For lunch that day she served a hearty chicken stew. There was already snow on the ground, and the men needed a good, hot meal to get them through their days. They all trickled in, taking their seats at the table. The men had learned early on that they were expected to wait until everyone was seated and the prayer had been said before they started reaching for food.
After everyone was served, Ernie took her seat at the foot of the table closest to the stove. She could serve the men their seconds when they asked.
Cliff said a quick prayer, and the men passed the biscuits around. “What are your plans for this afternoon?” he asked Ernie.
“I need to make up the beds and get supper on.” The men paid an extra five cents a week for her to straighten their rooms and make their beds for them, but they all thought it was a good deal. Which meant she was making six beds every day, as well as cooking three meals a day for seven people. “The parlor could use a good dusting as well.”
One of their new boarders, Jerome, played the piano. He and Jake played for them every night, and Ernie enjoyed listening to the music. It was strange being the only woman amongst seven men, but she enjoyed her work, and she was used to always having a houseful of people. If not for the constant fatigue she was feeling, she was certain she’d be in her element.
When the men were gone after lunch, Cliff lingered. “I’m getting worried about you, Ernie. You’re doing too much, and there are shadows under your eyes.”
Ernie sighed. “I guess I could start paying Katie to come over and help every day. She could bring the baby.”
Cliff smiled. “I like that idea. I know you won’t make as much, but my business is doing well enough that we really won’t need your income much longer.”
She nodded. “I’ll talk to her this afternoon.”
He leaned down and kissed her before heading for the door. “Take care of my wife. She’s awful special to me.”
“Take care of my husband.” Ernie watched him leave, her eyes on his shoulders. He had to be the strongest, most wonderful man alive. Never had she dreamed a man would treat her as well as Cliff treated her. He made her feel as if she was someone truly special to him, even though she knew he didn’t love her. He’d only married her to keep her name from being dragged through the mud, but she loved him for it.
As soon as she finished the lunch dishes, she walked next door. Katie came to the door, the baby against her shoulder. “Hi, Ernie! Come in!”
Ernie smiled, stepping inside the other woman’s house. When she’d first married, she’d come over for tea a couple of times, but she’d gotten too busy for those little afternoon visits. “Thank you.”
“I was just about to have some tea and cookies. Would you like some?”
“I would love some. You remind me of my sister, Elizabeth. Anytime anyone goes to her house, expected or not, she sits them down and feeds them tea and cookies. It doesn’t matter who they are or what they’re doing there. Tea and cookies for everyone!”
Katie grinned, leading the way into the kitchen. “You sit while I put the baby down. It’s time for her nap anyway.”
Instead of sitting, Ernie went to the stove and put the tea kettle on. She couldn’t just sit around and let the other woman do all the work. When Katie came back to the kitchen, she found that the kettle was on, and there was a plate of cookies nicely arranged in the middle of her table. Ernie had even done the few lunch dishes that she’d planned to wash as soon as the baby was down for her nap. “You were supposed to sit and wait for me!”
Ernie shrugged. “Idle hands and all that.”
“Your hands are never idle! I’ll get the tea. You sit.”
Ernie took a seat at the table, watching her friend pour the tea into two cups. She wasn’t sure how to bring up the help she needed. “I want to thank you for helping me with the laundry on Wednesdays. It’s been a huge help to me.”
Katie smiled as she set the two cups on the table and sat down. “I’m happy to help any time. And I like having a little money of my own. Ethan is so tight-fisted. I love him, but he doesn’t think I should spend any extra money at all. I’m not allowed to make Abigail any new dresses until she outgrows the ones she’s got. I like to make her new things.”
Ernie grinned. “I have a proposition for you then, my friend!”
Katie tilted her head to one side, a slow smile spreading across her face. “You want me to help more!”
“I do. I was hoping you could help at least three days per week, but preferably five days a week. I’d pay you, and you could bring the baby.”
“Yes! I’d love to. Ethan won’t care as long as I get my own chores done. I could work for you from ten ’til three. That would give me enough time to do my chores and cook supper. I could even just do our laundry when you do it there.”
“Really? You wouldn’t mind?”
“Work is more fun when you do it with a friend. I think it will be wonderful. It won’t feel like work, and we’ll get to talk.”
Ernie breathed a sigh of relief. “I was afraid I was going to have to send for one of my sisters to help me out. It’s just too much work for me right now. I don’t know why, but I’m always tired. I thought I was going to faint earlier! Do I strike you as a woman who faints?”
Katie looked at her oddly for a moment. “Are you carrying?”
Ernie blinked a couple of times. Why hadn’t that occurred to her? “I don’t think so. I’ve only been married a month!”
“That doesn’t mean anything. When was your last cycle?”
Ernie thought back. “It was over just as I left home…”
“And that was?”
“Six weeks ago, I guess, but I’ve never really been regular.” Ernie shook her head. “I can’t be expecting already. I have a boarding house to run!” Her mother had always spent the first three months of her pregnancies vomiting profusely. She couldn’t imagine trying to work if that happened.
“Well, see if it comes, but you might be so tired because you’re expecting.”
“I want babies, but I want some time to be a bride first.” Ernie enjoyed her time with Cliff after they turned off the lights, and she wasn’t ready to have a huge belly yet. She wanted him to love her before that happened. Tears sprang into her eyes, and she dashed them away angrily. “Now you’ve gone and made me all weepy.”
“Women get weepy when they’re carrying. I think I cried at least six times a day for the entire time I was pregnant. I demanded that Ethan go back to New York and get my mother, too. I think he thought I’d lost my mind.”
Ernie giggled. “Well, I doubt if I’ll demand Cliff go get my mother. I can’t imagine her being of much help.” She took a sip of her tea. “I’m not going to worry about it just yet. If I haven’t started in a couple of weeks, then I’ll see the doctor.” Her eyes widened. “I haven’t met the doctor yet. There is a doctor in town, isn’t there?”
Katie shook her head. “No, but there’s an experienced midwife. Her name is Jessica Sims. Would you like me to introduce you at church on Sunday?”
Ernie nodded. “That might be for the best.” She took the last bite of her cookie and stood. “I’m glad you’ll be helping me soon. Starting Monday?”
“Absolutely! I can’t wait to buy more fabric to make pretty dresses for Abigail.”
“Well, I’m going to go and make up six beds and do some dusting. And make supper. I’m tired just thinking about it.”
“You’re carrying.” Katie said the words definitively, as if there was no doubt in her mind.
“I hope not.” As she said the words, Ernie realized they weren’t true. “You know what…I hope I am. I’m ready to have a baby.”
Katie smiled. “I’ll pray that it’s true, then. I’m sure of it, but you have to be as well.”
Ernie walked home slowly, as if in a daze. What was she going to do if she was already pregnant? Would she be able to keep running the boarding house? Would Cliff even want her to? He would be worried about her every min
ute. The man may not love her yet, but he was the definition of a doting husband. He hovered over her every minute, making sure she wasn’t tiring herself out too quickly…and that was without knowing she was expecting.
When she got home, she started some chicken stewing. Chicken and dumplings sounded wonderful to her, and she was going to worry about what she was hungry for, not the men. They’d deal with anything she cooked as long as there was cake for dessert. Cake sounded awfully good, too.
Once that was done, she headed up the stairs to make the beds in the five bedrooms up there. She picked up the clothes the men had thrown on the floor and put them into the basket that was in each room. She preferred that each man kept his own clothes in his room so she could keep track of which clothes belonged to which man.
Each room was dusted and cleaned, and she was making fresh bread when Cliff got home that afternoon. She thought briefly about telling him what she and Katie suspected, but she decided to wait. She didn’t want Cliff to ask her to stop working immediately.
“Katie’s going to work for me every day from ten to three starting Monday,” she told him. “I’m excited, and she’s excited to have the income she can do whatever she wants with.”
“You’d think Ethan would make enough that she didn’t need to work, but I’m glad she’s going to work for you.”
“Oh, I think he makes plenty, but he doesn’t let her spend it on things he considers frivolous. She wants to make the baby a pretty dress, and he thinks the baby has enough clothes until she outgrows the ones she has.”
Cliff nodded, a smile touching his lips. “I understand then. She wants to be able to do whatever she wants with money, and he won’t allow it.”
“Yes! As long as she’s earning her own money, he won’t mind as much.” She put four loaves of bread in the oven before turning to him. “Are you going to be so tight-fisted after the children arrive?”
He shrugged. “I have no idea. It depends on our financial situation at the time. Right now I’d have to be. We’re making good money, but I need some more tools, and we need to keep putting so much into the business. If you give me six months, I think it would be just fine for you to buy what you need.”
“So you don’t want me to have a baby before six months?” she asked, her eyes wide. What would he say when he found out she was already expecting?
He laughed. “Well, if you could wait, that would help me out a lot.”
Chapter Seven
At church on Sunday, Ernie noticed that the same woman who had whispered with Mrs. Abbot about her at the store was again whispering behind her hand as she pointed at Ernie.
She groaned mentally as she walked over to Katie to talk to her. “You were going to introduce me to the midwife in town.”
“Oh, yes. Jessica. I’m not going to tell her what we think, but just introduce you because you’re the new woman in town. Would that work?”
Ernie nodded. “That would be perfect. I don’t want Cliff to know my suspicions just yet.”
Katie frowned at her. “Why not?”
“I’ll explain later.”
Katie just shook her head, leading her over to an older woman, who was standing off to one side of the room looking angry. “Mrs. Sims, this is my friend, Ernie Solomon. She’s new in town, and she runs the boarding house.”
Mrs. Sims looked Ernie up and down. “Nice to meet you. You’ll be needing my services soon, won’t you?”
Ernie shrugged. “Not that I know of. I’m just trying to meet everyone in town.”
“I see.” Mrs. Sims looked skeptical, but she didn’t press the point. “You married?”
“Yes, I was married a little over a month ago.”
“Don’t work too hard. You look delicate.”
Ernie laughed. “I’m anything but delicate, but thank you very much.” She wandered away with Katie at her side. “Why does she look angry?”
“Mrs. Sims always looks angry. One of these days we’ll both figure out why.” The baby in Katie’s arms fussed a bit. “She’s been fussy all weekend. I think she’s cutting teeth.”
“My mother always said to rub whisky on them. She doesn’t drink, and neither does my father, but they always kept whisky around for the little ones’ gums.”
Katie’s eyes widened. “I don’t know if I could put whisky on her gums. She’s a baby!”
“I think my mother always thought it would help us sleep as well. She was never one who was too worried about most things. But she was almost always pregnant with next one.”
“I’ll think on it.” Katie didn’t look like she was willing to do anything that involved her baby and alcohol, and Ernie couldn’t blame her. Now that she thought about it, she didn’t necessarily want an infant developing a taste for spirits.
Ernie noticed that the woman who had been talking about her was with someone else, still whispering behind her hand. “Who is that woman?” Ernie asked, nodding in the direction of the gossiper.
Katie frowned. “That’s Mrs. Jenkins. She’s the biggest gossip in town. If she can’t find something bad to say about someone, she’ll make something up.”
“That’s awful!”
“I know. I stay away from her as best I can. She’s not been fond of me since the day I told her I refused to listen to any of her lies.”
Ernie covered her mouth with a laugh. “You didn’t!”
“I did. And I won’t. She doesn’t speak to me now, but there’s no doubt in my mind she speaks of me.”
Ernie shook her head. “I know her type. There were some older women who were like that back home. They weren’t content unless they were saying something mean about others.”
Cliff caught her eye from across the room where he was talking to the pastor. He motioned for her to join him, and with a mumbled, “Excuse me,” she hurried across the church, wondering what she’d done.
When she reached, Cliff, he looked more serious than she’d ever seen him. “There are rumors about you again.”
Ernie closed her eyes, sighing. “Do I even want to know what’s being said?”
Cliff shook his head. “No, you don’t, but the pastor has been informed of your ‘wrongdoing’. He needs you to confirm or deny it.”
Ernie glanced over and saw Mrs. Jenkins staring at her, a smirk on her face. She couldn’t imagine why the woman disliked her, but she turned to the pastor. “What’s been said?” There was no doubt in her mind about who had said it.
“You’ve been accused of…being free with your favors with all the men staying in the boarding house.” The pastor seemed embarrassed to even say it.
Ernie’s eyes widened. “I’m a married woman!”
“That’s part of the problem the ladies in town have with you. You’re a married woman, and they think you’re being…promiscuous. Mrs. Abbot claimed that you threatened to ‘entertain’ her husband.”
Ernie flushed. “Well, I did do that. I was angry with her for saying I shouldn’t be entertaining unmarried men, and I asked if she wanted me to entertain married men—starting with her husband. I shouldn’t have said it, because I didn’t mean it, but I was so furious with her accusations that the words just slipped out.”
“I can understand that,” the pastor said. “And the rest of it? It’s not true, is it? I hate to even ask, but you’ve been accused, and you have the right to deny it.”
Ernie crossed her arms over her chest. “What would happen if I were doing it? I’m not, of course…but if I was, what would you do about it?”
“There’s nothing I could do. They think I have a lot more power than I do.” The pastor shrugged. “I’d pray for you to see the error of your ways, but that would be about it.”
Ernie laughed. “Well, I’m glad there’s not an error to my ways then, aren’t you?”
The pastor patted her shoulder. “Very glad. I’m sorry I had to talk to you about it at all. Anyone can see how you and Cliff feel about each other.”
Ernie didn’t look at her husband at those
words. “Thank you for giving me the opportunity to defend myself,” she said softly. “Now I’m going to go home and make lunch for six hungry men.”
“I’ve heard rumors that you make the best meals in all of Prairie Dog,” the pastor said with a smile.
“Pastor, are you wanting me to make lunch for seven hungry men?”
“I would be forever grateful if you did!”
Ernie smiled at the older man. “Lunch will be ready in an hour. We’d love to have you.”
“Thank you for the invitation. I thought I’d never get one.”
Ernie’s eyes met Cliff’s, and she realized then that he still looked angry. Surely, he didn’t believe what had been said. “I’ll see you at home,” she said softly, worried now.
“I’ll walk with you.” He offered her his arm, and they left the church looking like a happily married couple.
As soon as they were out of the church, she dropped his arm. “You don’t believe the gossip, do you?”
Cliff felt a new wave of anger wash over him. He’d defended her to the pastor, only to have her think he believed it? “Do you really think so little of me?”
Ernie immediately realized her error. “Of course not, but you looked angry. I wasn’t sure why.”
“I’m angry because there are women in this town who feel the need to spread lies about my wife.” He couldn’t believe that she’d thought so poorly of him.
“I’m sorry. I couldn’t imagine that you were angry for me and not with me.” She sighed. “You have to remember that I’m used to everyone getting angry with me from time to time.” They reached the house, and she opened the door to go in. “And by assuming you were angry with me, I’ve made you angry with me. I think I’ll just go fix lunch, and we’ll go from there.”
She hurried inside, and he stared after her. He needed to do something physical to get rid of this anger before he saw her again. He wished he hadn’t already built the fence for Roscoe, but he had. Instead, he went into the house and changed into old clothes.
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