Molly’s face turned scarlet and she dared not look at Adam, but she could hear him chuckle.
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Glancing at Molly’s flushed face, he added, “You’ve made Molly blush.”
A silence hung while the two men watched her with amusement.
“You’re wicked. Both of you!” she sputtered.
“Listen to that, Dad. Accusations already.” Adam held out his hand.
“Good-bye, Papa. We’ll see you soon.” Molly kissed the old man’s cheek again and the last glimpse she had of him, he was still smiling.
It seemed strange to Molly to be sitting in the plane with Adam at the controls. He continued to surprise her with the various facets of his personality. By far the nicest thing she had discovered about him was the close friendship between him and his father. She stole a look at him. His lean and shapely hands on the controls of the plane were well cared for, but definitely masculine. His dark hair gleamed in the sunlight, his mouth firm, his chin obstinate. She knew the black eyes could be bitter or sparkle with amusement. He could change his face in an instant from a frown of disapproval to boyish handsomeness. He confused her, yet excited her. They had so little in common, and yet here they were married and on their way home, to her home. How had it happened?
“The trip shouldn’t take over an hour,” Adam was saying. As he spoke his eyes flicked her face and hair, framed by the fur collar of her coat. The wind had ruffled her hair and little wisps of it lay around her face. Her eyes were large and faintly apprehensive.
She looked down at the green landscape of forest and plains. This rugged, beautiful country was her country. She loved it passionately.
“It takes my breath away,” she exclaimed, her eyes bright with excitement. “It’s so beautiful . . .” She trembled suddenly, with an unbelievable happiness, and impulsively said, “Don’t hate it too much, Adam. The time will go quickly and you can take Dad’s files, specimens, and anything else connected with your work away with you at the end of the year.” Her voice held an apologetic note.
“I won’t hate it,” he said with an earnest frown. “I’ll get a lot of work done this winter. Besides, if I back out now, my dad would skin me alive.” Again she caught a side glimpse of the warm smile that altered his features so much. “I’d like to invite a friend and coworker out to stay for a few weeks, Molly. He’s in Australia at the present time working on an expedition we plan to make. He’ll be back soon and we’ll work together on the new information we get from your father’s files.” He was looking straight ahead while he spoke. “It will make more work for you, so if you’d rather he didn’t come, say so.”
“I can cook for three as easily as for two,” she replied quietly.
“You’ll like Patrick. He’s companionable, easygoing, but rather a wolf where women are concerned. I’ll have to tell him the circumstances of our marriage. If you agree to have him stay with us, he can use the little room off my room. We can add a table to the one in the study so we’ll both have a place to work.”
It was apparent to Molly he had given this some thought. She glanced at him through her lowered lashes. He was looking straight ahead with calm indifference. The thought of a stranger living with them in the close confines of the small cabin wasn’t pleasant, but she didn’t know how she could refuse the request.
Adam landed the plane on the lake and taxied to the dock. Tim-Two was there waiting to catch the rope and lashed the plane securely. When it was safe for Molly to disembark, Adam held his arms up to lift her down. The warmth of his breath slid across her face as he set her on her feet. It was exciting to feel the strength of his hands on her waist, and she surrendered momentarily to the sensation of being held so close to him. It would be so easy to clasp her arms around his neck and hold him close. The thought surprised her. She gave a nervous little laugh.
“Thank you, sir.”
Her life had changed so much in the past few weeks that it was hard for her to comprehend. She had been married, gained a new father, and come back to her home with a husband who thought of her as he might a younger sister, if he had one. She was determined to make it a pleasant year, one she could look back on with fond memories. One, Adam, too, might fondly recall years from now.
Leaving the men to struggle with the crates and boxes, Molly ran up the path toward the house. Dog came bounding out to meet her. Knowing better than to jump on her, as his great weight would knock her down, he wiggled and twisted and his tail wagged as fast as he could make it go in his pleasure at seeing her. She fell down on her knees and hugged the shaggy head.
“Did you miss me, Dog?” She buried her face in the thick fur. Dog tried to lick her face, but she held him off, got to her feet, and the two of them raced to the house.
Before going to Anchorage for the wedding, Molly and Evelyn had removed all of Charlie’s personal belongings from his bedroom and packed them in boxes which Tim-Two stored in the attic. Molly went to her father’s room. All traces of Charlie were gone. The large pieces of furniture had been rearranged to give more work space. She was glad, now, that they had done this. It was no longer Charlie’s room—it was Adam’s. She went through the bath into her own bedroom, closing the door behind her. It was going to be strange having Adam in the house, sharing the intimacy of the bathroom.
She hurried out of her suit and quickly changed into jeans and shirt. She let her hair down, brushed it vigorously, and formed two thick braids that hung down over her breasts. Looking as young and fresh as a colt, she hurried to the kitchen to put away the supplies being brought from the plane.
Tim-Two brought the grocery boxes and she busied herself arranging the supplies on the shelves. After many weary trips, all the crates were brought up as far as the porch. Adam came into the house wiping the perspiration from his face.
Molly was standing on tiptoes on a kitchen step stool reaching for a top shelf. He came to stand beside her.
“What are you trying to do? Break your neck?” He put his arm around her legs to steady her.
Molly hadn’t heard him come in and was so startled she lost her balance and sat down on his shoulder, her hands grabbing frantically for his head for support.
“You scared me! Adam, put me down, I’m too heavy.” Her squeals and laughter filled the room.
“Too heavy?” He twirled her around the room. “You’re not as heavy as any one of those boxes I just lugged up from the plane.”
“Please! Adam . . . please!”
He went from the kitchen to the living area with her still perched on his shoulder.
“I’ll let you down if you find me a good cold beer,” he bargained.
“Yes, yes, I will!”
He raised his hands to her waist and let her slide down the length of him until her feet touched the floor. Turning her around, he took her two braids in his hands. Then, holding her captive, he looked down into her flushed, laughing face.
“Just thought I’d let you know who’s boss,” he teased.
Laughter bubbled as she looked at him. Adam, in this lighthearted mood, was a man to grab the heart right out of her. Pulses in her body were leaping at his warm, masculine closeness. Her hands were resting against his chest and she forced herself away from him.
“We’ll just see about that.” She danced away from him, trying desperately to keep him from knowing she was trembling from the contact with him.
The rest of the afternoon was spent unpacking boxes and putting things away. Adam worked in his room and Molly in the kitchen. Long before dinner time the gaslamps were lit. The daylight hours were getting short this time of year. It was completely dark when they sat down to dinner. Molly had prepared a meal of homemade noodles and beef, biscuits, homemade jam, and cobbler made from canned peaches. Adam was hungry and ate heartily.
“Is there anything you especially like or dislike in the way of food, Adam? As long as I’m cooking, it may as well be something you like.”
The black brows raised and he thought for a moment.
“I like most things. In some parts of the world I’ve shut my eyes to eat the food.” He met her probing eyes and grinned. “I especially like chocolate cake,” he admitted.
They cleared away the dinner things together, then sat for a while before the fireplace. The autumn nights were cold. Adam stretched his arms above his head and yawned.
“I’m bushed. How about you?”
Across from him Molly yawned, too, and catching his glance, smiled apologetically. “Yawning is contagious.”
“You’re tired. Go to bed, Molly. I’ll turn out the lights and bank the fire.”
Molly went to the kitchen range, took the large teakettle of hot water to the bathroom, and poured it into the washbowl. Going back to the kitchen she refilled it with hot water from the reservoir and set it on the range.
“Hot water, if you want it, Adam,” she said, indicating the kettle. “Good night.”
“Good night,” he answered absently.
Molly made sure all her personal garments were out of the bathroom before leaving it and closed the door behind her when she returned to her bedroom. Turning out the lamp, she slipped under the covers of her bed. She lay for a while and was almost lulled to sleep when she heard Adam moving about. Presently she heard him carry the teakettle to the bathroom.
All very homey sounds,
she thought as she drifted off to sleep.
T
HERE IS NO
lovelier place than the Alaskan wilderness in the autumn. The dark, drooping evergreens shadow the tranquil waters of the lakes. The beauty of the wilderness does much to inspire an even greater confidence in the people who live in the rugged country without all the customary trappings of modern living.
Soon the first snows of autumn would fall. Inside the spruce log cabin, set on the shores of the quiet lake, Molly felt, if not exactly happy, content. She and Adam had been living together in the cabin for almost a week. A pattern for their days had been formed. After breakfast he went to his room to work and she went about her usual household chores, always listening with half an ear to the citizen’s band radio. Occasionally she would get a call from Jim going over in his plane or from a neighbor who just wanted to hear the sound of another human voice. Most of the calls were due to curiosity about her wedding and perfectly understandable to Molly. A wedding, a death, or a birth in the district was always news.
Every afternoon Adam spent a couple of hours out-of-doors. He was fascinated with Tim-Two’s proficiency with an ax and practiced the use of the tool each day. The exercise was good and he thought it fun to see the chips fly. Some afternoons Molly would sit on a log and watch him. Occasionally she would take her fishing pole, sit on the dock, and tempt a fat fish to take the wiggling worm on the hook she dropped in the lake.
They always listened to the personal message program that came on the radio while they were having their noon meal. The people who lived in the sparsely populated wilderness received messages running the gauntlet from doctor’s advice to shipping notices via this method. However, this meant the entire district knew about the medication Mrs. Jackson was taking, about the new snowmobile ordered by the Martins, and that the Petersons had a grocery order and the O’Roarks a guest coming up on the morning train. In case of an emergency concerning his father, Adam would hear the news during this time and Molly was always relieved when his name wasn’t called.
The days slid by reasonably fast. Both Molly and Adam were involved in their own activities, their own thoughts. Adam kept the reservoir connected to the big cook stove filled with water and the evenings Molly took her bath he carried the steaming water to the tub for her. He was friendly, helpful, but not since the first day when he perched her on his shoulder had he been teasing or in any way familiar. He seemed to have settled down to the business of work, all serious and withdrawn.
He didn’t ask her to accompany him on the first trip he made back to Anchorage. After breakfast one morning he merely announced he was going.
“I’d like to send a few things to your father,” Molly said, “if you have time for me to pack a box.”
“Sure. I have time, but hurry along. I don’t want to be away but a few hours.” He gave her a troubled glance. “You’ll be all right here?” She nodded and reached for paper to wrap the small jars. “Keep the radio tuned in. I’d like to know you’re in touch.” She nodded again and wrapped a loaf of fresh bread in a cloth and tucked it into the box.
She looked rather apologetic. “I suppose this looks like a trite offering to you, but I did promise him I would send it and I wouldn’t want him to think I made the promise casually.”
“Of course not. He’ll enjoy it. I’ll tell him you’ll come with me next time.” His voice was brisk and impersonal. He went out the door and down the path to the lake.
Presently Molly heard the sound of the motor as he taxied the plane out onto the lake, then the soft purr as the plane circled the house and headed south.
Alone in the house she decided it would be a good time to clean Adam’s room. She changed the bedclothes, swept and dusted, being careful not to disturb anything on his desk or work table. She knew this was important from all the times she had cleaned while her father was alive. She did allow herself the luxury of looking in his closet at the neat row of clothes hanging there. Her hands lingered on the rough jacket he used for outside work, and impulsively she lifted the sleeve to her cheek and the smell of his maleness caused unfamiliar sensations.
An awareness of the absurdity of her action caused her to leave the room abruptly. A man of Adam’s years and experience could never be interested in her. He had married her and he intended to make the best of the situation. That’s all she meant to him. Molly hadn’t the faintest notion of what the future held for her. She only knew that since she had met him she had lost the last vestiges of her girlhood.
The house was lonely without him. In just one short week he had become an important part of her life. She missed him. Angry at herself for daring to think foolish thoughts she threw herself into a frenzy of housecleaning. When the house was immaculate, she set loaves of bread to rise in the warming oven and on a sudden impulse stirred up a chocolate cake.