The Mistaken Mail Order Bride (9 page)

“There’s some left over muffins on the shelf
over there.” He gestured to a covered box. “Lois always felt sorry
for me since I had no wife, so she made it a point to bake muffins.
Feel free to have as many as you want. I’ve had enough to last me a
lifetime.” He shot her a wry grin. “I made one comment about loving
blueberries, and the next thing I know, she’s been making blueberry
muffins every week. I don’t know if I’ll ever eat another blueberry
for as long as I live.”

She couldn’t help but chuckle as he made his
way to the bedroom, grimacing as if he’d just been forced to eat a
whole plate full of muffins. The poor gentleman. Well, she’d have
to make sure she didn’t learn how to make muffins.

She was ready to get Caleb when she realized
he’d been watching her and Eric from his doorway. The boy was so
quiet. If she hadn’t been sure he was alive, she might have
mistaken him for a ghost.

Hoping to set his mind at ease, she waved
him toward her. “It’s alright. This is your home, too. You can come
out.”

After a moment, he took a step around the
door.

“Have you ever had blueberry muffins?” she
asked.

She hadn’t expected him to respond, but she
felt compelled to ask the question anyway, mostly to fill in the
silence that hung in the air between them.

However, he surprised her by saying, “Don’t
know.”

She smiled. He’d spoken to her. Yes, it’d
been two words, but he’d still spoken them, and more than that,
he’d said them to her.

“Well,” she replied with all the charm she’d
been brought up with, “if you’ll have a seat over here,” she
gestured to the chair Eric had been sitting on, “I’ll get some.
Then you can decide if you like them. When we’re done, you can put
on your day clothes.”

While she gathered the muffins and two
plates, Caleb went over to the table and sat on the chair. She
offered him another smile before she served them both their first
official breakfast in their new home.

Chapter Seven

L
ater that day after he was rested, Eric arranged for Hank to
make Caleb a bed. After that, he and Caroline took Caleb to the
doctor, thinking it best to make sure the boy was in good health as
soon as possible. He hadn’t expected Caroline to be anxious while
they waited for the doctor’s analysis. She kept clasping and
unclasping her hands and fidgeting next to Eric the entire time the
doctor did his examination. At one point, Eric put his arm around
her shoulders, hoping it’d help calm her down, but for some reason,
it seemed to make her all the more worried.

“It’s a routine exam,” he whispered while
the doctor asked Caleb to cough.

“I know,” she whispered in return. “But I
can’t help it. He’s been through so much already. I don’t think he
could handle being sick.”

She was sweet. There was no denying it. He
didn’t know if she’d always been blessed with a big heart, but
there was no doubt having gone through the war had made her care
deeply for others. Hard times had different effects on people. For
some, it made them bitter. For others, it made them better. And for
Caroline, she’d definitely come out better for it, though he
thought it was a shame she’d had to go through the war at all.

Caleb glanced their way, but the doctor
tapped him on the shoulder. “We’re almost done. Keep your eyes on
my finger.” The doctor moved his finger to the left then the right
then up and then down. With a smile, he turned to Caroline and
Eric. “He looks fine.” He smiled at Caleb. “You did good, young
man.”

Caroline visibly relaxed and hurried over to
the boy.

The doctor pulled Eric aside, and Eric
glanced over at Caroline to make sure she was distracted. If there
was anything bad—if the doctor didn’t want to alarm her—then Eric
didn’t want her to overhear.

“What happened to Caleb before your wife
found him?” the doctor asked.

“I don’t know. All I know is that she found
him on the street,” Eric said, keeping his voice low. “He hasn’t
said anything except his name and age, and she couldn’t find anyone
who knew him.”

The doctor let out a thoughtful sigh.
“Something horrible happened to him. He’s too somber and quiet. I
don’t see any signs of abuse, so I think whatever occurred happened
to someone he cared about.”

“That would explain why he didn’t have a
mother or father with him.”

The doctor looked at Caroline, and Eric
followed his lead, noting the way Caroline hugged him. Caleb leaned
into her and let her rub his back.

“He was obviously raised by someone who took
good care of him,” the doctor said. “He doesn’t have trouble
trusting your wife. Maybe it’s because she’s a woman. If it was his
mother who took care of him, that would explain his attachment to
her.”

That was one possibility. Another was the
fact that Caroline had had her own share of sorrow and loss, and
Caleb might have picked up on it. Or, of course, it could have been
a mixture of both possibilities.

“Have you seen him around other children?”
the doctor asked.

Eric turned his gaze back to him. “No. He
just came in yesterday with Caroline.”

“Well, that’ll come in time. You’ll want to
put him in school come September.”

Eric hadn’t thought of that, but the man was
right. School would be a good way for Caleb to be around other
children, and he’d have a chance to learn the basics of writing and
arithmetic.

Eric almost didn’t ask the doctor his next
question but knew it would come up at some point with one of the
townsfolk so he might as well get it over with. “You don’t think
the fact that his skin color is different from the other children
around here will disqualify him from going to school, do you?”

“You’re the sheriff,” the doctor replied.
“I’d say that’s up to you. As I recall, you came here to make life
better for all people.”

Eric should have expected that kind of
answer. And the doctor was right. When Eric came here, he was
determined to give everyone a fair chance. And no one was going to
get it if he waited for others to step in and do the right
thing.

“Since that’s the case,” Eric began, “then I
say Caleb can one day be a doctor if that’s what he wants to
do.”

The doctor smiled. “That’s the sheriff I
know.” He gave him a pat on the shoulder. “Don’t let anyone sway
you from your principles. A man either stands for something, or he
falls for everything.”

Eric nodded to indicate his agreement. The
doctor was right, of course. He’d come here to make a difference,
and this would be one way of doing it. He returned to Caroline and
Caleb.

“How is he?” Caroline asked, her gaze going
from Eric to the doctor.

“He’s in good health,” the doctor told her.
He picked up a jar full of candy and showed it to Caleb. “Since
you’ve been good, you can have some candy.”

When Caleb didn’t make a move to take any,
Eric said, “He might still be full from breakfast. I’ll take a
couple and then give them to him later.”

“Alright.” The doctor turned to him, and
Eric selected a piece of licorice and a piece of peppermint,
figuring one should be something Caleb might like.

“The important thing is you’re well,”
Caroline told Caleb as she helped him to his feet. “We want you to
grow up and live a full life.”

Eric caught the way she choked up on the
last part of her comment. Considering she’d probably seen more than
her fair share of death during the war, he had no doubt she’d
learned not to take the prospect of a long and healthy life for
granted. In this life, there were no guarantees.

Eric paid the doctor and then led his new
family out of the small building. The dusty road was pretty quiet,
though he caught a glimpse of a couple of people who peeked out of
their windows as they walked home. Even after answering some
questions yesterday, they were still dying to find out more about
Caroline and the boy she’d brought with her.

“
Do you have to go to work,
or are you free the rest of the day?” Caroline asked.

He brought his attention to his wife, doing
his best to ignore their audience. He’d had no idea just how small
this town really was until now. It was starting to seem like Abe
and Travis had the right idea by living further out so they didn’t
have to deal with all of this

“No one’s in the jail,” Eric began, “and I
think after all the excitement last night, I’m due for a day off.”
Though maybe he should check up on Abe and Phoebe to see how they
were doing. But if he did that, he’d want to bring Caroline and
Caleb so they could meet them. So he should probably wait.
“Everything can wait until tomorrow,” he decided. “We should take
this as a chance to get to know each other better.” Glancing at
Caleb, who was staring at the ground, he added, “I probably know
more about you two than you know about me.”

Caroline smiled. “Yes, but everyone is more
curious about us because we’re new. It’s no wonder you didn’t have
much of a chance to tell us about yourself.”

Eric turned his gaze back to her. So she’d
noticed their silent audience as well. He returned her smile with
an apologetic one. In a low voice, he replied, “I suppose it’s
human nature to be curious.”

“Oh, I don’t mind. When I grew up, my
parents had a lot of people over for dinners and balls. My father
was a prominent businessman, and I was often the center of
attention because of it. I got used to people looking at me. I
hardly even notice it. I just worry it’ll make Caleb
uncomfortable.”

He couldn’t blame her for that. After
everything the boy had been through, the last thing he needed was
to be the focus of the town’s gossip, but Eric didn’t see how that
could be prevented. Whether it was fair or not, he was different,
and that was going to make him stick out from the others. No one
knew what that was like better than Abe Thomas.

“Tomorrow, I’d like to introduce you and
Caleb to some friends of mine,” Eric said. “But for today, I think
we should take time to be together as a family.”

“That’d be lovely,” Caroline replied.

He caught the pleased expression on her face
and was reminded, once again, of how sweet she was. Yes, her coming
to this town had been a mistake, but he was beginning to suspect it
was the best mistake that had ever happened to him.

On impulse, he picked Caleb up and showed
him the two pieces of candy he still had in his hand. “Are you sure
you don’t want to eat one?”

Caleb didn’t respond for a moment, but then
he took the licorice and ate it.

“A boy after my own heart,” Eric said. “I
like licorice more than peppermint, too.”

Caroline chuckled. “I prefer
peppermint.”

“You do?” Eric asked.

She nodded. “I like the minty taste. I used
to slip a peppermint into tea. It’ll melt when the tea is hot
enough.”

“I’ve never thought to do something like
that, but then, it’s been a long time since I’ve had tea. I only
have coffee in the house.”

“I’ve had coffee, too. It’s cheaper than
tea. And, yes, I have put peppermint in coffee to add some flavor
to it, too.”

Peppermint in coffee? Now he was intrigued.
He’d have to try it.

They continued the rest of the way to their
home in a comfortable silence.

***

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Caroline
asked as Eric added another cut up carrot to the soup he was
making. “Being the lady, isn’t it my job to do the cooking?”

“If memory serves, you said you have to
learn how to make meals,” Eric replied as he turned to the celery
on the chopping board. When she frowned, he offered her a
reassuring smile. “Soup is easy. All you do is put broth, water,
and whatever you want to eat into a pot. Then you boil it for a
while and eat. You can add salt and pepper for extra flavor.
Really, there’s nothing else to it.”

“Yes, that’s the way you make it sound.”

Little did he know soup was one of her most
miserable failures.

As she watched him add celery to the soup,
she ventured, “Does Phoebe Thomas know how to cook things other
than soup?”

“Probably. I’m assuming so.” He gave her a
reassuring smile. “She grew up in an apartment in Cincinnati, Ohio,
so she had to learn how to cook.”

Good. Because if she had to cook soup again,
she would panic.

Eric added salt and pepper to the soup and
stirred it.

“That smells good.” Already, her stomach was
rumbling in anticipation. If this was half as good as the meal
she’d had yesterday evening, she was in for a treat. “You make
cooking look so easy.”

“I think soup is easy. Don’t ask me how to
make something more complicated like fried chicken or pot roast. I
can only handle the basics.”

She wasn’t sure she could even handle that,
but she didn’t have the heart to tell him that. He had more
confidence in her ability to cook than she did. She was certainly
willing to learn everything Phoebe could teach her, though there
was no guarantee the lessons would do any good.