Page 17 of A Bride for Brodie

And he did, much to her delight.

Later, on their way back to the big house, they held hands. Lottie turned her gaze up to Brodie. “Do you realize how nice this is? This freedom to walk anywhere I like without someone telling me to do this or that or go there or stay here. We take this ability, this freedom, for granted until it’s taken from us.”

Brodie nodded. “I hadn’t thought about it, but you’re right. We take our freedom for granted.”

Lottie played the last half hour over in her mind.

“You’re blushing again.”

She heard the laughter in his words. “I’m thinking about what we just did. It was amazing. Of course, Maisie never told me anything about making love. I think the experience was different for her. Her first husband, may he rot in Hell, was hard on her. She never wanted me to know, but I’d see her bruises when she changed clothes. She had them all over her body, but never on her face. Donald Kunkle was a monster.”

Brodie pulled her to a stop and turned her toward him. He cupped her face with his hands. His eyebrows were furrowed, and he whispered. “I will never hurt you, no matter what. If I get that angry, I will leave and cool off rather than lift a hand toward you. Please, believe me, I only want you to feel pleasure all the time, not just at our coupling.”

She smiled and placed her hands over his. “No one can be happy all the time. We have too many situations that might not be pleasant or that just frustrate us, or any number of things. If you’re going into this relationship thinking everything will always be pleasant, then you didn’t watch your brother or your parents in their marriages. I’m sure they all had times they weren’t content, or they were angry or sad.”

He tilted his head and let out a breath. “You’re right.”

“Of course I am.” She looked at him through her lashes before laughing. “Let’s go back. I need to do my share of the household chores.”

“I doubt many of the chores are getting done today. All of us are trying to get to know each other, and I know my brothers will bring their wives out here to show off their houses.”

“Undoubtedly, but that doesn’t mean we won’t be getting ready for supper and learning from Agatha just what is needed. You have, what, ten or fifteen cowboys and the family to cook for? That’s a lot of food and takes a lot of preparation, so let’s head back.”

“Okay, you’ve convinced me. And twelve cowboys work here.”

“Well, they need to eat, too. Let’s go.”

They walked back to the house and into the kitchen. The ladies were sitting at the table, each with a cup in front of them, talking.

Brodie looked at the gathering. “Clearly I’m not wanted here. See you later, Lottie.”

“Okay.” She turned away and grabbed a cup of coffee before sitting at the table next to Maisie. “What are we discussing, ladies?”

“We’re discussing the division of the chores since most days are the same. We can just divide them.” Maisie slid the sugar and cream toward Lottie.

“Thanks, sister.” Lottie added a teaspoon of sugar and a measure of cream into her coffee before stirring.

“So far, Gwen is doing the dusting downstairs, Ivy is dusting the upstairs. You and Maisie always enjoyed taking care of the garden and it looks like they need a garden. You’ll have to ask where the rakes, hoes and shovels are.”

“They’re in the tool shed which is out by the barn.” Agatha lifted her cup to her lips, sipped, and then spoke again. “The men probably didn’t even think to show it to you because they figured you’d never have need of it.”

Lottie rolled her eyes. “Obviously they were wrong.” She looked over at Maisie. “Come on, let’s go find the tools and figure out where to put the garden.”

Maisie stood. “After you.” She made a grand gesture with a wide sweep of an arm.

“Thank you, kindly. Let’s get going. I can’t wait to feel the soil between my fingers.” Lottie looked over at Agatha. “Did Brodie’s mother ever have a garden?”

“Yes, over in the northeast corner of the backyard.” Agatha pointed in the direction the garden would have been. “It wasn’t fenced then, though. Ross did that so he could put the girls out there to play and not have to worry about them getting trampled or lost.”

“That’s a good idea.” When she and Brodie had children, she’d have a fenced yard for them, too.

She and Maisie headed to the tool shed and got the tools they would need. Then they marked off the area they would turn into a garden and dug the dirt and turned it over. Then they raked it, getting out most of the rocks, so the seeds could germinate. Next, they would need seeds and would have to wait until someone went to town and got them.

“What do you suppose we should grow?”

Maisie leaned on the rake she held. “Well, let’s see. It has to be something with a shorter growing season because we’re getting started a bit late for planting. Green beans, zucchini, peas, beets, onions, will all be good for this area and sprout quickly. If they grow well, we can expand the garden next year.”

They walked back to the kitchen door, leaving their tools leaning against the house on one end of the porch out of the way of the doorway.