The Most Unsuitable Wife

by Caroline Clemmons

  In her heart, she knew Drake could not find fault with all the work she'd done. No, he might be angry she acted without his permission, but he would enjoy the result.

  "Are you still nervous about opening the restaurant on Monday?” Sarah slid onto the bench beside her.

  "Yes. It's only three days away," she answered, refusing to voice her anxiety about the changes at the ranch. "I know we have everything ready, but what if no one comes to eat there?"

  "They'll come, if only out of curiostity. Everyone in town's talking about the restaurant.”

  ***

  Early Moday morning after sending Sarah to school accompanied by Abe and George, Pearl opened the door to Kincaid Springs new luncheon spot while Jeff stood watch outside. Pale yellow paint covered the building and dazzling white trimmed the molding at the green front door and each window. Flowers, still small but promising, bloomed in green window boxes.

  Inside, bright light poured through sparkling glass framed by red and white checked curtains. Each table sported a spotless cloth over oiled-cloth covered wood. Bright red cushions decorated each chair. Near the front of the room a long glass case awaited baked goods to be offered for that day. Not a speck of dust or dirt greeted the eye.

  Before Pearl could put on her apron or Zed could take his sentry place in the corner, Rhoda Spiegel bustled in. "I just couldn't wait to get started. I've been watching for you.”

  The small woman removed the bonnet from her dark hair and her brown eyes sparkled with enthusiasm as she tied a crisp white apron over her yellow dress. She moved without a wasted effort and seemed to have boundless energy. Once again, Pearl had Lex to thank for recommending the young widow.

  Pearl had warned Rhoda about the need for safety and cautioned her about never being in the place alone. Dick Harrigan, another of Lex's contacts hired as kitchen helper, offered his help with any problems. Certainly the big, beefy man looked capable of handling any difficulty. Until all this trouble ended, though, she wanted no one left in the building after the guards left.

  By eleven, they were ready for the rush of customers. And a rush it was. When they closed at two, they welcomed the respite.

  "I think almost everyone who works in town came in.” Pearl sipped her tea hoping for an infusion of energy.

  Dick nodded as he poured hot water into the sink once again. "That they did. And they all liked what they found—even crochetey old Mr. Rockwell."

  Pearl asked, "Which one was he?"

  Rhoda rolled her eyes. "The sour lemon who asked for a second piece of pie because his first had a lump in it."

  "It never!” Pearl straightened.

  "Of course not, dear. He tries to cheat everyone. He wanted a free second piece of pie, so I let him have one today with a severe warning.”

  She looked at Pearl and a frown creased her brow. "I do hope that's all right. You were so busy at the time I didn't want to bother you."

  Pearl nodded. "Of course, you should use your judgement, especially since you know these people so much better than I do. What did you tell him?"

  "I told him that after today there would be no lumps in any pie, all the food would be perfectly seasoned and cooked, and he might as well plan on paying for whatever he ate."

  Dick laughed and slapped his leg. "And what did the old grouch say to that?"

  "He had the good grace to blush and said he'd have to see that for himself."

  Pearl smiled. "So, I guess he'll be back?"

  Rhoda patted Pearl's hand. "You can count on it. His kind always come back."

  * * *

  Drake smoothed the wrinkles from his new shirt as the train rolled into the Kincaid Springs depot. "Let's go straight to the house, soon as we unload our horses."

  Storm smiled at his brother-in-law. "I hope Pearl's been baking. I sure missed her cooking."

  "Yeah? You don't look like you missed anyone's cooking. I think you gained twenty pounds and several inches.”

  Drake missed Pearl. He could hardly wait to see her, tell her about the trip and how successful he'd been. And to give her the presents. Most of all to get her alone in their room. He hoped she'd show him how happy she was to see him home.

  Almost as soon as the train stopped, he and Storm were lowering the ramp from the boxcar where their horses rode. By the time other passengers greeted friends and relatives, he and Storm were hightailing it to Grandpa's.

  They rushed into the house and Drake yelled, "Hello, anybody here?” He strode to the study. "Pearl? Grandpa?"

  Lily flounced down the stairs. "Well, it's about time you showed up."

  "Where is everyone? Where's Pearl?" He peered into the drawing room.

  With a toss of her head, Lily dropped her bomb. "That woman you foolishly married no longer lives here."

  He stopped cold and turned. "What do you mean, she no longer lives here? Where the hell does she live?"

  "She and Sarah moved to the ranch three days after you left."

  Drake didn't miss the "I told you so" look Storm shot his way before the boy asked, "What about the danger?"

  "Papa hired four men to act as their bodyguards and to—"

  Before his aunt could finish, Drake whirled and bolted out the front door and onto his horse, Storm following close behind. As fast as he could ride, Drake turned Midnight away from town and toward the ranch.

  On the road, he slowed his horse and tried to think. Storm had been right, Pearl apparently got fed up with Lily. Why hadn't he seen it?

  Maybe he should have made different arrangements for her before the drive. Damn, it looked like a man could depend on his wife waiting for him. All she had to do was just bide her time. How hard could that be?

  When the ranch house came into view, he slowed even more. It looked different.

  Apparently Storm saw it too. "Things been fixed up some."

  Drake noted the gate now hung straight, bright flowers bordered the walk and porch. A bushy fern stood on the porch near the rocker he liked to use of a summer evening. He dropped the reins over the hitching post and bounded up the steps. The door opened before he could reach it.

  "Señor Drake, how wonderful you are home.” Maria beamed her cheerful smile at him. "Señora Pearl will be so happy."

  Inside the front door, Drake stopped in his tracks. Three people sat on a bench in the foyer, a bench that hadn't been there when he left. As he entered, they stood and nodded their heads in respect.

  The eldest, a man he recognized as Vicente's father, spoke. "Welcome home, Señor Jefe. Your trip went well?"

  "Yes, very well. Vicente brings our remuda and men back. He and the rest of the men will be home soon.” Feeling as if he overlooked an important factor here, he asked, "Is there something I can do for you?"

  The three shook their heads in unison. "No, Señor Jefe. We wait for La Curandera."

  Maria hastened forward. "Señora Pearl has helped so many with her medicines. People come from all over the county to see her. She lets them wait here until she can see them."

  Storm said, "She likes to help people. Pearl's real good with her healing."

  Close to snapping, Drake spoke slowly and clearly, "Maria, where is my wife?"

  Surprise showed on the housekeeper's face. "Why, she is still in town at her restaurant, of course."

  Hoping he hid his own surprise, he said, "I see.” But he certainly did not see. Not at all. What restaurant?

  Still beaming at him, Maria continued, "At this time she's serving lunch to her customers. You can find her there, but she usually comes home about four with Señorita Sarah. Shall I find lunch for you and Señor Storm?"

  "Yes, please.” Storm said.

  "No.” Gesturing to his brother-in-law, he said, "You go ahead, Storm."

  "Señor Storm, my Carlotta will find food for you if you will go into the kitchen. Or, you could come with us to see the changes in your home. Come, let me show you the many things Señora Pearl has done for you.”

  Maria tugged at Drake’s arm, l
eading him on a tour of his own home with Storm trailing along. "You see how she has used the pieces stored by your family to make this place welcome you. She has worked very hard.”

  He took in the rugs on the floor, the additions to the furnishings. He noticed little things like the placement of serving pieces on the buffet that used to sit in his mother's dining room—auntil she hired that fancy decorator. Drake had always liked that old furniture better than the ornate stuff the decorator ordered from all over the world. He wandered through the house taking in the changes as Maria chattered on and on reciting Pearl's virtues.

  In the door way of his study, he stopped dead in his tracks. The old rocking chair made from cattle horns stood waiting beside his desk. Though wood comprised the rockers and supported the thickly padded seat and back, a craftsman had used matched pairs of horns to form the legs, arms, splats, and a decorative fan across the top.

  Maria smiled and patted his arm. "Ah, I knew that would please you."

  "I thought Mother had it burned.” Although he and his father loved that chair and laughed about the eccentricity of it, his mother had called it an abomination and refused to have it in her house.

  Maria adopted her inscrutable mask. "It is possible Miguel misunderstood her. He stored it in a barn with other old furniture and covered it with heavy cloth to protect it." She shook her head. "Then, it seems, he forgot about it. But Señora Pearl found it. Oh, she laughed and laughed when she saw it."

  "She... she laughed?"

  "Oh, sí, yes. She said it was perfect for a rancher's home. I told her how you used to sit in it when your feet were barely long enough to touch the floor, how you would laugh at your longhorn chair.”

  Who would have figured her laughing? Just like he and his father had. Who could understand the woman?

  Storm sat in the chair and gave a push to start it rocking. The boy had a silly grin on his face. With a shake of his head to clear his brain, Drake turned and left the room.

  Every room showed Pearl's hand. Anger coursed through him that she had defied him. Lily had said Pearl moved here three days after he left. As soon as his back was turned, she deliberately went against him. She hadn't tried to wait out his trip as she promised. He should have sought out Grandpa or Lex. Where the hell were they when Pearl decided to move to the ranch?

  He remembered about the body guards. That meant Grandpa was in on the move. He'd wanted Pearl here to begin with. Well, let's see how she liked it now that her husband was back. He stepped into his bedroom, oblivious now to Maria's commentary.

  A five-fold screen in the corner caught his eye, the stained and painted panels depicting birds. He had no idea where she’d dug it up, but he recognized the Aubusson rug his grandmother loved. It had been discarded by his Aunt Lily after Grandma's death. The dark rose, violet, green and browns were echoed in the new coverlet on the bed. There against the solid oak headboard of his massive tester bed lay fluffy pillows edged with ruffles.

  Ruffles, on his bed.

  Now that was too much. Damned if Pearl hadn't changed his own bedroom. Moved her stuff right in. If he wasn't mistaken, that was even her blasted feather bed under the other bedding. Her rocker sat beside the fireplace, a basket of sewing on the floor nearby.

  An extra wardrobe sat against one wall. He opened it to find Pearl's clothes hanging inside. Made herself right at home, didn't she? Well, it might be polite to let her live here, but he was a grown man. He didn't have to be polite, especially about his own home.

  He caught himself. He guessed this was her home too. At least, the only one she had now.

  A long buried pain gripped at his heart. What was he going to do? This place had always been his safe harbor, his lone sanctuary against the cruelties of the world, a solitary solace. He couldn't let her in here, not the one place he felt safe. No, he couldn't let her—or anyone else—matter to him that much. He refused to let her into his heart, refused to open himself to the pain that action might bring.

  Something out back caught his eye. Gently, he tugged himself loose from Maria and walked to the window at the end of the room. He felt his jaw drop. In a daze he opened the door and moved onto the veranda... and stepped into the past.

  He almost staggered to the bench beneath the tree he'd loved to climb as a child. Weak kneed, he dropped onto the seat and stared around him. So many changes here, too. Compared to the way it had looked when he left, he'd stepped into the Garden of Eden.

  He'd never noticed how bad it had been, not until now when he saw the difference care made. No wonder Grandpa wanted him to fix up the place. From the corner of the garden near the tall fence, Miguel stopped hoeing long enough to wave. Drake returned the greeting but made no effort to move from his perch.

  He thought Maria had gone back to her kitchen, but she approached him from the house. Concern in her voice showed when she addressed him as she had when he was a boy in her charge. "Mi Niñito? Drake? Are you all right? Perhaps you should eat something, have a cool drink? Let me bring you something here in the garden."

  "No, thanks, Maria." He stood, feeling several times his thirty years. "I... I think I'll go to town. I need to see my wife." He looked at his brother-in-law. “You coming, Storm?”

  “No, thank you. I have more sisters than you have wives. I’ll wait here in comfort until they return.”

  Drake’s pride kept him from asking Maria how to find the restaurant. How hard could it be? How many new businesses could there be in town?

  He spotted it right away. All neat and proper, just like Pearl would have it. Neat green lettering on a white sign announced Granny's Lunches and Baked Goods. Now why would she name her business after a woman who treated her so badly? Ah, he thought, because that's where she got the money, from her Granny.

  Underneath the large print, smaller letters confirmed Open Weekdays Eleven Until Two O'Clock. He glanced at his watch. One o'clock.

  An hour to go until closing. What should he do? Should he rush in and demand to know what she meant, opening a place like this as soon as his back was turned? Should he drag her out and take her home? No, he'd slip in and wait to be noticed. She deserved to squirm a little before he laid down the law to her.

  Then he saw Jeff Granger leaning against the corner of the building, rifle in hand. Drake nodded to the man and stepped in front of him. "How's it going, Granger?"

  "Wondered when you'd get back. Lot of changes since you left.” The man rolled a toothpick in his teeth.

  Damn the man for his impudence. "Yep. I can see that. You one of my wife's guards?"

  At the man's nod of assent, Drake added, "Any trouble?"

  "Nope. Not yet.” Granger smiled, and Drake caught the twinkle in the man's eyes. "Is there gonna be?"

  He muttered, "Too soon to tell,” and tipped his finger to his hat as he opened the door of his wife's establishment.

  Inside, he stood with hands on his hips watching the buzz of activity. Men sat at every table. Zed Isaacs, stationed in a corner with a rifle across his knees, nodded at him but made no other movement. Pearl and another woman hurried back and forth carrying plates of food or taking away empty serving platters. Danged if there in another corner of the room didn't sit his own kin, Grandpa and Lex.

  Although angry with her, he couldn't help but appreciate his wife's beauty. Pearl wore a crisp dark blue calico with a white apron to protect it. Her golden hair whirled in some sort of twist at the back of her head. She laughed and called over her shoulder to someone in the kitchen. He clenched his fists. Men joked with her, joked with his wife. Worse, she smiled and joked back. Where was her pistol now?

  He nodded to the dark-haired woman and walked toward the woman he'd come to see, his woman. One by one heads turned his way and the hum of conversation died.

  He heard Grandpa say, "Lordy, we're in for it now.”

  Drake ignored everyone but his wife. He had him a fine head of steam building. And he could have held on to his anger—if about then Pearl hadn't spotted him and looked so
danged pleased to see him. Her jewel-toned eyes lit with warmth and pure joy spread across her face.

  She was glad to see him.

  In all his life no one had ever looked so pleased just to see him. It hit him with a rush of happiness, warmed him all over. Then she bit her lip as if unsure what to do, unsure what he intended. That hit him just as hard.

  She slid two plates haphazardly onto a table and stepped toward him. Suddenly he didn't give a damn about the other men in the room.

  "Hello, honey.” He stepped forward, swept her up in his arms and planted a kiss on her mouth.

  Hoots and cheers greeted his display. Her arms slid around his neck and she hugged him to her.

  She broke the kiss, flustered and blushing. But she ran her hands over his chest and arms as if checking to make certain he was was really there.

  Seeing her again after all the weeks apart made him even randier than usual around her. All he could think about was getting her home and in his bed. What was it about this one woman that made his brain derail and him do all his thinking with his pecker?

  "Thank goodness you're finally home. Is everything all right? Where's Storm?"

  "Yes, everything's fine. He's at the ranch eating like he has a hollow leg.” He looked at the plates she had carelessly deposited in front of two diners a few seconds ago. "Wouldn't mind eating myself. How about I sit here with Grandpa," he leaned near her ear to finish, "and you bring something to tide me over 'til I get you alone?"

  She pressed him toward a chair, then ran her hands across his shoulders when he sat. "Yes, yes. Sit here. I'll get your dinner.” She rushed into the kitchen.

  From his seat across the table from Lex, Drake pinned his cousin with what he hoped was a blood-curdling glare. "So, you were gonna watch out for her while I was gone, huh? Keep her out of trouble?"