Romance: Western Mail Order Bride "Bethany's Love"-Clean Christian Historical Romance (Western Mail Order Bride Short Shorties Series) (126 page)

Chapter Three

“And here is the chicken!” Elizabeth beamed.

“Will it be dry?”

Sarah did not mince words, and Elizabeth placed the platter at the center of the table. Charlie looked ready to eat anything, and Jacob was tense. She drew the cloth aside and revealed her masterpiece.

“It looks great!” Charlie cried out as he banged his knife and fork to the table. Jacob waved one hand before his face and told the boy to wait as Elizabeth smiled at her fare.

“It is,” she started. “At least I hope that you will all like it.”

She started to carve when Hillary scoffed.

“Don’t you want Uncle Jacob to that?”

Elizabeth dropped the utensils and started to nod for Jacob, but he failed to leave his chair.

“I think the cook should have the privilege,” he said. “Unless Elizabeth wants to take a load off.”

Stunned and charmed in equal measures by the sound of his voice, Elizabeth smiled softly at the idea of sitting. And she wanted to watch his hands move around the large knife and fork.

“Please do the honors,” she said. “I added some rosemary in the dressing. Hope that no one minds.”

“It’s not the way we usually have it,” Hillary said, her tone sullen as she picked at the bread and never placed one crumb in her mouth.

“Herb garden has to be good for something,” Jacob said with a slight shrug. “Is it an old family recipe?”

“No,” Elizabeth answered slowly. “From the restaurant. The chief cook was always one for trying new things.”

Charlie perched on the edge of his seat, his eyes practically popping out of his head as he waited for his helping and asked an array of questions at a million miles per minute.

“What restaurant? Is it the one in Briar’s Patch? Did you get to eat everything they made?”

“I was known to sample the menu,” she said with a little laugh. “But they weren’t paying me to eat.”

“You were probably too busy looking for a way out,” Hillary said as she plopped her broken bread to the plate and brought her arms across her chest.

“That’s not nice, Hillary,” Sarah said. “I mean even it’s true, it’s still rude.”

“What’s rude is our uncle bringing a common waitress into this house and thinking that we’ll call her
mother
.”

“Enough!” Jacob slammed his large hand on the tabletop. The meal and the entire room shuddered under the impact, but Hillary’s smirk still shifted into a sneer of cruel laughter.

“It’s best if she knows what she signed up for,” Hillary said. “Now will
you
tell me to go to bed without supper, Uncle Jacob? Or does
this person
get to do the honors?”

“You can go hungry for the rest of your days if you don’t apologize,” he threatened. Hillary looked as if she would never back down when Elizabeth’s stomach grumbled at the memory of the orphanage.

“Don’t do that,” she murmured. “No one should ever go hungry.”

“How could you go hungry working at a restaurant?” Charlie asked.

“It was in another life,” Elizabeth said as she reached across the table and let her hand fall over his. “You three are not the only ones to lose your parents. Be grateful that you have your uncle here.”

The room fell completely silent, and when Charlie broke through the silence and started to ask another set of questions, Sarah nudged his side and shook her head.

“Let’s just eat. Before it gets cold.”

“Now that sounds like a fine idea, Sarah.” Elizabeth unfurled her napkin and centered the fabric over her lap. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Jacob’s face flash with worry, but she simply handed him in a plate and forced a smile.

“Let’s not let my efforts go to waste.”

Jacob dished the meat and the potatoes out, and the only sounds in the room were lips smacking together as cutlery banged against the plates. Hillary sulked and failed to touch her food when Sarah looked to her sister.

“This is good,” she said. “You’re only looking silly by not giving it a try.”

Hillary cut to the meat and chewed slowly. Watching her face intently, Elizabeth saw the girl satisfied. Their eyes locked and Elizabeth hoped that they might share a smile. Hillary just buried her head in her dish. But she polished off the plate nonetheless.

“Did everyone enjoy it?” Elizabeth asked as she abandoned her chair and started to clear the table.

“And how!” Charlie beamed. “You can cook for me any time!”

“That’s sweet of you to say, Charlie,” Elizabeth said. “Does anyone want to help me clear?”

Now Hillary kicked her chair out from under her and stomped towards her room hidden deeper in the house. Jacob seethed but let her leave as his fingers circled around Elizabeth’s free arm.

“The young ones take care of that,” he said. “Love of work does a mind and a body good.”

“But I really don’t mind,” Elizabeth insisted.

“I do,” he said. “And I need to talk to you.”

Obeying his order, Elizabeth let him lead her towards the porch. The twins groaned but got on with the washing as they hit the night air and he sank to the top of the steps.

“How about you sit here with me for a moment,” he said. Elizabeth gave in and longed to lace her fingers in his when he stared up at the stars.

“Tell me why you were hungry,” he asked. “I don’t want there to be any secrets between us.”

“Same here,” she whispered. The tale of the orphanage came out. It was nothing to reveal her past with his warmth at her side. When she came to the end of her story, Jacob touched her knee through her skirt.

“Seems strange,” he said.

“What does?”

“That no one else came along before me,” he said. “Wouldn’t want to make you forget that and find better times.”

She nearly told him about Gregory, but she pushed the image of the other man away as she took his hand.

“Maybe I was waiting for you,” she said. He breathed deeply and pursed his lips before hers. Elizabeth ached for the taste of his kiss, but Jacob turned his head even as he kept his hand on her leg.

“Probably more than you bargained for,” he said. “I’m sorry about Hillary.”

“She’s angry,” Elizabeth said. “Can’t say that I don’t know where it comes from. But maybe in time she’ll come around.”

“I’ll pray for that,” he said. “I want you to be happy here, Elizabeth.” And when he placed a tender kiss on her brow and gently ran his fingers through her hair, she already was.

“So what happens now?” she asked.

“We go to bed,” he said. “Have to get up early around these parts. Do you want to help me with the twins?”

“Of course.”

Charlie smiled at a job well done when they returned to the house, and they walked the twins to their room and got them into their nightshirts. Once the children were tucked into their beds, Jacob lowered the lamps and told them to have good dreams.

“Can Lizzie sing us a song?” Charlie asked.

“She’s probably tired,” Sarah said.

“No, no,” Elizabeth said. “I don’t have much of a voice. But I’ll give it a whirl.”

Perched between their beds, she recalled the sound of her mother’s voice and launched into the only song that she had committed to memory.

“
Sleep my child and peace attend thee,
All through the night
Guardian angels God will send thee,
All through the night
Soft the drowsy hours are creeping,
Hill and dale in slumber sleeping
I my loved ones' watch am keeping,
All through the night
.”

The twins had drifted off before the song came to a close, and Jacob eased her away from their beds and guided Elizabeth towards her room.

“You sleep well, too,” he said. “I’m happy that you’re here, Miss Wilder.”

She felt sad when she saw him go but fell into the sheets with a smile on her face.

Chapter Four

“Now what else do we need?”

A picnic seemed as good an idea as any. It would get them out of the house, and Jacob would not be back until much later on account of the cattle run for Wesley Mitchell two plots over. They had to yet to wed or even set a date.

And Elizabeth was already exhausted.

It took more strength than she knew she had to mind the house and deal with the twins’ questions and Hillary’s cold eyes. Jacob sat with her on the porch on the nights when he didn’t nearly pass out at the table. The thought that this life would bring with it a new kind of loneliness made her wonder if she had made the wrong call.

But they needed to eat, and a change of scenery would do the children a world of good.

“You can count me out,” Hillary said. “I’m not going to eat food outdoors like a peasant.”

“Hillary, you really don’t have to fight me on everything,” Elizabeth said. “I hear that the lords and ladies of London have picnics.”

“Well
I
would rather take my meal in private. Do I have that right?”

Feeling that the battle was lost, Elizabeth gave in with a groan even as she handed the girl a sandwich.

“Finish every last bite,” she said. “And I’ll leave you a piece of pie for later.”

“Don’t do me any favors.”

Hillary disappeared into her bedroom, and Elizabeth wondered how she would make this work for a lifetime when Charlie’s small hand tugged at her skirt.

“Someone’s here,” he said.

“Someone looking for your uncle?” she asked.

“Uncle Jacob doesn’t know anyone that looks like this.”

The surety in Sarah’s tone sparked her curiosity, and Elizabeth told the children to hang back when she raced down the porch steps and felt her jaw drop.

“Gregory?”

He doffed his hat and gave her a polite bow as he reached for her hand. Elizabeth still tingled at his touch but quickly drew back as she glared into his eyes.

“What are you doing here?” she asked. “How did you find me?”

“I made some inquiries,” he said. “You’ll be pleased to know that Caroline was no help.”

“Because she’s my friend.”

He laughed at that before his eyes turned sad and he brushed his fingers against her face.

“You look tired, Lizzie,” he said. “What are you even doing here?”

“I’m trying to build a new life,” she said. “Thought you were working towards the same thing.”

“Don’t be like that. Aren’t you even a little happy to see me?”

The man sparkled in the light of the fading sun. She could smell the spice of his cologne and remembered what it was to dance in his arms as he brushed a stray strand of hair from her eyes.

“Why did you come all this way?” she said. “Has something changed?”

“It can,” he said. “If you’ll come back with me.”

He rested his hands on her shoulders and started to pull her close. Their lips met without her wanting, but she started to fall into his familiar kiss when Charlie busted through the front door.

“Why is
he
kissing you?” Charlie asked. “What about Uncle Jacob?”

Turning away from Gregory, Elizabeth fell to her knees and searched for an answer to his questioning stare. How could she tell this little boy that she was lonely in ways that he could not even begin to comprehend? She wished that he would go back inside when his lip started to quiver.

And in that moment she knew that she could never leave them.

“It’s nothing, darling,” she assured him. “Lizzie is just saying goodbye to an old friend. Now let’s say you and your sister finish packing the basket and I’ll be right up.”

The boy hesitated but slowly took her at her word as he disappeared back into the house.

“You always wanted kids,” he said. “But it doesn’t have to be all the way out here.”

“Gregory, I really don’t know what you thought this would accomplish. But I’ve given my word.”

“And what if
I
said that you could have that family along with the finer things?”

Her ears perked up at the proposition, and Elizabeth ran her hand down his arm until she met his hand.

Right there on the second finger of his left hand was a band of gold that turned her blood cold.

“How would that work?” she demanded. “You obviously went ahead with it.”

“Doesn’t mean that I can’t keep you comfortable off to the side,” he said. “Anything has to be better this.”

Was he serious?

“You came here to ask me to be your mistress?” she demanded. “Is that how little you think of me?”

“Is it really so much worse than climbing into a stranger’s bed?”

Gregory waggled his finely trimmed eyebrows and tried to kiss her again when she pushed him back and reached into her pocket.

“The brooch,” he said. “So I must have meant something to you.”

“I’m only glad that I get the chance to give it back,” she said. “You can go now. You don’t have to come back.”

He looked as if he was far from ready to take
no
for an answer when Jacob appeared, filthy from the fields. He dismounted his horse and hurried to her side.

“Is there a problem?” he asked.

“That depends on the lady,” Gregory said. “If we can still call her that.”

She watched Jacob’s eyes flash around the insult, and he landed a hard punch to Gregory’s jaw when she broke the men apart.

“He was just going,” Elizabeth said. “Please let him leave.”

Wiping the blood from his mouth as he struggled to his feet, Gregory turned to his carriage.

“Last chance,” he threatened. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“Please just go.”

Elizabeth huddled close to Jacob’s side as her past took off into the distance, and Jacob was still fuming as he grasped her arms.

“Who was that?” he asked. “Why was he here?”

“A mistake,” Elizabeth said in a weary voice. “Better left forgotten. Don’t make too much of it.”

“I hope that you’re telling me the truth.”

His arm was like steel around hers as they made their way back to the house. The twins looked ready for their picnic, and Jacob started to take up the basket when Charlie could not resist the urge to question.

“Why did you kiss that man, Lizzie?” he asked. “Don’t you love Uncle Jacob?”

She avoided his eyes and felt his heavy breaths racing down her neck until he stepped in front of her and forcefully cleared his throat.

“Don’t make too much of it?” he echoed. “Is there someone else that you wrote a letter to in the hope of finding something better?”

“No,” she said through her clenched teeth. “He was someone that I actually knew. He wanted to show me
better times
. Was I wrong to send him away?”

Jacob had no answer as he led the twins from the house with her meal in his hands.

“Maybe the mistake was mine,” he said. “Because I never really knew you.”

He carted the twins away and left her alone in the house. Why wouldn’t he give her the chance to explain? Was he worth anything if he wouldn’t? Elizabeth moved back to her lonely bedroom and heard Hillary’s satisfied chuckle as she fell to the bed and cried herself to sleep.