Mail Order Maternity (Brides of Beckham)

by Osbourne, Kirsten

  Once the wagon was ready, she walked over beside him and he helped her up. She was half afraid some of the sickness would come back, but she wasn’t going to admit that to him. They’d been traveling for about five minutes before she was able to relax and enjoy the scenery. “I really was scared the ride would make me queasy, but it’s not bothering me at all.”

  He smiled. “Good. I want us to be able to enjoy the day today.”

  She scooted closer to him on the wagon seat, realizing their arms touching as they did was probably inappropriate in public, but she enjoyed being close to him, and they were married after all. Proprieties didn’t seem to matter quite as much here as they had back East, either. It was as if she were living in an entirely different world, instead of just across the country from her home town.

  “Why are there so few trees?” she asked.

  He shrugged. “I really don’t know, but it makes for good farmland. It’s no fun to have to clear stumps all the time to try to have enough land to grow a decent sized crop.”

  “That makes sense.” She sighed. When she was young she’d had a large tree house. Her child would never see that. “Where do you get lumber for houses here?”

  “You have to buy it, and it’s really expensive. We got ours out East and I went back and drove them out. It took load after load.” He shook his head. “Most people in the area just build sod houses, but neither of us wanted to do that. It cost a lot of money, but I’m happy with my house. I shouldn’t have done it, in retrospect, but I’m glad I have the comfort of my wood home.”

  “I understand.” She didn’t know how she’d have felt about living in a sod house, but she was sure she would have adjusted. She wasn’t picky and could adapt to most things easily. “It’s a wonderful house. Much better than I expected when I agreed to marry a homesteader in Kansas.”

  He grinned over at her, taking her hand in his. “I’m glad you agreed to marry this homesteader.”

  “I am too.” She rested her head on his shoulder for a moment. “I think this is a good place to raise the baby, and you’ve gone out of your way to make me welcome.”

  “It’s nice to have company and someone to cook for me,” he said with a smile.

  She laughed. “I’m sure it is. I don’t know how you did it before. Did you meet up with other families during the week, or was it just you all the time except Sunday?”

  He shrugged. “It was usually just me. Sundays were always a bit of a relief because I’d get to hear voices other than my own.”

  “I’m glad I’m here with you, then.” Yes, she still missed Beckham. She missed her parents and Charlie. She missed Harriett. But she was glad to be with a man who treated her well, and she was thrilled to be away from her mother-in-law. She’d been very afraid the crotchety old woman would have tried to take her baby from her, and that wasn’t going to happen here. There was no way she’d even find out there was a baby from this distance.

  Their relationship was still awkward to her way of thinking, but it probably should be. When she’d married Charlie, she’d known him since they’d started school together. When she’d gotten off the train in Lindsborg it was with the understanding that she’d be sharing the same intimacies as she had with Charlie, but without getting to know her new husband first. How could the situation not be awkward?

  Esther appreciated all he’d done to make her feel wanted and loved. He’d really been good for her, accepting her and the baby without question. She hoped that Harriett would find someone who was just as good to her as Thomas.

  Thomas looked down at Esther, noting she was lost in thought. He loved to look at his pretty wife. It seemed so strange to him that she’d headed West as a mail order bride instead of just finding a man in her home town. Unless there were simply no men there, she would not have had a problem finding one. Her hair was a light brown and her eyes were a deep chocolate. Nothing else about her could be described as ordinary. Her waist was tiny, but her breasts were full, and her hips were wide. He hoped that meant childbirth would be easy for her.

  As she stared off at the scenery, he couldn’t help but wonder what she was thinking about. Did she spend her time missing her first husband? Did she still cry over him? Or was she moving on and thinking of him as the man she loved now? He hoped that was the case, but he had no way of knowing. He knew she didn’t love him yet, and he really didn’t expect her to. How could he? She’d known him for two weeks, but she’d known Charlie her whole life.

  He had mixed feelings about Charlie. In a way, he was jealous of him. Sure, the man was dead, but he’d held Esther’s heart during his life, and Thomas found he wanted Esther to love him the way she’d loved her late husband. He also felt as if he had an obligation to Charlie, as if it was his job to make sure that Esther and the baby were taken care of, because they didn’t belong to him entirely. They also belonged to Charlie. It was strange, but it worked for him.

  He squeezed her hand. “What are you thinking about?”

  She shrugged. “The woman who runs the mail order agency in Beckham.”

  “Harriett Long, right?”

  “Yeah. I never met her until a few days after Charlie died, even though we lived in the same town. At the time I met her, I walked into town every morning to sell my extra eggs so I would have a little money. After walking to the mercantile, I’d go to her house for tea. We spent hours and hours talking. She was so different from me, but we became such good friends.”

  He nodded to encourage her to keep talking. “How was she different?”

  “Harriett was a young widow, so somewhat like me, but she had some kind of secret. I think her ex-husband was mean to her, but I’m not sure. She never talked about him.” She stared off into space as she talked about her friend. “And she’s rich. I’d never seen a home as fine as the one she lived in.”

  “If she was rich, why did she have a business? Did she need more money for some reason?”

  Esther shrugged. “I honestly never asked. We talked about a lot of things, but she didn’t talk much about her life. She was a really private person. I really miss her.”

  “Have you written her?”

  Esther’s eyes widened. “I haven’t! I got so distracted once I was here. I’ll have to write her a letter and send it while we’re in town today.”

  “Is that a problem?” He was confused. Was she required to write her for some reason?

  “I promised her I’d write as soon as I got here because I didn’t want her to worry about me.” She wanted to kick herself.

  “Write her today. I’m sure it will be fine.”

  Esther nodded. “I hope so. She’s supposed to leave soon for her own wedding. She decided to be a mail order bride as well.” Esther realized then that she knew a lot about Harriett’s plans for the future, but little about her present and nothing at all about her past. How odd.

  The drive passed pleasantly with her asking him questions about his upbringing in Kentucky. He and Samuel were the only boys and had four sisters. They’d decided to move West because of the offer of free land. Samuel had only been sixteen when they left Kentucky, but they’d fibbed about his age when they went to file for his homestead. He’d been doing a man’s work for two years and saw no need to wait until he was twenty-one to have his own land.

  He’d saved every dime he’d earned before heading to Kansas and had a significant amount to start his life with, which is how he’d been able to afford the lumber for his house.

  “Weren’t you scared? Leaving your parents at such a young age?”

  He shrugged. “Not really. I had Samuel and Victoria with me. The first night I ever spent alone was right here in Kansas on my very own land. It was an amazing feeling for me.” He looked down at her. “Was it hard for you to leave behind everything you knew and come out here?”

  She laughed. “I was petrified. I was even more nervous that my mother-in-law would try to take my baby from me, though. She was so angry with me for marrying her son.” She looked of
f in the distance. “I never told her I was pregnant, so she won’t be looking for me. You don’t have to worry about that.”

  He stared at her in silence. “Would she really try to take the baby?”

  Esther nodded. “She would. She loved my husband and would do anything to keep his child close to her.”

  “Your mother won’t tell her, will she?”

  “No. My mother knows how much she hated me.”

  He squeezed her hand. “Look, off in the distance. Can you see it?”

  She stared ahead of her and nodded slowly. “What is that?”

  “That’s where we’re headed. It’s Lindsborg. That’s the town the train brought you to.” He was excited that they were almost there.

  “It looks different.”

  “That’s probably because you don’t have vomit on your eyelashes obscuring your vision now.” He bit his cheek to keep from laughing as he said the words.

  She turned to him and sighed. “I still can’t figure out why you didn’t send me right back to Beckham. How could you have married someone who was so disgusting?”

  He shrugged. “I’d made a promise to you and I wasn’t going to go back on it just because you were sick. I did hope you’d be better looking after you got cleaned up, though.”

  She grinned. “And was I?”

  “I couldn’t even tell you were the same person after the bath you took at the pastor’s house. I’d never seen anyone so covered in vomit in my life.” He didn’t add that after she’d cleaned up he’d thought she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.

  She stifled a giggle. She could just imagine how excited he was as he stood there waiting for his bride, and then he ended up with a girl who was covered with vomit from head to toe and smelled accordingly. The man was a saint for not leaving her right there at the train station.

  Within minutes of seeing the city, he’d pulled up in front of the doctor’s house. “I’ve never been here, but he’s the only doctor in town. Victoria says he’s good. She had to take one of the kids to him once.”

  He held his hands up and lifted her down from the wagon. Usually he just held her hand to steady her, so she was surprised when he just gripped her waist and set her on the ground.

  “I’m nervous,” she told him, staring at the collar of his shirt.

  “Why?”

  She shrugged. “I’ve only ever seen one doctor in my life, and he was the one who delivered me and buried my husband.”

  Thomas squeezed her hand. “I’ll be right beside you.”

  They walked to the office around the side of the doctor’s home and Thomas knocked on the door. Within moments a man who looked to be in his sixties with stark white hair came to the door. “May I help you?”

  Thomas nodded. “My wife is in the family way, and she had some bleeding. She saw a mid-wife, but I’ll feel better if she’s checked out by a doctor as well.”

  The doctor opened the door wide. “I’m Dr. Simmons.”

  “My sister-in-law says you’re a good doctor. Do you know Victoria Wilson?”

  The doctor’s eyes widened. “Yes, of course. She’s a good midwife and very skilled with medicine herself. It’s a shame women can’t be doctors. She’d have made an excellent nurse, though.”

  Esther followed Thomas inside the small examining room and waited to find out what she should do.

  “Were there any activities that precipitated the bleeding?” Doctor Simmons asked after waving them both to sit.

  Thomas nodded. “We’d had relations the night before.”

  Esther stared at him. Did he still think that caused it? “I think the bleeding was caused when I ran through the fields. I was searching for my husband and starting to panic. Within a couple of hours, I realized I was bleeding.”

  “I see.” Dr. Simmons looked between the two of them. “If I had to make a guess, I would think it was caused by the running.” He looked at Esther. “I’ll need to examine you. Why don’t you get undressed while your husband and I talk for a moment?”

  Thomas followed the doctor out of the room and stood with him outside the door. He was embarrassed by the subject, but he wasn’t willing to do anything to hurt his new wife. “You don’t think it was the relations?”

  The doctor shook his head emphatically. “I’m of the opinion that relations are good for a woman who is expecting. How far along is she?”

  Thomas shrugged. He should know that, shouldn’t he? “I think about three months or a little more.”

  “So she’s started her second trimester?” At Thomas’s nod, Dr. Simmons continued. “Most women feel more inclined toward relations during their second trimester. I wouldn’t be afraid of that if I were you.” He turned toward the examining room door and knocked softly. “Are you ready?”

  Esther was lying on the bed under a sheet when Thomas peeked in. “I’d rather you wait out here,” Dr. Simmons said as he shut the door in his face.

  Thomas was left to pace the hall, wondering what was going on behind the closed door. He wished he could have been by her side for the exam, but it sounded as if it was going to be a very intimate exam. He wasn’t sure how he felt about another man, even a doctor, seeing his wife without her clothes, though.

  Finally after several minutes had passed, the doctor opened the door and looked over his shoulder at Esther. “Go ahead and get dressed. I’m going to spend a minute talking to your husband.” He turned to Thomas. “She’s in perfect health. She said she had a hard time with morning sickness, but that’s passed.”

  Thomas nodded. “So she’s okay?”

  Dr. Simmons nodded emphatically. “There’s nothing wrong with her, other than being a little underweight, but that was caused by the morning sickness. She’s going to be just fine.”

  Thomas breathed a sigh of relief. “And the baby?”

  “Baby seems to be fine as well. Victoria is as knowledgeable about childbirth as I am, if not more so. You didn’t need to come all this way to see me.” The doctor knocked on the door again. When Esther called out, he opened it. “You’re ready to go.”

  Esther smiled and nodded at the doctor. “Thank you.”

  Thomas stuck his hand into his pocket for some money. “How much do I owe you, doc?”

  Once they’d settled up, Thomas led Esther out of the office and into the fresh air. “Feel better now?” Esther asked with a grin.

  “I do!” He stroked his hand down her arm. “Thank you for humoring me. This daddy thing is new to me, and I need to learn as I go.”

  Esther laughed softly. “I know.” She looked around the small town, not nearly as big as Beckham. “What now?”

  “Are you hungry?” he asked.

  She grinned. “I’m pregnant and couldn’t eat for several weeks because of morning sickness. I’m ravenous!”

  Chapter Seven

  They left the wagon where it was and walked the short distance to the restaurant. Esther was intimidated by the pristine linen tablecloths and the perfectly arranged tables. The maître d led them to a table in front of the windows, and they each ordered a glass of water. While they were waiting they perused the menu.

  After a moment, she closed her menu. “Will you just order for me, please?”

  He nodded and closed his menu as well. “I’d be happy to.”

  They each had chicken, a salad, and a potato. The food was good, but certainly not good enough for the prices they’d charged. Esther never wanted to eat there again. She was happier feeding her family for a week on the amount of money they spent on the one meal.

  Afterward, they walked back to the wagon, and he drove them to the mercantile. While he was talking to the shopkeeper to get the order for the community, she looked through the different fabrics. She found two that she liked for herself, and found some plain white linen for the baby’s first clothes. She had found scraps at the homestead, and she would use them to sew another quilt for the baby before he arrived.

  She picked up a length of flannel for diapers and
some thread and walked to the front. The money in her purse would be more than enough for what she needed.

  Thomas looked down at the small pile in front of her. “Do you have enough?” he asked in a whisper.

  “I should.” She’d checked the amount of cash she had, and it should be enough with a little bit left over.

  “The doctor wasn’t as expensive as I expected,” he explained. “You can get more if you need it.”

  She smiled and rushed off to find a length of blue fabric. It would be perfect to make him some work shirts from.

  When she got back to the counter with the cloth for Thomas, he handed her a pencil and a piece of paper. “For your letter to Mrs. Long.”

  She smiled and gave him the money she had with her, before walking to the end of the counter to quickly write a letter to Harriett. She hoped her friend hadn’t worried too much about her. Hopefully she’d understand how hard it was to mail something with as far out of town as they lived.

  “Dear Harriett, I’m so sorry I forgot to write immediately. My morning sickness was horrible on the train, and it’s been hectic since I got here. Thomas is a good man and I’m happy to be married to him. He treats me very well. I hope your marriage is as good as mine. I’ll write when I have more time. I’m standing at the counter of the mercantile so I can mail this before I leave town. Best wishes, Esther.”

  Esther folded the letter and quickly scrawled Harriett’s address. She walked back to Thomas. “Where is the post office?”

  The shopkeeper looked up. “You must be new around here. I’m the postmaster.”

  “Oh.” She handed the man her letter, wishing there was a separate post office so she would feel more comfortable putting it in someone else’s hands. “What do I owe you?”

  She handed him some change and turned to watch as Thomas picked up a large wooden box full of goods and walked to the wagon with it. She followed him out, got onto the seat by herself and waited for him to finish loading the wagon. She’d enjoyed the brief time shopping, but she was ready to go home and spend the day with her new husband.