Lone Star Bride, page 24
“I feel wonderful,” Alexis said from the bed.
“You stay right there,” the doctor told her firmly. “I’ll see how you are tomorrow, but in the meantime, I don’t want you bleeding overmuch, and that means you’ll stay off your feet.”
“She’ll do as I say,” Jamie said, sending a look of promise to Alexis. “I’ll be right here next to her all night.”
“Good,” Minna told him. “Then when the baby wakes up, you can be the one to change his diaper and give him to his mama for feeding.”
“Change his diaper?” Jamie felt helpless as he thought of handling the tiny mite who lay in a basket beside the bed.
“Won’t take long to figure it out,” Minna told him, “and I’ll be back in time to fix breakfast in the morning. That way, Alexis won’t be trying to find the kitchen first thing after the rooster crows. I’ll plan on being here for a couple of days, so long as I can go home at night to see to my family.”
“Why don’t you leave your boy here with Stephen while you’re running back and forth?” Jamie asked.
“That sounds good to me,” Alexis agreed. “Stephen would love it and Jonas is more than welcome. We have lots of room.”
Minna hesitated, then nodded her acceptance of the invitation. “He can stay tonight and I’ll bring him some clothes tomorrow when I come. I’ll go and tell him. Probably make his day for him, he’ll be so tickled.”
“Stephen’s, too.” Alexis settled herself against the pillow and murmured the words softly, smiling as if she imagined Stephen’s glee at the discovery that his cousin would be staying for a visit.
“I’m headed back to town,” the doctor said, reaching for his bag and taking a last look at Alexis. “You did a good job, missy. Wish all my first timers were as easy to tend as you were.”
“Thank you,” Alexis said nicely, and then smiled up at Jamie. “I couldn’t have done it without Jamie being here, and Minna to look after things.”
“That’s what family is for,” Minna told her. “And even though we’re not really kin, we’re still family of a sort, I’d say.”
“Well, you’re Stephen’s kin, and that’s good enough for me,” Jamie told her. “You’re part of our family, Minna, and all your young’uns and Ralph, too.”
He thought he detected a hint of moisture in her eyes as Minna bent over to kiss Alexis on the forehead, and then turned to him, a trembling smile on her face. “Every last one of us needs all the family we can get,” she said, “and I’m proud to own all of you.”
Ralph had the children loaded into the wagon bed, Stephen in their midst, and when Minna joined them in the yard, Jamie heard her words clearly from the bedroom window. “Stephen and Jonas, the two of you get on out of there. Jonas, you’ll be staying here tonight and I’ll be back tomorrow.”
“Who’ll do my chores, Ma?” the boy asked, even as he clambered down and stood before her.
“The girls can pick up the slack,” Minna told him, “and you’ll be here to help out. Jamie has enough on his hands with a new baby and his wife to tend.”
“I’ll help, Ma. I’ll do whatever they tell me to,” her son assured her and Minna hugged him tightly for a moment before she released him and climbed up on the wagon seat. “See you tomorrow,” she called back, looking up at Jamie in the bedroom window.
Jamie waved and then returned to the bed. He knelt again by the bed and encircled his wife within his embrace. “Do you have any idea how much I love you, sweetheart?” he asked. “You’ve always been a good wife, but now you’ve given me what every man wants, and what I’d never thought to have. A son to raise. I’m so happy I could about bust with pride, honey. I thought that marrying you was the high point of my whole life, but this comes pretty damn close to it.”
“And I love you for giving me this baby, Jamie,” she said, turning her head and grasping his hand in hers. She lifted it to her mouth and kissed it repeatedly. “Now, can you crawl in here with me and keep me company?”
“You bet,” he told her. “I’ll need to sleep fast before that baby wakes us both up.”
In moments, he’d undressed and pulled back the sheet on his side of the big bed, lying beside her and carefully lifting her into his arms. “Are you really all right?” he asked, as if she might break with normal handling.
“I’m as all right as I’ll ever be. I have you and our baby and our life together to look forward to. What more could I ask for?”
“I know,” Jamie said, holding her in his arms and allowing his free hand to touch her slender curves again. “You’re almost skinny, Alexis. I don’t know how long it will take me to get used to you without that baby so firmly attached inside you.”
“I still feel like he’s in there. I haven’t gotten used to the idea yet, that I’ve delivered him.” She was quiet for a moment and then she lifted her face to his. “I’m so happy, Jamie,” she told him. “Thank you for being mine.”
Chapter Fifteen
During the next few days, the house was alive with the sound of laughter, both Stephen and Jonas finding any number of jokes to play on unwary adults. They whispered together, planning an assortment of games to occupy their time, causing the menfolk on the ranch to keep a close eye on them both.
From her room, early the first morning, Alexis heard the clatter of footsteps on the stairs, listened to the bursts of laughter from the kitchen and yearned to be a part of the household once more. Jamie was adamant about her staying in bed the first day, and then she rebelled.
“I’ll see what the doctor says when he comes out today.”
What he said, several hours later, was not totally to her liking, confining her to the bedroom for another full day, but he reluctantly told her she could go downstairs later in the week, if Jamie carried her and then brought the baby down to sleep in his basket beside her, so she wouldn’t have to be on her feet to tend him.
That was good enough for Alexis. “I’m going to go down to breakfast today,” she declared, early the next morning. “I can sit at the table and eat with everyone, and then I’ll be in the rocking chair, just like the doctor said, watching Minna clean up the kitchen. Maybe she’ll let me peel potatoes or something for dinner.”
“You don’t need to be peeling anything,” Jamie told her sternly. “I’ll carry you down to the kitchen and you can spend the morning in the rocking chair, but just feeding this baby of ours is enough to use up your strength, the doctor said.”
“Don’t forget to bring a stack of diapers when you carry his basket down,” she reminded him. She was eager to be up and about and privately determined she would lend a hand with dinner.
Minna understood her problem when she explained it to her later. “Never could stand layin’ around when my young’uns were born. I always had to be up in a day or two, and old Doc had a fit every time, but Ralph was a big help and by the time I had the youngest, the other kids all pitched in and lent a hand.”
“Well, Jamie has plenty to do outdoors, but I figured if you could come for a couple of days, I’d be ready to handle things myself.”
“There’s no hurry, girl. My family is taken care of. I cooked up a mess of beans and bacon and potatoes last night for their dinner today, and all they have to do is heat it up. My oldest girl knows how to make cornbread, and biscuits, too, as a matter of fact. And I’ll be there to help with supper.”
“I don’t know what I’d do without you, Minna,” Alexis said. “I wanted Ellen to have a good time on her trip with Chet, and I knew she’d worry about leaving. It was a real load off her mind when you offered to come help with things.”
“Well, I can keep an eye on those two boys while I’m here. They’re good young’uns, but I know what kind of mischief they can get into.” Turning back to the stove, Minna stirred the pan of sausage gravy and then lifted the cooked patties from the skillet and placed them on a plate.
“Soon as these biscuits are done, we’ll call the men in for breakfast,” she declared. “I thought I’d fry up some eggs while they start eating. Jamie brought in a whole crock of them this morning. Your chickens are layin’ good, ain’t they?”
“We’ve got more eggs than we can use. We could hard boil a panful and fix up the yolks with cream and some pickle juice and pepper. Ellen does them that way sometimes and the men like them real well.”
“My ma used to fix eggs thataway, too, now that I think of it. We’ll do some for supper tonight. I thought about potato salad, too. That’ll use up a dozen or so. And we can slice the beef left over from dinner. That oughta be enough to keep them happy.”
“I can peel potatoes from here,” Alexis said.
“Jamie already warned me that you were bound and determined to help with the cooking,” Minna told her with a grin. “Menfolk just don’t understand what it’s like to sit and watch somebody else doing the work. I’ll bet you and Ellen share the fixin’ between you, don’t you?”
“We have ever since she came here,” Alexis said. “I’ve cooked for years, but now we just do it together.”
At Alexis’s side, the baby snuffled and tried to nuzzle his fist. At the first sound from the basket, Minna was beside him, murmuring foolish sounds to the newborn infant.
“Let me get him changed for you,” she said, lifting him from his bed. “Haven’t taken care of a wee one for years now. I miss having a baby around the house.”
Alexis watched closely, knowing she could learn much from Minna’s care of the baby. Changing diapers looked so easy when someone else did it, but her own attempts had not been as neat and well put together as what Minna managed.
The baby clean and wide-awake, Minna brought him to her and helped her, holding the small face against her breast until he smelled the sweet, milky scent of her milk. His mouth opened and he suckled vigorously.
“They say the first couple of days of breast-feeding means a lot to a baby, even if they don’t get a lot of milk,” Minna told her. “When Mrs. Wallace had her twins, she didn’t have enough for them both and they had to use a bottle for one. Poor little thing sickened and died. Doc said it was the cow’s milk that didn’t agree with him.”
Alexis looked up at her, her mouth twisted in a grimace. “I swear I have enough for two. Doc said it wouldn’t come in for a couple of days, but it’s only been two now and I’m overflowing.”
“Don’t let him nurse too long at a time. It’ll make you sore and he’ll be getting the bulk of his meal in the first few minutes anyway.”
Alexis held the tiny bundle against herself and looked down at the tightly closed eyes and the miniature hand that spread wide on her bosom. Tears filled her eyes and she impatiently brushed them away with her free hand.
“Every new mother cries when she looks at her child,” Minna told her. “There’s something about that precious mite that just tugs at your heart. And his little head smells so sweet. There’s no other scent like it in the world. Guess that’s why women keep on having babies. They remember how wonderful it was to hold a new son or daughter and nurse them. Not to mention enjoying all the cuddling and rocking women have been doing for years.”
“This was worth the whole nine months it took to get him here. I thought some days that I was thoroughly sick of being in the family way, but it all seems like a dream now. Even the labor and birthing.”
“The Bible says that’s the way it’s supposed to be, that women forget the pain once they hold the baby.”
“Well, I have a faint recollection of getting the job done,” Alexis said with a laugh, “but not so much as to fear doing it again.” She lifted the tiny bundle in her arms and held him over her shoulder, patting his back and waiting for the burp that was sure to follow. He accommodated her nicely, and Minna laughed at the sound.
“He’s a loud one, ain’t he?” She bustled over to where Alexis sat and took the baby from her. “I’ll just settle him down here and I’ll put some of the newspaper on your lap and let you peel the potatoes for me. We just won’t tell Jamie.”
The men made an early appearance for dinner, probably drawn by the smell of roasting meat that flowed from the kitchen windows out onto the porch and beyond. The two boys ran in the kitchen as Minna was making the gravy and washed up at the kitchen sink.
“The men are coming in already,” Stephen said. “I was gonna ring the dinner bell for you, but Jamie said he could tell that dinner was ready when he walked past the corn crib and caught a whiff of what you were cookin’.”
“Well, I’m not gonna mash these potatoes. I’ll leave them in pieces so we can use the leftovers from dinner for the potato salad later.” Minna poured the boiling water from the kettle, and the potatoes were dumped into a huge bowl. “I’m glad you peeled plenty,” she told Alexis, just as Jamie came in the door.
“Who peeled plenty?” he asked in an ominous voice.
“I did,” Alexis told him. “In between feeding your son and learning all about babies from Minna, I managed to peel a kettleful. You need to understand that I’m strong and capable, Jamie. Just ask Minna.”
“Havin’ a baby don’t make you an invalid,” Minna offered quickly. “She didn’t overdo and she hasn’t been out of that rocking chair.”
“Can’t win this fight, can I?” Jamie asked in an undertone, leaning to kiss Alexis. He bent over the baby’s basket and carefully pulled the light blanket from the infant’s face. “You think he looks like me?” he asked hopefully.
“Spittin’ image,” Minna volunteered. “All that dark hair and those pretty eyes. He’ll be a real hand with the ladies someday.”
“Not until his father lets him know what’s what,” Jamie said. “I plan on having a lot of long talks with him, growin’ up.”
Taking Jamie’s arm, Alexis made her way to the table, glancing out the back door to catch a glimpse of the ranch hands washing up at the horse trough. In moments they came in the kitchen and offered smiles and congratulations to Alexis, slapping Jamie on the back as they passed him, all of them passing by the basket for a glimpse of the star attraction.
Hank’s pride in his grandson was overwhelming and he bent to kiss his daughter as he passed her chair. “Your pa’s right proud of you, girl,” he said quietly. “But I was thinking, you don’t want to confuse James and his daddy. Maybe you ought to call the little fella Hank or Henry, so’s you can keep their names straight.”
She laughed aloud. “I thought you’d come up with an idea like that,” she said. “But I’ve kinda already decided we’ll call the baby something different. I want him to be known as Jay. I think the name suits him and he doesn’t seem to mind when I whisper it in his ear.”
The men ate with gusto, Stephen and Jonas joining them in passing the bowls and platters back and forth, both boys eager to share the plans they’d been making all morning. “We want to go camping out overnight, Jamie,” Stephen said. “Just me and Jonas. We’ll ride up north a ways to where the stream cuts across the far pasture and take along food to cook over the campfire. Do you think it’ll be okay?”
“What I think is that Jonas needs to check with his ma first,” Jamie said firmly. “And you had better see if Alexis thinks it’s good idea. I don’t want these womenfolk worrying about the pair of you.”
“There’s nothing out there to hurt us, Ma,” Jonas told his mother, throwing her a pleading look. “We’ll just be gone overnight and come back tomorrow before supper.”
“What do you think, Minna?” Jamie apparently was giving Jonas’s mother the right to speak her opinion first.
“Should be all right. Ellen and Chet will be back here in another day or so, and I’ll be taking Jonas home with me. If the boys promise to be careful, I suspect it’ll be all right.”
Alexis felt a finger of doubt crawl the length of her spine and shivered. “You know more about such things than I do, Minna,” she said after a moment. “I guess I’m a little protective of Stephen. I like him right handy so I know he’s all right.”
“Well, we’ll think about it this afternoon. Maybe we should plan it for tomorrow instead of today,” Jamie said, shooting an inquiring look at Alexis. “We don’t want to take any chances of someone hanging around and causing trouble with these boys.”
Stephen looked a bit disappointed, but shrugged it off quickly. “That’ll be all right. It’ll give us more time to plan, won’t it Jonas?”
And so it was postponed for a day, and Alexis was able to rest easy. The fact that Brace and Sarah had entrusted their son to Jamie and Alexis for a matter of months weighed heavily on her shoulders. A sense of responsibility for his well-being was constantly at the forefront of her mind, and she determined to speak about it to Jamie tonight. The idea of Mick Jenson still on the loose worried her, even though she realized her uneasiness was probably just her natural fear of the man surfacing.
Jamie listened to her theory and nodded, but she knew that privately, he had reservations about the man’s presence in the vicinity. The questions were still unanswered, but they both refused to live in fear of what might happen in the uncertainties of life.
“We’re going to have company,” Jamie announced the next day. “One of our neighbors just dropped off the mail and there’s a letter from Brace and Sarah. They’re missing Stephen and want to know if we’re ready to get rid of him yet.” He laughed at that idea and the look on Alexis’s face as he spoke the words.
“They were just teasing, honey. But, they are serious about coming here and taking Stephen home with them. They want him back in school, there in Benning, and Sarah thinks Stephen should be with his sisters.”
“I’ll love having them come here,” Alexis said quickly. “But I hate the idea of Stephen leaving us. He’s fit in so well, and he’s enjoying the work here. It’s been a real education for him. He’ll have need of all he’s learned one day in the future.” She paused and looked up at Jamie, and her smile vied with the tears in her eyes. “I hate to be selfish. I know if he were my boy, I’d want him home, too. I don’t blame Sarah a bit.”
