Page 26 of Leather and Lace
“Of course. This home is yours as much as mine, I mean, for as long as you see fit to be married to me that is. It’s all your choice, Mary.” Alex gave her a smile and reached out catching her hand. “I’ll show you to your bedroom.”
Mary nodded and followed along, but she was turning over the words Alex had spoken. ‘All her choice.’ What precisely did the other woman mean by that? This was of course a favor to her and her unborn child but to hear Alex speak of it...well, Mary had questions. Questions that she hardly knew how to ask on their wedding night.
“It’ll have everything you need for now but if there’s anything you need write it down and we can order it this week.” Alex opened the door to reveal a well-appointed and neat bedroom. There was a canopy bed, a thick woven rug covering the wooden floor, a small plain bedside table holding a basin and pitcher, a chest of drawers, and a writing desk.
Mary walked into the room; arms wrapped around herself. It was more than enough; it was all perfect. And it was hers. “I love it,” she whispered. “Thank you but…” her voice trailed off, lips turning down in a frown as she looked over her shoulder to Alex.
“But what?” Alex asked from her spot by the door. She was leaning against the door frame, a hand on her hip, the other resting on the frame above her head. It was a fine picture and Mary pressed her lips together to stop herself from uttering something foolish. What it might be she couldn’t be sure but she had an inkling it would have something to do with her new wife’s current enticing pose.
She looked away and licked her lips. “Are you staying somewhere else?” she asked when they came to a stop in front of a door. She paused, daring to look in Alex’s direction. “I mean to ask where you’ll be sleeping.”
Alex’s brows knit together, and Mary nearly groaned at her clumsy enquiry. A more refined and skilled lady would have found a subtle turn to ask her question, not stumbled towards it as she had.
Mary cleared her throat and tried again. “What I mean to ask is, ah, is this all for me?” She gestured towards the bed and desk. “It’s all too much if it is”
“No.”
Mary’s heart leaped into her throat at Alex’s answer.
“No?” she whispered starting forward, the beginnings of a smile pulling at her lips. If her new wife meant to stay with her, then perhaps there was room enough for her to test the boundaries of their new arrangement. An arrangement that would not have to remain as such, one that could with care and a guidance blossom into more.
Into a relationship.
Alex gave a slight nod of her head and pushed away from the doorway. “No,” she said, “my room is just down the hall. You’ll holler if you need anything?”
Mary jerked to a stop. Alex’s clarification worked as surely as a bucket of cold water to cut through the haze of infatuation she’d been practically swimming in.
“Down the hall. Right, of course.” A nervous laugh escaped Mary and she wrapped her arms around herself with a tight smile. “That makes all the sense in the world. I cannot thank you enough for what you did for me. It means everything to me, Alex.”
“Of course, it would have been remiss of me to leave a lady such as yourself in such a predicament.” Alex raised a hand to her chest and dipped her chin nodding towards Mary. “I was powerless to resist, you know.”
“Ah, that makes perfect sense but once more, I must insist that you do not call me a lady. I am no such thing.”
Alex scoffed, the sound of it deafening in the quiet bedroom. She crossed the room until she was standing in front of Mary, each and every footstep she took forward causing Mary’s heart to pound faster and faster until she was sure Alex must hear the deafening beating of it. Mary watched her wife with wide eyes and the other woman reached out a hand, a fingertip brushing against an errant curl of hair. Mary let out a shuddering breath, eyes riveted to where Alex’s finger was gently twisting her hair round and round until she tugged the lock free from the fine hairstyle Alice Hill had painstakingly pulled her hair into for her wedding.
Both women remained silent as Alex raised her free hand and once more plucked a loose curl to work free from the rest. Alex took another step forward, the length of Mary’s skirts pushing up against her legs as she did so. Alex’s hand lifted and she buried her fingers into Mary’s hair, tugging gently. The full weight of Alex’s hand caused her eyes to drift closed, a content sigh slipping from her lips.
“You are as much of a lady as I have ever hoped to know, Minnie.”
“Then I fear you have a misunderstanding of what a lady is, but I will not fight you.” She opened her eyes and smiled at Alex. “That is, if I amyourlady.” Her jaw snapped shut with an audible click and Mary moved, her feet carrying her away from the blonde. “I mean--ah, I am your wife, so it is, well, I mean if I am a lady then--”
“Then you are mine,” Alex finished for her.
“Yes, yours,” Mary replied, the words falling from her mouth far too quickly for her to have a prayer of stopping them. Alex held her gaze then, brown eyes burning into her and Mary wished she were braver. If she were then she might have crossed the room and thrown her arms around her new wife, she might have pressed her body close to hers, slanted her mouth to the other woman and taken what she wanted. As it was, Mary was not nearly as brave as she hoped and stayed where she was.
“I like the sound of that,” Alex told her. She paused, and for a moment Mary felt the wild hope that she might be the one to come forward flutter wildly in her chest. Though it went still when Alex moved away, her path taking her back, towards the door and most likely her room. That damnable place that was just down the hall and far from where Mary wished Alex to be.
“Goodnight, Minnie.”
“Goodnight, Alex.”
Chapter 11
Farm work was not for the faint of heart. There was nothing gentle about the hours kept on a farm, nor the work to be put in to collecting eggs, milking cows, putting down new hay in stalls, or lifting bags of feed. Mary looked up from the bucket into which she was currently doing her best to coax a respectable portion of milk, to catch a glimpse of her wife exiting the barn, a bag of feed slung over one shoulder.
After an earlier rise than Mary was accustomed to, the pair had shared a quick meal of oats and coffee, with tea for Mary as the smell of coffee had made her stomach turn. From there they had dressed quickly for the cool weather and Mary had been given a tour of the homestead and all of its inhabitants. She was delighted to learn that they were in possession of three dairy cows, five goats, six horses, and a goodly number of hogs and one sweet tempered barnyard cat. Not to mention all of the cattle. There were also the numerous laying hens Alex was now tending to.
Alex had done the lion’s share of the labor intensive work that morning but Mary was doing her bit, or at least attempting her best efforts which so far consisted of gathering the morning eggs, helping lay down hay---though Alex hardly let her finish a stall before shooing her out to rest, feeding the barnyard cat, and of course, learning how to milk a cow. Or at least, in theory. It turned out Mary was not a natural when it came to cows, but what she lacked in natural talent she made up for in determination. She gave a quick nod and set upon the cow’s udders once more but she had scarcely been at it for a minute or two when the poor creature she had been working on let out a less than pleased sound.
