by Merry Farmer
“Oh,” Mrs. Walters said, understanding dawning.
“He—” She glanced over her shoulder at her brother, then met Woody’s eyes, before turning back to Mrs. Walters. “He doesn’t think that Mr. Burnside will make a good husband for me.”
Mrs. Walters shifted her weight and folded her arms. “And what do you think?”
Meizhen managed a pinched smile. “I like Mr. Burnside. Very much. He seems sweet and kind. He will treat me well.”
“Then you must follow what your heart tells you,” Mrs. Walters said.
Meizhen sighed and shook her head. “My heart tells me that my duty is to my brother and my family. Chi-ming is a good man too, and we have been parted for so, so long. To be together again…to have my family together in one place after so long….” She smiled, feeling her heart lift with the magic of the proposition.
Just as quickly, the magic faded, leaving her as miserable as ever. “But I do not wish to disappoint Mr. Burnside or to hurt him.”
“Is it just hurting a man’s feelings that concerns you?” Mrs. Walters asked. “Or is it something else?”
Meizhen lowered her eyes and swallowed. “I think that I could love Mr. Burnside.” She glanced up at Mrs. Walters. “But I might love a man my brother finds for me.” Even as she said the words, they didn’t feel true. “I love Chi-ming,” she corrected herself, “and I want to be a good sister.”
Mrs. Walters shifted her stance again, pursing her lips. “Are you asking me to make a decision for you, Miss Liu? Because you know I can’t do that.”
“I know.” Meizhen lowered her head.
“We do have a contract, but I will admit that these are exceptional circumstances.” She paused to think. Meizhen peeked hopefully up at her. Mrs. Walters tapped her lips with a gloved hand. “I’ll tell you what,” she said at last. “You don’t have to decide anything right now.”
“I don’t?”
“Gracious, no.” Mrs. Walters laughed and glanced around. “None of us is leaving Noelle anytime soon. Not after that snowfall yesterday.”
“True.” A glimmer of hope began to form in Meizhen’s chest.
“Why don’t you take a few days,” Mrs. Walters said. “Get more information. Catch up with your brother and tell him about everything you’ve been through, and get to know Mr. Burnside a little better. More information will help you to decide what you need to do.”
“Yes.” Meizhen brightened. “Yes, it will. Thank you, Mrs. Walters.”
She said a quick goodbye, letting Mrs. Walters go on her way. Then she took a deep breath, pressing her hands to her stomach, and turned to face Woody and her brother.
“What was that all about?” Chi-ming asked.
“I have spoken to Mrs. Walters about the decision I must make,” Meizhen said, falling back on formality to give her time to digest what she wanted to do.
“What did Mrs. Walters say?” Woody asked. It was clear from the slump of his shoulders and the pinch around his mouth and eyes that he was anxious about how things would turn out.
“She said that I should take time before deciding on anything.” Meizhen glanced between both men. “I care very deeply for you, Chi-ming, and my heart sings at the possibility of our family being together again.” She turned to Woody. “But I also believe Woody is a good man who does not deserve to have a promise broken. And…and I think he would make me happy.”
Woody blushed, his smile returning.
Chi-ming looked confused. “So what will you do?”
Meizhen took a breath. “I will do as Mrs. Walters suggested and spent time with both of you.”
Woody and Chi-ming exchanged wary looks.
“Chi-ming and I have so much to catch up on,” Meizhen told Woody. “And I would like to get to know Woody better as well before deciding anything,” she said to her brother. “So today, I will spend the rest of my time with Chi-ming,” she went on, addressing both of them. “And tomorrow, I will spend with Woody.”
The men exchanged another look.
“I’m okay with that if you are,” Woody said.
Chi-ming took longer to answer. Meizhen knew him well enough to know he wasn’t happy with her decision, but he cared for her enough to honor it. At last, he nodded. “I accept.”
“Thank you,” she said, smiling at each of them.
She just hoped that more information would make her decision easier instead of harder.
Chapter 4
Woody swiped his hat from his head and ran a gloved hand through his hair as he watched Meizhen and Chi-ming walk away. Who would have figured that the two would be reunited right here in Noelle? And who could have guessed that something so wonderful would smash the hopes he’d been building up for the past few months?
He let out a breath that crystalized in the air in front of him, then squashed his hat back on his head. He should go on about his day. He needed to make sure the mules were all fed and warm. Plus, Jack had asked if he could take a look at one of his mules whose hoof was acting up. And Mimi, Gigi, and Fifi had to be near frozen through at this point.
He indulged in one more, longing look at Meizhen’s retreating back, then turned to the bridge. “Come on, ladies,” he said, heading for the hens. “Let’s get you back where you can roost a while.”
The hens clucked and fussed as he reached them, then headed on over the bridge and up toward the mule barn. Mimi and Fifi seemed to be consoling him with their chirps and clucks, but Gigi flapped and hopped ahead and acted like she was rolling her eyes at him.
“Well, what could I do?” Woody asked her as they moved along. “She hasn’t seen her brother for ages. She thought she might never see him again. I couldn’t very well barge on in and demand that she brush him off to go and marry me, now, could I?”
Gigi squawked as they made the turn off the main road, and hopped up onto a snowbank. Her sisters bounced along after her, feathers puffed.
“Family is important,” Woody argued back. “Just because I don’t have one anymore doesn’t mean I don’t know that.” In fact, the hope that he’d have a family of his own again was what had made marrying a woman he’d never seen feel like such a good idea…and what made it so hard to consider that he might not get his family after all.
He and the hens made their way up the lane and ducked into the mule barn. It was warm compared to the outside. The squat, iron stove near the center of the barn made sure of that. He shrugged out of his coat and hung his hat and gloves, then headed toward the stove to add more wood to its belly. The hens crowded close enough to thaw out their no-doubt icy feet.
“You think I should have put my foot down, don’t you?” he asked the hens. “You think I should have insisted that Meizhen honor the contract she made with Mrs. Walters to marry me. And you probably think I should have marched her over to find Rev. Hammond right away to seal the deal.”
The hens clucked and flicked their heads to the side. Fifi lost interest in the discussion and started pecking around the floor, looking for bugs or leftover bits of corn.
“Well, it’s not that easy,” Woody said with a sigh. He finished tossing logs into the stove, then moved to sit on a low bench near where some of the mules were still resting after their trek up the mountain the day before. “You can’t just go telling a woman what to do,” he explained, both to the hens and to the mules. “I know some fellas think women need a firm hand, but I never thought so. Women are smarter than us, after all,” he pointed out to Harry, one of the older mine donkeys whom he’d known for years.
Harry nodded and snorted as though agreeing.
“They need to be treated with care and respect. I’m sure Meizhen knows her own mind, after all.”
Harry made a gentle, half-braying noise and pawed the ground. Mimi waddled closer to Woody, then jumped up in his lap. Woody covered her cold feet with one hand to warm them and stroked her back with the other.
“She said she wanted to marry a kind man,” he went on, thinking things over with a frown. “It
would be kind to let her make her decision on her own.”
Mimi fluffed under his hand and shook her head, body, then tail.
“You’re right,” Woody sighed. “I should do something to show her that I’m the man she wants to marry. I need to show her not only that I’m kind, but that I can be a good provider. That’s what Buck—I mean, Chi-ming—tried to say I wasn’t, and some fella in San Francisco would be.”
He sighed as Harry and two of his buddies, Ralph and Moonbeam, ambled closer. Harry sniffed at Woody’s hair, and Woody let him.
“I can’t compete with some rich man in a big city,” he went on. “And Chi-ming’s right when he says I won’t be able to afford a house of my own right away, that Charlie would have to foot that bill for now. But I can save up, right?”
Harry let out a short bray.
“And there’s nothin’ wrong with living in here for the winter. It’s warm and the wind doesn’t creep through the walls. And sure, you guys mess on the floor occasionally, but I clean it up right quick, don’t I?”
Ralph tilted his head up and let out a long whinnying bray.
“Well, okay, I could be a little faster about it,” Woody admitted. “But I will be once Meizhen is living here.”
He took in a breath and sat a little straighter, just as Mimi started to nestle closer to him. She fluttered her wings in indignation and jumped down. That prompted Woody to stand as ideas flew at him.
“What I really need to know to win Meizhen over is what women want in a husband,” he said, talking mostly to himself instead of the animals, for a change. “I need to know how to be that appealing sort of man that makes the ladies go all giddy. Something like Horatio is always claiming he has.”
Harry brayed and snorted and shook his head.
“Okay, yeah, I know, Horatio isn’t the nicest fella in town.” He scratched his head, shoulders sinking.
A moment later, he snapped straight again, a smile on his face. “You know who I should ask? The ladies from La Maison des Chats.” The hens cocked their heads and blinked up at him. “They’re women, and they know a bunch of men. I bet they’d know exactly what Meizhen would be looking for in a husband. They can tell me what I need to do to convince her to stay and marry me instead of going to San Francisco.”
Mimi and Fifi seemed to like the idea, but Gigi continued to puff up and strut around as if she were rolling her eyes.
“Yeah, well, I’m gonna give it a try,” he told her.
He strode back to the hook where he kept his coat, hat, and gloves—which were still cold from being out earlier—and put them on.
A few other men from town were up and about as he made his way back over the bridge and through the middle of town toward La Maison des Chats. A few of them looked to be entertaining their brides as well. He smiled and nodded at them, glad that so many of his friends were about to be made so happy.
It was only after Woody had knocked enthusiastically on La Maison des Chats’s front door and let himself in that he realized the whores might not be there. In fact, the two ladies that happened to be in the front hall as he burst in gasped at him, eyes wide, and ran from the room when he asked, “Are there any whores around?”
“Oh, dear.”
“Oh, my.” The ladies fluttered like hens as they fled.
It took another few seconds to realize what they must have thought he was asking for.
“Oh. Shucks,” he mumbled, then attempted to call after them, “That’s not what I meant, ma’am, ma’ams. I didn’t mean that I wanted a whore for, uh, you know, whore stuff.”
A shriek and the clatter of something being upset in the other room as the women retreated farther brought a hot blush to Woody’s cheeks.
“I just want to talk,” he called, less enthusiastic.
“Woody, my boy!” The deep voice of Boum Boum shifted his attention to the stairs.
Woody twisted toward the sound to find Boum Boum, Felice, and Jolie coming down. Each of them carried bags. That didn’t stop Woody from grinning at the sight of them. “Ladies. Boy am I glad to see you.”
“You are?” Felice asked. Her voice was girlishly high, and she practically bounced down the stairs—more like a kitten than a cat in the cathouse—with a bright smile. “I like it when you come looking for us.” She skipped over to him, leaving her bag near the bottom of the stairs, and grabbed Woody’s arm.
Woody’s blush burned hot, and he lowered his head bashfully. “Aw, shucks, Miss Felice. I didn’t mean it like that.”
“No?” Boum Boum left her bag at the bottom of the stairs and strode over to take hold of Woody’s other arm, squashing her enormous breasts against him. “But we always like it when you come to see us, Woody.”
“I…um….” Woody swallowed, his collar and his trousers suddenly uncomfortably tight.
“Yes, you’re always such a delight to entertain,” Jolie said, her smile far from her usual sour expression, sashaying toward him. Woody tried hard to keep his eyes on her face and not, well, lower. Especially when Jolie came close enough to brush her fingers across the lapels of his coat and remove his hat. She tossed it aside and asked, “What can we do for you?”
“Well…um…see, the thing is….” Between Felice stroking his arm on one side, Boum Boum snuggling him with her breasts on the other, and Jolie playing with his hair, not a single thought made it into Woody’s head. Most of the time, he didn’t have to have thoughts at all when he was spending time with the girls, he just let them do whatever they wanted to do and tell him their thoughts while they were at it. He liked listening to what they had to say about things as much as he liked, well, other things.
At last, he had to break away from all three of them just to remember his name.
“So, the thing is,” he began, holding up his hands and averting his eyes. “I need you to tell me what women want.”
“Sweetheart.” Boum Boum swayed toward him with her ample frame. “Why have us tell you when we can show you?”
“Yes.” Jolie inched toward him with a teasing smile. “We’d much rather show you what we want. You’ve always been so very good at taking directions.”
“Very good,” Felice agreed, making a beeline right for him.
Woody dodged out of her way. “Um…” His voice shook and his face burned. “Well, it’s nice to know that you’ve always been satisfied with the time we’ve spent together—”
All three of them made noises that did much more than express their agreement—noises that had him forgetting his name again.
“—but those days are behind me now.” He held up both his hands as the ladies backed him against the wall.
Where moments before they had looked like they might rip his clothes off and eat him for lunch, at his announcement that he was done with what they had to offer, they backed off.
“That’s right. You’re one of the men who landed a bride, aren’t you?” Boum Boum said.
“Aaw,” Felice squeaked, clutching her hands to her heart. “Woody’s gone and found himself a bride.”
“It couldn’t happen to a better man,” Jolie agreed, stepping forward to pinch his cheek.
“But what do you want from us, then?” Boum Boum asked.
As soon as he was certain they wouldn’t tempt him into things he no longer wanted to do, Woody let out a breath and relaxed, stepping away from the wall. “See, here’s the thing.” He frowned, brushing his hands over his coat, then thinking twice and taking off his gloves, stuffing them in his pockets. “Meizhen—that’s my bride—just happens to be Chi-ming’s—who you know as Buck the miner—well, she happens to be his sister.”
The three women blinked and started. “Really?” Felice asked.
“His sister?” Jolie blinked.
Woody nodded. “Turns out she’s been looking for him for a while and finally found him. And now they’re together again.”
“How wonderful,” Felice sighed.
“Yeah, it is.” Woody tried to keep his smile, but it slippe
d away. “Only, Chi-ming—that’s Buck to you—says Meizhen shouldn’t marry me. He wants to take her back to San Francisco to find a Chinese husband for her.”
The three ladies hummed and hawed and clucked at that…kinda like Mimi, Gigi, and Fifi did.
“How could any woman possibly find a better husband than our Woody,” Boum Boum cooed—as much as someone with a voice lower than his could coo—ruffling his hair.
“You’re definitely husband material,” Felice agreed.
“And being married to a kind, strong man is as much as any woman could want,” Jolie said, sounding as wistful as Woody had ever heard her. Then again, her old sweetheart had died out West before she could make her way there to marry him. No wonder she was less than welcoming with so many brides coming to town.
“Do you really think I’m husband material?” Woody asked. “Because that’s what I came here to ask you about.”
“Of course!” Boum Boum threw her arms wide. “You want to know what women want.”
“Oh!” Felice said, as if it had just dawned on her too. “You want to know what women want in a man so that you can show your bride that you have it.”
“Yes,” Woody said, letting out a breath of relief. “’Cuz Lord knows I don’t have the fancy house or a successful business or loads of money, like Chi-ming seems to think Meizhen should have.”
Again, the ladies cooed and hummed in sympathy, reminding him of his hens.
“Honey, you’ve got so much more than money or fancy things,” Boum Boum said, sidling closer to him once more. She stroked his head and his cheek, but this time it felt more like a nurturing older sister than a lover.
“Yeah,” Jolie agreed, hugging him from the side. “You’ve always had everything that a woman could ask for.”
“You’re sweet,” Felice said, holding up her hand and counting on her fingers. “You’re clean without being all smelly with cologne, you listen to us, and, well, let’s just say that it’s not work when you spend time with us.”