by Nerys Leigh
Gabriel sat up and glared at the intruding dog. “You are walking on very thin ice, mutt.”
Brutus thumped his tail on the ground and didn’t budge an inch. Grace laughed even harder.
He loved to hear her laugh, although it didn’t make the situation any less exasperating.
He tapped his finger on Brutus’ snout. “Let’s get one thing straight, Grace is my wife, not yours.”
“Actually,” she said, “I think he may be not so much jealous as hungry. I still have two cookies left.”
Now he knew, he saw that Brutus’ nose was pointed in the direction of the pocket with the cookies.
He rolled his eyes. “You interrupted that kiss for cookies? I expected more loyalty from you than that.”
She sat up, moving Brutus’ head to her lap and rubbing the top. “Don’t be too hard on him. My cookies are very hard to resist.”
He moved towards her again, his eyes going to her lips. “They’re not the only thing hard to resist.”
Brutus raised his head and calmly ran his huge tongue up the side of Gabriel’s face.
He jerked back, choking and batting him away. “Brutus!”
Grace clapped a hand over her mouth in a useless attempt to hide her mirth.
“Oh, so you think that’s funny, do you?” He leaned towards her. “Let’s see how funny you think it is when you’re kissed by a man covered in dog drool.”
She squealed and squirmed away, managing to laugh and look disgusted at the same time. He made a grab for her, but she scrambled to her feet and backed away, still giggling.
He pushed to his feet and advanced on her until she was backed against the tree.
She pressed a finger into his chest, stopping his advance. “Go wash your face first.”
He heaved a sigh. “Fine, but you’d better stay right there.”
Her smile made his heart flip. “You can count on it.”
He rushed to the stream to rinse Brutus’ slobber from his cheek. When he returned, she was leaning back against the tree, eyes shining as she watched him.
He slid his arms around her waist. “Now where were we?”
A furry head again pushed between them, this time with a plaintive whine.
Gabriel’s shoulders slumped. “Could you just give him the cookies so he leaves us alone?”
She pulled the two cookies from her pocket and Brutus gently plucked them from her hand and walked away to settle down in the grass with his prize.
Gabriel again slipped his arms around his wife, throwing a glance at the dog to make sure he wasn’t about to interrupt them again. Thankfully, he was engrossed in his cookies.
Reassured, he tilted his head to Grace’s upturned face. “Let’s try this again.”
Chapter 18
Grace was walking on a cloud, that was the only explanation. If she’d looked down and seen that her feet weren’t touching the ground, she wouldn’t have been surprised.
Her Good Things about Being in California and Married to Gabriel list had undergone a radical overhaul.
1) Gabriel.
2) Gabriel.
3) Gabriel.
4) Gabriel...
She was head over heels in love. Even more astonishing was that Gabriel was in love with her.
It was more than she’d dared to hope for when she traveled across the country to marry a man she didn’t know. God had blessed her more than she could have imagined. The way she was feeling, she might even have been moved to thank Felicia if she’d been there. Coming to California was the best thing that had ever happened to her. The luxuries of her childhood home didn’t begin to compare with how it felt to be in love.
“I’m definitely getting a settee,” Gabriel said, scowling at the chair arms separating them.
“I’d have no objections to that.”
They’d pushed the chairs together, but they still couldn’t do anything more than hold hands. He’d invited her to sit in his lap, but she’d been slightly afraid she might crush him.
He kissed the back of her hand and sighed. “I guess I’d better go to bed. It’s late.”
A whole cloud of butterflies exploded in her stomach. If she was going to do what she’d been considering all evening, she’d have to do it now.
He stood and pulled her up with him, drawing her into his arms. “Are you happy? About us, I mean?”
She wound her arms around his neck, pushed onto her toes, and gave him a lingering kiss that would leave him in no doubt as to how happy she was. “I’m very happy. Are you?”
“I’ve never been happier.” He drew her in for another kiss then stepped back. “I’d better go before I forget myself and don’t leave at all.” He kissed her hand before letting it go. “Goodnight, Grace. Sweet dreams.”
“Gabriel?” she said quickly as he headed for the door, before she lost her nerve.
He turned back. “Yes?”
“I... um...” She lowered her gaze to the floor, feeling her cheeks heat.
He walked back to her and touched his finger to her chin. “Is something wrong?”
He cared about her, she could see it in his eyes. He cared about what she wanted and how she felt. He cared about her happiness. What more could she want in a husband?
“I-I just thought that maybe,” she paused to swallow, “you didn’t have to sleep out in the barn tonight.”
He glanced around. “You want me to sleep in here?”
She nodded.
He looked confused. “Are you afraid of something? Did something happen last night?”
She shook her head. Her voice seemed to have failed her.
“But you want me to sleep in here?”
She nodded again.
He started to turn away. “I guess I could push the chairs together and...”
He stopped and looked back at her when she touched his arm.
“I... I don’t want you to sleep in a chair.” Her face must have been the color of the tomatoes they’d eaten earlier.
He frowned for a few moments and then his eyes went to the bed. “You mean... you want me to sleep in the bed?”
“Yes.”
“With you?”
“Mm hmm.”
“As in, you want us to,” he waved his hands in a pattern that didn’t seem to mean anything, “do what husbands and wives do? Together?”
She nodded, biting her lip.
For a few seconds he simply stared at her, slack-jawed. And then a grin erupted on his face and he threw his head back and whooped. Not exactly romantic, but that was Gabriel.
And she loved it.
He picked her up and spun in a circle, both of them laughing, before setting her down and stroking his fingertips gently down her cheek. “I reckon I’m just about the luckiest man on earth, to have you as my wife.”
She stared up at him in wonder. “You really mean that, don’t you?”
“Course I mean it. Why wouldn’t I mean it? You’re everything a man could want.”
She didn’t intend to ruin the moment, she truly didn’t, but the tears simply wouldn’t hold back.
His smile dropped from his face. “Don’t start crying now. Please don’t start crying. You know I don’t know what to do when you start...”
Throwing her arms around him, she pressed her face into his shoulder. “Just hold me.”
And he did. He wrapped his arms around her and held her so tight and so completely that she felt like he would never let go.
“I reckon I’m just about the luckiest woman on earth to have you as my husband,” she whispered as her tears dried.
He held onto her for a while longer before he kissed her forehead and stepped back.
And then, to her astonishment, he lowered to one knee on the floor. “Will you marry me?”
She blinked, confused. “We’re already married.”
“I know, but I didn’t know then what being married meant. I didn’t know what being in love was. Now I do, I want you to say yes. I want you to choose me, not b
ecause you have to, but because you want to. So I’m asking you, Grace, will you be my wife?”
It was all she could do to not burst into tears again. “If I had my pick of every man in the world, I would choose you. Yes. From the bottom of my heart, yes.”
A smile spread over his face and he rose to his feet. She expected him to kiss her, but instead he went to the chest of drawers and opened the one at the bottom, returning with a small cloth bag.
“I had these made by Peter Johnson, the blacksmith. I picked them up when we went into town on Tuesday. I was going to do something special when I asked you, although I hadn’t figured out what yet. But since we’re about to, you know,” he nodded towards the bed, “I figured I ought to ask you now. I think we weren’t really married before. It was legal and everything, but it didn’t feel real. You know what I mean?”
She nodded. She knew exactly what he meant.
“But now it feels real, like you’re really my wife and I’m really your husband. So I thought we should have something that makes it real.” He opened the cloth bag and the contents clinked together as they spilled out into his hand. “The gold came from my claim. Seemed fitting that I found it myself.”
Grace covered her mouth, blinking back tears as she stared at the two gold rings in his palm. “Oh, Gabriel.”
He took the smaller of the two and held her left hand. “Grace, I promise to love you, and be faithful to you, and take care of you, as long as we live.” He slipped the ring onto her finger.
Determinedly not crying, she unfurled his hand and took the other ring. “Gabriel, I promise to love you, and be faithful to you, and look after you, as long as we live.”
As she slid the ring onto his finger, her chest filled with so much love she wondered that she could contain it all.
Drawing her close, he kissed her tenderly.
Then he grinned. “And now we’re properly wed and all, let’s get back to your idea.”
She squeaked as he scooped her into his arms and then laughed, all her tears forgotten, as he carried her to the bed.
Chapter 19
Grace woke the next morning with a smile on her face. She wondered vaguely if it had been there all night while she slept.
Gabriel lay behind her, his arm wrapped around her and his chest pressed against her back, rising and falling with his breathing as he slept. Being so close to him, especially after what they’d done the night before, felt wonderful.
She hadn’t been completely ignorant of what would happen. Her mother had told her the practical aspects of it long ago, before either of them had learned how unlikely she was to find a husband. What her mama hadn’t told her, however, was how it would make her feel.
She’d experienced love last night, she was sure of it. Pure love. She’d had no idea anything could feel like that. And now, lying in her husband’s arms, she felt utterly content. This was what marriage was, and she adored it.
She stayed where she was for a while, simply enjoying the moment, before she began to gently slide from his embrace. Perhaps she’d bring breakfast to him in bed.
“And where do you think you’re going?” he murmured in her ear, tightening his arm around her.
She giggled. She wasn’t sure she’d ever knowingly giggled in her life, but this was definitely a giggle. “I was going to get us breakfast.”
“Nope.”
“Nope?”
“Don’t need breakfast.” He pressed a kiss to the side of her neck, sending delicious tremors done her spine. “Got everything I want right here.”
~ ~ ~
When they arose, some time later, Grace’s smile was still firmly in place. She suspected it might never leave.
She started on breakfast while Gabriel saw to the animals. When he returned, he caught hold of her hand as she passed him, spun her into his arms, and kissed her until her legs weakened.
“Wish I didn’t have to work today,” he murmured against her neck, “but I’ve taken too many days off lately. I need to go up there. I’d rather spend the day with you though.”
“I’d rather spend the day with you too.” An idea came to her. “I could come with you. That would be all right, wouldn’t it?”
He raised his head. “You want to come up to my claim with me?”
“I’d love to. I haven’t seen it yet. You could teach me to pan for gold.” The more she thought about it, the more appealing the idea became. “May I come?”
He grinned. “I can’t think of anything I’d like more.”
~ ~ ~
The journey up to Gabriel’s claim was more beautiful than Grace could have imagined.
He took the buckboard up past the stream, following a well worn track uphill until they reached a tree-lined river which they followed up into the hills. The trees gradually thinned as the ground became rockier, the river turning into a shallower watercourse that tumbled over granite shelves and created little waterfalls and deeper pools.
Brutus snoozed in the back of the buckboard, the oft traveled route too familiar for him to take notice. R.B. sat on Grace’s lap and looked around with wide eyes for the first ten minutes or so, until he got bored and jumped down to curl up beside Brutus. Grace reveled in the beauty of the scenery they passed through for the entire way.
Finally they came to a place where the valley widened and the river calmed and deepened for a while. Jagged peaks surrounded them, stark against the blue sky, but in the valley the gray was broken by stunted trees and scrubby grass, and even flowers that peeked their yellow, blue, white, and pink heads out from cracks in the rock where soil had gathered and given them a chance to root.
Up a little from the stream was a flat area on which stood a rough wooden cabin, its walls bleached and silvered from the sun. Even though it was the only manmade structure around, it blended into the landscape perfectly.
Gabriel brought the buckboard to a halt and set the brake. “This is it. What do you think?”
She drew in a deep breath of the fresh mountain air and smiled. “It’s so beautiful. I had no idea.”
He knitted their fingers together and kissed the back of her hand. “You are the perfect woman.”
“You’re going to make me conceited if you keep saying things like that.” Not that she minded at all.
“I’ll take that risk.”
She waited for him to climb to the ground and come around to her side to help her down. As she’d hoped he would, he drew her in for a kiss before letting go of her waist. Having waited so long to experience such loving intimacy, she was enjoying making up for lost time.
Brutus jumped down from the back of the buckboard and wandered over to the river to take a drink. Grace lifted R.B. out and started towards the cabin.
“You’ll need a key,” Gabriel said, digging in his pocket.
She looked around. “You lock the door? Who is there to steal anything?”
“There are other claims up here, although they all belong to Fowler’s company now. But I never got out of the habit of locking it up.” He handed her a small key. “All my tools and equipment for finding gold are in there. If I lost it all, don’t know as I could replace it.”
She carried R.B. to the cabin, unlocked the sturdy padlock on the door, and stepped inside. She’d been expecting it to be basic, and it was, but it wasn’t unpleasant for that. A narrow bed stood in one corner, a lamp sitting on a stool beside it. To the right of the door were a small table and two wooden chairs, the seats and back shiny from years of use. On the opposite wall to the bed an array of tools hung from metal hooks, and several larger items sat on the floor beneath.
R.B. squirmed in her arms and she put him down onto the bed. He explored the blanket and pillow, apparently deemed it acceptable, and sat in the centre to lick his paws.
On the wall above the bed hung an incongruous painting of a ship being tossed on a stormy sea, the purple gray skies above it flickering with lightning and the foam-crested waves threatening to overcome the struggling vessel. Grace
leaned in to take a closer look. The artist wasn’t supremely skilled, but it had a certain rustic charm about it.
“That was there when I bought the claim,” Gabriel said from the door. “Thought it was appropriate so I left it there.”
He walked over to her and slipped his arms around her from behind.
She entwined her fingers with his at her waist. “Appropriate?”
“The ship fighting the waves and the storm and yet still staying afloat. It was like this place. Took me a lot of time and hard work to get it so I could work it again. The cabin was almost falling down, what tools were here were rusty and broken, even the road leading up here was overgrown and had holes. There was a mudslide over it in one place that I had to dig out before I could get the buckboard through. Sometimes I felt like I’d never be able to make it work. I felt like that ship in the storm. But then I’d look at this painting and think, ‘I’m still floating’.”
She turned around in his arms so she could see his face. “I wish I’d been here then. I could have helped, somehow.”
One side of his mouth rose in a soft smile. “I won’t deny, having you with me would have made it feel a lot better. But I didn't know that back then. It took you to teach me how good having the right woman by my side would be.”
She loved it when he said things like that. “Well, I’m here now. So teach me how to pan for gold and I’ll help.”
He grinned. “Yes, ma’am.”
~ ~ ~
Finding gold in the deposits around the river turned out to be both fun and dull, and rewarding and frustrating.
At first, Grace enjoyed learning how to use the metal pan to separate the dirt and sand Gabriel dug from the area around the stream. It was an undoubted skill, being able to swill the water around the pan to remove the lighter material without losing the heavier, darker sand that could contain the gold.
When she finally, after many failed attempts, got it more or less right, she was deeply disappointed to find not even a hint of gold at the bottom of her pan. Gabriel laughed at her pout, gave her a hug, and troweled more dirt into the pan.