Mail Order Motherhood (Brides of Beckham Book 8) (4 page)

He gave a nod.  “She needs new clothes.” 

When he didn’t say anything else, she stood.  “Clarence, I want you to wash up and head to bed.  If you’re going to be doing a man’s work tomorrow, you’ll need to get a good night’s sleep.”  The boys were going to be sharing a room, so she looked down at little Robert as well.  “You need to get ready for bed as well, Robert.”

Robert stood and followed along meekly.  “Call me when you’re ready, and I’ll come in and listen to your prayers,” she told the boys.  “I’m going to go upstairs and wash up as well.  When you girls are finished with the dishes, come on up.  We’ll get ready for bed then.”

She looked at Albert still sitting at the table and gave a quick nod.  “Good night, Albert.  I’ll have breakfast ready first thing in the morning.” 

Albert sat at the table watching her walk away.  She was a pretty woman and very pleasing on the eyes.  He had done well choosing a new bride.  He sighed and bowed his head.  He didn’t want to notice that she was pretty.  It was his job to remain true to Sally.  He loved her, and she’d given him two beautiful children.  No, Clara was only there to cook, clean, and take care of the children.  His needs came last.

Clara changed into her nightgown and climbed between the sheets of the bed she was going to share with Natalie.  She bowed her head and whispered, “Please God, help me to do the right thing for this family.  Albert is hurting.  Gertie seems so sad.  They all need a good woman to take care of them.  Help me to be that good woman.  I can’t fail at this.  I need strength.”

Chapter Three

Clara woke early the following morning, as was her habit.  She hurried down to the kitchen to start breakfast, knowing that Albert wanted to make an early start of things.  It had been a long time since she’d been able to stay inside all day and only do women’s chores.  She was glad she had this chance, and she was going to prove to everyone that this is what she was meant to do.

She went to the cellar through the hatch in the floor and brought back up some eggs, milk, and bacon.  She’d toast the day old bread he’d gotten at the bakery, and they’d have scrambled eggs with bacon and toast for breakfast.  While she was down in the cellar, she had seen some cream.  They had a tiny bit of butter made up, and she’d see if she could get some butter churned today as well.  The churn was sitting in the corner.  It had cobwebs on it, but she could clean it up and use it for the purpose it was intended for.

Cooking on the fancy stove was a bit strange, but she quickly found her stride.  By the time she heard footsteps overhead, she was scooping the scrambled eggs into two bowls, and she quickly buttered the last of the toast.  She had found a jar of preserves in the cellar as well, and put them out with the rest of the meal.  She had just finished pouring milk for the children and coffee for herself and Albert when he reached the bottom of the stairs. 

“I woke the children and told them to dress and come down,” he told her.  He stood awkwardly for a moment, watching her work.

“Thank you.  I was just about to go up and wake everyone.”  He was wearing a pair of work pants and a button up flannel shirt.  She’d purchased some flannel and decided one of her first projects would be to make Clarence some flannel work shirts like Albert wore.  She could already see the hero worship forming in her son’s eyes, and she would do whatever she could to foster that and help it grow.  A boy needed a man to look up to, and Clarence had been fatherless for too long.

The children rushed down the stairs one at a time.  She was surprised to see how excited Robert and Gertie were when they saw the scrambled eggs.  It was as if Christmas morning had come early.  “Eggs!” Gertie squealed.  “You made eggs!”

Clara nodded slowly.  “Do you like eggs?”  She couldn’t tell if the child was upset that she was making eggs or happy about it.

“Oh, yes!  I love eggs.”  She took her place at the table and immediately heaped a serving of eggs onto her plate before putting some on Robert’s plate for him.  She stared down at the eggs with a big smile while she waited impatiently for Albert to say the prayer. 

Albert stared at his daughter with a half-smile on his face, shaking his head.  “Stop being silly and bow your head so we can pray.”

“Thank God for the eggs, Papa.  Please!”

Albert sighed, and Clara looked between the three of them.  She wasn’t going to ask now, but she knew she could get Gertie to tell her what was happening later.  She was a great deal more forthcoming than her father was.

After they finished eating, both girls immediately went to the sink to work on the dishes, and Clara was thankful Albert had started that the night before.  It would be easy to always have the girls do the dishes now that he’d asked them to do them the first night.

Albert and Clarence left, headed for the barn to do the milking and gather eggs before they left to do their fence mending for the day.  When they brought the eggs and milk in, she thanked them both.  Clarence’s chest was puffed up with pride that he was actually helping on a ranch even though he was doing the same work he’d done on their farm back home.

As soon as they headed out, Clara started a huge pot of beans soaking.  She’d add a little bacon, and they’d have a filling meal of beans for lunch, and possibly for supper, because she was certain Albert had forgotten the chicken he’d promised her.

While the girls washed the dishes, Clara swept the floor, and knew she’d need to mop it before they could go on with their day.  She hated to work in a dirty kitchen.  She sent the girls upstairs to make the beds while she scrubbed the floor, and then they mixed the dough for some fresh loaves of bread together. 

Clara had always enjoyed working in the kitchen with Natalie, and it wasn’t until she worked with the much younger child, that she realized just how capable Natalie had become in the kitchen.  She was proud of her daughter and her abilities.

Natalie went to get the cream while Clara and Gertie cleaned the butter churn.  Natalie came up with the cream and Clara set the two girls to work churching the butter, Natalie’s hands over Gertie’s, while she formed the bread dough into dinner rolls.  She thought everyone would enjoy having dinner rolls with their beans and fresh butter for lunch.

While they worked, she asked Gertie, “Why were you and Robert so excited to have eggs for breakfast?”

Gertie sighed heavily.  “Papa can’t cook.  Anything.  We went to town once a week to buy bread, and we had bread and jam for every single meal.  I love jam, but not for every meal!”

Clara bit her lip to keep from snickering.  The man had needed a wife a great deal more than he’d let on.  She promised herself that she’d cook good meals for her new family, if only to make up for all the jam sandwiches they’d had in the past few months.  “What’s your favorite dessert?” she asked.

Gertie thought about that for a moment.  “I really like gingerbread. 
Do you know how to make gingerbread?”  Her face was hopeful as she looked at her new step-mother.

Clara smiled.  “I’ll look and see if we have the ingredients, and if we do, I’ll make a big pan of gingerbread and some whipped cream for dessert tonight.  Would you like that?”

“Oh yes!”

Natalie rolled her eyes.  “I like pie, Mama.”  She made it clear that her needs still needed to be met as well.

Clara sighed, looking at her daughter.  “You had pie on the train, Natalie.  How long has it been since you’ve had gingerbread, Gertie?”

“Since before Christmas.”

Natalie groaned.  “I guess we’re having gingerbread, aren’t we?”

“You like gingerbread, Natalie.  What’s the problem?”

Natalie just shrugged her shoulders and continued to churn the butter.  She didn’t say anything else, but Clara could see something was bothering her.  She’d have to talk to her about it when they were alone.

The three of them spent the day doing chores.  They scrubbed walls, windows, and floors.  They baked bread, and cooked the beans.  Clara found the ingredients for gingerbread and carefully showed both girls how to make it, happy that she had another girl to teach.  Clara had always wanted a houseful of children, and there just hadn’t been any more after Clarence.  She was happy to get two more from her new marriage.

She tried not to let herself think about Albert and his rejection of her the previous night.  She didn’t really want to sleep with her new husband yet anyway.  She barely knew him, and the mere idea of having relations with another man felt as if she were betraying Nathan.  She’d loved her husband with everything inside her, and she couldn’t imagine letting another man take his place in her bed…or in her heart.

When Clarence and Albert came home for lunch, they seemed like they’d become closer during the day.  Albert put his hand on Clarence’s shoulder and told him what a good job he’d done that morning.  After their prayer, she asked, “Was Clarence a good help?”

Albert nodded.  “He held the wire in place so I could nail it in.  It’s been a hard job to do by myself all these years, and I’m glad to have another man around who can help me.”

Clara smiled at her son, letting him know without words how proud she was of him.  “Will he be going out with you again this afternoon?”

“He’ll be going with me every afternoon.  I need his help.”

Clarence all but glowed with the pride the words filled him with.  He ate more than she’d ever seen him eat in a single sitting, but he’d done a man’s work, so that made sense to her.

“What’s your favorite dessert?” she asked Albert as she ate her own food.

He eyed her for a moment, before finally answering, “Pie, but I don’t need you to go out of your way to make it for me.”  He didn’t really want her to do nice things like that for him.  He wanted to be able to keep her at arms-length, and he couldn’t really do that if she was constantly going out of her way to do nice things for him.

She grinned at Natalie.  “That’s Natalie’s favorite as well.  If I make it, both of you will enjoy it.”  She looked at Robert, who had played quietly all morning.  “What’s your favorite dessert, Robert?”  She winked at her daughter, pleased to be making two people happy and not just one.

Robert shrugged.  “I like them all.  Cake, pie, gingerbread, muffins, and even candy!”  He bounced in his chair as he said the words, making it clear that if it was sweet, and she made it, he would eat it.

Clara laughed.  “Well, you’ll be easy to please then!”

Albert reached over and ruffled his son’s hair with a smile.  “He’ll eat just about anything you put in front of him.  Especially now.”

Clara didn’t ask why especially now, because she understood.  After the girls finished the lunch dishes she looked at the pot of beans and realized there were still more than enough for supper.  Since she’d made dessert to go with it, she wouldn’t worry about serving the same thing twice in one day. 

“Let’s go for a walk this afternoon,” she suggested.  She was hoping there would be some fruits they could pick on the ranch or something she could use to spice up her cooking.

The girls readily agreed.  They’d done a lot of what needed to be done that day, and she was happy to give them a rest.  Robert skipped along behind them, happy he didn’t have to nap. 

They found some apple trees, and she looked at the apples on the ground, but they were all full of worms and decayed.  “It may be too late in the year for us to pick apples,” she said with a sigh.

“The apples up in the tree still look okay, Mama,” Natalie protested.  “Do you want me to climb it and get some?”

Clara thought about it for a moment, and back home, she’d have agreed in a heartbeat.  Here they were just too far from a doctor if one of them fell.  “I don’t think so.”  She looked at it carefully, thinking about it.  She could almost reach the lowest apples.  “I know!  Robert, do you want to get on my shoulders and pick apples?  You can drop them to Gertie.  Natalie, I’ll need you behind me, helping to make sure he doesn’t fall.”

Robert nodded, his hair flopping with the movement.  “I’m going to have to cut your hair soon,” she told him absently.  It looked as if it hadn’t been cut in six months, and when she thought about when his mother had died, she realized she was probably right.  Albert needed a good sheering too.

She picked him up and settled him onto her shoulders, allowing him to kneel there.  His weight wasn’t enough that it bothered her, but it gave him enough of a boost that he could reach at least some of the apples.  Clara held him by his thighs, while Natalie stood behind her mother with her hands against his bottom, to keep him from falling.

He giggled over and over, obviously enjoying being up so high and picking the apples.  He would drop one, and Gertie would catch it.  She made a pouch out of the front of her skirt to carry them all in.  When her skirt was filled, she said, “That’s all I can carry.”

Clara looked down at the amount they’d gotten and made a face.  It was probably enough for two pies, but not many more.  “Does your papa have a ladder in the barn?” she asked.

Gertie nodded.  “He does.  We could come back tomorrow with the ladder and pick a lot more!”

Clara smiled.  “We’ll do just that.”  She carefully lowered Robert to the ground.  Walking to Gertie, she made a pouch out of her apron, and had the girls pass the apples to her.  She didn’t want Gertie to be burdened with the weight of them on the way home. 

They continued walking, going back a different way, and found some fresh berries.  “We’ll come back and pick those after supper tonight.  We’ll bring some buckets.  We’ll make fresh jam, applesauce, and lots of pie filling for the winter.”

The children were obviously happy that she was thinking forward to the sweets they’d want to eat when winter came.  They hurried back to the house and she found an empty barrel for the apples.  It had apparently once held flour, but it would work for now.

During dinner that evening, she brought up her plan of picking berries that evening and apples the following day.  Albert shook his head.  “We’ll get the apples tonight while Clarence and I can help, and tomorrow you four can get the berries.  It doesn’t make sense for you to be climbing on a ladder when Clarence and I can do it tonight.”

So they soaked the dinner dishes instead of washing them right away, wanting to save on daylight.  The six of them carried three burlap bags and a ladder to the apple tree, and Albert held the ladder while Clarence climbed it.  They were able to fill all three bags with apples.  Clara was delighted.  “This will make our winter so much tastier!”

On the way back, she spotted some wild pumpkin in the dim light of the setting sun.  There were only three of them, so she took one that she carried under one arm while she carried a burlap bag over the other.  Both Gertie and Robert were given the job of carrying a pumpkin as well. 

By the time they reached the house, they all had sore arms.  Clara followed Albert into the barn as he put the ladder away.  “The girls are tired.  They’ve worked all day.  I’m going to let them go to bed, and I’ll see to the dishes myself.”