A Promise for Ellie (32 page)

“O
H, ELLIE, I LOVE YOUR HOUSE,
” Rebecca said the following afternoon when the girls gathered to measure the windows for curtains.

“Me too, Rebecca. I have to pinch myself sometimes to make sure all this is real.” Ellie surveyed the empty kitchen. And to think she had been so angry over Andrew’s ordering this house instead of the one they had chosen together. They hadn’t even ordered the stove yet, although Penny said if they didn’t have the money, she’d order it anyway. Ellie could pay it off with her wages. Her pa was making cabinets for the kitchen and would send them on the train when he finished, along with the other furniture he’d already made for them.

She led the girls through the kitchen to the parlor. “When we looked at the plans in the Sears and Roebuck catalog, we could choose how many windows we wanted. Andrew said that windows let the heat out and the cold in, but if I wanted another window, I could have it.” She turned in a circle. “I love the way the light comes in.” She stopped and giggled.

“Our dining room is empty, but I hope to put wallpaper up someday, with wainscoting on the lower part of the walls.” She waved her hand around the room. “I saw it in a book, and it was so pretty. Elizabeth said it would look nice, that her mother’s house had it.” As they walked through another door, she paused. “This will be my sewing room.”

“Until you need it for a nursery,” Deborah teased, and Ellie could feel the heat come up her neck.

Rebecca shook her head. “Such a big house. My mother wanted a house this size, but they never could afford it. Now the little house is just fine. I’m thinking I might like to move back there.”

“I saw you dancing with Gerald Valders a couple of times.” Sophie poked their friend in the arm. “I think he is sweet on you.”

“He is nice, but his brother is so much better looking,” Rebecca said with a sigh.

“And a better dancer.” Sophie twirled around, her arms in the air as though she were dancing with someone. “Show us the upstairs, Ellie.”

They all trooped up the stairs that had no banister yet.

“Four bedrooms, and Thorliff says that we must keep a place for a necessary.”

“Inside the house?” Astrid asked “Yes. He says that is the latest thing. I don’t understand how it works, but if it means no outhouse, I’m all in favor.” They looked into all the rooms—two of which had only two-by-fours for walls.

“We have a lot to finish. I’m thinking we might close off the upstairs for the winter to make heating easier.”

“Ellie, you sound like an old married woman already.” Sophie led the way downstairs. “I kept back part of one cake and some punch for us, so let’s eat.”

“I’m not hungry,” Grace signed and said.

“We can spread out our quilts and get into our nightdresses, then eat.” Sophie seemed to be taking charge, but that was no surprise to anyone.

“Anyone need the outhouse? I’ll light the lantern,” Ellie said.

Sophie snorted. “There’s enough moonlight. We don’t need a lantern.”

“What are we going to do? Leave the door open?” Deborah whispered.

“You need a light to use inside the outhouse?” More giggles.

“Well, you never know what kind of animal took refuge in there.”

“All right, take the lantern.” All six trooped to the outhouse, laughing all the way.

“Do you hear that?” Ellie stopped walking.

“Hear what?”

“Listen.”

Everyone held their breath.

“I don’t hear a thing, other than that pesky mosquito that’s buzzing my ear.” Sophie swatted at her hair.

“No, listen,” Ellie insisted.

More silence. A dog barked off in the distance.

“That’s Barney.” Astrid shrugged.

“How do you know?”

“Came from the direction of my house.”

“I wish we had brought him here.” Ellie tried to ignore the hairs standing up on her arms.

“Why? What’s there to be afraid of?” Deborah took her turn.

“It’s like every once in a while I hear a hammer.” Ellie held her breath to listen more closely.

“A hammer?”

“You heard me.”

“Who’d be hammering tonight? Maybe it’s a woodpecker.”

“Woodpeckers are birds, and birds only fly around during the day.”

“Oh yeah. Hear that owl?”

The
whoo-whoo
made shivers run up and down Ellie’s spine. When they heard the beat of the wings, they all giggled again. And trooped back to the house.

Ellie set the lantern in place. “We can put the lantern in the middle of the floor and spread our quilts around it like wheel spokes.”

“You spread the quilts. I’m fixing the cake and punch,” Sophie said.

By the time they’d gotten the beds fixed, their clothes changed, and sat cross-legged on the pallets waiting for their food, Ellie was wishing even more that they’d brought the dog over. Something was bothering her, and she had no idea what. Just that hammering she thought she heard every now and then, but no one else seemed to hear it. Must be someone working late, and sound traveled better at night than during the day.

Ellie listened as the others talked about boys, the dance from the night before, boys, the latest gossip, and boys. She already had her man. Never would she refer to Andrew as a boy again. She smiled as she thought about her house, her chickens, all safe in their pen in the barn, and her garden. Once she and Andrew were married, what more could she want? She tuned back in to the conversation.

“But what do you want to do?” Astrid’s voice wore all the passion of her body, leaning forward, imploring with her hands widespread.

“What is wrong with wanting to get married to a good man and having a family?” Sophie responded. “After having a few boyfriends first, you know, tasting the blossoms like a butterfly does. Flitting from one to another, now I think that sounds like—”

“Like trouble,” Grace broke in.

Sophie shrugged. “Heinrich Geddick is a great dancer, and”—she leaned forward and lowered her voice—“he’s a great kisser.”

“Sophie Knutson, you haven’t allowed him to kiss you?” Grace nearly collapsed in horror.

“Just a little kiss.” She held her thumb and forefinger apart an inch or so.

“But he will think he is courting you.”

“No he won’t. Grace, calm down. Don’t get so frazzled. After all, I’m not going to marry him.” Sophie flopped back onto her quilt. “All right, fine. I won’t let him kiss me again. I shouldn’t have mentioned it.”

“You shouldn’t have done it. What if Pa finds out?”

“How would he find out unless someone tells him?” Sophie’s eyes narrowed. The lantern threw shadows on her face that gave Ellie the shivers. She’d always known Sophie dared to do anything, but this was serious.

“I thought you said you were writing to Hamre?” Rebecca nudged Sophie’s arm.

“So I’m writing to Hamre. That doesn’t mean he’s courting me or anything. We’re just friends. I think I’ve become his way of keeping in touch with home.”

“Hamre has never thought of Blessing as home. All he wanted was the sea again,” Astrid said. “I think he’d have gone back to Norway if Onkel still had his boat.”

“If it wasn’t so expensive. When I asked Anji how much the tickets for her and Mr. Moen were, I nearly fell over backward.” Ellie leaned backward as if falling.

“He must be a wealthy man to go back and forth so often,” Deborah said, her eyes wide.

“I think the newspapers that he writes for pay his way,” Astrid offered.

“How do you know that?”

“Thorliff said so, and he should know. Sometimes magazines pay his way to go write a story for them.”

“I think I want to be a writer like Thorliff, then. I want to travel all over the world.” Sophie flung her arms out as if to embrace the globe.

“You better marry a rich man instead, as much as you like school and reading and writing.”

“Mor said I had to finish, that graduation was important to show that I finished something,” Sophie said with a careless shrug. “Only two more years. Two l-o-n-g years.”

Ellie grinned into her raised knees, burying a chuckle in her nightdress. While Sophie had grown taller and more lovely, she still started many things, like sewing a quilt or knitting a sweater, and Grace finished them for her.

“You have to admit I am a good cook.”

“True, if you don’t forget and leave the cookies in the oven.” Grace snuck that one in, making all the girls giggle.

“When she has a baby, she’ll most likely put it down somewhere and go off to do something else and forget where she left it.” Astrid’s comment brought forth another spate of giggles.

Sophie tossed her hair over her shoulder. “I’m not going to have babies until I’m at least twenty-five.”

“You’ll be an old maid by then.”

“I didn’t say I wasn’t getting married, just that I won’t have babies right away.”

“I want babies, lots of babies,” Ellie said softly, “but I want them all to live. I don’t think I could bear it if my baby died.”

“Like Penny’s?” Grace asked.

“Ja, like Penny’s. That baby was so tiny and so perfect, but . . .”

Tears clogged her throat and burned her eyes. She wiped them with the hem of her nightdress. “And Penny is so sad.”

Astrid sniffed too. “Mor was sad for a long time too. She wanted more babies, but no more ever came after me. When I see all the times that babies die, it makes me afraid.”

“Terrified is a better word. It makes me afraid of loving Andrew, you know.” Ellie shuddered as she finally admitted it to herself and the others. She sighed, a deep hurting sigh.
Blue or dead
. “If babies are a gift from God, why does He take them back before they even live?”

“I don’t know,” Astrid answered. “Mor says she just trusts that God loves us no matter what and that He works out all things for our good. I remember that Bible verse, but sometimes . . .” A stillness stretched.

Ellie cocked her head. There was that sound again. She turned back when Astrid continued.

“Sometimes it is easy to doubt.”

“But is doubting wrong? A sin? I mean there is the story of Thomas—he was even called the doubter. Why would that be in the Bible if it wasn’t to help us?”

“I don’t know, but I remember Thorliff telling us about the discussions he had in college. He was on the debate team for a while.”

Astrid waved her hands as she spoke. “I want to have discussions like that.”

“About the Bible?”

“About all kinds of things. Like the women in the temperance movement, about women owning land and being able to vote.”

“Remember? We talked about that in school,” Grace added. “Pastor Solberg says to ask all our questions because God has all the answers.”

“I know he said that, but when I ask a question, God seems to be really silent.” Sophie leaned forward, elbows on her knees.

“What did you ask?”

“I asked if I should let Heinrich kiss me, and when He didn’t answer, I decided it was yes.” Sophie fluffed her hair with her fingers, undoing the remainder of the braid so her dark hair hung free.

When the others laughed, she picked up her hairbrush and began her hundred strokes.

“Would you like me to do that for you?” Ellie asked.

“Oh yes.”

“I know. We could form a circle and brush each other’s hair. That way we’ll all enjoy having our hair brushed.”

They all scrambled to kneel in the circle, each of them undoing her hair and handing the one behind her hairbrush. Silence but for the oh’s and ah’s that tickled the corners of the room.

“This will be a happy house,” Rebecca said finally.

“Why?”

“Because the first gathering here is a party of good friends, and we’ve been laughing and talking of good things—well, mostly.”

“I like that,” Ellie said around a sigh.

“Hear that?” Sophie sat straight up.

“What?”

“Fire.” The word came faintly through the open window.

“Fire!” The girls leaped to their feet and ran out the door. Even in the light of a half moon, they could see smoke coming from the barn.

“S
OPHIE, YOU CAN RUN
the fastest. Go for Andrew,” Ellie hollered over her shoulder. “Deborah, you and Grace go ring the church bell.”

Sophie took off before Ellie could finish her instructions.

“Where are you going?” Rebecca screamed.

“To save my chickens.”

“Ellie!” Rebecca ran beside her. “That’s crazy. Don’t go in there.

Look, the fire is in the haymow.”

“I have to save my chickens. My mor and others gave them to me.” When Rebecca grabbed her arm, Ellie gave her a hard shove.

“Leave me alone. I have time.”

She paused a moment before diving into the smoke. Already the church bell was ringing. Grace hadn’t had time to get to the church yet. Who rang it? She dove into the swirling smoke, immediately wishing she’d tied a wet cloth over her face. Hoping she was staying on track, she headed to the right toward the back corner. If she could get the trapdoor open to the outside, perhaps she could shoo them out.
All those gifts from Mor and our friends. Lord, help me save the
chickens
. The heat from overhead beat upon her; the roar of the fire took over her heartbeat. Coughing and choking, she finally felt the wall of the pen. Her eyes burned beyond anything she’d ever felt before, even worse than the prairie fire. Gasping and choking, she dropped to the floor, where the air was better, and crawled to the pen door. She could hear the chickens clucking and screeching. Would they be like horses and refuse to leave?