Mail Order Minx: Fountain of Love (Brides of Beckham) (7 page)

Millie frowned.  The boys had been holding the slingshots upside down.  Was she supposed to just walk away and let the other children laugh at them?

"She gave old Pappy money yesterday, and he shot out one of my windows," someone else protested.

"Did you know she tried to get Mary Sanders to marry John Bennett?  Those two have hated each other since they were knee high to a grasshopper.  What is the woman thinking?"  She didn't recognize the voice that said that.

Slowly she left the door and went back to work, preparing the food for the day.  Did the whole town see her as some sort of idiot who could do nothing right? She couldn't stay somewhere where she wasn't appreciated, but where would she go?  She certainly couldn't go back to Beckham, because she would be laughed at. 

Finally, she hit on the idea.  She'd heard the mountains near Gullet Gulch were riddled with caves.  She'd go live in a cave somewhere.  First she'd have to learn to shoot, though, but she had money.  She could pay one of the local teenage boys to teach her to shoot.  How hard could it be?

When Connor came back into the kitchen, he looked angry, but he said nothing to her about the conversation with the men in the dining room.  She knew he was angry with her though.  How could he not be?  She was angry with herself when she heard all the things she'd done wrong listed at one time.

They worked together in silence, with him unable to meet her eyes.  That's how she knew he was angry with her.  He'd never avoided her eyes before, not even when he'd found out she couldn't cook.  She would have to put her plan in action.

*****

That afternoon while Connor was doing the books for the hotel, she caught one of the teens on their way home from school.  "Do you know how to shoot?" she asked.
  She knew he'd know how, because all boys could shoot, couldn't they?

The boy nodded.  "I hunt all the time.  Why?"

"Well, I want to learn to shoot.  Do you think you could teach me?  I would pay you."  She'd never imagined that she would ask a boy to teach her to shoot, but her plan wouldn't work if she had no way to defend herself.

He studied her for a minute.  "Girls can't shoot.  It would have to be a lot."

Millie thought about what a fourteen year old boy would consider a lot.  "How about fifty cents?" 

His eyes widened, and he nodded eagerly.  "You got a gun?"

"No, and I don't want my husband to know about this, so would you buy one for me?  I'll give you the money."  She was certain with the way the mercantile owner felt about her, he'd never sell her a rifle anyway.  She took ten dollars from her purse and handed it to him.  "Is this enough?"

His eyes gaped, and he nodded.  "I'll go get it now.  Going to get you some ammunition too."

"Wait, before you run off, you need to at least tell me your name."  She didn't dare let him leave with her money without knowing his name.  What if he never came back?  She'd be out ten dollars.

"It's Louis.  Louis Stockton."

She nodded, watching as he ran off toward the mercantile.  He met her in the park ten minutes later with a gun and a small bag that he said was shells.  "Let's go to the woods.  I don't think it's a good idea for you to teach me out in the open like this."  Truly, with the luck she'd been having, she was certain that if she learned to shoot in town, she'd simply shoot a passerby. 

He walked toward the woods just outside of town.  "I got you a shotgun, because it's easier to aim.  You have so many pellets shooting out, it's hard to miss your target."

She nodded.  "That sounds smart."  She didn't want to miss her target, whether it was a bear or a deer.  She needed to be able to shoot well.

When they got to the woods, Louis showed her how to load the shotgun, explaining what each part of the gun was called, and then showed her how to aim and shoot.  She hated holding the gun, but knew if she was going to make it for any length of time up on the mountain, she'd need to be able to shoot. 

They practiced for several hours until she realized it was getting dark.  "I need to get home.  Do you think I'm ready to go out on my own?"  She watched him carefully, hoping that he'd say yes, but she was prepared to ignore him if he said no.

He made a face.  "I
dunno, lady.  You probably need a few more lessons."

"Could I protect myself if I needed to?" she asked.
  That was the bottom line for her.  If a bear was coming at her, could she shoot it and not die?

He nodded reluctantly.  "I guess so."

She took fifty cents from her purse and handed it to him.  "Thank you for the lesson."  She quickly walked back to the hotel after hiding her shotgun in the woods where it wouldn't be found.

She would leave after work the following day.  Poor Connor didn't need to have his reputation ruined by her 'help' for even another day.

Chapter Seven

Connor never asked where she'd been when she arrived home, and he didn't talk to her about what the men had said in the restaurant which surprised her.  When she rolled to him in bed that evening, she clung to him, wanting a beautiful experience to remember.  She loved Connor with all her heart and hated that she had to leave him, but his town was rejecting her, and his business was there.  She really had no choice.

Business was booming the following day.  She was astonished at the sheer number of people who came through, and served everyone with a forced smile.  It was hard to want to smile when she knew every one of them hated her and wanted her gone.

She had hidden a small carpet bag in the woods during the night.  It had her clothes and her
shotgun in it along with a big jar of water.  Really, what else would she need?  She'd be living up in the mountains, and she'd have no problems living off nature.  Now that she could cook, it all seemed so terribly simple.  She should have thought of it sooner.

After work, she kissed Connor sweetly, clinging to him, and told him she was going for a walk. He nodded his eyes filled with passion for her.  "Be home before dark," he called after her.
  She had an odd look on her face as she left, and he worried that she was up to something.

She walked away from him without looking back, certain she wouldn't be able to go if she glanced back over her shoulder at him.  He was wearing his usual outfit of pants, a button-up shirt, and a cowboy hat.  When she'd asked him why he always wore the cowboy hats, even though he wasn't a cowboy, he'd shrugged.  "I like them better than a chef's hat."

Millie couldn't argue with his reasoning.  When she got to the woods, she found her bag and looked out toward the mountain.  She knew she probably couldn't make it all the way to the mountain before dark, and she certainly couldn't try to climb the mountain after dark, so she'd have to spend one night sleeping outside. 

As she walked, she cried, thinking about how much she was going to miss Connor.  He'd been a good husband to her, even thought she wasn't the wife he'd sent away for, and she'd started their marriage with a lie.  Every little sound in the
woods made her jump, afraid there was a bear or a mountain lion close.  She didn't even know what animals were indigenous to the area.  She wished she had a dog to accompany her, but she didn't. 

She reached the base of the mountain much faster than she'd expected, because she'd practically run through the woods.  She circled the mountain and found a small cave near the base, which she quickly decided would be her new home.  She slowly moved through the cave, looking for any animals that might be living in it, with her shotgun at her side.  How could she possibly make it through the night with as afraid as she was?

She went to the mouth of the cave and started a fire, thinking that would be the best way to scare off animals. It was chilly, and the fire gave off a nice warmth.  She opened her jar of water and took a drink before she realized she was hungry. What was she going to eat?  Living off the land sounded easy, but would she be able to actually do it?

She walked out of the cave for a moment having to squint into the setting sun.  She looked around for any edible plants, but she didn't really know which p
lants were edible.  She frowned.  Why had she assumed she would just find carrots and potatoes lying around ready for her to consume?

Millie knew she was going to have to shoot something, and she absolutely dreaded the idea.  How would she be able to shoot an animal and then ready it to cook?  Maybe she should have thought her plan through a little better.

She sat in the entrance to her cave for a moment.  Skipping supper sounded like a very good idea for that evening, and then she could get up early in the morning and worry about food then.  It wouldn't hurt her a bit to skip food for one night.

Leaning against the wall of the cave, she felt her eyes drooping.  Surprised that she was so tired, she moved back into the cave a bit further and laid down.  Why hadn't she thought to bring a pillow and something to use for a mattress. The hard cave floor wasn't pleasant. 

She'd had her eyes closed for less than a minute when she heard a commotion at the front of the cave.  Sitting up, she squinted into the darkness.  The fire gave off a little light, and she could see the shape of something towering at the entrance to the cave.  Reaching behind her, she groped for her shotgun, bringing it to her shoulder.

The gun was snatched from her hand.  "You're going to hurt someone with this!"  Connor stood over her, and he placed the shotgun against the wall behind him.  "Now tell me why you left me to come live in some cave."  He sat down beside her, not touching her, but very intent.  She could see by the dim firelight that he looked very sad.

She sighed.  "It wasn't so much that I left you as I left the town.  They...think I'm a troublemaker." She looked down at her hands.  Millie still couldn't believe anyone would think that of her.  She'd only tried to help.

Connor sighed.  "They did think that, yes, but I convinced them otherwise.  They know now that you were only trying to be helpful."  He reached out and patted her arm, thrilled that it hadn't been him to make her leave.  "Does that mean you didn't want to leave
me
?"  He had felt like a failure as a husband when he found out she'd left him, but he couldn't think of a thing that he'd done wrong.  He'd been beating himself up the entire way, trying to figure out how he'd failed her.

Millie threw herself into his arms, burying her face in his neck.  "Of course, I didn't want to leave you, but I didn't want to cause you any more trouble.  I was afraid that if I stayed, people would stop eating at the restaurant and stop being your friend."
  She couldn't bear for him to be ostracized and have to go out of business just because people didn't like her.

His arms came around her and he stroked her back, a grin on his face.  "I have the only restaurant in town.  Of course they won't stop coming." 
  He was so happy that she hadn't wanted to leave him that he could barely contain it.

"I never thought of that."  She sighed, happy to have him with her again.  "When I got out here, I started looking for vegetation I could eat, and I realized, I didn't know what I could eat.  You didn't bring any food, did you?"
  She was starving and couldn't help but hope he had thought of food.

Connor wanted to laugh, but knew it would hurt her feelings.  His pretty little wife always had the best intentions, but she didn't have the best grasp on how to make things work for her in reality.  "I brought a bag full of food."  He pulled away and looked down into her eyes.  "Would you like me to go get it?"
  His eyes sparkled with laughter, but he asked the question with a straight face.

She nodded enthusiastically.  "I'm starving."

He got up and moved to the mouth of the cave, coming back with bread and butter and some ham.  He also pulled out a big jar of water.  He put it all on a plate for her and handed it to her.  "There."

"Thank you!"  Just before she bit into the sandwich, she asked, "How did you know I left so soon?"
  She had expected him to realize she was missing when she wasn't home before dark.  It had never occurred to her he'd figure it out so soon.

"Well, Louis, the boy who taught you to shoot is the son of a friend of mine.  He came to me and told me you wanted to learn to shoot, but he wasn't supposed to tell me about it, which made me think something was happening."  He shook his head, thinking about how Louis had come to him.

"Mr. O'Reilly?" Louis has said as he'd popped into the restaurant on his way home from school.

"Yes?"
  Connor had looked at the boy, wondering what he was doing there. They barely knew one another.

"That crazy wife of yours
paid me to teach her how to shoot a shotgun, and said something about going out shooting on her own.  I'm worried she might be planning something that won't be good for her or anyone else in town."

Connor had nodded.  "I'm sure whatever she has planned, she means well."
  He worried that it wouldn't go well either, but he wouldn't tell Millie that.  As hard as she tried, she did always seem to fall short.

"Yes, sir."  Louis left right after that, and Connor had gone to see if anyone knew where his wife was.

Coming back to the present, Connor said, "So then I left the restaurant to look for you. You weren't in our room, so I went to the front desk.  They said you'd been seen heading for the woods, so I found where you'd hidden your bag of clothes."  He rubbed the back of his neck.  "So I went back to the restaurant and packed a big bag of food, and put a sign on the door saying we'll be closed tomorrow, and then I came looking for you."  He shrugged.  It all seemed like a logical way of doing things to him.

"How do you know where I hid my bag?" she asked between bites of her food.
  How could he possibly know something like that?

"You buried your things under some leaves, but that obviously changed the leaves in that part of the woods.  I could tell something had been hidden there, and I figured it was you, because you were the only one missing."  He shrugged.  "I
walked through the woods, noticing where you'd snapped a tree branch here and there.  You left a nice little trail for me.  By the time I got to the base of the mountain, I could see your fire.  I just followed the smoke, and there you were." 

She swallowed the last of her sandwich.  "You're not mad?"
  She knew she'd be mad if he'd taken off on her that way.

Connor shook his head.  "How could I be angry?  I knew you were doing it to help me."

Millie grimaced.  "Some help I am.  I heard the men in town complaining about me yesterday."

"I thought so."

"Why didn't you yell at me for messing so many things up?"  She really didn't understand him at all.

"I will never yell at you for having good intentions, and you are filled with good intentions.  Never have I met anyone who tried so hard to help others." 
And did so badly at it
, he added silently.  "Why don't you start coming to me when you want to help someone, and we'll plan out how to do it together?"  He could stop her craziest plans that way and quite possibly steer her in the right direction.

Millie nodded.  "Does that mean you want me to come back?"
  She couldn't believe he wasn't happy to be rid of her.

Connor nodded.  "I can't let you go.  I love you too much."

She stared at him, astonished that he could say that.  "You love me?  Why would you love me?  I don't ever seem to do anything right."  She couldn't believe he would tell her that.  It couldn't possibly be the truth.

He pulled her to him, hugging her tightly.  "You do so many things right.  Do you know how happy I am it was you on that train and not your friend?  You make me laugh and bring me joy."
 

"But she could cook!"
  How could he be happy it was her and not Berta?  She knew Berta was the right wife for him.

He shrugged.  "So can you now. It only took me a couple of weeks to teach you, because you wanted to learn so badly.  If you had come here not knowing how to cook and told me that you weren't willing to try to learn, that would have been different.  You not only tried, but you succeeded.  You have several meals you can make now, and you do a good job with them."  He stroked her cheek softly.  "Every morning I'm thankful that you came into my life.  I love you, Millie O'Reilly."

Millie hugged him, sighing contentedly.  "I fell in love with you within minutes of getting off the train.  I knew you had to be the one I married.  I even wished that you would fall in love with me on the fountain in the park that day."  She grinned at the memory, happy the fountain had listened to her wish.

Connor smiled, kissing the top of her head.  "That was a good thing to wish for."  He looked around the cave and sighed.  "We're going to have to sleep here tonight."
  He hated the idea, but there was no way to make it back to town in the dark.  It was just too dangerous.

She frowned.  "It's not very comfortable here."
  She'd hoped they'd be able to go back instead of spending the night.

"
We'll find a way to make it comfortable."  He left the cave for a moment and came back with an armful of pine needles that he dropped to the floor of the cave and left again.  He made three trips that way, putting the needles down almost an inch thick along the cave floor. 

Then he removed his clothes, piling them over the pine needles.  Once she saw what he was doing, she did the same, opening her bag and spreading out more dresses on top of it.  They each used a petticoat for a pillow, and she snuggled close to him.  "I'm so glad you came to find me.  I don't know what I would have done otherwise."
  She had already been nearing panic mode, worrying about the strange noises she'd heard.

"I like to think you would have come home to me."  He shook his head.  "Why didn't you just catch a train back to Massachusetts?"  He didn't understand her thinking at all
, and he probably never would.

"Because everyone would have assumed I made a mistake in marrying you then.  Getting on that train in Beckham was the best thing I've ever done."
  She couldn't bear the idea of going home with her tail between her legs as if she'd made a huge mistake.  Marrying Connor had been a good thing for her, not a bad thing.