Page 38 of Conveniently Wed
A man crashed through some brush several yards away and she shrieked, knowing she was probably too far away for the men back at the campfire to hear her.
How could she have been so foolish as to come out here alone?
7
“Kinda foolish to come out here by yourself.”
Edgar had seen cornered animals before. Knew to be ready for her to run or to turn and take a swipe at him.
But she’d been surprising him from the beginning.
Edgar saw his wife drop her shoulders and a silver utensil she’d been holding. She took a swipe at her face. Was she crying?
“Aw, snakeskin.”
Like his pa and most of his brothers, he had no idea what to do with a crying woman.
He tiptoed closer. Warily.
She dabbed at her face again, then grabbed up one of the dishes and splashed it into the stream, scrubbing it harder than the thing probably warranted.
“You scared me,” she said to her plate.
He had a guess as to why, especially if she’d overheard his conversation with one of the hands, John Michaels.
He’d watched her light out from camp and guessed she had. Would she admit to it?
He squatted beside her. “Sorry. Did you overhear John and me talking?”
She frowned.
And he thought about her promise that she wouldn’t lie to him. Her expression made it clear she didn’t really want to answer.
Finally came a reluctant “yes.”
“I don’t want you coming out in the dark alone, not without us knowing who’s following behind.”
She nodded, not looking at him. She switched out one plate for another.
“Anything you want to tell me?”
“No.”
He fought the smile that twitched one corner of his mouth up. “Let me rephrase. I’d like to hear about the reason you left Tennessee, now.”
She sighed and her shoulders drooped. She switched out the plate for the big pot, probably the last thing she had to wash. “I already told you that our parents passed away and then Daniel’s tuition payments stopped coming. Emma and I were on the headmistress’s last bit of mercy when he came calling. Underhill.” She spit the name like it was poison.
“He must’ve seen Emma out with the other young girls. Picnicking or shopping or some such. I don’t know exactly how he became enamored with her.”
She scrubbed the pot harder, water splashing up her arm and onto his boots. Like if she scrubbed hard enough, she could rub away the past.
“I think Emma was flattered at first. He was older—probably thirty, much too old for her. She tends toward shyness anyway, always has. But we didn’t have any options and I don’t know what she was thinking. Maybe that a handsome man was interested in her. She’s only fifteen. She didn’t know better.”
Sounded like an excuse to Edgar. But then, both girls were away from any family who could’ve—should’ve—protected them.
She threw the rag into the pot and wiped her forehead with the back of her hand.
She still didn’t look at him. “I always sat in when he called for her.Always. Except one day I came in from laundering some of the bedclothes. They were in an embrace, but Emma was struggling against him.”
