Rose's Mail Order Husband - A Historical Mail Order Bride Story (Montana Brides) (2 page)

“It isn’t what I wanted for us at all,” Violet sobbed. “I didn’t want us all going off in different directions. I feel like you’re slipping through my fingers, and I don’t know how to hold onto you.”

“It wasn’t the men coming that did it,” Rose told her. “It was Cornell getting killed.”

“But Cornell wouldn’t have been killed if the men didn’t come,” Violet cried, “and the men wouldn’t have come if I hadn’t made the plan for us to marry them.
So I’m ultimately responsible for Cornell’s death. If I hadn’t gotten these men out here, Cornell would still be alive.”

“You don’t know that,” Rose countered. “Cornell couldn’t handle us standing up to him, and that was bound to happen sooner or later. When it did, we would butt heads with him, and he would have turned violent. You know this yourself, because you were the first one to experience it. That would have happened whether the men were here or not.”

Violet sniffed. “Do you really think so?”

“Of course,” Rose replied.

“I didn’t think you believed my story about getting into a fight with Cornell the night he was killed,” Violet pointed out. “I thought you doubted me because he never acted violently in the past.”

“I guess I changed my mind,” Rose muttered.

“What made you change?” Violet asked.

“I don’t know,” Rose replied. “I didn’t really doubt you before. I suppose I just wanted Sheriff Maitland to know Cornell wasn’t violet before the night of his death. He was always subtle and calculating. That was his way. But he changed when we started doing things he didn’t like and making our own decisions against his wishes. We all changed. We weren’t the happy family we were when we were children. Cornell couldn’t handle the change.”

Violet sniffed. “Do you think we can be a happy family again?”

“Of course we will,” Rose insisted. “Cornell’s gone, and we’re marrying good, kind, strong men who will do the ranch credit and treat us well. We’re all going to be happy, just as soon as we marry them.”

“Except that one of them is a murderer,” Violet reminded her. “One of them could wind up going to the gallows for killing Cornell, if Sheriff Maitland has his way.”

Rose took her arm away from Violet’s shoulders and got up off the bed. “No, he won’t. No one will hang for killing Cornell.”

“You said that last night,” Violet recalled. “How can you be so sure?”

“I’ve never been so sure of anything in my life,” Rose declared. “Now let’s have a look at my dresses.” She opened her closet and rifled through the outfits hanging there.

“I still don’t understand why you don’t want to wear your wedding dress,” Violet remarked.

Rose shrugged. “Call it temporary insanity.”

She threw back one dress after another, hardly looking at them before rejecting them. Rose sensed Violet’s eyes drilling into the back of her head, and she dared not turn around.

She took her silk opera gown out and held it up. “This one is nice.”

Violet said nothing. Rose hung the gown back up and went back to throwing the dresses aside. She took down her white flower print calico dress. “And there’s this one. It used to be Mama’s, you know, and it’s supposed to be worn to other people’s weddings.”

Violet sighed. “I just don’t understand you at all. I don’t understand why you want to dress down for your own wedding.”

Rose hung up the calico. “Do you know what? I
don’t understand it, either. I don’t understand anything about myself anymore. I only know I’m getting married, and it doesn’t matter what I wear. Maybe that’s why I don’t want to dress up. If I thought it made a difference, I might be more interested in my outfit.”

“Doesn’t it concern you at all that you’re acting so irrationally?” Violet asked. “Aren’t you worried you’ll lose your footing in the world, acting this way?”

Rose studied her sister. “Not really. I’m not worried about that. As long as I have Jake to ground me, I know I won’t lose my footing. I might be acting irrationally now. Maybe I am. Maybe I’m not. It doesn’t matter. Once I marry Jake, everything will be okay.”

“You’re banking an awful lot on this marriage,” Violet remarked. “Do you really think that’s wise?”

“Whether it’s wise or not,” Rose maintained, “that’s the way it is. Now, come on. Help me with the dress. Which one do you think I ought to wear?”

Violet laughed.
“This one, of course!” She pointed to the dress on the bed. “What’s wrong with you?”

Rose flung the closet door closed.
“Fine. I’ll wear it.” She stomped back to her dressing table and turned her back on Violet.

Violet recognized the rejection. “I’ll go downstairs and talk to Rita about the food. I could come back up here later and help you get dressed if you want.”

“If you want to, you can.” Rose didn’t look at Violet again, and the door shut behind her.

Ah, peace at last.
She could let her thoughts drift. If she could only get through the next few hours without further interruption, her life would improve dramatically.

But
no, here came Iris. How did they get the idea they could walk in without knocking?

“Do you mind if I talk to you for a while, Rose?” she asked.

“Actually, I do,” Rose replied. “I’d rather not talk about anything to anyone right now.”

Iris ignored her and sat down on the bed. “We’re getting married today, Rose. I think we should talk a few things over.”

“Why should we?” Rose asked. “Why should we talk now just because we’re getting married?”

“We’re sisters,” Iris replied. “It’s natural for us to talk things over before we get married.”

“It might be natural for you,” Rose shot back. “It isn’t for me.”

“Then just sit there and listen so I can talk,” Iris snapped. “You might do something for someone else once in a while.”

“Did it ever occur to you that I don’t want to listen, either?” Rose asked. “What part of sitting in my room with the door shut do you not understand? Are you really so dim that you don’t understand I want to be left alone?”

“It isn’t normal for you to be alone all the time,” Iris insisted, “especially on your wedding day.
You’ve been acting strangely ever since Jake showed up. You’ve got me and Violet worried sick about you.”

“You don’t have to worry about me,” Rose told her. “I’m fine.”

“You shouldn’t want to be alone all the time,” Iris repeated. “It isn’t normal.”

“I don’t want to see anyone other than Jake,” Rose told her, “and I won’t see him before the wedding. I
don’t care if it’s normal or not. He’s the only one who understands me. What a stupid tradition that is. Now, when I need him the most, I’m not supposed to see him.”

“What about me and Violet?” Iris asked. “Are you saying we don’t understand you? Are you saying you care more about Jake than you do for us?”

“Do you understand,” Rose asked, “that every time one of you—or anyone else, for that matter—bursts in here or tries to talk to me, I have to grit my teeth to get through it?”

“Is it as bad as that?” Iris asked. “Why do you have to grit your teeth? Explain yourself for once. Then I might understand.”

“I have to grit my teeth so I don’t saying something I might regret later,” Rose told her.

“You won’t regret talking to people, especially us,” Iris maintained. “We’re your family.”

“Just about everything I say these days, I regret later,” Rose returned. “If only I could stop talking altogether. That would be a significant improvement on these ridiculous conversations you insist on having with me.”

Iris stared at her with her mouth hanging open. “Do you realize just how deeply you’ve hurt Violet by saying you won’t wear her dress?”

“Is that what this is all about?” Rose shot back. “Is that what you came in here to talk to me about?”

“How could you be so heartless to suggest you’d wear anything else?” Iris cried. “You know the trouble she went through to make it for you.”

Rose sighed. “Yes, I know.”

“So why did you say you wouldn’t wear it?” Iris asked

“You obviously haven’t talked to Violet,” Rose declared. “If you had, she would have told you that I’m going to wear her dress. I don’t know why you should care so much what I wear. I could understand why Violet wouldn’t want all her hard work to go to waste, but I don’t see why you should intrude on my solitude to make her case.”

“Maybe I don’t like my sister being deliberately hurt for no reason,” Iris shot back.

Rose compressed her lips and turned around. “You know, Iris, I’ve just told you I’m going to wear the dress. Are you happy now? Can you take that and leave? I only have a few hours left before the wedding, and I don’t really want to spend them going over what I’m going to wear. It doesn’t concern you, so mind your own business.”

Iris gasped in exasperation at her and slammed the door on her way out.

Silence enveloped her at last.
But the two confrontations disturbed her so much she couldn’t settle back into her usual reverie. She paced around the room for a while, and then snuck out of the house.

She
didn’t usually like to walk around the ranch. The animals and dust and bugs reminded her too much of the base parts of human nature. She much preferred the airy heights of dreams and fantasies. They could be pure and clean, unlike the sordid muddles of human interactions.

The whole house resonated with the coming anticipation of the wedding. On her way downstairs and through the passage to the back door, she heard Violet and Rita in the kitchen. Rose
couldn’t decipher whether their voices sounded happy and laughing or arguing bitterly. Rita got mad at Violet more and more frequently, with Violet butting in on everything she tried to do and eventually taking it over to do it herself.

Rose
didn’t see Iris anywhere.

Outside the back door, her way opened up before her and she knew where she wanted to go. She strode up the path to the top of the hill to the Bird House.

Her guardian and uncle, Cornell Pollard, lived here until just a few days ago. His possessions still littered the whole house. Rose couldn’t explain it to herself, but she didn’t feel his presence when she went into the house. She felt curiously at home here. When she went there, she saw her future life spread out in all its glorious color.

She meandered through the garden. Nowhere
else on the whole ranch attracted her like the Bird House garden. Nowhere else existed purely to please her senses. Watered by an underground spring, its flowers blossomed lush and vibrant in the late spring heat. They nodded to her as she passed, welcoming her.

At the end of the brick walk, she pushed open the door. It squeaked on its hinges, but that, too, sang a friendly note to receive her into the home of her dreams. Her heel rang on the flagstone floor. The breeze rustled the curtains, and the birds sang in the trees overhead. Every sound heralded the coming of the Bird House’s new mistress.

Rose ventured into the sitting room and sat down on the couch under the big front window. The leaves of the trees modulated the sunlight, so the light coming into the room blinked in dappled shade. Rose turned her face up into the light and closed her eyes.

She could only escape the relentless examination of her reflection by getting out of her room. If she stayed in the Main House at all, she had no choice but to go back to her room and sit at her dressing table.

What a relief to get away from it! She didn’t have to try to solve the mystery of who that strange girl in the mirror was, and she could finally think clearly. She was just getting comfortable when the door swung open again and Jake Hamilton strolled into the house. He caught sight of her and his black eyes glistened.

“Well, well, well,” he drawled. “What have we here?
Shouldn’t you be down at the house getting all dolled up? Your sisters will be put out if you make yourself scarce at a time like this.”

Rose smiled at him. “They’re already put out with me, and it isn’t because I’m making myself scarce.
Quite the opposite.”

Jake cocked his head to one side.
“How’s that? They didn’t ask you to make yourself scarce, surely?”

“No, but they might as well have,” Rose replied. “They’re mad because they say I’m acting strangely.”

“And they aren’t acting strangely?” Jake countered. “You’re all acting strangely, I’d say.”

“Do you think so?” Rose asked.

“I’d say so,” Jake replied.

“But you’ve never seen us acting any other way,” Rose pointed out. “You never saw us at all before two days ago.”

“That’s true,” Jake admitted, “but I think I can tell when a woman is acting strangely.”

“Maybe it’s because we’re all brides,” Rose suggested. “I’ve heard brides act strangely.”

“I don’t think so,” Jake replied. “I’ve heard of brides acting strangely, but not this strangely. I think it’s because your guardian was just killed. That, and you’re marrying against his wishes, so you’re doubly confused about everything that’s happening.”

“I don’t feel confused,”
Rose countered.