by Joyce Alec
He settled in for the night and wrote her a nice letter back, finding how easy it was to talk to her. He knew her face, and her words had been encouraging.
She certainly was not the most handsome woman that he had ever met, but she was pretty. There was a sort of…charm in her nervousness. He made sure to also tell her about Charlie, as she seemed pleased that he had a dog in the first place.
The other advantage of writing to her was that she had already likely agreed, at least with his mother, to marry him. It would make the decision easier.
But thoughts of Betty were driven from his mind when a letter arrived the very next day from Anna.
She was a beautiful woman, with large eyes and long lashes, rosy cheeks, and gentle curls that framed her narrow face.
She had a sort of pout that drew his eyes.
And her letter…she was quite the conversationalist. She used words that he wasn’t familiar with, but she seemed pleased with the idea of a small ranch in the middle of nowhere. She asked him if he would be willing to meet her.
He was elated. This was perfect. He knew he could politely decline Betty, which made him wonder how he had ever been reconsidering the match with her in the first place. He would also be able to talk to his mother about the marriage prospect, which should please her.
If she arrived within the next few weeks, he would still be within her time limit and he would have chosen his own wife. She had no stipulations that he had to choose the woman that she picked for him.
He hastily wrote a reply to Anna, telling her that he would be overjoyed to have her at her earliest convenience. He knew that he would have to beg and plead with his cousin Phillip to allow her to stay with him and his wife, but with the whole ordeal that his mother had caused, he didn’t think Phillip would mind very much.
Feeling much more pleased about his life, he set off toward the barn, wondering exactly how life with Anna would be.
4
Anna scheduled her trip to Texas as soon as she received Timothy’s reply. Timothy decided to wait to tell his mother about Anna until he could bring her to meet his mother in person. Part of him wanted to see the look on her face when he walked through the door with such an extraordinary woman. He knew that she would likely be upset that he hadn’t chosen the woman she had picked for him, but it didn’t matter.
If Anna was everything he hoped she was, he would be able to keep the ranch after all.
He took the horses and wagon to the train station. The wagon needed a good cleaning, but she said she wanted a hard worker, and his dirty wagon was indicative of that. The horses were freshly brushed, and Charlie was sitting in the front of the wagon beside Timothy, sniffing the wind happily.
The train station was rather busy with people streaming out as they got off the train. With a jolt of fear, he realized that it must have arrived earlier than he had expected.
He hoped she hadn’t been waiting long.
Charlie followed him up to the platform. The train was still unloading, and steam spewed into the air from the smokestack. People were everywhere he looked, and he wondered where Anna might be.
He had only ever seen her face in a picture, which he held tightly in his hands. Charlie sat obediently at his feet as Timothy stared around, hoping to catch a glimpse of her flowing locks.
He looked into all of the faces passing by him, wondering if she had already departed the train. He was nervous and couldn’t wait to see her.
A woman in a pale-yellow dress had just stepped off onto the platform, a wide-brimmed bonnet on her head, tied beneath her chin with a thick, white ribbon.
She carried a yellow parasol, and one of the train engineers was next to her carrying a wide trunk, apparently overly encumbered.
She stared around, her nose slightly upturned, her nostrils wrinkled.
“Miss Anna?” Timothy asked, approaching the woman. The closer he grew to her, the more certain he was that she was the women in the picture.
She turned at the sound of his voice.
He removed his hat and inclined his head to her. He had never seen a woman who was dressed so well. Her dress was impeccably clean, adorned with lace, and appeared as if it were made specifically for her, the way it draped over her frame.
“There you are,” were her first words. Her voice carried an accent, thick and clipped, as if she were from some other country. Timothy was startled by it. She had told him that she was from Tennessee.
Granted, he had never met anyone from Tennessee. Was this how they spoke?
He bowed his head again. “I’m Timothy, ma’am. Timothy Williams.”
“Yes, I thought so,” she said. She gave him a very skeptical look, as if considering him. “Well, I suppose you’ll do,” she decided as she finished looking at him from his toes to the top of his head.
She gestured to the engineer behind her. “This is my fiancé. You can leave the trunk there. He will carry it from here.”
The engineer’s relief was evident on his face, as he set it down at Timothy’s feet. He gave Timothy a sympathetic smile before scurrying back to the train.
She turned and gave Timothy a stern look.
She was very pretty, he realized, but her face was not as kind as it appeared in her photograph. She had firm lines on her forehead as she glared at him and around him. Her long hair was lovely, indeed, but the effort it must have taken for her to look so beautiful showed him that she must have a great deal of pride in herself and her looks.
Charlie barked near Timothy’s feet, his tail frantically waving back and forth as he sought to introduce himself to her as well.
Anna recoiled, her nose wrinkling again. “Why is that here?”
Timothy’s heart sank. “This is Charlie. I told you about him in my letter.”
She looked as if something foul had been discovered.
“I remember,” she commented. “I just didn’t think that you would have brought him with you. I do hope that he won’t be sleeping in the house with us?”
Timothy glanced down at Charlie, whose ears had sagged sadly, his tail swishing far less enthusiastically.
“Well, yes. It’s best to have a dog inside. They are a great warning against wolves.”
She made a disgusted click of her tongue and looked away.
“Well?”
Timothy blinked. “Well…what?”
She glanced down at her trunk. “Are we going to stand here all day at the station? Or shall we move on?”
“Oh,” Timothy said, bending to pick up the trunk. His back strained as he hoisted it in the air and over his shoulder.
Charlie whimpered and moved away, as Timothy staggered under the weight.
“Come with me, then,” Timothy said, and he started making his way back out of the station.
They stepped out into the sunlight, and Timothy felt sweat beading on his forehead.
He tried to be as gentle as he could as he set the trunk down in the back of the wagon, but it still bounced, and Timothy sighed with relief from being out from under its weight.
Anna stood beside the wagon, staring at it with great dislike.
He wished that he could see her smile instead of scowl.
“What’s the matter?” Timothy asked, as he offered his hand to help her into her seat.
Charlie leapt up into the front seat of the wagon, standing tall, panting happily as he stared down at Anna.
“This is a wagon. Where is your carriage?”
Timothy frowned. “Well, I don’t have much use for a carriage. A wagon is all I have ever needed.”
“You own a ranch, do you not?”
“I do,” he replied.
“Then I assume that you have a great deal of wealth?”
Timothy was uncomfortably aware of some of the looks that were being directed at them by passersby; Anna standing on the ground with her arms crossed, and Timothy waiting as patiently as he could for her to take his hand and get seated in the wagon.
“My ranch makes a stea
dy income,” Timothy replied. “Though I wouldn’t say that I have a great deal of wealth.”
She rolled her eyes. “Well, I expect our things to remain clean at all times. The state of this wagon is…well, it is simply unacceptable. And we must look into purchasing a carriage.”
Unacceptable? Purchase a carriage? She was rather forward to be so demanding of him.
She begrudgingly climbed up into the wagon, but she shooed Charlie to the back.
Timothy did not care for her attitude very much, but he decided to keep his mouth shut.
Perhaps she was simply uncomfortable. There was no reason to get upset yet. She had just moved across the country to meet him, after all. She didn’t know anyone and didn’t know anything about Texas. Everything was new and likely nerve-wracking.
They rode in relative silence toward his cousin’s home. He pointed out various things about the town.
“It’s rather small here,” she commented.
“I remember you saying something about preferring a rural place in your advertisement,” Timothy said hopefully.
“I suppose I did,” she said.
“How was your train ride?” he asked a short time later.
“It was adequate,” she replied. “Rather tight, and a woman in the bunk behind me in the sleeping carriage snored the entire night, every night. I have to sleep in utter silence in order to rest at all.”
Timothy glanced over his shoulder at Charlie. His dog snored every night.
“Tell me about where I am staying?” she asked. “Is it the home of one of your relations?”
“It is the home of my cousin, Phillip, and his wife Samantha.”
“I suppose they live in one of these houses?” she asked, pointing to some of the houses that were almost twice the size of his own house on the ranch.
“Yes, this one just up here,” he replied.
They came to a stop. Charlie hopped down and headed for the door.
Timothy hopped down, and then he heard Anna clear her throat.
He turned to look at her. “Yes?”
“Come over here and be a gentleman and help me down! It is what a man should do for a lady.”
He hesitated. He had just jumped down off the wagon himself and was walking around to her side. Of course, he was going to help her. “That was exactly what I was about to do,” he said. “You don’t have to worry about me being a gentleman.”
“Well, I have yet to meet a gentleman who meets my standards,” she said.
He was startled by her negativity.
She has never met a man who met her standards? Does that mean she already has low expectations about me? he wondered.
Still, he was hoping to impress her all the same, and so he obeyed her wishes.
He found that her hands were small in his, as he helped her down without so much as a smile. Her palms were clammy and slick, and she immediately withdrew them as soon as her feet were on the ground.
“Let’s go meet my cousin,” Timothy said hesitantly.
She brushed out some wrinkles from the front of her dress and followed after him.
He knocked on the door, and Phillip’s wife, Samantha answered it.
“Oh! Timothy! I was wondering when we might be seeing you!” She looked past Timothy and grinned at Anna. “And you must be Anna! Welcome, welcome. It is wonderful to have you in our home.”
Anna stared around. “What a charming cottage you have here,” she said, but her nose was still wrinkling. She turned and glared at Timothy. “What are you waiting for?”
Timothy shook his head. “I don’t understand—”
“My trunk!” she snapped. “I need my trunk.”
“Right, yes,” Timothy said, turning on his heel. “I can do that.”
As he walked away, he heard Anna comment to Samantha, “Men. They aren’t good for very much, are they?”
Charlie had already made his way inside, but Timothy longed for his presence.
When he returned, Anna was engaging Samantha in an animated discussion. Well, it was animated on one side. Samantha’s face had paled, and her eyes were wide, but she attempted to force a smile and nod her head. As soon as Timothy reappeared, she reached out to him.
“Oh, yes, Timothy. Let me show you where Anna will be staying. Anna, would you care to follow us?”
Timothy’s sense of dread built up as he walked to the back of the house and heard Anna comment about the dust in the corners and how she had brought a feather duster made from goose feathers that would help Samantha clean the house in no time at all.
They had given her one of their son’s rooms. A small bed was pushed up against the wall, and the boy’s belongings were placed in a chest in the corner.
“Well, this certainly is…drab,” she said. And then she shrugged. “Well, I suppose it is only until we are married. Right, Timothy?”
Timothy swallowed nervously. “I…suppose.”
She sighed happily. “And I am certain that your home will be much more comfortable.”
Timothy flushed with embarrassment, but Samantha seemed to take it in stride. She smiled. “Dinner will be ready in just a short time.”
Timothy expected Anna to offer to help, but she simply turned to her trunk and attempted to reorganize anything that might have shifted in her journey.
Samantha gave Timothy a pointed look.
“I…will come and help you,” Timothy said, and he and Samantha left the small room. Anna didn’t seem to notice at all.
They stepped into the kitchen together and Samantha rounded on him.
“This is the woman that you chose?”
Timothy held up his hands in the air defensively. “I…I don’t know! She seems so very different from her letters!”
Samantha sighed as she moved across the kitchen to the stove. Opening a covered pot, she began stirring it with a well-worn wooden spoon.
“She was so disrespectful,” Samantha said.
Timothy didn’t want to admit that he had noticed it as well.
“And this woman that your mother found…how could she possibly be less desirable than her?”
Timothy frowned. “You are not often one to criticize so quickly, Samantha.”
She sighed. “Timothy, women like her live to be served.”
“But that wasn’t how she was in her letters.”
“People can say one thing to portray themselves as something they are not, and then act in very different manner.”
Charlie reappeared in the kitchen with Phillip close behind. He carried some small logs for the stove.
“Oh, hello, Timothy. I thought you were going to get your new bride-to-be.”
“I was. She is—”
“Timothy?”
Anna’s voice carried through the house. It was sharp and demanding.
Phillip’s eyebrows raised, and Timothy sighed.
“I’ll be right back.”
As he carried himself back to her room, he found that he would have much rather stayed in the kitchen with his Phillip and his wife.
“There you are,” she said when he walked through the door.
“Is everything all right?” he asked.
“Of course,” she snapped. “But I am going to need you to leave.”
“Leave?” he asked. “Why?”
She adjusted her bonnet, and it took him a second to realize that she had changed it.
“Because I want to be by myself after such a long journey,” she said simply, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “I told you in my last letter that I treasure time alone.”
“Well, yes,” he said. “But you just arrived. I thought it would be best if we—”
She interrupted Timothy. “You can come back sometime tomorrow if you wish to speak with me more.”
And then she turned to the small mirror on the stand with the washing basin.
He just stood there, staring at her back, dumbfounded.
She turned back around, her eyes wide.
&n
bsp; “Why are you still here?” she asked. “I thought I made myself perfectly clear.”
“This is my cousin’s home,” Timothy said. “They have invited me for dinner, as well.”
“Then you shall have to explain that I have asked you to leave.”
His heartbeat quickened.
Suddenly, she didn’t seem quite so beautiful to him anymore.
“You wish to eat with my cousin without me?”
“Yes. If I am to stay with them until we are married. I would like some time alone with them.”
Timothy was confused. “As you wish,” he said, and he turned on his heel to go and see his cousin and explain why he was leaving before they had even had a chance to speak.
He and Charlie were back in the wagon on their way back to the ranch shortly after.
He found he needed to apologize to his cousin and his wife for asking them to allow her to stay with them. They were both kind, though, and said that perhaps she was simply exhausted and just needed some rest.
He agreed, and he truly hoped that explained her behavior.
In his heart, he knew that wasn’t the truth. He feared that he had chosen a woman who was a far worse match for him than Betty had been.
He had put all of his hopes in Anna, and if he couldn’t find a wife, then he would lose the ranch.
Distraught, he laid awake in his bed that evening, Charlie lying his chin on Timothy’s knee, watching him carefully.
Timothy sighed heavily, his heart aching.
“I don’t know, boy,” he said, stroking the soft fur at the base of Charlie’s neck. “I wonder what is going to come of all of this.”
Charlie licked Timothy’s fingers affectionately, almost as if in apology.
5
Timothy knew that he should go and relieve Phillip and Samantha of the burden they carried by hosting Anna in their home, but he couldn’t drag himself from the chair in the kitchen. He couldn’t bring himself to go and see her again. He wasn’t sure he was ready to deal with her anger and her condescension again.
Charlie lay near the door, but his head rested on the floor, as he started intently at Timothy.
“What should we do, boy?” Timothy said. “I am concerned that I have made a terrible mistake.”
