More Than Gold

by Nerys Leigh

  For a few moments he couldn’t think of anything to say. No one had ever called him handsome before, certainly never a woman.

  “I... do?”

  A hint of pink blossomed on her cheeks and a shy smile touched her lips. “I think I married the most handsome man in the world.”

  He almost laughed. She couldn’t be serious. Could she?

  He cleared his throat, pushed his hands into his pockets, pulled them out again. “Well, um, I guess we’d better get going, if you have nothing else you need to do.”

  “Yes,” she said, sounding a little breathless. “I mean no, I have nothing else I need to do.”

  He nodded, momentarily forgot what he was doing, and finally remembered he would need to get into the buggy in order to be able to go home.

  She kept darting glances at him as he started Fred off. Once they were out of the town she moved closer to him and wound her arm around his.

  After a few moments, she said, “I like you clean shaven very much.”

  His heart did a shimmy around his chest. Or it was indigestion. Either way, he didn’t hate it.

  Maybe he wouldn’t grow the beard back just yet.

  Chapter 15

  It was going to happen soon, Gabriel knew it.

  Things were going so well between the two of them that Grace would surely allow him back into his bed any day now. He’d been shaving every day and spending extra time on his personal ablutions, so he’d be ready. His wife wasn’t the type to accept a less than scrupulously clean man into her bed, he knew that much.

  His cravings seemed to be improving too. Ever since the night when Grace had stopped him from giving in, the intense desire for the tobacco had been diminishing. He hoped that meant he was over the worst of it. If it meant he got closer to Grace, it would all be worth it.

  He pushed his empty breakfast plate back and leaned back in his chair at the table, sighing in contentment as he watched Grace wiping the stove with a wet cloth. Delicious food and a beautiful wife. Today was going to be a good day, he could feel it.

  Perhaps it would even be the day.

  “I’ve decided not to go to my claim today,” he said, stretching his arms above his head and yawning.

  She glanced back at him over her shoulder. “Oh?”

  “There are a few things need doing round the place. And I thought it would be nice to spend the day with you.”

  Her smile outdid even the bright sunshine coming in through the windows. “I’d like that.”

  He was a blessed man, no doubt about it.

  The pleasant calm was shattered by a small ball of fur hurtling in through the open door and leaping onto one of the upholstered chairs. R.B. spun round on the cushion and stood up on his hind legs, batting the air with his tiny paws as Brutus bounded in after him. Brutus barked and dropped his head to the floor, backside sticking up in the air and tail wagging furiously.

  Gabriel hadn’t seen his dog as energetic as he was with R.B. since he’d been a puppy. He vaguely wondered if it would be that way for him, when he and Grace had children.

  R.B. scampered up the back of the chair then back down onto one of the arms, hanging on with his little claws.

  Grace hurried over to them and lifted the kitten, holding him up in front of her face. “Not on the chair. You’ll ruin the fabric.”

  Unperturbed, R.B. batted at a strand of hair that had worked free of her bun.

  Smiling, she placed him on the floor. “It’s a good thing you’re adorable.”

  Brutus dipped his head to his playmate and R.B. pounced on his nose. Brutus shook him away, sneezed, and raised his face, his body tensing.

  Gabriel saw the warning signs immediately. “Grace, I’d get back from him if I were you.”

  She looked down at the dog. “Why?”

  Before he could answer, Brutus shook his head, his ears and floppy skin pounding back and forth with such force Gabriel imagined he could feel the vibrations through his feet.

  And then it happened.

  Dog saliva erupted from the shaking dog like a fountain, splattering the floor, the chair, and Grace.

  Having finished his shake, Brutus wagged his tail and sat down, panting. R.B. rubbed around his front legs, sat between his paws, and began to lick himself.

  Grace stood completely still, her arms held out to either side as if she wanted to disconnect herself from them. “What... just... happened?”

  Gabriel pressed his lips together, but a snort of laughter escaped nevertheless. “Tried to warn you.”

  She looked around the room. “How... how often does he do that?”

  “Inside?” He shrugged. “Never really paid much attention. Once a day or so. Reckon you’ve just not been near him when he has. It’s why I feed him outside. He tends to shake after he eats.”

  “And, and, and, do you clean it up?”

  He glanced around the room. “Depends. It’s okay once it dries. Doesn’t smell or anything.”

  She gaped at him. “Once it dries? Once it dries? You leave it to dry?”

  He could tell she thought that was wrong. He considered asking her why, but decided against it. “Only sometimes.”

  There were several seconds of silence during which she stared at him as if he’d grown wings. And then she said, very calmly, “Out.”

  He blinked. “Out?”

  “Get out. Leave the house. And take the dog with you.”

  “Now wait just a minute...”

  “I am going to scrub this house from top to bottom. It will no doubt take me some time. You are welcome to help, but if you aren’t going to, you need to get out. Now.”

  Her voice remained calm, frighteningly so in fact. He may not have been an expert in female behavior, but he knew enough to grasp that a tone like that wasn’t something you messed with.

  He stood and headed for the door. “Come on, Brute.”

  Brutus looked at him then up at Grace again.

  She reached out to gingerly pat his head. “Go on outside now, there’s a good boy.”

  Gabriel called him again and he stood and followed him outside, R.B. trailing after them. He quietly pulled the door shut and was halfway across the yard when a screech came from inside the house that made him flinch. Even Brutus gave a rare bark, looking back at the door.

  Gabriel laid a hand on his head. “Best we stay out here. I don’t think she wants to see either of us right now.” He suspected tonight wasn’t going to be the night he was allowed back into his bed either. “Thanks for that, Brute. You’re a real help.”

  Twenty minutes later, the door to the house opened. Gabriel looked up from where he was sitting in the barn doorway, cleaning his rifle, to see a mound of clothing fly out the door and land in a heap on the ground. Grace disappeared back inside for a few seconds then reappeared with more clothing. That was followed by the bedding, the curtains, and the tablecloth.

  He put down the rifle and walked over to the mound of clothes and soft furnishings. “Why’d you do that? They’re all dirty now.”

  She stood in the doorway, her hands on her hips. “Doesn’t matter. They’re all going to be washed anyway.”

  “You’re going to clean the entire house plus all this?” It seemed like a lot of unnecessary work to him.

  “No, I’m not.” She fixed him with a look that dared him to argue.

  It took a moment for him to grasp what she was saying. “Hold on, you’re expecting me to wash all this?”

  “If you ever want to step foot inside this house again, yes.”

  That was it. He’d reached his limit. “Confound it, woman, it’s just spit! Why do you need to get all riled up over spit?”

  She stared at him as if he’d suggested she go and roll in horse dung. “Just spit? It’s disgusting! You can’t seriously be telling me you are happy to sit and sleep and eat your meals in a house full of dog saliva!”

  “It’s never done me any harm.”

  “All that proves is that you’re a very lucky man.”r />
  “Not with wives,” he muttered under his breath.

  She narrowed her eyes. “I beg your pardon?”

  He considered saying it out loud but, annoyed as he was, he wasn’t stupid. “I ain’t washing all this. I have more important things to do.”

  He may not have been able to sleep in his house, or currently even go into his house, but he didn’t have to obey her orders. He was the man. He was the one in charge.

  She opened her mouth and closed it again. There were a good ten seconds when he was certain she didn’t even blink as she glared at him. Then she spun around and marched back inside, slamming the door closed with such force he was surprised something didn’t break.

  He turned and stalked back to the barn, muttering to himself. “Not my fault she’s got her dander up over nothing. I’m not spending my whole day washing all that. What’s she think I got a wife for? Cleaning the place is her job now, not mine.” He sat on the barrel and picked up the rifle. “Washing clothing’s woman’s work. Especially when she throws it on the ground!”

  And the day had started out so well.

  He resumed his cleaning, doing his best to ignore the pile of clothes and bedding. Not his problem, that’s what it was.

  Brutus wandered over to give it a sniff then flopped down on the top.

  After a few minutes, the door to the house opened and Grace emerged holding a bucket. She’d changed her dress and her hair was hidden beneath a scarf. She looked at Brutus sprawled on the clothing for a second then went to the water barrel, filled the bucket, and took it back inside. She didn’t look at Gabriel once.

  He pointedly continued to clean his rifle. When he’d finished, he moved on to his revolver.

  A while later she came out again, emptied the bucket and refilled it, and went back inside. The pile of laundry remained in the yard, Brutus snoring on the top.

  Gabriel finished cleaning his revolver and stared at the laundry.

  Laundry was women’s work. He had plenty to do around his home without doing that too.

  She was the one who’d thrown it onto the ground. It wasn’t his duty to clean up after her just because she didn’t like a bit of dog drool.

  She was the one overreacting, she should be the one doing all the extra laundry.

  Frowning, he turned and headed for the chicken enclosure.

  The coop needed cleaning.

  ~ ~ ~

  It was funny, and by funny Grace meant not at all amusing, how Gabriel’s tiny house became so much larger when she had to clean the whole thing.

  Dog drool! How could he have left dog drool to dry on everything? Her skin crawled at the thought that she’d been sitting and sleeping in it since she’d arrived. She loved Brutus, he was a sweet-natured animal, despite his size. But the drool. What in the world was she going to do about the drool?

  She stopped scrubbing at the bed frame and looked around her. It had taken her over an hour just to clean the walls and there was so much left to do. Heaving a sigh, she picked up the bucket of dirty water and carried it to the door. She couldn’t live for one more minute in this house without it being clean. Granted, she’d already lived in it for over a week, but that was before she knew.

  She opened the door and stepped outside. And stopped.

  The pile of clothing and bedding she’d thrown into the yard had gone and the sound of splashing was coming from around the corner of the house. She put down the bucket and followed the watery noise to an astonishing sight.

  A little way from the house a large pot of water rested over a low fire, and a few feet from that was the pile of clothing and bedding. Brutus and R.B. were sprawled on the top.

  Beside the pile, a metal tub sat on a low table, and over the tub was bent Gabriel, scrubbing a shirt on a washboard. He straightened, wiped the back of one hand over his forehead, then resumed his work. Several items of clothing and one blanket were already hanging from the washing line that stretched from the corner of the house to a post ten feet away.

  For a few moments Grace simply stood, watching him in amazement. The truth was, she hadn’t expected him to do the laundry. When she’d said he should, it was more because she was annoyed at him for letting Brutus’ drool soak into everything than because she thought he actually would. She was fully resigned to having to do it all herself after cleaning the house.

  But here he was doing the laundry, not because he thought it was necessary, but because she’d asked him to.

  She walked up to him and, after a moment’s hesitation, reached out to touch his arm.

  He stopped rubbing and turned to look at her. There were amber flecks in his brown eyes. How had she not noticed that before?

  “I didn’t think you would do this,” she said.

  “I didn’t intend to, but then I got to thinking and I reckon you’d know better than me about keeping things clean.” He glanced at the pile of bedding with Brutus and R.B. snoozing on the top. “Not sure how you’re going to stop it happening again though. I’ll say it now, I ain’t doing this every day.”

  She smiled at the huge dog. “I’ll think of something. And thank you.” She indicated the laundry.

  He looked at the clothing. “Maybe we should have a cupboard to put our clothes in, instead of just hooks on the walls. They’d stay cleaner that way.”

  She would have hugged him, if he hadn’t been so wet and she hadn’t been so dirty.

  “I think that is a wonderful idea.”

  ~ ~ ~

  It took Grace the whole day to clean the house. Neither Gabriel nor Brutus were allowed inside for the entire time.

  He continued to wash the rest of the clothing, bedding, and curtains, finishing the last of it early that evening. Grace was impressed. She’d been half expecting him to give up at some point, but he kept going until it was all done. He even strung up a rope between the two barns to act as a temporary clothesline so it could all dry.

  At the end of the day, she brought their meal out to an old table he kept in the barn that he dusted off and set outside where they could see the view across the valley.

  “How’s it going?” he said when they’d finished eating, nodding towards the house.

  “I’m almost done. I thought, since I was cleaning anyway, I might as well do the whole place.”

  The fact that he wasn’t the most fastidious of cleaners hung unspoken in the air between them. He evidently decided leaving it there was the better course of action.

  “Any thoughts on how you’re going to stop Brutus doing it all again?”

  She glanced at the porch where he was stretched out in a patch of evening sunshine. “I’ve had some ideas. How easy to train is he? I had dogs when I was younger and I taught them, but I’d never even seen a dog like him before I came here.”

  “He’s smart,” Gabriel replied, smiling fondly at his dog, “and he learns real quick, as long as there’s treats involved. He’ll do anything for food.”

  She leaned her elbow on the table and rested her head on her hand. “When did you get him?”

  He sat back in his chair, staring into the distance as if seeing into the past. “Not long after I came here, more than two years ago now. I wanted a dog that would guard the place, what with it being so isolated out here. I met a man in town who was selling puppies and soon as I saw the mother, I knew one of them would be just what I needed.” He chuckled, moving his eyes back to Brutus. “When I walked into the barn where they were, all these puppies came running up to me, all excited. All except for one. He was curled up next to his ma, fast asleep. The man said he was the runt of the litter and he wasn’t sure he’d ever find anyone to take him. He was such a tiny thing, smaller than all his brothers and sisters, but he had the biggest paws you’d ever seen on something so little. It would have been more sense to take one of the others, since I needed a guard dog, but I couldn’t leave him there, not knowing what would happen to him. So I took him. It was hard to believe he’d ever grow as big as his ma, but once he started eating w
ell and running around here, there was no stopping him.”

  It again struck Grace, as her heart pitter-pattered at watching Gabriel talk with such tenderness about his dog, that this man would be the father of her children. She couldn’t imagine finding better.

  He returned his gaze to her. “What?”

  She suddenly realized she was smiling. “Oh, just, it’s nice that you have each other.”

  “I guess I’d have been a lot lonelier if it wasn’t for him. I didn’t say it at the time, but I was worried before you came that you wouldn’t like dogs or you wouldn’t get along with him.”

  “What would you have done if I hadn’t?”

  “Bought you a ticket home,” he said immediately.

  She burst into laughter. Brutus opened one eye, scanned the yard, then closed it again.

  “In that case, I’m very glad I like dogs,” she said, feeling a little shy at saying it. “And that Brutus likes me.”

  He grinned. “So am I.”

  Chapter 16

  “So when do I get to see what’s going on in there?” Gabriel said the next day as they ate breakfast together outside. He nodded towards the house. “Or am I going to be living in the barn for the rest of my life?”

  She laughed a little. “It’s almost ready. Just a few more things left for me to do. It should be done by the time you get home.”

  “I should come home early then,” he said, smiling.

  She seemed to have gotten over the whole drool issue now. He hoped that meant things were back to being good between them.

  The way she smiled at him reassured him they were. “I think you should.”

  He worked extra hard all day so he could finish up early, and he was back by four. As soon as he rode into the yard, Grace came out onto the porch to meet him.

  “Is it ready?” he said as he dismounted.

  “It’s ready.” Her smile looked in danger of splitting her face in half and he could swear she was almost bouncing. “I’ll help with Jed. I can’t wait for you to see it.”

  Her excitement was infectious and by the time Jed was in the pasture with Fred and Goat, Gabriel was as eager to see the interior of the house as she was to show him.