The Rancher's Bride by Dina Chapel Page B

leaving cause with all this lyin’ she’d be over Frank’s knee for sure!
    Marie would leave a note for Frank explaining her reasons. She was sure he would be relieved really. He’d be better off without her and her horrible past.
    Her mind made up, Marie got up from the bed, careful not to wake Frank, and set about washing up and changing her clothes in order to begin her morning chores for the last time in Frank Carter’s home.
     
    * * *
     
    Finally, he saw them. Walking alongside the road, Marie held the boys’ hands, one on each side, as was her habit. Frank slowed the truck and pulled up behind them, careful not to get too close.
    Jack turned at the sound of a vehicle approaching behind them and his eyes lit up when he recognized Frank’s truck. He must’ve said something, because Henry then turned around and smiled his shy smile and Marie stopped walking. She didn’t turn around though. Both boys were looking up at her.
    After cutting the engine, Frank got out of the truck. He had Emmeline strapped to his chest in a baby sling that Marie had shown him how to fashion out of a bed sheet. It left his arms and hands free to drive. He took a few steps toward the threesome and then, squatting down, he opened his arms wide. Both boys ran to him, throwing themselves into his arms, and trying not to crush Emme who was giggling at all the chaos.
    After a few minutes of hugging the boys, talking softly to them and reassuring them, then kissing the top of each of their heads, Frank stood. Marie still hadn’t moved from the spot where she had stopped, with the exception of turning around to face Frank. She stared at the ground, not able or unwilling to look at him.
    Frank turned around and, taking the boys by the hand, walked back to the truck with them. At the truck, Frank proceeded to take Emme from the sling and sit her in the middle of the front seat. Then he took Jack and put him on one side of her, and then put Henry on the other. With instructions for the boys to keep Emmeline between them on the seat, Frank closed the door and turned to deal with his wife.
    With his long legs, Frank managed to close the distance between Marie and himself in the blink of an eye. One minute he was closing the truck’s door, the next he had Marie in his arms and was kissing her with an urgency he didn’t realize he even felt until that very moment. It was a few minutes before he let her up for air.
    Frank held her firmly in his arms even though he had pulled his head away from hers enough to look her squarely and sternly in the eyes.
    “Those boys are my boys now too. You don’t take them away from me. Ever.”
    Marie nodded.
    “And you’re mine, too. You don’t leave me. Ever.”
    She nodded again.
    Frank turned his head to glance back at the truck, only to see the two boys watching them intently. He shifted himself and Marie so that he was sure his back was now all they could see and then reached down behind Marie and swatted her backside once, hard.
    Marie yelped; her behind was still raw from Frank’s attentions to it the day before. She tried to pull away then, but Frank had such a hold on her that she wasn’t going anywhere.
    “You’ve earned yourself a good sound spankin’ when we get home for thinking for even a moment that you’re the one making the decisions for me now.” Frank swatted her discreetly again. “I told you who was in charge in this marriage and in our home.”
    Marie’s eyes glistened with her tears. “I thought you wouldn’t want me no more. I figured once you found out I was a bastard, you wouldn’t want me for your wife.” She started to cry. “You deserve better’n me.”
    Frank’s mouth fell open at that. “I ought take you over my knee right here on the side of the road, with the young’uns and God as my witness, and wallop you proper for thinking so low of me.”
    Marie squirmed in his arms.
    “You’re my family—you, Jack, Henry and Emme—all of us together. You’d best