Mail Order Maternity (Brides of Beckham Book 6) (5 page)

He sighed.  “You’re really having a rough time of it, aren’t you?”

She nodded.  “I keep hearing that the worse the morning sickness is the better chance you have of not losing the baby.  If that’s true, I’m going to be able to do anything in my last month, because this baby is going to be stuck like glue.”

He smiled at the fact she was able to joke about her intense morning sickness.  “Do you want a boy or a girl?”

She shrugged.  She really wanted a boy who was just like his father, but she couldn’t tell her new husband that.  “I don’t really care at this point.  A boy would be nice to help with farm chores, but a girl would be nice to keep me company.”  She hadn’t noticed any other houses in the area.  “Are there any schools around?”

He shook his head.  “Not yet.  Hopefully we’ll have some someday, but right now there just aren’t enough people.”

“Okay.  I can teach our children.”  She hadn’t planned on teaching them, but she’d finished school at home and was certainly qualified. 

He looked at her, startled.  “I hadn’t considered we’d have kids of ours.  Just the one you’re carrying.”

She smiled.  “I’m sure if we’re married for any period of time, we’ll have more children.  It only took me a couple of months to get this one.”  She stroked a loving hand over her tiny mound of stomach.

She forced the few bites of food on her plate down her throat.  She had to have some nutrition to keep her going.  She couldn’t let her baby starve just because her stomach wasn’t feeling well.

As soon as she was finished, she jumped up and started washing the dishes.   She hadn’t even been upstairs to look at the bedrooms yet.  The downstairs wasn’t as clean as she would have liked it, but it wasn’t bad considering that he’d been a bachelor for so long.  “It’s going to take me a few days to get into a routine of cooking and cleaning here.  I assume you have chickens, and you mentioned cows.  Any pullets?  Or just layers?”

“I’ve got a couple of pullets, and enough layers that they can be eaten.”

“What do you like to eat?”  She’d known all of Charlie’s favorite foods before marrying him and had made sure to learn to cook them.  She just hoped Thomas’s favorite foods were simple to fix.

He shrugged.  “I’m not picky.  If you make it, I’ll eat it.  I’m partial to sweets, though.  And chicken and dumplings.  If you make me chicken and dumplings, I’ll be indebted to you forever.”  He leaned back in his chair and watched her do the dishes, pleased that she was finding her way around the kitchen.

She smiled.  “Kill one of the pullets in the morning, and I’ll have chicken and dumplings for you for supper tomorrow.”  She’d looked through his food stores enough that she knew he had everything she’d need for them and maybe even a cake for dessert.  She enjoyed cooking, and if he liked sweets, she’d make sure he had dessert every night.

“I’ll do that.”  He grinned at her.  Even if they couldn’t have marital relations, she was pretty to look at, and if she’d cook for him, he’d be happy with her.  Relations could always come later once she was feeling better.

He sat at the table while she did the dishes, watching her move.  She didn’t say much, but that was okay, because he was used to the silence, and would have gone crazy with a woman who’d talked his ear off all the time.

After she’d finished the dishes, he led her up the stairs.  There were two small rooms, one he used, and one he thought would make a good nursery.  He pointed to the smaller room.  “I thought this could be the nursery, and you can sleep there until you feel better.”

She nodded, thankful he was going to give her time to get over how queasy she was before expecting her to have sex with him.  It would make it much easier for her.

His room was small, but there was a large bed and a sturdy looking chest of drawers.  In the room he’d dubbed the nursery, there was a small bed and a rocking chair.  “This will work nicely for the baby.”

“I’ll make a cradle before it comes.”  He’d thought a lot about what he needed to do before the baby arrived.  Keeping busy would help him feel more connected to the child.

“Thank you for accepting my child.  I know it’s an awkward situation, but I think we’ll get through it.”  He seemed to be a good man.  He had to be.  Otherwise he would have sent her vomit-covered-self back to Beckham.  She didn’t know if she’d have been able to do what he’d done.

Walking into the nursery, she made up the small bed with the sheets on the dresser.  She would spend tomorrow baking and doing laundry.  His sheets looked as if they hadn’t been washed in a while.  She was glad she felt strong enough to work, even though she was so sick when it came to food.  It would be nice to be able to show him she’d be able to carry her weight on the farm. 

He hovered in the doorway for a moment, before saying, “I’ll leave you to it, then.  Goodnight.”

She smiled, thankful he wasn’t trying to kiss her again.  She wasn’t ready for that.  “Goodnight.  Wake me if I’m still asleep when you get up, so I can get breakfast going for you.”  She’d try to wake herself before he was up, but she was sleeping a lot more now that she was pregnant.

She changed into her nightgown and settled into bed, feeling sure of her decision to marry a stranger for the first time since she’d made it.  Thomas was a good man, and he’d be a good father to her child, even though he hadn’t fathered it.  She fell asleep, at peace with her life for the first time since Charlie died.

*****

Esther woke to the short knock on her bedroom door.  “I’m going to milk now.”  The deep voice outside her door was both familiar and foreign at the same time.  Who was he?

It took her a moment to remember where she was and why she was there.  “I’ll start breakfast.”  She rolled to the side of the bed, doing her best to calm the nausea already rising in her throat.  She stood slowly and changed into a day dress.  She hoped to get a bath after breakfast, because of the vast amounts of vomiting she’d done on the way to the homestead the previous day.

She mixed the batter for pancakes and fried up some bacon, but waited until he came back to the house to actually pour the pancakes.  He took longer than he had the night before, and just as she was starting to worry, he came in carrying a large tin bathtub.  He set it next to the table and put a huge pot of water on the stove.  “I thought you might like a bath after breakfast,” he said by way of explanation.  “I’ll give you privacy.”

She nodded thankfully.  “I could use it.  Thank you.”  She didn’t know if he was thinking of how bad she must feel or worrying about how she smelled, but either way, she appreciated not having to carry the tub into the house herself. 

She poured the pancakes and watched as he carried in bucket after bucket of water to fill the tub for her.  She had eight pancakes on a plate for him and four more in the pan when he sat down, ready to eat.  When the last four were ready, she dropped three more on his plate and sat down with one pancake and a piece of bacon.  He looked at her plate and shook his head.  “Are you trying to starve that baby?”  He watched as she poured milk from the pail he’d just brought in for each of them.

She smiled.  “I wish I could eat more.  He seems to be growing, though.”

“He?  You think it’s a boy?”  He seemed excited by the prospect.

She shrugged.  “I have no idea.”

He’d already eaten half his meal, but stopped.  “Let’s go ahead and pray.”  He said their prayer and continued eating. 

“What time do you need the pullet to get the chicken and dumplings ready for dinner?” he asked after she’d taken a bite of bacon.

“If I can have it by about ten or so, I can start boiling it.”

He nodded.  “That shouldn’t be a problem.  I just want to give you enough time to get your bath before I come back with it.”

“I appreciate that.”  She poked at her pancake, wondering if she’d be able to get the sweet treat down.

Thomas watched her try to eat and found himself worrying about how little she was able to swallow.  “Is all that going to come back up?”

“I hope not!  Sometimes I can keep breakfast down.  I always at least try to eat something.” She took a bite of the pancake and chewed it slowly.  “What will you be doing today?”

He gave her a funny look.  “Working in the fields.  Why?”

“I’d like to know where you’re working every day, if you don’t mind.”  She knew it was a strange request, but she really didn’t want to have to explain herself.  She hoped he’d just do as she asked.

“You wanna tell me why?” 

She shrugged.  “Charlie died out in the fields one day.  I didn’t know it until he was late for dinner.  I didn’t know where he’d be working, so I had to search everywhere for him.”  She looked down at her plate, blinking back the tears.  “It was the day I found out I was carrying.”

“I didn’t know.  Sure, I’ll try to always let you know where I’ll be working.”  He ate his last bite and got up to pour the last of the hot water into the tub, leaving two buckets of cold water beside it so she could adjust the temperature how she liked.  “How did he die?”

She looked up at him, her eyes meeting his.  “He was kicked in the head by his horse.  A horse we thought was perfectly gentle.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Thank you.”  She didn’t know what else to say.  She watched as he left the house and quickly finished her last bite of breakfast, wanting to get her bath before he came back.  She stripped and stepped into the tub, letting the water flow over her muscles, which ached from the long journey.  She had a lot to do, so she couldn’t spend long in the tub, but she’d love to spend the whole day soaking.

She washed quickly, making sure her long hair received a thorough soaping.  When she was done, she left the tub, hoping he’d be willing to empty it for her when he brought the chicken in.  She really shouldn’t be doing heavy work until after the baby was born.

Esther made quick work of the dishes and mixed up her bread dough.  She’d make at least three loaves of bread and some dinner rolls to go with the chicken and dumplings she’d make for supper.

By the time Thomas came back with the chicken, she had the loaves rising in their pans and the dinner rolls rising on a sheet pan.  The laundry was hanging on the line and drying.  He looked around with a smile.  “You’ve worked hard this morning.”

She nodded.  “I love to cook.”  She didn’t mention laundry, though, because there was nothing on the planet she hated to do more than wash clothes.

“Good.  Because I love to eat.”  He studied her with a smile.  The green cast was finally gone from her skin.  “You look like you’re feeling better.”  He didn’t add that she looked pretty.  He’d never seen a woman who was so pretty.  He only wished the child she was carrying was his.

She took the chicken from him, noting he’d already plucked the feathers for her.  “Thanks for getting the feathers.”

“It’s no problem.  I appreciate you cooking the chicken and dumplings for me.”

She wondered if they’d always be overly polite with one another.  She hoped not, because it felt like she was living with a stranger.  “Would you be willing to empty the tub?  That’s heavier work than I should be doing.”  She held her breath while she waited for his answer.  Would he be upset that she couldn’t do something so simple?

“I was planning on doing it for you.  I don’t want you to do anything that would risk that baby.”  He immediately went to the tub and got to work on it.

She put the chicken into a pot of water and set it on the stove to boil.  “Thank you.”

Before he left, he told her, “I’ll be working in the field you can see just outside the kitchen window.  If I have to leave there, I’ll come to the house to tell you.”

She smiled and nodded, happy that he was willing to let her know where he’d be so she wouldn’t panic.  She wasn’t sure if she would be able to handle it if he came home late for a meal. 

When he came for lunch, she fed him bacon sandwiches on fresh hot bread, and was able to eat some bread herself.  He said the prayer and they ate silently together, neither of them quite sure what you said to your spouse whom you’d met just the previous day.

After lunch, he went back to the field and she brought in the clothes from the line.  He’d obviously not done any washing in a while, and she was happy to put fresh clean sheets on his bed.  She tackled the floors after she finished with that and was pleased with how the house looked by the time she started the dumplings for dinner.

Thomas was exhausted after his long day, but happy to see how clean the house was.  The smells from dinner made him rub his stomach with pleasure.  She was going to bring him great joy just from her cooking.  He noted that she had a full bowl of dumplings as well and commented on it.

“My queasiness is doing much better this evening.  I think it helped that I didn’t have to get into any moving vehicles all day.”
 
She was actually looking forward to eating for the first time in weeks.  She took the first bite, and waited for the nausea to set in, but when it didn’t, she smiled.  “I’m going to be able to eat!”

“I’m glad to hear that.  I was starting to worry you’d die from starvation.”  He shook his head at her as if to scold her for worrying him.

She grinned.  “It hasn’t been that bad.”  Well, maybe it had, but he’d only seen a small portion of it.