“Alex! Didn’t you hear me? I said I’d been with another man. I can only marry him.”
“Would you like more cheese? Stop looking at me like I’m an idiot. I know what you’re saying. I also know you’ve lived all your life in this little town. There are some places where it’s not unusual for a woman to be married and have two or three lovers at the same time.”
“Really?” Jess asked, interested. “Tell me.”
He smiled at her. “I don’t think a man should tell his wife-to-be about adultery. All right, you’ve told me you’re not a virgin. I assume it’s this Raider.”
“Yes, he and I—”
Alex put up his hand. “I’d prefer not to hear the details. I’m sure it was a moonlit night and you found his black mask fascinating. Here, eat this. I don’t like skinny women.”
She accepted the cheese. “Alex,” she said softly, “how did you lose…I mean, who was the woman who was…your first, you know?”
He leaned back on his arms. By a trick of the light, she could barely see the mound of his big belly surrounded by the lemon yellow satin of his vest. “Remember Sally Henderson?”
“The seamstress?” Her head came up. “But she was my mother’s age. She left town when we were children. Alex, you’re lying.”
He turned and grinned at her in a way that made her relax her muscles. She sprawled on the floor a few feet from him. “Sally Henderson,” she murmured. “You must have been a boy.”
“Old enough, I guess.”
“And no one since then?” she asked, eyeing him. He certainly did look different in this light. He didn’t have on that wig with all the curls, but, instead, wore the small one tied by a black ribbon at the nape of his neck. She’d never noticed before how the whiteness of the wig contrasted with the black of his brows.
“A few here and there,” he said, grinning at her over his shoulder. He turned onto his belly and looked at her. “I was pretty rotten to you when you came to my room with Eleanor, Jess,” he said. “I never met anyone with the ability to make me angrier than you. A man doesn’t like to be called a piece of seaweed when he’s just asked a woman to marry him.”
“For the kids’ sake.”
“What kids?” he asked.
“You did ask me to marry you because of the children, didn’t you? And also
because your father wants you to marry. Isn’t that why?”
He took a while to answer as he sat up and looked into the fire. “Of course. I need seven kids hanging on me, their sticky hands on my expensive coats. Yesterday Molly used my best wig to cradle a bird with a broken wing. And Samuel sat on Marianna’s silk embroidery wearing a wet diaper. And Philip climbed in bed with me at two this morning because he heard a noise and the other kids were afraid to sleep alone so, by three, they were all in bed with me. Yes, I’d say they were a real joy to have around, something of yours I’ve always coveted.”
Jess looked at the fire. She was afraid to say a word. She wanted to ask him why he’d asked her to marry him, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Could he possibly want to marry her? She looked at him while he had his head turned. She hadn’t been exactly kind to him since he’d been home, but they had spent a lot of time together and she felt, well, almost attached to him. The first man she’d ever noticed was a Montgomery and she’d been selling fish to the Montgomerys since she could hold a net. She remembered Alex’s mother sitting her down beside Alex, feeding them both milk and cookies.
“Alex,” she said softly. “What about children?”
“I’ll keep them,” he said firmly. “No matter what they do. Father spends a lot of time with Nate, and Marianna may take on the girls, so that leaves me with the rest of the boys. Sam follows me like a fat Christmas goose and Philip—”
“No, I mean our children.”
He kept his back to her. “We’ll have to postpone our children, Jess,” he said softly and there was great sadness in his voice. “I can’t…not yet. We’ll have to wait.”
Jess’s heart went out to him as she looked at the back of him. Silhouetted as he was by the firelight, all she saw was his broad shoulders, his lean jaw, and his kindness to her. She remembered all the things he’d done to help her—and all the times she’d been ill-tempered with him.
She sat up and put her hand on his shoulder, her lips next to his cheek. He put his hand over hers. “Alex, thank you for all you’ve done for me, thank you for putting up with the kids, and for tolerating my temper.”
She leaned forward so that she was facing him. He really did have a handsome face she thought and, on impulse, she bent forward to kiss his lips.
He turned and her kiss landed on the corner of his mouth.
His reaction made her feel very sorry for him. No doubt she reminded him of times before his fever.
She patted his hand. “That’s all right, Alex, I don’t mind. I understand. And I’ll marry you. If the Raider doesn’t come forward to claim me by Tuesday night, I’ll marry you on Wednesday morning.”
For a man so fat, Alexander certainly reacted quickly. He was on his feet before Jess could blink.