Inside the judge’s private chambers Melissa and Stephanie stood silent, dressed in pastel gowns and Alice looked up into Joseph’s eyes and listened to him repeat his wedding vows. When she saw the tiny lines around his eyes crinkle it was the most perfect moment of her life. She quietly repeated, “I do.”
He lifted her veil carefully and when he kissed her she lay back and fell into his arms and the sales girls applauded and giggled with joy.
They returned to the shop where Daniel had arranged the café tables he had leased for the day, each one bearing a crisp white tablecloth and tiny vases of white carnations and baby’s breath.
“Who did this?” Alice asked as the carriage pulled up in front of the millinery shop. Stephanie and Melissa both pointed to Joseph and nodded.
“Daniel did it all. I merely supported it. He is serving a full breakfast menu this morning for us.”
Alice laughed as they stepped down from the coach and Daniel greeted them in a white tuxedo and apron, a neat towel folded over his arm.
“You must have been up terribly early to pull off all of this!” Alice smiled.
“Terribly. For you, Madam Southers.” Daniel bowed.
Alice looked up at Joseph lovingly and saw his eyes smile and she kissed Daniel on the cheek warmly.
“Had I known this is what I had to do to get a kiss from this astounding woman I would have found you far sooner, sir,” he said to Joseph.
“Lord knows someone should have,” Joseph said, and shook the man’s hand.
They dined on lavish French pastries and fresh juices. Several customers from the shop came for breakfast as well, congratulating them and wishing them luck. Only those close to them knew they were leaving Philadelphia that same day.
“I feel as if I’ve had a real wedding today,” Alice told Daniel, Stephanie and Melissa after breakfast in the millinery shop. You made it so beautiful and romantic. I’ll never forget any of you.”
“We have a plan for that,” Stephanie announced. “Once you have a mailing address we are going to send you bonnets for your hardware store. We think that even ladies in the wilderness might enjoy an uplifting new hat.”
“Probably more than anywhere,” Alice laughed. “But mostly I would love to hear from all of you.”
Alice hugged the girls tearfully and thanked Daniel profusely.
“Thank you all for taking such good care of her,” Joseph said, looking at Alice with love in his eyes. “I should never have let her out of my sight. It won’t happen again.”
“It has been our pleasure,” Daniel said.
Joseph led Alice from the shop while she dried her tears with his handkerchief.
“I am simply terrible with goodbyes,” she said.
Chapter Sixty-Five
Alice wiped her brow with the back of her hand in the warm Pennsylvania sunlight. She wore a yellow gingham dress and decided to forgo her corset and silky underthings in an attempt to remain cool. Even in the shade of the nearby trees Alice did not find relief.
Joseph had arranged several, large wooden crates in neat rows along the back of his hardware shop in Lancaster County. Since early morning he had been filling and stacking them with merchandise to ship north. He had stripped to the waist and she watched him for a moment, now tan and slick with fresh perspiration, his back glistening in the sunlight as he walked among the crates in only his trousers and bare feet.
“I can’t bear this any longer,” she said and Joseph looked up at her.
“Do you think it’s too hot? We can take a break if you like.”
“I don’t think it’s simply the weather,” she smiled at him provocatively. “In fact I am sure it is you that is driving me simply mad. If we take a break I promise you, it will not be to cool down.”
Joseph smiled and she saw his eyes crinkle playfully.
“This might cool me down,” Alice said. She pushed the handle on the pump in the yard and filled a bucket with cool water. Taking a sponge from the merchandise, she bent over, her eyes locked with his own, and plunged it into the water. She wrung it firmly above her breasts. She had unfastened several buttons on her summer dress and offered Joseph an enticing display.
“Or perhaps this might work,” she sauntered up to him suggestively and rubbed the dripping sponge across his shoulders. He felt the chill and his excitement for her rose immediately.
Yvonne Lambert stopped along the tree line where she watched the couple working for several minutes. She had decided it was time to tell Joseph the truth about her feelings, but did not expect to find him with anyone.
She watched Joseph take the woman into his arms and kiss her passionately. Alice did nothing whatsoever to put him in his place. If anything, she seemed to welcome his advances and allowed him to grasp her backside eagerly.
Alice laid her hands over Joseph’s bare chest and ran her finger along the waistband of his pants. “You could only be more delicious out here glistening in the sun if you had not bothered wearing these at all,” she whispered into his ear.
“My neighbors would certainly not appreciate that,” he mumbled against her kisses.
“I see no neighbors out on Sunday,” she purred. “I could take care of these and please you right here.”
“You could, but maybe I can distract you instead,” he said, pressing his body against hers.
Alice leaned back against the crate invitingly.
Yvonne watched him kissing her. Alice touched him through his trousers and Yvonne gasped. She watched him kiss the rise on her breast and although Yvonne was sickened by their display she could not turn away. She saw Joseph run his hands up under her dress along her thigh. He pressed his hand against her, between her legs and Yvonne could barely contain her anger. She saw Alice squirm with pleasure from his touch.
She heard them speak low, but could not make out their words. Then she saw him pull his hand away and he lifted her up into his arms and carried her inside.
“How dare he?” Yvonne said aloud. “He has some slut here in his home, his store, allowing him to touch her in that way. She must be after his money to behave in such a way.” Yvonne stormed toward the house.
When she reached the back porch she could hear giggling and squealing and Joseph’s low voice. Silently, she opened the screen, slipped inside and stepped across the floor. At the bottom of the stairs she listened.
“Joseph,” she heard the woman say. “Oh please, please.”
Yvonne climbed the stairs quietly. When she reached the top step she saw that Joseph had shed his trousers completely and Alice’s dress was entirely undone. He moved over her slowly and groaned loudly. All the while she was moaning his name and professing her love to him. Yvonne stood frozen. He was doing to Alice what Yvonne vowed no man would ever do to her. He was defiling her and she was letting it happen.
“Stop it!” Yvonne screamed. “How could you let any man touch you there like that?”
Joseph sat up immediately and pulled the sheet over himself and ran his hands through his hair. Alice stood up slowly and began to fasten her gown.
“Yvonne, what are you doing?” Joseph shouted. Alice stepped to him, handed him his trousers and then stood in front of him while he slipped them on beneath the sheet.
“I am watching this woman open herself to you and you fall for her bedevilment. How dare you?” Yvonne faced Alice. “You are filth that has come to seduce his gold from him by doing what no woman should ever do with a man!”
Joseph stood up next to Alice and put his arm around her shoulder. “Yvonne, you have no right to be here. Please leave.”
“No right?” Yvonne replied. “It’s her that has no right. She’s poisoned you with her filth. She’s the one who needs to leave while I try to forgive you for behaving so disgustingly. Go wash her scent from you and drive her away.”
Alice watched Yvonne ranting and said nothing. She saw that her face was red with rage and shock. Alice didn’t know how long Yvonne had been there but it was obviously long enough t
o see them having sex. She stood quietly.
“Yvonne, you need to calm down. You’re upset.” Joseph said.
“She wants your money. She’s seducing you for your gold. You harlot!” Yvonne spat at Alice.
Alice wiped the spittle off her face with the back of her hand and looked Yvonne in the eye.
“Stop!” Joseph growled. “You have no right. You come in here and invade my privacy when there is nothing between us and you insult my wife. I’ll not have it!” His voice raised to a bellow. “Leave now or I will remove you!”
“Wife?” Yvonne screamed shrilly. “Wife? You married? For this? You wanted to do these filthy things to me, didn’t you? Both of those times you tried to kiss me? This is what you wanted? A woman to lay with you like a whore? You sicken me, Joseph Southers. Sicken me.” Yvonne stumbled back down the stairs and staggered outside the door.
Alice looked up at him. “Do you think she’ll be alright?”
“I don’t care.” He sat down on the bed.
“You loved her once. It’s hot out. How did she get here?”
“I was wrong. I didn’t even know what love was. I’m so angry with her right now! Aren’t you?” He looked up at her and saw her cheek was still wet with spit.
“Yes, and she’s wrong. But her opinion of sex won’t matter if she runs off and gets hurt.”
Joseph sighed. “I never heard her carriage.”
“You were distracted.” Alice could not keep entirely from smiling. “Go see that she’s alright.”
Joseph nodded and pulled a clean set of clothes from the closet. He changed quickly and slipped into his shoes.
Chapter Sixty-Six
Joseph reached Yvonne as she staggered along the roadway. He walked her up to the pump and helped her splash some water on her face.
“You disgust me, Joseph Southers,” she hissed.
Joseph said nothing and led her gently to a bench in the shade of a large sycamore and sat her down.
“You’re doing all this to make me marry you, aren’t you?” Yvonne asked.
“No, I am not,” Joseph spoke calmly. “It doesn’t have anything to do with you.”
“First you get some fool idea in your head that I’m going to marry you when I never quite said I would. You run off and get all this gold. Then you come back and you pressure me, trying to force yourself on me. And when I have no choice but to tell you I’m not ready, you do that with some whore right in the open where you know I’ll see you?”
Joseph sat down next to her and tried to control his temper. “When I left to find gold,” he said, “I believed you loved me. I wanted to marry you, to give you the world. I came back and you seemed surprised. No one even met me at the station. I couldn’t understand. Every day I was up north I thought only of you. But you don’t want me, Yvonne.” Joseph looked at her and shook his head. “I never imagined anyone could see Alice and me in the back yard. I’m shocked that you did.”
“I came up through the tree line.”
“Where no one ever goes. We did not intend for you or anyone else to see us.”
“I did see you,” Yvonne scowled.
“And I am sorry for that. I’m sorry that it upset you. I’m sorry for a lot of things.”
“Why would you ever imagine doing such things?”
“Making love?” Joseph looked up at her.
“Tell me you did not imagine doing those things to me!”
“To you?” Joseph asked. “No, actually. Never. I couldn’t even get a kiss out of you. I never saw you that way at all. You and Alice are very different women.”
“Most definitely,” Yvonne said. “I would never allow a man to touch me like that, anywhere. Nor would I be made to put my hands on any man in such a way.”
“Then I made the right choice.” He looked down at the ground.
“You can’t mean that you want that?” Yvonne stood up. “To continue to think about copulating with that woman, any woman. Has she ruined you completely?”
Joseph laughed dryly at the absurdity of the conversation.
“I love Alice and she loves me back. Yvonne, we made love. We do it a lot. You should try it sometime, it’s the most beautiful thing in the world. Trust me.
Yvonne stood in complete confusion. She thought he loved her. Then he didn’t. He wasn’t the same when he’d come back. Yvonne took a deep breath. Neither was she. Once he was all she wanted but he had left. What was she supposed to do? She couldn’t marry him. Was she the reason he’d run to that woman? Is that what he really wanted?
Jefferson Curry stepped out onto his porch and saw them talking in the yard. It was clear Yvonne was upset. He buttoned his shirt hastily and hurried across the yard.
Yvonne looked up the street and saw Jefferson approaching.
Jefferson stopped, but lingered in the distance. He’d wanted Yvonne all along. Now it would be his turn.
“Are you with her because of me?” Yvonne looked up to Joseph’s face.
“No. Because of her. I was wrong about us, Yvonne. Once, before I left, I thought I loved you. And I thought you loved me. ”
“I know,” Yvonne said.
“Are you in love with Jefferson?”
“I think so. Maybe.” Yvonne turned and Jefferson walked up and took her hand.
Joseph looked at Yvonne and Jefferson together and sincerely wanted the best for them. “Take good care of her,” he said. “Maybe one day you two can marry.”
“Maybe one day,” Yvonne smiled at Jefferson.
“I’m sure she’ll be worth waiting for,” Jefferson said.
Chapter Sixty-Seven
Yvonne watched Joseph turn the wagon in the lane after Alice brought it around. She had to admit he was terribly handsome, she thought, but she would never see him the same. Yvonne wondered if all men thought like he did now.
“Daddy?” Yvonne tapped on her father’s office door.
When he called her inside she flopped down in his big leather chair.
He looked up from his accounts. “Where have you been? You’re a mess!” he asked.
“I went to talk to Joseph. I saw them. Joseph and that woman, in their house. I followed them inside and I saw them.”
Lambert had heard that Southers had taken a wife and was living with her at his store. Rumor was that they were leaving soon and he had hoped Yvonne would not know until they were gone.
“His new wife?” Lambert asked.
“Yes,” Yvonne said thoughtfully. “I don’t think I’m ready to marry anyone just yet. Even Jefferson.”
“That’s up to you, dear,” Lambert said.
Within the week Joseph Southers and his new wife were gone.
Chapter Sixty-Eight
Alice looked around the residence above the hardware store as she stood alone in the morning light. The next day she and Joseph would begin their journey back to Alaska and nearly everything was finished. Joseph had planned their trip carefully, going over every detail. They would arrive before the merchandise. He had already written to Jack asking him to find him a location in town for the new store. If they could move into an existing building it would be quicker, but Joseph was undaunted by the prospect of possibly having to build. Alice understood now much more about what drove him to go to Alaska in the first place.
It went far beyond his desire to marry Yvonne and prove himself. He had a spirit that was ignited by adventure and challenge. It was no surprise that he had grown bored, as he said, with waiting for Yvonne and her parties. Joseph needed to be accomplishing something every day. He also loved doing something new and then becoming focused on that until it was completed. Alice realized she loved that about him. She was excited about their trip as well.
Still, there was something she knew she had to say. The hardware store was sold now to a very sweet young couple who had made a very low offer. The pair explained it was the best they could do and they wanted the shop badly. As they all stood in the store talking, the pretty wife held a baby on her hip. In t
he end, not only did Joseph accept their offer but he gave them a list of prospective customers.
Alice watched him stop several times during the meeting and make playful faces at the child. Whenever the baby dropped his rattle he was quick to retrieve it again and again without blinking an eye. When they left he even bent and kissed the baby’s forehead.
Alice struggled with what she knew she had to tell him. She decided he had to know before they left.
As he pulled the empty wagon into the yard she filled two glasses with lemonade and took them out onto the porch.
“All ready to go!” he announced. “In the morning we’re off to nice chilly Alaska!” He took the tall glass and sat in a rocker.
“I need to tell you something and, try as I might, I can find no easy way,” Alice began.
He looked at her as she sat next to him and tried to imagine what she had to say. His worst fear was that she had reservations about going. “Please don’t say you’ve changed your mind.”
“No, no, of course not. I love you, I want nothing more than to be with you. But before we go I need to tell you something. I watched you with that sweet baby and I need to speak up before we leave.”
Joseph leaned back in the rocker. He told himself he shouldn’t be surprised. They had been making love several times a day from the minute he caught up to her in Philadelphia. He certainly wasn’t excited about the timing. He liked babies well enough, but this was not the right time. “You’re expecting,” he said, trying not to show his concern.
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