Ellen’s face turned red with anger. “Why don’t we do this? We’ll give it some time. We’ll ask them to give us a month to see who we want to marry. I know that Wesley is attracted to you and Patrick is attracted to me. I’m sure they’ll agree to it.”
Malinda nodded. A little time was all she needed. Time to get over the fact that her husband would be poor. Time to get to know Patrick to be sure he’d help them if something happened. “That makes sense. I need to know if I could fall in love with Patrick before I marry him.” What I really need is to know that Patrick would help my children and me if anything were to happen to Wesley.
“Do you think they’ll be angry with us?”
Malinda shrugged. “Probably not. I mean, they want to be happy in their marriages too, right?” She hoped they wouldn’t be angry. If she had met Wesley under any other circumstances, she was certain they’d already be standing before the preacher, but she’d been certain she’d never have to worry about money again, and to make such an abrupt change was confusing her.
They met up with the men in the parlor after the trunk had been carried up the stairs. “We have something we’d like to ask you,” Ellen began. She looked like she was uncertain about the conversation and Malinda reached out and squeezed her hand. She could see now that Ellen was worrying. She wouldn’t have recognized the look before their discussion on the train, though.
Patrick smiled at Ellen as if he’d never seen anyone so beautiful. Malinda was certain her sister would be marrying the banker, but she just wasn’t sure if she should marry immediately, or wait a bit. “Certainly.”
“We’d like to have some time to get to know you. I’m sure you noticed that we both automatically paired off with the wrong person. Would you be willing to put off the weddings until we know each other better and can decide who we think we’d be better matched with?” Ellen’s voice faltered as she asked. Malinda knew she didn’t want to put things off. She wanted to marry Patrick immediately.
“How long are you asking for?” He looked like he was annoyed at the thought of waiting, but Malinda knew he wanted to marry Ellen.
“A month?”
“No. That’s too long. How about two days?” Patrick countered.
Ellen looked surprised. “That won’t work! We’d have no time to get to know either of you! How about three weeks?” Why did Ellen look like she was enjoying the conversation?
“Three days.”
Ellen folded her arms. “That’s unreasonable. Two weeks?”
Malinda looked at Ellen in surprise. How low would she go? She wouldn’t say only five days, would she?
“One week,” Wesley suggested. “That gives us all time to get to know one another a little better and to decide whom we want to marry, but it doesn’t make us feel like you’re trying to put off the marriage forever.” Wesley’s voice sounded perfectly reasonable, but his eyes were on Malinda the whole while.
Ellen turned to Malinda. “Are you okay with one week?”
Malinda nodded. “I don’t think we’re going to be able to talk them into anything more than that.” Maybe she’d be able to stretch it longer than that. The longer she could put off her wedding night, and the better she knew her husband before, the better she’d feel about it all.
“One week.”
“A week it is. Not a day more.” Patrick stood and grabbed Ellen’s hand, pulling her to her feet and out of the room. Malinda heard a door close.
She looked at Wesley, wondering if he’d be angry. He and Patrick and been sitting in arm chairs across from the sofa where Ellen and Malinda sat. He stood and moved to sit beside Malinda. “Thank you for talking to your sister.” His fingers skimmed along her cheek as he stared into her eyes.
Malinda nodded. She didn’t tell him that Ellen had brought it up first. Why hurt his feelings by making him think her sister didn’t want to marry him? “I’m glad we’re going to take a little time to get to know each other.”
He put his arm around her shoulders along the back of the sofa, pulling her close beside him. Dropping his head, he pressed his lips to hers in a kiss with a great deal more passion than they’d shared in the buggy. Her lips parted under his insistent tongue and he slid his tongue inside her mouth to toy with hers. His hands were against her back, pressing her into him.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and clung to him. She had been thinking about what Harriett had told her about what happened between a husband and wife, and hadn’t even been able to see herself undressed with a man. With Wesley, though, all she could think about was stripping off all of their clothes and climbing onto his lap. She couldn’t help but wonder how Ellen would react if she found them naked together on Patrick’s sofa when they came back. She pulled back as a giggle escaped her lips.
He looked down at her questioningly. “Are you laughing at me?” He had one eyebrow raised and looked stern
She shook her head. “Not at all.” She blushed, knowing she could never tell him what she’d been thinking.
“Share the humor. I can always use a good laugh.”
She shook her head emphatically. “I couldn’t.”
“Then I’ll just assume you were marveling at having such a handsome man beside you, and thinking about how incredibly fortunate you are, and you just couldn’t help but laugh with joy.”
She giggled again. “That’s exactly it.”
He stroked her cheek, smoothing the hair that had fallen out of her bun. “Have I mentioned yet that I’m happy you’re here?”
“Not since you quit thinking I was Ellen.” Ellen would make him a better wife, she knew. Could she even handle the daily chores that would be a part of being his wife?
He grinned. “That was a fun little mistake, wasn’t it?”
“I don’t know that I’d call it fun. It makes everything so confusing.” If only he were Patrick and had the money to make her feel secure. But Patrick wasn’t the man for her, and she knew it.
He studied her for a moment. “How does it make things confusing?”
She shrugged. “It just is. I don’t really know how to explain it.” How could she tell him she was afraid of being poor without angering him?
“You’re not seriously considering marrying my brother, are you?”
She shook her head. “There’s no way I could marry Patrick. It would break my sister’s heart. I do think we all need a week to get to know one another better before we actually marry, though.”
He nodded skeptically. “You know you’d break my heart too, if you married my brother? I couldn’t watch the two of you together for the rest of my life while I lived in a half marriage with your sister.”
“A half marriage?”
He shrugged. “That’s all it could be compared to a marriage with you. I look at you and I see my future. I see children and a life full of love. With her? I’d feel totally alone, because she and I would never have the bond I felt for you as soon as I saw you on the train platform.”
She smiled and leaned forward to rest her head against his shoulder. “It’s not going to come to that.” What she didn’t say is she wasn’t sure if she could marry him at the end of the week.
He held her close and closed his eyes, knowing he’d found the only woman he could ever love with his whole heart.
Whether she’d come out there to marry his brother or the governor of the state of Colorado, he was going to marry her and spend the rest of his life with her. She was the most perfect woman he’d ever met, and nothing could ever change that.
*****
Before bed that night, Malinda dropped to her knees to pray. “Please Lord, help me to do what’s right. I made a commitment to one man, but fell head over heels in love with another. My sister is in love with the man I made a commitment to. I know Your Word says to trust You and not worry about money, but look where we ended up in Beckham. How can I just trust that will never happen again? Please help me sort out my tangled thoughts. I have to figure out what to do so I won’t keep the live
s of three other people in limbo. It’s just not fair for me to do that, and I won’t. I pray for Your wisdom in the name of Your precious son. Amen.”
She climbed between the sheets and settled her head on the pillow, hoping she’d be able to sleep at least a little. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw Wesley at the altar with Ellen. He couldn’t marry Ellen, and she couldn’t marry Patrick. But could she get over her fears for long enough to marry Wesley? She really wasn’t sure if she could.
*****
“What did we agree to?” Wesley asked Patrick as they left the house.
Patrick sighed heavily. “I don’t know. I couldn’t think straight, because I was given a chance to get to know Ellen better and possibly convince her to marry me.”
Wesley nodded. “I understand. Ellen is pretty. Not as pretty as Malinda, of course, but she’s pretty.” He knew saying that would annoy his brother, and he’d never been one to back away from needling Patrick.
Patrick laughed. “Ellen is a million times prettier than Malinda could ever dream of being, and you know it as well as I do. Why would you say such a thing?”
Wesley shrugged. “So you’re going to sleep on the lumpy mattress in my spare room for an entire week? Think you can handle that, rich boy?” Wesley elbowed Patrick in the arm as he asked.
“No, I really don’t think I can. I don’t suppose you’d let me buy you a decent mattress for your guest room so I have something good to sleep on?”
“I don’t suppose I would.” He grinned at his older brother. “It’ll be good for you to sleep on my lumpy mattress for a while. It’ll remind you of how the other half lives. You’ll grow to like it.”
“I won’t like it, but I can tolerate it.” Patrick shook his head in disgust.
“For a man who used to sleep on the floor of his gold mine because he was afraid someone would go in there during the night, you sure are finicky.” Wesley knew his brother wasn’t as picky as he was making him out to be, but it was fun to tease him about his money.
Patrick laughed. “Now that I’m rich, I have a right to be finicky.”
“I guess you do. Of course, this week you get to lie awake on my lumpy mattress dreaming about your girl sleeping on your bed.” He watched Patrick out of the corner of his eye. “I wonder if she’ll sleep nude. In your bed. With your pillow. Thinking of you.”
Patrick groaned. “Stop it! You know I’ll lie awake and think of nothing else now.”
Wesley led the way into his small house and walked to his bedroom, unbuttoning his shirt as he went. “My work here is done then.” He smiled happily as he opened his bedroom door.
“I hate you sometimes.”
“It’s the way of brothers.” Wesley closed his door with a snap, leaving the spare room with its lumpy mattress for his brother.
Chapter Four
Malinda didn’t get to sleep until the wee hours of the morning, and was surprised to see the sun was still so low in the sky when she dragged herself out of bed. She dressed quickly, knowing Ellen would have been up long before her because she was always at her best early in the mornings. She’d tried to be a morning person, but she didn’t have an easy time falling asleep, so she never seemed to get out of bed until someone came and rousted her.
She descended the stairs and poked around until she found her sister sitting in the kitchen casually talking to the cook she introduced as Alice. She shook her head. Only Ellen would get up at the crack of dawn to watch someone else fix her breakfast. She was surprised Ellen hadn’t forced the cook to sit down so she could fix breakfast for her. As soon as the thought entered her head, she was ashamed. Mornings put her in a bad mood, but that didn’t give her an excuse to have mean thoughts about someone who had only ever been good to her.
The entire time Malinda was eating her breakfast, Ellen tried to push her into making a fast decision. Malinda tried to explain why she wanted to wait, but Ellen obviously didn’t understand, and she couldn’t find the right words to get through to her. How could her sister honestly think she only cared about money when she made this decision?
After breakfast, she spent most of the day in her room, reading through one of the books she’d brought with her. She didn’t want to spend the entire day listening to Ellen’s lectures about how she needed to make a fast decision and how she was being unfair to the rest of them. They’d all agreed on a week, and she felt she had the right to use that week for the decision.
She dressed carefully for their first evening of really getting to know the men. Ellen told her Patrick was going to take them all to a restaurant, and neither of the sisters had ever eaten in one, so Malinda was ecstatic. She walked down the stairs when she heard the door open and watched Wesley’s face light up as he saw her. How could she have lived her entire life without knowing that sweet man was out there waiting for her?
Wesley took her shawl from her hands and wrapped it around her shoulders for her. It was July, but he’d told her the mountains were cool at night, and as they went outside, she could see he was right.
She and Wesley walked together a few steps behind Ellen and Patrick. She couldn’t hear what the other couple was saying and that suited her just fine. Ellen was probably complaining about her and how she wouldn’t make up her mind. “How was your day?” she asked Wesley.
He shrugged. “It was pretty quiet around here. I had something funny happen though, if you want to hear about it.” He glanced at her as he asked the question, obviously not wanting to bore her with the tedium of his job if she wasn’t interested.
She squeezed his arm a little tighter as they walked. “Of course I do. I want to hear about anything you want to tell me about.” Even if what he said wasn’t interesting, she just loved listening to his deep voice.
He smiled down at her, obviously pleased with her answer. “I was sitting in my office and a woman came in with her five year old son. He’d stolen a gumdrop from the mercantile when the owner wasn’t paying attention.” He grinned at the memory, his eyes now far away. “Well, the mother obviously wanted me to do something about it. So I picked him up and sat him on my desk. ‘Son?’ I asked him.
“He looked down at his feet, refusing to meet my eyes, but when he realized I wasn’t going to say anything else, he looked up at me. ‘What?’
“So I asked him ‘Do you know what you did was wrong?’
“He just shrugged, so I said, ‘Did you know it was wrong before you did it?’
“Tommy, that’s his name, said, ‘Sure I knew. I’m not an idjit.’”
Malinda laughed softly enjoying the story. She’d never thought of a sheriff as someone who would be good at telling stories, but she could see what Wesley talked about as he spoke.
“Well, then I asked, ‘You know what the penalty is for stealing, right?’
“That got him scared. He drew this really deep breath, like he was preparing for something terrible, and said, ‘Hangin’?’
“I had to hide a laugh at that. That little boy sat on my desk, thinking he was going to be hanged for stealing a gumdrop. ‘Nope,’ I said. ‘That’s just for horses. For a gumdrop, you have to spend five minutes in the city jail.’”
“You didn’t!” Malinda was horrified at the thought of a little boy sitting in jail, even if just for five minutes.
“I did. The mother’s face lit up, like I’d come up with just the perfect answer. I took him down from my desk and walked him over to the jail. I let him see the big ring I keep the key on, and I made it really dramatic as I unlocked it. I asked, ‘Do you want to hug your mother before you serve your time?’ and he ran to her crying and hugged her really tightly.
“I almost relented, until she looked at me with a slight nod, and I knew she wanted me to go through with it. ‘Come on now, Son,’ I told him. ‘You’ll have plenty of time for crying while you’re sitting in jail.’”
Malinda covered her giggle with her hand. “So you put him in jail? Please tell me there were no other prisoners in there?”
&nb
sp; Wesley nodded. “Of course not. I would have come up with another solution if there had been.” He tilted his hat forward on his head. “I put him in there and locked the door, and then his mother and I stepped outside. She thanked me for what I was doing, and said after he’d ‘served his time’ she’d take him back to the mercantile to apologize and make him pay for the gumdrop. Of course, she’s going to make him work it off when he gets home. Something about giving the dog a bath.”
Malinda grinned. “Better than getting into a gun fight with a criminal right?” She looked up at him, concerned for the first time about the violence of his job.
“Oh, definitely. We don’t really do gun fights around here, though. I sometimes have to throw someone in jail for a day or two for trying to jump a claim or public drunkenness. Other than that, it’s pretty quiet. My job is more about keeping anyone from robbing the bank than anything else.”
“That’s a relief.” She hated the idea of anything happening to him while he was at work. “I’m really happy to hear your job isn’t as dangerous as it sounds.” She already had such strong feelings for him. Would she be able to handle the death of someone else she loved?
He smiled down at her happily. “Does that mean you’re worried about me?”
She shrugged. “I wouldn’t say that. I just don’t want to have to go to a funeral. They’re depressing.” She watched him out of the corner of her eye to see if he realized she was just teasing.
He laughed. “Well, that puts me in my place doesn’t it?”
They’d reached the restaurant and once they were seated she reached for her menu. As she read it, she realized she’d never heard of anything on there. How was she supposed to decide what to eat? She didn’t want to look like a complete idiot, so she just closed her eyes and pointed. When the waiter asked her what she wanted, she pointed to the thing on the menu, something she really couldn’t pronounce.
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