She cast those amazing eyes on him. “You, me, and four others.” She glanced over his shoulder.
He took a deep breath and turned. Sure enough, the four other ladies stood on the bank, fishing poles in hand.
“We didn’t come prepared to swim,” Lucy said, “but, if that’s what you want, Mr. Phelps, I don’t mind ruining my dress. My father can order me another one.”
“I’m just here to fish. Sadie fell in, I pulled her out. Nothing more.” For pity’s sake. His afternoon was ruined.
“Well, I’m finished.” Sadie collected her pole from where it had washed ashore, and marched away.
The other four women stared after her then transferred their attentions to him. “We need help learning to fish,” Annabell said.
“I don’t.” Ruby baited her hook and perched on a fallen log. “You children ask for help.”
How could he get out of spending an afternoon teaching some frivolous young women how to fish? Zeke scratched his chin and stared at their expectant faces. He sighed and handed Lucy a shovel. “First, dig for grubs under those trees.”
“What?” Her thin brows drew together. “You mean worms?”
“Yes ma’am, along with other things.” He pointed to the bucket of bait. “In order to fish, you need bait, unless you want to pierce the hook through these minnows.”
Annabell swooned. Sally went to catch her then shrugged and let her fall. She grabbed the shovel from Lucy’s hand. “Don’t be such a priss. It’s only worms.” She marched to the nearest tree and attempted to dig. “This is the hard part, Mr. Phelps?”
“Nope.” He crossed his arms. “If you want to fish, you need to be able to get your own bait.”
“Is this part of the contest?” Annabell got to her feet and glared at Sally.
“No.” He picked up his pole and cast his line into the water. Would he ever have a moment’s peace again?
The girls must have decided against fishing, all but Ruby, who pulled in a nice bass. The others spread their skirts on the bank and watched every move Zeke made. If he could have left for the afternoon without leaving a sign stating where he was going, he would have. But a responsible doctor let his patients know where he could be reached.
“Doc!” A man burst through the trees. “Got an ax accident that needs tending to.”
“Hallelujah,” Zeke muttered. He grabbed his gear and followed the man who had momentarily saved his sanity.
Instead of a bleeding man, Sadie leaned against a tree. “You’re welcome.” She grabbed her pole and headed down the path.
“There is no accident?” Zeke trotted to catch up with her.
“No, I had pity on you. No man should be swarmed with vultures, if you get my meaning. Rubert is a friend of Pa’s. He didn’t mind telling a little white lie.” She cut him a sideways glance. “I’m sorry I got you into this.”
“You’re the best friend a man could have, Sadie Rollins.” And she would make a mighty fine wife, too. All he needed to do was convince her. Silly contest or not.
Chapter 4
Pa picked up Sadie’s cake and set it in the back of the wagon with the four other baked items he had gone door to door to collect. Not everyone baked a cake it seemed. She spotted a pie and cookies.
“Stop gawking out the window and get ready,” Ma said.
“I am ready.” Sadie let the curtain fall into place.
“No, you’re not. You will wear your Sunday dress. You are not going to appear at the competition in faded calico.”
“Zeke has seen me in worse. Besides, today’s points come from the baking, not the appearance.” Sadie grabbed a straw hat adorned with a green band and plopped it on her head. “Let’s get this over with.”
Oh, Lord, why had she proposed such an idea to her father? Really? A competition to marry off Zeke? The more time went by, the more she regretted her decision. Just as she wanted to be free to choose whom she would marry, Zeke should also have that choice. What had she done?
“Smile, dear. The entire town will be watching.” Ma plastered a grin on her face and sailed out the door and down the street to the diner, where this stage of the competition would take place.
Pa had already unloaded the baked goods, setting them at one end of a table draped with a bright yellow cloth. That done, he knocked on the door of the diner.
Zeke came out and sat at the table. Each of the items was numbered. Sadie’s cake was number three. Zeke glanced up at her, motioned his head toward the cake, and winked.
She grinned. He’d be sure to score her entry low once he got the eggshells and the salt out of his throat.
“I won’t have to eat for a week if I consume all this,” Zeke said, grabbing a cookie. “I think I’ll donate the untasted portions to you kind folks here. There are a lot of single men watching who I would guess haven’t had fresh baked goods since they left their mama’s kitchen.”
Despite his attempts to keep his face impassive, Zeke’s eyes sparkled with bite after bite of the delicacies set before him to tickle his taste buds. But when he took a bite of Sadie’s cake, all pretense was off. He moaned with pleasure and reached for another bite. Sadie narrowed her eyes and bent forward to see better. That wasn’t the cake she’d baked! Ma had pulled one over on her and provided a substitute.
Sadie wanted to melt into the dirt. No one in town would believe for one second that she had anything to do with baking that cake. Anything she made usually involved gagging, not the closing of eyes in ecstasy. She glanced toward her beaming mother. The other girls were doing the same then glaring at their mothers in turn.
“She didn’t make her dessert, either.” Annabell stomped her foot, her harsh whisper carrying across the area. “I don’t think anyone did.”
“Hush.” Her mother put up her hand. “Of course they didn’t, except for perhaps the widow. She has no one to help her.”
Sadie glanced at Ruby, her heart softening toward the quiet widow. The woman’s eyes lit up when Zeke reached for another cookie. It stood to reason Zeke wouldn’t want a child for a wife, which pretty much knocked Annabell out of the running straightaway. She’d act like a child until she was thirty or more.
Shoving aside the uncharitable thoughts, Sadie stepped through the crowd and made her way to the newspaper office. Inside, she breathed deeply of ink and paper. She had missed the place over the last couple of days.
She sat at her desk and flipped through messages and advertisements. Another one for the selling of livestock from Jim Bailey. She sighed. The third advertisement this week and he had yet to pay for a single one. How long would Pa keep the man running on credit?
Sadie wasn’t the paper’s debt collector. She set the paper aside and reached for another. Ah. She sat back in her chair. Pa was putting in an advertisement for a church picnic to showcase the finalists in the silly contest.
What had she been thinking to come up with such an idea? Her entire life had been one crazy idea after another. She dropped the advertisement on the stack of papers to be proofread.
Tomorrow was the sewing competition. She grinned, knowing just the thing she would wear as her entry. Years ago she had worn a split leather skirt when she and Zeke ran around the countryside together. It was the one thing she had sewn herself, and she knew it wouldn’t hold a candle to what the other women could do.
“Good morning, daughter.” Pa entered, followed by Zeke. “The good doctor would like to run an advertisement and wants your help with the placement of letters.”
Sadie nodded and waited while Zeke pulled a chair next to her. She caught a whiff of his shaving soap and moved a couple of inches away. It wouldn’t do to lose her senses, but the man sure smelled divine.
“We should keep the words simple and to the point,” she said, grabbing a blank sheet of paper. “Not everyone who receives the paper is educated enough to understand big words.” Oh, mercy, he had moved closer, taking back the few inches she had moved.
Zeke’s smile grew as Sadie fidgeted. A
charming flush of pink colored her cheeks. She was flustered by his close proximity. It pleased him, and he bent his head closer to hers, breathing deep of vanilla and flowers.
“Your mother’s cake was delicious,” he said, noting how the hairs that had escaped her bun fluttered with his breath. “But the widow’s cookies were my favorite.”
She speared him a hazel-eyed glance. “Why are you telling me this?”
He shrugged. “I didn’t want you to be shocked when you see the paper in the morning.”
“It doesn’t matter one whit to me who wins.” She turned her attention back to the paper in front of her.
“Really?” He tucked an errant hair behind her ear. “Then why do you shiver when I get too close?”
“Stop it, please. Pa is in the next room.”
“I think he would be pleased that I fancy his daughter.”
“And half the town would hate me.” She tapped a pencil on the paper. “Focus, please.”
“All right.” He straightened. “Put my name, my hours, and where I can be reached if the office is closed. That’s all.”
“Don’t folks already know that information?” She narrowed her eyes. “Is this just an excuse to come in here?”
“I don’t need an excuse, Sadie.” He tweaked her nose, knowing how much she hated the gesture. “This office is open to the public from nine to five each day, barring Sunday. With the increase in the paper’s circulation, I want those who live outside of town to be aware that a new doctor has arrived. The town was without one for a few months.”
She slapped his hand away from her face. “Anything else?”
He stood and grinned. “Wear something pretty tomorrow for the next phase of the competition.” He sauntered out the door and onto the sidewalk.
Regardless of the fact the widow would receive the most points for her delicious cookies, Zeke was fully aware of who he would choose in the end. Of that, he had no fear.
He whistled as he headed for his office. A woman and a young boy sat on the bench outside his door, the poor child’s face as red as a rose. A fever, no doubt.
Unlocking the door, he ushered the mother and child inside to an examining room and instructed them to take a seat. He lifted the boy onto a table then sat on a stool in front of him. “What ails you, son?”
“His tooth,” The mother said. “He cracked it to the gum, and it pains him something awful. I’m certain it’s infected.”
“I’m no dentist, but I’ll take a look. Bend your head back. That’s a good boy.” Zeke peered into the child’s mouth. Sure enough, the tooth was broken in half. “I’ll have to pull it. Lie down.”
He went to the medicine cabinet and took down a jar of laudanum and the smallest forceps he had. “Take three sips of this,” he told the boy. “When you’re relaxed, I’ll pull the tooth.”
“Zeke?” Sadie called from the front room.
“In here.” Zeke patted the boy’s shoulder then went to meet her. “I’m glad you’re here. I could use your help with a patient.”
She paled. “I’m not a nurse.”
“I realize that. I’m only pulling a tooth. The poor child’s mother will be needed to hold his hand. I want you to hold his head.”
“Oh.” She licked her lips, almost causing him to forget his patients. “I brought your advertisement for your approval.”
“Set it on the desk and follow me.”
The boy was in a fine stupor by the time they returned. “Stand there,” Zeke told Sadie. “Tilt his head back, and don’t let him move.” He climbed on the table, straddled the boy’s chest, and positioned the forceps. With a yank, he removed the bloody half of the tooth remaining in the boy’s mouth. “Got it!” He held up the tooth.
Sadie gasped, her eyes rolled back in her head, and she crumpled to the floor. How had he not known she was averse to the sight of blood?
He handed the tooth to the mother and folded a piece of cotton cloth for the boy’s mouth. “Once he is awake enough to walk on his own, you are free to go.”
“Your payment?” She opened her reticule and dropped the tooth inside. “We don’t have much, but I’ve a fine litter of piglets.”
“That sounds wonderful. Have someone bring one by tomorrow.” Zeke was often paid in goods or livestock. What he couldn’t use, he sold or gave away.
He climbed off the table and knelt beside Sadie, lifting her in his arms. “Come on, sweetheart, wake up.”
Her eyelids fluttered. “What happened?”
“You fainted.” He helped her sit up.
“I don’t faint.” She pushed him away and got to her feet. “That is for weak women.”
“Yes, you do. One sight of a little blood and you’re a crumpled mess on the floor.”
Her eyes widened. “I am? Oh, how embarrassing.” She folded onto a chair. “I was no use to you at all.”
“You didn’t faint until the job was done.” He headed to the sideboard and poured her a glass of water. “Drink this. You’ll be fine.”
“And the child?”
“As good as new, minus a tooth.”
She took a drink of the water and handed him the glass, avoiding his eyes. “I’d best be going. Lots to do, you know. Please take a look at the advertisement and give your approval.”
“I’ll do that now.” He looked it over. “It’s perfect.”
He studied her face, dipping his head to lock his gaze with hers. He cupped her cheek, wanting nothing more than to kiss her. Once, long ago, they’d stolen a kiss behind the church. What would it be like to kiss the woman instead of the child?
A man burst through the door. “Doc, there’s been an accident.”
Chapter 5
Sadie read the morning’s paper while nursing a cup of coffee on the front porch. Ma’s cake had come in second to the widow’s cookies. There’d be a ruckus for sure. She was almost tempted to hide the paper but knew her mother would only march to the office and get another copy. She sighed and set the paper aside, waiting for the fireworks that were sure to come.
She probably should have taken the time to stop and pray before approaching her pa with the idea of the competition. If she had, God might have led her to realize the truth that she was only now able to admit to herself. She loved Zeke. When she’d awakened in his arms and seen the tenderness on his face, heard it in his voice… It had taken a ridiculous contest for her to know how much she did care for him, despite his lack of letters while he was gone, and now she could very well lose him because of her stupid scheme.
It would serve her right for barging ahead like a hungry wolf let out of a cage.
“Let me see it.” Ma grabbed the paper and scanned the front page. “We came in second? My cake?” She glared at Sadie. “It must be a misprint.”
“It’s not. Zeke as much as told me so yesterday.” Sadie stood and dumped the tepid remains of her coffee off the side of the porch. “Don’t worry, Ma. Zeke will make the right choice.”
“Of course he will. I’ve placed the dress I want you to wear on your bed.”
Oh, the hollering that would ensue when Sadie walked out in her leather skirt and vest. But it didn’t matter. She’d thought long and hard last night about whether she would stick to her original choice or not and had finally decided to play by the rules and wear what she’d sewn herself. Ma wouldn’t be able to change her mind. And maybe Zeke would remember the fun times they had while she wore the unladylike outfit.
She donned the ensemble, complete with a green cotton blouse, and tied a matching ribbon around her head, letting her hair hang loose. She wanted to look as much like the young girl who had made a declaration of love as possible. Without a backward glance at the frilly disaster on the bed, she headed back to the porch.
“No.” Ma covered her mouth with her hands.
Sadie lifted her chin. “I sewed this myself, and Zeke will have fond memories of it.”
Ma nodded, slowly. “Perhaps you’re right. It could be a smart thing to play on his
emotions that way. But you do know that later today there will only be three contestants, right?”
“Yes, I know.” Sadie’s heart threatened to burst. What would she do if she didn’t see her name in the paper tomorrow? Tears clogged her throat at the thought. Choking them back, she squared her shoulders and headed for the mercantile, where the morning’s event would take place.
As usual, the other girls were already there and lined up. Sadie shook her head at their ruffled finery and stiffened at their giggles and comments about her outfit. She didn’t care. It was Zeke’s opinion that mattered. She took her place in line, feeling very much like the mannequin in the mercantile window as the townsfolk moseyed past.
“Where is Zeke?” Lucy peered around the other girls. “Is he perhaps watching from secret?”
“It’s no secret,” Sally said. “My father told him we might feel more at ease if he watched from inside one of the shops.” She smoothed her skirt. “I haven’t had this much fun in ages. I don’t really care whether he picks me or not. I entered the contest out of sheer boredom. I intend to go east someday to find a husband. Somewhere with city streets and opera.”
“Good. One less for me to compete against,” Lucy said. “Annabell, what about you?”
Annabell clasped her hands under her chin. “I’ll simply die if he doesn’t choose me.”
Sadie rolled her eyes.
“We all know how Sadie feels about it,” Annabell said. “Especially considering she isn’t taking the competition seriously. Leather?”
“Sadie is being true to herself,” Ruby said. “Same as the rest of us. There is enough of a variety that the handsome doctor will choose who suits him best.”
“No.” Annabell shook her head, sending her gold ringlets bouncing. “It’s whoever scores the highest.”
Ruby chuckled. “Believe what you want, child.”
“How long do we have to stand here?” Sadie asked. Perspiration ran between her shoulder blades.
The other women shrugged. Sadie stepped off the sidewalk. “Then I say we’re finished. I don’t like being on display like a prized heifer at the county fair.” She headed home to change, leaving the other ninnies standing with their mouths open.
The Most Eligible Bachelor Romance Collection: Nine Historical Romances Celebrate Marrying for All the Right Reasons Page 16
