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garment was pressed and as fresh looking as the day she’d picked it up at the dressmakers. Sitting upright, she checked the pin watch on her chest. Eight o’clock. If she was going to have a bath and get breakfast before her wedding she’d better get going.
    She went to the front desk and asked to have a bath sent to her room.
    “Sure thing Miss McGregor. I’ll have it sent up as soon as the water is hot. That’ll be about fifteen minutes.”
    “That’s fine, have them go in and get it ready. I’m getting some breakfast. I missed dinner last night and find I’m feeling famished this morning.”
    “I’ll do that. It’ll be in your room, hot and ready when you get back.”
    “Thank you so much.”
    “Anything for Mr. King’s bride.”
    She smiled and glanced down, totally unused to such service. But she could get used to being treated like a queen. If it felt this good to be Mr. King’s bride she could only imagine what it would feel like to be his wife.
    Molly made her way to the dining room. The tables were rather crowded this morning, so she went through to the kitchen. She didn’t want anything big for breakfast, anyway.
    Sadie was presiding over the kitchen staff, but saw her come in.
    “Miss Molly. Ain’t you getting married this morning?”
    “Yes, Sadie but I’m hungry. I haven’t had anything since your delicious fried chicken yesterday. I ended up sleeping right through dinner.”
    “You just sit yourself down there and I’ll fix your breakfast myself. What would you like?”
    “How about a couple of fried eggs and toast, with a cup of coffee? I need to be awake for my wedding in a few hours.”
    “Sure thing. Coming right up.”
    Sadie hurried off to the stove and commandeered a burner from one of her cooks. She was back in just a few minutes with two eggs, basted to perfection, two slices of buttered toast and a cup of dark, black coffee.
    Molly dipped her toast into one of the egg yolks, put it in her mouth and chewed.
    “Mmm. Sadie, this is perfectly cooked. The yolk is soft and the white cooked through. How do you do it?”
    “The secret is to baste them one at a time.”
    She swallowed the delicious food. “How did you know I like my eggs like this?”
    “Maybe because I like mine that way, too.” Ben walked over and sat next to her.
    “Well, good morning. You like your eggs basted? That’s a good thing because I think it’s the only way to serve eggs. They’re one of my favorite foods. I could eat them for every meal.”
    “Me, too. I guess I just discovered what we’ll be eating at home.”
    Molly laughed. “I’m glad you have a sense of humor about it. I can cook but I’m not a chef like Sadie.”
    “I’m not worried about it. I likely won’t be home to eat most of the time except breakfast anyway.”
    He was leaving her alone? Molly raised her eyebrow. “What will you do at night that you won’t be home for dinner?”
    “I have lots of businesses to run, and sometimes that takes me out in the night. I’ll visit the Birdcage or one of the saloons to see that everything is running well during the busiest times, not just the slow.”
    “Oh, I see.” Molly put down her toast.
    He furrowed his eyebrows. “What do you see, Molly, that would put you off a breakfast you were just enjoying so much?”
    “I see that I’m going to be alone most of the time. The arrangement appears to be that except for breakfast and sleeping, you’ll be gone.”
    “More than likely, that will be true, for several nights each week anyway. How is that a problem?”
    He really didn’t seem to understand.
    “I just assumed we’d” she waved her hand between them, “be spending more time together. Getting to know each other, talking about how our day went over dinner. Things like that.”
    He frowned a little. “I’m sorry if your vision of our marriage is different than what I envision. I don’t remember talking about it in our letters, I suppose we should have.”
    “Yes, we