The Preacher's Bride: A Golden Valley Story (Brides of Birch Creek Book 6)

by Laura D. Bastian

  He should have gone in to eat with her earlier, but had allowed himself to get distracted. Hopefully she wasn’t upset that he hadn’t joined her. They would have to learn how to work together and since it was only the first full day after they’d been married, she ought to understand that he needed time to get used to how things were. He’d never been in a position to have someone feed him at his own place on their own schedule. This would take some getting used to.

  Knowing he’d better not waste any more time, Benjamin ate the simple meal then opened his Bible to where he’d had it before and began reading again.

  The book was full of incredible and important things. He was bound to find something he could use to illustrate his message on Sunday.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Amelia woke early and stared at the ceiling above her. She wasn’t sure what to do with her day, but she knew she couldn’t allow herself to wallow in self-pity. This marriage to her childhood acquaintance, who was now a complete stranger that didn’t really remember anything about her still hurt.

  It was clear he wanted very little from her other than housekeeping. The dancing and visiting they’d experienced on their wedding day had been fun, and the following day he’d been kind and sweet, yet things were far from rosy. She’d thought after the first day together, they could have had time to talk. To get reacquainted and have a chance to see what they had in common. Of course, her outspoken behavior with young Lucy and the invitation to have her come help in payment for more tomatoes had obviously bothered him. Since he knew the people here better, she worried she may have read their behavior wrong and possibly offended the family.

  Balancing her own thoughts and opinions with the adjustment of being married to a man who was highly respected made things complicated.

  Vowing to do better and to be more supportive of his ways instead of voicing her opinion as much, she got out of bed, dressed for the day and stripped the sheets from the bed. She’d wash these first, then see if there was anything else that needed washing.

  It would be good to make more bread as well.

  She knew there were vegetables in the garden that would need picking. She had seen a lot of tomatoes yesterday that were near ripe. It would take a while for her to find the right method of preserving the tomatoes, but she had heard talk of sun drying them. She would need to talk with some of the women in town and learn the best tricks they used.

  With the day mostly planned out in her mind, she got to work on boiling water for the laundry while making breakfast. When it was finished and on the table, she knocked on Benjamin’s door to let him know it was ready. This time she didn’t open the door when the sound of his deep voiced response made it obvious that she’d woken him.

  “I have breakfast ready. Do you want me to wait for you?”

  There was a momentary pause, then he said, “No, you go ahead and eat. I’ll be a few minutes before I am presentable.”

  Amelia sighed. He still wasn’t comfortable enough with her to just join her for breakfast. Perhaps he hadn’t slept in his clothes this time and would take longer to dress. “Do you want me to wash anything else while I’m doing the bedding today?”

  “No,” he said. “I think you got it last time. This bedding is still fine.”

  She moved away from the door, ate her breakfast quickly, then took the wash buckets out to the spot under the tree and got things set up.

  She had just finished filling the large wash bin half way with the clean water from the pump and was heading into the house to get the boiling water when she met Benjamin in the kitchen.

  A quick look told her he was preparing to leave the house.

  “Morning,” Benjamin said. “Breakfast was delicious. I have a few things I need to do today, so thought I’d get a quick start on them. I’ll be stopping by the Clark’s as well to see how their children are doing. Since they’re sick, I figured it would be best if I went alone.”

  He put his hat on and adjusted the fit of his jacket.

  “I’m sure they’ll appreciate the visit,” Amelia said. “I do hope to meet them soon. Everyone has such nice things to say about the Clarks.”

  “They’re good people,” Benjamin nodded. “I’ll be sure to introduce you when things are well at their house.”

  “Thanks,” Amelia said. “Anything you need my help with today?”

  “No. I’ll be fine on my own,” Benjamin said with a smile. “I’ve been visiting folks here in town for years. Got my routine down.”

  Amelia swallowed and when he looked back at her she hoped she’d managed to put a smile on her lips. “They’re lucky to have you.”

  “Thank you,” Benjamin said. “Sorry I’m not able to help with the wash. I do appreciate you taking over all the domestic parts. I’m ashamed to admit I haven’t done all that good a job at keeping the household up to your standards. I’m pleased to see how industrious you are.”

  Amelia smiled, and a part of it was genuine. Keeping a house was important work. She would be able to find joy in that. If that freed him up to do his work, then all the better. She was here to help him. If this was the kind of help he needed, then so be it. Amelia was certain that if she reminded herself of that enough, she could be satisfied with this way of life.

  “I’ll be back later in the afternoon. Don’t worry about a lunch for me. I often help some of the older men in town in their gardens and then I’ll cook them up something before I go. I will be here for dinner.”

  “Have a good day,” Amelia said, moving over to the pot of water on her wood burning stove.

  Benjamin was out the front door before she got to the back door with her water.

  There was too much to do to allow herself any time to lament the fact that her husband didn’t want to be with her.

  ***

  Benjamin went about his usual visits, starting on the south side of town and wasn’t surprised he had to answer a lot of questions about his new bride and how things were going.

  A few of his visits ended with him promising to bring her with next time and more than half of the folks he talked with scolded him gently for having left his wife at home instead of bringing her on his normal visits.

  This time, as he went from house to house, he was careful to be more aware of the way each of the home owners received him. For those who had plenty, they all were open and welcoming. A few allowed him to help with a thing or two around the house. Many of them just kindly gave him a bit of something to eat as they talked and while they listened to whatever short message he had to share with them.

  When he visited a couple of the older men in town, the ones he usually helped a bit in the garden, he got to thinking of how doing work for them had always made him feel good about himself. Each of the men had tried to convince him to take some of the food from their gardens, and he had only agreed to when he knew it would go bad before the old man could eat it, or that they had a huge surplus of something.

  Benjamin knocked on the door of the widow Elizabeth’s house. Her mother answered the door, holding the toddler.

  “Good day, Mrs. White,” Benjamin said. “I wanted to stop by and see if you might be in need of anything. I’m sorry we were so brief yesterday and didn’t have a chance to visit much.”

  “Thank you, Reverend. We’re doing quite all right. Yesterday was a rough day and we wouldn’t have had a lot of time ourselves. It’s nice to see you now, though. Elizabeth has been doing so well working with our good Doctor Mills. She’s learning so much. Sweet girl is thinking she’d like to learn a bit of healing on her own.”

  “She would be quite good at it,” Benjamin said. “She has a very kind soul and a caring personality. You raised her well.”

  “Thank you, Reverend. I’m just sad she’s been dealt such hard things lately. She has worried a lot about how to care for little Lucy and Peter here. Your kindness for so many months has been important to us but I can’t tell you how good it feels for Elizabeth to be able to work her way in the world. Then your
new bride was so sweet with little Lucy. In fact, Lucy has gone to your house already. I kept trying to get her to wait until Mrs. Morrison came to fetch her, but Lucy was so adamant that she needed to help. I do believe she was just dying for another tomato, if truth be told. Not sure if you have better dirt or what, but those tomatoes were delicious.”

  Benjamin smiled. “If it’s better dirt, it would have been something Reverend Swallow did, since I’ve just been using the same plot of ground he had for my garden.”

  Mrs. White smiled and shifted the child on her hip. “Well, Lucy saved some of the seeds from that tomato yesterday and said she’s going to learn all about caring for tomatoes so she can grow some. It’ll be hard to convince her to wait until next spring to plant it.”

  “I love that she’s so excited about growing things. She’ll be a great help for sure in your garden. Thank you for allowing me to stop by,” Benjamin said. “I’ll go see how Lucy is doing over there with Amelia.”

  “Thanks for the visit,” Mrs. White said. “And tell your sweet wife thank you for keeping track of Lucy for a few hours. It’s given me a chance to get a few things done while this little one napped this morning.”

  Benjamin nodded, then waved as he turned toward his home. By the time he reached his property, he had thought long and hard about last night’s conversation regarding Lucy.

  Seeing the little girl there now, in the garden with Amelia made him pause in his approach. He moved to a spot out of the way so he could watch what was happening. Amelia’s back was to him so he knew he wouldn’t be seen.

  “Is this a weed?” Lucy asked, holding onto an onion green.

  “No, don’t pull that one.” Amelia bent down closer and pointed at the soil. “Do you see that round thing kind of poking up from the ground? That’s an onion. This green part is what grows on top while the onion grows on the bottom. The onion isn’t ready to pick yet, so let’s find a different weed.”

  “How do you keep track?” Lucy asked. “All of them are green.”

  Amelia chuckled and Benjamin loved the way her voice spoke so sweetly to the little girl. “It takes a little while to get used to it. But soon, you start to notice the differences. This one is long with the round onion at the bottom. But this tomato is above the ground and you can see the fruits on it. Of course, when they are tiny sprouts, it can be a little hard to tell what is a weed and what is a vegetable plant you want in your garden. Sometimes you can tell by the smell. Sometimes you can tell by the shape. Here, try this.”

  Benjamin watched as she took the little girl’s hand and had her rub the plant’s leaves between her fingers.

  “So this is what a tomato plant smells like. It’s kind of like what the tomato itself smells like, right?”

  Lucy nodded.

  “Now come smell this one.” Amelia pulled off a small part of the onion green and held it up to the girl’s nose.

  “It smells like an onion,” Lucy said with excitement.

  Amelia nodded. “So pay attention to how it looks, but also notice the smells.” She pointed at the dirt. “What’s this?”

  Lucy leaned closer. “That one’s a weed. It looks just like the other one I pulled out over here.”

  “Good job. You keep looking for some more of those weeds like that in this spot. I’ll go over and start on the beans.”

  Lucy looked up. “Do bean plants smell like beans?”

  “Why don’t we go find out?” Amelia said and Lucy nodded as if that was the most logical response.

  Benjamin smiled. He’d never really thought much about how he learned to tell the difference between plants. He’d been doing it for so long, he had no memory of being shown like this.

  He watched for a few more minutes and wondered how Amelia felt about spending so much time showing Lucy how to do this kind of garden work. When Amelia had first asked Lucy to come help her in the garden, he had thought the girl would be more skilled and had wrongly accused Amelia of taking advantage of Lucy’s desire to have tomatoes. Now, he realized Amelia was doing more work and service for the little girl than she’d be getting in return.

  Not wanting to bother them yet since it looked as if they were both completely comfortable with their little botanical lessons, Benjamin decided he’d go to the Clarks and see how they were. He’d come back in a little while and help Amelia for the rest of the afternoon in whatever she needed to get done.

  He’d hardly had a chance to really talk with this woman with whom he’d be sharing the remainder of his life with.

  ***

  Amelia couldn’t remember the last time she had enjoyed herself so much. Lucy was adorable and had asked all kinds of questions throughout their entire gardening experience. She had helped weed a part of the garden, but most of their time had been spent talking about the plants and looking at the different bugs and deciding which bugs were helpful and which ones were not.

  After more than an hour together, Amelia had finally convinced Lucy she had done enough “work” to earn her tomatoes to take back home to her family. She helped the little girl pick the largest and ripest tomatoes then showed her the best way to fold them into her smock that covered her dress in order to transport them back home.

  She took a moment to do a quick wash in the bucket she’d hauled over from the water pump to get the remaining dirt off her hands before heading over to the laundry still on the line. She checked to see how dry they were and was happy to see they were ready to take in.

  She pulled them off the line, and haphazardly folded them just enough to carry them into the house. She would put them directly back onto the bed and wouldn’t take the time to iron them at all.

  She checked the time and wasn’t surprised to see it was two o’clock. She’d gotten the laundry done, had made a batch of bread, had done a bit of the garden, and had eaten some of the food there directly from the vine and bush with little Lucy as they talked about the plants.

  Since she didn’t have to make a lunch for Benjamin, Amelia decided against fixing anything more than just a slice of bread then she looked around the house.

  She’d already done the dishes and cleaned up the kitchen. She looked into Benjamin’s study, but he kept it clean. Amelia grabbed the broom and swept the front living area then dusted the furniture and the window ledges then debated on going back out to the garden to do more there, or taking a few minutes to read, or even write a letter to her brother, Joseph, back in Ohio. It had been a long time since she’d seen him. He hadn’t been able to come help after their parent’s death because of the need to care for his own family through their illness.

  Amelia pushed the plan of writing a letter to the back of her mind. Until she had some paper, she’d have to wait. Besides, she wanted to be able to truthfully tell him that her marriage was good. He hadn’t been thrilled about her idea to move out west in order to get married. It was only the fact that Joseph had known Benjamin personally for a while that had allowed him to accept her decision. For now, she’d go get her Bible from her personal items and begin reading it again.

  She took the beloved book from her bag in the bedroom then returned to the front room where a chair near the window seemed to call to her.

  She sat down and began to read, but as she looked at the words on the page, she wondered which of the books in the Bible was the one Benjamin felt drawn to the most. Hopefully, as things settled between them, they would have time to discuss things like that.

  ***

  “How’s your family feeling?” Benjamin asked as he stood at the fence to talk with Michael Clark.

  “Most of the itchy spots and their bumps have gone down. The children are no longer as tired as they used to be, but they are frustrated at being stuck at home. I’m sure before long they’ll be ready to stage an uprising.”

  Benjamin smiled in response to Michael’s laugh. “How is Mrs. Clark?”

  “Susan is doing better. She had it rougher than the children, poor thing. Doc Mills said that was normal. She’s made sur
e to give Susan some teas and an ointment to help. I’m sure looking forward to when they’re all mended and ready to get back to normal.”

  “It does take a while to get used to a change in your daily routine.”

  “That it does. How are things with you? Have you and your new wife had a chance to figure out a routine that works for both of you?”

  “It is a work in progress. I do appreciate that she has taken over the household needs. It has freed me up to continue my visits and work on my writing and my sermons.”

  “A woman in the home is truly a blessing,” Michael said.

  Benjamin nodded. Amelia had definitely blessed him in regards to his home. Yet just her being there had thrown him out of his normal life. He wasn’t quite sure what to do about it either.

  He hated to be this unsure of himself or of his responsibility. He’d married her to save her from talk, as well as to keep anyone from looking poorly on him. The agreement to marry her had been for mostly selfish reasons and a part of him had definitely resented the fact that his grandparents had tricked him into this.

  Now that he’d benefited from her presence in his life as just a simple help meet, he knew he had been blessed in the kind of woman she was.

  Michael’s words interrupted Benjamin’s thoughts. “I still thank my Maker for sending Susan this way.” Michael looked back to the house where his family remained inside. “Susan didn’t have to marry me since she had all kinds of other options back home. But she still chose to come out here in this hard life to make something better. Everything we’ve accomplished here in Birch Creek has been because of her hard work and vision.”

  Benjamin nodded. “I still remember how surprised I was to learn you planned to marry her immediately after meeting. No time for courting or anything.”