Luke's Mail Order Bride

by Lily Wilspur

  “What do you think?” Luke asked when they came in sight of the cottage.

  Kathy stopped in the yard and surveyed the house. “I love it. It’s absolutely magical. Did you build it?”

  Luke nodded. “Me and Max. It isn’t much on the inside, but it’s comfortable and very warm in the winter. When you light the fire during the day, the stones heat up and give their heat back during the night, so you wake up in the morning and the house is still warm. You look outside and the ground is covered with snow, but the house is still toasty warm. It’s nice.”

  “It sounds wonderful,” Kathy exclaimed.

  “You think it’s wonderful now because you haven’t lived here before,” Luke pointed out. “After a few winters, you won’t be so delighted about it.”

  “I think I’ll still like it,” Kathy replied.

  “And as for being married,” Luke continued. “You might not be so delighted about that in a few years, either.”

  Kathy cocked her head at him. “I suppose everyone goes through that. Anyway, I’m married now, so I’m stuck with it, aren’t I? And you’re stuck with me.”

  “That’s the general idea,” Luke agreed.

  Kathy smiled and went back to admiring the house.

  Luke observed her in silence. “I haven’t forgotten, you know.”

  “Forgotten what?” Kathy asked.

  Luke snorted. “But I can see that you have.”

  Kathy knit her brow. “Forgotten what?”

  Instead of answering, Luke took a few hesitating steps toward her. Then she remembered. “We were in the middle of something,” Luke told her. “When we were interrupted by affairs of state.”

  “Affairs of state!” Kathy teased. “Hardly!”

  “Still,” Luke replied. “We were in the middle of something, and if you don’t have any objection, I wouldn’t mind returning to it.” He lowered his face to hers and his lips touched her mouth with the weight of a butterfly landing on a flower.

  Kathy felt his hand nestling into hers, and they drifted toward each other. Their bodies inclined closer and closer together, until only the thin film of their clothes separated them. And still their lips lingered in mutual delicacy, sampling and savoring their essence for the first time.

  “What if Adelaide comes back?” Kathy whispered.

  “Let her come,” Luke replied. But he eased back ever so slightly. “I guess that’s just something people learn when they have children.”

  Sure enough, Adelaide chose that moment to come back. The dog yapped at her heels, and the flush of childhood joy bloomed on her cheeks. Kathy envied her delusion of contentment. Luke was right. Let her maintain it as long as she could. Why crush her with sadness sooner than necessary?

  Kathy and Luke went into the house, and Luke showed Kathy around the one big main room and the little bedroom off the back. A long wide bench sat indented in the front wall under the window. A bent willow rocking chair and settee sat before the fire.

  The sun dropping low in the western sky stole the warmth from the air, and the smell of night crept over the land. Kathy turned her attention to raking up the fire and getting supper ready.

  She’d just finished putting supper on the table when she looked around and noticed Adelaide sitting on the window seat. The girl gazed out at the deepening twilight. She sat very still and quiet.

  Kathy wiped her hands on her apron. She glanced around and didn’t see Luke. Was it her place to approach the girl? She understood now why the townspeople all vanished after the gunfight. They didn’t want to tread on the family’s sacred grief.

  But there was no one else. There wouldn’t be a better time to broach the subject than now, and wherever Luke was, he wasn’t here. She sat down on the window seat.

  “I really like your name,” Kathy began. “Do you know where it comes from?”

  “It’s the name of a queen in Europe.” Adelaide didn’t turn away from the window. Her voice rang flat and hollow in the quiet cottage. “I can’t remember which country she’s from. Maybe England. Mama told me, but I can’t remember.”

  “I like that,” Kathy replied. “It must be nice to be named after a queen.”

  Adelaide continued to stare at nothing outside the window. “They’re gone, aren’t they? They’re gone, and they aren’t coming back.”

  Kathy hesitated. “That’s right.”

  “And I’m alone,” Adelaide declared. “This morning I had a family, and now I don’t have one anymore.”

  “You still have a family,” Kathy replied. “You have Luke and me. I know it’s not the same as having your mama and your papa. No one can ever replace them. But you aren’t alone. And you have to remember that Luke has lost his mama and papa, too. He’ll be just as sad as you. So you aren’t going through this alone.”

  Adelaide sighed. “I guess so.”

  “Are you ready for supper?” Kathy asked. “I understand if you aren’t really in the mood for it.”

  Adelaide’s head drooped and she looked down at her hands in her lap. Kathy peered at her, trying to catch her expression, until she noticed tears falling into Adelaide’s lap. Kathy laid her hand on the girl’s shoulder.

  “It’s all right, darling,” she murmured. “It’s okay to be sad about it, and it’s okay to cry.”

  Adelaide broke down then, moaning and sobbing. Kathy enfolded her in her arms and hugged her against her chest. She rocked the girl like a baby, and she breathed with relief when Adelaide wrapped her slender little arms around her chest and hugged her back. Kathy could understand this crying and mourning. The happy laughing and playing with her dog, pretending the tragedy hadn’t happened, worried Kathy. Better to get the pain out in the open.

  She only wished Luke was here. He needed to grieve the loss of his family as much as Adelaide. If they could do it together, if they could see each other grieving and give each other permission to grieve, so much the better.

  Chapter 13

  After Adelaide shed all her tears, Kathy laid her on the window seat and wrapped her up in blankets. She hadn’t eaten anything since earlier in the day, but Kathy didn’t worry about that. A little loss of appetite was normal under the circumstances. Maybe she’d wake up feeling better in the morning.

  She looked outside, but didn’t see anything of Luke. It was too dark to see anything, anyways. She went inside and ate a plate of supper by herself. Come to think of it, she quite enjoyed a few moments alone since her rush of activity after getting off the train. With Adelaide around, she probably wouldn’t get much time alone. It wasn’t the mail-order marriage she anticipated.

  She’d walked into a ready-made family, and now, with the loss of Max and Annabel, she’d wound up with a child to boot. Would she and Luke ever have any time to get to know each other the way married couples usually did before their first child came along?

  She shut the door and closed the shutters on the window. The heat of the fire filled the little cottage with a sleepy glow. She sat in the rocking chair for a while, waiting for Luke to come back from wherever he was. But then a little noise caught her attention, and she peeked into the bedroom. There was Luke, sitting on the edge of the bed.

  He wiped his face on the cuff of his sleeve but he couldn’t stop himself from sobbing. Kathy sat down on the bed next to him and patted him on the back.

  “Don’t pay any attention to me,” he muttered. “I’ll just clean myself up and go out to supper. I know you just worked to make it, so the least I can do is eat it.” He burst into another flood of sobs.

  “Don’t worry about supper,” Kathy replied. “Adelaide didn’t eat anything, either. It’s a normal reaction when you’ve suffered a shock like this.”

  “No.” He wiped his face again, but the tears still fell. “There’s no excuse for it. A man needs his meals. Gotta keep goin’. I have work to do tomorrow morning, and now that Max is gone, I’ll be doing it all myself. Holy smokes! I don’t look forward to that.”

  “I don’t think you’ll be d
oing much work with your arm like this,” Kathy pointed out. “You might want to lie quiet for a day or two, at least. And Adelaide needs you, too. She needs to see that you feel the same grief she does. You shouldn’t hide your feelings from her—or me. If anyone should see you like this, it’s me. I’m your wife.”

  “Wife!” Luke guffawed. “You mean, I have a wife? Heaven help me! What’s this nasty trick someone’s played on me?”

  “It’s no trick,” Kathy assured him. “We’re married.”

  “Oh,” Luke replied. “I thought maybe this was another one of Max’s practical jokes. Well, I guess it can’t be, because he’s gone, and I’ll never have any more of those jokes again.” He collapsed into tears. Kathy put her arms around him, and he buried his head in her breast and gave vent to his grief just as Adelaide did.

  Pretty soon, he sat up and wiped the last of his tears off his face. “I’m okay now.” He snorted. “I’ll just get some sleep, and I’ll be fine in the morning.”

  “Do you want me to bring you a plate of supper in here?” Kathy asked. “Adelaide’s asleep on the window seat.”

  “What about you?” Luke asked. “Are you having any?”

  “I already ate,” Kathy told him. “I thought you were outside somewhere. I looked around for you. I didn’t know you were in here the whole time.”

  “If you already ate,” Luke replied. “I think I’ll skip it. I’m not hungry. I’m sorry you went to all the trouble of making it when neither of us is eating. It’s not the way to treat you on your first night here.”

  “I don’t mind,” Kathy assured him. “I expected something like this. You’ve both had a terrible shock.”

  Luke snorted again. “I heard you out there with her. I heard what you said to her.”

  “Why, you little sneak!” Kathy teased. “Eavesdropping on our conversation!”

  Luke turned to her, but didn’t smile at her attempt to joke. “You’re really good with her. She needs a woman like you.”

  “Right now, she needs just about anyone who will care about her,” Kathy told him. “She’s going to need a lot of love and reassurance from now on.”

  “I know,” Luke replied. “But she seems to have formed a bond with you. She’ll need that to take the place of Annabel.”

  “I don’t want to take the place of Annabel,” Kathy maintained.

  “I know,” Luke replied. “I’m not suggesting that you do. I’m just saying it’s good that she has you to help her. I know this isn’t exactly what either of us had in mind when we agreed to get married.”

  “It’s all right,” Kathy told him. “We all just have to deal with the situation. None of us wanted this, and we’ll just have to get used to it and live with it. Of the three of us, I’m the least bothered by this situation. You and Adelaide have a much worse problem to deal with.”

  Luke reached up and traced the contour of her cheek with the back of his finger. “You’re good. I’m lucky to have you.”

  “And I’m lucky to have you,” Kathy replied.

  They both breathed together in the silent house. Luke leaned forward and kissed her delicately. Then the kiss lengthened, and their lips somehow stayed together in a soft embrace.

  When Luke pulled back, his eyes sparkled just inches from Kathy’s face in the shadows of the bedroom. “We might not get very many chances like this to be alone together.”

  “I was just thinking the same thing,” Kathy told him. “We just got married, and all of a sudden, we have a child.”

  “At least we don’t have a newborn baby,” Luke replied. “Then we definitely wouldn’t be spending any time alone.”

  “No?” Kathy asked. “I don’t know. I’ve never had one.”

  “I was around when Adelaide was a baby,” Luke replied. “I can tell you, it’s no picnic. We should be grateful we have a nine-year-old. She can go off and entertain herself, and she’ll sleep by herself all night. That will give us a little bit of time to ourselves.”

  “We have some time now,” Kathy pointed out.

  “I know.” Luke’s lips landed on Kathy’s again, longer this time, and his hands reached out and found their way around her waist. He pulled her against him, and their breath came stronger and heavier with meaning and understanding. The intoxication of being so close to him, of their bodies combining at long last, made Kathy’s head spin.

  They paused again, their breath panting fuller and deeper. “It’s not so bad, is it?”

  “What?” he asked.

  “Having a baby,” Kathy explained. “It’s not so bad, is it?”

  “No,” he replied. “It’s wonderful. Would you like to try it?”

  “I think I would.”

  Luke kissed her again and they fell back together on the bed.

  The End

  Copyright

  © 2014 by Lily Wilspur

  All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced in any format, by any means, electronic or otherwise, without prior consent from the copyright owner and publisher of this book.

  This is a work of fiction. All characters, names, places and events are the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously.

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