RR05 - Tender Mercies (22 page)

“You’ll hardly have time to say good-bye to anyone.”

“Maybe it’s better that way. Easier at least.” Mary Martha folded the letter and put it in her pocket. “I’ll get the supper going and then go talk with the girls. When did Zeb say he’d be in?”

“Dark, as usual. He’s trying to get that last section plowed before the ground freezes. Valders didn’t get to it last year with his accident and all. We need to leave as much in pasture as we can and still raise enough grain for feed.”

“Now I won’t see the foals come spring.” Mary Martha kept thinking of things she would miss out on.

“You can come back, you know. The train goes both ways.”

“True. As soon as Ma is on her feet again, I promise I’ll catch the first train back.” With that said, Mary Martha got to her feet, dusted off her hands as if the sorrow were smudges of soil and, squaring her shoulders, marched into the kitchen. She only had to brush the moisture from her eyes once while she got supper started. After all, there’d be plenty of time for crying on the train.

She found Manda and Deborah in the corral with the horses, as she knew she would. Manda was leading one of the fillies around the ring with Deborah in the saddle.

“Now, you take the reins like I showed you, and I’ll just walk beside.”

Deborah picked up the reins lying crossed over the horse’s withers. “Tell me when to pull back.”

“Now, and very gently. We want her to have a soft mouth, and anyone sawing on the reins could ruin that.” The trio stopped and started, and stopped again. “Good girl.”

Mary Martha wasn’t sure if Manda meant the horse or her sister, but Deborah beamed as if she’d been given the best compliment of her young life.

“You sure have brought her along fast.” Mary Martha left the corner of the barn and put one foot up on the bottom rail.

Manda shot her what for Manda was a grin. “Okay, now forward again and turn her to the right along the fence. Lay the reins along her neck like I showed you so she learns to neck rein.”

Mary Martha let her chuckle only show a smile. That filly would follow Manda right into the house if they let her. When Zeb sold this one, which would be soon, there would be a real broken heart here, no matter how much Manda knew that’s why she was training the horse. She knew Manda was hoping Zeb would change his mind and keep the horse for a brood mare, but one as flashy as the chestnut in front of her and broken both to saddle and harness would bring in good money. Until he sold some horses, money was in short supply.

“Whoa.” Deborah tightened the reins, and the three of them faced her. If a horse could smile, this one was. Both the girls glowed like candles in the dark.

“You about ready to put her away?”

Manda nodded. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” She’d just told a lie. Mary Martha corrected herself. “I’ll tell you as soon as you’ve put the horse away.” She looked up to the little girl in the saddle. “Did you gather the eggs yet and feed the hens?”

Deborah shook her head. “Manda needed me.”

Mary Martha knew that said it all. If Manda needed something, Deborah would walk barefoot through the snow to get it if she had to. And vice versa. In spite of the home they now had with Zeb and Katy, sometimes the girls still acted as if it were the two of them against the world.

Mary Martha had hoped to be able to make life easier for them. She sighed. How could she do that from a distance? Tossing out grain for the chickens, she thought of all the people in Blessing who had become so dear in such a short time. While gathering the eggs, her thoughts and prayers continued, the foremost being Pastor John Solberg.

She sat the girls down on a bench beside the cow stanchions. “You know the letter I got today?” At their nods, she continued. “It was from my uncle Jed. He says my ma is very sick, and I need to come home.”

“But this is your home,” Deborah said firmly.

“I know, but my other home needs me worse right now, so I will be leaving on the train tomorrow.”

“I knew it.” Manda clamped her arms across her chest.

“I don’t want you to leave. Ma needs you here too.” Deborah flung herself into Mary Martha’s arms. She raised a tear-stained face. “Please say you’ll stay.”

“Don’t go cryin’ on her. ’Twon’t make any difference.” Manda took her sister’s arm and pulled her away. “Grown-ups do what they gonna do, and nothin’ we can do about it.”

“I hope to come back sometime.”

“Um.” The sound wasn’t very positive. Manda had had people go away before, saying they’d come back, and they never did. “I gotta get another horse worked ’fore it gets too dark.” She hauled herself to her feet as though a ton of hay had just fallen on her shoulders and strode out to the barn.

“You want to carry the egg pail?” Mary Martha asked the little girl who’d buried herself back in her aunt’s arms as soon as Manda let go of her arm. Stroking the fine hair and patting her back calmed Deborah down. She nodded and the two walked toward the well house to leave the eggs in the cool room.

Zeb took her around that night to the Bjorklunds, the Baards, and the Wolds, leaving the soddy by the schoolhouse until last. “So soon?” everyone asked. But she knew she left with all their blessings and many reminders to come back whenever she could.

Zeb pulled the team to a stop by the hitching post to the north of the Solberg soddy. “You want me to come in or wait here?”

“Come in. You’ll freeze out here.” Mary Martha shivered in a blast from the north wind.

Pastor Solberg already had the door open by the time they got to it. “Come in. Come in. Is something wrong? Katy? Is it Katy?”

Mary Martha felt her face freeze in that moment. Still, the first thing for him was Katy. When her heart began to beat again, she forced a smile over iced lips. “No, it’s not Katy. I came to tell you that I received a summons home. My mother is ill.” Her tone sounded as formal as her face looked. “I . . . I won’t be able to help with the schoolchildren anymore.”

“Miss MacCallister, why I . . . I guess I thought you’d be staying here forever.” He motioned them in. “May I take your coats? The coffee can be hot in a few minutes.”

“No, thank you. We need to be getting home so I can pack.”

“Wh-when are you leaving?”

“On the noon train.” She amazed herself at the coolness of her tone.

“So soon?” He rubbed a hand across his forehead.

If he hadn’t asked for Katy first, she would have listened more to what sounded like a wound in his voice.

“I . . . I can’t even think straight.” He sent Zeb a look that pleaded for help, but Zeb shook his head.

“Ma needs her more’n we do right now. She’ll just have to come back when she can.”

“Yes, when she can.” Solberg nodded. “Would you like to hear from m—the children?”

“Most definitely.”
And you?
“I’ll write right back.”

“I—we—I guess that’s it then.”

“Yes. We better be going.” She turned toward the door.

“Wait. I mean, can we see you off at the train?”

Oh, why didn’t I just write a letter? I hate good-byes
. “I guess.”

“See you tomorrow then, Pastor.” Zeb took her arm and steered her out the door.

The tears caused by the wind turned to crystals on her cheeks that shattered when she brushed them away. Just like her heart.
He still thinks of Katy first. Until now I never knew that would hurt so much. What difference does it make? We are just friends. And not even that really. I just help with the children at school. That’s all.

That’s all
. Two words almost as sad as
if only
.

The schoolchildren weren’t the only ones at the sack house in the morning. If she heard “God bless” and “Go with God” once, she heard them each fifty times. Her arms ached from hugging, or was it her heart?

Keeping a smile on her face took every bit of backbone she had, and then some.

“This-s i-s-s for you.” Anna spoke slowly, just as Mary Martha had taught her. The little girl handed her teacher a red apple that had been polished nearly through the skin.

Mary Martha blinked and blinked again, but the little girl shimmered in a kind of light made brighter through unshed tears. “Thank you, Anna. I wish I could keep this always.” She squatted down so they were eye to eye. “You keep working like you have been, and you’ll be the best speaker we have. All right?”

Anna nodded and flung her arms around Mary Martha’s neck. “I don’t want you to go.”

“I know. Me either.”
I didn’t even finish sewing her dress. Now I’ll have to mail it to her
. Patting Anna’s back, she looked up to catch a sheen in John Solberg’s eyes. Did it matter to him that she was leaving?

He picked up Anna and held her, murmuring to her as Mary Martha said good-bye to the others.

“I’ll send you a copy of our Christmas pageant.” Thorliff stuck out his hand and shook hers.

“Good.”

Ingeborg pressed a basket into her hand. “Just some things we gathered up so you won’t be hungry on the train and you’ll remember us.”

“Mange takk.” Mary Martha brought out a few smiles with that.

“Come home soon,” Katy whispered against her ear. Zeb held her close, and when he stepped back, his eyes too wore that brightness. Deborah clung to her, but Manda just nodded, her jaw clenched so hard it shone white.

“All aboard.” The conductor shook his head. “Sorry, miss, but you got to board now, or we leave without you.”

Pastor Solberg took her hand to help her up the stairs. “You’ll write?”

“Yes.”

“Promise?”

“Y-yes.”

“God bless and keep you and bring you back to us.”

Did he say “to us,” or did she just imagine it? “You also.” She let go of his hand and mounted the last step to turn and wave as the train began to chug forward.

“Blest be the tie that binds . . .” Solberg’s voice began the hymn, but the others joined in immediately. “Our hearts in Christian love. . . .” Could angels sound more sweet? The train chugged louder. She could no longer see them, but her heart heard the words. “The fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above.”

She found an empty seat and sank into it, the tears flowing at last, an apple clenched against her skirt. “Dear Lord,” she whispered, “will I ever see them all again?”

Chapter 18

“Go tell your ma that Mr. Drummond is here with the sewing machines.”

Hans tore out the door as if wolves were chasing him. Penny wiped off the counter and put away the last bolt of wool serge that she’d cut from. She had wanted to tell Mrs. Valders about the sewing machines but had waited. For what she wasn’t sure. It was just that she and Goodie still hadn’t talked about what they were going to do. Was Goodie going to sell sewing machines, or would they become part of the merchandise of the general store?

So many questions.

The bell tinkled as the man walked in pushing a handcart with several boxes stacked on it. He parked it by the door and came down the aisle to the counter. “How are you today, Mrs. Bjorklund? I brought your machine.”

“All that is my machine?” She nodded toward the boxes.

“No, I got two extra and can have more in a matter of days, once you two ladies decide what you want to do. Now, where do you want me to set yours up?”

“I cleared a little more space back where you were before. Once you have it put together, it’s not hard to move should I decide differently.”

“That is true. And how is Mrs. Wold?”

“She should be here any second. I sent her son to tell her you were here.”

“Then I’ll just get started, and you can be sewing away before you know it.” He turned back to his handcart and trundled it down the aisle, whistling an off-key tune as he went.

Since the store was empty but for him, Penny went back to the kitchen to pull the coffeepot forward. Ham and baked beans leant a delicious aroma, and the molasses bread she’d made special for the evening meal was near ready to put in the oven also. She could serve supper to both families if that would make the discussion easier.

What to do?

Lord, I’m stuck again. While Goodie and I are back to where we belong, there’s been no decision on this. Please, what is it you would have us do?
All the while she prayed, she adjusted the draft so the oven would heat up for baking the bread and put several sticks of wood in the stove.

A rap at the back door announced Goodie’s arrival.

“So, he’s here?” Her eyes sparkled. “Olaf said I should go ahead and buy one too.”

“Goodie, we need to talk.” There, it was out in the open.

“I know, but I don’t know what to do.” She hung her wool shawl on the peg by the door and pulled out one of the kitchen chairs.

“The coffee will be hot in a minute or two.”

“Good.” She studied her clasped fingers, then looked up at Penny. “What do you think we should do? I don’t ever want to get in a stew like that one again. All I could think was that I was going to get rich selling sewing machines to every woman in Dakota Territory. I didn’t sleep good, I snapped at the children, and poor Olaf. He didn’t know what hit us. Then there’s the way I treated you.” She shook her head, her lower lip quivering. “I don’t never want to go through such a thing again. Uff da.”

“Me either. But we got to look at this with business eyes. Women
need
that machine. Mr. Drummond needs someone in this area to sell and maybe repair the Singer sewing machines. Women need a supply of different kinds of cloth-I got a few but not very many, really.” She poured them each a cup of coffee and set a plate of sour cream cookies out on the table. After sitting down and dunking a cookie, she continued. “So, I can expand my store on the west wall, been thinking of doing that anyway, and put up shelves, set up a couple of machines, and see what happens.

“But, I’ve got about all the business right now I can handle, unless I hire someone full time to help me. When the boardinghouse is built, I won’t be serving dinner to the railroad men like I been doing, but that won’t be until spring, and winter is when women have more time for sewing.”

“I could come work for you.”