“I got hired at the paper in town,” Joseph said. “I start work on Monday. It’s not a full-time position, so I picked up a second job at the mercantile making deliveries. I’ll make enough to support us, but I’m afraid things will be tight, at least until I can find a better second job.”
“But we can still have cookies and pie, right Pa?” Bob asked, looking startled.
“Yes.”
Doug and Bob visibly relaxed.
She couldn’t deny that this aspect of the children amused her.
“However,” Joseph continued, directing her attention back to him, “I did purchase that home you said you liked.”
Her ears perked up at this announcement. “The one on the edge of the park with the blue trim?”
Smiling, he nodded. “I thought you might like to hear that.”
“Oh, that’s wonderful!” She turned to Doug and Bob. “It has a nice backyard for you to play in.”
They nodded but just stood quietly by her side with their hands behind their backs.
She was beginning to feel like an animal at an auction. She figured that the boys would be curious about her, but she didn’t expect all four of them to be fascinated enough to watch her every move.
“We’ll be good,” Bob said.
“Yes,” Doug agreed. “We hardly cause any problems at all.”
“And the ones we do cause, we can correct.”
“I don’t expect you to be perfect,” she told them.
Joseph sighed. “I asked them to be on their best behavior while you’re here. Why don’t you two go play with Charles?”
Charles. So that was the boy sitting in the corner. She mentally repeated each boy’s name in her head so she wouldn’t forget again.
“Yes, Pa,” they both said and rushed over to sit by their younger brother.
“It takes them awhile to get used to new people,” Joseph explained.
“It takes me awhile to do that too.” She spread her skirt out, still feeling nervous but not quite as much now that all but one boy—Ben—had stopped watching her. “I suppose you’ll miss working at the paper where you used to live. You said you worked there full-time?”
“Yes, I did. But it was a bigger area, so there were more opportunities.”
“I know the owner of the mercantile. He’s nice. I don’t expect you to have any problems with him.”
“He seemed reasonable when I talked to him. I suppose in a place this small, it’s only logical that everyone knows everyone else.”
“Yes. Sometimes it’s a good thing.”
He raised an eyebrow. “And at others?”
A smile tugged at her lips. “There’s always one or two people you don’t want to come across.”
“That’s true no matter where you are.”
“Really? You mean there’s someone from Dayton you’d rather not deal with?”
Before he could answer, Jessica and Jenny came into the parlor carrying a tray full of cups. “Anyone thirsty for lemonade?” Jessica asked.
“Me, me, me!”
All but Ben ran over to them to grab a cup and gulp their drinks down.
Bob glanced over and nudged his brothers. After whispering something to them, they each thanked Jessica and Jenny and quietly sat back down in the corner to keep playing.
Margaret thought the whole thing was odd. Did they always behave like this or were they trying to warm her up for taking on the role as their mother, who would obviously be baking pies and cookies, before they showed her what they were really like?
Jessica approached them. “Would you like some lemonade?”
Joseph nodded and took a cup. “Thank you.” He shifted so that Ben was sitting up straight. “Here you go.”
Margaret didn’t know how Ben managed it, but he drank half the cup without taking his eyes off of her. She gave him an uneasy smile. Just what did he find so fascinating about her? Wasn’t she just like any other woman? Or maybe it was because he didn’t remember his real mother, so he wasn’t used to having a woman around. But if that was true, then why didn’t he bother staring at Jenny or Jessica?
“Looks like Ben was thirstier than he let on,” Jessica commented with a chuckle.
Margaret wondered how it was possible that Jessica could meet these boys one time at a train station and remember their names.
“Margaret?” Jessica asked, lifting the remaining full cup off the tray.
“No thanks,” Margaret didn’t trust her trembling hands. All she needed was to slip and get lemonade all over her clothes or all over someone else. “I’m fine.”
Joseph finished the rest of his cup and gave it to Jessica. “I must admit it’s peaceful out here. In some ways, it reminds me of my brother’s place, except his house wasn’t nearly as nice.”
Jenny sighed. “Don’t think my brothers don’t try to make it a bachelor’s home.”
Jessica grinned. “That’s why men need women.” Turning to Joseph and Margaret, she said, “We’ll be back soon to see if you six need anything else.”
After Jessica and Jenny left, Margaret glanced at Ben who was still watching her. She couldn’t remember the last time she held a child. Her sister, after all, was already thirteen. But Ben looked like a good boy to start with. “May I hold him?”
“Sure.” Joseph lifted the boy from his lap and handed him to her.
She wondered if Ben would protest but he didn’t. To her surprise, he snuggled into her arms and rested his head against her shoulder. The simple action startled her. She didn’t think it’d feel so nice to hold a child. And the fact that Ben trusted her enough to close his eyes touched her heart. It was, perhaps, one of the loveliest things that ever happened to her.
She glanced at the three boys playing quietly in the corner of the room. Doug and Bob seemed to be making up a game with the blocks, and Charles sat by them but was content to stick to his own group of toys. The poor boys probably missed their mother. She didn’t know if Charles was old enough to remember her when she passed away, but the oldest two would have been.
“It must be hard to raise them by yourself,” she told Joseph.
“That’s not the only reason I want to get married,” he softly said.
She turned her attention to him.
“Your friend is right, you know. About men needing women. True, we are messy creatures when left to our own devises, but even with children, it can get lonely. There’s an emptiness that only a woman can fill.”
She didn’t know why his words should make her body tingle as if he’d touched her. Despite the heat rising in her cheeks, she confessed, “A woman needs a man too, Joseph. And...”—her gaze went back to the four boys—“I used to dream about being a wife and mother when I was a little girl. I think just about every girl imagines that one time or another. Do boys ever imagine being a husband and father when they grow up?”
He chuckled. “I’d like to say yes, but the truth is when I was a boy, I was too busy playing cowboys and Indians to think of the future.”
“I thought you always knew you were going to marry your first wife?”
“Well, to a point. But I never thought about it. I just took it for granted.”
“Oh. I had all the details planned out for my wedding and the names and genders of my children picked out.”
“My first wife did too, though she did later tell me that she wasn’t sure if I was the one or not.”
“Is that the way it is then for men and women? Men go along life and one day decide on who they’ll marry while women figure out the wedding and children and just hope the man comes along with it?”
“I don’t know if that’s how it is for everyone, but it’s been my experience.” He inched closer to her so he could put his arm around her shoulders. “I like you, Margaret. I’ve liked you ever since I read those letters. I hope you never think that I settled for you because I couldn’t find someone else. Even if a man needs a woman, he needs the right one.”
Tears filled her eyes, bu
t she quickly blinked them away. “I like you too, Joseph.”
He leaned forward and kissed her.
A round of ‘ewe’s came from two very disgusted boys who stopped playing to watch them.
He looked at his sons and said, “Someday, this will be one of your favorite things to do.”
Bob rolled his eyes. “I don’t think so, Pa.”
Doug shook his head in silent agreement to Bob’s declaration.
Joseph shrugged. “What did I tell you?” he told her. “Boys just don’t think that far into the future.”
She giggled, even as her lips still tingled from his kiss and her heart thumped madly in her chest. Well, as a girl, she’d played out her first kiss many times in her mind, and she had to admit, the kiss he’d just given her was even better than anything she could dream up. She settled against him and realized that Ben had fallen asleep.
A man and four boys. A full house, yes. But she bet it’d be a happy one.
Chapter Six
Margaret arranged the flowers in the bouquet Jessica would hold. “I’m almost done. I want your thoughts on this.”
Her sister yawned. “I think the last two times you did that were fine.”
“Are you even looking?” Margaret glanced at the clock and sighed. The hour was late, but she couldn’t relax. She was getting married tomorrow at eleven. How was she supposed to sleep? She had a ton of things to do. “Please tell me what you think, Charlotte. Your bouquet will look the same.”
“I don’t care how my bouquet looks.”
“I just want everything to be perfect.” She’d spent years preparing for this moment. She couldn’t stop until she was done. “I’ll tell you what. If you really look at this bouquet and tell me what you think, I’ll let you go to bed.”
Her sister wearily turned her gaze to the flowers. “They’re fine.”
“A good fine or a bad fine?”
“There’s not a difference.”
“Yes there is.”
Charlotte stood up from the chair in the parlor. “I can’t keep my eyes open.”
Margaret realized that there was no way she would get a good, solid answer from her, so she waved for her to go to bed. “Alright. But please wear the blue bow tomorrow.”
She grimaced but nodded.
Once again, Margaret wished that Jessica still lived in town. Jessica had a great eye for style, and as much as Charlotte tried to help her, she wasn’t any better at making things look their best than Margaret was. But Charlotte was such a tomboy anyway. Margaret was lucky her sister would wear the bow. That agreement alone had taken Margaret a good two hours of pleading and doing all her chores. She shook her head and rubbed her eyes. It had been a long and tiring day. Who knew planning a wedding could be so hectic?
She set the bouquet on the table and studied all the flowers in the three bouquets that were neatly set out in a row. The light from the candle gave her the impression of softness. Perhaps she should have opted for an evening wedding ceremony. She did like the effect candlelight had on things. But she didn’t want to have the boys stay up past their bedtime, so she chose eleven in the morning. By then, everyone should be fed and ready to enjoy the day.
Peering out the window, she wondered if it was going to rain. The night sky was clear. Not a cloud in sight. With any luck, tomorrow would be a nice sunny day. She asked for an outside wedding. If it rained, they’d have to go inside the church. She admonished herself for assuming that just because it was her wedding day that it would rain. Everything will be fine. Nothing’s going to go wrong. Her mother was right. She had to stop finding reasons to worry.
She thought over the other tasks she had to do but couldn’t think of anything she could do that night. Everything else, like her hair and putting on her dress, would have to wait until morning.
With nothing else to do but wait, she went to bed. She closed her eyes but didn’t sleep. Instead, she played through the wedding ceremony over and over. This would be the day she’d remember for the rest of her life. And it was going to be perfect.
***
By the time ten o’clock came the next morning, Margaret was a bundle of nerves.
Jessica laughed and forced her to sit in the small room in the back of the church. “I can’t do your hair if you keep bouncing around.”
She fidgeted and leaned forward so she could look out the small window. “It’s a lovely day, don’t you think?”
Jessica pulled her back so she sat up straight. “Yes. It’s not even windy. You picked the perfect spring day to have a wedding, and I bet it didn’t even have anything to do with me.”
She chuckled and glanced over her shoulder while Jessica pulled her hair back with some pins lying on the round table beside them. “But having you here doesn’t hurt.”
Though Jessica rolled her eyes, she didn’t hide her amusement. “Yes. I made sure the clouds went away. It took a lot of work to do so I better get the slice of cake with the biggest rose on it. You know how much I love roses.”
“Sure, as long as they’re pink and red.”
Margaret giggled but resisted the urge to get up and check the length of her dress. As much as she checked the job she’d done on altering her mother’s wedding gown, she still wondered if she did a good job. She took a deep breath. Relax. It’s fine. Everything’s fine.
Jessica stuck another pin into her hair. “I saw Peter James’ mother the other day, and she was wearing red and pink roses in her hat.”
“You’re kidding?”
“Nope.” She took two daisies from the table and wove them into Margaret’s hair. “I couldn’t believe it either, but she said the colors looked much better on her than on wedding decorations.”
She rolled her eyes. “Of course. Everything looks better on Connie James. It really is a good thing you married Tom instead. I met Tom’s mother, and she’s actually pretty nice.”
“Yes, she is. She lets Tom make his own decisions.”
A smile tugged at Margaret’s lips as she glanced at her friend. “Don’t you mean that she lets you make decisions for Tom?”
Jessica gasped. “I have no idea what you mean!”
“Oh come on. I saw that pretty buggy you had him buy. No man would pick that.”
She playfully nudged Margaret in the shoulder before she turned her face forward so she could put another pin into her hair. “That buggy is the one that got us here today, so you better watch your tongue.”
“Well, I don’t think four little boys will be caught dead in something that feminine. You better hope you have some girls.”
“Don’t think we aren’t working on that.” Jessica finished with her hair and handed her a handheld mirror. “There. What do you think?”
Margaret hardly recognized the person staring back at her. “The daisies are perfect. I don’t know how you do it, but you always make everything look better than they are.”
Jessica clucked her tongue. “Enough of that. You are a pretty woman, and it’s about time you admitted it.”
Margaret shrugged and put the mirror down. She peered out the window and saw that Joseph and his sons were getting assembled. Her heart beat faster at the sight of him. Looking at him made her weak in the knees. She wondered if she would ever get over that initial feeling of awe whenever she saw him.
Charlotte approached the oldest two boys—Doug and Bob—and gave them each a basket full of flower petals. They gagged but didn’t toss the offensive ‘girly’ baskets to the ground. Margaret chuckled. She didn’t think the boys would be delighted to scatter the petals on the ground, but Jessica had insisted it would be pretty to decorate the grass for the occasion.
“I really do hope you have girls,” she told Jessica who was putting daisies into her own hair. “I don’t think you’d know what to do with a boy.”
If Jessica heard her, she chose to ignore the comment, so Margaret stood up and inspected her off-white gown. She always thought her mother’s dress was beautiful and was glad she chose to we
ar it.
Someone knocked on the door.
Since Jessica was busy, Margaret picked up her bouquet and opened the door. “Hi, Pa.”
He smiled at her. “Joseph’s going to be very happy when he sees you. You’ve turned into a lovely young woman.”
“See?” Jessica added, giving her a pointed look as she slipped another daisy into her hair.
It was hard to appreciate a compliment when her stomach was all twisted in knots. Margaret simply nodded her thanks and took a deep breath. She hoped she didn’t end up falling flat on her face out there. So far, everything was turning out much better than she planned. Right now, the only thing that could screw it up was her.
They waited until Jessica was done before they went to the entrance of the church. She put her arm through her father’s and waited. Charlotte, Doug and Bob ran over to them, and Jessica handed the extra bouquet to Charlotte. The poor boys still looked as if holding the baskets was akin to being asked to put a bow in their hair. Margaret thought about telling them that they could put them down, but then the groomsmen headed their way.
This was it. In a brief period of time, she would be Mrs. Joseph Connealy. Margaret Connealy. She thought that sounded rather pleasant.
Glancing at the lawn, she saw that the group of fifty people found their seats as the preacher and Joseph stood in their positions. Ben and Charles sat with her mother, and for the moment, they remained good.
Tom Larson whistled at Jessica. “You’re even better than the day we got married.”
She giggled as she took his arm. “You’re so sweet.” Then she kissed his cheek.
Joel Larson took Charlotte by the arm and rolled his eyes. “They act like that all the time. A person could lose their lunch watching this.”
Charlotte seemed amused. “Then be glad we don’t eat until after the wedding.”
A Husband for Margaret Page 4
