Daisy (Suitors of Seattle) (2 page)

Mary looked between Harriett and Daisy warily.  “Please tell me you didn’t actually go to your aunt and ask her to just choose a man for you to marry.  You know that’s not what I wanted.”
 

Daisy hid her smile as she looked down at her hands.  She didn’t say anything, using her shyness as a cover.  She did not want to have to be the one to break the news to her mother that she was about to move to Montana. 

Harriett looked over at Daisy, and seeing her head bowed, put her hand over hers to try to give her confidence.  She wasn’t sure how to help Daisy face her mother, but she knew she needed to.  “Daisy did come to me to find her a husband, and I think I’ve found just the man for her.  Higgins has investigated him, and we’ve only heard good things about him.”

Mary sighed.  “Please tell me you haven’t agreed to marry him.  Invite him over for supper and let us get to know him first.”

Harriett looked at Daisy, who was still staring down at her hands, and she realized that Daisy was planning to let her do all the talking.  She sighed.  If it had been any of her nieces but Daisy, she wouldn’t have done it.  “That’s not possible, I’m afraid.  Eli lives in Montana.”

“Montana?”  Mary’s voice was shrill and panicked.  “You’re sending my daughter off to Montana to marry a total stranger?  She was not raised to be a mail order bride!”

Daisy looked up for the first time and saw the utter panic in her mother’s eyes.  “Mama, I’ve thought long and hard about this.  There’s no man I’m interested in here in Seattle.  My whole life I’ve felt like just another of the ‘flower girls.’  In Montana, I’ll be a person in my own right.”

Fred watched his daughter carefully.  “I think she should go.”
  His words were soft, but they were spoken with a finality that had Daisy smiling.  Her mother never argued with him when he used that tone.

Mary stared at him in shock.  “What do you mean
, you think she should go?”

Fred shrugged, slightly afraid now that his wife’s attentions were on him.  “Daisy doesn’t thrive here like our other girls do.  She really does live in their shadows.  I want her to be happy, and I can see that she won’t be if she stays here.  Higgins checked the man out, so he must be a good man, and she knows that if anything happens she can catch the first train home.”  He looked at Daisy.  “I wish you ever
y happiness.”

Daisy stared at her father in surprise.  In her experience, he never stood up to her mother.  He made the money, but her mother was the one who made all the decisions regarding her and her sisters.  She jumped up, ran around the desk, and threw herself into her father’s arms.  “Thank you, Papa!”

Fred patted her back awkwardly.  “You just make sure you come home if he doesn’t treat you like the princess you are.”

Daisy nodded, tears in her eyes.  “I will.”

Mary looked at her husband cradling their eighteen year old daughter on his lap and shook her head.  She turned back to Harriett.  “Tell us about this Eli person.”

“He’s a rancher in Montana.  He first sent off for a bride six years ago, but he was able to buy some more land and wanted to wait until he had the resources that he wouldn’t have to work sixteen hour days before he married, so he sent another letter saying to wait.  He’s doing well enough that he wants a bride now.”

“He wanted a bride six years ago?  Just how old is he?” Mary asked, her voice filled with fear.

Harriett smiled, having expected that question.  “He’s twenty-six.  He was only twenty when he first sent for a bride.”

Mary looked at Daisy still curled up on her father’s lap and sighed.  “I guess that’s not too old for Daisy.”  She sighed sadly.  “I’m not ready to give my baby up, though.”

Fred smiled.  “You shouldn’t have been pushing her to marry then.”  He patted Daisy awkwardly as she got to her feet and walked back to the couch to sit with Harriett.

“I’ll be fine, Mama.  We have some time before I leave as well, so you can help me get ready.”  She smiled at her mother.  “I have ordered some work dresses so I can have something to wear when I’m cooking and cleaning.”  Daisy secretly loved the idea of cooking and cleaning for a man.  She didn’t remember a time when her family hadn’t had servants, and somehow it seemed glamorous to her to work for her family. 

Mary wrinkled her nose.  “Well, you enjoy the cooking and cleaning.”  She shook her head.  “When do you leave?”

“Not for another ten days or so.  My ticket is for January fifth.”  Daisy smiled happily.  The worst of it was over.  Her parents knew what she was doing, and her father was on her side.

“Ten days?  That doesn’t give us much time!”

“Mama, we don’t need much time.  I have what I need to take a train.  It’s not like I need more clothes or anything.  I’ll probably have to leave half my clothes here as it is.”

Mary shook her head.  “You will not!  We’ll start sending trunks of your things on the train tomorrow and arrange for them to be stored until we get there.”
  As usual, Mary was starting to plan and manage everything.

Daisy looked at her mother, her brown eyes wide.  “We?”
  She hoped that didn’t mean what she was afraid it meant.

“You don’t think I’m going to let you take a train all the way to Montana without going with you, do you?”

Daisy sighed as her heart sank in her chest.  Her mother was going to go with her to be a mail order bride?  “Of course not, Mama.”

Mary thought for a moment.  “We’ll take Jasmine.”  She looked at Harriett.  “Can the younger girls stay with you?”
  They could stay with their papa and the servants, of course, but Mary wanted them to be under the thumb of their aunt who wasn’t so easily swayed.

“Not Jasmine, Mama!  Anyone but Jasmine!”

“She’s your eldest unmarried sister.  She’ll accompany us.  I’d say Amaryllis, but she has her work, and she’s expecting.  She shouldn’t be travelling.”

Daisy sighed.  “Yay.  Hours on a train with Jasmine.  Life couldn’t get better.”

“You will not be sarcastic, Daisy Sullivan.  It’s unladylike.”

“How long do you plan to stay in Montana, Mama?”

“I have no idea.  I assume there’s a hotel nearby?” Mary’s eyes met Harriett’s.  “Where did Higgins stay?”

“There’s a hotel in Billings, and he’s not too far from Billings.”  Harriett looked from Mary to Daisy.  “I don’t know if it’s a good idea for a mail order bride to show up with her mother in tow.”
   Her voice was skeptical.

Mary shrugged.  “I really don’t care.  I will be with her, and if he can’t accept that, then I just won’t be able to accept him as my son-in-law.”

Harriett sighed.  “I guess you’re going to Montana.”  She stood up.  “I’m going to go join the others.” 

Daisy watched her go, wishing she’d had her aunt as a buffer for a little longer.  At least her father was staying.  “I’d really rather you and Jasmine stayed home, Mama.”

“It’s not happening.”  Mary changed the subject.  “So how many work dresses did you order?”

“Six.  One for every day of the week except Sunday, because I’ll wear a church dress on Sunday.”  Most of the dresses that she wore now would make perfect church dresses.  Living in the city was so much different than living in the country.

Mary nodded slowly.  “That should work.  You have a new apron, don’t you?”

Daisy nodded.  “Yes, I made one a couple of months ago for working at the women’s shelter.”

“Your life is going to be very different.  You’ve never even fixed a meal, or cleaned a house, or done laundry!”

“What do you think I do at the women’s shelter?  I don’t just sit around holding the women’s hands and saying, ‘There, there.’  I work, Mama.  I do laundry, cook, clean, mind the children, and anything else anyone can think of.  I’m perfectly qualified to be a wife and mother.”

Mary’s eyes filled with tears.  “I won’t know my grandchildren.”

Daisy sighed.  “I’m moving to Montana, not Florida.  Trains are fast, and we can travel to see you on occasion.  Or you could take a train to Billings to see me.”

“Yes, I could, and don’t think I won’t!”

“No one thinks you won’t travel out there, Mama.  Well, poor Eli might, but he’ll learn differently very quickly.”

*****

The week and a half of preparation went quickly for Daisy.  Her mother insisted on having a wedding dress sewn as well, which Daisy thought was a waste.  As a rancher’s wife, she needed to be more practical, and it just wasn’t practical to have a dress she’d only wear for one day.  She tried to talk her mother into having a dress made that would work as a Sunday dress, but she was adamant that her daughter would have a pretty wedding dress to pass down to her daughters. 

A bridesmaid dress was made for Jasmine, and Daisy held her tongue.  She would rather have Iris, her youngest sister, as a bridesmaid than Jasmine.  Jasmine was a practical joker, and you never knew what would happen when she was around.
 
Daisy was not looking forward to the train ride if her sister was involved.  There was no way she could get away from her!

The night before they left for Montana, her family threw a small party.  It was only family, plus Higgins’s family, just like it had been at Christmas.  Daisy found some time
to be alone with her favorite sister, Amaryllis, by grabbing her sister’s hand and slipping up to her room. 

“I can’t believe you’re actually marrying a stranger and moving to Montana!  What were you thinking?”
  Amaryllis was obviously worried about her.

Daisy shrugged, tears in her eyes.  She would genuinely miss this sister if not all the others.  “Right this second, I’m not sure what I was thinking.”

Amaryllis hugged her sister tightly.  “At least you won’t be just another ‘flower’ there.”  Amaryllis had always known how Daisy felt about blending in with her sisters and not having her own identity.

“That’s one of the things I was thinking.”  Daisy smiled slightly.  “I’m going to miss
you
, though.”  She sighed heavily.  “I wish I would be given the opportunity to miss Jasmine.”

Amaryllis chuckled.  “I wish Jasmine was moving to Montana
, and you were staying right here.  Who are we going to trick into marrying
her
?”  She shook her head, knowing the two of them would always be able to laugh about how horrid Jasmine was.

Daisy grinned.  “I have no idea.  There must be a very stupid, very smelly man somewhere in Seattle.”

They both giggled, and when Jasmine walked into Daisy’s room where they’d been talking, their giggles escalated.  “What’s wrong with you two?”  Jasmine eyed them both suspiciously.  For all her mischief, Jasmine was very bright.

Daisy shrugged, her eyes meeting Amaryllis’s.  “Nothing’s wrong.  We’re just talking.”

“About what?”  Jasmine’s eyes were narrowed as she glared at her older sisters.

“We were talking about how we need to find just the right man for you.  You deserve someone really special.”  Daisy smiled sweetly.

Amaryllis nodded to agree with Daisy.  “Someone who will treat you just like you deserve to be treated.”

Jasmine shook her head.  “I know you two were not talking about who I’m going to marry.”  When neither of them said anything else, she said, “Mama wants you two downstairs.  She said it’s our last party with Daisy for a long time, and she’s not going to let Daisy hide away with just you, Rilly.”

Daisy and Amaryllis got to their feet obediently.  “We’re coming.”

Jasmine left the room ahead of them, and the sisters exchanged another look and laughed some more.  “She is going to get the man she deserves, right?  You’ll see to it?” Daisy asked.

Amaryllis nodded.  “I’ll do my very best.”

*****

The fifteen hour train ride the following day did nothing to improve Daisy’s feelings for her sister.  Jasmine didn’t play any of her jokes, but she spent the entire trip trying to make Daisy fear her new husband.  “What if he has spots all over him?”

Daisy shrugged.  “What if he does?  I’m not overly concerned about what he looks like.  Higgins has assured he’s a good man, and that’s all that really matters to me.”

“What if he has fifteen dogs and lets them eat off the table?”

Daisy didn’t bother to respond as Jasmine went through a list of things she thought would make for a terrible husband.  Finally Mary shook her head at Jasmine.  “Leave your sister alone.”  She took Daisy’s hand from across the aisle.  “Are you nervous about meeting Eli?”

“A little.”  Daisy had always been incredibly shy with strangers, so her mother knew the answer.  She was no more nervous about meeting him than she was most strangers, though.  Meeting anyone new was scary for her.  She couldn’t help but wonder what he looked like or how he’d feel about how she looked, though.  She smoothed her dress down carefully, even though it wasn’t nearly time to meet him.

“You can always change your mind, Daisy.”

Daisy shook her head.  “No.  I agreed to marry him, and I won’t go back on my word.  Even if he’s covered with spots, lets his fifteen dogs eat off the table, and hasn’t bathed in six weeks.”  She couldn’t believe her mother would even suggest such a thing.  She’d taught them all to keep their word no matter what.