Chapter 14
"The way the weather's been, I've been thinking of wearing pants under my skirts too. I don't see why you should be the only woman who gets to be warm up here." She winked at Lisa who was standing beside her, peeling the potatoes to put into the stew.
"I don't see why you wouldn't. It's not like anyone's going to notice anyway. And it does keep the wind from getting up your skirts." Lisa grinned back at her.
"I always knew it was going to be much colder up here in the Yukon Territory, but I didn't really think it would be quite so frigid already. Such a difference from early winter in Ottawa." She looked out the window of Lisa's small cabin, watching the snow falling softly on the ground outside. "I wonder how my parents are doing now. I wonder sometimes if I shouldn't have stayed and helped them. Losing both of their daughters in such a short amount of time might have been too difficult for them."
"Maryanne, you've got to stop always worrying about others. If you'd stayed, nothing would have changed. Your leaving has most likely forced them to get through their grief and work at building their store back into a profitable business. If they'd kept relying on you to take care of everything, they might never make the effort themselves."
Maryanne looked at her friend and shook her head slowly. "How did I get so lucky to have such a wise friend?"
Lisa laughed. "And I hope you don't ever forget it."
They spent the day together, preparing a warm stew for dinner then baking some fresh bread to go with it. The inside of the cabin was full of delicious aromas, mixing with the warmth from the crackling fire, to give the small room a homey feel. The cold outside didn't matter to the two women inside.
While they waited for everything to finish cooking, they sat and worked on their blankets. Lisa was getting better at crocheting, and Maryanne was so proud of how hard Lisa had worked at learning. She wasn't letting her disability slow her down one bit, and Maryanne didn't doubt in time Lisa would be crocheting just as fast as she did.
"So, have you told Preston you love him yet?"
Maryanne dropped her crochet hook, and it rolled around the floor. "Lisa! Now look what you've made me do."
Lisa just chuckled to herself as she pushed her hook into the wool and created another crochet stitch. "I was merely asking an innocent question."
Maryanne rolled her eyes as she retrieved the hook and worked at unraveling her last few stitches to try fixing the mess. She decided to just ignore Lisa's question.
"Are you ignoring the question, Maryanne? I can see the way you've changed and how your face lights up whenever you talk about Preston. I may suffer from some disabilities that slow me down from time to time, but I'm not blind. I just don't get why it's such a big deal that you can't even tell your best friend. He is your husband, after all. So it isn't completely shocking that you might fall in love with him."
Lifting her head to look at her friend, she leaned back in her chair in exasperation. Lisa wouldn't give up, so she may as well just tell her what she was wanting to hear.
"I know it's not shocking, but it's still something I'm just so unsure of. I mean, just a couple of months ago, I was content in my little world, caring for my sister and my family's store. Then suddenly, my sister is ripped from me, and I'm left traveling across the country to marry a strange man. I'd never imagined I'd fall in love with him. I just hoped to at least care for him a bit and that he'd care for me in return. Falling in love didn't seem like something a girl like me could possibly have."
This time, Lisa rolled her eyes. "A girl like you? You spend all your time encouraging me, telling me how I deserve the best and that I have so much to offer Wesley. Yet you still won't see what you have to offer Preston. You're lucky Miss Hazel isn't around here to listen to you talking like this. I might just have to let her know what I'm having to sit here and listen to."
Maryanne chuckled softly. "Are you threatening to send her a letter and tell on me?"
Lisa shrugged. "Maybe I will."
They stared at each other for a moment, then both broke down in laughter.
"All right, I will admit it. I'm in love with Preston. But I haven't told him yet, and I'm not even sure how he'll react. When we met, he didn't seem overly excited about the whole prospect of getting married. In fact, I got the impression he was just doing it as a duty." She looked back down at her hook while her mind went to the days and nights she'd spent with her husband.
"I know he cares about me. And that's enough for now. I don't want to scare him by telling him what I'm feeling in my heart if he doesn't return my affection."
"So you'll just waste your days waiting for him to say the words? You know, men aren't known for being good at expressing their feelings. He might never figure out how, and there you'll be an old woman, all alone, wondering if your husband ever loved you."
Raising an eyebrow in Lisa's direction, Maryanne peeked up at her. "That's a bit dramatic, wouldn't you say?"
Once again, the women ended up in fits of laughter. Maryanne couldn't believe how lucky she was to have a friend like Lisa, who she knew she could trust and confide her deepest feelings to, as well as any secrets she shared with her.
"Lisa, you know how much I miss my sister every day. You are so much like her. You're strong, beautiful, and you don't ever give up. I was wondering if you could do me a favor, since my own sister isn't here anymore?"
Lisa was looking at her with a serious expression. "Of course I would, Maryanne. You know I'd do anything for you."
Smiling at her friend, she prepared herself for the reaction she knew was about to come.
"I was wondering if you would be the godmother for my baby?"
This time, it was Lisa whose hook went rattling to the floor as she stared at Maryanne in shock.
"You mean…?"
Nodding, she put her hands onto her stomach. "Yes, Lisa. I'm going to have a baby."
As Lisa shrieked with happiness, Maryanne could only hope Preston would be even half as happy as her friend was when he heard the news.
Wesley had walked her home earlier, after they'd had their dinner. She was finding herself tiring easily, something she'd heard could happen during the early months of pregnancy. Smiling to herself as she thought of holding her baby, she bent down to add another log onto the fire to get the chill from the room. She tried to picture what the baby would look like, secretly hoping it would have Preston's dark hair and skin.
She picked up the blanket she was working on from the basket by her chair and sat down to work. As she moved the hook, she wondered to herself how Preston would act when he found out. Their baby would have Indian blood, so she hoped he could get past his own worries about that and show their child to be proud of their heritage.
The sound of a wolf howling in the quiet of the night outside sent shivers down her spine. It was always such a lonely sound, and even though she'd been here now for a few weeks, it wasn't a sound she thought she could ever get used to. She hoped Preston was safe wherever he was.
As she rocked and worked on the blanket, she let the crackling of the fire soothe her again. She knew she was safe inside the walls of the small cabin.
Suddenly, there was a crash from the corner by the bed. Maryanne jumped, dropping her blanket to the floor as she brought her hand up to her chest to try calming her racing heart. What was that noise?
She heard a scratching sound now, which she thought might be coming from beneath the small chest that had been knocked over onto the ground. It was the one Preston kept all his paperwork in, and papers were strewn across the floor next to the bed.
There was obviously something under the chest. Her options were to go outside in the dark to get Wesley to come and see, or to check on it herself. She really didn't want to go outside knowing there were wolves and other big animals nearby. Whatever was under the chest couldn't really be that big.
So she slowly crept toward the box, grabbing a metal stick they had near the fireplace for poking the fire. Holding it above her he
ad, she tried to ignore the fact she could hear her pulse racing in her ears.
Taking a deep breath, she reached down to carefully lift the box from the floor, bending down to peek beneath it. Two eyes stared back at her, and a nose that was moving faster than her own racing heart. Whatever it was, she could tell it was just as scared as she was.
Lifting the lid a bit more, she let her breath out in a relieved sigh as she realized it was just a small bunny. The poor thing was terrified, crouching back in the far corner, barely moving for fear it would be hurt.
"It's okay, little fella. I won't hurt you. You must have been trying to find a warm place to sleep for the night and snuck in while I was getting wood from the box outside earlier." She tried to use a soothing voice, as she reached in and picked it up, cradling it next to her as she stroked its soft fur.
"Oh you poor little thing. Let me get you a carrot to nibble on. You can stay inside with me tonight where its safe and warm." She knew she couldn't put it outside in the cold with all the wild animals around. And anyway, she'd welcome the company while Preston was gone. She was sure he wouldn't be too angry she had a rabbit in the house. It wasn't a wild animal like a cougar or anything.
As she grabbed the food for the scared animal, she continued to speak in a soothing voice. "What should I call you?" Holding him out for a moment to get a good look, she contemplated a name that would suit him.
"Hmmm…I remember when I was a little girl, a woman up the street had a dog named Oscar. I'd go and sit with Oscar and he'd just let me snuggle with him while I told him all my troubles. I always wanted my own Oscar. So I guess that's your new name." She hugged him in close, bringing his furry softness up to rub along her cheek.
Setting the bunny onto the floor beside her, she placed the carrot next to him. He sat there happily crunching on the food while she started to clean up the mess he'd made. "Preston wouldn't be happy if he came home and saw you'd knocked over his box with the paperwork in it. Hopefully I can get it cleaned up so he won't even notice."
Lifting the first piece of paper, she turned it over to see if she could get a clue about where it should be placed in the pile. Her breath caught as she saw the drawing of a beautiful woman staring back at her from the page.
"Who is this?" she whispered the words out loud, causing Oscar to stop chewing briefly as he watched her.
She lifted another page, and saw the same woman smiling back at her. Picking the other papers from the floor, she saw page after page of the same woman, with her hair hanging around her shoulders in perfect display. The drawings showed the beauty in every inch of her face. Some of the drawings had her whole body, wearing the most stunning dresses Maryanne had ever seen.
Had Preston drawn these? With a sinking feeling, she knew he had. The pencils and charcoal drawing materials lay beside the overturned box. Letting herself sit on the floor, she slowly picked up all the pages, each time feeling a piece of her heart being ripped from her chest as she saw the same woman lovingly drawn on the pages.
There were none of her. No pictures of anyone or anything else. Just the mysterious woman who Preston obviously had a great deal of affection for.
Tears streaming down her face, she knew now why he'd never let himself completely care for her. Why he'd never really seemed to be too excited about getting married in the first place. And why he'd never been able to tell her he loved her.
He was in love with the beautiful woman who was smiling at her from the pages she held in her hands.
Chapter 15
"Are you sure you're all right, Maryanne. You seem very quiet today." Lisa smiled over at her as they walked along the small street toward the mercantile. They'd ordered new yarn, so they hoped it would have arrived in town on the train that had pulled in earlier.
The ground was covered with another fresh blanket of snow after last night, so they both had to hold their skirts up slightly as they walked to keep them from becoming wet and cold. The crunching under their feet seemed loud in Maryanne's ears. Of course, she hadn't gotten much sleep last night, even with Oscar snuggled up beside her on the bed. Every time she closed her eyes, she'd seen the beautiful woman's face smiling at her.
She couldn't seem to bring herself to tell Lisa about it. The humiliation after knowing she'd just told her friend yesterday that she was in love with Preston, only to find out he was in love with some mysterious woman from the pictures, was too much for her. She'd have to wait and talk to Preston first, and hopefully she could find some way to get past the pain she was feeling in her heart.
"I'm fine. Just a bit tired." She wanted to reassure her friend that nothing was wrong.
Lisa was looking at her as though she didn't quite believe her, but she obviously knew not to push it. Nodding, she patted Maryanne's arm. "I've heard pregnancy can make you tired."
They continued along the street, saying hello to the passing people they knew. For a small Indian village, it seemed as though everyone was outside wandering around during the day. It was so much friendlier than the neighborhood she'd grown up in. Some days, she could walk outside and not meet up with anyone who would even look her way, never mind stopping to say hello.
There was a commotion over by the Mountie station, and her heart instantly clenched as she thought maybe Preston had arrived back home. Just because she'd found the drawings, it didn't make her stop loving him and hoping to catch a glimpse of him riding back into town.
But as they got closer, Wesley stood outside, trying to calm a woman down who was quite obviously distraught about something. "Looks like your poor husband might have met his match." She chuckled as they both looked over at the man who was desperately trying to soothe the woman. They couldn't quite make out what she was saying, but she didn't sound happy.
"Should we go over and try to help?" Lisa started to walk a bit faster toward her husband.
"I'm not sure he needs our help. He can handle a crazy woman, I'm sure." She placed her hand on Lisa's arm to steer her toward the store.
But just as they were about to walk up the steps to the store, the woman turned around. At the same time, Wesley's eyes caught hers, and she could see the concern as he saw her standing there. Slowly, with dread pooling in her stomach at what she was sure she'd seen, her eyes dropped to the woman beside him.
It was the face of the woman who'd haunted her dreams all night.
She didn't realize she'd gasped out loud until Lisa grabbed her arm and stepped in front to look at her. Maryanne's eyes couldn't move from the face she was staring at. "Maryanne, what's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost."
Swallowing hard, she tried to turn to walk away. She needed to get away. Her head was spinning with so many unanswered questions, and she was afraid if she stayed here, she would only have more.
Lisa was calling to Wesley, asking him what was going on. But Maryanne knew. And she didn't want to be here to hear the words said out loud.
However, the woman must have realized in that moment who she was too, because before she could take more than a few steps, she had run up behind her. "You're the woman who married Preston?"
The words were said as a sneer, as a hand landed on her arm. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes to give herself a moment to compose herself, then she turned to face the woman. Smiling through clenched teeth, she nodded. "Yes, I'm married to Preston. And who might you be?"
Her heart was beating so loudly she was sure it was echoing across the snow packed ground around her.
"Well, I thought I was his fiancé, but obviously he couldn't wait to replace me." The woman looked her up and down with her lip curled slightly at the corner. The beauty in her face somehow didn't seem to show through as much as it had in the pictures Preston had drawn.
Maryanne heard Lisa gasp as she caught up with them and heard what the woman said. Wesley was close behind her.
"Lizzy, I'm going to escort you to the room above the shop where you can stay. Until Preston gets back to town, I'd say it’s best if you just
wait there."
But the woman wasn't budging. She stood and scowled at Maryanne. "He quite obviously was heartbroken over our misunderstanding. Why else would he have let himself marry a complete stranger, especially one like you? Preston Hawking could have had his choice of women, but he chose me. Men like him don't marry plain-looking girls who quite obviously couldn't find a man on her own, so have to convince a stranger to marry her. How long do you think he'll be content sharing his life with a dowdy woman who looks like she's wearing a dead animal wrapped around her shoulders?"
Maryanne was starting to shake with anger. All her life, she'd been made to feel like she wasn't as beautiful as everyone around her. That she was plain and ordinary.
"If he chose you, why exactly was he living here on his own, free to marry me?" Her voice shook with the raw emotions she was feeling. She knew some of the local villagers were stopping to watch the performance in front of them. There was a time when she'd have run and hid away from the eyes on her. But not now. She wasn't going to back down from the horrible things this woman was saying to her.
"Because we'd had a bit of a fight, and I didn't think I was ready to be married. But I've thought about it, and I came all this way on that awful train to tell him I was ready to marry him, only to find out he's married some mouse of a woman who he would never have picked on his own. He must have been heartbroken to agree to marry you. Although he's such a kind man, he likely felt sorry for you when you stepped off the train, so thought he should still do the right thing by marrying you."
"Lizzy, that's enough. You're coming with me. I'll tell Preston where you are when he gets back, but for now, I'm done letting you insult Maryanne."
Wesley took the woman's arm and started to pull her away. But Maryanne wasn't finished. "If anything, he will likely thank me for preventing him from ending up married to a horrible woman like you. Preston is a kind man, and you'd have made his life miserable. You had the chance to marry him, but thankfully, he got away before you had the chance to destroy him with your horrible, hateful disposition. You're the fool if you think he'd ever be happy with a woman like you."
RNWMP: Bride for Preston (Mail Order Mounties Book 6) Page 7
