A Husband for Margaret (10 page)

“
Ma! Over here!” Bob called
out.

Taking her eyes off of Charles, she
looked at Bob who dropped the rubber ball on the ground. He gave
her a big smile before he kicked it. Doug didn’t seem as intent on
having her watch him while he managed to steal the ball from
Bob.

For the moment, no one needed anything.
They were content and peaceful. With a sigh, she grinned in
amusement as Doug and Bob showed off their skills. She had to admit
they were cute.

Ben nudged her in the knee so she
glanced at him. He held out a handful of the rocks he’d collected.
She wasn’t sure what to do so she waited. Then he dumped the rocks
into her lap and resumed his search for more of them. She frowned.
Exactly what did he plan to do with them? And how many did he plan
to gather?

“
I see you went ahead and
married
my
Joseph,” came an all-too-familiar voice.

Margaret’s skin bristled. She shouldn’t
be surprised that Debra Potter decided to stick around, but there
was nothing Debra could do at this point. “Why are you here?” Might
as well come right out and ask the obvious.

Debra sat next to Margaret and adjusted
her hat. She patted Ben on the head. “Hello there,
Benny.”

“
His name isn’t Benny. It’s
Ben,” Margaret snapped. “And I don’t recall inviting you to sit
with me.”

She shrugged and tugged on the sleeves
of her dress. “I don’t recall asking.”

Margaret’s cheeks flushed with
anger.

“
As for Benny... I’ve been
calling him that ever since he was born.” She shot Margaret a
pointed look. “I was there when all of these children were born. I
know them better than you do.”

“
I don’t see what that has
to do with anything. Joseph made his choice-”

“
As silly as it
was.”

“
Silly or not, the matter is
done. There’s no going back and undoing any of it.”

“
It’s not fair.” Debra
crossed her arms and glared at her. “I’ve known him forever. I grew
up with him. I used to bake him cookies and give him a cool glass
of lemonade when it was hot outside. I was always there to offer
him anything he needed.”

“
So you made a pest of
yourself.”

She gasped and put her hand up to her
throat. “Why, I did no such thing.”

Margaret shook her head. “I wonder what
Hannah thought.”

“
Hannah was my dearest,
closest friend.”

“
I’m sure.” Margaret didn’t
hide her sarcasm. If Debra was this annoying to her—a stranger,
then she had no doubt she was unbearable to poor Hannah.

“
It’s true.”

Margaret rolled her eyes.

“
Fine. Don’t believe me. But
I’ll tell you something. It was her dying wish that I’d take care
of Joseph and his children. Do you think it’s right to interfere
with a woman’s dying wish?”

“
Joseph is an adult. He can
make his own decisions.”

Ben placed another handful of rocks
into Margaret’s lap and resumed his search for more. This time,
however, the quest took him further from the bench, which was a
good thing, Margaret decided, because it meant that he didn’t have
to bear the ravings of the lunatic sitting next to her.

Margaret nudged Charles. “Why don’t you
play ball with Doug and Bob?”

Charles seemed reluctant but got off
the bench and took his time going to the two boys who laughed as
they kicked the ball down the lawn.

Margaret turned so she was facing her
opponent. “I don’t know what you hope to accomplish by bugging me.
The vows have been said and the marriage sealed, so there’s nothing
you can do about it.”

Debra frowned. “You’ll give up. I’ve
seen how much work those children are, and you’ll run off as soon
as things get rough.”

“
You underestimate me. I’m
not one to give up easily.”

“
You don’t know a thing
about children. You’re in over your head. Right now, they’re on
their best behavior because you’re new. But what’ll happen when
they get used to having you around?”

“
Then I’ll also get used to
them and be able to adjust accordingly.”

Debra cackled as if that was the
funniest thing she’d ever heard. “Oh my dear, Margie—”

“
Margaret.”

She shrugged. “You are quite the
optimist, aren’t you?”

Hardly. But what did Debra know about
her? It wasn’t that Margaret considered herself a pessimist. No.
She rather fancied the term ‘realist’ to describe her. But she did
know the proper term to describe a woman like Debra who insisted on
wiggling into another woman’s marriage. Being a lady, of course,
held Margaret’s tongue in check. Taking a deep breath, she finally
said, “You are welcome to leave.”

From across the field, Charles let out
a loud scream while Bob pushed him to the ground.

Startled, Margaret bolted to her feet.
The rocks on her skirt went tumbling onto the grass, and Ben, who
had just collected another handful and was on his way back to her,
dropped his new rocks to the ground, threw back his head, and
wailed in utter despair.

“
What did you do that for?”
Margaret asked Bob who held onto the ball.

“
He isn’t in the game!” Bob
called out.

“
I told him to go over there
and play with you.”

“
You did? But why? He’s just
three. He can’t play good.”

“
But you’re his
brother.”

He looked at her as if he had no idea
why that should make any difference.

“
Just play with him,” she
said. “You’re brothers and that makes you friends.”

Doug and Bob glanced at each other and
shook their heads.

“
Do it!” she
demanded.

Bob sighed and dropped the ball in
front of Charles who stopped screaming and grabbed it.

From behind her, Debra chuckled. “You
really are not prepared for this.”

“
Don’t you have someone else
you can annoy?” Margaret snapped.

Then she spun on her heel and picked up
a still wailing Ben who pointed to the rocks. Sighing, she placed
him back down and helped him collect his rocks. She handed them to
him, relieved that he was, once again, smiling, and led him back to
the bench. She gritted her teeth when she realized Miss Potter was
watching everything in obvious amusement.

She didn’t know whether she should find
another bench or haul the boys back home. Another part of her
wondered why she should have to go anywhere. She’d been here first.
Debra was the one who interfered in this pleasant afternoon.
Crossing her arms, she narrowed her eyes at the other woman and got
ready for a confrontation of the likes which Debra had never
seen.

Just as she was about to let Miss
Potter have it, a rubber ball hit her in the backside and a boy
tackled her. She stumbled and, unable to find her footing, fell
back until she landed in the grass.

A shrill laugh cut through the
apologies of Bob and Charles. Ignoring them, she turned her
attention to Connie James and groaned. As if it wasn’t bad enough
to fall in front of Debra! She had to deal with prissy Connie James
too?

Bob and Doug held their hands out to
Margaret. “We’re sorry, Ma,” Bob said. “Can we help you
up?”

Connie nudged her good friend, Maureen
Brown, in the side and whispered something in her ear.

Debra glanced at Connie and then turned
her attention back to Margaret and snickered.

Face flushed with anger, Margaret
decided she’d had enough. She got to her feet and straightened her
skirt. “If you have a comment to make, the least you can do is say
it to my face.”

Debra’s eyebrows rose, as if
surprised.

Connie and Maureen looked at
Margaret.

“
Well?” Margaret demanded,
not hiding the irritation in her voice. When they didn’t speak, she
continued, “If you have the nerve to laugh and whisper in front of
me, then you might as well get on with it!”

“
Don’t give our ma trouble,”
Bob said, clinging to her hand.

Debra frowned.

“
Yeah,” Doug agreed. “We
like our new ma. She made cookies and tea punch.”

Then Debra grinned. “Bribing them to be
good, are we?”

Connie shook her head. “Giving children
sweets. I hope you gave them something healthy like an apple while
you were filling them up with sugar.”

“
I suppose that is how she
gets them to behave,” Debra said.

Connie and Maureen turned appreciative
gazes in Miss Potter’s direction. “An astute observation,” Connie
said.

“
Very,” Maureen
agreed.

Debra shot Margaret a triumphant
look.

Bob moved so he was in front of
Margaret. “We don’t care what you think. She’s a good
ma.”

Connie clucked her tongue. “That boy
has a mouth on him.”

“
Disrespectful,” Maureen
said.

“
They wouldn’t do that if
they were mine,” Debra added.

“
My Peter never spoke that
way when he was that age,” Connie said. “In fact, he doesn’t do
that now as an adult. Mrs. Connealy, you would do well to keep
those children in line.”

“
To be fair to her,” Debra
began, “she had them thrust upon her when she posted an ad for a
husband. She is ill-equipped for motherhood.”

Connie frowned. “What kind of woman has
to post an ad for a man? I heard this was the case but thought it
was mere hearsay.”

“
It’s sad, Connie,” Maureen
told her friend. “There’s no need to remind her to the depths she
had to go to in order to secure a man.”

“
I just never heard of that
being necessary, that’s all.” Connie shrugged. “Poor thing,
really.”

Margaret gritted her teeth and got
ready to tell all three hags exactly what they could do with their
opinions when Doug tugged on her hand.

“
Uh...Ma?”

She looked down at him.

“
I think Charles needs a
bath,” he said.

She turned around and noticed that
Charles’ recent bowel movement was trickling down his
leg.

Bob’s eyes widened. “Oh, we forgot to
tell you. He’s allergic to cow’s milk. He can have goat’s milk
though.”

With little else to do but take care of
the immediate problem, Margaret picked up Ben who had a few pebbles
in his mouth. Startled, she swept the small rocks out of it. He,
naturally, didn’t like this because he threw his head back and
cried right into her ear. She braced herself against the loud
screaming and went over to Charles so she could take his
hand.

“
Let’s go home,” she told
him.

“
We’ll help you, Ma!” Doug
said.

“
Yep.” Bob added, tucking
the ball under his arm. “We’ve been through this before. We’ll show
you how to give him a bath.”

Aware that they had an audience and
deciding not to lose her temper in front of the children, Margaret
led everyone back to the house which was, thankfully, across the
street so Charles didn’t get too messy. She could feel the women’s
disapproving eyes bearing into her back.

Even as her face flushed red with
anger, she felt tears sting her eyes. But she refused to let them
see how their words affected her. One thing she knew was that it
was a mistake to let anyone know how much they could hurt her
because then they’d know her weakness. If Debra Potter knew her
weakness, she would undoubtedly use that to her advantage in the
future. And if there was one thing she wouldn’t give Debra Potter,
it was more ammunition for her attacks.

Once she got the boys into the house,
she opted to close the door quietly, even though she wanted to slam
it in frustration. As great as the temptation was to look back and
through the window to see if they were still watching, she didn’t.
Nor would the children give her time to. While Doug ran to retrieve
the tub, Charles bent down touch his wet pants. Well, it was time
to get to work.

She made a mental note to never give
Charles cow milk again.

Chapter Ten

Margaret wiped the sweat from her brow
as she bathed Charles. Charles giggled, filled the cup with water,
and dumped it on his head. This sent him into another round of
giggles before he filled the cup again. She breathed a sigh of
relief and turned from the metal tub set to the side of the
kitchen.

“
Doug, can you hand me that
towel?” she called out.

She went to the other tub and added
more soap to the hot water before she scrubbed Charles’ pants on
the washboard.

Doug dutifully came over to her with
the towel in his hands.

She motioned for him to give the towel
to Charles when Bob came running into the room. “Ben’s on the work
table!”

A glance over her shoulder showed her
that, sure enough, Ben had dragged a chair across the floor and was
standing up on the table. Without a thought, she dropped the pants
and rushed to get Ben down, but it was too late. He’d already
reached up on a nearby shelf and pulled down the canister of sugar.
As she pulled it out of his arms, the lid popped off and some of
the brown sugar settled to the table and floor. Before Ben could
bend down to lick it off the table, she put the canister down,
picked him up and placed him in the highchair.