Mail-Order Marriages

by Jillian Hart

  “It must have belonged to your mother, then, for it hasn’t been in use for a long time, if the cobwebs on it are any indication.”

  He looked truly puzzled. “All right, I give up. What the dickens is it?”

  “It’s what you’re going to beat the parlor rug with, Lucas. A carpet beater. And from the looks of that rug, it should have been used a couple of years ago. We’ll make use of it within a week or so, for the rest of the parlor is clean but for the rug.”

  “It smells good in there. When I went looking for you, I noticed how everything was shining and even the window was clean. No dead flies to be seen,” he said with a grin.

  Elizabeth shook her head. “You take the cake, Lucas. But if you promise to use this thing when the time comes, I’ll put it in the pantry and set it aside for now.”

  “Whatever you say, ma’am,” he told her politely, bowing a bit as she passed him on her way to the stairs.

  “I’ll have supper ready in about an hour,” she said, knowing he was right behind her as she descended.

  “Can we talk while you do that?” he asked, his hand touching her shoulder.

  “Certainly. I’m always open to conversation.”

  He was silent then, and only when they were in the kitchen and she’d tied her apron in place and found potatoes to peel did he speak again. She sat across the table from him, her paring knife busy with the potatoes, and Lucas cleared his throat.

  “Why do you think Amos is here to see you?” he asked.

  She looked up in surprise. “However should I know the answer to that?”

  “You must have some idea of his thinking. Why would he leave Boston and his children behind, his wife not even in the ground yet, and come looking for you?”

  “To tell the truth, I’m more concerned about the children than Amos. And about my aunt, for that matter. She was my father’s sister, built just like him, with the same dark hair and blue eyes. My father always said she should have been a man, as tall and strong as she was.”

  “And do you look like her? Didn’t you say your father thought you should have been a boy?”

  She thought for a moment, rising to fetch a saucepan for the potatoes. She pumped water into it and added the sliced-up potatoes, settling it on the stove before she returned to the table. And then she spoke, her words firm, her eyes filled with remembrance as she thought of her family.

  “Yes, I look like my aunt, the same build and coloring. As to the other, I don’t know. My father taught me to do all the things a son would do, but then I suppose, he didn’t have a son, only Sissy and me. I learned how to ride before I can even remember seeing my first horse, and he let me help in the barn from the time I was a small girl. He treated me as a son most of the time.”

  “And did you mind?” Lucas lifted a brow as she considered that notion.

  She shook her head. “No, I enjoyed being with him. We were much alike, and although I had a good time with my mother, learning about cooking and baking and sewing and all the rest, the times I spent with my father were the best memories of my childhood. He…” Her hesitation was brief, and then she spoke again.

  “He respected me. And it pleased me to know that I filled his expectations. Sissy was a girl, through and through. She screamed at snakes and shuddered at spiders, and mice were creatures to be feared above all else.” Elizabeth grinned as she remembered. “My father said she was useless on a farm, for she couldn’t even gather eggs without crying about the hens pecking her fingers, and milking a cow was far beyond her ability to comprehend.”

  “You were your father’s favorite, weren’t you?” Lucas asked.

  Elizabeth nodded. “I guess I was, although I never thought of it that way. Not back then. I loved my mother dearly, but my father was the sun in my sky.”

  “And how did he feel about Amos? Was he pleased when you were courting? Did he think Amos would be a worthy husband?”

  She frowned, pondering as she formed her thoughts. “He didn’t much care for him, I suspect. He liked Amos’s brother better, the one who is a doctor in Boston. But he never said I shouldn’t marry him. Though I think he was pleased when Amos married Sissy instead of me. He told me that the future for me was bright, and a better man would come along one day.” She looked at Lucas then, her gaze meeting his, her lips curving in a smile.

  “He was right, you know. You’re a better man all the way around. As I recall, Amos was never open with me about his plans for our future. In fact, he spent a lot of time trying to coax me into dark corners at the dances, and beneath the oak tree outside the Grange hall. I didn’t think of it then, for I was but a girl, but he was no doubt trying to make advances and I was too dumb to know.”

  “No, you weren’t dumb. That isn’t a word I’d ever associate with you, Lizzie. You were innocent and yet smart enough to evade his advances. And smarter still to be left out of his life. I can’t see that Sissy fared well in her marriage.”

  Elizabeth’s eyes filled with tears. “She was happy with her children, but I’m not certain she was happy with Amos as a husband. But all that aside, I just can’t imagine what could have happened to her. She was healthy when I left Boston, and—”

  “We’ll know soon enough, I think. For I don’t doubt that Amos will have a fine tale to tell when he arrives. As to the other, I wonder when you’ll be notified legally about your inheritance.”

  “I hadn’t even considered that,” she said, stunned as she recognized that she’d totally forgotten that Aunt Hildegarde had left her the considerable amount she’d obtained upon selling her large home. “She was married to a well-to-do gentleman, Uncle Will by name, and he left her well-off when he died. Then she sold the big house they’d lived in for years, and found a much smaller cottage in a little bit of a place outside Boston. She lived there for the past five years or so, and I spent a lot of time with her, tending to things, for she was sickly much of the time. I was there just weeks ago, cleaning her house for her and helping with her spring yard work.”

  “You’ll no doubt hear from a lawyer soon enough,” Lucas said. Then he rose and went to where she sat and lifted her from the chair, embracing her closely, her head resting against his shoulder. “Don’t worry about it all for now, sweet. It’ll all come out in the wash. And if you want to go back to see your parents, we’ll arrange that, too. Maybe in a month or so, after things settle down. In the meantime, we’ll deal with Amos Rogers.”

  “Thank you, Lucas. I feel…safe, here with you. I haven’t had many people in my life who comforted me or made me feel at all special in any way. You’ve taken my part in all of this, and I appreciate it. After all, you barely know me, and yet you’ve set yourself up as my…my rock, perhaps. I don’t know if that sounds foolish to you, but it’s the way I think of you. As a solid foundation upon which I can build my marriage, a man to lean on, a man I can depend on.”

  “You flatter me, Elizabeth.” He held her at arm’s length and met her eyes. “I’m just a man. A big man, yes, but only flesh and bones nonetheless. If I can be your shelter, and stand by your side, behind you if necessary, in all of your dealings, I’ll do that. You’re important to me—my wife, the woman who has taken on the task of being a mother to my sons. You’re right, we don’t know each other well, and yet there is a bond, I think, between us. I feel that you’ve been meant for me all along, and our finding each other, even if it was through a newspaper ad, was meant to be. Does that sound foolish to you?”

  She shook her head. “No, Lucas. It sounds like heaven to me. I’m happy thus far, here with you and the boys. I feel needed and wanted and right at home. I spent an hour in the parlor, cleaning and dusting and looking at your mother’s things, and I felt that I was exactly where I was meant to be.”

  “She would have liked you, Lizzie. She was much the same as you, a woman not given to frippery or ruffles or such, but a woman devoted to her husband and family. You remind me of her.”

  “I do?”

  “I saw you get off t
he stage and knew that you were the right woman for me.”

  She leaned toward him, rising on her tiptoes, and kissed his cheek briefly. It was a forward gesture, one she’d never thought to perform, but it seemed apt for the occasion, for hadn’t Lucas just given her a great compliment?

  “Is that the best you can do?” he asked, grinning at her.

  And then he held her closer, until her breasts were imprinted on his chest, her stomach against the arousal he’d managed to produce with so little encouragement. He kissed her, his lips forming to hers with care, his arms careful not to hold her too closely, lest she feel trapped by his greater strength. It was a kiss of promise and she relished the feel of him against her body, knew the thrill of a woman who is admired and cared for.

  “I’ll do better another time. For now I must concentrate on supper, Lucas. I haven’t got things under control yet, and time’s a-wasting.”

  He glanced out the window, where the sun was heading fast for the western horizon. “So it is. I’ll go out and start the evening chores and lasso those boys. I suspect they’re with the dog and her pups. They’re scampering all over the area we closed off for them in the tack room. Josh is tickled to death with the decision of choosing a male to keep. And Toby is just pleased at the furry little bodies he’s busy petting. Josh told him he must be careful and only pet carefully, lest he cause the mother to fear their being there in the tack room with her.”

  “Go, then, and do your chores and I’ll do mine, Lucas,” she said, her crying a thing of the past, her heart feeling cleansed by the salty tears that had been shed this afternoon. And as he left the kitchen, walked across the porch and then down the steps to the yard, she watched him, her eager eyes fastened on his slim-hipped stride, his long legs and the head of dark hair that gleamed in the late sunlight before he clapped his hat in place.

  “Lucas Harrison, I feel I’m a most fortunate woman indeed, to be your wife,” she said aloud, for even though there was no one to hear the words, she knew she must speak them for her own benefit, lest she forget for a moment how much she had gained by leaving Boston to come to this place.

  The potatoes were almost boiled dry when she rescued them and took them to the table. A good scoop of butter and enough milk to almost fill the saucepan made it ready to go back on the stove. She shook flour and milk together and added it to the mixture, then seasoned it with salt and pepper. She plunged the potato masher into the pan for three or four good strokes, crushing the potatoes to edible bits, and then she put it on the back of the stove to simmer.

  Potato soup was simple to make and she only had to find some peas in the garden to add to it for color and taste. The vines yielded up a double handful of peas and she shelled them amid the weeds, holding her apron up to catch the small green gems. Then back to the kitchen, where she rinsed them under the pitcher pump and dropped them into the soup.

  She’d set bread to rise last night, put it into loaf pans this morning amid all the hustle and bustle that had ensued and left them atop the stove to rise again. So now she took them from the oven, the crust brown and inviting, the three loaves ready for supper.

  She went to the back porch, and was spotted by Toby, who called to his father that supper must be ready for Miss Lizzibet was on the porch. He came to the barn door, turned back but for a moment, his voice loud as he gave Josh the word, then the three of them headed for the trough to wash and then to the woman who awaited them.

  Lucas bent a look of promise upon her as he came in the door. “Smells good in here, Lizzie. Is that fresh bread?”

  To which she nodded and reached for the bread knife, cutting thick slabs of the warm, crusty loaf she held for the hungry crew that faced her.

  Washed and ready to eat, they gathered around the table, and Elizabeth sought in the pantry for a jar of jam, sliding it alongside the butter she’d churned earlier. The soup was ladled into four bowls and distributed around the table, the fragrant steam rising to tempt their noses.

  Toby spoke in earnest fervor a half hour later. “You sure are a good cooker, ma’am. We sure like the way you make soup and stuff, don’t we, Pa?”

  And Lucas answered his son, his voice a bit gruff as he buttered his warm bread and lifted his gaze to meet that of his wife. “We surely do, Toby. We surely do.”

  Chapter Five

  The next day a visitor arrived at the farm. He rode in a buggy driven by Ivan Iverson, the blacksmith, a man who often rented out his equipment. On this occasion his services had obviously been rented along with the horse and buggy, for his hands were on the reins, not those of the dandy who perched beside him.

  “Lucas, I brung you a fella what wants to see your new wife. You want him here?” It was an open invitation to Lucas, for if Lucas shook his head, he knew Ivan would promptly turn the buggy and head back to town, and the fella he’d delivered with such lack of finesse would go with him.

  Lucas called from the yard into the house, his voice dark and deep. “Elizabeth, there’s a man here to see you. You want to come on out?” And if she didn’t, the message was clear. The man could trot right on back to town.

  Elizabeth came to the door and looked at the visitor. “What do you want, Mr. Rogers?”

  “You used to call me Amos,” he said with a laugh.

  “Not anymore. Not since you jilted me for my sister, I fear. Why aren’t you back in Boston this morning?” she asked, remaining within the confines of the kitchen.

  “I came to see you. I’d think that was obvious.” His look at Lucas held a certain amount of apprehension, which Elizabeth noted with glee, even though her mood was far from joyous. She’d spent a half hour weeping her eyes out in the parlor, mourning the sister she would never see again. And here, as nice as you please, was the gentleman who had run off and left Boston and his wife behind him.

  “I repeat, Mr. Rogers, what do you want?”

  “I have news for you, Elizabeth. The sort of thing that’s best delivered in person.”

  “I’m not interested,” she said bitterly.

  He lifted his head and his voice was solemn, as if he carried news of great importance. “I think you would be, should you be aware of certain facts.”

  “Anything you want to tell me you can say from right where you are, Mr. Rogers.”

  “You’re desperately needed back home, Elizabeth. Your two nieces are without a mother and you’re the only one to fill that place. Sissy is no longer with us, for she met with a dreadful accident in Boston three days since. I’m alone now, but for my two children. On top of that, there’s no longer any impediment to our marriage, Elizabeth. I’m without a wife, and Sissy’s children are without a mother. We need you. The children in particular.”

  Toby called from the barn door then, his voice piping and shrill. “Not near as much as we need Miss Lizzibet, mister.”

  Lucas hid a smile as he lifted one hand to cover his mouth, but Elizabeth was not smiling.

  “I think you’d better come up onto the porch,” she told Amos Rogers.

  He leaped down from the buggy and approached the porch, his manner diffident, as if he would appeal to her good manners.

  Ivan picked up his reins, but Lucas lifted a hand to halt his leaving. And Ivan, no doubt mighty curious by this time, did as Lucas had bid him. Possibly because he didn’t want to miss whatever fireworks were about to ensue.

  Amos Rogers approached the porch and Elizabeth came out the door, watching him closely. Josh spoke from behind Lucas, his voice carrying. “He ain’t gonna take our Miss Elizabeth away, is he, Pa?”

  To which Lucas only shook his head and watched the proceedings with an eagle eye.

  “So what other news do you have for me, Mr. Rogers?” Elizabeth asked shortly.

  Amos seemed to tremble and held one hand to his face, as if he dreaded the news he must impart. “I’m prepared to take you back with me to where your parents are waiting to see you again. To where two small children await your arrival, for they desperately need you in thei
r lives. I knew you would want to know about the loss to all of us immediately, so I came as quickly as I could, once I spoke with your parents and discovered your whereabouts.”

  “And why do you think I’d come back to Boston with you?’ she asked him bluntly.

  “We meant the world to each other once, Elizabeth. I know I broke your heart when I was seduced by Sissy’s charms, but I’m just a man and I have to admit that I was wrong to allow her to so induce me to marriage when I’d promised myself to you.”

  “That’s a bunch of horsefeathers,” she said, and watched over Amos’s head as Lucas’s face fell into lines of laughter. Elizabeth gained a great deal of courage from the sight.

  She stood on the top step and looked down at the smug look that covered Amos’s face, and he bowed his head in mock sorrow. “It’s been hard for me to do this, Elizabeth, but those children need you desperately.”

  “And where are they now?” she asked. “Don’t they desperately need their father with them?”

  “Your parents are caring for them until I return,” Amos said, his face contorted with a semblance of mourning.

  Elizabeth lifted her chin and battled her tears as she asked the question that fought to be spoken aloud. “What sort of an accident befell my sister?”

  “The house burned and she was caught in the fire and couldn’t get out soon enough. A neighbor rescued the children, but no one realized Sissy was inside until it was too late. I left with the children before she was brought out, for I couldn’t risk them seeing her body.”

  Elizabeth felt sorrow like a ton of bricks sweep over her and she faltered, one hand reaching for the upright post beside her. She looked up at Lucas and he came to her, reaching her in mere seconds with his long strides. He pushed Amos aside and stood beside her, one arm around her waist.

  “I’m here, Lizzie.” His words were a whisper against her ear, and she nodded.

  “Won’t you do as your sister would have wanted and return with me now?” Amos asked, glaring at Lucas with hatred in his eyes.