Serendipity (21 page)

“My ancestors settled Carver’s Holler,” she said in a soft, strained voice. “Land passed from generation to generation – as yours should have. Finding out about our debt – it surprised me, is all. We’ll work hard and pay it right off.”

A new tenderness took root in his heart. Such innocent resolve on her face! That only made it worse. She deserved to know the galling truth. He should have told her before they married. Anger at the situation and at himself for saddling her with such a burden filled his voice. “It’ll take years before this farm is free and clear.”

“Seeing as we’re going to grow old together, I reckon we’ll have plenty of years together to succeed.”

“Years, Maggie. If a farm is in arrears, the bank can foreclose – and it has. Two farms last year, and already one this year.” He waited for that ugly piece of information to sink in. “The Panic last year only made the situation worse – costs are greater, and grain prices are low. Very low.”

She clutched his hand. “We’ll do our best, and we’ll do it together.”

Todd studied his wife. In a span of minutes the woman who said she’d owe no man went from thinking things were a little tight to learning she’d married a heavily mortgaged man and they were barely hanging on. She didn’t look shocked or scared or even angry.

“I’m right proud of you, Husband. You’ve built all of this – gone from penniless to paradise. Aye, with God’s help, you’ll pull us through.” Determination made her chin tilt up a little and courage lit her eyes. She made him believe they could do it.

Yes, he’d gotten himself quite a bride.

Later that night, after washing the dishes, Maggie again stepped outside to find Todd waiting for her.

Drawing her to himself, he made the distance between them disappear entirely. Even in the light of the skimpy moon, his eyes glittered as he studied her. At complete odds with that intense look, the corner of his mouth kicked up in his boyishly endearing, lopsided grin. “Mercy’s apple cobbler tasted fine, but I had a little taste of your apple pie, and there’s no comparison.”

A nervous laugh shivered out of her. Todd silenced it with a hard, swift kiss, then he tucked her beside himself and grumbled, “After all the layers you put on this morning, I don’t see how you can be cold.”

“Todd!”

“There is no need for you to be bashful.” Keeping her close, he reached over with his other hand and tenderly ran just the tip of his forefinger along her hairline. “You are my wife, and I am your husband. We belong to one another.”

He was right. Uncle Bo even reminded her of that reality before he gave her away. Maggie let out a shaky breath. “I’m not used to thinking that way. It’ll take me a while.”

“Walk with me.” They ambled toward the house. After a pause, he mused, “You always put Ma’s chair to the right side of the bed.”

“That way, she’ll be able to use her strong side to help herself in and out.”

Compressing his lips, he stared off at the fields.

She followed his gaze. “The winter wheat looks good. You put in a dandy crop. This section here would be convenient for a vegetable garden. Penned in as they’ve been, Adam and Eve be rarin’ to turn the soil. I brought seeds from home – but if you have some on hand that’re favorites, I’ll be sure to nurture them along.”
I’m
babbling. I can’t help it.

After a day of near-frantic work, the walk should have given her a sense of peace – but it didn’t. Once they got inside, Todd plucked her plaid from its peg. Stretching out the abundant length, he waited for her to back into it. She did, yet he didn’t merely drape it over her shoulders. Her husband used it to wrap her into an engulfing embrace. Though unmistakably present, his strength altered – his arms transmitted the same tenderness his eyes and words carried just moments ago. One kind of shivers stopped and another began when he murmured into her ear, “I’ll put together the bed. Get the quilt.”

The light jumped as the lantern jostled atop the carefully loaded wheelbarrow. “Lord, yonder’s my home. That’s the family I’m supposed to fit in with. Right now, it’s pinching like a new boot. Maybe we all need to be broken in before things will be comfortable. I’d have a gladsome heart if that’s how you worked matters out, and a mighty thankful one if you’d see fit to make it happen fast.”

She looked down at the quilts she piled in with her supplies. Her Rose of Sharon newlywed quilt was the last thing she wanted to put on her bed.
Our
bed, she corrected herself with a gulp. She didn’t feel like a bride.

But Todd was her man, and the Holy Bible said she was to honor and respect him. He’d told her to go get the quilt. Temptation tore at her to leave it behind and bring others, pretending to misunderstand. Only they’d both know the truth. That was no way to start out as man and wife. So along with sheets she’d embroidered with roses, she brought three quilts, two fat feather pillows, and a pretty nightgown that was far too lightweight for this time of year.

Light shone through the window. Sewing curtains would pretty up the place. Surely some fabric in her trade goods would look nice with her Rose of Sharon and the Virginia Rose she’d hung in the center of the cabin for privacy. Knowing full well Ma was watching every little thing like a hawk, Maggie made a point of counting logs to show she’d been scrupulously fair in giving Ma a full half of the sleeping area. With a bed against each wall, there was just enough room for the dresser between them. The washstand and stove filled the third corner, and the table occupied the fourth. In a move to please Ma, Maggie even hung her quilt so the pretty appliqué faced Ma’s bed.

Cold as the night was, Maggie tried to determine whether she ought to put her other quilts beneath the Rose of Sharon. She’d freeze half to death wearing her summer-weight nightgown.

Good thing Ma slept like a hibernating bear. Maggie thought she might work up the nerve to take her bath once Ma fell asleep. Only then could Todd come back into the house. If she blew out the lamp. And kept her eyes closed. Oh, dear goodness . . . Try as she might, she couldn’t make herself take another step.

Her pretty quilt as a backdrop, she could see her handsome groom in the window. More to the point, he saw her. He waved.

Todd must know I have feelings for him, but they run far deeper
than he’s guessed. What if he finds out?
She let out a rueful laugh and waved back. A husband discovering his wife was fond of him wasn’t a bad thing. No, it truly wasn’t at all. Ma said Todd didn’t love her – or if he did, the how and how much were to be considered. Well, the time had come to explore the possibilities. And with the lamps extinguished, her groom would have to know she was blushing clear down to the tips of her toes.

In the last twenty-four hours she’d developed tempered-steel composure, she reminded herself. Sure and for certain, after all that the day brought, she’d cope with whatever came up and not be upset.

Then she opened the door.

Eleven

“Almost done.” Standing
on
their bed because the proximity of the beds left him no floor space, Todd beat a nail into the wall with a solitary slam of the hammer.

Almost dead.
What was Todd thinking? All he needed to do was build their bed opposite Ma’s, keeping the dresser in between. It would provide ample room for Ma’s wheelchair, give them some privacy, and split the space in half. But he didn’t do that. Todd scooted the dresser where the bed was supposed to be. Ma’s bed filled the middle third of the wall, and their bed . . . he’d crammed it where Ma’s had been. The quilt that divided the room in half now draped down the center of Ma’s bed.

Todd finished moving the divider, but the whole thing was ludicrous. The sides of the beds lay all of three inches apart, and they had perhaps a foot of space between their bed and the wall. They didn’t have room to make their bed. Certainly, they wouldn’t have the room or privacy to –

“It took you half of forever. I still want my bath.”

“Ma.” Todd’s voice stopped her. As he reanchored the rope, the quilt swung off Ma’s bed and hung free.

The full extent of the division sent Maggie reeling.

“Margaret?”

“I brought things in the wheelbarrow.” Clutching the wire handle of the lantern, she rasped, “If you’ll excuse me . . .” A before-bedtime trip to the necessary – it was reasonable. No one else would give it a second thought. But she was having plenty of second – and even third – thoughts.
What have I gotten myself into, marrying this man
and coming clear out to Texas?
A few minutes later, Maggie heard Todd calling her
.
She buried her face in her hands. Even in the outhouse, she couldn’t have privacy.

“Margaret, I want to talk to you.”

“Go away.”

“A wife does not speak thus to her husband.”

“That might well be the case.” She gave up and exited from behind the ridiculous flapping blanket-door of the outhouse. Chin high, she glowered at Todd. “But you and I are not husband and wife yet. With that arrangement, I promise you, we won’t be, either!”

His brows slammed together. “We are married. You are my wife.”

“Nay.” She shook her head. “I’m your bride.”

Even in the slight moonlight, she could see his eyes spark as they had just a while ago. “Ja. I have readied a bath for you, and Sharon’s Rose will be across our bed.” Slipping his arm around her waist, he pulled her close and murmured, “And two shall become one.”

Maggie rested her forehead in the center of his chest. It kept some distance between them. “And a man shall leave his mother – ”

He lifted her face to his. “You knew Ma would be with us.”

“Not in our bed!” Maggie caught herself before she added, “Not even in our bedchamber.” She’d made assumptions, and that was her fault.

“Ma begged for a change, but tomorrow, I will measure. Things must be moved.”

Relief poured through her. Any change would be a vast improvement. Rubbing his rough thumb down her cheek, he rumbled, “
Besser,
ja?”

“Aye, that would be better.” The heat of her embarrassment nearly roasted her, yet she couldn’t remain silent. “But tonight – ” Her throat closed up.

He continued to caress her cheek. “After a time, when Ma has fallen asleep – ”

As she shook her head, her hair cascaded down.

“You ask much of me.” His voice sounded strained.

She felt his fingers threading through her hair, and the intimacy of the act made if difficult to speak. “I’ve done my best to do everything you’ve asked of me. Aye, and I’ve agreed – until now. So for me to ask we wait until you set our home to rights . . .”

“I’m not sleeping in the barn.”

Negotiations could be difficult, but this was nigh unto impossible. Maggie knew they’d both have to yield to some degree. She whispered, “I’ll settle Ma, then I’ll go sleep in the barn.”

“No, you will not.” He yanked her back into his arms. “We have a bed. We are sleeping in it.”

“Only if I nail barbed wire between the headboard and footboard.”

He let out an impatient sound. “Okay. For tonight. Tonight, I will stay on my half.”

“If that was meant to reassure me, it didn’t. I saw your idea of half in the house already.” She poked her finger in his ribs. “And don’t tell me you’re bigger. I’m meaner.”

“Ja, Wife, you are.” Scowling, he pushed away her fingers.

“Agreed!” There. That had to be the toughest bargain she’d ever made, and she closed it before he had a chance to add on any additional terms or have second thoughts.

Helga sat in her wheelchair and looked out the window the next afternoon. When Todd looked up, she made it a point to wave. Ja – that went along with her telling him how she needed to be able to sit by the window in her chair.

When Magpie hung the dividing curtain yesterday, Helga felt closed in. By getting her son to promise her the window side, then insisting she’d be too cold at night with her bed directly against the glass, she got her own little reception area. A caller could pay her a visit and sit with her by the window. Coming and going at will, Todd and Maggie didn’t need much room. Stuck inside like this, Helga deserved more space.

Magpie didn’t see it that way, though. While oatmeal cooked this morning, she’d put photographs of her family on the dresser! Wasn’t it enough that Helga’s dresser had five drawers and she’d only kept two for herself? The space should be hers, alone, so she insisted Magpie put her things atop the washstand. After all, it was on her side of the house.