A Headstrong Woman(113)
Alexandria sat up and stretched as Jonathon sat on the edge of her side of the bed. He kissed her; then leaned back and studied her. She turned a shade of pink under his scrutiny but to his relief didn’t seem uncomfortable in his presence.
“Good morning,” she finally returned.
“I have to go to town with Ted to return the wagon he rented yesterday and to see to a couple of things, are you going to be okay?”
“I’ll be fine, maybe I can catch up on a few things that are behind here in the house,” she assured him.
“Don’t overdo it,” he cautioned before kissing her again. “On second thought maybe I’ll let Ted go by his self,” Jonathon joked and watched Alexandria color; she also smiled.
“Go on; I’ll never get anything done if you hang around here all day,” she said with mock sternness.
“Probably not,” he conceded with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes.
“Go on,” she laughed.
“I was planning on eating first.”
“Oh yeah I guess I should dress Lilly and myself and get down stairs to help,” Alexandria said as she threw aside the covers and stood.
“I’ll dress Lilly and meet you down there,” he offered.
After the men had left, Alexandria, with a relieved sigh, settled into a day at home. By lunchtime, she had scrubbed the entire upstairs and laid out her mourning clothes for storage. She had no more than finished dragging her trunk of mourning clothes into the attic than she emerged from the stairway to find Jonathon topping the stairs from below.
“That didn’t take long,” Alexandria noted.
Jonathon smiled, “We didn’t linger, we saw to business and started home,” he told her. “Are you ready for lunch? Millie just about had it ready and Lilly was already at the table when I entered.”
“Is that time already?” she asked in surprise.
“Yes,” Jonathon responded with a smile as he brushed a cobweb from her hair.
“Let me wash up,” she requested before following him down to lunch.
***
Knowing that her husband wouldn’t be far behind her, Alexandria quickly dressed for bed. After pulling her dressing robe on, she sat down at her dressing mirror and loosed her hair from its bun. The heavy curls fell down her back.
It was to this sight that Jonathon entered the room. He loved her hair; it was like a silken, black waterfall. He moved to stand behind her, took the brush from her, and started brushing her hair. Alexandria forced her hands to her lap.
“You have beautiful hair,” he told her.
“Thank you. I would have cut it if not for you,” she shared.
“I’m glad I didn’t let you.”
Alexandria felt unexpected warmth at his words.
“I have something for you,” he told her.
Alexandria’s questioning gaze met his in the mirror.
“I’ll give it to you just as soon as we’re through here,” he promised. True to his word, he turned from braiding Alexandria’s hair, leaving her pondering where he had learned that, and claimed some folded papers from his drawer where he had placed them. He handed them to Alexandria and watched as she read over them.
She looked up at him in surprise.
“This says the mortgage is paid,” she said unnecessarily.
“I looked over the paper work, Alexandria. You didn’t owe as much as he said you did. The loan was set up so that you saved interest by paying it in full before the final payment. He was trying to collect full interest from you. It wasn’t an impossible amount minus interest,” he shared with her and watched her frown. Alexandria sighed, shrugged, and shook her head.
“I’m not going to think of the ‘what ifs’,” she told him.
Jonathon smiled, “Good.”
“Thank you, Jonathon. You’ve removed Mr. Moody from our lives. I can’t tell you what that means to me,” she said sincerely.
“I’m rather relieved as well,” he smiled. “Oh I ran into your dad in town; he wants to take us out to dinner tomorrow night,” he remembered.
“Good,” Alexandria smiled. “Mom and Anna can meet Ted.”
“Oh, speaking of Ted. I hope that you don’t mind, and I’m sure you won’t, he asked for a job. He’s always been infatuated with the idea of being a cowboy,” Jonathon sounded amused. “He’ll be moving into the bunkhouse tomorrow.”