by Joyce Armor
* * *
Gus didn’t even make it five steps into the house before the eastern socialite lit into him.
“My daughter was destined to marry royalty,” she huffed.
He turned and faced her, crossing his arms. “Did you ever care about her happiness?”
The woman actually sputtered. “How could she be happier than being a royal, rather than some heathen’s wife?”
All right, now the gloves were off. “I think it’s you who wanted to be married to a royal, and you’re so caught up with your own selfish needs you’re going to lose her forever if you don’t start listening to her.”
She grabbed the stair railing for support. “How dare you. You’ve known Priscilla how long…three months? Four? I’ve known her her whole life.”
“Do you know she hates the name Priscilla? Do you know she loves to lie out on a blanket at night and look at the stars? Did you know she’s a fine cook? Have you seen her ride a horse astride, her hair flying in wind, a look of sheer joy on her face? This house is sealed tight as a button because Per did the chinking and daubing. Did you know she set a man’s broken leg?”
Candida Vanderhaven was speechless.
“Your daughter is not an ornament for some rich mucky-muck. She’s a vital, active, intelligent, beautiful and utterly loved young woman, one who’s carrying my baby.”
Candida Vanderhaven stood, as stiff and regal as royalty. “Hmmph. You’re a barbarian. She’s coming home with me where she belongs.”
Gus gave Per’s mother his fiercest look, and she actually backed up. “Over my dead body,” he said. “Or yours. You can choose to be in your daughter’s life and accept this marriage or you can go to the devil.”
They hadn’t seen Per enter to overhear the last statement. Candida spotted her and took a step toward her. “Are you going to let this man talk to me like that?”
Per looked at Gus and then at her mother. “Yes. Those are my sentiments exactly, Mother. I love Gus and Oregon and our property and have never been happier in my life. Or more alive. If you can’t accept that, I’m sorry. You can leave.”
Candida Vanderhaven looked so shocked and angry and frustrated, Per thought she might scream.
“If you think you’re getting an inheritance from me, you can think again.”
Per put her arm around her husband’s waist. “I have everything I want right here.”
Her mother turned and stormed out of the house, slamming the door.
Gus turned to his beloved wife. “That went well. Did I hear Adelina scream?”
Per smiled. “She may have had a little accident, falling in the creek.”
“You don’t say.”
“One moment,” Per said. She walked to the door, opened it and called out, “And that’s Gus Burgen of Burgen Shipping!”
She slammed the door. A moment later, the buckboard drove off with the two women. Karl returned sometime later with a deer, and they celebrated with the best venison dinner Per had ever prepared.
Life was good and could only get better once they started raising a family. Filled with a contentment she had never known, Per raised her coffee cup. “To the newest Burgen empire!” she gushed.
Gus and Karl raised their cups. “To the newest Burgen empire.”
It was just the beginning.
Epilogue
Even before speaking to Karl about Bridget, Per mailed a letter to her cousin, knowing how long it would take to hear back. The barn was completed, and Gus stalled Karl’s departure by asking him to help him with surveying as he planned to expand his holdings in the future.
Per was in bed two weeks after the Elizabethtown women had left in a huff, cuddling with Gus and feeling a little down. She realized a letter would never come back from Bridget, even if she was receptive to the idea of moving to Oregon, before Karl left. And then she had an inspiration.
“Oh, Gus?”
“Uh-oh. I know that tone. What do you want?”
“What do you think about making Karl a partner in the ranch? He could claim another 160 acres, and if he marries, that would be even more land. Just with our 320, it’s a lot of work for just the two of us. Plus, it would keep him here.”
“You would agree to that?”
“Absolutely.”
“No wonder I love you.” He squeezed her tightly.
Karl took two days pondering the offer. Gus was convinced he would turn them down. Per wasn’t so sure. On the second day, she found him sitting by the creek, skimming stones along the surface. She sat down beside him.
“What’s holding you back, Karl? Do you truly miss your life in Baltimore?”
He shook his head. “No.”
“What then?”
“I…you and Gus…you have something special. I don’t want to intrude and…”
She stopped him. “I have the perfect solution.”
He looked at her, amused. No doubt about it, Per Burgen was a problem solver. She was even the one who came up with the proper solution for chinking the house.
“Have I told you about my beautiful cousin Bridget…?”
About the Author
Award-winning scribe Joyce Armor is a former television writer (“The Love Boat,” “WKRP in Cincinnati,” “Remington Steele”) and the author of numerous books, ranging from romance novels to parenting and humor books and a combination thereof. Her credits also include hundreds of newspaper and magazine columns and articles, children’s poetry and several produced plays. The mother of two grown sons, she lives in Mentor, Ohio, with her current soulmate, Darby, an Aussie/spaniel mix, and spends much of her non-reading, non-writing, non-schmoozing with friends and family time walking/running/getting dragged by the dog.
Email: [email protected]
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