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  “All right.” He washed his hands and went to sit at the table, looking curiously at the food she put in front of him. “This looks strange.”

  “But it smells amazing, which means it will be wonderful.” She sat beside him, and waited as he prayed. He seemed to be somewhere between when she’d first met him and the last few days with his temperament. It was better than it had been for certain.

  He took a bite and smiled. “This is delicious. I don’t know how you always have everything coming out so perfectly.”

  “I work hard at it.” She thought for a moment and amended what she’d said. “I worked hard at learning to cook, but now that I know how, it’s pretty simple to keep doing it. I just get bored cooking the same things over and over, so I’m always trying to find new recipes. Or make them up as the case may be.”

  After supper, she did the dishes, and he whittled again. She sat down and wrote a couple of letters as she did most nights. The curtains were done and hanging at the windows, but she still needed to finish the tablecloth. If he’d talk to her more, she’d sew as they were spending time together in the evenings instead of writing her letters, because she couldn’t chat with him while writing letters.

  “Tomorrow, I’m not going to the March’s house until after lunch, so if you want to come home at lunchtime, I’ll fix something.” Trudie knew he’d want her to cook for him. He’d made it clear he was sick of sandwiches. She wanted to think it was because he wanted to spend time with her, but she knew better. He wanted better food.

  “Is there enough of what we had for supper for you to warm up for tomorrow?” he asked.

  She nodded. “There is. I’ll make sure it’s hot when you come home at noon.”

  “Why aren’t you going in the morning?” he asked.

  “I need to do our laundry. I can take it down before cooking supper, but I need it on the line in the morning.”

  “I see.” Doug was again quiet after that, working on his whittling. She had no idea what he was making, but she was certain it would be pretty when he was done. He took such care with each stroke of his knife.

  Trudie finished her second letter, and she stood up, yawning and stretching. “I’m going to bed. I’m tired.”

  He nodded. “I’ll be up in a minute.”

  Trudie went upstairs and undressed, not even bothering to put her nightgown on. Why would she when he would just take it off her anyway?

  When Doug got upstairs, he stripped and got under the covers, reaching for Trudie. Finding her naked was a welcome surprise, and he made slow sweet love to her. He still wasn’t sure what he’d done in his life to find such a loving, caring woman to marry him, who could also cook, but he was thankful every day. He fell asleep with a slight smile on his lips, happy to be with his wife, and happy to be alive.

  AS SOON AS DOUG HAD left the following morning, Trudie began heating water. She’d decide to take a good long bath as soon as the clothes were on the line, and though she knew she’d run the risk of Doug coming home in the middle of her bath, she wasn’t terribly worried about it.

  After the clothes were hanging, she put the leftover casserole into the oven to heat, and she climbed into the tub full of hot water. It felt so good to completely immerse herself.

  When she came up for air, she realized Doug was standing over her, a grin on his face. “You’re welcome to bathe when I’m around. I seem to always come in when you’re in the middle of it anyway.”

  Trudie sighed, reaching for her towel. “I really tried to get done while you were out. You shouldn’t be back for another forty-five minutes or so.” It was frustrating to always have her baths interrupted. They were her favorite thing in the world, and the only thing she’d ever really wanted to do alone.

  “Maybe not, but I’m here. I cut myself a little and wanted to get it washed before it got too dirty.” He indicated a gash on his arm.

  She looked at the cut, and decided it wasn’t bad enough for stitches. “Wash it good, and I’ll bandage it for you.” She looked longingly at her bathtub, knowing she wouldn’t have another chance for a bath for a few days.”

  “You don’t have to get out,” he said with a frown. “I wasn’t trying to interrupt.”

  “I want my hands dry when I bandage you. It’s fine.” She dried off and went upstairs to put on a clean dress, and she’d wash the one she’d been wearing in her bathwater, which had been the plan all along.

  When she came back downstairs, he was sitting at the table, looking tired. He had injured himself on the inside of his arm, just above the wrist. She got an old, clean cloth and tore a strip from it, sitting beside him and carefully winding the bandage around his arm.

  “Thank you,” he said softly.

  “You’re welcome.” She got up and removed their lunch from the oven, giving him a huge portion and herself a small one. “I’m making venison stew for supper.” She couldn’t wait until he tried her stew. It was one of the best things she made.

  “That sounds so good. Are you still spending the day at the March’s?” he asked.

  “Yes, Marion still needs me there watching her until she gets a little more confidence. It’s hard for her to learn to cook.”

  “Why didn’t her mother teach her?” Doug asked. “Isn’t that a mother’s job?” He really couldn’t understand why his wife was off teaching the neighbor to cook.

  “I really don’t think her mother knew how to cook,” Trudie told him. “She was raised in a well-off family in New York. They had servants, and there was never any need for Marion to learn.”

  Doug stared at her for a moment. “Is that why she needs help?”

  “Yes, it is. I know it seems strange to those of us who were raised under very different circumstances, but since I can help, I’m happy to do it.”

  “Do you know if Thomas was raised the same way? He seems to know how to work.”

  Trudie shrugged. “I really don’t know, but I don’t think so. He was annoyed with Marion for not being able to cook well and for burning everything, so I think he was probably raised more like we were.” And she thought it was very sad that they were just now having this conversation instead of having had it when she first started helping the neighbors.

  “I suppose it’s all right that you’re helping then.”

  “Have you been angry with me for it?” she asked. Maybe that would account for some of his strange behavior, but it had started before she’d met the Marches, so that couldn’t be it.

  He shook his head. “Not really angry. I may have felt a little neglected, but that’s something else entirely.”

  “I’m sorry I made you feel neglected. And now I’m going to run off again this afternoon.” She wondered if she should stay home with him, since he’d injured himself.

  “I understand better now. Go do what you need to do. I’ll be all right. I’m heading back out to work anyway.”

  Trudie gave him a questioning look. “Are you sure?”

  He nodded.

  “All right.” She put the dishes into the sink and ran water over them. She would wash them with the supper dishes in a few hours. “I’ll be back soon.”

  She was very aware that he watched her leave, and she wished she knew what to say to him to get him to be open with her. Maybe there was nothing that would get him to be the man he’d seemed to be those first two days. This could be the real him, and the idea frightened her. She needed a man who would talk to her about day to day life.

  Trudie saddled a horse and headed over to her friend’s house, thinking the entire way. She wanted to make Doug happy, but she just didn’t know how.

  Chapter 10

  By the end of the week, Doug had slipped back into barely talking to Trudie, and she was starting to worry that he was angry with her again. To see if she could figure out what was going on in his head, instead of going to the March’s house on Saturday, she stayed home and did some housework, making a big meal for Doug.

  When he got home after his long day, he walke
d in and sniffed deeply, smelling the fresh bread that had just come from the oven and the smell of something sweet. “Pie?” he called as he walked into the kitchen.

  Trudie laughed. “You don’t even bother to greet me when you ask what I have cooking anymore. Maybe I should go back to Massachusetts and you should find yourself an old woman to marry like you wanted at first.”

  Doug stopped in his tracks and looked at Trudie. “Is that what you want?”

  She realized he’d taken her words literally, and she started to take them back, but they were long overdue for a serious discussion. “It’s not what I want, but I sometimes think it would make you happy.”

  “Why would you think that?” He washed his hands and turned to her. “I’ve been on my very best behavior.”

  She frowned. “You have?”

  He nodded. “I’m trying really hard to stay quiet for the most part, so you won’t want to leave me. I have tried very hard not to be annoying.” Everyone else in his life had left because of how annoying he was. He didn’t want her to leave as well.

  “Annoying? Doug, you’ve barely spoken to me in two weeks. How on earth could I find that annoying?”

  “And you don’t want me to speak, right? It’s better when I’m quiet and keep all my strange thoughts inside my head instead of sharing them with you.”

  She shook her head adamantly. “I want you to talk to me. I don’t care if your thoughts are strange or not. They’re your thoughts and we should discuss them.” Why would he think he had to hide his thoughts from her?

  He took a deep breath. “My whole life, people have been annoyed by me. I was three when my mother left me at the orphanage, and I never knew why, but I think that’s why. The matron told me almost daily that I needed to go and annoy someone else. I had a girl I was sweet on at school, and she told me to go away.” He shrugged. “I’ve been trying to be quiet so you wouldn’t find me annoying and want me to go away like everyone else did.”

  She shook her head. “Doug, I’m going to find you annoying at times, but I’m not going to leave you because of it. Or ask you to go away. I love you, and I’ll be by your side every day for the rest of our lives.”

  Doug’s eyes widened. “You love me? Why?”

  Trudie’s heart broke for him, and she walked to him, wrapping both arms around him. “I love you because you are a good man, and because my heart says you’re the man I want to spend forever with. Who cares if I find you annoying at times?”

  “So, I don’t have to act with you the way I act with everyone else? Quiet all the time?” He couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

  “Is that why people in town tell me you’re quiet and don’t talk to anyone?”

  He nodded emphatically. “I don’t want people to realize how annoying I am and want me to leave.”

  “I can understand that, but I don’t find you annoying. Well, you were a little annoying about food at first, but even in the beginning I was more attracted to you than annoyed by you.”

  He sighed dramatically. “Then I can really be me with you? And you’ll accept everything about me, warts and all?”

  Trudie laughed. “I haven’t noticed any warts, but if you grow some, then I’ll accept them.”

  Grinning, he lifted her off her feet for a moment until she was eye-level with him. “Marrying a woman who is good at everything is a little bit intimidating for a man like me. I was worried you’d run away, and I would lose the only woman that I’d ever love.”

  Trudie smiled, feeling her heart soar in her chest with his words. “You really love me?” she asked.

  “How could I do anything but? Every since you threw that cherry at me, I knew I was in love with you. I always will be.”

  Trudie kissed him, sighing contentedly. “Well, I love you too, so I think we’ll be happy. Now put me down or supper is going to burn, and we both know you won’t live if you don’t get food within the next five minutes.”

  “No, I won’t.” He grinned as he watched her scurry away to get his supper. She was definitely the woman he needed to spend the rest of his life with.

  Epilogue

  Trudie worked picking the last of her vegetables in September, thankful that her friend Marion was there to help. She was expecting, and she was a little tired as she went about her daily chores, but she was happy. Happier than she’d ever dreamed she’d be.

  “I can’t believe we’ll be delivering babies around the same time,” Marion said. “How are we going to be able to help each other?”

  “We’ll both go to one house, and one can nap while the other works with the babies, and we’ll take turns. We’ve learned how to work well together this summer, don’t you think?” Trudie asked. She loved the idea of her baby playing alongside Marion’s.

  “Sounds perfect to me.”

  After she’d finished canning for the day, and Marion had gone home, Trudie put supper on the table, smiling at Doug.

  “What are you grinning about?” he asked.

  “I’m just thinking how much I want the baby to look just like you. He needs to be a rancher like his father.”

  “She needs to be a cook, like her mother.” Trudie sat down on Doug’s lap and wrapped her arms around him. “Hey, I’m hungry!”

  She smiled. “I’m just sitting here for a minute, loving my husband.”

  “Love me from over there,” he said pointing to the chair she usually sat in. When she stood to leave, he held her in place for a minute first. “I love you very much.”

  “Life is just the way I imagined it would be. Perfect.”

  Doug smiled, looking at Trudie and thinking the same thing. To him, life had been perfect since she’d arrived.

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