Josie: Bride of New Mexico (American Mail-Order Bride 47) (6 page)

“I’m sorry.”

“Richard and I intentionally waited for full disclosure until you and your sister were our wives. I have no hope but to trust you implicitly— as the closest family member I have. My fate is in your hands.” He enclosed her hand in both of his.

“So, allow me to ensure I understand you correctly.” She firmed her lips, sat little straighter, and even went so far as to glance at the hallway of the rail car and back to the galley to ensure they were alone. “My purpose as your wife is to bring to you my life experience as a wage earner. A worker.”

Disappointment slammed into him. This wasn’t what he wanted, this seriousness, the way she stated the facts and made it all business. He couldn’t dispute her, but hated that he was responsible for that expression on her face.

“No, no, Darling. I wanted a wife. I’m ready for a wife. You are, first and foremost, my bride. Granted, I selected you in part because of what you could bring me— a perspective I cannot understand. No amount of schooling can give me the insight you have.”

He trailed a forefinger along the curve of her cheek.

She turned into his touch in a rush of warmth nearly made him tremble.

“I want you. For better or for worse, it’s you and me, Mrs. Taylor. If we can figure this out together, then perhaps we can save Cannon Mining from probable ruin.”

She looked troubled. Not the reaction he was looking for.

“If we fail to reach a compromise, a level of lasting communication with the employees, then at least I’ll know we tried. We gave it our best, and more importantly, I’d like to know I trusted the right person. Josie, I’m willing to trust you,
completely,
from this moment forward.”

“Why?”

“I’ve given you my name, my ring, my protection. I plan to grow old with you, Josie Anne Taylor. I plan to live a rich and full life with you at my side. You will be the mother of my children.” Emotion clogged his throat and stung his eyes. He finally knew what his wife looked like, and pleasure at her goodness and beauty welled within him.

“I plan to love you. I don’t know when, or how, but I will be madly in love with you— and only you.”

He
planned
to be in love with her?

He planned to be in love. With
her
.

He planned to be
in love
. With
her
.

So many of the emotions she’d known earlier in the day came rushing back. The amazing realization during his kiss at the wedding that he was her
husband
. The joyful anticipation she’d felt. She felt it all over again.

Shyness at his intensity, and the fact he made her his entire focus, had her unable to meet his gaze.

“And do you know the best way to fall in love with one’s spouse?”

She shook her head. But if pressed, she knew all it would take, for her to fall utterly and completely in love with him, was a day or two in his company.

“Courtship. Every day. For the rest of her life.” He leaned near and kissed her, a brief and chaste meeting of lips. “And your best response is to to allow my courtship.”

She nodded, awkward and nervous, but breathless too. At the train station when he’d essentially proposed marriage, she’d believed in that moment she
could
love this man. Now she believed she was already halfway in love with him.

Now she knew so much more about him… his extended family, the burdens he carried in the company, his honest and almost desperate determination to love her and earn her love in return.

How could she resist? And why would she want to?

She could reconcile both views of Mr. Taylor, the charming man who’d looked at her as if she were the only woman in the world, and the businessman who needed what she could give him. A trustworthy, reliable confidant with a view to the world he needed to better understand.

He didn’t only want a solution for his business. The truth was as plain as could be, on his face, in his eyes.

He wanted to love her.

He planned to love her.

She almost couldn’t breathe.

When a man like him made up his mind to do something, to achieve something… he did it. The mere thought that she was the prize he intended to win, that he intended to court her, and eventually win her love, made her nearly dizzy.

Amazing, that he wanted to court her, every day of her life, simply because her love was a prize worth winning. He already had what he needed from her business-wise. She’d married him.that very day, in the eyes of man and God. And marriage was forever.

She’d seen plenty of miserable women, locked in marriages they could barely abide, to men who mistreated them, refused to adequately support their family, and followed insults with injury.

As far as she could tell, Adam Taylor was none of those things.

He wanted to fall madly in love with her.

“I intend,” he continued, “to court you with everything I am, with all that I have on our wedding trip.” His smile melted her heart. “Will you accept my courtship, Mrs. Taylor?”

She melted into a puddle at his feet. “Yes.” She was breathless.

“Yes, Mr. Taylor. Gladly.”

“Now that we’re married, and have begun courting…”

She giggled.

“May I have permission to address you as Josie?”

“Yes. Please do.”

“Will you address me as Adam?”

He brushed light fingertips over the back of her hand, his touch an intimate caress that caused shivers to skate up her limb. “I realize we’ve barely met, but we are husband and wife. Will you do me the great courtesy of addressing me by my first name?”

“If it pleases you.”

He held her gaze, searched her eyes until she couldn’t bear the intimacy any longer and looked away.

“It would please me very much, Josie, if you’d address me as Adam, at least when we are alone. And I thank you for allowing me the honor of using your given name.”

Calling him by name would be easy— she’d never set much store by the rules of the wealthy or socially elite. She’d worked long hours with women of her own station who’d seldom relied on the formalities.

The intensity of his questions, his courtship— it was all too much, too fast. Perhaps a change of subject would be for the best. “Mr. Taylor, Adam, thank you for the kindness you’ve shown me in so many ways. I’d be honored…
grateful
, if and when you have the time, for your help in relearning my letters.” She swallowed.

Heat warmed her face. “Your gift of stationery was most welcome and very thoughtful. I recognize you have work to do, that this journey to New Mexico will require a great deal of your time over the coming weeks, but I would like very much to be able to write letters to my sister and friends.”

“Madam, I’m honored. I would enjoy nothing more. Consider me at your service.”

His smile, so genuine and full of light and happiness was infectious. She found herself smiling back, the happiness in this secluded journey, the special time they would have alone a gift she’d never anticipated.

She would do all she could to be a pleasant companion. She’d set aside her homesickness, her longing for lost female friends and the gaping hole Lessie had always filled, to ensure her new husband did not regret his choice.

Adam leaned across the small table, sunlight seeming to sparkle in his captivating blue eyes.

Her pulse quickened as he brought his lips ever nearer her own, making his intention understood. He dropped his attention to her mouth then slowly met her gaze once more.

“Mrs. Taylor, Josie, I would very much like to kiss you.”

With newfound bravery, Josie found it easy to reply. “Please do.”

Chapter Seven

When Josie finally pulled away it was a case of self-preservation. She needed to breathe, didn’t she? Adam’s kisses were almost too much to take and as she looked at the handsome, tousled man beside her, catching his own breath, she wondered if it was possible to fall in love so quickly.

She didn’t know what to say after the way his kisses set her afire, so she latched onto the first thing she thought of, a continuation of her previous subject.

“I…” she cleared her throat, wanting nothing more than to turn to him once more. Let him kiss her senseless again. She’d had no idea kisses could make her feel that way. “I attended perhaps two years of school, total. That’s why I don’t write very well. Our father died when we were young, and our mother passed away by the time we were about ten. Lessie fought hard to keep us together, but we were in the factories, working, by age eleven. She sometimes sent me to school and she worked, then I would share with her everything I learned.”

Adam focused on her with flattering intensity. His very interest thrilled her, made her feel special.

So why was she sharing her lack of education with him as if it was the most naturally thing in the world? Was she trying to push her new husband away? Humiliate herself?

His attentiveness made her feel all prickly inside. Her head was still spinning from his kisses. Maybe she should excuse herself and go to bed before she said anything else.

“Would you like me to write your correspondence for you? You could dictate, if you wish, and I’ll merely act as scribe?”

And then he had to go and say that, his kindness overwhelming her… melting her, as did her reaction to him. She must’ve given away some of her uncertainty for he hurried to speak. “But if you’d rather, my dear, I’m happy to allow you all the time you need to write your letters yourself. I’ll assist you in any way I can, including allowing you peace and quiet to do it on your own.”

“Thank you, Mr. Taylor.”

“Adam.”

She nodded. Swallowed. “Adam.” Her voice lowered to a husky pitch.

He shivered, drew in a shaky breath and stared at her mouth. “I’ll give you lessons if you wish. Penmanship. Spelling. I’ll give you anything you wish. Anything.”

Her eyelashes fluttered. “I think I’d better go to bed now.”