A Convenient Christmas Wedding

She made a face. “Being so far out of town will make that more difficult.”

“So stay at the boardinghouse,” Simon said. “Refuse to have anything more to do with your brother.”

Nora shuddered. “They’ll find me. They did when I left for Seattle.”

He cast her a glance as he eased the horses down the hill. “You stood up to me. Stand up to them.”

A sigh worked its way out of her. “You don’t understand. I stood up to you, Simon, because we have a bargain. We each contributed something to it. That’s not the case with my brother. I owe him for taking me in, for feeding and clothing me. And he knows it.”

“I would think it a brother’s duty to care for his younger siblings,” Simon said, his voice sharp with condemnation for anyone who failed to live up to such an obligation. “That’s what Drew did when our father died.”

Nora nodded. “That’s what you’re doing now by working those one hundred and sixty acres. And I’m sure your family will be grateful for your efforts. I’m grateful to Charles, but oh, how I tire of having to repay him. Have I no right or expectation of a life of my own?”

She wasn’t sure how Simon would answer. She wasn’t even sure how she would answer. She had been raised to be a dutiful daughter. Anything less felt selfish, lazy. Yet if she had stayed with Charles and Meredith one more day, her heart would have shriveled away inside her.

“Of course you have that right,” Simon said as he turned onto Second Avenue and headed for the boardinghouse. “You have won your freedom. What do you intend to do with it?”

And there lay the more important question at the moment. She could not stay in Seattle proper, yet she hated to leave the area entirely and lose the friends she’d made on the journey and the customers she’d acquired in the last six months of working. The most logical thing to do was to go out to Wallin Landing.

“I’ll have to let Mr. Kellogg and his brother know where I’ll be staying,” she said. “I work out of their store. Perhaps people could leave commissions with them, and I could come into town when you pick up the mail to see what’s needed.”

“You seem to have thought this out,” he said, slowing the horses as they approached the boardinghouse.

And she would have thought he would approve of that planning. Instead, he sounded rather miffed.

“I didn’t realize Charles and Meredith would be this difficult,” she assured him. “That is, I knew they’d be difficult. They always are. But I never thought even marriage would fail to deter them.”

He shook his head as he reined in. “I never met anyone as oblivious to logic as your brother.”

She ought to take umbrage on her brother’s behalf. Charles was a talented accountant, after all, someone to whom business leaders turned for advice. Certainly he had managed their father’s estate well, with the help of the bankers. The elderly Mr. Pomantier from the bank had come out on a regular basis to dine with them. He’d always spoken kindly to Nora but spent the bulk of his time in consultation with Charles.

Yet despite all Charles’s qualities, Simon was right.

“Charles is ever focused on his own needs,” she told him. “Meredith is worse. I simply couldn’t bear to slave for them one more moment.”

“You should be no one’s slave,” Simon said. “You are an independent woman of intellect and skill. You should be treated as such.”

Once again, the fact that he was agreeing with her left her speechless. Back in Lowell, people had been more likely to congratulate her on having such a kind, generous brother, someone willing to take her in when their parents had passed on. After all, not every family could accommodate a spinster without prospects.

Simon climbed down from the wagon, and Nora scrambled to the ground before he could come around to help her. She felt as if she were still tingling from his touch when he’d helped her up at the house. She didn’t need any distractions before she faced the boardinghouse owner. A dark-haired older woman with a narrow face and narrower opinions, Mrs. Elliott was another person who seemed to think it her duty to tell Nora what to do.

“I’ll just be a minute,” Nora promised as Simon stopped in front of the horses. Then she hurried inside.

The boardinghouse with its pink-papered walls and flowered carpet was much quieter these days. The piano in the dining room was silent, and no one loitered in the perfumed parlor. Most of the women who had journeyed with Asa Mercer had either found jobs elsewhere in Washington Territory or married and moved out. Only a few still lived in the boardinghouse, and they had either work or serious suitors that kept them in Seattle. Mrs. Elliott had been advertising for more tenants to no avail. King County still boasted few unmarried women.

The boardinghouse owner caught sight of Nora as she came in the door and hurried to meet her.

“I understand your family has arrived from the East,” she said, blocking Nora’s route to the stairs. “I certainly hope you are not planning to leave us to live with them.”

A wave of thankfulness swept over her that Simon had agreed to her request. “No,” Nora said, and she darted around the woman and started up the carpeted stairs.

Mrs. Elliott followed her, her voice almost a purr. “I’m very pleased to hear that, Miss Underhill. A young lady such as yourself can never be too careful in the company she keeps. Why, I have heard of families who foisted the worst of gentlemen upon a spinster, simply to ensure she married.”

That had not been her problem. Charles and Meredith seemed to prefer that she never speak to anyone but them. She nearly giggled remembering the look on Meredith’s face when Nora had announced she’d married Simon.

“I can promise you my family will not be marrying me off, but I fear I will be leaving you,” Nora told the woman as she opened the door to her room. Once, she’d shared the space with another Mercer Belle, but the second bed had stood empty for weeks.

Mrs. Elliott tsked as Nora went to kneel beside her iron bedstead and reach underneath. No time to fill her trunk. It would have to be the carpetbag she’d used in Olympia.

“There is no other residence for young ladies in the city,” the boardinghouse owner reminded her, crossing her thin arms over her flat chest.

“I won’t be moving to another boardinghouse,” Nora said, swiftly folding in a nightgown, several sets of undergarments and an extra dress. “But I can no longer stay here either.” The bag bulged, and she strained to clasp it shut. “You see, I got married.”

As Nora rose, Mrs. Elliott’s fingers flew to her lips. “Oh, my child! I wish you’d spoken to me first. Some of the men here are so wild and unkempt. You shouldn’t have settled.”

Nora thought of Simon, waiting for her outside—tall, strong, handsome, willing to sacrifice for family. She did not feel as if she had settled in the least.

“Oh, I didn’t marry one of those fellows,” she assured Mrs. Elliott, lugging her bag toward the door. “I’m Mrs. Simon Wallin.”

Mrs. Elliott’s astonished look was almost as gratifying as Meredith’s gasp.

“I’m paid up through the month,” Nora told her as the woman’s mouth opened and closed wordlessly. “I would appreciate you leaving everything in the room until then. Someone will come for it shortly. Not,” she hastened to add, “my brother or his wife. You are only to provide access to someone named Wallin.”

Nora hurried out into the hallway, and Mrs. Elliott fluttered after her. She seemed to have recovered her voice. “Certainly,” she warbled. “I will be delighted to do as you ask. Give my regards to all the gentlemen in your new family. Such fine, upstanding fellows, the Wallin men, for all you’re the third of my girls they’ve snatched away. And if there is anything else I can do for you, Mrs. Wallin, please let me know.”

Mrs. Wallin. A real bride might have felt a jolt of delight at hearing herself addressed by her new name. Yet now it sent a tremor through Nora. She’d entered into this bargain thinking nothing about her life would change save that she would rid herself of Charles’s interference.

Now everything was about to change. She was heading out into the wilderness. For all that Mrs. Elliott called them fine gentlemen, Simon and his brothers were rough loggers, the sort of fellows Charles would not have allowed in his home back in Lowell. Though she knew Catherine and Rina, the rest of the group were strangers.

She had an odd feeling that she was about to learn exactly what it meant to be Mrs. Simon Wallin.

* * *

Simon drove the wagon north along the primitive road that led toward Lake Union. The rain had stopped earlier, but the firs they passed still shed a drop or two from their heavy boughs. He caught the briny scent of Puget Sound on the cool air before the trees closed around them.

He couldn’t understand the woman at his side. She’d just upended her life, and his, yet she sat calm and proper beside him, her hands folded in her lap, her cloak draped about her. More, she gazed around at the forest as if it were the most amazing thing to appear in a long while. Perhaps she hadn’t ventured much outside the town proper, but she wouldn’t have had to go far to notice the trees, the inland sea, the mountains.

And after all that she’d been through at her brother’s house, shouldn’t she be a bit more upset?

“Are you all right?” he asked.

“Fine,” she said with a smile.

“No regrets, concerns?” he pressed, feeling a frown forming.

“None,” she said happily.

Once again, the lion had changed before him, becoming a tabby, docile and complacent.

“And you’re absolutely certain you want to move out here with me?”

“Oh, yes,” she said. “Thank you for agreeing. I’m sure we’ll get on famously.”

He felt no such assurance. “We should discuss our bargain, as you seem to have changed it.”

She sighed. “I suppose so. I’m terribly sorry to inconvenience you, Simon, but I didn’t know what else to do.”

“It was the obvious choice,” he allowed. “But it will cause a few complications.” He paused, feeling suddenly guilty for not having confided the truth to his family. Right now, only John and Levi knew he had married Nora. The weather had kept him from doing more than laying out permanent stakes on the new claim, so the rest of his family was also unaware of the land. He’d been trying to find the right moment to tell them.

He knew he was not the most eloquent of men. Their father had left them a small library of adventure novels and epic poems, including Robinson Crusoe, The Last of the Mohicans and The Courtship of Miles Standish. Though he’d enjoyed reading them over the years, he couldn’t convince himself the flowery language was necessary. If a man had an opinion on a matter, why not just say so?

Yet when he stated his opinion, he as like as not started an argument. Apparently his words were too brash, his opinions too strong. And he had never figured out a way to soften them. So, if he couldn’t bring his family around to his way of thinking on something as mundane as which field to clear next, how did he expect to explain something as unorthodox as his and Nora’s bargain?

At least with her he could speak his piece. Nora didn’t seem to mind when he argued his point, and she was willing to listen and offer a counterpoint without claiming he was bullying her. Of course, now that he’d met her brother, he had to own that she was used to far worse than him.

“Let’s start with the sleeping arrangements,” he told her, drawing on the reins to guide the horses around a curve in the road.

“Sleeping arrangements,” she repeated in a strained voice.

He refused to let her worry. “My cabin is small—main room on the ground floor, loft half the depth across overhead. And there’s only one bed.”

“Oh,” she said, and he thought she hunched tighter with concern, but it might have been a reaction to the chill breeze that blew in from the water.

“You will take the bed, which is upstairs,” he said. “I have a spare pallet my brothers use when they stay. I’ll use it to bunk by the fire downstairs.”

“I couldn’t put you out that way,” she protested.

Simon shook his head. “It’s only logical. I rise early to work. If I’m already downstairs, it will be easier for me to slip out without disturbing you.”

“Thank you.” She beamed at him, and all at once the day seemed brighter, warmer.

“Then there’s the eating arrangements,” he said, determined to press forward. “I keep dried venison and fruit in the cabin, but everyone generally eats at the main house.”

She turned to him, her face puckered. “I can’t take your food without paying for it. That wouldn’t be right.”

Having another mouth to feed would put a strain on their supplies. But he could not accept Nora’s money. They had made a bargain. It wasn’t her fault her brother’s behavior had forced her to change it.

“You are welcome to anything you need, Nora,” he told her.

“So long as I contribute in some way,” she agreed.

He smiled. There. That hadn’t been so hard. Maybe he was getting better at discussing things civilly. Or maybe Nora was just easier to talk to than the rest of his family. Either way, he thought she was right—they just might make this bargain work, after all.

He reckoned without his family.

They reached Wallin Landing as the day was darkening. James was leaning against one of the supports on the back porch as if waiting for them. He strode out to meet the wagon as Simon pulled up in front of the main cabin.

“If you were going to go to the trouble of picking up my new waistcoat, Simon, you didn’t have to bring the seamstress with you,” he teased with a grin to Nora.

That was James. He was only two years younger than Simon, but decades apart when it came to outlook. James didn’t speak—he teased, he joked. No deed was so dire, no day so dark he could not make light of it.

“How nice to see you again,” Nora said as James came around to take charge of the horses, who nickered a greeting. “I haven’t quite finished your commission, but I’ll get to it as soon as possible.”

It shouldn’t surprise Simon that James knew Nora. James was the brother most likely to care about his wardrobe. Even now, his wool coat gaped to reveal a patterned waistcoat over his flannel shirt and a red silk scarf at his neck. He cut a dapper look, his short hair a shade darker than Simon’s, his blue eyes deeper.

The back door opened, and Levi stepped out onto the porch as Simon climbed down from the bench.

“Hello, Nora,” he said before reaching for the rifle that hung beside the door. In the act of removing it from its cradle, he froze, then turned to stare at the wagon. “Nora?”

“Good evening to you, Brother Levi,” Nora said.

James chuckled. “Brother Levi? Have you joined a monastery without telling us, my lad?”

Levi colored, then turned to pull down the gun. “Maybe I should have. Things are going to get terribly interesting around here, I’m thinking.”

Simon reached up to lift Nora down, feeling the warmth of her as she settled beside him. “Brace yourself,” he warned her.

“Why?” she asked.

Levi fired the gun.

Nora flung herself against Simon. His arms came around her, holding her close, knowing how people generally reacted to the noise the first time. But what surprised him was that she wasn’t trying to escape the danger.

She was trying to put herself between it and him.

Levi fired again, and Simon bent his head to speak in Nora’s ear. “It’s all right. That’s just how we call everyone to dinner.”

“Oh.” She glanced up at him, the red rising in her cheeks. Those gray eyes held his, wise, warm, gentle. It was like looking into the early-morning mist, knowing the sun would not be far behind.

Maybe he’d learned something from the poets, after all.

“Dinner!” Levi shouted as if anyone could have missed his signal. As Simon glanced his way, the youth shrugged.

“You can’t bring her out here and keep it a secret,” he said, reaching for the door latch. “You’ll have to tell them now.”

As Nora looked up at him quizzically, Simon couldn’t help his sigh. “And you sound completely delighted by that,” he told his youngest brother.

“I’m truly sorry you’ll get a scolding, Simon,” Levi assured him. “But I’m going to enjoy eating dinner when my misdeeds aren’t the main topic of conversation for once.”

Chapter Five

Since coming to Seattle, Nora had rarely set foot outside the town. The way to Wallin Landing fascinated her. The thick forests looked cozy, and she could imagine deer and rabbits taking shelter in the thickets of fern and wild berries. Wallin Landing itself seemed nearly as welcoming, with its big two-story log cabin looking out through the trees toward Lake Union, the sturdy log barn and the schoolhouse at the back of the long clearing.

Then Levi had fired that gun, and she’d nearly jumped out of her skin. All she could think about was protecting the ones she loved from danger.

Which was silly. No one was in any danger. And Simon Wallin hardly needed her protection. Besides, she most certainly was not in love with him.

Yet she had to admit that standing in the circle of his arms felt rather nice.

“Why are you in trouble?” she asked him as he released her and started toward the house, leaving James to deal with the horses. “Are we late for dinner?”

“No,” Simon said, his jaw tight. “I have to explain things to my family.”

Very likely he did. They would not have been expecting Simon’s convenient wife to move out to Wallin Landing. She could only hope they were better at listening than Charles and Meredith had been.

He led her up the porch and through the door. She was met with the smell of something spicy, and she spotted stew bubbling in a large kettle on a clever step stove that backed up to a stone hearth. Simon’s sister, Beth, a young lady with sunny-blond hair, was taking down a jar of what looked like apple preserves from the wide shelves lining one wall. Nora could only admire the girl’s simple wool gown. The blue was a good color for her clear complexion, and the scalloped neckline was a concession to style over practicality.

Beth paused when she saw Nora, then her round face broke into a smile. “Oh, Simon, how nice of you to bring us company! Are you traveling through the area, miss? Going out to meet your family?”

Nora looked to Simon, who appeared to be scowling though she could not identify the reason. “This is Nora,” Simon said to his sister.

Beth bobbed a curtsy, her dark blue eyes clearly showing her curiosity. “Very pleased to meet you, Nora. I think I saw you talking to Simon at Maddie O’Rourke’s wedding. I hope you brought lots of news from town. Things get a little quiet out here at times.”

Unlike Simon’s sister, it seemed.

“Go on in,” Beth continued, reaching for Nora’s cloak, which she hung by the back door next to several other brown coats like Simon’s. “I’ll fetch another place setting. I can’t wait to become better acquainted.”

What a lovely way to be welcomed to the family. Nora was smiling as Simon doffed his coat and led her through an arch beside the stove. On the other side lay the cabin’s main room, a wide, warm space, with ladder-back chairs scattered here and there along the log walls and a bentwood rocker next to the rounded stone fireplace. Nora’s gaze immediately lit on the small quilts, most likely the work of Simon’s mother, draping the chairs.

But a noise to her left alerted her to the long table there, flanked by benches on either side. Those benches were crowded with people all gazing at her with looks ranging from eagerness to surprise.

“Simon.” His mother looked up from her seat at the foot of the table. “Have you brought us a guest?”

Even as his mother’s green eyes crinkled in welcome, Nora was struck by the lack of resemblance to Simon. Where he was lean, his features razor-edged, his mother was round and soft, her face more closely resembling her daughter’s. Her green wool gown was clean and well-tailored, for all it favored an earlier style.

“Not precisely a guest, Ma,” Simon answered, and Nora was surprised to hear his voice come out stiff.

John, who had just come in the front door, stopped at the sight of Nora and raised his head heavenward as if petitioning the Lord for help.

Simon took Nora’s hand in his, his grip sure, firm. “Allow me to introduce my wife, Nora.”

Nora smiled at them all. Only Levi and John smiled back. The rest of them looked to be in a state of shock if the paling skin and widening eyes were any indication.

“Wife?” his mother gasped out. “Oh, Simon, what have you done?”

* * *

Simon’s stomach knotted. Beside him, Nora’s whole body tightened. She glanced up at him, her eyes wide, no doubt realizing for the first time that he had never told them the truth. She didn’t deserve to hear their protests. He’d been the one who’d been unable to find a way to explain the situation.

Knowing he would have as difficult a time now, he slipped his arm about her shoulders and gave her a nod he hoped was encouraging, then turned to face his family.

“Nora and I introduced ourselves at Maddie O’Rourke’s wedding,” he said. “We discovered we share a similar philosophy.”

“Family,” John put in helpfully as he slipped into his seat at the table. “Sacrifice for those we love.”

Nora offered his brother a tremulous smile.

“You knew about this?” Ma demanded.

John visibly swallowed. “Levi and I stood as witnesses.”

Levi held up his hands as his mother’s glare pinned him. “Don’t look at me. It was Simon’s idea. And I say he made a good choice. She can fix a sailing ship.”

His mother frowned at that, but Drew rose from the head of the table. It was a point of pride that Simon was the only one who could look Drew in the eyes, for all his brother was more muscular.

“Forgive our manners, Nora,” Drew said in his deep voice. “We were just surprised by Simon’s news.” The look in his dark blue eyes told Simon his oldest brother was merely saving his questions for later, in private. “I’m Drew, and this is my wife, Catherine.”

Catherine rose as well. Dressed in a light blue wool gown, the pale-haired beauty rested a hand on her swelling middle and smiled. “Nora and I are acquainted from our time aboard the Continental. Welcome to the family, Nora.”

Simon could feel Nora’s body thawing a little.

James’s wife, Rina, nodded a greeting as well. Simon had never understood what the lovely schoolteacher had seen in his brother. Even now, her golden-brown hair was elegantly confined behind her head, and her purple wool dress might have graced royalty.

“I remember Nora from our journey, and her kindness since,” she said. “She is a good friend and a talented seamstress.”

“A seamstress!” Beth’s cry turned all gazes her way as she rushed in from the kitchen. Simon had seldom seen his sister so excited, and that was saying something, for Beth seemed to live in a giddy sense of delight.

“Oh, I knew I’d seen that dress before,” she said, turning her head to gaze with obvious rapture at the back of Nora’s skirts. Simon wasn’t sure what was so special about the gown. Of the dresses he’d seen on Nora, this was the most severe with its gray wool and black braid trim.

“It’s from the October Godey’s, isn’t it?” Beth demanded. “Only, you’ve changed the trim—braid instead of fringe. I thought the fringe was entirely too fussy. How would you keep it clean?”

“Beth.” Ma’s gentle admonition stopped her daughter in midgush. His mother stood and came to Simon’s and Nora’s sides.

“God blessed me with one daughter,” she said with a smile to Beth, who was turning pink. “And now He’s blessed me with more through my sons’ wives. Please know that you are welcome here, Nora.”

She opened her arms. Simon released his hold on Nora, and his mother hugged her close. Over Nora’s shoulder, however, Ma’s gaze was narrowed at him. If that was the worst he had to deal with, he would survive. His family had certainly had more reasons to complain about him in the past.