Adventure For A Bride: A clean historical mail order bride romance (Montana Passion Book 3) (11 page)

Nothing happened.

They looked at the snow and its two identical little pockmarks where their tools had struck, then at each other, and laughed at their foolishness. It felt good to be laughing, and the silliness was contagious. Before long, they were both grabbing at their sides and shrieking with gales of laughter.

No sooner had they put their tools aside to enjoy the ridiculousness of the moment than a massive block of snow crashed to the ground before their feet. Without thinking, Wyatt grabbed Millie in his arms and shielded her thin frame from the snow. They both turned to look at the massive cave in without even realizing that he still held her closely pressed against him.

Millie hesitated to speak up, afraid that Wyatt would be heartbroken all over again and that any headway she’d made in earning his trust and making him think more fondly of her would be irreparably damaged. She needn’t have worried, as it was he who looked down at her in alarm, afraid he’d overstepped his bounds in an inexcusable way.

“Pardon me, Miss Carter,” he said longingly as he slowly relaxed his hold on her. “I apologize, I only thought to protect you…”

“No, it’s quite all right, Mr. Flynn. I appreciate your looking after me.” She took a moment to recover from the feel of his arms around her, a feeling she was entirely unprepared for since she’d never envisioned anything happening between them. She looked up at him carefully and smiled in gratitude, but her attention was quickly snatched by the sight in front of her.

All the way to the barn, the cave in had caused the snow to fall in on Wyatt’s tunnel. The sky was a crisp blue overhead, flooding the cabin with bright light. She could see how the tunnel had originally begun to miss its mark, but with the snow out of the way and lying in flat pieces on the ground between two walls of snow, the path would be an easy one now. Where they’d been boxed in by the elements, there was now a narrow runway all the length of the property that provided a clear walkway to the barn.

“Do you think we could make a similar trench to my cabin? I think I left my hair brush behind,” Millie said stoically, not once cracking a smile and giving her away. Wyatt looked at her as though she’d lost her mind, but joined in on the joke when he realized that’s all it was.

“Look, Pa!” Micah cried, pointing to the high walls of snow on either side of the path. He and Luke raced to the door, but Millie and Wyatt each caught one squirmy boy and held them back from racing out into the cold.

“Not ‘til you have your shoes and coats on! And I expect to see a cap, some mittens, and a scarf before anyone sets foot outside!” Millie ordered without thinking. She looked quickly to Wyatt and shrugged apologetically after sending the boys off to get their winter clothes on. “What? I can’t help it! I care about them already, perhaps too much.”

“No, I understand. And you’re right; I do have to learn to let you handle them some. Besides, you’re far better with them than I am.” He avoided her gaze by looking out at the path in the back of the house, inspecting it for its usefulness.

“What do you mean?” she asked, putting a hand on his arm without thinking. “I’m not ‘better’ with them, what a strange thing for a father to say!”

“Well, it’s true! You’re attentive and playful, even when you’re being firm. I’m just the ogre from the scary stories who makes them mind and tells them when to go to bed. Ann—” he began, but stopped himself from saying her name. He looked away, but finally stood up straighter and finished. “Anna Mae was the same way with them. She was the kind, loving mother and I was always the one to be feared.”

“It’s not fear they feel when they’re around you, I promise. Well, it is, in a way, but not like you think. They’re afraid of making you sad. They don’t want to do anything that upsets you, even if it’s only to laugh too loudly and make you remember they’re here. You’re not a bad father; you’re just a different kind of parent than their mother was. You two balanced each other out. They had you to provide them with discipline, to raise them up in the way they should go. And they had their mother to bring them happiness and even a little fun. It’s just like opening up this tunnel… there’s nothing wrong with sharing the work.”

Wyatt took encouragement from her words, but he knew it wasn’t enough. Anna Mae had gifted him with three wonderful children, even he could see how blessed he was in spite of the grief that still ate at him, but he knew it wasn’t enough for his children, or any children, for that matter, to have two such different parents in their lives. His children, Anna Mae’s children, deserved to feel love at every turn, not just from some of the people they knew and were close to.

The boys returned with their winter clothes askew, declaring themselves ready for their adventure in the snow. Millie had to laugh out loud at their rag-tag appearance before dropping down to the floor to help them put their clothes on correctly.

“I have an idea,” she declared as she did up the buttons and wound the scarves. “How would you two boys like to help your pa get his chores done so that he has some time to go sledding with you?”

Micah and Luke stared first at Millie, then at Wyatt, their tiny mouths hanging open in surprise. They’d only known Millie a short time and had never known her to be unkind, but it was hard to believe her offer was genuine.

“Do you mean it? Really? We can… play… with Pa?” they asked her, ignoring Wyatt right where he stood out of trepidation that he’d refuse. For her part, Millie didn’t look in his direction either, afraid of exactly the same thing.

“I don’t see why not. But you have to get all the chores done first. This is a working farm, and you two are big boys, big enough to be a help to your father. Go with him and see to the animals that need tending, and then there’ll be time enough for playing before we take some lessons in the reader. We can save lessons today for after the sun goes down, just for today, mind you! Growing boys need sunshine, just like the flowers do.”

“Hey!” Luke cried, stamping his foot and causing Millie to step back in surprise. “I’m not a flower!”

She laughed and grabbed him in her arms, yanking his woolen cap off and planting a kiss on top of his head before replacing his hat and pushing him out the door to join Micah. Rose clapped her hands and cooed at the sound of the boys’ laughter, and before Millie or Wyatt knew what was happening, she crawled over to them to get a closer look.

“Would you look at that! This Rose has picked up her roots and taken to moving!” Millie said, scooping the baby up and kissing her on the cheek before holding her up to see her brothers. “Did you want to play in the snow, too?”

“Do you think it’s wise to have a baby outside like this?” Wyatt asked, his earlier wary tone coloring his voice. Millie cocked an eyebrow at him and threw a hand to her free hip.

“Did I not tell you earlier that I’m always right?”

Wyatt couldn’t help but laugh at the haughty expression on her face. “I seem to recall something about that, and if I remember correctly, it made me very, very afraid.”

“Good. It should make you afraid!” she answered, wrapping her shawl tighter around both her and little Rose and stepping carefully across the snow to join the boys. Wyatt watched from where he stood, and he couldn’t help but admire the easy way this strange woman interacted so fluidly with his children. It was almost as if she’d been right, that first time she met the boys, when she said Anna Mae had chosen her to come and be a part of their young lives. Now if he only knew how to trust that Anna Mae had chosen Millie for his life, too.

The snow seemed to linger longer than expected, despite the sun that shone overhead each day. It held the children’s interest for only a matter of days before they, too, seemed to grow weary of the frozen landscape. They had been teased with warmer temperatures and slightly longer days before this last winter storm, and spring was now long overdue. They all felt its absence keenly, even the animals, and were refreshed when the temperatures started to climb and the piles of frozen drifts began to thaw.

The ground wasn’t the only thing thawing. Wyatt had also begun to let his spirits lift slightly, slowly but surely letting his wall of carefully guarded, unemotional detachment break away. He wasn’t back to the usual boisterous man he’d been when his wife was alive, but he was cautiously pleasant to be around. He preferred to sit back and watch his children learn to play again, and even he had to admit that it was Millie’s influence that had taught them it was all right to smile. He certainly couldn’t take credit for it himself, that was for sure.

With the storm behind them, visitors had come to call again, and even they noticed a change in both Wyatt and Millie. They were more companionable, even if they were far from seeming to have feelings for each other.

“I can naw see them together in my mind,” Gretchen admitted to Kieran as they rode back home from their visit. Their home was in town where Kieran still minded the law, so they stopped at Pryor and Moira’s place to spend the night. Moira had fixed them a fine dinner, and now the four of them sat by the fire, sipping their tea. Pryor, outnumbered as he was by Irish folks, held his mug politely while the others enjoyed the brew.

“Why ever naw?” Moira asked, alarmed. “I thought they was getting along rather well the last time we paid a call.”

“I can naw say, ‘tis just something about their mannerisms. ‘Tis more as though they’ve agreed to tolerate one another than become man and wife. I don’t know, ‘tis only a feeling, nothing more,” Gretchen admitted sadly. Kieran patted her hand reassuringly.

“I know I can speak for all the men present when I say, something like losing Mrs. Flynn must’a been hard on the man. ‘Tis a wonder he has the presence of mind to button up his own shirt, let alone think about marrying again. But he’ll have to,” Kieran explained morosely. “Life will move forward, whether Flynn wants it to or naw. He might as well go forward with it.”

“Spoken like a true romantic, Mr. O’Conner!” Moira said in jest. He laughed, but narrowed his eyes slightly.

“Romance has naw to do with it! Marriage is about protecting your land and keeping your family safe. Without a family, there’s any number of things that could happen if you die. A marriage is all the more wonderful if a husband and wife are fond of each other, of course—” At that, he stopped and kissed Gretchen’s hand. “—but it’s really about being responsible.”

“I don’t know,” Pryor argued. “I had no one to worry about when I chose to write off to the agency. I just didn’t like the idea of spending another empty year on my land with no one to share it with. I’d be lost without Moira. I know exactly what Flynn must be feeling.”

Though their opinions differed, the four of them toasted with their mugs to Wyatt’s future happiness, however it may come about. Moira added a silent prayer for Millie, too, and the Lord knew she would need it.

*****

The recent sunshine wasn’t the only bright spot on the prairie, and Millie found herself adjusting to her routine as the days began to blend together. The children helped her tidy up while she cooked. She instructed them in their letters and numbers and in the Bible, and then they found ways to be a help to Wyatt. It was a pleasant existence, even if it still felt upended by the lack of a commitment. Still, Millie knew there was nowhere else she’d rather be than in the open territory of Montana.

She’d taken to going for walks with the children once the sun was high enough to warm them. Having lived in a somewhat squalid area of a large city, Millie was a firm believer in getting plenty of exercise and breathing in the fresh mountain air, even when the weather threatened to turn foul. She was delighted on the occasions that Wyatt had offered to go with them, usually when he claimed to fear that a storm may roll in and he might be needed to protect them.

“I’ve been thinking, Miss Carter,” Wyatt began in a serious tone during one of their walks. The children were a good bit ahead of them, Rose balanced on little Micah’s hip and Luke helping to hold up her back, but unfortunately, they weren’t far enough that their prying ears didn’t pick up on their father’s words.

“Why do you call her Miss Carter?” Luke asked innocently, doubling back to look his father in the face. Wyatt stammered for only a second.

“Why, it’s her name. What do you think I should call her?” he asked, purposely trying to emulate the tone and patience that Millie always had with them.

“Ma’am! Just like I do!” he said matter-of-factly before running ahead to catch up with Micah. Millie laughed, but Wyatt was more perplexed than ever.

“They just call you ‘ma’am’? Why is that?” he asked.

“Well, I never actually figured out an appropriate name for who I am. And if… if things didn’t work out with us, then they wouldn’t have a name to go by whenever they did think of me. I thought it would make it easier to forget me if they couldn’t remember my name.” She gave him a reassuring look, one that told him it hurt her to be overlooked but that she’d be all right.

“What do you want them to call you?” he asked in a quieter voice, careful that they didn’t hear him.

“Mr. Flynn, I’m not going to lie to you,” she answered, stopping her walk and turning to face him. “I was hoping by now they’d be calling me their ma, or something of the kind.” She dared him to look away, but this time, he didn’t.

“But Anna Mae is their—”

“No, she’s not,” Millie interrupted firmly. “She was, and she always will be in their hearts and in their minds, but today, no. She’s not their mother. And I’m very sorry that I had to tell you that just now.” Millie hitched her skirts slightly and began to storm after the children, realizing she’d just opened her heart again only to have it slammed shut by Anna Mae’s ghost and Wyatt’s inability to move on with his life.

“Miss Carter, wait!” Wyatt called. It only took him a few steps to catch up with her. “That’s not what I meant! You didn’t let me finish!”

“What is it, Mr. Flynn?” she demanded in an irritated voice. She hadn’t meant to become cross with him and she certainly hadn’t planned to ruin their nice outing with the children. But she had walked on egg shells for far too long, and she was prepared to end their truce once and for all.

“I only meant to say that Anna Mae had the children call her ‘ma,’ and I think you should choose another word. It’s only fitting. They had a ma once, but now… now I hope they have you.” He wanted desperately to look away from her searching face, but he’d steeled himself for this moment and refused to break eye contact with her.

“Are you saying… you want me to stay?”

“Yes, that’s precisely what I’m saying,” he replied, but there was still a hint of defeat in his voice that caused her to question his sincerity.

“And you don’t just mean as your housekeeper, or their nanny,” she clarified, pointing to where the boys rolled in the grass while Rose sat laughing. “You mean for me to stay here, with you, and actually be your wife.”

Wyatt nodded. He knew it was what he wanted more than anything at that moment, even as his heart screamed at him for his betrayal. Millie was a veritable saint, so far as he could tell, and he didn’t know of any other woman who’d have been half so patient with him or so understanding of his pain. A lesser woman would have turned and run at the first cross word he’d spoken, but Millie seemed to understand where his anger came from, even during the times when he didn’t know himself.

“Well, Mr. Flynn, that pleases me greatly,” Millie said formally, containing both her surprise and her joy. She’d learned enough about Wyatt from her weeks in Montana to know that he wasn’t given to tremendous displays of emotion, but her heart was ready to burst over this announcement.

“I know I’ve been hard to put up with, but I want you to know that it pleases me greatly, too!” he said, teasing her with her own words. “I can’t promise I’m going to be easy to live with all the time, but I promise that I’ll try. I want to be happy again, and you’ve made me happier than anyone else in a long time. I’m even… very fond of you.”

“I have to say you’re not quite suited to writing love poems just yet, but I’ll take it!” She smiled, and hesitantly slipped her hand in his, thrilled when he didn’t pull away. Instead, he wrapped his work-worn fingers around her slender ones and held them tightly before covering her hand with his other one as well.

He kept her hand wrapped in his as they walked along, and it didn’t escape Micah’s notice. The boy kept casting quick glances at them, aware of the way they walked close together, the way they talked with their heads leaned toward each other, the way their words didn’t carry as they spoke in hushed tones. It was unsettling, for some reason.

“Pa! Is she gonna be stayin’ with us forever now?” he finally asked, unable to contain his curiosity a moment longer. He put his little hands on his hips and waited with his head cocked for his father to explain.

“She sure is, Micah. What do you think of that?” Wyatt asked nervously. Micah had been old enough to know his mother well, and he’d been the one the man had had to push aside the most whenever he asked questions that Wyatt was too broken to answer.

“I think it’s a fine idea, but if she’s gonna be our new ma, she can’t live in our smokehouse no more! We won’t never get a baby sister for Rose if our ma lives in the smokehouse!” He turned around and took off after his little brother, the wisdom beyond his years causing both adults to stare after him, mouths agape, before breaking into nervous giggles.

“Is that something you wanted?” Millie asked shyly, looking down at her feet on the pretense of watching where she stepped.

“You mean for you to keep living in the smokehouse? Well, it’s worked for us so far…”

“I’m not talking about the smokehouse, silly! And if it’s working so well,
you
can move your things out there and take a turn!” she retorted, laughing in spite of herself. “I meant… a sister for Rose. Were you thinking of having more children?”

“I hadn’t given it any thought, to be honest, but as you know, I hadn’t thought of having a new wife, either. Right now, I’m just getting used to the idea of being happy again, of waking up every day with a purpose again, that I can’t even imagine something that would make me prouder. Of course, I’m sure you answered my letters, as unrevealing as they were, expecting to become a wife and mother. Am I right?”

“It’s true, I suppose. But more that I just thought it was a normal part of married life. I didn’t plan for how many children, or what I’d name them, if that’s what you mean. Your children were certainly a surprise, but it was a wonderful surprise. I get to become a wife and mother to three children all at the same time!”

The group rambled back to the cabin in due time for dinner. Millie bade the children take their baths, careful to pay special attention to their feet after their barefoot walk along the countryside, while Wyatt went to do the milking and feed the livestock for the evening. While he was at the barn, a noise out front of the cabin caused Millie to put down her washrag and remind Micah to watch Rose in the water while she saw to the commotion.

She opened the front door and saw the horse and buggy that Jorgenson used to make deliveries closer to town. The old man sat in the driver’s seat, the reins still in his grasp, looking somewhat uncomfortable beside a young woman with a pinched expression and ramrod straight posture. Wyatt had come around to the front of the house when he heard the hoofbeats approaching, and stood talking to both of them. Millie waited on the porch out of respect for their privacy, but remembered that anything affecting Wyatt and his family now included her.

“Hello!” she said brightly when she approached. “I’m Millie Carter, won’t you please come inside for some tea or supper?”

“No, I don’t think that will be necessary,” the young woman said. “I’ll just have my things brought inside and then you may go.”

Millie blinked at her cryptic, unpleasant statement before turning to Wyatt for an explanation. He didn’t look at her, he just stood holding the horse’s bridle and looking at the ground.

“I’m sorry? I don’t think I understand…” Millie began, but Wyatt interrupted her.

“She’s not going anywhere. But Mr. Jorgenson, I’d be obliged if you’d carry Miss Ellison back to New Hope to catch the next train. She won’t be staying here. Goodbye, Corrine.”

Wyatt took Millie by the elbow and turned wordlessly to escort her back into the house. She looked to him for some kind of explanation, but somehow knew to wait until they were safe behind closed doors to demand an answer.

“I’m not leaving, Wyatt. You may think you’ve won right now, but I’ll be staying right here.” Behind them, Corrine climbed down from Jorgenson’s buggy and ordered him to take her trunks out of the back.

“I’m not sure that’s the right thing to do, miss, seeing as how they don’t seem to want you here,” the old man offered, holding fast to his reins and not budging from where he sat. Corrine turned on him and pinned him back with a vicious glare.