Mail Order Mistake (17 page)

“Harriett?”

“The woman who runs the mail order bride agency in Beckham.”
  Why didn’t he know who Harriett was?

He shook his head.  “I didn’t know that.”

She nodded.  “Harriett was a really good friend to us, but we met her the day we wrote
letters to you.”

“She sounds like a generous woman.”

Malinda nodded.  “It would be hard to find something negative to say about her.  She’s
really a special woman.  I’d like to be more like her.  I can honestly say that other
than Ellen, she’s the best friend I’ve ever had.”
  She still missed her every day.

“Is she the one you write to?”

“Yes.  I write her every week.  She’s a really lonely woman.  She rarely does anything
but work.  The letters she gets from the mail order brides she places keep her going.” 
Malinda grinned.  “She needs a puppy.”

Wesley raised an eyebrow.  “Why does she need a puppy?”

“Every woman needs a puppy for companionship while her man is gone, or if she doesn’t
have a man, like Harriett, she needs one all the time.”
  Malinda shrugged
,
knowing
she couldn’t explain it any better.

Wesley laughed.  “A puppy, huh?”

Malinda nodded.  “We had a dog when I was little, but he died a couple of years ago. 
I remember when he used to follow me everywhe
re.  I loved having him around.  Anytime I was upset, I could just bury my face in
his neck and cry.”  She sighed, missing the dog who had been a huge comfort to her
when her mother died.

After dinner, Wesley stood up.  “I have a quick errand to run tonight.  I’ll be back
in a half hour or so.”

Malinda was confused.  He never went anywhere after dinner.  “Okay.”  She cleared
the table and washed the dishes, wondering where he could have gone. 

Just as she was drying the last dish and putting it away, she heard him come in the
front door.  “Why didn’t you tell me I still had eggshell in my hair?” he bellowed.

She giggled and walked into the parlor where he was standing.  “I didn’t think of
it.”  Just then she noticed the head of a puppy poking out from under his arm.  It
was just a tiny little ball of fuzz and she rushed to him, taking the puppy in her
arms.  “Oh!  Where did you get him?”
  She buried her face in his fur to feel the soft fur on her face.

He smiled at the sight she made standing there snuggling the puppy to her face.  “There
was a little boy giving them away in front of the sheriff’s office today.  If I’d
known you wanted a puppy, I’d have gotten her then.”

“Her?  A girl?  What’s her name?”
  She couldn’t believe he’d run out and gotten her a puppy just because she’d mentioned
she wanted one.

“Well, that’s for you to decide, isn’t it?”

She held the puppy in front of her face.  “How big will she get?  I need to know that
before I can come up with a good name.”
  She studied the dog with interest.

He shrugged.  “I’m not sure.  Her feet are big, though.”

“I’m going to wait and see what comes to me.  I can’t name her until I know her personality,
and that won’t happen for a few days.  Right now, I just want to call her Sweetheart.”
  She giggled as the puppy nuzzled her neck with h
er
head.

He laughed.  “Puppy will work until you come up with something.”

“Thank you.”  Malinda’s eyes met Wesley’s and she moved in close to kiss him.  He
took over the kiss immediately, and they didn’t part until the puppy cried.  “Oh,
I’m sorry, baby.  I didn’t mean to crush you!”

She kissed the puppy’s head and carried her to the spare room where she made a bed
for her with old blankets.  The floor was hardwood and there was nothing for her to
destroy.  Malinda made sure she put her sewing up on the dresser so the puppy wouldn’t
be able to reach it.  She quietly closed the door behind her.

“I think she’ll be fine in there overnight.”

Wesley raised an eyebrow.  “I figured you’d want her sleeping with us!”

Malinda blushed.  “I don’t want her see
ing what we do in bed at night.  She’s just a baby.”

He laughed and slipped his arm around her waist.  “Speaking of what we do in bed at
night, I’m tired.”

She laughed.  “You haven’t even read the paper yet!”

He wiggled his eyebrows.  “I think I can skip that tonight.”

*****

After Wesley was asl
eep, Malinda sneaked out of bed
and into the spare room.
The puppy was curled up on the blankets she’d put down, sound asleep.
She
still
had too much to do on the shirts to finish before the miner came back.  She realized
then that she’d forgotten to get the man’s name. 

She moved her need
le
as quickly as she could without stabbing herself in the finger.  She didn’t think
Wesley would appreciate it if she was full of holes when he got up the following morning.

Malinda had all but the last shirt finished when it was time for her to fix breakfast. 
She stood up, stifling a yawn.  She couldn’t be late with two meals in a row.

When Wesley got up, he walked into the kitchen to find his wife setting the table. 
“Pancakes?  My favorite!”  He got the maple syrup down and set it on the table.  “You
look tired.”

She shrugged.  “I’m fine.”  Putting the last of the food on the table, she sat down
across from him.  “Beatrice is coming over this afternoon.  She wants me to teach
her to bake a cake.”  She put butter and syrup on top of her pancakes
, stifling a yawn
. 

Wesley nodded.  “I can’t think of a better person to teach her.  You have the touch
when it comes to baking.”

She didn’t mention the shirts she was working on and neither did he.  She was certain
he didn’t want to know when they’d be picked up, and she wasn’t about to volunteer
the information.  Sure, they’d reached something of an impasse over her working, but
neither one of them was willing to rock the boat.
 

She was too tired to eat, so she fed the puppy her pancakes one bite at a time under
the table, trying to make it look as if she were eating.

Once Wesley was gone, she hurried through the breakfast dishes and rushed back to
finish the last shirt.  Finally, after an hour of sewing, it was finished.  She glanced
at the clock and saw that it was only ten.  She couldn’t make leftovers from the night
before for lunch like she usually did, so she quickly put on a pot of beans.  There
was a bit of cornbread left from the night before, and that would have to work.

She stumbled back to her bedroom and curled up under the covers, exhaustion finally
taking over.  She needed to remember not to take on more jobs than she could handle. 
The puppy curled up on the floor beside the bed to sleep, keeping guard over her mistress.

*****

Wesley was startled by how quiet the house was when he got home for lunch.  He saw
there were beans boiling on the stove, but there was no sign of his wife.  He walked
through the house calling her name, and finally found her curled up in bed under the
covers.  He was always surprised by how young she looked when she was asleep.  He
stood for a moment, looking down at her, and then went into the kitchen to dish himself
up a bowl of beans.  He’d let her sleep until he needed to go back to work and then
wake her, giving her as much time as he could to get some much needed rest.

He hated that she felt the need to get up during the night to sew when he really did
make enough money for them both to live on.  Sure, there wasn’t’ enough for a lot
of extras, but he could cover the necessities.

He finished
his beans, rinsed out his bowl
and then tiptoed into the bedroom.  She was still sound asleep.  He sat down on the
bed beside her.  “Malinda?  I’m about to go back to work.”

She sat up abruptly.  “I’m sorry!  I’ll get your lunch.”
  She felt the panic rising in her.  She should have been awake to get his lunch when
he got home!

He smiled stroking her cheek.  “I already got it.  I’m perfectly capable of dishing
up my own lunch.  You just need to wake up.  You said your friend Beatrice was coming
over today.”

She nodded, fighting the overwhelming exhaustion.  “She is.  Thank you for waking
me.”
  She struggled to keep her eyes open.

“I let you sleep as long as I could.  I’ll see you at dinner.”  He kissed her gently
before disappearing out the door.

She rushed to put her hair up and get dressed.  She was still in her nightgown!  What
must Wesley think of her?

By the time Beatrice arrived, she’d washed her face, fixed her hair and gotten dressed. 
She was just finishing the lunch dishes when she heard a knock on the door.  Wiping
her hands on her apron, she rushed to the door.  Beatrice stood there
,
smiling at her.  “Oh, thank you for coming!”

“It’s no problem.”  She held up the crate she held.  “I’m going to impose on you to
show me how to bake a chocolate cake.  They’re my husband’s favorite.”

“I’d love to.  I told Wesley you were coming to learn how to bake a cake, so I was
planning on showing you how to make one this afternoon anyway.”

“You didn’t want to tell him I was coming over so you wouldn’t be alone with that
miner?”

She shook her head.  “He’d insist I stop sewing for people then.”

“Maybe miners aren’t the kind of people you should sew for.  There are a lot of ladies
in town I’m sure would love to have you sew for them.”

Malinda shrugged.  “I’m sure most of the women in town already know how to sew for
themselves.”  She looked through the ingredients
Beatrice had brought with her
and automatically started mixing the batter for the cake.  “You have enough for two. 
Do you want to make them both?”

Beatrice nodded. 
“
I wanted to leave one here for you and y
our husband. 
You said he has a sweet tooth.”

“He does!  We’d like that
,
if you don’t mind.”
  Malinda knew Wesley would be thrilled to have a chocolate cake for dessert that
evening.

“It’s the least I can do after all the baking lessons you’re giving me.”

They had just poured the batter into the pans when a knock came at the door.  “I’d
better go deal with him,” Malinda said to Beatrice as she hurried to the door. 

She opened the door wide and the miner came in, smelling even worse than he had the
previous week.  “I have your shirts ready for you.”
  She led him down the hall to the spare room.

“Oh good.  I tries one on first, if yous don’t mind.”

“Of course not!  I’m sure you’ll find they fit.”  Malinda waited outside the door
while he changed, exchanging looks with Beatrice.

When the door to the spare room opened again, the miner was wearing one of the shirts
she’d made.   She wished she could tell him he needed to bathe before he wore them,
but she knew that would be inappropriate.  “How does it fit?”
  She looked at how the shirt fell over his shoulders and was happy. 

He nodded, his greasy hair bobbing beside his head.  “Fits just fine.”  He had the
other shirts in his hand and held out several coins to her.  She looked down and saw
there were seven. 

She blinked and counted once more.  “Seven dollars?  We agreed on just six.”
  Not that she was complaining, but she didn’t want to take more than he meant to
give her.

“I pays for what I likes.”  The man didn’t say another word as he left by the front
door. 

Malinda looked at Beatrice with a shocked look.

“He pays for what he likes!” Beatrice said with a giggle.

“I guess he does.”  She walked to the jar where she kept her savings and dropped the
coins in on top of the others.

Beatrice smiled as she looked at the jar.  “You’re building up quite a savings there.”

Malinda nodded.  “I know.  I’m really relieved to have it.”

“Does it bother your husband that you work?”

Malinda shrugged.  “I think it does some.  I think it bothers him more that I feel
like I need to work than the fact that I do work, if that makes any sense at all.”

“It does make sense.  Men are raised to believe they should be the providers.  When
their wives work, it hurts their pride.”

Malinda frowned.  “I don’t want to hurt his pride, but I don’t want to leave my children
in the position I was in when my father died.”
  She hated making Wesley feel like he was less than what she needed.  She wondered
what the right answer could possibly be.

“Which was?”

“Two weeks after my father’s death, my sister and I had run out of food.  There was
no money to be found.  A banker came to our house and told us we had three days to
get off our property and we had to leave everything but our clothes behind.”