When she stood in the middle of the homestead cabin and surveyed it now, it seemed little more than a hovel. It seemed like something from a time in her life long since passed. It was like her life with Frank hadn’t really happened, or that it had all been some kind of dream that she now couldn't quite remember during the day time. She tried to hold on to the memories, though. While Ted spent time gallivanting around the woods Lisa spent more time than she would have ever felt comfortable admitting to Ted, at the homestead. But she always left in a more sullen mood than when she arrived. It was just hard. Lisa didn't understand the hurt that assailed her heart.
Even though she had slept with Ted while being married to Frank, she'd still loved Frank and wanted to carry on the life that they'd built together. It wasn't that she'd lost faith in Frank, or in their marriage. Looking back now her reasons for cheating seemed almost petty. Frank had been a good lover. It was only when he decided to be selfish that she grew really upset with him.
Frank had also believed in her, that she could do anything, and the fact that she was a woman never contributed in a negative way to his thoughts. It just didn't matter to him at all. She was who she was to Frank - or had been to him. Frank had looked at the world as being against the two of them. He never would have conceived it possible that she would cheat on him with a very well to do shop owner in town when she rode there that day.
Lisa couldn't help blame herself for what happened. Would the Indian have come to the house if she wouldn't have spent so much time with Ted? She knew that all that wondering made no sense but she did it anyway, everyday. She had a hard time seeing past the situation for what it really was, a tragedy that most likely would have happened in the near future if it didn't come to a head that day. But Lisa didn't like to think of it in those terms because it made her feel helpless. She liked to think she had more control over the world than that, even though it wasn't true.
Maybe she just liked the illusion of having some kind of control over the world, or the idea that her actions mattered. Whatever it was exactly Lisa wasn't sure but she knew that she had a sea of regret in her, along with shame, and everyday it tried to drowned her. She would have looked to Ted for support and solace in those early days but it was tough because he was always gone running around after phantom Indians in the hills surrounding the town. When she tried to point out to him that most likely the Indian was a lone person, and not part of some larger group, he just shook his head and said that it didn't really matter one way or the other. What mattered is what people wanted to believe, and most of the townspeople were terrified at the idea that there was some kind of horde of Indians lurking out in the shadows, waiting to kick in their doors and shoot them until they died.
Ted was in a strange spot and Lisa did her best to appreciate that. She thought about it often, how strange it must be for him to have an affair with a woman and then have that very woman come back into his life with a strange tale of an Indian killing her husband; a tale that ended up stirring the townspeople up into a frenzy. It made her wonder if there was a God and if he was up there what kind of design he had for her.
What kind of God had creatures like Indians in the world who stalked her for months and months and finally kicked in the door of the homestead and killed her husband? None of it made any sense when she thought about it with the idea in mind that there was supposed to be some kind of higher power involved in all of this. Lisa had always thought of God as some kind of infallible thing that was far removed from the day to day activities of his creations.
Now though, as Lisa moved about the homestead looking at the thick layer of dust on the few trinkets she used to hold dear, she desperately tried to divine some greater meaning in all of it by way of God's plan. Was there a plan though? If there was a plan what kind of plan was it? Did it have an ending that she liked?
Lisa shook her head as she thought about it as she mounted her horse and turned it back towards town. There was nothing left for her here at the homestead, nothing but dust and cracked floor boards.
As the horse moved her back towards town Lisa realized that this trip to the cabin would be her last trip out here. She couldn't keep doing it to herself. The emotional lows she hit while out at the homestead weren’t fair to her, and she ultimately didn't get anything tangible out of it. No questions were answered, and often times more questions remained.
As Lisa brought her horse to a trot she realized she would give anything to have Frank back, even if just for one day. It wasn't that they hadn't had there problems but Frank had always been a decent husband. Now, as she rode her stead back to town it felt like she was leaving an entire world behind, something that she would never be able to go back to. She wondered if she asked Ted to burn the homestead down if he would understand enough to have it done for her without asking a bunch of questions and making it strange. Lisa decided she'd have to think about asking him for a few days before she could work up any real nerve to do so.
She raised her eyes to the skyline lit a deep hue of purple and red as the sky plummeted. Would tomorrow bring better tidings from the world? Would there be some kind of answers? Would Ted be around more and would they be able to build a flourishing relationship? Only time would tell.
Chapter 2
Back in town things people bustled through the streets like normal. Lisa left her horse at the stable and walked back to the shop as night turned all the colors to Gray. The shop door was unlocked. Lisa stepped through and gingerly shut it behind her, not wanting to make too much noise, afraid she would wake Ted if he was home. If he woke up she would have to explain her whereabouts.
Often she didn’t know whether she’d find Ted home or not. Many times the towns people would call him out to lead whatever fool notion fear had forced into their heads. Ted didn't relish his new position as leader among the townspeople. In fact he found many of them unbearable because of how they clung to old ideas about race, sex and class. Ted was a forward thinker, extremely liberal for his time—a radical. The puritans in the town would probably have called him a libertine, or some other label they bandied about like a scarlet letter.
Both of them wondered what people thought about Lisa sudden move from the homestead to Ted's shop. They were both sure that no one knew about what had happened between them during Lisa's visit because there hadn't been any backhanded sympathy or sneers when people found out that Frank had been killed. Lisa understood that Ted wanted her to live in another part of the house for at least a few months so that people didn't talk. When they went out in public together it was as dear friends and nothing more. Ted hadn't had to articulate any of this to Lisa. She just knew by the way he acted and his tone of voice when they went out.
For the first few days it had bothered Lisa somewhat, having to separate her attraction to Ted from how she treated him. She hated putting up a facade that hopefully the rest of the community wouldn't be able to see through. When Lisa would get a sour look on her face in public after resisting the urge to kiss Ted on the cheek, he'd tell her that he didn't like any of it either, although he never defined what he really meant by it. Ted was in a hard spot with the town because he relied on their business for this lively hood, a lively hood that had just recently expanded to double what it had been just a short time before. The expansion had been bold and Ted was starting to feel the strain on his account with the bank.
Lisa would nod as he'd tell her that he couldn't afford to take out a line of credit with the kind of interest the bank wanted to charge him. The contracts with the bank were always long and hard to understand, but Ted did his best to make his way through it and came to understand that the bank wanted to tack a huge amount of compounding interest onto the principle every quarter.
A few of the businesses around town had already started to come to realize that there would never be a way for them to get out from under the financial burden the bank had yoked them with. All of the owners had signed the contracts, but none of them had taken the time understand what was
really going on in all of the mumbo jumbo on the page.
Lisa thought about all of this while she powdered her nose the huge vanity in her room. Ted had told her that morning they would be having dinner with the owners of the new bank opening up in town. Ted hadn't had to explain that it was very important that they make a good impression and also that they not appear too friendly. It wouldn't do to put all their eggs in one basket by warming up too quickly to the new bankers in town lest the old bankers hear about it. Right now there was no guarantee that the new bankers were going to be able to stay open long enough to open a line of credit with Ted that he could afford.
Lisa wrinkled her nose in disgust as she thought about the multitude of fake smiles she would have flashed at her throughout dinner. She didn’t want to think of how she would have to respond with her own fake smile and everyone would pretend they were real.
Politics was what she hated the most about living in the town opposed to the homestead. Life in the homestead was much simpler and worth it overall. She thought this, but just when she'd come close to thinking that she missed the homestead she would think about the last time she was visited, before she'd told Ted to have it burned to the ground. When she thought about her last visit she thought about the dirt and how dingy everything had been. The homestead seemed so quaint now; like it belonged in a completely different time in her life that had been very far away.
As she finished doing her makeup she stood back from the vanity and assessed her skills. Lisa had never really had the money to afford makeup so this was all something very new to her. Although Ted had offered to hire one of the local beauties to show her how to do her makeup Lisa had refused. Instead she chose to look through books and other sources that might tell her how to correctly apply the blush to her cheeks to bring out just the right hue. It had taken her a long while to get the hang of it but standing back and looking at it now, she thought she'd done a pretty good job in figuring it out.
Now all she needed to do was pick out her clothes for the night and she would be set.
Chapter 3
The dinner was at one of the largest houses in town. One of the new bankers had relatives that opened up their doors to the general public—a kind of meet and greet except instead of friends, the guests were just casual acquaintances. It was a big early plantation style house that seemed out of place and certainly out of style in the small town nestled into Iowa's rolling hills.
It made Lisa wonder if the town was really as small as Ted thought. Sure, it wasn't as big as the larger cities out east, but there seemed to be quite a bit of interest directed at the town in general. Why else would this new chain of banks want to move in and try to muscle the old bankers out of business? And why else would a plantation style house exist at all?
As Lisa maneuvered her way to her designated seat at the table she noticed that there seemed to be a lot of new money in town. People that Lisa had never seen before took their seats around the table. She realized that there were probably some people in the town that she didn't know, but living in the rooms above Ted's shop meant she came into contact with most people that had a little bit of money to rub together and also meant that all of the friends that Ted had with money were people she saw quite a bit.
The people currently sitting around the table were people that she had never seen before, not even once. She was sure of that much. She glanced at Ted to see what his reaction was but Ted's glance was cagey and wouldn't meet hers for more than a moment at a time. Lisa had learned to read Ted very quickly and took this as a kind of veiled signal that she should keep her thoughts to herself and that he was having much the same thoughts about present company.
The head of the household took the seat at the front of the table and raised his glass for a toast. Before he could give it however, someone else rose and introduced the man giving the toast as the owner of the house and one of the principal investors in the new bank. The way the person doing the introduction said it made everyone present wonder if this was really the truth or an embellishment, though.
The head of the household stood with his glass raised waiting patiently while swaying drunkenly. Finally he spoke, “My name, as you all have just heard, is Mr. Finkle. I come from a long line of investors and pioneers of industry that many of you have heard of, I'm sure. What brings my glass to an elevated position this eve isn't to toast to a wedding, as we have been so blessed to have many of lately. Instead it is to encourage all of you to invest in the branch of American United opening in our humble little town,”
The man paused to take a drink of his glass before raising it once again and continuing. “Some of you may have noticed many new faces around my table on this fine eve. I tell you that all of the new faces here are going to be valuable assets to our little community.”
“People out east are looking to aggressively expand west, but the west coast is full of mystery and magic, it would seem. While some that go out there to seek gold find it, many others end up broke and destitute after chasing nothing but the glimmer of fools gold until all of their money is used up.”
He paused again to take a drink before hurrying on, eager to keep their attention.
“The people out east with money want a safer investment, something that they can ride to see the fruits of in a few weeks, not a few months. Something that is a little more reliable than rushing around after gold that may or may not be for fools. Industry is a funny thing, and right now the banking industry is booming like never before. People in this nation have the blood of inventors and investors coursing through them and those kind of people are meant to go somewhere in life. But often times what people find is that they need money to make money.”
“You can't make an omelet without cracking a few eggs as the saying goes. As such sometimes you need to prime the pump with some of the stuff you want to get back out of it. So it is with money. Lending, right now, in this very nation, is the most lucrative thing you can do. I would suggest we all get on board with it so we can usher our community into a new era of borrowing and lending to people. We need to start giving money to people with ideas and businesses in mind so that we can all flourish and abound from each other.”
The man wobbled badly for a minute, as if a wind that only he could feel had picked up in the dining room. Finally, after what seemed like a full minute and a great struggle to maintain his balance, the man sat down.
A slow smattering of applause started towards the back of the table and soon everyone was clapping as hard as they could. The room thundered with the sound of hands beating each other with the gusto of those who think they will strike it rich off the sweat of others brows. Lisa felt sick to her stomach as she thought of all the work Frank had done on the homestead to try to get by somehow. How they had both toiled against the land and elements but always ended up owing the bank in the end.
Frank had told her how they would make it eventually, how if they kept making a certain amount each year that, in a few years, they would be able to pay off the principle on their loan the interest that was building up with it. After a few more speeches the dinner ended. Ted and Lisa walked back to Ted's shops which was only a few blocks away.
Chapter 4
“What do you think, Ted?” Lisa asked as they walked through the front door of the shop. “Do you think these people have the communities best interest at heart like they say or do you think they have ulterior motives?”
“They most certainly have ulterior motives,” He turned to her and swept her into his arms as he added, “But we all do, don't we?”
Lisa giggled. “But whatsoever do you mean?”
“Oh, you know what I mean,” Ted ran his finger over her lips and then pressed his lips to hers.
“I’m…I’m not sure I do,” She gasped when he ran his hands down the length of her body and then traced his way back, lifting the skirt of her dress up. She asked, “What are you doing?”
He smiled, “If you have to ask, I must be doing something wrong.”
They stood in the middle of the shop, their desire swirling around them as the kissed. The mating of their lips and their tongues was as sweet as it was sensual; as soothing as it was arousing. Lisa always felt so protected in Ted’s arms; like nothing could get to her when she stood in the protection of his embrace. Over and over, he had proved his ability to protect her, taking her in when Frank had died even though just that act alone could have risked his business. To show her appreciation, she lifted to the tips of her toes, nibbling on his bottom lips and teasing him with her kisses.
Ted growled before moving his hand the rest of the way up and shoving her dress up to her waist. The soft breeze in the room blew against her as her panties were revealed in the shadowy room but Lisa barely noticed. All that existed was those tempting fingers gently easing their way towards her inner thigh. When he finally touched that sweet spot over her panties her legs buckled under her.
Knowing the she needed the support, Ted backed her against the wall as he soothed his fingers over the smooth fabric that covered her. Over the fabric, he caressed her sensitive nub, worrying it and sending pangs of pleasure through Lisa. Just when she thought she couldn’t handle it anymore, he pushed the gusset aside, finally letting his finger and her wetness come in contact.
If she thought the pleasure before was intense, this was above any heights she had been to before. He flicked and strummed at her clit, working it expertly and making her moan, “Ted, please.”
A Settler's Wife's Dreams (Erotic Romance, Romantic Erotica, Erotic Historical Romance) Page 7
