Mail Order Mommy

by Christine Johnson

  Amanda nudged them back toward home. “True, but you do have to listen to your papa and your teacher. Oh! Speaking of Miss Lawson, do you plan to give her anything on her wedding day?”

  Isaac stared at her blankly, but Sadie pumped her head up and down.

  “I’ll show you.” Sadie ran ahead and entered the house.

  “Your shoes!” Amanda called out, but it was too late. The girl had tracked sand through the rooms.

  “My pa said we’re gonna give her something together,” Isaac said. “I wouldn’t forget to wipe my feet.”

  He then made exaggerated motions to knock the sand from his shoes.

  “Thank you, Isaac.” Amanda nudged him inside and smothered a smile.

  The house was cool, as it always was by late afternoon. Garrett banked the fire, so the stove didn’t put off much heat. Before Amanda pulled off her coat, she grabbed a chunk of wood to stoke the blaze. It was the last piece.

  “Isaac, does your father have more wood outside?”

  “I’ll check.” He headed out while she worked to get the fire going again.

  It took some effort, but soon flames cast a scorching heat against her skin and the scent of wood smoke filled the air. After last month’s fire, that smell sent shivers down her spine. She would never forget the fear when she’d realized Sadie was missing.

  “Miss Mana?”

  Amanda started. “I did it again, didn’t I? Thinking bad thoughts.”

  Sadie nodded solemnly, and Amanda wondered if the smell of smoke had the same effect on her. After all, Sadie had been surrounded by flames.

  “It’s all right.” Amanda wrapped her arms around the little girl and hugged her close, breathing in the scent of little girl. So precious. So very precious.

  “I got my present,” Sadie said at last.

  Amanda realized she’d been holding on too long and released her. “Let’s go to the window where there’s better light.”

  There Sadie unclenched her hand to reveal a stunning silver necklace set with a lavender stone that must be amethyst. How had a little girl gotten something so precious? It made Amanda remember the half locket that she’d had at the orphanage. It was not valuable, but it had come from her parents. Amanda always imagined the other half went to her brother, Jake. That’s how she would know if the lumberjack was her brother.

  “Do you like it?” Sadie asked.

  Amanda pulled her thoughts back to the present. “It’s very pretty, but it’s a little too dear for you to give away. Did it belong to your mother?”

  Sadie nodded. “Mama looked like you.”

  Amanda drew in her breath. Pearl had told her the same thing, but she hadn’t quite believed it.

  Sadie held out her hand with the necklace dangling from it. “For you.”

  Tears bunched in Amanda’s eyes. She folded Sadie’s fingers over the necklace. “You need to keep this, sweetheart. Your mama would have wanted you to have it.”

  Sadie frowned. “But I need to give you something.”

  Amanda hugged the little girl again. “Oh, you have. You already have.”

  “Then I’ll give it to Miss Pearl.”

  Amanda held Sadie at arm’s length. “I think Miss Pearl would like a necklace made from that pretty stone you found. It suits her hair color nicely.”

  Little Sadie’s eyes lit up.

  “Do you have a narrow ribbon?” Amanda suggested. “That would make a perfect necklace.”

  Sadie hurried off to her bedroom.

  “Bring them all,” Amanda called out as she stood. That way she could select the most appropriate.

  Only then did she notice that Isaac hadn’t returned. It shouldn’t have taken that long. Garrett kept wood stacked alongside the house.

  She hurried outside, calling Isaac’s name.

  The woodpile was gone, and he was nowhere in sight.

  * * *

  They needed solid timbers for the ways upon which the completed schooner would slide broadside into the river when launched. Fortunately, sufficient logs were left outside the warehouse, not well seasoned but not fresh-cut either. Garrett spent the morning with the men loading the logs onto the heavy wagon and hauling them to the mill with the steam tractor.

  After lunch, they ripped them to size on the large circular saw. By late afternoon, Garrett was coated with sawdust, and only half a dozen logs remained. Six men loaded one onto the log carriage, while Garrett guided it to exactly the right position before running it through the saw.

  The howl of the blade could make a man deaf, but Garrett had learned years ago to stuff his ears with cotton. If he hadn’t, he’d be struggling to hear his children or Amanda. The higher tones were already difficult to make out.

  Maybe Roland was right, and he needed to get out of the mill and into management. It’s just that Garrett couldn’t stand to sit at a desk and push around papers. The thought of figures made him nauseous.

  He’d told his brother that, but Roland just shook his head.

  “You don’t seem to have any trouble poring over those schooner plans,” Roland had remarked.

  “That’s different.”

  “And coming up with how many board feet you need of each type of wood, not to mention the hardware.” Roland had proceeded to read off the list of the various fasteners Garrett had ordered.

  “Stop! I know what I ordered.”

  “That must have taken some serious calculations.”

  Garrett had shrugged. For some reason the math didn’t bother him when it involved building. “Maybe if I could manage a shipyard...”

  That was as much as he could concede, but it would never happen. Stockton might build a ship or two while the timber held out, but Roland was right that eventually it would run out. Stockton was already sniffing around for new stands to exploit in the northern part of the state. At the current rate, it would take a decade or two. By then, Garrett might make a name for himself as a shipwright and get in with a big yard. Unfortunately, those were in larger cities. He liked Singapore, where everyone knew each other.

  Newcomers couldn’t escape being noticed. Like Amanda.

  He smiled.

  Sawyer motioned to him.

  Garrett jerked out of his thoughts and signaled to the saw operator to release the blade.

  Instead of doing so, the man pointed behind Garrett.

  What now? He turned around and froze. Not twenty feet away, within reach of a snapped belt or plank that bucked away from the blade, stood Isaac. The boy’s eyes were wide as he took in every bit of machinery and the men who were now all staring at him.

  Garrett motioned for Sawyer to stop the saw. “Take a break for a minute.”

  He tugged the cotton out of his ears and went to his son. “Didn’t I tell you never to come into the sawmill without me?”

  Isaac’s wondering expression hardened, and his lip quivered ever so slightly before he got it under control. “You’re here.”

  “That’s not what I meant.” Garrett checked himself before he said something to undo all the progress he’d made the last few days. He shouldn’t scold the boy out of fear. Isaac didn’t know about the dangers. Garrett had never explained them to him.

  Amanda always crouched or knelt when speaking to the children, so she could look them in the eye. Though Isaac strained to control his emotions, the disappointment he felt was palpable. Garrett yanked off his cap and raked a hand through his sawdust-filled hair. The men might consider it weakness to get down to a child’s level, but Isaac was more important. Garrett would deal with the men’s attitudes later.

  He crouched. “Now, son, you must have come here for a reason.”

  The stiff shoulders relaxed. “We need wood, Papa. I went to the woodpile, and there wasn’t any. Sadie and Miss Amanda will
get cold. They might get sick.”

  The hysteria in Isaac’s explanation drove a spike of guilt into Garrett. Rather than tell the children that their mother had drowned, which would have led to the question why, he’d told them that she fell in the river and got too cold. They’d assumed she got sick and died. He’d never corrected that assumption. One day, when the children were old enough, he would tell them all that had happened. That day hadn’t arrived yet, but his stretching of the truth was creating a problem.

  “They won’t get sick and die from a chilly house,” he tried to explain, but Isaac clearly wasn’t accepting that assurance.

  “We can’t take a chance.”

  Garrett swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat. This was all his fault. He’d been so busy with the ship project that he’d neglected restocking the woodpile. Isaac was merely trying to help. His heart was in a good place—better than Garrett’s.

  He rose to his feet and grasped his son by the shoulders. “Look at me, Isaac.”

  The boy lifted hesitant eyes to him.

  “You did right to come to me for wood, but you shouldn’t have come into the sawmill. Uncle Roland would have helped you.”

  Isaac made a face. “Uncle Roland is with Miss Lawson.” His tone made it clear he found the idea of his uncle and his teacher that close to each other distasteful.

  Garrett stifled a smile—and the urge to suggest Isaac could have just taken some wood from the stockpile beside the general store. That pile was for all the Deckers to use as needed, but Isaac didn’t know that. Again, Garrett had neglected to inform his son. It was time he remedied these omissions.

  “All right. We’ll get some wood. Why don’t you go outside and wait for me. I need to give the men some instructions so they can continue working while we fetch some wood.”

  Isaac must have feared a reprimand. When it didn’t come, he visibly brightened. “Will you show me how the saw works sometime?”

  Garrett would rather his son grow up to become a craftsman or even a business owner, but he supposed it was natural the boy would want to know what his father did every day.

  “I will. Sometime when the saws aren’t running. How does that sound?”

  Isaac’s eyes shone. “Splendid!”

  “Splendid?” That didn’t sound like something his son would say. “Is that one of Miss Pearl’s words?”

  Isaac shook his head. “Miss Amanda.”

  That lady was filled with surprises. No doubt she’d be grateful to get an armload of wood, perhaps even splendidly grateful. With an extra bounce in his step, Garrett sent Isaac outside and went to tell the men how to proceed without him.

  * * *

  Isaac was gone.

  Amanda cupped her hands around her mouth and called out his name.

  The winds howled off the dunes. The mill belched smoke. Something rattled in the distance, but she couldn’t hear a single voice. The hotel was quiet, with no ships in port. Soon even those stragglers would stop, according to Roland. The townsfolk had stocked up their larders. Fresh milk and eggs could be bought from nearby farms if the trails were passable. Meat would come in occasionally, but folks mostly relied on canned, smoked and dried meats over the winter.

  She walked to the other side of the house and called again for Isaac.

  No answer.

  Oh, dear. What should she do? Garrett had been furious at her for leaving the children alone for ten minutes. Now she’d gone and lost one of them again. Though visions of Isaac tumbling down a dune or slipping into the river threatened to destroy her remaining calm, she roped in her emotions.

  Pearl would say that success depended on solid planning. Before Amanda went searching for Isaac, she needed to pull her scattered thoughts together. First, she must fetch Sadie and take her to the boardinghouse so Mrs. Calloway could watch over her. With the skies dull and overcast, the day was rapidly growing dark. Amanda would need a lantern. And help. Mr. Calloway would step up. Pearl would get Roland and everyone else to set off on the search.

  Amanda hurried into the house. Since coming home from school, she found the wind had picked up. It now threatened to rip the door off its hinges. With effort, she got it closed and latched. Her hair was a mess, and she hadn’t wiped her feet, but none of that mattered.

  “Sadie, do you know where your brother might have gone?”

  The girl looked up from stroking her kitten and shrugged. “I don’t know.” Unconcerned, she went right back to her kitten.

  “I noticed the wood bin is empty. Does your papa keep firewood somewhere else?” Maybe that’s where Isaac went. If she knew the direction he’d taken, she could narrow the search and perhaps find him before calling out the rest of the town.

  Unfortunately, Sadie shook her head. “That’s Isaac’s job.”

  Amanda had a sudden image of Isaac combing the patch of forest just outside town, looking for wood they could burn. “Would he have gone to the old schoolhouse?”

  “Why would he go there?”

  The schoolhouse had burned nearly to the ground in last month’s fire. The foundation was still there, and in this dim light Isaac could easily fall into it. She envisioned him lying amid the charred timbers at the bottom, unable to move because his leg was broken.

  Oh, dear.

  In the past, frightening circumstances had paralyzed Amanda, but during the fire, she had acted upon Pearl’s command. Alas, she didn’t have Pearl here to direct her. But her friend was only a couple minutes’ walk away.

  Amanda grabbed Sadie’s coat from the peg. “Let’s put on your coat, hat and mittens. We need to go to the boardinghouse.”

  “Why?”

  Amanda wasn’t used to resistance.

  Yet Sadie didn’t look defiant. She simply didn’t understand.

  Amanda drew in a deep breath. She didn’t want to frighten the girl, but they needed to get going before all daylight faded. “I need to find out where your brother went for wood. Mr. Calloway might know. Let’s go ask. Mrs. Calloway probably baked some cookies today.”

  That got Sadie moving. She let Amanda help her into her coat and even fastened the buttons herself. Her hat would never stay on in such a wind, so Amanda tied a bonnet on Sadie while the girl tugged on her mittens.

  Amanda reached for the door, eager to get started.

  “Aren’t you going to wear your hat and mittens?” Sadie asked solemnly.

  The little girl was already developing a mothering instinct and would not let this rest. So Amanda tugged on her mittens and grabbed the useless hat, which would blow clear to Allegan in this gale. She glanced around for a lantern, but saw only candles. Garrett must not have lanterns, at least not at the ready. She could get one at the boardinghouse.

  She stretched out her mittened hand. “Let’s go.”

  Again, the wind nearly snatched the door from her grasp. It took all her weight to shove it back in place.

  Night was descending quickly with the dark storm clouds. It wasn’t cold enough for snow—not yet—but rain could certainly fall. She needed to get Sadie to the boardinghouse quickly and then start people searching. Isaac would not fare well in a cold downpour unless he could find cover. If he was lying at the bottom of the burned-out schoolhouse foundation...

  “Quickly now,” she urged Sadie, as they hurried toward the boardinghouse.

  “Will Cocoa be all right?”

  “Cocoa will be just fine.” The kitten was the least of their worries, but that little ball of fur had been the reason Sadie slipped out of the schoolhouse last month and ended up trapped by the fire. “There’s no fire. Remember?”

  If Sadie nodded, Amanda couldn’t see it. If she spoke, the words got snatched away by the wind. Sand off the dunes pelted them, stinging their skin like the pricks of a thousand needles. Sadie averted her face. He
r eyes were probably shut. Amanda had to close her own eyes to slits against the sand. In the dim light, she had only the glow of the boardinghouse windows to guide her. Thankfully, it wasn’t far.

  But how would they ever find Isaac in this gale?

  Amanda half dragged and half carried Sadie up the steps. They burst through the front door to find Mrs. Calloway and Pearl standing in the hallway.

  “My, oh my,” the boardinghouse proprietress said, as she unbuttoned Sadie’s coat and shook the sand out. “I saw someone heading this way. Why on earth are you out in such a blow? It’ll take the skin off your face.”

  Amanda didn’t have time for chitchat. “Pearl, can you get Roland to put together a search team? Isaac’s gone missing.”

  “What?” Mrs. Calloway asked.

  Pearl already had her cloak on. “I’m on my way.”

  “And I’m joining you.” Fiona scooted out of the parlor and grabbed her fur-trimmed coat from one of the hallway pegs. “We must find him.”

  “Now, slow down,” Mrs. Calloway said, “and take a lantern. You’ll have to keep it mostly shut against the wind, but it’ll give you enough light to get to the store.”

  Seconds after making that suggestion, Mr. Calloway appeared with two lanterns, his mackinaw already donned.

  “What direction did the lad go?”

  “I don’t know,” Amanda admitted. “I asked him to fetch wood from the bin. When he didn’t come back in a few minutes, fifteen at most, I went to check, and he was gone. The bin was empty, so I’m guessing he went to fetch wood from somewhere else. Do you know where he would have gone?” she asked Pearl.

  Her friend shook her head. “But Roland might.”

  None of them said what they all were thinking. If Isaac got lost, they would have great trouble finding him before daylight. Instead, they clung to the hope that Roland would indeed know where to look.

  Pearl, Fiona and Mr. Calloway stepped outside.

  Amanda started to follow. “I should go with them.”

  Mrs. Calloway held her back. “Someone needs you.”

  Amanda’s gaze dropped to Sadie, whose thumb had found its way into her mouth.