Daisy (Suitors of Seattle) (7 page)

“Where did the orphan train leave you?”  She had heard stories like his, but had never met anyone who had actually lived through that.

“In South Dakota.  I lived there from around eight ‘til I was around eighteen.  By the time I left, I could do some simple reading and a little math.  I’ve kept working at that so I could better myself.  I have several books if you ever feel like reading one.”  He enjoyed reading, and when he wasn’t too tired at the end of a long day, he spent time in the parlor doing just that.

“Thank you.”  She looked at him again in surprise.  He was such a gentle man
that she was surprised to hear of his difficult upbringing. 

They were silent the rest of the way to the ranch.  When they got there, he helped her down.  “Would you mind just having chicken and dumplings for supper?  I can cook something else if you want, but that would be easier, because I need to bake bread today.”

“That would be fine,” he told her.  “I liked your chicken and dumplings.”  It had been really spicy again, but her mother and sister had obviously enjoyed it, so he knew it was something they were all used to.

He kissed her quickly and started to unhitch the wagon.  She rushed into the house to bake
the bread.  The nice weather was holding out, so she wanted to get all the laundry done up in the next day or two as well.

She had a lot to do to make the ranch a home, and she was determined to do it as quickly as she could.  She wanted to make the best life she could for her new husband.

Chapter Four

That evening when he came to bed, Eli moved more slowly than he had the night before.  He carefully stripped her out of her nightgown and stroked her body until she felt like she was on fire.  She returned each of his kisses and strokes until she was arching up toward his hand
, all but begging for him to make love with her. 

When he covered her body and moved inside her, she felt no pain but only pleasure.  He kept stroking her to be certain she reached her peak before he was finished, and she arched her back
, letting out a loud moan as her pleasure overtook her.  She curled into his arms afterward, feeling as if all the bones had melted out of her body and sighed contentedly.

He smiled as he stroked his hand down her hair.  “I told you it would be better this time.”

She pressed a kiss to his shoulder.  “And you were right.  I could do that every day.”

He laughed.  “I’m very glad to hear that, because that sounds good to me.”

She fell asleep that night with a smile on her lips, knowing that her marriage was going to work.  She had a good husband, and she could do whatever it took to make him love her.

*****

By the time they went to church on Sunday, she had gotten the house completely in order.  The curtains were made and hung at the windows and the tablecloth was spread across the table nicely.  She got up and dressed for the day, surprised when he didn’t immediately do the same.

“You don’t go to church?” she asked.
  She’d never known anyone who didn’t go to church every week.  She was certain there were people in Seattle who didn’t go, but she’d never crossed paths with them.

He sighed.  “I do sometimes, but not every week.”

“Why not?”  She’d gone to church every Sunday of her life except when she was sick.

He shrugged and turned back to the bedroom.  “I’ll get dressed for church.”  She smiled, pleased.  She didn’t want to force him to go, but she wouldn’t feel right if she missed. 

When they reached the church, he helped her down and introduced her to the small congregation there.  His friends Clara and Albert were there, and they greeted him.  Clara clapped her hands together happily.  “Elizabeth finally sent a bride!  Are you from Beckham?”  The blond woman had a glow about her that Daisy was both drawn to and envied all at once.

Daisy shook her head.  “I’m not.  I’m from Seattle.  My aunt was the matchmaker before Elizabeth, and somehow she ended up with his letter.  She sent me out to marry him.”

Clara looked stunned for a moment before she laughed.  “Trust Eli to do things backwards.  He’s the only man in the world to get a mail order bride from the west!”

Daisy smiled, liking the other woman immediately.  After the service Clara made a beeline for Daisy.  “Would you two like to come over for Sunday dinner?  I’d love to get to know you better, and our husbands are close friends.”

Daisy looked over at Eli questioningly.  He nodded.  “We’d love to.”  She had a pot of beans soaking at home, but she could easily cook them for supper instead.  She liked the idea of getting to know Eli’s friends.

Clara had a beautiful young daughter named Natalie
, who looked right around Daisy’s age.  She wondered why Eli hadn’t married her until Natalie called Eli “Uncle Eli,” and then she understood perfectly.  While she was of an age to marry him, she’d been raised to think of him as an uncle.

While the three of them fixed lunch together, leaving
Gertrude to mind the small children, Clara talked about how she’d come to Montana as a mail order bride herself.  “I love it here.  I can’t imagine going back to Beckham.”

“My aunt still talks about Beckham occasionally.  She says it was a good place for her.”
  Daisy felt like she had a connection to this woman, simply because her aunt had lived in the town Clara had lived in before moving to Montana.

“I never knew your aunt, but I knew the girl who took her place, and she spoke highly of her.” 

Daisy smiled at Natalie.  “How old are you?”  She gauged the girl to be close to her own age, but sometimes it was hard to tell.

“I’m sixteen.”  The girl’s eyes shined with excitement.  Daisy wondered about that, but didn’t ask.

Clara sighed.  “Now that she’s sixteen, she’s allowed to go on sleigh rides or buggy rides with boys as long as we approve of them, and someone asked her to go for a buggy ride this afternoon at church.  She’s not going to marry for another
two years
at least, but she can go for a buggy ride.”

The emphasis on two years w
as obviously for Natalie’s sake, and she wrinkled her nose at the words.  “Charles is coming to take me for a ride after we have lunch today.  He said he’d be here around three.”

Daisy grinned.  She remembered how much fun Rose had with all her suitors, but she’d never really experienced that herself.  “I hope you have fun.  My parents wouldn’t even let us court until we were eighteen, so I never got to go on any buggy rides.”

Natalie’s jaw fell open.  “Eighteen?  Before you can court?  I thought my parents were old-fashioned.”

“My oldest sister didn’t have a lot of rules, and she had twenty suitors.  They pretty much took over our house, until our parents instituted that rule.”

Clara chuckled.  “Natalie?  If you have twenty suitors at one time, I’m going to make you wait until you’re eighteen to court as well.”

Natalie wrinkled her nose, which was just like her mother’s.  “Why would I need more than one suitor when I have Charles?  He’s the man I’ll marry someday.”

Daisy choked back a laugh.  She liked the girl, who was a very hard worker.  “How old is Charles?”  She wanted to call him Sir Charles, but she didn’t want to offend anyone.

Clara sighed.  “He’s nineteen.  A little older than I would like right now, but he’ll be a good age for her when she’s eighteen and he’s twenty-one.”  She turned away from Natalie.  “How many sisters do you have?  You mentioned your oldest, so I assume there are at least two or three?”

“I have seven sisters and no brothers.”

“Seven sisters.  Oh my.”

“Yes, seven.  And we all have flower names.  Rose, Lily, Amaryllis, Daisy, Jasmine, Hyacinth, Violet, and Iris.  If I’d stayed in Seattle, I’d always have been known as one of ‘the flowers.’”  She sighed.  She was so happy to be away from all of her sisters and the nicknames that came with having the same names.  She’d been asked more times than she could count if she liked living in a garden.  She hated not being an individual.

“I would hate that.”  Clara shook her head.  “Is that why you decided to be a mail order bride?”

Daisy shrugged.  “Honestly, I’m very shy, and my mother was on my case all the time about marrying.  I went to my aunt and told her to ‘make me a match’ because she used to be a matchmaker.  She got a letter about Eli from Elizabeth, and she decided to talk to me about it.  I liked the idea of escaping from flower status and being Daisy in my own right, so I agreed.”

“How did you
r parents feel about it?” 

“Not happy.  My Papa readily agreed, but my mother came out here with me and brought my sister, Jasmine.”  Daisy shook her head, still not believing she’d brought her mother with her to be a mail order bride.

Clara choked back a laugh.  “Seattle isn’t that far by train.”

“Not nearly far enough.”

“I think I can understand why you’d say that.”  Clara put the last dish on the table.  “Natalie, go and call the men for supper.”

Natalie hurried to the door to do her mother’s bidding
, calling in the two men and the two boys who were working with them. 

Daisy watched her run outside to call them and turned to Clara.  “Are they really working out there?”

Clara shook her head.  “They’re standing in the barn talking about ‘men things.’  They’ll come in and act like they’ve worked, but when I ask Clarence later, he’ll admit the truth.”

Daisy grinned.  “It must be nice to have a spy.”

“Oh it is!  He’s fourteen now, though, and his loyalty is more for Albert than it is for me at this point.”

“That’s not good.”

“Oh, Clarence has always dreamed of being a cowboy, and he’s getting to live the life he wanted, and he’s being taught to do it.  He practically worships Albert.”

“I can see that.” 

Clara and Albert had seven children.  She had explained that two were hers from her first marriage and after she’d been widowed she’d come West to marry Albert who had two as well.  They’d had three together.  Daisy had always thought she’d have a large family like her mother, but she wasn’t certain how she felt about it now that she was seeing it from the other side.  She’d never had a friend with so many children before.

They crowded around the table and Samuel said the prayer for them.  Eli sat beside Daisy and squeezed her hand under the table.  “You okay?” he asked.
  He had realized while standing out in the barn talking that even though Daisy had seemed comfortable with Clara, he probably should have stayed in the house because of how shy she was.

She nodded.  “I like your friends.”

He smiled, patting her knee.  “I do too.  They’re good people.”

They stayed around after lunch for long enough for Daisy to help with the dishes, but Natalie was nervous about Daisy and Eli being there when her beau arrived. 
What she thought they’d do, Daisy wasn’t sure, but she didn’t mind.

Eli helped her into the wagon, and they drove home,
traveling on roads she’d never seen.  They passed a small stream, and he slowed a bit.  The day was unseasonably warm, and they enjoyed the weather.  “I’m glad you liked my friends.”

She smiled at him, her eyes lit up.  “Me too.  It’s going to be nice to have friends who we both enjoy being around.”  She rested her head against his shoulder, loving being close to him.  “What did you men do outside?”

He shrugged.  “We always tell Clara we work, but mainly we stand around talking in the barn.”

“So why do you tell Clara that you’re working?”
  Daisy was inordinately pleased that he’d told her the truth about what they’d done.

He chuckled.  “
Albert doesn’t want her to send all the children outside with us, and if she thinks we’re working, she doesn’t.”

Daisy laughed.  “He doesn’t like the children?”

“Oh he loves the children.  He just likes to stand around and talk without them going back and telling her everything.” 

He helped her down when they got back to the house.  She went inside while he unhitched the horses.  She was surprised when he followed her into the house.  He headed for the bedroom.  “I’m going to change clothes and go check on the cattle.”

Daisy bit her lip as she watched him go.  He’d said in his letter that he finally had time for a wife.  He didn’t act as if he did, but instead acted like he had time to eat the food a wife cooked and make love with a wife every night, but actually spending time with a wife seemed to be beyond him.  She sighed.  She hoped he had feelings for her, but he certainly didn’t seem to.

She made the cornbread for dinner and mixed up batter for a cake.  She’d heard the expression saying
, “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.”  She wanted Eli’s heart.  He was a good man, and she wanted more of him than he seemed willing to give her.

Eli had enjoyed watching Daisy with his friends all day, but he was still afraid she would turn tail and go home.  He wasn’t sure what made him worry about that with her, because she’d told him that she was happier with
him, but he just had a feeling in his gut that she was going to leave him.  He’d never really had a constant in his life. Albert had been his friend for eight years, and that was the longest he’d ever known and cared about anyone.

He changed hurriedly and left the house, this time forgoing the kiss he usually left her with.  He was afraid he’d get too attached and she’d leave.  He wasn’t risking his heart. 

Daisy spent the rest of the day alone, working in the house.  She’d already cleaned it to the point where it was immaculate, and there was nothing left to do there.  She’d done the small amount of decorating she needed to do.  She looked around.  What was left?

She went to their room and went through his clothes for things that needed to be mended.  That would keep her busy for a while.  She sat down and worked on the clothes while she waited for her cake to bake, deciding to top it with whipped cream, because she didn’t have anything else to use for icing.

She doubled his wardrobe that day by mending the things he’d stacked into a corner and stopped wearing.  She finished the clothes just as he walked into the house at the end of the day.  After serving them both, Daisy took her spot across the table from him. 

He said a brief prayer for them both, and they ate their supper.  Eli didn’t have much to say throughout the meal, and she didn’t press him.  When she brought out the cake
, his eyes lit up.  She cut him a large piece and topped it with the whipped cream, placing it in front of him.

“This looks delicious,” he told her.