Once Upon a Mail Order Bride - Linda Broday Page 0,19
deeper this time. Or perhaps build a new barn he didn’t need. Anything to keep himself from thinking about Adeline’s past.
* * *
Adeline found a box in the kitchen and lined it with a tattered, old blanket she’d found lying in a corner, then she took it to her little space. The cats would sleep with her.
She was sorry for being rude to Ridge, but she wasn’t ready to answer any questions. Her life before was dead to her, and she’d already said far too much. No one would ever believe the kind of oppression she’d lived under—always watched, everything scrutinized, the tiniest things criticized, the punishment.
Why hadn’t she left? She should’ve just run.
The answer was the children. She had been trying to save them, to be their voice. Instead, she’d condemned them to even more cruelty and pain. Everything seemed so hopeless.
Pain cut into her like a dagger. The hated sound of her father’s sharp voice sounded in her head. “You’re willful and rebellious, Adeline. Public whippings fail to rein you in. I’m using my influence to have you sent where there will be nothing for you to do except reflect on your sins and get your soul right. But I can make all this go away if you tell me where to find my son.”
She’d faced him defiantly and spat, “I didn’t kill Jane Ann. You know I didn’t. You pound the message into people’s heads to tell the truth while you lie over and over.”
A chilling grin had curved Ezekiel’s mouth, and his brown goatee twitched. “The judge believes what I tell him. I’m a holy man of God.”
Sarcastic laughter bubbled up inside her at the memory. She sat on the floor and rocked the kitten, taking comfort in the small, warm body.
Not long after, she heard the back door open and some banging. She put the kitten in its box and went to the kitchen to see Ridge struggling to wrestle a wooden bench inside; only the door wouldn’t stay open. She hurried to hold it for him.
He set the bench down on the floor and wiped his brow. “Thanks for the help. This is all I can find at present for your space, but I’ll do better. At least you won’t have to sit or lie on the floor. I can fix it up for you.”
Adeline swallowed hard, guilty at making extra trouble. He was trying to please her, and she kept begging for more and more patience. She couldn’t speak, couldn’t dance, couldn’t talk of family. Heavy sadness dropped around her.
She couldn’t sleep in his bed.
Ridge took her hand. “Do you mind if I call you Addie? It seems to fit you.”
Adeline curled her fingers against his palm. She liked the shortened version of her name—especially the way Ridge’s husky voice made it sound.
“I’m sorry for pushing you,” he went on. “I am curious about you, where you come from, and your family, that’s all. But we can talk whenever you’re ready.”
He paused, and when he spoke again, the hardness layered beneath his words revealed some new things about this outlaw she’d married. “This man hunting you had best not show his face. I will kill him with no regrets. No one hurts my wife.”
She blinked in surprise and clutched her chest, her fingers fanning across her breastbone, and stared. That he could voice this violent threat in such a calm manner stunned her. But at the same time, she knew in her heart he wouldn’t enjoy killing. His letters had already told her that much. Ridge seemed to have a code he lived by, and she suspected that set of rules figured in all he did.
I vow never to raise my hand or my voice in anger. Our marriage will be one of respect. He’d spoken that vow that day, and she’d found the words comforting.
The outlaw Ridge Steele had become her champion, and still she didn’t really know how to feel about him.
But maybe if she’d had him by her side three years ago, the outcome might’ve been far different.
* * *
Ridge stared up at the ceiling in the dim bedroom and listened to the house settling. It had come as no surprise that Adeline had decided to sleep in her space beneath the stairs with the kitten and its mama for company, but at least she had the bench to lie on. From what Luke had said, it was an improvement over what she’d had.