Prudence had stood and walked over to the bed to get in. It wasn’t long before Austin was snuggling up behind her, leaving the door to the adjoining nursery open. He’d placed his arm around her waist and pulled her back toward him. She’d raised his hand to her bosom. Their fingers had locked and he’d nestled his face into her neck.
His soft breathing had told her, he was asleep. But she couldn’t sleep. He’d told Benji he loved him, but he’d never said it to her—not once in the six months they’d been married. He’d said everything else, but not those three little words she longed to hear from his lips.
Sounds had come from the nursery, and she’d eased her husband’s arm away from her so she could tend to Benji. It had tightened around her, and he’d groaned into her neck.
“You stay, I’ll tend to him. Get some sleep, because I’ll be gone for most of the day tomorrow, so you need it more than me. I can sleep in the saddle if I have to.” With that, he got out of bed, went into the nursery and closed the door. Prudence had listened hard but couldn’t hear anything from the other room. She’d been glad he was taking an interest in Benji because she’d missed two cycles—and she didn’t know how to tell Austin she could be pregnant.
He’d kept them safe, been there for her and Benji, and she’d had six months of married bliss. But she was still wary of how he would react, considering what had happened when he thought Benji was hers. He hadn’t wanted any children. Now here it was, the possibility he would have to take on the responsibility of two.
What he’d said to Benji in the nursery last night had given her the hope that maybe he’d be delighted at the news. He’d told Benji he loved him and Benji wasn’t his flesh and blood. Therefore, it stood to reason, he would love his own son too, if not more, not that she could place a quantity on love.
She’d fallen asleep deciding she’d tell Austin in the morning.
His hand curved around her cheek and jaw and turned her to him so he could kiss her mouth. She gave into him as she wondered how to bring up the subject of being pregnant.
“Would you like some breakfast?”
“I don’t have time. I have to head out, you should have woken me.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. I’ll grab something on the road on the way through town. It's going to be a long day for me, so don’t wait up.” He spun her to face him, kissed her again and left.
It was noon, Prudence had just put Benji down for his afternoon nap, when the door knocker sounded throughout the house. She rushed to the door before the caller felt the need to knock it so loudly again and wake the little one.
Thinking it was a delivery, Prudence threw the door open with the intention of letting the caller know banging the door that hard wasn’t necessary. Her hand flew to her mouth, her eyes widened and her breath caught in her throat.
How could it be?
Was he really standing in front of her, after all this time?
“Benjamin, is it really you?”
As angry as she was with him, she was happier to see he was alive, and well and truly standing on her doorstep, grinning at her as if he’d seen her last week. It had been almost two years since he’d left her with the Langtons. None of that mattered as she threw herself into his open arms. “Where have you been?”
“It’s a long story, little sister, but I got it back. I’ve got it all back. Everything we lost is back in my possession.”
She shook her head, thankful he repeated himself so many times, as she needed to absorb what he was trying to tell her. “Come in, come in, tell me everything.”
~o0o0o~
Weary from lack of sleep, Austin made his way home and paused as he saw one of Johnny B’s high-end buggies parked in the front of his house. He knew it couldn’t be Johnny, he wouldn’t be crazy enough to enter his home and be alone with his wife, knowing the excitement it would cause. It had to be someone else, someone bolder or just plain stupid.
Temperature rising, he let himself in and heard laughter coming from the living room—rage surged through him. The door was ajar but he didn’t recognize the sound of the male voice ringing in his ears and grating on his nerves.
He pushed the door wider and went inside to see a stranger in his home holding his son and grinning at his wife. Austin’s vision blurred as he saw red. He was across the room in seconds, passing Prudence as she’d ran to greet him, lifting Benji out of the man’s arms and hugging him close to him.
“Who are you and what are you doing in my house?” he asked, glaring at the other man, nostrils flaring. “Well?”
Prudence walked back to him and stood at his side. Austin ignored her, wanting a response from the man who dared to trespass, making himself at home in his personal space.
“He’s my brother.”
“I’m Benjamin Fairchild.” Benjamin stood and held his hand out to Austin.
“What do you want?” he asked through clenched teeth, ignoring the hand offered.
Benjamin lowered his hand. “I’ve come to get my sister and my son. I’m here to protect them and bring them home.”
Austin had known anger many times before, but never to this extent. The sound that left his lips before he spoke was foreign to his ears. It made Prudence jump and back away from him, but Benji giggled before he tried producing the same sound.
“A man doesn’t protect his family by running away and abandoning them. He stays to protect the ones he loves, and he finds another way. You haven’t been this boy’s pappy for almost a year. He doesn’t want you. We don’t want you. I want you out of my house and you can leave the same way you came, with nothing.”
Austin marched from the room with Benji in his arms. He heard Prudence tell her brother not to go anywhere, she would speak to him. Heart racing, he took the stairs to the nursery two at a time. How dare Benjamin Fairchild come back after all this time. Telling him he’d come to break up his family.
Over his dead body.
His wife and son would stay with him. Prudence’s brother needed to leave, and as soon as he put Benji down, he was going back down there to physically throw him out. The only problem was, he couldn’t put Benji down, his arms wouldn’t do as they were told. He paced back and forth, trying to fight back the fear that his wife would leave with her brother.
He’d always known she married him so she would have someone to take care of them, and if her brother was back, it meant he had the means to do just that. Well, he couldn’t have them. They were his now, and he’d kill him before he’d let Benjamin take them.
Men like Benjamin Fairchild and his father thought they could simply come in and out of people's lives as if it was their God given right and everyone was just supposed to accept it. Benjamin Fairchild had come to the wrong house if he thought that’s how it was going to be.
Tear filled his eyes. He felt trapped and powerless. Even if he wanted to, he couldn’t kill his wife’s brother and expect her to fall in love with him after that. He’d done everything he could for her, and she still hadn’t told him she loved him. If she left him now, how would he ever get her back?
He needed Jeffrey, he needed his older brother to tell him what to do.
Prudence walked into the room and scowled at him. “What was that? Benjamin is my brother. How could you be so rude?”
His heart broke at the thought of losing her, and even more so at the sad, disappointed look in her eyes. He’d embarrassed her. The paralysis seemed to leave his limbs and he could put the now sleeping infant in his crib. He took her hand and led her into their bedroom and closed the door.
“It wasn’t as hard as you might think. He left you at the mercy of ruthless people. Isn’t that what you told me? Weren’t you the one who had to stop me going to New York to settle the score with that weasel Langton? What if he’d done what you said he’d threatened to do to you?” Austin’s voice broke, and he inhaled, then exhaled, trying to gain control over his feelings.
“Where was Benjamin then…huh, and where w
as he when he left Benji with a drunken rogue? That scoundrel didn’t have to bring the boy to you. He could have dumped Benji in a river somewhere and run off with the money. It was greed alone that brought him to your door. He figured if he got paid to bring the child to you, you’d pay double to get the child away from him. What father does that? How could he trust the people he was supposed to love with lowlifes?”
“He wasn’t thinking. We’d just lost our parents,” Prudence said, and stopped talking the second their gazes met. Her excuses for her brother’s behavior weren’t helping.
“You hadn’t just lost your parents when he abandoned Benji. To think I used to worry that one day I’d be that man. I know now I could never be that man. I would sooner die than turn my back on the people I love.”
An image of his own father turning his back on him flashed through his mind. The tears were soon behind, rolling down his cheeks as he saw his life crumbling before him. “He’s not getting either of you. I wouldn’t trust him for a second with my loved ones. You have to tell him to leave, Pru.”
Why was she smiling? When his heart was breaking.
“You love me?”
“What? Of course, I love you. Since our eyes connected in the mirror, I’ve thought of no one else. You belong to me, and I won’t let you go.”
The speed at which she launched herself into him, almost knocked him off his feet. Instinctively his arms snaked around her waist and pressed her to him. He held her like he’d never let her go.
“I’m not going anywhere and neither is Benji. I love you too.”
Before she could say another word, his lips found hers. He wanted to crush himself into her, he needed to make himself whole. He was only half a person without her, she completed him.
She tore herself away from him. “You really need to stop sometimes, take a breath and listen.”
“He said he came for you both, what was I supposed to do?”
“Trust your wife.”
“But I’d made so many mistakes in the beginning. I was working for your love.”
“You already had it. Benjamin answered the question asked, but I’d already told him I wasn’t going anywhere, and he’d lost the right to take Benji with him. That I didn’t trust him to do right by the boy. He agreed with me. He was waiting to meet you because I asked him to. I wanted to share my news with the two most important men in my life.”
“What news?”
She pulled free from his arms, and he felt naked. He reached for her, but she sidestepped him.
“No, stay there. I want to see your face when I tell you.”
“Tell me what?” Austin rubbed at his forehead in frustration as fear rose in him again.
“I’m pregnant.”
He felt weak from the news. If he thought getting married was the happiest day of his life, he was wrong. Hearing the news, he was going to be a father was so much greater and more. He closed the gap between them lightning fast, and twirled her around the room, then stopped suddenly, putting her down.
“Can I still do that?” he asked, rubbing the back of his neck.
She laughed. “Yes, you can. Do you want to know what else we can still do?” She pumped her eyebrows at him. Realization made him smile.
He lifted his wife into the air and carried her over to the bed. “To think I told Mrs. Millard, I didn’t want children. It seems to me, minding Benji saved us both.”
“I so agree.” Smiling she traced the contour of his jaw before cupping his cheek. He turned his face in her hand and kissed her palm, then his lips met hers. His life was complete and all thoughts of Prudence’s brother waiting for them downstairs were forgotten.
Nothing, and no one would separate him from the woman and son he loved. It may have started out as a business arrangement but they were priceless to him now.
~o0o0o~
Thank you for reading
Minding Benji!
Each book in the
Sweethearts of Jubilee Springs
series is a Clean, Sweet Western Historical Romance. You may find all the books in this series as they are published by searching for “Sweet Americana”
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Sweethearts of Jubilee springs books by
sweet americana sweethearts
authors:
1.Perfectly Mismatched by Linda Carroll-Bradd
Shame over her father’s arrest sends socialite Aurelia Northcliffe running for a new home and a new name. After she makes sure her younger sister is secure, she travels west to become a mail-order bride in Jubilee Springs, CO. Not only is she shocked at the size of the tiny mining town, the men she’s matched with make her second guess her decision. One potential groom is much too unsophisticated and the other much too discerning--even if he’s the one who makes her feel safe.
Mine Manager Declan MacNeill prides himself on following rules to the letter. Initially resistant to the upcoming bride event, he remembers his short marriage in Ireland and realizes what he’s been missing. His first sight of his potential bride sets his protective instincts on high alert. Everything about her behavior indicates she’s keeping secrets. And Declan is determined on finding out why.
2.Ellen’s Lesson by Patricia PacJac Carroll
She's a blond, blue-eyed beauty. (Well, not exactly.) He's a handsome, prosperous gentleman from a good family. (Yeah, not so much.) With their letters at odds, what will Tyler and Ellen do when they meet and discover the truth? It's a mail order bride mess.
Ellen Barker feared her life was destined for the lonely outcome of a spinster school teacher. An advertisement in the paper asking for women to go to Colorado as mail order brides caught her attention. A few letters later, she was betrothed to Tyler Fletcher. A handsome upstanding citizen of Jubilee Springs.
Tyler Fletcher needed to be married before he was twenty-eight. That's what his pappy had told him. That the mine owners sent off for some mail order brides for the miners was perfect timing. He got hold of one. The perfect lady for him. Pretty, blond and blue-eyed. Awoman of high society.
At least that is what his partner, Nels, told him. Once Tyler had some time, he was going to have to learn to read and write.
From the moment Ellen met Tyler, she knew she'd disappointed him, and it wasn't as if he'd been the prize she was expecting either. He didn't want her. She would be left alone again. Maybe ...
3. Aaron’s Annulment Bride by Zina Abbott
Aaron Brinks, son of the Jubilee Springs mercantile owners, has been living in a small room above his parents’ store even though he is employed at the Prosperity Mine. When the mine owners announce they have contacted a mail order bride agency, and will allot company houses to the first ten miners who choose a bride and pay her way, he decides it is time for a house of his own.
Shy Andrea Draper must escape her father’s ranch. Her father has discouraged all potential suitors because he does not want to lose his unpaid housekeeper, laundress, and the cook for him and his men. Then there is the problem of Lloyd McCreary, her father’s foreman.
Learning her friend intends to go to Jubilee Springs as a mail order bride, going with her seems Andrea’s only option for escape. She agrees to marry Aaron even though she knows she is not worthy to be any man’s wife. While trying to convince him to be married in name only until he gains title to his house, at which time they can annul the marriage, Andrea’s father shows up to drag her
home against her will.
Learning what he is up against, Aaron must decide if it is just the house he wants, or if he wants Andrea.
4. The Sheriff and the Miner’s Daughter
by P. A. Estelle
Jim Hawkins, sheriff of Jubilee Springs, watches as six ladies get off the train, ready to meet and hopefully marry men from the Prosperity Mine. He watches as one of the women leave the group and heads his way.
She is there to find somebody. Sheriff Hawkins is more than happy to help her until he finds out the person is Amos Lehman. He is a crusty old miner who has worked his mine before the town was even a town. His cabin is old and hardly enough room for one, let alone a female.
When Jim suggests she get back on the train and go back where she came from, he gets a small taste of the stubborness in the beautiful young woman standing in front of him. Charlene Lehman had come way to far to do that and didn’t appreciate the sheriff’s interference. Blue eyes scan him from boots to hat before dismissing him and walking away.
The Sheriff’s interest is piqued. Who is this girl? Why is she looking for some old miner? There is more to this story and Jim Hawkins intends to find the answers.
5. Minding Benji by Sandra E Sinclair
Prudence Fairchild went from riches to rags. The world she knew was swept from under her with the death of her parents. Destined to a life of servitude, she realizes the struggles of being poor comes with the risk of being taken advantage of.
She uses everything in her, to ward off the advances of her employer. His threats to have her on his return from a business trip drives Prudence into action. She must get away and protect her virtue at any cost. It’s all she has left. As a last resort, she answers an advertisement to be a mail order bride.
Austin Alwin is not happy about the condition placed on him in his uncle’s will. If he is to keep the only home he’s ever known, he must find a wife within a few weeks or lose it all. As time is of the essence, he forgoes all the usual protocols in obtaining a mail order bride and will only have a few short days to make up his mind once he meets her.
Minding Benji (Sweethearts of Jubilee Springs Book 5) Page 11
