Billionaire Flawed 1(77)

Cora slogged toward the horse, but grunted with the weight of her dress.

“You simply don’t understand how incredibly difficult this is,” she exclaimed. She reached for the outer layer of her dress.

“What--what in the--” Joshua looked away as he continued to see to Kan. “What are you doing?”

“You’ve already seen it before,” Cora muttered. “I’m just taking off the outer layer. I’m still covered, Mister.”

She muttered under her breath, what Joshua could barely make out as something along the lines of “disgusting” or “pervert.”

Joshua’s face glowed red. He had begun to think he hadn’t really thought this through.

Oh, sure, Joshy, get a mail-order bride, he chided himself, what could possibly go wrong with that?

After several minutes, the rain continued to pour outside, and Cora leaned against a post near the door, listening to the rain pounding on the roof, watching the water fall down, splattering against the muddy ground.

Even a muddy rain is more beautiful out here, she thought. And her mind began to drift to stories and imaginations once again.

“Cora,” Joshua’s voice came from behind, startling her.

She turned around and peered to see Joshua among the hay and stalls of the few animals harboring from the weather, but he was nowhere to be seen.

“Up here,” he called, and Cora looked up.

She made her way up a narrow winding of stairs that made their way to a loft in the barn.

A bed, and a small seating area were settled, as if for a makeshift bedroom. The extra hay bales and milk tins added an extra flair to the scene.

“This is quite lovely,” she said.

Joshua gave a mock curtsy. “Anything for you, dear.”

Cora rolled her eyes. “Please don’t patronize me, Dansby.”

“That hurts. Not even going to call me by my name?”

Cora sighed and sent him a darting look. His blue eyes glistened with playfulness, as when they first met. Ever cool and mischievous.

“It’s an old trick I learned working for a butcher,” she smirked. “Never give them a name, or it makes it more complicated when you have to--”

Joshua laughed. “Please,” he held up his hand. “I think I know where you’re going with that, and I hope you don’t succeed.”

The two stood in the loft in silence, Cora’s eyes flitting around, taking in the atmosphere. Joshua was still very aware of her outfit, and the entirety of the situation seemed odd. They joked around, but it seemed to be, for both of them, a way to cope with the unwarranted and awkward situation they found themselves in.

“It’s raining heavily out there, and it’s dark, so I don’t think we should make a run for the main house,” Joshua said. “There’s a bed--”

Cora’s eyes grew wide. “You mean--”

Joshua stopped, his hands going up in defense. “Oh, no, no, no! I wasn’t saying--” He rubbed his hand uncomfortably at the back of his neck. “I wasn’t insinuating anything--” he sighed. “I was going to say that you should make yourself as comfortable up here as you can, and I’ll just be fine on the main floor.”

“Oh--oh--” Cora’s face blushed red as she realized how embarrassing of an assumption she had made. “Right, of course.”

Joshua coughed.

“Anyway, I should--I should--”

He gestured and Cora realized that she stood between him and the way below. Flustered, she stepped out of the way and swiped at her soppy hair.

“Right, sorry...I didn’t mean to…”

Joshua began heading down, calling behind. “Feel free to dry yourself with some towels I have up there...and, ah...I promise I won’t look if you need to---ah…” his voice trailed off without quite finishing, and he cleared his throat.

In that moment, Cora couldn’t help but laugh. This wasn’t at all how she ever pictured the first night of her married life to start. But then, anything she ever read in stories was proving to be completely unuseful in her current situation.

This is real, Cora told herself. This is my life.



Chapter 5

The sun peeked in through the barn early that morning. A loud cock-a-doodle-doo sounded from the barn, and Cora woke up with a start.

Didn’t that only happen in books?

For a brief moment, Cora had almost forgotten where she was. The bed, though certainly just a barn extra for field hands, was far more comfortable than the lumpy wretch that Cora had grown accustomed to at the hostel, and even better than what Mrs. MacDonough had to offer.

After she was sure that Joshua had settled in, and there was no chance of mischief, she had strung out the outer layers of her clothes to hang over the loft railing to dry in the night. Carefully working enough layers on to be somewhat decent, and after tightening the laces of her boots, Cora made her way down to the main floor.