MAIL ORDER RACHEL Page 3

  His smile faded. “Are you happy, Rachel? It’s important to me that you be happy.”

  When she stopped, he stopped as well and faced her. She stood on tiptoe and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “Daniel, being your wife is the happiest I have ever been in my life.”

  He beamed. “I’m glad to hear you say that. I want for us to be a family. A real family. I know that adopting Thomas happened much faster than either of us expected. And I know I didn’t give you much say in the matter, but I couldn’t relegate the poor thing to life in an orphanage.”

  “You have a big heart, Daniel. I am proud to be your wife and Thomas’s mother.”

  Rachel had never had a suitor, but she had a feeling once she got used to handling Daniel, it shouldn’t be a problem to bring him around to seeing things her way. Men were simple creatures. They all chased after money and power, which Daniel already had.

  Her job was to figure out what else he wanted and see that he got it.

  Chapter 4

  As Daniel strolled through town with his wife and young son, business acquaintances stopped him from time to time to congratulate him on his recent marriage. His pride grew as he witnessed Rachel’s friendly attitude toward the townsfolk he introduced her to. While Rachel was nothing like the sweet Mary Margaret he had been expecting, perhaps the Almighty had a different plan, and sending Rachel to him was all part of it.

  Because he was having such an enjoyable time with this family, he was away from work longer than he had anticipated, and Andrews was gone by the time he returned from the docks to the office. The reports he had requested were still not on his desk.

  Angry at being ignored, he spent an inordinate amount of time locating the reports himself, and it was late by the time he returned home, his arms laden with ledgers, waybills, and shipping invoices that he needed to review.

  In the doorway to the parlor, he froze. Rachel sat on the floor, legs stretched out before her, gently bouncing the baby on her knees, his head carefully supported with one hand. Thomas looked up at her with a sweet, toothless grin.

  Rachel’s smile was infectious as she glanced his way. “He’s smiling, Daniel. Thomas likes this.”

  “He does indeed,” Daniel said, as he set down the ledgers on the sideboard.

  “Mrs. Beale says he’s too young to smile, that it only means he has gas, but I don’t believe that for a second.”

  Daniel crouched down next to the duo. “I would definitely say he is wearing a happy baby grin.”

  “You look tired,” Rachel said. “If you hold him, I’ll dish you up some supper and we’ll sit with you while you eat.”

  Daniel took the baby from her and settled in his favorite chair. “I can get it in a minute.”

  “Nonsense.” Rachel rose and bustled into the kitchen.

  A few minutes later she called to him from the dining room. He joined her to find a place set at the head of the table, where a single white taper in a heavy silver candlestick sent a warm glow through the room. A sweet floral scent wafted his way from a crystal vase of fresh cut flowers in the center of the table.

  “Is this a special occasion?” he asked.

  “One week since we were wed,” she said with a smile, adding, “you have lovely things and we need to use them.”

  Daniel was touched. He had bought the house furnished and thus far hadn’t bothered to make any changes or even take a good look at what all it contained.

  “It’s our home,” he said. “We have lovely things, and I agree that they need to be used. It seemed like too much bother when I was here by myself.”

  “Well, you’re no longer alone,” Rachel said. “And if it’s all right with you, I’d like to pick up a few things to brighten up the place.”

  “I told you I set up accounts for you at all the shops. Buy whatever catches your eye.”

  She took Thomas from him. “You’d best eat before your meal gets cold.”

  He had barely started on his supper before she leaned toward him. “Did Andrews find those invoices you asked for before we left for lunch?”

  Daniel gave a weary shake of his head. “It must have slipped his mind. I located them myself. That’s one of the reasons I was so late.”

  “Hmmph,” was all Rachel said, as she dipped one finger into a small bow of honey and slipped it into Thomas’s mouth, where he sucked enthusiastically.

  “Is honey good for him?” Daniel frowned. “Won’t it spoil his taste for mashed peas and other things that babies eat when they get older?”

  Rachel smiled. “I suspect you know as much about what babies eat as I do, which means we’ll be learning together. I’m just going by my instincts. He’s been a good boy so he deserves a treat. Mrs. Beale said a little porridge thinned down to a gruel will help keep his tummy full while he’s sleeping at night, and get him used to eating off a spoon.” She studied the baby. “How old do you think he is?”

  Daniel shrugged. “A few months I would think. Why?”

  “Olivia asked when his birthday is and I didn’t know what to say. She wondered if their expected one and Thomas would be school mates one day.”

  “That’s a good point,” Daniel said. “We should choose a birthday for him. Is Mrs. Beale’s niece back yet?”

  “I believe so. I told Mrs. Beale we won’t require her services after all.”

  Daniel felt a surge of hope. “Does that mean you’re planning to care for him yourself?”

  Rachel shrugged. “I have the time. And really, how hard can it be?”

  “That’s wonderful,” Daniel said. “I didn’t really feel a shipping office was the right place for my wife to spend her time.”

  “I’m going to put Thomas down for the night,” Rachel said. “You should turn in soon as well. You look tired.”

  Despite her prodding, Daniel didn’t turn in right away, and Rachel swallowed her impatience. She’d seen the ledgers he’d brought home and couldn’t wait to dive in once he was asleep. Since he didn’t want her at the office, she would encourage him to bring work home with him. That way she should be able to find out what was really going on with the business without alerting Andrews, who she suspected would be a formidable enemy.

  Looking after Thomas herself had not been her first choice, but she quickly realized it would make Daniel happy if she took on more of a wife and mother role. And the little guy was very little trouble. He’d taken to following her with his deep blue eyes whenever she passed him. His expressions were comical; sometimes his forehead wrinkled in a frown, as if he found life puzzling, while other times his face lit up at the sight of her in a way that did funny things to her insides.

  “Can I get you another cup of tea?” she asked Daniel sweetly. Perhaps she could slip in a shot of whiskey to make him sleepy.

  “No thank you,” he said with a yawn. “I don’t suppose you ever had the opportunity to board the tour boats in the Boston harbor?”

  Rachel knew nothing about tour boats. Her world had been limited to the rundown neighborhood where she lived. “No. Why do you ask?”

  “The railway has changed many things regarding the way goods are shipped across the country. I believe there will always be freight shipped by water, but it never hurts to diversify.”

  Rachel straightened. “And you’re thinking of a ship that not only carries passengers from one point to another, but ways of making the trip more of an experience.”

  “Exactly,” Daniel said. “People crave entertainment. I’m thinking along the lines of a ship that provides that for them.”

  “Fine dining?” Rachel asked. “Maybe a theater on board? What about games of chance?”

  Daniel gave her an encouraging smile that made her insides flip flop. “You have a most inventive mind, my dear. Hold that thought for another day. It really is time I call it a night.”

  “You go ahead,” Rachel said sweetly. “I’ll stay up a little longer. I like to give Thomas his final feed before I turn in.”

  As he had taken to doing each evening at this time, Daniel rose and pressed a quick kiss to her forehead. “Good night, my dear. See you in the morning.”

  He was barely up the stairs before Rachel dragged the ledgers into the dining room and spread them out across the table, where she turned up the lantern and settled in to acquaint herself with the operations of Daniel’s business.

  The next few days continued to be hot and sunny, and Rachel was grateful she hadn’t arrived in Yuma in the middle of the summer. Boston had been wretchedly humid when she left, and she found the dry desert heat of Yuma a welcome change.

  She was dressing little Thomas when she noticed a fine red rash on his torso. In a panic, she bundled him over to the medical clinic, only to be reassured by Olivia and Robert that it was a common heat rash, and something he would grow out of. They advised tepid baths several times daily to keep him comfortable and cool.

  Back at home, as she bathed Thomas in the kitchen sink, she noticed he was growing more solid and round each day, with chubby thighs and a crease at his miniature wrists. He watched her solemnly as she soaped him with one hand, careful to support his head and his neck with the other hand.

  When he gave an enthusiastic kick, water sprayed everywhere and left her nearly as wet as he was. Once he was settled for his nap, she dragged out the tub and filled it for her own tepid bath. Daniel’s home had a marvelous innovation she hadn’t seen before, with coils on the back of the coal stove that provided heated water.

  Once she had adjusted the water temperature to her satisfaction, she pinned her hair atop her head, lit several candles, and settled in. A bath whenever she wanted was a luxury she hadn’t dreamt of in Boston, and she doubted she would ever tire of the treat. She rested her head against the back of the tub and closed her eyes.


  She woke to the sound of Daniel calling her name and realized the bath water had grown cold.

  “Just a minute,” she called, as she scrambled from the tub and reached for a towel, just as Daniel burst into the room. He stopped short. His eyes locked on hers. As Rachel adjusted the towel around her, Daniel seemed to recover.

  “I’m so sorry,” he mumbled, as he turned and left the room. “I didn’t mean to intrude.”

  As she dried herself, Rachel felt a strange, heated sensation low in her belly. Daniel’s reaction certainly hadn’t been that of a man who was indifferent to his wife. He had looked at her with a mixture of awe and longing that set her heart racing. For the first time in her life, Rachel felt attractive and desired.

  “You’re home early,” she said, as she entered the parlor a short time later, fully dressed, her hair plaited in a single braid down her back.

  “I usually only work a half day on Saturdays,” he said. “And of course, tomorrow morning we’ll attend services as a family.”

  Rachel nodded. In Boston, church had been a place of refuge, a quiet shelter from the ills of the world. The salvation of her soul had paled alongside daily survival. Then she remembered Paddy, and the reason she was here.

  That world was behind her now. In Daniel’s world, she expected to find a renewed respect for the teachings of the church now that there was no longer the need to be constantly looking over her shoulder.

  She smiled when she caught sight of the stack of ledgers and papers over on the sideboard. Daniel hadn’t said anything, but she knew he suspected things at the shipping center were not as they appeared to be. She had every confidence she could help him discover whatever was amiss.

  Daniel straightened in the pew and tried to concentrate on the weekly sermon, but his glance kept straying to Rachel next to him, a sleeping Thomas cradled against her bosom.

  From his first sight of her at the station, he’d been drawn to Rachel, and not just her untamed beauty. He’d been intrigued by her fiery nature, and her inner strength. Her newly emerging soft and caring maternal side was nearly his undoing.

  That was before he’d seen her rise from the bath yesterday, water cascading from her shapely limbs as she reached for the towel. It was a sight he’d never forget, the play of candlelight across her features, the curling tendrils of damp hair sweeping across the back of her swan-like neck, the shadowed planes and valleys of her womanly curves.

  It was not a sin to lust after his own wife, but he vowed to keep himself in hand until he knew the marriage bed was something she desired as well.

  Outside the church afterwards, they met Olivia and Robert and their young daughter.

  “How is Thomas’s rash?” Olivia asked.

  Daniel blanched. Rachel hadn’t mentioned the baby having a rash.

  “It’s almost gone. The tepid baths you recommended did the trick,” Rachel said.

  Daniel turned to Rachel. “What did I miss?”

  Before Rachel could answer, Robert piped up. “Rachel brought Thomas to the clinic yesterday with a heat rash,” he said. “I’m glad to hear he’s recovering.”

  Daniel glanced at his wife. “You didn’t say anything when I got home.”

  Her skin flushed, then she gave him a cheeky look. “I was distracted.”

  His chest tightened. Did she even know the affect she was having on him? “I still would have liked to be informed,” he said stiffly.

  “You heard Robert. It was nothing serious,” she said.

  Daniel felt a tugging on the hem of his jacket, and looked down to see Robert and Olivia’s daughter, Chloe, wearing a mischievous grin and waving a colorful handkerchief his way. He smiled back. “I gave that to you, didn’t I? I’m happy to see you taking good care of it.”

  “Baby,” she said, pointing to Thomas, and then pointing to Olivia’s softly rounded middle. “My baby.”

  “Yes, you’re getting a new baby, too. I bet you’ll be a big help to your mama with the new baby.”

  Chloe nodded and Daniel glanced over at his son. Soon Thomas would be walking and talking up a storm. Daniel hoped there would be other additions to the family to fill those empty bedrooms upstairs, as well as a bevy of voices to fill his house with the laughter he’d never experienced in his own youth.

  He glanced over at Rachel. Perhaps he’d been going about things all wrong, waiting for a sign from her. Perhaps she needed to be reassured that he truly desired her for herself, not just as Thomas’s mother.

  He turned to Olivia. “I wonder if you’d mind if we left Thomas with you for a few hours this afternoon. I have a surprise for Rachel. Something I’d like to show her, just the two of us.”

  “We’d be delighted,” Olivia said. “Why don’t I take him now, so you two newlyweds can run along.”

  Rachel gave him a puzzled look as she passed over the baby, along with the satchel containing his feeding bottle and a change of clothing. “What sort of surprise?”

  “If I told you, it wouldn’t be a surprise, now would it?”

  Dear Lord, what had his impulsiveness set him up for now? What could he possibly dream up to surprise Rachel?

  Chapter 5

  “I’ll be back in in half an hour,” Daniel said, after they returned home.

  “You’re being so mysterious,” Rachel said.

  “Mysteries and surprises often go hand in hand,” Daniel said.

  He pressed a light kiss to the top of her head on his way out. She felt the warmth of his big hand against the small of her back as he pulled her closer than usual. She thrilled to the possessive look in his eyes as he gazed down at her and shivered in anticipation of the “surprise.”

  With Daniel gone, the house felt eerily quiet without Thomas here. Even though he slept a lot of the time and rarely made a peep when he was awake, she was aware of his presence and always had one ear out for him. She enjoyed seeing the way he changed every day, adding new expressions and funny noises. He tended to gurgle when he was happy, and fret when he had a soiled diaper. She’d already noticed him trying to reach for his baby toys when he was on a blanket on the floor.

  With the house to herself, Rachel delved into the neatly organized stack of files Daniel had brought home yesterday, but for some reason her heart wasn’t into deciphering accounts today. She flipped through the pages, careful to keep them in the exact order she found them, but it was hard to concentrate while listening for Daniel’s return, and eventually she gave up.

  She paced around the parlor, straightening doilies and lamps that didn’t need straightening. How her life had changed in ways she couldn’t have imagined a month earlier.

  She looked around the spacious house she now called home. Daniel was a genuinely nice man. What would he think of her if he learned the truth about the way she’d lived? The things she’d done to stay alive.

  As the clocked ticked out the minutes she went back to the accounts. If only she knew what she was looking for.

  She jumped when she heard the front door open, quickly straightened the papers and turned to face her husband, wondering if she looked as guilty as she felt.

  Daniel smiled broadly. “All set. Are you ready to go?”

  She nodded. Her heart was beating so rapidly she was surprised he couldn’t hear it.

  “Am I dressed appropriately?” She was wearing the same skirt and jacket she had chosen for church this morning, a soft shade of dove gray, piped with black trim. She loved bright-colored clothing, a welcome change from her drab, blend-into-the-crowd browns and blacks in Boston, but felt her presence at church required an outfit with more decorum.

  He tucked her arm through his. “You look lovely as always.”

  She smiled, proud to be on Daniel’s arm, and enjoying the respectability that came with being his wife. She could never begin to pay him back for everything he had done for her since she arrived in Yuma. And now he had planned a surprise just for her.

  She frowned as they approached Daniel’s shipping office, then perked up. Maybe Daniel did want her involved in the business, and had decided to bring her here when no one else was around. What a welcome opportunity!