Page 31

T wenty- O ne

Tilda went to bed a bride and woke up a wife.

It was early yet. She could see the dawn had just broken by the slant of the sun coming in through their window. She lay so close to Josh, they were almost one person.

He had his arm around her shoulders while she rested her head on his chest. His hand slid up and down her arm.

“Good morning, Mrs. Hart. It’s a pure joy to wake up next to you this morning. I’m going to see to it that we spend every night for the rest of our lives sleeping in each other’s arms.”

Tilda sat up slowly, looking down at his kind blue eyes and his tousled, dark blond hair.

“I want that, Josh. Being a married woman, finding a good man, it’s more than I’d ever hoped for.

I’ve spent most of my life just aiming for enough food and a warm room.

And I wanted honest work that was a service to the Lord. ”

“I’d say you’ve found all of that.” He reached up to kiss her even as he tugged her down to meet his lips.

Pulling away just a bit to smile at him, she said, “I most certainly did, but I found so much more. I found you .”

She wanted to tell him she loved him. It seemed impossible when they’d gotten married in such haste.

How could a woman say such a thing, one who’d never known love?

Certainly not from her parents. She should call them the couple who’d adopted her, for they could hardly be called parents .

And not from a boyfriend since she’d never had one.

Not even from the folks she worked with, though Mrs. Worthington had been kind in her own brusque way.

How could she recognize this warm, sweet feeling as love?

He ran his hand over her forehead and into her hair, watching every blink of her eyes, every slight expression. No one had ever paid this much attention to her.

He said, “Michelle told me that the three students interested in teaching are doing well, and they can keep on filling in for you. I’ve seen you teach, Tilda.

You’ve a rare gift for bringing history to life, and you should continue with it.

It would be a service to your students. But I want us to take another day to just be married. ”

She wanted that, too. “But you have been gone now more than at home for days. Rescuing me, then marrying me, then searching for treasure. I don’t want to make demands on your time.”

For some reason that made him smile. “It’s almost time to gather the cattle for our drive.

We run a thousand head to San Francisco every fall.

But right now, we’ve got the cattle grazing our best land to fatten them up.

And watching cows eat grass isn’t demanding work.

Things are a bit slow. I’d like to ride to town with you, with a few bodyguards included, and buy you a new dress.

And a few other things. Taking a woman along would make for a more fun shopping day for you.

But we probably can’t. Michelle shouldn’t be out riding when she’s so close to the time the baby arrives, and Annie is still teaching.

But a couple of men can ride shotgun. We’ll head into town, eat the noon meal at Fatty’s Diner with your pa and sister, then spend a bit more time with them before bringing them here for supper. ”

Tilda frowned at him.

“If you don’t want to eat with your pa, that’s fine.

I just thought it’d be rude to be right there in town and not say howdy.

” He shrugged and tried his best to look sheepish, but she could tell he felt not one speck of worry over being rude to her father.

“Or we can slip into town and do our shopping quick and hide from him.”

“That would be nice, Josh. I think there are yard goods out here, though. I can sew myself a dress in the next few days. I don’t want to start right in costing you money.”

Josh snapped his fingers. “That reminds me, you’ll get paid for teaching school.”

“Does Annie get paid?”

Josh froze, then said, “You know, I don’t think she does. And she should. But no. I’ll have to fix that.”

“We’ll see what Annie says about getting paid, and I’ll think about whether I care to accept any money. As it is, we can think of my work as a donation to the orphanage.”

“Fair enough. I just don’t want you to think you’re costing me a bunch of money when you should be getting paid. Maybe we can say a dress or two is your payment. Though it’d give me great pleasure to buy my new wife a few pretty dresses anyway.”

“Let’s go eat breakfast. While my New York family isn’t here, I’d like to see what Michelle has to say about the artifacts we brought home.”

* * * *

“Do we have to go to town?” asked Josh. “That armor is really interesting. I’d like to spend more time with it.”

In truth, he wanted to spend a quiet morning with his wife. This wasn’t exactly how he’d planned it, with Shad and Bo riding along with them and a lunch shared with Cabril and Maddie. But he supposed it’d been his idea, and this was as “alone” as they were going to get.

Josh went on, “Michelle already wired a man at the University of the Pacific to ask him if he wants to inspect what we found. He said he’ll come here soon. Maybe it would be more interesting to study it after he arrives. For now, they moved the armor into her invention shed.”

“She calls it a ‘laboratory.’ That’s a pretty word. We should use it.”

“We can do whatever you want, Tilda.” He leaned down and kissed her. “I learned the word archeologist , so I reckon I can wrangle laboratory .”

Tilda had such a contented smile on her face, he couldn’t help but believe she was happy with him no matter what she said.

“Anyway, she moved the armor in there and wants to spend the morning working on a new quick-attaching hitch for the undercarriage of a train. She said she’s almost done with it and wants it finished and sent off for a patent before the baby comes.

She’ll keep the armor locked up while she does her work.

We’ll be back this afternoon, and you can look over the armor with her. I want to see it again, too.”

They rode along, Josh just as contented as Tilda, though he kept finagling around in his head about how they could keep from attracting Carl and Maddie’s notice.

Not that easy in a town as small as Dorada Rio, which had only one restaurant.

They were bound to run into them unless they worked hard to avoid them.

The seamstress in town had a few ready-made dresses, and two were a decent fit for Tilda.

One was a dark blue broadcloth that looked beautiful with her dark hair and eyes.

It had ruffles and lace at the wrists and the collar.

The other was a bright yellow calico sprinkled with blue flowers that made her look like a sunbeam.

There was also a black riding skirt that needed to be hemmed and taken in a bit.

She said she could do that in the time it took Josh and Tilda to eat lunch.

There were two shirtwaists in a dark green and a bright blue that’d fit.

He overrode Tilda’s protests and bought all the clothes that would fit her.

He wanted more for her. He remembered Maddie’s elaborately draped silk dress adorned with ruffles and lace and wished Tilda had something so fine.

But neither did he want to get into some foolish contest between the twin sisters, so he settled for the two dresses there were.

As a final touch, he added a white cotton nightgown and let the seamstress select what she thought was necessary for Tilda’s underpinnings.

He bought her two bonnets, one for everyday and one for Sunday.

And then he took her to the mercantile, where they found a pair of kid half boots made of shiny black leather.

It made him smile just to think of them on her feet.

Then they went to the hotel to rustle up her family.

Josh had found out from the hotel owner that Carl had rented the whole second floor and left four rooms empty besides having one for himself and one for Maddie and a lady’s maid.

When he knocked on Carl’s door, Tilda’s pa opened it, and he saw Ben stepping out of sight at the far side of the room.

* * * *

Tilda, standing off to the side, saw only Josh as he stormed into the room. Before she could do more than gasp, Shad and Bo, who’d waited at the bottom of the stairs, thundered up and headed straight for the door. The fierce expressions she saw made her step back.

Once the men rushed into the room, she quickly followed. She entered just as a fist thudded. Ben staggered back and slammed into the wall only inches from her.

“Don’t you touch Tilda, or I’ll—”

Before Josh could quit roaring, Bo caught Tilda around the waist, pulled her farther into the room, and tucked her behind him.

Josh lunged at Ben, grabbed him by the shirtfront with one hand, and punched him right in the jaw.

“No! Josh, stop!” Maddie cried out. She grabbed Josh’s arm, nearly hanging from it.

“Josh, let me explain!” Mr. Cabril tried to hold back Josh’s other arm.

Shad caught Mr. Cabril by the back of his suit coat and tossed him across the room, where he fell onto the bed.

Josh shook Maddie off and then shoved Ben against the wall so hard dust filtered down from the ceiling. He roared, “Bo, take Tilda with you and get the sheriff.”

From the bottom of the stairs, the hotel owner yelled, “I sent for the law, Josh. The sheriff is coming.”

“No, no, please, let me explain.” Old Man Cabril was blocked from reaching Josh by Shad simply standing in his way.

Maddie jumped on Josh’s back, wrapping her arms around his neck as if to strangle him.

“I’m fine, Bo,” Tilda insisted.

Bo glanced over his shoulder and surprised her by grinning.

Nothing about any of this was funny. Tilda jammed her fists onto her waist and shouted, “Get that woman off my husband!”