Mail Order Madness (16 page)

The excitement around the table was palpable.  All four boys were glowing at the idea
of building places to play, and Susan looked as if she was relieved she’d finally
found a way to get through to Albert. 

*****

After dinner, Susan put the little boys to bed, and when she came down the stairs
she found David at the table with a pencil and paper and the boys ordering him to
draw something.  David’s eyes met hers.  “They want me to help them design the tree
house, but I’m not good with drawing.  Do you have any idea how to draw a tree house?”

Susan had always been a decent artist.  “I can try.”   She took the paper and pencil
from David, and sketched a tree with lots of leaves and several branches that would
work for building a tree house.  “Is this the kind of tree we have to work with?” 
She had seen a similar tree not far from the house, but not all the way to the corral
and thought that might be the one Albert was talking about.

Albert looked and nodded slowly.  “That’s the tree.  The one that’s almost to the
corral.”

“I know which one you mean.  I thought that might be it.”  She drew a few rectangles
spaced about a foot apart along the trunk as footholds for the boys to use as they
climbed to the tree house.  “We’ll pound these in first to make it easier for us to
get up there.”  She drew a large flat base along the
top of the lowest branches of the tree.  “Now, do you want walls, or should we just
build several platforms to give you a several story tree house?”

Albert and Lewis walked into the parlor and Susan and David could hear them whispering,
but Susan couldn’t make out what they were saying. 

“Can we have both?” Albert asked.

Susan shrugged.  “Is that okay with you?” she asked David.  “You’re buying the lumber.”
  Having walls would cost more of course, but she didn’t think David would quibble
over extra boards.

“I don’t see why not.  It’ll take longer to build, though.”

The four of them worked on planning out the tree house until late into the night. 

By the time they went to sleep, Susan had a drawing of what the boys wanted for their
tree house complete with curtains.  “Boy curtains,” Lewis insisted.  “No flowers. 
They’re too girly!”

“Are you sure you want to do this?” David asked as he climbed into bed and pulled
her into his arms.  “It’s a big project to take on.”

Susan smiled.  “Some of my best memories of being Albert’s age were the hours and
hours my brothers and sister and I spent
working
on the tree house.  Of course, we didn’t have an adult directing the project and when
it was done it looked like it had been built by someone who had over
-
imbibed in liquor, but we were so proud of it.  My younger brothers and sisters still
play in it.”

David smiled trailing a finger down her bare stomach.  “Well, if you want to do it,
I certainly won’t complain.”  He kissed her cheek.  “I can’t believe how much better
the boys are already behaving.  It’s like the difference between night and day.”

“I know.  I’ve been happy with them.”   She traced her finger along his lips.  “I’m
going to have to hurry if I want to get the twins new outfits done tomorrow.”

He frowned.  “Why are you making the twins new outfits?  I thought they had plenty
of clothes.”

“Oh, they do.  I just think they should be able to dress in non-matching clothes if
they’d like.  I have younger brothers who are twins, and they hated being forced to
match.  As soon as they were old enough to speak in complete sentences, they insisted
they be allowed to wear things that weren’t identical.  I think
all
twins should have a choice.”
  People had often suggested she and Elizabeth should dress alike, and she’d hated
the idea so much, she vowed she’d never do that to her children whether she had twins
or not.

“They’re only two!”

“But they’re developing their own individual personalities.  They don’t need to think
of themselves as two halves of a whole.  They’re each people in their own right.”
  Coming from a small family, he wouldn’t think about being lumped in with her siblings
like she did.  People would hear her last name was Miller and step back saying, “One
of ‘the demon horde.’”  The boys didn’t need to be lumped together that way.

He shrugged.  “I guess.”

“If they want to continue to dress alike, they’ll have plenty of clothes to be able
to do that.
  I just think they should have a choice.
”
  She wanted him to see her point of view, but he seemed to have lost interest.

“Whatever you say,” he whispered as his lips went to her neck.

“Mmm…remember you said that.”

No words were needed for a long time after that.

Chapter
Nine

Susan spent the following day sewing.  She left the boys to Mrs. Hackenshleimer and
went to the formal parlor where she knew the boys wouldn’t go to play and just sewed
as quickly as she could to get the new outfits ready for Walter and Thomas. 

Just before noon, Mrs. Hackenshleimer sought her out.  “Have you seen Albert and Lewis?”
she asked.

Susan’s eyes met hers.  “I’ve been here sewing all day.  Are they with David?”  Both
boys enjoyed watching David work with the horses and often spent their mornings sitting
atop the corral fence observing the methods he used to break the horses.

“I haven’t checked yet, but I don’t think so.”

Susan bit her lip, wondering if the nanny was just being overprotective or if there
was a real problem.  “They often spend the entire morning outside, don’t they?”

“Yes, they do, but they come into the house by now asking when lunch will be.  Those
boys are driven by their hunger.  They never stay out past eleven because they’re
so hungry they try to beg for food from Sadie.
  She’s the one who realized they were missing.
”

Susan set down her sewing and stood.  “I’ll go check with David.”  She hurried out
the door and to the corral.  As she got close, she realized the boys weren’t with
him.  She felt her heart jump into her chest as she broke into a run to talk to him
as quickly as she could.  “David!”

He turned, smiling at first, but quickly losing the smile as he saw the panicked expression
on her face.  “What’s wrong?”

“Have you seen Albert and Lewis?  I thought they were with Mrs. Hackenshleimer this
morning, and she thought they were with me.  I was sewing, though, and I haven’t seen
them since breakfast.”

David’s brows drew together in confusion.  “I saw them this morning walking down the
road.  They said you
told them they
could walk over to the neighbor’s house because they have new kittens.”

Susan shook her head.  “They didn’t mention kittens to me at all.  Which way did they
go?”
  She squinted toward the road, hoping she would see them walking back.

“Toward town.”  He took her by the elbow and led her to the stable.  Calling out to
one of the men close by, he yelled, “Saddle a horse and hitch up the buggy.”  He turned
to Susan.  “Can you drive the buggy?”

“Of course.”
  She’d done enough plowing that driving a buggy was an easy task.

“Okay, I’ll ride straight into town and look around for them there.  You go to the
neighboring ranches and ask around about them.  Do you know if anyone has new kittens?”

She shook her head.  “If I’d heard about them, I’d have talked to you about getting
one for the boys.  I know they really want a cat.”
  She was feeling more panicked by the minute.  Why would the boys lie about her saying
they could do something?

His horse was saddled and he mounted with one lithe motion.  “If you find them, come
right back here, and I’ll do the same.  If you don’t find them, meet me back here
in
three
hours.”  He looked down at her, his eyes concerned.  “If neither of us have found
them in a couple of hours, we’ll start a search party.”

She swallowed hard and got into the driver’s seat of the buggy without waiting for
assistance.  “T
hree
hours.”  She drove toward town, but pulled in at the first neighbor’s house, while
he raced past her into town.

She talked to
six
neighbors before she gave up to meet David at the ranch.  No one had seen the boys. 
No one knew of any new kittens.  The boys had obviously made the story up to do something
they knew they weren’t supposed to be doing.

As she was pulling into the driveway, she saw David on the horse with both boys riding
in front of him.  David’s face was serious.

She jumped down from the buggy and ran over to the horse waiting until David dismounted
and helped the boys down before saying anything.  “Where were you two?”

Albert shrugged avoiding her gaze.  Lewis kept looking at his feet, obviously afraid
to answer.

David put his hand on Albert’s shoulder.  “Tell her where you were.”

Albert pulled away looking up at David.  “But she’ll punish us, Pa.”

David’s eyes met Susan’s and she realized then whatever they’d done, it was serious.

“Where were you?”  She kept her voice calm, but she was screaming inside.  She was
half afraid of what the answer would be and
the other
half
was
furious that they’d frightened her the way they had.

Albert and Lewis exchanged a look before Lewis said, “Well, we wanted to start the
tree house sooner, so we went to town to see if we could get some lumber.”

Susan put her fists on her hips mentally counting to five before responding.  “How
were you planning on getting the lumber home once you found it?  How were you going
to pay for it?”

Albert looked up at her earnestly.  “We had a plan.  We still have the money Pa gave
us to be good the night you came out to see if you wanted to marry him and had dinner
with us.” 

Susan’s eyes flew to David and narrowed.  He’d bribed his sons to help him deceive
her?

“We figured two whole dollars would be enough to buy lumber and have someone deliver
it
and
bring us back to the ranch.”  Lewis continued the story for Albert.  “Well, then
we got lost, and we ended up in The Acre, and that’s where Pa found us, but we didn’t
mean to be in The Acre, Ma.  I swear!”

Susan closed her eyes filled with fury.  “The Acre?  Your pa found you in The Acre?” 
Her eyes darted back and forth between the two boys.

Albert hung his head.  “Yes, ma’am.”

“So let me get this straight.  First, of all, you lied to your pa.  Then you went
into town without permission not letting anyone know where you were really going. 
And worse than that, you went to The Acre?  Where your uncle was killed
three
weeks ago?”
  Her eyes met David’s.  “Am I hearing all this correctly?”

David nodded, his eyes filled with fear.  She wasn’t sure if he was afraid for what
could have happened to the boys or what kind of punishment she had in store for them
or for how furious she must be with him for bribing the boys to deceive her
in the first place
. 

“Albert and Lewis, I’d like you to go up to your room and sit on your beds.  I don’t
want you to speak or even look at each other.  I’ll be up in a few minutes after I’ve
had a chance to talk to your father.”
  Her mind raced about what to do about the boys, but then she shut it down.  She’d
figure that out after she decided what to do with the man who’d paid his sons to help
him deceive her.

Both boys turned and ran toward the house, obviously thankful for what they saw as
a reprieve for the punishment they knew was coming.

Susan turned to David.  “You bribed your sons to be good so I’d agree to marry you?” 
She walked toward him utterly furious.  She poked him in the middle of the chest and
he backed up a step.

“I’m sorry.  I know it wasn’t the right thing to do, but I saw you and knew you had
to be my wife.  You’re so pretty…”

“That’s a bunch of hogwash and you know it!  You already told me you were planning
to ask me to marry you before you ever saw me.  You deliberately deceived me to get
me to take on those monsters you call sons.” 
Her voice was low, but filled with fury.  She was so angry, she didn’t think she’d
be able to yell at him until she calmed down.

David continued to back away from her.  He’d seen angry women before, but he’d never
known one to be as angry as Susan was at that moment.  She looked ready to chew him
up and spit him out.  “I’m sorry.”

She closed her eyes fighting her anger.  If he’d been one of her brothers, she’d have
punched him in the eye without thinking twice about it.  She was determined to resolve
this without violence, though.  “I agree with you.  You
are
sorry.”