Page 34 of Married By Midnight
“How would him marrying you prevent that?”
“If I’m married all property becomes my husband’s.”
“How much do you owe, Sarah?”
Sarah was wringing her hands. “Fifty dollars,” she finally said in a low voice.
Ian let out a whistle. “That’s a lot of money.”
“I know,” Sarah whispered.
“Well then, there is only one solution.”
“What’s that? I can’t come up with the money by Thursday.”
“You’ll have to marry me.”
Sarah couldn’t believe that she was married. Ian insisted on getting married right away, so they rode all the way to Bachelor after dark to pound on Reverend Bing’s door.
The Reverend was surprised at such a late hour but performed the ceremony anyway. Ian apologized for not having a ring, and he promised he would ride into town the following day to purchase her one from the mercantile.
When the vows were over, Ian gave her the sweetest kiss. If she didn’t know better, she would have thought that the marriage was real. Instead, she knew it was simply a marriage of convenience.
What Ian was going to get out of it, she wasn’t sure.
They agreed that he would help with the delay of the tax payment and then stay until Sarah could get everything paid off. Then they would part ways amicably.
But that didn’t seem so nice to Sarah.
Ian promised to go to the bank the following day and start the process to transfer everything over in his name. That would allow Sarah enough time to sell off many of the furnishings in the house to make the tax payment.
They rode in silence back to the farm. They had taken one horse, so Sarah was sitting in front of Ian. He had his arms wrapped around Sarah and his hand was holding onto the saddle horn.
Sarah leaned back into his arms, enjoying the feel of them around her. Everything was dark when they arrived home.
Ian walked the horse to the front of the house and slid Sarah from the animal. “I’ll go and put up the horse.”
“Are you sleeping in the bunkhouse?”
“Do you want me to sleep in this house?” Ian asked.
“I think it would look odd if my new husband slept in the barn.”
“What are you thinking, Sarah?”
“You can stay in Lacey’s room until we get everything settled.”
Ian laughed. “I did miss that blue and pink quilt.”
Sarah couldn’t stop thinking about her husband. She was becoming more comfortable around him and they fell into an easy routine.
True to his word, the day after they married, Ian rode into town to pick up a copy of their marriage certificate and to go see Mr. Mathews at the bank.
When he returned her brought her another cake from the bakery and told her it would take at least three weeks before they heard from the tax collector. Mr. Mathews, he said, would drop the notice off as soon as he received it.
They fell into an easy routine. During the day Ian would spend time with Dell learning everything he could about the farm. At night he would help dry the dishes while they shared happenings from their day. Then they would sit in front of the fire and play checkers or listen to Sarah read before heading to bed.
Every night he would walk Sarah to her room and gently kiss her goodnight before heading to Lacey’s room where he would sleep. Sarah burned every single one of those kisses in her memory. She had fourteen so far. One for every night they were married.
