Something Borrowed (Borrowed Brides 3)

Encouraged by Maddy's response, Mary asked, "Would you like to get down now?"

Maddy nodded.

Mary set Madeline on the ground, then hiked up her own skirts and knelt on the ground beside the little girl. Acting purely on instinct, Mary put her arms around Maddy and held her close. "That's my girl," she praised.

Maddy rewarded her with a smile.

"Okay." Mary reached for the hem of Maddy's royal blue dress and white pinafore. "Let's get you out of these clothes."

Maddy stood quietly cooperating while Mary stripped her of her soiled white muslin petticoat, underdrawers, black leather shoes, and white knitted tights. In a few short minutes she stood barefoot, wearing nothing but her blue dress and white pinafore.

Mary rolled and re-rolled Maddy's wet underclothing into a tight bundle, but no amount of rolling or folding could reduce the size of bundle enough so that she could fit it in with her things. She thought for a moment, wondering how she could conceal Maddy's undergarments, then finally decided there was only one thing she could do. She unbuttoned the jacket of her traveling suit and wrapped the bundle in that. When she finished the chore, Mary turned her attention back to Maddy who waited patiently. "All right, angel, we'll slip your shoes back on," she said, picking up one of Madeline's tiny black leather shoes. "I'll tend to my needs, and then we'll meet Lee and Mr. Crane back at the depot. Okay?"

"No!" Maddy shook her head, vehemently opposed to Mary's suggestion.

Mary sighed, at a loss as to the workings of the two-and-a-half-year-old mind. Being a mother to a toddler was much harder than she ever imagined—and a lot like playing a game of drawing room charades. Mary's admiration for her own mother and her cousin, Faith, grew by leaps and bounds. Still, she had her work cut out for her and Mary wasn't about to give up. "What is it, Maddy? What's wrong? Don't you want to go back to the train?"

"No!" Maddy stared defiantly at Mary, shouted the single word, stuck out her bottom lip, then immediately fastened her gaze on her shoes.

"Maddy?" Mary reached out to touch her but Madeline jerked away.

Stuck in an outhouse with a recalcitrant child, and unable to delay any longer, Mary quickly tended to her own personal needs. And as she began to set her skirts to rights, lowering them to cover her petticoats and silk stockings, Mary found she had gained Maddy's complete attention.

Mary studied the expression on the little girl's face. "So, that's it," she said at last. "You're embarrassed for anyone to see you without your petticoats and tights, aren't you?"

Maddy nodded slowly.

"We've got a problem, don't we?"

Maddy nodded once again.

A solution to the problem suddenly took form in Mary's brain. It was daring and a bit scandalous. And Mary would die of embarrassment if anyone ever discovered the lengths she'd gone to appease a child, but it seemed the only appropriate thing to do. Mary smiled down at Madeline. "Would you feel better about leaving this outhouse if I took off my drawers and petticoats, too?"

"Uh huh."

Mary took a deep breath. "All right. Here it goes." She raised her skirts and hurriedly shed her drawers, quilted underpetticoat, bustle petticoat, and stockings. Maddy looked on in delight as Mary added her neatly rolled-up undergarments to Maddy's bundle of clothing tucked inside her suit jacket, then stood balancing first on one leg and then the other, as she struggled to get her shoes back on.

Maddy giggled suddenly—a deep-throated, husky giggle that sounded disconcerting coming from such a small angelic-looking child.

Mary couldn't help but giggle as well. "I know it looks funny. But remember, young lady, that I'm doing this for you. This will be our little secret, okay?"

"Kay."

"Mary, are you in there?" The unexpected knock on the outhouse door and the sound of Lee's voice startled her and Mary jumped—tripping over the hem of her skirt, made longer by her lack of undergarments, nearly toppling over in the process.

Maddy laughed out loud.

Hearing the childish laughter, Lee asked, "What's taking so long? What are you two doing in there?"

"Nothing," Mary answered quickly. Too quickly.

"Then hurry it up," Lee ordered. Fatigue made him irritable and more abrupt with Mary than he meant to be.

"Uh… we'll be out in just a minute," she replied. "I'm… uh… putting on my shoes."

"Your shoes?" Lee asked. "What are you doing with your shoes off?"

Mary thought quickly. "I… uh… meant Maddy's shoes. She had something in them." Mary said a quick prayer, hoping the Lord would understand the need to protect the little girl's sensitive feelings. Mary fastened her remaining shoe, then gathered up the bundle of clothing.