by Sandy James
“Lining up where?” Kayla shook her head. “I have nowhere to stay, no money, and no contacts.”
“Well, then…” Without even asking her husband, Sara did what she thought was right—something she hoped would make amends for stealing Kayla’s life. “You shall stay on the farm with Caleb and me.”
Finally finding the courage to glance at Caleb, Sara breathed a sigh of relief when he gave her a brisk nod.
Proud that she’d held so tightly to her self-control, Sara wanted nothing more than to leave town as quickly as possible, even if that meant dragging Kayla along with them. She was humiliated, afraid the news that she wasn’t the bride Caleb had intended would cause the town gossips to turn against her and speculate on how and why she’d come to town.
Her luck had soured, something she’d anticipated. Yet the anger and hurt threatened to drown her. Stomach churning, she tried to remind herself that few people knew how Sara came to be Caleb’s wife. Most accepted with only a handful of questions the bare bones story they’d all decided to tell about how Ty had arranged for Sara to meet Caleb. Once they’d met, they’d quickly decided to marry. Conveniently, most of the townsfolk had forgotten Caleb’s claim of having a mail order bride coming.
Now that Kayla was here, the truth was sure to come out and their memories would be jogged.
Dear God… Would anyone be able to tie Sara to her past, to the months she’d spent in Denver or the time she’d been Jean-Claude’s mistress?
“Sara? Sweetheart?” Caleb tossed her a worried frown. “Don’t you go swoonin’ on me again.”
Mrs. Whyde had taken the wet cloth, but she offered to give it back to Sara. “You’ve gone pale, child. Put this on your forehead.”
“No, thank you. I’m fine. Truly.” Sara tried to smile. “Thank you for your kindness.” She looked to her husband. “We need to finish purchasing our supplies and get Kayla settled on the farm. Only God knows when the snows will begin again.”
Caleb pursed his lips. “You really want her to stay with us? Ain’t so sure that’s a good idea… I could put her up in the boarding house and—”
Leaning close, Sara dropped her voice to a whisper. “Think of the gossip, Caleb. She should have a place to call home until we can arrange for some introductions to some gentlemen.”
His lips remained a grim line. “Ain’t so sure that’s the proper thing to do.”
Drew butt into their whispered conversation. “I believe proper went flying right out of the window when Miss Backer arrived.”
Caleb’s scowl could have heated the entire town through the long, cold winter.
“Fine.” He held out his hand. “Give me the list. I’ll get our stuff. You help Miss Backer fetch her trunk and—”
Kayla picked up the carpetbag she’d dropped at her feet. “I have nothing but my satchel.”
Caleb was close to shouting his frustration. He was good and mad, but he had no one to direct that anger at except himself.
Drew was right—he’d wanted a wife, and now had two women who needed him.
He snatched the list from Sara’s hand and frowned as he watched the women heading to the wagon.
Drew buzzed around him like an annoying mosquito that refused to be swatted. “What I wouldn’t give to spend some time in your home right now.”
“Go away, Drew.”
Picking up a few cans of peaches, he piled them next to the supplies Sara had already assembled on the counter. He scanned the list, realized there was little left to acquire, and breathed a sigh of relief.
“Such excitement!” Drew exclaimed. “Two women vying for your attentions. The other men will be so envious when they hear of your good luck.”
“So help me, Drew…”
“And the suitors are sure to start arriving as soon as word spreads that an unattached female is residing in your household. I’d dare to guess that they will line up to meet the beautiful Miss Backer.”
Caleb added a few jars of Mrs. Whyde’s canned green beans to the stack. “Don’t make me break your nose.”
“Why would you do that?” Gideon asked as he strode toward them with a grin on his face. “Other than the usual…”
“Oh, my dear Gideon.” Drew was practically bouncing in excitement. “I have so much to tell you.”
His face flushing hot, Caleb dreaded his older brother’s reaction to his predicament. While Drew related the story with relish and flourish, Caleb finished finding the supplies and waited as Mrs. Whyde totaled the bill and accepted payment. By the time Drew was done tattling, Caleb had the boxes of supplies loaded in the wagon.
Then he realized what Sara hadn’t bought. Something for herself.
“Damn,” he mumbled.
“Damn right,” Gideon scolded. “What were you thinking, Caleb?”
“This wasn’t supposed to happen,” he replied. “You know why Sara’s here. She’s Ty’s sister.”
“But you’re the one who sent for a mail order bride,” Gideon countered. “You knew this could happen.”
Caleb shook his head. “How could I? Even you thought Reverend Hayes stole my money. Don’t tell me you ever expected a woman to show up?”
“You obviously did, and you married the wrong woman because of it.” Gideon wiped his hand over his face, sputtering the whole time. “What are you going to do about this, Caleb?”
Drew put his hand on Gideon’s shoulder. “There’s little to be done about it, Gideon.” Thankfully, his tone was serious. “The woman is here, and we all need to make her feel welcome. The poor creature is frightened and alone. We can make sure she finds the right man to marry.”
“Marry?” Gideon shot Drew a confused frown.
“Yeah, marry,” Caleb replied. “Think about it Gideon… Every man within riding’ distance will be wanting to court her.”
Gideon rubbed his chin. “Hadn’t thought of that… But you’re right.”
“We shall be sure a man of quality takes her as his wife,” Drew said. “Then we will have done our duty by Miss Backer.”
Gideon still appeared skeptical. “Think it’ll be that easy?”
“Absolutely.” Drew gave him a decisive nod. “We’ll have her married off in no time. ‘Thou art sad: get thee a wife, get thee a wife!’”
Chapter Sixteen
Sara shook out Kayla’s dress and laid it on the bed. “We shall have to iron this tomorrow morning. You may share my dresses until we can sew a few new ones for you.”
“You needn’t bother.” Kayla set her brush and looking glass on the small table next to the ceramic pitcher and started unplaiting her braid. “I appreciate your kindness more than you know, but I will be leaving as soon as possible.”
“Don’t start that again.” Guiding Kayla to the bed, Sara pushed her to sit and grabbed the brush. “Let me help.” After she’d unbraided Kayla’s hair, she brushed the long tresses. “Such a beautiful color.”
“Thank you.” Kayla’s voice was a whisper, and she clenched her hands in her lap until her knuckles blanched.
Despite all Sara had tried to do, she simply couldn’t seem to help her guest relax. “The men are right, you know. Once word gets out that there is an unmarried and very handsome woman living on Caleb Young’s farm, we shall have to beat them away with a broom.”
All Kayla did was shrug.
Sara set the brush aside. “Kayla…you must look on the bright side of things.”
Turning to face Sara, Kayla frowned. “I fail to see a bright side. I did something horribly foolish and must now face the consequences.” Her lip quivered.
“You’re wrong,” Sara said with a shake of her head. “It wasn’t at all foolish to come to White Pines. Would it ease your worry if I told you I had done the same only a few months ago?”
Another shrug. “I have no idea how you came to be married to the man who paid for me to travel here and marry him.”
Her accusatory tone stung. Guilt still weighing heavily on her thoughts, Sara tried to explain. “It w
as circumstances. I would be lying if I told you I wish things were different and that you had met Caleb first. I came here much as you did, with nothing. Had I not married Caleb, I fear my future would have been too bleak to even contemplate.”
Kayla’s forehead wrinkled and her mouth dropped to a frown. “He knew Reverend Hayes would send a wife. Why would he so impulsively marry you when he’d arranged for another bride?”
“He thought I was you,” Sara replied. “I arrived only a short time after the telegram from the reverend, all the way back in September.”
“How could he think you were me? For God’s sake…we look nothing alike.”
“He couldn’t have known what you looked like, Kayla. All the good reverend had done was to send a message that a woman would arrive. When I stepped off the stagecoach, he assumed I was that woman. We married rather hastily, before I could straighten out his misassumption, before I even knew there’d been a mistake.”
Accusing brown eyes bored through Sara. “But you are obviously an intelligent woman. You had to realize something wasn’t right, yet you took vows with the man the same day you met him.”
“I know it sounds…contrived.” Sara sighed. “I also made an enormous misassumption. I traveled here to meet my brother. The way Caleb greeted me and talked of how I’d been sent to him, I believed my brother had chosen a husband for me. Everything Caleb said seemed to confirm my notion, just as the things I said fit the story that I’d been sent to him. It was all rather serendipitous.”
Although her features softened, Kayla still frowned. “I shouldn’t be at all surprised by this turn of events. It seems as though the Fates are conspiring against me. Again.” She hung her head.
If she hadn’t thought her actions would appear condescending, Sara would have patted Kayla on the shoulder and told her to keep a firm resolve, that it would all come out in the wash. “Surely it cannot be that bad.”
Kayla’s head rose until her gaze locked on Sara’s. “If you only knew…”
Since the woman didn’t expand on that thought, Sara assumed Kayla didn’t want to share her story. Her curiosity piqued, she pushed for an answer. “Why did you agree to Caleb’s proposition? I would think St. Louis would hold many more prospects than the Montana Territory.”
Bounding from the bed, Kayla nervously fidgeted with her brush. “I don’t wish to speak of it. I fear I am weary from my odyssey, and I would like to sleep now.”
“Odyssey? Didn’t you travel here directly from St. Louis?”
An inelegant snort came from Kayla. “This journey has been anything but direct. I left in September.”
Sara gasped. “But that was nearly three months ago.”
Kayla nodded but didn’t explain. “I wish to rest now.”
Although Kayla wouldn’t say the words, Sara heard them clear as a bell—probably because she’d known girls much like Kayla. She’d been a girl much like Kayla. The Palace was full of women escaping things exactly as Kayla had agreed to marry a man she didn’t even know.
The very reason Sara had done the same.
I escaped something bad.
Hopefully that “bad” wouldn’t follow Kayla to White Pines.
“I shall leave you then.” Sara rose and walked to the door before she paused and turned back to Kayla. “Please call should you need anything. Good sleep to you.”
She shut the door quietly and padded down the freezing hallway to the bedroom she shared with Caleb, needing to feel his arms around her.
***
Caleb looked up when Sara came into the bedroom. “Did you get Kayla settled?”
Her frown worried him. She nodded and dropped her robe on the foot of the bed.
He held the covers open and waited for her to crawl in beside him. Then he covered his wife and hauled her up against his side. Pressing his lips against her forehead, he murmured, “You’re a good woman, Sara Young.”
Her derisive snort surprised him.
“You are.”
“I stole you from Kayla Backer.” Her voice quavered with emotion.
Caleb squeezed her tightly. “That ain’t the way I see it.”
“How else could anyone see it? Kayla came here to be your bride. I was merely your…mistake.”
“Did you ever think that you didn’t take me from Kayla but instead saved me from her?”
Sara wiggled higher up his body until her eyes were level with his. “What is that supposed to mean?”
Offering her a smile, he cupped one soft cheek of her backside in his hand, wondering if he’d ever get used to having such a beautiful creature in his bed. “It means I was meant to marry you, not her. God set you in my path to keep me from makin’ the biggest mistake of my life.”
“But you know nothing about her. Perhaps she’d be better suited—”
Caleb cut her off with a hard kiss. “Don’t matter. Ain’t nothing that matters. You’re the woman I want. I…I… Ah, hell. I love you, Sara.”
How had he found the courage to tell her what was in his heart?
He wasn’t sure, but he was glad he had. Until he saw her reaction to his declaration. “Dear Lord, that makes you cry?”
She tried to bury her face against his shoulder, but he wouldn’t let her.
“Sweetheart, why are you crying? Don’t that make you happy?”
“You don’t mean it,” she wailed.
“Of course I mean it.”
When she tried to roll away from him, he held tight. She kept struggling to move until he had no choice but to rise over her and pin her to the mattress with his body. The feel of her beneath him and the pleasant scent of her essence had his cock hardening in desire.
“Sara, stop wiggling and look at me.”
Surprisingly, she obeyed. Tears glistened in her eyes.
“Why don’t you think I love you?”
She sniffed as the tears spilled over her lashes.
“Don’t you dare start cryin’ again.”
“You can’t mean it.” A small hiccough escaped. “You only said it because of the baby.”
The baby. Kayla’s arrival had made Caleb forget about their happy news.
No, when he’d understood he loved Sara, the baby hadn’t factored into his realization. Knowing that she carried his child only made him love her more. The problem was in the timing of his revelation. Now he had to convince Sara of his sincerity.
“Ain’t you got no faith in me?” he asked.
“Of course I have faith in you.” He loved her disgruntled tone.
Caleb cradled her face in his hands, brushing the tears from her cheeks with his thumbs. “Then you’re just gonna have to trust me. I ain’t saying it ’cause of the baby. The moment I saw Kayla and heard she was the one the reverend sent, I realized what a lucky man I was.”
Sara hiccoughed again. “You’re speaking in riddles.”
“I ain’t got the proper words to explain, sweetheart. I ain’t like you and Drew, always using fancy words.”
Her eyes searched his. “I don’t need fancy words, Caleb. Just try to make me understand. Please.”
He let out a chuckle and gave her a quick kiss. “I guess when I saw Kayla I saw a right pretty woman and thought that if she’d come before you, I’d have considered myself damn lucky. But, pretty as she was, she weren’t the right woman. I’d have missed out on you. That made me know that I love you. Now do you believe me?”
A smile blossomed on her face, and she looped her arms around his neck. “Yes, Caleb. I believe you.”
This time, the kiss he gave her wasn’t quick. It was deep and thorough and full of all he felt in his heart.
Sara laced her fingers through his hair and deepened the kiss. Her body was on fire for her husband, and his declaration of love still rang in her ears.
When Kayla arrived, Sara had feared for her future and the future of her unborn child. Caleb had stolen away those worries with three simple words.
He tugged at her nightgown, helping her out of it before
casting it aside. Then he stripped before settling himself between her thighs. His hard cock lay against her mound, and his hands covered her breasts. “I should’ve known.”
“Known?”
“They’re a little bigger.” His kissed the valley between her breasts before suckling a nipple.
Sara arched into him, trying not to cry out in appreciation. They had a houseguest, and while it might be rude to make love, she simply couldn’t bring herself to ask her husband to stop. She needed him deep inside her, showing her what he felt and letting her lavish his body with her love.
He shifted to her other breast, teasing the nipple with his tongue, swirling around and around, making heat build to a crescendo. Her core throbbed in anticipation, and while she normally loved how slow and positively thorough Caleb was when he loved her, she wanted him inside her. Now.
“I want you, husband,” she purred.
“Patience,” he said with a light chuckle before disappearing below the covers. He trailed a path down her stomach, stopping to run his tongue around her navel. Then he kissed the curls on her mound.
“Caleb, no.”
“Yes,” he hissed a moment before he spread her thigh wider. He caressed her folds with his fingers before finally gifting her with the most intimate of kisses.
Sara again threaded her fingers through his hair, holding him against her even if he didn’t appear to be in a hurry to leave. The way his tongue stroked her sensitive nub and then stabbed in and out of her sheath had her squirming, the need for release becoming close to unbearable.
“Come to me,” she begged. “Now.”
“No,” he replied, kissing her inner thigh. “Come for me this way, sweetheart.” His tongue delved into her again.
Unable to fight her release, she bit hard on her bottom lip to keep from screaming her delight. Surge after surge of heat shot through her as Caleb wrung every last tremor from her body. Only when she panted for breath did he kiss his way back up her body.
He knelt between her thighs, his cock at her threshold. “I love you, Sara.” He thrust deep inside her as he said the words.
Her greedy body flared back to life, and she wrapped her legs around his hips, trying to pull him as deeply inside her as she could.