The Marriage Bed by Stephanie Mittman

Author:Stephanie Mittman
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: posted
ISBN: 9780440221821
Published: 1996-04-02T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

By five in the morning Olivia had cried the last of her tears and had accepted the fact that Spencer did not love her and nothing she did or would ever do was ever going to change that. Nor did she even want to anymore. Couldn't she go away and leave him alone?

Oh, yes, she could.

She threw off the covers, wrinkled and balled from her sleepless night, and reached under the bed for the suitcase she had taken to Milwaukee. Go away? She opened her underwear drawer and pulled out her two best pairs of drawers and her favorite chemise.

Leave him alone? She shoved them in the suitcase and reached for her cotton stockings, which she rolled into two balls and jammed into the corners of the leather bag.

She'd have to find some way to pay back Bess and Remy for taking her in. She could take over the cooking and cleaning and give Bess the rest she needed. She could make cherry pies and preserves and sell them at Zephin's. Neil could help in the field.

She ran a brush through her hair and pulled it back, watching herself in the mirror as if the determined woman she saw there was someone she'd never seen before. Maybe she'd try a new hairstyle, like the one the women in Milwaukee were wearing. Maybe she'd even move to Milwaukee when the children were older.

She pushed her hair forward some, making it softer around her face, and tried to give herself a smile at the results. If only her eyes weren't red, her cheeks weren't splotchy, and her lips weren't puffy, she might almost be attractive.

She put two pins in her bun and then threw the brush into the suitcase to join the other things. Maybe he should have married Emma Zephin. At least someone would be happy, then.

That was his problem. He didn't want to be happy. And he didn't want anyone around him to be happy. Lord, one only had to look at the way he treated those poor children. Working Neil to death in the fields, teasing Louisa unmercifully, threatening to hit Josie at every turn . . . Of course, in all fairness, Neil did seem to love the work, coming in all red-cheeked and excited about a new discovery every day. And Louisa surely needed to get off that uppity high horse of hers, and if someone didn't take Josie in hand . . .

She could hear Josie now out in the main room babbling something about chicken lips. As soon as Livvy was finished getting herself together, she'd go out there and get the kids organized. Neil wasn't going to like moving to Sacdtte Farm, despite how close he'd grown to his cousins. Although he'd been given very little encouragement from Spencer, as far as she could see, Neil truly loved his uncle.

Louisa wasn't likely to hate living at Sacotte Farm any more or less than she hated living with Spencer. Oh, but the two of them were alike.

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