Truce (Neighbor from Hell 4)

In truth, she was terrified. Between the first doctors misdiagnosing her, her appetite, and the intense exhaustion that she couldn’t shake, she didn’t know what to think or expect from this pregnancy. Every day she worried that she wasn’t giving the baby enough food, resting enough, or a hundred other things that could hurt the baby, and every day Robert did everything he could to make her smile.

He knew her concerns, had comforted her enough times over the past month to know that she was terrified that she was going to lose their baby. He did everything that he could to comfort her and reassure her that everything would be okay and when he couldn’t, he held her in his arms as she cried her eyes out. He was the sweetest man that she’d ever met and she couldn’t imagine what she’d done to deserve someone like him.

“Come on, minx, you know you want to,” he whispered teasingly.

“I thought you were fixing the Marshall’s roof today?” she said, noting that it was barely two in the afternoon. It made her wonder if he’d snuck off from work to steal a kiss from her.

“I finished a few hours early,” he answered, making her smile.

Her husband was a very hard worker as everyone in town had learned over the past month. At first they’d refused to hire him, thinking that he was just the spoiled second son of an English lord looking for a handout, but once they saw some of his work being sold at the shops in town, they couldn’t seem to hire him fast enough. There were several carpenters in town, but none of them had the skill that Robert seemed to have. Not to mention that he worked faster and harder than most men, at least that’s all she ever heard when she went into town. She couldn’t help but wonder if his size or the insane amount of food that he ate everyday had something to do with it.

“Well, I’m still working on the baby’s blanket so you’ll just have to find something else to do, Mr. Bradford,” she said in her haughtiest whisper that she could manage without laughing.

Robert sighed heavily. “Then I guess I’ll just go fishing all by myself.”

“Fishing?” she repeated with interest, her plans to torment him forgotten. She’d never been fishing before. It was one of those things that she’d always wanted to try, but her father had absolutely forbid her from ever doing.

“I was going to take you with me, but since you’re not interested.....,” he said, allowing his words to trail off as she imagined him shrugging even as he grinned that mischievous grin of his that used to irritate her, but she now loved.

“Wait!” she hissed, trying to get to her feet as Mrs. Brown, who was smiling and shaking her head in wonder, reached over and carefully picked the unfinished baby quilt off her lap and set it aside. Once that was done, Mrs. Brown took her hands into hers and did her best to help Elizabeth get to her feet. Although she was only five months along in her pregnancy, her stomach was a bit larger than most women’s at this stage. It was just another thing that frightened her.

Just as she was about to scoot to the edge of the chair with the hope that it would give her better leverage to stand up, she felt Robert’s large hands gently grip her h*ps to help her stand. Once she was on her feet, she didn’t bother looking back or thanking him since that would only give him a chance to change his mind and she most definitely did not want him doing that.

With a grateful smile to Mrs. Brown, she turned to head out the front door when she remembered the blueberry tarts they’d made that morning. Deciding that she was going to need a light snack to keep up her energy, she abruptly turned and headed in the direction of the kitchen.

“Already packed them,” Robert said, grinning boyishly from the backdoor as she stepped inside the kitchen. He held out his hand for her to join him.

Smiling, she went to him, only pausing twice along the way to grab some cheese, bread and a couple of meat pies along the way. As she stuffed the last meat pie in a sack, she prayed that her appetite returned to normal once she had the baby, because the thought of eating like this for the rest of her life terrified her.

“This way, minx,” Robert said, taking the sack from her and tossing it over his shoulder with the one he held in his hand before he took her hand in his and led her towards the woods.

“Are you really taking me fishing?’ she asked, barely able to keep the excitement out of her voice.

“Why wouldn’t I take my wife fishing?” Robert asked, steering her along an easy path through the woods.

“Because most husbands wouldn’t,” she foolishly pointed out.

“Then that’s their loss,” Robert said with a boyish grin, the one that made her love him even more.

* * *

“What do we do now?”

Robert chuckled at her excitement. “Now, minx, we wait,” he said, carefully placing her pole against a fallen log near the blanket he’d laid out for her so that they could see the pole dip if she got a bite.

“Oh,” she said with an adorable pout.

“Did you think the fish were going to attack your line,” he teased as he leaned in and kissed her, unable to resist such a sexy little pout.

“Sort of,” she admitted sheepishly.

“It takes time and patience, minx,” he said, chuckling as her pout deepened.

“What do we do until then?” she asked, looking around the grassy bank and then at the large pond that looked very inviting on a hot day like today.

“Normally we’d sit and wait, but today,” he said, pausing to pull his shirt off, “I thought we’d go for a swim.”

Instantly her pout was replaced with a shy hopeful smile as she looked at the pond. “Really?”

“Really, minx,” he said, quickly pulling off his boots and pants before he moved to help her remove her dress.

Her smile faltered when she looked down at herself. “Maybe I shouldn’t,” she said, nibbling her bottom lip even as she shot the pond a wistful look.

“And why is that?” he asked, stepping up behind her so that he could undo her buttons.

“Because I’m fat,” she muttered pathetically.

“You’re not fat,” he said, chuckling as leaned forward and pressed a kiss against the back of her neck, “you’re beautiful.”

She sighed heavily as she held onto the front of her dress so that it wouldn’t drop to the ground. “And you’re a terrible liar,” she grumbled, but she did let him help her out of her dress, stockings and slippers.