Montana Rose (24 page)

Sarah rolled her eyes behind Anthony’s back and poured another cup.

It was moments like this that Belle remembered clearly why she’d never wasted much time talking with her husband. It was a useless pastime.

“Thanks.” Belle accepted her cup of coffee. “The dinner smells great. You’ve got it on early enough that it can simmer a long while. It will taste perfect this cold day.”

“Sarah, go outside. I need to have a long talk with your ma.” Anthony looked at Belle and she shuddered, though she tried to hide it. She knew that look. Where was her skillet?

Sarah glanced at Belle.

“Go on, honey. We just need to ... talk ... a bit more.” Belle spotted the cast iron, within easy grasp. Anthony was no match for her. They’d been through this before when he was snowed in overly long. Sure she was his wife, but being polite only went so far. Maybe instead of swinging it at his head, she’d aim for his back. As long as he used it for an excuse to avoid chores, he might as well really be hurt there.

Most likely she wouldn’t need it at all. Anthony could usually be cowed with a dark look and a cutting remark or two.

As soon as she calmed him down, be it with or without the use of cast iron, she’d go back to being the very soul of kindness.

Anthony smiled and took a step toward her.

Belle decided then and there that she hated winter.

Town didn’t hold much attraction for her, but she hated being trapped away from it because it kept Anthony far too close at hand. Two dollars a week was money well spent.

Anthony was soon sitting, disgruntled, in the house by himself. But after she’d properly discouraged the idiot, she’d said good-bye on her way out to work, real friendlylike.

Red loved being forced to stay near Cassie and the baby.

He could become a real layabout given time, because he was drawn to the house constantly by an eager wish to check on his girls.

Cassie occasionally wished aloud that she could tell Muriel about the baby. Then she’d burst into tears. But mostly she seemed delighted to be alone with their little family.

The three of them shared a simple Christmas together.

Red got Cassie’s rocking chair done in time for it to be her gift.

She knitted him a thick scarf to cover his face and he teased her about liking her warming him better. She told him impertinently that she had enough to do without that troublesome chore, and he chased her around the room. Cassie laughed out loud as they played.

“Your sassy mouth makes me want to kiss you.” He caught her by the waist. “You know that, Cass. So you must want a kiss.”

“I most certainly do.” She giggled as he kissed her soundly.

Susannah’s eyes were wide open now, and the sparkling blue that Red had loved started to turn darker. Red lamented that she didn’t have his eyes.

Cassie snorted. “I hope not. Griff would roll over in his grave.”

He kissed her every time she teased him, and like any wise wife, she teased him often.

Red shivered as he came inside from evening chores. He saw the flames jump in their fireplace, and Cassie, setting the table for supper while she held Susannah in her arms, turned away from him to shelter the baby from the blast of cold. He knew he had to face the cold, hard job of building on.

“I’m going to start on that entry room tomorrow morning, Cass honey. I’ve been putting it off because it’s so slick, with that layer of ice under everything—figured I’d break a leg trying to chop down trees. But this last snow has covered it deep and I’ve got some traction. I can get into the woods safely now. What do you think? How big should it be?”

Once the icy wind was blocked away, Cassie turned back with her generous flashing smile. “I’m sure you know best, Red.” She held Susannah against her chest, wrapped in a warm blanket. Red could just see his precious daughter’s dark hair peeking out of the top of the blanket.

“You’re not being submissive again, are you?” Red narrowed his eyes, fighting to keep the grin off his face.

“Most certainly not.” Cassie sniffed at him, as if obedience was the furthest thing from her mind. But truth be told, she was a sweet little thing and minded him almost too much of the time. These days though, Red decided being easygoing was just her nature. Since she could be pretty sassy in fun, Red decided he liked her obedience well enough.

They ate a thick stew Cassie had made. She’d been a really good cook from the first. And now, with Susannah so small, Cassie didn’t clamor for her outside chores so much. Red went to the fireplace and thawed while he considered his pretty much perfect life.

Cassie settled the sleeping baby in the crib then moved back and forth between the bedroom and kitchen. She pushed a chair up close to the fire for Red. She grinned down at him. “You need my help warming up.”

Smiling, Red let her lay her pretty hands on his cold cheeks without a second of hesitation. As they stood there, so connected, so warm, Red remembered his surety that when he married Cassie he’d been committing a sin.

“You know God put us together, don’t you, Cass honey?”

She’d been focusing on resting her hands on his cold skin. Now she raised her eyes to meet his. “He did, didn’t He? Who could have figured such a thing in the middle of all that madness at the funeral?” Then Cassie wrinkled her nose. “You did your best to escape your fate, as I remember. Muriel had to practically drag you back to me.”

Laying his hands gently over hers, he pulled them away from his face and entwined their fingers, urging her down onto his lap. “I couldn’t see God in the choice I made that day.”

Cassie’s forehead crinkled just a bit, and Red knew that pinched her feelings.

“You want to know the main reason why?”

Doubtful, Cassie said, “Yes. Tell me why. What made you want to run for the hills when every other man in Divide was trying to run off with me?”

“It was because I wanted to marry you so badly.” He slid his arms around her waist.

Jumping but not able to escape, Cassie said, “What? Why would that make you run?”

“I told you once I didn’t think I should marry you, but I wanted to something fierce, remember?”

Cassie nodded.

“I’d noticed you from the first time I saw you in town. Which was probably the first day you and Griff moved here.” Red slid his hand up Cassie’s arm and to her face until he cradled her smooth, pink cheek in one of his rough, calloused hands.

“You did?” Cassie seemed pleased with that, judging from the way she kissed him.

“I set out to avoid you as much as possible because you were so beautiful and you seemed so sweet. I wanted to talk to you and spend time with you and I knew that my feelings were all wrong for a married woman.”

“I never knew. You spoke to me a few times.”

Smiling, Red said, “That’s ’cuz I couldn’t resist a few times.” He pulled her closer and kissed her more soundly, almost dazed with the full realization that he’d ended up with this almost impossibly beautiful woman in his life.

“Griff wouldn’t let me talk to people. He said it was too familiar and not ladylike.”

No surprise there that Griff had found a way to hurt her. But Red was in no mood to talk about Lester Griffin right now. “I believe that God has prepared a woman for me from birth to be my life partner. I settled that in my heart that God would provide that woman for me or I’d live my life alone.”

“And you didn’t think that could be me?” Cassie jabbed him in the chest with a pointy finger and sniffed at him.

That made him happy, that she wasn’t going to pout or be hurt. “You know just as well as I do that it was a crazy way to pick a wife. Being the wife in the middle of the picking, you were none too happy about it either, as I recall.”

“I’d fully decided that if God really loved me, He’d open up Griff ’s grave and let me join him.” Cassie leaned in and kissed him a quick peck on the lips. “But God had a much better idea.”

Red pulled her back and deepened the kiss. “He did indeed.” Then he kissed her again, and she melted against him as surely as the spring sun melts the winter snow.

When the kiss ended, he pulled away enough to see her flushed cheeks and shining, slightly swollen lips. Their eyes met and held. “Marry me, Cass honey. I believe God chose you for me and prepared the two of us, from birth, to be together. I love you so much. Will you marry me and be my wife?”

This question wasn’t about a promise made to God. Red had made that promise months ago and had from that moment fully honored those vows and intended to for the rest of his life. But right now he was asking for more. He saw Cassie’s expression and knew she understood. He knew she’d say the words. He knew from the very beginning she’d have submitted to him. But finally Red knew that she’d be eager, not just obedient. His heart sped up as he waited.

She didn’t make him wait long. “I love you, too, Fitzgerald O’Neill Dawson.” Wrapping her arms around his neck, she said against his lips, “Yes, I want to marry you with all my heart.”

The stew was set aside so it didn’t scorch.

Susannah slept peacefully as if she knew her parents were hoping for some time alone.

On that cold winter night, in a dark but warm cave, Red and Cassie Dawson became, at last, fully and beautifully married.

Red built a neat little log shanty to block the wind around their front door.

Cassie stayed inside like a fragile houseplant, when she wanted to be outside helping him. But Susannah demanded her time, and the weather wasn’t fit for a baby. Cassie worried that Red was exposing himself to the harsh winter. He held her and reassured her and distracted her from her worry.

She knew he wasn’t really being hurt by the bitter temperature, but her heart was so full of love for her husband and her baby and her life that the happiness seemed to overflow in wild emotions with little provocation.

Cassie vowed to him that she’d never ask for anything again.

Red thanked her profusely for giving him a suggestion and told her she was the smartest woman in the state of Montana.

She reminded him with some sass that there weren’t that many women in Montana so that wasn’t so very much of a compliment. When she talked like that to him, he tended to laugh and chase her around the room and pull her into his arms, so she did her best to talk like that often.

When the tiny new room proved to keep the soddy warmer, Cassie made a point of reminding Red, with a snippy tone, that it had been her idea from the start.

The flashing precious newness of their young love deepened, and they expressed it in all the ways there were.

By the time winter stretched into spring, Red and Cassie had reason to hope that their family might grow larger. When that time came, Red teased her, the baby had every right to resemble him.

When the weather was finally decent for them to go to town, Red had his hands full battling heavy spring rains and a thaw that flooded all the creeks. He spent hours every day checking his spring calf crop. He and Cassie sowed a garden, although Cassie protested that it should be her job alone. He promised she’d do her share when it was warm enough that Susannah could lie on a blanket outside. Now she had to snatch free moments during Susannah’s nap time and run inside frequently to check on the growing baby.

It was the end of May when the water finally subsided and they made the time for a trip to town one Sunday morning. Red didn’t want to be away from the farm for two days, so they left very early, planning a one-day trip. Cassie fashioned a sling across her chest and she carried Susannah in it while Red carried her. They even galloped, because Buck was feeling his oats after a long, idle winter. The baby slept through the whole trip.

When they arrived in town, the folks were overjoyed to have their preacher back.

Muriel wept over Susannah and presented Cassie and Red with a small mountain of baby clothes she’d sewn over the winter. The Jessups, the Dawsons’ neighbors, had ridden to their place and seen that the baby had come safely. Then the bachelors braved the weather and gotten to town and told everyone there was a baby girl at the Dawson place, so the clothes were adorned with lace and ribbon. Muriel declared herself to be Susannah’s grandmother so fervently that no one considered for a moment objecting.

The baby was passed from hand to hand among the women. Even the men hovered near to look at her. Red realized that a baby was even more of a rarity than a woman, and he noticed with pride that Cassie generously let the people enjoy Susannah to their hearts’ content.

He thought of all the questions he’d had for Seth four months ago and laughed at himself for surviving a childbirth and a baby and a new mother with that minimal advice.

The church service went well, and the whole group made plans to baptize Susannah as soon as Parson Bergstrom rode through town.

Norman York pulled Red and Cassie aside after services. “I have been waiting all winter to tell you that I sold your Bible for a shocking amount of money. Now, I know I told you I’d save it if I could, but you weren’t here and I had to make a decision. I was offered enough for it that it covered everything and left money besides.”

Norm told them how much cash they had in the bank, and Cassie’s knees gave out. Only Red’s quick thinking kept her from sinking all the way to the ground.

“I had already sent a lot of things back East on the same wagon that took the Bible. They sold first because my brother spent a long time finding the best buyer for the Bible. It’s extremely rare and it will end up in a museum. So most of your things are gone, Cassie. I’d have saved them back for you if I’d had any idea of the money I could make.”

Red’s ears were ringing from the windfall of money. He hadn’t gathered his thoughts enough to say anything, when Cassie whispered in his ear. All the confusion lifted as he turned to the wonderful woman he’d gotten railroaded into marrying. “Are you sure?”

Cassie nodded. “There’ll be enough left to buy the title to the mountain valley you’ve been grazing.”

“More than enough.” Red turned to face the milling people in the general store and said loudly, “I think it’s time this town had a church.”

A flurry of excitement swept through the God-fearing people of Divide. The sedate good-byes turned into a time of praise and worship as they all made plans for Divide’s first church.

There was also a letter from Parson Bergstrom that said he was making arrangements for Red to be named to their mission society. It would take awhile to be approved, but soon he’d be allowed to officiate at weddings. If Divide kept growing, there just might be a few of those in the future.

After church, Red arranged for some of his neighbors to trade work with him to drive his steers into town to sell, and Muriel relaxed her rules about Sunday work to allow the Dawsons and several others from out of town to fill orders for supplies. Red also sold all of Harriet’s grown piglets and, by doing that, ensured that they’d be having some company in the next few weeks when people came to pick up their hogs.

All in all, they did a winter’s worth of worshipping and settled all their affairs in the few hours they were in town.

Or at least they’d settled everything until Wade Sawyer came strutting into the general store.