Page 19 of A Bride for Brodie

CHAPTER5

After dinner and cleaning the kitchen, Lottie and Brodie went to the living room with the other four couples.

Each of the ladies picked out a book and sat on the two sofas, one at each end, and Fiona sat in an overstuffed chair.

Agatha sat in a similar chair at the opposite end of the sofas.

Brodie leaned down and whispered, “Let’s head upstairs.”

Despite knowing she blushed, she nodded, stood and placed the book on the table between the sofa and Fiona’s chair. “Good night, everyone. See you in the morning. I’m up for milking duty tomorrow, and that comes early.” She turned and took Brodie’s arm. Excitement filled her. He was supposed to teach her more ways to make love.

Together, they walked upstairs to his room. He grabbed a lit lamp from one of the two small tables in the hall.

Brodie ushered her inside. “I thought we would just cuddle tonight. Let me get a lamp lit.” He walked to the side of the bed, took a match from a box in the drawer on the nightstand, struck the match and lit the wick on the kerosene lamp. Then he replaced the lamp in the hall. When he returned to the bedroom he closed and locked the door behind him.

“That’s fine.” She unbuttoned her dress and pushed it down her arms, letting it settle around her ankles on the floor. Then she opened the carpetbag on the bed and took out her nightgown.

He shucked his clothes in nothing flat and was under the blankets with them lying bunched at his hips. “Honey, you won’t need that. I intend to keep you plenty warm.” Brodie patted the pillow beside him.

“That’s fine. It’s too hot for one, anyway. Let me hang up these clothes because I hate ironing.” She hung her dress on one of the pegs on the wall and found an empty drawer in the bureau for her underthings. “That’s something I’d like in our house…closets in the bedrooms.”

“I think that can be arranged. Are you done putting up your clothes?”

She removed her chemise and her bloomers, hung them from the post on the footboard on her side of the bed. She folded the carpetbag and slid it under the bed. “You’ve been very patient while I did all of that.”

Brodie shrugged. “No point not to. We can’t do anything but hug tonight, anyway.” He sat up, eyes widened. “But honey, if I’d remembered what was waiting for me under that chemise, I definitely would have been in a bigger hurry.”

She giggled. “You say the funniest things.” Lottie climbed into bed and scooted next to Brodie.

He leaned over to the nightstand and blew out the lamp.

Rays of moonlight filtered in through the open window, casting shadows from the pine tree outside onto the foot of the bed.

An owl hooted from the tree closest to the house.

He pulled her closer. “The air will cool off soon. June in the Bradshaw Mountains is a lot cooler than in Yuma.”

“June in Hell is cooler than in Yuma.” Lying next to Brodie felt good. He smelled wonderful to her. He smelled of pine and leather and Brodie. He was strong, his body was hard in all the places hers was soft. She cuddled into his side, wanting to be as close to him as she could get.

He barked out a laugh. “I think we’ll get along fine. You’re a funny lady, not at all what I thought you’d be.”

“I hope you’re right, or we’re in for a lot of miserable years, because I don’t intend to get a divorce…or to murder you.” She thought of her father. Some would call it murder, she called it self-defense. In either case, he was gone and she was safe.

Brodie laughed again.

Lottie smiled and placed her arm over Brodie’s chest. “So, do you want kids?”

“Sure. I love kids. I think we all do. You can’t be around Jenny and Susie and not want some of your own. They’re great kids. Ross has done an amazing job.”

“Yes, they are nice girls. I’m so sorry about their mother.”

Brodie quieted for a long minute. “Sally was an amazing woman. All little and fiery. She kept Ross in line and he loved every minute. They were sweethearts and had been together for a couple of years before they married. She was about seven or eight years younger than Ross.” He rubbed her back.

“Go on.”Their relationship sounds like a good one. I hope Brodie and I can have a good marriage, too.

“Jenny was three and Susie was still a baby when Sally went with our parents to Albuquerque to see her parents. Mother and Daddy were going to visit friends. They hadn’t gotten more than about ten miles from here when the stage was attacked by Black Bart. Everyone was killed, but they put Sally through hell before they finally killed her and left her naked body in a heap beside the road. Ross was inconsolable for a couple of hours and then Agatha said he could grieve in private, but he had two little girls that needed him more than he needed to mourn.”

“She was right,” said Lottie softly. Her heart went out to Ross. She couldn’t fathom the pain he must have felt, maybe still felt.