Marnie:

by Shanna Hatfield

  Lars sighed and leaned his elbows on his knees. “I think she’s miserable in her current vocation, but she seems to think that’s her lot in life. I wish I knew something I could say or do to help her realize most people would give her a chance if she’d give one to herself.”

  “We’ll keep praying for her to come around. Just be careful. It’s not my place to say anything, but we don’t want to see you get hurt. It’s one thing to be friends with Marnie, but getting involved with a woman who works as a…well, you know…” Garret cleared his throat. “It would be similar to buying a horse that’s been ridden too hard with great frequency, used and abused, and given a healthy distrust of men. And you can’t overlook the possibility of um... uh… diseases and all that.”

  Lars jumped to his feet and took a threatening step forward, hands clenching at his sides. There wasn’t a word of what Garrett said that Lars hadn’t thought himself, but it irked him to hear someone else say it.

  Garrett ignored the look of thunder settling on his Lars’ face. Leaning back in his chair, he changed the subject. “My wife will kill me if she finds out I told you this story, but considering the circumstances…”

  “What story?” Lars asked, intrigued but still annoyed with Garrett for warning him to stay away from Marnie. Although it wasn’t anyone’s business but his own how he felt about the girl, he wasn’t mad enough not to listen to the man’s story. Garrett and Kade could both spin a good tale when the mood struck.

  “Back before I married your sister, when she took over the farm after her first husband passed away, she wanted to buy sheep. No one would talk to her because she’s a woman. She spent one afternoon quizzing my dad all about sheep and the best place to find out where to buy some. He jokingly told her the Underground on a Friday night was the best place to make a deal. She took his words to heart, dressed up like a man, and went to the Underground.”

  “She didn’t!” Lars stared at Garrett in disbelief.

  “Oh, yes, she did.” Garrett nodded his head as he remembered what his lovely wife looked like dressed as a cowpuncher. “She bribed a bartender to get her Underground, since she had no idea how to get into the tunnels. She then proceeded to go to a saloon where a certain girl who goes by the name of Red sidled up to her and offered to show her a good time.”

  Lars began laughing. “I bet Aundy was fit to be tied.”

  “According to what she said, it didn’t take Marnie any time at all to see through her disguise, but she introduced her to an Irishman who wanted to sell his sheep then helped her get out of the saloon when someone tried to pick a fight with her. On her way out of the tunnels, she came across Li Hong.”

  “Your cook? What was he doing there?” Lars asked. He’d been wary to try the man’s cooking, but it was very good. He could see why Aundy hired him to feed the hands at the ranch.

  “A man beat Li and left him for dead in one of the stairwells when Li refused to do some of his dirty work. Aundy tripped over him on the way out. She decided to take the beaten Chinaman home with her and was in the process of boosting him on her horse when I came along. I was hopping mad at the time, worried about the kind of danger she’d put herself in. She even had a gun strapped on, but I guess it all worked out for the best. Your sister got her sheep, Li Hong got a job and a new home, and I got to see Aundy wearing britches.”

  Lars shook his head and started to reply when the front door opened and Nora rushed out on the porch, all smiles.

  “It’s a beautiful baby girl!” She hugged Garrett then Lars before running back inside.

  Garrett and Lars slapped each other on the back and went inside the house. J.B. strolled down the hall from the kitchen, beaming like a proud grandfather. In truth, he and Nora considered Aundy’s siblings their own offspring so the baby would know Nora and J.B. as grandparents.

  “Did they name her yet?” Garrett asked as the three men stood waiting by the stairs for someone else to come down with news.

  “Nora didn’t say,” J.B. said, glancing up as Aundy walked carefully down the stairs with the baby in her arms.

  “Everyone, meet Laila Angelina Campanelli,” Aundy said as she held the baby in one arm and pushed back the blanket with the other so the men could get a look. “Named after both of her grandmothers.”

  “Look at that hair,” Lars said, gently brushing a finger over the baby’s dark head. “I think she got that from her daddy.”

  “For sure,” Garrett said, touching the baby’s tiny hand and admiring her perfect little rosebud lips.

  The front door burst open and Caterina ran inside, taking in the group standing in the entry. “Oh, I’ve missed it all,” she said, reaching out her arms to take the baby. “Look at this beautiful child.”

  “They named her Laila Angelina,” Aundy said, smiling at Caterina as the two of them took the baby upstairs.

  “She’s a beauty,” J.B. said, going to the parlor and taking a seat while Garrett and Lars joined him. “Poor Tony will have to beat the boys off with a stick when she starts wearing long skirts.”

  “With uncles in law enforcement, I think we can keep her protected.” Lars grinned at J.B. “She’s so tiny.”

  “Most babies are,” Garrett mused.

  “When are you and Aundy going to get around to having babies?” Lars asked, wishing he could reel the words back at the look on Garrett’s face.

  “When the good Lord decides to give us some, I guess. Don’t mention that to your sister, please. It’s something of a touchy subject.” Garrett released a careworn sigh.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize…”

  Garrett waved a dismissive hand at Lars. “Don’t worry about it. I’m happy either way, but Aundy is convinced she’s somehow failing me as a wife if she doesn’t give birth to at least one child. No amount of my saying otherwise will change her mind on the matter. It was hard on her when Brett and Ben were born but I think Laila’s arrival may be even more of a challenge.”

  “But she seems so excited,” Lars said, recalling the look of pure joy on Aundy’s face as she held their niece.

  “She is. It’s later on, when she has time to think about how badly she wants a baby of her own, that she’ll let the sadness set in.”

  Hearing steps on the stairs, they looked up as Tony entered the room, exhausted. He walked to the nearest chair and dropped onto it then ran a hand through his disheveled hair. “I won’t ever put her through that again.”

  The other three men in the room laughed, making Tony glare at them with annoyance. “I’m not kidding. I don’t ever want to watch my poor little chickadee suffer like that again in my lifetime.”

  “Oh, you’ll forget about it and have another baby on the way before this one is out of diapers,” Garrett teased.

  “I don’t think so.” Tony slumped back against the chair, too tired to argue with his rowdy brothers-in-law. Between them and Kade, they were constantly tormenting him about something, not that he didn’t give as good as he got most times.

  “She’s a beautiful doll, Tony,” Lars said, reaching over and lightly smacking the tired papa on the leg. “You did good.”

  “She is a pretty little thing, isn’t she?” Tony said, his eyes lighting with pride. “I think she has Ilsa’s nose and chin, although that hair is definitely from me.”

  “You suppose she’ll have blue eyes or your odd colored peepers?” J.B. asked, referring to Tony’s unusual amber-colored eyes.

  “They’ll be pretty no matter what color they turn out to be,” Garrett said, smiling as Aundy, Caterina, and Doc came down the stairs.

  “Congratulations on a sweet baby girl. She’ll give those two little hooligans of Caterina’s a run for their money,” the doctor said, slipping on his coat and taking his hat off the hall tree. “I’ll check back by tomorrow, just to make sure mama and baby are fine, but they both did splendidly.”

  “Thanks, Doc,” Tony said, shaking the man’s hand and walking him out. When he returned inside, he went upstairs to be wi
th Ilsa and Nora came down.

  “I think this calls for pie,” she said, hurrying to the kitchen to get out plates and make more coffee.

  “I’m going to go home before it turns completely dark outside. Kade will be worried as it is,” Caterina said. Refusing Lars’ offer to take her home, she hugged Aundy and waved at the rest of them as she hurried out the door.

  “I’ll call Kade and let him know his wife is headed home,” Garrett said, going to the kitchen to use the telephone.

  “Our niece is quite something,” Lars said, giving Aundy a proud smile.

  “Yes, she is. Ilsa made a very pretty baby.” Aundy sat down next to him on the sofa. “I’m so glad you’re here, Lars, to share in this special day.”

  “Me, too.”

  Visiting while they enjoyed Nora’s pie and more coffee, Lars finally bid everyone good night and stepped out on the porch. Before he settled his hat on his head, he felt a hand on his arm and looked over at Aundy.

  “What are you doing out here? It’s dark and cold,” he said, patting the hand she left on his arm as they walked down the steps toward the barn behind the house. Garrett stabled the horses there when they realized they could be waiting for a long while.

  “I got the idea something’s bothering you,” Aundy said. Although they’d been apart for years, she still had the ability to read his moods. Ilsa hadn’t ever been as attuned to his thoughts, but Aundy so often knew just by looking at him that he was upset. “Want to talk about it?”

  “Not really.” Lars held open the barn door and followed her inside. Lighting the lantern by the door, Aundy held it while he saddled Viking and led him outside. Blowing out the light and returning it to a shelf by the door, they slowly walked back toward the front of the house.

  “You know you can tell me anything, just like you used to,” Aundy said, standing straight and tall, reminding Lars so much of the stories their father used to tell about a Viking queen. His sister was strong, capable, and independent. When they were younger, with both their parents working, she so often carried his burdens and Ilsa’s on her shoulders along with her own. When he needed help with his schoolwork or had a problem, she was the one he went to, even though she was just a year his senior.

  “That goes both ways, Aundy.” She wouldn’t talk to him, at least not now, about what weighed heavy on her heart, but Lars wanted her to know he would willingly listen when she was ready.

  She nodded her head, but remained silent.

  Swiping a hand over his face, Lars decided the long day must have loosened his tongue. “It’s Marnie. She won’t see me or talk to me.”

  “What did you do?” Aundy asked, shocking her brother with her query. “She cares for you, Lars. Probably much more than you can possibly imagine. You must have done something for her to decide she wouldn’t speak to you.”

  “The last time she talked to me, I used her services to keep tabs on one of the gang members I happened to be in the middle of chasing down.” Lars stopped as they reached the end of the yard.

  “Used her services? My word, Lars! I don’t want to hear…”

  “It’s not like that.” Lars interrupted before Aundy jumped to the wrong conclusion. “I followed one of the outlaws to Miss Clementine’s and couldn’t let him out of my sight. I acted drunk and paid well to be with Marnie for the rest of the night. She took me into the room next to the one where Luce was doing his business, and we thought we’d just wait it out, but someone kept spying on us, so we had to make it look good, even though we were just pretending. After that, she’s refused to see me.”

  Aundy stood quietly, staring at him through the darkness broken by light spilling out of Tony and Ilsa’s house and the gas light on the street. Lars felt her light blue eyes penetrating through him and fought the urge to squirm like he did when she leveled that gaze on him as a young boy.

  “Nothing happened, Aundy. For true.”

  “Maybe nothing happened as far as you’re concerned, but knowing Marnie, something happened for her. Despite what she does for a living, she has a tender heart, Lars, and you have to know she’s fond of you. What you did may have left her feeling, well… as trite as it might sound, used.” Aundy let Lars consider her words for a moment then placed her hand on his arm again. “I’m not condoning her choice of employment, far from it. I’m just saying despite everything, she’s still a young girl with dreams and feelings and you may have crushed some of them by putting her into that particular situation with you. It seems to me she’s extremely self-conscious about her work and doesn’t like you seeing her there.”

  “I didn’t think…” Lars realized Aundy’s words rang with truth. He hadn’t thought about Marnie’s feelings and assumed she wouldn’t care one way or the other about helping him out. He figured she was so desensitized to certain things, what he’d done wouldn’t bother her one whit.

  Thinking back to all the times he’d seen her, it had made her very uncomfortable to have him around when she was in her working attire. She acted embarrassed and flustered the few times he’d paid Miss Clementine to let him talk to Marnie when she was supposed to be working. Luckily, the madam favored the girl and didn’t seem to mind what happened as long as she got her money out of the deal.

  “Perhaps you should,” Aundy said, patting his back as she had so many times when they were younger before hurrying up the porch steps and inside the house.

  Chapter Ten

  “You can’t hide in there forever.”

  Marnie frowned as Lars tapped on her door again. If he didn’t quiet down, he’d wake up all the girls and that would never do. Wondering who let him in the back door, she decided she needed to have a talk with Gertie. No doubt, he charmed his way past the cook.

  Yanking open the door, she tugged on the sleeve of his jacket and pulled him into the room. “Would you be quiet? You’ll have everyone awake and that will be on my head, not yours!”

  How she could yell in a whisper, Lars had no idea, but she managed it exceedingly well.

  Instead of looking properly contrite, he grinned like a besotted fool, pleased to see her again. His gaze swept over her, taking in the mass of shining curls that cascaded around her shoulders, pulled away from the sides of her face and held in place at the back of her head with a decorative comb. The high-necked gown she wore, in the palest shade of pink, happened to be one of his favorites. Taking a deep breath, he inhaled her fresh scent and something stirred inside his heart.

  Unwilling to admit it, he’d missed her. He’d missed seeing her smile, hearing that smooth, mellow voice, watching her face light with happiness at something he said or did.

  Right now, though, she wore a frown and stood with arms akimbo, glaring at him. “What is so important you felt the need to barge in here and pound on my door bright and early this morning?”

  Wide-awake after just a few hours of sleep, Lars couldn’t wait to tell Marnie the news that he had a niece. Knocking on the back door of the brothel, Gertie welcomed him in with a smile and informed him Marnie had already eaten her breakfast. She encouraged him to go right on ahead and tap on her door.

  After two rounds of his knocking went unanswered, he was about ready to resort to pounding when Marnie whipped open the door and jerked him inside.

  He felt his stomach tighten into a knot as he took in the sight of her fresh face, pink cheeks, and stormy blue eyes. She looked so lovely, he almost forgot why he stood in her room, gaping at her like an overgrown oaf.

  It was nothing but foolhardy stupidity on his part to allow any feelings for the girl to grow, but he couldn’t help himself. He’d never met a woman who could make him feel so alive, frustrated, agitated, and unreasonably happy all at the same time until her.

  Everything he’d ever learned about right from wrong screamed at him to walk away from Marnie and not look back, but he couldn’t. The more he got to know her, the more he could separate what she did for a living from who she was as a person. A loving, gentle person who cared deeply about hi
s sisters and, if he wasn’t entirely mistaken, him as well.

  “It’s Ilsa.” Lars had stopped by Miss Clementine’s to see Marnie on his way home after talking to Aundy, but the back door was locked and all the lights were out, so he knew better than to try to sweet-talk his way in.

  As worry marred Marnie’s features and her hands fell limply at her sides, he wished he had tried a little harder to get the news to her last night.

  Marnie sank into her overstuffed chair on wobbly legs while Lars hunkered down in front of her. “Is she okay? Was it the baby?” Fearing the worst, Marnie didn’t know what she’d do without Ilsa’s friendship. She loved the sweet woman like she was her own sister. What would Tony do without his beloved wife?

  “They’re both fine,” Lars hurried to assure her. Grinning as he placed a hand on her knee, he quickly withdrew his fingers, realizing the gesture was too familiar.

  Marnie lifted her gaze expectantly, waiting for more detail.

  “It’s a girl. A beautiful baby girl. I’m an uncle!”

  “That’s wonderful!” Marnie squeezed Lars’ hands and offered him a joyous smile. “Are you sure Ilsa’s well?”

  “She was when I left the house in the wee hours of the morning.” Lars stood and Marnie jumped up out of her chair to give him an impulsive hug. Wrapping his arms around her, he reveled in the opportunity to hold her close, soaking in the feel of her as he held her against his chest. “However, Tony has vowed to never put her through the experience again.”

  Marnie laughed and stepped away from him, motioning for him to sit in her pink chair while she pulled out the straight-backed chair at the table. “Don’t all men say that? I’m sure the baby is the first of many children they’ll welcome to their family. What’s her name? What does she look like? Is Aundy excited?”