Accidental Family. Lisa Bingham

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СКАЧАТЬ don’t want it back. It’s a gift. The other dresses that you wore were...”

      “Awful,” Willow blurted out.

      Lydia laughed. “I honestly thought you were wearing them for religious reasons, or as penance or something.”

      “Lydia!”

      “Okay, I’m exaggerating. But now that I know you have no objections to colors, I’ve got a few more gowns you can have.”

      Willow stiffened.

      Lydia must have sensed her concern because she gave a dismissive wave of her hand. “Please, don’t say no. My aunts insisted on an entirely new wardrobe for my speaking engagements. I headed for California with thirteen trunks—thirteen!” She grimaced. “Even Mr. Gault had something to say about such excess when the men finally managed to unearth the last of them. I refuse to continue my journey with more than three trunks—four at the most. Consider the new clothing a wedding gift. Most of them have never been worn—and it will take you a month of stitching to alter them to fit, so I’m inconveniently adding to your workload. But it would bring me such pleasure if I knew that they could be of use to you.”

      “I...”

      “Just say ‘thank you’ and I’ll consider this conversation finished.”

      Willow hesitated, but in the end, the temptation proved too much. The yellow dress she wore now was unlike anything she’d ever owned before, and she was discovering that the use of color and delicate fabrics made her feel...pretty.

      “Thank you, Lydia.”

      Lydia offered a squeak of pleasure and clapped her hands.

      “I’ll sort through things tonight and drop by tomorrow with a selection. You don’t have to take anything you don’t like, but I think you’ll have plenty to choose from.”

      She was reaching for the doorknob when Willow blurted, “I thought you disapproved of marriage, Lydia. Isn’t that what your speaking engagements are all about?”

      Again, Lydia waved a dismissing hand. “My speeches are about females gaining a voice in government, standing up for their own happiness and relieving themselves of the tyranny of male domination. It’s time women refused a subservient role and spoke out against inequality, abuse and the demonizing effects that an excess of hard spirits or gambling can have in any relationship. Just as importantly, men need to see that women are their partners, not their servants. There should be equal respect between the sexes, and an acknowledgment that some women are happiest as wives and mothers. But there are others, like Sumner, who have much to offer the world if they are allowed to pursue their dreams of a career.”

      “And what about you, Lydia?”

      Her friend grinned. “I am not the marrying kind. I would much rather spread the Female Cause than wear a ring on my finger.” She enfolded Willow in a quick embrace. “But even though I may never be a mother myself, that doesn’t mean I don’t want to be around children. So, I’ll give you a day or two to settle in with Charles, then I’ll be slipping away from the Pinkertons anytime I can for some cuddling of those twins, you hear?”

      Willow laughed. “I’ll be expecting you.”

      Then, with the squeak of the door and a rush of icy wind, Lydia disappeared.

      * * *

      It took Charles much longer than he’d thought to find Willoughby Smalls, then return to the long, narrow barn where some of the smaller animals were kept when the temperatures were low.

      Since Willoughby’s throat had been injured in an accident two years back, the man communicated by scrawling notes on whatever scraps of paper he managed to collect. Charles glanced down at a torn half of a weigh slip. According to Smalls’s notation, he was to take a goat from one of the last enclosures. It needed to have one brown ear and one white. Smalls had assured him that the animal was a good milker and would stay warm enough in the lean-to behind Charles’s house.

      “As a newly married man, shouldn’t you be with the little missus?”

      Charles grimaced when he saw Gideon Gault watching him from a pile of feed sacks.

      “You just about scared the life from me,” Charles groused. He’d been gone from Willow too long. All these interruptions to his original errand were taking up too much time. “What are you doing here?”

      “Lydia Tomlinson slipped out of the cook shack. And seeing that you’d left Willow alone, she headed over to your place.”

      Charles couldn’t account for the relief he felt, knowing that Willow hadn’t spent all this time by herself.

      “Shouldn’t you be hauling her back?” Charles grumbled, slipping the catch to the gate free and stepping into the goat enclosure. Immediately, the animals began shifting and bleating, clearly upset by the change in their routine.

      “Not just yet. I don’t want Lydia catching on to the fact that I’ve figured out how she’s been sneaking away from the other guards, now and again.”

      “Then shouldn’t you be watching her?” Charles offered.

      “Oh, I’ve been doing that, too. Through the knothole in that wall over there. There’s no sense freezing my fingers off just because she’s of a mind to play hooky. Besides, I had another man circle around to the side entrance of your place, just in case.”

      Charles stepped into the midst of the milling animals, trying to find a goat with one brown ear and one white one. He’d never realized how many shapes, sizes and colors were possible in goats. There were big ones and little ones, goats with long fur and with closely cropped fur. There were goats with curved horns and some with spikes. But none of them matched Smalls’s description.

      “What are you doing, Charles?” Gideon said with a bemused grin.

      “I’m looking for a goat. A milking goat.”

      “And?”

      “And it’s supposed to have one brown ear and one white.”

      Gideon searched the herd with his keen gaze and finally pointed to the far corner. “It’s over there. Judging by its udders, it won’t be long before it will need to be milked again.”

      “You see a rope anywhere?”

      Gideon disappeared for a moment, then returned with a length of heavy twine. “Will this do?”

      “Yeah.”

      Charles snagged the cord from the Pinkerton, then waded into the sea of goats, keeping his eyes pinned on his target.

      “Hey, Charles. You got a good look at that woman’s body, didn’t you?”

      Charles felt gooseflesh pebble his skin, but he didn’t pause in his pursuit. “Yeah.”

      “Those wounds weren’t an accident.”

      He nearly stumbled. Gault hadn’t offered the words as a question.

      “No. I didn’t think so, either.”

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