Mail-Order Christmas Brides Boxed Set (46 page)

He’d put new muslin over the ceiling an hour ago and swept the hard dirt floor. The white buffalo robe was spread out in front of the tree. Two straight-back chairs stood beside the fireplace. They’d add more chairs later. Annabelle hadn’t had a chance to drape her red ribbons around yet, but she would when the cake was baked.

Right now, she had Daniel sitting at the table in the kitchen, tracing the letters in his name. She said it might be important to Mrs. Baker that they were making sure Daniel had some education. Gabe had never thought of that, but he suspected she was right.

Eliza was taking a nap. Annabelle had told her she needed to do that because of the party tonight, but Gabe knew Annabelle had used some of the girl’s nap time to work on the silk dress for her doll. The dress was basted and Annabelle planned to sew the seams after she finished with Daniel.

Hoofbeats sounded and Gabe turned to look outside. He had a fire burning to heat this room and a thin layer of frost had already started to form on the window. But it was clear who was coming down the path in the open wagon—Jake and Elizabeth Hargrove. The sky was cloudless and no snow was falling. The day was warmer than the ones that had come earlier this week.

“We have company,” Gabe called out as the Hargroves climbed down from their wagon. Jake always traveled with a buffalo robe over his shoulders, and Elizabeth wore a red knit scarf like the one Annabelle had made Gabe wear.

“Already?” Annabelle squeaked in alarm from the other room and he heard her rushing to the window.

“It’s just the Hargroves,” he assured her. “They’re not here for the party yet. They know we’re still getting ready.”

Annabelle had mentioned several times that she would need to change to her silk dress before any of their guests arrived. And she planned to wear her hat, she said. And a black ribbon around her neck.

By now, Gabe could see that the other couple was almost to the front door of the trading post so he opened it wide. “Come in out of the cold.”

Annabelle stepped into the room, wiping her hands on an apron she’d taken out of her valise earlier. As far as Gabe was concerned, she looked just fine with her black dress and white apron. She had a serenity about her that wasn’t present when she was dressed in her finery. But he knew women liked to be fashionable.

Jake and Elizabeth stomped the snow off their feet in front of the door and then stepped inside. Gabe closed the door behind them.

Elizabeth rubbed her hands together. “It’s good to be out of the cold.”

“Come into the kitchen and I’ll make some tea,” Annabelle offered.

“We can’t stay,” Jake said. “We’re headed into Miles City and need to get back in time to get dressed for your party. Elizabeth has a new dress. But I wanted to let you know that a soldier stopped by our place earlier today and asked us to pass along the message that Adam is coming back.”

“It’s about time,” Gabe said, not feeling as happy about it as he should.

“You’re going into Miles City?” Annabelle asked in delight, as if she hadn’t even heard that Adam would be here soon.

When Elizabeth nodded, Annabelle asked to speak to her in the kitchen.

“Order anything you need for the party,” Gabe called after her as the two women walked through the doorway. “Just tell the clerk to put it on my account.”

When the women had left the room, Gabe turned to Jake and shook his head. “Do you have a younger brother? Sometimes they can make you grit your teeth and say things you shouldn’t.”

Jake nodded with a slight smile. “I used to get annoyed with mine, too. But he’s been dead for several years now and I miss him.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

“There’s no reason you should know,” Jake assured him. “He was my half brother. We shared a father and his mother was a full-blooded Sioux. He died in the wars with the white men. But he left me his two daughters to raise so I think of him often. The oldest one looks like him.”

Gabe nodded. “I remember hearing about that now. I was up in the mountains when your nieces were starting school and everything. I heard there was quite the storm about it all. I believe Mrs. Baker was behind that one, too.”

Jake shrugged. “People don’t always like to accept people who are different from them. But they’ve come around—even Mrs. Baker. It just took time and prayer.”

They were silent for a minute.

“It makes my brother look better,” Gabe finally said grudgingly. “He might have left me to handle his troubles, but at least he’s still here so I can argue with him about it.”

Jake chuckled. “I’ll admit there were many times I wanted to scold my brother for dying. His daughters missed him something fierce at first. I thought we’d never get used to each other.”

Gabe nodded. He supposed that, in time, the Stone family would have all of their differences resolved, too.

The two men were quiet, their heads bowed slightly although not in prayer. Gabe could hear the murmur of the voices in the kitchen and he wondered what spice he had forgotten. Maybe Annabelle wanted ginger for something.

Just then Jake looked up abruptly. “I know what I forgot. The soldier also said to tell you to put the coffeepot on. Several of the enlisted men announced they were going to come visit you as soon as they could get some leave.”

“They don’t need leave to make the trip down here,” Gabe said. “It doesn’t take long to ride a horse between here and the fort.”

“I think they want to spend some time courting once they get here,” Jake said with a grin. “Your brother is going to have some competition.”

“It’s his own fault if he’s been telling people about Annabelle coming and him not being there to meet her,” Gabe said, his irritation coming out stronger than he had intended.

Jake gave him a long, measuring look. “That bothers you, does it?”

“Of course,” Gabe said. “Our mother raised us to be more polite than that. He should have at least met her. She’s a wonderful woman.”

Jake nodded, but didn’t say any more.

The door to the kitchen opened and the two women walked back into the trading post. They still had their heads together and were talking low and easy. Then Annabelle laughed, a sound pure as a bell.

“I’ve never heard her laugh like that,” Gabe muttered to himself and then realized Jake could hear him.

The other man smiled. “My Elizabeth can get most people to laugh.”

Within minutes, the Hargroves had their scarves and gloves on and were stepping through the door again, turning back to wave when they reached their wagon.

“I wish they could have stayed,” Annabelle said with a sigh. “She’s a nice lady.”

“They’ll be back tonight,” Gabe said as he stood there wondering how he was going to say what else he needed to tell Annabelle.

Finally, he decided there was no way to say it without being blunt. “Not all our company will be so nice and polite today. I’ve told you before. If any soldiers stop, I don’t want you to let them in unless I’m here with you.”

“Well, goodness,” she said. “If you’re not here, they won’t want to stop anyway. It’s you they’d be coming to see.”

“No, it’s you.”

“Me? Well, whatever would they want with me?”

“I reckon most of them will want you to marry them,” Gabe said and was rewarded by the look of astonishment on her face.

Annabelle swallowed hard. “But they don’t even know me.”

“Couples get acquainted fast around here. Courting can happen in an hour or two. There aren’t many eligible women for a man to set his eye on.”

Some of the color was coming back into Annabelle’s face.

“But I’m not eligible,” she said indignantly. “I’m engaged.”

And Gabe figured that said it all in her mind. He suspected the army men would have another interpretation after hearing Adam say he wasn’t going to be married. And they wouldn’t take a polite refusal as easily as Annabelle thought.

* * *

Annabelle had one cake cooling on the table and she’d mixed up the batter for another one. She hadn’t really believed Gabe when he said a soldier or two might come by to visit. But there were six in the trading post now, drinking coffee with Gabe and waiting for her to cut the cake.

She wouldn’t have offered to feed them at all, but she couldn’t set aside the fact that they were serving in her country’s military. It seemed unfeeling not to give them even a small piece of the cake when the smell of it baking had spread throughout the trading post.

“Ma’am.” A young soldier, no older than twenty, stood in the doorway, holding his hat. His uniform was pressed. “I was wondering if I could carry something for you.”

“I’ll put the cake on a plate in a minute,” Annabelle said. She wasn’t ready to leave her sanctuary yet. She’d never sat in a circle with six men, all of whom wanted to talk to her. It sounded a little exhausting. Of course, it might cure her shyness.

When she couldn’t put it off any longer, Annabelle loaded seven pieces of fresh cake onto the plate. The cake was heavy and would stay together if the men held it in their hands to eat it.

She gave the plate to the young soldier and he started carrying it toward the door into the trading post. He walked so carefully that she wished she had cut the pieces bigger. But she didn’t know how many soldiers would come today and she didn’t have more ingredients to make more cakes. The one in the oven would have to do for the party.

Gasps of pleasure greeted her as she stepped through the door, although she had to admit most of the soldier’s eyes were on the cake and not on her. Only Gabe was looking at her and he was frowning.

“I have another cake in the oven,” she assured him quietly as she walked over to him. He had his shirtsleeves rolled up to his elbows. “We’ll have plenty for tonight.”

“I’m not worried about tonight.”

She didn’t even respond to that. Instead, she looked around. There were only three soldiers sitting in chairs around the fireplace. Not more than fifteen minutes ago there had been six of them. It seemed some of them discouraged easily.

She told herself it was for the best, but it was still a little unnerving. First six men were intent on talking to her and now there were only three. She couldn’t help but wonder if those three men who left had heard something about her. Maybe she was expected to tell the men why she’d make a good wife. That would be daunting.

“I sent half of them out to cut us some wood,” Gabe said then, no doubt having watched as she looked around. “We’re going to need a big fire tonight and I figure three at a time talking to you will be enough.”

“Well, you could have told me you did that,” she said tartly.

“None of the soldiers are going to leave without a piece of that cake and a chance to talk to you. You don’t have to fret.”

That made her feel better.

But twenty minutes after she’d sat down to converse, Annabelle was exhausted. How many different ways could she answer the question about what she desired in a husband? She mentioned age. She didn’t want to marry anyone younger than twenty-seven years old. She was thirty and that seemed reasonable. No, she didn’t care how much money a man had, although she did admit she was partial to having a roof over her head and meals on the table. She didn’t want to go hungry or live in a tent or a wagon.

She expected the next question to be what kind of a wife she would be, but no one asked that.

“Does he need to be tall?” one of the men asked instead. He was shorter than her, a slight, thin man with a sad expression.

She started to say that she preferred shorter men when she looked over at Gabe and realized he was about to say something.

“If you’re a mean-spirited, large man, you can leave right now,” he said as he glared at each of the soldiers in turn until they hunched over in their seats. Then he turned a protective eye toward her.

She smiled at him as she realized something.

“Tall or short, slender or stocky, good men come in all shapes and sizes,” she said after a moment. “I used to think most large men were mean, but I know now that’s not true.”

The soldiers were looking at Gabe warily now, but he was sitting proud.

“A churchgoing man is important,” she offered. “A man who prays and trusts God.”

“I can recite the books of the Bible,” the young soldier who had carried the cake in announced. “I can do them for you right now if you want.”

“Maybe we could do them later,” Annabelle said gently. “I don’t have much time so I think we need to change places with the other soldiers. Before you go, though, I want you all to know that I was injured in a fire not long ago. I had some burns across my back, shoulders and arm.”

There was a chorus of sympathetic murmurs.

She waved them away. “The burns have healed, but I can’t lift things with my arms like I used to be able to do. Anyone who marries me needs to know I have limitations.”

The soldiers seemed to accept her injuries better than the other men she’d told with her letters. Still, the first group of soldiers went outside to relieve their friends so they could come in and visit with Annabelle.

The questions were nearly identical and Annabelle finally realized the men had come just to talk with her. Most of them probably weren’t even interested in marriage. All they wanted was a bit of home around Christmas. She probably reminded the younger ones of their mothers.

She let them stay longer than she should have and then she had to rush to prepare for the evening. She and Gabe had cleaned the trading post the best that they could. Every corner had been dusted, although he had blocked off an area where he said he worked.

She threaded some red ribbon around the rocks in the fireplace and laid fresh pine branches under the tree. Then she pronounced the house ready and went to change into her silk dress. She was able to coil her hair on top of her head with no difficulty. Slipping the pins into her hair had taken more time, but she managed. She sat her hat on top of her head as Gabe called out that Mrs. Baker’s buggy was coming down the road. She hoped it wasn’t too long before the Hargroves and Martins arrived. She’d prayed while she dressed, asking God to show Mrs. Baker that the children belonged with their family.