*****
They were up early the following morning to pack up the wagon and start the journey back to Dallas. For a moment, Samuel couldn’t believe the sheer number of trunks Kristen had packed to take with her. He looked at her in shock. “What’s in them all?”
She shrugged. “Mostly dresses, but a quilt I made when I was a little girl, and sheets and everything I need.” She knew it was a lot, but surely he wasn’t going to ask her to leave some of her things. She’d carefully weeded everything down to just ten trunks. He had to be able to see that she wasn’t taking much!
He stared. “Which ones are important?”
“All of them.”
He shook his head. “With that many trunks, it’s going to take us longer. We’ll have to let the horses rest a lot more.”
“Then we’ll have to stay overnight somewhere. It won’t hurt anything.” She was going to be a submissive wife, she told herself, but she had to have her trunks.
“Staying overnight somewhere would mean either staying in a hotel, and I would rather not spend the money, or sleeping under the wagon, and I really can’t see you doing that happily.” He pointed to the wagons. “Which ones do you want to leave behind?”
She folded her arms across her chest, not believing he was being so stubborn. How could he ask her to leave her clothes? Or keepsakes from childhood? He was being unreasonable. “I can’t leave any of my things. I need them all.”
He stared at her in disbelief. “So you’d rather camp under the wagon on the way back than leave anything behind?” He shook his head. What happened to the sweet docile wife he’d had yesterday?
She nodded. “I would.”
“So be it.” He didn’t know how she was going to react when she saw he barely had room for her trunks in his house. She was definitely going to have to get rid of some things when they got to Paradise.
Samuel and Albert spent the next two hours loading her trunks onto the wagon. They were heavy and unwieldy. While they worked on the trunks, Kristen and Sally made enough sandwiches to last them for the two days. Kristen didn’t say anything while they worked together, afraid that Sally would think less of her. She didn’t care, though. She needed every single thing in those trunks.
It was after seven when they finally pulled away from the seminary. Kristen waved to Sally, smiling at her. Inside, she was breaking. She wouldn’t see her parents for a good long time. “Can we drive by my house one last time before leaving Dallas?” she asked in a soft voice.
“Didn’t you say goodbye to your parents yesterday?”
She nodded. “It didn’t seem quite so real yesterday, though.” She didn’t want to cry in front of him on their first full day of marriage, but if she didn’t see her parents again, that’s exactly what she’d do. She’d probably do it anyway, she admitted to herself, but this would give her a chance.
He took one look at her face and drove to her parents’ house, jumping down to help her get down. They went to the door and she barreled through it, yelling for her mother. “Mama?”
Ingrid hurried into the hall and hugged Kristen tightly. “I hoped you’d come by before you left this morning.”
“We weren’t going to,” Kristen said. “I just couldn’t imagine leaving without saying goodbye one more time.” Laura hurried in and hugged her as well.
Dirk wandered out of the dining room and shook Samuel’s hand. “Thank you for giving her one last chance to say goodbye. It means a lot to all of us.”
Samuel hadn’t realized just how close she was to her family before that moment. When he’d left his family farm the last time, he hadn’t looked back. He wrote to his mother on occasion, but she rarely wrote back, too busy with her new life for him. He wanted to have a relationship with his children like she obviously had with her parents. “I wasn’t planning on it. We already got a late start.”
Dirk nodded. “Took longer than you thought to load all her trunks?” he asked.
Samuel just nodded wearily, watching as Dirk hugged Kristen, before pushing her toward the door. “It’s time for you to go.”
Kristen nodded, her eyes filling with tears. “I’ll write.”
“Of course you will. We’ll write back.” Ingrid stood wiping her tears with her apron. “We’ll make sure we see you soon.” Kristen’s entire family followed them outside and stood watching as he helped her into the wagon. She was turned in her seat waving as they drove away.
The tears rolled down her face for the first hour of their journey, and he didn’t try to talk to her. He felt guilty for taking her from her family, but this was the arrangement they’d made. He knew he’d done nothing wrong, no matter how many tears she shed.
About two hours into their journey, she turned to him. “Are you starting to get hungry?”
He shook his head. “I’d like to travel another hour or two before taking a break to eat if you don’t mind. I’m still hoping we can make the whole trip in one day instead of two, so I’m going to push hard.”
She nodded. “That’s fine.” She honestly didn’t care how long it took them. She was eager to start her new life, but every mile they traveled took her further from Dallas and the only home she’d ever known. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to tell him to turn around and take her back or hurry so she could see Paradise and her new home.
She rested her head against his shoulder, needing the contact. “Tell me more about Paradise.”
He smiled. “It’s not big like Dallas. We do have a mercantile and some other small stores. I think you’ll find you have everything you need, but maybe not everything you want.”
She sighed. “I’m bringing everything I need. I don’t want to cost you much money.”
He eyed her skeptically. Any woman who brought a whole wagon full of trunks with her when she married was bound to cost him a lot of money. “I think the other women will welcome you. Everyone there has made me feel very welcome. I’m glad I was assigned to Paradise and not somewhere else.”
“It sounds nice. I can’t wait to see our home.” She watched the scenery pass by them, trying to be excited to see the new home, but knowing she was going to need a few days to stop being homesick.
Bride of Paradise: Book 1 in Mail Order Ministers Page 15
