Something Borrowed (Jordan-Alexander Family 3)

"Hey," Lee called from outside the door. "Can you speed it up a bit? I left Judah at the depot and I'd rather not leave him alone very long."

"Do you want to walk?" Mary asked Madeline. "Or would you rather have me carry you?"

"Hold me," Maddy answered, lifting her arms up to Mary.

Mary handed the bundle to Maddy. "Can you manage this?"

Maddy nodded, but as she took hold of the clothing, it slipped from her grasp. The ties came loose and an armful of white undergarments fell to the floor. Madeline frowned at the pile of white fabric, then puckered her lips.

Mary hurried to forestall the flood of tears. "Maddy, it's all right. See? Besides, I have an idea." She bent to retrieve the clothes, bundled Maddy's into a tight ball, then quickly stuffed hers inside her jacket. "I'll carry you and Lee can carry these." That said, Mary opened the door to the outhouse. "Here, take this while I get Maddy." Leaving him with no choice, she shoved her jacket-wrapped bundle in Lee's direction, then turned to lift Maddy into her arms.

"What is it?" Lee made a grab for the bundle, caught hold of a jacket sleeve, and watched in astonishment as the hem of a woman's petticoat slipped from beneath the jacket and a pair of women's white muslin and lace-trimmed drawers fluttered to the ground. Curious now, Lee opened Mary's jacket and peeked inside. The unmistakable odor of urine assaulted his nostrils as he untied the white bundle and found Maddy's wet underthings along with an assortment of other feminine undergarments—all dry and, except for the quilted underpetticoat, practically sheer, and much too large to be Maddy's.

Lee sucked in a breath at the thought of Mary wearing nothing beneath her prim skirt. Smiling at the image, he took Maddy's doll out of his coat pocket, then whisked Mary's lacy drawers off the ground, and hurriedly stuffed them into the coat pocket before she exited the privy.

He barely managed to tuck the other bundle of clothes back into place when Mary stepped through the outhouse doorway. She carried Maddy on her hip and Lee noticed that the chubby little legs locked around Mary's waist were bare. Mary followed his gaze and the expression on her face warned Lee not to comment. Lee didn't say a word. He simply let his gaze roam downward over Mary's skirt which, he noted with a great deal of satisfaction, now hung past her shoes—several inches longer than it had been when she left the train wearing her bustle and petticoats. He grinned as a gust of wind flattened the green serge against her body. Nice legs, he thought. Nice long legs.

Lee would have continued his contemplation of Mary's legs, but Maddy took one look at him and the doll he still held in his hand, reached out her arms, and yelled, "Mama!"

"No," Mary corrected gently. "Papa. Not Mama." She looked up at Lee. "Is it all right if she calls you Papa? She's so young, she won't remember her real papa. As far as she's concerned, you'll be her father."

"Papa is fine with me," Lee replied. His chest swelled wit

h pride and his heart seemed to skip a beat at the thought of Maddy calling him papa.

"It won't be a completely accurate term," Mary continued.

"It will be accurate all right," Lee explained. "I plan to adopt her and raise her as my own."

Mary's eyes lit up and the smile she gave him could have warmed the coldest winter night. "Oh, Lee, that's wonderful!" She stepped closer to him.

"Hey, don't look at me like that," Lee warned.

"Like what?"

"Like I'm some kind of knight in shining armor." He didn't know why he suddenly felt the need to warn her away from him. Maybe it was lack of sleep, or his uncharacteristic lapse in willpower. Or maybe he just felt too damned deceitful to take advantage of her moment of weakness. "I'm only adopting her to fulfill the terms of the will."

"Oh." A deep disappointment settled in the pit of Mary's stomach. The warm rosy glow disappeared and all at once, she began to feel the cold seeping into her bones. She shivered involuntarily as the cool wind cut through her thin blouse and the fabric of her skirt.

"Mama!" Maddy shouted again.

"Papa," Mary corrected automatically.

"No," Lee interrupted, intent on further disillusioning Mary. "It's Mama."

"I don't understand." Mary's expression of puzzlement echoed her words.

"She means her doll," Lee explained, handing the doll over to the little girl. "Mama equals doll in 'Maddy-talk.'"

Remembering Maddy's dramatic entrance into the church, Mary narrowed her gaze at Lee, only half-watching as Maddy hugged the porcelain-faced toy to her chest. "Her doll?"

"That's right." He shrugged noncommittally.

"And how long have you known that?" Mary demanded.

Lee met her gaze. "Oh, I figured it out on the train from Denver to Cheyenne." He turned to head up the path.

But Mary stopped him by grabbing hold of his coat sleeve. "So you knew! At my wedding, you knew what she meant all the time!"