Genevieve: Bride of Nevada (American Mail-Order Bride 36) (9 page)

“Nobody is worried. As soon as they saw the snow, they would know I either stayed in town or came here. So relax and let me hold you.”

Genny finally relaxed and placed her hand on his chest. “I have to admit this is nice.”

He squeezed her shoulder. “For now, for the time we’re here, let’s pretend that we are happily wed and just enjoy each other.”

Genny stiffened at his words. “We could be a happily married couple if you’d just relent and make me your wife in all ways.”

Stuart turned toward her a little so he could rub her arm. “You know that’s not possible. I don’t want more children.” He dropped his voice to a whisper. “I don’t want to lose you in childbirth like I did her.”

She lifted her body so she was looking into Stuarts’ eyes. “So you do care about me?”

He released her. “You’re right. It’s time we got up and traveled home. It’s not far from here a little over an hour.”

Genny closed her eyes. Perhaps she pushed too hard. Maybe she spoke too quickly. In any case the moment was over, and they were back to their indifferent selves. Refusing to give in to the tears that threatened, she rolled away and rose from the bed. Ignoring her nudity, she walked to the chair holding her clothes and dressed as quickly as she could.

“Do you want some coffee before we go or do you just want to leave?” she asked without any inflection to her voice. She’d been rejected again.

“We’ll leave. I’ll harness the horses and we can get out of here. Back to our real lives.”

“Yes. Our real lives.” She felt a tear fall down her cheek and turned quickly away.

If Stuart had seen the droplet, he said nothing about it.

He grabbed the bucket and the coffee pot before going outside.

He was gone for about twenty minutes and returned with both the bucket and coffee pot full of water.

Genny folded the blankets and put them on the end of the bed where they’d found them. She spread the coals in the fireplace and made sure they were out, just like Stuart had taught her. She’d used the leftover coffee to finish any hot spots before Stuart left, but wanted to be certain.

They couldn’t prepare the stove the same way because the embers were still warm, but Stuart brought in wood for the next person to use. It would be dry by then.

Finally, she’d done everything inside that needed doing. “I’m ready to leave.”

“Good. Let’s go.”

They climbed back on the wagon and didn’t speak the entire way home. When they arrived, he helped her down and then started unloading the wagon of the food supplies which he carried inside and put on the kitchen counter. When he was done, he left without a word and took the wagon to the barn to unload the grain and care for the horses.

She watched him with a heavy heart. Had she lost her chance at happiness for want of a declaration of love?

*****

Genny walked into the kitchen, put her gloves in one coat pocket and her stocking cap in the other, then took off her coat and hung it on a peg by the door.

Nettie turned from the stove. “Well, there you are. What happened?”

“We got caught in the snowstorm and took shelter in a line shack about an hour from here.”

“Well, good. That’s kind of what we figured. I’m just glad you’re both all right.”

“Yeah, we’re fine and dandy.”

“Uh oh. Sounds like something went wrong. Tell me.”

Genny needed to talk to someone and Nettie was kind and genuinely wanted to help. “Oh, Nettie, I thought I was making progress because of the weather we had to dry our clothes and both had only a blanket to shield us. You would have thought that was enough but the man…it’s like I have no effect on him. He refuses to…” A tear rolled down her cheek. “Then he said he didn’t want to lose me in childbirth like he did Martha and I said ‘so you do care for me’ and he went all cold. We didn’t talk at all on the way home.”

“Oh, honey, he’s scared.” Nettie set her spoon down on the metal spoon holder on the stove. “Martha’s death nearly destroyed all of us. Joe took it the hardest. Stuart would have but he had children to care for, one of which was a newborn babe. I helped where I could but he still had every night alone with those two kids. I don’t think he’s ever really grieved.”

Genny nodded. “I understand that. I don’t understand why her death affected Joe so greatly.”

“What affected me?”

Joe had come into the kitchen and neither Nettie nor Genny heard him. She must get her hearing checked. These men keep sneaking up on her.

“Why did you take Martha’s death so hard? She was Stuart’s wife not yours.”

“Not that it’s any of your business,” Joe said coldly. “But she wasn’t my wife because I didn’t ask her when I should have. I was too stupid to realize what I was doing. Wanting to sow my wild oats.”

“So she and Stuart fell in love and married?” asked Genny.

Joe looked at the floor before raising his gaze. “Yes. That’s what happened. I got used to the idea, but I never stopped regretting it.”

“You never said anything to me. Why? If you loved her, why?”

Stuart stood in the doorway.

Joe turned and faced his brother. “You and she had decided to marry and you’d been courting her for more than a year by the time I realized what I’d done. I couldn’t step in then.”

Stuart took a deep breath and let it out. “God, Joe if I’d known, I would never have—”

Joe closed the distance between them, and then took Stuart by the shoulders.

“No. You’re the one she chose and that’s the way the arrangement should have been. She wanted stability, something I couldn’t provide her at that time. I’m sorry. I should have told you this a long time ago. But if it’s any consolation she did love you. She told me so.”

Stuart, paled and his eyes looked hollow. He turned and walked back out outside.

Genny, tears in her eyes, wanted to follow, but she was an outsider and until Stuart let her in, she couldn’t do anything to ease his pain.

Joe made to follow Stuart.

“Let him be, Joe,” said Nettie. “He must work this through by himself. When he does, he’ll realize what he felt for Martha and what she felt for him were two different things. He needs to know that before he can move on.”

Joe sat at the table and put his head in his hands. “I never meant to hurt him, Nettie. Never.”

Nettie walked over to him and put her hands on his shoulders. “He knows that. A lot of things weren’t good about Martha. I know that. We’ve deified her because she died giving birth to Lucy, but Martha was not a saint. She was a woman. She married Stuart to spite you. Oh, I think she eventually fell in love with him, but not like you. You were her first love. I’ve never told anyone this, but when she was sixteen and you said you wouldn’t marry her at the city dance in Elko, do you remember?”

“I remember.” Joe hung his head. “I wasn’t ready.”

“Well, she went immediately to Stuart—”

Stuart spoke from the doorway, his face pale except for his cheeks, red from the cold. “She told me she’d be amenable if I wanted to court her. I’d only thought of her as a little girl until that night. She kissed me and not the kiss of a child. I needed a wife and so I agreed.”

“I had an inkling, but never knew for sure she did that. I’m sorry she used you in that manner,” said Joe.

Stuart came in and put his coat on one of the pegs by the door.

“The reason she came to me doesn’t matter. We ended up having a wonderful marriage and I have two beautiful children to show for it.”

Stuart had gotten over Martha’s duplicity long ago. He realized she was only eighteen and had led a sheltered life on this remote ranch. He was not unaware of Martha’s machinations, but she seemed to change by the time they got married and settled down to family life on the ranch. At twenty-three, he’d married Martha so they could raise children and cattle and build the MacDonnell name throughout the valley.

That life hadn’t come to pass with Martha, she was just too delicate.

Genny was different in every way from her locks to her glorious body with its strong legs and arms. He’d asked her how her arms got so strong, she told him it was from praying too hard…and carrying heavy bolts of material around the factory floor and bags of groceries up four flights of stairs when she got home. She’d said this was the easiest she’d ever had it as far as work went. Caring for the children was wonderful and learning to do things around the ranch was interesting.

But no matter how strong she appeared, childbirth was difficult at the best of times and he couldn’t take the chance. Better to stay away from her. Keep her safe. Keep his heart safe.

CHAPTER 7

The next morning, Genny left the house with a bucket full of table scraps for the pigs. She’d discovered they would eat anything. Stuart also fed them grain because there was never enough scraps to feed three full grown sows, two boars and three litters of between four and eight piglets, especially this time of year. In the summer there would be more waste with fresh vegetable stalks and leaves, as well as the leftover meat, bones, and other scraps.

She hadn’t gotten far when she heard running footsteps behind her.

“Genny! Genny! I go, too.”

She turned and fell to her knees as Billy ran into her.

“Billy, what are you doing out here? You’re supposed to stay in the yard.”

“I want see baby kitties in da barn.”

Genny shook her head and smiled. “Oh, all right. We’ll stop by the barn on the way back to the house.”

She held the bucket of slop in one hand and his little hand in the other as they went down to the pig sty.

When they got there Genny let go of his hand, walked to the fence and dumped the bucket into the wooden trough. Then she took a long stick and spread the food waste over the bottom. She put down the stick and turned back to get Billy. Her heart stopped beating.

“No. Billy!”

“Babies.” He’d crawled over the bottom rung of the fence, heading for the piglets. Two of the sows snorted and turned toward him. The third was at the trough, ignoring what was happening.

As fast as she could, Genny ran to the fence and climbed over the top.

“Billy stop! You stop right now and come back to me.”

She scrambled toward him just as the sows moved the same way, putting themselves between Billy and their piglets.

Genny trudged through the muck with determined strides, her boots making sucking sounds with each step. She reached Billy and picked him up, out of the way of the charging sows. Then she turned her back and tried to run, but her boots sunk deeper into the muck. She reached the fence and practically dumped Billy on the other side just as one of the sows rammed into the back of her legs. Off balance, she fell, waving her arms, and then other pig hit her in the back. She dropped to her side and covered her head. Squealing and snuffling they bit her arms, legs and back of her shoulder.

Genny was sure she was dying, when she heard shots ring out. The sows backed off and she felt herself being lifted out of the mud and over the fence railing.

Billy cried hysterically.

As soon as her feet hit the dirt she dashed to him.

“It’s okay baby. You’re all right.”

She opened her arms and the child ran into them.

“Shh, now, you’re fine.”

“But you’re not.”

Stuart’s voice sounded ragged.

She turned to look at him, noting his strained expression.

“I’m sorry. I should have watched him better. I’m so sorry.”

Stuart gathered her and Billy into his arms.

They stood there, the three of them, huddled together. Genny didn’t want to move, relishing the sense of closeness she felt at the moment.

“I’m just glad you’re both alive. Billy’s all right, just scared. He’s always been fascinated by the baby animals.”

“I should never have let him come down here with me.” Genny was angry with herself. Billy could have been killed and it would have been her fault.

“No. He’s been down here before. He knows he’s not allowed into the pen.” Stuart released Genny and his son. “Don’t you Billy?” He looked down at the child.

The little boy sniffled and cried but he nodded.

“Let’s get you both up to the house.” He picked up Billy, then turned to Genny. “You’ve got some bad bites on your arms and your back, maybe your legs, too. They have to be cleaned and then you should lie down for a while.”

“I have too much to do, to lay about this afternoon,” protested Genny, though her wounds throbbed like the dickens.

“We’ll see. In the meantime let’s go to the house and get you bandaged. You’re bleeding and I’m willing to bet that a chunk or two of you is missing.”

Genny twisted her arms trying to look at the back of them but couldn’t see anything.

“How did you know to come?”

“I heard you scream Billy’s name when I was heading to the barn. I ran as fast as I could to reach you. I’m sorry I wasn’t quicker.”

“Did you have to kill the pig?”

“Only one, the other sow backed off.”