by Sy Walker
“Thank you for your bravery in stopping that man,” she told him. She did not seem at all uncomfortable by the fact that he had been petting her hair. If anything, it seemed to have had a calming effect on her.
“I only did what was right,” he said to her kindly. “Now, my dear, you should get to bed. It has become very late and there will be a lot more work to do tomorrow.”
Eleanor nodded, smiling at him. She gave his cheek a little kiss and turned to go back to her little room in the barn. She looked forward to another day of working with him, and vowed that tomorrow she would start working on a nice shirt for him that would pay him back for the beautiful dress and, more importantly, her life.
CHAPTER FOUR
Hemming And Hawing
Eleanor had sweet dreams, imagining Alexander as her knight in shining armor and going on adventures with him that took her away from the sad, lonely life she had lived before. In her dreams, she was free to imagine that he was her betrothed. In dreams, she could be completely happy with him and start a family and know that she was going to be happy and safe forever.
When she awoke the next morning, with the sound of the rooster, she was somewhat sad that her dreams were not true. Still, she was happy just to be on the farm with him and be able to somehow repay the man who had saved her and continued to keep her safe and employed. She spent all morning taking care of the sheep, cautiously feeding Eustice the cow and working on gathering the wool for the production of yarn. Once it was time for breakfast, Eleanor was starved for conversation and time with her favorite gentleman.
She prepared some eggs for them while she waited for Alexander to appear. He was running some errands in town, planning to tend to his garden of crops when he returned later that morning. When he finally arrived, he was carrying some mail and he had a big smile on his face. “I think I got some letters from some prospective brides,” he told Eleanor happily.
Her face fell. “I see,” she said softly. She did her best to put on a brave face and be pleased for him, but her chest hurt now as though her heart was breaking. “I am so happy for you,” she said, a bit more hollowly than she intended. She set a plate full of eggs and ham in front of him on the table.
Noticing her changed in mood, Alexander set the letters aside for the time being and focused on the breakfast she had made him. “Thank you,” he said to her, taking a bite. It seemed that there was no task that was too much for Eleanor. She could even make good meals! “What have you been doing while I was gone?”
Eleanor sighed a little, doing her best to mask it as simply a thoughtful sound, but Alexander already suspected her true feelings. He felt terrible for gloating about his responses, knowing that the poor girl had been left unexpectedly alone in this strange, new place. He wanted her to be happy with someone. He just did not know how to bring up the idea of her trying again.
She did not trust the mail order office, and he could not blame her.
“I took care of the animals and got to work a little bit on the clothing,” she said. “But I should return to that.” She barely ate any of her breakfast, but set it aside on the table and turned to go back out to the barn.
Alexander watched her go, wanting to stop her but not fully knowing how. He did not know that she wanted to be stopped.
Eleanor went into the barn, talking to herself and the animals as though that was going to help her with her current predicament. It was crazy for her to believe that Alexander would want to marry her. After all, she had offered herself when he first walked into the mail order bride office and he had turned her down. He was looking for a bride who was not like her. She thought that he most definitely would want to marry a lady who was used to farming. If not in California, then at least somewhere on the east coast. Eleanor was a factor worker, and not a particularly talented one at that, when she was being totally honest.
“I have made a complete fool of myself,” she sadly told the sheep. They chewed their straw, looking up at her with their rectangular eyes, not understanding her at all but seemingly happy to have her around.
Eustice the cow, on the other hand, always gave her looks as though Eleanor was going to break into her stall in the middle of the night and kill her. Eleanor wondered what the cow’s story was. In a way, she felt that they were a lot alike. Both of them felt like they must be constantly on their guard in case of attackers.
Eleanor wished that the cow could understand her. Maybe then they could be friends.
“How desperate am I?” she asked the cow. “I’m now so lost in the world that I’m considering cattle as possible friends.”
Sitting on her bed, she got to work on the shirt that she was making for Alexander. It was not much, just a light brown linen tunic, but she had done it herself so she figured that he would like it. Although the invasive thoughts told her that, now that he had some ladies who were offering to be his bride, he would not have time for the mousey girl he had rescued.
After a while, she could no longer stand being in his barn. She decided to go into town and see if there were any places in need of a worker. It did not matter to her what kind of work it was. She would do it. She had to stop feeling so guilty and indebted to Alexander. She had to give him his space. And she had to make her own life for herself if she was going to have any chance at happiness.
“May I borrow a horse?” she asked Alexander when she came back into the kitchen.
He seemed surprised at the question. “What do you need a horse for?” he asked her. “Are you in need of more yarn?”
Remembering the wool she had collected from the trio of sheep, Eleanor nodded. “Yes. That’s what I need. I would like to make a sweater, and I need the wool I collected to be made into yarn.”
She did not want to tell him of her plans, in case he tried to talk her out of it. She was determined that nothing would stand in her way now that he needed his own space to be with a new wife. She was in the way and holding him back from being happy.
Without her in the house, Alexander did not feel happy. He looked at the stack of mail, including two letters from female suitors. They had overjoyed him before, but now he did not feel like looking at them. He knew that it would upset Eleanor. It had already upset her enough. The contents of the letters did not matter to him more than her feelings…
When he realized that, he knew that he had made a big mistake. He should never have mentioned the letters to her. He should never have even cared about the letters. The lady that he wanted to marry was already living right there with him, helping him take care of the chores and making his days much happier than they had been before they met. He had saved her and he wanted to keep her safe. He wanted her to find a husband… Why couldn’t that husband be him?
At once, he tore up the letters without even opening them. He tossed them in the trash, hoping that the ladies who had sent them would just believe that he had found the woman he wanted to marry, not that he had meant anything personal by not responding to them. He felt like such a fool for turning her down at the office – nay, ignoring her – and making her feel as though he could never be interested in her. Eleanor had appeared a little forward and perhaps too rash when they had first met, but now he understood that it was coming from fear and desperation. Alexander wanted so badly to help her now that he could not believe he had shunned the option then.
Not wanting to delay any longer, he took his other horse out of the stall and rode it into the town to try and find her. He did not know where to look because she had not told him what she was planning to do in town other than have her wool turned into yarn. He wondered if that was all that she was planning to do, and hoped so because he had no idea where else he might be able to find her and tell her how he felt.
There was a man in town – a local farmer – who had a spinning shop. He took people’s wool and spun it into yarn for money. Alexander checked his stand first, but did not find Eleanor. He felt sad and at a loss, and then he got an idea that seemed too strange for it to be wrong.
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Eleanor hesitantly stepped into the mail order bride office. She could not believe that she was attempting this again, but she believed that she had nothing left to lose. She wanted to find a husband and be happy, and she did not think that something like that was just going to come about naturally. She was so shy and out of place there, so she wanted to find a man – possibly one from somewhere back on the east coast – and start a new life with him.
She wished that she could have done such a thing with Alexander, but that story seemed to have ended as quickly as it had started. She wanted him to be tremendously happy, and if he couldn’t be that with her, well… She wanted only the best for her hero.
Right as she was stepping up to the counter to ask the clerk for help with an advertisement, the door opened and Alexander rushed in. He saw her at the counter and practically ran over. “Eleanor, please don’t do this,” he beseeched. “I have made a grave error. I am so sorry. Please forgive me. I do not want to marry another woman from across the country. I want to marry you.”
The clerk even gasped a little bit at that. Men did not propose to women in the mail order bride office. Alexander could not help thinking that there was a nice sort of symmetry to it, though. They had met each other in the office, so why not propose in it?
He just hoped that Eleanor would say yes to him. He hoped that he had not been wrong about the way she felt for him. He hoped that she would say something, anything… As long as that something was yes.
Eleanor stared at him, shocked and unsure of what to do. Had he changed his mind about the women who had mailed letters to him? She felt bad for them because she knew what it was like to be in their shoes. On the other hand, at least Alexander had the decency to not lead them on and make them come all the way across the country for no reason.
She wondered if he was wise to give up on the women who had sent for him. After all, Eleanor had not read his advertisement. There was a chance that he was asking for something that she could not give him.
But, after a few seconds of thinking such things, she smiled at Alexander. “You do?” she asked. “Why, I was just coming in here to see if there was a chance that I might find someone out there who is even a tenth as good as you are to me.”
Alexander went up to her and gave her a sweet kiss. “Please be my wife. We are already a good fit for each other. Nothing would make me happier.”
The clerk smiled at them. “This sort of thing has never happened here before,” he said cheerfully.
Hand in hand, the couple left the mail order bride office and went home to begin making plans for their wedding.
CHAPTER FIVE
Safe And Sound At Last
Eleanor went to work, sewing herself a dress for the wedding. Alexander saw her and let out a laugh. “My dear, you do not have to make your own wedding dress! That is the sort of thing that you should purchase.”
She looked at him, blushing a little. “I cannot afford to buy a dress and I don’t want to put you out. Really, this will be nice because it’s handmade.”
Alexander appreciated her sentiment, but he did not want to wait for her to make a dress. He wanted to marry her at once. He felt as though they had waited too long already. “You know what you could do?” he asked her with a smile. “We can compromise. You should draw the design that you were envisioning, and I will take it into town and have a dressmaker create it for you.”
Eleanor had never drawn before, but she decided to do her best, since it seemed as though it would make her beloved Alexander happy. She sketched out the way that she wanted her wedding gown to look and handed it off to him. “No peeking,” she told him with a smile. “The groom is not supposed to see the wedding dress until the wedding.”
Chuckling, he nodded to her. “I promise I will not look.” He took the dress design into town and brought it to the place where he had purchased her pretty purple dress. He asked them to make it and they told him that it would be done within the week.
Alexander and Eleanor spent the days leading up to the wedding at work on their farm. She rose every morning like always, helping to sheer and feed the sheep, cautiously feed Eustice the cow, and collect the eggs from the henhouse.
The morning that Eleanor’s dress was ready, she noticed something strange about the large cow. Eustice gazed out of her pen at her, blinking her long lashes. She was not giving the usual ‘stay back’ look that she usually gave the lady. Today, she almost appeared friendly.
“Have I earned your trust?” Eleanor asked her as she placed some hay into the cow’s trough. “Do you not hate me anymore?”
Eustice let out a quiet moo.
Smiling shyly, Eleanor reached out one hand and gently placed it on the cow’s nose. Eustice did not flinch or let out any of her usual groans of caution. Instead, she continued to blink and look at her. The cow appeared to be more curious this morning than hostile. Eleanor decided to take it as a sign. Eustice approved of the match and wanted her to continue to take care of her.
With any luck, she would soon be able to help Alexander when it was time to milk the sensitive and moody Eustice.
Alexander arrived back from the dressmakers. He comically carried the dress into the house, keeping his eyes closed so that he would not see it. She was not entirely certain that he had not at least glanced at it, since he must approve it before paying for it. Still, she appreciated that he was trying his best to stick to the wedding custom and also trying to amuse her. He was good at that.
She took a carriage to the nearby church before he did, and got dressed in her new gown within the privacy of the changing area at the church. When Alexander arrived, he felt a little bit strange that he was standing there without her.
The preacher came out, holding a Bible, and smiled at him. “Are you the groom that is to be married here today?”
Alexander nodded. He was beginning to feel a little nervous. This was something he had wanted for a long, long time and he was so happy that the day had finally come. He hoped that Eleanor would not change her mind about him. What he wanted, most of all, was for them to continue to work together in happiness and harmony as husband and wife. They made a great team, and that was part of why he wanted her to be his bride.
Before too long, Eleanor came out of the small room in the back. She was dressed in a big, elegant white gown. Alexander smiled at her, his eyes twinkling a bit with tears. Day in and day out, he loved her, but seeing her in that gown reminded him just how beautiful and perfect his bride-to-soon-be was.
She stood beside him, smiling, and the preacher opened his Bible as though he was going to read a script from it. Instead, he remained looking at both of them with a pleasant, welcoming sort of smile.
“We are gathered here today to unite these two souls in holy matrimony. Alexander Montoya and Eleanor Whitman, you have decided that you would like to be married. I understand that you have each prepared something to say to the other?”
They nodded. Eleanor gulped a little bit. She had never been the best at public speeches, though they were alone with the preacher so she was sure she would be all right.
Alexander looked at her, gazing into her eyes and holding her little hands in his big ones. “When I met you, I have to admit, I was intimidated. I had never spent a lot of time around women, but I figured that they did not just fall into your lap like that, asking to be your wife. It seemed so peculiar to me and it completely threw me. But, Eleanor Whitman, I’ve come to realize that you were a godsend. You came into my life right when I needed you the most. I am sorry that I did not realize that sooner, but I promise you that I will never ever forget it now.”
He kissed her hands.
Eleanor let out a little laugh as her tears of joy fell down her cheeks. Now it was her turn to speak, though she did not know how she was ever supposed to top his. “I came into town not knowing anyone and not knowing what I was supposed to do. I had been running, for probably my whole life. I was excited to be here, but also terrified because the last th
ing I wanted was to be alone. But you came to me in the night like a vision and invited me to be with you. I have not been alone since, and I am so grateful. You opened up your home and life to me, and I am so happy to be a part of them with you. I love you, Alexander.”
He beamed at her as she kissed both of his hands.
The preacher turned to Eleanor, smiling. She could see that his hands were shaking a little. He was nervous as well, and that made her feel better. “Eleanor Whitman, do you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, to love and to cherish, to honor and obey for as long as you both shall live?”
Eleanor smiled through her tears and Alexander gently squeezed her hands in order to comfort her. He could tell that she was nervous, and he was too. It was another sign, to him, that they belonged together.
“I do,” she said, nodding.
Now it was time for the preacher to turn to Alexander. He bit his lip a little bit as the preacher asked him the same question. “Alexander Montoya, do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, to love and to cherish, to care for and protect, for as long as you both shall live?”
Alexander did not even hesitate. “I do,” he said, gently squeezing her hands again for emphasis.
The preacher grinned at them. “By the power vested in me by the town of Grass Valley, California, I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride!”
Taking Eleanor into his arms, Alexander kissed her deeply. She practically melted against him as she kissed him back. She had found the man of her dreams! And, in a strange roundabout way, she had even initially proposed to him!
Their first order of business as man and wife was to move Eleanor’s small assortment of things to the house so that she could sleep in a proper bedroom. Alexander decided that the best place for her was in his bed. After all, she had fallen asleep in it before and knew it to be comfortable.
The following morning, they rose together and went out to the barn. “I have to show you something,” Eleanor told him. She carefully reached through the slats of Eustice’s stall and placed her hand on the cow’s nose. As before, Eustice did not let out any angry sounds or flinch away from the touch. Eleanor beamed at Alexander. “She has decided that she likes me now.”
