RNWMP: Bride for Wesley (Mail Order Mounties Book 5) Read online

Chapter Three

  After supper, Lisa did the dishes while Wesley got to know Sophie. As far as he could tell, she was a worthless lump of hair. As he was scratching her, he noticed there was a little pink bow in her hair. “Lisa?”

  Lisa turned from the basin where she was scrubbing the pot she’d made supper in. “Yes?”

  “Why does Sophie have a bow in her hair?”

  “Doesn’t it look sweet? She’s my little princess, so she needs a bow to show how special she is.”

  Wesley thought Lisa's reasoning was absolutely ridiculous, but he didn't say anything. He wasn't ready to start an argument with his new bride. Instead, he scratched Sophie a little more, and grabbed her leash. "I'm going to take her for a walk."

  Lisa nodded. "I think she'll like that. I'm not able to walk nearly as much as she would like." Lisa didn't add that she frequently walked her with Sophie in a baby buggy. She was sure he wouldn’t approve of that!

  The whole while Wesley was gone, Lisa fretted about the night ahead. She made up the bed nicely and changed into a nightgown. She knew what the night would bring, but she had no idea how she would feel about it. She only known Wesley for a few hours. Of course, when he’d kissed her, her toes curled.

  Wesley walked Sophie down past the store, stopping for a moment in front to listen to the argument between old Jed, the proprietor, and Ms. Hazel. "What do you mean you don't have clean sheets for this bed? How can you rent out of room with no clean sheets?"

  "I never had no fancy lady staying in that room! Most of the men that come through here are so drunk, they don't know if the sheets are clean or not. You don't like it? Go stay somewhere else!"

  Wesley chuckled softly to himself. He should probably go and help them, but it sounded like they could both take care of themselves. He walked down toward the river, giving Sophie plenty of time to sniff. What he was really trying to do, was let Lisa have enough time to get in the bed, so she wouldn't worry about him. There was no way he was going to touch her. She already walked with a limp, and he wasn't going to risk hurting her.

  He was gone for more than an hour, and when he returned to the little cabin that he would share with his new bride, he expected her to be asleep in bed. Instead, Lisa was sitting on the side of the bed reading a book. She smiled at him, and laughed as Sophie ran to her. "Did my baby miss me? I missed you too."

  Lisa ran both of her hands through Sophie's fur, laughing when the little dog's back leg started thumping against the floor. She looked up at Wesley. "What took you so long? I was starting to think you'd absconded with my dog!"

  Wesley wasn't quite sure what to say. "I was trying to give you time to fall asleep. I thought you might be more comfortable that way."

  Lisa looked at him in confusion. "I didn't think you'd want me to fall asleep without you on our wedding night."

  "I thought you'd want some time to get to know me better before anything happened between us."

  She nodded slowly. She hadn't expected to be given the extra time, but it was kind of him to think of it. "You're right. I think it will be easier for me."

  "I have an extra blanket and a pillow. I thought I’d just make a bed for myself on the floor." Wesley knew he would be terribly uncomfortable, but at least he wouldn't have to worry about hurting her in her sleep.

  "You don’t have to give me your bed! I can sleep on the floor." She looked at the bed. "Or we can share. I had planned to share a bed with you anyway."

  "No, you take the bed. I don't want to have to worry about flipping in my sleep and hurting you somehow."

  Lisa frowned. "I'm not made of glass. You don't have to worry about hurting me."

  "Just humor me." He turned off the light, and got undressed in the dark. "Good night Lisa."

  Lisa lay awake for hours staring at the wall, tears streaming down her face. Her new husband was repulsed by her, and she didn’t know what to do about it.

  *****

  When Lisa woke the following morning, it took her a moment to remember where she was. She looked over her shoulder and saw Wesley sleeping on the floor, and then it all came rushing back. She was married to a man who would rather sleep on the floor than share a bed with her.

  She got out of bed, realizing it was going to be a bad day for her. Her arm didn’t want to move at all, and her leg was dragging much worse than usual. No matter. She’d still have breakfast ready when he woke up, and she would stun him with her cooking prowess.

  She’d planned pancakes, but she had a feeling that scrambled eggs would be much easier with the way her arm was acting, so she made that instead. She looked, but there was no bread, so she would have to bake as well. No mind. She could do that. It was a matter of pride now. He thought he’d gotten a wife who was lacking, and she was determined to prove him wrong.

  Wesley woke with a start when Lisa set the two plates on the table. “I made coffee,” she said softly.

  He nodded, getting to his feet and quickly pulling on his shirt and buttoning it, feeling her gaze on him. Why was he so unsettled by her? He would be able to live with her as if she was like a sister and no more, so why did he want more? “I’ll be right back,” he mumbled as he grabbed Sophie’s leash and took her outside, intending to visit the outhouse.

  Lisa watched him go, then poured him a cup of coffee. She hated the stuff and still thought of it as a bitter drink for grown-ups, of which she was not one! He had it in the cabinet, though, so she had to assume he enjoyed it.

  When Wesley entered the cabin again, she was sitting at the table, waiting for him to return so they could share breakfast. “What do you have planned for today?” he asked.

  “I’m going to bake bread and clean the cabin today. I’ll tackle laundry tomorrow.” She hoped she’d be feeling better when it came time to do laundry. It was a huge task for an able-bodied woman.

  “Sounds good. Are you feeling well enough? Do you want me to ask some of the Indian women to help you?”

  She frowned at him. “You don’t think I’m capable, do you?” Truthfully, Lisa didn’t know if she was able to do all the work required of a frontier woman, but she was not going to admit that to him! No, she’d do everything she could, and she’d beg for help from Maryanne for what she couldn’t do. She’d learned a great deal about the other girl’s past in the time they’d known one another, and she knew she’d always be able to rely on her.

  “I do think you can do a lot. I just worry, and I don’t want you to overtax yourself.” Wesley realized he’d put his foot in it. He would need to be more sensitive in the future.

  Lisa ate the rest of her breakfast in silence. When she was finished, she piled the dishes together, using only her good hand. “Will you be home for lunch?”

  “Not today, and usually not. I’d appreciate it if you’d make me a lunch from leftovers most mornings if you can.”

  She stood and concentrated as she walked, not wanting him to realize she was limping worse than she had the day before. She took leftover meat and rice from the ice box and put some in a bowl for him then carefully wrapped it all in brown paper. “That’s the best I can do,” she said as she set it on the table in front of him.

  He took it, thanking her. “I’ll be home around six this evening for supper.”

  Lisa glanced at the clock on the wall and saw that it was only seven. “That’s a long day.”

  “Mounties work long hours.” He leaned down and kissed her cheek, even though he sensed she’d rather he left her alone. “Have a good day.”

  She frowned. “You too.” She hadn’t wanted to bid him good day. Not at all.

  After he was gone, Lisa sank down into a chair at the table. She wasn’t going to be able to do much without help today. It had been a long time since she’d felt this badly.

  *****

  While her bread was rising, Lisa walked out into the village—with Sophie on her leash—to say goodbye to Miss Hazel. She found the store Wesley had mentioned and walked in. “Is Miss Hazel staying here?”

 
; “Seems like too sweet of a name for that harridan.”

  Lisa stifled a giggle. “Harridan? Miss Hazel?” She couldn’t imagine what had happened between Miss Hazel and the man Wesley had called Jed. “Is she upstairs?”

  “She’s probably still cleaning the upstairs. Demanded clean sheets and everything. What does she think I’m running? A fancy hotel?”

  “I’m sure I wouldn’t know.” Lisa had to work hard to contain her amusement.

  Miss Hazel appeared at the bottom of the stairs then. “Thank you for allowing me a place to sleep, though you are the worst host I have ever had the misfortune to meet.” She held her bag in one hand, and she threaded her other through Lisa’s arm. “Come, Lisa. I don’t want your sweet nature tainted by the bad attitude of this man.”

  Lisa followed Miss Hazel meekly out of the store, not daring to say anything else. As she walked with Miss Hazel to the train station, she saw a slight movement out of the corner of her eye. “Oh my! What is that, Miss Hazel?”

  The older woman looked. “I have no idea what you mean.”

  Lisa gave Sophie’s leash to Miss Hazel and walked to the other side of the train station. She carefully leaned down and scooped up a tiny animal with a mangled back leg. “I think she’s hurt.”

  Miss Hazel’s eyes grew wide as she stared at the animal in Lisa’s arms. “That’s a baby cougar. You need to put it back where you found it.”

  “But his leg is hurt. His mother probably abandoned him.” Lisa buried her face in the cougar’s fur.

  “First you say she, then you say he. What is it?”

  Lisa shrugged. “No idea. I haven’t looked.” The longer she held the cougar, the more she knew that it needed her. What if her mother had abandoned her when she was born because her body didn’t work properly? No, this little cougar was too much like her to be left on its own.

  “You know that Wesley is never going to let you keep a cougar. You have to leave it alone.”

  “I’m keeping it.” She held the animal with her good arm, snuggling it close to her. “I’m going to fix her leg and keep her as a pet.”

  Miss Hazel shook her head. “You’ve lost your mind. That animal is not meant to be a pet.”

  “I don’t much care what you think about her. She’s mine.”

  Miss Hazel took the sleeping animal from Lisa and looked at its underside. “It’s a girl.”

  “I’ll name her Clara then. Isn’t that the perfect name for a cougar? Clara!”

  Miss Hazel quit trying to argue and gave the animal back to Lisa. “I hope she doesn’t try to kill you in your sleep.”

  “Why would she do that? She recognizes that I’m the one taking care of her. She’s not stupid.”

  The older woman took her seat on a bench at the train station, watching as Lisa sat down beside her. “What do you think of Wesley?”

  Lisa shrugged. “He’s very handsome. I think I could easily fall in love with him.”

  “Good. I need you to promise me one thing before I go.”

  Lisa looked up and saw the train puffing toward them in the distance. “What’s that?”

  “I want you to remember that you’re much more than just a girl with physical problems. Remember that you have so much to give to a man. Please?”

  Lisa nodded slowly. “I will try.”

  “Don’t try. Do.” Miss Hazel pulled Lisa close, hugging her tightly. The little cougar yipped in pain. “I feel bad that I didn’t send you to live in Squirrel Ridge Junction with your friends, but you couldn’t have grown there. They would have always let you lean on them. This is the place you belong. I can feel it.”

  Lisa felt a tear trickle down her cheek. “I’m going to miss you almost as much as I miss Jess and JoAnn.”

  Miss Hazel hugged Lisa once more. “I’m going to miss you, too, sweet girl.” Before Lisa could say anything else, Miss Hazel was hurrying toward the train.

  She set out toward the cabin with Sophie and little Clara, her new charge. She hoped the cougar was big enough to eat, but if she wasn’t, then she would have to find some milk and a way to feed her. When she’d first gotten Sophie, she’d tried to dip a cloth in milk to feed her. It hadn’t worked well, but she was afraid the little cougar was too big to be nursed by a cat as Sophie had been.

  Just when she’d gotten close to the cabin, she turned and knocked on Maryanne’s door. “Is Preston home?” she asked in a soft voice when her friend came to the door.

  “No, why?”

  “I need help.”

  Ten minutes later the two friends were making up a bed for the cougar underneath Lisa’s bed. “How are you going to hide it from Wesley?” Maryanne asked, frowning at their temporary solution. “Aren’t you afraid she’s going to bite you?”

  Lisa shook her head. “She’s too smart to bite the hand that feeds her. Miss Hazel asked me the same question.” She looked at Maryanne. “I think we’re going to have to feed her cow’s milk.”

  “How?”

  “We’ll get a rag and dip it in milk. She’ll suck it off, and we’ll do it all over again. Trust me. It will work!”

  Maryanne frowned. “Sounds like you’ve done this before.”

  Lisa smiled, nodding toward her dog. “With Sophie. I fed her that way for a couple of days before we found a cat who would adopt her.”

  While Lisa fussed over the cougar, Maryanne hurried through her house, tidying everything and baking the dough she’d left rising for bread. “What do you want for supper tonight?”

  “I can’t let you cook supper for us. I can do it.”

  “You’re not fooling anyone, Lisa. I can see that you’re having a tough day. Just let me help you.”

  Lisa debated for a moment. If she let Maryanne help her, that would be the same as if she’d let Wesley find an Indian woman to help. However, she hadn’t expected to find a baby cougar when she’d refused the help that morning. Finally, she nodded. “Something simple would be nice. Maybe a stew?”

  “I’ll see what I can do.”

  Lisa cradled the cougar in her arms, feeding her cow’s milk from a rag, just as she’d told Maryanne she would do. “Thank you so much for your help. We just can’t let anything happen to this little baby. She’s one of God’s creatures.”

  Maryanne smiled. “I want to play with her.”

  Lisa nodded emphatically. “We need to tire her out. Wesley said he’d be home around six. I want her too tired to make a peep while he’s here.”

  “Won’t she need to eat during the night?”

  “I’ll send him out to walk Sophie right before bed and make sure she gets fed. It’ll work.”

  Maryanne didn’t look convinced, but at least she didn’t argue. “I’ll do everything I can to help you keep her hidden. I know Preston wouldn’t want me to have a baby cougar in the house, and I’m sure Wesley feels the same.”

  Lisa shrugged. “What they want isn’t necessarily the right thing to do for Clara. As Clara’s new mama, I’m going to do everything I can for her.”

  “All right.” Maryanne sat beside Lisa, looking at the tiny creature. “I have a lot of laundry at my house. I need to get it done tomorrow. Do you want to work together?”

  “In other words, do I want to pretend to myself that I’m doing my share of the work, while you do yours and half of mine? Sure!” Lisa smiled over at her friend. “I don’t know what I would have done if you weren’t here.”

  “You’d have done what you needed to do. With me here, things will just be a tad bit easier for you.”

  “You’ll never know how much your friendship means to me. I wrote to Jess and JoAnn before we left Ottawa, and I told them both how you’d taken me under your wing and treated me like your little sister.” Maryanne looked sad at that, and Lisa instantly felt contrite. “That wasn’t the best way to put that. I’m sorry.”

  Maryanne shrugged. “You didn’t say anything wrong. I’m just too sensitive about it sometimes.”

  “I should be more careful with my words, and I
will do my best to be more cautious in the future.” Lisa lay the cougar carefully into the small bed they’d made out of an old holey blanket and a crate. “I think that’s going to keep her, don’t you?”

  “I sure hope so.” The two women stood looking down at the sleeping cougar, both of them determined to keep the small animal safe. Clara deserved the best they could give her.

  Chapter Four

  Lisa didn’t let herself worry about her relationship with Wesley, because she was too worried trying to figure out how to make sure little Clara stayed hidden. Maryanne brought over what she’d planned to fix for supper, and she made enough food for both of the couples. Lisa knew she wasn’t moving well enough to make anything herself.

  While Maryanne cooked, Lisa told stories about some of the shenanigans she and Jess and JoAnn had gotten up to back in Ottawa. When she told the story of taking Sophie to church in a basket, Maryanne laughed, shaking her head. “Sounds like you are pretty sassy, Lisa. I don’t know about you being a Mountie’s wife…”

  Lisa made a face at her friend. “I’m going to be the best Mountie’s wife ever.”

  “Oh?”

  Lisa nodded. “You see, it’s not just about being good at things. It’s about trying hard and being passionate. I’m passionate about being a Mountie’s wife, so I’ll be good at it.” To her it was perfectly reasonable, and at the moment, she didn’t much care what other people thought. Of course, how she felt about other people’s thoughts changed daily, so tomorrow, she’d probably care a lot.

  Maryanne shrugged, obviously not willing to argue. She carefully cut up potatoes for the stew she was making. “What time will our men be home?”

  Lisa glanced at the clock. “Probably two more hours. Do you think I should feed Clara some more? We really want to get her belly stuffed so I don’t have to feed her during the night. I can just imagine Wesley’s reaction to a baby cougar living in his house.” She shook her head. It was a good thing her mother had taught her that while the man was head of the household, what he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him.

  “Does a good Mountie wife have to be obedient to her Mountie?”