When it was over, he turned to Eliza. “So what happens now?” he asked.
“We take it back to town, I guess,” she said with a shrug.
Benjamin nodded, and then he looked around for Seth, who’d come up to the hill earlier in the day.
Or at least that had been their plan.
For a moment he couldn’t find Seth, and Benjamin panicked. Then he saw his friend emerge from a trail that led to the other side of the copse.
“Howdy,” Seth said, tipping his hat to Eliza as he greeted Benjamin. Eliza greeted him tentatively, for the two men exchanged familiar glances and then smiled at one another.
“You ready for this?” Seth asked, and Benjamin nodded nervously.
“Yeah,” he replied. “Is the tree ready?”
“All set up,” Seth said, nodding, and Eliza looked quickly from one to the other, wondering what was happening.
“What tree?” she asked.
“The one Benjamin asked me to set up for you,” Seth explained.
Eliza turned to Benjamin. “Set up?” she asked. “I don’t understand.”
Benjamin grinned, suddenly feeling more confident. “It’s too hard to explain,” he said, and he took her hand and nodded at Seth.
“Let’s go. Show us where,” Benjamin said.
“Happy to help,” Seth said. “Come on.”
The trail turned out to be short, which was good because Eliza was quite confused.
“It’s right over here,” Seth said, pointing as they reached the end of the trail.
“What is?” Eliza asked.
“The perfect tree,” Benjamin said, spotting it instantly.
She looked up at him, more confused than ever. “What in the world are you talking about?” Eliza asked.
“That tree over there,” he said, nodding as they approached it. “It’s ours.”
Eliza looked at the tree he was indicating, which was small but perfectly shaped. She turned her attention to Seth, and he nodded at the tree as well.
“Ours,” she repeated. Eliza shook her head again, utterly at a loss for words.
Benjamin knew this was his cue. If he didn’t do this now he wouldn’t be able to do it at all. He took her hand, and then Benjamin led Eliza over to the tree.
Somehow he was able to extract the small ornament from his pocket without fumbling it, but Eliza did stare at it as soon as he pulled it out.
“What in the world is that?” she asked, her eyes widening as he pulled it out.
“It’s for you,” he said, and then Benjamin pulled the ring out of the ornament and dropped to his knees.
He set the ornament down, and Benjamin took her hand in his. He showed Eliza the ring, and then Benjamin looked up at her.
“I need for you to say you’ll marry me before I slip this on,” he said, smiling at how stunned Eliza looked.
“Oh!” She looked at the tree, then at Benjamin, and finally at the ring. Seth seemed to have slipped away somehow, and without thinking she threw her arms around him.
“What a wonderful thing to do!” Eliza exclaimed, and for a moment Benjamin thought that he hadn’t even had a chance to put the angel on the tree.
That would have to come later, though. Eliza kissed him, and all thoughts of his plan vanished from his mind, for it had already worked to perfection.
Benjamin had found the girl of his dreams, and in Last Chance, of all places. And not only that, but she’d just accepted his proposal and agreed to marry him! How could anything be more perfect than that?
5
Holiday Rescue
He’s far away. And he’s in trouble.
Althea was certain of it, even though it wasn’t something she could confirm. She just felt it in her bones.
This didn’t happen to her very often, of course. Joseph was a scout, so he was often away for long periods, on journeys both near and far.
He made sure the territory was safe for the various stages that carried goods and passengers to the wide open spaces of the West.
Despite the inherent danger in this, Althea rarely worried about him. She’d met Joseph several years before, when she was making the journey west with a group of mail order brides.
Althea herself wasn’t a mail order bride, but she might as well have been considering the peril of her situation.
Her father had beaten her throughout her childhood. When her breasts began to grow and her hips widened she could see the change in him, the lascivious looks and the carnal side of his cruel animal nature.
That had cinched things for her. Althea had been working in a tiny shop, telling fortunes and learning to read the cards.
The woman she was working for had been a fraud, mostly, but Althea believed in the power she’d been given, and slowly her predictions began to become more accurate.
But she didn’t need cards or tea leaves to predict what would happen with her father. Once those looks started, Althea knew she had weeks to get away. If that.
So she ran. Not literally, of course, but Althea had been preparing for this possibility for some time.
She’d managed to save a small amount of money from her work at the fortune shop, and she’d found a cubbyhole in the backroom where she could hide it without worrying about the possibility of theft.
Somehow the money had grown to be a considerable amount. This was because of the extra hours; the woman she worked for was lazy as well as corrupt, so she was only too happy to turn over the shop to Althea.
She knew business was better when Althea ran things, and the woman never asked questions about school, which was no longer an option for Althea. If she didn’t make enough to afford a way out, Althea knew she would either be pregnant or dead. Maybe both at the same time, which would be the worst.
Her trip out West had been filled with good fortune, which Althea had known would be the case.
She didn’t know how that fortune would arrive, of course, but several nights before her father attacked her, Althea dreamed of meeting a small group of women who would somehow change everything for her.
And so it happened, just like that, although not in the way Althea thought it might.
She’d gone to the train station in Philadelphia, intent on booking passage to Chicago. This was a risky venture, of course, but Althea was convinced she could handle herself, for her gift of predictions also included the ability to steer clear of bad situations in general, and bad men in particular.
Then she’d met the mail order brides. There were three of them, and Althea first saw them clustered together in the station, young and eager and as nervous as alley cats trying to steal food from the refuse behind a food stall.
As soon as she saw them Althea knew their intentions were pure, and that they were blessed.
She had no idea what these intentions were, of course, but Althea was certain that if she merely stayed in the area she could safely find out.
And that had happened as well. The prospective brides were only slightly older than she was, and when one of them saw her getting on the same train they did, the one bound for Chicago, the girl had invited Althea to sit with them during their journey. They became fast friends.
That was how Althea had gotten to Last Chance, of course. The mail order brides had invited her to stay with them after Chicago, thinking that adding an extra number to their group would help keep them safer.
That was exactly the way it turned out. On the final length of their journey, they hired a stagecoach driver, who aroused Althea’s suspicions as soon as they hired him with his furtive, sidelong glances at her. She thought about warning the brides, but Althea simply didn’t know them well enough yet.
Not only that, but his stagecoach had been more than a little rickety. Althea’s concern about the vehicle was both instantaneous and visceral, and sure enough it had broken down halfway to Last Chance, in the middle of the prairie.
Althea had become a woman that day. Not in the carnal sense, but something had roused her in the night; the ni
ght after the stage had broken down.
She’d gotten up and seen his shadow in the moonlight, and Althea knew the driver was going to try and have relations with one of the prospective brides, the youngest and most vulnerable in the group.
Instantly, Althea knew what she had to do. She’s grabbed a large branch, one that had fallen from the tree next to where they’d camped.
The rest had been easy. Althea knew all too well how to be stealthy from her time with her father. The blow she delivered was swift and unequivocal, and the stage driver never saw it coming.
It hadn’t been enough to kill him, but he was severely hurt. Barely conscious, shallow breathing, unable to get up or walk, and that was more than enough to give Althea the opportunity she needed.
The other girls were completely panicked when they woke up, but Althea was as placid as a lake on a hot, windless summer day.
The girls fretted about what they would do, how they would get to Last Chance. But Althea knew the one thing she was best at was adapting, and it was time to put her talent for that to good use.
The first thing she did was address the horse. Althea petted the beast, soothingly, and the creature seemed to warm to her immediately.
After that Althea set about the task of figuring out how to hook the horse up to the stage coach. The task had been imposing, but not as hard as she’d feared. Everything involved was large and somewhat cumbersome, but Althea knew she was strong enough to handle the task, and to drive the thing.
She was no expert in any of this, to be certain, but what she knew was enough. More than enough, in fact.
The other girls had been as timid as mice, but they had clambered back aboard once Althea had the thing ready.
She could see them chattering about her as she prepped the stage, and Althea knew she had separated herself from them by performing this series of tasks. But she was fine with that.
The rest of the journey to Last Chance was slow going at first, but Althea was also a quick study.
Once she got the feel for using the reins, and sensing what the horse wanted and how that integrated to the massive stagecoach, they actually made decent progress.
As for leaving the man behind, Althea had no qualms about that. None whatsoever. He would die out there, with no horse or stage, so badly hurt. Or he would live. It didn’t matter to her.
That was when she’d met Joseph.
Althea actually saw him in her mind before he arrived; short and squat, with thick dark hair and slightly bronze skin, perhaps a trace of Apache blood somewhere in his lineage.
That was probably what made him such an accomplished scout, she remembered thinking.
He rode up to the stagecoach like it was the most natural thing in the world. No surprise, at least not outwardly, at seeing a young girl, or a girl who’d been forced to become a woman, driving the huge thing.
Although, Joseph did smile slightly when he found the mail order brides inside and learned their story.
Brides going west wasn’t exactly an uncommon phenomenon in those days, but their version of the story certainly did have an interesting spin.
Althea had no idea what she would do when she’d arrived in Last Chance. She wasn’t a mail order bride, after all, and the girls had spun a seemingly endless series of tales about Last Chance being a haven of sorts for them throughout the trip.
For a few moments after arriving Althea thought she would be left out of that, forced to move on to someplace else.
But she didn’t know Owen Standard.
When they reached the center of town, Joseph had excused himself for a few minutes when he saw the mayor on the edge of the steps leading up to the Town Hall in Last Chance.
They’d gone inside for a few minutes, and when they reemerged both Joseph and Owen were smiling.
Joseph’s smile was reserved and sly, in keeping with his basic character. Owen’s, of course, was large and bold, a veritable beacon for this latest trio of mail order bride to arrive in his accommodating town.
That was when Althea thought she’d be cast out, in a manner of speaking. But then the opposite had happened.
The mayor had told her she’d be put up in the same hotel, the Lazy Layabout, where the brides were to be housed until their prospective husbands arrived. And their arrival, of course, had already been arranged.
Althea had developed a keen sense when it came to what men were about, out of sheer necessity, of course.
And she could tell that this Owen Standard was as blatantly sincere as he seemed, a man whose heart and spirit were as open as the prairie. She’d smiled when he described the accommodations, and Althea had decided to leave the rest to fate.
It turned out to be a sound decision. Two days later Joseph had come for her, notifying the woman at the desk, who was the owner as well, that he wished to speak with her.
The word “speak” had been an exaggeration, of course. Joseph was a man of few words, but Althea had sensed that from the start. He said he’d talked with the mayor about a possibility, and he wished to discuss the details with her.
So they’d gone for a walk on Main Street. Althea immediately felt comfortable with Joseph, and she also sensed a connection of surprising depth and authenticity.
If she hadn’t, though, Althea never would have gone near his proposal, which was odd to say the least.
He’d explained that he was a scout, and that he lived on the outskirts of Last Chance. Joseph had a ranch of sorts, which he’d built by hand with the help of the McCourty brother.
Althea had no idea who they were, of course, but she would later learn that they were part of the backbone of the town.
Then Joseph had gotten to the heart of his odd proposition.
He wished to have livestock, Joseph had explained, but it was quite impossible with him being out on the prairie for days and even weeks at a time.
And he couldn’t afford to hire a hand to do that yet, although Joseph did mention that he saw that as a part of his future.
Then he went on to explain that he also needed someone to care for his house. Joseph said this with some embarrassment, as if it was something he was used to doing himself and reluctant to hand off to someone else.
But Althea already knew what he had in mind beyond that. And strangely enough, she found herself more than open to it.
So she’d taken him up on his offer, in spite of Althea’s natural reservations, which were considerable.
She knew nothing about caring for animals, of course, especially ones as huge as cattle and horses.
But she’d done all right with the horse and the stagecoach, so she thought she could manage, especially if it was just a matter of hard work.
That she knew, for the instinct for it coursed through her constantly, like blood.
Joseph must have arranged to go away immediately after Althea moved out to the ranch. She’d arrived early in the morning, back in the fall, and he’d spent the day with her, showing her what needed to be done.
She liked the way he did this. Joseph rarely used words, except when necessary; he’d been more inclined to show her each task, and slowly and patiently at that.
This suited Althea, to the point where she found herself picking up things very quickly. She remembered smiling at the thought of living out here, thinking it was a way of life she could take to quickly and easily.
But that still hadn’t prepared her for what had happened. They’d supped together in the evening, watching the sun set through the dining room window, which Althea noticed was spotless, with barely a speck of dust.
Did a man really live here? she remembered thinking. It seems improbable, maybe even unlikely.
She’d wondered what would happen next, of course. And that was when Joseph told her he was leaving. On a scouting mission, one that would begin that very evening.
Althea had been stunned. When he first told her she’d felt a bolt of fear in her heart that was like lightning.
How will I manage all this? she�
�d thought at the time.
But Joseph merely smiled at her when he saw the questions on her face, and that was when Althea realized he’d planned this all in advance. To help her get comfortable with the house, and with running things.
And to not be afraid at the presence of a strange man, Althea remembered. Had he somehow known about her past, even though she’d been careful to tell no one of this?
In the end, however, it didn’t matter. Joseph had been gone for several days that particular time, and when he returned Althea had the place running like clockwork. All the routines were in place, she just needed to fit him into them.
They’d lived together chastely for several months, through the winter, before Joseph married her. She had her room and he had his, and that was the way it was in the beginning.
For a week or two after he returned Althea had been suspicious, wondering if he’d been laying a trap, waiting to assault her in the night, like the stage coach driver with those silly mail order brides.
Those girls had no idea of the danger they’d been in, but they’d thanked Althea profusely after she laid out the driver.
But Joseph never laid a hand on her, nor had he discussed marriage or courtship. He’d simply gone out on each scouting mission as it came up, some for a few days, with one or two that lasted for a couple of weeks.
Surprisingly, that had turned out to be the ideal way for Althea to acclimate to her new “situation,” as she came to call it.
For a few days she’d have the ranch to herself, which allowed her to adjust to all the surprises that came with running it, which were both numerous and considerable—weather, the health of the livestock, repairs that had to be made and so on.
Then Joseph would be back. This would be a tremendous relief, and that was how Althea would come to love him.
He would help her and show her things, and by the time the new year came, their path together had been as clear as a bell to both of them.
Their wedding, however, had been much smaller than those that typically took place in Last Chance. When the mail order brides were wed, it was a huge event—nearly everyone in the town was present, and the festivities were truly mind-bogging.
The Mail Order Brides of Last Chance Page 15
