Page 136 of The Enchanted Land

“I’d rather stay with him myself.”

“Of course, you stay with Adam if you want. That way I’ll have Lupita all to myself.” He winked at the large woman. As he kissed his wife’s cheek, Seth was vaguely aware that Morgan wasn’t even looking at him. He frowned slightly when she turned away quickly.

Seth and Lupita sat at the breakfast table. “There really is nothing wrong, is there?”

“No, nothing. I am just an old mother hen and I wanted to be safe. I am sorry I did not clean up the mess before Morgan saw it. It is good to eat with you again, to see you again.”

“Lupita, I can’t thank you enough for what you’ve done for Morgan, and Adam, and for me. I knew you’d come when we needed you.”

“Of course, I come. Is everything all right now, between you and theseñora?”

“It’s coming along. It isn’t easy to forgive what I did to her.”

“She must see how much you love her.”

“No, I don’t think she does. Sometimes I think she does. Maybe she doesn’t trust me. I just try to wait and be patient.”

“Wait! You do not need to wait. You should not wait. She is your wife. Take her.”

Seth smiled indulgently. “It’s not like that. I’ve lost rights…”

“Rights! She is a woman and you are a man. And besides, you love each other.”

“I want Morgan to make up her own mind when she wants to come to me.”

“She can’t make up her own mind. I know Morgan very well. All her life she has had people tell her what to do. She has never had a chance to be her own self. At first, she spoke the words of her mother, and then she had an uncle to control her, and then she had you. Even in California, she was pushed and pulled by others.”

For some reason, Seth felt a need to defend his wife. “She made up her own mind when she asked me to marry her. That took courage.”

“Yes, I know all about that. Even then she bought someone to control her. I am sure she sensed that you were a strong man. Another woman might have told her problem to everyone. Then she would have had her choice of many men. But Morgan has always been too sheltered to make choices.”

Seth sipped his coffee. Lupita was right.

“Now she needs someone to help her.” She nodded her head toward the stairs. “She loves that little boy. But if someone does not help her, she will let him rule her life. She is a little girl herself.”

Seth sat silently for a moment. He had always been too involved with Morgan to look at her clearly, like Lupita did. Seth had always blamed Morgan’s mother, but he’d never realized that he filled the same place Mrs. Wakefield once had.

“I thought I might go home tomorrow.”

“So soon?”

“Yes. The boy is fine. He does not need me, but Jake and Paul do.”

“Lupita, I wish you’d stay. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you, and you know what you’ve always meant to me.”

“I must go home. Soon, I hope the three of you will come home, too.”

“Yes,” Seth grinned. “I’d like that. It would be nice to be on my own place again. I hope we will go. Maybe when Gordon gets back, I can leave. I’ll bring my wife and son with me. Morgan hasn’t really … accepted me as a husband, yet.”

“Accepted! These modern men! In my day, women did not choose their husbands; their parents told them who their husbands would be. That is what should have happened here.”

“What if Morgan had gotten Jake instead of me? Then where would I be?”

She turned to snap at him and then saw his teasing eyes. “We are too long at this meal. We both have work to do. Let’s get started.”

Seth kissed her on the cheek as he left for a long day on the ranch.

Lupita again spent her day with Adam and Morgan, talking and quietly laughing together. Lupita didn’t like the worried look Morgan’s eyes always held when she looked at her little son. The older woman could not convince her that he was out of danger.

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