His Secondhand Wife
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Cheryl St.John
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Chapter One
The rap on the wood was sharp and insistent. Kate Allen Cutter pushed herself up from her narrow cot and slowly crossed the small dimly lit room while smoothing wrinkles from her faded skirt. She’d left her job at the laundry an hour ago to come home and put up her feet. Her mother wasn’t due back from her shift for another half an hour.
She opened the door hesitantly.
A hulking mass of a man stood on the step, his shoulders blocking the late-afternoon sun and casting his face into mysterious shadow. Though the day was fair, he wore a Hudson’s Bay coat with the collar turned up and carried a rifle as though it was another appendage. He made no move to displace the weathered black hat pulled low over his eyes.
She didn’t know him, and she didn’t get a good feeling from his presence. A shiver of apprehension snaked up her spine. She was alone here, and he was as intimidating a man as she’d set eyes on. Any number of seedy characters passed through Boulder on a regular basis.
The length of his shaggy dark hair, his full beard and the concealing brim combined with the sun at his back gave her the impression he’d deliberately planned this time and his arrival to catch her off guard. But that was absurd.
Uneasily she found her voice. “Y-yes?”
“Katherine Cutter?” No preliminaries, no polite introduction; he meant business and his imposing manner flustered her.
“Yes,” she said again. “Who are you?”
“Noah,” he said simply, as though the name should mean something to her.
“Noah?” she repeated dumbly.
“Noah Cutter.”
She blinked in confusion.
“Your brother-in-law,” he clarified.
Kate’s heart did a backward tumble in her chest while her thoughts whirred chaotically. Brother-in-law? It had been five months since she’d seen her husband, and while she remembered Levi mentioning his family, she’d never met any of them. Why would this man seek her out now? Unconsciously she touched her hand to her breast.
“You…you’re Levi’s brother?”
He nodded.
She stood in his massive shadow, squinting upward, but he didn’t elaborate. Finally she glanced at the shabby room behind her and asked hesitantly, “Would you like to come in?”
“We need to talk.”
She took a step backward. “Come in then.”
He lumbered past her and stood beside the wobbly table.
Gathering her shawl around her, Kate stepped toward the window and reached for the shade. She’d been resting with the shade drawn and the room was semidark. She raised it and sunlight spilled across the wooden floor. She hurried toward the stove. “Can I fetch you a cup of coffee?”
“No. I’m not stayin’. I came to talk.” She caught the odd sound his “s” made when he spoke the word “staying.” Boots striking the bare wood floor, he moved to stand with his back to the window and turned to face her, once again silhouetting himself against the light.
“What do you have to say?” she asked.
“How long since you’ve seen Levi?”
Humiliating warmth infused her neck and cheeks, and this time she had little attention for his odd-sounding speech. She didn’t want to admit that her husband had taken off without a word and left her to fend on her own.
“He’s been looking for work.”
“For how long?”
It made her nervous that she couldn’t see his face. More nervous that he was asking this question. “A few months.”
“I have bad news for you.”
Blood chugging sporadically through her heart, she nervously smoothed her palms over her skirt. “All right.”
“He was killed last week.”
Kate worked the abruptly delivered information around in her mind for a moment, not quite grasping the meaning. Levi had been killed? He was dead? Her heart hammered painfully. “Are you sure?”
“I’m sure.”
“It couldn’t have been someone else?” She’d prayed every day that Levi would return and take her from this intolerable situation she’d been forced to endure since he disappeared. Now that would never happen! “Someone who looked like him or someone using his name?”
“I went to Masonville for his body, ma’am.” This time his deep voice was thick with emotion. “It’s Levi.”
Kate’s blood rushed to her ears and pounded. She pictured Levi the way she remembered him, with sun-bleached hair and laughing eyes the color of a summer sky. The hazy image of him cold and lifeless didn’t mesh with her vivid memories. Levi dead?
Stars burst behind her eyelids. The bright nimbus of light around the man flickered and dimmed.
The woman’s face was alarmingly pale and her eyelids fluttered. Her distraught hazel eyes grew unfocused and Noah caught her as she slid toward the scarred wooden floor, scooping her up in his arms and laying her on the cot.
He turned and poured water from a pitcher into a chipped enamel basin. Finding a cloth, he wet it and carried it back to where she lay. He dabbed the cool cloth against the curve of her delicate white cheek, the arch of her fine pale brow and over her smooth forehead. Noah hadn’t been this close to a woman since his childhood, and the disturbing feelings the nearness created combined with her sweet feminine scent to make his hand tremble.
Levi’s Katherine had honey-blond hair and skin as smooth and fair as cream. It was obvious why Levi had wanted her. His brother’d had an eye for the ladies—and they for him. But to take one as a wife was so out of character that Noah hadn’t believed it until he’d gone to the local justice, questioned the man and demanded to see the record himself.
This place where she lived was little more than a shack, one room with the barest of necessities, and her faded dress appeared to have been made for a larger woman. Levi certainly hadn’t taken his responsibilities as a husband seriously or he would have provided a more fitting home and proper clothing. But then, his brother never had taken responsibility for anything.
Another narrow cot pressed against the opposite wall, raising the question of who else slept here.
A woodstove kept the meager quarters warm, and Noah considered removing his coat, but chose to keep it and his hat on. No reason for sending her into another swoon if she awoke.
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.”
“What are you sayin’, girl?” Her mother raised a hand and pointed at Noah. “You sellin’ yourself off to this man now? He just wants free labor.”
“I got hands, lady, and I pay ’em well,” he corrected in a gruff tone.
The woman squinted in suspicion. “What do you need her for then?”
“Appears she’s the one needs me.” Noah turned his attention to the daughter. “Coming?”
Kate turned, grabbed a gunny sack and stuffed her meager belongings into it. She didn’t pause to see if she’d forgotten anything, neither did she stop to think or to reconsider. She plucked her coat and bonnet from the hook, worked her feet into her boots and walked to the door. “Goodbye, Mama. I’ll write.”
The big man followed her out, took hold of her elbow and guided her to a horse tied at the post.
“I have a wagon at the livery,” he said. “To carry the coffin home.”
She tied the limp ribbons of her blue gingham sunbonnet under her chin. “Of course.”
“For now, it’s the horse.”
“I’m fine with that.”
He placed one foot in the stirrup and, with a creak of leather, hoisted himself onto the saddle, then reached down to her.
“Katy, you crazy fool girl, don’t think you can come back here again after you make a mess o’ things one more time!” her mother cawed from behind.
Kate took Noah Cutter’s gloved hand, stepped on his boot and pulled herself up behind his massive form. He raised his coat and ordered, “Hold on to my belt.”
Kate did as told, first encountering his wide leather holster, then finding the warmth of his flannel shirt against her fingers intimate but comforting. He urged the horse into motion and she hung on.
“Katy!”
She didn’t look back. She’d been a dolt to fall for Levi Cutter, his handsome face and winsome ways. She’d made a fool of herself and he’d left her behind like so much used garbage. All her dreams for a better life and her hopes of leaving this place had been dashed. Taking a good hard look inside herself, she questioned if her heart had been broken or if her pride had simply been wounded.
The ache in her chest was more shame than hurt.
Maybe she was crazy for leaving with a man she’d never met before. Maybe listening to his promise of a home and setting out without a backward glance was rash.
But then again, this could be the best thing that had ever happened. Maybe there was still a chance for her and her baby to have a good life.
And she’d be crazy not to take a chance on that.
