Nate smiled and said, “I’d like you to meet Amalie Sperling—”
Before Nate could finish, Deke stepped forward and said, “She’s not Nate’s wife; she’s mine, and we need to be going now. Nate, please grab her trunks, and I’ll escort Amalie to the wagon across the street.”
Deke took Amalie by the elbow and guided her away from Laura before she could ask any more questions.
Nate grabbed two worn carpet bags and did his best to ignore Laura’s questions as he followed his brother.
Laura stood there, her mouth open, as she watched the three Sperlings ride off toward the Double S Ranch.
~ * ~
Amalie felt like an intruder sitting between the brothers, listening to them discuss the changes in the ranch that had taken place in the years since Nate had left.
When the men’s conversation lulled for several minutes, Amalie found her voice. “Thank you for agreeing to marry me. I didn’t know what I was going to do until Nate found a solution.”
Deke nodded and asked, “Why, exactly, did you need to leave St. Louis?”
Amalie dropped her head, embarrassed to try to explain what had occurred to a stranger.
Nate picked up the conversation. “The new owner of the hotel where Amalie and I worked made untoward advances toward her. When she denied him, he told her he was going to sell her contract to Rex Horrison, the new saloon owner.”
“Rex Horrison?” Deke said. “I ran into him when I was working a job in Kansas. He’s a nasty polecat. You’re lucky you didn’t fall into his clutches.”
Amalie finally spoke. “Do you think he’ll come after me?”
Deke shook his head. “No, I doubt he’d come after a woman unless you embarrassed him in public, but still, if he knows you’re my wife, he’ll know better than to try to best me again.”
“I never met him,” Amalie explained. “My employer made the deal…or he was going to before Nate explained that I was married to you, and we were leaving town.”
“That’s good. Your old employer will be the one that needs to worry. You’ll be safe here at the ranch, carrying the Sperling name,” Deke assured Amalie.
They rode over a small rise, and a large ranch home loomed in the distance. “We’re almost home,” Nate exclaimed.
“That’s a beautiful home and quite large,” Amalie said.
Deke said, “Our parents built it, expecting to have a large family, but they only had Nate and me, so we have room to spare.”
“Ma and Pa always expected us to fill the house with children, but that didn’t work out too well either,” Nate said and then wished he hadn’t when he saw the look that crossed Deke’s face.
Nate stammered and then continued, “I think you’ll like it. We have cattle and horses, and there’s a big garden and some fruit trees.”
Amalie found her voice again. “Tomorrow is Sunday. I saw a church in town. Will I be allowed to attend services? I wasn’t able to every Sunday because of my job.”
Deke pulled on the reins to stop the wagon and turned to look at Amalie. “You are free to do anything you wish as long as it’s within the law,” Deke answered, smiling at her. “I don’t expect you to do anything just because we’re married. You’ll be living at the ranch, and it would be nice if you cooked since I’m not a good cook. Our ranch cook’s food isn’t bad, but it’s predictable.”
“I can do that. I can keep house, too—I worked as a maid at the hotel. Cleaning is easy for me. I’m just grateful you offered me your name and protection.”
“Don’t mention it. I should add that you don’t need to do any laundry—I’m not home enough to warrant trying to wash my things, so I take them to a nice widow woman in town. It helps her, and it helps me. The men do their own. You can do yours, or you can take them to the widow, too,” Deke explained.
“That’s one thing I’m not sure I’m good at. The hotel washed my uniforms, and I paid the laundress when I needed something personal washed. At the orphanage, I rarely had laundry duty. They seemed to think I was a better cook than a laundress,” Amalie told him.
“Orphanage?” Deke inquired.
“I was left on the orphanage’s doorstep as an infant and grew up there. I never knew who my parents were.”
“You have a lovely name—did they give it to you at the orphanage?” Deke asked as they pulled up to the ranch house’s back door.
“No, that was one thing my parents gave me. There was a note wrapped in my blanket that said, ‘Her name is Amalie. Please take care of her. I can’t.’”
“That must be hard, but at least you know someone cared enough for you to name you.”
“That’s true,” Amalie answered. “When I was in my teens, I asked around to see if anyone knew a family that might have heard of the name, but all I could learn is that it’s of German origins. There was a kind, elderly German lady that operated a bakery near the orphanage, and she donated bread and rolls quite often. She’s the one who told me about my name, but she said she’d never heard anyone use it before me, and she didn’t know anyone asking about a person with that name.” She drew in a long breath, not believing she had spoken at length or revealed something personal.
Deke hopped off the wagon and looked in the rear. “Did you lose your trunk on the way here? All that’s in the back are two carpet bags.”
Nate grabbed the bags, saying, “One of the bags is mine. This was all she had.”
Deke raised an eyebrow. “You don’t have anything else?”
Amalie
