Days rolled by in much the same fashion, until she had been there a month, and then 6 weeks, with hardly any conversation between her and the people of the town. A few women were more friendly, but Ellie felt the urge to keep them quiet, and didn’t exchange much talk with them.
The snow had fallen steadily since she arrived, and now there was a thick sludge on road where people walked every day, mixing with the mud and making the wooden boards very slippery. Tuesday was no different, and Ellie was sitting quietly behind the counter, watching people outside slip and stumble their way towards the store. It was less cold today, and so the snow was melting, and people would fall into the puddles and then come into the store to dry out. There was a lot of them in today, and she had been developing a headache from the noise.
Suddenly, Ellie realized that it had gone very quiet, and that people were staring towards the door. She raised her eyes, and saw Daniel standing in the doorway. She hadn’t seen him for a long while, and suddenly realized that he had been snowed in on the mountainside, probably stuck in the logging office as some of the miners had been stuck down the mine. They had finally been brought to the surface after hot water had been poured around the surface of the mineshaft, and over the machinery used to bring the boys to the surface. Daniel must have been in a similar situation, and perhaps this was the first day that he had been able to come to town since the snows fell.
Daniel looked uneasy as he walked through the door. He had taken off his hat, and now walked forward, nodding his head briefly to the women who were nearby. He didn’t look at his uncle, and headed straight for the counter.
“Ellie,” he said.
She smoothed down her dress, and stepped out from behind the counter.
“Daniel, I really can’t talk here.”
“Just a quick word, Ellie, please. I really want to try and work this out.” He hadn’t given up then, despite being stuck in the forest. She had thought that perhaps he was ignoring her because she wouldn’t be his wife, but maybe it had just festered inside him until he couldn’t think about anything except talking to her again.
She shook her head, aware that the whole shop were watching them. “Please, I don’t want to be a spectacle. I just wish that you’d leave me alone.”
He sighed. “Ellie, I can’t do that. I expected a bride, and I think that you are the right one for me. I’ve been trapped up in the logging area for nearly 6 weeks, and I’ve thought about nothing but you and our marriage. I decided to talk to you about it as soon as I got down. I’m prepared to let you change your mind. Why can’t you just give me a chance?”
“A chance!” She exclaimed. “Don’t I have the right to make up my mind about a man when I see him? You might have decided that I’m right for you, but what about my feelings?”
“I don’t want to force you, Ellie. That isn’t my way. But you need to make a clear decision about whether or not you are going to be my wife, 6 weeks should have been long enough to choose. I can’t wait for much longer. I need to know whether I will have to pay out for another advert.”
She flushed red, and picked up her skirts, stepping around him towards the counter. “I have to get back to work.”
“You have to work, and then you won’t talk to me when you’re in the hotel. I know you’re at least opening the door now, but it isn’t good enough. Ellie, I need to have a talk to you somewhere.”
“Not here, please. I’m working and my boss is just there.”
“Uncle Jim? He won’t mind if you talk to me, I expect he is as keen to see me married as everyone else is around here. He won’t mind if you just stop working for a few minutes.”
Mr. Green nodded silently, and seemed to be amused at her discomfort.
“Oh, is that so? And I expect all of the other people in the store won’t mind either.” She looked around, scornfully. “Oh no, they don’t mind at all. I thought not. Interfering busybodies, every single one of them.”
“Ellie!” Daniel whispered his rebuke. “Please, I have to live in this town, don’t start making bad blood. Everyone here is good and caring and I won’t let you talk to the people around here like that.”
She drew in a long breath. He was still determined to treat her like his wife, even though she was not married to him. She tucked herself in beside the counter, and looked straight at him.
“Did you come in to this store for something special?”
He blinked, surprised by her question, and then looked around him.
“Maybe. Maybe I did. Would you serve me if I bought something? I need more supplies for the cabin, could you help me?”
“I’m employed to serve customers.”
He nodded, and started to walk around the store. As soon as he left her side, people started to walk towards her, bearing their small purchases. She tried to concentrate on the sales, but found her eyes constantly turning towards Daniel, wondering what he was doing. She heard his voice, and then his laugh, and turned her head to look at him. At the same time, he looked towards her, and their eyes met.
Blushing again, she turned her head away quickly, and went back to serving the customers. Even though she had been caught staring, she still could not keep away, and kept looking back to try and spot him again.
Mr. Green saw her looking at Daniel, and smiled again at her, nodding his head as though to encourage her. Ellie turned away completely, looking out of the door into the street beyond. She was confused now, and even more unsure of what she was doing here, and how to resolve the problem she had created by coming all this way to marry a man she did not know.
Chapter 10
Ellie was still standing at the counter, trying to bring her feelings into line with her mind, when Mrs. Stamp arrived again. Ellie felt a sense of dread every time this woman came towards her, because it would mean another round of being pressured to marry Daniel. This time, Mrs. Stamp was followed by Dr Lewis, the man who would have married her to Daniel the week before. He had greeted her warmly in church each Sunday, but to be honest she never really listened to his sermons, which dragged on for ages with little points of interest. In the dark of the church, he looked like an old-testament prophet, with long, flowing hair and a thin face that was highlighted by shadows. In the light of day, he looked tired, large bags hanging around his excessively wrinkled face. But when he smiled at her, those wrinkles lifted to reveal an attractive, open face that made her smile back immediately. He rarely smiled on Sundays, so she felt as though she was being granted a special favor.
“Do you think that you could take a walk with me, Ellie?” He said, holding out his hand to take her elbow. She hesitated for a moment, worried about the look on Mrs. Stamp’s face.
“I would have to clear it with Mr. Green.”
“Oh, don’t worry about that, honey. He knows that I want you to talk to Dr Lewis and he’s already agreed. I’ve served here before, I can do it and he’ll never even notice that you’re gone.” Mrs. Stamp waved her hand, but Ellie had a sense that she was somehow triumphant. It made her very uneasy.
She paused, but then shrugged her shoulders. There was little point trying to fight against the pressures of Mrs. Stamp, so she may as well just give in at once.
“If Mr. Green has given us permission, then I will gladly walk with you, Dr Lewis.” She tried to imply that she was not very happy with this option, but Mrs. Stamp simply clapped her on the back, and said: “In that case, let us walk around the street.”
Reluctantly, Ellie stepped out from behind the counter, and Mrs. Stamp replaced her, looking confident and happy as she fiddled with the till and ran the cent coins between her fingers. Dr Lewis took her arm, and gently guided her from the store. They stood on the pavement for a second, and then the priest began walking down the middle of the road, letting the traffic work its way around him, and leaving Ellie to walk quickly behind him. She followed wherever he went, not quickly but fast enough to ensure that she could keep an eye on him.
He lead her along the Main Street, but th
ey did not speak, as she was hanging back too far for them to do anything but should at each other. Only when she got to the top of the road, and saw him turn into one of the side streets, did she call out to him, and he stopped and looked around, almost in surprise. He waited until she caught up with him, and then started walking again, then stopped and looked at her.
“Tell me, Ellie, do you pray?” He asked her suddenly, without any attempt at making other conversation.
“Always.” She said, trying not to laugh with surprise at the question. He had seen her at church often enough, hadn’t he? What did he think that she was doing there?
“Have you prayed over your problem?”
“I don’t think I should bother the Lord with silly questions.” Did he really intend to talk to her about this while they strolled through the town?
“Do you not trust him to help you with this problem?”
He had spoken so quietly that she had to repeat his words to herself before she understood them. She frowned at him, and he suddenly turned and carried on walking. Before long, she had fallen behind again, and he carried on walking, leading her through the streets without even looking behind him. She was hopelessly lost now, with no idea how to get back to the general store. He seemed to be leading her further and further away from the main part of town.
“Dr Lewis.” She called out in annoyance, and he turned back to her, again raising his eyes as if in astonishment.
“Our forefathers and foremothers thought nothing of praying, openly, for things that they needed.” He said. “Margaret Beaufort prayed over which husband to marry, and God answered her - giving her the husband that would help her to create the Tudors.” He paused. “She prayed honestly and was answered.”
“I thought that was all superstition and nonsense.”
“Oh, I didn’t say it was the right thing to do. Praying like that over every little thing would make a nonsense of your faith. What I am trying to say is that they felt as though they could open up to God, to ask him anything and know that what he decided was the best. If you don’t pray to him about serious problems such as your choice of husband, do you not feel like you are keeping a secret from God?”
She snorted with laughter, and came to walk beside him. “I’ve never kept any secrets from my God.” She placed emphasis upon the word ‘my’, reminding Dr Lewis that she did not share a faith with the medieval people he spoke about. If he wanted to look down on that faith with fondness, then he could, but she would stick to the stricter faith of her ancestors.
“Are you so sure, Ellie?” He took her down another street, and suddenly they were on the edge of town, with the open sky above them, and the wilds of the forest before them. “Take a look at where you are.”
“I know where I am.” But she did look, seeing the amazing beauty of the mountains above her. They were standing alone now, with the power of the mountains rising above them. She saw the parts that man had tamed and brought to civilization, and then the wilder, natural parts that could not be touched.
Dr Lewis looked at her. “Do you really know where you are? Because the Lord knows, Ellie. He knows what your heart needs and where you have to be in order to make it there. He has brought you here for his purpose, and you are defying him for some girlish whim of dislike. Don’t mistake your own willfulness for the actions of God.”
She didn’t answer, but raised her head to see the very peak of the mountain, higher than the town, higher even than the mines and the paths that swept up to the villages.
“Take a close look, Ellie. Then I think perhaps you should have a serious think about whether God has brought you here just to have you go back.” He nodded towards the mountain. “Every man and woman has a place in the world, and you came to Grass Valley to take that place.” He took her hand, and started to walk back to town. “Don’t live your life as a child, always giving way to temper and moods. It is time to be a woman, and to take a husband who will help you to live a good life. Daniel is such a man, and you really should reconsider his offer of marriage. You won’t be disappointed if you take back your refusal.”
Chapter 11
Ellie was still thinking about what Dr Lewis had said when she went to bed. There was a lot of noise in the street, including the sound of heavy rain beating on the roof just above her bed. It would soon become snow, she thought, but for the moment it was bouncing off each part of the shale roof near to her room at the top of the hotel, and it was making a din. In addition, on Saturday nights the hotel became a refuge for men who had drunk too much, or who had visited the saloons nearby. They often stopped overnight, drinking and shouting at each other until the small hours, keeping everyone else in the hotel awake.
Ellie struggled to get to sleep, and the noise from downstairs, combined with the sound outside, seemed to be filling her head with noises. Odd banging noises and cries seemed to fill the air. She closed the shutters, trying to stifle the noise, but instead it became a soft murmuring, the voices and the weather mixing into a haunting vocal, as though someone was standing next to the bed and whispering.
The murmuring continued after she closed her eyes, and gradually Ellie became used to each noise. The whispering sound was the only one that was keeping her awake, forcing her to open an eye to check that no-one had got into the room. She was still uneasy about the noise, but she had sat up before on Saturday nights, the sound of the rain and conversation keeping her awake, and it had not done her any good. She decided that she would not lay awake tonight, but instead would sleep, no matter what she could hear.
Aware that her eyes were aching, and that she really needed to go to sleep quickly if she was going to succeed, she closed her eyes, trying to make the sounds quieter until she could bring rest. At first, it seemed as though it might be working, but after a while, it seemed like each minute she was hearing more and more sounds.
Sleep came eventually, but it did not ignore the voices and the whispering sounds that were due with it. Instead, it became more vibrant, and her dreams started with the sounds of that noise. Her dreams began with her working at the general store, trying to serve huge crowds who were all demanding her attention and insisting that she serve them next. They were pressing closer and closer around the desk until it seemed as though they were forcing her down, through the floorboards.
Suddenly, she was walking in the woods, looking at the mountain as she had been advised to by Dr Lewis. Rather than being able to see anything, she was struggling to look up. No matter how hard she tried, she could not see the top of the mountain, only the forest that was ahead of her, and the brown civilized part of the mountain behind. The darkness of the trees enclosed her, and there was the sound of breathing animals behind her. She looked left and right, but could see nothing. Each time she turned, it was like looking down a dark tunnel into nothingness. She started to run, and she could hear the roaring of the animals behind her. They seemed to be gaining ground, closing in on her until she could feel their hot breath on her neck.
She was running and running, then at once the ground disappeared beneath her feet, and she was running on the dark itself. The path vanished, and she started falling down the mountain, seeing the faces of the animals, now concerned and open mouthed as she dropped past them into the dark. It seemed as though she was falling for hours without coming to the ground. She could hear the pounding of water and the sound of air whistling past her ears.
As she was falling, the mountains rumbled above her, and then they started to fall along with her, great rocks bouncing past her head. She closed her eyes and tried to curl up into a ball, and then she was no longer falling. Instead, she was standing and watching the mountain fall from a safe distance.
She saw herself standing at the edge of the path leading to Grass Valley, motionless and only able to watch as the high peaks of the mountain fell to the ground, the rocks and stones falling over each other and mixing with mud and snow until they reached the ground. The largest rocks fell down without touching the sides of t
he mountain, landing on the town. The distance vanished as she watched, and placed her in the town, looking as rocks fell about her.
Now she was closer to the Main Street, and she could see the heavy rocks of the mountain crushing the people below. Mrs. Stamp and her friend Mrs. Scott, Mr. Green the storekeeper, and her would-be husband, Daniel. All the people she served each day. They were running and trying to avoid the rocks, but they kept being hit by these boulders. No-one could escape, and they were not merely hit by the rocks and walking away, they were being hit as though the rock was engulfing them. They were all crushed by the heavy weights of the mountain, while she remained, standing perfectly still and yet not even being touched by the rocks. The winds came, and the rocks disappeared, while Ellie stood where she was in the now desolate street. Winds blew away the townspeople, and even the roofs of the houses, leaving her completely alone in a still and silent town.
She woke with a gasp, the dark of the room echoing the dark of the forest. For a moment she struggled to work out where she was, and it was as though she was still stuck in the dream. Gradually, the room, slowly appeared, light from the street outside catching the edge of her dresser, and the frame of the door. As she became more aware of the room, the dream faded. She could hear the heavy rain outside, and the water gushing from the drain pipe below her window. That must have inspired the dream. She gave a sigh of relief, but sleep would not come again, and she decided to change position. She rolled her head on the pillow, felt the damp beneath her hair.
She sat up in the bed, and realized that she was shaking and sweating, long beads of it rolling down her face. She wiped them away, but her hands were trembling and it seemed useless. She sank back into the bed, struggling to close her eyes. The trembling now seemed to take hold of her whole body, and she lay on the bed with no idea of how to reach the door or call for help.
The Reluctant Bride (Grass Valley Mail Order Brides Book 3) Page 4