A Husband for Margaret (5 page)

“
Come on.” Jessica prompted
her forward. “I’m going to be in the house. That means only good
things will happen in there.”

Margaret chuckled and put
her foot on the first step.
Here goes
nothing.

Chapter Five

The front door burst open and two boys
came barreling toward Margaret. “Ma! Ma!”

She turned to see who in the world they
were talking about for a split second before she remembered that
she was going to be their mother in two short days.

Joseph showed up in the doorway,
holding the youngest in one arm and held the door open with his
free hand. “Doug, Bob, remember what I said.”

Doug and Bob immediately stopped
bouncing around her and clasped their hands behind their
backs.

“
We’re glad you’re here,”
one of them said.

“
Thank you,” she replied and
tried to remember who was the oldest. “Bob?”

“
No, I’m Bob,” the other
said.

She gave them a timid smile. “I’m
sorry. I’m afraid I’m not very good with recalling
names.”

“
That’s alright.” Bob took
her hand and led her up the steps. “Sometimes we forget things too.
Don’t we, Doug?”

“
Sure do,” Doug said as he
took her other hand. “I forget to put my toys away all the
time.”

“
Shh...” Bob told his
brother. “You know what Pa said.”

“
Oh, right.” Doug’s cheeks
grew pink. He peered up at her. “We won’t forget to be good
today.”

Bob groaned.

They made it to the front
door.

“
Here she is, Pa,” Bob
unnecessarily stated.

“
I see that.” Joseph moved
aside so they could enter the house. He smiled at Margaret. “I’m
glad you came.”

Margaret’s face flushed. He really was
a good looking man. She wondered why none of the women back at his
hometown were lining up to marry him as soon as he became
available.

“
We’re glad too,” Doug
said.

“
You already said that,” Bob
replied.

“
So?”

“
It’s fine.” Margaret
squeezed their hands. “I don’t mind hearing it again.”

Doug grinned at her. “We miss having a
ma.”

“
Do you make cookies?” Bob
asked.

She nodded. “From time to
time.”

The boys giggled.

Joseph sighed but smiled at her. “They
don’t care much for what I can make.” He motioned to the couch.
“Would you like to sit? I can get you something to drink if you
want.”

“
Oh, I’ll do that,” Jessica
intervened as she brushed past Margaret to get inside the
house.

Margaret glanced at her friend. In all
the excitement, she forgot Jessica was behind her.

“
Besides,” Jessica added as
she took off her bonnet, “this will be a good excuse to see Jenny.
I’ll be back.” She patted Margaret on the shoulder. “Enjoy
yourself,” she whispered.

Margaret turned to Joseph and smiled.
Every time she was near him those crazy butterflies wrecked havoc
on her stomach. She didn’t know how she was supposed to get used to
being around him.

“
Will you have a seat?” he
asked.

“
Have a seat!” Bob pulled on
her hand and led her to the couch.

Before she knew it, the two boys pushed
her onto the couch. The fourth boy, who’d been quietly playing with
some blocks in the corner of the room, stopped building his tower
and stared at her. Uncertain of what to do about being watched with
such intensity, she shifted her gaze back to the others in the
room.

“
Did you have a good ride
out here?” Joseph asked as he sat beside her.

“
Yes, I did. The weather is
perfect this time of year,” she replied, aware that Bob and Doug
stood by her. She looked at them and saw that they were content to
watch her and smile. She blinked. Somehow, this didn’t seem like
normal childhood behavior. “Don’t you two want to play?” Isn’t that
what children did? Play?

“
We’re fine,” Bob replied,
rocking back and forth on the heels of his feet.

“
They’re excited to meet
you.” Joseph shifted on the couch so that he could put the boy he
was holding on his other leg. “Ben is shy.”

She knew the feeling, so she
had one thing in common with the boy. She didn’t remember Ben’s
age, but since he was the smallest, he was the youngest.
Ben is the youngest. Then there’s Doug, the
oldest, and Bob, the next in line.
She
glanced at the boy still staring at her. She’d have to pay
attention to what the others called him because she didn’t remember
his name either.

“
I got hired at the paper in
town,” Joseph said. “I start work on Monday. It’s not a full-time
position, so I picked up a second job at the mercantile making
deliveries. I’ll make enough to support us, but I’m afraid things
will be tight, at least until I can find a better second
job.”

“
But we can still have
cookies and pie, right Pa?” Bob asked, looking startled.

“
Yes.”

Doug and Bob visibly
relaxed.

She couldn’t deny that this aspect of
the children amused her.

“
However,” Joseph continued,
directing her attention back to him, “I did purchase that home you
said you liked.”

Her ears perked up at this
announcement. “The one on the edge of the park with the blue
trim?”

Smiling, he nodded. “I thought you
might like to hear that.”

“
Oh, that’s wonderful!” She
turned to Doug and Bob. “It has a nice backyard for you to play
in.”

They nodded but just stood quietly by
her side with their hands behind their backs.

She was beginning to feel like an
animal at an auction. She figured that the boys would be curious
about her, but she didn’t expect all four of them to be fascinated
enough to watch her every move.

“
We’ll be good,” Bob
said.

“
Yes,” Doug agreed. “We
hardly cause any problems at all.”

“
And the ones we do cause,
we can correct.”

“
I don’t expect you to be
perfect,” she told them.

Joseph sighed. “I asked them to be on
their best behavior while you’re here. Why don’t you two go play
with Charles?”

Charles.
So that was the boy sitting in the corner. She
mentally repeated each boy’s name in her head so she wouldn’t
forget again.

“
Yes, Pa,” they both said
and rushed over to sit by their younger brother.

“
It takes them awhile to get
used to new people,” Joseph explained.

“
It takes me awhile to do
that too.” She spread her skirt out, still feeling nervous but not
quite as much now that all but one boy—Ben—had stopped watching
her. “I suppose you’ll miss working at the paper where you used to
live. You said you worked there full-time?”

“
Yes, I did. But it was a
bigger area, so there were more opportunities.”

“
I know the owner of the
mercantile. He’s nice. I don’t expect you to have any problems with
him.”

“
He seemed reasonable when I
talked to him. I suppose in a place this small, it’s only logical
that everyone knows everyone else.”

“
Yes. Sometimes it’s a good
thing.”

He raised an eyebrow. “And at
others?”

A smile tugged at her lips. “There’s
always one or two people you don’t want to come across.”

“
That’s true no matter where
you are.”

“
Really? You mean there’s
someone from Dayton you’d rather not deal with?”

Before he could answer, Jessica and
Jenny came into the parlor carrying a tray full of cups. “Anyone
thirsty for lemonade?” Jessica asked.

“
Me, me, me!”

All but Ben ran over to them to grab a
cup and gulp their drinks down.

Bob glanced over and nudged his
brothers. After whispering something to them, they each thanked
Jessica and Jenny and quietly sat back down in the corner to keep
playing.

Margaret thought the whole
thing was odd. Did they always behave like this or were they trying
to warm her up for taking on the role as their mother, who would
obviously be baking pies and cookies, before they showed her what
they were
really
like?

Jessica approached them. “Would you
like some lemonade?”

Joseph nodded and took a cup. “Thank
you.” He shifted so that Ben was sitting up straight. “Here you
go.”

Margaret didn’t know how Ben managed
it, but he drank half the cup without taking his eyes off of her.
She gave him an uneasy smile. Just what did he find so fascinating
about her? Wasn’t she just like any other woman? Or maybe it was
because he didn’t remember his real mother, so he wasn’t used to
having a woman around. But if that was true, then why didn’t he
bother staring at Jenny or Jessica?

“
Looks like Ben was
thirstier than he let on,” Jessica commented with a
chuckle.

Margaret wondered how it was possible
that Jessica could meet these boys one time at a train station and
remember their names.

“
Margaret?” Jessica asked,
lifting the remaining full cup off the tray.

“
No thanks,” Margaret didn’t
trust her trembling hands. All she needed was to slip and get
lemonade all over her clothes or all over someone else. “I’m
fine.”

Joseph finished the rest of his cup and
gave it to Jessica. “I must admit it’s peaceful out here. In some
ways, it reminds me of my brother’s place, except his house wasn’t
nearly as nice.”

Jenny sighed. “Don’t think my brothers
don’t try to make it a bachelor’s home.”

Jessica grinned. “That’s why men need
women.” Turning to Joseph and Margaret, she said, “We’ll be back
soon to see if you six need anything else.”

After Jessica and Jenny left, Margaret
glanced at Ben who was still watching her. She couldn’t remember
the last time she held a child. Her sister, after all, was already
thirteen. But Ben looked like a good boy to start with. “May I hold
him?”

“
Sure.” Joseph lifted the
boy from his lap and handed him to her.

She wondered if Ben would protest but
he didn’t. To her surprise, he snuggled into her arms and rested
his head against her shoulder. The simple action startled her. She
didn’t think it’d feel so nice to hold a child. And the fact that
Ben trusted her enough to close his eyes touched her heart. It was,
perhaps, one of the loveliest things that ever happened to
her.

She glanced at the three boys playing
quietly in the corner of the room. Doug and Bob seemed to be making
up a game with the blocks, and Charles sat by them but was content
to stick to his own group of toys. The poor boys probably missed
their mother. She didn’t know if Charles was old enough to remember
her when she passed away, but the oldest two would have
been.

“
It must be hard to raise
them by yourself,” she told Joseph.

“
That’s not the only reason
I want to get married,” he softly said.

She turned her attention to
him.

“
Your friend is right, you
know. About men needing women. True, we are messy creatures when
left to our own devises, but even with children, it can get lonely.
There’s an emptiness that only a woman can fill.”

She didn’t know why his words should
make her body tingle as if he’d touched her. Despite the heat
rising in her cheeks, she confessed, “A woman needs a man too,
Joseph. And...”—her gaze went back to the four boys—“I used to
dream about being a wife and mother when I was a little girl. I
think just about every girl imagines that one time or another. Do
boys ever imagine being a husband and father when they grow
up?”

He chuckled. “I’d like to say yes, but
the truth is when I was a boy, I was too busy playing cowboys and
Indians to think of the future.”

“
I thought you always knew
you were going to marry your first wife?”

“
Well, to a point. But I
never thought about it. I just took it for granted.”

“
Oh. I had all the details
planned out for my wedding and the names and genders of my children
picked out.”

“
My first wife did too,
though she did later tell me that she wasn’t sure if I was the one
or not.”

“
Is that the way it is then
for men and women? Men go along life and one day decide on who
they’ll marry while women figure out the wedding and children and
just hope the man comes along with it?”

“
I don’t know if that’s how
it is for everyone, but it’s been my experience.” He inched closer
to her so he could put his arm around her shoulders. “I like you,
Margaret. I’ve liked you ever since I read those letters. I hope
you never think that I settled for you because I couldn’t find
someone else. Even if a man needs a woman, he needs the right
one.”