Mail Order Baron (The Brides of Tombstone Book 3) Read Online Free PDF Page B

I’ll have to see what it looks like.”
    “All right, I’ll see you after I feed this little one.”
    Hope was done with the last of the crackers and threw it on the floor. Then she started crying.
    “Got to go.” He turned and left to feed the baby.
    Molly watched him leave and wondered about his abrupt change in behavior. Would she ever be able to understand the man? She unlocked her door and stepped into her room. She went to bedroom where her trunk sat at the end of the iron bed, threw her room key on the top of the bureau and opened the trunk. When she’d packed to come to Tombstone, she’d put her dresses, skirts and blouses on top and her under garments on the bottom, hoping the dresses wouldn’t get as wrinkled. The process may have worked, but it was hard to tell.
    The lavender silk dress she brought to wear for her wedding tomorrow was hopelessly wrinkled. There was no way around the situation. She needed to have the garment ironed. She didn’t want to ask Ben because she didn’t want him to see the dress before tomorrow, but it couldn’t be helped if she wanted to make sure it was ready for the ceremony.
    When she got to the kitchen, she saw Hope making a mess rather than eating. Every time Ben brought a bite of food to her she would grab it and smear it all over the high chair’s table.
    “You’re never going to get any food in her if you continue to let her play. Here you get this ironed for me and I’ll feed Hope.”
    Molly changed places with Ben. “Hope, open up and eat your mashed potatoes. Come on, now open up.”
    Hope shut her mouth and reached for the spoon.
    “Do you want to feed yourself? All right, here you go.” Molly gave her the spoon.
    Hope played in her dinner but then she tried to put some potatoes on the spoon.
    “Here, let me help.” Molly filled the spoon and then handed it to Hope.
    The baby shoved it toward her mouth and actually got most of the food in before it fell off the spoon.
    Hope looked up at Molly and smiled. Triumphant.
    “Did you see? Ben did you see? She fed herself.”
    “I saw. You’re wonderful with her.”
    She turned and saw that he was indeed watching her. There was a hunger in his eyes, which both frightened and excited her. He was as ready as she was to have a child. Seeing Julia with her baby must have affected him as it did her. Her longings increased, and her determination to marry tomorrow was fierce.
    They watched Hope, who took a bite from Molly every so often and mostly played with her food. Having gotten the food to her mouth once without any help, she wasn’t interested in doing so again.
    Molly kept feeding Hope until she literally turned her head and pushed away the spoon.
    “Well, I guess she’s full.” Molly put down the spoon. “Where are the wash cloths?”
    Ben got her a cloth from one of the drawers under the counter.
    Molly went to the sink and pumped water onto the cloth, then took it back and cleaned the baby, who batted at the cloth.
    Ben picked up her dress. “After Hope goes to bed, we should talk. In the mean time let me get this to the hotel housekeeper.”
    “Thank you. And I agree about talking tonight. Come to my room after you get Hope down for the night.”
    “I will.”
    By the time she finished cleaning the baby, Ben had returned. She handed Hope to him. “Good luck. She doesn’t seem to be very sleepy.”
    “She’s always like this. I’ll put her in her crib in an hour or so and she’ll cry a little and then fall right to sleep.”
    “You seem to know a lot about children.”
    “Remember, I was the oldest of eight. With seven younger brothers and sisters, I’ve been taking care of babies since I was five.”
    “That’s right and I only have the one brother. Did I tell you about him?”
    “No, I don’t remember that coming up in our correspondence.”
    “He is ten years younger than I am and I don’t know him very well now, but I helped to raise him until he was about eight and I left