Mail Order Match Maker (9 page)

Mildred
nodded.  “I have a fifteen year old son.  He’s in school today.”

Harriett picked up the two fabrics she’d decided on.  “That’s a nasty bruise you have there.  Are you okay?”  She knew the answer she expected and
Mildred didn’t disappoint her.

“I’m fine.  Just clumsy.”  Her eyes danced away from Harriett’s as she answered. 

Harriett sighed, walking around the display table and speaking softly.  “I know it’s none of my business, but you don’t have to stay with a man who abuses you.  If you need somewhere to go, I’m married to Max Farmer.  I’ll help you.”  She meant it too.  It didn’t matter if she and Max had to sleep on the floor in her parlor, she would open her home to as many women as needed to get away from husbands who beat them.

Mildred
shook her head, her eyes embarrassed.  “You’re right.  It is none of your business.”  She turned on her heel and stalked away, taking her purchases to the front.

Harriett understood the embarrassment of being beaten.  She’d felt it herself all too often.  Why did women take on their husband’s mistakes with things like that?

Harriett paid for the fabric and walked slowly back to the house, worried the whole time about Mildred.  She had a hard time watching a woman in an abusive marriage.  She knew she wouldn’t have been alive without Higgins, and she hoped the woman had someone who could defend her the same way.

She thought hard about what she could do for a woman who didn’t seem to want any help and finally decided to have Higgins watch out for her.  Max’s home ran smoothly without a butler, and Higgins was looking for something to do with his time.  Harriett wasn’t ready to let him go, though, so he stayed around waiting for her to give him something to do.

When she got home, Max was in his study waiting for her.  She popped into his office and kissed him hello, showing him the fabric she’d purchased from the mercantile.  “I want to use this for the sofa in my parlor, and I like this green for the curtains.  What do you think?”  She knew he wouldn’t really care, but she liked to show off her purchases, and he was there.

Max shrugged.  “If it makes you happy then I love it.”  He pulled her against him.  “I missed you today.”

Harriett caught a glimpse of Higgins walking past the open door.  “I missed you, too,” she said distractedly.  “I’ll be right back.”  Hurrying into the hallway she followed after Higgins.  “Higgins!”

He turned and walked back to her.  “Do you need something, Mrs. Farmer?”

She spoke softly to him, not wanting anyone else to hear.  “I met a woman in the mercantile today.  I’m sure she’s being abused.  I want you to find her and make sure she’s okay.” 

Higgins face looked pained, but he nodded briefly.  “What do you want me to do?”

Harriett shrugged.  “She brushed me off the same way I brushed off any questions about my bruises.  I guess I just want you to keep an eye on her.  Watch her house when you can.  Make sure he doesn’t
really
hurt her.”  She knew Higgins would understand her emphasis of really.  A few bruises were nothing when a woman was used to them, but broken bones were something else entirely.

Higgins nodded.  “Of course.  Her name and address?”

“I don’t know her address, but her name is Mildred Anderson.  She lives with her husband and fifteen year old son.”  Harriett held her hands out, palm up, as if to apologize for not having more information.

“I’ll find her.”  He put his hand on her shoulder.  “Don’t worry.”

“Thank you.”  She turned back to where Max was standing in the doorway of his study, watching her.  He was frowning, and she immediately rushed back to him.  It was only then that she realized how odd her running off to talk to the butler would seem to her husband.  “How was your day today, Max?”

She sat down on the sofa in his study, hoping he would join her.  When he did, he kept a good foot between them and left the study door open.  “What was so important that you had to run out of the room to talk to your butler?”  His voice was colder than she’d ever heard it.

She stared at him, afraid of the anger she saw in his eyes.  “I just had an errand that I needed him to run for me.”  She shrugged, trying to downplay its importance.  She wasn’t yet ready for him to know about her first marriage.  Maybe someday she would be, but they’d only been married for a week.

“So you had an errand that you had to ignore me to go tell him about?  It must have been an important errand.”  His eyes met hers as he folded his arms across his chest, obviously trying to understand what was going on with her.

She shook her head.  “It was only important to me.” 
And to the woman who needs to be watched over
, she added silently.

“What was the errand?”

She stared at him for a moment before shrugging again.  “He’s just going to go check on someone for me.”  She did her best to downplay the importance of the errand she’d sent Higgins on.

“You don’t know anyone in Seattle.” 

“I went to the mercantile today.  I met someone.”  She stared at the wall behind him, unwilling to see the anger building in his eyes.  She didn’t know if she was ready to try to deal with his anger, yet.

“And is that person who Higgins is going to check on?”

Harriett nodded.  She didn’t want to say any more than that, but that was true enough.

“And you’re not going to tell me anything more than that?” he asked, his voice getting louder in his anger.

“I’m sorry.  It’s not my story to tell.”  She felt her hand shaking while she waited for him to get angry enough to hit her.  They’d already been married a week.  Why was he waiting so long?

He sighed and stood up, looking down at her.  “Someday you’ll trust me enough to tell me all your secrets.”
 
He left the room, closing the door behind him, leaving her completely alone.

She stared down at her hands for a moment, hating that he was upset with her, but hating even more that she didn’t have the courage to tell him what was going on.

*****

Max left out the front door, noticing the rain had started again.  It fit his mood perfectly.  He’d known from the start that Harriett was the woman he wanted to spend his life with, but he needed to know what she was hiding from him.
  How could they have a good marriage if she was hiding something important from him?

He walked through the rain, kicking at rocks he saw on the way.  Why didn’t she trust him?  He
loved her with everything inside him.  She was exactly what he’d hoped for when he’d sent the initial letter for a mail order bride.  He’d been so certain everything would be perfect when she arrived, and now that she was there, she was hiding something from him. 

His only guess was that she’d been abused somehow, but why wouldn’t she admit that to him? 
Was she ashamed of something that had been done to her?  He didn’t know why she would be, so he hoped that wasn’t the case, but he couldn’t imagine what else she was hiding from him.

As he walked, he found himself heading toward the beach.  He loved to watch the rain from the beach.  The waves would roll in and he would sit under an awning and just think.  He found his favorite spot and sat on the ground, his knees raised in front of him.

He’d been there for only a few minutes when he noticed someone crouch in the sand beside him.  He glanced over and noticed an older man with dark hair sitting beside him.  “What’s troubling you?” the man asked in a husky voice.

Max shook his head.  He couldn’t talk about his troubles with a total stranger.  He needed to work them out with his wife. 

The man watched him for a moment.  “Must be woman troubles.  No man has that look on his face when it’s not woman troubles.”  He threw a small rock out toward the water.

Max eyed the man.  “You know about women?”
  The man looked scruffy, as if he lived on the beach, and Max didn’t think he could know much about anything, but he was willing to listen if he thought he knew about women.

The man laughed deep in his belly.  “There’s not a man alive who really knows about women.  It’s just not possible.  Don’t let anyone tell ya different.”

Max sighed heavily.  “You’re probably right.”

“Got a new wife?”

“How’d you know?”

“You have that ‘I’d rather be home with my wife, but I need to figure something out first’ look about you.  I saw it in the mirror a hundred times during my first year of marriage.”  The man turned to him fully.  “Tell me your troubles.”

Max shrugged, wishing he knew the right words to say to explain what was happening.  “She’s hiding something from me.”  That wasn’t all of it, of course, but there it was at the base of it.

“How do you know?”
The man studied him as if trying to figure out if he was nervous for no reason.

Max struggled to find the right words.  “She moved here from Massachusetts to marry me, but she brought her butler with her.  She even sent him two weeks before her for some absurd reason.”  He paused for a moment.  “She was delayed by a month coming out here because her butler was sick.  Who delays their wedding because they have a sick butler?”
  He knew his words made no sense, but he was confused by Harriett’s behavior.

The man shook his head.  “I’ve never heard of anyone doing it.  Are you afraid she’s doing something wrong?  Or are you just curious?”

Max shook his head.  “I don’t think she’s doing anything wrong.  Just trying to figure out why she doesn’t trust me.”  He looked down at his work boot, still wearing the clothes he’d worn to the lumber camp that day.  “When I got home from work today, she greeted me, but then ran off to the butler, and they were whispering in the hall.  When I asked what was so important that she had to talk to him instead of me, she just said she had to send him on an important errand, but wouldn’t tell me what the errand was.  She said it was only important to her.”  How could an errand be important, but only important to her?  She didn’t make sense to him.

“But you trust her enough to know she’s not doing something she shouldn’t be doing?  You don’t think she’s having relations with that butler do you?”

Max laughed.  “The butler is old enough to be her father.  She seems to genuinely think of him as a father-figure.  She even asked him to give her away at our wedding.”  He shrugged.  “It’s just strange that they’re so close.”

“Are you sure they’re not related somehow?  Did you ask her?”

Max shook his head.  “I guess that’s possible, but then wouldn’t she have just introduced him as her uncle or cousin or father?  It doesn’t make sense.”  He got to his feet and brushed the sand off his wet pants.  “I need to go tell her I’m sorry for storming out like that, I guess.  She’s the type to worry.” And he was sorry for running off as he had.  He needed to give her time to trust him completely. 

“It sounds like you have a good woman.  Give her time.  She’ll tell you when she’s ready.”

Max nodded.  “I’m trying to.”

He walked briskly through the rain for the ten minutes it took him to get home.  Once he was there he
wandered through the house calling for Harriett. 

Harriett emerged from their bedroom with red rimmed eyes, and forced a smile.  “I knew you’d be wet when you got home, so I had a hot bath readied for you.  Get undressed and I’ll wash your back for you.”
  She gestured for him to come into the bedroom.

Max stood looking at her for a minute, wanting to hug her close, but not wanting to get her wet.  “I’m sorry I ran off when I did.”
  His eyes pled with her for understanding.

Harriett’s eyes met his with a surprised look.  “I’m sorry I’m not ready to talk about everything.”  She walked to him and unbuttoned his shirt for him, certain his fingers were numb from the cold rain.  “Can you give me a little more time?”

Max nodded, happy she was willing to admit there was something she was keeping from him.  “You will tell me everything someday?” he asked.

She nodded.  “Higgins has been as close to a father as I’ve had for the past ten years.  I know our relationship must seem odd to an outsider, but he looks at me as a daughter.  I’ll explain more when I can, but for now, I just need a bit more time.”

“That’s fine.”  He stripped off his pants and stepped into the tub of hot water she had sitting in the middle of their bedroom.  “Thanks for having the bath filled for me.  It’s exactly what I needed.”

She stroked his wet hair back from his forehead.  “You need a haircut.”  She started toward the door.  “I’m going to go get you a cup of hot coffee and make sure dinner is almost ready.”

*****

Harriett closed the door behind her
, almost collapsing in relief against the wall.  She couldn’t believe he had apologized for storming off.  Arthur had never apologized for anything, always making her believe that anything bad that had happened was her fault.

Her entire fight with Max tonight, if it could even be called that, was her fault and not his, and he was the one to apologize?  She stood for a moment staring at the doorknob
, thinking about going back in immediately to tell him everything, but she couldn’t make herself do it.  Instead she made her way to the kitchen to get him a cup of coffee.  She didn’t want him getting sick.