by Amanda Boone
“Tank you,” Moya replied. “Elise didn’t tell me you vere coming.”
“She didn’t know. I wanted to surprise my former dance partner.”
Bridget looked over at Elise and was pleased to see that she still blushed in embarrassment. At least, that hadn’t changed about her.
“Let’s sit down,” Elise suggested as she sat on the center cushion on the couch.
Moya sank down on one side of her and laid his arm on the back of the couch behind her. Bridget sat on the opposite side, while Mike returned to his chair.
“So,” Mike said, “you didn’t know that I used to escort Elise to parties and such. I can tell by her red face.”
Bridget checked and saw that Elise was blushing again. To curb her brother’s teasing, she said, “Stop it, Mike. She’s engaged to be married to the man. You’re obviously embarrassing her, and you might be embarrassing him, too.”
“It’s all right, Miss Bridyet,” Moya replied with a chuckle. “I don’t embarrass easy.”
“Easily,” Elise inserted.
“I don’t embarrass easily,” Moya said, grinning down at her. “Alvays de teacher.”
At that moment, the door opened and in strode a young, blonde woman with disheveled hair and a messy dress. Bridget glanced at Elise, who appeared as though this was nothing out of the ordinary.
“Hi, Stina,” Elise said. “How was work today?”
“Tiring,” Stina replied with an accent, her gaze going from Bridget to Mike. “I guess you’re Bridget, but I’m afraid I don’t know your name.”
“Michael O’Riley,” he said, striding over to her. “And you are?”
“Stina Bengtson,” she replied with a shy smile.
“I’m please to meet you, Miss Bengtson.” He took her hand and bent over it to kiss it.
Bridget stared at him. He never acted like that unless he found a woman either charming or beautiful. This woman was neither. In fact, she looked like a street urchin.
Pulling her mind back to the present, Bridget stood and said, “Yes, it’s nice to meet you. You live here with Elise, right?”
“Ja, and I should go clean up and change for dinner. I saw Karin headed this way with Jared and Emily, Elise. They should be here soon.”
And Stina escaped into her room.
That young woman held a job, but it certainly wasn’t one of any substance, like working with the suffragist movement was. She was some sort of laborer. Curious, Bridget started to ask Elise what job she held, but Mike beat her to it.
“What kind of job does Stina have, Elise?” he asked curiously.
“For a while, she was going house to house to do men’s laundry,” Elise explained, “but they got together and built her a washhouse. Now they bring the laundry to her and pick it up after it’s been washed, dried and ironed. She actually does very well for herself, although one couldn’t tell by how she looks when she gets home from work. The men even bought her the latest gadgets to make the washing easier for her. And this house? When we moved in it was already furnished with the icebox and stove. They’re so starved for females here that they spoil the ladies they have.”
“What about Jared Coleman?” Bridget asked. “Does he have the same conveniences?”
“He has a stove, but not an icebox.”
“I see.” Bridget was a disappointed that she would be living in a house without the same conveniences that Elise had, but an icebox was something she could probably ask for and receive.
“They’ll be here any minute,” Elise announced. “Are you nervous about meeting him?”
“Actually, I’m not. I decided when you told me about him that, if you thought he was a good man for me, I would accept your opinion.”
Again the door opened, and an even younger blonde woman entered, followed immediately by a dark-haired child holding the woman’s hand and a pleasant-looking man, who removed his cowboy hat the moment he was inside.
His hair was dark, but not as dark as the little girl’s, and he was probably about five-feet-nine-inches tall. He had a nice head of hair, although he had a touch of a receding hairline. Not that Bridget cared that he was losing his hair. She’d just noticed it. And he had a pleasant smile when he looked over at her.
All of a sudden, those nerves Elise had been asking about exploded into action. Her body tensed. She was there to marry this man, but she didn’t even know him. What had she been thinking? Just because Elise thought they would make a good match didn’t mean they would. She needed to be wooed by a man; she needed to get to know him before she agreed to marry him. Granted, she wasn’t interested in love, but she certainly was interested in like. Right now, she didn’t even know if she would like him.
Chapter 4
Elise’s voice filtered through to her subconscious, and Bridget turned her stunned gaze to her friend’s face.
“I’m usually the one to go off into my own little world,” Elise teased. “Are you even going to say hello to Jared?”
Bridget stared at the male hand in front of her. Numbly, she reached out and shook it, saying, “How do you do?”
Mike’s rich laugh filled the house. “My sister has never been at a loss for words before.”
Glaring at him, Bridget said, “Stop it, Mike.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he replied in a teasing tone.
“I apologize for my brother, Mr. Coleman,” Bridget worded, turning her gaze to Jared. “Sometimes he teases me before he thinks of the ramifications. I hope he didn’t embarrass you.”
“Not at all,” Jared replied, still smiling. “In fact, I understand completely. My sister and I banter the same way when we’re together. I love your brogue, by the way. It reminds me of my grandmother.”
“Your grandmother was Irish?”
“Finola McLachlan,” Jared announced proudly. “You can’t get more Irish than that.”
“You certainly can’t,” Mike said. “I think that even beats Bridget O’Riley.”
Still angry at Mike, she glared at him again, hoping he would keep his mouth shut from now on.
To Bridget’s relief, the bedroom door opened, and Stina emerged, her long, pale blonde hair brushed and streaming down her back in luxurious waves. Her dress revealed some of her ample bosom, but not enough to be inappropriate. Instantly, Mike’s attention went to Stina, and he scrambled to his feet. Was Mike really that interested in such a young woman?
“As soon as the biscuits are done,” Elise announced, “dinner will be ready. Karin, would you help me set the table for all of these people?”
The dinner went well, with the conversation lively and cheerful. As Elise had told her, Emily was a lovely child, listening to whatever her father or Karin told her. At first, Bridget was confused by why Jared wanted a wife if he had Karin to take care of Emily. But as the dinner wore on, she realized that Karin was nothing more than Emily’s caretaker and Jared’s housekeeper.
Emily was eager to speak Swedish to Moya, who seemed to enjoy interacting with the child. He chatted with her about something only they and Elise apparently understood. Jared admitted that he wasn’t a very good student and had yet to learn much Swedish and claimed that he didn’t understand what they were talking about.
Jared asked Bridget about her childhood in Ireland and New York City. Much to Bridget’s surprise, he truly seemed interested in getting to know her better. In fact, he seemed particularly interested in her work with suffragist movement.
But Bridget spent a lot of time watching Mike and Stina interact. For the first time, she saw Mike really light up as he spoke with a woman. He’d always been a gentleman, but he’d never before spent so much time talking about her, rather than himself.
“Bridget?” Jared said.
She snapped out of her thoughts and turned toward him. “I’m sorry. I really don’t delve so deeply into my thoughts like I am tonight. I don’t know what’s gotten into me.”
“That’s all right, Bridget. I wondered if you might like to take a walk with me some
time tomorrow. I have to work, but I would love to spend more time with you. Karin will be at the house to watch Emily. Besides, we need private time if we want to get married.”
“Why don’t you walk her back to the hotel after dinner?” Mike suggested. “I’d like to stay here and learn more about Sweden from Stina. I’ll be along later.”
“Would you like that, Bridget?” Jared asked.
“I think I would. First, though, I want to clean the dishes. Elise cooked the meal, so it’s the least I can do.”
“I’ll help. Then we can get out of here sooner.”
***
When the dishes were washed, dried and put away, Bridget and Jared bid everybody good-bye and left the house.
“May I ask you a question?” Bridget asked, reluctant yet curious as to the answer.
“Of course” Jared replied. “What is it?”
“Elise has never been in love, but she says she loves Moya. That’s great if he’s going to treat her well. I’ve had a bad experience in love, and I just want to make sure that Elise isn’t headed toward the same humiliation as I had.”
“Moya is one of the most upstanding men I’ve ever met. He’s never even been to the bar or visited any of the prostitutes, despite their blatant attempts to seduce him. He doesn’t drink; he doesn’t smoke; he doesn’t even swear very much. He was the hardest worker on any of my crews.”
“Was?”
“He was hurt a while back—before he and Elise got engaged. He has very limited use of his left side and …”
Stunned, Bridget interrupted him. “Is that why he walks with a limp?”
“Yes. It was bad. A limb fell and hit him on the right side of his head. I don’t know why his left side is affected, but it’s made it so he can’t work.”
This concerned Bridget. Moya couldn’t work, so how was he supposed to support a wife? She didn’t want her surrogate sister to be hurt because he couldn’t be the husband he should be.
“Don’t worry about them, Bridget,” Jared said. “They’ve already discussed this. Elise knows exactly what she’s doing by marrying him. Now, why don’t we talk about our prospective marriage?”
Not knowing what to say, Bridget fell silent. Now that he’d met her, he still wanted to marry her. It suddenly made no sense. They were brought together by a mutual friend. This wasn’t love; it wasn’t even like. It was, however, ludicrous.
What was she thinking when she’d accepted Elise’s invitation to come to California? Was she really so desperate for a spouse that she would take somebody she didn’t even know? Then again, nobody had actually said that the marriage idea couldn’t be reversed. Either one of them could say no to a wedding. Maybe now that the anxiety had gripped her, she was overreacting to the situation.
“Are you okay, Bridget?” Jared asked. “Is it because I said something about the wedding?”
“I’m afraid so. We don’t know each other, Jared. How could I have possibly come here to marry a man I don’t know?”
“Is that why you came?” he asked.
Chapter 5
Bridget stopped short. When Elise had written asking her to come, she hadn’t hesitated. She had been ready for a change, ready to move on with her life away from New York. She had moved to escape. It was as simple as that.
The invitation had been nothing more than a means to an end. It had come at a time when her life had fallen apart, and she had taken advantage of the timing to accomplish her escape by using her father’s money to get her out of New York City.
Had she ever had any intention of marrying Jared? She had come up with the idea of starting a newspaper here on the spur of the moment when her father was asking what she would do here. It was exactly what she’d been considering for a long time, but she’d never thought it would be possible. Now it was a very real possibility, especially since Mike, who had always been writing about something, wanted to join her. He wanted to be a journalist, and she wanted to run a newspaper. Together they could do this because he’d saved a lot more money than Bridget had ever thought he could.
Bridget gazed up at Jared as she replied, “I honestly thought that was my reason, Jared. In my head, I kept telling myself that I don’t need love to marry a man—and that’s still true.” She paused for only a moment, not sure she should admit the truth. Deciding it was probably better if she did, she said, “I was engaged once, Jared. Did Elise tell you that?”
“No, she didn’t,” he admitted. “I assume the fact that you’re bringing it up is because you’re no longer engaged. What happened?”
She avoided his question, unsure she could voice the words. “It’s why I’m not interested in love, anyway, and it will explain why I came here with every intention of marrying you—if you would have me. I loved him dearly, more than I thought I could love anyone, but he humiliated me.”
“I’m sorry, Bridget,” he said as they stopped outside the hotel. “Do you want to tell me what happened? Don’t feel obligated, but it might help if you talk to somebody about it. And I’m a good listener.”
“I think I need to tell you, Jared. If you’re going to understand me, it’s a big part of my life, and it’s something that you should know. Can you keep it to yourself, though? I would hate for the information to get around town like it did in New York. All of my friends and family knew about it, and they all pitied me—all except for Mike, that is.”
“It must be something serious if you’re having so much trouble giving me the information.”
Glancing around, Bridget noticed several people milling around the hotel. The evening weather was very pleasant, and apparently, people didn’t want to be inside. Did she dare ask him to join him in her room? Would that give him the wrong impression?
“Would you like to go to my house and sit on the porch to talk about this?” he asked.
Glad that he had realized why she was so reluctant to talk in front of all these strangers, she agreed. “That would be better. Do you mind walking there in silence, though? I want to think of the best way to explain and to decide how much I should tell you.”
Linking his arm with hers, he led her down the street toward his house.
***
As they sat on the porch swing together, Bridget tucked one foot under the opposite thigh. Now neither of her feet touched the floor, but Jared gently rocked the swing back and forth with his foot.
“If Emily has a hard time sleeping,” Jared said, “I bring her out here and rock her. We’ve done that ever since we got here. To swing like this is quite soothing. I hope it will help you relax.”
“It does,” she replied. “Now, to tell you the truth. It’s happened to many other women, I’m sure, but I never dreamed it would happen to me. I believed everything Matthew told me, every single charming word. But they were all lies.”
“What did he say?”
“That I meant to world to him, that he would never need another woman other than me, that he would never leave me, no matter what.”
“So he must have left you if you’re no longer engaged.”
“No, but he did force me to leave him. He told me that it didn’t matter if I wanted to wait until we were married to have sex. He promised me that he could wait. But he didn’t.”
A scowl came to Jared’s face, and he asked, “Did he hurt you? Did he take you before you were ready?”
“No!” Bridget exclaimed. “I just found him in bed with another woman.”
Jared released an audible sigh. “Thank God, he didn’t assault you. That could have damaged you for a long time.”
“I loved him so much, Jared, with all my heart and soul. I still love him. I’m not sure I can ever stop. So, you see, I can’t love anybody else. I can like you, but love is probably out of the question.”
“I can’t tell you how happy I am to hear that.”
Startled, she stared at him. “Happy?”
“Of course.” Jared laid his hand on her shoulder and caressed it. “Bridget, do you think I haven’t had
the same feelings as you’ve had? When my wife died, I thought I would never be the same. I, too, thought I would never love anybody else. Over time, though, that feeling lessened. Don’t get me wrong, I still love Sarah, and like you, I always will. Nothing will ever change that, especially since she died giving me Emily.”
“You do understand.”
“I do. And like you, I’m not sure I can love you the way I loved Sarah. But I want a wife. I want Emily to grow up knowing that a man and woman can have a respectful relationship. We have a lot in common, Bridget, and I think we could build on that to have a good marriage.”
“I don’t know, Jared,” Bridget admitted, shaking her head. “Oh, I thought I did when I headed out here. I thought I did as late as dinner tonight. But on the way to the hotel, I realized that I might have made a huge mistake by agreeing to take a chance with you. I shouldn’t have agreed to something like this with anybody for that matter. And you have a child. What if our marriage isn’t good and it affects her?”
From the look of surprise on his face, Bridget could tell that Jared hadn’t thought of this. How could he not have? He had a daughter to care for. He needed to put her above everything else.
“I hadn’t thought of that, but I assure you that I would do everything possible to see that we have a wonderful marriage and that we would be good influences on Emily. Please, Bridget. I don’t want a woman from the bar to be Emily’s mother. She needs a strong female influence in her life. From everything Elise tells me, that’s you. From the talk I had with you tonight, when you told me about your involvement in the suffragist movement, that’s you. I have no qualms taking you as my wife.”
Bridget hesitated. Despite coming to Forestville with every intention of marrying Jared, his sweet daughter needed a woman in her life who could love her and care for her. From everything she saw at dinner, that appeared to be Karin.
But she did like Jared. She thought she could live with him if he gave her room to be her own person, if he didn’t expect her to dote on his daughter day and night, if he didn’t make her sleep in the same bed with him.
