Lauraine Snelling - [Red River of the North 02]

by A New Day Rising

  He caught the look of concern that Agnes shot Ingeborg and the way the woman edged closer to her friend. Kaaren, too, found her way to her sister-in-law’s side. A hush fell over the group as Abel Polinski looped the reins around the broken brake handle and climbed to the ground. Instead of helping his wife down and removing the harness from his team, he left them and ambled toward the gathering. Mrs. Polinski climbed over the wheel. Her brood tumbled out the back of the wagon, and though she tried to straighten the hair of one girl and smooth the youngest’s dress, it didn’t do much for the look of them. They were a sorry lot indeed.

  Joseph and Agnes welcomed the newcomers as they had all the others, only this time their greeting was more than a mite forced. “You know all the others here?” Joseph asked.

  “Other’n those two over there, and by the look of them eyes, they must be Bjorklunds.” Abel pointed to Haakan and then Hjelmer.

  Joseph finished the introductions and called the meeting to order. Everyone began singing “Holy, Holy, Holy” as if their lives depended upon it.

  Haakan felt a deep ripple go through his chest. He looked down at the woman beside him, her contralto voice carrying the alto line as if she had a hymnbook in front of her. She held Andrew on one hip and her other hand rested on Thorliff’s shoulder. Dear Lord, make this my family, please. Why else did you bring me out here. It certainly wasn’t in my plans. He laid his hand on Thorliff’s other shoulder and joined in the next stanza.

  By the time the service was over and dinner had been set out, it was obvious to everyone that Hjelmer had a problem. Mary Ruth Strand picked up real quick that Hjelmer and Penny Sjornson had eyes for each other, and she didn’t like it one bit. Though she smiled sweetly and her trilling laugh could be heard frequently, all was not well.

  Haakan caught the surreptitious glances between the adults and the gentle snickerings behind hands and handkerchiefs.

  Polinski soon revealed the reason he’d driven this far to join the worship, and it wasn’t because he longed to hear the Word and sing the hymns. “I just want to know if any of you here are interested in buying me out. I’m asking two dollars an acre, and I got half a section there with about twenty acres broke.”

  “Twenty?” Joseph asked. “Looks to me more like maybe ten and part of that ain’t backset.”

  “Wa-ll there’s a sod house on it, and that ought to be worth something, too. Dowser said there was water, but I ain’t had time to dig me a well.” Abel pushed a felt hat back on his head that looked like the dog had used it for a pillow. “It’s good land, nary a rock on it, and we ain’t too far from a crick.”

  “Is the crick on your land?” Haakan asked.

  “Don’t rightly think so, but since that section belongs to the gov’-ment fer schools, nobody never said I couldn’t draw water from it. It went purty close to dry last summer, anyhows.”

  Haakan leaned close to Joseph’s shoulder so only he could hear. “Seems a bit much for unbroken land.”

  Joseph gave a barely perceptible nod. “And the soddy ain’t worth nothing but pulling down. The man never did put a weatherproof roof on it. Miracle they didn’t all freeze to death last winter.” He turned his head slightly toward Haakan. “I thought he had a full section so he had timber rights like the rest of us.”

  Haakan nodded. “I see.”

  “You thinkin’ on it?”

  Haakan nodded again. He looked up to see Ingeborg watching him with one eyebrow raised, curiosity rampant in her gaze.

  “Better not wait too long. If’n he gets to the bank, they’ll snap those homestead rights up in a minute and jack the price out of sight. I’d buy it if I didn’t think I’d do better investing in more machinery right now. I bid on more land and Agnes is gonna make me sleep in the barn.”

  “Let me tell you, it’s fine for a time, but come winter, I’d rather be back in a real bed.”

  “That so?” Joseph glanced over at Ingeborg and back at Haakan. He tipped his hat back. “ ’Pears to me that spring has bit more’n just the young sprouts here.”

  “Just keep your ‘pears’ to yourself.” Haakan slapped the man on the shoulder.

  “Ja, well, let me give you some advice. You take good care of her or you got others to answer to. If’n I were you, I wouldn’t want to get on the bad side of these women here. They might tear you limb from limb if you hurt our Ingeborg. She’s seen hurt enough.” He glanced over at the other men grouped together where a laugh had just erupted. “Let alone the men.”

  “You’ll know soon enough if she accepts me.” Haakan joined the others around the table, and they sang the grace together. After filling their plates, everyone found a place to sit and enjoyed the visit as well as the food.

  After they were all done eating and Polinski was herding his brood back to the wagon, Haakan stopped him just before he slapped the lines over the sorry pair they called a team of horses. “How about if I come over tomorrow and look your place over?”

  “Wa-ll now, that would be right fine, you know.” Polinski shot a gob of tobacco over the wheel. “I’m right glad to know there is someone here who is interested. We’ll be seein’ ya, then.”

  “Are you serious?”

  Haakan had been staring after the rickety rig and didn’t hear Ingeborg come up.

  “Yes, I am. Guess I’ve grown to like the flat prairie after all, much to my surprise. Of course, the people here might have something to do with that.” He gave her a look fit to set the fires burning inside.

  “You’d give up logging?”

  “Yes and no. Yes, I wouldn’t go back to the north woods unless I could do that in the winter to make some extra money. But I think I would do better setting up a mill of my own. There’s plenty of hardwood along the riverbanks, and if we cut and sawed that into lumber instead of just firewood, might be a pretty good cash crop.”

  “Sounds like you’ve given this some thought?”

  “Guess you could say that, yes.”

  Ingeborg reached down and picked up Andrew, who was tugging at her skirts. “I wish you all the best.” She turned at a call from Agnes. “Let me know when you are ready to leave for home.”

  Haakan strolled over to a group of men gathered by the corral.

  “So, you heard any more about when the railroad is coming through?” asked one of the men.

  Haakan shook his head. “Nor where. If you look at a map, a good line would be right through this area on the way to Drayton, if they go this way rather than straight north from Grafton and due east. Of course, they might skip Drayton, too.”

  “Who knows?” The fellow shook his head. He made more a statement than a question.

  Haakan looked across the group to Oscar Strand, who had their attention and was asking about available land.

  “There’s that piece of Po—” Joseph gave the man a sharp jab to the ribs.

  The man coughed, “Excuse me for a minute.” He turned and spit, at the same time looking toward Joseph, who gave a brief shake of his head.

  “What was that?” Strand asked.

  “Oh, nothing.”

  Joseph turned the tide of the conversation to haying, which for most of the farmers was still in full swing. “You want my nephew, Petar, to come cut for you with our new mower? As you can see, all our hay and that of our partners, the Bjorklunds, is stacked and ready for winter.”

  Within minutes Petar had more work than he could manage.

  Haakan looked over to where Hjelmer stood talking with Penny Sjornson and Mary Ruth Strand. If he’d had his head out of the clouds, he could have gotten some extra work, too. Sometimes joining in with the men was important.

  So he will be going away. Ingeborg kept her thoughts veiled behind her eyes, attempting to appear perfectly normal. And sooner than I dreamed—or feared. At least it isn’t as far as the north woods, but I’ll lose my help once again. Good thing Hjelmer will be here. But the thought of having to depend on Roald’s youngest brother didn’t bring a leap of joy to her heart. Only
Haakan did that. Of course he wouldn’t be so far away he couldn’t come help in an emergency. Her thoughts seemed to be having a discussion of their own. So much for having thought they might . . . they might . . . She took in a deep breath and swallowed the tears burning at the back of her throat.

  There was no chance he could work both places. Cleaning up the Polinski mess would take more time than starting from scratch. She hiked Andrew farther up on her hip and leaned her head against the soft down of his hair. That was all right. She and her sons, they would make it. She wouldn’t lose the land, and she’d do what was needed—herself.

  “Thorliff!” She looked around for the group of boys who’d been running and playing all afternoon. “Thorliff, time to go home.”

  “I could come with Hjelmer.” He came to a stop in front of her, blue eyes pleading for a few more moments of play, something he so rarely got to do.

  “No, he might ride home after dark. You say good-bye to your friends and come now.”

  Thorliff did as asked and joined them in the wagon. Haakan clucked to the team and turned them in a wide circle to head east for home. The jingle of the harness, the clupf, clupf of the horses’ hooves in the dust, Thorliff whistling and swinging his legs over the tailgate of the wagon—sounds emanated from everywhere but from the man and woman sitting on the plank seat. Ingeborg had laid Andrew down on the quilts in the back to continue his nap.

  “So, what do you think of my taking over the Polinski place?” Haakan finally asked.

  “Fine, I guess.” She stared at the swaying rumps of the horses in front of her. Even to her own ears, her response sounded about as lukewarm as dishwater sitting all morning and about as appealing.

  “Does that mean you like the idea or you don’t?”

  “I don’t know.” She tried to be flippant but knew she failed even as the words came from her mouth.

  “Ingeborg, what is wrong?” The words dropped into the stillness.

  “Nothing.”

  A bird tweeped and twittered on a thistle by the side of the trail. Another answered. A horse snorted. Thorliff continued to whistle.

  “Ingeborg, I won’t leave you to work again the way you have in the past. I just thought that if you would marry me, we could join the two pieces. I’m not going to homestead it, so I won’t have to remain on the land. I’ll buy the land outright—I think I have enough saved—or I will use some of that for machinery and take out a loan at the bank, like all the other respectable farmers around here.” He waited for her answer, then glanced over to search her face. She kept her gaze straight ahead, chin lifted and shoulders rigid like she didn’t dare move for fear she would crumble or crack. Oh, Inge, my darling Inge. You don’t have to bear it all alone anymore. I am here, and I won’t leave you. Only if God calls me home will I leave.

  He continued to wait, the lines to the horses’ bits easy in his hands.

  A bolt shot through her at the word marry. Marry! He wants to marry me. Haakan Bjorklund wants to marry me. How can I marry him? I don’t love him.

  You don’t? The gentle questioner prodded. Are you sure?

  “But you don’t love me,” she finally blurted out.

  “What makes you think I don’t? You think I would stay around and work like I have been for just anyone?”

  She stared at him with her mouth open. She hadn’t thought along those lines. She was just grateful for all he did.

  “The question is, do you love me? Or do you think you could learn to?” His voice came softly through the late afternoon stillness.

  Ingeborg didn’t say anything. She couldn’t. The incredible joy that welled out when he said he loved her took her breath away. The thought of being alone again had been almost more than she could bear. But is that all she felt? Fear of being alone again? The thoughts ran through her mind as the silence lengthened. She glanced back to check on the children. Andrew still slept soundly in the back of the wagon, and Thorliff was now curled up sleeping on the quilt, also. Birds chirped and twittered in the weeds by the track, and the horses snorted and picked up the pace as they neared home.

  “Well?”

  “Yes.”

  “Yes, what?”

  “Yes, I’ll marry you.”

  “And?”

  “Yes, I love you. The reason I hesitate to say it is because I feel so different this time than I did with Roald.”

  “That is good.”

  “That is good?” Ingeborg looked at him, wondering if he heard her right.

  “That is good because I am a different man than Roald, and after all you’ve been through in the last years, you are a different woman. Our love will be good and will only get better.”

  Ingeborg slipped her hand under his arm and laid her head on his shoulder. The air felt incredibly sweet and gentle, the shoulder under her ear strong and secure.

  Haakan pulled the horses to a halt, and turning on the seat beside her, he grasped her chin with his fingers. He pulled her to him carefully, slowly, as if fearful of breaking the magic of the moment. When she faced him, he tipped his head and fitted his lips to hers. Her sigh of wonder melded their mouths together.

  “I think we should be married soon,” he whispered when he finally released her mouth.

  “How soon is soon?” She leaned into him, resting her forehead against his chin.

  “Next week.”

  “Next week!” Her eyes flew open, and she bolted upright.

  Andrew whimpered from his bed in the quilts.

  “Next week! Are you mad?”

  Three days later, Haakan headed for Grand Forks to settle the deed for his property. The previous day he had spent hassling over the details with Polinski. When he finally convinced the man to accept a lower offer, he also had to volunteer to pay Abel’s way to Grand Forks and back on the riverboat since he wanted the deal done quickly.

  More than once he’d already regretted that decision. Abel Polinski only knew one tune, “poor me.” Haakan wanted to stuff a rag in the man’s mouth. Tossing the lazy brute overboard would have been doing his wife and young’uns a favor. Twice Haakan excused himself and made his way to another part of the noisy vessel, but each time Polinski found him and resumed his litany of despair.

  By the time they’d been to the land office and finalized their deal, Haakan gave the man a brief handshake and left him in the middle of the street. Afraid to look over his shoulder in case Abel followed him, Haakan ducked into a men’s clothing store and stood looking out the window. When the other man finally turned and ambled toward the river again, Haakan breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Can I help you, sir?” a quiet voice behind him asked.

  “Ah, no, no thank you. I’m. . . ah. . .” Haakan started for the door and then thought the better of it. He’d be getting married in just a few days. Wasn’t a man entitled to a new suit for his wedding? “Ah, yes, I guess you can, if we can find something that you can have ready by morning when I catch the paddle boat back upstream. I’d like a new suit.”

  “And what color would you like?”

  “Black.”

  “We have a navy blue one that would look very good on you.” The man looked over his spectacles. “I think I have one in that color that can be made to fit. Here, let me show it to you.”

  A few minutes later, Haakan stared at himself in the mirror. A spanking white shirt complemented a navy jacket with sleeves above his wrists and matching trousers with the same problem. “You can make these fit?”

  “Surely, sir.”

  “Then I’ll take them.” Haakan stood patiently while the man measured his arm and leg lengths. After counting out what was getting close to the last of his money, he promised to return in the morning. Checking to see if Polinski was in sight, he stepped out the door when he saw the coast was clear. Now the bank.

  With the deed in hand, getting a loan was easy. Haakan left that building and headed for the ladies’ dress shop. If he got a new suit, Ingeborg needed a new dress. By the time he finished sho
pping, he had also purchased two sulky plows that would be loaded on the paddle-wheeler in the morning, three books for Thorliff, a red wagon for Andrew, a vise for Hjelmer, ten peppermint sticks, and a white enameled teakettle for Kaaren and Lars. Never in his life had he felt so wealthy. He now owned a half section of land, had money for the needed machinery, and if he had anything to say about it, he’d buy lumber for a new house for his intended the next time he came to town. He knew how much the darkness of the soddy oppressed Ingeborg, and he intended to remedy that situation as quickly as possible.

  He fell asleep dreaming of her rocking in front of a sun-filled window, knitting the socks she turned out so neatly.

  Just before boarding the next day, he found his final gift.

  Lars had the raft ready when the riverboat reached the Bjorklund homestead. He poled out to the paddle boat and Haakan lowered a package to him before swinging down the ladder. The raft tipped a bit when he stepped onto it, and Lars shifted to redistribute the weight. They waved the captain on, and with the toot of the whistle, the swish and thump began again, and the boat continued downstream.

  “So, how was it?” Lars asked.

  “The land is mine.” Haakan thumped his chest where the deed burned a hole in his breast pocket.

  “What about Polinski?”

  “I’m not sure. He wasn’t on the boat.” Haakan looked at Lars and groaned. “He wouldn’t take the money and run out on his family, would he?”

  “I have no idea.” Lars poled them into the shore, then stepped onto land and tied off the raft. Together the two men climbed the low bank to the field above. “I’ve always thought the man a weasel but never dreamed he’d do something like this.”

  “We could be borrowing trouble.”

  “Let’s hope so.” Lars snagged the metal open toe of his boot on a clump of grass and winced.