His Secondhand Wife

He rewet the cloth and dampened her face and neck once again, then reached for her hand to cool a wrist. Her hand lay on the mound he hadn’t noticed until that moment—a considerably rounded belly beneath her loose-fitting dress.

The woman was with child.

Noah stared hard at the protrusion, his eyes reading more of his brother’s onerous deeds.

If it was Levi’s baby.

He blinked and rubbed his face with a calloused hand. Placed the cool cloth over his own eyes and pressed in an attempt to clear his head.

A sigh arrested his attention and he lowered the cloth to observe the woman.

Her eyelids fluttered and lifted, revealing eyes that seemed too dark for such a pale complexion. She turned toward him, so he stood and pulled out a chair to sit with the window at his back.

With one hand under her belly, she rose to a sitting position and swung her feet to the floor. “I’m sorry. I—I’ve never done that before.”

“That Levi’s child you’re carryin’?”

Anger flitted across her features. “He is…” Her voice faltered and her expression softened. “He was my husband. Of course, it’s his child.” She raised a hand to tidy her hair and tuck stray wisps into the thick knot on her neck, then looked back at him. “What happened to him? I mean, how did he die?”

“Shot.”

“Shot?” Sincere-looking tears gathered in her eyes. Her delicate lips trembled. “Who shot him?”

“A man.”

“Is the man in jail?”

“There’ll be a trial.”

“What aren’t you telling me? I’ll find out, you know.”

“Might be it’s better to let—”

“Don’t hold it back. I’ll go to the sheriff myself and find out if you don’t tell me.”

“Fella name of Robinson shot ’im over Pony Creek way.”

“Why?”

“Caught Levi with his wife.”

It wasn’t shock that passed behind those hazel eyes, it was more like hurt…and shame. She didn’t have anything to be ashamed of.

“How’d you know about me?” she asked.

Before he could reply, the door opened.

Noah turned to see a reed-thin, stoop-shouldered woman in a worn coat enter the room. Her suspicious gaze shot from Katherine to Noah. “What’s he doin’ here?”

“This is Levi’s brother, Mama.”

She hung her coat on a hook inside the door, revealing a thin shawl and faded dress. “And where is that no account brother o’ yourn? We haven’t seen hide nor hair of ’im since he got my Katy in the family way and lit out.”

“Mama,” the daughter cautioned.

“No sense mincin’ around, is there?” she asked. “You’d think the girl would have more sense than to marry on a whim, but you can’t tell her a dad-blamed thing. Always was flighty, that one. Always thinkin’ she was better and dreamin’ of a big house to live in. Told her a hundred times life deals you the rotten hand you deserve, and you just have to play it the way you see it. There ain’t no fairy-tale endings to be had.”

Katherine’s cheeks blushed scarlet and it was obvious she held herself in check from replying.

“My brother’s dead,” Noah said bluntly, cutting off the woman’s bleak tirade. He’d come to grips with the fact himself the day before and had used the better part of the night and this day to work up a plan and the grit to come see Levi’s wife.

The older woman had stopped her harangue mid-sentence and blinked first at Noah, then at her daughter. Her eyes narrowed. “What happened to ’im?”

“Shot.”

“Up to no good, was he?” she said with a knowing shake of her head and a gleam in her eye. “Well, you’re better off without him, girlie. He weren’t going to be no kind of father nohow, and he woulda made your life miserable if’n he’d a come back into it. Now you can quit moonin’ and get your mind right and get on with your job and feedin’ that kid for the next fifteen or so years till he breaks your heart.”

Katherine’s eyes closed against the harsh words and Noah’s temperature inched upward another degree, though he didn’t think it was due to the coat this time.

“Mama, Levi was Mr. Cutter’s brother. We should show him our sympathy.”

“Him? What about you? You’re the one married the weasel and landed yourself in this mess. What’s she supposed to do now?” she asked, snidely addressing Noah. “Woman like her with a babe and no man don’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell. She’ll be on her back down at Ripley’s inside a year, mark my words.”

“Mama!” Katherine objected.

Noah cut in at the same time. “I came to take her.”

Katherine and her mother both turned to him and stared.

His abrupt words hung in the air.

“What did you say?” the younger woman finally asked.

“You’re comin’ with me.”

She blinked and glanced around the dingy room. “I don’t even know you. I don’t know where you live.”

“Spread out by Copper Creek called Rock Ridge. House and livestock. I mean to take care of you. What more do you need to know?”

What more, indeed? Kate’s mind whirled with concern for her desperate circumstances, fear of the future and the shock of her missing husband’s death. She struggled to clear her thoughts and to focus on what this man was saying.

She’d worked in that godawful laundry since she was eleven years old. She was twenty-five now, so that was over half of her life. She didn’t want her child raised in this mean city environment—neither did she want him left on a back stoop all day while she worked, raised the way she had been. The thought of her detested job combined with her mother’s suffocating criticism to convince her. She had to get away. And she might never have another chance.

“I can work for you,” she said quickly. “I can do laundry and cook and clean. I can learn to do just about anything—garden or help with the stock.”

Her mother stared at her.

“I’m a quick learner,” Kate added. “And I’m not sickly. What happened a minute ago, that was the only time. You won’t have to mollycoddle me.”