Missy carried the plate with care as Grace set the food out for Milo and Lottie. The children began eating and Grace took another plate in for Missy. She was happy to see Jed sitting up against the headboard and eating the food on his own. Missy sat on the chair next to him, telling him about how she had been helping to care for Milo and Lottie.
“You have been a wonderful help,” Grace said as she entered the room. “So would you like to eat your food in here with your father, or have it at the table?”
“I can eat in here?” Missy looked at Grace with wide, and excited eyes.
“That way you can help your papa when he’s done with his food. Someone will need to return the plate to the wash basin.”
“I’ll do it,” Missy said. She scooted back against the rocking chair and Grace set the plate on her lap.
“Just be careful not to spill. I’m going to go milk Tess as soon as Lottie and Milo are done. Do you think you could keep an eye out for them too while you watch your papa?”
Missy nodded and began eating while Grace shared a smile with Jed. She left the room before her cheeks heated too much at the sight of him with his night shirt open to where she could see the defined shape of his chest.
She had to get a hold of herself.
***
Jed hadn’t missed the way Grace had looked at him, and he smiled a little inside. Fortunately, Missy’s chattering helped him not dwell on those thoughts because he had to make sure he could respond to his daughter. Lottie came into the room and tried to climb onto the rocking chair as well.
“It’s my turn to take care of Papa.”
“No it’s not,” Missy said. “Miss Grace told me to watch him.”
“Where’s Milo?” Jed asked. He looked at Missy. “Could you take the dishes into the wash basin like Grace asked, and bring Milo in here? I’ll hold Milo if you two will tell me a story.”
Missy hurried to do as he asked and Jed watched out the bedroom door to see Grace moving around, taking care of things and then she disappeared out of his sight and he heard the door close.
She wasn’t gone long when he heard the running of her feet and the door opening. He worried something terrible had happened, but instead, she poked her head in the doorway and said. “The pig had her piglets!”
The girls both squealed in excitement and hurried out of the room before Jed had even gotten Milo situated on his lap. Milo immediately wanted down and Grace came to grab him.
“Is there anything I need to do about the piglets?” Grace asked as she lifted Milo onto her hip.
“Just make sure they’re all alive and stay close to the sow. You’ll need to count how many, and make sure there are enough nipples for her to feed them all.”
Grace’s happy expression fell and Jed felt bad for giving her unpleasant truths. She nodded and left the room still holding Milo. Jed felt saddened at the loss of his family. He couldn’t wait to get up and moving again. He pulled the blanket off his leg and was tempted to pull off the bandage to see how it was doing. But he wasn’t sure if Grace would be angry at him for that or not.
He decided to try getting out of the bed for a bit to see if he could keep his balance, but after only a few moments of standing, he was ready to ease back onto his bed and rest. He had just settled himself against the headboard when the sounds of excited girls rushed through the house and back into his room. Missy ran to the side of his bed and began to tell him all about the new piglets.
He listened to her but when Grace’s form appeared in the doorway, he couldn’t help looking at her. She smiled and mouthed eleven.
That was good news. They could raise some to adulthood for meat and sell a few as well.
***
By the middle of the day, Grace was beginning to feel the aches and pains of her leg again. She’d stayed close to the house in case Jed needed her, but with Missy keeping an eye on the littler ones, she spent time cleaning out the shed of the manure and making sure there was enough feed for Tess and the horse. She double checked the garden and watered the newly planted seeds with a bucket that Missy had shown her. Missy had been rather helpful, informing Grace that they’d used the bucket last year to get the seeds wet enough to grow.
When she returned to the house to make lunch, she found Jed asleep on the bed with Milo tucked against him and Missy and Lottie looking at the bible she’d read from the night before.
“What do you say we do a little schooling today?”
Missy looked up with excitement. “Momma showed me how to make the letters for my name. Want me to show you?”
She got off the chair and moved over to the door.
“Where are you going?” Grace asked.
“To the dirt to show you my name.”
“Ah,” Grace said. “We’ll have to find a way to get you a slate and chalk. That way you can practice at the table instead of in the dirt.”
The three went outside and Missy found a stick she could use. She formed the letter m with no difficulty and the i as well. Then when she tried to do her s, she formed them backward and frustration covered her face. Eventually, her name was traced in the dirt, and Lottie reached for the stick.
“You don’t know how to write, Lottie.”
“I can.” Lottie’s displeasure at her sister was obvious, but Grace held out her hand for the stick and Missy passed it over.
“Show me what you can do, Lottie.”
Lottie started swishing the stick through the dirt, making squiggly lines with a few having straight lines through them. Missy shook her head, but Grace held her hand up.
“It’s a good start, Lottie. Pretty soon, you’ll be writing just like your big sister.”
Lottie smiled with joy and continued to write in the dirt. Grace looked at Missy and patted her back softly.
“She’ll learn soon enough. And you did a great job with your name. Someday, we’ll make sure you have something else to write with. And we’ll show you all your letters and help you know all the sounds, then soon you’ll be reading from the books with me.”
Missy found another fallen twig and began practicing her name over and over. Grace took a twig and wrote the alphabet on a section of ground off to the side a little and told Grace to practice underneath each letter.
The cat must have been curious because it walked across the letters leaving them smudged and the girls frustrated but soon they decided that playing with the cat would be more fun and the sticks were dropped and they were off.
Grace reminded them to stay in the yard area and went inside to check on Jed and Milo. They were still asleep so she left them and began a batch of bread.
Though she was busier than she had been in her entire life, she found she enjoyed this. There was so much to do to maintain a home, and to keep a family fed. There was still a lot she would have to learn, but so far, she’d managed to do fairly decent.
She just wished she could do the things Jed wanted done with the crops.
***
The smell of freshly baked bread made his mouth begin to water. Jed had always loved the way the house felt when bread was prepared. It felt like home and happiness.
The humming from the kitchen made him smile. There really was happiness again in the house with Grace here. He wished he could get out of bed and go see her. He tried to stand again, this time managing a bit longer than the time before.
“Eventually.” He spoke to himself quietly, not wanting Milo to wake up, but as soon as he sat on the bed, the movement woke the boy. He babbled the familiar nonsense of a baby and Jed pretended to talk back to him.
Moments later, Grace popped her head in and Jed smiled.
“Need me to take him?” Grace asked.
“No, I think we’ll be fine. The bread smells good.”
“Is that a hint that you want some?” Grace asked, raising her brows.
Jed chuckled. “I would love some.”
Grace withdrew her head from the doorway and in a few minutes was back with bread and butter. Milo
tried to grab it off the plate, but Grace picked him up and carried him away into the kitchen, but glanced back over her shoulder. “He’s just too much of a sweetie for me to let you keep him all to yourself.”
Jed’s heart warmed a little more. It was obvious that Grace loved his children. He didn’t understand how he had ended up being lucky enough to find her. He hadn’t even thought of finding a new wife, but when the opportunity had presented itself, it had felt right.
When Grace returned to the room with a little bowl of broken up bread for Milo and sat with the boy on the rocking chair to ease him to sleep so she could get back to what she’d been doing, he wanted to say he’d hold Milo, but she needed a chance to rest.
He studied her face and could see the tiredness beneath her eyes. Her head leaned back against the headrest and she rocked slowly as Milo leaned back against her when he’d finished the bread.
With her eyes closed, she looked peaceful and content.
“Are you happy here?” Jed asked after a moment.
Grace’s eyes opened. “Yes.”
“We haven’t scared you away?” Jed asked.
“Scared? Yes.” Grace said, looking at his leg then back to his face. “Away?” She shook her head. “Where would I go? I’m your wife.” She paused and looked at him, sitting up a little straighter, but not too much to upset Milo on her lap. “Unless you don’t want me here. I’m sure I could go back to my brother if you want me gone.”
“I don’t want you to go,” Jed hurried to assure her. “You’ve been such a tremendous help here. There is no way I could have survived this alone. And the children love you. If you left, they’d be devastated.”
Grace looked down and kissed the top of Milo’s head. “I would miss them, too.”
Jed debated for a moment on if he should tell her he would miss her as much as the children would if she left, but she looked everywhere except at him. It was obvious this conversation was making her uncomfortable, so he tried to think of something to ease her worries.
“I tried standing for a bit today,” Jed said.
“How did you feel?” Grace asked. “Is there a lot of pain in the leg?”
“Some. And there are places on the leg that I almost can’t feel. My head was pretty dizzy when I stood, but it wore off.”
“Do you think you’ll be out of bed tomorrow?” Grace asked.
“I’d like to try. I want to get back out to the field and check on those seeds. I only got some of it planted, but it won’t do any good to have them planted if they won’t sprout. And we haven’t had any rain either. Not sure when we’ll get some.”
Grace looked at him as she continued rocking softly and Milo’s eyes started to get heavy.
“How do you water your crops when there is no rain? Is it like with the garden here?”
“Thank heavens, no. It would take forever to use a bucket. I divert the water from the creek. That’s why the wheat field is near the creek.”
Jed explained the way they farmed as Grace asked all kinds of questions. Her interest in the farm made him happy. She seemed to want it to succeed as much as he did. With her being from the city and not growing up near anything related to what he had done his entire life, it made it hard for him to explain a few things. She asked clarifying questions and seemed excited to know about it.
Maybe someday, the two of them could work side-by-side out there in the field. She had shown over and over again how tough she was. He’d misjudged her for sure, and as he struggled with the pain and damage to his own leg, he began to realize he’d not been very patient or understanding of her own condition.
Well no more. He would do his best to be more patient and helpful in regards to her own aches. Maybe when she became more comfortable with him, he could help her out by massaging her leg. He’d seen her rubbing it after a long day of being on her feet and knew that a massage often eased the pains.
CHAPTER NINE
Grace wished she could go back to not worrying about how Jed felt about her. Being the caregiver of the children had been enough. Until of course she had to take care of Jed so much and had spent time watching him with his children, and seeing him so vulnerable.
She’d nursed him back to health, and in the meantime had come to admire him for everything he had done to create this homestead out of nothing besides sage brush and grasses. She could see his handy work in everything around the entire property. They lived off the land because of his ingenuity and hard work. He had built the house, made the furniture, put up the fence, cleared out all the weeds and bushes to have land to grow crops on.
She knew he appreciated her caring for him, but she hadn’t been able to do the work he needed done. That wheat crop would mean the difference between just getting by, and having enough to plan for the future. Grace just hoped she hadn’t ruined anything with the garden seed. She’d managed to bring the wheat seed sacks back from out in the field, wanting to be sure the birds and critters didn’t get at it.
She had worried constantly the whole time she was away. Her biggest fear was running into a snake. She didn’t know what a rattler looked like. Missy had tried to tell her how to spot them because of their tails shaking like a rattle.
Fortunately, there was no danger from anything like that, but she had struggled to carry the heavy bags of wheat and had needed to take too many breaks. At least Jed had still been unconscious during that and Missy had been fine watching the little ones.
There was just so much she didn’t know. She’d quizzed Jed on everything she could think of to ask about the way he ran his farm, and how to plant the wheat. He might still be days away from being strong enough to do much with that leg. He’d tried coming to dinner at the table the night before and had ended up getting so nauseated that he had to go back and lay down. She wanted to plant the rest of the wheat and then maybe he could instruct her later on how to divert the water to the field.
She was sure she could scatter the seeds like he’d said, and then use the rake or something to cover them with a little bit of dirt like he said they needed. She could probably do parts of the field during the times he rested. She didn’t want to worry him about where she was, but it had to get done.
If only she knew how to saddle the horse. She’d taken off the saddle that first night after Jed had been bitten, but knew she’d done a shoddy job of it. Grace doubted she’d be able to convince the horse to let her try putting the saddle back on.
And hooking it up to the wagon would be even more difficult. She didn’t think she could even lift the wagon tongue to get it into the straps. How on earth did a man do something like that?
Walking would be her only option. If she did it first thing in the morning, before her leg was too tired from all the other things of the day, she’d be able to make it out to the field and back.
She’d make sure there was something for Jed to eat in the morning and she’d get Missy to keep an eye on the little ones. Or she could probably even convince them to all stay in the room with Jed, telling him stories, or having Jed read to them.
With her plan all made, Grace found a way to strap two bags on her back so she could use the shovel and the rake as supports for walking. In the morning, she’d head out early, as soon as she’d milked Tess.
***
After another meal in bed that morning, Jed was getting incredibly tired of his confinement. But he couldn’t move very far without feeling sick and having pains through his entire leg. He knew he needed to keep his strength up, so he did what he could with his arms and his good leg while still on the bed or even on a chair on occasion.
The one attempt he’d made the other night to go have dinner at the table with the family had resulted in him needing a sick bucket and a stool to sit on and rest. Then he’d gone and argued with Grace when she had tried to help him back to bed.
“Don’t overdo it, Jed,” Grace said. “I know it’s hard, but it takes time to heal. You’ll make it eventually.”
“I don’t have eventual
ly,” Jed grumbled once he’d reached the doorway to his room. “I have now. And I need to be better now. I have to get the rest of that field planted.”
“What if I went out and did it?” Grace asked, while assisting him to the bed and helping him remain steady as he turned to sit down on it.
He looked at her and grumped. “You wouldn’t be much better at it than I would.”
Grace’s eyes flashed and he held his hand out. “I didn’t mean that. I know you are strong and capable. I am just frustrated that I’m so useless. I’ve left you to take care of everything.”
Grace put her hands on her hips. “If you don’t learn how to take help from others, your life is going to be miserable. I don’t know anyone who can do it all on their own. You’ve done great things, yes, but that snake nearly killed you. And if you wanna finish yourself off, then go ahead. I’ll just take your kids back with me to Birch Creek so they might have a chance of living once you’re gone. But before you go do something stupid like haul yourself out to that field, do me a favor and hook the horse to the wagon. I’d hate to make your children walk all that way to town.”
Grace turned around and stomped out of the house. He sent Missy out to check on her and when the girl informed him Grace was checking on the animals, he relaxed a little and settled himself back on the bed. He’d been asleep before Grace had come back into the house and hadn’t been able to talk to her again. Now, this morning, she’d gotten up early, made him breakfast and sent it in with Missy while she went out and did the milking.
Now, hours later he had received his lunch in his bed by Missy bringing it in to him. He was sure Grace was still bothered by his comments yesterday, and he figured he needed to give her time to calm down. He had to apologize. He knew he was wrong, but it was just too hard to let her do all the work. He hated not being able to provide for his family. He could do nothing but rest and eat.
The Widower's Bride: A Golden Valley Story (The Brides of Birch Creek Book 3) Page 8