Mail Order Madness (18 page)

David watched the whole exchange still feeling shocked to his core.  Was his wife
going to leave him?  Christian wives didn’t just leave their husbands over something
little.  What was she thinking?

He watched as Albert and Lewis took their seats before taking his own.  He calmly
prayed over the meal and they all ate.  Albert and Lewis seemed happier than they’d
been in a long time.  How was that possible?  They were being forced to carry out
a severe punishment.  How could they be happy?

David didn’t understand anything that was going on around him.  Whatever was happening
with his boys was beyond his understanding.  Did they
want
to be disciplined?  Caroline had told him more than once that children liked structure,
but did that mean they were happier when they were punished? 
It
didn’t make sense at all.

When Sadie brought out their favorite desserts, both boys looked sad, but they never
reached for a piece knowing they wouldn’t get them.  Neither boy complained.  David
wanted to give them each a piece because of their sad looks, but he didn’t want to
lose his wife, and he was afraid he’d already done that.  He sighed.  Why did the
boys seem to think her decisions were good while they ignored his?

Susan put Thomas and Walter to bed immediately after dinner.  When she came down the
stairs afterward, she told the older boys to take baths and wash their hair.  “Do
you need me to help you with your hair Lewis?”

“I’ll help him, Ma.  I don’t mind.”  Albert smiled at Susan as if she’d granted him
a favor that day instead of depriving him of one of his favorite things.

Susan nodded at Albert.  “That would be good.  Thanks for helping your brother.” 
She calmly walked into the family parlor as if Albert offered to help do things for
his younger brothers every day and plucked a book off the shelf.  She was sitting
quietly reading when David walked into the room, still flabbergasted about what he’d
seen.

He sat next to her on the couch, and she stood and moved to the overstuffed chair
in the corner of the room.  “May I ask you something?” David asked cautiously.  Susan
gave a quick nod, but didn’t look up from her book.   “Why are the boys acting as
if you’ve given them some sort of gift when all you did was
punish the
m
today?”

She put her open book against her belly, and her eyes met his for the first time since
their confrontation before dinner.  He could see the anger still seething in her green
eyes, and hoped she got over her mad before bed that night. 
He was half afraid he’d wake up with a knife at his throat.

“Children
like
structure.  They like knowing what the rules are and what the consequences will be
when they break the rules.  It makes them feel safe to know there are rules in place,
especially when they understand why the rules are there.  After they’ve broken a rule,
they feel lost until someone punishes them, and then they feel better about it again.”

“You really believe that, don’t you?”

“With everything inside me.  I’m not just trying to be mean to the boys.  I want them
to be well-behaved, yes, but I also know they’ll be happier if they have the structure
I’m creating.  Sure, they enjoy running around like crazed heathen children, but they
prefer to follow a structure.”

David sat back and thought about what she’d said.  The boys seemed, by their behavior,
to be telling him she was right.  Even Albert was becoming helpful and obedient. 
“Are you really thinking about leaving me?”
  He regretted the question as soon as he’d asked it.  He didn’t want her to realize
just how her threat had made him feel.  He couldn’t go back to the way things had
been before they’d married.  He was relying on her too much already, and they’d only
been married a few days.

She sighed.  “I promised both my mother and the woman who runs the mail order bride
agency that sent me here
that
I wouldn’t put up with being married to a man who mistreated me.  I think they meant
not to put up with a man who beat me, but I think bribing your boys to deceive me
and contradicting my punishments is just as bad.  I can’t stay somewhere where that
kind of treatment is a way of life.  I won’t.  I respect myself too much for that.” 
Her eyes met his again, the anger gone but the serious look told him she wasn’t joking
about leaving.  “I don’t want to leave.  Now that the boys are mostly under control,
it’s pleasant here.  I enjoy being married to you.  I just can’t allow any man to
lie to me and get away with it.”

David groaned.  “I’m sorry.  I shouldn’t have done that.  I had no idea how strongly
you felt about poorly behaved children, but that’s no excuse.  I just wanted to be
married again and have help with them, but
I shouldn’t have done that to you or any other woman.  Will you forgive me?”
  His eyes were intense as they looked into hers, trying to determine just how angry
she was.

She nodded slowly.  “We’ll start fresh, but now you know the kind of things I absolutely
cannot tolerate.”

“I do.  Things will be better around here.  I promise.”

*****

Susan left explicit instructions with Sam, who was in charge of the stables, before
she left for coffee with Beverly and Wilma the following afternoon.  The boys needed
to work continuously and not take more than one fifteen minute break.  Sam just nodded
at her, obviously afraid to argue with her.  He hitched the team to the buggy and
watched as she drove off for coffee and cookies with her new friends.

David had given her instructions in how to get to the neighbor’s house, and she saw
that Wilma was just getting out of her own buggy as she pulled up.  “Wilma!” Susan
called waving to her friend.

Wilma waited for Susan with a grin on her face.  “I’m so glad you and Beverly invited
me today,” Wilma said shyly.

Susan linked her arm through the other woman’s and led her to the door.  “Why’s that?”

Wilma shrugged.  “I’ve kind of kept to myself over the years, and the friends I made
in school all moved on without me.  Now that I’m married, I’d like to be able to do
things with other ladies, but I’m just not sure how to go about it.”

Susan smiled at her.  “Well, you’ve gotten started now.  Next Wednesday we’ll meet
at my house at the same time, and maybe the following week the three of us can meet
at your house.  I’m sure we’ll all be great friends in no time.”
  She truly enjoyed being around Wilma.  Wilma seemed extremely shy, and Susan knew
that shy women did better when they had outgoing friends.  Susan didn’t have a shy
bone in her body.

Beverly opened the door before they had a chance to knock.  “Come in!  I have the
coffee and cookies all ready.”

Susan glanced around the house as she went in.  It was as nicely furnished as
the Dailey
home, and she immediately wondered if Beverly had an indoor outhouse as well.  She
followed the other woman into the parlor and sat down on the couch.  “Where are your
girls?” Susan asked.
  She’d met the three girls at church on Sunday and had expected to see them again
that day.

Beverly smiled.  “I sent them into town to stay with their grandmother.  She’s been
itching to have them for a day, and I thought we’d have more fun without them here.”

Susan relaxed against the back of the couch.  “Good.  I could use an afternoon with
no children.”
She rolled her head on her neck, feeling extremely comfortable with both of her new
friends. 

Beverly looked over at her.  “You getting anywhere with those hellions?”

Susan nodded.  “I really think I am.  Of course, Albert and Lewis went to Fort Worth
yesterday and got lost.  They ended up in The Acre.” 
She said the words casually knowing they’d have more impact that way.

Wilma gasped.  “They’re okay?”

“We realized they were missing and went looking for them.  I think I went to every
ranch north of ours.”  She looked at Wilma.  “You must be south of us as well.”

“We share a border with Beverly on
her south
side.”

“Well, the two of them are at home mucking out the horse stalls.  I wish David would
let me spank them, but he’s adamant.”  She stretched her arms above her head.  “It’s
hard being married to someone who feels as differently about discipline as David and
I do.”
  She shook her head as she thought about the arguments she’d had with David in the
past week regarding discipline.

Beverly nodded.  “I’m glad Charles and I don’t have that problem.  Of course, our
girls are very well behaved.”

Susan nodded.  “Compared to my boys most children are.  They’re improving, though. 
I just have to keep telling myself that.”

“So how are you enjoying married life other than the boys?” Wilma asked.

“Other than the boys and fighting over the boys, it’s good.  We do fight over them
a lot more often than I like.”  Susan shrugged.  “I do enjoy being married, though. 
David is a good husband for the most part.”
 

Beverly leaned forward.  “Do I sense trouble in paradise?”

“A little.”  She wondered if it would be right to tell them what had happened, but
decided she needed advice and the two of them were there.
It would take a month to get a letter from back home if she wrote asking someone
there for the advice she needed. 
“I found out yesterday he paid the boys to be good the night I met them.  He knew
I wouldn’t marry him if
I saw how the boys really acted.”

Beverly’s eyes widened and then her lips quirked.  “I know it was wrong, and deceptive,
but it’s funny.”

Susan shook her head.  “The boys just casually mentioned the dollars he’d given them
to be good so I’d marry him.  I was so furious with him I threatened to leave him.”

Wilma hid her smile behind her hand.  “You haven’t even been married for a week. 
You can’t leave him.”

“Oh, I could!  But I won’t.  He does know now that I won’t put up with that kind of
nonsense.”  She picked up a sugar cookie and took a bite.  “Why couldn’t he have simply
said, ‘My boys are hellions, but I think you could get them to act right in no time?’”

Beverly gave Susan a knowing look.  “Would you have married him if he had?”

Susan shook her head with a laugh.  “Absolutely not.”

“That’s why he didn’t say it then,” Beverly said.

Wilma smiled at Susan.  “I can’t help but remember how bad David, Charles and Jesse
were in school.  Every time I turned around they were getting in trouble for something.”

Beverly looked at Wilma.  “
What about Ned?  Wasn’t he part of it?”

Wilma blushed.  “Ned was too busy making eyes at me to get into trouble.  We spent
all of our recesses together even back then.”

Susan tilted her head to the side as she studied Wilma.  “Why did he join the army
then?  Why didn’t he just stay here and marry you right after school?

Wilma looked down at her hands.  “There was another boy who Ned thought I loved. 
We were just friends, and I was helping him to court another girl, but Ned saw us
and thought there was more between us, so he joined the army.  By the time he knew
the truth, it was too late.  He asked my pa if he could court me as soon as he came
back, though.”  Wilma took a sip of her coffee.  “I think we’re closer because of
the years apart.  I think it taught us just how much we cared for one another.
  We did write to one another as often as possible, but it just wasn’t the same as
being together.
”

Susan sighed.  “I love good love stories like that.” 

They spent the rest of the afternoon laughing and joking about the antics the men
had pulled when they were boys and the problems Susan’s boys were causing.  Susan
looked at Beverly just before she left.  “One day, one of my boys is going to marry
one of your girls and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

Beverly leaned back and groaned.  “That’s the last thing I need!”

Wilma laughed.  “I hope it happens.”

Beverly glared at Wilma.  “Then I hope you have a girl for one of her twins to marry.”

Wilma smiled at Susan.  “I wouldn’t mind being related to Susan through marriage.”

They all laughed, and agreed to meet at Susan’s house the following week at the same
time.  Susan was happy to have made two such good friends so soon after she arrived. 
She and Wilma walked out to their buggies together.  “I’ll see you Sunday,” she called
as she drove north toward her home. 

Wilma waved at her, looking much happier than she had when Susan had met her at their
wedding.  Susan was glad she’d reached out to the shy woman, because she firmly believed
a good friend could make all the difference in the world.

Chapter
Ten

Things around the ranch became easier to deal with as the time passed.  She helped
the boys build their tree house, and then the three of them built a fort for the two
younger boys.  She made curtains and bought small rugs for the floors of the boys’
structures.  Once the fort was built, it seemed as if she never saw Albert or Lewis
anymore, because they spent their time in the tree house, planning their takeover
of Texas and then the world, although they did still hold the belief that Texas
was
the world.