Adventure For A Bride: A clean historical mail order bride romance (Montana Passion Book 3) (5 page)

“Well, here it is then,” Wyatt said in a grouchy voice, pointing half-heartedly to the small out building positioned about twenty yards from his cabin. Millie stepped toward the door tentatively while Pryor, Gretchen, and Kieran waited beside the wagon.

“This? This is my house?” she asked softly. Wyatt squared his shoulders, ready to argue with her for not liking it. It hadn’t even been his idea to build it, but somehow he got to be the one to buy the materials and take time away from his planting to construct it. Sure, Pryor and Nathaniel had helped, but the two of them had only made things worse by insisting on all matter of amenities. Wood floors and fireplace stoves made from rocks hauled from the creek didn’t build themselves, but somehow those two had insisted on them.

If truth be told, every single one of them was to blame, Wyatt recalled sourly. It had started with Kieran’s pronouncement only three weeks before, and he was sure it had more to do with wanting the young woman out of his house than anything else.

“I may be no judge and I did naw sit for the law back in Ireland, but I am the only lawman in these parts and I say you owe her a place on your property,” Kieran had declared shortly after Millie had come to stay with him and Gretchen. “You brought her here under false pretenses, and she paid a good portion of her passage out of her own pocket, so ‘tis only fitting then. Either you marry her now and bring into your household, or you build her a proper cabin on your land so she has a place to call her own. If you’ll naw do it, then I’d say she has a legal claim against you, and you’ll have to settle that at the fort in Barnett.”

Pryor, that traitorous do-gooder who’d stabbed him in the back with all this mess, had been no better help than Kieran.

“We’ll help you build the cabin,” he offered cheerfully. “And when you two are happily wed, it’ll make a fine smokehouse. You don’t have one at the moment, so you don’t have anywhere to cure and store up meat for the winter. So don’t think of it as losing out and having to build for no purpose, just think of it as putting her up until you finally come to your senses and decide to behave like an honest gentleman!” Pryor had sealed his opinion with a smug grin, one that Wyatt could have punched off his face if he hadn’t known that his oldest friend in the territory was only trying to help.

Before Wyatt could lash out at Millie’s ungratefulness upon seeing the tiny cabin, she clapped her hands and bounced excitedly on the balls of her small feet. She ran to the narrow door and threw it open, peering into the interior darkness before doubling back to him.

“Mr. Flynn, it’s amazing! I’ve never known anyone who could build an entire house with his bare hands! However did you manage it?” she demanded eagerly. Wyatt looked away, embarrassed at all the attention. Whenever Anna Mae had offered him praise, which she’d rarely done because she knew it mortified him to no end, it had been quiet and reserved, and certainly not in the presence of other people, the very people who’d worked just as hard as he had on the house.

“It wasn’t all my doing!” he answered brusquely, not meaning to rebuke her but not trying to claim all the responsibility for the hard work, either. He jerked his head in the direction of the others to indicate that they’d all had a hand in it, too.

“Oh, thank you, all of you! I cannot believe how cozy it is, and how much room it has!” Millie quickly turned and ducked inside, disappearing into the dark building that was truthfully no more than a shack. The others exchanged nervously happy glances, glad that she approved after all that Wyatt had complained about having to build it.

“Oh, and there’s furniture!” Millie’s voice called in a muffled echo from inside the walls. “However did you manage that, Mr. Flynn?”

Wyatt rolled his eyes. The furniture hadn’t been difficult to make at all considering it only consisted of a narrow slat bed, a low stool, and a small table that would serve for eating and writing. Millie threw open the shutters on the side of the cabin and stuck her head out, beaming at all of them.

“Thank you, all of you, for helping bring my trunks here. I now have everything I could possibly need!” She disappeared back inside and began humming happily to herself, throwing open the latches on the trunks and setting to work.

“Well, she doesn’t waste any time, does she now?” Kieran asked Gretchen before coming to stand beside Wyatt and clapping him on the back. “You know, you could do far worse than a woman who’s content to live in a smokehouse in yer yard. That’s one grateful woman as she wouldn’t clobber you between the eyes with a fireplace poker for putting her up out here.”

“You know, I’m getting a little tired of everyone telling me what a fine woman she is,” Wyatt said quietly out of the corner of his mouth. “If she’s so wonderful, why isn’t she staying with you?”

“If you’ll recall, she’s been staying with me these three weeks! I’ve paid for her food and had her treading underfoot because you weren’t man enough to take her in. Besides, I already have a wife to look after my children and cook my meals,” Kieran said in a menacing voice, his face clouding over with fury at how thick-headed Wyatt could be. “You, my friend, do not. And if you expect all of you to survive come next winter, you’d best see to it that you make nice with Miss Carter. Right now, she’s the only thing standing between your little ones and starvation.” He turned back to Gretchen and Pryor with a false smile. “Let us see to the Flynn children, Mrs. O’Conner. I think it’s high time they met their new ma.”

Wyatt panicked at the thought. He turned to stop them, but Kieran and Gretchen were already on their way to the porch to go inside. He pleaded silently with Pryor to do something—anything, to prevent this.

“I’m sorry, Flynn, I know you’re still trying to get your feet under you, but you can’t keep putting this off. Miss Carter is here, and for some reason, she’s willing to stay despite the way you’ve acted. At least let the children meet her. Maybe once you see them with her and see how good she is with them, you’ll understand better.” He threw a brotherly arm around Wyatt’s shoulders and led him to the house, but they were met halfway by two rambunctious little boys. Gretchen followed with little Rose perched on her hip.

“Pa! Sheriff O’Conner said you have a surprise for us!” the older son, Micah, shouted as he jumped into his father’s arms. His brother, Luke, ran in wild circles around those assembled in the yard, yelping and flapping his arms like a wild bird.

“Oh, did he now?” Wyatt cast a sidelong glance at Kieran. His heart leapt a little at the excited smile on his oldest son’s face, a smile that had been long absent during the winter months since his mother’s death. It was the first thing that resembled hope that he’d seen in a long time. “Well, there may be a surprise or two on the place…”

“Look! You built another cabin!” Micah called out before taking off at a dead run across the yard. He flung the door open, then jumped back in fright as Millie appeared in the doorway, looming over him with her hands on her hips and a sly grin on her face.

“Boo!” she shouted, reaching down and tickling the boy’s ribs. The sight of her was so unexpected, though, that Micah screamed and ran away, not stopping until he’d ducked behind his father’s legs. He peered out every few seconds to make sure the scary woman had not followed him, but couldn’t be persuaded to go say hello even after Gretchen offered him a peppermint.

“Why, come on out, boy! I’m not so scary as all that. I’m only a little bit scary, I promise!” Millie said playfully, but it was no use. Following his older brother’s lead, Luke also refused to meet her, hanging back with his thumb in his mouth, a habit he’d never had while Anna Mae was alive but one that he’d taken to only days after her passing.

Hmm, it seems the children are as pleased as I am about this whole affair
, Wyatt thought ruefully. He knew he had no one but himself to blame, though, seeing as it was he who’d let Pryor talk him into it during a moment of weakness.

Rose was the one who betrayed them, though, by babbling the word “mama” happily and diving from Gretchen’s arms and onto the ample chest of the newcomer. She laid her head on Millie’s shoulder and giggled contentedly when the woman took her, bouncing her slightly as she swayed from side to side.

“My, but aren’t you a sweet beauty?” Millie gasped, letting her free hand wander to Rose’s silky baby curls that formed a halo around her head. She hummed a sweet melody in the baby’s ear while Micah watched the stranger furiously, not willing to let the woman out of his sight while she held his little sister.

Luke’s loyalties were torn. He wanted so badly to emulate his big brother’s angry, mistrustful expression, and his tiny little clenched fists stayed taut for as long as he could manage. But eventually, his stance relaxed as he watched his sister soak up the affection, a feeling that had been missing from Luke’s life for far too long. He slowly dragged his feet as he wandered in her direction, coming to stop a few feet away from her. Millie watched him carefully, careful not to spook him like a wild horse and send him running back to his brother. She looked away and held out her hand, leaving it hanging in the air for as long as it took for him to reach up and slide his grimy fingers in hers. She gave him a quick squeeze then released her grip altogether, letting it be Luke who decided to keep contact with her instead of the other way around.

“Luke! Get away from the lady! She’s a monster!” Micah cried, dashing forward and kicking Millie in the shin before grabbing his younger brother and pulling him away. Fortunately, it had been some time since Wyatt had made the children any shoes, so his bare toes merely scraped Millie’s stocking clad leg.

Millie winced, but had to cry out when Wyatt punished Micah, jerking him around to face him by the arm and turning him over his bent knee right then and there.

“No, Mr. Flynn! Not on my account, and not on the day he first meets me!” Millie ordered sternly, reaching up and stopping Wyatt’s arm before he could deliver the first strike to Micah’s backside. The others stood looking on in consternation. Millie made an excellent point, of course, but a man had a right to deliver discipline to his children. Any man who would let his boy behave thus was just asking for trouble.

“Miss Carter, who do you think you are? You’ll not tell me how to discipline my son!” Wyatt spat, his anger at the entire situation bubbling to the surface.

“Oh really,” she asked quietly, a direct contradiction in her voice. “And what am I to do when they’re my children, too? Am I to stand by and let you do all the correcting because they’re not really my children? How do you think that’s going to work, Mr. Flynn?”

Wyatt and Millie stared each other down, neither of them willing to concede too quickly. Millie finally won, though, mostly because Micah managed to squirm out of his father’s grasp while their standoff took place. Millie turned to look at the little boy, a firm warning on her face.

“But I do expect an apology for your behavior, young man. You’ll not kick anyone in the shins, grown-up or otherwise, while I’m here to put a stop to it. What do you have to say for yourself now?”

“I’m sorry, ma’am,” Micah grumbled begrudgingly. Millie would have laughed if the issue weren’t so dire, largely because Wyatt and Micah shared almost identical petulant scowls at that very moment.

“Thank you, young man. I appreciate your apology. You must be an excellent big brother to be such a good boy.” Millie smiled graciously, her tone light and warm, acting as though the entire incident was behind them. Micah looked up at her from beneath his lashes, grateful that she’d spared him a whipping but still irritated that she was there causing problems in the first place.

Luke decided it must be safe if this strange woman had saved his brother from a well-deserved spanking. He darted forward again and grasped her hand, smiling up at her with a mouth full of pearly baby teeth. He looked over at Micah, who frowned at his disloyalty, then stuck his tongue out at his brother.

“And we won’t be having any of that from you, either,” Millie said jokingly. “Brothers should get along, and be a help to their parents.”

“We don’t have parents,” Luke answered innocently. “Just our pa.”

“Luke!” Wyatt barked harshly, warning his son to be quiet. To Wyatt’s astonishment, Millie held up a hand to silence him and continued speaking to the little boy.

“You don’t have parents? Whatever do you mean?” she asked in a high voice.

“We had a ma, but I don’t know where she is now.” The boy looked at the ground in shame as his lower lip began to tremble of its own accord. It wasn’t long before the first tear slipped from the corner of his eye.

Millie nodded her head at Gretchen to ask her to take the baby, then dropped down to look the boy in the eye. She pulled him closer and let him sit on her bent knee, then said, “You do have a ma, and you always will. You might not be able to see her, but she can see you from where she sits with the angels. She loves you very much, and I can already tell that she’s very, very proud of you. But because she can’t be with you right now, she’s asked me to come stay here and help care for you. Would that be all right?”

Luke nodded silently, then pressed one small palm against Millie’s cheek and rested his head against the other cheek. Gretchen had to turn away lest the child see her emotional state, and even Pryor and Kieran looked away coughing and scuffed at the ground with their boot tips to avoid giving themselves away.

“And you?” Millie asked, holding her hand out to Micah. “Would it be all right if I cared for you, too, since I’ll be caring for your brother and sister?”