The Officer and the Southerner (Historical Western Romance) (Fort Gibson Officers Series, Book 2) (12 page)

She was certain of it. She cast a fleeting glance over to Jack, then closed her eyes. Likely, he’d taken it upon himself to undress her. She swallowed, staving off the prickles of humiliation. Perhaps he thought he was helping, she reasoned in her mind, taking a deep breath. At least he hadn’t completely undressed her or worse... She shivered again, remembering brief snippets of her dream, and what had happened to her then. Her shiver made her legs brush together. She grimaced. The inside of her calf still itched and a large circle of concentrated tender-itchiness had formed. There was no doubt about it; some eight-legged critter had had the audacity to bite her!

She turned her leg slightly and pushed the itchiest area down firmly against the mattress. She had this horrible habit of scratching things that were best left alone, such as poison ivy and spider bites. The last thing she needed was to scratch her bite and make it bleed all over the bedclothes, which is exactly what would happen now that she wasn’t wearing any stockings.

Ella clenched her fists, squeezed her eyes closed and tried to think of anything other than her leg. Sheep. Cows. Cotton plants. Rivers. Trees. Fans. Wigs. Books. Jack—

“Do you feel like eating?” Jack asked as he buttoned the top button of his shirt.

She started. “Actually, I do.”

“Good.” He grinned. “Oh, stay there, I’ll bring it to you.”

She nodded, thankful she didn’t have to get up. Then she scooted back against the pillows while Jack brought over a bowl of soup for her. “This looks better than last night’s,” she commented, taking the bowl from him.

Jack looked at his plate. “I’d offer you a peek at my meal, but I don’t want to make that soup inedible for you.”

She smiled at him. “Thank you for sparing me such a fate.” She ate a spoonful of the best soup she’d ever tasted. Or at least the best soup she’d had since she left her home in Savannah. A dull ache formed in her chest. She missed home. She forced her thoughts away. “I’ll make dinner tomorrow night.”

“You don’t need to do that.”

“
Yes, I do.” She took a deep breath. “I came all this way to be your wife, knowing I’d have to cook.”

His face grew hard and his eyes pierced her. “You don’t
have
to cook, Ella. I’ve survived the last two years on these meals.”

She returned his stare. They both knew this had nothing to do with her cooking dinner the next night. She dropped her gaze and idly stirred her soup. She had to let her anger at his deceit go. They’d be miserable if she didn’t. She sighed and lifted her spoon to her lips. “Thank you for the soup, Jack. Also, I’m sorry, I interrupted your bath.”

He nodded once and they finished their meal in utter silence.

~Chapter Eighteen~

Jack ran his fingers over the long, cold barrel of his pistol. It was the same pistol he’d been issued when he started at West Point and the only pistol he’d ever used since then. So reliable and constant, it was one of the only things in his life that had ever been that way. His parents certainly hadn’t been.

He put it down on the table and turned his head to look out the window. The sky was as black as the leather on his boots, perhaps darker; lit only by a large white ball in the eastern sky. He sighed and glanced over at Ella. She’d fallen asleep an hour or so ago. He’d be lying if he didn’t acknowledge that a part of him was relieved when she’d said she was tired and snuggled back into her pillows. Their conversation after she’d awaken fully lucid had been strained at best.

He steepled his hands and pondered what to do next. She was awake and recovering just fine. Did he return to work now? Or did he stay and take care of Ella until she was fully healed? Colonel Lewis had told him to take off until she was awake, and then he could have an additional week off to take care of her until she was fully recovered. He so badly wanted to do just that. But how would she feel about being around him so much? He’d never met anyone who seemed to dislike and not trust him as much as his own wife.

***

Certain it was completely dark in the room, Ella allowed herself to finally open her eyes. Following their tension-filled dinner together, she’d feigned sleep, this time hoping it would come. Unfortunately, it seemed to be as elusive as the pot of gold that was rumored to be at the end of each side of the rainbow.

Ella’s eyes traveled over the room. It had looked so different only yesterday. Jack must have made a few purchases today. She couldn’t fault him there. The room had been positively barren when she’d woken up this morning. His day must have been very busy. Or at least his afternoon, she amended. He’d come to see her at lunch, because she remembered him doing that. She still hadn’t felt well, but she did remember him giving her water to drink. The room had still looked fairly empty then with all of her trunks and travel bags stacked against the wall by the door and only a few dishes on the shelves. This evening, however, there was a tablecloth on the table, along with candlesticks (and brass holders) on the table and their dresser. There were more dishes and what appeared to be sheets stacked on the shelf in the corner. Dark green curtains now hung where the tattered, threadbare ones had hung at lunchtime. A mirror framed in dark wood was leaning against the wall on top of their dresser. So many little things. Yet, so little time involved. She shook her head. He probably had help doing all of that.

Speaking of him...

She turned her head slightly to discover Jack sitting at their crudely fashioned dining table. He was still dressed in his shirt and trousers and had his boots laced all the way to the top. She bit her lip. Should she invite him to bed? It was his right to sleep there. He had a job he needed to be awake for tomorrow. It wouldn’t do for him to be stiff and tired in the morning. An image of his wet, naked body flashed in her mind and her throat went dry.

“
Jack,” she croaked.

At first, he didn’t respond, making her think that perhaps he hadn’t heard her. Just as she’d resigned herself to the fact that he was either sleeping or very displeased with her, he said, “Yes, Ella?”

“Uh, why did you join the army?” What kind of stupid question was that? She needed to invite him to go to sleep, not prod him about something immaterial.

“
I had nowhere else to go,” he said softly.

Ella’s heart clenched. She knew that feeling. She’d longed to matter and belong, even if it was only to one person. “Your service means a lot to so very many,” she said, using the same words she’d overheard her father use so many times with his men when they’d come to him about being discouraged.

“Thank you, but that’s not exactly what I meant.”

“
Then what did you mean?”

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “I joined because I was angry and bitter at my mother.”

“Oh.” She’d heard many reasons for men to join the army, but never that one. “What did she do?”

“
It wasn’t just one thing.” He drummed his fingers on the table for a minute. “When I was about three or four, she decided to go see her sister back in Philadelphia. Her stagecoach must have been delayed because she didn’t come back until I was seven. Two months later, she left again to go experience life in Boston, then New York. She went many places and I saw her only for brief snatches here and there until I was sixteen. That’s when my father got sick.

“
According to the doctor, all of the time he’d spent underground mining coal had damaged his lungs. He had me write to my mother and tell her it was time to come home. She did as she was bid and played the doting wife for a while. But the sicker he got, the more sensitive her sensibilities became.” He scoffed. “You’d think by the way she touched him that his body was wrought with a contagious skin disease; and the way she recoiled at the very idea of having to help him bathe or see to any other sort of need he had, made me question my own parentage a time or two. I might have resembled my father, but it was either due to immaculate conception or she wasn’t truly my mother.”

Ella cracked a small smile at his jest.

“When he died some six months after becoming sick, she fled again and I was left to begin my job in the mine. I hated it. Absolutely hated it. The feeling was mutual between me and the foreman, however, and we were both quite pleased when a man showed up one day to settle my father’s accounts.

“
See, what I never knew as a child was that my father owned half the mine. My mother’s spending habits, however, were so extreme and the mine so new and not yet profitable, my father had to also work at the mine in order to keep the two of us fed. Anyway, his share in the company passed to me, and not two weeks later, my mother had returned.” He let out a deep breath. “As a boy of close to seventeen, I wanted to believe her when she said she was ready to return and be the mother she hadn’t been before. But when she vanished a week after I’d signed the contract that would give her a percentage of the mine’s earnings each year that I owned it, I sold my portion of the mine, my father’s house and everything else that would fetch a price—even if it was only a cent. I sold it all.

“
My father had never really been one to have discussions with me, but in his final months, he’d told me about the friends he’d made during his short time in the army. That’s when I decided to take all of the money I had and go to West Point. It seemed the best solution. I could join the army, and all of the money would be gone, freeing me from my mother and her manipulations all at once.”

Ella lay there frozen. That was more than she’d ever heard him say. Not that she’d been around him that much, but even in his letters, he hadn’t said much. Except about Christmas. She smiled warmly at the memory of his letter about Christmas. “It seems you found the camaraderie and sense of belonging that you were seeking.”

“You mean with Wes and Gray?”

“
Yes. Did you meet them at West Point?”

“
No. They’re both two years older than I am. I think I saw them each only once or twice there. ”

“
Did you not see them for meals or evening activities?”

“
No. When I wasn’t in class, I was locked in my room studying or was out shooting at targets. Foolish boy that I was, I didn’t take into account that reading, writing and basic arithmetic were skills I’d need. My father’s lack of funds and his twelve-hour days in the mines hadn’t exactly given me a life that had prepared me for such intense schooling, and I had to spend a lot more time studying books and learning the weaponry than anyone else. That was an oversight on my end when I went to the dean and persuaded him to allow me entry, showing him that I had the funds for four full years. I should have known I would have trouble when I couldn’t even read or understand all of the words on the application papers.”

“
But you stuck with your choice and didn’t run away when you realized how hard it would be,” she reminded him, and herself at the same time. She’d made a choice to come here. She couldn’t back out. She had to see it through.

“
Yes. That I did, and I’m glad that I did.”

Would she one day be glad she’d come here, too? She didn’t wish to think about it too deeply at the moment but knew she’d never know for sure if she didn’t start making an effort with him. She licked her lips and screwed up what was left of her fleeting courage. “Jack, do you plan to sleep in that chair all night or come to bed?”

~Chapter Nineteen~

“
Good morning.”

Ella’s eyelids fluttered open, revealing to Jack one blue and one green orb. “Good morning.”

“How do you feel?” Jack asked, propping himself up on his elbow and looking down at her.

“
Better.” She reached up and brushed her hair away from her face. “What time is it?”

Jack glanced out the window. “I’d say it might be about five thirty or so.”

“Too early,” she said with a yawn.

Jack grinned. “Breakfast will be served at six.”

“Excuse me, but breakfast is served when I say it’s ready.”

Chuckling, he said, “I meant downstairs.”

“Oh good, then I’ll just go back to sleep.”

He let his eyes travel over her face. Her skin looked so much better than it had the past few days. He was tempted to look at her leg but didn’t want to startle her at his boldness and have her do something that might disrupt her scab. “If you’d like to sleep for a while longer, that’s fine, but I need to go talk to Wes before I miss him,” he fibbed. He really wanted to talk to Allison to ask her opinion on what his best course of action with Ella would be, but he didn’t want to tell that to Ella.

“I’ll start breakfast when you come back.”

“
No, you won’t. You’ll just stay right there and rest.”

“
Are you afraid if I move around a lot while you’re gone, we’ll have a repeat of yesterday, when you came in here and I added a little more decoration to your uniform?”

“
Exactly. You just rest. I’ll be back in a little while
with
breakfast.”

“
Thank you,” she murmured, then closed her eyes.

Wes looked relieved and Allison downright excited when Jack told them about Ella’s progress after he’d found the two of them down in the stable for the early morning ride they’d made a habit of taking each day.

Jack blew out a deep breath. “Now that she’s awake, I don’t know what to do with her.”

“
Do with her?” Wes asked, lifting his eyebrows.

“
She’s well enough to stay awake for a few hours. She can talk and eat without problems. But she can’t stay there alone.”

“
She can join us at Mrs. Lewis’,” Allison suggested as if Jack were simpleminded.

“
I don’t think she’s well enough for that.”

“
Then keep her in bed,” Gray said, coming up behind Jack. He grinned. “At least that’s what
I’d
do.”

Jack clenched his fists. “I couldn’t care less about your opinion on the matter.”

Gray threw his hands into the air. “I was just trying to help.”

“
I don’t need that kind of help, thank you.” Jack shook his head. “One day, you, too, will have a wife and I cannot wait to see just how often she allows you entry into her bed.”

“
I didn’t realize you had such an interest in my private life.”

“
Well, when someone like you makes his private habits so public, one can only continue to speculate.” Jack grimaced. “Anyway, Gray, this is not about you and your constant need for female companionship. I just came to ask Wes—and Allison—for advice on whether I should go to work today or stay with Ella again.”

“
Why do you even need to ask that?” Gray asked with a scoff.

Jack ground his teeth and turned to Wes and Allison.

Allison glanced at her husband, then to Jack. “How well can she walk?”

“
I don’t know,” he admitted. “There hasn’t been a need for her to walk. I brought her a bowl of soup in bed. She hasn’t needed to stand for anything else.”

“
Does her leg hurt?”

Jack cocked his head to the side. He’d thought to ask her, but the opportunity hadn’t presented itself. Surely, if it hurt that bad, she’d have said something. “If it does, she hasn’t said so.”

“My only concern is her ability to use it,” Allison said. “That infection ate a lot of her muscle. She’ll be likely to fall.”

“
But will she have to get up and walk around if you and the other ladies join her in her room today?” Wes asked.

“
No, I suppose not.”

“
Good. Then my vote is now that she’s awake, you should leave her be and go to work,” Wes said.

“
Is that what you’d have done if it were me?” Allison asked.

“
Of course.” Wes grinned at her. “What is it they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder, or something like that? It would have been painful to leave you, but worth every moment of separation when I returned from work.”

“
For some reason, the look on Allison’s face doesn’t echo those thoughts,” Gray mused. “I also vote you return to work. I’m tired of having your men under my command. They’re almost as bad as—”

“
Your own men,” Jack cut in, garnering a snicker and a grin from Wes. “As it would happen, Colonel Lewis has granted me today off anyway. So what you want doesn’t really concern me.”

“
Well then, since it seems as though that’s what you want to do already, then there’s no reason to ask us for an opinion. Just stay home with her,” Gray said in a tone Jack couldn’t quite place.

Jack ignored him—and Wes—and turned to Allison. “If you were Ella, would you want your husband’s company or prefer to be taken care of by a pack of fawning females.”

“I can’t answer that, Jack. What I want and what Ella wants might be two very different things. All I can tell you is to go with your instinct.”

“
Thank you, Allison.” Jack swung his gaze to Gray’s hopeful one and winked. “Be sure to watch Private Galworth when he’s shooting. He doesn’t always remember to point his gun down when reloading.”

***

Ella stared up at the ceiling, unable to fall back asleep. Jack would be back soon. Last night hadn’t gone so well between them. Well, that wasn’t true. Right before bed, their chat had been fine, probably because only he was talking. A pang of regret hit her chest. He’d had a very hard life, being abandoned by his mother and barely seeing his father. Even while her father was in the army, his family had traveled with him. Pa hadn’t spent more than an hour or two a day with his family, but he’d at least been there. That was more than Jack could say for his mother.

The click of a lock pulled her from her thoughts.

“Are you ready to eat?” Jack asked, carrying in a tray with two plates of food.

“
Yes. I’m so famished I could eat an entire herd of buffalo.”

Jack set the tray down. “Be careful who you say that to around here. If one of the Indians heard about your hidden desire, we could find ourselves going to war.”

She made her eyes go wide and pressed her fingers to her lips. “You won’t tell anyone, will you?” she asked in feigned horror.

His face suddenly went blank and he began looking around the room as if he were genuinely befuddled. “Tell anyone what?”

She grinned at his antics. He truly was a good sort.

Breakfast was...simple. Bread and an unidentifiable globule. The bread was fairly good. The globule was not. Oh well, she’d make them pancakes or biscuits tomorrow.

“What are your plans for the day?” Ella asked.

Jack took a swallow of his coffee. “Entertain you.”

She frowned. “You don’t have to do that.”

“
Are you saying you don’t want me to?”

“
No. It’s just... Don’t you have to march your men and patrol the area?”

He cocked his head to the side. “You seem to know a lot for having just arrived on a fort.”

“My father is General Samuel Davis,” she said with a blush. When Jack’s dark brown eyes flared wide, she grinned and said, “I take it you’ve heard of him?”

He twisted his lips. “Yes. He presented me with my diploma when I finished last in my class at West Point.”

Ella instinctively reached for his hand. “Don’t be so critical of yourself. Many men cannot even finish. Besides, someone had to be last.”

“
Thank you for putting that into perspective for me,” Jack said dryly.

“
You’re welcome.” She reached for her cup, then retracted her hand. She should have used the chamberpot while he wasn’t there, but hadn’t wanted to get out of bed. Now she’d have to wait for him to go to work— She frowned. “You never did answer my question. Why don’t you have to work today?”

“
I have the day off.”

How fortunate was that. He had the day off and she needed to use the privy. She pushed the thought from her mind. Surely when he was done eating, he’d give her a few minutes of privacy to take care of her needs. She felt a blush creep up her face at the brief memory of the dream she’d had yesterday. Though the man’s face was blurry and indecipherable, she could remember his actions well enough, as he ran cool rags over her, helped her drink and even saw her in her most vulnerable state.

“I’m so glad the idea of spending the day with me can bring such a pretty blush to your cheeks.”

Ella started. Then coughed. “I was thinking... Never mind that.” She repositioned the pillows behind her then readjusted her sheet to keep herself covered. She frowned down at her chemise. She didn’t recognize it as hers. Likely, she’d accidentally taken one of Michaela’s when she’d snagged them from the line before Grace had had a chance to fold them and put them away. “So tell me, Lieutenant Walker, how do you plan to entertain me today?” She prayed he hadn’t planned an activity that would require her to expend a lot of energy, for she was still a little tired.

Jack reached into his pocket, then tossed something on the table with a
thump
loud enough to make her jump.

She furrowed her brows. “Cards?”

He nodded. “I reckon it’s the only way I’ll be able to stay out of trouble.”

“
How so?”

He flashed her a quick, teasing grin. “My talking will be limited to asking for another card.”