Falling in Love With Her Husband (27 page)

him, she wouldn"t be here. She didn"t know her parents

were coming early, so she didn"t stay to appease them. She

stayed because she decided to fight for our marriage.

I went to her room and lightly knocked on her door. I

wanted to talk to her and smooth things over. When she

didn"t answer, I turned the knob. She was asleep. I wanted

to go in bed with her and just hold her, but I knew she was

as tired as I was and needed sleep. I smiled and shut the

door. I would talk to her tomorrow. At least, I knew she

would still be here to talk to.

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Ann’s Point of View

I woke up past dawn. I looked over at the empty

spot next to me. I hadn"t noticed how large my bed seemed

until Todd had been in it. I was disappointed when he didn"t

come to my bedroom last night. I laid in bed and stared at

the ceiling for a good hour before I finally fell asleep.

I got up and looked outside. The snow sparkled

under the intense glare of the sunlight. There wasn"t a cloud

in the sky. I wondered how deep the snow was. I got

dressed and brushed my hair. As I ran down the steps, I

was surprised to find Todd and my parents eating breakfast.

“Would you like some cornbread?” Todd offered.

“Why didn"t someone wake me? I would have made

a hot meal.”

“We thought you could use some rest, so we didn"t

disturb you.”

“Thank you.” I sat next to him at the table. I was

grateful that he seemed more like his usual self.

“We measured the snow and we got three inches

yesterday. I found a sleigh under some old blankets in the

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barn, so we can still hook up the horses to get to town.

There is a large snow drift blocking the large door of the

barn. It will take some time to shovel but once the path is

clear, we can get the horses and sleigh out.”

“I"d like to help,” my father offered.

Todd accepted.

“I am eager to see the town,” my mother said. “We

didn"t get a chance to take a good look at it yesterday.”

“I would like to introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Coley,”

I replied. “They own the mercantile. Of course, you"l have

to meet Barbara and John Russel . They"re good friends of

ours.”

It felt strange to say “ours” since I wasn"t sure what

would become of me and Todd, but I was hopeful from his

friendly demeanor.

After breakfast, my mother helped me wash dishes.

“I"m glad you and father are here. Thank you for

being nice to Todd.”

“My dear, we have always welcomed him. I think

your father is relieved you married well. We had worried

you might pick the wrong person.”

“I almost did. I almost married Kent.”

I put the dirty dishes in a bucket of water and added

soap. The clean bucket of water was in the other sink.

“The important thing is you didn"t,” she said. She

picked up a towel and dried the plate I handed her. “You"l

never guess who is studying to become a minister.”

“Who?”

“Alex Dawson.”

My eyes widened in surprise. “Todd"s friend?”

“The same. That boy did nothing but play practical

jokes all his life. Then he goes off to college and gets

serious. Isn"t that amazing?”

“Quite. I can"t believe it.”

“Miracles happen. It will be interesting to see how he

behaves when he visits for Christmas. His parents are

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happy. They worried he might be a troublemaker for his

entire life. He has an aunt and uncle out in Fargo, North

Dakota who often visited his family. I wonder if they had an

influence on Todd wanting to come out here.”

“Yes.” And for the first time, I was actual y glad that

Todd knew Alex, for I loved it here.

Two hours later, my mother took me to the guest

bedroom so she could give me a photo album and my

jewelry box fil ed with rings, necklaces and bracelets. “I

thought you might like these personal mementos of your

past,” she said.

I took the items and left her so she could take a nap.

I went to my bedroom and set the jewelry box on my

dresser. I sat on my bed, opened the photo album, and

flipped through the pictures. I was surprised to see pictures

of Todd with his family. I knew my parents were good

friends of his parents. I chuckled at the picture of Agnes

making a face at the camera. She hated sitting still for the

photographer.

Sitting there, with the pictures in front of me brought

back memories from my childhood. My earliest memory

was when I was four.

My parents took me over to the Brothers" house so

we could see their fourth child who was two days old. While

one year old Abigail slept, Todd, Agnes and I were in the toy

room. A servant watched in amusement as we fought over

what game to play.

“Agnes and I want to play dol s,” I said, my hands on

my hips.

“Dolls is boring,” he protested, rolling his eyes. “Let"s

play with the blocks.”

“No. We build towers but you knock them down.”

“That"s fun!”

“It is not fun. It is rude.”

“Fine then. Want to see my new train set?”

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Agnes and I looked at each other and nodded.

He took his trains and tracks out of his toy box and

we helped him set it up. Agnes couldn"t get most of the

pieces to fit, so we had to finally tell her to wait until we were

done. Then he set up the trains and small wooden people.

I grinned at the display.

“It"s pretty,” I commented.

He gagged. “It"s not pretty.”

“Here"s a Mommy and Daddy and their baby,” Agnes

said. She was took the people and went to the corner to

play with them by herself.

“She"s a baby,” he replied. “We don"t need those

people anyway.”

He moved his train down one of the tracks and I

moved my train down another one. We played quietly for a

few minutes. Then, to my horror, he rammed his train into

mine.

“Bam!”

I shot him a dirty look. “Don"t do that.”

“It"s fun!”

“No, it"s not. I"m playing.”

“We are playing. Now you crash into me!”

I took his train and threw it across the room.

“What did you do that for?” he demanded, his face

red.

“It"s fun.” I stuck my tongue at him.

“This is my train set. Go play with Agnes.”

I grabbed a train and ran to Agnes.

“That"s mine! Give it back!” He ran after me.

I giggled as I dodged him. Finally, he knocked me

down and grabbed the train out of my hand. I screamed as

loud as I could so the world would know the injustice of it all.

The servant calmly took the train from Todd and put

all the toys back, except for the people Agnes was quietly

playing with. “Todd, go to that corner and face it. Ann, you

do the same in the other corner.”

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“Yes, ma"am,” we replied, realizing we would get a

spanking if we didn"t obey.

I chuckled and looked at more pictures in the photo

album. Poor Todd grew up surrounded by girls. He wanted

a baby brother so badly but never got one. I used to tell him

he should be grateful to have any siblings at all since I was

often lonely as an only child. But Alex seemed to be the

brother he never had. I shook my head as I recalled the first

time I stood up Alex.

We were ten and I worked on my assignment in

class when a pebble hit my head. Startled, I looked back to

see who had thrown it at me. My eyes narrowed. I should

have known. It was Todd and Alex again. They took an

irrational pleasure in throwing things into girls" hair. Our

teacher wasn"t in the room at the moment, which explained

why Todd was involved. He didn"t dare do anything wrong

when the teacher was in sight. I gave them a “stop it” look

and turned back to my work. Of course, they didn"t stop. I

tried to ignore them as pebbles flew in my hair, past my

shoulders and onto my work.

Finally, I lost my temper. I glanced at the door and

noticed that the teacher was still talking to a parent.

Ignoring Todd"s and Alex"s snickers, I stood up and walked

to the jar of sand by the window. It was part of our science

lesson, but I found a better use for it. By now, our entire

class was watching me. No one alerted the teacher. They

wanted to see what I would do. Since Alex and Todd sat

next to each other, it was easy to get both of them at once. I

took the lid off the jar and dumped the sand on their heads.

They jumped up and screamed. The rest of the

class laughed at the hysterical scene.

“Ann!”

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I looked up in time to see the teacher rushing to me.

“What are you doing?” She shook her head in disbelief.

“What got into you?”

“They keep throwing pebbles in my hair,” I replied,

my voice shaking. I wasn"t used to getting in trouble.

Todd and Alex were frantically trying to shake the

sand off of their bodies.

“Todd and Alex, you may go outside. Ann, you are

going to clean this mess and then put the dunce cap on at

the front of the room until I tell you to take it off.”

“Yes, Miss Hampton.”

Even though I got in trouble, it was worth it. They

never threw anything else in my hair again. In fact, they

stopped throwing pebbles in the other girls" hair too. I was a

hero to those girls that year.

Alex also liked to dare Todd to do disgusting things.

I recalled a time during lunch hour when we were twelve.

Alex challenged Todd to eat a plate of bugs. As appalling

as it was, I joined the other students. There was something

mesmerizing about someone eating insects.

Todd seemed hesitant. “You eat them,” he said as

he pushed the plate to Alex.

“I challenged you first. You can"t back out now,” Alex

replied. He wore that satisfied smirk that drove me crazy.

“You don"t have to do it,” I argued. “Alex is a

coward. That"s why he won"t do it. Just tell him no.”

Alex nodded. “Yes, you could do that.”

I frowned. I didn"t like the tone in his voice. He was

up to something.

“Or, you could kiss Ann.” He grinned. “Apparently,

you need your mommy to take care of you.”

A couple of girls giggled and some boys told Todd to

eat the bugs.

Todd took a deep breath. “I"l eat the bugs.”

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The boys cheered. The girls, including me, just

commented on how gross it was. I was secretly relieved to

get the focus off of me, and another part of me was

fascinated that Todd could sit there so calmly while he ate

those bugs. Where did he get the strength? Though he

didn"t complain about a stomach ache, I felt nauseous for

the rest of the day.

Todd wasn"t always following Alex"s instructions.

There were times when he was a model student. It helped

when his other friends, Jack and Simon, were around.

When we were thirteen, a snake got into the classroom.

Our teacher, an elderly woman, was terrified. Even Alex

wouldn"t get out of his chair. Todd, Jack and Simon

volunteered to corner the snake. Jack took an empty bag

while Todd and Simon chased the snake until it slithered

into the bag. Jack immediately ran outside to dump it out of

the bag. We cheered for the brave three boys when Jack

returned.

Breaking out of my thoughts, I saw another picture of

the class Todd and I were in. It was taken last year right

before Christmas. I was standing next to Jennifer and

Debbie. I looked happy in my pile of seven petticoats and

restricting corset. I shook my head. I didn"t miss that part of

wearing a dress. My dress in the picture was gorgeous, but

it would never last on the farm. Todd stood at the end of the

line. He was attractive in his dark suit. It was hard for me

to think of him in a suit anymore. He wore a suit when he

worked at the bank, but as soon as he got fired, he started

wearing denim pants and cotton shirts. No one would have