For Love

Chapter 10

On a whim, he attempted to smooth the uneasiness over by moving close to her ear when he set her down. "We could pick out the woodsy scent of the pines if we walked a bit, or relish the perfume of the sea air closer to the Sound."

"Do you always talk so lavishly? I've never met a man who talks like you."

Jason cocked his head to the side as if he were pulling his collar with an imaginary finger. "I've been accused of being silver-tongued a time or two," he admitted, tugging her along the road. He barely caught it, but she rolled her eyes. So she was human after all! Part of him wanted to laugh, it seemed so out of character, and another part of him wanted to beg her to do it again. Instead, he kept his face neutral while they walked.

"Great," she murmured as she glared at the sky as a brief sprinkling of rain dropped on her nose. "I married a peddler."

"A peddler of dreams," he consented with a smile. Another smattering of rain fell over them, harder than the last. Jason threw his hat on his head and quickened his pace, Laurie having to trot to keep up.

Light rain dropped in steady sheets just as he lifted her to the mercantile doorstep. When he didn't join her, she blinked, her brow furrowed. "Aren't you coming inside?"

"I'll be back in a few minutes. I have to talk to Aaron."

He turned to leave when he heard her say his name. He peered over his shoulder to see her wringing her hands.

"I'm sorry," said Laurie. "I shouldn't have mentioned it. The smell. I guess I have trouble seeing the good in things. Sometimes, I mean. I shouldn't have taken that out on you."

His smile was sympathetic. "Don't waste another minute on it," he said to her with a low, intimate voice. "Go inside, now. It's chilly."

The door opened, with Biddie and Hannah standing just inside the doorway. Hannah's eyes lit up, and she smiled prettily at Jason. "Dropping the wife off today?"

Jason nodded, pleased they were finally talking. In an effort toward diplomacy, he asked, "I don't suppose you could show Laurie around today?"

Laurie stepped hesitantly into the store and cast him a look that reminded him of a steer being led to the slaughterhouse. Hannah beamed at him. "Don't worry, we'll take excellent care of her."

"Oh yes, we will! Why we'll—oh!" Biddie said when Hannah shut the door ending the conversation with Jason.

Jason paused and watched the girls usher Laurie to the front of the store. Hannah picked up one of Clancey's imports from San Francisco: an expensive perfume, by the looks of it. Laurie had on her mask - her perfect mask of anxious politeness.

He walked into the weather, hoping she would get used to her new home and the people in it. Seattle wasn't San Francisco or Philadelphia or any of those other fancy places she had lived. It was a young town... a man's town! Women had complained about the sewage problem before, but what was there to do about it?

The rain increased, and Jason tramped through the puddles. Holding his yellow slicker closer to himself, he rounded the corner, hoping maybe Aaron would have thought of a solution by now. Heaven help him, he could use some solutions, and if God could give him an inkling on how to handle this stranger he was married to, all the better. For better or for worse. That was what the marriage ceremony required. Well, if this was the worse, he'd take it.

Jason arrived at the sawmill and yanked the door open. Aaron looked up at Jason from a mountain of paperwork on his desk and grimaced. "That kind of day, is it?"

Jason gestured to himself as he talked. "Aaron, when I walk into a room and you can tell it's that kind of day, I know it's time for a beer. Come have one with me."