Once Upon a Mail Order Bride - Linda Broday Page 0,67
her down. “I want to go speak to Dr. Mary while you men take care of this.”
“Bet she’ll be tickled to hear you now,” he predicted.
She pushed through the gathering crowd, and he turned to Clay and others who pressed him with questions about the dead man. But his thoughts were on Addie—and bedtime.
Tonight, he’d try holding her beneath the covers as they talked. One slow step at a time.
* * *
Addie burst through the door of the small hospital. “I can talk! I finally have my voice back!”
Dr. Mary came running from the next room, drying her hands on a long apron. “Praise be! Sit down, girl, and tell me what happened.”
For the next half hour, Addie sat and related the details of the previous night. “He was so addled…if I hadn’t warned him, I’d be a widow today, and I couldn’t bear that thought.” She lowered her voice. “There’s more.”
“What else can you possibly have that’s better than that?” Dr. Mary patted Addie’s hand.
“I slept beside Ridge last night for the first time.”
Dr. Mary’s eyes twinkled. “How was it?”
“Good.” Addie dropped to a shocked whisper. “He goes to bed naked.”
“You don’t say!” Dr. Mary laughed. “I think you’re going to be all right. Your marriage is on the right track. No doubt you’ll soon find yourself in the family way.”
A long pause followed as Addie thought about all that might imply. “I’d like that, and I think Ridge might too. Sometimes the sight of that man makes this glorious heat rise up inside, and I feel like I’m just going to burst into flames.
“I don’t know what love is. I certainly never saw it between my parents. They can barely tolerate each other. But Luke and Josie have this deep connection, and I think that must be love.” Addie picked at a string on her skirt. “Can you tell me what love is, Doctor?”
The doctor’s mouth tilted up in a smile, and she answered softly, “It’s exactly what you’re feeling. It’s the heat, the quickening of the stomach, that acute awareness of everything Ridge is doing and automatically picking him out of a throng of people. It’s getting through the difficult problems together. You’re in love, my dear.”
A quiver of excitement swept over Addie. She brought her fingertips to her mouth and remembered the tingle, Ridge’s kisses, and the feel of his arms.
She was in love. This wonderful thing she felt was love.
* * *
After they returned from town, Addie moved her things upstairs into the bedroom and spent the afternoon outdoors with King. Now that the danger had passed, she could have ridden wherever she wanted, but she decided the creek was far enough. Bodie had wanted to come along to watch after her, but she’d insisted on going alone.
“Stop treating me like I’m bone china or something,” she told both Bodie and Ridge. “I won’t break. Sometimes a woman just needs to be alone to think, and I have lots on my mind.”
The day was beautiful, with just enough breeze so it wasn’t too hot. White, fluffy clouds dotted the sky, and red cliffs loomed nearby. King wandered over to a patch of grass to nibble contentedly. She took off her boots, sat down on the creek bank, and stuck her feet in the water. One of the worries on her mind was the lack of a reply to her letter. It had been a while since she’d written, and she should’ve heard from Zelda Law by now.
Had the old midwife died while Addie was in prison? She had to be in her seventies by now. Maybe Ridge could take her to Seven Mile Crossing to find out. However, the trip would take at least a full week. It could be worth the effort, though.
“We’ll be safe at my brother’s,” Zelda had assured her three years ago. “No one will find the boy.” That much was true, or Tiny and Pickens wouldn’t have tried so hard to track Addie down.
She had to come clean and tell Ridge about Zelda, that night, and the boy very soon. The previous evening’s events had kept her from baring her soul then, but Ridge deserved to know. He’d told her his secrets, after all, and it had taken a lot for him to trust her. Her heart had broken for him, and she was glad he’d made good friends like Jack and Clay and the others after going on the run. They’d go to the ends of the earth for