She shook her head. As hungry as she’d been, she still found herself full after one serving. Angel pushed the empty bowl away, and regarded him. His face and body was relaxed, content. He appeared to be a man who took the rolls and punches as they came. She guessed with five kids, he would have to be that way.
Her fingers itched to reach out and push back the hair hanging over his forehead. He grinned at her with straight white teeth, a small dimple marking his left cheek. Her heart sped up and a slow warmth began to creep up from her middle.
Flustered, she looked away and studied the room.
Obviously a family with children lived here. Shoes, dirty socks and toys were scattered about. One of the kitchen chairs had a couple of small pillows on it, with a strap dangling down the side. Must be where the baby sits for her meals.
Once finished with his soup, he leaned back in the chair and crossed his muscular arms over his chest. His gaze settled on her for a couple of beats before he spoke. “I’m sorry we got off to a bad start yesterday.”
He was apologizing to her, when she threw up on him, cried through their wedding and then slept like the dead? If she didn’t feel guilty enough about Sylvia’s duplicity, her behavior since she’d arrived compounded it.
“Mr. Hale.” She sat up straighter in her chair. “I really think I should apologize to you. I was unwell from the stagecoach ride. I hadn’t slept much the whole trip. I was dirty, smelly, and certainly not at my best.”
He waved off her concerns. “Let’s say we start now. And the first thing we have to do is drop the ‘Mr. Hale’ when you speak to me. The name’s Nathan, but I prefer Nate.”
“All right. You already know I prefer Angel to Angelina.” She smiled briefly, but then grew serious. “Where are all the children?”
“Julia-Rose—that’s the baby, she’s nine months old—is with Mrs. Darby. You remember her from yesterday? She’s the woman who has been a sort of housekeeper for me since Amy died.”
Amy must have been his first wife. Not sure what to say, she simply nodded.
He continued. “Matt is nine, Mark eight, and the twins Luke and John are five. As we speak, they’re probably out terrorizing the neighborhood, which is what they usually do on Saturday afternoons.”
“Matthew, Mark, Luke and John?” Angel said, trying to hold back a smile.
Nate ran his fingers through his hair and grinned. “Yeah, Amy liked biblical names.”
“What about Julia-Rose?”
“Well, since we just assumed she’d have another boy, Amy wanted Adam. I guess she figured to start at the beginning of the Old Testament and work from there.” He smiled enough for his dimple to show. She couldn’t stop staring at his mouth.
“But Julia-Rose surprised us, and since Amy hadn’t picked a girl’s name, and she felt so poorly for a long time after the baby was born, I chose her name.”
“Julia-Rose is a beautiful name.”
“So that’s the extent of the Hale family.” He leaned his elbows on the table. “What about you? Your letters were a bit skimpy.”
“Um, actually I don’t remember much of what I wrote.” Angel hesitated. What lies had Sylvia told him?
She’d still been too numb when her stepmother left to question her. “What do you want to know?”
“Well, I know from our correspondence that you’re an only child, and twenty-two years old. Mr. Hardwick passed away recently, and you have a stepmother who lives with her sister. Oh, and it’s nice to know you and your stepmother got along so well.”
Angel narrowed her eyes at the last part of his statement, but she just nodded. Her hands itched to wrap them around Sylvia’s neck.
“I guess what I want to know the most is why someone who looks like you agreed to be a mail order bride.”
Angel blushed. “Um, that seems to be a compliment, but the reason I haven’t married until now is because of my father’s illness, which went on for almost two years before he died. I couldn’t consider courting, with him so sick. He had a wasting sickness that the doctors couldn’t do anything for.”
“I’m sorry.” Nate touched her hand briefly. “But why all the way out here?” he pressed.
Angel opted for part of the truth. “With Papa gone and my stepmother moving in with her sister in Virginia, I decided to leave New York City where there were too many memories of my father.”
Nate’s eyebrows rose.
Oh God, he doesn’t believe that for one minute. She jumped when four noisy boys charged through the back door of the kitchen. The boy who appeared to be the oldest, held Julia-Rose. They all stopped abruptly and quietly stared at her.
Heavens, this was it. They expected her to be a mother to them and a wife to their father. All the blood left her face.