Roberta: Bride of Wisconsin (American Mail-Order Bride 30) by Kirsten Osbourne

her, going to call the boys, before he headed into the bathroom to wash his hands.
    The boys were there moments later, sniffing the air excitedly. "It smells good, Frog- mutter !" Lukas said excitedly. "What did you make?"
    "Chicken soup. It has noodles, chicken and vegetables. It's good for you." She put food into each bowl before carrying the fresh loaf of bread to the table with a small ball of butter.
    Jakob came into the room from the bathroom, sitting down at the table. He bowed his head and prayed for them. His words startled Bobbie. "Thank You, Lord, for sending Bobbie to us. You knew she was what we needed to complete our family. I thank You for bringing her into our lives."
    Tears pricked her eyes. Maybe he was developing feelings for her after all. Feelings that were more than just lust. That's what she wanted from him after all. Real feelings that had nothing to do with his sexual desires.
    Lukas spent all of dinner talking about a girl who had been rude to him at school, but Bobbie heard very little of it. She was too busy watching her husband. It seemed so odd that she was expected to act normally with him during the day when they'd done such intimate things during the night. How was a woman supposed to cope with that? How was she to know how she was supposed to act?
    After the dishes were done, she went into the parlor and found him reading another book in German. She sat down and worked on the same scarf she'd been crocheting for a week. "Did you have a good day at work?" she asked after a moment or two.
    " Ja . It was busy, but good. We have a big order we need to fill this week, so I was able to get out in the woods with my ax and work as well. I love having an excuse to work with my hands and not sit in that tiny office all day."
    "You said you worked with your brother. How does that go?"
    He shrugged. "We're on opposite sides of the bay, so one week I row over to him, and one week he rows over to me. We have a short meeting every Monday morning."
    "Whose week was it to row?" she asked, wondering why she'd never realized he did that.
    "It was mine. I went to him and got to meet his new wife. She is nice." He shrugged. "He's going to be a little short for this order, because one of his men has been very ill, so it's up to my team to make up for it. You said you'd help with the books on Wednesday, so I know I have a little extra time to spend chopping trees if I want to. Today it felt good to use my muscles."
    She eyed his shoulders under his flannel shirt. She knew now why they were still so strong, even though he was mostly a manager. He still rowed across the lake and back twice a month, and he chopped down trees whenever he got a chance. "You really do like working with your hands, don't you?"
    He raised an eyebrow, a grin on his face. "Don't you? You're working all day making shirts and gloves when you could sit around reading dime-novels if you wanted to."
    "Oh, I'll read my share of dime novels. I just like to work as well. An hour a day of reading is enough for me. The rest of my day I need to be doing something. I plan on making at least five shirts a day."
    "All right. Whatever you can do without tiring yourself out too much. Nap if you need to."
    She frowned. "Why would I need to nap? I'm living a life of leisure in comparison to what I did back in Lawrence. I'm quite content with my life here."
    "I'm glad to hear that." He frowned. "Erna's parents are going to take the boys for the weekend, both Friday and Saturday night, but they're not happy about it."
    "Well, then they shouldn't take them. We're happy to have them here." She couldn't imagine why the older couple had changed their mind, but she wasn't going to fight with them about it.
    "No, that's not it. They're not happy that I've married again. They'd heard, but this is the first time I've talked to them since you arrived."
    "Did they think you should mourn Erna forever?" It made her angry just thinking about it. He had spent almost a year