by Sky Winters
She was completely shocked a month later when she received a response in the mail. It was from a miner in his late twenties named Terrance. His letter described a homestead with animals and fields that needed tending while he worked in the mines. He needed a partner, someone willing to work hard in exchange for a roof and meals, plus the safety and freedom that marriage provides to a woman.
His letter was written bluntly, with no flowery language or promises of a loving life together. He simply offered a life of honest, hard work. There was something in the way that he wrote it, in the way that he did not try to sell her on an idealistic future that she found appealing. She was shocked to find herself considering his offer. He lived in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. She had never imagined leaving Denver, let alone the state of Colorado. Still, the thought of a new life was not something she could easily dismiss.
After a week of reading and rereading his letter and staring at a map of California that she had found in the library at the orphanage, she shocked even herself by writing him back and accepting his offer. Soon enough, she bought her train ticket and packed everything she owned in to an old trunk that the nuns gave to her. She shared a tearful goodbye with the women who had raised her and with Jana, the only family that she had left. Then, alone, she made her way to the train station and, from there, towards California.
The trip took days and she experienced every emotion possible as the train chugged along towards her new home. On the last day, though, her predominant emotion was fear. Primarily, it was a fear that Terrance would not be standing there on the train platform when she arrived. She disliked being in public much. She hated to have her scars stared at and she hated to have to speak to strangers, let alone make her way alone in a strange town.
As the train approached the small platform near the tiny town that Terrance had told her to buy her ticket for, she was relieved to see the figure of a young man perched on a wagon to the side of the station. He was keeping himself separate from the rest of the waiting crowd, which suited her just fine. As she departed the train, she gathered her trunk and fought her way through the small crowd, keeping her face shielded to avoid the stares she was often met with in public.
She saw him swing himself down from the seat of his wagon and move to meet her. He was nearly 6 feet tall, with dark hair and deep brown eyes. He had a short beard that obscured the lower half of his face, but it could not hide his strong features. Though he did not smile, he seemed relaxed enough, which put her at ease.
“Hello,” she said gently, unsure what one should say to their future husband upon their first meeting.
“Welcome. That your only trunk?” he asked as he lifted it from her hands. She felt him looking her over, but he did not stare at her face. Instead, he seemed to be looking over her form. She suspected that he was trying to determine if such a petite girl could do the work that he needed his wife to do. She knew that she would have to prove herself to him, but she had no doubts that he would soon be pleased with her. The one thing she had always been most confident in was her ability to work hard.
“Yes. I'm Lacy,” she said awkwardly.
“I know from your ad,” he said bluntly, still not smiling at her.
“Oh yes, I suppose you do. Sorry,” she said, still feeling a bit uncomfortable. He seemed very closed off, but not unkind. That, she thought, she could live with well.
“The wagon is this way,” he said as he turned and walked away from her, carrying her trunk. He was clearly eager to get back to his homestead and she was anxious to leave the crowd of the train platform behind them. The thing that she had missed most since she had been forced to move to the orphanage in the city, was the sounds of nature that one heard out on a remote piece of land. The thought of returning to such a quiet life had been a large part of why she had decided to accept Terrance’s offer.
“Alright,” she said, more to herself than to him. She squared her shoulders and walked after him. While he loaded her trunk in the back of the wagon, she swung herself in to the seat, not waiting for his assistance. He looked up at her and seemed pleased with that. He quickly joined her in the front of the wagon and took the reins in his hand and pushed the horse forward towards their new life.
“I hope you meant what you said about not having a problem with hard work,” he said as they pulled away from the small town of Silver Flats.
“Hard work is all I have ever known,” she said honestly, giving him a small smile to show him that she was not intimidated by hard work. In truth, she was eager for it. The awkwardness of traveling and meeting him for the first time had taken her far outside of her comfort zone. All she really wanted was to roll up her sleeves and get to work. Then, she knew, she would feel more at home in her new life.
“Then we will get along fine,” he said, nodding his head and returning to his silence. He did not even look over at her, instead keeping his eyes locked on the trail ahead of them. She, for her part, was happy to be off the train. She could not get enough of the beauty surrounding them as he continued to pilot the wagon.
The trail kept getting rockier and rougher, but it did not bother her to be jostled around. She simply held on tight and looked at all the amazing landscape that would be her new home. After nearly an hour in the wagon, he veered off the main trail and soon enough they arrived at a small farmstead nestled between the mountains.
“This is the homestead,” he said as he jumped from the wagon and grabbed her trunk. The place was obviously well cared for, though there were no touches that made it feel at all like a home. The main house lay before her and it seemed soundly built and all of the outbuildings seemed to be in good repair.
“It's lovely,” she said, looking around. It was clear that he put no stock in the small touches of such a place, but she could see the potential in what he had built and she knew that she could make it a home for the both of them and that fact warmed her heart.
“Follow me,” he said stiffly, moving towards the house.
“Yes, of course,” she said, wishing that he had let her carry her own trunk. She was not used to people doing such things for her and it made her slightly uncomfortable.
“This is our house. Over yonder is the livestock barn and past that is the chicken coup and grain storage. Beyond that is our garden and the field where our wheat is grown. I work from dawn to dusk in the mines to pay off the loan I had to take to buy this place. Your job is to keep things running here while I am working. You will tend the garden and the animals, plant the wheat field and you'll have to harvest it to when the time comes. You'll cook, clean, and do the laundry and mending. If any of that sounds like too much for you, I'll take you back to the train right now,” he said without any sort of sugar coating. His forthright nature would suite her just fine, she thought. All she wanted was a place where she could work hard to make a life for herself and her family and she had no further doubts about this homestead being that place.
“It is not a problem at all,” she said, hoping that he understood how serious she was about that fact.
“Fair enough. The preacher will be here this afternoon to perform the wedding then. I do not go to town any more than I have to and neither will you,” he said bluntly. It seemed odd to her that such a young man would keep himself so separate from the society around him, but she was glad for it. She wanted only to keep to herself and she had no desire to have to tell the story of her wounds to a new town of people. She did not want to be known here as a woman who had lost everything. She simply wanted to be a wife and a partner to Terrance.
“Alright,” he said, looking as if he did not entirely believe her. It did not bother her though. She knew that she would show him quickly how much she meant what she said.
“I'll give you the tour of the inside of the house now,” he said as he moved away from her.
“I would like that,” she answered as she followed him in to the house. It was small, just well built. The walls and floor were bare, but she could see that
it would be a cozy home once she had the chance to work at it.
“It's nothing fancy,” he explained, saying to almost as though it was a challenge to her. “Here's the main room. Over there is the kitchen and the pantry. You will find everything in there that you need to cook dinner for tonight. Be mindful that the preacher and his assistant will be staying so you'll need to make enough for everyone.” The kitchen was rough, with not many pots or pans but the pantry seemed full and she knew that she would be able to work with that. It was obvious that a man had been living there by himself, but he seemed to have been doing a fair enough job of it.
“Yes, of course,” she said, thinking of all the meals that she had prepared for dozens at the orphanage. Cooking for four people would be no problem at all, but she knew that explaining that would serve no purpose. Instead, she needed to show him that she was capable of all that he asked.
“Back here is my room,” he said as he gestured to a closed door. He made no attempt to open it and show her the space. Instead, he opened the door next to it as he said, “This one is yours. Go on and get settled. I need to go out to the barn to fix the wagon. I will let you know when the preacher comes. The wedding will be short and he'll want to be on his way quickly so mind that you get dinner ready soon.” The room was bare, with the exception of a bed and a small dresser. The bed was bare, with no bedding at all, yet the mattress seemed almost new and the dresser was very well built. He was looking at her as though he expected her to run or to show some kind of disappointment, but he could not have been further from understanding her. The room was twice as large as the room that she and Jana had shared at the orphanage and this room had its own window. It was much more than she and expected and she was glad to have a space to call her own.
“Yes, of course,” she said as he rushed out of the room, leaving her alone. She found it odd that he had given her a room of her own but she was very much relieved by it. Before she began to settle in, she returned to the kitchen and filled a large kettle with the ingredients necessary for a lovely, hearty beef stew that she had often made for the orphans. It was their first meal together and she wanted to ensure that she show him that she would be able to take care of their homestead for him.
She dragged her trunk to the center of the room and pulled a set of linens and a quilt from it. She and Jana had worked hard to finish them before her departure date and knowing that they had made them together made them all the more special to her. Once she made up her bed, she hung a thin set of lace curtains that the nuns had made for her as a parting gift. Soon enough, the room felt like her own and she began to relax even more.
Then, she turned to her appearance. She had worn her sturdiest dress for the trip. It was not the loveliest, but it was dark in color and the most practical. Still, she was not sure that it was the dress that she wanted to begin her marriage in. She did not have any dresses that were particularly fancy. Her clothing was all plain and dark in color, much in the style of the Sisters of Mercy at the orphanage. Jana, however, had insisted that she take an old dress of hers for the marriage ceremony itself. She had tried to make her take her wedding gown, but she had objected so sternly that Jana had agreed to compromise on a deep purple dress what had lace detailing. It was more than Lacy would ever have chosen for herself, but having her friend’s dress would make it feel as though Jana was there with her during the ceremony so she had agreed on the compromise.
She dressed herself in it while pulling out a simple day dress to change in to as soon as the ceremony concluded so that she could finish and serve the dinner. She had a small looking glass at had been her mother’s. It was one of the few things to survive the fire. She pulled it out and looked at herself, unable to believe that soon she would be a wife. She thought of styling her hair so that it shielded the scarred side of her face, but in the end she decided against it. She could not pretend to be anyone other than who she was and he needed to know that from the moment that they wed.
The preacher arrived soon enough. The ceremony was brief and the meal after was a stiff one. It was clear that Terrance and the preacher did not know each other well. The man of God continued to try to engage him in conversation, without any luck. Instead, he turned to her and asked her about her life before making the choice to leave her home and marry Terrance. The preacher seemed impressed with her religious upbringing and invited her to attend his church services. She nodded politely, but knew that she and Terrance would not be making that trip.
The preacher and his assistant left as soon as the meal ended and Terrance went to the barn to repair some equipment. She quickly got to work, cleaning up the meal and scouring every inch of the kitchen. She wanted it clean and orderly before she had to cook another meal there. She worked long hours until she was satisfied with it.
By the time she was done, darkness had fallen and she was exhausted. She was not sure when he was going to return to the house and she was not sure if it was her wifely duty to wait for him. She took her Bible from her bag and began to read it. She came to a particularly interesting passage in Deuteronomy that said, “If a man has recently married, he must not be sent to war or have any other duty laid on him. For one year he is to be free to stay at home and bring happiness to the wife that he has married.”
She wondered to herself if she would ever know such happiness with her new husband. The homestead and the life there suited her well. She just was not sure that Terrance would ever be a true husband to her. She had a suspicion that he wanted only an extra set of hands to labor for him. It might have bothered another girl with more romantic ideals, but for the moment it was all that she wanted. Soon, she grew tired and retired to her room. She wondered if he would come to her room, demanding his rights as a husband but he did not and she was glad of it.
Chapter 3
For weeks, Lacy labored to prove to her new husband that she would be a worthy partner for him in his mission to make their homestead a thriving place. His work ethic impressed her thoroughly. Each day, he rose before the sun and made his way to the mine that lay up the mountain. Each night when he returned home, covered in the dust of the mines and exhausted from a hard day’s labor, he ate dinner quickly and went right to work on projects around the homestead. Though she was responsible for the day to day work, he was the one who repaired the equipment and structures on the property. When he was not fixing one thing or another, he was building new fences and buildings to meet their needs as winter approached.
Each day, she rose before him to prepare his breakfast and each night she waited for him to arrive home before she ate her own dinner. He told her at each meal that it was not necessary that she exhaust herself by keeping his schedule, but she had no plans to stop. She enjoyed caring for people. For years, she had cared for the children younger than her at the orphanage. Now though, Terrance was the only person that she had to care for. Knowing how hard he worked for them and their future together, she decided early on that she was going to make sure that his life was as comfortable as she could make it.
During those first weeks, he remained distant. Any moment that he was on the homestead was spent working or sleeping. Those meals together were the only time that they spent together as husband and wife. Though they were not close, they shared a mutual appreciation for each other. It was that appreciation that led things between them to finally begin to change.
One particular day, as Terrance was making his way home from the mine, he spied her in the corral he had just finished with a particularly difficult pony that he had had on the homestead for months. He had thought it would be a good animal to have to pull small carts or to help drag lumber. The animal, however, had other ideas. It had been a stubborn creature from the start, unwilling to allow him to get close enough to even put a harness on it. He had decided weeks before that he was going to drag the thing to town next time he went to sell it for whatever he could get.
With Lacy, though, it appeared to be a different creature. He stood still, as though frozen, mesmer
ized by her gentle manner with the animal. Slowly, she approached the difficult creature. It appeared at ease with her immediately and she used one fluid motion to place the cart harness around its center. The animal did not fight or bolt when she did. Instead, it took a step towards her and took an apple that she offered it directly from her hand. He had known she was a hard worker, but to see her like that changed something within him. Suddenly, he wanted to know more about the gentle creature he saw before him. Perhaps, she could calm the raging storm within him as she had done for the pony.
That night at dinner, after she had served him and sat down to her won plate, he decided that he needed to truly engage with the woman who was now his wife.
“That was good work with that horse today,” he said, slightly amused by the look of surprise on her face. Clearly, she had not realized she was being observed. He had been, by necessity, so aware of his surroundings for so long that it warmed his heart to see the sweet innocence of a woman who could allow herself to be completely absorbed in a moment.
“Thank you,” she said, blushing.
