The Widow Finds Love (Mail Order Bride Series) (6 page)

“It’s beautiful,” Sarah said as they pulled into the yard.

“Thank you,” Clint said.  “I’m glad you like it.  I think you will be happy here.  Cassie, why don’t you show Rebecca your room?”

Cassie jumped down from the wagon, and Clint lifted Rebecca from the wagon.  “I’ll put the carriage away, and give the horse some grain and water.  I’ll milk the cows in a few minutes.  Why don’t you go on in?”

“I’ll wait for you,”Sarah said.  “I’d like for you to show it to me.  I can help milk, I did it at home, before we lost the farm.”

“I’ll do it today.  I’ll just be a few minutes.”

In the house…

“Do you like it?” Cassie asked

“It’s pretty,” Rebecca said.  “Where did you get the butterflies on the wall?”

“My Mama painted them before she died.”

“I like them.”

“This is your room, too.  You’re going to sleep in here with me.  You don’t have to be afraid,” Cassie said.

“I won’t be afraid.  I slept by myself at Grandmama’s.  Do you want to see my doll?  Santa Claus brought it for Christmas.  Her name’s Lizzie.”

“I got a doll for Christmas too,” Cassie said.  “We can play house.  I’ll be the Mama and you can be the little girl and the dolls can be our babies.”

“Okay.  Can I be the Mama sometimes?”

“You can be the sister and I’ll be the big sister, and our Mama will be in the garden.”

* * *

“We have plenty of wood for the stove,” Clint said, as he opened the door to the kitchen.  “One thing we have in East Texas is lots of wood,

“You have a pump in the kitchen,” Sarah exclaimed. 

“We had a big crop year before last, and I hated to see Ruth carry water, so I had it put in as a surprise,” Clint said.

“It’s a nice cook stove.  Ours had belonged to my Grandma.”

“Let me show you the rest of the house.  The girls are over here.  He started to open the door, but Sarah laid her hand on his arm to stop him.  She knocked on the door, and then called out, “Cassie, could we see your bedroom?”  Then to Clint, “A girl’s room is her sanctuary.  Unless it’s an emergency, always knock first.”

Cassie opened the door, to reveal Rebecca sitting on the floor with her doll.  “Hello, sweetheart.  What are you playing?” Sarah asked.

“We’re playing big sister, little sister, Mama,” Rebecca said. 

“What a lovely room, Cassie.  I’ll bet you spend a lot of time in here,” Sarah said.

“It’s Rebecca’s room too, Mama,” Cassie said,

“Look at the butterflies, Mama.  Cassie’s Mama painted them,” Rebecca said.

“It really is pretty.  A pretty room for pretty girls,” Sarah said.  “We’ll let you girls get back to your dolls.  Thank you for showing me your room.  I really like it.”  Cassie beamed, her smile brightened the room.

“That was really thoughtful of you.  I never thought of her room that way,” Clint said.

“It’s the way my mother treated my room and I’ve always done the same with Rebecca.”

“I still have a lot to learn about little girls,” Clint said, ruefully.  “Come on, and I’ll show you the rest of the house.  He opened the door to a small bedroom.  The curtains were drawn and it was dark.  He opened them and the small room was transformed into a guest bedroom.  “I think you’ll want to stay in here, at least until Sunday,” he said.

“Thank you for understanding.  I’ll be more comfortable this way.”  Her hand rested on his arm.  She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek.”  His cheeks reddened to show his embarrassment at the unexpected show of intimacy.  “Now, show me what will be our bedroom.”

The master bedroom was large and airy.  It faced east, avoiding the hot afternoon Texas sun.  “It’s really nice,” she said.  “A lot bigger than mine was in my house.”

“As I mentioned in the letter, we had the lumber and we wanted a big family, so we built a big house.  Pa, Arthur and Ruth’s father and brother helped build it.”

“You really loved her, didn’t you?” Sarah asked softly.

“Yes, we were childhood sweethearts.  There was never anyone else for either of us.  Her death nearly killed me.  If it hadn’t been for Cassie and my sister, I might not have made it.  With the war and everything, we didn’t have a lot of time together.  She was left with Cassie while I was gone.”

“Where were you?  In the war, I mean.” Sarah asked.

“I don’t really like to talk about it,” he said.

“I didn’t mean to pry, Clint.  I’m sorry,” she said.

“It’s all right,” he said.  “I’m being silly.”

“No, I understand, really I do,” she said.

“You’re an amazing woman, Sarah.”

“I’m just a lonely woman who is being rescued from a dreary life.”

They walked about the rest of the house.  “Show me where everything is and I’ll see what I can scare up for supper.”  They went back into the kitchen.  He opened a small door beside the stove to a pantry, whose shelves were well stocked with food. 

“I love this.  Plenty of room for everything,” she said. 

He showed her where the utensils and the dishes were.  “If you’re okay in here, I’ll go get the milking done and feed the animals.”

“I’ll be fine.  This is heaven.  I like to cook and this is a kitchen made for cooking,” she said.

“It will be a welcome break from beans for Cassie and me.  I’ll just be a few minutes,” he said and headed out the back door to the barn.

Sarah built a fire in the stove, and put some water on to heat, next, she mixed dough for biscuits, and after surveying the contents of the pantry, picked several of the canned vegetables for their dinner..  When Clint returned from his chores, it was time to have the girls wash up for dinner.

“Cassie, Clint, at our house, we always gave thanks for the food we were about to eat.  I would like to continue that,” Sarah said.

“We did that when Mama was here,” Cassie said.

“Could we join hands, please, Sarah requested.  She then gave thanks for bringing them together as a family and asked that the food be blessed.  After saying “amen”, she squeezed Cassie’s hand and gave her a smile, and received a large one back.

“This is better than beans, huh, Papa?” Cassie asked.

“It sure is,” he agreed, “and these biscuits are straight from heaven.”

“I told you Mama was a good cooker,” Rebecca said, to a chorus of laughter from the adults.

After supper, Sarah asked, “Cassie, can you help me with the dishes?’

“Yes, ma’am,” came the answer.

After the dishes were taken care of, the girls went back to their dolls, while the adults settled in the living and began talking.  The conversation continued long into the night.

Sarah did not fancy herself as a talker, but found it easy to talk to Clint, she held up her end of the conversation.  She spoke of life in Yorkville, and the horrific losses sustained during the war,

“The first year of the war, John did the planting and then went back.  When the bolls ripened, I picked until my hands were cracked and bleeding, but with the help of my father, we got the crop in.

“The next spring, Papa and the neighbors did the planting and the group came around in the fall and helped pick.  The crop was smaller, and then last year, it was the smallest we’ve ever had.  After the war ended and some of the boys came back home, I share cropped and we had a decent crop, enough to pay the taxes.

“The first election after the war, everything changed.  We had not been able to plant our land, and just raised food crops didn’t have enough help to plant and pick cotton.  I had no money to buy seed and borrowed money to buy what I needed.   There were crop failures two years in a row, and that made it worse.

“Then a man came around and wanted to buy the farm.”  She laughed.  “Buy it, he wanted me to give it to him.  I wouldn’t sell.  He had a black man with him, who laughed and said he’d get it anyway.  The sheriff came around with papers and said I still owed taxes.  When I showed him the receipt, he said it was for the old taxes and he had come to collect the new taxes.  I did not have nearly enough to pay what he said was due, so he said if I didn’t pay by the end of the month, he would be forced to take the farm.

“They came back and took the farm.  Rebecca and I had to move in with Mama and Papa.  Everyone had to pay the increased taxes.  With the money I had left from our share of the crop, Papa was able to pay his taxes so he was able keep his farm.  John’s parents were able to keep theirs also.”

She was crying.  “It wasn’t fair.  The land had been in our family since before I was born.  Mama and Papa had given it to John and me as a wedding present.  They just took it.  I found out at church, it happened to a lot of the women who lost their husbands in the war.

“We were desperate.  I didn’t know any unmarried men my age.  Not one.  They were all gone.  I asked our circuit preacher about it and he said it was the same all over the county.  That’s when I found out about the newspaper and placed the ad.  It was hard to leave my family, but I had to do something.”

Clint patted her shoulder trying to comfort her.  “We didn’t have it that bad here.  The Yankees did occupy Marshall at the end of the war and there was a prisoner of war camp here.  After I got wounded at Vicksburg, I was taken prisoner and wasn’t released until it was over.  I managed to survive where many didn’t.  I came back home where Ruth had managed to keep things together, at the cost of her health.  She was just wore out.  Then she got sick with the pneumonia and just didn’t have anything left to fight it.  We buried her in the cemetery at the church.  Cassie stayed with Suzy and Arthur and their boys while I tried to get the farm going again.  We actually had a good crop two years in a row. 

“It was almost like I didn’t have a daughter.  I mostly saw Cassie on Sundays until I decided she needed a Papa and brought her home.  We managed, on a lot of beans and love.

“It broke my heart when she asked if she would ever have another Mama.  Right after that happened, I started writing to you.  You came along at just the right time.  You should have heard her when I asked if she would like to have a new mother.  I told you she was afraid you wouldn’t like us.  She was determined to make sure you did.”

She placed her hand on his arm.  “Clint, I think God made it happen.  We both needed someone and he decided it was each other we needed.  I believe we have earned the right to be happy, and I intend to make it so.”

She scooted over on the davenport closer to him, and put her hand on his cheek.  “I will make you a good wife, and I’ll be a good mother to that darling little girl.  She will never have to worry about having a mother again.”  Tears flowed down her cheeks.

It seemed natural.  He put his arm around her and pulled her closer, intending to comfort her.  When she looked up at him, she saw such compassion there, she was stunned.  She tilted her head and they kissed.  Their lips met, and the emotions overflowed.  Sarah clung to him, needing the closeness of this man.  They kissed again, each putting a little more of themselves into the effort.

They broke apart.  Looking into his eyes, she saw no regret, only joy stemming from the finding of someone with whom he could share his life.  “Goodness,” she said.  “I don’t know what came over me.  I haven’t been kissed since John…”

“I apologize,” Clint said.  “I shouldn’t have taken advantage of you like that.  It wasn’t like me at all.  I was caught up in the moment.”  He removed his arm from around her, and said, “I think we’d better go on to bed.”  He colored when he realized what he had said.  “I didn’t mean it that way,” he said.  “I meant…”

She smiled.  “I know what you meant.  You have nothing to apologize for.  It was a natural thing.  I think it was a perfect time for our first kiss.  We do need to be careful though.  Sunday isn’t that far away.

“I’ll be up to fix your breakfast in the morning.”  Touching his hand, she said, “Goodnight, Clint.  And thank you for making my first day here so perfect.  We’re going to be good together.”

She went off down the hall to the guest bedroom.  Clint sat on the davenport for a few minutes pondering the significance of what had just happened. 
How in the world did I get lucky enough to find such a woman.  Someone up there is looking out for me.