Page 5 of Sudden Mail-Order Bride (Frontier Brides #1)

Jeremy hadn’t even settled on where to take Caroline on their walk before she came down the stairs carrying her coat.

“Allow me,”

he said, taking the gray wool from her.

She’d tried to put up her hair in a bun at the top of her head, but the thick black tresses were already sliding down toward her nape. He moved them out of the way of her collar. They felt like silk against his fingers. He had to make himself step back and grab his own coat from one of the hooks along the hallway.

“This way,”

he said, opening the door.

“Will you show me the ranch?”

she asked, following him out onto the porch.

She might as well have planted a fist in his gut. He fought off the reaction. He’d invited Deborah to come. Surely, if Caroline was asking, she wanted to see the ranch.

As soon as they stepped off the front porch, he slipped his hand over hers, testing. She didn’t pull away. In fact, a smile lifted her rosy lips. Both were good signs.

They walked across the side yard and over to the split rail fence that encircled the pasture. He’d been too little to set it in place the first time. That honor had belonged to Pa and Jesse. But he, Jack, and Jacob had repaired it more times than he could count over the years, and he’d helped expand it to enclose additional pasture and fields.

“From here to the road west,”

he explained, waving his hand, “to the forest north, the edge of the plateau east, and the blockhouse south, the land belongs to my parents.”

She turned in a circle as if to take it all in. “That’s a lot of land!”

“Three hundred and twenty acres,”

he said, finding it impossible to hide his pride in the fact. “Jack’s claimed another one hundred and sixty, mostly forest. The bulk of the land is in pasture, though we have a large garden beyond the house and a few fields for hay. Come on, I’ll show you.”

He walked her past the barns, pointing out the chicken coop, pig pen, sheep pasture, and his mother’s garden. It was mostly bare now, with potatoes, turnips, and carrots still growing, along with a few early peas Ma had forced. He even toured her through the shadowy barns.

“We have horses for riding and drawing the wagon or plow,”

he explained, nodding toward the stalls. “And spots for up to three cows at a time for milking.”

“I thought you had cattle for beef,”

she said, craning her neck as if to see out the door of the barn.

“Mostly,”

he agreed. “But we have a few cows with calves at any given time throughout the year, and we take turns milking them.”

“What a blessing for baking!”

She straightened and grinned at him. “Butter! Cheese! Curds!”

His heart lightened. “I’m glad you appreciate it.”

“I do,”

she promised, putting her hand back in his as if she’d been doing it all her life. “We couldn’t keep milk in the summer in Cincinnati. Our ice box was too small. So, if I bought some at the market, I had to use it fast. Here, you can use it whenever you like.”

They walked back into the sunlight again, and she blinked. Then she drew in a breath. He waited for the complaint.

“And everything smells so good!”

she exclaimed.

“Get a little closer to the sheep, and you won’t say that,”

he predicted, still expecting her to turn up her nose.

Instead, she spun in a circle, arms wide, and her skirts belled out under the hem of her coat. “Oh, Jeremy! What a wealth you have!”

He shook his head, relief like cool water on a hot day. “You’re a wonder, Caroline Cadhill.”

She stopped. “What, me?”

“Yes, ma’am. I don’t know anyone except Joy who can take such pleasure in things.”

“Well,”

she said, latching onto his arm with both hands, “maybe I just know a blessing when I see one.”

So did he. It humbled him to see the sparkle in her eyes, the tremor of her lips. Did they really have a chance for a life together here?

She tilted her head again as if trying to peer past the barns. “You appear to have only one house, though. Where did you plan for you and your wife to live?”

He nearly missed a step as they started back, and he scolded himself. It wasn’t a complaint. She had every right to know what to expect from her future. And he really should have considered the living arrangements before starting correspondence with a mail-order bride. He and his family would need to live somewhere, and, as his mother had just proven by shoving him and Jacob in with Jason and Joshua, the house had precious little room. Why hadn’t he thought that through?

Perhaps because he hadn’t believed another woman would agree to come to the ranch.

Or that she would stay.

***

They finished their walk and returned to the kitchen, where Jenny quickly appropriated Caroline. His sister and mother had been baking. Jenny had proven herself a talented cook, so much so that she had started to take over some of their mother’s duties.

Ma, on the other hand, seemed torn between quizzing their guest or ordering Jeremy to do something about courting her. In the end, her curiosity must have won, for she handed him a bunch of carrots to peel while the ladies chatted.

Caroline examined the woodstove, shelves filled with preserves, and the pots and pans, and the three ladies discussed recipes and wood smoke and the need for keeping things spotlessly clean. Watching her smile, eyes bright and movements quick and sure, more of the tension leaked out of him. He was so busy watching, in fact, he nicked himself with the peeling knife!

Jacob rescued him before any of the others noticed him fumbling with his handkerchief. His brother had come in from working and stood a moment as if studying Caroline, Ma, and Jenny as he studied one of his beloved books. Then he looked at Jeremy and tipped his head toward the door.

Jeremy joined him in the hallway, tucking his bandaged hand in his pocket. “Everything all right?”

“I was going to ask you that question,”

his brother said, pulling off his wide-brimmed hat. “We haven’t had a moment to talk since she arrived. So, you went and did it, wrote away for a mail-order bride.”

Jeremy shifted on the plank floor. “I told you I was considering it.”

Why did he feel guilty? He made himself still.

“And you knew about her father?”

Jacob pressed. “Joy had some interesting things to say about him.”

“Caroline held nothing back,”

Jeremy promised him. “To me, or to Joy.”

Jacob glanced into the kitchen. “At least she’s more interested in the ranch and the family than Miss Morton or Maisy ever was. It gives me hope.”

Jeremy too, much as he hesitated to embrace that emotion again.

“Just be careful,”

his brother warned, gaze coming back to his. “The Bible says we can know people by the fruits they bear. Maybe wait until you see a little more of Miss Cadhill’s fruit before proposing this time.”

“Now you sound like Ma,”

Jeremy accused.

Jacob pushed up his spectacles. “I take that as a compliment.”

Jeremy smiled, but his brother’s warning stayed with him that afternoon as he dutifully trailed after Caroline. Not content to limit their conversation to the cooking, Ma showed her how other things were done around the house. Caroline continued to show her willingness to help by suggesting they add lavender to the wash water (was that why she smelled so good?), offering a recipe for a concoction to add to the liniment chest that would aid sore muscles, and showing Ma how she turned her skirts to save on having to make new ones.

“Good choice, big brother,”

Jenny murmured to him as they trooped back to the kitchen to finish the dinner preparations. If only he could claim that he’d chosen Caroline and not the other way around.

And so he found himself seated at the dinner table again next to her, placing a slice of venison on her plate from a deer his brother Jason had brought in that day. Jane must have had a talk with him. Jenny had baked oat bread, Caroline had showed her how to mix the butter with apple preserves, and Ma had mashed some of the potatoes.

“Jenny and Joanna, I’d like you to milk this evening,”

Ma directed. “Take Joy with you. She needs to learn to pull properly.”

Joy’s lower lip trembled. “I don’t want to hurt them!”

“Think how much it would hurt them to carry around a full udder all night,”

Pa told her. “You’re doing them a favor.”

“And you’re doing us a favor too,”

Joshua said, reaching for the dish of apple butter again.

“Tomorrow, we’ll have a sewing party,”

Ma continued. “I want that mending done!”

“I’d be happy to help,”

Caroline put in, and Jeremy resigned himself to another day inside.

“Sorry, Ma,”

Jack said, slicing into his steak. “We need to paint the barns while the weather is clear. I need everyone’s help.”

Jeremy winked at Caroline, and she blushed.

“Everyone who isn’t courting,”

he reminded the table at large.

Jack rolled his eyes.

“No,”

Ma said. “You and Caroline can help as well. It seems to be doing you good to work together.”

As if his sisters suspected Jeremy had hoped to avoid the hard work of painting, Jane laughed, and Joanna giggled. Even Jack’s smile won free.

His sisters might have high expectations for courtship, but only his mother would think of painting as a way to further romance.

What was next, fighting off rustlers?

***

What a very pleasant afternoon. Caroline had enjoyed every moment of having Jeremy’s mother show her about the house. Many things—like laundry and mending—were the same as what she’d done in Cincinnati, but even similar things were magnified by the sheer number of people! And she had never had to chop wood or slop pigs or gather eggs. It was all fascinating!

“Musical evening tonight,”

Mrs. Willets declared as Jeremy’s siblings cleared the table. “Store Caroline’s apple butter for the morning…”

Joshua looked up, pulling a finger that had obviously been in the dish from his mouth. “Apple butter’s all gone, Ma.”

“I can make more,”

Caroline offered.

“Perhaps tomorrow,”

Ma allowed. “Put the dishes to soak, Jane. We’ll meet in the parlor.”

“Musical evening?”

Caroline murmured as Jeremy escorted her down the hallway. “Do you all play instruments?”

“Never had any real instruments,”

he acknowledged. “I suppose there’s spoons or beating on the edge of a table, but that doesn’t count. Mostly, we sing hymns and popular songs. Nothing fancy.”

He cast her a glance as they came into the shadowed parlor. “Likely you had a theater or opera house in Cincinnati.”

“Pike’s Opera House,”

she told him as she settled on the sofa and he went to kindle the fire. “I only attended twice. It was very grand, with lots of marble and statues taller than a man, but I found it a little overwhelming to be one of hundreds in the audience.”

“Well, we can’t hope to match that,”

he said, gaze on the flickering flame.

He sounded sad, as if sure he had disappointed her.

“I never sang in a group outside of the academy,”

she tried. “We had music lessons, piano, harp, that sort of thing. We didn’t have instruments to practice on at home, so I never became proficient. And I sing in the alto range, so I’m usually the counterpart, not the melody.”

He did not seem encouraged as he lit the lamp. When he finally came to sit beside her, his shoulders were tight, and his hands were pressed against the knees of his trousers.

His family began joining them then, so she could not ask what was troubling him. Soon, the parlor was full, with Jenny on Caroline’s other side on the sofa, their mother and father on chairs flanking them, and the rest on the remaining chairs. Jack and Jason were missing. They must be watching the cows.

“Do you have a favorite song, Caroline, dear?”

Mrs. Willets asked.

If she had, it promptly went into hiding at the back of her mind.

“I’m sure whatever you normally sing will be lovely,”

she told her.

“‘Wait for the Wagon’?”

Joy put in hopefully.

“Very well,”

Ma agreed.

Ned had been fond of the song, so Caroline knew it and could join in easily. With so many voices, hers blended in, and she told herself no one would judge if she missed a note or two along the way. When they finished, Mr. Willets launched into a hymn.

“I need Thee every hour

Most gracious Lord.

No tender voice like Thine

Can peace afford.”

Caroline sang along as well, having heard the hymn many times in services. But when they all reached the chorus, as if by silent agreement or long tradition, the family broke into harmony. She could only stop and listen, awed.

“I need Thee, oh, I need Thee;

Every hour I need Thee.

Oh, bless me now, my Savior

I come to Thee.”

Mr. Willets took bass, Jacob and Joshua tenor. Jane and Joanna’s voices were warm altos, while Jenny, Joy, and Mrs. Willets sang cool soprano. But Jeremy, oh, Jeremy’s rich baritone carried the melody. To her, he sounded finer than any singer at Mr. Pike’s marvelous Opera House. She could have listened all night.

“Beautiful,”

she breathed when they finished. “Thank you for sharing that with me.”

Now Jeremy stared at her as if she’d been the one to perform so well.

His father chuckled. “You stick with us, Caroline, and you’ll find your part as well.”

So long as that meant staying at Jeremy’s side, she was beginning to believe she would be well content.

***

The next morning, Caroline hurried through her breakfast of porridge, oat bread, and apple preserves, but the others still beat her out the door. And she couldn’t leave the kitchen without asking Jenny whether she’d tried grating cinnamon into the apple preserves.

“Ma usually uses nutmeg,”

Jeremy’s sister said, pulling down one of the golden jars from the shelf and studying it. “But cinnamon would give it a different flavor. I can’t wait until the apple harvest!”

“Neither can I!”

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she bit her lip and turned away to go fetch her coat. Until she and Jeremy made up their minds and he proposed, she had no guarantee she would be at the Jumping J until the apples were harvested. Hope felt as fragile as the shell of a robin’s egg.

Jeremy was waiting for her just outside the kitchen door. He’d put on a heavy coat and was blowing on his hands. She hugged her coat closer as they started toward the nearest of the two barns. Chickens pecked at the muddy ground under a sky where clouds hovered lower than she’d ever seen.

“You don’t get snow this late in the year, do you?”

she asked.

“Not usually,”

he admitted, shoving his hands into his coat pockets. “It’s often dry and cold or wet and warm, even in the winter. But every once in a while, we get a storm that piles up the drifts. Ma and Pa still talk of the Blizzard of ’64.”

She shivered and rubbed both hands up and down her arms. “We can get a foot or more in the winter in Cincinnati, but not this time of year.”

Ahead, she spotted his sisters and brothers by the doors of the barn, and her steps slowed. “I don’t think I’ve ever painted anything in my life. Is it hard?”

“Nothing to it,”

he assured her. “Jack and Jacob will mix up the whitewash and divide it into buckets to pass around to each of us. We just have to use brushes to slosh it over anything that doesn’t move.”

She smiled at him. “I should be able to handle that.”

She nearly changed her mind when they reached the barn. Up close, it towered over her head, and white peeled here and there to reveal strips of weathered gray. Small wonder his brother wanted everyone to help!

All his brothers, all his sisters except Joy, and their father were out in front, and all of them wore heavy canvas aprons over their coats. Jane and Joanna went into the barn, but Jenny held out an apron for Caroline.

“Let me help,”

Jeremy said, taking the apron and draping it about her. He went behind, then reached around to grab the ties.

Caroline couldn’t move as she stood in his embrace, his chest pressed against her back, and his family members watching.

“There,”

he said, stepping away, and she could breathe again. “I don’t suppose anyone brought me an apron.”

“You,”

Jenny said, “know where they’re kept. Now, stop dawdling.”

“You sound more like Ma every day,”

Jason said, but he followed her into the barn.

The others turned to go as well. For a moment, Jeremy’s smile dipped, and she hurt for him. They hadn’t meant to forget him, but she could see why he would see it that way.

She slipped her hand into his. “Perhaps I can paint, and you can direct me. That way you won’t get dirty.”

He blinked, then shook his head. “You, Miss Caroline Cadhill, are entirely too good to me. But I refuse to stand back like a wastrel while you work. Wait here while I fetch my armor, and then your knight will ride forth to do battle with the barn.”