by Ember Pierce
* * *
The door was ajar and Scott called in, “Knock, knock.” He pushed the door open.
* * *
“Scott! To what do I owe this surprise? Is everything alright?” Ephraim stood and crossed the room to his friend.
* * *
“Everything’s fine. Yes, of course. Why, shouldn’t it be?”
* * *
“I only asked if you were okay, because I know what today is. I was going to stop by the house later.”
* * *
“Oh. Yeah. I’m okay about that. I’m actually here about something else.”
* * *
“Something else? Alright. Have a seat. What is this something else? There’s not a problem, is there? Did something happen?”
* * *
“Well, I suppose you could say that. I’m a bit confused about something.”
* * *
“Okay. I’m listening. How can I help?”
* * *
“I had a lady show up at my door this afternoon.” Scott sat down. Ephraim didn’t seem nervous at this pronouncement but his eyes did flick away from Scott’s for a moment and then back.
* * *
“A lady? Was she looking for work, maybe? We see it everyday. I don’t know why you would find it confusing. In fact, Molly just last week, hired a young lady to take care of the upstairs here. Nice girl. She’s from Ireland, too. Now Molly has somebody to talk Irish with at supper. And the girl’s a good worker. Not everybody who rolls through Fable Springs is looking for trouble, Scott.”
* * *
“No, Ephraim, the lady wasn’t looking for work. Or trouble.”
* * *
Ephraim grinned. “I was kidding about the trouble.”
* * *
“Do you want to know what she was looking for?”
* * *
“I reckon I do, seeing as I have no choice. Now, what’s going on, Scott. Enough with the riddles.”
* * *
“Okay, I’ll get right to it, then. The lady was looking for a husband. To be precise, she was looking for me.”
* * *
“You?”
* * *
“That’s what I said. Care to enlighten me? Apparently, I placed an advertisement in one of the papers. The marriage papers. I allegedly returned the lady’s introductory letter with a proposal of marriage.”
* * *
“I don’t understand. Are you saying the lady is a fraud? If you want enlightenment, maybe you should show up at Church once in a while.” Ephraim grinned.
* * *
“Ephraim. It seems you’ve forgotten that I’ve known you a long time. Are you going to tell me the truth?”
* * *
Ephraim was silent for a long moment in which he seemed to be considering the information he’d just been given. “Fine. I put an advertisement into one of the marriage newspapers. I don’t even remember which one.”
* * *
“I see. And you didn’t tell me about it. Why?”
* * *
“Because I knew you wouldn’t want to do it.”
* * *
“No, I wouldn’t have and I would have liked the opportunity to have made that choice. But instead a lady from Virginia showed up at my door today expecting me to marry her.”
* * *
“And what happened then?”
* * *
Scott shrugged. “What do you think happened?”
* * *
“What do you mean, what do I think happened? Why would I have the faintest notion?”
* * *
“Because, Ephraim, it was all your idea.”
* * *
“Fine. I proposed marriage to the lady. I sent my own money to get her here,” Ephraim smiled as if he had just won a game of checkers instead of just trapped Scott into marriage. “So now she’s here and you have to marry her.”
* * *
“Not sure that I do. Why don’t you marry her, seeing as it was your idea.”
* * *
“I can’t marry some stranger, Scott,” Ephraim said as if the thought was ridiculous.
* * *
“But I can?” Scott said, incensed.
* * *
Ephraim chuckled. “What’s she like?”
* * *
Scott thought about that. How could he put a description of Miss Andrews into one word? “Fiery,” he said.
* * *
“Is that so? She sounds like a good match for you!” Ephraim slapped his friend on the back.
* * *
“Well, I don’t know about that, Ephraim. I don’t want a wife. But that’s something you already knew. I don’t want someone living and working on the farm with me. Just the thought of it bothers me. I don’t want to get close to anyone. You, of anyone, should understand that.”
* * *
“I understand that you’ve convinced yourself that you want to spend the rest of your life alone. You’ve convinced yourself that you don’t need other people in your life, especially a lady friend. I also happen to know you don’t challenge yourself in the least.”
* * *
“What does it matter to you? You don’t know my challenges, Ephraim. It was a huge challenge for me to come into town today. I live my life the way I want to live it. Believe me, I spent almost a decade as sheriff of this town. I was challenged in many ways on a daily basis. My challenge today was to walk my surprise fiancee into town and over to the boarding house.”
* * *
“You’re actually going to call that a challenge?”
* * *
“Just because you don’t understand or agree with the way I live my life, you have no right to decide my fate. You have no right to point out my flaws.”
* * *
“That’s not what I was doing and you know it, Scott. What, actually, is so bad about a woman coming to your house and wanting to marry you. Can’t you just give it a chance? She’s still here, isn’t she? Or have you sent her away already?”
* * *
“I haven’t sent her away. She’s seen the scar. She said she doesn’t care about my looks. She said she doesn’t care about looks, in general. There’s too much store set by them, she said.”
* * *
“That’s a good woman, Scott. She’s more concerned with what’s in here.” He pointed to Scott’s head. “And here.” Ephraim pointed to Scott’s heart.
* * *
“Hogwash. Tell me the truth. You don’t really believe that. I know what you’re doing. You’re trying to get me to accept this ridiculous notion. And I’ll tell you again, I don’t want a wife and I don’t need one. Only humor me, who is she, really? A cousin of yours or something?”
* * *
“First of all, why would I say your paramour was a good woman if that wasn’t what I was thinking? You know I tell the truth. More to the point why would your new lady friend say that looks don’t matter to her if she didn’t believe it?”
* * *
“She’s not my new lady friend and she is certainly not my paramour. I don’t believe what the woman is telling me, Ephraim. There’s something else going on here. I can’t quite put my finger on it but it’s something having to do with her past. Or why she left her home. She told me she has nowhere else to go. And I find it odd that two weeks ago was the first time you’d mentioned a mail order bride to me. I mean you haven’t been carrying on correspondences with ladies all over the country, have you. Disguised as me?”
* * *
Ephraim was silent.
* * *
“Ephraim? Are you going to be straight with me?”
* * *
“Fine, I’ll be straight with you. The woman you’re talking about is the first and only lady who answered the advertisement.”
* * *
“And while she’s not repelled, of that I’m sure, she’s got to be uncomfortable about my face. After all, look at me.” He stood and moved across the room to the firep
lace. He studied his reflection in the mirror above it. Why would any woman accept him when he looked like he did?
* * *
Ephraim shook his head. “No, I don’t think she’s uncomfortable about you or your looks, Scott. I believe you’ve become so accustomed to widened or averted eyes and you immediately think people are judging you. You rarely come into town. So when you do, you’re extremely self-conscious. You expect people to stare and because you never come in and they’ve never got used to you… they do. Maybe your mail order bride isn’t like that.”
* * *
“How can you say that? You don’t even know the woman. How can you tell me that she’s not uncomfortable with what she’s seen?”
* * *
“You said so yourself. And besides, in the advertisement, uh...your advertisement in the marriage chronicle, I wrote that if looks were a priority then don’t answer it. I imagine that’s why only one inquired.”
* * *
“You put that in?”
* * *
“I did. And Miss Andrews was the only one to answer. Mind you, that doesn’t mean you won’t get other responses. It’s been two weeks. The adverts run for one month. But, Miss Andrews told you she doesn’t care about the scar, Scott. She wanted to come down here, from Virginia, as soon as possible. Would it hurt to believe her?”
* * *
Scott shook his head, “It might not. Then again maybe it will. I can’t say. But that’s enough of that. She’s staying at the boarding house across the square. I’ve decided to marry her in spite of all my misgivings about it.”
* * *
“You have? Why, that’s wonderful, Scott. I’m happy for you. I don’t know why you had misgivings in the first place.”
* * *
“Hold on there. You don’t? Let me refresh your memory. The woman is a complete stranger to me. I don’t know the first thing about her. Nothing. Don’t get me wrong. I’m marrying the lady, but in name only. She will be my cook and housekeeper. I will be the man she married. I will protect her and take care of her financially. It is not to be a real marriage. However, being a gentleman, I cannot turn the poor woman away. For all intents and purposes, she’s destitute.”
* * *
“Well, okay, Scott, that’s a lot to take on. How about staying for supper? We can talk more about it. Molly is an excellent cook, if you don’t remember. She made roast chicken today. It’s something of a specialty for her.”
* * *
“No. But thank you, just the same. I have things to do at my place. I’ll probably talk to you tomorrow. And I’m presuming you’ll be at the wedding ceremony?”
* * *
Ephraim smiled. “It would be my pleasure. I’ll speak to Pastor Jones and arrange everything. Be sure you let me know the happy date as soon as possible.”
* * *
Scott growled under his breath. “I will, Ephraim.”
* * *
“Right, Scott. Good evening, then.”
* * *
“Yeah. Good evening.” Scott turned and left the study. He made his way back downstairs and through the kitchen. Molly wasn’t around and he slipped out quickly before she saw him and demanded he stay to supper.
* * *
When he got back to his house, the idea that he would soon be sharing it with another person hit him hard. This house had been his escape, his haven in the days after the accident and in the year that followed. He felt nervous about sharing it.
* * *
The level of privacy he’d maintained in his life during the last year had been reclusive, at best. Ephraim was the only person who was a regular at the little house on the edge of town.
* * *
Sometimes Nick from the general store and Joe Donnelly, from his and Ephraim’s favorite saloon, would make a night of it and arrive at Scott’s door with a bottle of whiskey and a deck of cards.
* * *
That kind of entertainment was much better to enjoy in a saloon, but since Scott rarely left his property, his friends made the effort to spend time with him.
* * *
Scott knew he’d been difficult to be around in the last year. He’d been in a slump socially and personally. He spent much of his time alone.
* * *
When he’d opened his front door to Mae Andrews today, something inside of him had been set off. Her manner had intrigued him. She was brave and forthright. He chuckled at the recollection of her sitting on his front porch waiting until he opened the door.
* * *
She’d come to Fable springs to get married, she’d said, and marry she would. She was not about to set him free from his commitment. The commitment that Ephraim had made for him.
* * *
Somehow, though, the more he thought about it, the more it made sense to him in an odd way. He’d only recently become aware of the fact that trying to keep the house up and the farm running smoothly was too much. He’d get home after a ten-hour day in the fields only to have to make something to eat.
* * *
He’d lost a little weight and his tall, slim frame bordered on the lanky side. It would be nice to come home to a hot meal and a smiling face.
* * *
He’d blocked those kinds of ideas and thoughts from his mind after Annie had died, though. But maybe it was time to consider them again. They wouldn’t be like a true married couple but at least he’d have some company and help.
* * *
It wasn’t what he’d imagined his marriage would end up being.
* * *
But it would have to be enough.
8
Mae walked downstairs to the foyer of the boarding house. It was lovely, the furnishings, while not opulent, were well made and comfortable. There was a common dining room and a double parlor that was divided by two large pocket doors.
* * *
After supper each night the men would congregate in one and the women in the other. The landlady’s daughter had told Mae about the other guests in the house currently. There were four men, all in the small rooms on the fourth floor.
* * *
The more stairs you climbed and the smaller the space you slept in dictated lower prices. If you were to share one of the tiny attic rooms, it was an even cheaper way to live in Fable Springs.
* * *
Mae, the girl had said, had the nicest room in the house. A small suite, really, that usually only rich passers through, on their way to San Francisco, stayed in. She had no idea what the room cost as Mr. Henderson was taking care of the bill. But she was glad that, at least, she had a nice place to stay in.
* * *
Standing in the foyer, she peeked into the dining room. The four male boarders were seated around the table, waiting to be fed. The last thing she wanted to do was entertain small talk with four men of varying ages.
* * *
She didn’t know what to do so just stood there in the foyer trying to decide how to avoid the men. Maybe she could have her supper sent up to her room. She wasn’t prepared to meet anyone else. Not yet.
* * *
She was still tired from her travels. The last two-and-a-half days had been full. Mae was more than tired, she realized. She was exhausted.
* * *
After waiting another minute in the foyer, away from the door, so the men didn’t see her, she decided to just go up to her room and go to bed hungry. Her stomach rumbled in protest but she placed her hand over it and turned to go back up. She just couldn’t go into the dining room no matter how hungry she was.
* * *
Mae was aware of the effect she had on men. She didn’t understand it, never utilized it, and avoided it as much as possible. Reluctantly, she stepped on the first step.
* * *
The kindly landlady, came out of the kitchen at the end of the hall.