Plum Creek

"Not if they thought we were married."

"You mean we should lie about being married again? I can't do that and you shouldn't either."

Catherine touched Benjamin's arm.

"Well, there is another way..."

Benjamin carried the last sack of flour from the freight wagon into the store and sat it down in the back room, then went back to the wagon for the case of rifle cartridges. He rested a couple of minutes because that case of cartridges was going to be heavy. That was the last for this trip though.

In the front of the store he heard Catherine talking with a customer.

"Mrs. Akers, you should look at these new lamps. We just got them in last week, and I already have two upstairs because they're so bright. It's the mantles that make them put out so much light. I can read a book without squinting now. They come with a pretty lampshade that fits over the chimney too."

Benjamin was sure Mrs. Akers would buy at least one lamp. She was the wife of Thomas Akers, the Plum Creek Bank president, and had bought several things for their home at Roswell's General Store. She was known as a woman who had nice things, and the other wives of the businessmen in Plum Creek were in competition with her to have the nicest home. If she bought a lamp, he'd probably sell all he had over the next couple of weeks.

It wasn't things like lamps and fancy curtain material that made their money though. It was the things everybody needed every day like flour, sugar, salt, and other foods. The people on the farms and ranches could grow their own meat and vegetables, but they couldn't make any of the other things. The townspeople had to buy everything.

Since Plum Creek was growing by leaps and bounds, Roswell's General Store also did a brisk business in nails, screws, hinges, and other building materials. Over the winter months, he also sold a lot of leather and stitching cord. Winter was the time the farmers and ranchers repaired harness for their riding and working stock. Once in a while, he sold a complete set of team harness. Sometimes the damaged harness couldn't be repaired.

Benjamin lugged the crate of rifle cartridges into the back room and then went to put the horses in the stable behind the store. Blue was there and so was Daisy. That was what Catherine had named the bay mare. Daisy pulled the carriage they used for trips to the countryside on Sunday afternoons. Benjamin still rode Blue once in a while, but he thought Blue deserved to take it easy. Blue had taken him almost six hundred miles from Hoyleton to Plum Creek and had been his only companion until he found Catherine.

Benjamin walked to the front of the store and smiled. Catherine would have to stop working in about a month. She was already having difficulty reaching some things on the shelves behind the counter. When he told her that, she just laughed.

"You got me well when I was starved. I won't have trouble with just a baby."

They'd decided to get married after Catherine insisted he take her money to build the store. So that people wouldn't talk, they told the preacher of the church that they'd agreed to a common-law marriage in Illinois because there was no church in their tiny little town, but now wanted to get married by a preacher. It was a lie, but Benjamin figured it was only a little lie and was better than letting people think they'd lived in sin all the way from Illinois.

He hadn't known what to expect that first night. He understood what he was supposed to do, but didn't know how Catherine would react.

Their bedroom was just a small room on the second floor of the store, and had only a bed and a small table for a lamp. Benjamin had put all their money and efforts into getting the store ready and Catherine had agreed. She said as long as she had a bed out of the weather, she'd be happy to wait until they could finish up their home upstairs over the store.

That night, they took off their shoes and sat there looking at each other. Catherine stood then, and when she started to take off her dress, Benjamin lifted the chimney on the lamp to blow out the flame. Catherine touched his arm to stop him.

"Benjamin, Mama told me that this first night, I should let you see all of me. I want to see all of you too."

In the yellow light of the lamp, Benjamin watched as Catherine removed her dress and then her shift. When she pulled the shift over her head, her breasts rose and then dropped a little when she put the shift on the end of the bed. She smiled at Benjamin as she unbuttoned the waist of her open drawers, and blushed a little when she let them fall to the floor.

She looked up at Benjamin then.

"Now, let me see you."

Benjamin quickly took off his shirt, but paused before taking off his trousers. He was embarrassed because his manhood was stiff and throbbing, and he didn't know what Catherine would think.

She smiled at him again.

"Don't be embarrassed, Benjamin. Mama told me what you'd look like. I want to see for myself."

Benjamin's rigid manhood bobbed free when he unbuttoned his trousers. He let them fall to the floor. Catherine caught her breath then.

"Mama said you'd be big, but I didn't know what she meant until now. Can I touch you?"

When Benjamin didn't answer, Catherine closed her small hand around the shaft, and stroked gently. Benjamin couldn't stop his hips from thrusting forward.

Catherine chuckled.

"Mama said you'd do that. Let's lay down now."

Benjamin knew he'd remember that first night for the rest of his life. What he'd been taught is that a woman would lie there quietly while he entered her and stroked away until he spurted his seed inside her. Afterwards, they'd both go to sleep. It hadn't been that way at all.

As soon as they lay side by side, Catherine turned on her side, pulled his right hand on her left breast, and then kissed him. The kiss and feeling her soft breast in his hand were enough to stiffen his manhood a little more. The feeling of Catherine's soft fingers tracing down his belly and then stroking his manhood was a feeling he'd never even imagined.

A short while later, Catherine rolled on her back and pulled him between her open thighs.

"Mama said it would hurt the first time, but I want you to do it. I want you to make me a real woman."

Benjamin had tried not to hurt Catherine, but when his manhood parted the soft lips between her widespread thighs, that feeling was more than he could take. He pushed in as gently as he could, met resistance, and pushed in harder. Catherine caught her breath, but didn't try to pull away. Instead, she thrust her hips up, gasped, and then thrust her hips even higher. Benjamin felt the resistance disappear and then the feeling of his manhood sinking into Catherine's soft and slippery depths.

After that, he couldn't stop. He stroked in and out of Catherine's satin passage a dozen times, then groaned as his loins contracted and sent a spurt of seed racing up his shaft and into Catherine. Three more quick, deep strokes and three more spurts followed the first, after which he rested his weight on his arms and tried to catch his breath. He felt Catherine stroking his back, then pulling him down on top of her.

She kissed him again, then whispered, "Now, I really am your wife."

It was only when his softening manhood had slipped from her body that Catherine let him go, and even after that, she went to sleep with one hand over his chest and her breasts pressed against his side.

Catherine had worked side by side with him to finish the store and get it stocked with goods. When they placed the first order, Catherine said she should order things women would buy and he should order things men would buy. That had worked out better than he thought possible. They couldn't buy much, at first, and Benjamin had questioned the dress material and cooking pots Catherine wanted to order. She'd just smiled.

"Benjamin, I'm a woman and I know what women will want. You'll see."

He had seen, and after the store had been open for a year, they were making enough money to stock the store much as Benjamin's father had stocked his. They also bought a team and a freight wagon so they wouldn't have to pay for bringing the goods from the railroad to the store.

As Benjamin watched Catherine scooping flour from a bin into a paper sack for a customer, he smiled. She'd been right about everything. He was happy now, happier than he'd been since before the war. He owned his own store and that store was successful. He had a wife who was more than he ever expected, and she carried his child in her growing belly. He'd been running away from one life and had run head-on into a life he'd never dreamed of having.

Catherine took the customer's money, made change, and then walked over to where Benjamin stood.

"I need to order more flour. The way the women are baking for Easter, we'll run out if I don't. I'll do that tonight before we go to bed."

She ran a finger down Benjamin's chest then.

"I could do it tomorrow if you have something better we can do tonight."

Benjamin frowned.

"Are you sure we should keep doing that?"

Catherine smiled.

"Mama told me we could keep doing it up until the last month, and I want to."

Benjamin smiled. Since Catherine had been right about everything else, she was likely right about this too.

"Whatever you want, Catherine...whatever you want."