CHAPTER ONE

Erin watched as Molly labored over the dog, petting her to calm her frantic breathing.  Both Erin and the male dog watched for hours as one by one, the woman helped the first-time mother bring forth her litter of puppies.  Two of the barn cats looked on curiously from the hayloft above the stall.  The time sped by, but no one left their post.  Erin shifted from foot to foot occasionally, looking down at the male Tervuren, who looked up in excited wonderment, panting happily.  The intelligence of the Belgian dog showed through in that look they exchanged.

“Well, I think she’s done.  That’s it, eight pups,” Molly finally said as she palpated the abdomen.  She smiled down at the bitch, who nuzzled at the tiny, mewling creatures.  She seemed confused about what they were and the fact they had emerged from her body.  Her flightiness was now gone, soothed by Molly’s comforting presence.  Already, she had licked each of her offspring thoroughly and allowed this human to examine them.  She lay contentedly now as they finished their first feeding, nuzzling close to the warmth of the fur around her teats.

“That’s a good litter for her first,” Erin commented with a smile, leaning down to pet King, who looked up at her again as though he understood.  “Think we can let him near her?” she indicated the proud papa, who had watched the birth of each of his pups, cocking his head now and then at the noises emanating from them.

“She’ll let him know if she doesn’t want him near,” Molly said as she rose from her kneeling position, stretching her back after being scrunched over for so long.  The front of her apron was covered with slime from the puppies she had helped whelp.

“Do you really think she needed your help?”

“Ya, I think she was frantic until I settled her here.”  She indicated the stall they had prepared for the whelping box.

Erin had to concede that Molly was probably right.  For a first-time mother, Queenie had been rather ditzy, so unlike the normal brilliance they experienced in Tervurens.  Erin knew this relatively unknown breed was invaluable here on the farm and was worth the effort.  She gazed at the exhausted bitch.  This part of her job was mostly over, and she was laying back in the deep straw, her smooth and even breathing indicating she was asleep.

Molly backed up farther, slowly, so she could look down at the display.  King chose that moment to take hesitant steps into the stall, sniffing avidly.  Queenie never woke, didn’t give any indication she even knew her mate was there.  Both humans tensed, ready to pull the male away if he gave any indication that he would savage the pups.  Instead, he sniffed each one individually and nudged it slightly with his nose, familiarizing himself with each of the eight pups before he turned his back and lay down, protecting his mate and family and looking at his humans.  His expression clearly indicated they could go.  He had this.  He wouldn’t let anything happen to his family.

Molly smiled as she took one lantern hanging on the stall.  Erin took the other lantern as they left the animals, closing the barn door behind them. 

“I am tired,” Molly admitted as she stretched again, the fabric of her dress pulling tightly against her form, showing her firm, young breasts and drawing Erin’s eyes.

“You should be.  She was at it a long time.”

“I just worried that she would step on one.  I’ve never seen a dog go from sensible to scatterbrained so quickly.”

“I’m sure I’d have been just the same,” Erin admitted with a laugh.  They shared a laugh as both knew Erin would likely never have children.  At the same time, it saddened them, but neither spoke that aloud as they headed for the farmhouse.

“We better get some sleep before I have to get up for chores,” Erin mentioned as she put her lantern on the counter.

“And I better set this in cold water to soak,” Molly mentioned, removing her apron.

Erin worked the handle of the pump in the sink, and Molly put a pan beneath it to catch the splashing water.  They worked harmoniously and silently together.  They were a well-organized team, each confident the other would do their part and be there for the other.

“This gunk soaked right through.  I’m going to have to bathe,” Molly lamented, surveying the mess on her apron.

Erin pumped the handle, filling pans of water and setting them on the stove to warm for a bath for Molly.  She didn’t mind helping, and they soon had the bathtub ready.  As Molly stripped, seeing her in the lantern light, arching into the towel, set Erin’s teeth on edge.  She was so beautiful, and her dark good looks enticed the woman.  Erin was breathless watching Molly, who was unaware how alluring she looked with the towel wrapped around her, her dark reddish-brown hair, and her sultry, dark eyes that perpetually looked as though they were made up with cosmetics but were all natural.  She quickly turned to clean up the kitchen as Molly let out the bathwater.

Only when everything was set up in the kitchen, did Erin blow out the two lanterns and take a candle she had lit.  They headed to their bedroom, passing the stairs that led upstairs to the other four bedrooms in the old farmhouse. 

“Do you think we’ll ever fill those?” Molly asked, glancing at the door and then realizing she had spoken aloud.  “I’m sorry,” she quickly added as she hurried to get ready for bed.  It was late, and she was sorely tired.

“Anytime you want to go to the orphanage down in Melville, you let me know,” Erin told her.

“But the deception of it all,” she exclaimed worriedly.  She went to pull on her nightgown.

“What deception?  They will think, like others do, that I’m a man.  I just need to spell my name A-a-r-o-n instead of E-r-i-n is all.  Although, maybe that isn’t necessary.  There are men named Erin.”

“I don’t think God would like that kind of lying,” she said primly.  She quickly pulled the curtains on the bedroom windows, even though they were far out in the country and no one could see them.

“I don’t think God puts people on Earth to lose their parents either.  We can give a child a good home, maybe even two children.  If we are gonna live according to the Bible, we must help our fellow man.”

“Well, I’m sure God didn’t put you in my path none either,” Molly answered pertly.

Erin was removing her boots, her overalls, and her shirt as they had their familiar conversation.  They’d had this conversation a few times since they started living together and sleeping together as though they were man and wife.  As far as their neighbors knew, they were two women helping each other out.  No one needed to know they were intimately acquainted.  The house was big and there were beds made upstairs to indicate that one of them lived up there, if anyone cared to look.  “You want me to sleep upstairs?” she teased.

“Not unless I’m mad at ya,” Molly teased in return, her face softening.  She wouldn’t have thought she’d fall in love with a woman but she had.  After the death of her folks, the bank’s subsequent sale of their farm, and the pitiful amount she was compensated, she had nowhere to go.  Her best friend from school, Erin, had offered her a place.

“You mad at me?” Erin asked, checking to be sure.  Down to her drawers, she couldn’t hide the small bumps on her chest that she kept wrapped up.  They weren’t much, but the wrapping made them seem more like a muscular man than a woman with breasts.  Only people who knew them, people who had grown up around Stouten and knew her family, knew she was a woman.  Strangers were always fooled.

“Whatever for?” Molly asked, putting her arms around Erin and hugging her close.

“I don’t know.  You gals are always thinkin’ up somethin’,” she answered, leaning into the hug and relishing it.  She could smell how fresh Molly was from her bath, and she remembered how good she had looked in the lantern light.  She never thought she’d have anyone in her life.  She hadn’t thought a woman would take her on, and she knew she didn’t want a man, although some men wanted her for the fine farm her father and brothers had left her to tend.  Had her parents or brothers still been alive, she was certain she’d have been married off to some man who didn’t mind the fact that she looked every bit as masculine as him.  Her hair being pinned back in a bun was the only clue that she was a woman.

“Nope.  I’m pleased with ya right now, real pleased.  We got us a fine litter of Tervurens that should fetch as much as two bits each if we are careful who we sell ‘em to.”

“That sounds like too much,” she lamented, but she too was hoping to get as much as that for the Tervurens.  According to Erin, not many people knew of the breed.  She’d found Queenie last year at a farmers’ market.  She was a skittish thing without many prospects, so she’d gotten her in trade for two chickens.  King had been happy with her choice; he finally had a playmate.  He didn’t realize until she came into season that she was to be his mate.  Erin hadn’t let him mate her that first time; Queenie was just too young.  Her second season, he’d gotten his chance and done a fine job of getting her with pups...a fine job.

“Well, it all counts...every extra cent,” she reminded her of their plans.

“Yep, it shore does,” she agreed as they got into bed together.

They were saving every dime they could squeeze from the farm.  They had taken the pitiful sum that Molly had gotten after the bank took their share from the sale of her parents’ farm and added it to Erin’s savings.  They’d told no one of their plans.  People wouldn’t have permitted such plans.  Two women alone on a farm was bad enough, and there were already a few bachelors determined to change that.  Most were interested in Molly, but every now and then, a man was determined to win Erin over.  Their desire wasn’t for the woman but for the family farm.  It was an established farm, one that didn’t require constant expansion and was worth a lot of money.  Her brothers, father, and uncles had all worked themselves to death clearing the land for her grandfather, who had settled here.  If they had survived, they would have been proud of the work Erin put in to keep it going.  Well, maybe not.  She wasn’t in her ‘proper’ place as a woman.  She didn’t mind, but many men would, including those in her family.  Right now, she couldn’t worry about that; she was the only one who had survived.

They cuddled close, pleased with themselves and the results of their breeding of the two dogs.  “When do you think we can go?” Molly asked, knowing a lot hinged on their money situation.

“I’m hoping next spring.  Let’s see what the harvest brings this year, and we’ll see what other money we can find.”

They’d been saving for two years, ever since Molly had agreed to live with Erin.  They knew they couldn’t stay in this area where everyone knew them and where they had grown up.  Already, there were some suspicions being cast their way, especially since Molly had already turned down two offers of marriage.  Erin’s only offer had been for her farm, but they had generously offered to  ‘allow’ her to stay on it, with him.  It was understandable that she turned him down, but it didn’t mean there weren’t others who would be willing to take her on despite her masculine appearance.  But no one was going allow the two women to remain spinsters, not when a fine farm and an attractive woman like Molly were in the equation.  Somehow, someway, someone would try to change that; they were already trying.

“Then, next spring, we’ll go to Melville.  No point feedin’ any young’uns over the winter when we’re tryin’ to save.”

“That’s true,” Erin admitted.  She knew she would never be able to give Molly a child of her own body.  She had offered to bow out and let Molly marry one of the men who had come courting as they could give her the child she wanted so much.  They didn’t love her though; they simply wanted a wife.  Molly wanted love, something her parents hadn’t had.  Molly loved Erin and knew her best friend loved her too.  To find out that there was physical pleasure in each other’s arms too had been a bonus.  She wanted a life with Erin, a forever life.

They were both tired.  The bitch had gone into labor late in their normal workday, and the hours spent calming her and watching her give birth had made them miss their supper.  It was too late to eat anything, so they both went to sleep on empty stomachs.  It wasn’t the first time, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last.