Mail Order Mayhem (2 page)

Chapter Two

During the following week, Maude found herself a lot more aware of her surroundings. She was constantly looking for an escape from her situation. On Wednesday, she walked into the post office on her way home from the orphanage
,
to see if they’d received any mail. The woman in line in front of her was chatting with the clerk about the handful of letters she’d just received. “I don’t think I have enough women to fill all these requests! I’ve only had five sign up, but there are at least ten letters here.”

The clerk smiled. The two were obviously friends. “I’m surprised you were able to find even five women willing to be mail order brides. I can’t imagine marrying someone I’d never met. A woman would have to
be truly desperate to do that.”
She shook her head, looking horrified at the prospect of being a mail order bride.

Maude couldn’t help but chime into the conversation. “You mean like being told you have to marry a man more than twice your age who smells
badly
and is hideous? Is that the kind of desperate you mean?” Her voice had a hint of panic to it as she asked the question and the other two women gave their full attention to her.

The first woman, who was clutching the letters, turned in the line and looked at her. “That’s exactly the kind of desperate
you need to be
.” She paused, her warm brown eyes meeting Maude’s blue. “I’m Harriett. When’s the wedding?”
Her voice was sympathetic as she took Maude’s hand in hers and squeezed it.

Maude looked down. “Four months
, but he’ll be back in three, and I want to be gone before he gets here. I want to be gone in two months or less if at all possible
.”

Harriett nodded and smiled. “That’s more than enough time. Let me buy you a slice of pie.”

The postmistress handed Maude a letter without saying a word. She’d watched her sad eyes every day as she’d come to get the mail. Maude had never been one to talk much with her, but she knew something was very wrong.

Maude followed Harriett out of the post office and to the restaurant next door. It was a small place, with only six tables. Maude had never been here before, but her parents didn’t often take her out to eat. She’d only been
to a restaurant
a couple of times in her life. She took a seat across from Harriett and sighed heavily. “I can’t marry him.”

Harriett smiled at her, squeezing her hand. “You won’t have to.” She fanned the letters out for Maude. “Let’s read these and we’ll pick the very best one for you.”
Harriett picked up one and opened it while Maude did the same.

As the waitress came and went, leaving their pie and some coffee, the two women read letter after letter. Each made a pile of rejects and their favorites. When they’d opened them all, Harriett gave her full attention to Maude again. “I know which one I’d pick, but what about you? What are you looking for?”

Maude shrugged. “I really didn’t think I was in a big hurry to marry. I haven’t thought about it much, but I do know what I don’t want.” A picture formed in her mind of Horace’s sweaty face
with
his eyes gleaming at her. “I know exactly what I don’t want.”

Harriett held up two letters. “These are my favorites. This one is a farmer and needs a wife. He has never been married and has no children. He lives in Iowa.” She wiggled the other letter. “This one is a widower. He has two small children and owns a general store in a small town in Minnesota.
He lost his wife to Scarlet Fever just a few months ago, and needs someone to help him with his little ones.
”

The letter Maude was holding was from a man in Washington Territory who worked as a lumberjack.
“I think I like yours better than mine.” She took the two letters from Harriett’s hands and read them carefully. The man in Iowa was named John Powers. He wrote with a neat hand and talked about his farm and how badly he needed a wife to help him with it. The man in Minnesota was
Benjamin
Johnson, and he spoke of his two small girls, ages four and six, and their need for a mother.

She sat looking at them both unfolded on the table in front of her and finally she looked up at Harriett. “I think I want to marry John. I love children, but I’d rather have my own than take care of someone else’s.”
She wouldn’t have a problem with Benjamin either, though. She would happily marry either of them rather than stay here and marry Horrible Horace.

Harriett nodded. “I’d feel that way myself. Write to him.”
She pushed the letter back across the table to Maude and put the others in a neat pile.

Maude smiled. “I will. Anything to get out of marrying Horace.”
She took another bite of her apple pie, sighing happily as the flavors exploded on her tongue. There was nothing Maude liked better than apple pie, and this one was baked to perfection.

Harriett’s eyes widened. “Not Horace Templeton? The bank owner?”

“That’s him.”

Harriett let out a little shudder. “That man is not right
in his head
. One of the other women
,
who is looking for a husband
,
used to be a maid in his house. The stories that woman told would
make your hair curl
.” She straightened. “We’re going to make this work. You keep your head down and act like everything is okay. Make whatever wedding plans you need to make, but don’t be alone with him. Promise me that.”

Maude nodded. “
As I said, h
e’s out of town on business for the next three months. I’d like to be gone
well
before he returns.”

“That would be best. We’ll hurry. Write that letter today, and we’ll get it done.”
Her face was filled with fear for Maude. Maude was afraid to ask just what Harriett knew about Horace, though. She knew she was better off not knowing.

Harriett promised she would be in the post office at four in the afternoon as soon as a letter was received. Maude couldn’t risk someone else getting the mail, so she had the letter sent to Harriett. Maude sighed with relief as she had a plan to get away from her marriage to Horace the horrid.

When Maude returned home that afternoon, she immediately closed herself into her bedroom to write her response to John. Her message was short and to the point. “Hello, John. My name is Maude, and I’m nineteen years old. I live in
the city of Beckham which is
near Boston with my parents. I would love to come west to be your wife. I am short with
dark hair and blue eyes. I hope to meet you
soon
. I will be ready to leave as soon as I receive word from you. All the best, Maude.”

She tucked the letter into the pocket of her skirt and went to speak with her mother. “I need to run and meet a friend for a moment. Do you have any errands that need to be done while I’m out?”

Her mother eyed her skeptically. “You’re not meeting a young man are you?”
Maude had never been one to meet young men, but she’d also never been engaged before, and she’d never just run off to do errands.

Maude shook her head. “Of course not, Mother. I’m an engaged woman now.”
Her eyes met her mother’s and she tried to convey her acceptance of the situation, even as she clutched the letter she’d written John in the pocket of her skirt.

“I know Mr. Templeton isn’t the man you’ve always wanted to marry, but your father and I feel he’ll do well for you. You’ll live in comfort for the rest of your life.” Lilly bit her lip as she waited for her daughter’s explosion of anger.
“You’ll have servants waiting to fulfill your every request. Your life will be a dream.”

Maude hugged her mother. “I understand.”

Maude quickly walked to the post office to mail off the letter. She asked how long it would take for a letter to reach Iowa as she handed it to the postmistress.
“About two weeks.” The woman gave her a pitying look that told her she knew just why she and Harriett had left together. Maude kept her head high as she left the post office.

Two weeks each way. So if he received the letter and responded on the same day, it would be a minimum of a month before she had any sort of response. She sucked in a breath. She’d have to go along with all the wedding plans. Her mother was working on a wedding dress for her, and a trousseau was being made. She would go along with all the plans, and just use everything for her wedding to John.

Chapter Three

The month flew by with her wedding preparations. Maude and Lilly addressed over a hundred wedding invitations. As she rubbed her sore hand from all the writing, she felt guilty about sending out invitations to a wedding that would never take place, but she told herself she had no choice. She couldn’t marry Horace. She simply couldn’t.

Exactly four weeks and two days after she’d mailed her letter to John, she saw Harriett in the post office. Their eyes met and Harriett gave a slow nod, letting her know she’d received the letter. They left the building and once again went to the restaurant next door for pie and coffee. As they sat, Harriett handed Maude the letter.

“Hello Maude. I’m pleased you are willing to travel all this way to be my bride. I’m enclosing a train ticket for Monday
,
May seventh
and some funds for any expenses you have on your trip
. I will wait for you at the train depot, and drive you to Hudspeth where we will be married by my pastor that afternoon. I’ve made all the arrangements. I look forward to meeting you. Yours, John.”

Maude’s hand shook as she read the letter and put it down on the table. “That’s only three days from now!”
She did a mental inventory of what she’d need to pack, nervous now that the day to leave Beckham was so close.

Harriett nodded. “It’s moving fast, but that’s what we wanted for you.” She reached over and squeezed Maude’s hand in hers. “I know it’s scary to get on a train knowing you’ll be marrying someone you’ve never met on the other end, but there’s really no choice.”

“I’ll need to get the things I want to take with me ready. I’ve had a small bag packed all along, but I’ll need to pack one more.
Would you be willing to meet me to keep them for me?”

“Of course! Where do you live?” The town of
Beckham
, Massachusetts was not large by any means, but large enough that you certainly didn’t know everyone who lived there like you would in a small town.

Maude quickly gave her address, and they agreed to meet at midnight just down the street from Maude’s home that night. Harriett would meet her at the train station Monday morning with her things. “Thank you so much! I don’t know what I would have done if we hadn’t met in the post office that day.”

“You’d have found some other way out.” Harriett smiled at her new friend. “I can see you’re a strong woman, and you wouldn’t have married him.”

They walked quietly through the streets toward Maude’s home. When they were a few houses away, they hugged quickly with a promise to meet that night.

Maude went straight to her room and packed for her trip. She couldn’t leave her closet bare in case her mother went in there, so she packed just
two
everyday dresses plus her
pale
pink wedding dress she would be able to use as a church dress once she’d arrived in Iowa.
She didn’t know how practical it would be for a farmer’s wife to have a silk Sunday dress, but it didn’t really matter. She wasn’t going to leave it behind.
She stowed her bags under her bed, and went down to meet her mother.

Lilly looked up with a smile as Maude walked into the dining room where she was seated at the table working on something. “Oh good! I was hoping you’d help me with the menu for the wedding.”

Maude sat with her mother and discussed the merits of chicken over beef all the while knowing she wouldn’t be attending the elaborate wedding her mother was planning. She wished she could confess to her mother what she’d done, but she was too afraid. She couldn’t let anything k
eep her from leaving
Beckham
. She would write a letter of apology once she was married.

At five minutes before midnight, Maude opened her bedroom door as softly as she could, hoping to not wake her parents. She tiptoed to their bedroom door, and put her ear to the door. All she could hear was her father s
nor
ing. He never went to bed before her mother, so she was certain she was safe. She went back into her bedroom, and opened her window, dropping her bags out. There was nothing breakable in them. She’d packed nothing with any sentimental value only a few books and her clothing.

She looked out the window. She’d once climbed down the tree that was just outside it when she was younger, but decided that would be too risky. She tiptoed down the stairs and out the front door, going to the side of the house to pick up her bags. She moved quickly down the street she’d lived on her entire life wondering what it would be like to live somewhere else. To not know every neighbor. To not have her mother’s face across the table from her every morning.

Harriett was waiting and took the bags from her. “Did you have any trouble getting out?”

“No, my parents are both asleep. I threw the bags out my window just in case one of them woke up and saw me. I could say I couldn’t sleep and was going for a walk.”

Harriett nodded in the darkness. “That was a good idea. Well, I’ll see you Monday morning at the train station.”

“Thank you!”

“You’re welcome, Maude. I’m happy to help you!”