Page 73 of Short-Straw Bride

Another nod.

Travis turned his back and immediately started naming the books of the Bible in his head. Then the twelve apostles, thirteen if one counted Matthias, which he did because he needed all the distraction he could get to keep himself from imagining what was transpiring behind him. He added Paul in for good measure, too, and then started on the twelve tribes. Although, really, there were thirteen there, too. What with Joseph’s descendants split into two tribes and named after his sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. But then again, the Levites didn’t inherit any land, so—

A muffled cry banished the Israelites from his brain. Travis spun around to find Meredith bent sideways clasping her calf through the white cotton of her nightdress. He was at her side in an instant.

“What is it?”

“Cramps,” she whimpered. “In my w-weak leg.”

He picked her up and carried her to the bed.

“I sh-shouldn’t have put any weight on it. I know b-b-better.”

Travis pulled the covers back and laid her on the sheets. “What can I do?”

She squeezed her eyes shut and rolled toward him, curling up into a ball. “It’ll p-pass eventually.”

That wasn’t good enough. Travis tucked the blankets up to her chin, knelt on the rug that ran alongside the bed, and reached for her leg—the leg his trap had weakened all those years ago, the leg that had brought this incredible woman into his life.

Meredith groaned and tried to ease the limb away from him, but he wouldn’t allow her to retreat. Using a light touch at first, he worked his way up her calf to just above her knee, then back down to the arch of her foot and even her toes. Gradually he increased the pressure of his massage, working the knots out of her muscles until she finally began to uncurl from her protective posture.

When Crockett’s knock came, Meri’s eyelids had relaxed, and though she continued to shiver slightly, her breathing had evened enough that Travis suspected she might have drifted off to sleep. Slowly, he drew his hand down her calf, over her ankle, and across her foot, enjoying the feel of her skin one last time just for the pure pleasure of it before rising to answer the door.

“How is she?” Crockett asked, lowering his voice to a whisper when he noticed her lying in bed.

“Better, but she’s still shivering. I’m worried she might have caught a chill.”

“Yeah, well, I’m worried you’re going to catch a chill unless you get some dry clothes on yourself. Go change while I try to get some of this tea into her. Neill’s gathering the bricks now. We’ll have her warm in no time.”

Travis glanced back at Meri, reluctant to leave. But Crockett was right. He’d be no good to her if he was ill.

“I left a mug of hot coffee for you on Neill’s dresser.”

“Thanks.” Travis strode down the hall, determined to change in record time.

His wet trousers made the going slower than he would have liked, clinging to him like woolen leeches. He eventually succeeded in peeling them off, along with his drawers and socks. The dry clothes went on much easier, and within minutes, Travis had gulped down his coffee and was helping Neill arrange the cloth-wrapped hot bricks under the sheets at the bottom of Meredith’s bed.

Crockett got about a cupful of tea into Meri before she waved him away. Her haggard expression elicited Travis’s protective nature, and he immediately shooed his brothers out of the room. Meredith inched her way back down in the bed, no doubt drawn to the heat of the bricks, but once there, she still curled herself into a ball, as if the added warmth failed to penetrate her.

“Are you still cold?”

“Mm-hmm,” she mumbled against the pillow.

Travis could think of only one other way to help her get warm. He walked around to the opposite side of the bed and lifted the covers. His heart throbbed against his ribs. After more than a month, he was finally going to share a bed with his wife.

The mattress took his weight, and Travis tentatively shifted closer to Meri. As if someone had shot off a starting gun, she rolled over and burrowed into him with such haste that he barely moved his knees in time to avoid a collision. Her legs tangled with his while her arms folded up between them. Frigid toes rubbed against his calf where his trouser leg had bunched up, shocking him with the sheer cold that continued to cling to her despite the blankets and heated bricks. He sandwiched his legs around her feet, hoping to speed their thaw. Her hands eventually wiggled their way beneath his untucked shirt, and when her icy fingers found his bare chest, she let out a tiny sigh that made his heart flip.

One thing was for sure. Crockett needn’t worry about him catching a chill tonight. With Meredith touching him like she was, he’d be lucky not to go up in flames.

32

Travis woke before the sun, pangs in his stomach prodding him to rise and make restitution for skipping supper the night before. But he resisted. Contentment lay over him like an extra blanket, so foreign yet utterly captivating that he didn’t want to move for fear it would dissipate. Then it shifted, blowing a warm puff of air against his neck. Travis’s mind sharpened in an instant.

Meri.

Travis opened his eyes and turned his head, ever so slowly, so as not to disturb the woman whose face lay in the crook of his shoulder. She was so beautiful. Her long lashes resting peacefully against the creamy skin of her cheeks, her hair cascading behind her, finally freed from the confines of its pins. As he watched her sleep, he couldn’t resist the urge to stroke the deep blond tresses, their softness quickly becoming an addiction to his fingers.

He wanted nothing more than to gently kiss her awake and finally claim her in the way God intended. But as he leaned forward to touch his lips to her sleepy eyelids, he noted the faint smudges of exhaustion still evident beneath her eyes and pulled away. She needed rest.