by Annie Lane
No one had seen Earl today though. His cart was parked out by the road and Junior was running around with the other children — enjoying the music and all the festivities of the Bazaar – but Earl was nowhere to be found. Charlotte figured he must have kept Junior in the dark over his intentions. Probably for the best, she reasoned, being that the boy had about as much smarts as a bandicoot in a hen house.
Mabel was running around like a mad woman too, fussing and fretting over every aspect of the day. In keeping with the season, the air was chilly once more and apparently the placement of throw rugs and hay bales around the decorated hall was paramount to the success of the entire event. She was heard shrieking from across the way, “It’s all in the details people ... the details!”
Charlotte and Beth laughed together at the woman’s silliness and continued to mingle with the church ladies and other young wives, before heading over to the condiment stall, where Thomas had been waiting not so patiently for the preacher to make his final decision on first prize.
Charlotte slipped in beside him and whispered, “What’s taking him so long?”
“Greedy buzzard just wants to keep eating the stuff.” Thomas grumbled the words beneath his breath and Charlotte gasped, checking around her that no one else had heard her husband’s comment.
“Watch your mouth, Thomas. Mabel’s not far off and if she finds you disrespecting the preacher like that we won’t hear the end of it.” She thought about it a moment and then shook her head with a small chuckle. “Sure is making a career out if it though. Seriously, how hard can it be ... relish, pickles or chutney?”
“And the winner is ...”
Townsfolk flocked by the dozens at the sound of the preacher’s announcement and huddled together in anticipation. Mrs. Adams had been the frontrunner all morning, being that her pumpkin butter had taken out the title back in Louisiana when she was competing for a blue ribbon, but since her rash had unexpectedly flared up again — weeping and scarlet in color according to the Doc’s ever faithful receptionist — she’d been disqualified. After all, the preacher just didn’t have time to be making a doctor’s appointment.
“Mrs. Ackerman wins hands down. Come everyone, take a sample and spread it around.” In the excitement of it all he forgot himself momentarily and laughed out loud at his own words. “That doesn’t include you Mrs. Adams. You’ve done enough of that already.”
“I won! I won!” Charlotte jumped into the air and clapped her hands.
“You certainly did, my love,” said Thomas with a proud smile. He hugged his wife and gathered her up in his arms. Once he’d set her securely back down on the ground, he collected up as many jars as he could carry and started handing them out to all the different families seated together on rows of hay bales.
Thomas winked at Beth as he passed by, something he’d never done before and Beth pondered it for a moment, thinking it completely out of character. Trying to work men out was impossible though, so she simply shrugged her shoulders and giggled and leaned closer into Charlotte’s side. “You do realize this is an annual event now, don’t you? They’ll get a taste for it and want more and more. Whatever do you plan on doing next year when I’m not around to help you out?”
A deep voice suddenly sounded from behind them, and the outline of Earl’s thick chest cast a shadow across Beth’s face as she spun around at the unexpectedness of his approach. “Well I don’t see that being a problem ... if I have my way, you’ll still be here in a year’s time. You might even be here in five, or ten or twenty. Dang, if I’ve got a say in it at all, you’ll be here for the rest of your life.”
Earl reached across and lifted Beth’s trembling hand in his. And while he didn’t say anything for a split second, enjoying the closeness and the warmth at the slightest of contact instead, he knew the rightful words that he’d been wanting to speak all week and finally summoned up the courage to say them.
“I know I don’t deserve your forgiveness for the way I treated you, it was downright rude, but the way your eyes captured me that first day ... well, uh ... well it scared the life right out of me if the truth be told. It seems I didn’t know I was lost until you found me and I’m so pleased you did, because I’ve been wandering around these parts like a nomad lately and I’m done with tryin’ to find my way all alone.”
“Yes. Feeling like you’re all alone is a terrible thing.”
Earl smiled, pleased with the way Beth’s voice came out a little shaky. At least he knew he was having some effect on her. “What I’m tryin’ to say is ... uh, is ... will you please stay in Conrad with me and Junior?”
Thomas stepped forward then and clapped Earl’s shoulder with a firm grasp. Having finished handing out the relish and keen to know how his friend was faring, he said, “I’m pretty sure that’s not what you’re tryin’ to say. Just spit it out, will ya? My Charlotte’s head looks like it’s about to explode if ya don’t get it over with soon enough.”
Earl glanced all around him. Charlotte and Thomas were smiling like they’d never been more pleased. Louise and Henry were seated not too far off in the distance and their eyes were filled with love. The sort of love Earl realized, right or wrong, that came from inside a heart so honest and open, that he should never have doubted it in the first place. Louise nodded her head, knowing full well no words were needed, and their friendship was restored. The preacher, who was still licking his lips and wiping his hands down the front of his robe, nodded in approval and then Junior skipped toward them.
“Wait for me, Pa...”
He slipped one hand into his father’s — strong, and calloused and rough as it was — and then the other into Beth’s – tiny and soft and ever so delicate — so now the three of them had all formed a perfect circle that couldn’t be broken by loneliness or heartache or fear. They were a united front and while a solitary meadowlark hovered somewhere up in the clouds, singing a beautiful tune and spreading its wings while it soared above them, a new family was formed right there in the field.
Earl got down on one knee. “Elizabeth Edwards, will you please marry me?”
Upon seeing the sincerity in Earl’s eyes and the calmness of his voice and the resolve of his smile, Beth said, “Of course I’ll marry you.”
“You will?”
“Yes. I’m very much in love with you Earl.”
“You are?”
Beth’s hand playfully found her hip. “Well, that’s why I came here after all. If you weren’t so stubborn we could have been married weeks ago.”
Earl wanted to laugh and cry and shout and thump his fist into the air all at the same time. He wanted to do all the things that he’d stopped himself from doing for so long. But instead he gathered Junior up into his arms and looked across at the preacher. “Tomorrow? Can you perform the service tomorrow? I don’t want to wait a moment longer. I’ve waited long enough to make this woman my wife.”
The preacher grinned and nodded and clapped his hands so all in attendance could hear his announcement, and the entire town cheered and spent the rest of the day celebrating the upcoming wedding in true Conrad fashion.
Chapter 25
Dressed in the finest clothes he owned, with Junior standing right by his side — honored to be his father’s best man – Earl Mason stood nervously at the front of the church, feeling love swirl around the room, and when he felt it dip down in deep inside him, filling his heart and warming his chest ... all the anxiety, and the restlessness, and the apprehension slipped away with the crisp fall breeze that drifted through the windows.
A few minutes passed and some of the guests set to whispering, but before Earl could tell them to be quiet, his breath caught in his throat and he wouldn’t have been able to speak even if he wanted to. From where he was standing up near the altar, he only caught a vision of white, and at first he wasn’t quite sure what to make of it, but when his skin broke out in a shiver — one that had nothing to do with the draught — he knew his bride had finally made her appearance.
“For you, Miss Beth, you’re my special Miss Carrot Head ... to carry with you down the aisle. Miss Charlotte said you aren’t interested much in dead flower buckets anyway, so this is my present to you instead.”
And Beth laughed then at the sweet gesture and politely took the bouquet of carrots from her future stepson, telling him she loved him more than anything else in the world and that she would always be his special carrot-head. The entire congregation drew a collective breath as Beth stepped further around the corner and into full view.
She wore a dress made of the finest fabric, fitted and elegant and as vivid as a winter snow. Long lace sleeves covered her arms and fell softly into points over the back of her hands and the silky train skated across the floor behind her when she moved. Elizabeth Edwards ... soon to be Mrs. Elizabeth Mason ... was possibly one of the most beautiful brides to ever set foot inside the tiny, blue Conrad church.
Earl couldn’t keep his mouth from hanging open as he watched her glide effortlessly toward him. Her natural beauty and her rich red hair and those eyes — oh dear, those eyes — were all it took to make his knees go weak. Luckily Junior was right at his side. It was becoming the story of their life. They were a team and nothing could break them apart.
The next few minutes flew by in a misty fog of promises and vows and ring giving and before either of them saw it coming, the preacher had closed his bible and looked out across the congregation and proclaimed, “With the power invested in me, by the state of Montana, I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss your bride.”
Earl’s hands trembled some as he stepped forward and gently lifted back the delicate lace veil. Beth’s hair spilled down around her shoulders in elaborate curls and the small crystals pinned so perfectly around her ears caught to dancing in the weak rays of sunlight shining through the window. A sparkle of light chased itself around the room and Earl smiled, knowing his heart was full with just as much light as the church.
Beth closed her eyes and let Earl’s warm lips find hers. They were much softer than she’d expected, but the firmness behind the kiss, and the strength in the small sigh that escaped him, and the magic that pulled two lonely hearts together in that moment, told her something that she already knew. Earl’s kiss simply confirmed it for her.
This was her new life. Her new love. Her new family.
* * *
The End
* * *
I hope you really enjoyed Beth and Earl’s (and Junior’s ) story.
For a sneak peek of Book Three — Alice in Winterland, please turn the page.
Sneak Peek — Alice in Winterland
Seasons Mail Order Brides
Book Three – Alice in Winterland
Seattle
January 3rd, 1887.
Chapter 1
Tears welled in Alice Hamilton’s eyes.
Even here inside her room, her cold cheeks stung from the frosty air. The seasons had only just traded places, winter no more than a few weeks old, but already the sky was blanketed in a rolling wave of heavy clouds that deprived the city of warmth. Seattle was famous for its near constant cover of darkness, but the icy sleet that fell freezing to the streets was uncharacteristically early, and even the most hardened of locals sheltered under cover.
When Alice blinked, her long lashes overflowed with everything she had bottled up inside her. She placed the pencil down on the small dresser in her bedroom and glanced at the well-worn sheets of her notebook. It was close to being full.
Once upon a time she’d written in the pages daily, pouring her heart and soul out through her words and letting her feelings flourish. She’d had the romantic idea that maybe someday she would have children, and her children would find her diaries, old and dusty by then, and take them down and read them, and perhaps somehow they’d enjoy the sharing of these memories together.
But those childish days had long since passed, and now, Alice knew better than to let her walls down. Trust was something to be earned, and not freely given without charge, even to those you most loved.
She had learned that the hard way.
Drawing her shawl a little tighter around her shoulders, she paused in thought for a moment and read over her entry once more, all the while thinking back on a time of happiness, a time before her life changed forever.
A happiness she believed she’d never feel again.
Dearest Diary,
I can hardly believe that it’s been a little over three months since I arrived here in Seattle! While I am enjoying working in the Postal Office with dear Uncle Bert and, getting to know the ins and outs of the busy city — I am still very worried! Dear Uncle B is none the wiser as to my TRUE reasons for being here — so I guess I must be doing something right. I sure don’t like deceiving him, but he accepted my ‘wanting a new adventure’ explanation, and all without batting an eyelid! I suppose, a brave face sure goes a long way.
Ma, you’d be really proud of how hard I’ve worked. Uncle B and I have done so much planning and sorting and tidying! And he seems to take pleasure in my company too, which is really nice for a change. But then I can’t help but worry about how he’ll cope once I move on.
And I will!
It is inevitable!
Alice looked up from her diary and sighed. With every bone in her body, she wished it wasn’t so. Alice looked out of the window at the busy street below, then settled back down to continue reading her diary.
I’m sorry, dear diary, that I haven’t kept you up to date, but so very much has happened. Trust me when I say there have been many bad days. Of course, Ma’s passing was the worst of them! I long for her cheer, her touch and especially her love. When she passed everything changed. Everything.
Dear sad Pa never recovered. He turned to the bottle and that’s when things completely fell apart. If he could get out bed, he spent more and more days at the saloon, even when he should have been at work. His boss didn’t look favorably on that, so within a short time he was laid off. Another really bad day! And the day he gambled away our home ... well, that was just one more.
So, dear diary, where did it all begin?
Well, Ma was the one with the smarts in our family. She’d made something of herself. A teacher — a wonderful teacher she was at that — and I always aimed to follow in her footsteps. She’d planned and saved and dreamed of a future right from the very beginning, from well before I was even a twinkle in my Pa’s eye.
When dear Ma passed, I hoped and prayed Pa would learn to manage without her. But sadly, within six months he had lost his job by the bottle, and gambled our home away too.
Pa placed a bet on a horserace. He’d never done it before. Maybe it was his grief, and he couldn’t quite think straight. He said we’d double our savings. Guaranteed me it was a sure thing. Promised me a win. Swore he couldn’t lose. He lost.
Despite Ma’s best efforts, Pa and I still ended up broke, desperate and homeless.
Pa found some work as a farm hand, clearing out stalls and meshing fences in return for a small wage. Thankfully, the owner’s wife took pity on us and kindly cleared out an area above the dilapidated stables for our accommodation. Then for a short while, our circumstances were finally looking up again.
We even managed to save a few dollars from every pay packet he earned, and combined with the extra money I made as an assistant at the local school, we were well on our way back to happiness.
Or so I thought.
Pa placed a bet on a horserace. Again, said we’d double our savings.
Guaranteed me it was a sure thing. Promised me a win. Swore he couldn’t lose.
Again, he lost.
A week later Pa’s battered broken body was found slumped amongst the gravel in the alley behind the racing stables. Retribution had found him. It was always going to find him, one way or another, I guess. Poor dear Pa ... another very awful day — but at least Pa is now with his dearest.
Well, dear diary, this is where it becomes even more complicated.
The very next day two men turned up in the school-yard, asking for me by my name. Thankfully I had caught sight of them and overheard them through the open window.
I don’t know what my Pa had done or even how much he’d owed them, but I didn’t wait to find out. Never in my life had I been so frightened, and never in my life will I forget them. The very sight of them scared the tears right out of me, my grief for Pa made to wait. The appearance of those men was burned into my memory. The first was tall, with a bushy, black beard that hung down low over his broad chest. The other man was stockier, thick around the middle, and his foot dragged a little behind him when he walked.
I just knew they were after me. And I could not allow my fate to be sealed in the same cruel way as my father’s. So I ran home as fast as I could!
I collected up the few belongings I owned and placed them into Ma’s old carpet-bag. From beneath the bed I grabbed my jar of spare coins. I’d been saving it for an emergency, and as far as I could tell, I was looking at one square in the eye! By the end of the day I was on a stage coach traveling north and…
Alice’s thoughts were suddenly snapped back to the present when the soft rap of knuckles tapped her bedroom door. She startled some and spun around to glance at the clock. “I’m coming, Uncle Bert.”
