Page 565 of Conveniently Wed
The freezing cold didn’t help. Franklin no longer could feel his fingertips and toes. He and his men needed to get to shelter and warmth before they suffered frostbite or worse. Finally, they finished and headed toward the ranch house and bunkhouse.
Somehow, he had to come up with the right words to make her understand why he was giving her the choice. If she decided to leave, he’d give her as a going away gift the gold and sapphire eardrops he bought her. Maybe they would help her understand that he had no hard feelings against her. He loved Michael and wanted to see him occasionally. Losing him as well as Lorinda might make Franklin go completely crazy.
Lorinda didn’t feel comfortable with what happened yesterday. Mr. Jefferson brought the money for the gold he’d cheated Mike out of. Maybe, if he hadn’t cheated her first husband, they would be snug in their cabin up on the mountain. But did she want that? Not really. Meeting Franklin was the best thing that ever happened to her, even though they were living in this sham marriage.
He’d surprised her when he wouldn’t take any of the money. She thought husbands and wives shared their possessions, and he had told her they shared ownership in the ranch. She knewsome men claimed everything their wives owned. Now she had an absolute fortune he didn’t want any part of.Why not?
Of course, Franklinwasa successful rancher, and maybe he didn’t need her money. But now there were two sons to think about. He had tried to convince her that putting the money in her private account would help Michael later. But if Franklin wanted her son to be his heir, why would he need extra money? Wouldn’t his inheritance be enough for him and his family? Even divided between the two boys, his ranch and everything else Franklin owned would be enough to sustain two families.
So what were his underlying reasons? A gnawing feeling in her belly told her something was very wrong. A sense of impending doom hovered over her like a dark cloud.
Franklin and his ranch hands had been out in the cold far too long. She hoped nothing bad had happened to them. She looked out the front windows at the clouds that were heavy laden...with snow, if the evidence from last winter held true this year.Please, Lord, bring them back safely.
With both of the babies napping, Lorinda paced a loop from the front of the house to the back while Mrs. Oleson prepared a hearty hot stew.
“Lorinda?” Mrs. Oleson called to her when she neared the doorway to the kitchen. “Are you all right?”
The enticing fragrance of cornbread met Lorinda as she stuck her head through the doorway. “I’m fine. Just waiting for Franklin to come to the house.”
The delicious aromas caused her stomach to growl in a most unladylike manner. She patted her stomach.
“Would you like to go ahead and eat now?”
“No, I’ll wait for him. I’m praying he’ll get home soon.”
After two more rounds from the front of the house to the back, Lorinda heard footsteps on the front porch.He’s home.She rushed toward the door, arriving just as it opened.
Her husband stopped on the throw rug inside the front door and stomped his feet before pulling off his boots and setting them beside the hall tree. She still hadn’t gotten used to seeing him without his boots. Somehow, seeing a man’s feet, even if they were encased in thick woolen socks, had an intimate feeling to her. Although if there was one thing they weren’t, it was intimate.
She went around him and quickly closed the door, shutting out the icy wind. “Are you okay?” She tried to keep the tremble out of her voice. “I was afraid you might get too cold. That’s dangerous.” Of course, he already knew that.
Franklin’s coffee-colored eyes turned toward her. For a moment, she noticed something intense and troubled deep within. Had anything bad happened while he was gone? One of the men or maybe some of the cattle dying...or something like that. Then the look vanished like snow melting under a warm spring sun.
“Something smells delicious.” He hung his heavy coat up beside his Stetson. “And I’m starved. Let’s go eat.” He glanced around as if trying to find or hear something. “Are both boys sleeping?”
Lorinda smiled. “For once, they are.”
After a leisurely meal with Mrs. Oleson, Lorinda got up to wash the dishes.
As she started stacking the empty plates, Mrs. Oleson intervened. “I’ll get these. You and Franklin go enjoy the fire in the parlor.”
Before they reached the front room, two distinct cries started in the bedroom the boys shared. One, the mewling of a very young infant, and the other much lustier, from Michael.
“Looks like we’ll have our hands full instead of a quiet visit.” Nothing in Franklin’s tone hinted that he was disappointed. “I’ll clean up Michael while you take care of Andrew.”
When her husband picked up her son, Michael stopped crying and started patting Franklin’s cheeks. “Da, da, da.”
Those sounds always brought a big smile to her husband’s face. “Daddy’s here, Michael.”
Lorinda took clean clothes out of the chest of drawers for each boy and laid them on the top. Then she wet two washcloths in the water from the pitcher and bowl on the washstand and handed one to Franklin. She picked up Andrew and started changing him from his wet gown and diaper and washed him before putting on a clean diaper and gown, then swaddled him with a warm flannel blanket.
Franklin finished cleaning up Michael. “Should I take him to the kitchen and feed him?”
She smiled at her husband. “I’m sure he’d love some of those potatoes and carrots from the leftover stew. I’ll go ahead and feed this little one while you’re doing that.”
By the time she finished, Franklin and Michael were already in the parlor.
Her husband glanced up at her from the floor where he was playing with the baby when she entered the room. “Mrs. Oleson said to tell you goodnight.”
