Page 408 of Conveniently Wed
Lucinda ventured forward from the other side. “Do you want to play? I can tell you all the rules.” Her eyes grew bright with excitement.
“Now, don’t go bothering Mr. Richardson, girls.” Ma waved the kids away.
Josiah stood. “I’d like to have at least one game. Don’t want Katherine to have all the fun.” He winked in her direction.
“Yes. Yes. Yes.” The girls danced around them both.
“You’re the big bad bear, then,” Katie said.
“Last one caught is the winner.” Lucinda ran behind Katie’s skirt for protection, and Gracie scooted in too. Katie scoopedthem both up and ran from behind one chair to another, circling the table.
They narrowly escaped Josiah’s grasp the first time, then his strong arms encircled them. He picked her and the little ones up with no more effort than if he’d hefted a sack of potatoes.
Gracie and Lucinda squealed in delight.
He walked to the nearest chair and sat with all of them on his lap. “I think I won.”
The household erupted in laughter, and Katie jumped up with the girls still clinging to her. She set them down and smoothed wrinkles from her dress, even as her cheeks burned hot. Sitting on his lap in front of the whole family was far too intimate. “I’ll help Ma make the tea.”
“Why, that Mr. Richardson is a strong one,” Ma whispered in her ear as they busied themselves in the kitchen. “And the girls have taken to him like butter to bread.”
Katie turned to find one on each of his knees.
He looked up in amusement, then bent toward the girls and murmured, “Isn’t your sister…?” She didn’t hear the last part, but they looked at Katie and giggled.
How easily they climbed up on his lap. Laughed. Trusted.
Not her. She was a mess. So damaged. And he had no idea.
That evening, Katie lifted her napkin to the corners of her mouth and dabbed, hoping to project a confidence she did not feel. “Delilah, your cooking is absolutely delicious.”
Delilah laughed. “To celebrate your wedding, I put a little effort into making it special. But you barely ate.”
She didn’t want to hurt Delilah’s feelings, but her stomach churned at the thought of what lay beyond this celebratory meal. She couldn’t fake another bite. “So many wonderful flavors.”
“This past summer, we grew some right fine herbs.”
Katie let out the air she’d been holding. At least she’d diverted the conversation away from her.
“And we didn’t have those Yankee boys trampling them with their horses. I do declare, to see my garden treated so, well it purt nigh killed me. Abe and I appreciate what those men did in freeing our people, but land sakes they had no respect a‘tall.”
“Don’t be getting all wound up now,” Abe said. “This here’s a celebration supper. We don’t need no war talk to ruin it.”
Josiah grinned and leaned in to Katie. “Those two really do love each other.”
“What you be whispering about? Don’t be filling her purty head with stories, lessen they be good ones.”
“Now, Delilah, would I tell any other kind?”
“By Jupiter, yes. You say most anything to get a laugh.” She waved her hand in his direction.
“Time for a toast.” Abe raised his glass. “This here’s one of the happiest times I remember in way too long. Josiah, we’re as happy for you as a piglet in the mud hole.”
“Tis true, tis true.” Delilah clinked her glass against Abe’s, then they both held theirs out to the couple.
Josiah cleared his throat. “To my beautiful wife, Katherine, who has made me happier than she could imagine.”
Katie gathered the courage to look full in his face. His eyes flicked over her, then lifted to meet her gaze. She wanted to look away, but she couldn’t give in to the coward in her. She forced a smile and raised her glass to meet his. “To us.” The room went so quiet, she was sure she could hear the beat of her own heart.
