by Ruby Hill
“You are…different than what I imagined,” he told her.
Startled, she blinked a few times. “Oh…is that a good thing? Or a bad thing?” Elizabeth asked.
“Good,” he replied. “I have found that women are either intelligent or beautiful. You, however, seem to be the exception to that rule.”
Katherine and William exchanged glances behind Benjamin’s back.
“Well…thank you,” Elizabeth said, feeling more unsure than she ever had about the situation.
“Why don’t we sit down and have something to eat?” Katherine suggested, gesturing to the table.
They all sat down together, and Elizabeth was grateful to Katherine and William for helping to keep the conversation moving. Elizabeth found that she didn’t quite know what to say to this man, who was now so obviously a stranger to her, or how to get to know the things that she wished to know about him.
“Benjamin, why don’t you tell Elizabeth a little about yourself?”
Benjamin laid his fork down and stared across the table at her. His gaze was piercing, as if he could right into her very soul.
“Well, I am a miner, working for my father’s mining company. We moved out here to Colorado when I was a boy, been here ever since.”
“And what about you, Elizabeth?” Katherine asked.
“I was born in Pennsylvania, lived there all my life. I have one older brother, several aunts and uncles and a great many cousins…and I had an orange cat. His name is George.”
“I like cats,” Benjamin said, pulling a crusty loaf of bread in half. “They are incredible predators. Good for keeping in a barn.”
“Or in a house,” Elizabeth said. “They make wonderful companions.”
“Dogs make better companions,” Benjamin replied dryly. “Cats aren’t much good for taking out hunting.”
“Animals are good for more than working,” Elizabeth replied.
Benjamin shook his head. “No.”
“What about for their affection? The joy they bring to people’s lives?”
“What’s the point if they aren’t useful?”
“I’d say bringing joy to someone is useful,” Elizabeth said.
Katherine and William both seemed nervous, and quickly changed the subject once more.
Katherine drew Elizabeth into the kitchen with her once the meal was over to help her fetch the pies from the hearth where they were keeping warm.
“I am sorry, dear,” Katherine began. “Benjamin is a bit…stubborn sometimes.”
Elizabeth felt her face flush, but she shook her head. “Nonsense. I assume it is just nervousness as he is meeting me for the first time. I share that anxiety. Surely once we find something that we agree upon things will get easier.”
But even as she said it, she wondered, and perhaps even more so, hoped that it was the truth. For if this was the man she was to marry, and he was as difficult to converse with as a brick wall, then she knew that she might be in for a long, tiring struggle.
The women reappeared, and William and Benjamin were discussing something to do with horses.
“Oh, I just adore horses,” Elizabeth said as she resumed her seat at the table, convinced that she and Benjamin would finally have some common ground to stand upon. “My father’s brother has a farm back in Pennsylvania. He would allow me to take them out every Saturday for a ride.”
“The horses that we raise are for working in the fields,” Benjamin said. “The men who work our fields will tell you that our horses are the best within hundreds of miles. They are bred for their strength and endurance. Rarely do our horses have enough energy to do anything more than work during the day and rest at night.”
“Oh…” Elizabeth said, rather sadly.
“I do, however, agree that riding horses is a great pleasure,” Benjamin said, his voice gentler. “My Uncle also has horses that were from some of the weaker stock that my Father bred. They are more spirited beasts, but I find it a wonderful exercise for my mind and body to help train and tame them.”
Elizabeth looked at Benjamin with an entirely new light. She was right. This was something that the two of them could agree upon, something they could share together. What a stroke of success.
Benjamin continued. “There is one horse that my uncle has, a chestnut by the name of Ember, who is as fast as lightening and nearly as wild. When he was only a colt, I helped by taking him out in the fields and…”
Elizabeth realized that she had listened to Benjamin’s tale about his horses for nearly an hour. She was entranced with his stories. He had so much more of an opportunity to be with horses than she had, but what pleased her most was that he was talking with her. They were laughing together.
He bid them goodnight just after dark, and Elizabeth stood in the doorway and watched him walk off into the night.
“He’s a rather remarkable man, isn’t he?” Elizabeth asked as he disappeared into the shadows.
Katherine nodded. “He’s a very unique man, that’s for sure.”
“I take it that he can be difficult to get along with sometimes,” Elizabeth mused. “But I think that he and I will understand each other just fine. He just needs someone to soften him up a bit.”
“I think you are quite right,” Katherine remarked. “He certainly seems to fancy you, though. The way that he looked at you when he walked in, how he kept stealing glances of you when you weren’t paying attention.”
Elizabeth’s face flushed. “Oh, come now. He was just being polite.”
“I have never seen him look at someone like that,” William said, appearing around the corner of the house, firewood in his arms.
“It’s simply because we are to be married. It was just as much of a shock to him as it was to me,” Elizabeth said.
Katherine smirked at her. “Surely you must have thought him quite handsome, the way your cheeks turned as rosy as an apple.”
Elizabeth laughed, but Katherine was right. Benjamin was rather handsome. And she was pleased that he was even more handsome than the man that she had created in her mind over the last few months.
3
Benjamin appeared at Katherine’s front door the very next morning.
“I was hoping you might join me for a walk about town,” he said simply.
She agreed, knowing that this was a wonderful opportunity to get to know him in a very easy manner.
Elizabeth gathered some fruit, bread, and cheese in a small basket, and together with Benjamin started back up the hill toward the town.
“Did you sleep well?” he asked.
Flattered, she smiled. “I did, thank you. And you?”
“Well enough,” he replied. “I was up before dawn with my father’s men at the mine. There was apparently some sort of trouble there last night.”
“Oh, heavens, what was the matter?” Elizabeth asked.
“I didn’t much care as long as the man who had done it stepped forward. Which he did.”
Elizabeth sighed with relief. “That is good news, indeed.”
“Yes,” he replied. “Those men know that I won’t stand for such things. Neither will my father. I was amazed that anyone even tried.”
A just and upright man, hmm? Elizabeth found this rather attractive. It made her heart glad to see that side of him.
They arrived in the town’s square, where a small pond resided. Children fed a few ducks that swam along lazily. Men and women went about their business, peddling their wares or catching up on the latest gossip.
A few glanced their way, but even fewer acknowledged their passing, which Elizabeth found rather strange. Everyone that she had met thus far had been very kind, very friendly. Why did it suddenly seem like nobody wanted anything do with them?
“There is something that I wished to discuss further with you,” Benjamin said. He was apparently unaffected by the lack of people’s attention around us.
“Yes, of course,” Elizabeth said.
“When exactly did you wish to have the wedding?”
Her cheeks went pink, and she looked down at the basket in her hands.
“Oh…” she said, and smiled shyly. “I thought we had agreed on the Saturday after next?”
Benjamin’s jaw was clenched, and he nodded his head. “Yes. I wanted only to be certain.” He gestured up the hill even farther to the chapel. A small wooden building with a large cross hanging over the door. “We shall meet the minister this weekend after the service. He is anxious to meet the woman who agreed to marry me.”
“Surely it can’t be that great of a surprise,” Elizabeth said, partially teasing, partially worrying.
Benjamin shrugged his shoulders. “Apparently a gruff man like me doesn’t attract much attention. That is fine with me. I know far too much of these women around here, anyway. I did not find any of them to be suitable marriage partners.”
Elizabeth was startled by his frank words. What would he have thought of her had he known her past?
“Would you care to accompany me into the general store?” he asked, drawing her from her thoughts.
“Of course,” she said, smiling, though it felt more forced this time.
They stepped inside the quaint shop, and Elizabeth relaxed. It was full of produce, hand-crafted goods, and heady with the smell of fresh lavender. She breathed in deeply.
“Oh, I just love lavender…” she commented.
“Lavender makes me sneeze…” Benjamin replied, sniffling.
Her heart fell. So much for keeping bundles of it throughout the house.
There were more important things, she scolded herself. Marriage is about compromise, after all. Surely there are some flowers that won’t make him sneeze.
Benjamin walked up to the counter, Elizabeth following close behind.
Immediately, Elizabeth regretted coming inside with him.
The man behind the counter, almost a head shorter than Benjamin with small, beady eyes, gazed upward, his eyes widening.
“Mr. Hopper,” he said with a falsely positive tone. “What a surprise. Welcome, welcome. If there is anything that you need—”
“I am here for my weekly shipment,” Benjamin said, cutting the man off.
The man blinked and licked his lips. “Of…of course, sir. Let me fetch it for you.” And he disappeared behind the counter in a flash.
Elizabeth could feel the tension in the room like a wave, and had realized that all the other patrons had stepped out since they had walked in.
A knot formed in the pit of her stomach. What had she gotten herself into?
The man reappeared, a large wicker basket in his hands. “Here you are, Mr. Hopper. Everything should be in there.”
Benjamin opened the basket, inspected its contents, and then nodded. He pulled some coins from his pocket and set them on the counter.
“Oh…um…Mr. Hopper…” the man said, wringing his hands nervously. “The price for the iron nails and the linen have increased by—”
“They’ve done what?”
The man recoiled as if Benjamin had struck him.
Elizabeth stared up at Benjamin. What had happened to make this man so afraid of Benjamin?
“Increased, sir, but only a small fraction—”
Benjamin dropped the basket upon the counter once more, staring down at the man with a dangerous gaze. “Then I shall take my business elsewhere.”
“No, you don’t understand,” the man went on. “The price for everything is going up. These sorts of things are harder to get. The supplies are decreasing from everywhere. We are all forced to increase our prices if we wish to survive.”
“Don’t patronize me,” Benjamin said through gritted teeth. “I am no fool.”
“I would never imply such a thing,” the man said, ducking his head. “Never. I just want you to understand that I have a family to feed, need clothes to dress my children properly—”
“You want the little extra coin to pad your own pockets so that you can waste it all on drink, you old fool!” Benjamin cried, slamming his palm against the counter.
“Benjamin—” Elizabeth murmured gently, reaching out to touch his arm with trembling fingers.
“How dare you take advantage of the good people in this town? The upright citizens who work so hard to provide you goods to sell, and you sit here and tell me that that you have no choice but to increase your prices?”
“Benjamin,” she tried again, a little more forcefully, knotting her fingers in the fabric of his shirt.
“You take advantage of making yourself a little more money in a place where everyone is doing their part to get along and help one another? Well, if you keep this up, my father will have no choice but to throw a greedy weasel like you out of town!”
The man’s lip trembled, and he stepped away from the counter.
“Benjamin, we really should go…” Elizabeth said, tugging at his sleeve.
Benjamin looked down at her in surprise, almost as if he had forgotten she were there.
“Yes,” he said flatly. “All right.”
And they left without the wicker basket.
People stood around outside the general store, and as soon as Benjamin and Elizabeth appeared, they began to mill about as if they had not been listening to the shouting inside. Elizabeth felt her cheeks burn in shame.
“Why were you so hard on that poor man?” Elizabeth asked, more hotly than she would have liked.
Benjamin’s brow furrowed as he looked down at her. “I was not nearly hard enough.”
“But couldn’t you see how troubled he was?” Elizabeth said. “How do you know for sure that prices are not rising everywhere? Isn’t he a businessman? Isn’t it his job to know these things?”
“He was lying through his teeth,” Benjamin spat.
“How can you be so sure?”
Benjamin’s eyes smoldered. “Elizabeth, you are new to this town. These people…I know them. I know their hearts.”
“But he was so upset…” Elizabeth said, her heart sinking. “He was trembling. Surely he was telling the truth.”
“The very best liars attempt to dissuade you from catching them in it, and are often the most convincing,” Benjamin said. He sighed heavily. “Now I’ll have to start buying my products from the blacksmith himself.”
“Now wait just one moment,” Elizabeth said, starting after him as he meandered down the road.
Many people stared after them, whispering behind their hands to one another.
“Mr. Barner is a man with a history,” Benjamin said. “He might try to placate me with woes of his children, but his children are misbehaved, ungrateful little whelps. And I know that he has fallen asleep at the saloon one too many times after drinking himself silly.” He stopped and put his hands on his hips, shaking his head disgustedly. “Makes his wife worry sick about him, and he can’t even afford to pay the tab he has built up.”
Elizabeth searched his face, saw the hard line of anger in his jaw, the desire for justice in his eyes.
“It makes me sick.”
She frowned. “I didn’t know…”
“Yes, well…” he said, more gently. “Now you do. Will you trust me from now on?”
It was a hard question to ask of someone who he had only met the day before. And would he treat all people he didn’t trust in such a manner?
“I would prefer if you were a bit more…”
“A bit more what?” he asked gruffly when she trailed off.
“A bit gentler…” she said. “Understand that everyone has something that they are dealing with, and how a little kindness can go a very long way.”
Benjamin studied her face for a long moment, his face set like stone.
“I suppose you are right…” he said. “Come along. Let’s get you back to Katherine and William’s home.”
Elizabeth was torn when Benjamin left her that afternoon. Glad to be free of his surly behavior, and yet regretful that she did not make a better impact on him.
Katherine noticed, and asked as they wash
ed the plates from dinner that evening.
“Can I ask you a question?” Elizabeth asked.
“Anything,” Katherine replied.
“Is Benjamin well liked in the town?”
Katherine opened her mouth to answer, and then hesitated.
Elizabeth’s heart sank. “That’s what I thought.”
“It’s not that he isn’t liked,” Katherine said quickly. “He’s just a bit…”
“Brash? Gruff? Angry about everything all the time?” Elizabeth spat out. Her hand stopped scrubbing as she immediately regretted the words. “I’m sorry, that was unkind.”
Katherine smiled warmly. “Benjamin has very high standards. Many respect him for it, but there are just as many who have stumbled in his sight in some way. He doesn’t take kindly to people who do not walk the straight and narrow, either.”
“I saw that today,” Elizabeth said, and she told Katherine about what had occurred at the store.
Katherine sighed heavily. “I suppose I’m not surprised.”
“Was he right, though?” Elizabeth asked.
“Who?”
“Benjamin? About Mr. Barner?”
Katherine’s face fell, but she nodded. “He does have a bit of a reputation. I think he has had a hard life, and he and his wife lost their two youngest children in a nasty accident before they moved out here. That sort of thing affects people, you know? Drives them to do unsavory things sometimes…”
Elizabeth wondered if perhaps Mr. Barner was lying about that, too, but decided that it probably wasn’t appropriate to ask.
“Benjamin was just so convinced that he was wrong, and gave him no mercy for it.”
Katherine nodded. “He has great convictions,” she said. “His time in the military taught him that.”
“But he could do with some kindness…” Elizabeth said sadly.
Katherine lit up. “And that’s where a wife comes in, my dear. You would be amazed at how having a woman around can soften a man. Even the most hardened sort of man cannot resist the charms and compassion of his wife. It leaves them all the better for it.”
Elizabeth sighed, and withdrew to her room to think.