Cooper's Wife

by Jillian Hart

  Pal stomped his right front hoof and swung his head up and down in protest.

  “All right. I’m getting the grain.” Laughing, Cooper dipped a bucket m the nearly full barrel. Molasses, sweet corn and oats scented the air. A swallow chirped in the rafters above, protective of newborn chicks. Cooper ducked his head as the father bird, red-bellied and sharp-beaked, dove at his hat and chased Cooper out into the yard.

  “Hi, Papa,” Maisie greeted from her open second story window. “You missed molasses cookies.”

  “Is that what you and Anna made today?”

  The little face bobbed, and blond curls bobbed, too.

  As he tugged open the screen door, he was met with the wondrous fragrance of supper. Anna must have left a plate for him warming in the oven. His mouth watered. His stomach rumbled. He grabbed a towel and opened the stove door.

  “Anna sure can cook,” Katie reminded him, as if that fact had been in question.

  Startled, Cooper nearly dropped the food-stacked plate. “I didn’t see you there. I can’t remember the last time you were this quiet.”

  “Oh, Papa. This is surely trying my patience.” Katie dropped the hoop on the table with a thud. “I ain’t no good at this. Anna says I have to try to have patience. I’m much better at riding ponies and stuff.”

  Was Anna responsible for this mysterious, girl-like change in his oldest daughter? Afraid to break the spell, Cooper pulled out the chair across from her. “I’m better at riding and stuff, too.”

  His mouth watered around the mouthful of mashed potatoes. Sweet, creamy, rich. Even after sitting in the oven.

  “Anna sure can take care of Maisie. I reckon I done good picking her out.”

  “I reckon you did.” Chuckling, Cooper attacked the spicy baked beans, by far the tastiest he’d eaten. “Anna is the best housekeeper we’ve ever had.”

  “Papa, that’s not it at all.” Katie lifted her chin, both hands tightly fisted. “Maisie oughtta have a mother. She’s not like me. She ain’t tough, and she needs someone to cuddle her.”

  “There won’t be any more women coming to town hoping I’ll marry them, will there?”

  “Stop teasing, Papa. This is serious.” Katie snatched her sewing from the table. “Laura’s up in the attic crying.”

  “Crying?”

  “Some mushy stuff, I guess.” Katie headed upstairs leaving him in his transformed kitchen.

  Everything was clean. From the polished floors to the blackened stove to the glass in the cabinets above the work counter. No dust, no cobwebs, no dirt in corners or crumbs on the table. The curtains looked freshly washed and pressed, crisply fluttering in the pleasant evening breezes.

  Anna’s touch. He finished the plate of food Anna cooked, then walked through the house Anna had cleaned. Her careful work was everywhere, even along the dirt-free banister that now glistened like a polished stone.

  He hesitated on the last step and squinted through the dimness of the attic. He spied Laura kneeling at an opened, dust-coated trunk.

  Katie said she was crying. And in the lemony haze the last rays of daylight threw into the tiny room, he could see it was true.

  “I hear you’re getting married tomorrow.” The words meant to sound light were leaden instead.

  She fingered a thick fold of lace. “I’m getting out while I still have the chance. It’s been torture helping raise those nieces of mine.”

  Her words, meant to tease, sounded infinitely sad.

  His throat filled. He understood all she didn’t say, ached with what he could not “We’re going to miss you, Laura. Especially the girls.”

  “I know.” Tears stood in her eyes. “But it’s time for me to leave home, big brother.”

  He sat down on a crate beside the trunk. “What are you up to?”

  “Going through Mother’s things.” Laura sighed. “Father saved some of her favorites for me. They’ve been packed up for so long, I can’t remember what I have.”

  Cooper’s throat tightened with the pain of memories and separations. Mother’s fine tablecloth. He recognized it now. And the set of china come all the way from England. “I want you to be happy, Laura.”

  She lifted a saucer and rubbed the heel of her hand across it. “Larry loves me. I know he’ll be good to me.”

  Cooper only nodded. Love. He couldn’t believe in something so hard to hold, to see. He’d tried to once, but only found illusion and trickery. “Larry better treat you well, or I’ll hog-tie him in jail and give him my special torture treatment.”

  “You’re terrible.” Laura threw a doily at him.

  He caught the scrap of lace before it smacked him in the nose. “If you ever need anything, you know where I am. I’m always here for you, Laura. Just like you’ve been for me and the girls. No matter what.”

  “I know, and that’s why you owe me, big brother.” Her hand covered his. “One day I’ll have children of my own and believe me, when I need a baby-sitter, I’m hauling all six of them right over here for you to look after.”

  “Six? You expect me to take care of all those children?”

  “Anytime I want to go gallivanting around.” She winked, all laughter and happiness and sadness.

  He knew, because he felt the same way. “Laura, nothing would bring me greater pleasure.”

  The day of Laura’s wedding dawned like any other. Cooper ambled downstairs, buttoning his shirt to find her in his kitchen instead of Anna, making pancakes for the girls.

  “Shouldn’t you be getting into that fancy wedding dress of yours?” he said, trying to hide the sadness that ached inside. His little sister was leaving them.

  “Who cares about a fancy dress?” Laura teased from the stove, all sunshine, all smiles. “I told Anna to come in an hour later. I’m spending my last morning of freedom with my nieces because I’m going to miss them the most.”

  “Papa! Papa!” Maisie dashed across the kitchen, swinging some white thing violently in one hand. “Look what Aunt Laura got me.”

  “A new bridle for Bob!” Katie squealed from the table where she ripped open brown wrapping paper.

  “It’s a bride hat.” Maisie plopped the object on her head, the gossamer fabric floating down over her face.

  “A veil.” He knelt down. “It’s beautiful on you.”

  “Laura’s leavin’ today, so she’s makin’ bacon.” Maisie sighed.

  “Don’t you leave, Laura.” Katie dropped the bridle with a clank and a thud. The merriment drained from the room. “You have to stay here. You’re supposed to take care of us when Papa can’t.”

  Tears of regret shimmered in Laura’s eyes.

  Cooper stood, held out his hand. “Katie, Laura deserves a family of her own. Don’t spoil her special day.”

  “She’s got us.” Katie’s hands balled into tight angry fists. “A bridle ain’t gonna make it better. I don’t want nothin’ but Laura.”

  “Katie!” His rebellious daughter had gone too far. “You apologize to your aunt—”

  “Cooper.” Laura swiped her eyes. “Gifts can’t make up for my leaving. Katie, I just wanted you girls to have something to remember my wedding day. It’s a happy day for me.”

  “Why? So you can leave us to go kiss Larry?”

  “I don’t want to leave you.” Laura’s voice broke.

  “You fix it, Papa. Don’t let Laura go.” Katie tugged on his hand.

  “Oh, tiger.” He pulled Katie to him and held her tight. How little she felt in his arms. How vulnerable. She’d always been sensitive about goodbyes. “You have me. And I’ll always make certain there’s someone to look after you and Maisie.”

  “But not someone who loves us like a mama.” A sob rent the air. “You won’t marry Anna and now Laura’s leaving. What’s Maisie gonna do?”

  Katie’s genuine pain darkened the sunny kitchen like a swift black cloud. She broke away from his hold and bolted from the room.

  Cooper pulled himself to his feet. He hadn’t been the only one hurt wh
en his wife abandoned them. Katie had been devastated, inconsolable.

  Sorrow trembled in Laura’s eyes.

  “It’s not your fault,” he said. And it wasn’t. It was his. He hadn’t seen this coming. He hadn’t thought how hard Katie would take her beloved aunt’s departure. Even if she was only moving from the cottage next door to a grand house three streets away.

  He crossed the yard toward the stable. Each step kicked more pain through his chest. He tried to squeeze out the mumble of a guilty conscience, but he failed.

  He pulled open the stable door to hear Katie’s sobs echoing in the rafters, the aching sound of a little girl’s heart broken and bleeding.

  Yep, there was no denying it. Housekeepers and a loving aunt could never heal the scars in his daughter’s heart.

  Only the strength of a mother’s love could do that.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Anna held tight to Mandy’s waist and wished she would quit fidgeting. The mare they rode was steady and dependable, but she was going to wrinkle her pretty dress. The wedding was a few hours away. Anna had hoped her child could stay presentable and mudfree, at least until after Laura’s ceremony.

  “Looky! It’s Bob!” Mandy’s admiration for the pony shimmered in her voice.

  “That can’t be.” The sun was in her eyes and she couldn’t see. The crook in the road cast them in shade, and she gazed down the street. Homes perched along the wide lane, towered over by giant firs and pines. The craggy purple peaks of the mountains looked down on them all.

  Then a movement caught her eyes. She saw the streaking pony and the girl clinging bareback. She saw at once the sturdy four-foot-high fence and Bob’s reckless gallop. “What’s Katie doing?”

  Anna saw the pony hurl over the cut-timber fence. Then toppled in midair. Anna watched in horror as Katie flew over Bob’s head and fell directly into the panicked animal’s path. The pony hit the ground, first stumbling and then rolling.

  “Katie!” The girl could have been crushed. Anna kicked the mare into a trot, then a lope. She grabbed Mandy and slipped to the ground. Fear for the fallen girl pulsed through her, and she stumbled along the side of the rutted road.

  Katie! Where was Katie?

  Bob squealed in panic, then clamored to her feet. Anna left Mandy and the mare by the side of the lane. She launched herself between the slats of the fence. The pony danced around in the tall grass, panicked. Anna soothed the frightened animal with her voice, then snatched the reins.

  “Katie?” Two quick knots and Bob was safely tethered. The tall grass obscured everything. Then Anna saw a corner of red fabric and fell to the ground.

  Katie. She lay motionless, unconscious, her body sprawled at an unnatural angle.

  Anna rested a hand on the girl’s chest. A pulse beat beneath her fingertips. Thank God she was breathing.

  “Katie!” Cooper shouted.

  “Over here!” Anna’s voice wobbled.

  Seconds felt like minutes as she waited for help. She brushed tangled curls from the girl’s forehead and saw a small cut trickling blood along her hairline. Anna pulled a clean handkerchief from her skirt pocket and pressed it gently to the wound.

  “I saw it from the parlor window.” Cooper approached, his booming voice startling grasshoppers, birds and the wind from the seed-tipped grasses. “Katie, you scared me near to death. Don’t you know you could have been killed? I’ve told you before, no j—”

  “Cooper. She’s unconscious.” Anna touched his knee as he stomped to a halt before Katie’s prone body. Looking up the length of him, he seemed taller, broader, stronger. He stood between her and the sun, the glint of rays hiding half his face, but she still saw his enraged fear.

  “Don’t worry. She’s alive.”

  He dropped to his knees. The earth shook. He wiped his right hand over his face. His furious expression changed to shock, then he was all action, all protective father. His capable fingers brushed over arms and legs. Then he trained his grave, all-business gaze on her. “It doesn’t look from here as if any bones are broken. I need to get her to the house.”

  “Let me help.” Anna held Katie’s head while Cooper gently lifted her motionless body. There were no groans of pain and no struggles toward consciousness. Cooper settled the girl tight against his chest. She lay as limp as a doll.

  Mandy huddled in the grass, crying, and Anna reached out for her hand.

  The owner of the field loped out of his stable. “Sheriff, I saw that girl of yours fall. I was in the back pasture.” He wheezed, out of breath. “I’ll race and fetch the doc if you want.”

  “Thanks, Eric.”

  “Papa!” Maisie cried out from across the street, apparently afraid to leave her own yard. Her ruffled pink dress and a white bride’s veil fluttered in the crisp morning breeze.

  “This way. Hurry.” Cooper urged.

  Anna struggled to keep ahead of him to open the gate, then the front door. She took Maisie by the hand and led both crying little girls into the house. She left them in the parlor. She hated doing it, but Cooper needed her help. She rushed ahead to open doors. Her heart broke watching him gently lay his injured daughter on her twin bed.

  “She still hasn’t woken up.” He turned to her, his face lined with worry. “I hope the doc hurries.”

  “She took a bad fall, Cooper, but she’ll be all right. I know it.”

  “I hope you’re right.” How broken he sounded.

  Anna rested a hand on his forearm, felt the iron muscle, his hot skin and the light dusting of downy hair. This man, larger than life, able to defeat any villain, felt vulnerable at her touch.

  “Katie was upset over Laura’s visit this morning. When we were ready to head over to the church to help set up for the ceremony, she got all worked up again. She tore off astride that blasted pony.” His throat worked.

  “Katie will be fine. You have to believe that.”

  “She does have a hard head.” So affectionate, those words. He brushed a hand over the still girl’s ashen brow. “I should have insisted she do more on her needlework.”

  “Let me go heat some wash water. Seems she landed in the mud. And I did, too.”

  “Laura’s wedding.” He said the words with regret.

  Then she understood. “When Eric returns with the doctor, I’ll have him go by the church.”

  His mouth frowned in thought. “I want Laura to marry that banker and not worry about us. She has a new life now, new priorities. I don’t want her to worry. Katie will wake up any minute.”

  But his arm trembled beneath her hand. He was as terrified for Katie, Anna realized, as she’d been when Mandy was hurt.

  “She deserves to know. You stay with your daughter, Cooper. I’ll be right back. Make sure she doesn’t get chilled.”

  Brightness burned in his night-dark eyes. He knelt down and laid one strong arm around his daughter, cradling Katie as if she were the most precious child in the world.

  Anna had never before seen the strength of a father’s love, of a man’s protective tenderness for his family.

  Footsteps pounded down the hallway. Anna moved aside to let the doctor get closer.

  “Tell me what’s wrong, Doc.” Cooper sounded like thunder, afraid of nothing, dominant and powerful.

  But she knew the fears haunting him.

  Anna turned and slipped out of the room unnoticed. All the troubles she’d endured and would yet face, they were all nothing as long as Katie opened her eyes and could ride her pony again.

  She was warming wash water when a knock rapped at the back door. The door swung open, to reveal a woman’s pale and worried face.

  Anna reached for a hand towel. “Laura. I’m glad you got my message.”

  “How’s Katie?”

  “Still unconscious. The doctor had hoped she might be awake already. But—” Anna couldn’t say the words.

  Laura, wearing a beautiful dark-blue dress with matching hat, stepped into the kitchen. She must have come directly from the church.
Her wedding was scheduled to start in less than ten minutes. “Larry and I have decided against going ahead with the ceremony. Katie is more important. We can always reschedule.”

  “Aunt Laura!” Maisie flew across the room, veil shivering behind her, Mandy trailing. “You ain’t wearin’ your bride hat.”

  “Not now, dearest.” Laura laid a hand on the girl’s tousled head. “Why don’t you go play in your tree?”

  “You mean my outlaw hideout?” Maisie hesitated. Clearly worried.

  “I saw a sheriff sneak past the window looking for you,” Anna improvised. “You girls had better hurry before he drags you back to jail.”

  They hurried on their way, eager to evade the makebelieve. sheriff.

  “Katie doesn’t seem to have any other injuries.” Anna led the way through the house. “The doc is hopeful she’ll open her eyes soon.”

  “I’m glad you’re here.” Laura stopped at the foot of the stairs. Tears sparkled in her eyes. “The girls adore you, and that’s why I didn’t stop to think. I never realized Katie would take my wedding so h-hard.” A sob choked her words.

  “This isn’t your fault, Laura.”

  She took Anna’s hand, a gentle welcoming touch of new friendship. “I’m so happy they have you. The girls need you so much.”

  Laura’s words echoed in Anna’s mind when she brought lemonade to the outlaw brides out on the porch, still evading that pesky sheriff. Later, after the wash water was warm and she’d cleaned the dirt and blood from Katie’s face and arms, Anna couldn’t shake the unmistakable, heartbreaking truth.

  Laura was right. The girls needed her far too much. She wasn’t here to be their mother; she was just hired help. And what if Dalton came for her? She would have to leave. How could she break those little girls’ hearts?

  “I made you some dinner.” Anna hesitated in the threshold, balancing the loaded tray.

  Cooper wiped his hands over his face. “I’m not hungray.”