She turned to Abbie. “Why don’t you go sit down, and I’ll pour milk for everyone? Since you did the cooking, I’ll serve.”
Abbie sat down looking so proud of herself it made Benjamin’s chest hurt. Always before she’d been shunted to the side because Georgie demanded so much attention. It was good to see his elder daughter proud of something she’d done for a change. Emily had worked a miracle with the girl, and deserved to be praised for it.
Georgie and Benjamin sat at the table beside Abbie while Emily took plates down off the shelf and poured them each a glass of milk. She put two cookies on each plate and sat down across from Abbie. “You need to take the first bite, Abbie,” Emily urged. “You made them!”
Benjamin looked down at the perfectly shaped cookie. He knew his daughter had worked hard to make them and felt an overwhelming sense of pride in her. How could he not have realized how much Abbie needed to be treated like she was special to really shine?
Abbie bit into her cookie and smiled. “It tastes just like yours, Mama!”
Benjamin bit into his own cookie. “This is delicious. This doesn’t taste just like your mama’s, though.” When Abbie’s face fell, he smiled at her, and took another bite. “It’s better!”
Abbie turned red with embarrassment. “Thank you, Papa.”
Emily’s eyes caught Benjamin’s across the table and she smiled, nodding slightly letting him know she was glad he’d praised Abbie.
Once they were done with their cookies, Emily insisted Abbie go into the parlor with Benjamin while she and Georgie cleared the table and washed the few dishes. “The cook shouldn’t have to clean,” Emily told them.
*****
The following afternoon, Emily rang up customers for an hour while Benjamin worked in the backroom doing inventory. He’d found he enjoyed having a bit of time to himself in the afternoons, and it was good for Emily to meet more people in the community. The girls were upstairs playing quietly while they waited for Emily to come back so they could all make supper together.
He heard the bell over the door tinkle signaling a customer, but knew Emily could handle things, so he went back to counting. He heard his mor’s voice and that of her friend, Clara. Clara was Kristen’s mother, and he knew she was miffed he’d married someone other than her daughter. He thought about going out to let Emily slip away without having to talk to her, but decided it was time she made things right with his mother.
“I can’t believe Benjamin lets you run the store during the day,” Ingrid began. “You don’t know the first thing about being a mother or a wife, and that’s what you’re here for. How could he possibly think you could handle the store? Make sure you don’t take money from the cash register.” Ingrid was silent for a moment. “Of course, if she’d take it and buy herself a train ticket back East where she belongs, I wouldn’t complain.”
Clara laughed. “I’ve heard you can’t even cook simple Norwegian foods. What was Benjamin thinking marrying you?”
“She’s trying to turn my granddaughters against me, too! Why, just yesterday she refused to come out to my house when I extended an invitation for Sunday dinner. You’d think she’d be happy to come out and learn to cook properly, but she didn’t bother to come. My poor son had to come out and make excuses for her. She even kept Abbie here in town and wouldn’t let her come see me.”
“Good afternoon, Mrs. Johnson. Mrs. Olafsen. Is there something I can help you find today?” Emily’s sweet voice sounded calm as she asked the question as if she hadn’t even heard the way the two older women had insulted her. “We’ve just received a new shipment of calico. Would you like to see it?”
“You’re not fooling anyone with your sweet act, Emily. My son sees you for what you are finally. I’ve never seen him as unhappy as he was yesterday.” Mor’s voice was filled with happiness as she talked about how unhappy he was. What was going on?
“Does this mean you don’t want to see the new shipment of calico?” Emily asked.
Benjamin couldn’t help but grin. His wife was holding her own against the two old biddies. How could his mother try to split up his marriage that way? Why would she do such a thing? Emily was the best thing that had happened to his family in a long time. Why didn’t his mother see that?
“Of course, we don’t want to see the calico! All we want to see is your backside when you’re on your way out of town!” Mor’s voice was downright vindictive as she said the words.
Benjamin carefully laid down his inventory papers and walked around the shelf that separated the back room from the main store. He arrived just in time to see his mother deliberately knock over a display of ribbons. “Oops. I suppose you’ll have to pick those up.”
Who was this woman with the eyes flashing with hate? How could his mother treat a sweet woman like Emily the way she was? He knew without a doubt his mother had been the one lying. He wanted to drop to his knees right then and beg Emily’s forgiveness, but he knew he needed to let his mother know what he thought of her first.
“Mor?”
As soon as she heard his voice, Ingrid paled. “Benjamin? How long have you been standing there?”
“Long enough to see you deliberately knock over a display in my store to cause my wife more work.” He didn’t add he’d been listening from the back room to everything she’d said since she came into the store.
“Oh, Benjamin. She told me I wasn’t welcome in the store any longer, and she wanted me to stay away from my granddaughters. I was upset, and I wasn’t thinking. I’ll pick them up.” She knelt down and began picking up all the ribbons she’d knocked to the floor.
“So you were only upset because Emily was mean to you again?” he asked, acting as if he believed every word she had said.
Emily’s face was red, but she didn’t say anything to defend herself. He knew she didn’t think he’d believe her, and who could blame her? He’d done nothing but call her a liar for weeks. He didn’t deserve to have a woman as good as Emily in his life. He only hoped he could get her to stay for the girls.
His mor stood up and met his eyes. “That’s exactly it. I don’t know why she hates me so much.” A tear trickled out of the corner of her eye for effect.
He wondered then why his mother hadn’t made her living on the stage. Far had been right. His mother wasn’t anything like what he’d thought she was. He walked across the room toward his mother with a concerned look on his face. Once he was close, he leaned down and whispered, “Have you always been a vindictive liar, Mor, or is this something new?”
His mother backed up a step as if to get away from him. She’d never seen anything but adoration in his eyes. Her other children had seen her for what she was years before, which was why she seldom had a houseful of family on Sundays after church, and why she depended on Benjamin coming out so often. “What do you mean?”
Benjamin reached out and removed the spool of ribbon from her hands before gripping her shoulders and turning her toward the door. As he pushed her out the door of his store, he told her, “I’ve been fortunate enough to be loved by two women in my life. Both have been wonderful, but I have to say, I never thought I’d find someone like Emily. She’s taken in my daughters as if they were her own. She cooks for us, cleans for us, and does everything she can to make us comfortable and happy. I’d think you’d be thrilled that she came into our lives. Instead, you spend your time trying to find a way to get her to leave me. You treat her like she’s not good enough to be a part of our family. Why? Why would you do that?”
Mor turned around and glared at him. “She’s not even Norwegian. She can’t cook for you! How can she cook your favorite foods and teach the girls to cook good Norwegian meals when she doesn’t know how?”
He blinked a few times. “You’ve done all this because my wife doesn’t know how to cook Norwegian foods? Let me tell you something. I’d rather eat what my wife cooks any day of the week than eat your fine Norwegian cooking. She may not cook Norwegian, but she’s a far better cook than you ar
e, because she cooks with something you seem to be missing inside you. She cooks, and does everything in her life with love.” He opened the door, and pushed her through it. “Go away, Mor. You can come back when you’re ready to apologize to my wife and treat her like the wonderful woman she is. As far as I’m concerned, you’re no longer my mor, and my daughters are no longer your granddaughters. Tell Far he’s welcome to see them as long as you’re not with them.” He slammed the shop door in her face, while a shocked Clara Olafsen and Emily looked on.
He ignored Clara and walked across the shop to Emily, dropping to his knees at her feet. “Emily, my sweet wonderful wife, will you forgive me for being an idiot and believing my mor, when I should have believed you?”
Emily covered her mouth with her hand to stifle the giggle that was threatening to come out and nodded.
Benjamin got to his feet and pulled her into his arms, kissing her right there in the middle of the store when anyone could walk in right in front of Clara. “I don’t deserve your forgiveness, but I will happily take it. You’re the best thing that could have possibly happened to my girls and me.”
She sighed and snuggled into his arms, not caring if it was the proper thing to do for a change. “I love you, Benjamin,” she whispered.
He pulled away looking down into her face to try to read her eyes to see if she was telling the truth. “I’m so glad, because I love you.”
He kissed her one last time before sighing. “It’s too early to close up shop, but you need to get back upstairs to our girls.” He pushed her toward the back room. “I’ll be up as soon as I can.”
She smiled, looking forward to it. Maybe they could make their marriage work after all.
Chapter Ten
Benjamin hurried up to the house after work that evening. He found Emily in the kitchen as usual, finishing up supper. The table was set, but the girls were nowhere to be seen. He stepped up behind Emily and wrapped his arms around her kissing the side of her neck while she stirred the stew on the stove.
“Supper’s almost ready,” she told him as she tilted her head to the side to give him better access.
“I feel terrible about not believing you.”
She turned in his arms. “You should.” Her eyes met his, but he could see the hurt that was still there. “I appreciate the fact that you finally figured out your mother was lying to you, but it still hurts that you didn’t believe me from the beginning. I’ve never lied to you, yet you immediately jumped to the conclusion that I must be lying.”
He shook his head. “I honestly have been afraid of falling in love with you since you got here. How I felt had just hit me while I was talking with Far when Mor told me those lies about you. Anna and Mor loved each other. Anna was another daughter to her, probably because we’d grown up together.” He stroked his hands over her shoulders soothingly as he spoke. “I’d been praising you and talking about what an amazing woman you are when we stepped outside and I saw you waiting beside the buggy for me instead of staying in the house and helping Mor. I have no excuse other than believing what Mor said made it easier to decide I couldn’t know everything there was to know about you, so I must not be in love.”
“But why wouldn’t you want to love me? Was I so repulsive to you?” Her voice was filled with hurt, but her eyes met his straight on.
“Of course not!” He turned away pacing across the kitchen as he tried to find the best way to explain how he felt. “I’ve known Anna since our first day of school. We played together at recess, and I played all the usual pranks on her. She was a part of my life for twenty years. I think I knew I would marry her from the time I was twelve years old.” He swallowed hard before continuing. “Just sending off for a mail order bride made me feel as if I was betraying Anna. The girls needed a mother so badly, but I felt like I should wait another year or two. But I didn’t. I gave in to their needs, because I love them. I expected to see you as a friend, and maybe a partner in parenting, that I had the added benefit of sharing a bed with.”
She sighed and turned away from him, checking on the biscuits in the oven.
“I really didn’t want to love you, but I couldn’t help myself. You were so good with the girls from the first day. Anna was a good mother to both girls, but she could never understand Abbie. They simply didn’t mesh well.” He frowned. “I’m not criticizing Anna, but she wasn’t the mother Abbie needed. Abbie was way too quiet for Anna to be able to understand her. She was so much like Georgie.”
Emily didn’t comment as she took the biscuits out of the oven and carefully put them on a plate for the table. Her feelings were hurt, but she tried not to show it. How could she explain her hurt over the fact that he didn’t want to love her? Did it even make any sense?
“I couldn’t have found a better mother for my girls if I’d interviewed a thousand women.” He put his hand on her arm to stop her from putting the biscuits on the table. “Emily, you’ve completed my family. You are what I need in life and I love you more than I ever dreamed possible.”
Emily looked up at him with tears streaming down her face. “But you didn’t want to love me? Why wouldn’t you want to love me? What’s wrong with me?”
He sighed, hating himself for making her cry, and looking for the right words to explain how he’d been feeling without making matters worse. “There’s nothing wrong with you. I just felt like falling for my new wife would be a betrayal of Anna.” He wiped one of Emily’s tears from her cheek with his thumb. “I love you, and if that’s a betrayal, I’m sorry, but it doesn’t change anything. I need you in my life.”
She nodded for a moment, still unsure if he was telling her the truth or what he thought she wanted to hear. “I love you, too. I never knew Anna, but she sounds like she was a good wife to you. I don’t want to take her place, you know. I just want to be the best wife and mother I can be. Whether I do it like Anna did or not.”
He pulled her to him stroking her back as he just held her. “It’s time for me to move on with my life. The girls already have, and I’m moving on as well.” He kissed the top of her head. “Who knows? Maybe we’ll have children of our own someday.”
Emily bit her lip, knowing she needed to tell him her news. She leaned back and looked up at his face. “There’s something I need to tell you.” Would he be happy with the news? Their love was so new to both of them. Would adding a child into the mix help things or just hurt them?
He brushed a kiss across her forehead. “What do you want to tell me?”
“That child of our own you mentioned?”
“Uh huh?”
“It’s going to be here sooner than you realized. I’m thinking around eight months from now.” Emily watched Benjamin’s face carefully for his reaction. Would he be pleased?
His face lit up with a huge grin. “Are you sure?”
She nodded. “I haven’t seen a doctor, but I’m sure.” Her eyes searched his. “Are you happy?”
He held her close. “How could I not be happy? I love children. I’d be thrilled to have another dozen.”
“Mama! I’m starving!” They looked over to see Georgie standing just inside the kitchen. “You said we’d be eating in a few minutes and that was hours and hours ago.”
Emily laughed and pulled away from Benjamin. “It’s only been a few minutes, but it is time to eat. Go get your sister and wash up.” Trust Georgie to be the one to ruin an important moment.
Georgie ran off to get Abbie.
“Do you want a boy or a girl?” Benjamin asked.
Emily shrugged. “We have two girls, so a boy would be nice, but I would love to have more girls too. I’d like to have some of each, but I don’t really care which comes first.”
“Do you mind if we tell the girls at dinner?” he asked.
“Not at all. I think they’ll be thrilled. Abbie’s been making noise about wanting more brothers and sisters already anyway.” Emily put the butter on the table as she talked. “I think we’re going to have two very excited little girl
s on our hands.”
After Benjamin said the prayer for them, he told the girls, “Emily and I have something to tell you.”
Abbie looked up at Emily with fear in her eyes. “You’re not leaving are you? You can’t leave us, Mama! We need you!” She stood and ran from the table.
Emily stood, shaking her head at Benjamin to indicate he needed to stay where he was. “You and Georgie eat. I’ll go talk to her.”
She hurried out of the kitchen and up to Abbie’s room. Knocking softly on the door, she called, “It’s just me, Abbie. May I come in?” She could hear Abbie crying through the door.
“No, go away! I know you don’t want to be here anyway!”
Emily pushed the door open and went to sit on the side of Abbie’s bed. “Of course, I want to be here. This family is the most important thing in the world to me. I’m never leaving.”
Abbie kept her face buried in her pillow. “But Farmor said….”
Emily sighed. Her mother-in-law had said altogether too much lately. She stroked her hand over Abbie’s hair. “What did she say?”
Abbie sat up sniffling. “She said you didn’t love us, and you belong out East. She said you weren’t meant to be our mother or you’d have been born Norwegian.” She ran her hand under her nose, wiping it on her sleeve. “I don’t care if you’re Norwegian or not. I just want you to stay and keep being my mama.”
“I’m not going anywhere, Abbie. I promise.”
“What was Papa going to tell us then?”
Emily stood and held her hand out for Abbie. “Why don’t we go find out? I’m sure he waited for us, because he wanted to tell you and Georgie together.”
They walked back down to the table hand in hand. Emily was happy that Abbie wanted her as a mother so badly, but she wished she could convince the girl that she loved her and would never leave.
Emily smiled and nodded at Benjamin to let him know everything was okay as she sat down with Abbie at her side.
Mail Order Mama Page 13
