Sweet Annie (29 page)

Chapter Fourteen

They awoke
early Sunday morning, and Luke boiled coffee.
"I
forgot about
a
teapot and
tea,"
he
apologized.

They
sat at the table with the sun streaming through the new panes of window glass.
The smell of the biscuits he'd showed her how to make lingered in the air.
Annie wore her wrapper and a pair of Luke's wool socks. "That's
okay," she assured him. "I'll try a cup of your coffee."

He
leaned across the table to set down a cup and fill it, and she admired the hair
and muscle visible in the open V of his shirt. Her belly quivered at the memories
of their afternoon and night together. Embarrassed, she changed the direction
of her thoughts. "Are we going to church?"

"Do
you want to?" He sat across from her. "Burt is handling the livery
today, so I can do anything you'd like." He sipped his coffee.

Anything
she'd like was quite tempting. She smiled to herself. Annie couldn't help
imagining facing her parents, friends and townspeople, and having them thinking
about Luke and Annie's private moments on their wedding night. "Let's not
go."

"All right. Guy and
Lizzy are bringing our gifts this afternoon. You'll have a lot to do once those
things get here. Until then we could make plans. Go over the things we're going
to need to make this place a home."

She glanced over his
shoulder at the bare window. "Fabric for curtains should be on the
list."

Luke
got up and found a wrinkled piece of brown paper and a pencil. "Right. A
list." He touched the tip of the pencil to his tongue and scratched out a
word.

Annie
thought of the notes he'd sent her and tenderness washed over her. Astonished
that he was truly her husband now, she swallowed welling tears. His strength
and agility were tempered by tenderness and compassion. She remembered him
walloping Burdy after being provoked, thought of the tasks he performed every
day which required power and muscle, and compared that to the poetic words he
spoke and the gentle way he touched her.

How
had she ever deserved him? What divine quirk of fate had brought this man into
her life at an early age and made him fall in love with her?

"Tea. And a
kettle," he added, still absorbed in his list. "Sorry about the
bucket, you'll need a pitcher and bowl for washing."

"The
bucket gets the job done. Can we afford to pay for these things?''

"We
have a bank note for the house, but we're not destitute," he assured her.
"It'll be tight for a while."

"Maybe
I can contribute?" she suggested timidly, accustomed to any mention of
performing tasks being sternly ruled out by her mother.

“How?'' he asked without hesitation.

His interest startled her.
Now she had to think the idea over. The freedom to actually think about it without
fear of censure was exhilarating. Annie straightened in her chair. "The
girls and their mothers were largely impressed by my sewing skills. Lizzy's mother
said I have a real sense for style and fabrics. I promised to make Charmaine's
wedding dress...perhaps I could find ladies to sew for."

He didn't say anything, so
she hurried to make the idea as plausible as she could. "You'll be gone
every day at the livery, and I doubt that the house will take that much time to
keep clean. Not that it's too small, I didn't mean that, I only meant that with
just the two of us..."

Luke tapped the pencil
against his cup. "Could you do that here? Or would you need a place to
work?''

Annie's jaw dropped. The
suggestion hadn't disturbed him in the least! She started to get excited about
the idea. "I could do it here. There's plenty of light and I could use the
kitchen table for cutting!"

"What would you
need?" he asked, the pencil once again hovering over the paper.

"I have scissors and
thimbles and just about everything I can think of."

"A comfortable
chair," he said. "You'd need a nice place to sit."

Tears smarted behind her
eyes. She scooted from her chair and wrapped her arms around him from behind,
kissing his ear and his brow. "Oh, Luke! You are the most incredible
man!"

He dropped his writing
tools and slid his chair back so he could pull her onto his lap.

She
framed his face and kissed him. "Thank you, Luke."

"For what?"

"You truly don't know, do you?"

"No."

"For
letting me be a real person," she said, her voice hoarse with emotion.
"For loving me."

"It's
an easy thing loving you." His hands moved up her sides to the swell of
her breasts. "You don't have anything on under here, do you?''

“Uh—a
nightgown.''

He
made a face. "One of those flannel contraptions that buttons up to your
throat?''

"Not
exactly."

He
parted her wrapper at the neck. “What, then?''

She
flattened her palm over her chest to hold the robe shut. "Something
Charmaine and Lizzy gave me. It was the first thing I found when I opened my
trunk this morning."

"Well,
let's see."

He'd already seen her in
the bright light of day and her abnormality hadn't put a damper on his ardor or
his desire for her. Feeling scandalous, but also eager to see his reaction, she
got to her feet and slowly, watching his face the whole time, opened her
wrapper.

His
gaze touched every curve of her body through the sheer fabric and he swallowed.
"Oh, my."

The list didn't get finished
until after lunch.

"Did
he like the nightgown?" Lizzy asked in a hushed voice as they washed the
few dishes they'd used to eat the casserole and pie she'd brought.

Drying
a plate, Annie felt herself blush. “Well, actually, he didn't get to see it until
this morning."

"And?"

"And I thought he was
going to melt on that chair."

They shared a laugh.

"I told you he'd like
it," Lizzy said.

Later,
after Guy and Lizzy had gone home, as Annie put away blankets and covered the
bed with a brightly colored star quilt, she ruminated over the changes that had
evolved in her life over the past months. Besides the miracle of Luke, the
newly formed friendships and the acceptance she felt among the townspeople were
like a dream come true. Her stifling existence had turned into the full life of
a normal woman.

The
sadness that her parents couldn't enjoy her newfound abilities and confidence
was the only dim spot in a bright future. She could only hope and pray that her
mother would come around. Her father had seemed more willing to accept the
changes and share in her happiness, but he wouldn't be free to show his
approval while his wife still bore such hostility.

The
day passed too soon, and the night even more quickly.

On
Monday Luke took her to town to order a chair, and while they were there, she
posted notices on the walls at the telegraph office and mercantile. That first
week she had orders for three dresses.

The
work came as a blessing, filling her hands and her mind during the long hours
that Luke spent at the livery.

Sunday
arrived as a brisk morning with the scent of wood smoke in the air. Since Luke
had early-morning work getting rigs ready for the churchgoers, he escorted her
to the Renlows' on his way into town.

Aunt
Vera hugged her and served a cup of tea and a buttery cinnamon roll. Squealing
when she saw Annie in their kitchen, Charmaine pulled a chair beside her to
share her latest news about school and the other girls.

"I
was beginning to feel as though I'd lost my best friend," she told Annie
with a pout.

"She's
a bride, Charmaine," her mother scolded. "Newlyweds spend time
getting to know each other."

"What
more is there to know? Luke's perfect. Right?"

Annie
nodded with a grin. That he was. "He said for me to ride along with you
and he'll find me in church."

Later,
during the hymns, he found her standing beside the Renlows and placed his hand
at the small of her back. Annie smiled up, pleased as always to see him, smugly
possessive and proud.

This
was family-dinner Sunday, and Charmaine had told her that the Renlows would be
joining the gathering. Annie hadn't spoken to her parents since the wedding,
and the prospect of their unpredictable welcome troubled her.

Her
father greeted them after church, but her mother marched toward the Renlows'
buggy as though she hadn't seen Annie.

"You're coming for
dinner," her father stated.

"We'll
be there as soon as I have the livery under control," Luke said with a
nod. "After church a few rigs are returned and more are rented."

"I
never realized what a consuming occupation you have," Eldon said with a
frown.

"It'll
be better when I can afford some help," Luke replied. "Until then,
it's just me. Burt puts in a few hours a week as a favor. He's more of a friend
than an employee."

Annie joined Luke as he
returned to the livery and handled the customers and the horses with his jacket
removed and his shirtsleeves rolled back. She sat on a bench in her plaid shawl
and watched him agilely reach and bend to harness animals and hook them to the
buggies. He made the tasks look like a work of art, the symmetry and motion
pleasing to the eye.

Studying
the clean lines of his body and the suspenders that crossed his wide back, she
allowed herself to think of the skin and muscle beneath the clothing, and
before long she had to remove her shawl. At last he closed the wide double
doors, leaving the two of them in shaded seclusion.

"I'll
be right back." He returned in a clean shirt, his coat hung over his
shoulder on one finger. "Glad I left a few shirts here. I'll have to
remember to keep one or two in the back. I'm sure your mother doesn't
appreciate the smell of horse the way you do." A grin inched up one comer
of his mouth.

Annie
got to her feet and stepped forward to kiss him.

"Well,"
he said when the passionate embrace ended and his eyes had darkened to a sultry
blue. "I missed you, too."

She pressed herself against
his solid frame, gloried in the masculine feel of his body and his immediate
response. Some days the happiness was more than she could contain, more than
one person could hold in a lifetime, and she thanked her lucky stars.

Luke
tossed his coat on the bench with her shawl, brought his hands up her back,
caressed her through her clothing, slid to the front where the hard nubs of her
nipples poked against her dress and made an impatient sound low in his throat.

"I
wish we were at home," she said, placing her hands over his and closing
her eyes. The way he made her feel was like an opiate that made her blood ran
hot, and she couldn't seem to get enough of that sweet indulgence. She'd
discovered something she was graceful at, something that made her feel
beautiful. Luke might have to compensate for her lack of agility on a dance
floor, might have to carry her across a ratted street and give her balance when
she climbed stairs, but there was nothing clumsy about the way she made love
with him.

"There's
still a bed in the back," he reminded her, his eager lips blazing a path
of keen sensation down her neck.

Her
skin tingled and her breath caught. "We'll be late."

He
touched his tongue to her ear. “They expect us to be late."

She
leaned back, gave him a sensual smile, and he swept her into his arms and
strode toward the back of the building.

She
unbuttoned her dress while he knelt at her feet and removed her shoes and
stockings, kissing the bare skin of her revealed limbs. She let her dress fall
and he helped her step out of the pool of fabric, then grazed the sensitive
backs of her knees and her calves slowly, maddeningly. He ran his palms up,
caressing flesh -through her pantaloons. She untied the drawers quickly and he
stripped them down, then kneaded her bottom.