A Convenient Wife

She’d brushed it early this morning, there on the back porch, while she thought he was still abed, and again he’d watched her through the screen door, his gaze devouring the heavy tresses that waved the length of her back. She’d been so unaware, so innocent of guile, her body moving in an unconscious rhythm, and Win had found himself yearning to bury his hands in the depths of those rich, brown curls. He’d warrant not another man alive, not counting George, had ever seen the sight, and a twinge of satisfaction brought a smile to his face.

“What’s funny?” Ellie asked suspiciously. “Are you laughing at me?”

Win shook his head. “Far from it, Ellie. I’m just remembering how beautiful your hair looked when you brushed it, out on the back porch this morning.” He met her gaze and his only thought was to banish the look of wariness she wore like a second skin.

“You’re a lovely woman. Any man would be proud to have you in his home.”

“You must be blind in one eye and can’t see outta the other,” she scoffed, and yet a blush tinged her cheeks with a rosy hue.

“I’m not blind, Ellie. I’ve seen more pleasingly arranged features than yours, perhaps, women who spent long hours to make themselves attractive. I’ve known females with elegant wardrobes, and the money to buy jewelry and pay for fancy hairdos.” He hesitated at her stricken look, and then reached for her hand, squeezing it gently as he turned to face her.

“You don’t understand, honey,” he said quietly. “They don’t hold a candle to you. None of them.”

Doubt made her toss her head, and he recognized the air she assumed. “I know what I am,” she said proudly. “A woman without means, having to work for everything I own. And that’s all right, Winston Gray. I’m proud that I can work hard and earn my way. You don’t have to try making me feel good with fancy words and—”

“Hush,” he said quickly. “I’m not doing that. I’m telling you the truth, Ellie, and you’re too stubborn to recognize it. You’re a woman any man would be pleased to claim as his own.”

“Oh, sure,” she said curtly, her lip curling in derision. “I’m gonna have a baby, and I wasn’t even bright enough to know the difference between being in the family way and dying of a tumor. I’m sure some handsome man is gonna come after me with a wedding ring in his hand.” She pulled her fingers from his grip.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about, Doc. You sure don’t know much about men, and the way they look at women like me.”

She stalked down the road ahead of him, and he stepped double-time to catch up. “You’re the one who’s all wet, my dear,” he said firmly, his hand circling her arm and slowing her pace. “I know exactly how men look at a woman like you.” He stopped dead in his tracks and brought her to a standstill next to him.

“I’m a man, Ellie. Do I need to remind you of that?”

She shook her head dumbly, her eyes wide.

“And I know exactly how I’m looking at you.” His jaw clenched as his eyes focused on her face.

She was pale, her mouth trembling, and even as he watched, a lone tear slid from each eye to dampen her cheek. “Don’t be mad at me,” she whispered. “I couldn’t stand it if I did something to get you riled up.”

Shame buried his aggravation, and he bowed his head. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I didn’t mean to upset you. I just can’t stand for you to think of yourself in such a way.” His fingers loosened their grip and his hand rose to her face, fingertips tracing the damp trails.

“You’re a wonderful young woman, Ellie. You’re strong and honest and worthy of any man in this town.”

“I don’t want any man in this town,” she said quietly. “I just want to work for you and stay in that beautiful room you let me have, and make flowers grow in your yard.”

“I’d say that’s little enough to ask of life,” he told her, bending to touch her forehead with a gentle brush of his mouth. Drawing her hand through his arm, he turned them in the direction of his house, aware of a buggy that passed, conscious of two families who walked on the opposite side of the road…and mindful of the lapse he’d just committed.

Kissing Ellie was like placing an item in the weekly newspaper. Dr. Gray To Marry Ellie Mitchum. He might as well have announced a forthcoming wedding while he sat among the parishioners in the community church just moments ago. That the word would spread like wildfire throughout the county was a given. He could no longer keep Ellie in his home without making her his legal wife.

Thankfully, the news took almost a week to reach Ellie’s ears, and then it came from Win, himself. She’d spent long hours scrubbing floors and windows. Her arms ached from washing curtains and ironing starched ruffles, and her back protested the reaching to hang every blessed thing she could find to wash on the clothesline.

But the results were worth it. Winston Gray’s house gleamed from top to bottom. His floors shone, his rugs had been beaten properly and every window was framed by freshly washed curtains. All but the living room, and those draperies had been shaken and wiped with a damp rag, before Ellie rehung them.

Kate had ventured over once to see what was going on and declared that Ellie made her tired, just watching the momentum she’d developed. Admonishing the girl to slacken her pace, Kate had waddled back next door, and then set off for school for the afternoon classes.

Ellie smiled as she scrubbed, pleased at Kate’s interest, touched by her concern. But pleasing Win was her first consideration, and though he cautioned her against climbing to hang the curtains, he’d obviously been pleased at the end results of her whirlwind of activity.

“I never thought this old place could look so good,” he told Ellie, leaning against the doorjamb one evening as she dished up supper. “I just don’t want you working too hard. Folks will think I’m taking advantage of you.” And with those final words, his mouth tightened and he walked toward her.

“Has anyone been by, Ellie? Have you spoken to any of the ladies in town?”

She shook her head, intent on pouring gravy into a deep bowl. “I’ve been too busy to go to the mercantile. Tess brought me a chicken and a slab of bacon this morning, and we talked, but she was in a hurry. She just wanted to know if I was doing all right.”

“And are you?” he asked, lifting the plate of fried chicken from the warming oven and transferring it to the table.

She cast him a questioning glance. “You know I am, Doc.” Ellie halted midway across the kitchen and turned to him. “She sounded kinda funny, though. She asked me if we’d talked about a change in my status. And I said, did she mean from poor to well-to-do?”

“Your status?” Win snatched at the word, well aware of Tess’s meaning.

“I suppose she was thinking how different my life is now, since I’ve been here. But I don’t know exactly what she meant.”

Win pulled her chair out and waited as she picked up bowls of vegetables from the stove. Watching him closely, she placed them on the table, then slid onto her seat. She’d eyed him curiously the first time he held her chair for her, but had come to accept the small courtesy without comment. He walked to his place and sat down, weighing his words carefully.

“I think she was referring to your status as a single woman,” he said. “I have a notion folks are wondering about us, Ellie.”

“What for?” she asked. “What is there to wonder about? I’m your housekeeper and you’re the town doctor.”

“Some folks saw me kiss your forehead on the way home from church Sunday morning, honey. There’s been talk.”

“People think I’m after you?” she asked, fingers lifting to cover her mouth as her eyes widened in horror. “I’ve never meant to—”

He reached across the table and clasped her wrist. “Don’t, Ellie. Don’t even think that. It’s not you they’re speaking of. It’s me. They think I’m taking advantage of you.” It wasn’t the sum total of the gossip that was circulating, but not for a moment would Win allow Ellie to be privy to the words that criticized her presence in his home.

“You haven’t,” she gasped. “Not for a minute. You wouldn’t.” Her head shook from side to side as she spoke, and tears formed in her dark eyes, spilling onto her bodice.

“I didn’t mean to make you cry,” Win said, reproach gnawing at him. “But the truth is, I did kiss you, Ellie. And in so doing, I’ve compromised your…” Somehow, virtue wasn’t the correct word to use here, he decided.

“Reputation,” he finished with a nod.

“I didn’t have much of a reputation when I got here,” she said softly. “I’m sure that little peck on my forehead didn’t do a whole lot of damage.”

“Well, it made folks talk. And I won’t allow them to besmirch your name in any way.”

“You can’t go fighting any battles over me, Doc,” she told him. “I’ll just have to find someplace else to live.”

He shook his head. “Not on your life, honey. You’re staying here, where you belong.” Releasing her hand, he motioned to her fork. “Come on, now. Eat your supper, and I’ll tell you what I think we should do.”

Obediently, she picked up the utensil and speared a piece of carrot, carrying it to her mouth and chewing it, her eyes never leaving his face. And then she leaned back. “I can’t eat till you put me out of my misery, Doc,” she told him. “What are you planning?”

“Well,” he began, picking up a chicken leg and inspecting it. “You do fry chicken to a turn, Ellie,” he said with a grin, then turned the full force of that smile in her direction. His teeth bit into the tender meat and he chewed for a moment, wondering how she would take the revelation of his plan.

There was only one way to find out.

“Your father has been making noises again, about you living here. And along with folks being curious about my intentions, I’ve decided we should get married.”

Ellie dropped her fork, and it clattered against the thick china plate, then fell to the floor. “Oh, dear,” she whispered. “Now look what I’ve done.”

“I’ll get you another fork,” he said, rising quickly and walking to the buffet.

“Not that,” she said, her voice breaking as tears formed. She looked up at him and anguish painted her features. “I’ve put you in a terrible spot, Doc. You don’t want to marry me, any more than you want to…” She halted as if she could think of nothing horrendous enough to compare.

“Oh, but I do,” he said, placing the fork in her cold fingers. “Now, sit up there and eat,” he told her, circling to his own chair. He watched as she chewed and swallowed bites of potato and a forkful of green beans. Woodenly, she reached for a piece of chicken and ate it, her eyes fastened to her plate, as if something there was too marvelous to ignore.

“Ellie?” He spoke her name quietly, carefully, and was rewarded when she looked up at him.

“Doc? Are you funning me?” she asked, and beneath the scoffing words, he detected a note of hope.

“No.” His head shook slowly. “No, I wouldn’t do that, Ellie. You know me better than that, I’d think.

“I thought we’d go and see the preacher,” he told her, mindful of her stillness. She’d eaten a bit of the chicken, but not enough to please him. “If you eat everything on your plate, we can go after supper,” he said, his voice carrying a teasing lilt.

She looked down with a frown. “I don’t think I have any appetite,” she said. “My mind’s just spinning around in a circle, and I feel dizzy.”

“You’re not going to faint on me, are you?”

Her color was good. In fact, he’d say she looked downright healthy. Except for the dazed look in her eyes, and that was to be expected, he supposed.

“No.” She shook her head. “I never faint. I come from sturdy stock. But I surely do feel like I’ve been dreaming and somebody’s gonna come by and pinch me awake any minute now.”

“It’s no dream,” Win said. “And nobody’s going to pinch you awake. I’m going to make a bride out of you, honey.” And if he knew what was good for himself, and for Ellie, too, he’d save the wife part for later.

Chapter Five

A fist pounding on the door caught Ellie unawares as she cleared the table, and within minutes, Win had spoken to the visitor and was on his way, black leather bag in hand.

“I don’t know how long I’ll be,” he called back over his shoulder. “Depends on how much stitching up I need to do.” His response had been immediate, his mind set on the man who waited on a ranch outside of town, broken bone exposed, and in too much pain to be moved.

Ellie nodded in agreement, closing the door behind him, then set about cleaning up the kitchen. The visit to the parsonage would wait. Win’s patient would not. A glimmer of what life would be like as the wife of a doctor made her pause in her work, the dish towel caressing the plate she held.

Win’s face had been set in lines she was becoming familiar with, lines that bespoke his concentration on the task at hand. Nothing was as important to Winston Gray as the people who depended on him for the skills he possessed. A wife would come in second to that multitude, Ellie thought. And yet, even that fact could not dissuade her from the notion of marriage.

She’d protested mildly, yet her heart had raced with joy as he declared his intentions. Mrs. Winston Gray. The sound of those words vibrated in her mind as she rubbed the surface of the plate she held, and she spoke them aloud.

“Mrs. Winston Gray.” Her mouth curved in a smile as she repeated the title, drawing out each syllable with anticipation. She would walk by his side every Sunday morning from now on, march down the aisle of that small church and sit with him, her skirt touching his trousers, her hand occasionally brushing his as they shared a hymnal.

That a man like Win should consider marriage to Ellie Mitchum was not to be believed. And yet, he’d said it was so, that they would talk to the minister and then speak their vows. She would hold her head up, no longer the cast-off daughter, but the chosen wife.

He was handsome. There was no doubt of that, yet it wasn’t only his good looks that made her heart beat faster. Large, but well-formed, his hands were gentle. His body was tall and rangy, well put together, with not a trace of fat apparent. She knew the breadth of his shoulders, wide beneath the suit coat he wore, for only yesterday she’d ironed three of his shirts. They were tapered, by the looks of them tailored especially for him. Not for Win the merchandise from Tess’s store. Rather, the fine broadcloth of clothing that spoke of city stores and handmade garments.

Yet, there was more to Win than the outer trappings. Beneath the skin itself beat the heart of a man bent on helping those in need. Kindness was his watchword, Ellie decided, placing the plate in the cupboard and lifting another into the keeping of her dish towel.

He truly cared, and upon that quality hung his decision to marry her. She was only one in a long list of those he tended. In this case, he’d extended his helping hand to an unheard of magnitude, that of marriage to a nobody. And didn’t that put her in her place.

She sighed, examining the plate she’d polished to a fine sheen, and then lifted it to the glass-fronted cabinet where his dishes were stored. A blurred reflection met her gaze, and she saw, within the waving glass image, a woebegone female who, but for the tender heart of a doctor, was bound for despair.

Ordinary. That’s what she was. Ordinary, and in need. Without a doubt.

She bent closer to the reflecting glass. Surely something about her nondescript image must have appealed to the man. Not even Win would take a woman in marriage on the basis of compassion alone.

Ellie straightened, stiffening her spine. If he’d seen something worthy in her, then it would behoove her to seek out that same quality and shine it to perfection. She would be a credit to him, not allowing him to be shamed by her presence in his home.

“You need clothes. And you need them now. I don’t know what I’ve been thinking of, not taking you to the mercantile. Tess is sure to have dresses that will fit.” Win pushed back from the table and rose. “We’ll take a walk over there as soon as I run next door to check on Kate.”

The morning sun was high in the sky, and Win was in good spirits. The compound fracture had been set and the stitches put in place in record time, he’d told her. His arrival home, long after dark, had prompted her from her bed, and she’d poured him coffee from the pot left on the back of the stove, then sat with him at the kitchen table while he spoke of the house call.

And in all of that, she’d felt a foreshadowing of her life to come. Except for the moment when she’d rinsed his cup and turned it to drain, then left the kitchen. The stairs were long, her bedroom, for the first time, lonely. And below, she heard Win’s footsteps as he walked through the hallway and into his bedroom.

Would she still be relegated to this room on the second floor, once the vows were spoken?

The memory of Kate and James, that stolen moment she’d glimpsed on her first night in this house came to mind. A deep heat possessed her, one she was not familiar with, and she sighed, yearning for just such an embrace to be hers.

Now, Win waited for her, a quizzical look on his face, as she hastened to prepare for the excursion to the mercantile. Just inside the kitchen door, he watched as she wiped the tabletop, then hung the dishrag over the basin.

“Kate is chipper this morning,” he told her. “I found her on her knees, scrubbing the back stoop.” An amused smile lifted his mouth as he spoke. “I don’t think she’ll make it much longer. That baby’s about ready to make an appearance.”

“Will the children just stay home when she has the baby?” Ellie joined him and walked out the door he held for her.

“There’ll be enough for them to do this time of year. It’s time for the threshing anyway, and they generally close classes down for that. Kate couldn’t have planned this better if she’d tried.”

“I’ve never heard of a teacher taking a baby to school with her,” Ellie told him.

“Probably no one but Kate would do it.”

Admiration shone through his statement, and Ellie felt a twinge of envy tug at her. What would it be like to have him speak with such confident pride on her behalf? And then she stifled the emotion that craved such a thing. Kate was more than deserving of Win’s respect. Ellie had yet to earn it.

Tess waved a hand and beckoned them closer as Ellie stepped over the threshold of the mercantile, Win fast at her heels. “Come on in. You’re my first customers of the day. I’ll have to make a special effort to make a sale. My father used to say that if you made a paying customer out of your first visitor, your day would be a good one.”

Ellie was swallowed in the warmth of Tess’s welcome, and she approached the counter with a light step. “Win says I’m to have something new to wear,” she said, her tone low, as if she confided a secret to Tess’s ears.

“Well, isn’t that fine?” Tess turned toward the shelves closest to her stockroom and lifted a stack of dresses from a bin. She eyed Ellie judiciously and nodded, turning to sort through another selection, pulling three from within a second cubbyhole. “Let’s see if any of these please you, Ellie.”

Dresses in a rainbow of colors were spread on the counter within moments, and Tess grinned at Win. “Just got in a new supply, Doc. Must have known you were coming by.” She lifted one after another of the assortment, some of them striped, others flowered, all of them far beyond what Ellie had ever dreamed of wearing.

“I wouldn’t know which to choose,” she said with a sigh of pure pleasure. Her fingers caressed the fabrics, appreciating the smooth feel of percale, the ribbed texture of faille and dimity, the sheer elegance of batiste.

Tess leaned closer. “The garments in this stack are wrappers, Ellie. They’ll be just the thing for you right now. You won’t have to worry about them fitting properly, and they’re perfectly respectable for you to wear around the house.”

“They’re so…fancy,” Ellie said on an indrawn breath. “I can’t imagine wearing something like this to cook in or when I scrub floors.”

“Go ahead and pick out three or four for now,” Win said from behind her. “Tess will probably know which will give you the best wear. And don’t forget something nice to get married in.”

“Married?” Tess spoke the word as if it were some magic incantation, breathing it past lips that quirked at the edges, trembling on the verge of a smile. Then with a burst of laughter, she leaned across the counter and hugged Ellie, able only to clutch at the girl’s shoulders, what with over two feet of counter space between them. She whispered the word against Ellie’s ear. “Married? I’m so pleased.”

Ellie fumbled for words, and came up feeling tongue-tied. She should have known that Win would spill the beans, and yet to have him voice aloud his plans somehow made them more valid. Made the idea of being his wife almost a reality.

She blinked away moisture that clouded her vision, gritting her teeth, lest she make a spectacle of herself, right here in the middle of the mercantile. “Win just decided, actually,” she said quietly, then chanced a look in his direction.

His arm settled across her shoulders and he squeezed gently. “I think I took Ellie off guard, Tess. This has been in the making for a couple of days. I’m sure that’s not a surprise to you. I finally realized that I didn’t want to take any chances on some other young man coming along and snatching her away from me.”

“You work fast, Doc,” Tess murmured. “But I’m not surprised.”

“He feels sorry for me,” Ellie said wretchedly. “And he’s making it sound as though…” Words failed her, and Win filled the gap with a ready retort.

“Ellie’s the one who’s taken a tremendous responsibility. I’m just lucky to have her. I never knew how wonderful it could be to have a woman in the house, tending to things and giving me someone to share my life with.”

He turned Ellie to face him. “I guess I didn’t make it clear how I felt, sweetheart,” he said quietly, ignoring Tess, who had backed away at his words. “I’m not doing this for your benefit, although that comes into it somewhat, but for my own.

“I’ve made you cry again,” he said softly, his index finger sweeping tears from beneath each eye. He held her gaze, forcing her to recognize the sincerity of the words he spoke. “Don’t think I’m doing you a favor, Ellie. You’ll meet yourself coming and going in my household, helping in my office, and making my life easier.”

“Well, now that you’ve got that settled,” Tess said brightly, “let’s get this child something to wear.” She picked up a blue-flowered print. With puffy sleeves and narrow cuffs, it was the height of fashion, and Tess allowed the skirt to fall in generous folds as she held it in front of her own ample form. “This will be nice for when you sit in Doc’s office and keep track of his patients,” she said, folding it and placing it to one side.

Win backed away as Tess lifted another choice from the stack. “You two just go on and make a decision, Tess. I’ll run across the road and talk to James for a few minutes. Take what you want, Ellie,” he said, smiling into her eyes. “The sky’s the limit today. And don’t forget something nice for the wedding.” He whispered the final word, with a cautious look over his shoulder.

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