another hour or so, I will take my walk. The evening is beautiful.”

  “I said go home Molly. I’ll see you there after I walk Miss Gordon back to her hotel.”

  “Oh, that’s right, you wouldn’t want to put one of your business associates up at this hotel, now would you. Never mind that you do exactly that on numerous occasions.” Her hands were clenched so hard she wouldn’t be surprised to see blood where her nails dig into her palms.

  “Molly…”

  She knew she shouldn’t push him, but in for a dime and in for a dollar.

  “I believe our dinner is here. Goodnight, Benjamin.” She shifted in her chair, dismissing him and knew that made him even madder.

  The waiter placed their dinners in front of them.

  Molly began to eat.

  “Come on, Ben. Leave her be. It’s not like she’s your wife or something,” said the beautiful woman.

  Molly stood. “Oh yes, my dear, it’s just like I’m his wife…or something. As a matter of fact I’m his pregnant wife or something.” Then she looked at Ben with a narrowed gaze, her body trembling. “Don’t bother coming home. I can see someone wants to keep you busy.” Forcing a polite smile to her face she turned to Gil. “I’d like to go to my room. I seem to have lost my appetite.”

  “Of course, Molly, I’ll take you” said Gil.

  “I’ll return as soon as I escort Miss Gordon to her hotel,” said Ben.

  “Don’t bother. As a matter of fact, maybe you should go ahead with your plans.” She nodded in Miss Gordon’s direction.

  “My plans are over. Gil, take Miss Gordon to her hotel.”

  “Yes, sir.” He waved toward Molly. “But what about Mrs. King?”

  He narrowed his eyes at Molly. “I’ll see, Mrs. King home.”

  “Yes sir.” Gil walked over to the woman. “Miss Gordon, if you’ll come with me?” He held out his arm.

  She took it but looked over her shoulder at Ben. “See you later Ben?”

  “No, not tonight.” He looked at Molly and held out his arm for her to take.

  Instead she walked by him, head held high, and headed to their suite. When she got there she waited for him to use his key to enter.

  Once inside, he turned on her. “What the hell do you think you’re doing having dinner with Gil?”

  “I’m having dinner with my friend and not alone as I usually do. What about you?” She pointed at him. “You have dinner with your latest paramour and I’m supposed to just accept that it’s all right. That it’s the normal course of things. I told you when we married I don’t tolerate cheating and it looks to me like that’s exactly what you were doing or going to do if you haven’t already.”

  He ran his hands through his hair. “Miss Gordon is not my paramour.”

  She moved to the other side of the room where the door to her old room was. “You could have fooled me and every other diner in the room. I’m sure most of them were sniggering behind their hands when I came in, just waiting for the fireworks to start.”

  “And I didn’t disappoint them did I?” he said softly.

  “No, you didn’t.” She bit back a sob.

  “I’m sorry, Molly. I didn’t think. I was just taking the latest performer for the Bird Cage Theater to dinner. Nothing more.”

  “You could have fooled her…and me. I heard what she said. She fully expected you to join her in her bed. Would you have, if I didn’t show up? Is that what our marriage has become?”

  “You know I always come home to you.”

  She scoffed at his avoidance of her question. “Yes, at two or three in the morning. Then you wake me up to have relations turn over and go to sleep. You don’t even kiss me like you used to. Just little pecks on the lips and lately on the cheek.” She shook her head. “What am I supposed to think? Who are you giving your love to? It’s certainly not me.”

  He held out his hand. “Come to bed, Molly. We’ll talk about it there.”

  She shook her head and wrapped her arms around her waist. “No. I’m not coming to bed with you. I’ll sleep in my old bed until you can explain what I did to make you go to such great lengths to avoid me.” She took a shaky breath to continue. “You act like I’ve got the plague. You only come to me in the dark of night until breakfast in the morning and I get the feeling you’d leave before I got up if you could, just to avoid me all together.”

  He moved his head and looked at the floor, but didn’t say anything.

  “You see. I’m right. You don’t want to see me. I don’t know what I’ve done to make you hate me. I wish I did because then I could change it.”

  “Molly, I don’t hate you. I care for you very much.” Suddenly his eyes got big and he stalked over to her. “You said pregnant. His pregnant wife. You’re certain now?”

  “So what? At least when the baby’s born, I’ll have someone who loves me and wants to be with me.” She turned and went through the door to the adjoining suite.

  He followed her. “Molly, we have to talk about this. It’s not good for you to be so upset.”

  “What is there to talk about, Ben?” Her shoulders slumped, sadness overcoming her. “You don’t love me. I’m hopeful that you’ll love our child.”

  “Of course I’ll love our child. I already do.”

  “Do you? I don’t think you have any idea what love is. She’s not even here yet and you say you love her but you can’t love her mother who happens to be your wife. Instead you make a laughing-stock of her in front of the whole town.”

  She went to the bed and lay upon it fully clothed.

  “You shouldn’t be gallivanting around town either. I’m going to post Gil as a guard on your door so you can’t leave.”

  “I won’t be a prisoner.”

  “You’re not a prisoner.” He paced the room and ran his hands through his hair. “I’m doing the only thing I know how in order to protect you.”

  “You’re crushing me.”

  “Molly…”

  “Ben, don’t do this. Please don’t do this.”

  “It’s for your own good.”

  “Please just talk to Mal and Lizzie before you do this. Don’t make us enemies.”

  “Get up Molly, were going to bed.”

  “I’m sleeping in here. I’m not sleeping with you.”

  “Molly, I’ve told you before, no matter how angry we are with each other, we always sleep together. You agreed to that.”

  Damn, his memory. “Maybe I’ve changed my mind.” That was just for small issues, not huge ones, like his cheating.

  He smiled. “You can’t change your mind. You have a little bump where the baby is growing.”

  Her hands flew to her stomach and she looked down. Molly walked over to the mirror and turned sideways and smoothed her dress. She was starting to show.

  Ben stood in the door way, leaning against the frame with his arms crossed over his chest. “Another reason you shouldn’t wear corsets.”

  She ignored him, walked to the bed and turned down the covers. Before she could put her knee on the bed she was swept into his arms.

  “Put me down,” she stiffened and pushed against his chest to no avail. She crossed her arms over her chest and closed her eyes.

  “Molly.”

  “Hmm.”

  “Look at me, please.”

  He carried her to their bed in the adjoining suite.

  “No.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I’m crying and I don’t want you to see. I’m angry and hurt and I don’t want you to know.”

  “I’m sorry, Molly. I’m conducting business as I always have. I never intended to hurt you. Just as I never intended to bed Miss Gordon, regardless of what she wanted. I told you I take my vows seriously. Keep myself unto you was a vow I made. I won’t cheat on you. I expect the same courtesy.”

  He carried her through both living rooms and into their bedr
oom. “I’d never cheat on you. But I don’t deny I wanted to make you jealous. I also enjoyed having someone to eat dinner with. I don’t like being alone all the time. Gil is nice and he helps me during the day, but at night, I’m here alone. You work very hard to avoid me and I don’t know why.”

  “I don’t avoid you. I just have business that needs to be taken care of.”

  “Did you think your life wouldn’t change when you married? Do you believe you can put me in a room until you want me and then put me away when you don’t like I’m some piece of furniture? You have managers that can do most of this business. They handled your business just fine when I first told you about the carriage incident. You stayed with me and they did just fine. Why do you have them if you have to do their jobs for them?”

  “What makes you think I do their jobs for them?” He set her down in the middle of the bed and came down beside her.

  “Ben, I’m ready to go to sleep. Let me get my nightgown.”

  “No clothes. For either of us.” He stood and shucked his clothes in record speed.

  She stood and took off her clothes as well.

  Ben picked up the corset from the pile of clothes on the floor.

  “I thought I asked you not to wear these anymore.”

  “No, you told me not to wear them. Perhaps if you had asked I wouldn’t have felt the need to push back against you.”

  He nodded. “I do tend to be demanding. I’m sorry, Molly. Would you please stop wearing that corset? Especially now that you’re expecting. That contraption can’t be good for you.”

  She pulled down the covers and crawled between the sheets.

  “All right. I’ll quit wearing them.”

  “Thank you.”

  Ben joined her and held out his arm so she could cuddle against his side.

  He felt so warm, so good. She would definitely miss it if she got a divorce.

  “I won’t hold you to the marriage. We can get a divorce if you want it. I don’t want you to be so unhappy that you stay away from your home because of me.” Tears rolled down her face and onto his side.