Rustlers and Ribbons

by Kirsten Osbourne

  “What do I need to take with me? I’ve never even been on a train before.” He was flummoxed and excited all at once.

  “Everything you want. If there’s something that won’t reasonably fit into a couple of bags or a trunk, then I can ship whatever it is to you. I’m betting you won’t marry the day you arrive because you won’t have a place to live. Gretchen still lives with her parents, but she may have planned to have a house with Reginald that you could move into. Not sure about that part of things.”

  “Will Doris meet me at the train station?”

  Elizabeth laughed. “I’m sure she will. I’ll tell her that’s a requirement of you coming. She’ll probably have her twins, Pris and Pauline with her.”

  “I can’t wait to meet them. And hug the stuffing out of Doris. It feels like it’s been years since I’ve seen her.”

  “I think you two were closer to each other than any of the rest of us. Susan and I were always close, but it didn’t bother me too much when she moved to Texas. It’s always bothered you that Doris moved to Oregon.”

  Darryl shrugged, neither confirming nor denying his sister’s words. “I miss her. We’re supposed to be together.”

  “I think she feels the same, and that’s why she asked for you specifically. I really am glad you’re willing to go. Her friend Gretchen sounds like a very nice girl, and since she’s had a baby on the way, her mother has been very difficult to live with. I almost feel like you’re riding in there as a knight in shining armor to rescue her.”

  “How about a farmer in a plaid shirt?” he asked.

  Elizabeth laughed as he pulled up in front of her house. She kissed his cheek. “Thanks for the ride, little brother. Come to town tomorrow night and spend the night in one of our spare rooms. Then we’ll send you off Wednesday morning. I’m going to send Bernard to the telegraph office.”

  “You mean he’s home, and he didn’t bother to drive you? I always thought he was a better man than that.” Darryl shook his head.

  “I told him I wanted to walk and I’d get a ride back with one of my brothers.” Elizabeth grinned at him as she climbed down, the baby in her arms. “See you tomorrow!”

  Darryl was laughing as he drove off. His sister really was an independent woman. He couldn’t even express how proud he was of her.

  When Darryl’s train started to get close to Salmon, Oregon, his nerves got the better of him. He thought about getting off the train at the stop before Salmon, just because he wasn’t sure if he could get off and marry a total stranger. What had he agreed to?

  He closed his eyes and prayed that not only would his sister be at the train station waiting for him, but that his new bride would be excited to see him. He was worried about her still being in love with the man she’d been engaged to . . . the father of her child. He wondered if he’d be able to think of himself as the child’s father quickly. He hoped so, for all of their sakes.

  When the conductor called out his stop, “Salmon, Oregon!” he got to his feet, breathing deeply. Looking out the window, he tried to spot his sister, but he couldn’t see her through the seats and people in them.

  Stepping off onto the platform, he looked around, trying to spot Doris and his new bride. Instead, he was engulfed in a hug by arms that he’d always considered scrawny. “Doris!”

  “Darryl, I have to admit I’ve missed you. It’s so good to have you here!” Doris stepped back and introduced him to her twin daughters. “Pris, this is your uncle Darryl. Pauline, meet your uncle.” She smiled at Darryl. “If you have trouble telling them apart, Pris has green eyes and Pauline has blue. They’re almost identical otherwise until you get to know them.”

  “I’m glad it was easier to tell us apart than that . . . just look down the front of the diaper.” Darryl winked at her, and she laughed.

  “You’re a mess.”

  “I am.” He looked around. “Where’s my bride?”

  Doris frowned. “I’m really not sure. She was supposed to be at my house thirty minutes ago, so we could walk over together. I waited until the last minute. Hopefully she’ll be there when we arrive.”

  “Could something have happened to her?”

  “I really don’t know. Her mother isn’t exactly fond of her, but I don’t think she’d sit back and let her be injured in any way.” Doris shrugged. “I’m sure she’ll be waiting for us. I didn’t lock the house, so she could just go in. She may not have felt up to the walk today either. She’s pretty close to her time.”

  Darryl picked up both of his bags and walked alongside his sister. “Nice little town.”

  “It really is. Well, it’s getting nicer, we’ll say. It’s growing fast, and all of the lumber goes through Harv’s sawmill. He’s really glad he’s going to have someone to work beside him.”

  “It’s nice of you to have a job ready for me when you sent for me. I’m excited to be in the west and not be farming anymore. I swear if I had to pick one more bug off a plant, I would have screamed.” Darryl shook his head. No one knew his hatred of farming quite like Doris did.

  “I understand completely.” She stopped in front of a building. “This is the sawmill. Our house is out back. Let me introduce you to Harv, and then hopefully we’ll go to my house and find Gretchen waiting for you.”

  Harv shut off the saw and walked over to them. “This is your twin? Darryl, right?” He offered his hand to shake.

  “Yes, it’s good to meet you. From Doris’s letters home, it’s obvious she thinks a lot of you,” Darryl responded, gripping his new brother-in-law’s hand. “Thanks for the job offer. I won’t let you down.”

  “If you’re anything like your sister, you’ll exceed every expectation I don’t know I have yet.”

  Darryl laughed. “Doris is pretty exceptional.”

  Harv smiled. “I hope you’re ready to work first thing in the morning. I’m going to finish up for the night, but I have orders coming out my ears. I need a man working beside me, and I can’t wait.”

  “I can start now! Just give me a minute to get changed into work clothes.”

  Harv looked at Doris, obviously hoping that she would consent. “Yes?”

  “No,” Doris said, shaking her head. “He’s been on a train for days. Asking him to start tomorrow is too soon in my opinion, but I understand how behind you are. And I know how hard my brother is used to working. He’s not going to want to wait to get started.”

  Darryl shrugged. “I guess I’m starting tomorrow. I promise you will get what you pay for, having a Miller on your payroll.”

  “No doubt in my mind.” Harv waved as his wife, daughters, and brother-in-law headed around the sawmill to his home.

  Doris opened the door, fully expecting to see Gretchen sitting at the table waiting for her. Instead, her two older boys, and her other close friend, Rica were waiting, along with a note addressed to Doris. Rica was the boys’ teacher, and she often went home with them after school to visit their mother and Gretchen.

  “What’s the note?” Doris asked, reaching for it.

  “No idea,” Rica answered. “I just got here, so I helped myself to tea and cookies. I knew you’d be here soon. I had to meet this practically perfect brother of yours.” She stood up and offered her hand to shake. “I’m Rica, the local schoolteacher.”

  “That’s an unusual name,” Darryl said, smiling at the woman. He’d never met a schoolteacher he was fond of, but this one had pretty golden curls coming out of her bun, and he wanted to remove each pin and see what happened when her hair flowed free.

  Rica was aware that Doris was reading the note, so she continued to try to occupy her friend’s brother. “It’s really Frederica, but that’s such a mouthful. My father started calling me Rica before I could walk.”

  “I like it.” Darryl looked at his sister. “So? What’s the deal?”

  Doris sighed. “Gretchen couldn’t go through with the marriage. She’s not ready for anyone to replace Reginald in her life.”

  Darryl frowned. “What am
I supposed to do now?”

  Chapter 2

  Rica looked back and forth between brother and sister. “I’ll marry you.” She hadn’t meant for the words to pop out of her mouth, but they had. She immediately wanted to crawl under the table, but she couldn’t show cowardice. Two of her pupils were in the very next room!

  Darryl and Doris both looked at her as if she’d lost her mind. “Really?” Doris asked. “I was planning on talking you into a mail order groom after Gretchen was settled.”

  Darryl frowned at his sister. “Just because you’re happily married doesn’t mean the whole world needs to be.” He concentrated his attention on Rica. “Maybe we should talk for a moment. Decide if this is what we want to do.” He knew he wanted to make sure they had chemistry between them before they made any rash decisions.

  Rica didn’t want to talk about it. She wanted to do something impulsive for the first time in her life and go to Pastor Savoy and get married. Why not? If Gretchen could do it with a baby on the way, she could do it when she didn’t have another person to worry about. She’d never even kissed a man, but she was sure her lips wouldn’t fall off or anything.

  Finally, she nodded. “Let’s go for a walk, and we can talk.” Thankfully it was Friday afternoon, and her parents weren’t expecting her that weekend. In the past month, she’d spent more weekends in Salmon than ever before. Having friends had changed the town for her.

  Darryl smiled at his sister and opened the door for Rica. He wasn’t sure what to say. He found her very attractive, but . . . she was a schoolteacher. He was more apt to put a toad in a schoolteacher’s lunch pail than he was to marry one.

  Rica automatically walked away from the center of town. She didn’t want people to see them and assume they were courting, just to find out that they weren’t going to marry after all.

  They’d walked over a minute without either of them saying a word, so Darryl cleared his throat. “Tell me about you. Are you from here?”

  “I’m from the next town over. This is my second year to teach here in Salmon. Before this, I taught in the school I went to growing up. This school offered a little more money, but more importantly, it offered me independence. Your sister’s kids almost ran me off, and from what I understand, they’ve run the past three teachers off.”

  He chuckled. “The Butler brats. We’ve been called the demon horde for so long, I really understand where the boys are coming from.”

  Rica sighed. “They’ve been much better behaved this year. I find I’m very impressed with how your sister handles them.”

  “I think those of us that were . . . precocious children tend to make better parents.” They kept walking until they were outside of town, and he turned to her. “I think I’m willing to give it a try between us, but I need to know one thing first.”

  She sucked in a breath, surprised. She’d always been a schoolmarm, and she had never expected a man to show any interest in her. Especially a man who was so handsome. “What’s that?”

  “I need to know if there’s magic between us.”

  “Magic?” she asked, frowning at him. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean I want to kiss you and see if there’s any chemistry.” He reached out and put his hands on her shoulders, pulling her toward him. “May I kiss you, Rica?” With as close as they stood, he marveled at how thick her eyelashes were. She wore spectacles, and they seemed to magnify her eyes a bit. He wanted to pluck them off her face and see what she looked like without them.

  Rica looked up and down the road both ways, and then nodded. She couldn’t risk being seen kissing a man she’d met minutes before by any of the parents of the children she taught. She could lose her job.

  He slowly lowered his head, pressing his lips to hers. As soon as their mouths touched, he felt as if an electric current was flowing through his body. He gathered her closer, deepening the kiss. After a moment, he had his answer, and he stepped back. He was out of breath, and her glasses were slightly fogged up.

  Right there, on the dirt road leading out of Salmon, Oregon, he got down on one knee. “I don’t have a ring to give you, but that doesn’t make the sentiment any less real. Will you be my wife, Rica whatever-your-last-name-is?”

  Rica felt a hysterical laugh bubbling up inside her. Never in her entire twenty-five years had she done anything impulsive. Not one thing. And here she was standing on the side of the road, looking down at a man she’d just kissed after mere minutes’ acquaintance. “Why yes, Darryl, whose last name I really do know. I’ll marry you.”

  He got to his feet, taking her hand and pulling her toward him, kissing her again. “Let’s go find the preacher.”

  “You don’t even want to know where we’ll live?” She couldn’t believe he was ready to marry her so quickly. Weren’t there details to work out?

  He frowned. “Are you boarding with someone here in town? I hadn’t thought about that. We probably should have a home . . .”

  She laughed. “I live in the teacherage behind the school. It’s small, but it’s certainly adequate for a newly married couple.”

  “Oh, good. Let’s go get my sister and get married. I’m done dilly-dallying. I have to work in the morning.” He pulled her back toward town. “You don’t mind if my sister is there? And my nieces and nephews?”

  “Not at all. Your sister has become one of my very closest friends. It’s like our souls knew each other the very instant we met.”

  “You know, I’ve always felt that way about her too. Of course . . . we are twins . . .”

  She grinned at that. He was as light-hearted as she was serious . . . or so it seemed. She needed someone with a sense of humor to balance her out. Maybe she wouldn’t spend every waking moment thinking about teaching. Having a real life would be very nice.

  “After we get your sister and the kids, we’ll walk to Pastor Savoy’s house. His wife is . . . painful at times, but he’s a nice man. I don’t think his wife has talked to your sister since she got here without saying at least once that she’s praying for her with those children of hers.”

  He sighed. “Yup, sounds like they have the exact same reputation we always had. I hope Doris ignores her.”

  “I’m actually very impressed with your sister. I don’t know if you know what’s happened in this town since she arrived, but there was an older woman—Mrs. Lindon—who completely controlled all of the women in town. She told the other women that they were shunning Gretchen as a group, and as a result, no one would speak to her until your sister got here. Mrs. Lindon had everyone shun Doris when she refused to stop speaking to Gretchen. And then they all shunned me because I was friends with both of them.”

  “I don’t see Doris taking any of that sitting down. We weren’t raised with a lot of discipline, but we were raised to think for ourselves.” Darryl could just imagine what Doris would do in that situation.

  “She rallied all of the woman. It was a full-scale coup against Mrs. Lindon’s leadership. I don’t think she was looking to have all of the women come to her for advice, but that’s what she’s got now. She’s completely taken Mrs. Lindon’s place in this little town.” Rica loved relating the story. She was so proud of her friend, it was ridiculous.

  “Sounds like my sister. She’s a pretty incredible person.” He opened the door of his sister’s house to let her precede him inside. Doris was cooking, and a pregnant woman he’d not yet met was sitting at her table. He couldn’t help but wonder if this was the missing Gretchen.

  The woman got to her feet. “I’m so sorry, Darryl. I hope you’ll forgive me.”

  Darryl nodded, smiling. It was definitely Gretchen. “I will forgive you with no problem. I’m marrying Rica.”

  Gretchen laughed. “Well, I guess that worked out then. I just . . . I can’t marry before Reginald’s baby is even born. I’d feel like I was being disrespectful to his memory. I’m afraid I’m still in love with him.”

  “I understand that completely. I don’t know if I could have been married
to you without worrying about what he would have thought and felt. It feels like he’s too important to your life for you to give up just now.”

  She sighed in relief. “I’m so glad you understand.” Turning to Rica, she hugged her friend. “And I’m excited you’re getting married! May I come to the wedding?”

  Rica smiled. “How could I get married without my Salmon sisters?”

  “I don’t know if I can get married with three fishy-smelling women in the vicinity, but I’ll do my best . . .” Darryl said, a grin on his face.

  Doris wrinkled her nose at him. “We’re at the point in the supper-making process where I can be gone for exactly an hour. Let’s go get this wedding done!”

  “I feel like you’re pressuring me to do it fast,” Darryl said, wrapping his arm around his twin and hugging her tight.

  “Yup. That’s exactly what’s happening.” Doris called for the children, and the eight of them set off down the street for the pastor’s house. “We look like we’re setting out to cause some sort of mayhem.”

  “Well, we’re two of the demon horde and four Butler brats. Between the six of us, we could make some pretty crazy things happen, I think.” Darryl’s mind automatically went to mischief making, but he tried to tamp it down. There was no need to cause trouble, though it was always a bit fun.

  One of the boys—and he didn’t know which was which yet—turned to him and frowned. “We don’t like being called the Butler brats. We’re very well-behaved now, right, Miss Hughes?”

  Rica nodded. “Oh definitely. You’re like two totally different boys than you were at this time last year. I’m very proud of the progress you’ve made.”

  Both boys seemed to walk a little taller, and Darryl smiled. “Since you’re my nephews, I could have taught you some fun new tricks, but I’m marrying the schoolmarm, so I have to be loyal to her first.”