“Oh no.” Rebecca flew back down the hall. “I’m sorry I took so long.”
“I was wondering if you might have forgotten me.”
“Oh, I could never do that.” Hearing her own words made her close her eyes and shake her head. Sure enough, his chuckle came over the wire again.
“Then I will be there in a few minutes. Bundle up well. It is cold outside. Good-bye.”
“Good-bye.” She set the receiver back in its prong and clapped her hands to her hot cheeks.
“What did he want?” Linnea asked, leaning against the doorjamb.
“To take me for a sleigh ride.”
“Can I go?”
Penny swooped into the hall. “No, you most assuredly may not.” She took her daughter’s hand. “Besides, I need you to peel the potatoes. Rebecca won’t be gone too long.”
Rebecca glanced down at her skirt. “Will this be all right?”
“Yes, but put a sweater on under your coat. I have a fur hat and muff you can wear. Surely he will have a hot brick or stone for your feet and a robe to break the wind. You have a long woolen scarf, right?” While she talked, Penny pulled the hat and muff out of the closet by the front door and handed them to Rebecca. “Don’t worry about your hair. This hat will mess it all up anyway.”
Rebecca took her coat from the closet. “I’ll go get a sweater.” Back by the front door a few minutes later with her coat buttoned up to the neck, she stood in front of the mirror while Penny set the hat in place and adjusted it at a slight angle.
“There. You look fetching.” She draped the blue scarf around Rebecca’s neck and flipped the long ends back over her shoulders. “Make sure you cover your lower face if it is too cold.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Oh, you. I am being a bit bossy, aren’t I?” At Rebecca’s slight nod, she laughed and continued. “That’s what happens when you have children of your own. You tend to give everyone instructions like you do them.” She kissed Rebecca’s cheek. “Just have fun and enjoy the sunset.”
Linnea turned from the long window by the door, where she’d been watching. “He’s here.” Linnea squeezed her hand and grinned up at her. “You look nice.”
Rebecca looked over Linnea’s shoulder to peek out the curtain by the door. He most certainly was and tying the horse to the post with a metal ring for just that purpose. Goodness me, but he is a handsome young man. And to think he has asked me to go for a sleigh ride. The heat rising from her neck made the long scarf feel absolutely unnecessary. The top of her head felt like steam was rising from it. His breath circled him like the smoke rings she had seen Haakan blow from his pipe. She tried to think. Had she ever been on a sleigh ride with a young man all by herself? Nope. Only with her brothers, and that did not count.
She waited until the knocker fell before opening the door, even though she and Linnea had let the curtain assume its rightful place before he could see them peeking. Linnea giggled behind her, making Rebecca start to giggle in response. She forced her face into a proper smile and pulled the door open.
“Good. You are all ready.” Kurt smiled. “ We need to hurry, or the sun will go down before we get there.”
Rebecca nodded. Did she appear too eager? Maydell had cautioned her against that in one of her instructions on flirting. “A young woman must never appear too eager. It is better to let the young man think her more standoffish.” With Maydell’s advice echoing in her mind, she closed the door behind her and took the arm he offered. Surely Penny knew more about proper behavior for a young lady than Maydell did.
Whatever was she doing going off on a jaunt like this at this time of day with a handsome young man she hardly even knew? She should be in the kitchen helping Penny cook the supper. What kind of guest went off on a sleigh ride instead of helping with the housework?
“You look wonderful in that hat.”
“And warm enough too.” In fact, she felt like she needed a fan, in spite of the cold biting her nose. Say thank you, silly. Where are your manners? The little voice that seemed to sit on her right shoulder sounded remarkably like that of her sister-in-law chiding her daughter. Perhaps Mor would have sounded that way had she lived longer. Perhaps she had when Rebecca was younger. Sometimes she had a hard time recalling things her mor had said. It all was so long ago. While her mind was running faster than a North Dakota blizzard, her gloved hand felt even warmer tucked next to his side. Say something.
“Thank you for your help on the skating pond.”
“My pleasure.”
The smile he gave her made her heart rate pick up enough to catch her mind. “I usually skate better than that.” Another silly comment.
“I’m sure anyone would have stumbled when rammed into like you were.” He squeezed her hand to his side. “Besides, that gave me the chance to introduce myself.”
To a nobody like me? But then, introductions were proper behavior. She’d read about that in a ladies’ magazine that Sophie had passed around. How different Bismarck was from home, where everybody knew everybody, and if someone new came to town, they were quickly introduced to everyone, usually at church.
“Be careful now.” He helped her step into the sleigh and settled the robe around her before going to untie the horse.
She held the robe up for him to slide under, and with a tightening of the reins, the horse backed up and then trotted down the street, harness bells jingling and the sleigh swooshing over the snow-packed surface.
He turned and smiled at her. “Are you warm enough?”
“Yes. This is wonderful. Thank you.” Help me, Maydell. What kind of ninny am I that my tongue is mired in glue with nothing to say or to ask?
“Good. Tell me about life in Blessing.”
“Well, we have a farm a mile or so from town. My parents died years ago, so one of my brothers and I live at the homeplace. Another brother and his wife and family built a house not far from the first one.”
“I’m sorry. It must be terribly hard growing up without your parents.”
“It was, sometimes still is. But my cousin Penny helped. That’s why I miss her so since she moved here. I used to work in her store, and perhaps that made me think I want a business of my own too.”
“She had a store in Blessing?”
Rebecca nodded. “A wonderful mercantile. She carried everything there. The man who has it now is letting it fall apart. People in town don’t like him much.”
“I take it from the tone of your voice that you don’t either.”
“Not really. When he refused to close the store on Sunday like it had always been, the people of Blessing boycotted him. No one went into his store on Sundays, and since the Garrisons opened a grocery store, lots of people don’t go into his store at all. They order things from Grand Forks.”
“Do you think you might stay in Bismarck?”
The houses were getting fewer and the road climbed a hill, making the horse settle to a walk instead of trotting. Shadows blued the land.
Rebecca shook her head. “No. I’m just here to visit and talk with the people who own the soda shop, since that is what I want to do.”
“Perhaps we can change your mind, about staying here, that is.”
She wasn’t sure if she’d heard him right. But his smile made her even warmer. Why would he say such a thing to me? Surely he is just being polite. After all, I’m not lovely like Grace, a good talker like Astrid, or bold like Sophie. I’m just plain, hardworking me, always taking care of Gus or someone, the house, doing what my mother told me to do. Afraid to dream, to want something else—like my store. I want to be like Penny.
They topped the hill, and the western horizon glowed golden with the sun hovering above the rim of the land, mare’s-tail clouds waiting for gilding. He turned the horse down a side road and found a place where they could stop and face the west. As the golden disc slid down, becoming a half circle, then a sliver, the clouds turned from gold to crimson and vermilion and all shades of pink and red and orange.
Rebecca sighed. “How lovely.” She turned to look at him only to find him staring at her rather than the sunset.
“I think you are lovely.”
Rebecca blinked. “Ah …” Her tongue refused to obey her command. Surely Kurt didn’t mean what he’d said. He was just being polite. Or maybe he said things like that to all the girls. “I think you are lovely.” The words echoed in her head and sang in her heart. Her hands wanted to leave the fur muff and touch her face. Someone, a man, thought she was lovely. Her mother’s voice whispered in her ear: “True beauty is from the inside out.” But Kurt saw her outside. Her smile warmed even her toes. She wanted to leap from the sleigh and dance across the snowdrifts, run up one side and slide down the other. Shout to the streaks fading in the sky. I am lovely!
“Thank you,” she whispered and cleared her throat. “Th-thank you. Ah … the hills. I think hills do make a difference.”
His eyes twinkled. “You don’t have hills at home?”
“No, the Red River Valley is as flat as a cast-iron griddle.” What must he think of me? Is this what flirting is like, what Maydell was talking about? She felt like fanning her face in spite of the breeze.
“Really? No hills at all?”
“When you get away from the river there are hills, but the valley is miles wide from south of Fargo clear to Winnipeg in Canada. The only trees are along the rivers, but most of those have been cut down.”
The colors slowly faded, as if saving their energy for another day.
“Hard to picture land that flat.”
“Have you always lived here in Bismarck?”
“Yes. My grandfather homesteaded here and helped build the town. Now that it is the state capital, it has grown more. Well, I suppose I should get you back, since I said we wouldn’t be gone long.”
With the setting of the sun, the cold crept over the land, and an early evening breeze blew the chill right into her bones. What would Maydell do or say to do in this situation? Ask him more questions.
“Do you have brothers and sisters?”
“Oh yes. Two of each, and I am the youngest. Two of them are already married, and one is engaged to be married in the spring. Belinda and I are the only ones still living at home. She is going to college, like I am.”
“My friend Astrid wants to be a doctor, and Grace is already teaching at a school for the deaf in New York, but I thought going to high school was enough. Unless I wanted to teach school, which I don’t.”
“But you want to own a soda shop?”
“I do.”
He turned the horse and headed back the way they had come. “Do you mind if I ask you a personal question?”
Rebecca thought a moment. What would he ask? After what he’d said before, what could this be? “Umm, I guess not, but I reserve the right not to answer.”
“Something like the fifth amendment?”
She mentally sorted through her history classes. What was the fifth amendment? “I don’t know what the fifth amendment is.”
“One doesn’t have to answer a question on the basis that it might be incriminating.”
Where did he learn all these words? Incriminating. She should know that one. “I guess.” She ignored the flaming heat in her face, hoping he would think it windburn. “What did you want to ask?”
“Is there anyone special to you in Blessing?”
“There are lots of special people in Blessing. Most of them, in fact.”
He laughed, a rollicking sound that made her smile again. He was a delightful companion.
“I guess I need to be more specific. Is there someone there … I mean a male someone to whom you have given even a piece of your heart?”
“If there were, I doubt I would be out seeing the sunset like this.” Instantly, when she said the words, a picture of Gerald Valders flitted through her mind. But he was her friend, and this was different.
He laughed again. “Not one to mince words, are you?” Turning, he grinned at her. “Perhaps you could stay here and work at Benson’s for a while. Learn about running the business firsthand. I could ask my father to look into that for you. If you are interested, of course.”
Rebecca thought a moment. That might be a very good idea. But what would happen at home if she didn’t go back? Was she really needed there? Dorothy would invite Gus over for meals, most likely clean house for him too. There wasn’t so much work to do in the winter like this, which was why she’d felt free to come stay with Penny. Penny would be delighted if she stayed awhile longer. But then there was Dorothy’s soon-to-be-born baby. She didn’t want to miss being there for that. Too many possibilities too close together. In Blessing, Kurt would be considered too forward for making such a suggestion, but here his interest felt special. She smiled back at him. “Sorry. I was just trying to think this through. You caught me by surprise.”
Kurt stopped the sleigh at the post in front of Penny’s house. “No rush. I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“Call me?”
“On the telephone.”
“Oh.” She could feel the heat flowing up her neck. She was blushing at him like Thomas Benson had with her over ice cream. “Of course, how silly. I’m just not used to thinking of the telephone.”
“That’s okay. It took us some getting used to, but we’ve had it for a while now.”
A silence caused her to glance up and catch him watching her. “What?”
“I’m glad you came to Bismarck. That’s all.” After tying the horse to the post, he returned to help her from the sleigh. “May I see you again?”
She placed her hand in his and stepped from the sleigh. As her skirt settled around her ankles, she smiled up at the man who still held her hand. What would Maydell do in this situation? She nodded. “I’d like that.”
“Good.” He tucked her arm through his and walked her to the door.
“Thank you for the sleigh ride. The sunset was lovely.”
“You are most welcome. I’ll call you.” He touched a finger to the brim of his hat and opened the door for her. “Bye.”
She watched him walk away until a giggle from behind her caught her attention. She was letting all the heat out of the house. Whatever was the matter with her?
Linnea pulled her inside and shut the door. “Did you have fun?” She reached for Rebecca’s scarf and took her mother’s muff.
“I did.” She lifted the fur hat from her head and handed that to Linnea too. “I really did. He’s very nice.”
“Ma said we can eat in just a minute. Pa just got home. I already set the table.”
Rebecca hung her coat in the closet and stamped her boots on the rug one more time. “Then let’s go eat.”
Linnea pushed her hand into Rebecca’s. “There’s a letter for you. We put it by your place at the table.”
A letter? Who would be writing to her? Her life had definitely become full since she came to Bismarck. She’d come just to visit Penny and think about her soda shop. Now questions and possibilities seemed to crowd every thinking moment, leaving her almost gasping for air. It was exhilarating. So why did she feel as drained as when the wind kept howling around the windows in Blessing?
10
Blessing, North Dakota
“I CANNOT BELIEVE HOW much I miss Grace.”
“You sound like Astrid.” Ingeborg turned to smile at Kaaren, at the same time enjoying the shush of sleigh runners through the two inches of new snow. While she was more than ready for spring to arrive, bright sun on new snow was never a waste of beauty. Even the horse was enjoying the day, tossing her head and picking up a smart trot with just the tiniest flick of the reins. For a change Ingeborg almost wished the church was farther away. “Today I am thankful we no longer live in the soddies.”
Kaaren stared at her. “What brought that on?”
“How much I enjoy the light. I know you miss Grace, and I know I will be saying the sa
me thing after Astrid leaves. But right now Haakan and Astrid are at home, many farmers have more cows, the sun is warm, our world is gorgeous, and I feel like singing and shouting hosannas.”
“I would too if I didn’t miss my daughter so.” Kaaren heaved a sigh. “Oh, all right.” She raised her voice and shouted into the breeze caused by their speed. “Thank you, for this glorious day, for our warm and lovely homes, and that we can go to a warm church to quilt with our friends.”
Ingeborg’s laughter joined her. “And I thank you for our husbands, our friends, all our families. And that we have a horse and sleigh!”
“And fabric to sew with.”
“And sewing machines.”
Coming from the west, Mary Martha Solberg waved at them as she neared the church. Her halloo could be heard above the shushing and harness jingling.
“If she heard us, she will think we are nuts.”
“No. She already knows we are nuts, and she’d join right in. After all, the Scripture says to shout praises.” Ingeborg slowed the trotting horse.
“I know one thing. It made me feel better.” Kaaren waved at Mary Martha and turned to look at Ingeborg. “You suppose that’s why we are told to do that?”
“Well, it surely isn’t because God has a hearing problem.”
The two of them laughed again as Ingeborg climbed out of the sleigh to tie the horse to the hitching rail. She slipped the bridle off and draped it over the post, using instead the rope clipped to the harness.
“You two look like the cat that just cleaned out the cream. Care to share your secret?” The pastor’s wife adjusted the heavy blanket she’d thrown over her horse, then reached inside her sleigh for two baskets, one of food and one of sewing necessities.
“I’ll tell if you promise not to tell anyone else.” Kaaren reached for their baskets.
“I promise.”
“We were shouting praises.” Ingeborg lifted out a pot of soup ready to be set back on the stove.
“I see. And have you taken up dancing before the Lord also?” Mary Martha’s grin bespoke her teasing.
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