The Outlaw Takes a Bride (15 page)

He chuckled. “I held it down with my foot.”

She shook her head. No wonder it had taken him so long. “I’m ashamed of myself for not thinking about it. At least I know I married a resourceful man. Now, you sit down, Mark Paynter, and I’ll bring you that medicine. No more chores for you tonight.”

She thought they understood one another now. After taking his dose, Mark sat for a while, but he seemed restless and went outside again while she cooked the chicken and made it into a pie. She feared he got his supper much later than usual, but he ate two helpings.

“That was really good,” he said, laying down his fork. “Worth waiting for.”

“Thank you. There’s cake in the oven.”

“You made a cake, too?”

“Thought we could celebrate. If you don’t want sweets every day, it’s all right.”

“I love sweets. So does Cam.”

She tried not to show her disappointment at his comment. Why did Cam have to enter into every conversation?

She rose and refilled Mark’s coffee cup before cutting the cake. “I didn’t have time to make boiled icing, so I put a crumb topping on it.” She set a generous slice before him, on a small china plate she’d found in the cupboard.

“Smells mighty fine.” He lifted his fork and took an experimental bite. “Tastes fine, too.”

Sally smiled and cut herself a piece. She sat down next to him. “Now, tell me what we’ll be doing tomorrow. Will you be working with the cattle? Or shall we tend the garden?”

“I thought maybe I’d help Cam fix up his room out in the barn. Hated to kick him out of the house.”

“He was sleeping in here?” Sally asked.

“On the floor. But he ought to have a proper bunk and a mattress.”

“So should his employer.”

Mark’s face went red. “We can tend to that, too. But I want Cam to have a nice place of his own, so he’ll be happy working here.”

That made sense, but Sally had heard about all she cared to of Cameron Combes. “All right. If you two work out there, I can milk the cow and feed the chickens and get my trunk unpacked.”

“We’d better get that inside,” Mark said.

“Cam hasn’t returned?”

“No sign of him.”

“Well,” Sally said, “as long as it doesn’t rain, the trunk should be all right in the wagon.”

“Oh, we have to return that tomorrow,” Mark said.

“Maybe that would be a job for Cam.”

He gazed at her for a long moment and then looked away. “I expect so.”

Sally kept an ear tuned to hear the hired man return, but no one rode up to the ranch all evening. While she washed the dishes, Mark puttered about, moving things an inch here and there. He offered to sweep the floor, but she couldn’t imagine him doing a good job with one hand. Still, he had killed that rooster.…

She put the thought aside and kept at her kitchen work. She scrubbed the table and the sideboard around the dishpan. She washed every dish they’d used and put away the leftovers, carefully covered so they could use them the next day.

“I suppose we have mice,” she said with a half smile. All country homes had mice, unless they had a cat.

When Mark didn’t respond, she looked over at him. He had fallen asleep sitting at the table.

“Mark.” She touched his shoulder gently.

He sat up, blinking. “Oh, sorry.”

“Never mind. I’m finished with my work. I thought I’d get a bath before I retire, if you don’t mind.”

She watched his face anxiously. He flushed to his hairline and stood, holding on to his injured arm.

“Do you have plenty of water?” he asked.

“I think so. I filled the boiler earlier, and it’s warm now. There’s a bucket of cold, too.”

“I’ll get the tub.” Without another word, he went out the door.

Sally got her best nightdress and her hairbrush out of her satchel. Mark came in with a round washtub and set it on the kitchen floor.

“I’ll be outside.”

“Towels?” she asked.

He hesitated and then brought two from the kitchen. “That’s the best we have, I’m afraid. Not very big.”

“Thank you,” Sally said. “I’ll set the buckets outside when I’m done.”

The water wasn’t very deep in the tub, and she kept her bath short, but being out of her corset at last and washing off the grime of her journey felt wonderful. She scrubbed her skin thoroughly then dried off and slipped on her gown. She hesitated but then went ahead and washed her hair in the same water. Rinsing it in cold jolted her, but at least it wouldn’t smell of smoke.

At last she sat on a bench near the stove and brushed out her hair. She wished Mark was here, watching her, seeing the cascade of gold. But he was so shy, he probably wouldn’t even think of such a thing. She sighed as she continued her brushstrokes. How could a man seem so open on paper and be so reticent in person?

When her tresses were mostly dry, she took the empty water bucket to the door and set it out on the step. She looked toward the barn, but she didn’t see any light out there, or any sign of Mark in the twilit yard. Where had he gone?

Back inside, she set her satchel off the bed and hesitated. If he truly intended to sleep on the floor, she ought to set out some bedding for him. But would doing that confirm that he had no other option?

P
aint’s hooves beat a tattoo in the darkness. Johnny sauntered to the corral gate and waited. A minute later, Cam drew up and hopped off the pinto’s back.

“You’re awful late,” Johnny said.

Cam jumped. “You scared me.” He glanced toward the cabin. “What you doin’ out here?”

“Waiting for you. I didn’t expect you to spend half the night at the saloon.”

“Figured you two would want some time alone.”

“Cam, this isn’t right.”

“Hold on,” Cam whispered. “You didn’t tell Sally?”

“No, but I wish I had. I’m miserable, and I don’t think she’s much better.”

Cam pulled off the saddle and flopped it onto the top rail of the fence. “What happened?”

“Nothing. I killed a rooster one-handed, and she cooked it, and we ate supper, and—”

“I didn’t think about you doing all that stuff with your arm hurtin’.”

Johnny shrugged. “In the morning, you’ll have to help me get her trunk in.”

“Does she need it tonight?”

“I don’t think so.”

Cam looked again toward the cabin. “You should be inside.”

Johnny wasn’t sure what to say, so he stood there fidgeting while Cam took off Paint’s bridle.

“Why aren’t you?” Cam asked.

He shrugged. “I gave her the bunk.”

Cam stopped walking, the bridle slung over his shoulder, and stared at him. “You’ve got to be joking.”

Johnny shook his head.

“Look, I know it’s a small bunk, but—”

“I figure Mark would have built a better bed if he’d lived that last few days before she came, but he didn’t. Anyway, I told her I’d sleep on the floor.”

“Was she mad?”

“Not exactly.”

Cam eyed him keenly. “She expects more from Mark.”

Johnny said nothing. The whole point was he wasn’t Mark, but Cam knew that, and if he said it, his friend would only go into a tirade about how he couldn’t change things now.

Cam clapped him on the shoulder. “Go on in, Mr. Married Man. I’ll see you in the mornin’.”

Sally heard the horse come in, and then the men’s low voices out near the corral. She held her breath and listened, but she couldn’t make out their words. After a few minutes, the door opened stealthily. She waited, her heart tripping, but Mark didn’t come near the bed. She heard rustling in the dark. She was certain she heard when he took off his boots, and the moment when he settled down on the pallet of blankets she’d made for him.

She wished she hadn’t done it. Then maybe he would have come over and asked her what he was supposed to sleep on. Or at least he might have needed to light the lantern to find some bedding. Setting out the bedding was a tacit agreement that he wouldn’t share her bed tonight. Had she made the biggest blunder of her life?

All was quiet, but she was wide awake, and she knew he wasn’t asleep. This was not the way she wanted to start her new marriage. What if she said something? She wasn’t sure she dared. David would have gone into a rage if she had questioned one of his decisions. She lay silent for a minute, holding back a sob. Above all, she didn’t want her new husband to think she was trying to control him. That would be a big mistake.

Her pulse pounding, she lifted her head off the pillow. “Good night, Mark.”

After a long moment of utter silence, he said, “Good night, Sally.”

Mark was up and gone already when Sally awoke in the gray predawn. He had bundled up his bedding and left it in a semi-neat mound on the floor. She hurriedly dressed, keeping an eye on the door and wishing she had her trunk inside.

As soon as she was decent, she folded his blankets and stacked them on the foot of her bed.

A timid knock came at the door.

“Come in.”

Mark opened the door and entered, carrying a basket. “Morning.” He glanced at her once and quickly away, but she saw the relief in his expression. He must have shared her anxiety that he would interrupt her while she was dressing.

“Good morning.” Sally smiled her best smile. “Are those more eggs?”

“Yes. Got seven this time.”

“I’ll cook them up for you boys.” She wished she hadn’t said
boys
, but Mark didn’t seem to mind.

“Cam’s milking the cow. I’ll bring in some water, and some coal for the stove.”

She made a quick trip out back to the necessary and then donned her apron and set to work. Cam brought in a full bucket of milk while she was mixing biscuit dough.

“Oh, thank you,” Sally said. “I can use some of that.”

Cam set it on the worktable. “Good morning, Mrs. Paynter. Looks like it’s going to be a scorcher.”

“Call me Sally. How are you, Cam?”

“Fine and dandy. Anything I can do for you?”

“You could put a little coal on the fire. I hate to heat up the house, but I can’t bake if I don’t.”

“I wonder if Mark and I shouldn’t set up an outdoor oven for you,” Cam said.

“That would be helpful,” Sally said. Overheating the kitchen had seldom been a problem in St. Louis, but she remembered that her mother often did her baking outside in summer, to keep the house cooler.

“I’ll talk it over with Mark and see what he thinks.”

When they all sat down to breakfast a short time later, Cam steered the conversation to ranch work and improvements the men could make to the buildings.

“I know you plan to increase the herd of cattle,” Sally said to Mark. “When will you be getting the new stock?”

Mark hesitated, and she wondered if money was a problem.

“I’m not sure,” he said. “But I thought we’d take what we already have farther up into the hills next week. The grass will be better up there, and it will be about played out in the pasture here.”

“Meanwhile, we can work on my quarters in the barn and maybe start building one of those outdoor ovens like the Mexicans use for Sally.”

Mark eyed him cautiously. “There’s something else I’ve been meaning to get at for a while.”

“What’s that?” Cam asked.

“Well, I’m not sure we can do everything right away.” Mark shot a glance at Sally and then looked down at his plate. “I aim to build another room on this cabin, so’s we can have a bedroom separate from the rest.”