Mail Order Motherhood (Brides of Beckham)

by Kirsten Osbourne

  Cooking on the fancy stove was a bit strange, but she quickly found her stride. By the time she heard footsteps overhead, she was scooping the scrambled eggs into two bowls, and she quickly buttered the last of the toast. She had found a jar of preserves in the cellar as well, and put them out with the rest of the meal. She had just finished pouring milk for the children and coffee for herself and Albert when he reached the bottom of the stairs.

  “I woke the children and told them to dress and come down,” he told her. He stood awkwardly for a moment, watching her work.

  “Thank you. I was just about to go up and wake everyone.” He was wearing a pair of work pants and a button up flannel shirt. She’d purchased some flannel and decided one of her first projects would be to make Clarence some flannel work shirts like Albert wore. She could already see the hero worship forming in her son’s eyes, and she would do whatever she could to foster that and help it grow. A boy needed a man to look up to, and Clarence had been fatherless for too long.

  The children rushed down the stairs one at a time. She was surprised to see how excited Robert and Gertie were when they saw the scrambled eggs. It was as if Christmas morning had come early. “Eggs!” Gertie squealed. “You made eggs!”

  Clara nodded slowly. “Do you like eggs?” She couldn’t tell if the child was upset that she was making eggs or happy about it.

  “Oh, yes! I love eggs.” She took her place at the table and immediately heaped a serving of eggs onto her plate before putting some on Robert’s plate for him. She stared down at the eggs with a big smile while she waited impatiently for Albert to say the prayer.

  Albert stared at his daughter with a half-smile on his face, shaking his head. “Stop being silly and bow your head so we can pray.”

  “Thank God for the eggs, Papa. Please!”

  Albert sighed, and Clara looked between the three of them. She wasn’t going to ask now, but she knew she could get Gertie to tell her what was happening later. She was a great deal more forthcoming than her father was.

  After they finished eating, both girls immediately went to the sink to work on the dishes, and Clara was thankful Albert had started that the night before. It would be easy to always have the girls do the dishes now that he’d asked them to do them the first night.

  Albert and Clarence left, headed for the barn to do the milking and gather eggs before they left to do their fence mending for the day. When they brought the eggs and milk in, she thanked them both. Clarence’s chest was puffed up with pride that he was actually helping on a ranch even though he was doing the same work he’d done on their farm back home.

  As soon as they headed out, Clara started a huge pot of beans soaking. She’d add a little bacon, and they’d have a filling meal of beans for lunch, and possibly for supper, because she was certain Albert had forgotten the chicken he’d promised her.

  While the girls washed the dishes, Clara swept the floor, and knew she’d need to mop it before they could go on with their day. She hated to work in a dirty kitchen. She sent the girls upstairs to make the beds while she scrubbed the floor, and then they mixed the dough for some fresh loaves of bread together.

  Clara had always enjoyed working in the kitchen with Natalie, and it wasn’t until she worked with the much younger child, that she realized just how capable Natalie had become in the kitchen. She was proud of her daughter and her abilities.

  Natalie went to get the cream while Clara and Gertie cleaned the butter churn. Natalie came up with the cream and Clara set the two girls to work churching the butter, Natalie’s hands over Gertie’s, while she formed the bread dough into dinner rolls. She thought everyone would enjoy having dinner rolls with their beans and fresh butter for lunch.

  While they worked, she asked Gertie, “Why were you and Robert so excited to have eggs for breakfast?”

  Gertie sighed heavily. “Papa can’t cook. Anything. We went to town once a week to buy bread, and we had bread and jam for every single meal. I love jam, but not for every meal!”

  Clara bit her lip to keep from snickering. The man had needed a wife a great deal more than he’d let on. She promised herself that she’d cook good meals for her new family, if only to make up for all the jam sandwiches they’d had in the past few months. “What’s your favorite dessert?” she asked.

  Gertie thought about that for a moment. “I really like gingerbread.

  Do you know how to make gingerbread?” Her face was hopeful as she looked at her new step-mother.

  Clara smiled. “I’ll look and see if we have the ingredients, and if we do, I’ll make a big pan of gingerbread and some whipped cream for dessert tonight. Would you like that?”

  “Oh yes!”

  Natalie rolled her eyes. “I like pie, Mama.” She made it clear that her needs still needed to be met as well.

  Clara sighed, looking at her daughter. “You had pie on the train, Natalie. How long has it been since you’ve had gingerbread, Gertie?”

  “Since before Christmas.”

  Natalie groaned. “I guess we’re having gingerbread, aren’t we?”

  “You like gingerbread, Natalie. What’s the problem?”

  Natalie just shrugged her shoulders and continued to churn the butter. She didn’t say anything else, but Clara could see something was bothering her. She’d have to talk to her about it when they were alone.

  The three of them spent the day doing chores. They scrubbed walls, windows, and floors. They baked bread, and cooked the beans. Clara found the ingredients for gingerbread and carefully showed both girls how to make it, happy that she had another girl to teach. Clara had always wanted a houseful of children, and there just hadn’t been any more after Clarence. She was happy to get two more from her new marriage.

  She tried not to let herself think about Albert and his rejection of her the previous night. She didn’t really want to sleep with her new husband yet anyway. She barely knew him, and the mere idea of having relations with another man felt as if she were betraying Nathan. She’d loved her husband with everything inside her, and she couldn’t imagine letting another man take his place in her bed…or in her heart.

  When Clarence and Albert came home for lunch, they seemed like they’d become closer during the day. Albert put his hand on Clarence’s shoulder and told him what a good job he’d done that morning. After their prayer, she asked, “Was Clarence a good help?”

  Albert nodded. “He held the wire in place so I could nail it in. It’s been a hard job to do by myself all these years, and I’m glad to have another man around who can help me.”

  Clara smiled at her son, letting him know without words how proud she was of him. “Will he be going out with you again this afternoon?”

  “He’ll be going with me every afternoon. I need his help.”

  Clarence all but glowed with the pride the words filled him with. He ate more than she’d ever seen him eat in a single sitting, but he’d done a man’s work, so that made sense to her.

  “What’s your favorite dessert?” she asked Albert as she ate her own food.

  He eyed her for a moment, before finally answering, “Pie, but I don’t need you to go out of your way to make it for me.” He didn’t really want her to do nice things like that for him. He wanted to be able to keep her at arms-length, and he couldn’t really do that if she was constantly going out of her way to do nice things for him.

  She grinned at Natalie. “That’s Natalie’s favorite as well. If I make it, both of you will enjoy it.” She looked at Robert, who had played quietly all morning. “What’s your favorite dessert, Robert?” She winked at her daughter, pleased to be making two people happy and not just one.

  Robert shrugged. “I like them all. Cake, pie, gingerbread, muffins, and even candy!” He bounced in his chair as he said the words, making it clear that if it was sweet, and she made it, he would eat it.

  Clara laughed. “Well, you’ll be easy to please then!”

  Albert reached over and ruffled his son’s hair with a sm
ile. “He’ll eat just about anything you put in front of him. Especially now.”

  Clara didn’t ask why especially now, because she understood. After the girls finished the lunch dishes she looked at the pot of beans and realized there were still more than enough for supper. Since she’d made dessert to go with it, she wouldn’t worry about serving the same thing twice in one day.

  “Let’s go for a walk this afternoon,” she suggested. She was hoping there would be some fruits they could pick on the ranch or something she could use to spice up her cooking.

  The girls readily agreed. They’d done a lot of what needed to be done that day, and she was happy to give them a rest. Robert skipped along behind them, happy he didn’t have to nap.

  They found some apple trees, and she looked at the apples on the ground, but they were all full of worms and decayed. “It may be too late in the year for us to pick apples,” she said with a sigh.

  “The apples up in the tree still look okay, Mama,” Natalie protested. “Do you want me to climb it and get some?”

  Clara thought about it for a moment, and back home, she’d have agreed in a heartbeat. Here they were just too far from a doctor if one of them fell. “I don’t think so.” She looked at it carefully, thinking about it. She could almost reach the lowest apples. “I know! Robert, do you want to get on my shoulders and pick apples? You can drop them to Gertie. Natalie, I’ll need you behind me, helping to make sure he doesn’t fall.”

  Robert nodded, his hair flopping with the movement. “I’m going to have to cut your hair soon,” she told him absently. It looked as if it hadn’t been cut in six months, and when she thought about when his mother had died, she realized she was probably right. Albert needed a good sheering too.

  She picked him up and settled him onto her shoulders, allowing him to kneel there. His weight wasn’t enough that it bothered her, but it gave him enough of a boost that he could reach at least some of the apples. Clara held him by his thighs, while Natalie stood behind her mother with her hands against his bottom, to keep him from falling.

  He giggled over and over, obviously enjoying being up so high and picking the apples. He would drop one, and Gertie would catch it. She made a pouch out of the front of her skirt to carry them all in. When her skirt was filled, she said, “That’s all I can carry.”

  Clara looked down at the amount they’d gotten and made a face. It was probably enough for two pies, but not many more. “Does your papa have a ladder in the barn?” she asked.

  Gertie nodded. “He does. We could come back tomorrow with the ladder and pick a lot more!”

  Clara smiled. “We’ll do just that.” She carefully lowered Robert to the ground. Walking to Gertie, she made a pouch out of her apron, and had the girls pass the apples to her. She didn’t want Gertie to be burdened with the weight of them on the way home.

  They continued walking, going back a different way, and found some fresh berries. “We’ll come back and pick those after supper tonight. We’ll bring some buckets. We’ll make fresh jam, applesauce, and lots of pie filling for the winter.”

  The children were obviously happy that she was thinking forward to the sweets they’d want to eat when winter came. They hurried back to the house and she found an empty barrel for the apples. It had apparently once held flour, but it would work for now.

  During dinner that evening, she brought up her plan of picking berries that evening and apples the following day. Albert shook his head. “We’ll get the apples tonight while Clarence and I can help, and tomorrow you four can get the berries. It doesn’t make sense for you to be climbing on a ladder when Clarence and I can do it tonight.”

  So they soaked the dinner dishes instead of washing them right away, wanting to save on daylight. The six of them carried three burlap bags and a ladder to the apple tree, and Albert held the ladder while Clarence climbed it. They were able to fill all three bags with apples. Clara was delighted. “This will make our winter so much tastier!”

  On the way back, she spotted some wild pumpkin in the dim light of the setting sun. There were only three of them, so she took one that she carried under one arm while she carried a burlap bag over the other. Both Gertie and Robert were given the job of carrying a pumpkin as well.

  By the time they reached the house, they all had sore arms. Clara followed Albert into the barn as he put the ladder away. “The girls are tired. They’ve worked all day. I’m going to let them go to bed, and I’ll see to the dishes myself.”

  Albert shook his head. “No. They need to know that no matter how tired you are, you don’t go to bed without finishing all of your responsibilities.”

  She wanted to argue with him, but she knew he was right. The children did need to learn to be more responsible. “All right.” She hated asking the girls to do it, but she would, because she wanted to raise the best girls she could.

  They walked up to the house and saw that the girls already had the job half done. There were bags full of apples leaning against the walls in the kitchen while the pumpkins sat on the floor. She had a lot of work ahead of her to get everything canned before it went bad, and she knew she wasn’t going to pass up the chance for berries the next day. Blackberries had always been her favorite, and she was going to have lots of blackberry pies through the winter. The patch had been a big one, and she was going to take full advantage. It was a good way to teach the girls to work while the sun shined as well.

  It was obvious to her that Albert felt very strongly about instilling a strong work ethic in all four of their children, and with that as his philosophy, she was going to make sure she worked hard to do the same with them.

  Her new husband may not want to be married to her, but she knew that he would be a good father to her children, and a good provider for them all, so she couldn’t complain. He seemed to be a good man, but he was very obviously still a sad one over the death of his first wife.

  She still missed Nathan every day, but she’d had two years of back-breaking work to distance herself from his horrible death. He’d been out working the fields one day and hadn’t come home. She’d found him there on the ground. The doctor had said his heart had just given out. He’d been such a young man, it had seemed ridiculous to her that he could die that way, but she couldn’t argue.

  After she got the children to bed, she went back down the stairs, wondering if Albert would be willing to talk to her. She did miss adult conversation a great deal. She poured herself a glass of milk, and sat at the table across from him. “Is there anything in particular you want me to do first? Around the house I mean?”

  He gave her a blank look and shrugged. “I don’t even know what needs to be done. I tried to keep everything up, but I’ve never kept house in my life. I’ve never cooked a meal that didn’t end up in the trash either.”

  “You’ve done a good job with the house. Better than I did with the farm I tried to run.” She smiled at him to let him know she understood. “I’m planning on going out and picking the berries with the children in the morning. Then we’ll spend the next couple of days canning everything to have it ready for the winter.” She didn’t know why she was explaining it to him when he obviously didn’t care, but she needed to talk to someone. “Do you know if there are other vegetables or fruits that would be ripe about now that I could can for the winter?”

  He shrugged again. “My wife did all that.”

  “Okay.” She asked something she’d been worried about for a while. “Do you think we could head into town and buy more supplies before the snows start? I’m worried we’ll be stuck here.”

  “I’ll make another trip into town at the end of this week or beginning of next. If you’ll make me a list of what you need, I’ll take Clarence, and we’ll get enough for the winter. Usually, we can get through on the sleigh, but I can’t make any promises. Some winters are worse than others.”

  She nodded. “I’ll make the list. I’d like more food and some fabric so I can make the girls some more clothes. Both need a co
uple more.” She looked down at her dress. “This is the only work dress I have that isn’t old and patched over and over. I need to make some more for me as well. Clarence needs shirts. I’m sure Robert does also. Sewing is a good way for me to keep the girls occupied in the winter. They need to be able to keep their hands busy, so their minds won’t be idle.”

  “Just write it all down, and I’ll take care of it.”

  “I have some money from selling my things before I left Massachusetts. I’ll give it to you before you go.”

  He shook his head. “I don’t need your money. I make more than enough to support this family. Save it for when Natalie marries, and she needs things to set up a household.” He hated the idea of using the money she’d made before coming there. If they were destitute, he wouldn’t hesitate, but he made good money, and there was just no need.

  Clara nodded, not liking his answer, but agreeing to do as he said. “I’ll do that then.” She stood up, taking her glass to the sink and rinsing it out. “Good night.”

  He seemed lost in thought as she left the room, and she didn’t feel his eyes watching her as she climbed the stairs.

  Albert sighed as soon as she was out of sight. He rested his elbows on the table and put his face in his hands. He’d never dreamed that having a woman around the house would wake up the old desires in him. He’d truly thought he was immune and would never feel passion again without Sally. Now here was this new wife of his, working hard for his family, and doing it so prettily.

  He liked that she worked so hard, but why couldn’t she have a wart on the end of her nose, or be unattractive in some other way? How was he going to be able to resist her forever? He needed to be able to help his children remember his wife forever. Why was it that it was so hard to remember Sally when Clara was in the room?