“You should be. She was at it a long time.”
“I just worried that she would step on one. I’ve never seen a dog go from sensible to scatterbrained so quickly.”
“I’m sure I’d have been just the same,” Erin admitted with a laugh. They shared a laugh as both knew Erin would likely never have children. At the same time, it saddened them, but neither spoke that aloud as they headed for the farmhouse.
“We better get some sleep before I have to get up for chores,” Erin mentioned as she put her lantern on the counter.
“And I better set this in cold water to soak,” Molly mentioned, removing her apron.
Erin worked the handle of the pump in the sink, and Molly put a pan beneath it to catch the splashing water. They worked harmoniously and silently together. They were a well-organized team, each confident the other would do their part and be there for the other.
“This gunk soaked right through. I’m going to have to bathe,” Molly lamented, surveying the mess on her apron.
Erin pumped the handle, filling pans of water and setting them on the stove to warm for a bath for Molly. She didn’t mind helping, and they soon had the bathtub ready. As Molly stripped, seeing her in the lantern light, arching into the towel, set Erin’s teeth on edge. She was so beautiful, and her dark good looks enticed the woman. Erin was breathless watching Molly, who was unaware how alluring she looked with the towel wrapped around her, her dark reddish-brown hair, and her sultry, dark eyes that perpetually looked as though they were made up with cosmetics but were all natural. She quickly turned to clean up the kitchen as Molly let out the bathwater.
Only when everything was set up in the kitchen, did Erin blow out the two lanterns and take a candle she had lit. They headed to their bedroom, passing the stairs that led upstairs to the other four bedrooms in the old farmhouse.
“Do you think we’ll ever fill those?” Molly asked, glancing at the door and then realizing she had spoken aloud. “I’m sorry,” she quickly added as she hurried to get ready for bed. It was late, and she was sorely tired.
“Anytime you want to go to the orphanage down in Melville, you let me know,” Erin told her.
“But the deception of it all,” she exclaimed worriedly. She went to pull on her nightgown.
“What deception? They will think, like others do, that I’m a man. I just need to spell my name A-a-r-o-n instead of E-r-i-n is all. Although, maybe that isn’t necessary. There are men named Erin.”
“I don’t think God would like that kind of lying,” she said primly. She quickly pulled the curtains on the bedroom windows, even though they were far out in the country and no one could see them.
“I don’t think God puts people on Earth to lose their parents either. We can give a child a good home, maybe even two children. If we are gonna live according to the Bible, we must help our fellow man.”
“Well, I’m sure God didn’t put you in my path none either,” Molly answered pertly.
Erin was removing her boots, her overalls, and her shirt as they had their familiar conversation. They’d had this conversation a few times since they started living together and sleeping together as though they were man and wife. As far as their neighbors knew, they were two women helping each other out. No one needed to know they were intimately acquainted. The house was big and there were beds made upstairs to indicate that one of them lived up there, if anyone cared to look. “You want me to sleep upstairs?” she teased.
“Not unless I’m mad at ya,” Molly teased in return, her face softening. She wouldn’t have thought she’d fall in love with a woman but she had. After the death of her folks, the bank’s subsequent sale of their farm, and the pitiful amount she was compensated, she had nowhere to go. Her best friend from school, Erin, had offered her a place.
“You mad at me?” Erin asked, checking to be sure. Down to her drawers, she couldn’t hide the small bumps on her chest that she kept wrapped up. They weren’t much, but the wrapping made them seem more like a muscular man than a woman with breasts. Only people who knew them, people who had grown up around Stouten and knew her family, knew she was a woman. Strangers were always fooled.
“Whatever for?” Molly asked, putting her arms around Erin and hugging her close.
“I don’t know. You gals are always thinkin’ up somethin’,” she answered, leaning into the hug and relishing it. She could smell how fresh Molly was from her bath, and she remembered how good she had looked in the lantern light. She never thought she’d have anyone in her life. She hadn’t thought a woman would take her on, and she knew she didn’t want a man, although some men wanted her for the fine farm her father and brothers had left her to tend. Had her parents or brothers still been alive, she was certain she’d have been married off to some man who didn’t mind the fact that she looked every bit as masculine as him. Her hair being pinned back in a bun was the only clue that she was a woman.
“Nope. I’m pleased with ya right now, real pleased. We got us a fine litter of Tervurens that should fetch as much as two bits each if we are careful who we sell ‘em to.”
“That sounds like too much,” she lamented, but she too was hoping to get as much as that for the Tervurens. According to Erin, not many people knew of the breed. She’d found Queenie last year at a farmers’ market. She was a skittish thing without many prospects, so she’d gotten her in trade for two chickens. King had been happy with her choice; he finally had a playmate. He didn’t realize until she came into season that she was to be his mate. Erin hadn’t let him mate her that first time; Queenie was just too young. Her second season, he’d gotten his chance and done a fine job of getting her with pups…a fine job.
“Well, it all counts…every extra cent,” she reminded her of their plans.
“Yep, it shore does,” she agreed as they got into bed together.
They were saving every dime they could squeeze from the farm. They had taken the pitiful sum that Molly had gotten after the bank took their share from the sale of her parents’ farm and added it to Erin’s savings. They’d told no one of their plans. People wouldn’t have permitted such plans. Two women alone on a farm was bad enough, and there were already a few bachelors determined to change that. Most were interested in Molly, but every now and then, a man was determined to win Erin over. Their desire wasn’t for the woman but for the family farm. It was an established farm, one that didn’t require constant expansion and was worth a lot of money. Her brothers, father, and uncles had all worked themselves to death clearing the land for her grandfather, who had settled here. If they had survived, they would have been proud of the work Erin put in to keep it going. Well, maybe not. She wasn’t in her ‘proper’ place as a woman. She didn’t mind, but many men would, including those in her family. Right now, she couldn’t worry about that; she was the only one who had survived.
They cuddled close, pleased with themselves and the results of their breeding of the two dogs. “When do you think we can go?” Molly asked, knowing a lot hinged on their money situation.
“I’m hoping next spring. Let’s see what the harvest brings this year, and we’ll see what other money we can find.”
They’d been saving for two years, ever since Molly had agreed to live with Erin. They knew they couldn’t stay in this area where everyone knew them and where they had grown up. Already, there were some suspicions being cast their way, especially since Molly had already turned down two offers of marriage. Erin’s only offer had been for her farm, but they had generously offered to ‘allow’ her to stay on it, with him. It was understandable that she turned him down, but it didn’t mean there weren’t others who would be willing to take her on despite her masculine appearance. But no one was going allow the two women to remain spinsters, not when a fine farm and an attractive woman like Molly were in the equation. Somehow, someway, someone would try to change that; they were already trying.
“Then, next spring, we’ll go to Melville. No point feedin’ any young’uns over the winter when we’re t
ryin’ to save.”
“That’s true,” Erin admitted. She knew she would never be able to give Molly a child of her own body. She had offered to bow out and let Molly marry one of the men who had come courting as they could give her the child she wanted so much. They didn’t love her though; they simply wanted a wife. Molly wanted love, something her parents hadn’t had. Molly loved Erin and knew her best friend loved her too. To find out that there was physical pleasure in each other’s arms too had been a bonus. She wanted a life with Erin, a forever life.
They were both tired. The bitch had gone into labor late in their normal workday, and the hours spent calming her and watching her give birth had made them miss their supper. It was too late to eat anything, so they both went to sleep on empty stomachs. It wasn’t the first time, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last.
CHAPTER TWO
As always, their workday started with the crowing of their big, red rooster. Molly would be gathering any unfertilized eggs shortly. The rest, she was letting the hens sit on. They were letting the birds hatch as many chicks as they could possibly get, intending to sell the extra that survived at the end of the season and butchering many for their own consumption. This meant no eggs for breakfast unless the eggs were duds. Fortunately, the ducks churned out an excess of eggs, but it meant finding the darn things. The Peking ducks they raised weren’t the smartest about sitting on a nest, and it took time to find their eggs, determine how old they were and if they could be slipped under a broody hen or used for baking. But Molly enjoyed the challenge.
After a hearty breakfast, Erin went out to the fields where she would pull weeds, cultivate plants, and check on the crops. Normally, King and Queenie accompanied her, chasing off any varmint that dared to come on their fields with an eye to sharing the abundant crops. Today, she only had King with her. Enjoying his duties as guardian of the farm, he ranged far out in front her, searching for anything out of the ordinary. He stopped to watch as his human pulled weeds from the long rows of corn she was cultivating, being careful not to disturb the bean vines climbing the stalks. She gathered the long pods that hung from the vines into a bag she wore for this purpose. By noon, she had walked two of the enormous fields where she was cultivating corn, beans, and squash. The squash was making it harder to walk as the large leaves hid the produce, but they also discouraged the weeds. She walked and looked carefully, so she could gather the beans, a staple in their diet. Many would be dried for winter, and she would help Molly store them. They kept every extra bit of food that didn’t provide them cash money.
Erin looked up as she plodded back to the barn, her full bag heavy with beans. She looked up when one of the horses in the field snorted, glancing at King to see his reaction as she looked around. It was just the horse greeting her, acknowledging her as she headed in, but it paid to be vigilant. She never knew when she would have guests, and sometimes they were unwelcome. Some people accepted that Erin was working the farm alone, others expected her to marry and let her husband take over. Erin would never marry; she wouldn’t let a man, any man, have control over her. The laws would allow him to take the farm from her and do as he saw fit. She didn’t need a man to tell her when or how to plant her fields. She did fine all by herself. She would have thought the men would resign themselves to the idea after she had been doing this for herself for the last four years since her father and brothers’ untimely deaths from diphtheria. Still, some of her neighbors tried to marry her off. Even some of the townies had tried. Only one of the men had been persistent, and his offer was turned down. Erin wasn’t interested. She had never been interested. A good woman was supposed to marry. She understood that, but she wondered sometimes if she was a good woman, what with her unwomanly pursuits. She started whistling, so the horse would know it was her. It went back to grazing, its ears twitching at the whistle, deciding it was just her human making a song and not calling her to come to the barn.
When Erin’s good friend, Molly had lost her own parents two years ago, she had offered her a place to stay. Molly had never judged Erin for her looks. She had never tried to ‘pretty’ her up like their other school friends. All their friends were now married off except for these two, and many was the time that people shook their heads that Molly would choose to live with her poor, homely friend, Erin instead to find a fine man for herself. She was almost too old to find one now, but they wouldn’t understand, and the two women wouldn’t bother enlightening them. They were fine by themselves. They could run their own farm their own way. Erin owned the farm by right of inheritance, and despite people trying to swindle her out of the farm, it was owned outright. She had kept up the taxes and handled all the work involved.
“Ready for lunch?” Molly greeted her, taking the heavy bag from Erin’s shoulders.
“Yup,” she admitted, stopping at the outdoor pump to wash the grime from the hot sun off her arms and body.
“I’ve got cucumber and cress sandwiches made with fresh baked bread,” Molly told her with a smile, watching as Erin rubbed away the dirt that always accumulated from weeding, the sweat adhering it to her skin. She liked to see the muscles on Erin’s body, knowing how they felt beneath her fingers. She hadn’t realized how much she admired Erin until she began to live with her friend and her feelings changed to love. Some would find that kind of love most unnatural. To discover that this wonderful, hard-working woman loved her in return had been a revelation. And to discover the physical pleasures had been wonderful as they explored them together.
“Sounds good,” Erin grunted, rubbing her wet face on the towel they kept there.
“This looks like another pound or more to add to the sacks,” she commented, hefting the bag of green beans she would lay out to dry. Erin had made screens to keep the bugs and birds from ruining their drying efforts.
“I hope you’ll keep some for dinner,” she mentioned as she followed Molly inside, kicking off her boots by the door to avoid tracking in the dirt that always clung to them.
“I’ll cut some up for that right away,” she promised, knowing how prideful they were that they didn’t have to visit the stores in town but twice a year: once in the fall to sell their crops and once in the spring to replenish what they had used over the winter and couldn’t grow on their own farm.
“Wish I had time to plant and grow my own sorghum,” Erin mumbled as she sat down at the table.
“Maybe when we resettle,” Molly promised. “You’ll have to figure out how to get the plants there.”
“There is seed we can take, but at this rate, we ain’t gonna have room in the wagon with all we’re plannin’.”
“We are going to have to practice speaking properly, so people don’t know we are from this area,” she pointed out.
“There’s time enough to start talkin’ proper.”
“If you start now, it’ll come automatically when it’s important.” Molly handed Erin a plate with two sandwiches cut from the bread she had baked that morning. She made her own butter and had grown the cucumbers herself. Cress from the creek added mint flavor to their delicious sandwiches. “Think there’ll be cress in the creeks out west?”
“I don’t know. We’ll have to dry out some of the cress roots and bring it along.”
“We’re gonna need a second wagon at this rate,” she teased. She already had stacks and stacks of seeds she was bringing, harvested from her best plants and carefully labeled and folded in tissue paper.
“I’d like that, but I think one wagon is all we can afford, if we can find one,” she said sadly as she enjoyed the sandwich.
“I can drive,” Molly asserted stoutly.
“I don’t doubt your drivin’. It’s the others I worry about. That letter was pretty particular that it has to be a Con-a-sto-ga wagon,” she enunciated. “I don’ know where I’m gonna find one of ’em.”
“Well, the good Lord will provide.”
Erin didn’t want to hurt Molly’s feelings. Her retort would have been, “The good Lord helps those th
at helps themselves,” but she didn’t want to argue with her. They were going to make this dream of theirs a reality. They’d been planning it practically since Molly moved onto the farm. They knew, once they realized they were in love and not just merely friends, that they couldn’t stay. They wanted to start over somewhere else. Wagon trains were crossing the Great American Desert to the west all the time now, and she had written to someone she faintly knew, asking about being included and wanting to know who she needed to write. She was later given a list of what she needed to bring. Buying a new Conestoga wagon was beyond their current budget. They needed all their money to make this move. In the meantime, they were saving everything they could towards the move.
On Sunday, they went to church as usual. Several of the women ignored the masculine-looking Erin and spoke to Molly, trying to set her up with one of the single men in the area. They didn’t realize that she simply wasn’t interested.
“I could hear you singing out proud today in church,” Molly commented to the now embarrassed Erin.
“Well, I think the horses appreciate it a lot more than they do,” she jerked her head, gesturing back towards the church where the church ladies had ignored her. She was used to it, but she did hate that they were so earnest in their efforts to marry Molly off.
“I can’t whistle as good as you either,” she sighed after making an attempt and seeing the horse’s ears twitch at the sound. They knew the difference between Erin calling them to come in from the field and her soothing whistling of songs that showed she was happy. They certainly could recognize Molly’s unskilled attempts at the same. Sometimes, she was sure they laughed at her.
TO BE CONTINUED…
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Outback Born Page 12