by Angela Lain
“And we can’t go to town. The snow is too deep,” Harley stated shortly.
“What do you mean?” Melody’s voice held concern.
“I mean the snow is too deep for a buggy or even a wagon.”
“We are stuck here? But what will people say? We are unmarried ladies, we will be ruined.”
“You were here last night, what does a couple more matter? And as a mail-order bride, you are expected to marry anyhow, so what difference does it make?” Harley picked up his spoon and dug into the oatmeal.
Silence ensued once more. April and Melody exchanged glances. They were both well aware that it did make a difference. Both had suffered from town gossips, Melody because of her dismissal and April because of her debts. They had left their homes to get away from such vilification, were they both to suffer once again in this new haven?
“Are you sure we can’t leave?” Melody’s voice wobbled a little.
“Mel, I’ve been outside,” April said. “The snow is deep. I think Harley knows what he is talking about.” Much though it pained her to agree with the insensitive oaf, she knew he was right.
April slipped the hot biscuits onto a plate and put them in the center of the table to cool. It wasn’t many moments before Harley slathered one with butter and consumed it with two bites. The man had an appetite, no doubt he needed plenty of food to sustain those bulging biceps. It flitted across her mind that it would be a treat to cook for a man who appreciated what she did. In the last few years her father had ceased to care. So far gone with drink, he seemed to taste and enjoy nothing but the alcohol.
***
Breakfast over, the two men decided they should check the animals together because of the deep snow.
As they left Harley threw back over his shoulder, “There is more wood on the porch if you need it. I will bring it in when we get back.”
April glanced at the heap by the stove. “I think we will survive until then.”
The door slammed, leaving April and Melody to clear up the kitchen, and check out the house and everything in it.
By the time they had completed their examination, they had amassed a heap of clothes to be washed.
“I suppose we light the copper,” Melody said. “If I am to be mistress of this house, I had better make a start.”
“Have you decided you will?”
“I’m not sure, but I think it is more a case of ‘will Jasper accept me’, don’t you?”
April couldn’t help but agree.
“If we are going to wash, we need more water. Which means I need to go to the well.” April gazed from the window. “I hope I can manage.”
“It can’t be that hard, Jasper’s wife lived here, she must have done chores. I can’t see that she would have been too much of a lady to raise water, can you?”
“You are right. She’s only been gone six months.” April picked up the buckets and headed out of the wash room door. It was bitterly cold. She turned back and snagged a coat from the hook by the door. She had no idea who it belonged to, but it was thicker than her own.
Ten minutes later she returned with two full buckets.
“I need more. But I will give it a few moments, I need to warm myself.” She stood before the fire. “They were right, you know. It is not nice. It’s hard to walk, the buggy would have struggled.”
They washed the grubby clothes, and the baby’s clothes and diapers. By the time they had done, the wash room resembled a laundry.
“I don’t think Jasper had washed anything for weeks. I think the clothes are his, not Harley’s. I don’t think they are big enough for Harley, he is some giant of a muscle man isn’t he?” Melody observed with a giggle.
“He is,” April agreed. “Something to do with being a blacksmith I imagine. Jasper is hardly a weakling.”
“No,” Melody’s face was flushed from the steam, but April was pretty sure she reddened even more. “He is… rather attractive.”
In April’s opinion, Harley was the handsome one, but under the circumstances it was a good thing Melody preferred Jasper. At a guess, she found him less intimidating.
***
April had set the kettle to boil and was checking through the cupboards to find what was available to eat, when the men came back into the house.
“We need to talk,” Harley announced gruffly.
“Yes we do. But first I would appreciate you showing me where this cellar is located, so I can discover what, if anything, I can cook for supper. I have flour, and butter, but only limited quantities. If you expect to be fed, I need…,” she glanced at Melody and adjusted her words, “we need supplies.”
“Through here,” Jasper directed her through the wash room, staring in surprise at the lines of wet clothes.
The cellar was alongside the rear of the house, a sort of deep lean too.
April glanced around, “Good, I can use this. Supper will happen, rest assured.”
They returned to find Harley seated by the fire with Cody on his knee.
“Bro, you should see the washing they have done,” Jasper muttered as he sat in the other easy chair.
Harley raised his eyebrows and looked at the women with an appreciative expression. Unfortunately April could rid herself of the feeling it was a rather condescending gesture.
“Talk.” She plonked herself at the table.
“What is there to say? I asked Miss Jacobs to come here to marry Jasper. They need to get acquainted, and get settled, preferably before the weather really sets in.”
“Just like that?” April demanded.
“Why not? Mail-order brides sign up to marry the day they arrive. I checked on it. It is one of the agency stipulations.”
“But you didn’t use an agency!”
“Because I wasn’t the one needing a wife. I got a letter from an agency, but… they asked too many questions, and I couldn’t answer for Jasper, so I wrote my own advertisement.”
Melody interrupted. “I realize that by not going through an agency, I left myself open to… “
“Fraud!” April finished.
“No,” she contradicted. “I knew what might lie before me. The only thing I do find difficult is that Jasper didn’t know. If he is prepared to accept that we can try, I will stay. But I do need to talk with him, and get to know him. The letters I received led me to believe I did know him, a little. But obviously…”
“They were not true!” April finished for her.
Harley had the grace to look a little sheepish, Jasper looked hunted. April despaired of this ever working.
She stood and grabbed Harley’s arm. “I think we should leave these two in peace.” She pulled him towards the wash room. He had the grace to rise to his feet and follow her.
As soon as they were alone he launched into her.
“Why do you keep stirring things? Why do you keep on about this being… wrong? How is this any more wrong than any other mail order arrangement?”
“Because you never told her the truth! You never told Jasper the truth!”
“How many of these sorts of arrangements do tell the truth? I’m willing to bet men who write such letters often pass themselves off to be something far different to what they really are.”
April opened her mouth to argue, and shut it again, because there was probably a fair amount of truth in his words.
“All right. We are here. Melody is here. She and Jasper need to get to know each other and come to some decision. But be assured, I will not let her be brow-beaten into any sort of agreement if she has doubts.”
Harley gave a grunt which April assumed was agreement, until he spoke again. “I hope you will be less bossy about the whole thing. Do you always have that much influence over Miss Jacobs? Do you consider her unable to make her own decisions?”
April wasn’t certain how to answer. What would he say if he knew her truth? She was as guilty of misrepresentation as he was. She was fairly sure he would be incensed by this fact.
“I don’t mean to
be bossy. I will try to hold my tongue, but I have her best interests at heart.”
“And you don’t think her future lies with Jasper?”
“I didn’t say that. Jasper needs to be convinced before this can go further. If he truly doesn’t want a wife, you cannot force him. I do understand that you want what is best for your brother and Cody, but what you think is best, may not be his choice.”
Harley let out a long breath. “I know. I am now realizing I may have been a bit… over enthusiastic.”
“Or you may have done them both a favor,” April acknowledged. “But I also think if Melody chooses to marry him, and he is still unsure, but goes ahead for Cody’s sake, that the marriage should not be consummated. That way, if they decide they have made a mistake, the marriage can still be annulled.”
Harley stared at her as if she had two heads.
“You are joking?”
“No, I…”
“That’s ridiculous.” Harley snapped. “How can you expect Jasper not to want his husbandly rights…?”
“He says he doesn’t want a wife, so he should not have the benefits.”
“You are mad,” Harley stated flatly. “I thought you were opinionated, but that idea is…”
“Reasonable!” April flashed. “Anyhow, it is not up to us. I’ve said what I think, but I won’t say anything to Melody, or Jasper either.”
“I should think not. Any decent woman wouldn’t even know about such things.”
“And that is why girls get into trouble!” April stated with a sigh. “Enough. We can’t solve this. We had better stay on speaking terms for the good of the possible happy couple. If we keep on like this we will fall out, totally.”
Harley offered another grunt of agreement, and spun round to leave the wash room.
The snow fell softly for a good deal of the day. The men spent time outside with the animals, while the women never ventured further than the outhouse.
Melody inspected the house, checked on everything, pots, pans, bed linen, and clothes for Cody. She set about cleaning and tidying some of the muddle which had accumulated since the loss of the lady of the house. April collected food and prepared a stew for supper, setting it to cook on the stove.
“Do you not think Jasper should be in here, getting acquainted?” April ventured.
Melody picked Cody up from the now clean floor. “Possibly, he came in for coffee and some lunch. But I will not criticize at the moment. He is doing the work he has neglected in order that Cody was tended. I am doing exactly what I am required to do.”
“So you are resolved to stay?”
“I have not decided, but I must make an effort to see the way this could be, don’t you think?”
April could only agree. The deception had not been Jasper’s fault, and the man had taken the shock of Melody’s arrival quite well.
She rubbed at the grimy window, cleaning what was obviously months of dirt from the pane, while she thought it over. She was the only one who believed Harley’s deception was unforgiveable, so maybe she had to try and forgive it? Melody seemed to have done so already, and she was the one who mattered. April glanced around to see her holding Cody on her hip, while she sorted through his few clothes, looking for necessary repairs.
Supper that night was a better considered meal, since the women had all day to prepare. Both men tucked in with gusto, and they went to their beds, or bedroll in Harley’s case, warm and well-fed.
CHAPTER EIGHT
The next morning April watched the falling snow, and despaired of their position. How much longer? If they got back to town today, they had spent two nights alone with two unmarried men. But they might be here for many more days. Scandalous indeed. If April knew anything about human nature, tongues would wag and opinions would be stated, loudly.
This morning Harley produced some contraptions he called snow shoes, and suggested they walk to the river. Melody declined, saying it was too cold, but April was never one to back down on a challenge, and she was heartily sick of sitting in the cabin.
Melody was making herself at home, taking over the cooking and the cleaning. April would happily have done the work just to pass the time, but she didn’t wish to push Melody aside. This was hopefully her new home, she should be the one to make the decisions, control the situation.
“Are you sure these things work?” April wobbled dubiously on the roadway outside the house. Here the snow had been shoveled away, and it was slippery.
“When you get into deeper snow, they really will help. Come on.”
Jasper and Melody were watching from the porch, Cody was in Melody’s arms once again. April appreciated Harley’s ploy to get them out of the house and leave the couple alone.
They set off. April felt so awkward with these things attached to her boots.
“Wait,” she lurched and nearly fell. Harley grabbed her arm.
“Don’t try to go so fast.”
“But you are.”
“I know how to do it.”
“So help me, you pompous ass.”
“Oh, that is fighting talk. Maybe I’ll push you into a snow drift.”
“Maybe I’ll pull you in after, hit you over the head and bury you there,” April retaliated.
He laughed. “Just you try it, little lady.”
“I am not a ‘little lady’,” she huffed in annoyance.
“You are to me.” He grinned good naturedly at her and grabbed her hand. “Come on, lean on me.”
She did as he asked, conscious that he was being pleasant for once. There was no edge to his teasing.
They headed to the river, it was exhausting, but the snow had stopped and the sun sparkled on the tree tops. It looked wonderful.
It took them the best part of an hour to cover a distance which April judged to be little more than a mile. It was a wonderland of snow; the flakes still drifted gently down, but it was much lighter, and the clouds were white, not dark and ominous.
“Here we are,” Harley declared, and pulled her up the slope to join him.
“Oh.” The view was magnificent, the slope dropped to what was obviously a stream, she could hear the water trickling beneath the snow. “I didn’t realize we were so high.”
“We are not really, just higher. It’s called Feather Hill for a reason.”
“It’s beautiful.” As she spoke the sun broke through the clouds, casting sparkling beams across the scene. “Oh, look at that!”
“Wonderful. And it’s just as lovely in the summer. We used to come here to picnic. It was Cora-May’s favorite spot, before…” Harley’s voice faded out sadly.
“I’m sorry.” April turned to study his face. “Were you fond of her too?”
“Everyone loved Cora-May. She was like my little sister, and yes, I loved her, but Jasper… Jasper believed she was sent from heaven just for him.”
“Oh.” April didn’t know how to answer that. “So… is there any chance he will care for Melody?”
Harley stared into the distance and took his time before he answered. “I… think so. Jasper loves very easily, sometimes too much, but… I think he will have enough left for Melody. He loves Cody, and he likes how she and Cody have bonded. I don’t think that he thinks she is doing it to impress him.”
“I do hope so.” April gave a shiver. “What are the chances of getting back to town? Can we go on snow shoes?”
“We could, but you want to go back to a boarding house, don’t you? And there is no possibility of taking any luggage of any kind. You had best stay put.”
“People will talk.”
“People will understand.”
April knew perfectly well that he didn’t understand what it was like to be a woman!
As they returned through the snow, April reflected that he’d been more agreeable this morning than he had been thus far.
They returned to eat a swift lunch before Harley vanished out to the barn once more, he stayed there all afternoon.
Once again they ate a good
meal, and retired to sleep soon after darkness had descended.
***
The morning of the third day was much as the one before, except the snow seemed to have stopped falling for a while. April rose with the sun, to find Melody already feeding Cody, and both men absent from the house. She appreciated that these men were workers, they didn’t lie abed when work waited out in the dark of a winter morning.
While Melody saw to the baby, April made ready to cook breakfast. Biscuits once again, since they had no bread and no yeast, oatmeal for Cody and everyone else too, because it made supplies go further. She sliced bacon and hoped the men would bring eggs when they came in to eat. Supplies were dwindling, there was only bacon enough for one more breakfast, and she would dearly like to make bread. Maybe today they could return to town?
Jasper came in, carrying several eggs.
“Chickens are still trying, despite the cold.”
“That’s good, there is enough for one apiece.”
“Jasper can have mine,” Melody declared.
“I shouldn’t…” Jasper began.
“We are here in the warm, you are outside, working. You need the food.”
No-one could argue that truth.
In the end the men had two eggs, while the ladies made do with just bacon and biscuits. It was plenty.
“So what do we do today?” April questioned.
“Ah hah, I have a surprise for you. Get your jobs done and we will go out.” Harley rose from the table and exited with no more explanation.
Jasper slid Cody from his knee to sit on the rag rug with his bricks. “I had better go and milk the last two cows.”
He followed Harley out of the door.
The women cleared away the breakfast.
“I do hope we can soon get to town,” Melody said, “It is bad enough for me, but you will be considered…”
“Not at all the thing!” April completed the thought. “I know, but I believe it is too late to avoid that. I am more concerned that we get supplies. Bread would be lovely, and the means to make it too. These men have lived hand-to-mouth by the look of things. They don’t have proper supplies laid in for winter.”
