Calico Christmas at Dry Creek

by Janet Tronstad

  Jake looked at her a moment and then bowed his head, too. “Thank you, Father, for this day. And for our neighbors. May you show us how to live peacefully together. And, thank you for this food Elizabeth has made for us. May You keep us in Your hands. Amen.”

  “Amen,” Elizabeth echoed as she reached for her spoon.

  “I suppose you have some Christmas things in your boxes,” Jake said as he started to eat. “Things from your childhood.”

  “No.”

  Jake stopped eating and looked at Elizabeth. He knew how much his mother valued her Christmas things. They made her sad, but they had also made her happy reliving the memories. “I suppose your husband didn’t think there was room for them in the wagon.”

  Jake never had liked Matthew. Which was a terrible thing to say about a man who was dead in the ground, but there it was.

  “I didn’t have anything to bring,” Elizabeth said. “I mean—I do have some yarn I dyed bright red so I could make Rose a blanket for her first Christmas present, but that’s all.”

  “But you must have memories, too.” Jake persisted. Even he had some memories of holidays when his father had whittled him a horse or a grizzly and his mother had given him hard candy she’d hoarded from the last time his father had been to a trading post.

  Elizabeth was looking down at her plate as though like she’d just as soon avoid this conversation. Maybe she didn’t want to remember because she knew it wouldn’t be the same this year.

  “I’m sorry. I know memories can be best left alone,” Jake finally said. “I don’t mean to pry.”

  Elizabeth finally looked at him. “There’s nothing to pry into. I didn’t have time to celebrate Christmas as a child. There was too much to do getting everything ready for the family. I had to scrub all of the windows so someone could put pine boughs over them. I had to chop nuts and knead dough for the fruit buns people wanted. And then there were the pies and the puddings. I was usually allowed some time off after Christmas dinner was served, but I was so exhausted all I wanted to do was sleep.”

  “But surely your parents—”

  “My parents were dead.” Elizabeth had only taken a few bites of her fried potatoes, but she pushed her plate away.

  “I’m sorry,” Jake said as he pushed back his chair and stood up. “I didn’t realize—”

  “Of course not,” Elizabeth said as she stood, as well. She gave a forced little smile. “And I can’t say I never had anything of Christmas. When I was real little, the cooks almost always saved me something good to eat. If a gingerbread cookie was broken, it would be set aside for me. Sometimes I had an orange of my own to eat. And new shoes. One year, the family I was with got me new shoes for Christmas. That was in my agreement with them. I was to get a pair of shoes and a new dress for my work that year, so I would have gotten them anyway, but it was nice they did it on Christmas.”

  “How old were you when your parents died?”

  Elizabeth shrugged. “I’ve tried to figure that out myself. I can’t remember. There didn’t seem to be any marking of the time. It feels like I was with them one week and the next I was working at my first house, expected to go on like it was just the passing of one week to the other.”

  “That must have been hard.”

  Jake decided that some days a man needed to hold his wife for his own comfort as much as hers. He held out his arms and Elizabeth walked into them. She was stiff as though she’d come to him reluctantly.

  “Anything wrong?”

  “I—I” Elizabeth stepped back from him and looked at his chin. She looked miserable, but determined at the same time.

  “You can tell me,” Jake said. “Whatever it is, it’s okay.”

  She looked at him square this time. “I’m sorry, but I want to wear mourning for Matthew.”

  Jake tried to keep the flinch he felt inside from showing on his face. “But Matthew isn’t your husband anymore.”

  “I know. It’s just that it’s like with my parents. Just because someone moves me to a different house, that doesn’t mean I should erase all my memories of who I used to belong with.”

  “I’m sure no one meant for you to do that with your parents.”

  “Maybe not. But there was no room to grieve for them. No way to mark their passing. I don’t want to do the same thing with Matthew. He was a good man. He deserves to have someone pay attention to his death.”

  Jake nodded. He might not like it, but he could almost understand it. “How can I help?”

  “I’ll need to have a black dress,” Elizabeth said hesitantly. “Usually, I would dye some fabric, but with all we need to do to get ready for Christmas, I—”

  “Buy what you need.”

  “I’m not asking you to buy me a dress. I have some red calico I’m pretty sure I can sell or trade for enough black cloth. This is something I need to do myself. All I really want is your blessing.”

  Jake looked at her for a full minute before he nodded.

  “Thank you,” Elizabeth said and then turned back to the stove. She felt more tired than she had when she was lying in her tent waiting to die. She had not realized when she agreed to Jake’s suggestion that marrying him would be so hard for her. She hadn’t given up her life with Matthew and Rose; it had been jerked away from her. She needed time to grieve before she could open her heart to a new family.

  She heard the door close as Jake let himself out of the house.

  Chapter Twelve

  Jake had never expected to have his wife dress up like a widow, at least not while he was alive, but that’s what was happening. It hadn’t taken Elizabeth long to start looking for a black dress. He and Elizabeth had both come into town Monday morning to be sure that Spotted Fawn was at school on time. Even before school was scheduled to start, however, Elizabeth had walked into the mercantile with some brilliant red cloth and asked Annabelle to put it up for sale or trade so she could buy a black mourning dress.

  “I’ll walk Spotted Fawn to the school,” Jake said when he heard Elizabeth ask her question. He wanted no part of that black dress. He had the baby with him and the fresh air would do them both good. He’d bring the baby back before long so she could take her morning nap at Annabelle’s.

  Annabelle watched Jake and Spotted Fawn leave the mercantile before she turned her attention back to Elizabeth. “What are you doing? Jake’s your husband. He’s not dead.”

  “But my other husband is,” Elizabeth protested. “I don’t know how you do it. I can’t just walk away from my old life. Everything’s happening too fast.”

  Annabelle put her hand on Elizabeth’s arm. “You poor thing. It has been fast. I keep forgetting that. It’s just that you and Jake seem so right together.”

  “It was okay at first, I mean we only got married to take care of the baby, but—”

  Annabelle smiled. “It’s becoming real.”

  Elizabeth looked up at her new friend. “I just don’t know anymore. If I’d been the one to die from the fever, I hope Matthew would grieve for me. At least for a little while. A person should leave a mark on someone’s life when they leave this world.”

  “I remember feeling that way when Tommy’s father died. I was alive and he was dead and there was no rhyme nor reason to it all. I was full up with guilt inside. Thought I should have done more for him when he’d been alive. Wished I had just one more minute with him to tell him how sorry I was for always fussing at him over his muddy boots.”

  Elizabeth nodded. “Matthew was terrible with his boots, too.”

  The women were silent for a bit.

  “Well, if it’s a mourning dress you want, you’re welcome to have mine,” Annabelle said. “The old thing itches and it’s the ugliest thing around, but you’re welcome to it. I can’t wear it for work anyway and it seems foolish to wear it to church when I don’t wear it for the rest of the week.”

  “You’d let me have your dress?” Nothing had ever sounded more comforting to Elizabeth than to wear her friend’s mourning d
ress. “I’ll trade you for it, of course. You can have the red calico if you want—to sell or use.”

  “I won’t take anything for that old mourning dress. A friend of mine in Helena gave it to me so I didn’t pay anything for it, anyway.” Annabelle looked at the fabric Elizabeth held in her arms. “Is this the cloth you dyed yourself?”

  Elizabeth nodded as she took a lingering look at it.

  “You should keep it,” Annabelle said. “You’ve put a lot of work into that cloth.”

  “I need to give up something that means something to me to get a mourning dress. It doesn’t feel right not to have something taken away.”

  “Well, I’ll keep it for you for a while, if that’s what you want. We’ll talk about what to do with it later.” Annabelle reached out to touch the cloth. “It’s so pretty. It gives the whole place a Christmas look.”

  “Thank you,” Elizabeth said.

  Annabelle nodded.

  “Here, let me close the store for a minute while we go in the back and get the dress for you,” Annabelle said as she reached under the counter and brought out a silver bell. “One of the nice things about this job is being able to slip back to our rooms when I need to.”

  “It is a good job for you,” Elizabeth agreed as she followed Annabelle to the back. “You’re sure things are okay with Mr. Broadman? He’s not still threatening to fire you, is he?”

  Annabelle shook her head as she unlocked the door leading to her quarters. “He already stopped by. He’s calmed down by now. He just gets riled up when Mrs. Barker claims someone needs to do something to be sure the railroad comes through here. I think he’d jump off a bridge if that woman told him it would bring the railroad. He always settles down later, though.”

  Annabelle opened the door to a small parlor.

  “Well, she might be right in some of the things she says,” Elizabeth said as they both walked into the room. “I don’t know anything about what would make the railroad chose one place over another.”

  “I’m beginning to realize that we need to live in this town whether the railroad comes or not. We need to be a good town, no matter what comes.”

  The furniture in the parlor was well-worn, but sturdy. An ivory wallpaper covered the walls and light brown curtains hung over the windows.

  Annabelle helped Elizabeth try on the mourning dress. It was a little loose on her, but they both decided it would do fine.

  “It needs a good washing,” Annabelle said.

  Elizabeth nodded as she started to remove the dress.

  “Just don’t put it in water that’s too hot,” Annabelle added. “I made that mistake and the black color faded so bad it isn’t worth much anymore.”

  Elizabeth examined the dress as she stood there in her chemise and petticoats. “It looks like whoever dyed it didn’t set it properly. It’s easy to forget that the water needs to be boiling when you add the soda ash.”

  The bell rang out in the front of the store.

  “Oh, I’ve got to go,” Annabelle said. “Take your time. And I can’t wait to hear how excited the kids are today when you and Virginia tell them about the pageant. I didn’t tell Tommy so he can hear it with the others.”

  Elizabeth nodded as she finished putting her regular dress back on. She’d go over to the school and wait for the children to finish their sums. Virginia said she’d meet her there.

  Jake felt the ax sink into the side of the log. He and Colter had a rhythm to their chopping even though they were both working on different logs. Jake found himself thinking about that dress his wife was wanting and he started bringing the ax down faster and with more force with every thought he had. Then he realized Colter was matching his pace.

  “What’s ailing you?” Jake stopped chopping to ask.

  The other man might be a business owner, but he didn’t lack staying power when it came to work. Colter had taken off his vest and rolled up his sleeves. His shirt was drenched in sweat. He stopped swinging his ax and put his arm up to wipe his forehead.

  “Business,” Colter said.

  “Losing money, are you?”

  “It’s my employees if you must know. Someone’s taking money from the till.”

  “Ahh.”

  “I think I know who it is, but—”

  “I hope you don’t think its Virginia Parker. She wouldn’t take a dime that didn’t belong to her.”

  “I know, I know. The woman’s a saint. No, I think it’s the guy tending bar. But—”

  “But you don’t know for sure.”

  “And it could be Danny.”

  “Ahh.” Jake sympathized with the man. “I don’t know what I’d do if Spotted Fawn started stealing things. Not that—I mean, the Sioux don’t really see possessions like we do, but if she was taking money I’d need to put a stop to it somehow. It could be a problem.”

  Colter nodded. “I don’t know what real parents do.”

  “You might ask Annabelle. Her son, Tommy, seems like he’s turning out all right.”

  “I might do that. If I can think of a way to ask without sounding like I’m accusing anyone of anything. I don’t want people to say I think Danny is thieving.” Colter put his ax up to make another swing. “Folks get their minds around something like that and they don’t let go even if it turns out not to be true.”

  Jake pulled his ax up, as well. He wasn’t about to be outdone by a businessman.

  It wasn’t two minutes later before both men stopped chopping. They could see Elizabeth and Virginia walking down the street, getting ready to turn into the walk that went to the schoolhouse.

  “Did you get a chance to tell them how few kids are in school today?” Colter asked.

  Jake shook his head.

  “Well, at least we don’t have to worry about those boys today,” Colter said. “I can’t see why they’d want to make trouble in a classroom when they don’t even need to go near the place.”

  “That makes sense.” Not that it was good news when a man looked at the whole picture, but there was nothing to be done about it at the moment.

  “In that case, maybe it wouldn’t hurt to go in and hear what the ladies have to say,” Colter said, trying to appear casual about it.

  “They’d probably appreciate the company.”

  Jake heard the door to the schoolhouse open. He was looking at the back of the building, but that must be the women going inside.

  Elizabeth stood in the open doorway. She took a deep breath as Virginia waited by her side. There were exactly five people in the schoolroom. The reverend, Spotted Fawn, Thomas, Danny and Mr. Higgins. Of those, Spotted Fawn was the only one who probably had any interest in being an angel in a Christmas pageant.

  “I guess all of our painting didn’t work,” Elizabeth whispered to Virginia. “None of the kids from Miles City are here. And I know the reverend was going to ask Mrs. Barker over to see everything this morning.”

  The yellow stars and the trailing holly weren’t as shiny today as they had been yesterday. Even with fires in both stoves, the room was chilly. Elizabeth supposed it was because the heat from all of the other children was missing. She even missed the musty smell of the damp wool scarves and mittens that were usually drying on a chair near the stoves.

  “We can’t force people to be nice to each other,” Virginia said.

  “That’s what laws are for,” Elizabeth said. “To keep people civilized.”

  “Well, we can’t arrest people for not saying Merry Christmas to each other.”

  By now, Reverend Olson had looked up and seen them.

  “Come on in, ladies,” he said with a welcoming smile. “We’re just finishing our sums.”

  Elizabeth nodded and she and Virginia stepped farther into the school room.

  “The ladies have some exciting news for you,” the reverend said, with as much enthusiasm as he would have used if the room had been filled with children.

  “Well,” Elizabeth began. “Miss Virginia and I are here to see if you’d like to
put on a Christmas pageant. There would be lots of angels and Miss Virginia would lead them in singing songs and—”

  A hand went up.

  “Yes, Danny?”

  “Can I be one of the singers with Miss Virginia?”

  Elizabeth nodded. She felt much better now. If even Danny was glowing with excitement about their news, the others would soon realize how much fun it could be. “I think that can be arranged.”

  Jake and Colter opened the schoolhouse door and slipped into the last bench. Virginia was singing one of the songs the women planned to use in the pageant and her voice rose and dipped over everyone like a flock of songbirds coming home to rest. When Virginia had finished singing, Colter gave a deep sigh.

  Jake knew it wasn’t the music that moved the other man and he could have sighed right along with him. Neither one of them was doing very well with the women they wanted to impress.

  Wham! Jake heard the sound of some kind of bullet right outside the schoolhouse. Then there was another one.

  “Everyone down!” Jake ordered as he, Colter and Higgins fanned out and each slid toward one of the windows. Colter had his pistol drawn and Higgins had stopped to pick up a good-sized piece of firewood. Jake put his hand on the knife he had strapped around his thigh. His rifle was out by the woodpile behind the school.

  Wham! There was an explosion on the other side of the schoolhouse.

  Jake looked at Colter. “That doesn’t sound like a bullet.”

  “It’s firecrackers,” Higgins said. “Made by Sam Lee, I expect.”

  Just then, Jake saw a flash of blue as a boy took off running.

  “Elias Barker,” Jake muttered. He should have known.

  Higgins must have seen him, too, because the man gave his grizzly roar and took off out of the schoolhouse shouting, “I’m going to catch that boy.”

  Jake started to chuckle. The day was getting better all ready. Most people didn’t think Higgins could move as fast as he could because he was so large, but the man used to say he’d learned to run by racing grizzly bears and Jake thought it just might be true.