Sleigh Ride (Homespun) (6 page)

“That’s wonderful!  We’ll eat yours for supper tomorrow!”  Millie smiled at Charlotte.  She would get to try to cook a turkey for the first time.

Michael shook his head.  “Papa said we’re saving mine for Christmas, because it’s bigger!” 

Millie grinned.  “Wow!  You shot Christmas dinner!  You’re practically grown up!”

“Papa said I could tell you, and then I had to go out and help him clean the turkeys.”   He turned and ran back outside slamming the door behind him.  Charlotte and Millie laughed and laughed.  His enthusiasm for his first kill was contagious.

“So, Michael shot his first turkey, and that means you get to cook your first turkey!”  Millie grinned at her friend, watching for her reaction.

“Are turkeys hard to cook?”

Millie shook her head.  “Not terribly.  I’ll walk you through it.  We’ll be able to eat on a turkey for a few days.  Tomorrow you get to learn to make turkey, and then Wednesday, I’ll teach you to make turkey pot pie, and on Thursday turkey soup, and Friday we’ll have turkey sandwiches.

Charlotte grinned.  “I think I see where this is going!”

“It won’t be so bad on Christmas, because there will be so many of us eating it.”  She looked down at her sewing, confident Charlotte had dinner in hand.  “Why don’t you invite James to lunch on Sunday?  We could start a nice big pot of turkey and dumplings before church, and he could try your cooking for the first time.  You know what the cook at the orphanage always said.”

Charlotte shook her head.  “No.  I rarely had any time with her.”

Millie grinned and put on the high falsetto voice of the cook she’d loved so well.  “If you ever want a man to fall in love with you, there’s only one way to make it happen.  Feed him.”

Charlotte smiled.  “No, she never said that to me.”

Patience looked up from her schoolbooks.  “Do you think that’s true, Mama?”

Millie shook her head.  “It’s true that men like to eat, but there’s a lot more they want from a wife than just a good meal.”

Patience nodded, and looked back down at her books.

Millie winked at Charlotte, loving the playfulness she felt when her childhood friend was around.

Chapter Five

Bess loved the idea of spending Christmas with the Stevens family.  “I’ll have to ask John, of course, but I’m sure he’ll agree.”  She took a bite of the cookie Charlotte had made for her visit that morning.  “What can I bring?”

Millie thought about that.  “You don’t need to bring anything.”

Bess shook her head.  “I insist!  How about I bring a dessert?  You can never have too many desserts on Christmas.”

“That would be fine!”  She showed Bess the finished gowns for the baby, and the almost finished quilt.  “What do you think?”

Bess smiled nodding enthusiastically.  “You’re fortunate to have all the diapers and furniture you need for the baby.  I’m going to have to do a lot of work to get ready.”

They talked happily for a few minutes about their preparations, but Millie realized they’d left Charlotte out and changed the subject.  “So tell us about your sleigh ride with James?  What do you think of him?”

Charlotte turned red, obviously uncomfortable with the new topic.  She poked her needle into the shirt she was mending for Jacob.  “He’s not easy to get talking.”

Bess laughed.  “Once he knows you, he’ll never shut up!  I can barely get a word in edgewise between John and him.”  She exchanged a glance with Millie over the blush on Charlotte’s face.  “He said he really enjoyed the ride and hoped you could make it a regular Sunday afternoon thing.”

Charlotte nodded.  “We’re going again next week.  I’m going to invite him to lunch at church on Sunday.”  She paused for a moment.  “Millie suggested I make turkey and dumplings.  Would he like that?”

“Oh yes.  He’ll like anything you cook for him, really.  He’s not a picky eater.  The only thing I’ve found he doesn’t like is turnips.”

Charlotte made a mental note never to fix turnips for him.  They only had two weeks before Christmas, and she was getting a little nervous about it.  She’d never had a beau before, and knowing there was a man waiting to take her for a sleigh ride every Sunday, and whom she’d be cooking for on Christmas Day, made her worry she’d do something to ruin things.

The turkey turned out to be a big success.  Charlotte couldn’t believe the huge amount of meat left when she was cleaning up the dishes that evening.  Millie hadn’t been joking about them eating it for a week to come.  At least they’d have a short break from turkey before she had to cook it again for Christmas dinner.

That evening, while George read to them from Acts, the two women started on the gifts for their Christmas company.  Charlotte used some black wool to knit the socks, while Millie let her knitting needles fly with the beautiful white yarn she would turn into a shawl for Bess.  They would have enough time to make what they needed. 

Millie needed to get into town sometime before Christmas to buy some candy for the children’s stockings.  After George finished reading the chapter, she asked, “Will you hitch the team for me tomorrow?  I need to make a trip into town to get candy for the children’s stockings.”

George shook his head.  “I think it would be best if I did it for you.  I really want you to stay close to home and rest as much as you can before the baby comes.  You’re worrying me.”

George and Charlotte studied Millie.  The circles under her eyes were more pronounced and her face was thinner than it had been.  Her belly was still growing, though.  “I think you need to eat more.”  Charlotte blurted out the words without thinking.

George nodded.  “I agree.  I don’t think you’re eating enough.”

“But I’m huge!  Agnes was telling me I’d be big as a house if I keep eating like I am.”
  She hated that Agnes’s words had bothered her, but they had.  Before Agnes mentioned how big she was, Millie had forced herself to eat a decent amount whether she had an appetite or not.  Ever since, she’d just eaten what she felt like eating, which was almost nothing.  The constant nausea kept her from having an appetite.

George shook his head.  “Agnes doesn’t know you.  She has no idea what you’re eating.  You can’t listen to her.  You need to eat more.  Your bones are starting to stick out you’re getting so thin.  It’s only your belly that’s getting big, and that’s my child in there.  She’s sucking all the nutrients right out of you.”

Millie sighed looking at her hands.  It was so hard to eat these days.  She just never felt well enough to want to eat.  “I’ll try.”  She hated to make everyone worry about her. 

“Is there anything else you want me to get from town while I’m there?  I’ll go tomorrow.”

Millie shook her head.  “I went last week and got what I needed while I was picking up Charlotte.  I couldn’t get candy, though, because the girls were with me.”

“Do you have their other gifts sorted out?”

“Yes.  I’ve made what I want them to have.  It would just be so nice to have candy for their Christmas stockings.”

George stood and put the Bible back onto the shelf.  “They’ll have it.”  He looked at Charlotte.  “Is there anything you need?”

Charlotte shook her head.  She didn’t want to spend any of her money in case she decided to go back home.  She’d need every dime she had and more.

“I’m going to head into bed then.  I’ll see you in the morning, Charlotte.”

Millie sat knitting for another minute, and then stood.  “I should go to bed too.”

Charlotte stood and blew out the lantern.  “Me too.  Mornings come early here.”  As they went their separate ways, she couldn’t keep her mind off Millie.  She really did look unwell.  She hoped there was nothing wrong with her or the baby she carried.

Charlotte found herself feeling shy again when she saw James at church on Sunday morning.  She’d said she was going to ask him to lunch, and had even started a special lunch with him in mind, but she wasn’t sure she could get up the courage to actually do it.  She stood chatting with him at the back of the church while she waited for the sermon to begin.  Just as Pastor Jenkins walked to the pulpit, she finally blurted out, “Would you like to come to lunch at the Stevens’ house today?”

He smiled and nodded.  “I’d be honored.”
  His eyes seemed to jump with excitement that she’d thought to invite him and wasn’t just agreeing to what he wanted to do.

She hurried to her seat with Millie and her family, holding Grace in her lap, after the little girl fidgeted too much on Millie’s.  Charlotte thought it was funny how put out the little girl was that her mother’s lap was too crowded for her these days.  Grace had no problem sitting with Charlotte.  The two of them had become close during her time in Minnesota.

Once the service was over and they’d sung the final hymn, she stood, putting Grace on her feet on the floor.  James came to stand with her and asked George if he would mind if she rode back to their place with him.  George shook his head.  “Just make sure you take one of the children as a chaperone.”

James nodded.  Patience was already across the church talking to her friends, but he would ask her when it got closer to time to leave. 

Many of the people Charlotte had met the week before came over to talk to her and ask her how she liked Minnesota.  It was strange.  She did like Minnesota, and it wasn’t much colder than Boston, but the remoteness of their location made it seem so much colder.  She answered everyone’s questions, and even had a couple of other single farmers ask her if she’d like to go on a sleigh ride.  The first time it happened her eyes cut to James at the question, but his expression remained shuttered.

“I’m sorry.  James and I are courting,” she answered in a soft voice.  Her face was red as she said the words, but they needed to be said to keep all the other bachelors away from her.

James smiled and nodded at her words, pleased she’d been so bold.  He didn’t want the other men to think she was available. 

When it was time to leave, Charlotte walked to where Patience was talking with her friends, and asked her if she would mind riding home with her and James.  Patience’s eyes lit up.  “I’d love to.”

Her friends looked at Patience with envy.  They loved the idea of going for long sleigh rides, and Patience got to do it every week now. 

Patience waved goodbye to her friends and went out to get into James’s sleigh with Charlotte.  “Is he coming for lunch?” she whispered into Charlotte’s ear.  Charlotte nodded.

“I hope you like turkey and dumplings.”  Charlotte turned toward James to speak as soon as he started the horses.

He smiled down at her.  “Absolutely.  I love it.”  He paused for a moment.  “Actually I’m just thrilled not to have to eat my own cooking.  I make a mean piece of toast, and thankfully Bess keeps me supplied with fresh butter and jam.  She also sends home a loaf of bread every couple of days.  I’d starve otherwise.”

He was a lot more open and chatty this week.  Maybe it had only been nervousness keeping him so quiet last week.

“Are you coming over for Christmas dinner with Bess and John?”

He nodded emphatically.  “I am.  It’ll be nice having a houseful on Christmas.  My parents moved back east a couple of years back, and took our younger brothers and sisters.  It’s been odd not having them around, especially during the holidays.”

Charlotte sighed wistfully.  “I don’t have any siblings.  Millie is the closest thing I’ve ever had to a sister.”

“Well, if we marry, I’ll happily share mine with you.”  He watched her out of the corner of his eye as he made the suggestion as if to gauge her reaction. 

She wasn’t sure how to react to that, so she said nothing.  They pulled up in front of the farmhouse then, and Patience ran inside while James helped
Charlotte down.  “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

She led the way inside, and he sat down with Millie and George, who had beaten them home by a few minutes, while Charlotte put on a huge apron and checked the dumplings.  The meal had been cooking over a low heat since they’d left for church that morning, and it looked perfect. 

Charlotte took down the dishes and carefully set the table while James talked with George about the weather.  Once she had everything carefully arranged, she sliced several pieces of bread and put butter on the table, then went to call the children for the meal. 

George asked James to say the blessing, and Charlotte bowed her head, thinking she could be listening to James pray over their meals for the rest of her life.  His prayer was short.  “Father God, we thank you for the meal you have provided for us and the wonderful company we have to share it with.  We pray this in Jesus’s name.  Amen.”

Charlotte sat next to James and quickly served the meal.  She said a quick silent prayer that the food tasted as good as it smelled.  She didn’t want James to run away screaming because her cooking was bad.

She took her first bite with caution, but her eyes widened.  This was really good.  She gave Millie a wink to thank her for the help. 

James took his first bite and sighed.  “This is wonderful!  Did you cook it Charlotte?”
 

Charlotte nodded with a blush.  “Yes I did.  Thank you.”  She paused, determined to give credit where it was due.  “Millie walked me through every step.  I couldn’t have done it without her.”