Accidental Family. Lisa Bingham

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СКАЧАТЬ infirmary, Charles quickly dropped his hands.

      Ramsey closed the door firmly behind him, twisted a key in the lock, then jammed his hands into his coat pockets.

      “Where you headed?”

      “The livery.”

      Ramsey’s brows rose, but he merely said, “I’m headed that way myself. I’ll keep you company.”

      They walked in silence, their boots crunching in the snow, and Charles scrambled for something to say to ease the uneasiness that hung between them. Granted, Charles had never been much of a talker—and he hadn’t spent as much time in his off hours with Jonah Ramsey as Gideon had been prone to do. But the two of them shared a comfortable friendship.

      “Are you meeting Sumner at the livery?” Charles asked, for wont of anything else to say.

      “Nah. As soon as she looked over Jenny’s body, I sent her home with the sleigh. I knew this storm would only get worse and I wanted her heading to safety as soon as possible. That’s why she wasn’t at the wedding.”

      Charles felt the man shoot a glance his way, but he refused to look up.

      “I’m sure Sumner will be right disappointed to have missed it. She and Willow are pretty close.”

      Charles hadn’t thought about that. It would seem strange that Willow had never confided an affection for him all this time.

      “In fact, I’m pretty sure that Sumner told me on more than one occasion that Willow was part of the group of mail-order brides destined for California. As I recall, my wife said something about Willow agreeing to marry a bedridden man with a houseful children.”

      Charles had forgotten about that, too. He knew that Jonah was waiting for him to comment, but for the life of him, Charles didn’t know what to say.

      This time he couldn’t help meeting Ramsey’s gaze, and by thunder there was a glint in his friend’s eyes, even in the darkness.

      “I’m sure Sumner will be relieved to hear that she was mistaken,” Jonah continued when Charles failed to speak. “She was worried that Willow’s arrangement might be less of a marriage and more a lifelong term of servitude.”

      They’d both eased to a stop in front of the livery, where a lantern hung by the door offered a small puddle of light. Charles studied his friend hard, wondering if there were hidden meanings to the words being offered. Once again, he wondered if Ramsey somehow suspected the true parentage of the twins. If so, he would know that Charles’s claims of an earlier marriage ceremony in England were false. But if that were the case, he would have called a halt to the vows that had just been exchanged.

      Wouldn’t he?

      “What brings you out on a night like this, Charles?”

      What on earth could he say to that?

      “I... I needed to have a word with Smalls.”

      Willoughby Smalls oversaw the livery, the mules used in the mine and the other various animals that kept the mining community in milk, meat and even wool. Since Charles often helped him with the blacksmithing, he had a logical reason to talk to the man.

      “I thought he should hear about my resignation from me.”

      Jonah nodded. “That’s good of you. But I think I saw him head up to Miner’s Hall. He and Creakle were probably thinking of getting their fiddles out and providing a little music. I’m sure they’ll be easy to find.”

      The man opened one of the side doors to the stables, then turned at the last moment. “Oh, and Charles...”

      Again, Charles could have sworn that Jonah’s dark eyes flashed with amusement.

      “While you’re at it, tell Smalls that I’ve given you permission to take one of those goats off his hands. We have more milk than we can handle with those things. And I think I remember my mother saying that goat’s milk was more tolerable to a young child than cow’s milk. You can find out for sure when Sumner comes back to the camp in a day or two. In the meantime, with two babes on her hands, Willow might find a little extra nourishment could come in handy.”

      With that, he closed the door with a soft thud.

      Leaving Charles more unsettled than ever.

       Chapter Four

      Charles had been gone for only a few minutes when Willow heard a soft tap at the door. She froze.

      “Willow, it’s me.” The voice was distinctly feminine.

      Hurrying to the door, Willow drew back the bolt, allowing Lydia to slip inside.

      “What are you doing here?”

      The other woman grinned. “I was helping to clean up in the cook shack after the evening meal, and I happened to see Charles head to the livery with Jonah Ramsey, so I slipped out the side door.”

      “Won’t the Pinkertons realize you’re gone?”

      Lydia sniffed, eloquently offering her opinion of the men tasked with being their guards. “I’ll be back before they know I’ve gone. Besides, Gideon Gault has taken the lead tonight, and it won’t hurt for him to be brought down a peg or two.”

      Willow didn’t comment on the fact that the head of the mining camp’s Pinkerton unit seemed to rub Lydia the wrong way more than any of the other guards.

      “Besides, I wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight if I didn’t have a chance to talk to you.”

      The woman’s eyes narrowed as she studied Willow intently. “You are happy, aren’t you?”

      “Happy?”

      “With Mr. Wanlass. You haven’t been forced into anything against your will, have you?”

      “No! I... Mr. Wanlass... Charles and I...” Willow didn’t know what to say to reassure her friend, so she offered weakly, “We’re in love.”

      The explanation tasted false on her tongue. Willow didn’t have the slightest idea what “love” even meant. When she’d agreed to marry Mr. Ferron and serve as his helpmate and the mother of his children, she’d known that love had nothing to do with it. The two of them had shared a business agreement, nothing more, nothing less. If she’d ever had any dreams of romance, Willow had pushed them aside and consoled herself with the fact that the marriage of convenience would offer her the one thing she wanted: a family. Or at least the closest thing to a family that she was likely to get.

      In that respect, the arrangement with Charles wasn’t much different. Willow was still playing at being a wife and mother. The principal characters had just changed for the time being.

      But Lydia was unaware of Willow’s turmoil. The woman grasped her hands, squeezing them.

      “I thought so, otherwise I wouldn’t have interfered. It was my idea to bring the dress, the veil.”

      Willow’s СКАЧАТЬ