Mail Order Maternity (Brides of Beckham Book 6) by Kirsten Osbourne Read Free Book Online Page A

she’d given him a great deal of food, and had only taken a couple of spoonfuls for herself.  “You need to eat more.”
    She shook her head.  “I can’t.  Eating brings the nausea back.”  Her stomach was settled for the moment and she wasn’t going to do anything to risk changing that.
    He sighed.  “You’re really having a rough time of it, aren’t you?”
    She nodded.  “I keep hearing that the worse the morning sickness is the better chance you have of not losing the baby.  If that’s true, I’m going to be able to do anything in my last month, because this baby is going to be stuck like glue.”
    He smiled at the fact she was able to joke about her intense morning sickness.  “Do you want a boy or a girl?”
    She shrugged.  She really wanted a boy who was just like his father, but she couldn’t tell her new husband that.  “I don’t really care at this point.  A boy would be nice to help with farm chores, but a girl would be nice to keep me company.”  She hadn’t noticed any other houses in the area.  “Are there any schools around?”
    He shook his head.  “Not yet.  Hopefully we’ll have some someday, but right now there just aren’t enough people.”
    “Okay.  I can teach our children.”  She hadn’t planned on teaching them, but she’d finished school at home and was certainly qualified. 
    He looked at her, startled.  “I hadn’t considered we’d have kids of ours.  Just the one you’re carrying.”
    She smiled.  “I’m sure if we’re married for any period of time, we’ll have more children.  It only took me a couple of months to get this one.”  She stroked a loving hand over her tiny mound of stomach.
    She forced the few bites of food on her plate down her throat.  She had to have some nutrition to keep her going.  She couldn’t let her baby starve just because her stomach wasn’t feeling well.
    As soon as she was finished, she jumped up and started washing the dishes.   She hadn’t even been upstairs to look at the bedrooms yet.  The downstairs wasn’t as clean as she would have liked it, but it wasn’t bad considering that he’d been a bachelor for so long.  “It’s going to take me a few days to get into a routine of cooking and cleaning here.  I assume you have chickens, and you mentioned cows.  Any pullets?  Or just layers?”
    “I’ve got a couple of pullets, and enough layers that they can be eaten.”
    “What do you like to eat?”  She’d known all of Charlie’s favorite foods before marrying him and had made sure to learn to cook them.  She just hoped Thomas’s favorite foods were simple to fix.
    He shrugged.  “I’m not picky.  If you make it, I’ll eat it.  I’m partial to sweets, though.  And chicken and dumplings.  If you make me chicken and dumplings, I’ll be indebted to you forever.”  He leaned back in his chair and watched her do the dishes, pleased that she was finding her way around the kitchen.
    She smiled.  “Kill one of the pullets in the morning, and I’ll have chicken and dumplings for you for supper tomorrow.”  She’d looked through his food stores enough that she knew he had everything she’d need for them and maybe even a cake for dessert.  She enjoyed cooking, and if he liked sweets, she’d make sure he had dessert every night.
    “I’ll do that.”  He grinned at her.  Even if they couldn’t have marital relations, she was pretty to look at, and if she’d cook for him, he’d be happy with her.  Relations could always come later once she was feeling better.
    He sat at the table while she did the dishes, watching her move.  She didn’t say much, but that was okay, because he was used to the silence, and would have gone crazy with a woman who’d talked his ear off all the time.
    After she’d finished the dishes, he led her up the stairs.  There were two small rooms, one he used, and one he thought would make a good nursery.  He pointed to the smaller room.  “I