Two rocking chairs were along the wall. Oak nightstands and the table between the rockers matched the mirrored bureau, the commode and the tallboy dresser. She liked the room very much. It was not as ostentatious as her bedroom in New York, but in many ways she liked the simplicity of this one better.
After the start of the day with the wedding, listening to Lissa read for an hour while Adele scrubbed the stove and mopped the floor, she was exhausted and should be ready to sleep. But as she undressed her stomach jumped and rolled. She shouldn’t be nervous, because she certainly wasn’t a virgin, but for some reason she felt like one. Most of all, she didn’t want Edward to think poorly of her.
She turned toward Edward who had followed her into the room, closed the door behind him and stripped out of his clothes in nothing flat. “Perhaps we should forego coupling until we know each other better.”
Edward got into bed and cocked a brow. “I don’t think so. You’re a widow. You shouldn’t be afraid of having relations.”
She nodded once. “You’re right, but for some reason I am nervous.” She looked at the floor then stared into his gorgeous blue eyes. “I…I don’t want to disappoint you.”
He tilted his head just a bit. “You won’t disappoint me I assure you. I haven’t been with a woman in a long time, so you see we’re both somewhat nervous.”
Adele chuckled and dropped her nightgown on the floor. She heard Edward’s quick breath intake.
“You’re beautiful.” He whispered.
His compliment made her flush. Somehow, all the times Richard said the same thing paled in comparison to this one time from Edward. She knew Edward meant it. Richard had only used nice words to get her ready to couple. Nothing more. But Edward was serious, judging by his expression. His eyes were partially closed and his lips open just a bit.
She really wanted to kiss those lips, and she could only if she got into bed. Adele hurried into the warm bed.
Edward straightened his arm so she could get near him.
Adele scooted next to him and ran her fingers through the sparse hair on his chest. “This is nice.”
“Yes, it is.” He rubbed her back with the hand around her and put his other hand behind his head. “We must begin each night this way…relaxing from the day behind us. Whatever happens during the day we will keep that event out of the bedroom.”
“Agreed. Nothing will keep us from each other in the bedroom.” I have a feeling that will be harder then we think, especially if he ever finds out what…who I really am.
“Edward, what does Lissa mean when her mother returns?”
He sighed. “I’ve never actually told her that her mother is dead.”
She turned and crossed her arms on his chest, then looked him in the eyes. “You what?”
“She was just six when it happened. So little and I didn’t think she’d understand then. So I told myself I’d wait.” He took a deep breath. “How do you find the right time to tell your baby her mother is dead?”
Adele sighed and rolled off of him.
His arm came around her.
“I don’t know.”
They were silent.
Adele wondering how she would have told her child or if she would have done the same as Edward did.
His hand worked its magic on her.
She was getting sleepy. Edwards hand was relentless, rubbing her back up and down so gently she could almost believe he cared, but they’d only known each other for a day, so that feeling was impossible.
But was it really? She found that she cared for him and Lissa more than she would have expected. Couldn’t Edward feel the same way?
*****
Very early the next morning, after putting the coffee pot on to boil, Adele and Edward went to the barn. He carried a lantern and a bucket with a wet towel in it.
When she entered Adele was assaulted by the odors of animals and their waste, as well as the hay in bales on one side of the barn.
“Oh, my.” She put a finger under her nose. “These are quite some smells.”
Edward chuckled. “You’ll get used to the odor in short order. Come meet our cow, Elsie. She’ll give you a full bucket every day.”
“That’s nice.” She’d never liked milking cows. “You have to milk her. Do you know how?”
“Not really, I do remember some from when I was young and had to do this chore. You can watch and see if I to it correctly.”
“Very well.” He walked over to the wall of the barn and grabbed a milk stool off the wall. He set the stool next to Elsie. “There you go. Let’s see what you can do.”
Adele sat and cleaned Elsie’s udders with the towel, then handed the dirty cloth to Edward. She took a teat in each hand and pulled and squeezed several times before any milk came out. Dozens of cats and kittens gathered around her. She’d never seen so many cats of all ages in her life. The animals meowed, hissed and knocked each other out of the way trying to get to the milk. She laughed as one brave little orange striped kitten, climbed her skirt and meowed up at her. His little voice carried to her ears over the cacophony of the others on the ground. She couldn’t help but pet him, his baby fur soft as the cashmere sweater she’d left behind.
She smiled wide and looked up at Edward.
He smiled back at her then bent and lifted the kitten off of her. “Looks like we have a special little tiger here.”
“We do. He’s so friendly. Can we keep him…in the house I mean?”
Edward shook his head with a smile. “We always have one or more kittens that are friendly and we can’t take them all up to the house to be pets…much to Lissa’s disappointment and now yours.”
Adele turned back to the cow and didn’t disappoint the felines. She squirted the first few pulls of the teat onto the ground and into a few of the cat’s faces.
She laughed as the ones she squirted sat and rubbed their paws over their faces and then licked their paws to get all the milk. They weren’t about to leave any of the treat to waste. When she was satisfied the milk was now clean, she began to pull and squeeze, pull and squeeze the teats as quickly as she could. She developed a nice rhythm and half the bucket was full in no time. Stopping to rest her hands for a moment, she looked up at her husband and smiled.
Edward leaned against a brace behind the cow with his arms crossed over his chest. “You do that well.”
Adele shrugged. “As I started milking Elsie, I just remembered how to do it. Milking was one of my chores when I was about thirteen and worked as a scullery maid for a rich family in New York City. Having a cow was very unusual in New York, but the wife grew up on a farm and insisted on the freshest milk and so they bought a cow and kept it in the stables with the horses.”
He gestured toward the cow. “Do you want me to finish for you?”
She shook her head. “No, that’s all right, but thank you for offering.”
He pushed away from the brace. “Then I’ll go ahead and do my chores. The animals need to be fed and watered. I’ll gather the eggs for you before I come in.”
She cocked her head. “That task is something you’ll have to teach me tomorrow so I can get it done before I start breakfast. But, as long as you’re offering to do the job this morning, I’ll let you. What do you normally have for breakfast, and how many should I cook for?”