A Bride for Tom (12 page)

“I am!” Jessica added. A quick look at her
mother’s exasperated expression made her decide to change her tone.
Glancing at Tom, she asked, “I am?”

“Well, if you want to,” he replied.

She counted to three so she wouldn’t seem too
anxious. “Yes, I do.”

He smiled and squeezed her shoulders.
“There,” he told Connie. “It’s all settled.”

“I don’t believe it,” Joel mumbled, shaking
his head. “How did Tom pull it off?”

Connie turned to Peter. “Aren’t you going to
stop this?”

Peter sighed. “Jessica’s right, Mother. It’s
not meant to be between us.”

She sobbed into her handkerchief. “All my
hard work is for nothing.”

“Why don’t you have a Christmas party for
your friends?” Tom asked. “That way, you still get to have your
celebration.”

“That’s a great idea, Tom,” Peter said. “You
can still show Maureen the white roses you made out of those cloth
napkins.”

Connie stopped crying and glanced at Peter.
“That might work.”

Looking relieved, he replied, “It would work
very well. Maureen will be green with envy.”

“She will be, won’t she?” She smiled. “I
suppose this might work after all.”

“And it will truly be your day.”

She clapped her hands. “We must continue our
planning. And we should send out invitations. December is quickly
approaching! Come along, Peter.”

After they left, Joel sighed in
disappointment and told Tom, “Just when things were getting good,
you had to spoil it. Couldn’t you have bit your tongue for another
two minutes?”

“What are you doing here?” Tom asked.

“Oh, Pa sent me to get your horse. You do
want new horseshoes on it, don’t you?”

“Yes. Alright. Take it and go.”

“Alright. If that woman comes back, let me
know how it goes.” Joel brushed off a piece of dirt that was stuck
to his shirt sleeve. “Your house is awful, Tom. I can’t get it all
off of me.”

“Don’t dirty up this house.” Tom picked up
the small dirt clod and shoved his brother out the door. “Go home
and take a bath.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.”

Once Joel headed down the porch steps and Tom
threw the dirt into the trashcan, Jessica relaxed. Thank goodness
Connie James wouldn’t cause her any more problems. And she got a
proposal from Tom.

She smiled widely and glanced at her mother
who mouthed, “Spring.”

“Before planting,” Jessica mouthed back.

Her mother rolled her eyes but didn’t argue.
Instead, she said, “Since we’re all here, let’s eat. Supper’s
getting cold.”

Jessica winked at Margaret before she turned
to Tom. “I even made apple pie. I hope you like it.”

“I’m sure I will,” Tom replied, returning to
her side. “Apple pie is a favorite for us Larsons.”

Jessica hoped she did a good job on the pie.
Well, she was about to find out. She glanced at the letter.
“Margaret, you’ll have to tell us about this one. Is he the first
one who sent a reply?”

“Yes. He’s twenty-two and never been married.
He’s been looking to come out west to farm.”

“There’s plenty of good land here,” Tom said.
“It rains just fine and there’s plenty of sun, too. The only thing
he’ll have to worry about is the wind. Sometimes that can be
unforgiving. One year, my pa lost some good corn from wind damage.
But there are good and bad things no matter where a person
goes.”

“But if you like the one you’re with, it
makes it all the better,” Jessica added.

He grinned at her. “No truer words were ever
said.”

Blushing, she returned his smile.

Her mother headed for the kitchen. “Well,
come along. The food’s not going to come to us.”

The others obeyed and followed her to the
kitchen.

Chapter
Sixteen

April 5, 1869

Jessica examined her reflection in the
mirror. Her wedding dress turned out even better than she’d
hoped.

Margaret entered the room. “Here are your
flowers.”

Jessica took the red roses and smelled them
before she placed them on the chair. “Perfect. And they match those
in your dress.” She wrapped a pink ribbon around her hair before
she put the veil on her head. “It really is a magical day,
Margaret. Just wait until that mail-order husband of yours comes
in.”

“Two weeks from now,” her friend said,
adjusting the thin material of the veil around Jessica’s shoulders.
“I don’t know if I’m ready. All this time I’ve watched you and our
other friends getting ready for marriage, and now that it’ll be my
turn soon, I’m a nervous wreck.”

“Just wait until your wedding day. It gets
worse. I couldn’t eat a thing this morning.”

“No one can tell you’re nervous.”

Wendy entered the small room. “Everyone’s
ready. Tom’s got a wide smile on his face. I’ve never seen a
happier groom.”

At the mention of his name, Jessica’s cheeks
flushed. She couldn’t imagine that there’d been a happier bride
either, but she kept the thought to herself. Instead, she picked up
the roses. “I’m ready, too.”

She followed her friends out the door and
went to the church entryway where the groomsmen waited.

As Joel took Wendy’s arm, he glanced at
Jessica and shook his head. “I still can’t understand why someone
as good looking as you would marry my brother.”

“Love is blind,” Wendy joked.

“I reckon so.”

Margaret turned and gave Jessica a quick hug.
“Good luck up there.”

“Thank you,” Jessica whispered.

Margaret took Dave’s arm and walked down the
aisle.

That left Jessica with her uncle.

“Your ma’s proud of you,” he said.

“I think she did a decent job of raising
me.”

He chuckled. “You’ve got a lot of your father
in you. I’m sorry he couldn’t be here to see this day.”

She quenched the swell of sorrow that
threatened to spoil her mood.

“Maybe you’ll give Tom a daughter. Then maybe
he can give her away when it’s her turn to marry.”

“Maybe.”

The music from the organ changed, signaling
it was her turn to walk down the aisle. She took his arm and
steadied her feet. The last thing she wanted to do was trip on her
gown. She heard rumors that Tom had knocked over some candles
earlier, and all she needed was to add to the discord.

Her uncle took a step forward, and she joined
him. Though the butterflies in her stomach grew more active, she
made it down to the altar without any mishap. She looked over at
Tom and smiled. When her uncle handed her to him, her heart beat
picked up with excitement.

She knew Tom well enough by now to know he
was even more nervous than she was, so she squeezed his arm
reassuringly and whispered, “It’ll be over soon.”

He gulped but didn’t reply.

They turned their attention to the preacher.
Tom bumbled a bit through his vows, and even she messed up a couple
of times. But they managed through it.

“I now pronounce you man and wife. You may
kiss the bride,” the preacher said.

Tom lifted her veil. “You’re one beautiful
bride.”

Her smile grew wider and she whispered,
“That’s because I’m your bride, Tom.” And then she leaned forward
to kiss him.

***

Tom was so excited he could barely contain
himself that evening. As much as he enjoyed proving to Joel that he
could get a woman to marry him without having to resort to
kidnapping her, he’d been looking forward to doing more than
kissing Jessica. Kissing her was great, of course, but it made him
want to do other things, which made it hard to concentrate much
while everyone congratulated them throughout the day.

So it was with great enthusiasm he picked her
up and carried her from the barn and toward their new sod home. It
hadn’t seemed like home until now, but with her there, it would
be.

She laughed. “You don’t have to carry me,
Tom.”

“I want to.” He paused and nodded toward the
two apple trees. “I planted those close to the house. There are
others on the property, but I thought having two close by would be
nice. You know, for when the weather’s not so good.”

“That’s very thoughtful of you.” She gave him
a kiss on the cheek.

Pleased, his face warmed. He made it to the
door and managed to open it. Getting into the house, however, was a
different matter, for he tripped on the step going down and almost
dropped her. But he managed to steady his footing at the last
minute, thereby saving her from landing on the dirt floor. That
wouldn’t be a good way to start their wedding night, let alone
their marriage.

“Sorry,” he said as he put her safely on her
feet.

“It’s alright, Tom. The point is, you didn’t
drop me. I’m fine.”

Then, before he could give into his feeling
of embarrassment, she was kissing him. Wrapping his arms around her
waist, he drew her closer to him and groaned. She felt so
wonderful. Her breasts were against his chest, and when he got up
the courage to run his hands down her back, he noted the subtle
curves of her body. Already, he was hard, but his pa had warned him
not to rush the first time.

“Yes, you’ll have many other times to enjoy
time in bed,” his pa had said that morning, “but this is the first
one, and you need to be gentle with her.”

And that was what Tom would do, even though
there was a part of him pestering him to pick up the pace. He
brought his hands back up to her face and cupped it in her hands,
lifting her chin slightly so he could deepen their kiss. She parted
her lips, and he brushed her tongue with his.

A spark went straight through him and
centered in his loins. Oh yes. This kind of kissing was much better
than the simple kisses they’d shared up to this point. He
definitely wanted to be doing more of these in the future. It was
even better since she responded in kind. Her tongue interlaced with
his, and he couldn’t be sure, but he thought he heard her moan,
something that excited him all the more. If she was enjoying this
half as much as he was, then she definitely wanted to keep
going.

His hands went to the buttons on the back of
her gown. He wasn’t a stranger to buttons. He buttoned his own
shirt every day, but for some reason, the little ones on the back
of her gown were proving difficult to unfasten. And this left him
at an unexpected crisis. Did he admit he couldn’t handle something
as simple as undoing her buttons, or did he pretend he was too
impatient and lift up the dress?

After a quick debate, he opted to lift the
bottom of her dress. He wouldn’t be able to lift it over her head,
of course, but he could get it up to her waist. So that’s what he
did. But once he did that, he was surprised to find a bunch of
female undergarments blocking him from getting to anything
interesting. Just what was it with women and all the petticoats and
other things they wore? It wasn’t like anyone could see all those
layers, so what purpose did they serve?

She ended their kiss and lowered his hands
from fumbling with the strings that he was hoping would make all of
the undergarments fall to the floor. With a smile, she said,
“You’re tightening the strings, and I don’t think that’s what you
want to do.”

“Oh.” He was sure his face was bright red. At
least, it felt awfully hot. So much for not embarrassing
himself.

She turned so her back was to him. “I can’t
unfasten the buttons. Will you help me?”

Grateful she wasn’t looking at him, he turned
his attention to the buttons. It was much easier to do the task now
that he was looking right at them. And thankfully, Joel wasn’t
around to see him bumble through this ordeal. Reminding himself of
this, he proceeded to unfasten all the buttons.

“Why are these so small?” he asked.

“I thought they were pretty,” she replied
then glanced over her shoulder and offered him an apologetic smile.
“I didn’t think they’d be so hard to work with.”

“They’re fine,” he assured her. It wasn’t the
buttons’ fault he was messing up this evening.

“That’s nice of you to say, but they were
horrible to fasten. Margaret wasn’t at all happy with me for being
so impractical. I thought they made the dress pretty.”

“Your dress is pretty, but it’s even prettier
because you’re wearing it.”

She turned back to him and kissed him. “Thank
you, Tom. You’re so sweet.”

He had a reply on the tip of his tongue, but
when she took the dress off, he forgot was he was going to say.
Alright. She was still wearing a ton of clothes, but for some
reason, he didn’t mind them so much when he was looking at
them.

She slipped them all off, one at a time, and
he couldn’t help but get more excited with each new layer she
removed. It was like unwrapping a Christmas gift but even better.
His pulse picked up at the sight of her when she was finally naked.
Her blonde hair fell gently over her shoulders, stopping just above
her breasts. His gaze went lower to the triangular patch of dark
blonde curls between her legs. Yes, this was definitely better than
any gift he’d ever gotten on Christmas day.

Her face turned a pretty shade of pink as she
settled on the bed. When he didn’t make a move, she asked, “Are you
going to join me?”

Join her. Right! Yes, that’s what he wanted
to do. Spurred into action, he removed his clothes, glad this was
easier than working on those buttons. He tossed them all aside,
sure he’d be able to find them later, and headed toward the bed. He
was about to congratulate himself on performing this task smoothly
when his foot caught on her dress, and he tumbled forward.

Fortunately, he ended up falling on the bed.
Unfortunately, he landed right on top of her, making her cry out.
Now, whether he hurt her or surprised her, he didn’t know. And
honestly, he was afraid to find out.

But then she wrapped her arms around his neck
and laughed. “You’re full of surprises, Tom.”