The Mail Order Bride's Deception (14 page)

Al glanced at Sadie and smiled.  “We’re looking forward to it, chaos and all.”

Sadie’s face grew warm from his meaning.  She’d love nothing more than to have his children.

“I’m sure Gilbert will like having a brother or sister to play with,” Aunt Betty chimed in.

“Are you kidding?” Missy asked as she set the pails down.  “I wish I was an only kid.”

“You would have gotten bored if it’d just been you,” Aunt Betty replied with a wave of her hand then turned to Sadie.  “Don’t let her deter you from having a house full of children.  A big house is a happy house, even if there are times when they fight.”

“I don’t know,” Bear argued as he stroked his chin.  “Sometimes I miss the quiet.”

“That’s why you go hunting,” she told him with a pointed look.

“That’s true.” He gave Al a nod.  “See you bright and early.”

Al slipped his arm around Sadie’s waist to lead her down the porch steps
.  They made it to the third step when the youngest girl let out an ear-piercing scream, followed by the boy’s laughter.

“Go on and chop some wood since you’re so bored you’re
pulling on your sister’s hair,” Bear told the laughing boy.

“I think it’s best if we don’t look back,” Al whispered and continued to lead her to their wagon.

Chuckling, Sadie decided he was right.  In due time, they’d have to deal with their own children who’d do the same kinds of things.  She looked down at Gilbert who was smiling and babbling in her arms.  It was hard to believe he’d ever argue with his brothers and sisters.  He was such a happy child.

They reached the wagon and he helped her into it.  Once he
was settled beside her, she placed Gilbert on her lap.  “You really don’t think Gilbert will pick on his little brothers or sisters, do you?” she asked.

He released the brake and grinned.  “Yes, I do.  Children are children.  They’re
going to do what they will.  All we can do is send them out to do chores so they have better things to do than argue with each other.” He kissed her cheek.  “Disappointed?”

“No.  It’s just hard to believe, that’s all.  He’s a happy boy, don’t you think?”

“Yes, he is happy, and even when he argues with his brothers and sisters, he can still be happy.” He shrugged. “At least when they make up, they’ll be friends again.”

“They will be friends.
”

“They’ll
play together a lot.  I’ve seen Aunt Betty and Bear’s children when they’re getting along.  Don’t worry.  Gilbert and his brothers and sisters will have a lot of fun growing up together.”

“You’re right.” She turned her attention back to Gilbert as Al led the horses down the path.  “They will.” She smiled and thought about all the good times waiting for him.

Chapter Fourteen

On Christmas morning, Sadie woke up to a big hug from Al.  Eyes still closed, she smiled as he kissed her cheek. 
“Good morning, sweetheart,” he whispered.

“It is good,” she murmured.  Every morning she woke up in this quaint cabin
was a good one.

He slid his arm around her waist and snuggled against her.  “Today you get to open your gift.”

“I think you’re more excited about it than I am.”

“I probably am, but I think you’ll like it.”

He nuzzled her neck and she giggled.  She was quickly learning that Al had a playful side to him.  “You’re a lot of fun to be around.”

“I’m glad you think so.  It’d be horrible if you thought I was boring.”

“No, I’d never think that.  You’re anything but boring.”

“Good.” He released her and pulled off her blanket.  “Come on.  I can’t wait anymore.  I want you to see what I got you.”

Chuckling, she sat up.  “I bet I can’t even talk you into lingering in bed if I promise you wonderful pleasures?”

“Not this morning.” He picked
her up and set her on her feet.

Amused, she watched as he retrieved her robe and slipped it over her shoulders.  “You’re not even going to wait until I get dressed?”
she asked.

“You can get dressed afterwards.”

“This must be good.”

He kissed her.  “It is.”

Intrigued, she followed him out of the bedroom.  “Are we going to get Gilbert up?”

“Not yet.  I want you to open your gift first.”

He hurried over to the small tree he placed in the corner of the living area and waved for her to come join him.

Her smile widened as she crossed the room and sat next to him.  “I’m surprised you were able to wait until Christmas for me to open it.” She accepted the small box wrapped in brown paper and shook it.  “I don’t hear anything.”

“You’re not supposed to because I protected it.”

Eyebrows raised, she asked
, “Protect it?  Is it fragile?”

“Open it and see.”

“Alright.  I think the suspense is going to kill you,” she teased.

She proceeded to open the gift, and though she knew it was sneaky, she intentionally took her time.  When she got
to the box, she lifted the lid and stared at the ring with a gold band and a perfectly sculpted pink rose on it with two green leaves on either side.

“The man I bought it from said he mixed silver and copper to get the pink and green coloring in the design,” Al told her.  “I ordered it right after we got married.”

“It’s beautiful,” she whispered, tracing the ring with her thumb.

“
I thought you’d like it.  Aunt Betty says that every bride should have a ring.” He gestured to it.  “Put it on.”

She did and smiled when she realized it fit
perfectly.

“I was hoping I was right when I estimated your ring size,” he said.  “You have no idea how hard it was to not take the ring out and make sure I guessed right.”

“You did a wonderful job,” she replied and kissed him.  “Thank you, Al.  It’s a lovely gift.”

“W
hen you look at it, you can think of us.”

“I will.  And
I love it.” Especially the reason he got it.  No wonder he was so excited about it.

“Can I open my gift?” he asked.

“Of course, you can.” She retrieved it from under the tree and gave it to him.  “I don’t think it’s as good as the one you got me.”

“Nonsense.  It will be because you were thinking of me when you got it.
”

“Well, to be fair, Aunt Betty helped me with it,” she said as he tore into the paper.  She nudged him in the side and laughed.  “Are you that impatient to see what it is?”

He shot her an amused look.  “I don’t see the point in taking forever to unwrap the paper like you do.”

“I like the suspense of waiting to see what it is.”

“I guess so.  I think it took you an entire minute to unwrap my gift.  And that was a small one.”

She shook her head but didn’t protest as he finished ripping into the brown paper.  When he pulled out the brown leather belt with the gold buckle on it
, she said, “I had Aunt Betty’s help in tanning the belt and then attaching the buckle to it.”

“It’s great.  Thank you.”

He leaned toward her and kissed her, bringing her into his arms.  In the short time she’d been Al’s wife, she’d discovered how pleasant it could be to be intimate with a man.  She had no idea kissing didn’t always have to lead to the bedroom.  She also had no idea that the bedroom was something she could look forward to.  She thought it was solely for the man’s pleasure, but she’d come to discover it was also for the woman’s pleasure.  With Al, all things were new, and it was like the past never happened.  In many ways, it was like a fairytale where all her dreams came true.

When he ended the kiss, he
gave her waist a gentle squeeze.  “Are you ready to get Gilbert up so he can open his gift?”

She nodded and helped him to his feet.  They went to his room and she softly opened the door and saw Gilbert was stirring in the crib.  “I think he’s ready to get up,” she whispered and crossed the small
room.  She rubbed the boy’s belly, and his gaze went to her.  A smile lit up his face and she picked him up.  “You’re such a happy thing, aren’t you?” She glanced at Al who was getting a cloth diaper ready on the small table.  “If we have another baby, do you think he or she will be as good-natured as Gilbert?”

Al shrugged.  “I don’t know if all babies are like him or if it’s just who he is.  Aunt Betty says some people are born looking for the best in everything and others seem to be skeptical as soon as they come into the world.  Even in the same family, you get
kids who are different.”

She placed Gilbert on the table
, pulled off his clothes and started with the process of changing his diaper.  “When will Gilbert be one?”

“Well,” Al leaned against the wall and crossed hi
s arms, “I found him on March 19.  Aunt Betty guessed he was born right around that time, judging by how small he was.”

“You have no idea who his parents are?”

“Nope.  I didn’t see anyone around the area, and I didn’t know if a woman in town had been expecting a child.  But then I don’t go to town during the winter months and pretty much keep to myself.”

“Aunt Betty didn’t have any ideas?”

“Her best guess is that it was someone traveling through the area,” he replied.

Sadie finished pinning the new diaper on Gilbert who was squirming around and giggling. 
She glanced at Al.  “Do you want to celebrate his birthday on the day you found him?”

“Yes.  I think it fits close enough to when he was actually born.”

She sat Gilbert on the table and put on the day clothes Aunt Betty had given them.  “It works.  March 19 is a good day to celebrate his birthday.” After a moment, she asked, “Do you plan to tell him the truth?  About how you found him and all?”

“I’ll have to.  I don’t think it’ll be easy for him, but I think telling him the truth will be
best.”

“Maybe.”

“You don’t think it’s a good idea?”

“I’m not sure what the best thing to do is,” she admitted as she buttoned Gilbert’s clothes.  “It’s bound to be painful when he
discovers his parents abandoned him.”

“Probably, but it might be worse if we led him to believe you had him and he finds out later on we lied to him.”

“Is it really a lie if you don’t tell him anything at all?”

“Yes, n
ot telling him anything would still be a lie.”

She picked Gilbert up and he wrapped his arms around her neck.  She hesitated to say anything else, especially in light of the enjoyable morning they’d shared, but she had to ask, “What if you told a lie because you knew the person wouldn’t like the truth?  What if
you knew that person would hate you if you told them?”

“I don’t see why Gilbert would hate us when we tell him the truth.  Sure,
he’ll be hurt to learn his real parents left him, but I think he’ll be glad we took him in and raised him as our own.”

He missed the point of her question.  She’d been asking about lying in general, but he assumed she was still talking about Gilbert.
  And she didn’t have the courage to clarify what she’d meant.

He kissed her.  “It’ll work out.  He won’t hate us.  We’ll tell him when he’s old enough to understand the situation.” He patted the small of her back.  “Come on.  Let’s show him his present.”

Sadie had no doubt that Gilbert would understand when he learned the truth.  Sure, he’d be hurt, but he’d also realize that she and Al loved him. But from time to time, she wondered if Al would—or even could—love her if he knew she wasn’t really Hazel.  He had such a high standard on what was right and wrong.  She didn’t think he’d understand why she lied.

She made her decision back in Omaha to be Hazel, and that was something she’d live w
ith until the day she died.  But did it really matter?  She was her real self with Al.  She might be able to assume a different name with a shadowy past, but that was all she was doing.  When it came down to her day-to-day actions, she was her real self.  That was the important thing.  And she loved him.  There was no deception in any of that.

Deciding to let the matter go, she went to the tree
and sat down, setting Gilbert on her lap.  Al sat next to her and retrieved the two gifts for him.

“This is from me and your ma,” Al said, holding them out to the boy.

Gilbert took them and put one in his mouth.

“You’re not supposed to eat it, silly,” Sadie protested, laughing as she took
it out of his mouth.  “You’re supposed to open it to see what’s under all this paper.” She demonstrated by carefully ripping a small piece of the paper apart.  She handed it back to him.  “There.  Now you do it.”

Gilbert tore apart the paper in a hurry and almost flung the wooden horse across the room, but Al caught it.  “You’re pretty strong there, boy,” Al said.  “You’ll need that
strength for chopping wood when you get older.”

She rubbed Gilbert’s back as he leaned forward and hurried to open his other gift.  “He’s already gotten so big since I came here.  When Aunt Betty said babies don’t stay babies for long, she wasn’t kidding.”

“Bear said it was good they don’t stay little for long.  He said he was relieved when he no longer had to worry about changing diapers.”

“He?  I don’t recall hearing that he ever changed a diaper.”

“Alright, it was Aunt Betty who did all that, but he remembered the way the cabin smelled.” Al scooted closer to her and wrapped his arm around her shoulders.  “Did I ever tell you that I’m glad you change the diapers now?”

She grinned.  “No, but I figured it out when you started bolting out of the cabin whenever Gilbert needed a new one.”

“I don’t bolt out of the cabin when he needs a new one.”

She shot him a pointed look.

“Well, not every time,” he clarified.

“Setting a new one on
the table isn’t the same as doing the whole thing.  But,” she added and kissed him, “I have no desire to cut up and preserve animal meat.  I’d much rather stand back and hand you things you need.”

“We make a good team, don’t we?”

“We do.” She looked down at Gilbert and saw he was chewing on the wooden person.  Taking it out of his mouth, she said, “That’s not food.  It’s a toy.”

Gilbert tossed aside his wooden toys and grabbed the paper which he then
tore into smaller pieces.

Al chuckled.  “I think we should have asked Aunt Betty what a child Gilbert’s age should play with.” He collected the wooden horse and man.  “I’ll put this away until he’s older.”

“I didn’t think he’d try to teethe on them,” Sadie said.

“I didn’t either.  But as Aunt Betty says, being a parent is a learning experience. 
We’ll do better next time.” Al kissed her then rubbed the boy’s hair before he stood up with the toys.  “I’ll get breakfast this morning.  You sit and watch Gilbert enjoy the paper.”

“What about the animals?” she asked as he headed for their bedroom.

“I took care of them before I woke you up.”

She wondered just how early he got up that morning.  She had no idea anyone could get so excited about a present, but she had to admit the ring was the best
gift she’d ever received.  Taking a good look at it in the morning light that filtered through the window, she smiled.  Every time she looked at it, she would think of him and the wonderful life they shared.  This Christmas was the best one she’d ever had.  And better yet, there would be more Christmases just like it in the future.