In a Stranger's Arms (13 page)

Her words anointed his wounds with healing balm.

“Caddie, you’re a genius!” In the grip of his idea, Manning scarcely noticed that he’d called his wife by her first name.

Before be could stop himself, he reached across the table and enfolded her hand in both of his. “We can take some of the lumber we mill and start a sideline building furniture—plain, serviceable chairs and tables.”

With his own background in woodworking, the plan immediately felt right to him. “Most of the finish work could be done by women. I’ll bet that fellow who lost his legs can still operate a lathe or drive a team. As for Jeff Pratt...” Manning shrugged. “There’s got to be something he could do. Learn to weave rattan cane or sea grass for chair seats, maybe?”

“That would be perfect!” Her face lit in a way Manning had never seen it, Caddie brought her free hand up to squeeze his.

Perhaps it was only wishful thinking, but he suspected if the table had not formed a barrier between them, she might have thrown her arms around his neck. It scared him almost nauseous to realize how much he yearned for one fleeting, impulsive embrace. That weak moment when he’d taken Caddie in his arms had whetted his appetite for forbidden fruit.

Determined to resist his growing attraction, he pulled his hands away from hers with such force that he knocked over a glass tumbler—one of a precious few that had survived the war. One look at Caddie’s face told him he’d done something inexcusable.

Pushing back his chair, he cursed under his breath. “We shouldn’t be using these for everyday. They ought to be locked up for special occasions!”

Before Caddie could summon any words of rebuke, he stalked off to the sawmill, where he worked feverishly on some final repairs. The chores occupied his hands and part of his mind.

Not all of it, though.

He was doing what he needed to do—what he’d promised to do. Manning had hoped that might buy him a little peace, and it had. But only a little. Something else gnawed at him now.

He’d lied to himself by pretending marriage to Caddie Marsh was the only way to repay his debt. He could have found a less personal means, if he’d given it some hard, honest thought.

Instead, he’d surrendered to his bone-deep longing for a family, using the Marshes’ desperate situation to foist himself upon them. In the days since, Templeton and Varina had burrowed their way into his guarded, empty heart. Somehow, they had tapped a wellspring of spontaneous affection and fatherly intuition Manning had never suspected in his nature. With a swiftness that terrified him, the children were becoming as essential to his existence as water and air.

If he should ever lose them... Manning pictured a fish writhing on the creek bank, its gills straining against the dry air that could not sustain its life.

As he tightened the mill’s belts for the third time, Manning’s renegade thoughts turned to Caddie. From one minute to the next, his feelings for her reeled between intense wariness and equally intense attraction. Like the lethal push and pull of a jagged saw blade. There were times like tonight, when she’d clutched his hands across the narrow table, that he feared it would cut him in two.

For his own peace of mind, he must go one way or the other, and the only reasonable course was to fight the relentless pull she exercised upon him. He had no right to her, after all. Besides, she was so dangerously inquisitive with her subtle but persistent questions about his past. If she ever guessed his true motive for coming to Sabbath Hollow—and there were times Manning was convinced she must know—she would turn him out, depriving him of the only real family he might ever have.

One that grew more precious to him by the hour.

With the familiar, comforting aromas of old timber and fresh sawdust filling his nostrils, Manning made a vow to keep his bride at arm’s length or farther, and to fight the powerful grip she’d begun to exert upon him.

Already he felt like an exhausted trout trying to swim up the millrace.

Several days later, Caddie glanced out at the laundry she’d hung to dry and bit back a cuss word.

May had blown in like the lion that belonged to early March. The children loved this windy weather, for Manning had helped them build kites out of brown paper and slender bits of strapping from the mill.

Caddie hated the unseasonable gales. Doors blowing open, startling her half to death. A hundred drafts whistling in the boarded and broken windows of Sabbath Hollow. Not to mention the havoc wreaked on her clothesline.

Sheets knotted around the long rope. Undergarments blasted off, sprawling on the grass in lewd positions. Stray twigs and pine needles besmirching the laundry she’d labored so hard to wash clean. Lately Caddie felt like a sheet on the clothesline of life, blown and twisted by fickle, powerful winds.

Some days her spirits soared higher than the children’s kites. After her years in Richmond, struggling to care for Tem and Varina on her own, it was such a blessed relief to have help feeding, clothing and loving them. With that wearying weight lifted from her shoulders, her whole disposition felt buoyed, until she found herself smiling and laughing for no reason at all.

Except that it felt so damnably good to be alive again.

She had a new dress for the first time in years, and for the first time in years she found herself taking an interest in her appearance. Just the other night, when she had caught Manning in a rare appreciative glance, her heart had wafted up to a dizzying height. Though she’d steeled herself against it, she couldn’t help admiring the man, even liking him a little.

He was so solicitous of her and the children. He helped out with the house chores, took a firm but fond hand with Tem and Varina, and never failed to return from town with some small luxury for them. He seemed to draw nourishment from the simple labors of family life, absorbing them almost greedily.

Then some searing reminder of the war and its aftermath would dash Caddie painfully to earth again. She’d recollect that Manning Forbes was a Yankee, a member of the race she’d sworn to condemn with her last breath. No matter how hard he tried to ingratiate himself with her family, the fact remained that he had come south with the sole purpose of making his fortune. When he had done that, there was every danger he might leave—inflicting a loss on Tem and Varina more memorable and personal than the death of a father neither of them could recall.

Like a mercurial weathervane, Caddie’s manner toward her husband shifted as it was blown first by a warm zephyr, then by a frigid Arctic blast. Not that he seemed to notice or care most of the time. Manning’s transparent affection for the children contrasted sharply with his often gruff indifference to her.

Though she tried to convince herself it was just the way she wanted him to behave, in her secret soul it rankled. Clearly, she must lack the power to captivate a man. Hadn’t Del’s indiscretion with Lydene convinced her of that?

Bang! Caddie jumped at the sound of the front door blowing open yet again.

“Mama!’’ Varina hollered at the top of her lungs from the entry. “A lady’s come calling to see you!”

Caddie’s stomach twisted up tight. This was the first time any of the neighbors had paid a visit to Sabbath Hollow. Had they decided to quit shunning her at last?

Hiking up her skirts, she raced to the top of the stairs, then gulped a deep breath before gliding down the steps with no trace of ill-bred haste. She smiled at the sight of Dora Gordon. The girl wore a look of furtive guilt, as though she’d just crossed the threshold of a house of ill repute.

“Varina, dear.” Caddie gave her daughter
the look
. “When you announce a caller, you’re supposed to come find Mama and tell her in a nice quiet voice.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Varina swiped a stray rusty-red curl out of her eyes. Her tone proclaimed that such niceties were a waste of valuable time, but she had better things to do than argue the point “I have to go get my kite out of the maple tree.”

“Be careful, now. Tem can—”

The front door slammed shut behind the child. This time Caddie knew better than to blame the wind.

She gave an exasperated shake of her head, then held out her hands to Dora. “It’s good to see you again, dear. I hope your mother hasn’t taken a turn for the worse.”

“No, Mrs. Forbes, ma’am.” The girl spoke Caddie’s married name in the hushed tone usually reserved for blasphemy. “Ma seems to be rallying. I reckon Doc Mercer was right about needing to rile her up. The food you’ve brought has helped, too.”

“I’m glad to hear it.” Caddie wondered if she might also be the cause of Mrs. Gordon’s agitation. “I’d invite you into the parlor, but we haven’t a decent stick of furniture in it. Would you mind taking a cup of tea with me in the kitchen?”

“Real tea?” whispered Dora.

“Isn’t it a treat?” Caddie led her guest to the back of the house. “My, er, husband brought some back the last time he went into town.”

The girl murmured a reply that Caddie didn’t quite catch.

“I beg your pardon, dear? I must be getting old, though I feel years younger since we’ve come back to Sabbath Hollow.”

Dora giggled. “I didn’t mean to say anything, ma’am. It just popped about.” She seemed to weigh Caddie’s ability to take a joke. “I wondered if Mr. Forbes might have a younger brother who was looking for a wife.”

“I guarantee that would rile your ma into robust health.” Caddie counterfeited a laugh so Dora would not think her offended.

In fact, the innocent jest stung her pride like a burr. Was that what the neighbors thought of her marriage? That she’d latched on to a Yankee carpetbagger who could lavish her with all the luxuries she’d missed during the war? Couldn’t they see it had been a matter of survival for her and her children?

Had it? queried Caddie’s conscience as she brewed the tea and made polite conversation with Dora. She and the children could have moved in with Lon and Lydene, extending their stay indefinitely. They could have gone home to her brother Gideon in South Carolina. Marrying Manning Forbes had simply been the least humiliating option available to her.

She’d put her own sinful pride before Southern loyalty.

As she poured the dark, steaming tea into Dora’s cup, Caddie tried to scour her mind of that damning conclusion. Like a stubborn stain, it would not go away.

“Have you thought about coming to work at Sabbath Hollow?” She forced herself to concentrate on trying to hire Dora. Anything to distract her thoughts. “Don’t be daunted by the size of the house. I wouldn’t expect you to keep it up to the standards we were once used to. In fact, there are several of the rooms we’ve closed for a while. I don’t plan to sit back and play the lady of leisure, either.”

Dora closed her eyes and breathed in the aromatic steam rising from her cup. Perhaps the smell fortified her resolve, for she replied, “I’ve given it plenty of thought, Mrs. Forbes. I’d like to come work here provided I don’t have to live in. I promise I’ll be here good and early every morning to start the fires. It’s no distance from our place to yours if I cut through our back pasture.”

“Very well.” Caddie let her held breath ease out “You’re hired. I plan to take care of upstairs myself, if you’ll see to the downstairs and kitchen chores.”

She wasn’t sure she wanted anyone else poking around the bedrooms, discovering the family’s sleeping arrangements.

They talked about hours and wages. Finally Dora savored her last mouthful of tea. “If it’s all right with you, ma’am, I’ll start first thing tomorrow morning.”

“I’ll look forward to it.” She would, too, Caddie realized.

It had been such a long time since she’d had another woman around to talk to over a cup of tea, midmorning or before starting supper. With less of her time occupied by mundane chores, perhaps her mind wouldn’t so easily fall prey to futile regrets and even more futile fantasies.

A thick ledger book in his hands, Manning waited at the foot of the stairs as Caddie came down after putting the children to bed. “I’d like to ask a favor of you, ma’am.”

“Favor?” Caddie stared at the book.

“Now that you’ve got the Gordon girl to keep house, I wondered if you could lend me a hand with the business. Seeing as we’re supposed to be partners and all.”