The Mail Order Bride's Deception (2 page)

She would marry him and spend the rest of her life being a good and faithful wife.  She had a feeling he’d be an easy man to live with.  Already he was kinder than any others she’d known.  Far out in the Black Hills, no one would ever find out the truth.  She could slip into the role of wife and mother, and the rest of her life would finally be one of peace.

Chapter Two

During the vows, Al couldn’t stop staring at the woman who’d come all the way out to this wilderness to be his wife.  She was beautiful.  Almost like a fine porcelain doll he’d only seen once in his life when he was a child.  Her skin was smooth and white from lack of sunlight.  Given her station in life up to now, she didn’t have a need to go outside and work where she’d risk a sunburn.  It was a shame that being out here would ruin her flawless skin.  The summer days would get too hot for her to keep a hat on while she washed laundry outdoors in the stream behind the cabin.  Or when she’d have to tend to the gardens or animals.  Sooner or later, the sun would have its way with her.

But she’d still have the rosiest lips he’d ever seen on a lady.  Her mouth was slightly turned into a frown, but it was really adorable.  When she smiled, the whole world seemed to light up around her.  Her light blue eyes held a world of mystery in them.  There was only so much she could reveal in letters, and since they’d only exchanged two, they had much more to learn about each other.  He looked forward to discovering who she was and sharing with her who he was.  From the moment he saw her step off the stagecoach, he knew she was meant for him, that they would carve out a life and a home to raise Gilbert and more children in.

It was with great joy that he kissed her after the preacher pronounced them husband and wife.  The simple ceremony wasn’t anything that she would have gotten back in Atlanta.  Back there, she’d undoubtedly have a luxurious bridal gown, fine music and wine, an assortment of foods, and many guests to wish her a happy and long life.

In fact, from this moment on, her life would be much different.  She’d have to work hard and learn to cook and sew.  It’d be a hard and difficult life for her.  He could only guess what the transition would be like.  She didn’t seem like the weak type of woman who couldn’t handle a challenge.  If anything, she had the look of a survivor in her, one who could face any obstacle and find a way to overcome it.  She’d need that ability out here if she was going to survive.  But he’d do his part to make her as comfortable as possible.

After they left the preacher’s house, she asked to hold Gilbert again so he obliged her.

H
e pointed to the tall trees to the north of town.  “My cabin is out that way.  We’re about a half hour out, so you can walk to town if you need to.” Before she thought he wasn’t going to let her take the horse, he added, “But you’re welcome to ride in on a horse if you like.  I don’t know if you’re familiar with riding horses.  I mean, I know you mentioned that your father had them, but you never mentioned if you rode them or not.  But then, we don’t have good riding areas in the forests around here.  I don’t know if you’ll want to go to town by yourself or if you want me to come along.” Realizing he was rambling, he added, “Well, you’ll figure it all out now that you’re here.  But if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask.  I want you to feel at home here.”

She rubbed the sleeping boy’s back and smiled.  “It’s a nice place.  Ideal, even.”

He wondered what she meant by that, but then they reached the wagon and he helped her up, placing one hand on her waist as he held her hand.  A slight heat crept up his cheeks at the physical contact.  Granted, she was now his wife, but they didn’t really know each other.

Once she was settled on the wooden seat, he went
to the other side and hopped up beside her.  He glanced at Gilbert.  The poor boy needed a mother in the worst way.  Aunt Betty was a wonderful woman, very nurturing and always willing to help out at a moment’s notice.  But she wasn’t his mother.

“I didn’t realize you were so good with babies,” he told her as he released the wagon’s brake.

“You didn’t?” she asked.

“You didn’t mention a
nything about taking care of children in your letters.”

“Oh.” She rubbed the boy’s back then she chuckled.  “You’ll think it’s silly, but I don’t remember much of what I wrote.  What with all the things I had to do to get ready for the trip…” She cleared her throat.  “It’s been overwhelming but good.”

“I understand.” He urged the horses forward and proceeded down the dusty road.  “I had the easy part.  All I had to do was wait for you.”

She nodded and turned her attention to the hills around them.

They spent the next couple of minutes in silence.  Now that they’d taken care of getting her the things she needed and going to the preacher, she was probably as uncertain of what to say as he was.

They traveled along the bend that took them
out of town, and he ventured to joke, “You’ll get sick of trees before the year ends.”

As he hoped, she laughed.  “I love them.”

“Yes, but they’re all over the place.  If you want to see the sun, you have to look up.”

“There’s nothing wrong with that.  I think it’s a cozy kind of feeling out here.”

“What was Atlanta like?  Did you have trees like this?”

Her smile faltered a bit and he wondered about it
, but then Gilbert squirmed in her arms and she turned her gaze to him.  “I think he’s waking up.”

“He usually takes a nap earlier in the day, but I think with all the excitement he made himself stay up longer.  He probably wanted to see his new ma.”

“I can’t blame him for being curious.” She bit her lower lip in the most adorable way then asked, “Will he be hungry?”

Nodding, he slowed the horses to a stop and turned to the bag he placed under the wooden seat.  “I keep a bottle under here.” He pulled it out and handed it to her.  “Before we came into town, I h
ad him in the bassinet, but I put it back there,” he gestured to the back of the wagon, “so that you had a place to put your feet.”

She looked over her shoulder.  “I didn’t notice it before.  You certainly are prepared.”

“I learned pretty quick that I had to be.  Thankfully, Aunt Betty raised some children so she had everything I needed.”

Her eyebrows furrowed and he thought she was going to ask him a question but then she smiled.  “That’s good.” She held the bottle up.  “Um, as you guessed, I don’t have experience with babies.  Do I just put it up to his mouth?”

“He knows what to do.  This is the easy part.  Just wait until I teach you how to change his diaper.”

She placed the nipple to the boy’s mouth
, and he started to drink the goat’s milk.  “A diaper?”

“The bad news is, sometimes it smells worse than a skunk that got scared and sprayed all over the place, but he no longer pees on people when they change his diaper so that’s good.”

Her jaw dropped.  “You’re jesting?”

“No.  When he was younger, he’d pee every time I had to change his diaper.  Aunt Betty suggested I open the diaper then quickly put it back in place and wait for him to pee.  It was a good tip.”

She shifted Gilbert so he could more easily drink from the bottle.  “It sounds like Aunt Betty is a smart woman.”

“She is.  She’s got a good heart, too.  You don’t find many like her anywhere you go.”

“No, I reckon not.”

He ventured another look her way, afraid she’d wonder wh
y he couldn’t seem to stop staring at her.  She hadn’t told him much about her life in Atlanta.  He wanted to find out everything about her, especially why she willingly gave up all the comforts back home to spend the rest of her life with him.  She had given up everything, and he was gaining everything.  It didn’t seem like a fair trade.  Yet even after warning her, she insisted she wanted to come.

“I don’t know what I did to deserve the good fortune of you coming all the way here to marry me,” he began as he led the horses down a path that led directly to his home.  “You’re so beautiful.  I can’t help but think of all the disappointed suitors you left behind.  I mean, you didn’t mention any, but surely, you had men lined up in hopes of courting you.”

“Oh,” she replied, a slight hint of pink in her cheeks, “if I had any suitors, none of them were worth marrying.”

“I know you took a big gamble in coming here.  It couldn’t have been an easy decision, even if the suitors weren’t worth your time.” Heat rose to his face as he contemplated saying more, but she was his wife now, and if he couldn’t say it to her, then he couldn’t say it to anyone.  Clearing his throat, he added, “I’m the luckiest man in the world.”

Her gaze went to Gilbert who was halfway through finishing his bottle.

He probably startled her with his words, but he hoped he did it in a good way.  He didn’t consider himself graceful with women when it came to romance but hopefully she wouldn’t mind his meager attempts at wooing her.

His cabin came into view just beyond the final bend in the dusty path.  He gestured to the small wooden structure nestled next to the side of the hill.  In front was the well he’d dug when he first came out here.  Not too far was his barn with a fenced-in area for the animals.  He had only heard of the elegant houses on the plantations from people who had traveled by his parents’ homestead in Minnesota.  This was nothing like that.

Chancing another glance in her direction, he gauged her reaction to the place.  She didn’t seem as disheartened as he feared she’d be.  Sure, he’d warned her in his first letter, but there was no way he could have adequately prepared her for it.

“I only have two bedrooms,” he told her, though he’d already mentioned it.  “I have some space for a loft, and I figure when we have more children, our bedroom will go up there.  For the time being, we should be comfortable.”

“The place suits me just fine, if that’s what you’re worried about,” she assured him with that heartwarming smile of hers.

He loved her already.  He barely knew a thing about her and everything happened so fast but he knew he loved her as much as he knew his own name.  There were just some things that automatically happened to a person, and he assumed love was one of them.

He led the horses up to the front of the cabin and set the brake.  “I’ll get you and Gilbert down.” Though it was probably unnecessary to tell her, he didn’t want her to assume people this far removed from society didn’t have manners.  He jumped down from the wagon and hurried to her side.  He waited for her to set the empty bottle on the floor of the wagon before he held his hand out to her.  “Welcome home, Mrs. Grover.”

“Thank you,” she replied, her voice soft as she scooted to the edge of the seat.

One arm securely holding Gilbert, she accepted his hand and descended from the wagon.  He took the opportunity to hold her for a moment, appreciating the way her curves pressed against him.  He imagined it’d be wonderful to hold a woman in his arms, but this was much better than he expected.

Noting the way her cheeks grew pink, he released her.  In his eagerness, he forgot to remember she wasn’t accustomed to being near men in such a familiar fashion.  “I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

As he walked to the back of the wagon so he could start unloading it, she followed him, rubbing Gilbert’s back.  “You’re my hu
sband.  You of all people have the right to be close to me.”

He glanced at her, sensing the sincerity in her words.  Relaxing, he said, “Living out here can get lonesome.  I mean, I have Gilbert, and I know the people around here.  But it’s not the same as having a wo
man around.  Not that I only wanted to get married for that reason.  It’s definitely to my benefit you are a woman.  You’re much better to look at than men are.”

He cleared his throat.  Somehow, what he wanted to say and what was
coming out of his mouth were two different things, and for the life of him, he wasn’t sure how to get the matter resolved.

“I’m glad that I am
here,” she said, saving him from inadvertently making more of a fool of himself.  “I did come from a place with many people, but I never felt like I belonged there.  With you, I have the chance to have a home.”

Surprised, he turned from the large crate closest to him and faced her.  “You weren’t happy in Atlanta?”

She hesitated for a moment.  “Did I sound like I was happy in my letter?”

“It’s hard to tell whether or not someone is happy from a letter.  I assumed you looked forward to something new since you assured me that you had nothing worth staying for.  When I think about it, I suppose you didn’t sound happy.” He shrugged.  “I guess money can’t buy everything.”

“No, it can’t,” she softly replied.

“I might not have money, but I promise I’ll do everything I can to make you happy.  This place might lack the finery you’re used to,” he gestured to his simple land and cabin, “but what it doesn’t have in things, it makes up for in other ways.  I’ll be a good husband.”

“I have no doubt about that.  I just hope I can be a good wife.”

“Oh, I know you will.”

“You do?” she asked, her eyebrows furrowed.

“Of course.  Just look at Gilbert.  Aunt Betty says a baby has a sense about people.  You can tell the heart of a person by the way a baby reacts to someone.  I told you before, it’s fate.  We were meant to be together.”

“Well, I’ll do my best.”

“I know you will.” He gathered the crate and pulled it off the wagon.  “Make yourself at home.
I’ll bring in the things we bought from the mercantile.”