A Man for Glory Page 7

  Cade grinned and rested his hand on the child’s golden hair. “I think if you look behind the door in the tack room, you’ll find your cat, Essie. She’s been busy in there. Walk softly and don’t startle her, for she’s got a litter of kittens and you won’t want to frighten her.”

  “Oh, can I, Glory? Can I go see?” The child fairly danced as she awaited Glory’s words of permission.

  “Of course you can. Just do as Cade said. And don’t touch the kittens yet. Give them a few days before you handle them.”

  And then she looked up at the man before her. “I’ll see you at the dinner table, McAllister.” Her tone had turned from honey to vinegar just so quickly, and the sheriff chuckled softly.

  “Reckon I’ll be on my way, McAllister. I’ll tend to that little favor soon as I get to town.” He slapped his hat back on his head, then tipped the brim a bit as he nodded at Glory. “I’ll be seeing you soon, ma’am. I’m glad things are looking up out here.”

  Glory nodded, unwilling to speak for the rush of anger that gripped her. She stood abruptly, then turned and stalked across the porch and into the kitchen. The screen door slammed behind her, the spring causing it to almost catch her bottom as she went.

  “I reckon you’ve got your hands full, McAllister.” The sheriff reached for his horse’s reins and mounted swiftly. With another nod, he was on his way.

  “Is Glory mad with you, Cade? She looked kinda put out, didn’t she?” Buddy asked his question anxiously, as if he would not take kindly to Glory being upset in any way. Ever protective, the boy tipped his head back and faced Cade.

  “I’ll take care of Glory, son. She’s just a little bit out of sorts, but we’ll be fine. Don’t you worry. Now, how about you and me using a pair of scythes and getting some hay cut. We can dry it good for a day or two and bring it into the loft.” He looked up at the cloudless sky. “Don’t look to me like we’ll have rain for at least a couple days, long enough for the hay to dry anyway.”

  “All right, Cade. I don’t mind working in the hay field. I used to do it with my pa. Ever since I was a little kid.”

  And for all that he was a sturdy lad, he was still a little kid, Cade thought, his arm encircling the boy’s shoulders as they went to the barn.

  Dinner was a quiet affair, with Glory serving the food in silence. She sat down after the bowls and platters were arranged to her liking, and nodded at Buddy. He folded his hands and said a short prayer, his noontime duty, it seemed, for he did not hesitate to speak the appropriate words, and then looked up at Glory with a grin. “Sure looks good, ma’am. I like the way you cooked the peas.”

  “They’re fresh from the garden, Buddy. All I did was put some little onions in with them and then creamed them up good, the way my mama used to do.”

  Cade spoke up then. ‘Well, however you did it, I have to agree with Buddy. You’re a good cook, Glory.” He dug into his potatoes and gravy as if hunger rode him like a thistle clinging to his trousers. “We put in a good few hours out in the hay field, me and Buddy. We’ve been looking forward to this all morning.”

  The pork chops were tender, having been baked in the oven, covered with onions and gravy. “Where’d you get the pork?” Cade asked her, lifting a bite of peas.

  “Mr. Clark got me a pork barrel to keep the chops and roasts in. It’s in the pantry. He showed me how to render out the lard after he butchered the pigs and we filled the barrel. It keeps the pork real good.” She cast Cade a speaking glance as if she’d like to bury him with the pork.

  “My mother had a pork barrel back home,” Cade offered, as if oblivious to her mood. “Pa had a smokehouse and he hung hams and bacon out there, but she kept the fresh pork buried in the lard barrel.”

  “Mr. Clark did the same,” Glory said. “There’s a bit left of such things out back in the smokehouse. He kept things up as good as he could, but he was feeling his years of late, and it got almost too much for him.”

  The children ate rapidly, Essie eager to return to the barn and the four kittens her cat had so miraculously produced overnight. Buddy was anxious to keep an eye on the mares, for Cade had confided in him that their time was very near and they must ready a stall for their use when the time was right.

  “May we be excused?” Essie asked politely and Glory nodded her assent. The child walked around the table and stood quietly at her stepmother’s side, then lifted on tiptoe to kiss Glory’s cheek. “I’ll come back in a bit and help with dishes,” she whispered as Buddy came around to join her.

  The screen door slapped shut behind them and Cade turned to Glory. “I feared that Essie would want to talk about the wedding, and I knew we needed to get things straight first, Glory. I told Sheriff Lawson that I’d appreciate it if he’d tell the minister in town that we’d be in on Saturday for a wedding.”

  “Well, you’ve got a lot of nerve, mister. This is the first I’ve heard of it.” Glory’s eyes flared with the anger she’d kept in readiness all during the meal. “I think it might be a good idea to get my approval first, Cade. I never said I’d marry you, did I? I only told you that you could move into the house and have Harvey’s bedroom.”

  “Well, I’ll sleep in Harvey’s bed till Saturday night, then I’ll share yours, ma’am.”

  “I’ve told you how I feel about that, Cade. I’d like to smack you a good one—what with you planning my life for me.”

  When his eyes touched her face, they were dark and filled with determination. “And I’ve told you how it’s gonna be, Glory. Come Saturday, you’ll stand up before the preacher and speak your vows to me. I won’t have you be the subject of gossip in town. We’ll be married and make this whole thing legal. I can’t live here any other way.”

  Glory felt her face burn as if it were on fire. “I don’t want you in my bed, Cade McAllister. I’ve never slept with a man.”

  He stood and his steps were long and deliberate as he rounded the table. His hands lifted her from her chair and he held her shoulders within his grasp, his head bending to give him better access to her mouth. His lips were firm, his touch not offensive, but Glory shivered in his grasp. As if the heat from a burning coal had touched her mouth, she pulled from his caress.

  “Cade?” She spoke his name as a query or perhaps it was a plea, but to no avail.

  Cade looked down at the woman he held. His arms ached to enclose that small, slender form against himself, and his patience was almost at an end, for she would not accommodate him as he wanted.

  She pressed her hands against his chest and pushed, and her eyes opened wide as she looked up into his. He was immovable, like a tree trunk, and she was captured between him and the table. Should she back up she’d be sitting on her plate, and he wouldn’t let her be embarrassed by such a thing happening.

  So with a swift tug, he drew her against himself, grasping at the luxury of warmth and soft woman against his long, lean body. She fit well, he thought, her breasts full against his chest, her head just touching his shoulder, her slender hips held by one hand against the arousal he refused to hide from her.

  And she had no idea what that hard pressure against her belly was. For Glory did not seem to recognize the unmistakable signs of his passion and desire.

  She wiggled against him, trying to free herself from his embrace. And yet, his arms around her felt like a shelter, a sanctuary in which she was protected from the sticks and stones that life might pelt her with. Feeling his strength and knowing he would not use it against her, catching the scent of man when he neared, yearning for his touch, even as it made her shiver and quake … She shook her head, unwilling to face the need that arose within her when he held her close, as if she’d found the end of the rainbow and the pot of gold was hers. Then he spoke, his voice low, his words chilling her to her depths.

  “It’s a case of either-or, Glory. Leaving here wouldn’t be my first choice, but it’s gonna be up to you. We’ll be married on Saturday. I’ve been nice and asked you politely and you shilly-shallied around, so now I’v
e decided to let you know just how things are gonna be. I’m moving my stuff into your bedroom Saturday morning and when we get home from town, I’ll be sleeping in your bed. The children are going to know that we’re married and that’s the best way to get the message across.”

  “I know we need you here, Cade, but I’m afraid.” She shook her head, meeting his gaze with eyes that shimmered with tears. “I can’t do it, Cade. I just can’t do what you said.” Her words were a plea and he melted, even as her forehead met his chest.

  “I’ll never force you to—well, I may try to persuade you, but no man can look himself in the mirror when he shaves if he’s hurt a woman with his strength. And that’s what it would be, Glory, should I take your body against your will.”

  She lifted her head and met his gaze. “It looks like either I marry you or you’ll leave us, and … we need you here, Cade, both the children and me.” She tilted her chin higher. “I’ll marry you, mainly because I have no choice. I won’t refuse your presence in my bedroom or my bed. But know this. I’m fearful of you and I’m not a woman to be fainthearted. I don’t know what there is about you that makes me shake deep inside, but whatever it is, I’m frightened of it.”

  He felt a rush of desire race through his veins and his voice was rough, as though gravel coated each word. “I know what it is, Glory. But you needn’t fear it. Or me. You’re a woman, yet a girl. I don’t how to explain it to you any better than that. You were never Harvey’s wife. You were married to him, but he never claimed your body. I don’t know why, for any man who lived with you, with legal rights over you, would be insane to let you remain so untouched. I’m not Harvey Clark.”

  “Well, isn’t that the truth!” she muttered.

  She made a face and he laughed. “You look like Essie when she’s trying to work up her nerve to ask for something,” he said easily.

  “I feel like Essie around you, only you act differently with her.”

  “Of course I do. She’s a little girl and I hope she’ll come to consider me her father one day. I don’t feel a bit fatherly about you, sweetheart.”

  “Sweetheart?” She flushed and he grinned.

  “Hasn’t anyone ever called you that before?”

  “My mother used to, but I don’t think that counts.”

  “It’s different when a man says it to a woman, Glory.” He set her aside and inhaled sharply. “Now, we’re going to change tack here, while I still can. I’ll check on the chickens before I go out to the hay field again today. I think your rooster has been working overtime. You’ve got a broody hen who’s determined to sit on a clutch of eggs out there. She won’t let Buddy near her, and she tried her best to peck holes in me when I felt beneath her for her eggs.”

  “I’ll let her set,” Glory told him, relieved to change the subject. “I’ve got a barrel cut down and Harvey put a fence around it in a corner of the chicken yard. I’ll put her there with her eggs.”

  “Be careful of her. I don’t want to see blood on your hands, sweetheart.”

  “She knows me. I’m not afraid of her.”

  “Only of me?” he asked, bending to kiss her again. It was short and sweet, not the sort of caress he yearned to give her, but probably all she would accept for now.

  “I’m not afraid of you, Cade. But somehow, I fear what you make me feel. I don’t know how else to describe it.”

  “Just be ready on Saturday morning, Glory. We’ll leave early for town. I need to stop at the general store first.” He looked her over as if he measured her size and shape. “Do you need a new dress to be married in? We can afford it if you do.” He lifted her hand and touched her ringless finger. “And we’ll be getting a ring to fit right here, Glory.”

  “I didn’t have a wedding ring when I married Harvey.”

  He held her hand to his lips, his tongue touching the skin as if he would taste her flesh. “You’ll have one from me. After Saturday, you’ll be Mrs. Cade McAllister, and I’ll be sure you feel like a woman wedded.”

  Chapter Six

  Buddy almost fell asleep over his plate at suppertime. So weary was he from the afternoon in the hay field, he fairly drooped. “I think it’s going to be early to bed for you, son,” Cade said with a soft chuckle. “I worked you too hard, I fear.”

  “No, you didn’t,” Buddy was quick to deny. “And if you’re going to work on the birthing stall tonight, I want to help you. Please, Cade. If those mares start having their foals, we need to have a place ready.”

  Cade cast him a long look. “Why don’t I tear down the wall we talked about. I can do it in an hour after supper. Then, in the morning we’ll box it in and make a wider gate for the stall. You can put down the straw for the mares to lie on when the time comes, and then we’ll just have to wait. Although I don’t think it’ll be much longer for the pinto. She looks like she’s getting ready to deliver, though I don’t know all I should about horses having babies.”

  “You’ll be sure to let me help with putting it together, won’t you?” Buddy asked, even as he covered a wide yawn with his hand.

  Cade laughed softly. “You’re going to have an education, young man. You’ll learn something you’ll never get out of a book.”

  “Do you think that’s a good idea, Cade?” Glory sounded anxious, and he smiled at her.

  “He needs to know some things that are important to a young man. And Buddy is definitely that. He’ll be just fine, Glory. I feel the need to talk to him about life in general. But I wouldn’t do anything to cause him problems. You know that.”

  She nodded. “Well, we’ll keep Essie far away when the time comes. She’s too little to understand such things. Matter of fact, I’m not sure I want to participate in this.”

  “Well, you’ll have three chances, and then you’ll have to wait till next year.”

  “You’re going to breed them again, right away?” she asked.

  “That’s why I bought them, sweetheart. This was an investment for us, and it will pay off in the long run. Wait and see. Land and animals are always a good investment. You’ve got the land and we bought the animals, so things are all in place.”

  Buddy touched Glory’s hand from his place next to her and she heard his unspoken words.

  “I really think it’s time for you to be in bed, Buddy. You’ll have a big day tomorrow and we’ll never get everything fit in as it is. I suspect you’ll be in the barn all day with Cade, so you need your sleep.”

  “All right, Glory. If you say so.” He stood and grinned at Cade, his happiness evident. “I’m awful glad you came to live with us, Cade. Things are better with you here.” His right hand touched Glory’s shoulder and he bent to brush his cheek against hers before he left the kitchen.

  “He’s a fine boy,” Cade said, clearing his throat a bit and then rising from the table.

  “Am I a fine girl?” Essie asked, her blue eyes pleading as she met Cade’s gaze.

  “You’re almost the best girl I’ve ever seen. Except for Glory,” he told her, and she basked in his approval.

  “It’s okay if you like Glory best. I do, too. She’s always gonna be here with us, isn’t she, Cade?”

  He thought she looked a bit worried, probably thinking of her father departing her life so abruptly, and hoping against hope that the woman who had raised her for three years would not disappear one day.

  “Glory is your mother now, Essie. She loves you just as if she’d borne you herself. You don’t know what that means yet, but someday you will. Just know that Glory and I are going to be with you for a long time. Till you’re grown and ready to have a family of your own.”

  “I’m never gonna leave Glory,” the child vowed, stepping to where Glory sat and wrapping her arms around her neck.

  Glory pushed her chair back from the table and lifted Essie to her lap, cuddling her close. “You’ll always be my little girl, Essie. No matter how old you are or how big you get, you’ll always be my little girl. Even when you grow up and have a family of your own, we’ll s
till love each other.”

  “I think I like that, Glory.” The child grinned up at her, her mind seeming to be at peace.

  Glory lowered Essie to the floor and clasped her hand loosely. “Now I think it’s time to get you into bed, sweetie. Tomorrow is going to be a big day, what with Cade and Buddy working on the new stall and you and I working in the garden. Those weeds just keep on growing, you know.”

  “I’ll help you, Glory.” Even as she spoke, the child yawned and headed for her bedroom. “Will you come tuck me in?” she asked.

  “Always,” Glory replied, sending her on her way.

  “You’re a good mother, for someone who’s never had a child of her own.”

  She looked up to where Cade stood near the back door. “I’ve had three years to practice. Harvey gave me all the privileges of a parent when I moved in here. I’ve always managed to get along with them, and we’ve had a lot of good times together.”

  “They love you, Glory. That little fella would do anything in the world you asked of him. You’ve done well with teaching them and readying him for school. We’ll stop and speak with the teacher when we go to town about sending him in September or whenever she starts up classes again. No point in waiting.”

  “Thank you, Cade. You make it all sound so easy.”

  “It is easy, sweetheart. That boy is ready to show his stuff. He’ll blow them away with his intelligence.”

  Glory felt a glow of accomplishment fill her. “Thank you, Cade. You’ve made me feel that all the hard work was worth it. I’ve tried hard to do right by the children and keep things up here, and sometimes I felt I wasn’t strong enough to do it all.”

  “I’ll bet you Harvey never complained, did he?”

  She shook her head. “No, never once. He was kind to me, told me I was a good cook and bought anything I asked for when we went to town.”

  “I’ll warrant you didn’t ask for much, Glory. Not for yourself anyway.”