Bowie nodded.
“Dinner is ready.” Perla made the announcement, and everyone filed across the hall into the dining room. Bowie kept Elise back, waiting to go in last.
“Pa has a little surprise for you.”
Near the head of the table, Pa waited, his hands resting on the back of a chair. “Elise, I’m pleased as can be that Giles finished this so quickly. Bowie, come help your wife get seated.”
Bowie put his hand on the small of Elise’s back and guided her down the long table. She gasped when she saw her own monogrammed chair, twin to his except for the initials. E.M.H. Elise Marie Hart.
“Do you like it?” Bowie asked.
He barely had time to brace himself before she threw herself into his arms, squeezing him tight. “It’s perfect. Thank you.” He didn’t miss how her eyes shone as she released him and turned to hug Pa. “Thank you. Thank you for welcoming me into your family. I couldn’t ask for anything more beautiful.”
Pa patted her shoulder awkwardly, grinning over top of her head at Bowie. “We’re all mighty glad you’re here.”
A stab of guilt that he was deceiving his father and brothers about the nature of his marriage hit Bowie, but he quashed it. They’d be more horrified if they knew the truth. The details of his marriage were his business anyway.
Elise took her seat between Bowie and Houston as if it had always been hers, and Bowie pulled out his chair beside her. Everyone joined hands, and Pa led them in saying grace. During the meal, Elise took every opportunity to touch him, leaning close, putting her hand on his thigh, smiling at him. It set his heart to racing. He tried to act like it was no big deal, but he didn’t miss the grins of his brothers. Austin watched him particularly closely.
Putting her hand on Bowie’s arm, Elise leaned in. “I met a handsome young man just before church today. He said he was a friend of yours.”
Bowie stilled and waited for her to continue. What young buck was chatting with his wife when he wasn’t around? A cowhand from one of the ranches? Some townie? His hands fisted on his knees.
“His name is David Longley.”
Bowie glanced down the table at Emma, David’s big sister, feeling sheepish.
“He told me he is twelve, and he seems to think you are ten feet tall and can walk on water. I gather he’s visited El Regalo before? He wants to be just like you when he grows up, and have lots of dogs and horses and carry a rifle everywhere. He even said he would find himself a pretty wife someday, just like you.” Elise squeezed his arm, a saucy grin curving her pink lips.
Bowie didn’t know what to think as a ripple of laughter went around the table. Usually the town kids ran away when they saw him coming. No kid had ever said they wanted to be like him before. “He should aim a little higher than to want to be like me.”
Elise took his hand, nestling hers into his palm, a serious light in her eyes. “Nonsense. I think he couldn’t do any better than to aim to be like you. I told him all about Clara’s new litter, and he can’t wait to come out and see them. He pestered me to promise he could have one of the pups when they were weaned, but I told him he’d have to talk to you. I don’t know how many are already spoken for.”
She went on to tell his family about the puppies’ birth, and she made him out to be the hero of her story. He hardly recognized himself. Evidently he was patient and gentle and smart. And he wasn’t sure how handsome entered into the whelping of pups, but she threw in handsome, too.
What was she up to?
His brothers grinned, and his sisters-in-law beamed. Then it dawned on him that Elise was merely fulfilling her part of the bargain, pretending theirs was a normal marriage. She was acting like his brothers’ wives did around their husbands, in spite of the fact that none of it was true. A little of the shine went off the day.
After everyone returned to the parlor, Elise allowed herself to be drawn into the circle of her sisters-in-law. The talk seemed to center around babies. Emma was nearing her time, about six weeks away, and Coralee was due sometime in the spring. Bowie wasn’t sure who was most proud, Hays, Houston, or Pa. They all went around with their chests puffed out like they invented babies.
Elise sat in a winged-back chair, listening to Annie assure both Emma and Coralee that she would be with them through their deliveries, and she would even bring Travis along to help. Though the girls laughed, Elise studied her hands in her lap, her expression sad and wistful.
A sharp jolt hit Bowie’s gut. Because of their sham marriage, he had condemned Elise to never knowing what it was like to be a mother, never to hold her child in her arms.