Rose felt an unusual amount of peace and cheerfulness. Perhaps it was because she knew things had worked out between Meg and Jonathan. Perhaps it was seeing her mother have another daughter in Meg. Maybe it was Daisy’s ever-deepening dimples and beautiful eyes. Maybe, just maybe, it was seeing Cade sitting on a chair out front reading a book.
“Good evening. It is a surprise to see you home.”
He looked up, his eyes immediately boring into her own. “There were several saloon fights today,” he said as if explaining something.
Rose frowned. “I’m sorry.” She did not know exactly what he wanted her to reply.
He cocked his head. “I was in the saloon quite a bit.” He set down the book, “Around drinking and gambling.”
Rose’s lips parted. “Oh … OH.” She nodded with understanding and sat next to him, “And how are you doing?”
He shrugged. “It was a struggle, I’m not going to lie, but I made it through.
I also bought something for you. I realized the last thing I ever bought you was that cow charm.” He cocked an eyebrow ever so slightly. “The one you left back in Denver.”
Rose ignored that comment. She had left it so he would see it, a reminder of what he had lost. “Well, you do know I’m a woman who never refuses gifts,” she laughed, then added, “How is the murder investigation going?”
Cade clicked his tongue. “I am meeting with Jonathan tomorrow fairly early so we can compare information. I remember you saying you needed to pick some things up for Daisy. We could go together.”
“And listen to the details of the case?”
“If you want. Maybe you’ll see something we can’t.” Cade looked away, his brows furrowed and jaw jutted. It was a look Rose had seen when he worked the railways and could not figure out a robbery, murder, or kidnapping.
Out of habit, she reached over and rubbed his back. His muscles shivered beneath her hand and for a moment he let himself melt under her touch. She could feel the hard back soften with his breath. She rubbed deeper, her fingers pushing into his skin as she admired the strong back.
Suddenly Cade jerked away and stood up. “I am going to go finish the fence,” he said suddenly.
Rose frowned, standing up as well. “But you had a long day. The fence can wait.”
Cade ran a hand through his hair and looked at Rose, his eyes narrowing as he studied her. “No, it can’t.” Then without another word he turned around and stormed to the barn to collect his tools.
Rose felt her own muscles tense with embarrassed anger. He’d just refused her. Refused her touch, refused her flirting, simply refused her.
Rose watched him a moment before rushing to her bedroom. To her delight there was a package wrapped up in blue ribbon. Feeling jittery she opened the package, and a small cry escaped her lips. Her cow necklace, the one Cade had commissioned for her. Beside it was also a copy of Louisa May Alcott’s Old-Fashioned Girl—her favorite author, she didn’t realize he knew that. She slowly lifted the necklace. She loved this necklace and its association with Cade. Though it had been liberating to leave it, she was glad he had brought it back, and it touched her that he had not thrown it away as she assumed he would.
Rose placed the necklace around her neck and hurried to the mirror to add on some earrings. This did not make everything all right, and she knew she would not simply fall into his arms, but he certainly deserved a thank you.
She checked on Daisy who was nestled in her crib in such deep slumber that her lips fluttered with her snores. Planting a kiss on her round cheek, Rose hurried out of the house to thank her husband.
/
Cade was trembling by the time he reached the fence, the touch of Rose’s fingers still branding his flesh. He regretted leaving her thoug, when he saw Beth waiting for him. He tried to ignore her stares, grunting only occasionally at her words.
He knew she was unsatisfied with her marriage. She was constantly comparing her husband to Cade. Supposedly her spouse was kind but hardly rose from his chair and avoided any sort of labor. Cade got the feeling there wasn’t a whole lot of conversation or anything else going on between them.
“I miss it, you know,” Beth sighed, watching Cade lift a post. “Did you not hear me? I said I miss it.”
He set it down in a muddy hole. “Miss what?” he asked absent-mindedly. Beth had brought him out biscuits, and it was hard to not be polite to a woman who brought food.
“Being touched,” she whispered.
Cade nearly dropped another post on his foot and looked up at Beth. He was not sure he heard her right. “Excuse me?”
Beth waited for him to set the post down before she sauntered over, leaning slightly over the fence that separated them. “Just being touched—caressed by a man’s hands. My husband is not interested in such things. He tries out of duty but—”
Cade blinked.
Get out of here. Not a good situation. His mind shouted at him.
“Mrs. Beckett, I think you have the wrong impression, and I am so sorry if I in any way—”
Her small hand touched his; politeness kept him from yanking it away. “I know that Rose does not fulfill her duties as a wife, otherwise she would have a child. Even if she did try to please you, don’t you think that it is God’s way of saying that she is not worthy of you?” Beth looked desperate, her fingers had his hand in an iron grip.
“I don’t confess to be intimate with the working of Heaven, Miss Beth, but I doubt God uses children, or lack of, as a means to punish women.”
Beth smiled softly. “You are too kind to her. She does not deserve you.” Like a cat she pounced before he could say anything, lunging across the fence, while wrapping her hand at the base of his skull and pulling him forward, planting her lips on his.
One, two, three … Cade was not sure how long it took for his mind to register what was going on. She must have mistaken his stagnant state as compliance, because her lips began to part, at which moment he shoved off her arm and staggered back.
“Mrs. Becket!” He shook his head, “I—” Something entered his vision at the corner of his eyes: gold hair, blue fabric. With a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach he turned to see Rose standing not six feet from him. She was wearing the earrings and necklace he had given her.
Her hair was loose from its braid and swung loosely in the breeze. She was stunning and looked absolutely terrifying as her dark blue eyes darted to the blushing Beth with a look that rivaled Medusa.
Slowly, taking her time she steadily walked towards Beth until she was within touching distance.
“Beth,” she arched an eyebrow, “I know you are lonely. I know life is hard. But I have a husband and a daughter. Should you compromise either, then I will respond in such a way that even the angels above will tremble in fear,” she smiled. “Do I make myself clear?”
Beth swallowed and gave a quick nod before turning and running back to her house.
Rose waited for a moment before lowering her eyes. “Don’t even think about setting a foot inside the house,” she hissed under her breath before lifting her eyes to Cade. “I don’t trust myself to act rationally.”
He opened his mouth. “Are you serious? You saw how she attacked me,” he defended himself, hurrying after her.
Rose scoffed. “Says the man who has been out here every day talking to her. No wonder she thought she had the right.” Rose spun around walking quickly back to the house.
Cade threw down his hammer and followed her. “Have you even wondered why I work so blasted hard on this fence?” he growled.
Rose shrugged, increasing her speed, nearly jogging at this point. “Well, the fact that a lovely woman waits for you with irresistible sweets is a good guess.”
He tried grabbing her arm, but she yanked it away. “You flirt with temptation, Cade. You flirted with cards, and they grabbed you. You flirted with whiskey, and it drowned you. You flirt with a woman—how long before I am finding out about affairs?”
She ran to the house and pushed open the door.
Cade stopped, debating whether to follow or not. She saw what she wanted to see, and would believe what she wanted to believe. He had given her no reason to trust him. He began to turn but stopped.
She was his wife. A wife he loved. He was praying, pleading to God to be a better man, and he felt God’s love;, he felt His strength each time he was able to deny the desire of gambling. He knew God wanted him to change. He knew God wanted him to love his wife, and Rose needed to know that. So with a muscle ticking in his jaw Cade stormed through the house and into his room where Rose was shoving his clothes into a case.
She looked up. “You can stay with Jeffries for a day or two while I think things over.”
“It helps me not gamble,” he blurted out. When she looked up, he continued, “The labor, the reading, the long talks with Jeffries—all of it keeps me from riding into town and playing a game of cards. I have never been tempted by Beth. I never even thought of her. I needed the labor; I needed the sweat and the distraction.’
Rose smiled wryly. “Yes, I could see the distraction.”
Cade let out an insincere laugh and rubbed the back of his head. “You don’t believe me when I say I love you, do you?”
Rose straightened, “I have known men who love their wives and still beat them, Cade. Love is cheap when the actions say otherwise.”
He shook his head and stepped closer to her. “Maybe you are right; maybe I loved you, but not in the right way. I did not have God’s strength before. I cannot change on my own, Rose, but I can with Him. So watch me. Watch me become the man you are proud to stand by, the man who will raise that baby in there and protect her with his last breath.” He sighed and turned away, leaving Rose frozen in her steps.
“And if you did see everything, you would have seen her kiss me … aggressively I might add … and I pulled away.”
Rose bit her cheek and placed her hands on her hips. She knew the real reason why she was mad. For weeks now Cade had not even tried to be intimate. In Denver when she’d moved to another room, he had accepted it with his pride as thick as the walls of Jordan. That in and of itself had hurt her. Now, she wondered if it wasn’t that he was trying to respect her, but rather was simply not interested in her. “Yes, I saw her kiss you,” she said bitterly, despite herself. “It doesn’t surprise me, because I bet you don’t even know how to kiss a woman anymore.” She knew the words were stupid as soon as she heard them escape her own mouth, but it was too late to recall them.
Cade furrowed an eyebrow and pinned her with a look so intense Rose felt his very gaze was burning through her clothes. When he spoke, his voice was deep and etched with enforcement. “Well Ma’am, it’s too bad I’m not a betting man anymore because I sure would know what to do with a woman like you.” Then with heavy footsteps, Cade closed the gap between them. His large hands encircled her waist and tugged her forward against his hard chest before he pinned her to the wall and pressed his lips against hers.
His kiss was hungry and savage. It was everything that Rose’s body craved, his parted lips exploring deeper. When Rose returned the kiss, he growled and pressed her into the wall harder, biting her bottom lip softly.
Rose lifted her hands to his hair wanting to entwine her fingers in his locks, but he grabbed her hands and pinned them above her head as well.
His fingers clenched her wrists and their arms matched up together while his kissed her so hard she thought her lips would bruise. She could not breathe, and she loved it; she did not want it to stop, she needed more. Every inch of her skin was scorched with her desire to be with him.
When his kiss slowed, she desperately tried to reignite it by leaning forward to savor his receding lips, but he pulled back, still holding her trapped against the wall. His eyes were clouded with emotion as his tongue ran itself over her bottom lip, sending shivers through her spine.
“I have no doubt, Rose, that you can scratch and claw, but you forget that I know how to make you purr.” He let go of her hands and stepped back. “Now, if you don’t mind. I have a fence to fix.”
He folded his arms, “But before I go—”he jerked his head at the case, “am I leaving for the night?”
Rose swallowed, trying and failing to control the trembling in her body. “Not for now.”
A feral grin spread across his face. “That’s what I thought.” He added with a jut of the chin, “Don’t ever doubt my ability Rose. I will always prove you wrong.” Then he walked out leaving Rose to slowly lower herself onto the small bed he used.
“You can prove me wrong whenever you feel the need,” she said, unable to help the sheepish smile that tugged on her lips.