Iris (Suitors of Seattle Book 8)

by Kirsten Osbourne

  Francis sighed. "Of course I do." He didn't know what to say. He'd been married to Katherine for seven years, and knew almost nothing about the woman. She'd been quiet and said little, taking care of the children and the house, because she knew it was her responsibility. She'd never seemed happy to do it, though. Not like Tracy and his mother had been. He'd worried about her a lot, but when he'd asked if she was all right, there had been no real answers.

  There were no funny courtship stories, because she'd come to him as a mail order bride. There were no stories at all really. They'd been two people who had worked together to build the ranch, but they'd been more partners than lovers. He couldn't tell Mallie that, but he didn't want to lie to her either. He didn't dislike his late wife, or have any bad memories of her, but there really weren't any good ones either. He'd loved her, because she'd had a huge part in his life, but he'd never been in love with her.

  Iris stepped back and surveyed her handiwork. "That looks good. It'll be dry in an hour or two." She stepped to the sink and washed her hands. She was thankful her office had running water. There was no electricity in Nowhere yet, so she needed to be grateful for what she had. "Remember to keep the cast dry, Mallie. Now you have an excuse not to wash dishes for six weeks."

  Mallie giggled. "I'll tell Edith you said so."

  "Is Edith still staying with you?" Iris asked. She knew it was none of her business, but she liked the idea of a responsible adult being around for the girls.

  "She'll stay with us until Mallie is out of the cast. She's helping me a lot." Tracy had always done their laundry for them and brought it back. She'd done so many of the things a wife and mother would do for his family, and he was thankful that she would have a break for a while.

  Iris nodded. "I'm happy to hear it. I think the girls are too young to be on their own so much anyway."

  "I don't have a lot of choice in the matter, Dr. Sullivan."

  Iris made a face. "You certainly came up with other arrangements quickly when you had to." She helped Mallie to the floor. "Go see Edna Petunia. I'm sure she's got a disgustingly sweaty peppermint stick for you."

  Francis stepped forward, not believing how angry this woman made him. "How can such a beautiful, intelligent woman be so incapable of understanding how families work?"

  Iris wanted to take a step back, but refused. "How can a man who obviously loves his children not tell his daughter any stories about a mother she can barely remember? That child needs a mother. All three of them do!"

  Francis ignored her demand he tell stories to his children and shook his head. "There are no women around here. I'm not sending off for another mail order bride. The first one was enough."

  Iris blinked for a moment. "Your first wife was a mail order bride? My sister was a mail order bride. My aunt was a mail order bride." She made a face. "Wait? Didn't Mallie say she was from Massachusetts? She's not from Beckham, is she?"

  Francis frowned at her. "How did you know that?"

  Iris smiled. "My aunt started a mail order bride agency in Beckham! She gave it to Elizabeth Miller when she moved to Seattle to be my uncle's mail order bride." She had been young when Aunt Harriett had married into the family and couldn't remember life without her sweet aunt.

  Francis laughed and shook his head. "That agency sent me my wife and sent my sister-in-law Tracy to Texas as well."

  "Oh, I need to meet Tracy then. Do you know if it was Elizabeth or Harriett who sent her out here?" Iris couldn't believe she'd found a connection to her aunt in this tiny town. She'd have to write her and let her know.

  "It was Elizabeth. I'm the one who corresponded with her." He gave a half laugh. "I decided we needed a woman in our house, so I sent for a bride, pretending to be my brother." He still didn't regret his meddling, because things had worked out so well for Andy and Tracy.

  "You didn't! Was he angry?"

  "Oh, yes. But he married her, just like I knew he would. Andy always does what he thinks is right. Always."

  "And you don't?" Iris asked with surprise.

  "I try to, but Andy? He's practically perfect sometimes. Of course, he let Tracy know that he hadn't sent for her."

  "It sounds like they're happy now, though, right?"

  "Definitely. They've been married for over twenty years. They've been through a lot together." Francis shrugged. "I'll have to introduce the two of you. I think you'd like Tracy."

  "I'd like that a lot. I'm used to being surrounded by family. Even when I was in school, and I wasn't living at home, I knew that if I got lonely I could go home any time." Her family had always been extremely close. "I really miss all my sisters."

  "All your sisters? How many do you have?" Francis could hear Mallie talking to Edna Petunia at the front, so he didn't worry about talking a little longer.

  "Seven." Iris had to stifle a laugh at the look on Francis's face.

  "How many brothers?"

  "No brothers. Just us flowers." She hadn't had to explain about her family in a long time. Everyone around Seattle just knew of the Sullivan Flowers.

  "I'm sure that means something to you, but I have no idea what." Flowers?

  Iris laughed. "It's strange to be somewhere that people don't know about that. All of us have flower names."

  Francis made a face. "There are eight different flower names? Really?" Who would inflict matching names on their children?

  "Oh, there are more than that! Edna took on a flower name so she could fit in with us." She nodded toward the front so he'd know she meant her secretary and nurse.

  "Why flower names?"

  Iris shrugged. "My mother loves flowers. At our home in Seattle, she has a small garden for each of us where she grows our flower."

  Francis fought to remember her name. He knew it started with an 'I.' Iris! That was it. "So there's a garden in Seattle full of irises just for you?"

  "Yes, there is. I know it sounds silly, but my mother is something of a romantic. She wants all her daughters to settle down near her and give her a dozen grandbabies each."

  He raised an eyebrow. "Didn't you say there are eight of you? That would be ninety-six grandchildren." He couldn't even fathom wanting a family that large.

  Iris laughed. "Mama would be so happy!"

  He shook his head. He'd never understand women and their need to have dozens of children surrounding them. He had his hands full with just three girls. "So which one are you? The oldest?"

  Iris shook her head with a sigh. "I'm number eight. All of my sisters are married. "

  "So did they all settle near your mother like she wanted?"

  "Four and a half did. Two moved to Montana. Daisy was a mail order bride and moved to Montana to marry, and Jasmine went out to stay with her and help her while she was expecting. She fell in love with a man there and married him. Mama still hasn't forgiven either of them." Iris grinned as she explained about her sisters.

  "Four and a half? Can you explain the half?" Francis was astounded the young woman had made it through medical school with her weird pattern of thoughts. Of course, he was surprised any woman could make it through medical school.

  Iris grinned. Her sisters would have known what she meant immediately. "Violet spends half the year in Seattle and half the year in New York. She's an artist and does a lot of her showings in New York."

  "A doctor and an artist? Do all of your sisters work?" Francis knew few women who worked outside the home. He'd heard women worked, but it just didn't happen much in his rural community.

  Iris shook her head. "Not all of us. Rose is a dentist's wife, and she considers being a good hostess her job. Lily is the wife of a banker. Amaryllis is a librarian who is married to a lawyer. Both Daisy and Jasmine are rancher's wives. Hyacinth is a writer, and Violet is an artist. So half of us work, and half of us don't."

  "Does your mother care that you work?"

  "If I worked as a doctor in Seattle, she'd be perfectly content. She hates that I'm a doctor in Texas." Iris shrugged. "The job was here." She had wa
nted to stay close to home, but there were no towns so desperate for a doctor near Seattle they'd accept a woman.

  "What made you decide to be a doctor?" Francis asked. He'd never heard of a woman even aspiring to be one, let alone actually doing it.

  "Even as a small girl I was always finding hurt animals and helping them. Then when my sisters started having babies I helped out with them. I always knew that I wanted to be a healer. My family tried to talk me into being a nurse, because it's a more 'acceptable' vocation for a woman, but it's the twentieth century. I should be able to be a doctor if I want to! Does having a penis make a man more able to perform a surgery or set an arm?"

  Francis gaped at her. Had she really just asked him that? "Well...umm...I'm certain you're more a more capable doctor than I would be."

  "And you have a penis!" Iris shook her head. Sometimes she wondered if she'd ever understand how men's roles and women's roles had come to be.

  Francis felt himself blushing a bit. Even Katherine had never openly announced he had a penis. Did the woman have no sense of propriety? He refused to respond to her comment. "I'd better go. I promised the younger girls I'd pick them up from school while we were in town."

  Iris sighed. She sometimes forgot that what was acceptable talk among medical students and doctors wasn't acceptable with others. "I'll see you at church on Sunday then. I hope you'll introduce me to Tracy."

  Francis nodded. "I will. She'll be thrilled to meet you."

  He stepped into the front of the office and found Mallie talking animatedly, her arm that wasn't in a sling gesturing wildly. When she saw her father step into the room, she broke off. "I'll see you at church on Sunday, Edna Petunia?"

  Edna smiled, her frizzy white hair bobbing as she nodded emphatically. "Yes, you surely will. I can't wait to see you again. I will have my peppermint sticks!"

  "'Cuz you never leave home without them!" Mallie announced.

  "That's right. I don't!" Edna stood as Francis left with Mallie, watching out the window as the two of them drove off in his wagon. "Iris!" she bellowed.

  Iris came running, thinking Mallie had somehow injured herself. "What is it?"

  "You need to marry that man. Those girls need a mother."

  Iris shook her head. "You can't marry me off to every widower we meet just to provide mothers for children."

  Edna glared. "I've never tried to marry you off before and you know it! No, you need to marry Mr. Harvey. You two would be perfect together."

  Iris went back into her examining room to put away everything she'd used with Mallie. Edna was off her rocker. What else was new?

  Chapter Three

  Iris took extra care with her appearance Sunday morning, but she told herself it had nothing to do with the fact she'd be seeing Mr. Harvey at church. No, it was because she was new in town, and she represented all women in the medical profession. She had to look her best so people wouldn't get the idea that female doctors didn't care about their appearance.

  She and Edna would walk to church, because she didn't want to have to hitch up the buggy in her best dress. She walked into the kitchen to find Edna Petunia sliding bacon onto a plate. "Sit. I cooked for a change. Don't get used to it."

  Edna had said the same thing every time she'd cooked for Iris which was about half the time. "May I ask something of you this morning, Edna Petunia?" Iris kept her voice perfectly modulated so Edna would have no idea what was going on in her head.

  "Depends what you want to ask? I'm not leaving my flask at home, Iris. What if I have a coughing fit at church?"

  Iris sighed. The woman could read her like a book. "You know as well as I do that the whiskey in your flask isn't for coughing. I want you to leave it home, please. How would it look if my nurse was at church with her breath smelling of spirits?"

  Edna shrugged. "If you don't want me there with my flask, I can always stay home."

  "Edna Petunia, you know I want you there. I don't want to go alone. Please. I'll keep your flask for you and give it to you after church. How would that be?"

  Edna considered for a moment and finally nodded. "That will be fine. You'll give it to me right after church? I really don't want to risk a coughing fit, because I have plans for this afternoon." Her eyes didn't meet Iris's as she mentioned her plans.

  Iris stared at the older woman for a moment. "Plans? But you don't know anyone in town but me." Who on earth could Edna Petunia have made plans with? What was she up to now? Iris felt a knot deep in her stomach as she worried about it. She knew she needed to let her live her life, but what if something happened to her?

  "I know people." Edna blushed as she scooped the eggs from the frying pan onto plates. Taking her seat across from Iris, Edna picked up a piece of toast and buttered it. "You don't mind that I'm not spending the afternoon with you, do you?"

  Iris shook her head. "I'm just curious is all. Be careful."

  Edna laughed. "I'm in my seventies girl. You don't need to warn me about bad men and things that go bump in the night."

  Iris patted Edna's hand. "You're like a..." She started to say grandmother but thought better of it. "Like an aunt to me. I worry about you." Like a crazy old maid aunt who did whatever she wanted and said whatever struck her.

  "That's so sweet! Ever since I took on the name Edna Petunia, I've felt as if I was part of your family. Of course, your mother never quite seems to approve of me."

  Iris wasn't certain how to respond to that. Of course her mother didn't approve of Edna Petunia. She added whiskey to her tea! "Mama's just like that."

  Edna gave Iris a look that said she knew better. "It's all right. I know you girls love me and that's what really matters." She didn't say anything else about what she was planning for the day, and Iris decided she really didn't have the right to ask. Edna had moved to Texas with her to be her nurse and companion, not to be watched over by a woman a third her age.

  "I'm going to meet a woman who was sent here as a mail order bride by my Aunt Harriett's mail order bride agency over twenty years ago. She's the Harvey girls' aunt." Iris decided it would be simpler to change the subject than to try to pry.

  "Really? Well, isn't that an odd coincidence! I'm sure that agency is responsible for sending hundreds of brides out over the years, though. We're bound to wind up meeting some of them." Edna bit into her bacon. "I swear, I like bacon more every year. I could eat it for three meals a day. I wonder what a bacon wrapped peppermint stick would taste like."

  Iris had no response for that. How could she?

  *****

  Iris watched Edna Petunia rush away immediately after church. She even forgot to ask for her 'cough tonic' back. She was astounded that Edna still hadn't told her where she was going. It wasn't like her to be able to keep a secret about anything. She was usually one of those people who had a thought, and no sooner did she realize she had the thought than she was speaking the thought aloud.

  "Dr. Sullivan?" There was a tug on Iris's sleeve and she looked down into a smiling face. "Aunt Tracy wants to meet you." It was the youngest of the three Harvey girls. Iris wished she could remember her name.

  "I'd love to meet your aunt Tracy, Miss Harvey."

  The girl giggled. She obviously liked being called Miss Harvey. She took Iris's hand and led her through the church. They stopped in front of a woman around forty, who had a sweet smile on her face. "Are you Dr. Sullivan?"

  Iris smiled. "I am. I hear you were a mail order bride. I think my aunt's mail order bride agency from Beckham, Massachusetts placed you."

  Tracy smiled nodding. "Your Harriett's niece, correct?"

  "Yes I am. She married my uncle when I was five."

  "I was one of the first brides placed by her replacement Elizabeth Miller. I've heard wonderful things about. Harriett Long?"

  Iris nodded. "She's been Harriett Farmer for over twenty years though." She couldn't remember a time when Harriett hadn't been her aunt. All of her sisters could though.

  Tracy took Iris's hand in hers squeezin
g it tightly. "I sure would like it if you join us for Sunday dinner."

  Iris loved the idea. Edna would be off God knows where, and she didn't like the idea of eating alone again. It would be nice to be included. "I'd love that."

  Tracy smiled. "Why don't I take Francis's girls out to the ranch with me then, and he can drive you out."

  There was a light in Tracy's eyes that scared Iris a little. She hoped the older woman wasn't trying to match make her and Francis. As attractive as she found the man, she didn't think they could ever get past their differences. "It would be fine. Will he be able to bring me back as well? Or should I just bring my own buggy?"

  "Oh I'm sure he won't mind bringing you back." Tracy waved at Francis from across the church. When he walked over to join the two women, Tracy said, "Dr. Sullivan is going to join us for lunch. I'll take the girls and you drive her out."

  Francis looked like he wanted to argue, but he just nodded. "Did you bring a buggy to church? Or can you just leave with me?"

  "I've walked. I know it's only the second week in March, but the weather is beautiful here. I don't want to think about what the summer's going to be like though."

  Tracy sighed. "It's best not to start thinking about summer in March. It comes soon enough. As much as I love Texas, I hate the summers."

  Iris wrinkled her nose. "I think I'm going to want to spend my summers in the Pacific Northwest. I don't know that I'll have that option though."

  "I don't think the town would appreciate being without a doctor for that long."

  "Probably not. I'm glad I was able to be here when Mallie broke her arm. The wagon ride would've been excruciating for her." Iris looked at Francis. "Do you mind driving me? I can always bring my own buggy."

  Francis glanced at Tracy before responding. He obviously looked up at her as half older sister and half mother figure. "No I don't mind. I'm happy to do it."

  "Good answer." Tracy gave Francis a look that let Iris know no other answer would have been acceptable.

  Mallie came skipping across the church to where Iris was talking to Tracy. "You need to be careful skipping around that way. You've got to be more careful until your arm heals," Iris told her.