“That’s because I am. I’ve sacrificed a lot to keep my siblings together. I’m not going to consider changing that at this point.” She then turned to him with judgment. “You aren’t trying to get rid of him already, are you?”
Ransom appeared truly shocked by her question. “Not at all. Truly, I was really just making conversation.” He held up one hand as though in a conciliatory gesture while keeping the other steady on the reins. “It seems to me that we’re both nervous and just talking to fill the empty space. I swear to you, I’m not trying to get rid of any of you. If you will recall, I need you here for my niece. And I recognize you come as a package with your siblings. I wouldn’t want to change that. My situation helps me to understand yours.” He paused before continuing. “If I’m being completely honest, I’m probably feeling a little guilty, as though I don’t have enough to offer you in comparison to the city. So, I was feeling the defensive need to offer you an alternative, if you felt the situation here wasn’t good enough for your brother.”
Hannah appreciated his honesty. “Since we haven’t even seen any of it for ourselves, yet, I promise to reserve judgment. But it would have to be beyond dreadful for me to consider a change before a couple years have passed. I have my reasons for wanting my brother and sister to be far from Boston. A village school will probably suit us perfectly.” Hannah felt she had told him all that was necessary for now, so she turned the subject again. “Now, tell me about your home.”
“Well, it’s our home now,” he emphasized with a slight smile. “It’s probably a little bit ugly from a female perspective. It’s nothing like what you’d find in Boston. But it makes up for it with space. It’s quite large, even by frontier standards. We aren’t limited by neighbors. We can build as big as we’re willing to cut the trees for. We actually have enough bedrooms for each of us to have our own, so there’s no need for anyone to be uncomfortable tonight.”
“Oh! That’s surprising. And somewhat unusual from what we saw from the train. It seemed like every house we travelled past was tiny in comparison to what you’re describing.”
“Well, I can’t promise you that the rooms are huge,” he began to protest modestly.
“Maybe not, but it seemed to me that many of the houses the train passed were at most two rooms all together, never mind multiple bedrooms in addition to other rooms.”
Ransom shrugged. “You don’t have to worry that our house is enormous. It is average in our town. Most of the men have done well for themselves.”
Hannah felt her brows furrowing in thought. “It would seem you are well to do, in that case.”
“I’ve done all right.”
“Then why did you find yourself in need of a bride through an arrangement?”
“Why wouldn’t I? Just because my pockets aren’t empty doesn’t increase the female population of my part of America.”
Hannah burst into laughter suddenly. It felt wonderful to laugh. She felt like it had been eons since there had been anything to strike her humor. As she wiped her eyes, she realized her new husband was looking at her as though she had lost her mind. This caused another fit of giggles to assail her, but she managed to get herself back under control quickly.
“Thank you for that. I haven’t laughed in too long. It is a wonderful release. But I do hope you didn’t think I was being rude. I wasn’t laughing at you. Just the way you described your situation was too funny for my disordered thoughts.”
“I’m glad I could be of assistance,” he answered a little stiffly.
“Oh, please, don’t be offended. You must realize our situation is an uncomfortable one. We still have to get to know each other. And we’re married! Aren’t you a little nervous about it all? On top of the awkwardness, we have three orphaned children between us.”
Ransom finally grinned at her, making Hannah’s breath catch at the back of her throat. She had almost gotten used to how handsome he was until then. But the twinkle in his blue eyes and the bright whiteness of his smile in contrast with his tanned skin, it was one more thing about the situation to make her uncomfortable. But she couldn’t dwell on it as he was continuing to speak.
“You’re quite right. We have a situation on our hands. But you seem to be a reasonable sort. You’ll get the hang of it all, I’m sure.”
Hannah felt her face furrowing into a frown once more, unsure what he meant by his words. Before she could question him, though, their conversation was interrupted by Francine’s plea for attention.
“I’m hungry, Uncle Ransom. Are we almost home yet?”
“Almost, darlin’. It’s probably another fifteen or twenty minutes until we reach home. But if you check in that sack under your seat, you’ll find some apples you can share with Brent and Maryanne.” The little girl scrambled to find the bag, squealing with delight over the treasure trove of food. Ransom continued, “If you’re feeling particularly generous, you might want to offer some to the grownups, too,” he reminded the children.
With her mouth full, Francine asked, “Do you want an apple, Miss Hannah?”
“I would love one, thank you, Francine.” Hannah was glad the child wasn’t calling her Mama after what she had said at the train station. And the apples looked delicious.
For a few minutes all that could be heard was the rhythmic clomping of the horses’ hooves, the jingle of their harnesses, the rumble of the wheels in the dirt track of the road, and the crunch of the crisp apples. Finally, when her hunger had been somewhat assuaged, Hannah giggled again.
“It would seem we had all been ravenous,” she observed. “I didn’t think I would hear such complete silence from those three.”
Ransom grinned. “Did you not feed yours today?”
Hannah could hear his teasing tone and so did not take offense. “Keeping them hungry was my ploy for control.” At his surprised glance, she laughed. “In actual fact, we ate well on the train. I was amazed at what they could accomplish in a moving kitchen. But I think nerves got to the three of us and we didn’t have the appetite for much this morning. Now that we’ve met the two of you, some of the nerves have passed and our empty stomachs made themselves known.”
Ransom returned her mischievous smile. “Well, we’ll feast tonight, then. I left a roast slowly cooking over coals before we left to collect you.”
Hannah felt her eyes widen. “You cook?”
“Of course. Out on the frontier, if you don’t cook, you don’t eat most of the time. Especially in my early days out here. Of course, in my early days, cooking was actually just propping whatever I had caught over a fire, so it certainly was more function than frills. But now that I have a house and a stove, I’ve managed not to starve to death. I do hope you know how to cook, though, since I’m certain Francine is getting tired of the five things I know how to prepare.”
Hannah smiled. “Hopefully my five things are different than your five things.” She didn’t bother going into detail about her experience since she didn’t actually have a terribly extensive amount of experience. She had watched many things being cooked. And had assisted slightly. Especially when she had been a child. The cook and housekeeper had enjoyed her prattle as she stood on a chair and stirred whatever bowl they were working on. Her favorite thing as a child had been to measure. But Cook hadn’t really believed in measuring. She felt that a true baker or chef just knew. Well maybe that was true, but Hannah thrived on precision. And she wasn’t about to claim to being a true baker or chef. So, she had forced Cook to write out some of their favorite recipes as closely as she could surmise for what the proper measurements might be. Hannah could envision that there might be some interesting meals in their future while she figured things out. But she didn’t want to divulge all of that to her new husband. Her concerns must have not written themselves across her face because he just returned her smile and allowed the subject to drop.
Hannah was finding the drive fascinating. The scenery was beautiful. Of course, she had travelled outside of Boston more than once in her
life, but she had never really ventured very far. Her parents had promised her when she had been a child that they would take her to England, but that adventure was put on hold once her siblings were born. Now that they were getting bigger, Hannah had supposed they would finally take that trip, but then her parents, her mother especially, had started hinting they thought she ought to be getting married. Now they were gone. It would seem they would never make the trip now. Especially now that she had moved her family in the opposite direction.
Dragging her thoughts away from the melancholy subject, Hannah returned her attention to the scenery. She hadn’t given it a great deal of thought prior to their travels, but she wouldn’t have thought the scenery would be all that different. She had been of the opinion that trees were trees, but she had apparently been wrong. The trees here were different than what she was familiar with. And then, of course, the air smelled differently, too. She should have realized that leaving the ocean behind would mean leaving the salty air behind as well. She took a deep breath. The air smelled sweeter. For a moment, she felt a stab of homesickness and she longed for the salty scent, but she forced herself to take another deep sniff and she realized that this was pleasant, too.
Maryanne must have been thinking along the same lines. “It smells so nice here, doesn’t it, Han?”
“It sure does.”
“It smells green,” the little girl commented, making everyone else laugh. “It does smell green,” she insisted, sounding irritated. “Like plants instead of water.”
Hannah soothed the moment over. “I was just thinking that it smelled sweet because there’s no ocean nearby.”
“I like sweet.”
The little girl’s comment made Hannah smile. “I know you do, because you’re a sweetie.”
Brent guffawed but Hannah kept the peace. “What do you think, Brent? Do you think it smells good?”
Hannah realized her mistake when her eyes met her brother’s belligerent gaze. “It smells like manure.” Hannah blushed over his words, noticing that the horses had just relieved themselves.
“That happens in the city, too.” She kept her comment mild, and he answered her with a shrug.
Feeling too tired to deal with his attitude at the moment, she turned back to face the front, offering her husband a weak smile on the way. “They’ve faced a lot of changes in a short period of time,” she excused.
“I can imagine. Can’t be easy for you.”
Her eyes wanted to fill with tears at his understanding words but she blinked them away. If she allowed herself to weep now, she might never stop. She was grateful he had mentioned they were almost there; she didn’t think she could manage the motion of the wagon for much longer. They had been in almost constant motion for a week, and she hadn’t sat still for more than a moment in the couple of weeks before getting on the train. Hannah was longing to sit in a chair and sip a cup of tea and not feel the steady movement of wheels beneath her for at least a month. Of course, she had to fill the role of mother now. She doubted there would be much sitting about in her future. She tried not to mind.
“There it is.” She could hear the note of pride in his voice as Ransom pointed to the roof that was now visible above the tree line ahead of them.
“You weren’t exaggerating,” she commented. “It does seem quite large.”
“It will be perfect for our needs,” he returned, a note of defensiveness in his voice.
“You’re quite right.” She agreed with him, although a part of her was dreading the thought of having to keep such a large house clean and dust free. She would have to ensure the children were trained to share in the tasks. She had no intention of doing it all herself. If worse came to worse, she would figure out a way to hire some help. It wasn’t as though she couldn’t afford it.
That last thought fortified her spirits and she was able to look forward almost eagerly, anxious to see her new home.
Chapter Five
Ransom tried to see everything from his new wife’s perspective. He had told her the house was a little ugly. It wasn’t a lie, except that she might think it was very ugly, he supposed. He ought to have painted it. But he kind of liked the dull grey it had settled into with the passage of a little time. And he certainly liked how the windows all seemed to twinkle in the sunlight. Ransom was proud of those windows. It had taken some doing to get all the glass here in one piece. Even his neighbors with bigger houses didn’t have more glass on their houses than he did. He loved the view from the spot he had chosen for the house. He wanted to be able to see it from every room. Of course, you couldn’t see that same view from the back of the house, but it wasn’t such a bad view there either.
He was a little disgruntled with himself for how nervous he was to show his bride the place. Since he didn’t even know her, her opinion shouldn’t matter to him so much. But she was beautiful and seemed intelligent, and well, he had married her. He wanted her to like it here. Heaven knows she was going to be stuck here, so he hoped she didn’t hate it too badly.
Casting a glance toward her out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the serene look on her face. She wasn’t smiling, but she wasn’t frowning. He had noticed she looked like that when she stepped off the train. She was such a striking woman — he had noticed her right away. She looked more mature and serious than he had expected for a twenty-year-old woman. He supposed her circumstances had forced that upon her. Maybe having much younger siblings had also made her grow up fast. Not that twenty was so very young, he reminded himself. Wilbur Channing from across the glen knew first hand just how old twenty could be. His wife had died in childbirth before she turned twenty. They had already been married for more than a year when that happened.
Ransom liked the look of his wife. Her eyes reflected intelligence. He liked how they lit with laughter even when she kept her face straight. She did that especially when the children said something. It seemed she was conscious of not wanting to hurt their feelings. That’s a woman for you, he thought, always concerning themselves with feelings. It’s exactly why he needed a wife so quickly. He couldn’t be expected to deal with Francine’s feelings. And the little tyke seemed to have lots of them. Very few of which made any sense to Ransom. He was thrilled to be able to hand that responsibility over to his wife.
There were so many responsibilities he was going to be handing over to her. He glanced at her again. Underneath that ugly hat brim she really was quite beautiful. She was going to draw attention.
“Do you know how to shoot?”
She was obviously not expecting this question. “Shoot what? A gun, do you mean?”
“Yes, do you know how to shoot? Have you ever handled a gun?”
“No, I have not.”
The look on her face led Ransom to believe she wasn’t terribly interested in starting, so he averted his eyes as he replied to her.
“I’ll teach you how before dark.”
“Is there a particular reason why you feel such urgency in my learning how to handle a gun?”
Ransom wanted to smile over how her words became more high falutin’ when she was trying to hold onto her emotions.
“It’s dangerous around here sometimes. I want you to know how to protect yourself and the little ones.”
As she studied him, Ransom grew uncomfortable under her scrutiny but bore up under it. He didn’t know what she was searching for on his face, but he wasn’t about to tell her at this moment.
“I don’t like the idea of guns, but you’re quite right that I need to know how to protect the children.”
He noticed she didn’t mention protecting herself and wondered at her selflessness. He hadn’t thought too much about what type of woman would be accepting his offer of marriage by proxy. Now he was filled with all sorts of questions. But he would have to ignore his curiosity for now.
Before he could get too worked up about it, they pulled into the yard between his house and the main barn. He looked back at her to see her reaction, but once again she had th
at pleasant, non-expressive look on her face. He was beginning to hate that. He didn’t know her very well, of course, but it seemed to him that she pulled a mask over her face whenever she didn’t want to reveal her thoughts. It was probably a useful skill, he marveled, but it was one he would prefer she didn’t possess. She would make a great poker player, he thought with wry amusement.
The children were scrambling down despite her admonitions to be careful. Ransom was amused at the way her siblings ignored her words. Francine hesitated in her mad dash from the wagon, but ultimately the lure of older children was too strong and she hurried after them, eager to show them her domain. Turning to his bride, Ransom offered her his hand to help her climb down from the high seat she was on.
He was again tempted to laugh at the struggle that flitted across her face before she smoothed out her expression once more. Ransom could tell she didn’t really want to touch him, but she had the sense to realize that it would be much easier to get down with some assistance. She didn’t quite know how to maneuver out of the wagon, but her natural grace took over and she managed to get down without mishap, quickly dropping his hand as soon as her feet touched the ground.
“Thank you,” she murmured politely, keeping her face averted in a fruitless attempt to hide the heat of embarrassment from him.
“You are quite welcome.” He didn’t want her to think he was laughing at her, so he quickly changed the subject. “Was that apple enough to tide you over for a little while so I can show you around, or would you like to go in right away and prepare dinner?”
She looked slightly horrified at his words, and Ransom realized she probably thought he was planning to ensconce her in the kitchen immediately. That had not been his intention, but he wasn’t sure how to recover his words. He had meant that he would finish the preparations. After a week of travelling, he was certain she must be exhausted, especially while in the company of her brother and sister, who no doubt had required a great deal of entertainment or at least monitoring. Feeling awkward, he waited to see how she would respond.
A Bride for Ransom Page 5