“Radford warned us not to. Kyle said we were crazy But Boyd made it sound like such an adventure, I had to try. We got the sled clear to the roof peak, but when I jumped on, my weight jerked the sled out of Boyd’s hands. He was supposed to ride with me, but I streaked down the roof alone and shot into the air like a lightning bolt.”
“Dang! How far did you get?” Adam asked.
“Too far. I overshot the snowbank and landed in the shoveled driveway. I broke my arm, and when my parents found out what we were up to, we all got a strap laid across our backsides.”
Faith arched an eyebrow at Adam. “So the moral, young man, is that you don’t climb onto the roof.”
“Sorry, wrong story,” Duke said. This job as father was more complicated than he thought.
“You’re fine,” Faith said, “but I know a certain young man who might be impressed and tempted to try something like that.”
He’s a boy, Duke wanted to say. Boys climb trees. They swing from wild grape vines to drop twenty feet into the gorge. It was the adventure and the thrill that drove them to be daring—or dumb. Duke didn’t know about girls, but Evelyn had done many of those same daring, albeit dumb, things with them. That wild sense of adventure, to him at least, had been the best part of his childhood.
Not that he wanted Adam jumping off a roof. But a boy was entitled to some adventure in life.
Faith chased the children upstairs to put on their nightclothes. Alone for the first time all evening, Duke stole a kiss from her, and she was so warm and willing, he wanted to carry her straight to their big bed and make love to her.
But that had to wait, because for the first time in his life, Duke helped his wife tuck their children in bed. Adam suffered Faith’s hug, then dove onto his new mattress. He sat on the coverlet in his nightshirt looking suddenly uncomfortable. “Um, I don’t know what to call you, Sir.”
Duke didn’t know either. It would have been easier if Adam, like Cora, was Faith’s child. But he wasn’t, even though she treated him as such. So that left Duke feeling like a father, but relegated to brother-in-law and guardian. “You’re nearly a man, Adam. Why not call me Duke?” He hoped the acknowledgment would allow them to be friends, and still give Adam someone he could depend on.
“Sure, Duke.” Adam sat up a little straighter on the mattress. “You and your brothers sure did some crazy things when you were boys.”
“You will too, Adam. I just hope you’ll be smarter and more careful than we were.”
Adam grinned. “I promise I won’t ride a sled off the barn roof.”
“Thank you for that small blessing.” Faith kissed his boyish cheek. “Enjoy your new bed and sleep well.”
“I will.” He flopped to his side and bunched a thick feather pillow beneath his head.
Duke extinguished Adam’s lantern, then they went to Cora’s room. She was sprawled sideways across her bed, lightly bumping her heels against the wall and singing to herself.
“Time to tuck you in,” Faith said, turning back the coverlet. She swept Cora into a tight hug and kissed her cheek. “Sweet dreams, honey”
Cora kissed Faith’s cheek, then reached so naturally for Duke, he felt his heart do a crazy little somersault. “Goodnight, Daddy” she said. She squeezed his neck with her skinny arms, and kissed his cheek with her puckered lips.
Being a sheriff for eight years had numbed Duke in some ways, making him able to handle life-threatening situations with a cool head, but nothing had prepared him for the rush of tenderness he felt for Cora. He’d tucked his nieces and nephews into bed many times when his mother kept them overnight, and though he loved those children with all his heart, they belonged to his brothers. This little rose-scented girl with her bright eyes and blabby mouth was his—the daughter he would love and protect and rescue from being fatherless.
“Goodnight, princess.” He barely squeezed the words from his thick throat. Another few seconds of holding her, and he wouldn’t be able to breathe. “Don’t let the bedbugs bite,” he added, tweaking her side.
She giggled and squirmed away. Faith caught her and guided her into bed, following with a smacking kiss on Cora’s forehead. “No playing. It’s late.” She pulled the sheet and blanket over the child. “See you in the morning.”
They extinguished her lantern, left the door open, and hurried to their bedchamber.
Duke closed the door then started to unbutton his shirt. “Last one to undress has to shut out the lantern.”
“No fair,” Faith protested. “I’m wearing twice the clothing you are.”
“Ah . . . but you’ll have twice the help undressing.” Burning with desire for his beautiful new wife, he gathered her soft, slender body against him and covered her mouth with his, feeling that his arms and heart were full at last.
Chapter 28
When Adam got to the swimming hole in the gorge, Rebecca was in the water. He hadn’t seen her since Faith and Duke’s wedding three weeks ago, and it was making him crazy. Did she considered him her cousin now? Could they still be friends?
“Set this in the shade,” Faith said, handing him the huge basket of food she’d brought for the picnic with Duke’s mother and brothers. Everyone from Adam’s family was there, and Doc Milton and Patrick and Cyrus were tagging along too. It seemed like the men were always around now, but Adam liked listening in on their naughty jokes.
The stones on the creek bank burned his bare feet, and he hurried to the water. Submerged to his shins, Adam watched Boyd swing over the creek on a wild grape vine and drop into the water with a splash.
“I want to do it!” Boyd’s four-year-old son Colter grabbed the vine.
“All right, but hold on until I tell you to let go.” Boyd treaded water in the middle of a deep pooled area of the creek, fanning his muscular arms to stay afloat.
On the bank, Kyle lifted the boy, made sure he had a firm hold on the vine, then gave him an easy push over the water.
“Let go!” Boyd shouted. Colter released the vine and fell. As soon as he surfaced from the water, Boyd grabbed him and swam ashore with his dripping, grinning, dark-haired son clinging to his strong back.
Teaching courage and daring, and giving rescue, was something fathers did that Adam hadn’t known about.
Rebecca’s dad went in next, then waited for his sons. William swam ashore on his own, but Joshua needed some help. After a while, the fathers and sons got all mixed up, and Adam learned that fathers take care of their brothers’ children. Another slice in his heart. Why didn’t his own father want him?
“Adam!” Rebecca waved to him. “Come try the swing.”
Anything was better than standing on the bank thinking about a man he hated. The swing was exciting, but it would have been more thrilling if the drop was longer.
His aunts and Rebecca’s grandmother each took a ride on the swing, hooting and laughing so loudly it embarrassed him. Tansy blew a kiss to Cyrus, then dropped into the pool and pretended she was drowning. When he swam out to rescue her, he stole a kiss. Iris hooted like the boys, and kicked her feet so high when she rode the swing, her red drawers showed. It made Patrick whistle like a fool. And Duke wouldn’t stay away from Faith for a minute. She blushed and laughed and pretended to push him away, but she liked Duke’s teasing. Only Aster and Doc Milton behaved themselves while everyone else acted foolish.
Adam swam downstream where the water rushed over rocks. Alone, he dug up stones and piled them in different shapes, liking the way it changed the sound of the burbling water.
“What are you doing?” Rebecca asked, from behind him.
Startled, he dropped a rock against his knee, but refused to wince at the bloody scrape. He glanced upstream where everyone was still splashing and hollering. “My family is embarrassing.”
“So is mine,” Rebecca admitted. “They’re all playing charades and laughing like they’ve had too much wine.”
“Are they drinking?”
“No, just acting silly.” Rebecca dug up a rock
and stacked it on the pile. “My dad says we’re cousins now.”
They were not cousins.
“I don’t think we are,” she said. “But maybe my dad will let us be friends now.”
The ache in his chest lightened. “Did you find my note last week?” he asked, fussing with the rock pile.
“Joshua found it, but I got it away from him before he could show my father.”
Adam’s gut rolled. “I won’t leave any more.”
“There’s a better place,” she said, looking upstream to make sure they weren’t overheard. “You know the creek that cuts through our apple orchard?” At his nod, she continued. “Under the little wooden bridge there’s an old bird’s nest on the side nearest my house. I’ll check there for notes.”
He remembered the bridge from when he’d chased Rebecca through the orchard at Faith’s wedding. His stomach was all tight and odd feeling that day. And when he’d caught Rebecca around the waist and she’d brushed against his thighs it made him ache in an embarrassing place. He didn’t touch her after that, but thinking about the way she felt against him made his body start feeling odd and achy again.
He sank lower in the water. “You better go before your dad gets angry.”
But it wasn’t her father’s voice that boomed down the gorge. It was Duke’s. “You two get up here where we can see you. I don’t want you floating into Lake Erie.”
Adam rolled his eyes, and Rebecca laughed, then they made their way back toward their noisy, embarrassing families.
o0o
After a month of marriage, Faith still had to pinch herself to know she wasn’t dreaming. She never knew life could be filled with so much joy and laughter, or that she—a prostitute’s daughter—would be blessed with a beautiful home and loving husband.
Each evening after chores, she and Duke and the children, and sometimes her aunts or his family, would share a filling supper, then retire to the parlor to read and play games. After tucking the children in bed, she and Duke would seek their own bed with an eagerness that both thrilled and shamed her—because she still wasn’t going to tell him the truth.
She couldn’t. He’d been wearing his sheriff’s badge on his leather vest for eight years with pride and devotion. Each morning, he strapped on his gun belt, pulled on his vest, and whistled his way out the door, sure of himself and sure of Faith. He was so content with his new family, and so proud of his new wife, the truth would crush him.
So now when she ached to confess, she kept her silence to protect her husband.
In early September, Adam went back to school with a firm warning from Duke to behave himself and stay put in the schoolroom. Adam grumbled, but did as he was told, and Faith was grateful for Duke’s help.
Although Duke was busy with his job as sheriff and working the mill with his brothers, he asked again if Faith would let Adam work at the mill with him on Saturdays. It scared her too much to let him go, so Adam continued to work at the store and help in the greenhouse when not in school.
Faith only gave massages to Duke now, and his shoulder was steadily improving. With fewer demands on her time, she was becoming the sort of wife and mother she’d dreamed of being, and she thanked Duke each night in bed for his generosity.
Her aunts seemed to be settling in, too. Dahlia spent most of her evenings at Anna’s house, helping the women who sought refuge there. Despite Tansy’s objection to Cyrus being a Yankee, she was clearly falling in love with the man. Iris and Patrick were a mystery: They obviously cared for each other, but they were at some sort of standoff that Faith didn’t understand and couldn’t ask about.
In late September, Cora got sick to her stomach, keeping Faith at her bedside for four exhausting nights. The fifth evening Cora was better, but Faith wasn’t feeling well.
The next day all was right again, and that evening, after the children were sleeping, she stole across the street in the early autumn night with her husband. Inside the greenhouse, she felt her way along the counter. “Will you light the lantern while I get some linens?” she asked.
He struck a match, illuminating his handsome face and intense, dark eyes. “Bring some of that smelly oil you like.”
She raised an eyebrow in surprise, but his attention shifted to lighting the lantern. She grabbed an armful of linens and snatched a jar of almond oil off the shelf, then followed him to the bathhouse.
“Finally.” He shut the door behind them, sealing them in, and the world out. “This has been the longest, most miserable week of my life.”
“Mine too.” She deposited her towels and the oil on the table at the end nearest the tub, and he set the lantern at the other end.
“Come here,” he said, drawing her into his arms. “I’ve missed you in our bed. But if you’re still feeling poorly, we can wait another night.”
“I don’t want to wait.”
“Are you sure? Your eyes are dark.”
“I’m fine. I’m just worn out from sitting up with Cora.”
“I’ll make you feel better.” He held her against his chest and rubbed his hands over her back, kneading her tight muscles with his warm fingers.
“Mmm . . . I like your doctoring.”
“I’ll take care of you,” he said, massaging her neck.
“My muscles thank you.”
He chuckled and worked his fingers along her shoulders, in the way she’d done to him so many times. “What made you want to learn about the body and herbs and all those concoctions you make?” he asked.
Desperation. Loneliness. “I tended my mother’s roses with her and discovered I liked growing things. When I realized that some medicines were made from plants and trees, I wanted to learn about them, and that fed my curiosity about anatomy.”
“I’ve developed a curiosity about anatomy too.” He palmed her stomach. “I don’t know what muscles I’m feeling, but I like when they tense up like they’re doing now.”
“That’s my abdominis muscle, which will probably be stretched six ways from Sunday when I carry our first child.”
“You’ll be beautiful, but let’s hold off a while. I like sneaking away with you in the middle of the night.”
“I like it too.”
He reached around behind her and filled his hands with her backside. “I’m particularly fond of these muscles.”
“My gluteus maximus is flattered.”
He wrinkled his nose. “That’s an awful name for something so lovely.” She laughed, and he lowered his mouth to nibble her neck. “Last chance to escape if you’re not feeling up to this, be-cause if you don’t run from the room right now, I’m going to kiss you and make love to you all night.”
“I’m not leaving.”
“You’re sure then?”
“More than sure. But I could use some help with my dress. There are thirty buttons on this thing.”
“I’m in no rush.” Slowly, he slipped open the long line of buttons down the front of her dress then pushed it off her shoulders. “You know what I thought the first time I saw you?”
“Nothing. Your mind was blank because you were stunned by my beauty”
He pulled back, eyes wide in mock surprise. “You knew?”
She laughed and nudged his ribs. “What did you think?”
“That you shouldn’t be sad. That your whiskey-colored eyes should shine with happiness, that your beautiful lips should always wear a smile.”
He’d thought all that? She smoothed her palms over his broad chest, touched by his tenderness. “I’m the happiest I’ve ever been. Being with you is . . . it’s I don’t know, I just feel complete in a way I’ve never known.”
“You won’t want for anything if I can help it.”
“Neither will you. If I could give you your heart’s desire, I would.”
“You have, Faith. Your gorgeous body. Your smile. You. My heart’s desire. Simple as that.”
“That’s all you want?”
“It’s everything I need.” He hooked his hands around her
hips and pulled her against him. “I’ll always want you.” He kissed her neck. “I’ll always crave you.”
“Mmm . . .”
“I want to devour you.” He rocked his hard loins against her. “Let’s get in the tub.”
“So soon? I was enjoying your doctoring.”
“I’m just getting started.” He gave her a playful whack on her backside. “Off with your clothes, woman. Doctor’s orders.”
He helped her take off her shoes, then took off his own while she slipped out of her petticoats and stockings. The room was warm from the bath and boiler, but she shivered, missing his arms. He stripped off his shirt, then shucked his trousers. Then his drawers.
Arms at his side, back straight, he planted his bare feet on the stone floor and faced her, all bold and glorious, unmindful of his nakedness and warrior-like pose.
“You sure don’t look like a doctor,” she said, unable to take her eyes off her husband’s virile body.
A crooked grin tipped his mouth. “Looks deceive, sweetheart. But you’ll like what I prescribe.” He tugged the ribbon at her waist and pushed her drawers over her hips and down her legs, kissing her thighs as he slid her undergarment to her ankles. He nibbled his way back up to her neck. Her legs were quaking when he pulled the chemise over her head. Naked, breathing in short, excited gasps, she stepped out of her drawers.
He lifted her into the tub, then climbed in behind her. “I’ve been aching all damned week for you,” he said, drawing her against his hot, slick body.
“You can stop aching.” She hooked her arms around his neck and pressed her breasts to his wet chest. With a growl, he took possession of her mouth.
Water lapped at their bodies as he kissed her, his firm lips and delving tongue stoking the fire in her body. He took it deeper, slower, rubbing his water-slick skin against hers. “I need to get the oil, sweetheart,” he said, his hot breath caressing her ear.
“What oil?” she asked, drugged by his kiss.
“The oil I’m going to rub all over your body”
Oh . . . “I didn’t bring any.”
A low chuckle rumbled in his chest. “It’s on the table.”
Wendy Lindstrom Page 24