“Thank you again. I’ll come by when they’re in with the fabric I want. Will three dollars be the regular fee?”
“Unless the dress is extremely complicated, that should be fine.”
“Are you willing to do baby dresses as well?”
“Of course. Anything I can do to help.”
“I’m so glad you moved to town!” She walked toward the front door, carrying her dress under her arm. “I’ll be by Monday. I already have a pattern for my baby’s dress.”
“That sounds good. I should be here.”
Wesley came in the back door while she was saying goodbye to Elizabeth at the front. Malinda glanced at the clock. He was fifteen minutes later than usual. “I’ll see you Monday,” she told Elizabeth.
“Thank you!” Elizabeth hurried to the buggy waiting on the street.
Wesley stood for a moment looking at Malinda as if waiting for an explanation. When she simply hurried to get his food, he asked, “What was that about?”
Malinda bit her lip as she pulled the food out of the oven and served it onto the two plates. “I made her a dress.” What was the best way to tell him?
“When?”
“I’ve been working on it all week.” She sat down opposite him after their plates were fixed.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” He looked genuinely perplexed by her silence on the matter.
She took a deep breath. “Because she paid me to do it, and I didn’t want to upset you.” She stared down at her food as she explained.
He made a face. “Why would that upset me?”
She shrugged. “I didn’t want you to think you weren’t a good provider.”
“So you hid it from me?” He ate his last few bites of food in silence. “That’s not the way a marriage works.”
“I know. I shouldn’t have hidden it from you. I’m sorry.” She was sorry she’d hidden it now that she’d seen his reaction. He didn’t seem to be upset that she felt the need to make money, only that she’d hidden it from him.
“Are you planning on doing more sewing for people?”
She nodded. “I have plenty of time, and I think it would be good for us to save up some money for a rainy day.” She looked down at her plate. “I also want to make curtains and some other things for the house, but there’s no way I could do it all on five dollars a month.”
He stood up, his face hard. “I don’t mind you sewing for people and making a little extra money. What I do mind is you hiding it from me.” He picked up the hat he’d set on the work table when he walked in the door and settled it on his head. “I expect honesty from my wife.” He left, closing the door behind him.
Malinda sat and stared at the closed door for a minute before getting up to wash the dishes. It was only then she realized he’d left without touching the dessert she’d made.
Chapter Eight
As a way to get to know her better, Malinda invited Beatrice over to bake with her the Friday before the bake sale. “What did you agree to make?” she asked as she let Beatrice into the house. She stifled a yawn. She’d been working every spare moment for weeks.
“I’m baking two different kinds of cookies. I’m not very good at baking.” Beatrice made a face. “I’m hoping you know what you’re doing.” She set her crate of ingredients on the table.
Malinda laughed. “I’m not good at cooking, but I love to bake. I’ll help you.” Malinda had already prepared her pies and was just going to bake them later. More than anything she was hoping to get to know Beatrice better. They both needed friends.
“I’m glad at least one of us knows what she’s doing!” Beatrice handed Malinda the recipes she’d been given. “This is what I’m supposed to do. I have all the ingredients.”
Malinda read over the recipes and took a large mixing bowl down off the shelf over the work table. “These look relatively simple. We’ll do them together.” She gathered what they’d need and put some coal into the stove.
They worked together chatting happily about what they thought of their new town. Malinda told Beatrice about her new “business”. “I really enjoy sewing, so it just makes sense I’d make some money at it.” She hoped Beatrice wouldn’t think less of her for working, but she didn’t seem the type of person who would judge that way.
“I didn’t know you’d made your dresses. That’s beautiful! I guess I just assumed your mother made it for you, like my mother made this dress for me.”
Malinda shook her head. “My mother died when I was eleven.”
“Oh no! I’m sorry to hear that. I don’t know what I’d have done without my mother. She’s taught me so much.”
“My sister Ellen taught me what I needed to know. Have you met her? She married Patrick Harris, the banker.” Malinda had thought of Ellen as half mother, half sister all her life.
Beatrice thought for a moment and then shrugged. “I really don’t think I’ve met her. In the time I’ve been here, I’ve been so sad that I haven’t really noticed a lot of the people around me.” She sighed. “I know it’s no excuse, but I’ve distanced myself from everyone. I need to start working at becoming part of the community.”
Malinda nodded. “No, I understand what you mean. My father died a couple of months before we moved here. My sister just kept going, still working as hard as ever and talking to everyone like she was fine. I walked around as if I was in the middle of a dense fog. I couldn’t do anything I was supposed to do.” She slid the first batch of cookies into the oven and sat down.
Beatrice moved to sit across from her. “That’s exactly how I felt.” She looked down at her hands. “I just wanted to die along with my baby. I don’t feel like it’s fair that I lived and he didn’t.”
Malinda took Beatrice’s hand in hers. “We don’t know what God has in mind from this, but there must be a reason.”
Beatrice sighed. “For a while, I even lost faith in God.”
“I understand.” Malinda jumped at a knock on the door. “Excuse me.” She wasn’t expecting anyone, so she cautiously opened the door.
“You the woman who sews?” The man in front of her was the miner she and Ellen had described on the train. His gray beard came to his waistband, and he looked as if he hadn’t bathed in months. His stench made her want to back up, but she stood her ground.
Malinda nodded tentatively. “Yes, I am.”
“I needs me some new shirts. Five of them.” He held up a bundle under his arm. “I have all the stuff, but I needs you to measure me and makes the shirts.”
“Yes, of course.” She looked over her shoulder at Beatrice. “Do you mind?” She was half afraid the other woman would leave rather than be in a house with the miner.
Beatrice shook her head.
Malinda was thankful the other woman was there. She didn’t think she’d be able to let this smelly man into her house without someone else there with them. She opened the door wide and let him into the house, taking him back to the spare bedroom she’d set up as her sewing room. She got her measuring tape and measured him, noting his measurements on a piece of paper she kept on hand.
“When do you need the shirts by?”
“Week from Saturdy.”
Malinda’s head jerked up. “That’s not much time.” She’d have to work fast and hard to get them done that fast.
“I’ll pays an extry dollar if you can have ‘em done then.”
“I charge a dollar per shirt,” Malinda told him, glancing up to see if that was too much for him. She didn’t really care. To get that many shirts done in such a short amount of time, she’d need to be paid that much. She’d be losing sleep over these shirts of his.
“Fine. You haves ‘em done on time, I pays you six.”
Malinda smiled. “You have yourself a deal. Come by during the afternoon and I’ll have them ready.” Her mind was already at work about how to make the most of her sewing time.
The miner didn’t say another word before leaving. Malinda stood for a minute and watched him go, and then turned
to Beatrice. “He was certainly interesting. I’m so glad you were here!” She rushed back over to the table to continue helping Beatrice.
Beatrice grinned. She’d removed the cookies from the oven and added more. “Me too. It would have been downright frightening to be alone with a man like that.”
“I know! I should have arranged to meet him in a public place when I gave him the shirts.” She bit her lip. She could ask Wesley to be sure he was home the afternoon the man came back, but she wasn’t sure how he’d feel about that.
“I’ll come back Saturday afternoon.”
“Oh, would you?” Malinda breathed a sigh of relief. Beatrice coming back was the perfect solution. She wouldn’t be alone with him, and she wouldn’t have to bother her husband to be home either.
Beatrice smiled. “For my new friend? Anything.”
*****
They’d been married three months when he came home from work one day to find the bed unmade and dishes in the sink. Dinner wasn’t ready either. Wesley went into the spare room to find Malinda. She had shirt pieces spread everywhere. “Dinner?” he asked.
She looked up. “I’m sorry! I lost track of time. I need to have these done by tomorrow afternoon, and I still have quite a bit to do.” She put the pieces she was basting together down and stood to rush to the kitchen to fix dinner.
Wesley followed her, angrier than he’d been in a long time. “I know you think you need to work to make extra money, but neglecting your real responsibilities is not acceptable. If I don’t make enough money for you, then you shouldn’t have agreed to marry me!”
She turned to face him, her breath ragged as she fought back the tears. “I’m sorry dinner wasn’t ready. I married you because I couldn’t see myself married to anyone else.” How could he not understand she loved him?
“So why do you think you need to make money all the time? Why can’t you be content with what we have? And why did you feel the need to hide the fact that you weren’t content?”
She spun on her heel and continued into the kitchen. He was being unreasonable. She pulled the eggs off the shelf to make them omelets for dinner. She didn’t care what he thought, he was getting an omelet.
“Eggs? You’re making me eggs for dinner? Eggs are for breakfast!” Wesley’s voice was raised in a yell by this time. He seemed willing to pick a fight about anything.
She calmly picked up the first egg, turned and took aim, hitting the middle of his forehead. Turning around, she picked up another and had it in her hand ready to throw. “Any other complaints?”
Wesley stood there breathing hard with egg dripping off his forehead. He was so fed up with the way she put him behind making money he was ready to scream. “What is your problem?”
She let fly her next missile, hitting him again in the middle of the forehead. She wasn’t going to stop until he stopped yelling at her.
Wesley’s eyes widened as she turned and picked up another egg. He wasn’t just going to stand there and be her target. He walked slowly toward her, reaching out and grabbing her shoulders. “You’re going to stop throwing eggs. They cost money, you know.”
Malinda let out a short scream. “You are the most unreasonable man I’ve ever met in my life!” She took the egg in her hand and crushed it into the front of his shirt. “And you can wash that out yourself!” He was the most belligerent, unreasonable man she had met in her entire life. Why did she love him?
Wesley stood staring down at his wife, fighting the urge to beat her. He’d never in his life wanted to hit a woman, but it was all he could think about doing right then. “I’m unreasonable? You spend every waking moment trying to make money, and you just wasted three eggs!”
Malinda reached out to push him away from her. “I can’t talk to you when you’re like this.” She turned back toward the work table, putting her palms flat on it and taking a deep breath to try to control her anger.
He grabbed her shoulders and turned her around to face him. “Don’t turn your back on me.”
“Then how am I supposed to cook you dinner?” she screeched. She knew she sounded like a hoyden, but at that point she just didn’t care.
He stood for a moment taking deep breaths, trying to control his temper. Finally he leaned down and took her mouth in an angry kiss.
Malinda pushed against him. How could he possibly think I want to kiss him now? She stomped on his foot to get him to let her go.
He tightened his arms around her and pulled her closer against him, putting all his anger into the kiss. His hands stroked up and down her back, one of them trailing down to her backside, pulling her against him.
Malinda let out a low groan. She was so angry with him, and yet she was still enjoying this. What was wrong with her? She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back.
As soon as Wesley realized she was responding to him, he turned her around so her back was to the table and lifted her up to sit on the edge of it. He fought to pull her skirts up and over her waist, pushing them out of the way. His fingers went to her underwear and he opened the placket and pushed the fabric to the side, gaining access to her soft hot flesh. He stroked his finger inside her for a moment to test her readiness, and then his hands went to work on the front of his pants.
Once he was free, he guided himself to her, looking into her eyes as he pushed inside her.
Malinda was panting as she stared up at him, her hands flat on the table behind her to catch her weight. How had their argument turned into this?
There was no tenderness this time, from either of them. She dug her nails into his shoulders through his shirt. His thrusts were hard and fast. As soon as she climaxed, he let himself go and shouted in release.
It took them both a moment to realize where they were and what they’d done. She blushed as he stepped away from her and fastened his pants. She quickly pushed her skirts down and looked away. “Are omelets okay for dinner tonight?” She was surprised her voice sounded so steady when what they’d just done had shaken her.
“Omelets are fine.” He knew he should probably bring up what they’d argued about, but he was hungry and he just didn’t want to fight anymore.
While they ate, he brought up the subject of her working again. “I guess I don’t mind you taking in sewing jobs if you don’t hide it from me, and you can do it around household chores. Coming home to no dinner after a long day at work is hard.”
She nodded. “I am sorry I didn’t have dinner ready. I probably took on a little too much with how soon the miner I’m working for needs these shirts done. I’ll be more careful about that in the future.” She had known at the time she wouldn’t be able to finish fast enough, but the promise of an extra dollar had been too much enticement for her.
He took her hand across the table. “I’m sorry I got so angry with you.”
She looked at him, and although he’d washed up and changed his shirt, she could still see some eggshells in his hair. She did her best to keep her face straight. “I’m really afraid of something happening to you and being left destitute. When Father died, we had no idea we were in such a bad position financially. A banker came and told us we had to leave our home.” She looked down as she said the words, embarrassed that she’d once been in that position.
He nodded slowly. “Ellen told me. I always wondered why you didn’t.”
She shrugged. “I guess I didn’t want you to worry about how I would feel about the money you make. I am scared, though. I want to have a nest egg saved up in case something happens. It will make me feel safer and more secure.” She didn’t know how to explain it beyond that. She didn’t need a lot of money, she just needed enough money.
He squeezed the hand he was still holding. “I can understand that. You don’t think Patrick would let you go without if something were to happen to me, though, do you?”
She shook her head. “No, I don’t. I know Ellen wouldn’t. I just can’t seem to get over the fear I have. I don’t want to have to rely on the generosity of others
. I want to be able to stand on my own feet.” After what had happened before, she needed to be able to make it on her own.
“We’ll save what we can then. I wish you’d felt comfortable enough to talk to me about this before now.”
She looked down at her plate. “It’s hard to admit just how low Ellen and I had sunk before we came here. Did you know we had to stay with Harriett for a few weeks while we waited for you and Patrick to return our letters?”
“Harriett?”
“The woman who runs the mail order bride agency in Beckham.” Why didn’t he know who Harriett was?
He shook his head. “I didn’t know that.”
She nodded. “Harriett was a really good friend to us, but we met her the day we wrote letters to you.”
“She sounds like a generous woman.”
Malinda nodded. “It would be hard to find something negative to say about her. She’s really a special woman. I’d like to be more like her. I can honestly say that other than Ellen, she’s the best friend I’ve ever had.” She still missed her every day.
“Is she the one you write to?”
“Yes. I write her every week. She’s a really lonely woman. She rarely does anything but work. The letters she gets from the mail order brides she places keep her going.” Malinda grinned. “She needs a puppy.”
Wesley raised an eyebrow. “Why does she need a puppy?”
“Every woman needs a puppy for companionship while her man is gone, or if she doesn’t have a man, like Harriett, she needs one all the time.” Malinda shrugged, knowing she couldn’t explain it any better.
Wesley laughed. “A puppy, huh?”
Malinda nodded. “We had a dog when I was little, but he died a couple of years ago. I remember when he used to follow me everywhere. I loved having him around. Anytime I was upset, I could just bury my face in his neck and cry.” She sighed, missing the dog who had been a huge comfort to her when her mother died.
After dinner, Wesley stood up. “I have a quick errand to run tonight. I’ll be back in a half hour or so.”
Mail Order Mistake Page 11
