Stephen’s Bride by Callie Hutton Page A

plenty of them, and now that she was in charge she would implement them.
    This was getting them nowhere. She walked to the desk in the corner, near the fireplace and opened the middle drawer. She withdrew the envelope she’d tucked in there yesterday afternoon. She crossed the room and held out the envelope to him.
    He frowned, but didn’t reach for it. “What’s that?”
    “Your pay envelope.”
    “What!?”
    She drew herself up to her full height. “I told you that you were only an employee. I own the farm, you work for me.” She pushed the envelope at him. “Employees get paid. This is your pay from the time you arrived until yesterday.”
    If there ever had been a time when she thought there might be a reason to fear her husband, it was now. The look on his face, the fury in his eyes almost had her snatching the envelope back. Instead, she stood firm as he took the money, stuck it in his pants pocket and left the room.
     
     

Chapter Eight
     
    Stephen wiped the sweat from his forehead with his bandana and pulled the reins on Topaz, bringing the animal to a stop. He tucked the kerchief in his back pocket and leaned on the saddle horn, looking out over the rolling hills toward Daniel and Rosemarie’s farm. He knew he’d done the right thing in leaving Calliope, but he was not looking forward to the conversation he would need to have with his brother and his wife.
    Daniel had warned him he was making a mistake, and he didn’t relish hearing the words ‘I told you so,’ but that was better than having his wife hand him a pay envelope because he was merely an employee. His pride would never allow him to live there under those circumstances.
    Even if he wasn’t living there, she was still married, and therefore Melrose couldn’t force her to marry him. As far as he was concerned he’d lived up to his end of the bargain. Now he would move on with his life, look for land to buy for his horse farm, and if he didn’t have enough right now, he would take on any job he could get in town to save quickly.
    He should have known women were not for him. If he hadn’t learned his lesson years ago when the letter from Jenny had arrived to tell him she’d married someone else, this latest debacle with Calliope proved it. The bachelor life was for him. He’d left Calliope a note, telling her where he was going if she needed to reach him. The only reason he could think of that she would need anything from him was if he’d managed to impregnate her the one and only time they’d made love.
    No matter what he felt for her—which he assured himself was nothing—he would not abandon a child he’d helped create. He squeezed his thighs to get Topaz moving. Sitting and staring at the house wasn’t going to get him any closer.
    Little Amelia hopped off the swing Daniel had hung onto a sturdy branch and raced toward him. “Uncle Stephen! You came back.” He barely made it off the horse before she flung herself into his arms.
    “How’s my little sweetie pie?” He hugged her close, inhaling the sweet child smell of her.
    “Fine. I missed you.” She leaned back. “I lost a tooth. See?” She opened her mouth and he grinned at the space in the front of her mouth where a tooth used to live.
    “So you did. Did the tooth fairy leave you a penny?”
    Amelia nodded. “Yes. And papa said every time a tooth falls out I’ll get another penny. I’ll be rich!” She threw her hands out, almost tumbling from his arms.
    “Let’s go inside and say hello to your mama and papa.” He might as well get this over with. He couldn’t stay out here discussing teeth for the rest of the afternoon.
    Rosemarie was rolling out a pie crust when he walked in the door, holding Amelia’s hand. His sister-in-law looked up and gave him a bright smile. “Stephen! What brings you here?” She looked behind him. “Where’s Calliope?”
    “Ah. I’ll talk to you about that later. Is Daniel around?”
    She continued to roll her dough. “He’s