Damaged Hearts (26 page)

Looking at Angel for confirmation before agreeing, Kat hesitantly nodded.  Minutes later, she was served a mouthwatering, warm from the oven, apple cobbler.  Looking around again to make sure everyone else was served, Kat took a tentative bite.  Savoring the warm, tart, cinnamon taste, Kat slowly ate every morsel barely stopping herself from licking the saucer.

Once the waiters had cleared the tables, Josephine stood and addressed everyone.  “As you all know, Sarah Jamison’s sons will both be married tonight.  They will be marrying two women that I only found last night to be my nieces.  As such, I decided that they needed a party worthy of my family.  Please enjoy yourselves and wish both my nieces good luck on their unions.”

Everyone mingled and talked and Kat and Angel met people that had lived in and around town that they hadn’t known before.  After an hour of socializing, Frances went to the front of the room.

“Angel, Kat; both of you please come sit here on the window seat.”  She requested.  “We’d like to start the gift presentations.”

Kat looked at Angel as they sat side by side.  “Can you believe that this time tomorrow we’ll both be married women?”

“I know, and in another six months there will be another Jamison.”  Angel replied with a grin.

Anna, knowing that people may have overheard part of that comment came up and began handing the women gifts in attempt to divert conversation.  There was double of everything until the very end.  They received pillowcases, sheets, quilts, and even small scented pillows for their wardrobe closets.  The last gift was a total surprise to Kat; Angel had opened hers and found a figurine of a small boy and girl playing in a mud puddle.  When Kat opened hers, tears came to her eyes.  It was the figurine that matched the one she had recently been given to replace the one that had been destroyed.  It was a Palomino foal, an Australian Shepherd puppy and a small boy sleeping in a stall.

“Oh Josephine, how can I ever thank you?  First the replacement figurine and now the matching piece.”  Kat whispered as tears ran down her face.  “Thank you so very much.  I will treasure this forever.”

“It’s just a little bit of something that I knew you’d love to have.”  Josephine replied as she looked at her watch.  “Now, we’d better get everything packed up and head back to the house or we’ll never have time for everyone to get ready.”

Angel hugged her sister as they began to gather up their new gifts.  “Is there room in the carriage Auntie or should we have the hotel send everything over to your house later?”  Angel asked.

“Probably be best to stack it all up and I‘ll speak with the hotel personnel about delivering it to the house.”  She replied.  “We are going to have to get moving if we want to make it over to the courthouse by 5:00.  Attention everyone, before you all leave I just want to invite everyone to the joint weddings that will be held at the courthouse at 6:00 tonight with a reception and dance to follow at the Jamison home.  Thank you all for coming on such short notice.”

It was agreed that Kat, Angel, Frances, Anna, Morgan, and Ali would head straight for the house and that the carriage would be sent back for Josephine and the gifts.  Marie would do as she chose and would show up at the weddings later if she decided she wanted to go. 

Kat and Angel mounted up and Frances helped Ali up in front of Kat.  Morgan, choosing a more sedate mode of travel climbed into the carriage.  “We’ll meet you at the house.”  Kat told them as she turned her horse, following Angel and Star up the street.

“Well Kat, are you ready for tonight?”  Angel asked her sister with a grin.  “I know you had plans for marrying me off but I don’t think you ever thought much about getting yourself hitched.”

“I suppose I’m as ready as I’ll ever be, besides, I’ll have this one to keep me out of trouble.”  She laughed as she ruffled Ali’s hair.  “I just don’t know if I’m ready to hand over all the decisions of my life to someone else.  I’m not sure that I’m ready to leave our ranch and move somewhere else either.”

“I know you’ve worked really hard for all we have Kat; but it will always be there and if things don’t work out for you and Rick, it’s still your home.”  Angel replied.  “Just so long as I can always send Matt back home too if he doesn’t behave.”

“It’s a deal!”  Kat agreed enthusiastically.  “I just wouldn’t want to put the two of you out if something happened.  I guess I shouldn’t really be worried about that though.  Rick and I seem to get along fine when we’re not verbally bashing each other.”

“That’s a great way to put a positive spin on it.”  Angel laughed so hard she almost fell out of the saddle as they rode up into their Aunt’s yard.  “Let’s get these horse’s turned over to the groom and go inside so we’ll have plenty of time to make ourselves beautiful for our husbands.”

“How about this for an idea, you make yourself beautiful and I’ll just concentrate on making myself presentable enough that he doesn’t run the other way when he sees me.”  Kat threw in sarcastically.  “One thing’s for sure, I’m very lucky that he knows what he getting beforehand; that sure would be embarrassing to see him turn and run for the back door when I walk down the aisle.”

“Oh Kat, stop!”  Angel protested as they walked into the house though the back door.  “He loves you and you know it.  Don’t make this out to be some pity offering when you know it’s not true.”

“Fine then, but just keep in mind that all brides aren’t nearly as beautiful as you’ll be.”  Kat sulked and looked down at her soon to be daughter.  “I am so sorry Ali.  I shouldn’t be so negative while you are within earshot.”

“Kat, why don’t you think you’re pretty?”  Ali asked quietly.  “I think you’re one of the prettiest girls I’ve ever known.  I’m glad you’re going to be my new mama.” 

With tears in her eyes, Kat gathered the little girl up against her and hugged her tight, then said with a smile; “You know what?  I’m glad I’m going to be your new mama too.”

They went upstairs, and into the room Kat had slept in the night before.  Minutes later, the room was invaded by three laughing women.  “We made a bet about who would get here first.  Morgan won.”  Frances laughed.  “You, Angel and Ali beat us here.  I thought that because you had Ali with you we might be able to beat you but Morgan said that even injured you ride too well for us to get ahead of you.”

“Thanks for the vote Morgan.”  Kat winked.  “It won’t be long before you’re just as good.”

“Me too?”  Ali asked, wanting to be part of the discussion.

“Yes, you too.”  Kat told her with a smile.  “One of the first things we’re going to do after I get moved in is find both of you an appropriate saddle mount; if you don’t already have one.  I’m surprised your father doesn’t already have both of you riding.”

“All of this will have to wait until after the wedding though.”  Anna laughed as she held the door open for a disgruntled Thurston and a smiling Frank. 

“See Thurston, I told you we would find all the women in the same place.”  Frank announced.  “Sure makes delivering all these frilly things a lot easier.”

“Willie is just lucky he’s not around to receive a piece of my mind.”  Grumbled Thurston, “Deputy duties my eye.”

“In all actuality, he really was deputized.”  Anna said sticking up for her brother.

“Unless of course Thurston; you want to go stand guard over Sheriff Fairchild.”  Frances added, sticking her tongue out.

After depositing the boxes and assorted dresses on the bed, Thurston left in a huff.  “Since you seem to be enjoying yourself sir, I’ll leave you to finish carrying the ladies unmentionables.  I have much more important things to occupy my time than girlish nonsense.”

“I’m sure that includes gossiping with Cook and polishing the silver.”  Frances laughed as he left.  “He can be such a stick in the mud.”

Anna and Morgan began opening boxes and sorting out clothing and accessories.  “Ali, can you be a dear and go downstairs and ask Cook to send Katie up here?”  Frances asked as she picked up several a couple chemises and looked around trying to decide who they belonged to.  “Ask her to bring one or two of the other maids with her.  I think we’re going to need some help getting ready.”

Ali skipped out of the room in search of Cook.  “What should we do with our hair?”  Angel asked pulling hers back and posing in different positions.  “Should we leave it down or maybe curl it?”

“I think you should both leave it down.  I think it will look beautiful cascading down your back.  There may even be a couple rose buds that haven’t bloomed yet that would be pretty like this…”  Anna said turning Angel’s hair in an elegant twist before spinning her towards the mirror to look at her reflection.

“Oh that does look pretty Angel.”  Kat agreed before turning to Anna.  “Do you think you could do that with both of our hair?”

“Of course, it’s not hard at all.  If you’d like I can show you how it’s done and you could wear your hair that way all the time.”  She replied with a smile.

“I think I’d like that; at least for around the house.  When I’m working stock, the best thing to do is just braid it back out of the way.”  Kat replied thoughtfully.

“Well don’t just stand there everyone.  We’ve got two weddings to attend.”  Frances stated pulling on the rope cord to summon the maids that Ali had gone in search of.  “We have an honest to goodness bath room down the hall.  Daddy might be a little upset with the usage but Mama will make him understand.  Ladies if everyone will follow me, we are about to make the upstairs off limits to all men.”

Leading the way, Frances showed the girls to the wonderful bathroom.  There were two separate tubs so they all elected to put Kat and Angel in first.  The two sisters stripped out of their clothing while Frances and Anna filled the big tubs with hot water.  Frances turned away from the cabinet and set out some very fragrant vanilla scented soap. 

“Mama had this soap made special.  Rather than smelling all flowery, you can smell a little more like home.  She swears it smells like sugar cookies and makes us smell good enough to eat.”  Frances laughed.  “I had some extra added to our last order because I liked it so much.  I thought maybe I’d give some to you both for a wedding present.  I hope you like it.”

“Oh it smells so good that it almost tempts you to taste it.”  Angel laughed looking at Kat.  “Maybe it would taste better than that old lye soap you used to make me bite when I said a curse word.”

“This bath is going to feel so good.”  Kat sighed.  “I haven’t had an honest to goodness hot soak since before all the trouble started at the ranch.  I bet I have an inch of dirt on me.”  She added laughing.

“We better get in and get scrubbing.”  Angel giggled.  “It just might take a month to scrub ya clean if there’s that much dirt.”

The sisters stepped into the tubs and were sinking down into the bubbles when Josephine came in with Ali.  “I found this little girl wandering the halls looking for a cookie.”  She laughed. 

“Our cook at home always has cookies for us.”  Ali informed everyone.  “I help her make them.”

“She is right about that Kat.  Consuela lets Ali help her in the kitchen all the time to keep her out of mischief.  I’m not real sure it always works but they seem to have an arrangement of sorts.  As long as there are cookies, Ali helps with the chores.”  Morgan supplied.

“Well, they gave me a chore Morgan.  I was supposed to find the maids, so I was finding a cookie so I could find the maids.”  Ali replied straight-faced.

“Let’s get you downstairs and find you a cookie then, shall we?”  Josephine took Ali’s hand and they left the room as abruptly as they entered.

They decided that they should scrub their hair first before they sat in the water too long.  Sliding under water to get it wet, they marveled at having a tub big enough to that.  “I can’t get over how large this tub is.”  Kat said admiringly.  “You could almost fit two people in it at the same time.”

Leaning close and dropping her voice to a whisper “That is quite true Kat.  Mother and Father have been known to sneak up here, lock the door, and take really long baths together; although no one knows about it of course.”  She laughed conspiringly.

“That sounds quite fun to me.”  Kat grinned.  “Actually, it’s something that may be worth trying.”