Liam (12 page)

“Eleanor?” Liam’s voice brought her mind back to the present.

“Yes.”

“Shall we go inside? I’m sure Becky’s waiting. She’s been very excited about your visit. She was baking cookies last night after supper, just for today.”

“Oh, how nice. She must remember that I have a sweet tooth.”

“I’ll say. Those boxes of chocolates seem to go over well with you.” He winked at her.

She felt herself blush. “Chocolates
are
my favorite. Though in all fairness, I do share them with my students and my father. He has a liking for them as well.”

Liam took her elbow, “Here let me help you.” He guided her across the uneven ground to the front porch of the cabin.

It really was a lovely little place. There were two good sized windows on either side of the door and one in the door itself. They would let in the sunshine, so different from living in the tent where the only light came from the open flap or a kerosene lamp. It would be wonderful. She was already looking forward to living here.

Someone, she suspected Becky, had planted flowers in two plots, one on either side of the path to the porch. Two steps led to the wide porch on which sat a swing and two rocking chairs. Eleanor could picture her and Liam sitting in the swing on a warm summer night, watching the kids play in the yard. Or better yet, holding hands and maybe doing a little kissing after the children had gone to bed. She smiled.

“What has you smiling, my dear?” asked Liam.

She felt herself blush at being caught daydreaming, but said “I was just imagining our life together here. I like the cabin very much.”

“You haven’t even seen the inside yet, how can you like it?”

“It’s wonderful. You have windows and a porch and a swing. It’s all I could ask for.”

He laughed. “I didn’t know you were going to be so easy to please.”

She wrapped her arm around the crook in his elbow and leaned into him. “You’d be amazed at how little it takes to make me happy.”

Liam stopped walking half way up the path to the cabin. “Eleanor, I want you to be happy. I will do everything in my power to see that you are content with your choice of me as your husband.”

She looked up into his face. His expression was so earnest. She turned toward him and put her hand on his chest. “Liam, I am happy. Just being here and planning our life together is more wonderful than I ever thought possible.”

He patted her hand. “I’m glad. I hope you will always feel that way.”

“I’m sure I will.” She hoped she sounded more convincing than she felt. In reality she was terrified. Yes, she liked the house and was falling in love with its owner, she worried that her contentment would flee if he never loved her back.

He started walking again and before she knew it they were stepping up on the porch and Becky was there waiting for them.

“Ellie, I’m so glad you finally made it. Come in. Come in. Liam let go of her so she can get through the door.”

Eleanor glanced over at Liam and watched as he rolled his eyes at his bossy little sister-in-law. Becky grabbed Eleanor’s free hand and pulled her inside.

Laughing, Eleanor said, “I’m coming. Give me a chance to catch my breath.”

“Here, give me your coat. We have a good fire going and I’ve got fresh coffee and sugar cookies.” Becky took Eleanor’s coat and reticule and lay them on the child’s bed closest to the door. “I’m making a chili for dinner. I got this recipe from a Mexican lady in camp. It’s really good. I use leftover beans…I thought I’d never eat beans again, now that we can afford not to, but this recipe is so good. Sit, let me pour you a cup of coffee. Or would you prefer tea? I can make tea.”

Eleanor sat at the rough hewn pine table. It was long, with three chairs on each side and one on each end.

“Becky,” she grabbed the younger woman by the wrist on one of her passes by Eleanor’s chair. “Calm yourself. Sit down and talk to me. How are you feeling?”

“I’m wonderful. It’s so nice to have another woman here. Hannah and I feel outnumbered sometimes. Poor little thing.”

Hannah had followed them in and went to her daddy’s side. She started to put her thumb in her mouth but thought better of it and swung her hand behind her back.

“Ellie?” said Hannah.

“Yes, sweetie, what is it?”

“Are you gonna be my mama now?”

“I am,” confirmed Eleanor, as she leaned down to the child’s level. “Is that all right with you?”

Hannah nodded.

“Now, tell me Why you’re shy now when you’re an absolute chatterbox at school?”

“But this ain’t school.” Then she was silent for a minute. Finally she asked the burning question. “Are you gonna live here, too?”

Eleanor almost corrected the girl but this wasn’t her home yet and she wouldn’t embarrass Hannah for the world.

“Yes, I’m going to live here. It is all right with you that this is going to be my home, too?”

Hannah didn’t answer right away so Eleanor prodded her with what she thought might really be on the child’s mind.

“Sweetheart, I want you to know that your daddy is still your daddy. That’s not going to change just because I live here, too. You understand?”

Hannah shook her head, no.

“Well, I’m going to be your mama and I’m going to be your daddy’s wife. Those are two of the most important jobs in the world to me. But teaching you and the other children at school is also important to me. When we’re at school, I’m still Miss Ellie. Since I’m also going to be your mama, when we come home you can call me Ellie or Mama, whichever you like.”

“Can I just call you Mama now and at school, too? It’s very confusin’.”

Eleanor laughed. “Yes, I suppose it is. Maybe, for now, you should call me Ellie all the time. Your daddy and I aren’t married yet, so it wouldn’t be appropriate for you to call me mama.”

“See,” interjected Liam. “That’s another reason to get married sooner rather than later. We don’t want the kids in a state of confusion. We need to move up the date of the wedding and that would solve everything.”

“I’ve told you,” said Eleanor, exasperated with him. “There are too many things to do before the wedding.”

“I know, I know. You have to embroider linens and make dresses and who knows what else,” he complained. “I don’t see why you can’t get married in that nice dress you wore for our first outing. You know, the pink one.”

“Yes,” she rolled her eyes. “I know the one. I only have two dresses, one pink and one blue.”

“We’ll get you more,” he settled his hand over hers on the table where they sat. “As many as you want.”

“You’re spending money before you even have it,” she cautioned.

“Not true. We’ve got the mine working twenty-four hours a day. Miners don’t mind working at night since it’s dark in the mine they can’t tell the difference.”

“Where is Jake? At the mine?” asked Eleanor, suddenly realizing he wasn’t with Becky.

“Yeah, he’s overseeing the operations while we hire another manager for the night shift. Each of us take turns. Today is Jake’s turn because Zach and I both have plans.”

“Ellie, come see the rest of the house,” said Becky. “You get to see Liam all the time. I haven’t seen you in weeks.”

She stood, “I’d love to see it.”

Becky looped their arms together. “First come see my pride and joy. I’m getting one just like it for our house in Deadwood.”

They moved across to the left side of the room, to what was the kitchen. Becky stopped in front of a huge four-burner, wood burning, cook stove. It had a warming box on the back side above the burners, big enough to hold two full plates of food. Above the box was a warming shelf to hold a full loaf of bread and even another plate if you wanted. It was very grand when compared to her little two burner stove at home.

Eleanor couldn’t stop herself from running her fingers lovingly over the warming box. The stove itself was hot, with fresh coffee merrily boiling on top of one of the burners.

“It’s grand. I’ve always wanted a bigger stove but Father couldn’t see the point of having one when it was just the two of us.”

“You’re lucky. At least you had a stove. I’m so tired of trying to cook over a campfire,” said Becky. “This is just heaven to me.”

“I can’t believe you’re so excited over a stove,” said Liam.

Eleanor turned to him, “If you’d done much cooking, you’d be excited over it, too.”

“Hey, I did plenty of cooking on the campfire. It was all right,” he retorted.

“Could you bake bread? Could you roast a haunch of beef? Or did you mostly have beans and stews? Not that they are bad, just that you’re limited to what you can cook without a real stove,” said Eleanor.

Liam raised his hands. “All right. I surrender. I see your point. I should know better than to argue with two women.”

Eleanor and Becky laughed.

“Come see the rest of the house.” Becky led the way down the hall to the bedrooms. “There are three bedrooms and I’ve heard that Liam plans on putting in more and making the house bigger all around.”

“So he tells me. He said he’ll have it built however I want. All I have to do is tell him what I dream of and he’ll make it so.”

“It’s true, Eleanor. Anything you want. Jake is building me my dream home in Deadwood. It should be finished in a month or so. By the time you get married, Jake and I will be gone from here and living in our own house. I’m so excited, I can hardly sleep.”

After Becky and Eleanor returned from their little foray to see the bedrooms, Liam pulled Eleanor aside. “Would you like to take a walk?”

“Oh, yes. That would be lovely.”

“Don’t be gone too long. I’m going to have dinner ready soon. Jake will be back here by one o’clock, so you be back by then, too,” said Becky. “I want you to eat it while it’s hot.”

Liam put her arm through his and patted her hand. “Come, my dear.”

They walked out into the bright sunshine and went northwest along the creek.

“Our claim runs up the creek to just around the bend. Then Becky’s claim picks up for another one hundred yards or so.”

“It’s very beautiful here.”

He stopped, took her hands in his and pulled her close. “Do you think you’ll mind living here? Camp is only minutes away, but except for the miners we are alone. There aren’t any other wives or children that I’m aware of.”

She cocked her head and stared into his beautiful silver eyes. “Liam, as long as the children and I are with you, we can live anywhere. Do you forget I’ve spent most of my life living out of a tent?”

“You’re amazing.”

He lowered his head and claimed her lips.

She closed her eyes and let him take her on an incredible journey. Only the two of them existed. There were no fathers or children or brothers, or anyone but them.

He pulled away and rested his forehead against hers. “You sorely tempt me, Eleanor. I can hardly wait to make you mine.”

“Yes.”

“Yes? What?”

“I want to be yours. I can’t wait either.”

“Eleanor, regardless of your years, you are still an innocent. Do you know what I’m saying? What we’ll do together?”

She leaned back and looked up at him. “I’ve been tending the ladies at
The Gem
, and more just like them in every camp we’ve been to, for the last fifteen years. I’m well aware of what goes on between men and women.”

“What those girls do everyday has little resemblance to the relations between a husband and wife. You
do
understand that, don’t you?”

She furrowed her brows. “Oh, I don’t know about that. Seems to me that what they do is exactly the same as between a husband and wife, except they do it over and over again with different men instead of just one.”

“No,” he said vehemently. “It’s different. There are feelings between a husband and wife.”

“What kind of feelings?” She cocked her eyebrow. “Are you going to tell me you’re in love with me?”

He released her like she’d burned him. “No, of course not. I don’t believe I’ll ever love again, not like I did. I don’t think I’m capable of it. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t care for you. I do. Very much.”

She smiled up at him. It was more than she ever expected him to say. She could work with this. He’d fall in love with her or her name wasn’t Eleanor Smith, soon to be Anderson. She liked the sound of that. Eleanor Anderson.

CHAPTER 10

Jordan had watched her all week. She’d gotten rid of her crutches on Saturday and gone with Anderson to his house. Sunday she spent like he thought all preachers’ daughters must, helping her father with his flock. The rest of the week she visited miner’s families. He could tell she was happy to be walking again, she bounced with every step.

Now it was Saturday again. He’d hired two men to work for him. They were the most unsavory characters, but would be loyal as long as he had the money to pay them. And they didn’t balk when he told them what he wanted them to do. Both of them shrugged and said, “When do you want us to do it?”

She would be with Anderson again today. It was their pattern. Saturdays and Wednesdays. On Wednesday they would have dinner at the hotel or her tent, go to the theater and then he would walk her home. They would indulge in some intense kissing when he dropped her off. If Jordan had been a less tolerant type he would have been appalled by their kissing. However, all he could manage was a curiosity about what she saw in Anderson or he in her that they could spend twenty minutes doing nothing but kissing.