Wanted: Miller (Silverpines Series Book 10)

by George H. McVey

  His mother, on the other hand, just wanted to visit with Antonia and see the home she grew up in and share stories of his childhood with his new wife. Already she’d embarrassed him with a few at dinner but having thought he’d never get to see them again, he was happy they’d made the journey.

  “It was nice of your parents to surprise you today.”

  He smiled at Tonya. “I was just thinking the same thing. I’m sorry your aunt didn’t come.”

  She snuggled close to his arm as they walked. “I didn’t expect her to. She pretty much wrote me off when I refused to sell the mill and come live in Astoria with her. She has never understood how important this town and the lumberyard are to me.”

  “Well, I’m still sorry that she missed it. Did you notice that Peter seemed to have attracted a young woman’s attention today?”

  His wife smiled at him and his heart leapt in his chest; his lovely Antonia was his wife now. “I did. That’s Cindy Lou Sawyer. Peter has her father’s old job. I really should have checked on her before this. She’s one of the few Timber Town family members that survived. She was at the saloon to help Hattie with the injured when the mudslide came. Like me, she lost her whole family so it was nice to see her smiling and dancing with him today.”

  “He seemed quite taken with her, too.”

  “I noticed. He asked me if he could leave early tomorrow. Seems he wants to take her to the cafe for supper.”

  “Do you think either of them realized she had sawdust on her neck after their ‘walk’?”

  Antonia giggled. “No, I don’t think they did, but I did notice that Edith Howard realized it. I can tell you that poor Cindy Lou will get a lecture on proper courting behavior and sparking with young men in public tonight.”

  Braylon stopped and pulled Antonia into his arms. “Speaking of sparking in public, how about a kiss or two, Mrs. Watts?”

  She wrapped her arms around his neck, her fingers playing with his hair at the back of his head as she gasped in fake indignation. “Right here on the boardwalk, Mr. Watts? Are you trying to ruin my reputation, sir?”

  He captured her lips against his, getting lost in the velvety feel of her mouth moving against his. How perfect her body felt melting into his as he tried to keep his hands locked decently on her waist and not let them wander as they wanted. He pulled back with a couple of quick pecks before releasing her. “Not at all, wife. Just making sure everyone understands how pleased I am with my bride and how treasured she is by her husband.”

  “Well, after a display like that and words such as those, Mr. Watts, I think you should hurry and get me home before I embarrass us both with my wanton display of my satisfaction in your pleasure at your choice in wives.”

  With that, Braylon swept her off her feet, ignored her squeal of excitement and protest, and all but raced home with her in his arms where they were safe behind closed doors and tightly shut curtains to continue exploring the pleasures they were finding in each other.

  Later, as they lay beside each other, Tonya marveled at the changes in her life in just a short time. Here she was married and, if she was honest with herself, very much in love with her new husband. While their start had been rocky because of their preconceived ideas of what they both wanted out of their marriage, they were learning to work together to meet each other’s needs and desires. As she lay with her head on her husband’s chest, listening to his strong heartbeat beneath her ear, she thought of everything he had done for her and the community since his arrival at the beginning of the week. Single-handedly he had improved her lumber business and they were well on their way to be back up in the timberline cutting new trees. He’d found a way to increase production of lumber and even get the cleanup of the logjam and stacked logs moving smoother. In just a few more weeks they would be receiving new workers and start recovering logs from where the slide happened. He’d found ways to get more lumber cut and even had made a deal with the Astoria paper mill to sell the sawdust that her father had pushed into the river to get rid of turned into money for them by selling it as part of the pulp turned into paper by the mill.

  He’d helped others with some of his innovative ideas and she really wanted to make his dream of bringing electricity to Silverpines a reality. She thought about it as they spent time just being. Finally she spoke, “Braylon, do you still have those plans for bringing electricity to Silverpines in your things?”

  “Hmm? Yes, but don’t worry about that, my lovely Antonia.”

  “Will you show them to me?”

  He looked down at her.. “Now?”

  “Yes, I’d like to understand what you were trying to do.”

  His hands started moving across her skin. “Are you sure that’s what you want to do right now?”

  “Please?” She asked kissing him. “I didn’t really listen to you earlier about it and I just want to understand. I’m not sure I can concentrate on anything else until I understand what you were trying to do.”

  He sighed and got up, pulling on his britches as he went, allowing her to enjoy the view of his back and the muscles she had known he had but enjoyed seeing none the less. While he was gone she’d gotten up and put on the special nightgown she’d bought for her wedding night but hadn’t worn yet as there had been no time to dress after he carried her home earlier.

  Tonya enjoyed the spark behind his eyes as he came in carrying the pages of plans he’d brought with him from Ohio. The mostly sheer white gown with emerald green ribbon running down the front in little bows was certainly a hit with her husband. “Are you sure this can’t wait till later? I’d rather explore these little bows.”

  She giggled. “You can explore those later. Help me understand this so I can concentrate on your explorations when the time comes.” Braylon sighed and climbed in beside her, kissing her thoroughly as he settled. “You drive a hard bargain, wife, but I’m going to hold you to it. Then I’ll hold you.”

  She giggled and blushed. She was going to enjoy being married to this man. Soon they were caught up looking at his plans as he explained about generators and wiring and how to attach the generator to the waterwheel.

  “So from what I understand, to bring electricity to town you’d need one of these generator machines and have Mister Clayborne craft these gears that would connect the machine to the wheel. You’d have to get the town council to let you put up poles through town to run these wires on and then people would have the fixtures put in their homes and businesses?”

  “Yes, basically.”

  “I don’t understand. Why were you going to close the mill for months?”

  “To put it all together.”

  “Well, wouldn’t the first thing be to get one of these generator machines and have Mister Clayborne craft all these gears you need?”

  “Yes.”

  “The mill could run while you’re doing that, couldn’t it?”

  “Well yes, I guess it could.”

  “You could also get the council to let you put up some of those poles and run the wire at least to businesses while they installed these light fixtures as you called them. You’d also have to have Mister Cuttler order those light globes, wouldn’t you? I mean, I could see where these steady lights would be very useful, say for the doctors, the saloon, the mercantile, and even at the mill. So maybe concentrate on businesses first. But why were you closing the mill for months?”

  “To get all that done.”

  “Why not get all the pieces in place first? How long would the wheel have to be stopped if you had all the pieces in place and the generator machine and gears all put together?”

  Braylon looked at her with surprise on his face. “I hadn’t even considered that, Antonia. We’d only have to be down a day, maybe two at most that way.”

  “Do we have the funds to purchase one of those generator machines and get the wire and gears manufactured? I mean, we could use some of the uncut logs for your poles to string the wire on, right?”

  “Yes, the logs would certainly be
big enough. I have the money set aside for the generator. I had set it aside before I came. I spent a bit having the parts made for set up at the mill, but not much.”

  She smiled at her husband and kissed him. “Then let’s do it. Order the generator machine tomorrow and talk to Mister Clayborne about making those gears. Even if the city says no right now, we can run your wire into the mill and the house here to show people how it would work. I bet once they saw it working they’d want it, too.”

  “Really, you want to bring electricity to Silverpines?”

  “Braylon, I was never against bringing electricity to Silverpines; I was against having to close the mill for months to do it. I want you to bring electricity to our town. I want your dreams to be a reality, too, husband. Order your machine and get your parts made.”

  Braylon laughed and hugged her to him, kissing her so soundly her toes curled. Soon electricity, generators, and anything other than exploring how to remove little emerald bows were forgotten till the first rays of sun broke through their bedroom windows.

  Chapter Eight

  The week after their wedding was spent mostly in each other’s company. Neither Tonya nor Braylon wanted to be apart from the other. When they weren’t sneaking away to be together, some place they could be alone, they were spending the time with Braylon’s parents. They’d showed them around town and Braylon had shown his father his improvements and plans which had impressed the older Mister Watts. He had several copies of the schematics and diagrams to take home and implement at his own mill. The order for the generator had been placed and Mister Clayborne had taken Braylon’s plans for the gears and manufactured parts he would need and was working on crafting them for him. Mayor Garrison had talked with several of the business owners in town about installing electricity for lighting and, while not everyone was on board as expected, some were. Marshall Sewell wanted them for the jail as well as for the big house that Betsy owned. They had agreed to move back into the bigger house since their family was expanding, pleasing Betsy who missed her old house and being closer to Maude. Both doctors had demanded that poles be run so that they could have the better lights for the clinic and apothecary. Apparently there were special fixtures just for hospitals and doctors that they were ordering to be installed that would make treatment of the sick and wounded easier.

  All in all, the week had been fairly productive. Advertisements for timbermen and lumberjacks had been placed and certain homes had been set aside for the use of several families. A section away from the original Timber Town was being prepared for single lumberjacks who preferred the tent cities that seemed to spring up in such a fluid profession.

  The only two upsetting things were when the end of the week came and the Watts’ had to return to Ohio. Both Antonia and Braylon’s mother had cried and held each other until both Braylon and his father thought they were going to miss their train standing right on the platform. Thomas Watts had confided in his son that he was going home to make the improvements Braylon had shown him before he put the mill up for sale. He had realized while in Silverpines that he was tired of milling and was ready to take it easy. He’d talked to his son about investing some of his money in the mill and electric company the younger man was bringing to Silverpines. Once the mill in Ohio was sold, the older couple would be moving to Silverpines permanently. “After all, what good is it being grandparents if one never gets to see their grandchildren?” Braylon had promised not to say anything to his mother or his wife until the deal was done.

  The other upsetting thing was really not that upsetting to Braylon and Tonya but did give them private moments of great pleasure. Poor Peter was beside himself. He’d had three outings with Cindy Lou and after each, one or the other of the Howard sisters had found sawdust on Cindy Lou in a place that was hard to innocently explain away. “I don’t know what to do, Mister Watts. I wash and brush and pick and still I seem to have it everywhere. How’s a guy supposed to court a woman or steal a few kisses if every time I even walk beside her she’s covered in sawdust? Them Howard sisters have eyes like hawks. The one keeps threatening to beat me with a bat and the other to march me over to the church at the end of a shotgun for a wedding.”

  Braylon tried not to laugh at the young man. “Well as I see it, Peter, you have three choices here. You can stop seeing the young woman. Then she won’t get sawdust on her clothes and neither of you will get in trouble.”

  “I can’t do that, Mister Watts. I really like Cindy Lou; I think we might even be the ones for each other, you know?”

  “Well, then you can march right over to the church and ask Pastor James to marry you. I’m a big believer in marriage nowadays.”

  “Yeah, but it’s too quick. No offense to you and the boss but we’d like to be certain-sure we pick the right person to marry.”

  Braylon raised his hands in the surrender pose. “No offense taken, Peter. You are a bit younger than we were. Not a lot, but I understand.”

  “What’s the third thing?”

  “You could stop being the sawyer. I mean we could probably switch you and William out and have you drive the wagons and him work the saw. Or once we hire another couple of men you could work the logs and one of them could run the saw. Or you could find another job. It’s not like there aren’t jobs in Silverpines you could do.”

  Peter scratched his head. “Yeah, but we promised our Ma we’d stick together. That’s why we got the jobs here to begin with.”

  “Let me ask you, Peter; how’s that going to continue to work? I mean if it turns out Cindy Lou is the woman you want to marry. You can’t move her in upstairs with all the single lumbermen who are going to be living there and I doubt she’s going to want to live in a house with your two big brothers underfoot all the time. You think it’s hard to spark with a girl now, imagine trying to be married to one with your brothers next door.”

  “Yeah, hadn’t thought about that. Maybe I will look into them other jobs or moving to something else lumberjack wise.”

  “You’re a smart guy, Peter. What about working for me on the electric side of things. Learning to run the wires and put up the poles, fix problems with the wiring, stuff like that?”

  “You really think I could do all that, Mister Watts?”

  “I think you could. You picked up on the idea of the log deck pretty quick; I bet you could learn how to run the wires and fix problems with them just as quick.”

  The younger man smiled. “Yeah, I did. I think I’d like that, I’d still be able to stay here with my brothers until I got married?”

  Braylon shrugged. “Don’t see why not. You’d still work for Antonia and me.”

  “Can I talk to my brothers before I let you know?”

  Braylon nodded, “I think that would be wise. You just let me know what you decide and until then maybe try to be extra cautious when sparkin’ with Cindy Lou.”

  The younger man sighed, “Yeah, I reckon I can try.”

  Tonya was loving married life. She enjoyed taking care of another person and cleaning their home more than she ever thought she would. She still didn’t do much of the cooking. though. She could, but she didn’t want to take away Mrs. Carlson’s job. But there was something satisfying in making the bed and picking up after a husband, cleaning the house and ensuring there was a warm meal on the table when he came home. On the other side, Braylon was still finding time to sneak away from work and convince her for a walk beside the river or to mess up the bedroom she’d just straightened. She figured if she didn’t start putting her foot down sometimes, she’d be a mother before she was used to being a wife.

  While her husband was dealing with hiring new timber workers, Tonya was making sure the houses they’d rented for lumberjacks with families were being cleaned and squared away before any of them arrived. It was during one evening after cleaning a cottage over by the cafe that she got the surprise of her life. She was walking past the cafe when a couple in the window shocked her to no end. She knew that Peter was still courting Cindy
Lou because Braylon had shared the young man’s distress over the sawdust that kept giving away his attempts at sparking the young woman. But to see Silverpines most outspoken widow and sourpuss sitting giggling and flirting like a schoolgirl was shocking. But that’s exactly what she saw, the Widow Wallace, her head together with none other than big burly Paul Bunyan.

  They were so enamored by each other that Tonya was sure they didn’t notice her watching them. She was fascinated to watch the big lumberjack sipping tea and holding the widow’s hand so daintily while leaning close to whisper sweet nothings to her. Much to Tonya’s shock, the pinched face sourpuss was completely twitter pated by the big man, her face relaxed in a smile with love lights in her eyes. Tonya was surprised at how much it changed the woman’s appearance; she looked pretty in love.

  It seemed that out of the mud and dust and rock of disaster can rise love that inspires and changes even the most sour and jaded of lives. Who would have imagined it?

  The downside for Tonya was when her mother-in-law had returned to Ohio. It had been so long since she had had the true love and care of a mother that she’d eaten up her mother-in-law’s affection. The two had gotten along so well that Tonya had truly felt like she was losing another parent when the older woman had gotten on the train to return to her home. She wished she’d been able to ask them to stay and give up their life back east. She hated the thought that someday she and Braylon would have children who would never get to know the love of their grandmother.