Emily closed the bedroom door without making a sound and smiled triumphantly at Nick who sat in his chair, glass of whisky in his hand, his feet propped up in her rocking chair.
"What?"
Emily moved closer and whispered, "Audra has unpacked all her bags and says she doesn't know if she'll ever be able to return to Charles."
Nick smiled. Then he sighed with relief.
She went and sat on the edge of the bed and began removing her boots and stockings.
"Did Daniel have anything more to say about today?" she asked.
"Huh?" Nick was preoccupied; watching her in the light of the few lamps lit low around the room. "Oh, uh, no, but I think he was happy to hear me tell him again how proud I am."
Emily bent over and moved the boots and stockings under the bed, and then she sat up and looked at Nick. "I don't think a boy can hear that too many times from his father and that goes double for Daniel."
She stood and walked over to her vanity where she pulled all the pins out of her hair and finger combed the curly locks so they would complete their fall down her back and around her shoulders and breasts.
She unbuttoned the bodice to her black dress, removed it, and hung it on a peg in the wardrobe next to the vanity. Next, she dropped the skirt to the floor and stepped out of it, then hung it next to the bodice. She did the same with several white petticoats. Next, she unhooked her corset in the front and laid it on the floor of the wardrobe and closed the wardrobe's door. Finally, she removed her pantaloons and placed them in a basket next the wardrobe. She was wearing only a short, thin chemise and was reaching for her flannel nightgown when Nick said, "Em?" She turned around and was surprised to realize he was watching her.
"Em," he repeated, beckoning her towards him with two fingers of his right hand. When she was near enough, he reached out to her and pulled her onto his lap and they kissed.
She shifted her weight and Nick reached under her thigh and pulled her leg across his lap so that she sat straddled on top of him. The narrow chemise had pulled up and no longer covered much of anything that mattered. As she leaned in for another kiss, he groaned.
"You know, Cowboy," she said, her lips still on his, muffling her words, "you have a long, hard, "she paused and smiled on his lips, "day ahead of you supervising one small but troublesome cowboy. Best not to stay up too late."
Nick pulled his face back from hers and smiled. "Is that so? It just so happens that Tom, you know, the first child you gave me, offered to supervise the little stinker so I could go on the picnic with you." He started nibbling on her ear.
"That was most considerate of him. Remind me to thank him in the morning."
Nick took his feet off the rocking chair and made to stand up with her still straddling him but it was an effort. It was a big effort.
"Nick, please, don't hurt yourself. I don't think - Honey, please," and she slid off of his lap, standing in front of him.
He grimaced slightly as he stood up but then faced her down, with mock intimidation. "Don't think I can do it, huh?"
Before she could respond, he picked her up, carried her to the far side of the bed, and threw her down on it, and himself upon her, seemingly all in one, easy motion.
"Nick," she giggled, "I take it all back."
~BBB~
Bertie and Florence didn't work for the family on Sundays and generally left early on Saturdays, as well. Sunday breakfast was Emily's job and on this day Jane and Leah helped while Carrie and the other girls started getting the picnic ready.
The meal was uneventful except that Julia repeatedly spilled her milk, which irritated Daniel and Carrie especially and for which Nick scolded them when they complained. James was unusually quiet.
Following breakfast, the entire family set off for church. Neither Nick nor Emily were particularly devout but church was an obligatory social function and on this day their appearance signaled to the congregants that they were ready to receive condolence visits. Also, Sunday school was one of the few times Julia got to be with other children close to her own age. It was often an education for her parents, as well.
Following the service, congregants offering their sympathies swarmed the family. Even friends and acquaintances that attended churches of other denominations came to pay their respects to the family of Victoria Barkley.
On the ride home, Emily held Julia in her lap on the front seat of the surrey, next to Nick, who held the reins, and asked her what she learned in Sunday school that morning.
"We learned how Jesus did magic and made bread and fish for lots of people and I bit Joseph."
Nick laughed out loud.
"You bit Joseph?" Emily asked, not laughing or even smiling. Julia nodded her head. "Why did you bite Joseph?" she asked with resignation. This was not the first altercation the little darling had had with Joseph.
"He took my pencil," she answered.
"Did ya draw blood?" Nick asked.
"No, but he screamed." The little girl gave a little scream to demonstrate.
"Julia, you should never bite anyone. If Joseph is bothering you, you need to tell Miss Patterson or another grown up," Emily told her.
"I think Julia's sweet on Joseph," Nick said, and turned around and smiled at her.
"What did Miss Patterson do? Emily asked, trying to ignore Nick's teasing and have a serious chat with the four-year-old about hurting other people.
"She made us say 'I'm sorry' and then Joseph hugged me."
Nick did a double take at his young daughter and said, "I think Joseph is sweet on you!"
"No, he's not!" Julia said it with such vehemence that Emily looked at her husband and said she thought maybe he was right the first time.
After they arrived home, Sunday clothes were changed for a long afternoon in the California sunshine. Picnic and fishing supplies were loaded into the surrey and those who weren't riding in the carriage saddled up their horses.
Julia could barely contain her excitement while her father cinched the saddle on Theo, the gelding he named after Theodore Roosevelt, an up and comer on the national political scene and a man whose books Nick enjoyed a great deal. He lifted the small girl up into the saddle and she held tight to the horn just as she had described to her aunt two days before. Nick mounted, sitting behind her, took the reins and off they went at a good canter.
Audra and Emily watched them go as they, too, saddled up: Audra on Juniper and Emily on Franz, the Morgan horse Nick gave her for their tenth wedding anniversary, named after Franz Liszt, her favorite composer.
"He really has a soft spot for her, doesn't he?" said Audra.
"Yep, and, boy howdy, does she know it!" Emily replied, laughing.
James was outfitted in another set of Will's old clothes and his leg wrapped with thick bandages. After he and Tom helped everyone saddle up, Tom lead him back into the barn so James could learn the how to scrape a barn properly.
Jarrod walked behind his son and stood and watched as Tom handed the boy one of the smaller shovels. Tom explained to the silent boy, whose eyes were growing wide, that his job for the day was to shovel all the accumulated mix of hay, manure, and animal urine and place it in a wheelbarrow, then push the wheelbarrow to the compost heap out in back of the barn and deposit the contents there. The cows were in a pasture and Tom said he would move the pigs out of their sty so James could clean that out, as well.
"Before you begin," Jarrod said, and he turned to James, "I expect to get a good report from Tom when I come back from the picnic. I expect you to do everything he tells you to the very best of your ability. You have to learn to listen and obey instructions at all times and that includes when you are on this ranch. Any further defiance of the rules and I will put you over my knee and make sure you cannot sit for week." Then he abruptly turned and left, got on his horse and rode to catch up with the rest of the family. Although knew his father to discipline by lecture and occasional confinement to his room, James knew two things for certain: His father was really angry this time and his father was always true to his word. James felt bad to the pit of his stomach and he knew it wasn't the overwhelming stench that was making him sick.
Once his father was out of view, James looked at Tom, searching for some indication that this was really all a show for the grown ups and they were just going to have fun but he saw none. Tom climbed and sat on a railing and waited for James to begin. "You can dilly dally all day long if you want but this barn needs to be scraped clean before they all come back from the picnic or I think you're gonna catch hell from your father and from mine," he said. James started shoveling at the spot where Tom had placed the wheelbarrow.