She shrugged. “I feel like I should be sadder than I am, but I never really met him. We exchanged a couple of letters, and I was ready to be his wife, but I had no real feelings for him. I didn’t cry when I found out. I was numb, and worried for me, but not sad that he was gone, because he was a stranger.”
“Why did you decide to stay?” Cliff couldn’t keep himself from asking the question.
“I didn’t want to go home to a place where I wasn’t respected. I don’t think the people of Beckham will ever think of me as anything but a troublemaker—one of the demon horde. I don’t want that. I want to be seen as Ernestine Miller, entrepreneur.”
“And this boarding house is your business?” he asked.
She nodded. “I know I’m a good cook. It was this or a restaurant. I don’t have a restaurant, but I do have a big house, thanks to Bert leaving me this one.”
“I think you’d be a fabulous restauranteur, but I’m happy you’re running a boarding house. Gives my friend and I a place to stay. And I hope it gives me time to get to know you.” Cliff wondered what the best way to get her attention was, and decided he’d just blurt out what he was after. “I want to court you, Ernestine Miller.”
She looked at him with surprise. “You do?” No one had ever said that to her before.
He nodded. “Would that be acceptable to you?”
“Depends what you mean by courting.” She’d heard about men who thought courting meant sitting around kissing…and more. She wasn’t that type of girl, despite how wild and undisciplined she’d been in her youth. She hoped she wasn’t giving him the wrong impression.
“Well, I was thinking we could go for walks or buggy rides. I could accompany you to church on Sunday,” he said. He liked the idea of going to church with her the most. Then the other men would know to stay away.
She slowly nodded. “I think that would be fine then.” He leaned toward her, and she leaned away. “What are you doing?”
“I thought I’d kiss you, if that would be all right with you.” Had she never been kissed?
She shook her head. “It’s definitely not all right with me! Why, I barely know you!” She jumped to her feet. “You shouldn’t be trying to take liberties. If that’s what you mean by courting, then I’m not interested!” She rushed toward the door of the parlor.
Cliff shot to his feet, catching her arm. “I’m sorry, Ernie. I didn’t mean to offend you. If you don’t want to kiss that’s just fine. I just…well, I couldn’t quit looking at you and thinking about how pretty you are. I won’t try anything like that again.”
Ernie studied his face. “Do you promise?”
“I absolutely promise. I would never want to make you uncomfortable in any way.” Courting her was going to be a challenge, he could see. He’d manage though, and soon enough she’d be in love with him. He hoped. Because he was already helplessly in love with her.
“Well, I will allow you to court me, then. But I think I’m going to retire to my room for the night. I wouldn’t want you to get any ideas.”
He laughed. “Trust me, Ernie. I’ve had ideas since I first laid eyes on you. I’ll keep them all to myself, though.”
She didn’t know how to respond to that, so she stood looking at him for a moment. “Goodnight.”
Cliff watched her run off toward her bedroom. How was he going to get her to stop being so skittish around him? He knew that she liked Roscoe, but he couldn’t exactly buy her a goat every day. Maybe he could bring her some flowers. He’d have to walk out of town after work and find some. Yes, that was probably his best bet.
He was humming as he climbed the stairs to his room. He was courting Miss Ernie Miller, and he was going to marry her, whether she realized it yet or not.
*****
Ernie was just finishing up the breakfast dishes when she heard a knock at the front door. She hoped it was more boarders. She could use the extra money. Jake and Cliff would hardly be enough. She couldn’t even think about Cliff without blushing. He wanted to court her. Only two of her demon horde siblings had married at home, and they’d married others from their small school who thought the pranks were funny.
She opened the door wide to see Cliff standing on her doorstep with one hand behind his back. “You know you can just come in, don’t you?”
“I wanted to knock on your door like we were courting.”
She frowned. “We are courting.” Had the man been hitting the moonshine she heard one of the men in town was making and selling?
“Yes, but these flowers make it more official.” He pulled the flowers from behind his back and thrust them at her. It was a hodgepodge of wildflowers, colorful and pretty.
She smiled as she took them and raised them to her nose. “Thank you!”
“You’re very welcome!” He took her free hand and raised it to his lips, kissing the back of it gallantly before turning and leaving. “I’ll see you at lunch.”
She smiled as she shut the door behind her, sighing happily. He was trying to court her properly after all. She didn’t know where it would all lead, but she couldn’t complain at all. Taking down a glass from the cabinet, she filled it with water and added the wildflowers. She hadn’t yet found a vase in the house, if there was one.
She hurried back to her work, cleaning the bedrooms and the bathrooms before she went to the mercantile for more food. If she was going to be cooking three meals a day, she needed to have more supplies on hand to do so.
At the mercantile, she smiled sweetly at Mrs. Abbot, the wife of the owner. “It’s good to see you today, Mrs. Abbot.”
The older woman sniffed. “Good day, Miss Miller.”
Ernie couldn’t help but feel snubbed as she walked to the back of the store, picking out the foods she needed. More flour for certain, because the men ate bread as if they had never seen it before. Sugar, of course. More cakes.
As she put small items into the basket over her arm, she felt eyes on her, and she looked up. Mrs. Abbot was whispering with a lady she had yet to meet, and they were both watching her.
Ernie sighed. She hated being the object of gossip, but it had happened often enough in her life that she knew the only way to deal with it was to face it head on. She marched straight over to the older women. “What have I done that warrants your attention, ladies?”
The two women exchanged a glance. “You were seen sitting in your parlor alone with a man staying in your house last night,” Mrs. Abbot informed her.
“I’m running a boarding house. Men will stay there.”
“Can you honestly say there’s no romantic interest between you and the man in question?” the woman Ernie hadn’t met asked.
Ernie bit her lip. Did she lie? If she did, she’d be found out soon enough. “No, I can’t. But I can say that nothing inappropriate happened, nor would it.”
Mrs. Abbot shook her head. “I think you’ve made a grave error in judgment, Miss Miller. You’re staying in our beloved Bert’s home, and you are dishonoring him by flirting with another man right there in his parlor.”
Ernie felt her anger rising. “If I was a widow, would that be a problem?”
“Yes, it would!” Mrs. Abbot told her. “You have no right to entertain an unmarried man in your parlor.”
Ernie shook her head. “Are you suggesting I entertain a married man? Your husband for instance?” She knew her words were wrong, but she was angry. Why were they judging her?
“You should go back to wherever you came from,” the other woman said. “We don’t need women with loose morals in our town.”
“I do not have loose morals!” Ernie didn’t care that her voice was carrying. “How dare you accuse me? I’ve done nothing wrong!”
She heard the door of the mercantile slam closed, but she didn’t notice who was leaving. “I just need to buy my things and go.”
Mrs. Abbot frowned. “I don’t think we’re going to be able to sell you anything until you’re properly married. A woman like you sullies an entire town.”
“I’ve sullied nothing!” She upended her basket and dumped her purchases on the floor. She didn’t know what she’d do now, but she couldn’t stand there and be insulted for another minute. She could make do with the food she had at home for at least another day or two.
She walked out the door with her shopping basket over her arm, letting it slam behind her. Old harridans!
Chapter Four
Ernie hurried home, seething with anger. She’d done nothing wrong at all since she’d gotten to town, yet she was already being treated as a leper. That was inconceivable to her. She’d always been an outcast, but at least back home, she’d deserved it.
She slammed the front door behind her, and went into the kitchen. The need to get out some aggression overwhelmed her, so she’d bake some bread. The process of kneading the bread always helped her calm her anger.
The dough had already been mixed up and was rising, and she snatched it off the counter and viciously punched it down. She’d make dinner rolls, because that meant she could break off pieces and be a bit more violent with them. She imagined Mrs. Abbot’s head as she pinched off a piece of bread from the rest and formed it into a ball.
The back door opened, but she didn’t bother to look up. She was too mad, and she wasn’t ready to face Cliff. He was the one that had people talking about her, after all.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Go away. Apparently the two of us being alone in this house together is tarnishing Bert’s name.”
Cliff reached out a hand and wiped flour from her cheek with his thumb. “I don’t want people talking about you.”
“I don’t either! When I was a child and I did horrible things, people talked, and I didn’t like it…but deep down I knew I deserved it. I have done nothing wrong here! I’m just trying to make a living.”
He frowned. “Jake heard them at the mercantile this morning. It’s because you were seen alone with me.”
“But we didn’t do anything wrong! I didn’t even let you kiss me. People are talking about things they know nothing about! The mercantile won’t sell anything to me unless I marry. So I can either marry or go back to Massachusetts.” She shook her head, dashing away a tear as it escaped down her cheek. “It’s absolutely ridiculous.”
“Yes, it is. But that’s how life is for women in the West. You really shouldn’t be running this boarding house alone as an unmarried lady.” He loved that she was, but he knew it was adding to the gossip about her, and he didn’t want her hurt any more than she already had been.
“What else am I supposed to do?” She shook her head. She refused to go home, and that was the only other option she could think of.
“Marry me.”
“I don’t even know you, so don’t start that nonsense.”
“Ernie, stop mutilating that dough and hear me out.” Cliff’s voice was calm, and it urged her to stop being angry and calm down herself.
She looked down at the dough in her hands and realized she’d made several marble sized pieces that were good for nothing. She rolled them together and threw them back into the bowl, setting it beside the stove and covering it with a towel. She walked to the sink and washed her hands before turning to him. “What do you want to say?” There was no way he’d convince her to marry him. He was a stranger to her, and it was a ridiculous idea.
He grasped her hands in his. “You came here to marry a stranger. That stranger died. But to be a respectable woman in the West, you really need to be married, or doing something that doesn’t put you alone with men on a regular basis. Now I know you think the mere idea of marrying a stranger is ridiculous, and I’d agree with that, but you came here to do just that. Marry me instead. I’m less of a stranger now than Bert would have been when you got off the train. I wouldn’t have asked you to marry me this soon if not for people saying things, but…they are saying things, and I know I would have asked you before long. I think you’re pretty darn special, Miss Miller.”
She frowned, looking down at their joined hands. His hands were huge, and they enveloped hers completely. She felt tiny and protected with the way he was holding her hands. “Would you expect to share a room with me?” she asked, not sure if she wanted that or not, but certain that discussing it would stall her having to make a decision immediately.
He nodded. “I would. We could wait a few days to consummate, but I would need to share your room. I wouldn’t want Jake to realize there was anything wrong between us.”
She thought for a moment and nodded. It was better than going back home in shame, and he was right. She had come to Montana to marry a stranger. Maybe he wasn’t the stranger she’d planned to marry, but he seemed like a good man. She wished her sister was there, and there was time to investigate him, but there wasn’t. She would be out of food in a day or two. “I’ll marry you.”
He cupped her face in his hands, looking deeply into her eyes. “You won’t regret it. I’ll make you happy, I swear I will.”
The odd thing was she knew he was right. He would take good care of her. “When?”
“No time like the present. I saw the pastor going into the church before I came here. Let’s go.”
Ernie removed her apron. “I can’t get married with flour on my face. Am I clean?”
He reached out a hand and wiped away a small bit of flour from her cheek. “Now you’re clean.” He took her hand and tugged her toward the front door. “Let’s go get married.”
She sighed. “Marrying was not on my to-do list today.”
“Why not? Seems like a good way to pass the time to me.”
“You do know that marriage is forever, don’t you?”
Cliff grinned. “I do. So are children. I’ll marry you and we’ll have twenty kids. And we can raise them all here in this house.”
“Will I still be able to run the boarding house?” she asked. She’d just gotten used to having a business, and she wasn’t sure she was ready to give up that bit of independence yet.
“Do you want to?”
“I think I do. Would you mind?”
He shook his head. “When the children start coming, you’ll have to stop working so hard, but until then, I think it’s perfectly fine.”
“Thank you,” she said softly.
“For what?”
“For taking what I want into account. My friends from school are all married, and they complain that their husbands make all the decisions without even thinking about how they feel.”
Cliff shook his head as they reached the church. “I won’t do that to you. You’re too special to be without a voice.”
She laughed. “I don’t know where you get your ideas, Cliff, but I think I want you to keep believing that.”
“I’ll always believe it.” Cliff strode toward the front of the church where the pastor was practicing his sermon. “We’d like to marry, if you have some spare time.”
The pastor smiled, looking between them. “I heard earlier that you were causing a scandal right here in our town. Want to talk about that, Miss Miller?”
Ernie groaned softly. “I opened a boarding house, and I made the mistake of talking at night with one of the guests. I should have known better, and I will forever repent of my bad behavior.” It was all she could do not to roll her eyes at the pastor.
Thankfully the man of God had a sense of humor, and his laughter boomed through the church. “I’m less worried about your indiscretion— if it can be called that—than I am about the women who are talking about you. How do they reconcile gossiping with calling themselves women of God? With judging you so harshly? I’ll never know, but I will marry you.” He looked around. “You didn’t bring any witnesses?”
Ernie shook her head. “I never even considered it.”
“No matter. I’ll go pluck a couple of innocent bystanders off the street. Excuse me one moment, would you?” The pastor excused himself and came back less than a minute later with two men. During his absence, Ernie hadn’t dared to look at Cliff.
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br /> The ceremony was short and sweet, which seemed to be the pastor’s style. When he’d pronounced them man and wife, he said to Cliff, “If you don’t kiss her, I will.”
Cliff laughed, grabbing her to him and kissing her for the first time. His lips brushed against hers sweetly.
Ernie felt her heart beating faster at the quick brush of his lips against hers. Just when she thought she was starting to enjoy it, it was all over and he was speaking with the pastor. “I guess we’ll see you on Sunday. Thanks, Pastor.”
The older man lifted his hand in a goodbye. “Just make sure you’re good to each other. I always hate marrying people. I don’t mind funerals, because I know how those will turn out. Weddings scare me, though. I never know if people are going to stay together or treat one another poorly. I want my couples to live happily ever after and have many children.”
Ernie blushed. “We’ll do our best, Pastor.”
The pastor threw back his head for another booming laugh. “See that you do!”
Cliff led her back across the street to her boarding house. “It’s not even lunchtime. I should get back to work.”
Ernie frowned at him. “Just like that, huh? You marry me and hurry back to work?”
“Did you have something else in mind?” he asked, surprised at her protest.
She nodded, crooking her finger at him. “Come here, Mr. Solomon.”
“Anything you say, Mrs. Solomon.” He stood in front of her, gazing down at her. He hadn’t woken up planning to marry today, but he’d sure grabbed the brass ring—or the wedding ring—with both hands when it had presented itself.
“I want a kiss. A real kiss, not the kind you gave me with the pastor and those two men watching. Who were they anyway?”
“No idea. But I’m happy to kiss you anyway.”
She bunched her hands in the front of his shirt and pulled him down to her, pressing her lips to his. After that, she had no idea what to do next, so she waited…but she didn’t have to wait long. He wrapped his arms around her and took control of his kiss, his lips parting hers, and his tongue going to meet her own.
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