Bert walked over to stand in front of Tracy. He pulled his wallet from the pocket of his slacks and opened it. “How much do you want?”
Tracy looked back and forth between the couple trying to figure out what he was talking about. “What do you mean?” Why were they offering her money?
“For the baby. Cecelia said you wouldn’t just let us have her. So how much?”
Tracy stared at the man in disbelief. “You think I’m going to sell you my baby?” Her voice was shrill as she held the baby to her. “You can’t have my daughter!”
“Why do you even want her?” Cecelia asked. “Babies are a lot of work. I’ll have servants to take care of her, but what do you have?” She seemed to think that the argument would work on Tracy. Further proof that she didn’t know Tracy at all.
“I have a family who cares about me and a lot of love to give. No matter how much work she is, I’m not giving her up.”
“They care about you? Has your husband even told you he loves you? You were a mail order bride. Men don’t fall in love with mail order brides.” Cecelia smirked when she saw the sad look that crossed over Tracy’s face.
“This is my baby, and you can’t have her,” Tracy said adamantly. She didn’t care if she would have to live under a bridge and live off berries she picked. She wasn’t’ giving up her baby.
“Holding out for as much as you can get? I don’t blame you.” Bert flipped through the bills there and took a wad out, offering them to Tracy. “There. Five hundred ought to do it.”
She shook her head, still not believing anyone would try to buy a baby.
“Not enough?” He counted out a little more. “Seven-fifty then? It’s a ridiculous sum, but I like the idea of the baby being related to my wife.” Bert made it very clear he was willing to go as high as necessary to buy his wife’s granddaughter.
The door crashed open and Tracy looked up. She’d never been so thankful to see Andy in all her life. He’d taken the time to stop off at the barn and grab his rifle, which he had cocked at his shoulder. “Get out of my house.”
Bert turned and looked at Andy. “Cecelia told me Tracy had married a crude outdoorsman.” He shook his head as if the other man were beneath him. “Look, I’m offering a good sum of money for that baby. Tracy said ‘no’ to five hundred, so how about seven fifty?”
Andy stared at him in shock. “You’re offering to pay me seven-hundred and fifty dollars for my baby? You’ve got to be kidding me!”
Bert sighed. “Not enough? I only have a thousand with me, but I can always go to a bank and get more. We need a baby.”
Andy shook his head. “I don’t care if you need a baby, you’re not getting mine! Go to an orphanage. There’s one in almost every town. Take your pick of the children there. You’re not getting my baby. Now get out!”
Bert took a step toward Andy. “Now, don’t be too hasty. My wife has her heart set on raising her grandbaby, and I can see why. She’s a little beauty. I can get as much as you want. There’s no need to get hostile.”
Andy took a deep breath, trying to control his temper. “You cannot have my child for any sum of money on earth. She is mine. Her mother is mine. Get out of my house!” He advanced on the older man gun raised, and prodded him toward the door with the barrel of his rifle. “Don’t come back!” He slammed the door behind the two of them and stood with his rifle at the ready watching out the window until he saw them drive off.
He rushed over to Tracy, taking her hand and pulling her to her feet and into his arms with the baby between them. Holding his rifle barrel down, he clutched her to him. “They didn’t hurt you? Or the baby?”
Tracy shook her head, still in utter shock over what had just happened. “They traveled all this way to buy my baby.” She was embarrassed to admit she was related to the woman.
Andy sighed stroking her back. He realized he was crushing Edith when she started squalling, and took a step back. “I’m sorry.” He set down his rifle and took the baby from Tracy, needing to feel her wiggling in his arms. “I wish we could give you a better grandmother.”
Tracy sat down and only then began to cry. How could anyone think it was all right to purchase a child?
Mattie ran to Tracy and threw her arms around her. “I’m so glad that crazy lady left you at the orphanage.”
Tracy chuckled a bit through the tears. Trust Mattie to say just the right thing to make her feel better. “I think she may have done me a huge favor.” Andy sat down still cradling the baby in his arms, and Tracy looked at him around the girl in her lap. “How did you know?”
“Know what?” he asked.
“That they were here? You came in from the range and immediately knew that I needed you. You never come in at this time of day.”
He sighed. “The best thing about small towns is everyone looks out for each other. George noticed your mother get off a train with a man, so he went and pulled his kid out of school to ride out here and warn me that they were in town. He had a head start, so I had some time to ride toward the house before he told me.” He kissed he baby’s forehead. “You need to bake those two a huge cake or something.”
Tracy nodded. “I’ll do that.”
Mattie pulled away and looked at Tracy with a smile. “I’ll help.”
Andy had settled the baby down and gotten her back to sleep. Tracy watched as he took her into the bedroom and laid her in her cradle. “She didn’t need to eat did she?” It had just occurred to him that maybe the baby wasn’t supposed to be sleeping just then.
Tracy shook her head. “Cecelia woke her when she picked her up.”
Andy shuddered. “I hate that she even touched the baby.”
Tracy stood and walked back into his arms. “Thank you for riding so hard to get rid of them.” She sighed. “You don’t think she’ll try anything else, do you?”
“No, I don’t. I’ll send Francis for the sheriff when he gets home, though. I want him to have fair warning in advance there may be trouble.” He shook his head. “Why were they so fixated on Edith? There are plenty of unwanted children all over. They could go to the orphanage in Beckham and get one if they wanted one so badly.”
“They wanted Edith because she’s related to my mother.” Tracy looked into his eyes. “I really can’t see why that matters. I think you’re either a person who will accept any child that comes your way, or you’re a person who will reject them all.”
“That’s probably true. I’m glad I married a woman who is willing to raise more than her share of children.”
Tracy looked at Mattie who was quietly peeling carrots for the stew. “I couldn’t imagine being any other way.”
*****
Their evening was busy as they explained exactly what had happened to the sheriff and he took notes on the situation. “I’ll need descriptions of the couple.”
Tracy smiled. “The woman looks identical to me, but she’s seventeen years older. The man? He had dark hair and brown eyes. He looked as if he never dressed in anything but a business suit.”
“Should make them easy to spot around here.” The sheriff finished taking notes. “I’ll run into town and see if anyone’s seen them. Have a talk with them if they’re still around.”
Andy stepped forward and shook the other man’s hand. “Thank you, Sheriff.”
The sheriff looked down at Tracy. “Don’t open the door to them again. I hope I can just run them off, and I’ll make sure we add extra patrols through here, but just in case, don’t open the door.”
Tracy nodded. “I won’t. Thank you.”
Over supper, Tracy was quiet. She’d just lived through a nightmare, and she wasn’t sure how to handle it. After the dishes were done that evening, she stepped into her room to be alone, needing time away from the others with just her baby. As she sat on her bed and nursed, she shook her head, still having a hard time believing anyone could think they could just buy a child.
She stroked Edith’s cheek, and the baby looked up at her, her wide blue ey
es staring. “I’ll never leave you with anyone. You know that? I love you, Edith. I’m your mama, and that makes you my responsibility. I would never let anyone take you home with them.”
Andy found them sitting together a few minutes later. The baby was sleeping in Tracy’s arms and she held her staring down into the little face she loved so much.
Andy took the baby from Tracy’s arms and gently placed her into her cradle. “Are you doing any better?” he asked. He sat down on the bed beside her and gently stroked her arm.
Tracy shrugged, the words her mother had taunted her with coming to mind. “I think so.”
“What is it? Is something else bothering you?”
Tracy bit her lip, wondering what to say. How did she tell her husband that she needed him to love her, so he’d better start? “Cecelia just said some ugly things.”
Andy’s face grew angry all over again. He put his back to the headboard and slid an arm around her shoulders. “She did? Like what?” He kissed the top of her head where it rested against his shoulder.
“She said that because I was a mail order bride, you would never be able to love me.” There, she’d said it. She didn’t really want to hear his response, because she was certain he’d reject her, but at least she’d know.
Andy laughed. “Well that’s silly. I hope you told her that I loved you almost from the first moment I saw you.”
“I couldn’t lie to her.” She shrugged, a tear slipping out of her eye.
Andy looked at her in surprise. “Lie? You think telling her that I love you would be a lie?” He used his thumb to brush the tear from her face. “I’ve been in love with you for so long it feels like it’s always been the case. You make me happy to get up in the mornings, and even happier to come to bed at night. I was failing miserably at raising my brothers and sister, and you came along and made it look so easy.”
Tracy blinked a few times, the tears falling down her cheeks. “You really love me?”
Andy nodded, his lips gently brushing against hers. “How could anyone not love you? You’re an amazing woman.”
Tracy took a shuddering breath. “I’ve waited my whole life for someone, anyone to say those words to me. Oh, Mattie says them, but she’s eight. What kid doesn’t love the person who takes care of them when they’re eight?”
“Well, I love you. I love you so much that the idea of you going away makes me feel like I’m dying inside.”
“Why would I go away?” Tracy shook her head in disbelief.
“You were offered a life of luxury for you and our baby. How could you stay here and not jump on that chance? Who would stay in an old house that looks like it’s about to fall over when they could live in a mansion in Boston?”
“You were really worried I’d leave you? For them?” Tracy shook her head. “I love you, Andy. I love you and the children. I don’t even want to think about what my life was before you.” She sighed, resting her head on his shoulder. “Francis did a good thing for us, sending that letter.” She laughed. “I wanted to throttle him for the first couple of days I was here, though.”
He laughed. “It took me about twenty-four hours to realize that I could never let you go. You kept talking about how you were only staying for a month and then you were going to go back to Massachusetts. You had it all planned out.” He shook his head. “I was so scared I’d come home one day, and you’d be gone.”
“I would have taken Mattie with me.”
“After ten minutes with you, she’d have followed you anywhere. It’s so strange to me that you could have gone through your life without people smothering you with love. I have never in my life met a woman who I thought was good enough to raise my siblings.” He sighed. “I didn’t want to fall in love with you, you know.”
“You didn’t? Why not?”
“My father loved my mother with everything inside him. Seriously, he all but worshiped at her feet. If there was twenty dollars to feed the whole family for a year, he’d spend half of it on a special gift for her, and make us deal with the rest of it.” He shook his head. “I promised myself long before they died that I would never love a woman the way he loved her.”
“But you wouldn’t do that. You don’t put me before the children.”
He laughed softly. “Of course I do. I love Edith more than I can ever say, but when I rode toward the house, I was worried about you, not the baby.” He stroked her cheek. “I love you, but I was afraid to say it. Afraid it would give you too much power over me, but you know what?”
She shook her head. “What?”
“You won’t do anything to abuse the power over me. Ever.”
“Why would I do that? I want us all to be happy. I couldn’t be happy controlling you that way.” She kissed him softly. “I love you way too much for that.”
“So you’re never going to decide your mother’s offer is something you want to accept? You won’t take Mattie and Edith and run off to Boston?”
She shook her head. “I would never do that. I feel loved here. I can’t go to Boston. No one there feels about me the way you do.”
He smiled, his eyes dancing happily. “I guess I’m glad your mother and her husband came by today acting as they did.”
“You are? Why?”
“Because it forced me to tell you how much I love you, and I like the smile love puts on your beautiful face.”
Tracy sighed contentedly. “I need to go and tuck Mattie in.”
“Before you came, no one ever tucked Mattie in. You spoil her.”
Tracy got out of bed. “Everyone needs to be spoiled sometimes.”
Epilogue
Francis stood looking out over his ten acres of land. They were all his now. He’d been working to save enough money to buy them for ten years. Andy had promised him he’d give him a bull and six cows from his own herd to get the ranch started, but first? He had to build a house on it. It was only a mile from his brother’s house, and he would be able to visit often, which was one of the reasons he’d been drawn to the land.
He looked at the ground where he’d marked out where he wanted his house to go. Tracy had helped him come up with a good plan for it, telling him what she thought should be in a modern kitchen. In 1896, different things were expected than in 1886 when she’d first come to Texas.
He looked behind him at the children running and playing. Arthur had since moved to town and was working for George, delivering ice of all things. Who wanted ice delivered? Mattie sat with her legs curled under her on a blanket with Tracy. Sweet little Mattie was seventeen now, and she had her eye on a boy from town.
Edith was nine, Joseph was seven, Samuel was five, and Jacob was three. Tracy was once again huge with her pregnancy, but she and Mattie had declared that Francis finally buying the land he wanted was cause for celebration. He was sure that Tracy was just glad that he was going to be moving out of her house. She needed the space for her rapidly expanding brood.
He looked around him and sighed. Once his house was built almost all of his dreams would come true. The only thing left was to find a wife. A beautiful wife from the East.
He was going to follow in his brother’s footsteps and send off for a mail order bride. Yes, he knew that he was the one who’d actually sent off for the bride, but that didn’t matter. Everyone had conveniently forgotten that little fact. He could send off for a wife for himself more easily anyway.
He walked back to the quilt where Tracy and Andy sat with Mattie, eating the last of the food in the picnic basket. He eyed the last tiny pie the two women had made together. “Umm…Tracy? Are you going to need that pie? I haven’t gotten one yet.” He knew none of the others would fight him over it, but Tracy was about to pop, and they all knew what that meant. If they valued their lives, they stayed away from the sweets.
Tracy looked at the pie in the picnic basket and then at Francis. She really wanted it. “Well, I…it’s your picnic, so I’ll share it with you.” She didn’t mention that she’d already had three of the tiny
pies, and neither did anyone else. They just smiled at her when she cut it in half and offered Francis the bigger piece.
Francis sank down onto the quilt and smiled, leaning back on his arms. “This is the life. Sitting on my own ranch, in the spring, having a piece of pie.”
Tracy laughed. “It’s time for you to start thinking about marrying, don’t you think? You’re twenty-six now.” She expected him to react the way he always did, telling her he wasn’t ready yet.
Francis nodded, surprising them all. “As soon as the house is built, I’m going to see if I can find myself a mail order bride.”
Tracy exchanged looks of surprise with Andy. “A mail order bride?”
“You still write that woman who matched you with Andy, right? What was her name? Elizabeth Miller, wasn’t it?”
Tracy nodded slowly, not sure where this had come from. “She’s married now, but she still has her business. I’ll give you her address when you’re ready.”
“Great.” He took another bite of his pie, acting as if he didn’t realize his announcement of his intention to marry hadn’t shocked them all.
Mattie looked at Francis. “You sure you’re ready to marry? I mean, being tied down to just one woman…”
“Are you suggesting I ask Elizabeth for two wives?”
Mattie giggled. “Nothing like that. I just thought you were a lone wolf. You always said you wouldn’t marry ‘til you were good and ready.”
“That’s true. I’m good and ready.” He stood up and stretched. “This is a fine piece of land. Perfect for my cattle.”
Andy grinned. “What cattle? You don’t have any!”
“I will as soon as you give me the ones you promised me. Yes, sir, it’s going to be a mighty fine life.”
*****
Two months later, Francis sat down at the table in his new house and put pen to paper. “Dear Elizabeth, Ten years ago, you matched my brother up with his bride. I want you to do the same for me. I just built my first house on land that I purchased. I’m a rancher, although not a rich one…yet. I’d like to marry a woman between the ages of eighteen and twenty-two. I have blond hair and blue eyes, but I don’t care what she looks like. If you could find me an orphan, I’d appreciate that. My brother married Tracy Beckham, an orphan from right there in Beckham where you are. If you could find me a wife just like Tracy, I’d be much obliged. She needs to be able to cook, clean, and love. The ability to love is probably the most important thing to me. Thank you in advance for your help. I live in Nowhere, Texas. Sincerely, Francis Harvey.”
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