An Uncivilized Romance

by Elliee Atkinson

  Alice shook her head. “We won’t allow that to happen, my dear. We simply won’t.” She reached up and pushed a long strand of auburn hair out of Sarah’s eyes and looked into her friend’s pale green eyes. “You won’t allow it to happen. There’s a reason and you must concentrate on being as calm as possible. I believe your baby will be able to sense your emotions. There isn’t any way to know if that is true but I’ve noticed that sometimes…” she cracked a grin. “Sometimes when I am eating this delicious cake that Adam loves to make… yes, Adam loves to make a delicious berry cake, don’t look at me like that…”

  Both women laughed for a moment. “When I eat that cake, my baby seems to bounce in my tummy and kick me until I feel like it might kick its way out!” She continued while they both laughed. “And when I’m in a very good mood, even right now! I can feel it bouncing. It makes me think that perhaps it senses my happiness and laughs along with me.”

  “Oh, that sounds so wonderful, Alice! I can’t wait to feel that, too.”

  “You will,” Alice sounded completely confident. She nodded and rested one hand on her friend’s shoulder. “You will. Now let’s get you dressed and ready to go. You can wear one of my light dresses, one of the shorter ones so that you will have better movement in your legs. I brought it in with me. It’s right over there.” She pointed to a chair with a yellow dress hanging over the back. Her gaze turned serious. “In case you need to run.”

  Chills ran up Sarah’s arms. She nodded, looking down at the blanket covering her legs. “I’ll get dressed, Alice, I don’t need help. But, thank you. Thank you so much for everything.”

  Alice stood up and left the room quietly, giving Sarah one last smile before she pulled the door closed behind her.

  Sarah slid out of bed and went to the dress, changing quickly. The water in the pitcher splashed a bit as she poured it out into the wash basin. She cleaned her face and dried it with a fluffy towel that sat beside the basin. It had to be new. Sarah hadn’t seen one quite so fluffy before. Whenever she washed their towels, they came out looking dingy and off color. She assumed it was the harsh soap she had to use. The soap dried out her hands and made them crack. Why wouldn't it do the same to her towels and fabrics?

  Before she went out to greet Adam and Alice and tell them she was ready to go, she went to the window, pushed aside the curtain, and looked out over Adam’s large garden. There were vegetables growing there, looking plentiful and ripe. Beyond the garden to the right was a large horse pasture. A thick wooded area then surrounded the entire property. The path to town was cut through those woods, allowing for anything from a single horse to a large coach to pass through it.

  She wondered what it must be like to live with a man as loving as Adam Collins. He had loved his first wife just as much, Sarah was told, and his love for Alice was apparent. He never tried to hide it from anyone.

  She thought Jason would be that way. He was so loving when they were first married and while he was courting her before their marriage, before her mother had died. Even her mother, who had warned Sarah that something was off about Jason, seemed taken in with him most of the time, doting on him and treating him like the master of the house when, in reality, it was she who was supposed to make all the decisions. However, Sarah had never questioned her, as she herself was sure that Jason was who he appeared to be.

  They were both so wrong.

  CHAPTER SIX

  SARAH RETURNS HOME

  SARAH RETURNS HOME

  It was a beautiful day for the ride. They had started out early and the air was still crisp and new. The wagon jostled back and forth on the dirt path leading away from the house.

  “How did Adam get to the lumber mill?” Sarah asked, holding a cup of hot coffee between her hands to keep them warm. It would heat up in no time but, for that moment, she was enjoying the hot cup against her mittens. She would be stripping them off before she knew it. Once the sun was in full force, the land warmed up nicely.

  When Alice didn’t immediately answer, Sarah looked over at her. She had a strange, amused look on her face.

  “What?” Sarah asked, innocently.

  “We have horses, Sarah,” Alice giggled. “He took one of the horses.”

  Sarah rolled her eyes. “Of course. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

  The children were riding in the back of the wagon, their school books clutched in their hands. Sarah turned to look back at them.

  “Did you get your schoolwork done last night?” she asked with a smile. She chuckled when Riley sighed heavily.

  “I don’t know why we always have to bring a book home to read, Miss Sarah.” The little girl responded in a highly frustrated tone. “I read plenty at school.”

  “You are a good reader, too,” chimed in her brother, nodding. “I’m the one who has to bring home the books to read more. I don’t read as good as you.”

  Sarah’s heart melted at the affection the boy displayed for his sister. She hoped that someday she would have two charming children who loved each other as much as these two did.

  “Well, you are good at numbers. You have to teach me how to do numbers, Max.” Riley said to her brother.

  “I will. But right now, you gotta go through your own stuff and you’ll get to my level when you’re my age.”

  “I won’t be as good as you,” Riley almost seemed to be sulking. “You’re too good.”

  Max shook his head and put one arm around his sister’s shoulders. “You’ll be as good, Riley. You’re smart, too.”

  The little girl smiled up at him and laid her head on his shoulder.

  Sarah turned around and stared down the path in front of her. “Your children are lovely.”

  Alice smiled. “It’s my sister who gets the credit for that.” She sighed wistfully. “I do miss her. So much every day. I hope she would be proud of me for taking on her family. Even if I did fall in love with her husband and marry him.”

  “She doesn’t care anymore. I’m sure she’s very happy for you and smiling down on you from Heaven.”

  Alice glanced at her before dropping her eyes to her hands. “You really think so?”

  “Of course. If I had a sister, I would want her to care for my children if I passed on. I mean, it’s not like she can be here to do it or to keep her husband happy anymore. Now you have that privilege, and you’re going to bring another new baby into the family. I think she’d be happy and proud of you.”

  Alice nodded. “I hope so. That’s what I pray every night. That she’s all right with what’s happened.”

  “I think Adam is the lucky one. He’s a wonderful man but to have two beautiful sisters as wives – not at the same time, of course –” Both ladies laughed. “But he was very blessed to have this type of circumstance happen to him.”

  “We are the blessed ones,” Alice looked behind her at the children, who were chatting about playing games with the other children at recess. “God was watching out for us all.”

  The ladies took the children to school and dropped them off in front of the building, waving, and calling goodbye to them.

  “They look like they enjoy going to the schoolhouse,” Sarah said. “I wonder if my child will be that way, too.”

  Alice shrugged. “Every child is different. It depends on how good they are and how many friends they have. I suppose if Riley or Max had difficulties with anything they are learning, they might not like it as much.”

  “I always enjoyed studying but it was my father who taught me everything I know,” Sarah said. “I wasn’t in a schoolhouse. He brought home books and would teach me to read from them and he bought me a slate to practice my alphabet on because writing on paper was too expensive for something so menial. The paper can’t be used again so it would have to be thrown in the fireplace.”

  “I suppose it had some purpose then after you wrote on it.”

  Sarah shook her head. “His idea to use a slate and chalk was perfect. Do Riley and Max use paper to practice on?”


  Alice shook her head. “They all have slates at the schoolhouse. And they aren’t asked to practice at night, though I think they would probably like to. Only learning for a few hours a day is good but not good enough. They could be learning faster.”

  “Perhaps things will be different when our babies are born.”

  Alice laughed. “That’s not very long from now, Sarah. I doubt much will change by then.”

  “Well they aren’t going to jump out of the womb and start writing in a week,” Sarah laughed as well. “So, we actually have a few years to see if things change.”

  “The cost of paper and pencils will have to plummet quite a bit by then.”

  “Are you taking me to my house now?” Sarah asked in a sudden change of subject. Alice nodded looking at her.

  “Do you want to go right now? Won’t Jason be at work?”

  “He’ll be in the fields if he isn’t at the saloon.”

  “Adam says they won’t let him back in the saloon for a while.”

  “Which one?”

  “Either one. Jason has a reputation for being violent and angry. He doesn’t play cards well with the other men. In fact, he’s a bit of a tyrant. I still think if you went to the Sheriff with your problem, he would be willing to help. And Jason is your problem. You need to get him out of your house.”

  “You know it isn’t that easy.” Sarah’s tone was dejected.

  Alice nodded. “I know. I know it isn’t, dear.”

  They fell into a comfortable but slightly tense silence as they rode toward Sarah’s house. It wasn’t far from the schoolhouse, which Sarah had always thought would be convenient when she had children. That was before she realized that her marriage was a sham and her husband a scoundrel.

  “Do you see his horse?” Alice asked as they got closer. Sarah shook her head.

  “I wouldn’t see it. He keeps it in the barn. I would have to check there. I don’t see him in the field but that doesn’t mean he isn’t doing some work somewhere else on the land. We have a lot of wooded area back there and he hunts and sets traps and whatever else it is he does out there. Sometimes I don’t see him for most of the day.”

  “I don’t see him in the field either.” Alice sounded worried. Sarah patted her hand comfortingly.

  “Don’t worry, Alice. I’ll only be in the house for a few minutes. I am just going to grab some clothes and a few of my mother’s things that I don’t want him to destroy. I won’t be long.”

  “See that you aren’t,” Alice said in a demanding voice as she brought the horses to a halt. Sarah understood her friend’s worry. She was nervous herself. Jason had never been physically violent before and his behavior the day before had stunned her.

  She climbed down from the wagon and hurried down the walkway to the front door. She went through the living room quickly and headed to the bedroom.

  She pulled out a flat luggage trunk from under the bed and laid it on top of the bed to open it. Inside, there was a neatly folded burlap bag, which she removed and set to the side. She turned and pulled open her dresser drawers, grabbing a handful of her underclothes and stockings and tossing them into the luggage drunk. She moved to the second drawer and pulled out some folded dresses, putting them on top of the underclothes. Next, she pulled open the closet door and grabbed a few pairs of shoes, which she shoved into the burlap sack, along with a heavy overcoat she might possibly need.

  The last thing she wanted to do was get her comb and brush, a few bits of makeup she kept for special occasions and a hand mirror. They all went on top of the clothes in the luggage trunk and she reached over it to slam it shut and lock it. She grabbed the handle and wrapped the cords to the burlap sack around her other hand.

  She turned around.

  Jason was standing in the doorway, his large arms crossed over his chest and a very sour look on his face. Sarah’s heart leapt into her chest.

  “I waited all night for you,” he growled. “Where have you been? Out prowling the streets, I suppose.”

  Sarah shook her head, feeling her fear and anger mixing inside her. She tried to quell the outburst so that it wouldn’t make things worse for her.

  “Please move out of my way. I want to leave.”

  “I can see that. I don’t think you’ll be leaving, though, Sarah. I think you are going to stay here and take what you deserve for what you’ve done.”

  Sarah’s throat tightened. She knew she wasn’t going to restrain herself from saying what she wanted to say. It was going to come out whether she liked it or not. She tried to hold it in to no avail.

  “What I’ve done? I have done nothing but be a good wife to you! I’ve done everything I can to make you happy. I didn’t make this baby on my own! I won’t let you bring harm to it or to me and I won’t raise my child around a man such as you.”

  “I am a man. I am the one in charge around here. You-” He jabbed his finger in her direction. “Have absolutely no say in it. Now put those things back and get out here in the living room so we can discuss what’s going to happen from now on.”

  Sarah shook her head. “I won’t be discussing anything with you except how to divorce you. I won’t be settling anymore. I deserve a man who loves me, not what I can provide for him.”

  “You have provided nothing for me!” Jason yelled.

  “This house is mine! It does not belong to you! My mother left it to me!” Sarah yelled back.

  “I am the man and you are my wife and that makes this my property, not yours!”

  “I will take back what’s mine!” Sarah couldn’t control her anger. She wanted to swing both bags at him, clapping him on both sides of his head and boxing his ears. That would show him. And it might knock him unconscious. She quickly rolled the idea around in her head but inevitably rejected it because he was almost a food taller than her and outweighed her by at least a hundred pounds.

  He took a step toward her and she stepped back against the bed, resisting the urge to climb on top of it to get around him. She scooted to the side, looking around for a way to escape.

  “You aren’t going anywhere!” Jason bellowed, looming over her like a bear about to strike. She shrieked.

  A loud clanging noise sent Sarah into a momentary state of shock. Jason reached up to his head and fell to the side to his knees, breathing hard and moaning. When he fell, Sarah’s eyes locked on Alice’s.

  Alice dropped the cast iron frying pan to the ground, grabbed Sarah’s arm and yanked her through the door into the living room.

  “Come on!” She cried, pulling a stunned Sarah along behind her. It only took a few moments for the adrenaline to kick in and Sarah’s fear to return. She followed Alice through the door and to the wagon as fast as she could. She tossed her two items in the back and climbed up into the seat quickly.

  Alice was in the driver’s seat in moments, slapping the reins to get the horses moving, calling to them to be quick. As they pulled away from the house, Sarah grabbed the side of the bench seat and turned to look back. Jason had come stumbling out from the house and was shrieking something at them that she couldn’t hear. Nevertheless, she was fairly certain she heard the words “kill you” in there somewhere. She turned back around, breathing hard and on the verge of tears.

  “What a horrible, violent scoundrel of a man he is,” Alice growled. “I cannot believe he fooled you into thinking he was a good enough man to marry. What a cad! What a… what a…”

  Sarah knew Alice wanted to cuss and swear at Jason but she was too much of a lady to do so. Sarah was thinking the same words in her head but didn’t dare say them out loud.

  She watched him run after the wagon for a bit but soon he was lost in the dust the horses and the wheels were kicking up into the air.

  When he stopped and shook his fist in the air, she couldn’t help but smile.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  TOO LATE TO TURN BACK

  TOO LATE TO TURN BACK

  Instead of going straight back to the house, Alice veered of
f onto a different street, keeping the horses going at their full speed for the entire block before slowing them down. She glanced over her shoulder to make sure they were far enough away that Jason couldn’t just simply run up on them.

  Sarah didn’t ask what she was doing. It was obvious she was going to the lumber mill to tell Adam what had happened. The moment the horses were stopped, she jumped down from the wagon and ran inside, pulling her skirt up into her hands so that she could move faster. Sarah, not wanting to be alone in the street, climbed down and hurried after her. When she went through the first door into the wide-open space beyond, she spotted Adam and Alice. Alice was talking frantically, swinging her hands all over as she spoke and Adam was staring at her with an intense look of concern on his face. He glanced to see that Sarah was approaching and took a step toward her.

  “Sarah, are you all right?” he asked.

  She nodded. “I’m a bit shaken up but otherwise unhurt. What do you think I should do, Adam?”

  “First you must get back to the house. Take your things inside and put them in the spare room, where you stayed last night. I have to finish this project and I will return home immediately after it.”

  “I hate to take you from your work…” Sarah began to protest. Adam lifted one hand to stop her.

  “No need for all that. Take your things back and stay inside the house. Put boards up in the way so that he can’t get in if you must. Keep yourselves safe. Now go before he comes to find you and I have to put a bullet in his head.”

  Sarah blinked in fear and surprise. She turned and hurried back to the door. She didn’t want to see that happen to Jason, no matter how bad of a husband he was.

  Alice was close on her heels. Sarah thought to peek through the door of the lumber mill to see if Jason was waiting outside. All he had to do was saddle up a horse and come after her. She looked back to Adam and nodded. Alice did the same, throwing a kiss toward her husband before slipping through the door.