Forever Yours

by Ruth Ann Nordin

  He nodded.

  “Good.” She paused and glanced at the barn. “Isaac, do you like your pa?”

  “Yes. Why wouldn’t I?”

  It was on the tip of her tongue to ask him if he sometimes wished Richard was his father instead, but then she settled for, “Are you glad he’s your pa?”

  “Yes.”

  Well, that was really all she needed to know to set her mind at ease. Feeling better, she gave him a pat on the shoulder. “Go on and play with your brother and Jasper. Remember to take turns with the stick.”

  “I will.”

  She left the two to play and walked over to the porch where Rachel had finally finished her tart.

  “Rachel,” she began, “why didn’t you tell Isaac to stay on the porch like I asked you to?”

  Rachel looked at her as if the thought hadn’t occurred to her to follow her mother’s instructions. “I don’t know.”

  “You don’t know?” Mary asked.

  Rachel shrugged. “I was eating.”

  Mary sighed but realized the matter wasn’t important. “Alright. Come into the house. We’ll wash you up, and you can help me with supper.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Dave appreciated Mary’s concern. It was just like her to worry about how others were feeling. When he married her, he knew he was getting a wife who had a good heart, and it seemed the more he got to know her, the more it occurred to him just how much he lucked out. He went to the train station on a whim. He had proposed to her on a whim. He hadn’t known much about her. Other women answering mail-order bride ads weren’t that wonderful. They had seemed alright on the surface upon first meeting them, but over the years, it became obvious their husbands weren’t all that happy in the marriage.

  Dave could honestly say that his life only got better and better each year he and Mary were together. Mary had always put him on a pedestal, even at times he didn’t feel that he deserved it. But he found himself pressing all the more to be worthy of her because of it. He was a better man because of her. She completed him. He already had everything he could ever want or need.

  And that was why he really shouldn’t spend time moping about Isaac. Isaac was proud of his uncle, and Richard was a good person. Richard had worked hard to get to where he was. Richard never once lauded his wealth over other people. Most men would probably have gotten puffed up with pride, but Richard wasn’t like that. If Isaac should aspire to be anyone, shouldn’t it be someone like Richard?

  Recalling the previous night when he’d been so caught up in his own pity that he hadn’t made love to Mary when she’d wanted it, he decided he would do it tonight. But first, he would tuck the kids into bed for a change.

  The first one he decided to put to bed was Adam since he was the youngest. He found Mary cleaning up the parlor. Adam was running in circles and clapping two blocks together. Rachel was putting the toys in a box in the corner of the room. A glance out the window notified Dave that Isaac was getting water from the well. Dave picked Adam up and went over to Mary.

  “I’m going to put the children in bed tonight,” he told her. “You had them with you all day, and I know they can be a handful. Why don’t you sit down and get some rest?”

  Mary stopped dusting the table and straightened up. “You don’t have to tuck the kids into bed tonight.”

  “I know I don’t have to. I want to.” He leaned forward and gave her a kiss. “I’ll be back soon for Rachel.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want me to change Adam’s diaper?”

  “I can manage. I’ve done it before.” Besides, from the smell of it, Adam didn’t have the bad kind of diaper to change, and he could handle that without wanting to gag. “Take it easy this evening. You do a lot around here.”

  “What about your leg? Joel warned you not to do too much.”

  “All I’m doing is putting the children to bed. It’s easy.”

  She rolled her eyes but smiled. “It’s not easy when they don’t want to go to sleep. You might end up telling them a story to settle them down.”

  He shrugged. “So I’ll tell them a story. The last time I checked, I didn’t need to use my leg to do that.”

  She considered his words then nodded. “You’re right. You don’t. Thanks, Dave.”

  He gave her another kiss then carried Adam up the stairs. Putting Adam to bed proved to be an easy task. As it turned out, as long as Adam could keep the blocks, he was content to lie down in the crib.

  Rachel, on the other hand, wanted to talk, so he spent about twenty minutes sitting on the edge of the bed while he answered her questions. Questions like, “Why are you tucking me in instead of Ma?”, “Will you cook tomorrow like Ma does?”, “Are you going to tuck me in bed tomorrow?”, and “Have you had one of Maureen’s tarts?” He had no idea Rachel was such a talker, but then, Mary spent a lot more time with Rachel than he did.

  “I’m not tired,” Rachel finally said after he broke down and told her he didn’t want to answer any more questions. She’d probably go on with them all night if he let her.

  “Sometimes you have to close your eyes and wait to fall asleep,” he replied.

  “That’s hard.”

  “I know, but it’s the only way to fall asleep.”

  “Can you tell me a story?”

  “What kind of story do you want to hear?” he asked.

  “I don’t know.”

  “I need to know what kind of story you want to hear so that I can tell it.”

  She shrugged. “Ma always comes up with stories for me.”

  Since it had never occurred to him to ask Mary what stories she’d told Rachel, that didn’t help him pick something. “I’m not good at coming up with stories. Why don’t you tell me one of your favorite stories that Ma’s told you?”

  She put her finger to her lips and thought for a whole minute. “I like the one about the princess who traveled from her kingdom to a new one. Tell me that one.”

  Amused, he said, “I’m afraid I don’t know that one. You’ll have to tell it.”

  “But I don’t know all of it.”

  “I don’t know any of it.”

  “Make something up. I don’t mind if you change it.”

  Realizing it would probably be easier if he did that, he relented. At least he had something he could start the story with. “Alright.” He glanced up at the ceiling for a moment then started, “Once upon a time, a lovely princess decided to leave her kingdom. She had grown bored of her palace. She longed to see what else was out there in the world. So one day, she embarked on her brand new adventure to see a new land she’d never been to before.”

  “That’s not right. She left to get married. She was looking for a prince.”

  That would have been nice to know before she asked him to make up the story. “She headed off to a new land to find a prince to marry,” he amended. “She flew on a horse with great big wings.”

  “She took a magical train. She didn’t fly there on a horse.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want to tell this story? You seem to remember a lot of it.”

  She shook her head. “I want to hear it.”

  He sighed, knowing full well he was going to get corrected several more times before the story was over since she remembered much more than she’d led him to believe. “The magical train took her to a kingdom.” He glanced her way. “What was this kingdom like?”

  “Ma never said. She only said the wizard who met her at the magical train station was mean to the princess. He wanted to put her in a cage and keep her from ever being happy.”

  Well, that was something to go on. “Instead of the prince she hoped to meet, she found a wizard instead. He was a cruel man. He wasn’t going to be nice to her at all. His plan was to trap her in a cage so that she’d never be happy.” He paused. “Am I doing it right?”

  “Yes, that’s good. Now have him try to lure her out of the train station with his magic.”

  He was tempted to point out she was really t
he one telling the story since all he did was echo what she said, but he found it cute, so he decided to play along. “The wizard was strong and knew magic really well. He cast a spell over her. She tried to resist the spell, but his magic was too powerful. Unable to stop him, she left the station.”

  “She didn’t actually leave the station. He only tried to make her leave. A prince stopped him.”

  “How did the prince stop him?”

  “He got out his sword and battled the wizard. Ma uses fancy words to explain how.”

  “What kind of words?”

  She thought for a moment then said, “‘Wield’, ‘clash’… That’s all I remember.”

  He supposed he could go with that. “Before the wizard could succeed in getting her out of the magical train station, a brave prince showed up with a sword in his hand. ‘Stand back, my fair maiden,’ the prince told her. ‘I will save you from this awful wizard.’ The wizard wasn’t going to give up without a fight. He used all of the magic he had to defeat the prince. The prince wielded his sword to ward off the magic the wizard threw at him.”

  “Wait!” Rachel sat up. “You didn’t say what the prince looked like. Ma always says what he looks like.”

  Not surprised she had remembered something else, he asked, “What does the prince look like?”

  “He’s very handsome. He has yellow hair. It makes the princess think of the sun. He has eyes that shine like the stars. He looks good in anything he wears, but he wears a knight’s armor in the story. Ma had to show me a picture of a knight so I knew what one looks like. He’s nothing like the wizard. The wizard’s hair is as dark as his black soul, and the wizard thinks he’s good looking, but he’s not. The prince is, though, but he doesn’t seem to know it. That’s because he’s humble.”

  It was then that Dave suspected the story Mary had been telling Rachel was based on the day she had met Dave at the train station ten years ago. All she’d done was embellish certain details to make the thing more exciting for a little girl.

  “I think I know how the rest of the story goes,” Dave said. “I’ll tell it to you, and you can tell me if I’m right. The prince defeats the wizard and takes the princess to his palace where he marries her. They have three children, one of which is a girl who’s a lot like you.”

  Rachel’s eyes widened. “You’ve heard the story before!”

  “In a way.” And it was nice that Mary had chosen to paint him in such a flattering light. “But did your ma tell you anything about the princess?”

  “She only says the princess is very happy at the end of the story.”

  “Well, the prince is happy, too. The princess is very beautiful, and she has the biggest heart of all the other ladies in the kingdom. She’s generous and kind to everyone in the kingdom, and the prince is blessed to have her in his life.”

  “So the prince loves her?”

  “Very much.” He patted her arm and smiled. “That’s all I got unless you have anything else you want to add to the story.”

  “No. That’s it.” She yawned.

  “Think you can go to sleep now?”

  She nodded, so he stood up, tucked the blanket up to her chin, and kissed her forehead.

  After he left the room, he found Isaac already in his and Adam’s room. Adam was still holding the blocks, but his eyes were closed. Dave suspected he was on the brink of falling asleep.

  Isaac had already changed into his nightclothes but hadn’t gotten into bed yet. He was holding up a fountain pen to the light of the kerosene lamp that was on the nightstand by his bed.

  “I don’t recall seeing that before,” Dave whispered as he came up to him.

  “It’s from Uncle Richard,” Isaac whispered in return. “He gave this to me. He made it for his company, but he let me have it.”

  Dave had to force aside the burst of jealousy that rose up within him. He’d resolved himself to accepting that this was how things were going to be from now on. Apparently, this resolve was going to take some time to get used to.

  “Can I see the pen?” Dave asked.

  Isaac gave it to him. “It’s heavy.”

  “Yes, it is.” Dave took a good look at it. The pen was good quality. It wasn’t like the pens available in the mercantile. It was probably expensive to make. Well, not expensive for Richard. But it was most definitely expensive for someone like him. “It’s a nice pen.”

  He held it out to Isaac, and Isaac took it back. “I’m not going to use it. I’m going to keep it safe forever.”

  Dave would probably do the same thing if his favorite person gave him something that expensive when he was a child. He released his breath. He didn’t know how long it was going to take to adjust to the change of events. Before the newspaper article, Isaac used to say he wanted to be just like him when he grew up, but now, that had all changed. Now Isaac wanted to be like Richard. And who could blame him? Dave was doing good just to have a house, a barn, and some crops.

  Dave cleared his throat. “It’s time for bed. You should put that pen somewhere safe for the night.”

  Isaac pulled out the drawer in the nightstand and placed it next to the small ball and hat Dave had given him a year ago. Well, at least Isaac had kept the items he’d given him. It was better than finding out Isaac had thrown them out. Suddenly, Dave didn’t feel quite so bad. He might no longer be Isaac’s first choice, but at least he still had a place in the boy’s heart.

  Isaac shut the drawer and went into the bed. Dave pulled the covers up to his chin.

  “Do you want me to tell you a bedtime story or anything?” Dave asked.

  Isaac shook his head. “I’m not a little baby like Rachel. I can go to sleep on my own. But will you tuck the blanket around me?”

  Dave did as Isaac requested, wished him pleasant dreams, and then snuffed the light from the kerosene lamp. He left the room and searched for Mary. He didn’t find her in their bedroom, which was where he had expected her to go since he’d tucked the kids into bed. He ended up finding her in the parlor working on a shirt she was mending.

  He shook his head. “Don’t you ever take the night off from work?”

  She glanced up at him. “I tried to do nothing like you wanted, but I got bored.”

  Before he broke his leg, he would have laughed. Mary was the busiest person he knew. If she wasn’t sleeping, she was doing something. But having been forced to sit still for two months, he would rather be doing something, too.

  He sat next to her and kissed her cheek. “You can do something else with your time.” He put his hand on her thigh and gave her a teasing grin. “I was too stupid to pick up on your hints last night. You have to let me make that up to you.” To show her what he meant, he started to lift the hem of her dress.

  She gasped and shoved the dress down. “Dave, you can’t do that here,” she whispered. “What about the children?”

  “They’re in bed. I closed the doors and everything.”

  “But they might get up.”

  “They were all yawning when I left them. I’m sure they’re asleep by now.” Noting the hesitation in her expression, he added, “We can go to our bedroom if it makes you more comfortable. I don’t mind.”

  She glanced at the stairs and then looked back at him. “Well, they did have a long day in town. I’m sure they’re exhausted.”

  “They were tired when I left them.” He brought his mouth to her neck and kissed her just below the earlobe where her skin was sensitive.

  She shivered in response. Encouraged, he brought the hem of her dress up and slipped his hand under her petticoats. She tossed the shirt aside, parted her legs, and lifted her hips. Feeling a sense of satisfaction in knowing he had convinced her to go through with this so spontaneously, he brought his hand to the apex between her legs, found the slit in the bloomers, and brushed the folds of her flesh.

  He continued kissing her neck while he teased her entrance. A soft moan escaped her lips, and she shifted so that he could put two fingers into her. He then fou
nd her sensitive nub with his thumb and began to use the circular motions he knew she enjoyed. Ever since he’d learned how to bring her to completion, he aimed to do it every time they came together, and judging by how wet she was, he realized she’d probably been needing sexual release ever since last night.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t take care of you last night,” he whispered.

  “That doesn’t matter,” she whispered, slightly out of breath. “All that matters is that you’re doing it now.”

  She lifted her hips so he could slide deeper into her. He found the cushiony spot that marked the sensitive area deep within her and focused on caressing it as he continued his ministrations on her sensitive nub, knowing that by doing so, he would heighten her pleasure even more.

  She gasped and gripped his arms, softly crying for him to keep going. He had no intention of stopping, and he told her so. He was more than happy to keep going. He not only needed to make up for last night, but he wanted to express how much he loved her and how grateful he was to have her in his life. She completed him. There would never be anyone else but her, and he was looking forward to their future and all of the children they’d have together.

  When he realized she was close to the peak, he quickened his ministrations. Her core tightened around him, and her moans, though soft, grew more insistent. Then she stiffened, and her flesh clenched and unclenched around him as she rode out the effects of her orgasm. He continued caressing her until her body relaxed. It was nice to be familiar with the signs of her orgasm. When her body relaxed, he brought his mouth to hers and kissed her. Her passion had waned considerably, but she was still very much involved in being with him since she responded nicely to him.

  To his surprise, she got up and helped him out of his pants. Then she removed her bloomers, lifted her dress, and straddled him.

  He hadn’t expected her to do that. He figured they would go up to their bedroom at this point, but it was highly arousing that she chose to continue their lovemaking down here. She brought him into her body, and he groaned. Regardless of how many times they came together, entering her always felt good. He brought his hands under the rest of her dress so he could feel her breasts.