The Wedding Kiss

by Hannah Alexander

  Elam just shook his head and removed Moondance’s bridle as Keara ladled the oats into the trough.

  “Did you get any more answers from Susanna while I was gone?” He ran a curry comb over Moondance’s haunches.

  “She was waiting for you to return so she could tell us all she knows.”

  “Good. At least she finally trusts us. Maybe we can help.”

  “She always trusted you. I was the problem.”

  “Obviously, you’ve proven yourself to her since Monday.”

  Keara grabbed a brush and started to work on Moondance’s haunches. Elam took the brush away from her and gently eased her aside. He allowed his hands to rest on her arms as he looked down into her face and enjoyed the curve of her chin, the surprise in her eyes, and the slight dimple on her cheek when her face flushed once more.

  “Sometimes, all a lovely lady needs to do is stand there and look lovely,” he told her. “You’re not a servant on this ranch, Keara, you’re the lady of the house. Don’t feel you must always be busy serving others.”

  “But what could it hurt if it helps get you to the dinner table faster?”

  Elam chuckled and turned back to the horse. “I’ll work quickly.”

  “You and the marshal were in some pretty deep talk before you left. How far did you go with him and his prisoner?”

  “Far enough to keep a horse from breaking a leg near the caves or bolting when the train came through Butler Hollow.”

  “You could have simply warned him before they left.”

  “I’m still trying to figure the man out. I wanted to observe him a little longer, see how he interacted with Timothy.”

  “What did you find out?”

  “He didn’t mistreat him while I was with them.”

  “I didn’t see any other marks besides the bullet wound,” Keara said.

  “Frey insisted his prisoner isn’t headed for the gallows, that this trip to Cassville is just a warning. I’m not sure I believe him.” Elam explained what the marshal had told him about being a friend of Timothy’s father and wishing to keep Timothy from riding with the gang.

  “I may not know any outlaws,” Keara said, “but I’d bet my horse that Timothy Skerit isn’t riding with any outlaw gang. He told me he wasn’t, and I believe him.”

  “You actually got a coherent word out of him?”

  “Enough that I could understand that much. So you think the marshal intends to hurt Timothy, even after assuring you he wouldn’t?”

  “I don’t trust anything he says.”

  “He seems convinced Susanna’s here.”

  “He knows we’re related.” Elam tamped the dust and hair from the curry comb against the railing. He glanced at Keara. “Simple logic led him here. That’s why I think he’ll be back around. We need to find out all we can about him from Susanna tonight. Is she thinking more clearly now?”

  “I believe so, but that bump on the head still bothers me. Those can be tricky.”

  “You’ve read up on the trephining procedure she told you about?” He placed the curry comb and brush in their cabinet and reached into Duchess’s stall to caress her soft nose.

  “Yes, but it’s been a couple of days. Let’s pray that isn’t necessary.”

  “While we’re at it, we should pray that Frey is telling the truth about his destination. If he’s going to Cassville, he shouldn’t be back this way until at least Friday.”

  “We should take no chances with Susanna. I’ll keep her in the house.”

  Elam narrowed his eyes into the same darkness Keara had been watching in the far reaches of the barn. “I say we take no chances with you or the children either. He told me Susanna shot at him, admitted he shot back. He tried to convince me she’s dangerous.”

  “She told me herself that she shot at him,” Keara said. “But she’d have killed him if she’d meant to.”

  “I guess we’ll hear all about it tonight, won’t we?”

  Keara straightened Moondance’s bridle on its post. She adjusted the saddle and spread the horse blanket out to air.

  “Time for you to get out of the barn before you mess up that pretty dress,” Elam told her.

  He caught the edge of her smile as she turned away, and something urged him to venture a little more. “My mother always said that it’s the wearer that makes the dress pretty.”

  She didn’t stop, but he heard a whisper of a chuckle as she left the barn. He turned back to his work and wondered how Keara’s very presence here could make the worries of the day less burdensome. And he wondered how long she’d had that effect on him without his even knowing it.

  That evening, Keara carried Susanna’s supper up to her, just a small plate with a few bites of each dish she’d prepared.

  Susanna went for the bread pudding first.

  Keara smiled. “Your sister used to do the same thing. Dessert first. I’d ask you to join us downstairs at the table, but I don’t think you should tackle the stairs again until you’re stronger.”

  “Plus you’re afraid that snoopy marshal may have trailed Elam back to the house.” Susanna took two bites of the pudding. “Delicious. Gloria never made anything like this. Your recipe?”

  “Yes. About the snoopy marshal—”

  “He’s a strange one.” Susanna put her fork down, and a cloud seemed to dim her sunny blue eyes.

  “Eat your dinner and I’ll bring Elam up with me later. The three of us may be able to put our heads together and figure out what to do.”

  “More bread pudding?” Susanna asked.

  Keara grinned. “Of course.”

  Susanna poked at the chicken with her fork. “Gloria’s recipe?”

  Keara nodded. “It was a family favorite.”

  “Our mother always was a good cook. She passed her skills down to Gloria.” She looked up at Keara. “I observed you with the children when you didn’t know I was watching and listening.”

  “You were eavesdropping.”

  “I was in no eave, I was lying on the sofa, simply listening with my eyes closed. I’ve had to do that a lot since I lost Nathaniel.” She paused. “It’s hard to sleep when you’re on the run, listening with your eyes closed. Actually, both of us were watching our backs before he was killed.” She swallowed. “We didn’t watch closely enough.”

  “Don’t ruin your appetite. You’re not alone now, Susanna. We’ll talk about this later. I’ll bring you more bread pudding.” Keara turned to leave.

  “Keara,” Susanna said, and waited until Keara had turned back. “You’re a kind person.” Her voice had softened further, as had her eyes. “I can imagine no woman I’d trust more with my niece and nephews.”

  The admission surprised Keara. She moved closer to the bed. “I can’t teach them the things Gloria would have wanted them to know.”

  “Dining with kings and queens and presidents?” Susanna said dryly. “As if that’s so important. Those people are just people like you and me. Most of them take themselves too seriously, and they call that culture or refinement. I call it silliness.”

  That statement surprised Keara into laughter.

  “Just so you know,” Susanna continued, “physicians do not make a great income, so don’t encourage the children to follow in their auntie’s footsteps for that reason.”

  “I don’t believe you entered the profession for the love of money,” Keara said.

  Susanna shook her head then winced as if the movement jarred her shoulder. “Most doctors struggle to make a living, and women in the profession are few because they aren’t taken seriously. The reason Nathaniel and I did well was we weren’t picky about who we treated, and Nathaniel’s portion of family wealth was enough to support us the rest of our lives, and several more lives, besides. When his father died last year, we received his portion. Combined with my own inheritance from my aunt June, I am now left with enough extra income to support a small independent state, but what good will that do me if I’m dead?”

  “So why did you choose t
o become a doctor?” Keara asked.

  “I could say it was because it was the first time I had the courage to flout Aunt June’s rules, but that was only part of the reason.”

  “You didn’t really want to become a doctor?”

  “Oh yes. I was always interested in medicine, but my parents sent me to live with Aunt June so I would have the advantages of proper society and an education that my other siblings never had. What that really meant was that they wanted me to marry well and become a part of the social elite. But that was Gloria’s dream, not mine.”

  “Was your aunt angry that you chose medicine?”

  Susanna nibbled on a corner of the small square of cornbread. She chewed it as if tasting it thoroughly then swallowed. “No. My parents were upset, but June surprised me. I lived with her all those years, afraid to offend, and when I finally did something I was sure would infuriate her, I think I earned her respect. When I met Nathaniel in medical school my whole family was pleased. Nathaniel, of course, earned his father’s ire for his choice of profession, but not enough to disinherit him.”

  “Your aunt sounds like you.”

  Susanna stuck her fork into the remaining bread pudding. “You think so? I always thought Gloria would have become most like June. Maybe that’s why our mother didn’t send Gloria to live with June. Gloria already had plenty of backbone. June and I became dear friends until her death two years ago.”

  “Why don’t I bring that pudding now,” Keara suggested. “I made plenty.”

  Susanna smiled up at her. She was a different person from the frightened and suspicious woman Keara and Elam discovered on their front porch Monday night. She motioned Keara out the door. “I think that whiskey you gave me this afternoon is loosening my tongue. I’ll take that pudding after the children have gone to bed. And then you and Elam and I can have a talk.”

  Seventeen

  Elam leaned against the door verge of Rolfe’s bedroom, arms crossed over his chest. The three children were bunking here for the night.

  Britte had spread her pallet beside the crib in case Cash should awaken. It was one of the multiple things her auntie Pen had told her to do. How had the children managed to have any fun at all with Penelope filling their heads full of matchmaking tips?

  He couldn’t help wondering what else Penelope had said to the children to “help his marriage along.”

  He couldn’t stop watching Keara now, with the children, as she told them about a princess and a knight. There were no wicked step-mothers mentioned in this story. In fact, she had no book. She was either making this story up or had memorized it.

  She had Britte and Rolfe totally engrossed, and the softness of her voice lulled Cash to sleep. Elam realized she had him engrossed, as well, with her tender behavior toward his children.

  He’d come far these past few months of the new century. After Gloria’s death, he’d spent a long time trying to deny his anger with God. At Christmas, he’d finally given in to it, mostly with silence, but he’d raged at God a few times when he was out in the pasture checking on the cattle. Moondance had borne silent witness to those rages.

  Only once had God used human intervention to defend Himself. Keara’s intervention. It was New Year’s Day, sunny and mild, with the sound of birdsong competing with the rush of White River.

  Elam had even raged at that. What right did the world have to sunshine in January when Gloria would never see this sunshine again? When her children would never see her again?

  “She was only a loan.”

  The voice had startled him mid-rant. It was feminine. Timid. He turned to find Keara standing several yards away with a basket of cracklin’ cornbread and ham. For the first time he could remember, he was too surprised to speak.

  “God placed her on loan to us for as long as He felt she should stay.” Keara stepped closer, holding out the basket to Elam. “Who are we to complain, when she was His to loan to us in the first place?”

  He took the basket. The food was still warm from the oven. He’d missed the New Year’s meal with his family because he couldn’t face Gloria’s empty chair. And for the first time, with Keara standing there watching him with sad eyes, God whispered in his ear that not only had Britte, Rolfe, and Cash lost their mother, but because of Elam’s actions, stalking off into the field every time he was angry with God, they’d lost part of their father as well.

  If not for Keara, they’d have no one.

  “A loan, you say.”

  Tears filled Keara’s eyes. She nodded. “That’s how I’ve had to look at it, or I’d be lost in my grief. I have to tell myself she is living in the presence of true Light, not just our piddling old sunlight.”

  Because of Keara, the children had been given Christmas gifts and homemade candy and had heard the Christmas story read from the Bible while all Elam could feel was bitterness.

  “Nothing’s for sure on this earth,” she said as she turned and gazed around the winter pasture then reached up and scratched Moondance’s ears. “God never promised us an easy time of it here. In fact, He promised troubles. We just weren’t ready for this one.”

  Her words, spoken at just the right time for Elam, began to change his heart over the following weeks. And it was still changing. He’d never have imagined how much.

  By the time Keara finished her story to the children, Rolfe was snoring softly. She turned to look up at Elam with a smile. “Knights and princesses. Fit for both boys and girls.”

  “I noticed Rolfe fell asleep during the kissing scene.”

  Keara stepped over Britte on the pallet and joined him at the doorway. “I promised Susanna more dessert, and it’s warming in the oven. Why don’t we see if we can finally clear up all the mystery?”

  Elam picked up the flickering oil lamp and closed the door on the sleeping children. He turned to follow in Keara’s wake, enjoying the scent of fresh air, spice, and tea leaves that was her own, which mingled with the heavy scent of the lamp oil.

  “Did you make up that story?” he asked.

  She nodded without turning. “A long time ago, I used to make up stories to keep the boys quiet while my mother rested. They always wanted stories of knights and conquest, but I wanted to pretend I was a princess who lived in a castle. So I combined everything together.”

  He smiled, shaking his head. “You tame horses and little boys, and you can cook and doctor humans and animals back to health.”

  “I don’t think I ever did tame my little brothers.”

  “Of course you did. They’re mature young men who have set out to take on the world.”

  “I’m just glad the world hasn’t sent them back with their tails between their legs.”

  He caught up with her and touched her shoulder, holding the lantern high as he enjoyed the flicker of golden lights and enhancing shadows that played over her face when she looked up at him. “Is there anything you can’t do?”

  His own boldness surprised him. He never would have spoken to her so personally like this before their wedding.

  Or perhaps he would have been just as bold, but he would have meant his words in a different way. As a friend to a friend. Now he couldn’t even look at her past the frame of Monday’s wedding.

  She returned his gaze for a long moment, as if she also enjoyed the lines of his face and the words that came from his lips. Then color deepened on her cheeks, and her chin dimpled as she grinned.

  “Well, I’ve never been much good at fashion or flirting.” She chuckled and turned to walk ahead of him down the stairs. “I’ve only worn a corset once, and that was on my wedding day, and I don’t plan to do that again. It’s no wonder women of fashion always seem to faint so easily.” She raised her hand to her cheek with a mock gasp. “And of course for me to even mention the word corset to a man—even my own husband—is simply outrageous. It’s a wonder the Age of Victoria hasn’t killed us all.”

  He laughed as he followed her down to light her way. That was another one of her talents. She could make hi
m smile when he’d decided there was nothing to smile about. And she could speak her mind when she felt comfortable with a person. That was one thing she had in common with Gloria.

  How could two women be such opposites in appearance, yet both draw his attention with such underlying power?

  Keara preceded Elam back up the stairs, surprised she hadn’t dropped the dish of bread pudding. The way he’d been watching her tonight—the way he’d watched her ever since he’d arrived back home from his ride with the marshal and Timothy Skerit—made her clumsier than she’d been the day of the wedding. Until tonight, his every touch had brought heat to her skin. Tonight, however, he didn’t have to touch her to make her skin feel warm.

  To make all of her feel warm.

  She opened Britte’s bedroom door and stepped in ahead of Elam, holding the unbroken dish of warm bread pudding in her hands. The sight of her patient cooled all the heat.

  Susanna looked pale, with dark circles under her eyes. Her hair appeared more stringy and matted than it had just an hour ago—as if she’d been trying to find a comfortable position to sleep, with little success. The lines around her eyes and mouth were tight.

  “Your fever back?” Keara touched her fingertips to Susanna’s forehead.

  “No, I’m just hurting.”

  Keara reached for the whiskey-laced willow bark tea Elam had carried up for her. “Drink this before you eat the pudding so it’ll start working on you faster.” She sat on the side of the bed, easing down gently so she wouldn’t disturb Susanna’s shoulder.

  The blue eyes, so like Gloria’s, remained dull. “You’re going to get me drunk again today? Wasn’t once enough?”

  “You’re still hurting.”

  “You want me to tell you everything, don’t you?” She was obviously trying to be funny, but she didn’t sound strong enough to carry it off.

  “If that’s what it takes.” Keara held the cup to her patient’s lips.

  Susanna took the cup in her good hand and thanked Keara then sipped. She wrinkled her nose. “I hate whiskey.”

  “But you love how it relieves your pain.”