“If Abe can do it, so can you,” Wesley said, his mouth full of corn.
Bud and Cal slowly broke into big grins.
“What about my brother?” Leah asked, filling their plates with food.
“I forgot you were here ‘working’ all day,” Wesley said, his eyes smiling at her. “You haven’t heard about Abe.”
“Will someone please tell me?”
“You do the honors, Bud,” Wes said. From the sound of his voice he seemed about to burst into laughter.
“Abe fell in love,” Bud said softly, his attention on his food.
Leah sat down. “Is that true?” she asked Wes.
“As far as anyone can tell,” Wes answered. “He took one look at Miss Caroline Tucker and fell in love. Two days later he asked her to marry him.”
“Marry him? This is my brother Abe you’re talking about? No mistake? Abe never loved anyone but himself in his whole life.”
“He does now. Pass me the potatoes, Cal,” Wes said. “You boys don’t know how lucky you were to get anything to eat.”
“What’s the rest of it?” Leah asked. “There’s something you’re not telling me about my brother. What’s Caroline Tucker like?”
Wes nearly choked on a piece of ham. “Describe her, will you, Bud?”
“’Bout my size,” was all Bud answered.
Leah digested this. “My brother fell in love with a woman the size of one of you?” she asked in disbelief.
“Shorter than us,” Cal said.
“Wesley!” Leah threatened.
“I wasn’t there but Oliver said that your brother arrived in town, took one look at the…ah, very large Miss Tucker, and fell in love. He said something to Oliver about she’d never been hungry and I guess he liked that idea. He followed her around town until she asked him to dinner with her parents and sometime during the meal he stood up and asked for Caroline’s hand in marriage. He told them he had been a thief and had done some bad things in his life but with Caroline’s help, he was going to become a new man.”
“Gracious!” was all Leah could answer, completely astonished by this news.
They finished their meal, Wesley removed pipes from a wall cabinet, took one, and handed the other two to Bud and Cal.
As Leah cleaned up, she thought of how pleasant this moment was. She still glowed from Wesley’s lovemaking and behind her were people she cared about. After Bud and Cal left, Leah and Wes gave each other baths out of basins of hot water, and ended up making love in a leisurely manner on the floor before the fireplace.
When they went to bed, it was to snuggle comfortably in each other’s arms.
Hours before daylight the next morning, Wesley was up and out of bed while Leah started the day’s chores and had her first real look at the outside of her new home.
The number of animals on the farm was impressive. About a dozen geese lived under the porch and set up a racket whenever anyone walked past them. Thirty ducks waddled around the yard. Behind the house was a well-built, completely fenced chicken house, and Leah went inside, her apron full of crushed corn. To her left she could hear hogs grunting and behind her was the bleating of sheep.
“Wool,” she said, smiling. Wool to be spun for weaving on her precious loom.
Still smiling, she left the chicken yard but her smile disappeared instantly. Wesley was coming toward her and in his arms was the unmistakable form of Mrs. John Hammond—Kimberly.
Chapter 25
“I think she’s fainted,” Wesley said with concern.
“Did you ask her to?”
“Leah,” Wes warned. “I’m taking her into the house. She may need help.”