His Brother's Bride Read online

  “Why, God?” she whispered to the empty room. He was so young, with a full life ahead of him. She’d been so looking forward to meeting him in person. They would’ve been so close, she just knew it. And she longed for a close relationship. She’d felt alone ever since her mama had passed on. Even Nana, dear though she was to Emily, had not filled the loneliness because her confusion and memory loss prevented a normal discussion.

  She detected the aroma of fried chicken on the air, and her stomach turned. Though she’d not eaten since dawn, she knew she couldn’t force down a single bite. She needed to gather her thoughts, to figure out what she was going to do.

  She reached into her reticule and pulled out her diary. Whenever she needed to sort her thoughts, that was what she did.

  Dear Diary,

  I scarcely know how to write the words that I heard only minutes ago. I don’t want to write them, for I fear putting them into print will make it more real. But that is what needs to happen. Perhaps then the truth will begin to sink in.

  Thomas is dead. I learned the dreaded news upon my arrival in Cedar Springs. Thomas’s brother, Cade, met me at the stage stop. He looks a bit as I thought Thomas would, though he’s sturdier than Thomas described himself. I will never forget the look in Cade’s eyes. I have never seen such emptiness. And as I remember the loss of his wife several years ago, I know that Thomas’s death must have dealt a harsh blow to him.

  I have only minutes to decide what I am to do. Though, I suppose, there is really little choice in the matter. Cade has graciously agreed to pay my fare back to Denver. It’s a good thing too, because I am nearly penniless at the moment.

  Only the thought of facing Uncle Stewart makes me question my decision. What will he do when he discovers I have not been able to follow through with his plan? Never mind that it is no one’s fault. He will somehow find a way to assign blame to me. I don’t fear for myself, but I do fear that he will take his anger and disappointment out on Nana.

  From below, she heard the sounds of chairs scraping across the floor and knew her stage would be leaving soon. She packed the diary back in her bag and took a few minutes to freshen her appearance before leaving the room.

  ❧

  “Gee-up!” Cade snapped the reins, and the horses began walking, kicking up the dry Kansas dirt. He paid no heed to the direction he went; his bays knew their way home.

  The familiar knot in his stomach coiled tighter the farther he got from town. He hated leaving the woman there alone. She’d walked away from him, following Mrs. Cooper up the stairs, her shoulders slumped, her head down.

  Thomas had not told him much about Miss Wagner’s life in Denver, but he wondered if she had much to return to back home.

  When she’d gotten off the stage, he’d been taken with her obvious awkwardness. Her chin had tipped down, and he’d dreaded telling her about Thomas. She’d come all that way thinking her future was secure, and he’d had to tell her otherwise.

  And when she’d mistaken him for Thomas, his own heart clenched. He shook his head. It had been one of the most difficult moments of his life. These past two days had been almost more than he could bear. Of course, he was acquainted with grief. When he’d lost Ingrid, he’d thought his body would wither up and die with the pain of it. But he’d had Adam to care for and raise. And the women in town helped out a great deal. Some of the townsfolk cared for baby Adam while Cade resumed farm work, but they had their own lives, their own families to care for. Eventually, Cade assumed full responsibility for Adam. And his brother was there to pick up the slack around the farm when he had to tend to his son.

  But now Thomas was gone. It was only he and Adam. How would he manage the farm and his busy five year old? Even if he got neighbors’ help for awhile, how would he manage every day, month after month, year after year? He tried to picture his daily routine without Thomas. He would prepare breakfast as usual. But Thomas had always milked the cow, collected the eggs, and slopped the pigs while he’d fixed breakfast. Now he’d somehow have to do all that. And the laundry, mending, cleaning, and butter-making. And, with spring arriving, the land had to be plowed and the seed planted. That alone was a dawn-to-dusk job, if he wanted to have enough harvested to keep them all winter. How could he manage Adam with all that? He and Thomas together had scarcely managed to get all the work done.

  Lord, I can’t do all that by myself, he prayed.

  He rubbed his chin and felt the scruff from the past couple days. His mouth was dry, his throat tight. He sighed heavily, rocking on the seat as the wagon cleared the ruts in the road.

  Sara McClain was at the house with Adam now, and he knew she would offer to help out. But he needed more than help. He needed a full-time worker. He needed someone to care for Adam while he worked in the fields. He needed someone to do some of the chores around the house. He needed. . .

  A wife.

  The word hit him square in the gut. He didn’t want a wife. He felt as if he still had one. Ingrid. His heart still belonged to her. It seemed wrong to even think of taking another woman. It seemed like a betrayal.

  She’s gone. I know that, and losing her was too hard. Too painful. I don’t want to go through that again. Loving hurts. Hadn’t he loved Ingrid and lost her? Hadn’t he loved Thomas and lost him too?

  But he needed help, there was no denying that. There were practical matters to consider here. He didn’t have the luxury of getting his life the way he wanted it; if he did, he would be on his way home to Ingrid even now.

  One of his bays whinnied and scuttled around a deep groove in the road. The afternoon sun beat down on his skin, and a trickle of sweat rolled down his face from beneath his hat.

  What was he to do? If he took a wife, it would have to be an arrangement of sorts. He couldn’t give himself to her the way he had to Ingrid. But what woman would marry under those circumstances?

  Emily.

  His grip tightened on the reins. He thought of Thomas’s words about his intended. He’d read parts of her letters aloud, so Cade knew a little something about her. And somehow, he knew, Thomas would have approved of Cade taking care of Emily. He’d once said there was some sort of strain between Emily and her guardian uncle.

  He rubbed his chin. Could this be the answer? Would Emily agree to such a thing? His heart caught in his chest even as his thoughts bounced to and fro. It might work. She might agree to marry him, and then Adam would have a woman to nurture him the way only a ma could. He wanted that for his son.

  He would do it. He would ask her. The worst thing she could do was say no. He noted the sun’s position in the sky and drew in a quick breath. The stage was leaving after the noon meal. And Emily would be on it.

  He pulled the reins to turn the horses. He had to get back to town and fast.

  “Yaw!” he cried, and snapped the reins.

  ❧

  Emily made her way out to the porch with her two satchels in hand. She felt clean after washing the dust off her skin and brushing the dirt from her hair. She’d wanted to change her dress, but the other two in her case were in no better condition. So she’d made do and beat the dirt from the material with her brush.

  Her fellow travelers were entering the stage, so she handed her satchels up to the driver. She would wait until the very last minute to board herself. The thought of three more days on the stage was almost as daunting as the thought of returning home to her uncle.

  “Board!” the driver called as he hoisted himself up onto his seat.

  She reluctantly stepped up into the stage and took the only seat left, the uncoveted middle bench. She settled the folds of her skirt and tried to avoid the gaze of the man who sat across from her.

  The stage jerked forward as the horses were spurred on. A clatter at the side of her stage caught her attention. She looked out the window and saw a wagon pulled alongside the stage.

  “Stop the stage!”
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  The words came from Cade, who balanced on the edge of his seat as if willing to cut the stage’s horses off with his own.

  The stage slowed to a stop. The curses from the driver were muffled by the roof over her head.

  “Whatever’s the trouble?” Miss Donahue asked.

  A man behind her sighed. “We’re already behind schedule.”

  But Emily’s mind spun with confusion. What was Cade up to? What if he’d changed his mind about paying for the stage? She would be stranded here with nothing, with no one.

  Her traveling companions watched as Cade leaped off his wagon bench and hurried to the stage door.

  “Oh!” Miss Donahue said.

  The door flung open. His gaze darted around the stage and settled on hers. She saw a twitch of surprise and realized the last time he’d seen her she’d been a filthy mess.

  “Can I have a word with you in private, Miss Wagner?”

  “Well, I—”

  “Get off and let us be on our way,” one man said.

  “I’m not leaving until I have a word with her.” His gaze didn’t leave hers.

  Emily, drawn by the intensity of his gaze, began to rise.

  “Then say your peace and be done with it,” said someone behind her.

  “Yeah, Mister, you’re holding us up.”

  Emily settled back in the seat and tried to read his face.

  “Very well.” He removed his hat and looked down at where his foot was perched on the door ledge.

  His gaze found hers again. “Look, Miss Wagner, it’s like this. You came here needing a husband, a home. My brother can’t offer that for you anymore.”

  Emily’s heart stomped a hoedown in her chest. Her stomach tightened.

  “I need a wife. My son needs a ma.”

  Out the corner of her eye she saw Miss Donahue’s fan begin fluttering.

  “We don’t have much to offer.” He looked down again, and Emily’s throat constricted. “But we have a home where you’d be welcomed.”

  Emily could scarcely believe it. It was an answer to her prayers. Cade was a godly man; she knew that from Thomas’s letters. He would be a good husband to her. She opened her mouth.

  “Before you say anything­­­—” He stopped and took in their rapt audience.

  Emily, too, glanced around her. Miss Donahue leaned forward, her fan twitching erratically. One impatient man rolled his eyes, and two of the men in the back stared unabashedly, their arms crossed impatiently. She looked back at Cade.

  “This could solve both our problems. I need to explain a few things, though—”

  “Enough already!” the impatient man said. He glared at Emily. “Answer the man and be done with it.”

  Her body felt weightless, and her mouth went dry. “I. . .” She looked at Cade. “I—yes, I accept your offer.”

  She heard Miss Donahue draw in a sharp breath.

  A smile spread wide across Cade’s face. “I’m honored, Miss Wagner.” He held out a hand and assisted her off.

  “Get your own bags,” the driver snapped.

  Cade hefted down her satchels and set them at her feet as the stage lurched away.

  “Best of luck to you!” Miss Donahue called out the window.

  Emily turned to Cade, her face growing warm under his gaze.

  “I’d like to find Reverend Hill and get this settled tonight, if that’s agreeable to you.”

  She nodded.

  He walked her to his wagon and set her satchels in the wooden bed. As he helped her onto the bench and walked around to mount up beside her, Emily couldn’t stop the glimmer of hope that spread like sweet honey in her veins.

  Three

  Reverend Hill winked at Cade. “You may kiss your bride.”

  Emily felt her face flood with heat as her new husband leaned toward her. His lips touched her warm cheek, and she pushed away a niggle of disappointment. He might be her husband, but they had only met today, after all. Still, she was not so naïve that she didn’t know the intimacy they would share tonight. The heat in her face flooded outward to her ears, and she hoped they didn’t glow red.

  “Congratulations, Dear,” Mrs. Hill, who’d graciously served as their witness, said. “You’re most welcome to come back to the house with us; I made two pies this morning.”

  “Thank you kindly, Mrs. Hill,” Cade said. “But I need to get back to Adam.”

  After they bade farewell to the older couple, Cade helped Emily onto the wagon bench, and they made their way to the farm. On the way there, Cade told her about Adam. Emily already knew he was five, and she was looking forward to taking care of him. She laughed when he told her Adam’s favorite activity was playing in the dirt with sticks. “He’s right fond of his marbles too,” he said.

  He told her about their farm. They had a milking cow, chickens, pigs, and the two horses that pulled the wagon. He was a wheat farmer, and they had a garden to the side of the house where she would grow corn, tomatoes, onions, and anything else she wanted to plant.

  Cade seemed relaxed and serious as he spoke. But excitement stirred within Emily. She was a married woman now. Tonight, she and Cade would begin their lives as husband and wife. Soon, she would carry a child of her own, and her heart yearned for it. Not that she wouldn’t love Adam; she thought she would love him as her own. But everything in her longed to carry a baby within her womb, to deliver a son or daughter and nurse the babe at her breast. And she wanted lots of children. She wanted a house full of laughter and teasing like she’d had as a child.

  Cade turned the horses onto another road. “This is it.”

  The long road was packed dirt with tall grass on both sides. In the distance, a two-story white clapboard house sat, flanked by a barn on one side and a grove of trees on the other.

  As they pulled up to the house, a boy burst through the door, followed by a petite woman with lovely dark hair. Immediately, Emily cringed as she thought of her own haphazard appearance.

  “Pa!” Adam hardly waited for the wagon to stop before he clambered up into Cade’s lap for a hug. “Who’s she?”

  “Adam, where’s your manners?”

  Cade introduced her as Emily but didn’t mention she was his new wife. Emily figured it was probably best to wait until they were at least in the house before telling the boy.

  He introduced the other woman as Sara McClain, a neighbor, and the two women exchanged pleasantries. Emily knew the woman must have wondered who she was and why she’d come to Cade’s home, but to her credit, she didn’t pry.

  After the horses were put up and Mrs. McClain left, Cade took her into the house. Immediately, she could tell it was a man’s home. There were no fripperies or bric-a-brac lying around. The furniture looked sturdy, but the room seemed almost barren. It was, however, recently swept. Probably by Mrs. McClain, she guessed.

  After she’d looked around, she noticed Cade was speaking to Adam. “So now she’s going to live here with us.”

  Adam glanced at Emily, and she smiled tenderly. “I hope we can be friends, Adam.”

  “I already have lots of friends.” A thoughtful frown puckered his brow. His eyes were an expressive blue, and she watched as they studied her seriously. “I don’t have a ma, though.”

  Emily’s heart caught at the innocent expression on the boy’s face. She sensed Cade going still at Adam’s side. Was he afraid Adam would forget his real mother? Emily didn’t want to do anything to hurt Cade, but the boy clearly longed for a ma.

  She squatted down to his level. “You don’t have a ma, and know what? I don’t have a little boy. Maybe we can kind of fill the gap for each other. Would that be all right?”

  Her gaze darted up to Cade’s. He seemed to approve.

  “Do you know how to play marbles?” Adam asked.

  “No, I surely don’t. Perhaps you can teach m
e.”

  Adam nodded. “Okay. I can teach you what boys do, and you can show me what a ma does.”

  Emily held out her hand, her heart squeezing tightly. “It’s a deal.”

  Later that night, as Emily and Cade tucked Adam into bed, she hugged the boy. The straw ticking crackled with the movement. “Good night, Adam. Sweet dreams.”

  “Night, Emily.”

  She left the room, leaving Cade to say good night, and made her way down the stairs to clean up the mess from supper. As she pumped water into the basin, her thoughts drifted to the man upstairs. My husband, she thought, a giddy feeling racing through her. Thomas’s brother. It was strange, how it had all happened. While her heart ached with the loss of her dear friend, she was married to his brother.

  She shook her head, willing away the sadness over her loss. She had a husband and child now to look after. And a treasure map to find.

  She chased the thought away. She wouldn’t think of it now. Tonight was for her and her new husband to become one. Heat simmered in her belly as she considered what lay ahead for her. Her mother had told her very little on the subject, but what she had shared with Emily left her anticipating the night ahead. If she could only settle her nerves. She wondered how long it would take her to conceive. She hoped it would be soon.

  She scrubbed the crust of okra from the pan and rinsed it under a flow of cold water. She heard a floorboard creak above her head and knew Cade must be leaving Adam’s room. Her belly tightened as she anticipated his appearance.

  She began scrubbing another pan and tried to calm herself. By the time she’d finished the dishes and dumped the water, Cade had still not joined her. Wasn’t he coming back down? Maybe he was waiting for her to join him. Warmth kindled in her stomach, and her breath caught in her throat. She leaned over the kitchen lamp and blew out the flame.

  ❧

  Cade threw the last pair of trousers from the armoire into the bag at his feet and sat on the edge of his bed. All his personal belongings were ready to be moved into Adam’s room. Emily’s bags were still downstairs, and he needed to bring them up for her. He would let her have this room, and he would sleep in Adam’s bed, as he’d just told him. His son had been tickled pink.