Gavin nodded. “I am, I know she’s supposed to be with me. I can’t explain it and I know it ain’t love yet but it’s something I just know deep inside.”
“Well then let’s get you clean enough for a wedding, my friend.”
Adelle couldn’t help but stare at the man escorting her to the church. If Gavin Knight had been handsome in his dusty cowboy clothes he was something way beyond handsome in the new suit he’d bought to marry her in. She felt almost shabby beside him in her emerald green dress with its black lace. She couldn’t help but remember the last time she’d almost worn this dress when her father had announced her engagement to his friend against her wishes and without her consent. Gavin smiled at her. “You look beautiful in that dress, Adelle.”
“Thank you, Gavin. You clean up very nice yourself.”
Gavin grinned at her. “Even this cowboy knows chaps and denim ain’t appropriate to get married in. I’m just glad I listened to Mrs. Jackson and got the green vest instead of the red one. Looks like we picked our outfits together.”
Adelle nodded. The green of his vest was almost the same color as her dress. “Yes and it makes the blue in your eyes so much more vibrant.”
His grin grew into a smile. “Then I’m glad I made you happy, Adelle. I do need to tell you that our house isn’t big or fancy. It’s only two rooms.” He blushed and swallowed. “Only one bed, too. But I’ll just roll my bedroll out in the front room. That way you can have the bed and some privacy.”
“You will do no such thing. I do know a thing or two about marriage, Gavin Knight, and I aim to start ours as it will continue and having my husband sleep on the floor in another room does not sound like the marriage I want. Is this bed big enough for two?”
He looked at her and nodded. “Well yes, but I didn’t want you to think…”
“I know you are a gentleman, Gavin. I agree we are not ready for a true wedding night as we barely know each other. How will we get to know each other if you sleep in another room on the hard floor? We can share the bed and decide about the other together when the time is right. I do plan to be a mother some time, you know.”
Gavin stumbled a step at her words. “Oh, well, if you’re comfortable with us sharing the bed then that’s what we’ll do. As for the other, you’re right, we can decide that together when the time is right.”
“While we are on the subject I will expect a proper kiss at my wedding, Gavin. I’ve never had a proper kiss and always thought I’d have one when I got married.”
Gavin smiled. “I would love nothing more than to give you a proper kiss, Adelle. I assure you it won’t be a hardship at all. As a matter of fact, I’ve wanted to give you one since you said you’d marry me. Maybe even before.”
Now it was Adelle’s turn to blush. They stopped at a small house beside the church where Cooper and the Fontaine’s were already waiting for them. Julianne smiled. “Are you two ready to get married or do you need another walk around the block to get everything settled between you?”
Gavin let his arm slide until his hand rested against the small of her back and she felt stronger for his show of support. “We are ready.”
“Good.” Julianne knocked and the door opened to a pretty, dark-haired woman. “Julianne! What are you all doing here? Did I forget a dinner invitation?”
Julianne shook her head. “No Benita, our friends would like to talk to Eugene; they want to be married.”
“Oh! Let me go get him, he’s umm…” She shrugged. “He’s rocking the baby. I swear that little girl has him wrapped around her finger already. If she so much as whimpers he’s got her in his arms.”
The love and joy in her face betrayed the words she spoke. Adelle took a moment to pray that someday thoughts of Gavin would make her glow like that. They stepped inside and shut the door behind them while the preacher’s wife went to get her husband. “Eugene, you’re needed. There’s a couple here who want to get married.”
“I’m rocking our daughter, right now.”
“I see that, but weddings are part of your job you know.”
“Very well, have them come in. I’ll marry them right here.”
His wife’s voice went up an octave. “Eugene Theodore! You will take this couple over to the church and give them a proper church wedding. If they’d wanted to get married in a parlor they could have just sent for the judge.”
“Fine, take them over to the church; I’ll meet them at the altar.”
“Give me the baby, dear.”
“She’s fine, I just got her to sleep. I don’t want to wake her by handing her off.”
“So you’re going to hold her while you perform a wedding?”
“I don’t see why not, they’ll be married and she’ll be fine in my arms.”
Benita came back and motioned them all out the front door. “You see what I mean, Julianne? He’s worse than when I was pregnant.”
“And you love it.”
The woman nodded. “I do, just don’t tell him. He needs me to keep him humble, you know.”
The women laughed together. “You do a fine job of it too.”
They entered the church, and the evening sun shining through the stained glass caused a romantic glow in the sanctuary. Adelle thought it perfect for a wedding. She and Gavin went to stand in front of the altar, facing the tall, thin, dark-haired man in a suit with a swaddled infant in his arms as he rocked slowly left and right. Adelle couldn’t help but smile. It was such a precious sight to see the preacher rocking his daughter in his arms. This, she thought, is the perfect wedding.
Then the preacher asked their names and had them write them on the marriage certificate laying on the pulpit. “Alright then, let’s get started. “We are gathered here to join Gavin and Adelle in holy matrimony. Gavin, do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife? To have and to hold from this day forward, forsaking all others until death do you part?”
Gavin nodded. “I do”
The preacher looked at her. “And do you, Adelle, take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband? To have and to hold from this day forward, forsaking all others until death do you part?”
She looked at Gavin, their eyes connected and she swallowed. “I do.”
“Do you have a ring?”
“Yes sir.”
“Place it on her finger and say, with this ring I thee wed.”
Gavin slid a simple gold band with a single emerald on her finger. “Adelle, with this ring I thee wed.”
“By the powers given me by the state of Colorado, I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss your bride.”
Gavin stepped close to her and slid one arm around her waist, pulling her even closer while the other came up to caress her cheek. “My wife, my sweet Adelle.” Then his head dipped down to hers and their lips met. Her whole world both narrowed and expanded at the same time as his lips consumed hers with just the right amount of pressure and passion. Then long before she was ready for it to end, it did. His forehead rested against hers. “I think I shall have to do that very often, wife.”
She nodded. “I think I’d like that, husband.”
Then their friends were there slapping backs and giving hugs. The pastor signed the marriage license and had Cooper and Hugh do the same as well as Adelle and Gavin. “There you go, Mister and Missus Knight. May God bless you both and your marriage.”
“Thank you, reverend. I appreciate it.”
The pastor smiled. “Now if you’ll excuse me my daughter needs to be put to bed.”
Adelle couldn’t help but giggle at the look of adoration on the minister’s face as he looked at his child. Then she stilled as her eyes played tricks on her and she saw Gavin standing there looking down at their child with that same besotted look on his face. Her heart flipped in her chest. She was married and one day, God willing that would be a true vision not just a daydream.
Chapter Six
Gavin rode beside his wife. That still surprised him that he had a wife. Adelle had changed
back into her split skirt after their wedding supper at the Hearth and Home. Julianne and Heath had insisted that they have supper on them and Gavin wasn’t going to complain knowing that there probably wasn’t much, if any, food stuffs in the house. He’d been told by Cooper that he’d make sure some eggs and bacon and some of his wife’s own staples showed up at his place before he got home. Tomorrow he’d work with Diablo some in the morning and then he and his wife would take the ranch’s wagon into town to do some shopping. He was appalled when he saw that all she had was one saddle bag with a couple of dresses and a single nightgown and a change of unmentionables in it.
While he might not be as rich as the parents Adelle had run from, he did have fifteen hundred dollars. So tomorrow he’d take his wife to the mercantile and even though he shuddered at the thought, the dry goods shop, and buy her whatever she thought they needed to start housekeeping. He’d insist she buy at least two more work dresses and a church dress as well as all the unmentionables and frippery a woman needed. Food wise they might have more than he’d thought at first. His wife had informed him that one of the horses and the pack horse in front of the Hearth and Home were hers. In reality, she owned a third horse but it was at the hitching post down at the Nugget Saloon and they both realized that Rufe Bennett was using it. “Let him keep it, Gavin. I don’t really need another horse and I did owe him seventy-five dollars. The horse isn’t worth that much but at least he’ll have a way to leave town.”
Gavin nodded but he had seen the anger in the man’s eyes; he wasn’t about to leave town unless Gavin made him leave. While they were in town tomorrow, Gavin would go see the marshal and have a little chat with the man about Rufe Bennett and his wife. But for tonight he was going to enjoy being married. He still couldn’t get his head around it. Everything he’d just a week earlier been dreaming of was now in his grasp. He might not own the whole ranch but thanks to the papers Cooper and he had signed after the wedding, he owned half interest in the ranch his cabin was on. Cooper had also given him papers saying he owned the cabin and two acres on each side of it for a total of eight acres. So he and Adelle could add on to the cabin when a need arose.
The two of them talked as they rode along, sharing about their lives. Adelle telling him about balls and society life and living in a big city like Denver. Him talking about the life of a bronc buster and traveling horse trainer living out of a saddle bag, bedroll and war bag with his bronc busting gear in it. Which reminded him. “Listen, I need to warn you, Adelle. When we get ready to turn in tonight I’m gonna have quite a few bruises and marks on my body. Arms, back, legs. I don’t want you to worry. I spent the last three days breaking Diablo here to the saddle and that meant a lot of falls and bumps. From what others have told me they look worse than they feel.”
Adelle blushed and nodded. “Thank you, I probably would have been worried when I saw them. Will that happen a lot?”
He smiled. “Not a lot, but more so when it comes time to saddle-break a horse. Once that’s done I’m okay normally. I might get a kick or bite on occasion, but I won’t be as bruised as I am right now. I spent the last month saddle-breaking one hundred horses so I have some older bruises too, and Diablo was a stubborn horse at first. I got thrown a bunch.”
“I thought you said there isn’t a horse you can’t break.”
Gavin laughed. “Darling, there isn’t a horse I can’t break but breaking doesn’t mean not getting thrown. There’s a cowboy saying you need to come to learn.”
She looked at him with real interest in her eyes. “What’s that?”
“I call it the Bronc Buster’s Golden Rule.”
She smiled at that. “And what is this golden rule of Bronc Buster’s?”
He looked at her in all seriousness. “There ain’t a horse alive that can’t be rode and there ain’t a cowboy alive that can’t be thrown.”
“That’s your Golden Rule?”
“Yes ma’am, it is. It means I will get thrown, it’s part of breaking a horse. It will happen, it’s inevitable. The key to breaking any horse is to remember you’ll get tossed off but if you keep getting back on, eventually that horse will learn and then he’ll be rode.”
“And that’s what gave you the reputation of being able to break unbreakable horses?”
“It’s a large part of it, yes. So there may be nights I come in moving like an old man and beg you to rub liniment on my aches and pains. But in the end when I sit on top of a horse like Diablo here that everyone said couldn’t be ridden, when I turn that devil horse into the best cow pony ever seen, that’s what earns me my paycheck. That money I bet today, that’s what I made in the last month and three days breaking one hundred and one horses. Not every month is that good but if I need money, I know how to make it. Find a rancher with horses to break and ride ‘em till they are trained.”
She looked over at him. “I find it amazing that you can do that. You can take a beast like Diablo there and turn him into a tool that anyone can use. You, husband, are amazing.”
Gavin felt himself fill with her pride in him and his abilities. “Nah I’m just a stubborn cowboy, Adelle, you on the other hand are amazing. Look at you. Never raised to do the things you’ve done. You outfitted yourself for a cross country trip, rode all that way, cooked and planned and if you’d had time you’d have found a way out of the mess with Rufe Bennett too. I have no doubt about that.”
“I’m not so sure about that but I must say I did enjoy planning and taking the trip from Denver to here, minus the robbery in Durango.”
“Well I’m just glad you ran into Cookie, though that confuses me a might.”
“Why’s that?”
“Well now this is gonna sound strange, but I met that Cowboy in Texas at a saloon down by the King Ranch. He rode the train with us to Creede. I don’t have any clue how he could have gotten from here to Durango and back in the time we got to town. Just ain’t possible.”
“I don’t know what to tell you. Maybe he got off the train in Durango for some reason.”
“Or stayed on it until Durango, I guess. Don’t know what else he could have done.”
They drew near the lane turn off to the ranch. “That’s the turn off to the ranch ahead. We’re almost home, Mrs. Knight. You ready to see your new home?”
She smiled and moved her horse closer to his. “Very much ready, Mister Knight.”
They turned and rode side by side. “Welcome to the ranch we own part interest in, Darlin’.”
Adelle couldn’t help but be fascinated by her husband and the tales he told her. Next to hers, his life had been full of adventures. He’d traveled through Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and now had come to Colorado. He’d been to ranches and farms, cities and towns. He rode for ranchers and the Texas Rangers breaking horses. He’d been in several rodeos and all she’d ever done was run away from a disgusting man her father tried to marry her off too. Would Gavin see her as a wife and partner, or just a little girl he needed to protect?
She prayed he’d see her as a real woman because that kiss had been perfect and she wanted more of those. She wanted to fall in love with this amazing man and be his wife in every way. She knew her thoughts were brazen and she felt especially wanton having them, but she did. She wanted that daydream to be her reality. She wanted her belly to swell with this man’s children, to see love like Hugh Fontaine had for her friend Julianne in Gavin’s eyes for her. Like Reverend Theodore had when he’d looked at Benita. She didn’t want the cool detached looks she’d seen her own parents give each other. No, she wanted love that couldn’t be contained and she wanted it with Gavin Knight, her knight, her husband. Nothing less would do. Now she just had to figure out how to get him to fall in love with a silly little girl like her.
When he’d explained how there would be times he’d ask her to rub his sore and aching muscles she’d almost swooned. She couldn’t think of anything she’d rather do. She’d been lost in daydreams of rubbing liniment into his back and arms and legs. She knew the
y’d continued to talk but she didn’t really know about what. She’d only come back into the present when he’d pointed to the left across her. “That’s the turn off to the ranch ahead. We’re almost home, Mrs. Knight. You ready to see your new home?”
She smiled with genuine pleasure at him calling her Mrs. Knight. She was a Mrs. and that made her happy. That she was his Mrs. made her even happier. “Very much ready, Mister Knight.”
They turned and rode side by side. “Welcome to the ranch we own part interest in, Darlin’.”
Adelle looked as twilight was falling. She loved the rolling plains and the mountains in the background. There was a large barn and across from it was a large ranch house. The White’s, she figured, since Gavin had told her theirs was a two-room cabin. Which probably made theirs the one furthest from the other buildings. She was pretty sure the long square building was for the ranch hands, a bunkhouse she thought she’d heard it called. But it was home and for the first time she felt like she belonged somewhere. She belonged here with this man, her amazing husband on this ranch in that little house that would be all theirs. She’d heard Mister White give Gavin a deed with eight acres of land for the cabin. It was truly theirs. She couldn’t wait to see her home. Hers; not her mother’s or her father’s, not Mister Masterson’s; it belonged to Gavin and because she was his wife, her. She couldn’t wait to see it.
They rode together over to the barn. “For now we’ll stable our horses with the rest of the ranch horses. But I’ll see about getting some help building us a smaller barn for Diablo, your two horses and a milk cow. Cooper said we can use eggs from the hen house too, but I know that they use them and so does the cook for the hands. So I’ll start looking for some chickens for us too.”
They halted right outside the barn and Gavin climbed out of the saddle and came around, lifting her out of hers and letting her slide down to the ground against his body. It was such an intimate move and she loved it. He looked down into her eyes. “I’m going to kiss you now, Adelle, right here in the open in front of the barn.”
Winning His Wife Page 6
