Virginia's Vocation

by Zina Abbott

  A spark of humor in her eyes, Virginia grinned. “I don’t know, Avery. You haven’t asked me to marry you.”

  Avery choked. “Oh. I guess I didn’t. Will you make me the happiest man alive and marry me, Virginia?”

  Virginia’s mouth opened. The word hovered on her lips. At the last fraction of a second, an awareness of all she had fought for—all she had struggled against—flashed in her mind. She closed her mouth and stepped back, allowing her hand to slide off his arm. “Avery, before I agree to marry you, you must promise to accept that I will not give up my writing. I believe in the importance of being a good companion. I believe in working with a husband to provide a secure and loving home in which to bear and raise children to be the future strength of society. I wish nothing more than to have you be the husband by my side. Still, I will not give up searching for correct principles and standing up for them through expressing myself with my voice and my pen. It is my vocation—an important my purpose of my life. Can you accept me as a wife with this understanding? I know the law will rob me of many of my individual rights, but I must know you won’t do the same. Will you promise to never demand I give up my writing?”

  His gaze never leaving hers, Avery reached up and grazed Virginia’s forehead with trembling fingertips. “I have no wish to rob you of anything, Virginia. I promise I will not ask you to give up your writing. You would not be the woman I fell in love with—the woman whose passion is revealed through her pen—if you stopped writing. You are a strong, self-confident woman. I am a better man when I am by your side. Please say you will marry me.”

  Virginia closed her eyes and exhaled in relief. “Yes, Avery. I will marry you. Our engagement will not end with this journey. It has changed from a pretext to reality.”

  “Along with the topics you write about now, you should advocate for those rights that will balance the scales for women.” Avery picked up Virginia’s left hand and studied it. “I am not prepared with a ring for you. I did not know this would happen—that we would…”

  “I know, Avery. This ring will serve for now. I don’t think Drusilla…Mrs. Chilton will mind.”

  A glint in his eye, Avery laughed. “Mrs. Chilton. Somehow, I think she knew something we didn’t when she set the wheels in motion for me to accompany you.”

  “Yes. I suspect she guessed if she pushed us to spend time together, we might discover truths about ourselves and each other we both have refused to consider. She did mention once she thought you cared for me.” She said you were besotted with me. “At the time, I didn’t believe her.”

  Virginia felt peace descend upon her as she and Avery gazed at one another, an awareness of the love they felt for each other passing between them. She did not know which of them moved first, but she soon realized she stood within his embrace. She reached her arms up to encircle his neck. She balanced on the balls of her feet as she raised her lips to meet his. He rewarded her with the kiss for which she wordlessly pleaded earlier, before she realized the journey of discovery she and Avery embarked on at the beginning of this month would not end once they returned to Oberlin.

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  Epilogue

  ~o0o~

  Oberlin, Ohio – June, 1860

  S itting at the breakfast table in Mrs. Chilton’s boardinghouse, Virginia felt like her time at Oberlin had come full circle. Her brother, Jefferson, once again occupied the almost-always vacant chair at the foot of the table. He had come to give her away on her wedding day. She turned her head to the right to offer him a smile of gratitude for all he had done for her these past years since their mother died.

  Virginia had announced her engagement by letter to her family before Christmas. Later, she had written another letter to tell them she and Avery decided to wed the Saturday after the day the spring term ended. The gentlemen who resided in the same boardinghouse with them wished attend the event before they went home for the summer. Carlotte wrote back to express her regret the entire family could not be there. She assured her Jefferson would come to give her away. Virginia had responded by telling the family she did not hold with all the traditions that had evolved concerning marriage. If Jefferson leaving the farm for a couple of weeks would be a hardship on the family, he should stay home. She would be fine. After all, for their wedding trip, she and Avery planned to travel to Salina to visit the family for the weeks surrounding Independence Day.

  She had not said so in her letter, but she and Avery also decided they wished to once again visit the Kaw Reservation in Council Grove to see how the members of the Kaw tribe fared. She knew they had been forced off the better farming and grazing land surrounding the Neosho River and pushed onto the less desirable land in the southwest corner of what had once been their reservation.

  Jefferson had written back, his determined personality evident in his written words. The family would manage well by themselves for the few weeks he would be gone to see her married. Otto was now old enough to take over the outside chores. Their brother, Sidney, as well as the Palmers, would keep close watch on his family. Even though he no longer served as her guardian, it did not excuse him from being her older brother. He would come to Oberlin in June. He would give her away at her wedding.

  Reading Jefferson’s letter left Virginia with the impression he also possessed the stubborn trait he accused her of having.

  As Virginia now studied her brother while he ate, she noted his face bore a few more wrinkles. However, he also wore a sense of contentment and peace she did not recall being a part of him before he left Boonville. As insistent as she knew she could be at times, she admitted it pleased her that, due to Jefferson’s stubbornness that sometimes matched her own, he had made the journey to join her and Avery on their special day.

  Virginia glanced at the other gentlemen seated at the breakfast table. She still thought it a stretch of the imagination to consider Martin a gentleman. Still, he and Jonathon had been an integral part of hers and Avery’s life since she arrived at Oberlin. Martin had not ceased his occasional snide remarks or rude behavior at the table. To his repertoire he had added comments about the professor marrying the spinster. She refused to be insulted. Her age marked her as a spinster, and Avery’s goal was to achieve a full professorship. As annoying as Martin could be at times, she knew she would have missed him if he had not decided to stay for the wedding.

  This year, Thomas graduated. However, he agreed to stay for the event, as did Jonathon. The newest resident, Adam Hite, also wished to witness their nuptials.

  In the absence of the women in her family attending, Drusilla agreed to stand up for Virginia and serve as her witness. Although Virginia and Avery agreed to marry at the Presbyterian church that was an integral part of the spiritual roots of Oberlin College, Drusilla insisted on opening her home for a reception afterwards. She and Mrs. Mabry had spent the past several days preparing food, cleaning, and decorating for this day.

  Drusilla had expressed her pleasure once she and Avery returned from their trip and announced their engagement. Virginia noticed her landlady had not seemed overly surprised. Drusilla remained Virginia’s escort on her trips to Elyria to conduct her writing business. She also continued to help Virginia with her research at the library. She continued to reign over her table, moderating the comments made, particularly about Avery and Virginia, when Martin tended to get carried away with is remarks.

  Once Avery expressed his wish that she not be distracted from her studies or her writing due to the demands of keeping a house, they came up with the plan to continue to live at the boardinghouse until Virginia graduated from Oberlin. The rent was reasonable, and excellent meals were prepared for them. They wished to stay in the secluded downstairs room Virginia now lived in once they married. For the year before that, Avery offered to pay Drusilla the rent to cover a second female so Virginia could keep the room for herself until he joined her—which would be tonight. Already, the men in the house had moved to storage the two
single beds from the room and brought in the double bed Avery purchased earlier that week.

  When the idea had first been presented to her, Drusilla responded with enthusiasm. She expressed her delight that she would be able to keep the pair close by her for a few more years before they decided to set up their own household. Besides, Drusilla teasingly told Virginia, if a baby arrived during that time, she would be available to help out so Virginia could continue to attend her lectures.

  That comment had caught Virginia by surprise. Up to that point, it had not occurred to her she might bring a child into the world before she graduated. However, as she often told people, she was not obtuse. She quickly realized, when a man and a woman married, a baby often soon joined them. Should that happen before she graduated, she would be fine.

  Mr. Porter had expressed his pleasure over Virginia’s article written about conditions on the Kaw Reservation. He enthusiastically welcomed the ones that followed. Through the Bonner Springs outfitter, she received several letters the previous autumn. One came from Charlie Gray Cloud, written just before he joined his people for their winter bison hunt. Although it contained no punctuation and many misspelled words, he revealed to her names and other details he observed at the October fourth meeting between the twenty-eight Kaw chiefs and Mr. Greenfield. She used this information in addition to her other research to write about what was said at the meeting—what really happened when Mr. Greenfield barreled into the reservation, boasting that within a two-week period, he would bring the Kaw to heel.

  Information in Charlie’s letter provided her a sad revelation of what one of the older participants, Hard Chief, said about Mr. Greenwood’s claim that the new treaty would set aside land suitable for the Kansa Indians and would remain forever for their use. Thirteen years earlier, the same chief had been a signer to the 1846 treaty containing those same promises. Hard Chief was well aware neither the American government nor the whites had honored the 1846 treaty. He held little hope the new treaty would be followed. Yet, like the other Kaw chiefs, he felt helpless to do anything other than to agree to and sign the agreement.

  Charlie Gray Cloud’s letter also included a page of a Council Grove newspaper filled with articles about the white squatters’ outrage over Mr. Greenwood’s report. It included his acknowledgement that the Kaw people had, indeed, legally owned all the land that made up the reservation by Council Grove. The white Americans had not been squatting on government land, but had, in truth, been stealing land from the Kaw tribe and destroying the Kaw’s rightful property. The newspaper details several means of protest considered by the whites who still claimed they had lawfully moved onto and taken possession of the land on the Kaw Reservation.

  Later, Virginia also received a letter from a Mrs. Jackson who appeared to be close to the Bonner Springs outfitter. She shared more details of conditions in Council Grove.

  Along with her own research, this valuable inside information allowed Virginia to submit several articles to the Heartland Monthly, for which she had been paid handsomely.

  Virginia turned her head to the left to gaze toward Avery, only to discover him watching her as if trying to discern her thoughts. She offered him a warm smile, wishing to convey to him the great love she felt for him.

  After the couple returned to Oberlin and announced their engagement, Virginia asked that she be seated next to Avery instead of across from him. Once Drusilla granted her request, Avery then informed Thomas the duty and privilege now fell to him to assist Mrs. Chilton in and out of her chair. He would see to the needs and comfort of his fiancée. Virginia liked the new arrangement. There had been occasions where, under cover of the tablecloth, she had reached for Avery’s hand. She enjoyed the warmth of his skin and the affection she felt as his fingers closed around hers.

  Over Drusilla’s objection, Virginia refused to honor the tradition—the superstition—that she must sequester herself in her room the day of her marriage to avoid any bad luck that occurred if the groom saw his bride before the wedding. Not for anything in the world would she have missed sharing breakfast this morning with these people who had become so important in her life.

  ~o0o~

  Virginia now stood next to Jefferson as she waited for the signal. Soon it would be time for her to walk down the aisle to join the man with whom she would share the remainder of her life until death claimed one of them. She glanced down at the seafoam green of her silk wedding dress.

  When Drusilla first approached her about a gown in which to marry, Virginia had insisted she preferred something practical as opposed to something so fancy, she might only wear once. The gown she now wore would serve as her special occasion dress for years to come.

  Virginia reached her hand up to caress her mother’s gold locket the Bavarian jeweler sold back to her for less than what she expected. She sensed that, although her mother left this earth years before, she knew of her upcoming marriage to Avery and approved. Her fingers also skimmed the lace of the detachable lace collar that had served her so well ever since Jefferson purchased it for her from the pretty Irish wife of the Bavarian jeweler.

  Virginia raised her left hand, her fingers splayed. Once again, she studied her engagement ring. Shortly after she and Avery arrived at the Bavarian Jewelry and Watch Repair shop, while the jeweler left to retrieve the locket he still held in storage, she had looked over the jewelry the store offered for sale. Her gasp of surprise had drawn Avery’s attention. She pointed the ring out to him. She told Avery about selling her mother’s ring to acquire funds for college. She had assumed the jeweler would melt the gold in the ring down for a new creation. Although it had been cleaned up to look new, she felt sure the ring in the display case had been to her mother’s. He asked if she cared for the ring. She assured him she did. However, given the choice, she decided to sacrifice the ring and keep the locket. In the end, she left the jewelry shop with both pieces of jewelry that originally had been passed down to her. Avery bought the gold ring with the opal setting for her engagement ring.

  Within the hour, Virginia, knew, Avery would place another ring on her finger—a plain gold band—to go with the engagement ring she now wore. It would represent the eternal round of love—a love with no end—she and Avery now shared. As much as Virginia believed in being practical, the symbolic nature of her locket and rings held great meaning for her.

  When it came to her wedding, Virginia’s insistence on practicality had gone only so far. She agreed wearing her possibles bag would detract from her wedding gown. She left it in the bedroom until after the reception. She knew she would keep it by her side on the wedding trip.

  Virginia now called it Meadowlark’s bag. Although Charlie Gray Cloud spoke of his wife, and mentioned it was she who made Virginia’s possibles bag, he never revealed his wife’s name. It was the shop owner of the outfitter’s store in Bonner Springs who told Virginia the English version of the name of the woman who had crafted her bag.

  The pump organ began playing the music which served as her cue to walk forward at Jefferson’s side until he released her to stand next to Avery. She smiled as the man she loved so dearly turned to watch her approach him. A frisson of giddiness assailed her as she realized in a matter of moments, she would be joined to this man as his wife.

  In spite of her attack of nervousness, Virginia felt a sense of peace. She handed her bride’s bouquet to Drusilla. She removed her hand from Jefferson’s arm and placed it in Avery’s waiting hand. She and Avery turned to face the minister. There were still many problems in the world—many wrongs that needed to be righted. However, right at that moment, she participated in the most right and important change in her life she could achieve—her marriage to Avery Wilson.

  Avery supported her in her vocation—her writing. Virginia also knew she embarked on another vocation—creating a loving and nurturing home for her family. Once she and Avery completed their vows and were joined to be one as God had ordained, she knew building a family and a future with this man she loved so de
arly would become the greatest work of her life.

  ~o0o0o~

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  Thank you for reading

  Virginia’s Vocation!

  The Lockets & Lace multi-author series is brought to you by some of the authors who blog for Sweet Americana Sweethearts.

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  Lockets & Lace

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  If you enjoyed reading Virginia’s Vocation, you may also enjoy Otto’s Offer, Book 3 in the Lockets and Lace series. Otto is Virginia’s nephew. Although I wrote his story first, it takes place several years after Virginia’s story.

  Another of my novels about this same family is Kizzie’s Kisses, Book 2 in the Grandma’s Wedding Quilts series. Kizzie is Virginia’s niece and Otto’s first cousin. Her story takes place a couple of years after Virginia’s story, and just before Otto’s story.

  Here is the start of Otto’s Offer:

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  St. Louis, Missouri – November 1867

  Prologue

  ~o0o~

  A fter the keel boat tied up at one of the St. Louis docks, she picked up her small cloth bundle consisting of an extra dress, underclothing and her water container made of a pig’s stomach. She nodded farewell to the keelboat owner that had let her board his craft for a price she could almost manage. Although when she had first approached him about traveling down the river on his boat, he had given her speculative looks—looks she recognized in men when they had sexual gratification on their minds—he had not propositioned her in exchange for a reduced fee. He had named his price and she had paid it. It had taken almost all of the money she had remaining from the small cache she had accumulated against her escape.