Chapter 19
WARREN
“Wife of mine.” I wrap an arm around Mara’s shoulders as she pinches the spot between her eyebrows with three fingers. “I don’t know about you, but I’m getting a mite peaked. How about we get out of here?”
We’ve been here for a few hours now, and this is the second time in the last while that Mara’s rubbed along her forehead.
The smile she wore for so long droops at the edges, and her shoulders follow suit.
She did good tonight. Real good. Danced her heart out—the two dances with my father and brother but the others all with me—and ate until her belly was full.
Made conversation with Dove and even some other ladyfolk who were much more friendly and polite than the ones who’d gossiped about us before.
But now she’s exhausted from being around all these strangers. Even Emmaline is sprawled in her arms, little rosebud mouth and limbs slack in slumber since we’d slipped off into a small, quiet room earlier so she could nurse.
Mara nods, her pained expression dissipating as she bundles our child up. “Yes. I’m ready to go home.”
I hide the smile that wants to form. I’m not entirely sure of the exact moment she began thinking of our place as her home, but it sure as hell makes me stand just a bit taller as we make our goodbyes to the family and promise to visit each other soon.
The cold air seeps into our bones as soon as we cross the threshold, and Mara covers Emmaline’s head a little more securely.
A yelp breaks through the night, then an angry curse. “Piece a’shit.”
I stiffen, angling myself in front of my wife and child as I search for the threatening voice. There, to our left and just down the street from the saloon, a man stumbles beneath a lamp post and kicks at something too dark for me to see in the dust.
“What is it?”
I shake my head and guide her towards the livery stable where our horses wait to be hitched up to the wagon. “Just someone with a few drinks too many. Let’s go.” But another yelp sounds, this time followed by a soft whine.
Mara falters. “That sounded like a dog.”
“It did.” Unease tightens my chest. “Why don’t you head back inside and I’ll see what’s going on.”
“Mangy son of a bitch!” the man roars. “You ruined my hat!” His boot makes contact again, and when the dog whimpers, a matching, muffled cry of despair comes from Mara.
“Please, Warren,” she breathes, unable to take her eyes from across the street. “Please. It’s just a defenseless animal that hasn’t done anything to deserve being treated like that. We have to do something. Please. Please.”
“I will. I promise. Now go on inside and wait for me, okay?”
She nods reluctantly, but I wait until she’s tucked away behind the door before I leave.
My steps are muffled, thanks to the festival and saloon unknowingly assisting me.
He doesn’t even hear me approaching, whether because he’s too busy bellowing obscenities at the dog that I can now see is tied to a post with a short rope or because his senses are dulled from too much whiskey.
Without a word, I whirl him around, and one swift uppercut to his filthy chin drops him to the ground.
Ignoring the sting in my knuckles, I empty out his gun before sitting on my haunches beside the dog.
Just to its right is a hat with a pile of shit on it.
Sure didn’t have much chance of dodging any punishment from its owner with how tightly it’s secured to the post. “Well hey there, buddy. Did you make a mess on that hat? I can’t say I blame you one bit.
He probably wasn’t a very nice owner, was he? ”
Two big ole amber eyes stare up at me, and even scared to death, the dog’s tail tentatively thumps the dirt.
The poor thing’s scrawny as all get out and has the worst case of mange I’ve ever seen.
But its ears flop over in a way that makes it look like just a pup.
And in those eyes…there’s a spark of life. An undeniable will to live.
Damn it. Any thoughts of freeing it and letting it run off to somehow survive in a winter that’s only just begun are out.
I curl my fingers beneath its black snout for a sniff.
“If I take you home, you’re gonna be good and not bite or growl at my wife and baby girl, you hear me?
I want to help you, but if you do anything like that, you’re not gonna be able to live with us. ”
A warm tongue darts out for a quick lick, and the dog inches closer, belly never leaving the ground.
“I suppose that’ll have to be answer enough for now.
” I untangle the rope tied too tightly about its neck and slap my thigh.
“Come on, buddy. You want to see if you can be part of our family? Let’s get you out of here so we can take care of you.
” The dog struggles to all fours, its next steps unsteady.
“Aw, shit. You’re limping. Did he do that to you?” As if the dog understood me, he whimpers again and his hind legs almost buckle beneath its weight. Poor thing. “Damn it. I’m gonna pick you up, all right? Keep those teeth together and you and me’ll get along just fine, okay?”
I pick it up nice and easylike. It. I didn’t think to see if it’s male or female. Doesn’t matter right now, though, because now I can feel just how bad off it is. Weighs next to nothing despite its size, and my fingers count just about every one of its ribs pressed up beneath the skin.
What kind of sick son of a bitch mistreats an animal like this? I toe the hat full of dog shit over until it’s on top of the man’s face, then press it down. He snorts but doesn’t come to, so I grind it down even harder. “Choke on it, you bastard.”
Mara hurries out with Emmaline when I get closer. “Are you okay? Is the dog coming home with us?”
“I’m all right. And yes, for now.” I nod towards the wagon. “Let’s go.”
Even though I warned her to be careful, Mara fusses over the animal all the way home.
She even goes so far as to cover it with her white wrap to keep it warm at her feet, not even caring that the mud and filth might stain the material into ruin.
When we reach our house, I help her down, hands lingering at her waist. “You go on inside. I’ll be in after I get the horses put up. ”
She frowns. “Why not bring the dog in first so it can be warm?” Then her face falls. “Unless…unless you don’t mean for it to stay in the house?”
“The barn’ll be more than warm enough with all the straw,” I explain gently. “Besides, it’s dirty and needs a bath.”
“It’s cold tonight. It might even snow.” She looks to the barn and back at the dog. “You once said that your dogs would sleep on the floor in the house if it was cold enough. Do you remember?”
“I…” Damn it. I do. That’s what I’d told her when I found her sleeping on the floor instead of in our bed.
The dog does look beyond a bit of pitiful, and my heart can’t take seeing my wife unhappy.
“You’ve got a sharp memory, don’t you?” My lips twist wryly.
“I guess it can sleep by the fireplace for tonight. You go on and get Emmaline to bed, then I’ll be in after I finish with the horses and we’ll make sure the dog gets all settled in. ”
Her smile breaks free, blooming to a brilliance that rivals the silky moonlight caressing her face. “But you’ll bring it in first, right?” The dog’s tail cautiously thumps as if it knows what we’re talking about.
“All right, wife.” Again, I relent. I wonder if Mara knows I would do just about anything to keep happiness on those beautiful lips of hers.
“But don’t touch it until I get back. Can’t be sure how friendly it is yet, and I don’t want you getting hurt.
” If it didn’t snap at me when I picked it up or at Mara on the cold way home, I think it’s unlikely to do so in a warm, comfortable place, but I’m not willing to chance anything further.
So I do everything I say I would. But when I enter the house afterwards, I stop and groan at the sight before me. “Mara Shay, why is the dog’s head in your lap? I thought we decided you weren’t going to touch it until I was with you.”
“I didn’t touch him,” she says defensively from her place on the floor beside the Christmas tree we decorated together. “He crawled up and put it there all by himself.” This she says even as her hand strokes his head.
My boot stops mid-step. Wait a goddamn second. Him. “And just how do you know it’s a him?”
“Because he told me.” She rolls her eyes. Feisty little wife. But then she gives me a straight answer. “Because he kept turning around in the blankets to find the best spot and I could see between his legs.”
“Hmm.” Not only does the dog rest cozily in a pile of blankets before the banked fire—along with his chin firmly settled on my wife’s lap—but there’s also a bowl of water beside him.
And next to the bowl, an empty plate with crumbs that look a lot like leftovers from today’s early supper.
Leftovers I planned to feed Mara before we turned in for the night.
I force down a sigh. Looks like my wife hides the tenderest of hearts beneath that prickly exterior. I’d long suspected, of course. I just didn’t realize how much. “My, my. You’ve been busy, haven’t you? I didn’t think I’d be gone long enough for you to feed him.”
She caresses the dog’s dirty ears but watches from the corner of her eye as I lower to the floor beside her. “I want to keep him.”
I offer up my hand for another sniff, and when I receive another lick from a pink tongue, I ease my fingers over his patchy body, lightly prodding for any injuries.
His body tightens when I find a sore spot, but all he does is lick Mara’s fingers in response.
I haven’t heard him bark or growl once, not even from pain.
There’s only one answer to give her. “I guess you’d better pick a name, then. ”
Mara’s head jerks up. “Really?”
Oh, wife of mine. It hurts to hear the disbelief in her voice. “You’ll find that with the exception of anything that would hurt you or Emmaline or take you away from me, there’s nothing I wouldn’t give or do if it meant your happiness.”
“Thank you, Warren.” A glow spreads over her face as she looks at the dog, but then her eyes turn pensive.
“I had a dog once when I was with my first…the person who beat Neil at cards. Well, she wasn’t completely mine.
She was only a stray, and even though she was hungry and had fleas, she was always so happy.
So loving. I’d feed her what scraps I could, and she would curl up beside me and keep me company.
“But then he stumbled across her. He’d been drinking, and when he drank, he got mean. He…he dragged her from me and tied her to a post with only a few inches of slack in the rope so she couldn’t move far.” Her voice breaks. “Then he reached for his gun.”
Ice burns my blood, but not from the cold. What happened next, I can already guess. Tonight must have felt like a memory—no, a nightmare—for her to see it play out again. “I’m sorry,” I rasp. My apology isn’t enough, but it’s all I can offer. “I didn’t know.”
“You couldn’t have known. It was years ago,” she whispers as she slowly pets the dog’s head, but the pain that drips down in the slow streaks of her tears is still so fresh.
What grudge did life have against my sweet, innocent wife that it had to strike her with such atrocities?
One right after the other with no reprieve.
I pull her into my side for a hug, noting how the dog laps at Mara’s hand as if to comfort her.
“Doesn’t make it hurt any less. And it’s because of how much it still hurts you that shows what an extraordinary measure of compassion you have.
” I kiss the top of her head, wishing I could kiss away her pain as easily. “You’re a gem among women, Mara.”
A weighted, poignant silence falls as we stare into the subdued fire. The dog’s amber eyes slowly wink shut, then jerk open again as if to make sure his previous owner is nowhere around. Then shut. Until he finally sleeps, knowing he’ll be safe with us.
Mara leans into me, her weight warm and welcoming as she weaves her fingers through mine.
“Everything I’ve lost, everything that’s been taken from me, you’ve somehow found a way to give it all back.
I never thought I would want to live past that day that you found me.
Never did I think I could bring myself to overlook the mark on Emmaline’s hand given to her by such a cruel man. ”
She lifts our entwined hands and kisses the back of my palm.
“And I never thought a man could ever do anything for me that would make my heart threaten to burst with love for him, or that he would make my body sing with desire after so much had been stolen from it. You said I was extraordinary, but you are, too, because you did all these things, Warren. You made me fall in love with you. You took me in when I was hurting and broken and gave Emmaline and me the protection of your name even when I tried to refuse it. And even now, you’ve brought home another wounded creature because I asked you to save it.
I’ve never known any other man to have a heart as kind as yours. ”
“Mara.” I cup her cheek with my free hand, her lips stoking the banked heat in my own body.
Heat that’s simmered ever since I had my first taste of her.
I’ve not pushed her beyond pleasuring her with my mouth.
Haven’t even found my own release in her presence because I wanted to make up for all the years she’d endured being used at the whims of others. “I…I love you.”
That’s all I can say. I can hardly even swallow around the knot in my throat.
“All of you. You and our daughter. You were hurting, yes, but you were never broken. And you can be damn certain that I’d have done whatever it took to be sure you became Mrs. Warren Shay before the night was through.
I couldn’t imagine anyone other than you being my wife. Mine.”
“You’re ours,” she whispers. “My husband. Emmaline’s papa.” I track each emotion dancing over her face in the firelight. Indecision, love, desire, indecision…and then resolution. “I love you, too. And tonight I want to be your wife in every way.”