A Promise for Ellie (9 page)

“You and Grace do the same thing, only in a different way.”

“What’s that?”

“Stick up for the underdog.”

“If we don’t get in line for ice cream, it’ll be all gone.”

Ellie smiled up at him.
Ah, Andrew, I wish I could help you
. But she let him change the conversation and take her over to the ice cream line, where the ladies were ladling ice cream out of one freezer while the Knutson boys were out cranking two more.

“So you finally came over here.” Kaaren Knutson, Andrew’s tante, was pouring more of the egg, cream, and sugar mixture into another mixer while her husband, Lars, using the flat side of a heavy axhead, bashed a gunnysack that had once held a block of ice. He’d made sure it was now in small enough pieces to feed around the cylinder holding the future ice cream.

“Doesn’t look like there is any chance of running out.” Ellie grinned up at Andrew.

“We shouldn’t. I have another one done, waiting in the ice pack,” Kaaren said.

“Do you know that in cities they have machines that make ice?” Thorliff stopped beside Andrew. “They have refrigerated cars for the railroad and rooms cold enough to freeze meat, and I heard that some inventor is dreaming of ways to bring a machine like that into homes. No more iceman in the cities, no more icehouses like we have here.”

“I s’pose that goes along with the electricity that is replacing gaslights, not that we have even that here.”

“I’ll never forget seeing all the light bulbs at the Chicago fair. Near as bright as day.” Thorliff stuck his hands in his pants pockets. “Wish you could have come.”

Andrew shook his head. “Nah. I just don’t care for cities like you do. Not even to go to the World’s Fair.”

“I wanted to go. I read as much as I could find in the papers. The Ferris wheel—wouldn’t that have been something to ride on?” Ellie smiled at Thorliff. “I’d love to see Chicago.”

“I’d rather ride a horse any day.” The grump had returned to Andrew’s voice.

“How do you know? You never rode something like that or ever went into a building that tall,” Thorliff insisted. “There’s a lot of world out there beyond the farm.”

“I’ve been up in the grain elevator. That’s tall enough for me.”

“Thank you.” Ellie took her dish of ice cream and spoon and, after savoring her first spoonful, smiled in bliss. “I don’t think anything tastes better than ice cream.”

“Mor’s apple pie is better.”

“Andrew Bjorklund, if I said the sun was shining, you’d say the moon was. What is the matter with you?”

“Why would I say that?”

“I think I’ll take a dish of ice cream back to my wife.” Thorliff winked at Ellie.
Good luck,
he mouthed before he turned and left.

Ellie looked up to see Andrew staring at something. She followed his gaze and saw why his jaw was tight.

Grace was still with Toby, and they were laughing about something.

“Hey, Andrew!” Pastor Solberg called. “Bring Ellie and all the others. The man is here to take the graduation pictures.”

Andrew waved in acknowledgment. “We will.” He glanced around to find the others. “Come on. You find Deborah.”

“Of course.” Ellie finished her ice cream as she crossed the grass. While some of the people had already left, most were still visiting in groups in the shade of the schoolhouse and church. Some of the younger mothers sat with the babies and very small children, many asleep on blankets under the growing cottonwood trees. So much had changed in the years they’d been gone. She and Deborah had been good friends all through school, ever since Deborah and her sister, Manda, arrived in Blessing with Zeb MacCallister. He’d found them in a dugout, alone since their mother died and their father disappeared. Deborah had been living with the Solbergs, who took over the MacCallister ranch when Zeb moved west.

After Toby fell in step beside her, Ellie asked, “Did you go on to college with your gift from Mr. Gould, Toby?”

“Nope. I never cared much for school. Never graduated.”

“What are you going to do?”

“My pa said I should go to work for the railroad, laying track, but I don’t know. If there was a war still going on, I’d go fight.”

“Oh, how awful. Look what happened to your brother.”

“You better quit talking to me. Here comes almighty Prince Andrew.”

Ellie made a face. “Toby!”

He arched his eyebrows at her and, hands in his back pockets, strolled off.

“All right, let’s get started here.” The photographer pointed his camera, already set up on a tripod. “Line up there on the steps. You boys in the back, young ladies in front.”

Andrew stood behind Ellie. She could feel the brush of his jacket through her dress and knew if she leaned her head back, she could touch him. Why all of a sudden did she have this need to touch him? Ever since that kiss on the palm of her hand, she’d wanted to be as near him as possible. Thoughts of the way he was acting flew off like a bird winging away, leaving only sensations. The touch of his hand on her shoulder, the sound of his voice, his smile, the love light in his eyes.

“All right now, everyone look right here, and when I say ‘hold it,’ don’t breathe, don’t move.” The man ducked back under his black drape and raised a hand. “Look here. Now hold it.”

Ellie had the most necessary urge to rub the itch on her nose, but she held her pose.

“Okay, you can breathe now.”

They all sucked in breaths along with nervous giggles. Ellie looked beyond the photographer to see Rachel making faces at her.

She shook her head and shot her cousin a warning look. Laughing, Rachel ran off with two other little girls, and those on the steps settled in for another picture. Andrew tapped her shoulder when the man ordered them to not move again. She felt a giggle rising and ordered her lips to remain at the half smile.
Ellie Peterson Wold, you
will do as you are told. You will not giggle or move or breathe
.

“Good. You can breathe now.” The man popped out from behind the camera. “I’ll move this inside now, and we’ll take the individual shots. One of you big strong men want to give me a hand here?”

“Leave it to the prince,” Toby, standing off to the side, muttered just loud enough for Ellie to hear as Andrew stepped forward.

She snapped her head around and gave him a glare, icy enough to freeze a flowing river.

He raised one dark eyebrow.

Ellie could hear Pastor Solberg’s voice as if he were standing right behind her.
“If you ignore his teasing, he’ll quit, because it’s no fun to tease
someone who doesn’t respond.”
Ellie pasted a smile on her face, sweeter than caramel candy, and cocked an eyebrow back at him before following the others inside the church.

“Miss, would you like to be first?”

“Me?” Ellie pointed to herself.

“Yes. Just sit right here.” The photographer pulled the chair closer to a drape he had hanging on the wall.

Ellie sat down and allowed him to arrange her skirts, place her hand in her lap, and cock her head just so. While nerves made her want to squirm, she held still. Feeling the heat of Andrew’s gaze, she resolutely watched the photographer, ignoring the heat blossoming up her neck and onto her face.
Andrew Bjorklund, don’t look at me like
that
.

“Now, miss, look right here, and let’s have a bit of a smile. Think about your nice young man. Keep your back straight . . . there you go.” The photographer swapped out plates. “Hold it again, please. Look over here . . . that’s excellent. Good. Now breathe.” He ducked out from under the drape and smiled at her. “If all my subjects were as easy as you, this business would be a delight.”

“Thank you.” Ellie stood and moved off to the side as another of the girls took her place on the stool.

“I want one of those pictures.” Andrew stopped beside her.

“Why? You’ll see me every day.”

“Because someday when we are old and gray, we will look back and see how lovely you were back when we were young.”

“What about you? I want one of you for me.”

He shrugged. “If you want.”

“And in the fall we will have a picture of us after we get married. My dress will be similar to the one I have on, only in different material and white.”

“I want us married in one month, not three or four.” The frown carved a line between his eyebrows.

“I know you do. So do I. But this will turn out for the best, I’m sure. You wait and see.” When Andrew didn’t answer her, she peered up to his face. She wished he’d not brought up the subject when it did nothing but make him unhappy. “Smile,” she whispered, “so you look happy in the picture.”

When his turn finally came and he stood posed for the picture, it was all she could do to not dance around singing, “That’s my Andrew, and I’m going to marry up with him.” The phrase that Andrew had used the first time all those years ago had stuck. Marry up.
Oh,
Andrew, I cannot begin to tell you how much I love you
. A thought caught her. Had Andrew ever really asked her to marry him?

They gazed at each other across the space until the photographer ordered Andrew to look at him. Sensations coursed up and down her body—not shivers but tiny bursts of heat like slender flames licking the underside of a log. The urge to touch him poured through to her fingertips, setting them to tingling. She looked away and then back, catching his eyes watching her. The tip of her tongue sneaked out to water lips gone dry.

When he finished, he walked back to her, never taking his gaze from her face. He reached for her hand and led her out the open doorway.

“Would you like to go for a walk?”

Wherever you would like to go
. Instead, she shook her head. “I’d really like more ice cream.”

“If there’s any left.”

“Oh, they’re still cranking there under the trees.” They made their way over to the ice cream table, stopping to talk with friends and neighbors on the way.

“Chocolate sauce or caramel?” Dr. Elizabeth asked. Seated at the table, her bulging form was slightly hidden, although she had to reach to pour the syrup on the dishes of ice cream.

“Plain for me,” Ellie said.

Elizabeth held the dish of scooped ice cream Thorliff handed to her.

“I’ll take both. I make up for her.” Andrew grinned.

“Andrew, I don’t know where you put it all.” Elizabeth poured a healthy dollop of each on his mound of ice cream. “So how does it feel to be graduated?”

Ellie sat down across the table. “When I think of never going back to school, it makes me a bit sad. I have always loved school.”

“I didn’t hate school,” Andrew put in, “but there are so many things that need doing around the farm, and now I’ll be able to catch up on some of them, along with getting our house and barn built.”

“Did it come in?” Thorliff asked.

“Not yesterday, and surely Penny would have told me had it come today. They said it might be an extra two weeks or more.”

“Lot of people must be building houses.” Elizabeth picked up the fan lying in front of her on the table and waved it slowly in front of her face. She smiled at Ellie. “I’m looking forward to getting to know you. I’m sorry your wedding has to be postponed.”

“She’ll probably be working for Penny at the store, since Astrid will be helping you.” Andrew swallowed a spoonful of ice cream.

I can answer for myself, Andrew
. The thought caught Ellie by surprise. Had Andrew always answered for her? She’d have to think back.

“Really? That’s wonderful. For an only child like me, this big family is such a pleasure.” Elizabeth smiled.

“Ja, Ellie will be one more Bjorklund woman to make trouble for us men,” Andrew said with a straight face.

“Oh, you.” Ellie pushed at his arm. “You won’t let anyone else tease us, but that doesn’t seem to apply to you.”

“Should it?” He paused midspoonful.

Ellie rolled her eyes and exchanged smiles with Elizabeth.

“I saw you and Toby pushing at each other.” Thorliff dished up another bowl of ice cream and handed it to Lily Mae, old Sam’s youngest. “There you go.”

“You ’bout out?” Sam’s dark face shone with sweat.

“No.”

“Good. The ball players are on their way over.”

“You want some help?” Ellie asked Elizabeth.

“Sure. You hand the bowls to Andrew. He can dish while Thorliff unpacks the next freezer.”

Laughing, cuffing, and sweating, the young men and boys lined up for their ice cream. “How come the Bjorklunds didn’t come play?” someone called.

“Then who would have made the ice cream?” Thorliff answered.

“The old men.”

“Sure wish someone had told me that.” Thorliff handed out another dish. “See the women for syrup.”

Ellie glanced at Elizabeth with a giggle. “Women? Guess you are but not me, not yet.”

“I might be big as a house with baby, but I don’t think of myself as a woman either. I guess
doctor
took the place of
woman
. Now, I’ll tell you, I like
wife
.”

“Is that so?” Thorliff wiggled his eyebrows.

“Hey, Dr. Bjorklund, you sure did a good job sewing up my brother.” A young boy stepped up to the ice cream table. “Ma said that one was beyond her needle and thread.”

“Thank you. My mother said I never learned to sew. You might write and tell her I did all right.”

“The doctor in Grafton was too far away to go, bleeding like he was.”

“Glad I could help.”

“It sounds like you saved the boy’s life. What happened?” Ellie poured the last of the chocolate syrup.

“The boy ended up on the wrong end of an ax. Slipped and fell. Had his brother not put a tourniquet around his arm, he’d have bled to death. I’m so grateful he has the use of his arm. I prayed so hard for that one. It could have been useless. And thank God there was no infection.”

Ellie thought back. “Maybe if you had been here, Agnes might have lived longer.”

“Maybe. But Ingeborg and I talked about that. From the sound of it, Agnes had cancer, and while I might have been able to remove the tumor, the vicious stuff comes back.”

“We all grieved for her. Agnes Baard was a wonderful woman. I’m so glad you are here now.” She glanced over to see Thorliff and Andrew emptying out the ice and putting the freezers in a box, then looked back to Elizabeth. “Are you all right?”