The Romancing of Evangeline Ipswich (6 page)

“My father was an old widower, you know,” Evangeline teased her friend.

But Jennie laughed. “Your father is a mythical Greek god of masculinity and beauty, Evie! Oh, I was so in love with your father when I was about five years old that I once told my mother I was going to marry him one day. You can imagine my devastation when my mother told me that Mr. Ipswich was already married to Mrs. Ipswich and that I couldn’t marry him myself.” Jennie clamped a hand to her breast over her heart. “I was miserable for a week with despair!”

Evangeline laughed yet sympathized, “How tragic, Jennie! I never knew.”

“Yes, I was quite overwrought,” Jennie admitted. “It wasn’t until Mother allowed me to eat an entire dozen cookies that I was able to rally. And therein is my point: your Mr. Longfellow, the sad widower, and your father, the dashing Judge Ipswich, are two different recipes entirely!” Jennie shook her head and emphatically reiterated, “No. I will not allow you to resign yourself to Mr. Longfellow, the poor, needy man. No. You shall have what I have with Calvin. I am certain of it, Evie. So put those thoughts of resignation—of acceptance that you are not meant to have what I and your two sisters have in love and companionship with a husband—completely from your mind.”

“And just how do you know what’s in my mind?” Evangeline baited, though she knew exactly how Jennie knew what was in her mind: because Jennie knew what was truly in Evangeline’s heart, and it was not this Floyd Longfellow.

“I’d rather you married his son than him! He, at least, sounds as if he has a sense of humor.”

Evangeline smiled. “You
do
remember everything in our letters, don’t you?”

“Yes, I do!” Jennie assured her. “Especially being that I’ve had nothing to do for weeks but read them over and over and over while I’ve lain in bed like an invalid.”

“Speaking of which,” Evangeline began, rising from her chair, “we best get you back in bed before your husband comes home and thinks I’m not taking proper care of you.”

“Oh, Calvin is going to be so glad to have you here, Evie,” Jennie said as Evangeline helped her stand. “He hasn’t complained—not one word—but I know he must be tired of waiting on me hand and foot, of eating bacon and eggs all the time. After a long day at the lumber mill, he comes home so tired, and I’ve felt so bad that I haven’t been able to do anything for him.”

“Well, I hope that I’m worth the inconvenience of having a houseguest,” Evangeline said.

“It’s no inconvenience, Evie,” Jennie said, smiling at her as they walked slowly back to the bedroom. “You’re a blessing…truly a blessing.”

Just as Evangeline had tucked Jennie back into bed, the front door burst open, and a stocky, solid-looking man with light blond hair and blue eyes entered the house.

“Jennie?” Calvin McKee called as he entered the bedroom. The man immediately removed his hat and lunged toward the bed. Without so much as a word to Evangeline, Calvin began kissing his wife in quite a passionate manner. “How are you, honey? Are you feeling okay? Did you stay off your feet today?”

Jennie giggled, kissed Calvin squarely on the mouth, and answered, “I’m fine, Cal. I’m fine. And I’m all the better now that Evangeline has arrived.”

Calvin stood then, turned to Evangeline, and offered her his hand. “Calvin McKee, Miss Evangeline,” he said.

His handshake was so firm and strong, Evangeline felt it all the way to her bones.

“It’s so nice to meet you at last, Mr. McKee,” Evangeline greeted him. “And thank you so much for allowing me to come and visit.”

“Oh, you call me Calvin, Miss Evangeline,” Calvin chuckled. His blue eyes lit up like stars, and something about the bright sincerity of his smile made Evangeline giggle a little. “And we’re just so glad you were willing to come all the way up to Red Peak! I’ve had to work so much at the mill, and I worry so about my Jennie. It will ease my mind like you’ll never know to have you here to care for her when I’m away.” He paused a moment, sniffed the air, closed his eyes, and sighed, “Do I smell stew and biscuits?”

Evangeline laughed. “Yes, you do! In fact, I best see to the biscuits before they burn right through.”

Calvin sighed once more, again sniffing the air. “I never thought I’d say this, but it is so nice to smell something other than bacon cooking in the house.”

As Calvin stretched out on the bed next to Jennie and began telling her about his day, Evangeline hurried to the kitchen to tend to the biscuits and stew.

“Mmm!” she hummed as she stirred the stew. Chicken stew was one of her favorite meals to cook. Evangeline found that it soothed her soul, mind, and body, and she hoped it would soothe Jennie’s and Calvin’s as well—and Hutch’s. She wondered if Hutch really would arrive for supper. She hoped he would, for she would love nothing more than to have another look at him—just to make certain he really was as attractive as he’d appeared when he’d met her at the station.

She opened the oven door and used her apron to remove the herbed biscuits. “Ouch!” she exclaimed when the hot pan penetrated the fabric of her apron more quickly than she’d anticipated. Almost dropping the biscuits onto the counter, she put her burnt fingers in her mouth for a moment. But the delicious aroma of the hot thyme and parsley in the biscuits made her smile, and she quickly forgot her singed fingers.

Evangeline turned when she heard the front door to the McKee house open again. She couldn’t keep from smiling as Hutch stepped into the entryway, glanced over to where she stood in the kitchen, and said, “Mmmm mmm! What smells so good? Have I died and gone to heaven?”

“Nope,” Evangeline answered, smiling at him. “But you have arrived just in time for supper.”

“Well, I’m glad I did!” Hutch exclaimed. “My mouth is already watering just from the aroma in the house!”

“You come in here and see your sister first, Hutchner,” Jennie giggled from the bedroom.

Hutch nodded to Evangeline, removed his hat, and placed it on the hat rack just inside the front door before heading to the bedroom to greet his sister.

Turning back to the stove to stir the stew, Evangeline shook her head and whispered, “Yep…he really is as handsome as I imagined he was.”

She could hear Hutch and Jennie laughing at something Calvin had said, and it warmed her heart. She thought of her own sisters—of sitting around the breakfast table with them and her father those first glorious days after they’d arrived in their new home in Meadowlark Lake. It was a comforting, blissful memory and at the same time bittersweet—for the Ipswich family’s move to Meadowlark Lake had begun a chain of events that would change every one of their lives, forever. For the better, of course—but change nonetheless.

“Calvin says he’d like to eat in the bedroom with Jennie instead of in the kitchen with us…if that’s all right,” Hutch said from behind Evangeline, startling her from her reminiscences.

“I’d expect nothing else!” Evangeline exclaimed. She was pleased with the way Calvin was so attentive to Jennie.

She smiled up at Hutch, momentarily mesmerized and unable to move by his purely alluring presence.

He grinned and asked, “You don’t mind if I join you in here, do you?”

“Of course not,” she assured him. “I’d hoped you would. Let me just serve Jennie and Calvin, and then we’ll have ours, all right?”

“Yes, ma’am, Miss Ipswich,” Hutch said.

Evangeline heard him rather collapse into one kitchen chair at the table, exhaling a heavy, weary-sounding sigh.

“It sounds as if you’ve had a long day,” she ventured.

“Yep,” he confirmed, “though not as long as yours, I daresay. I bet you’re worn out from traveling, hmm?”

Evangeline shrugged. “Not so much,” she answered as she took two bowls down from a cupboard and began ladling stew into them. She smiled. “And it’s so wonderful to be with Jennie again.” She giggled to herself. “I’d forgotten how amusing she can be.” She added a biscuit to each bowl and said, “I’ll be right back,” to Hutch as she headed for the bedroom.

Jennie was sitting up in the bed, Calvin beside her.

“It’s hot, you two, so be careful,” Evangeline said, handing Calvin his bowl and then Jennie hers. She reached into her apron pocket, retrieving two spoons and two napkins. “I’ll bring some water in, if you like.”

“Oh, don’t go to all that trouble,” Calvin assured her. “We’ve got Jennie’s water glass here.” He nodded toward the nightstand. “We’ll share that for now. You head on in and feed Hutch. He’s gotta be near to starving! I don’t think he took time to eat at midday today.”

“Well, let me know if you need second helpings or anything, all right?” Evangeline asked.

She watched with satisfaction and joy as Jennie placed her face over her steaming bowl of chicken stew and an herb biscuit. “Oh, Evangeline,” she sighed. “This smells simply delicious! Thank you so much.”

“Let’s hope it’s as good as it smells then,” Evangeline said. “Enjoy. And do let me know if you need anything else.”

“Thank you so much, Miss Ipswich,” Calvin said with a sincere smile.

“You’re welcome,” Evangeline said.

She returned to the kitchen, surprised to see Hutch standing at the stove, ladling stew into two bowls on the counter.

“I hope you don’t mind,” he said, looking over his shoulder to her. “I just couldn’t wait. It smells so good!” He took two biscuits out of the biscuit pan, plopping one on top of the stew in each bowl. “And besides,” he said as he strode to the table and placed one bowl on either side of it, “you worked hard making supper. Seems to me you deserve to be served more than I do.”

Evangeline smiled and bit her lip with delight as Hutch pulled her chair out for her, scooting it in as she sat.

“Thank you,” she said.

Hutch hurried to a kitchen drawer and retrieved two spoons, returning to the table and handing one to Evangeline.

Quickly he clasped his hands together, bowed his head, and said, “Thank you, Lord, for this delicious meal, prepared by two beautiful hands. Amen.”

Before Evangeline had even finished her own, “Amen,” Hutch had plunged his spoon into the stew and taken his first bite.

“Oh, be careful, Hutch! It’s very hot!” Evangeline warned too late.

“It’s all right,” Hutch said, however, as he puffed a bit of steam from his mouth. “I like my stew hot.” He took a bite of his biscuit and moaned, “Mmmm mmmm mmm!” He sighed and then said, “I never thought I’d hear myself say this…”

“But you were tired of bacon?” Evangeline finished, smiling at him.

Hutch chuckled and nodded as he took another bite of stew. “Jennie told you, huh?”

“She did,” Evangeline admitted.

“Well, me and Calvin only know how to cook two things between us—and one’s bacon and eggs,” he explained. “We knew bacon and eggs would be best for Jennie and the baby, being that jerky and hardtack were the only other things we each knew how to make.”

“I’m sure she’s very grateful,” Evangeline offered. She shook her head. “Anything sounds better than hardtack.”

Hutch continued to smile. “I
can
make oatmeal too,” he said. “But Jennie hates oatmeal, so me and Calvin stuck to the bacon and eggs.”

Evangeline took a bite of her own stew, and as it traveled down her throat, it warmed her from head to toe. In fact, she hadn’t even realized that she’d been a little chilled until the stew began to warm her from the inside out.

“I’m glad you told me that Jennie doesn’t like oatmeal, because I do, and I might have made it for her otherwise,” Evangeline said.

She watched, flattered and very pleased as she noticed that Hutch was nearly finished with his bowl of stew before she’d even taken her third bite.

As he stood up with his bowl in hand and strode to the stove to refill it, Evangeline asked, “So…you work at the livery?”

“I own the livery,” Hutch answered. “And I do work there, yes.”

Evangeline smiled as she thought of Hutch as a boy—of his interest in and love for horses and other animals. “I remember how you loved horses when we were all in Boston. It makes sense that you would have a livery.”

“I still love horses,” he said, taking another biscuit from the pan and returning to his seat at the table. “Almost as much as I love this stew and these biscuits,” he added, glancing up to Evangeline and winking at her.

Evangeline couldn’t keep the pink of delight from rising to her cheeks. She was glad Hutch liked her stew and biscuits—very glad.

“My little sister Shay loves animals too,” she said. She giggled to herself, adding, “She has this poor old marmalade cat named Molly. I swear, that cat is the most patient animal God ever put on the earth. Shay dresses the thing up in baby clothes, takes it for daily walks on a leash…”

Hutch stopped mid-bite of his biscuit. “A cat on a leash?” he asked.

“Yes,” Evangeline assured him.

“Now there’s something I’d like to see,” Hutch said before finishing his bite.

“Well, it’s quite a sight to behold,” Evangeline admitted.

“Shay…your father’s new wife’s little girl, hmm?” he asked.

“Mm-hmm,” Evangeline confirmed. “She’s a sweet little thing. She can win over the hardest of hearts in a matter of moments.”

“Kind of like you,” Hutch said, grinning at her.