A Ford motorcar came up behind them, and Wade pulled off the road to let it pass, and they waved to the driver. Wade glanced over at a farm where children had seen the car and come running to the fence to watch it go by. Wade waved at them, too. “Do you miss the farm?” he asked.
“Sometimes. I miss the quiet and the fresh air and the chickens. Most of all, I miss the people. I like farm people.” Ranch people, too, she thought.
“But you don’t mind the city?”
“Oh, no,” Nell replied quickly. She couldn’t tell him that cities made her apprehensive, that she didn’t care for the coal smoke that hung in the air or the clatter of the streets, or that she’d never felt altogether safe in either Denver or Kansas City. Still, cities were exciting, with movies and plays, symphonies and art museums—although she still wished Wade would take her to hear jazz. Perhaps one day, she thought, smiling to herself.
“I hope that smile is for me,” Wade said as he pulled out onto the dirt road again.
“Naturally,” Nell told him. “It’s a lovely day, and I am having a grand time.” She looked out at the leaves on the trees that had turned yellow and red, at a cow that watched her from over a fence, at a quail that flew up out of a cornfield into the sky. People stopped what they were doing and stared at the car as it flew past. Some of them waved, and one man yelled, “Get a horse.” Wade squeezed the horn at him. Nell felt lazy and content, and she could thank Wade for that. She cared a great deal for him. It wasn’t true love, as Claire would have put it, but it was a comfortable affection. He was easy to be with, and kind. Wade was a good man, and Nell knew that if she didn’t marry him, another woman would snatch him up. Still, she wished Wade made her heart beat faster, made her want him to touch her, to hold her, to make love to her.
They reached Liberty, and Wade drove slowly down the streets. “I was here once before, in a carriage, and there is an acceptable little restaurant. Abby was with me. She liked…” Wade stopped. “I liked it very much. We can try it if you like, or perhaps there is someplace you’d rather go.”
Nell told him the restaurant was fine, and he stopped the auto in front of a small café with red-checked curtains in the window. As Wade turned off the motor, several little boys ran up to the car.
“Hey, it’s a horseless carriage,” one of them said.
“Wow, mister, can I touch it?” A boy held his hand next to the black metal fender.
“Can I steer the tiller?” a third boy questioned.
“You bet,” Wade told them. He took off his duster and suit coat and rolled up his shirtsleeves. He walked around the car with the boys, pointing to the engine and the oil lamps and the mounted horn. Nell climbed out so that the boys could sit on the seat. One reached over and squeezed the horn, and they all laughed, looking at Wade to see if he was angry. But he laughed, too.
“Want to ride in it?” Wade asked.
“Wow!” the boys said, looking at each other and grinning at their good luck.
While Nell stood on the sidewalk, the children took turns riding up and down the street with Wade. Nell watched them, but mostly, she watched Wade. He was awfully good with boys. She liked that about him. It was important. He would be a good father.
The boys ran off, yelling, “Thanks, mister,” and Wade rolled down his shirtsleeves. He grinned at her sheepishly and said, “I didn’t mean to keep you waiting so long.”
“I didn’t mind at all. I loved seeing you with the children,” she said and took his arm. They went inside the restaurant and ordered dinner and sat for a long time, talking. It was one of the best days she’d ever had, Nell decided, certainly the best day since she’d come to Kansas City, and she was in no hurry to end it.
They didn’t notice the weather, and when they went outside, late in the afternoon, storm clouds covered the sky, and it had begun to rain. “We can’t go home in this weather. We’ll be drenched. I should have gotten an auto with a top,” Wade said. “I’ll park the car under a tree. Then we’d better go back inside and wait it out.” They returned to the café and ordered a pot of tea and watched the rain streak the windows. “It’s a good thing the Oldsmobile has lamps,” he said. “I don’t think we’ll get home before dark.”
They waited a long time, until the rain stopped and the storm clouds blew away, and then Wade went outside and wiped off the seat. Nell came out of the restaurant, and he helped her into the car. “It’s going to be a cold ride, I’m afraid,” he said as he settled beside her. He tried to switch on the lamps. They flickered and went out. Wade got out the instruction booklet to see what was wrong, but just then, a Ford auto pulled by a mule team passed them.
“Stay off the Kansas City road. It’s as muddy as a pigpen,” a man wearing goggles called to Wade. “I had to get pulled out.”
Wade put down the booklet and turned to Nell. “I don’t know how to say this, but I think it is foolish to try to return this evening. I will if you insist upon it, but we are likely to get stuck out in the open. The mud could cause an accident. I very much think we should find accommodations for the night.”
If Wade had not been so honorable, he might have planned this, Nell thought, but there was no way Wade could have known that it would rain and that the roads would be impassable. Still, would Wade … would he take advantage of the situation? He knew all about her, so she could hardly act offended if he expected to spend the night with her. But there was no choice. They couldn’t go home. Nell didn’t want to risk an accident on a muddy road late at night. “Yes, I think that would be wise. I should not like to spend the night lying in the mud,” Nell said at last.
Wade shut off the motor and went inside the café to ask about rooms. As he helped Nell out of the Oldsmobile, he said, “We are in luck. There is a hotel just down the street.”
Nell wondered what Wade would tell the proprietor. He would see they had no luggage and might realize they were unmarried. When they entered the lobby, however, the desk clerk said, “I seen your car and knowed you wasn’t going anywhere tonight. Lucky I got a room.”
“Two rooms,” Wade said.
The clerk smiled and barely raised an eyebrow, “Adjoining, of course.”
“Certainly not,” Wade said.
The clerk flushed. “No, of course not.” He handed Wade two keys. “They’re both on the second floor—opposite ends of the hall.”
The two were silent as they climbed the stairs. When they were out of view of the clerk, Wade said, “He was fresh. I hope you weren’t offended.”
“Only amused,” Nell said, although the clerk had made her wonder what this would do to her reputation. “Still, I hope no one at the school finds out about it.”
“They won’t hear about it from me, and we should be home tomorrow. If the roads are wet, I’ll find a carriage to hire, or even a farm wagon.” He laughed at that. “I’ll get you back long before school starts on Monday, and no one will be the wiser.”
“I will think of it as an adventure,” Nell said.
“You are a good sport. Another girl would be upset.”
Another girl, Nell thought, would not already have spent the night with a man—with two men.
* * *
They went to supper, then walked around until they found a drugstore that sold tooth powder and toothbrushes and combs. Wade escorted Nell to her room and wished her good night. He didn’t kiss her, and Nell waited a long time to see if he would knock on her door after she’d gotten into bed. Would she let him in or pretend she was asleep? She didn’t know. But there was no knock until dawn. When Nell peered through a crack in the door, Wade said, “The roads are frozen, and I think we ought to get a start. If it’s agreeable, I’ll go to the café for rolls to take with us, while you dress.”
Nell had slept in her chemise and quickly donned her dress, which was wrinkled but dry, then hurried down the hall to the bathroom to brush her teeth. She was sitting in the Oldsmobile when Wade came out of the café. He handed her a sack of doughnuts and a cup of coffee, tel
ling her he had persuaded the waitress to sell him the china cup so that Nell could take it with her. Then he turned on the engine, and they started off.
The road was bumpy because the ruts were frozen, and it took twice as long to drive home as to make the trip the day before, but they arrived with no mishap.
“There was a terrible storm,” Nell told Claire, after Wade saw her to the door and left. “I was afraid you would worry.”
“It stormed here, too. I knew you would have taken refuge somewhere.” She studied Nell a moment. “Most men would propose after spending a night with a girl.”
“Oh, it wasn’t anything like that. There was a hotel. Two rooms. It was perfectly proper.”
“He didn’t even try—”
Nell shook her head.
“Pity.”
“Perhaps.” Nell grinned. She wondered again whether she would have answered if he had knocked on her door in the middle of the night.
* * *
Nell had hoped to go home to the farm for Christmas, but school did not let out until Christmas Eve, and by then it would be too late to take a train. She didn’t want her grandfather to have to drive to Topeka in the dark to pick her up. So she decided to go to Harveyville on Christmas day. That way, she could have Christmas night with her family and stay until New Year’s.
It was Claire who came up with the idea for Christmas. “Mr. Moran’s been so kind to us that I think we ought to do something for him,” she told Nell, who quite agreed. “Let’s fix Christmas Eve dinner. We’ll make it very special.”
“But I had planned to take you out for dinner on Christmas Eve,” Wade protested when they told him.
“We won’t hear of it,” Nell said. “You leave Christmas Eve to us.”
She and Claire made a fruitcake with nuts and candied fruit, then poured whiskey over it and wrapped it in cheesecloth and stored it in a tin. They ordered a goose from the butcher, who instructed them on how to prepare it. Nell made grits with cheese and green chili, the way the cowboys at the Rockin’ A liked it, while Claire fixed dressing and boiled potatoes. They added stewed tomatoes that they had canned in the fall, and bottled beans, and lettuce with salad cream. And in case Wade didn’t like fruitcake, they made a trifle, layering pound cake and boiled custard and blackberry jam that Claire’s grandmother had sent. There was enough food to feed her entire school class, Nell announced as they set the table.
Wade arrived with a pound of chocolates and a bottle of sherry and two small boxes wrapped in paper, which Nell and Claire opened. Each contained a watch attached to a pin so that the women could fasten them to their jackets or shirtwaists. Claire’s was silver, the watch hanging from a silver bow. Nell’s was gold, the back blue enamel with gold fleur-de-lis, and it was attached to a larger gold fleur-de-lis pin.
“We have something for you, too, from both of us,” Nell told him, and handed Wade a large box. She and Claire had spent a long time deciding what to give him. Of course, it would be improper to buy him an article of clothing, and Nell had never been to Wade’s house, so she didn’t know what would be appropriate for it. Then she thought about the playground Wade had established in memory of his wife and daughter, and she suggested to Claire that they buy something for it. Wade had taken her to see the playground once, and she had noticed one of the swings was gone, so she and Claire had purchased a replacement, a wooden seat attached to long chains.
“I’m afraid you can’t wear it like a watch,” Nell said after Wade opened the box, which they had wrapped in crepe paper and decorated with colored stars. She felt a little embarrassed then. It wasn’t much of a gift. Besides, the playground was a private thing. Wade might feel they were intruding on his grief.
He didn’t say anything for a moment, only stared at the swing. Then he announced, “Nothing could have pleased me more.” He gripped the women’s hands.
After dinner, Wade suggested they attend a midnight church service. Claire begged off. Nell would have, too, but it was Christmas, and she knew Wade would be disappointed, since he’d told her he had always attended Christmas Eve services there with his wife and daughter. So she agreed. Snow had begun to fall, and Nell put her hands into the muff as they walked along, Wade holding her arm.
“That was a fine gift,” he said again. “The only thing that would give me as much pleasure is your photograph. Have you one? I should very much like to have it.”
Nell thought. The only photograph she had of herself was a Kodak Lucy had taken of her at the Rockin’ A. Lucy had had a copy made and given it to Nell. “It’s not a very professional likeness. Perhaps I should have one taken in a studio.”
“No, I should like the snapshot,” he told her, and Nell promised to give it to him when she returned home.
Despite the late hour, the church was filled with families. The sanctuary was decorated with evergreens and lilies, and white candles lined the aisle. The smells and the Christmas carols made Nell nostalgic for the winters she had lived with her grandparents, when they had gone to the tiny country church. “God’s in his heaven. All’s right with the world,” she told Wade as they left the service.
“I feel that way, too,” Wade said.
“Did you see all the families there?”
“Yes, Christmas is a time to be together.” He stopped, and Nell walked on a little before she realized Wade was not beside her. He did not catch up with her but instead remained where he was, his hand brushing snow from a high iron fence that surrounded a house. He looked at her a long time without saying anything until Nell asked what was wrong.
“Nothing. Nothing at all. I … Nell, will you marry me?”
Of course Nell wanted a husband. That was why she had come to Kansas City, and Wade had made it clear he was ready to marry again. But she had not expected a proposal that night.
“I do not mean to shock you. I had planned to ask you on New Year’s Eve, but you won’t be here, and Christmas seems appropriate. I think we both hoped from the beginning that this would be the result of our friendship. After seeing the families at church, I thought we could be a family, too, the way I used to be. We could add children of our own. I care for you very much.”
He didn’t say he loved her, Nell thought. Did she love him? She still wasn’t sure, but perhaps that wasn’t important. She had loved two other men, and they had failed her. Maybe it was better that she marry a man she respected. Wade would be true. He was steady, so steady that Nell could picture what every day would be for the rest of their lives. He had a fine job and might even be president of the bank one day, and he would take care of her. He wasn’t balky like Buddy, and he didn’t have another wife, at least not one that was alive, although Nell thought she would always live with the ghost of one. But then, he would live with her transgressions. Wade was the kind of man she had come to Kansas City to meet, and she had been fortunate to find one who was so kind and so successful—and one who accepted her with all her missteps. What did it matter that she found him dull at times? Or that this proposal didn’t make her feel giddy, as she had been when Buddy and then James had asked her to marry them?
“Of course I will marry you, Wade,” she said.
He smiled at her and put his arms around her and kissed her, and if the kiss seemed too chaste, what did that matter either? She felt a swell of emotion, and tears came into her eyes, not tears of love but of relief, of gratitude. She did not feel the surge of excitement she had when she knew she would join her life with Buddy’s or with James’s, but she was older now, more mature. She felt fortunate she had found a good man, and she knew they would have a good life together.
* * *
Wade accompanied Nell to Harveyville on Christmas day. “It is only right I ask your grandfather for permission to marry you,” he explained. Nell found that sweet. Neither Buddy nor James had suggested such a thing.
“What do you think he will say?” she teased. “Do you think he will want me to marry the hired man?”
“I shall try very hard to
convince him I have come up in the world.”
Of course Wade didn’t have to convince him at all. When Nell’s grandfather saw Wade step down from the train with her, he grinned. He slapped Wade on the back and said, “If I’d knowed you’d be part of the family, I’d have paid you better wages.”
It was a fine visit. A storm had blanketed the countryside in white, and they all crowded into a sleigh to attend church and to visit with neighbors. Nell and her grandmother cooked and sewed and gossiped while her grandfather showed Wade about the farm, remarking on changes and improvements he’d made since Wade left. “This will all go to Nell one day,” he said. “You didn’t know when you was here that you was working for yourself, did you?”
* * *
Wade said he wanted to be married in February, when things slowed down at the bank. He brushed aside Nell’s suggestion that they wait until the school found someone to replace her. That wasn’t important, he said. Besides, it would be easier for her grandparents to get away in the winter, and they both wanted the ceremony to be a family event. They would be married in Wade’s church, the one he had attended with Abigail and Margaret, and they would live in Wade’s house. It was a perfectly good house in the fashionable Hyde Park neighborhood, and Wade saw no reason for them not to live there. Later, when she saw it, Nell had to admit it was indeed a fine home, although she would have preferred they start out with a place of their own, one that didn’t have the ghosts of Wade’s first wife and daughter. But she didn’t know how to explain that to him.
They talked about their plans on New Year’s Eve. Her grandparents already were in bed, and Wade and Nell had gone outside in the snow to look at the stars. He reached into his pocket and took out a leather pouch, then extracted a diamond ring. “I brought this with me. This will seal our engagement,” he said and slid it onto her finger.
It didn’t fit, and Nell couldn’t help but wonder if it had been Abigail’s. But she didn’t ask. She said only, “It is lovely.”
“I think we will have a good marriage,” he said, taking her arm.
The Patchwork Bride Page 24
