Mail Order Love (Sweet Mail Order Bride Historical Romance Novel) (Oregon Mail Order Brides)

by Blakelear, Amy

  She got the fire dancing with yellow flames and warmed up the water. As the welcoming light of dawn filtered into the front room, she swept the floor, polished the table, cleaned all the pots and pans, and dusted and tidied as best she could.

  Ellie made her special coffee that she knew how to make well. Her trick was to break a raw egg and mix it into the ground coffee, shell and all. Then she added water with a pinch of salt and brewed the whole lot up.

  She allowed herself a brief rest with a small cup of coffee and a splash of milk, accompanied by a crust of bread. She ate standing up, too full of life and excited to sit down.

  Thank you God for giving me this beautiful place to take care of.

  Ellie spied Jared’s boots, caked with mud, kicked over by the door. That would be all right to do, wouldn’t it? She pushed any doubts from her head, grasped the boots and cleaned them well. Ellie shined up the silver spurs until they gleamed with light. Then she polished the leather and laid the boots a little way from the fire to warm up.

  Next she would make breakfast for the good folks here.

  This was where Ellie felt less confident. She was an expert coffee maker, but she had no idea how to cook. She had not prepared cooked food before. Her diet had been plain and simple.

  She hardly had a good example of what dish she was aiming to prepare, or how it should taste. Ellie decided to guess. She heated a pan of water to boiling and dropped in raw bacon, watching as white foam formed in the bubbling water. She mixed flour with water to make biscuits and dropped dollops into a pan. She broke the eggs into another pan to fry.

  Ellie looked around the room and identified the only part she had not cleaned yet. There was a shelf high up in the corner with a tall blue and white enameled clay vase balanced in the middle. A few ornaments were arranged either side. She would dust the vase and the ornaments. Then she would be ready to serve breakfast to Jared when he emerged.

  Ellie balanced on a chair and stood on her tiptoes to reach for the vase. She felt she ought to get down and move the chair along, but if she could just stretch one more inch she would reach it. As she stretched out her arm, a wave of dizziness hit her and she clipped the edge of the vase with her hand.

  Ellie watched in horror as the vase teetered on one edge of its base, wobbling like a spinning top. It rolled off the shelf and seemed to suspend itself mid-air for a moment. Then, before she could stop it, the vase plunged down vertically onto the floor with a crash.

  A hundred pieces of broken pottery. A cloud of dust.

  Ellie could only stand frozen on the chair, her feet rooted to the seat of it, her eyes open wide.

  Chapter 15

  “What’s going on?”

  Jared emerged down the third flight of stairs that led into the enormous front room, rubbing his eyes. Without his hat, Ellie could see the thick shock of shiny black hair coming from his forehead. It flowed upwards and back like sheaves of wheat rippling in the wind.

  Jared looked around the room sleepily. He raised his eyebrows when he saw the broken vase and gave a little smile when he saw Ellie standing on the chair.

  “I heard a crash, Ellie, are you all right? Morning, by the way.”

  He seemed pretty relaxed considering what she’d just done. Ellie got herself down from the chair.

  “Good morning, sir, I … I am sorry, I was cleaning up and, somehow I broke your vase.”

  “Don’t worry about it.”

  “Are you sure, I’m terribly sorry about this, I will clear it up now.”

  “I’d prefer you tend to those steaming pots you have bubbling away on the range there. Don’t worry, Ellie. And get me a coffee would you, I need to wake up.”

  He didn’t seem angry, but he didn’t seem too pleased either. This was not going well.

  Perhaps breakfast would smooth things over. Ellie rushed to the stove in time to retrieve the biscuits from their death. They looked dark brown and sunken, but they were only a little burnt. They gave off a wisp of acrid smoke. She fished the bacon out of the pot, the pale pink meat dripping with water. She shook it dry and set about scraping the eggs off the pan, prising off every little hard piece that had melded on to the metal.

  Do I serve breakfast plain, without a sauce?

  Ellie didn’t want to ask questions about cooking, afraid of appearing incompetent. So she arranged the dark brown biscuits, the damp bacon, and the hard eggs on a plate. She poured Jared a coffee and brought the whole spread over to where he sat at the table. Ellie crossed her fingers and hoped for the best.

  “Thank you."

  He eyed the food while drinking his coffee with relish. He took a few more sips, still observing the food and not touching it.

  Would he mind that she had added egg to the coffee? Ellie fervently prayed for the success of her brew.

  “Coffee is very good, thank you.”

  Thank God.

  Ellie busied herself at the fire, poking and tending to it. She kept her head angled such that she could watch Jared eating his breakfast from the corner of her eye.

  He started to eat, then he paused and put down his knife and fork. He cocked his head to one side before picking up the utensils again. He seemed to be eating the food. At least, the motions of eating were there. Ellie breathed a sigh of relief. That must mean the breakfast was acceptable.

  She ventured to ask. “Is the breakfast to your liking?”

  “All … all fine, thank you.” Jared gave her a weak smile as he sucked his teeth.

  Jared seemed to be fighting his food, but he polished off at least half of it before finally laying down his knife and fork. He got up from the table and started to put on his coat. “Ellie, I’m out early this morning, can you bring Grammy her breakfast? Her legs are stiff in the morning, I usually bring something up to her. She can let you know what kind of women’s work needs doing.”

  “You mean, go up on my own?” Ellie twisted her drying cloth in her hands.

  “Sure, she doesn’t usually bite. You’ll be all right. Hers is the room up the stairs there.” Jared motioned with his elbow as he got himself prepared for his work day.

  Jared picked up his Colt .45 and strapped it into his holster.

  “You can busy yourself around here, there’s a whole lot of chores to be done. Though I see you’ve made a good start.”

  “Thank you, sir - Jared, I mean.” Ellie still felt awkward calling her employer by his first name, but that was what he had asked of her. From the looks of him, they couldn’t be more than a few years apart in age after all.

  Jared shoved on his boots in two smooth motions. Ellie was struck by how tall he was. The light of the fire threw his shadow even taller against the wall. His hat and the spurs on his boots added drama to the towering silhouette. Definitely nothing like any man in Boston.

  By way of an afterthought, Jared added, “Oh, and when you go up, let her know you broke her vase.”

  “Her v-! Oh!”

  “As I said, she usually doesn’t bite, so I think you’ll be safe.” Jared seemed to think this was pretty funny. The corners of his mouth were twitching up as he turned and left.

  Ellie stood by the fire, staring at the door where he had disappeared, her mind blank for a moment.

  Jared popped his head back around the door.

  “Oh, and thanks for doing my boots. Toasty.”

  And with an emerald wink, he was gone.

  Chapter 16

  Ellie felt her stomach flip-flopping. She desperately wanted this job to be a success, but now she had to go up and find Jared’s grandmother, introduce herself, and tell her she had broken her vase.

  And she was not sure this breakfast was very good after all.

  She had no choice but to go up though. And even if she cooked the breakfast again, it would probably not turn out any better. Ellie sighed and put the food under a cover on the stove to keep warm. She found a dustpan and brush and swept up the fragments of the broken vase.

  She took a piece of the broken pot
tery between her fingers and examined it. It had been a lovely design, with flowers intricately weaving their way around in blue and white.

  It had been lovely, before I smashed it to pieces.

  It looked old too, really old. The kind of thing that can never be replaced. Ellie’s cheeks burned as she cleared the broken vase away.

  Ellie carefully arranged Grammy’s breakfast on a tray with a mug of coffee, a little jug of milk, and a bowl of sugar to the side. She located the stairs to Grammy’s room and looked up them apprehensively.

  I really don’t want to do this. But here goes.

  Ellie crept up the stairs gingerly, concentrating on balancing the tray. She spotted a closed door. As she approached she thought she could hear a little “Yip yip!” from within. More dogs? They sounded small. It wasn’t the full-throated bark of Jared’s two dogs.

  “Come in!” The little dogs had warned Grammy that her breakfast was imminent.

  Ellie took a deep breath and pushed open the door.

  There was an old lady, very slim and small, with suntanned skin and a shock of white hair. That must be Grammy. She was already up and dressed, sitting on a rocking chair by the window with a wiry gray puppy on her lap. There were four more puppies bouncing around the floorboards, excited at the entrance of a new human. The lady looked pleasantly at Ellie, expecting her to say something.

  Ellie didn’t know where to look. She felt acutely aware of having come into a stranger’s private room uninvited. She set the tray down on a side table and dropped a curtsy.

  “Ma’am, my name is Ellie Bates. I am here as a hired housekeeper, ma’am. Please Jared said to bring your breakfast up to you here.” Ellie tried to keep eye contact though she felt flustered.

  Grammy appeared pleased with this introduction. “Come in, come in, Ellie, and bring that tray over here. Jared told me to expect you this morning. Now tell me, how do you like your new position? Happy?”

  Grammy took a good look at Ellie’s face as she questioned her.

  Ellie picked up the tray again and placed it by Grammy’s rocking chair.

  “I am well pleased, ma’am, and grateful you agreed to have me here. I will endeavor to do everything to make your home comfortable and well run." Ellie started to lose confidence in herself as she spoke. What kind of housekeeper broke a vase on her first day?

  There was a silence as Grammy started on her breakfast.

  Grammy coughed.

  “Ahem, ack … is this April Fool’s Day? This really is the most terrible breakfast I’ve ever had in my entire life. Did you not know, bacon is not to be boiled, and eggs are not to be made into rubber?”

  Ellie flushed crimson.

  “Is it very bad, ma’am … please let me take it away and …”

  Grammy collapsed into laughter. “Oh my dear, what a way to start your new job! What a way to shock an old woman, that surely woke me up better than any coffee would.”

  Ellie looked from side to side and gave a little smile.

  Grammy was still laughing. “It’s so terrible, it is truly a comical breakfast. Now call me Grammy, we’ll have none of that ma’am rubbish around here.”

  Strangely enough, the disastrous breakfast had broken the ice and Grammy was all smiles.

  Ellie still felt nervous, afraid of being sent right back to Boston that very same day. “Are you sure you don’t mind? Can I get you something else?”

  “Not likely! Now tell me, dear. I like the look of you. How do you feel about Jared? You know I ordered you as a mail order bride for him. He thought he was going to marry you after he got you from the station.”

  Ellie’s head spun. How could that be? He had met her at the station as her employer.

  I was to be his bride? Ellie remembered then, the disappointment in his eyes when he had first seen her. His stilted words of greeting. The conversation in the buggy when he had seemed confused by her words.

  Everything became clear to Ellie in an instant. He had rejected her as a bride on sight.

  She suddenly felt as if she had contracted to half her size. It stung. But she told herself there was no reason why he should want a pale, sickly, slender girl like her. And it was not as if she had come here to be a bride in any case.

  Ellie straightened her spine and met Grammy’s gaze as bravely as she could.

  “We cleared up the misunderstanding. I am to work here on a one month trial as a housekeeper, if it meets with your approval.”

  Grammy surveyed Ellie. “So what was that resounding crash we woke up to today? Louder than the cockerels it was.”

  Ellie rarely cried, but she was in danger of it now.

  “I broke your vase. I would like to repay you for it.” If only the ground could swallow her up.

  “Dearie! My wedding vase.”

  Ellie raised her hands to her mouth. “Your wedding? It was your wedding vase?”

  “Not to worry. Dusty old thing, all in the past. Don’t get upset, I’ve never been one to get romantic about things long gone.”

  That was the final straw for Ellie. She could have held her composure if Grammy had scolded her. That was what she was used to. But this sweet kindness, from someone she had just met, was too much. She sank into a chair and wept.

  “I’m sorry, I … I am afraid I will fail terribly here at your beautiful home. I want more than anything to do a good job. I fear I have disappointed you. If I fail at this, I don’t know what I will do.”

  Ellie knew she had little to offer. No strength, no looks, no family, no real skills, no knowledge of homesteading. All the confidence she had felt an hour ago had evaporated.

  “Dry your tears my girl. You have made me laugh, and I like you. That’s all there is to it. I’ll show you the homesteading skills you need, and here’s an idea. Let us surprise Jared with a tremendous breakfast tomorrow. Jared eats breakfast right after waking up as he rides a long way off on the ranch each day. We’ll practice this afternoon until you’re perfect and we’ll both be there tomorrow morning to greet him with it. I have an old recipe book passed through the womenfolk in our family. I’ll let you use it and give you some tips. You can cook to your heart’s content my dear. You’ll improve.”

  Ellie smiled and looked through her tears into Grammy’s dark kindly eyes. Grammy didn’t realize it, but the words she had just uttered were like manna from heaven for Ellie.

  Grammy handed her a handkerchief and at that moment they both knew they would be friends.

  They went down to the front room together and Ellie opened the book of recipes for the first time. Within the flimsy brown pages were recipes stretching back through the years. The womenfolk in Jared’s family had written their most sacred, well-loved recipes and their cleverest tricks in the kitchen. These were family secrets that were usually kept close to their chests and not disclosed to a soul outside the Ford clan.

  For Ellie, the book was like a box of treasures. It contained the secrets of producing delicious meals. Meals that Jared and Grammy would both love.

  “Grammy, I don’t know what to say. This book is my dream come true. You really don’t mind my cooking at your house?”

  “You are welcome to. I’m not one to cook up fancy meals, but I sure love to eat them my dear. It would suit us very well if you would take on the cooking. We’ve got piles of food for you to practice with, so don’t worry about that. Come on, let me show where everything is.”

  Grammy took Ellie outside and showed her around the garden, pointing out various fruits, vegetables and herbs. Grammy explained how best to cook with them and how the flavors complemented each other. They went back into the house and Grammy gave a tour of the cold store which contained eggs, meats, cheeses, and row upon row of preserved foods.

  When the old lady’s legs got too tired to carry on she sat at the big front room table and Ellie made her another sweet milky coffee. Sipping her coffee, Grammy instructed Ellie on how best to cook a breakfast, reading out from the recipe book where necessary.

  G
rammy watched as Ellie whipped up a batch of biscuits made to the Ford family tried-and-tested recipe this time. “You’ve not had a chance to cook before now, Ellie?”

  “No, I … I wanted to, but the woman I worked for in Boston, she felt I would be bad at it.” Ellie looked down, uncertain of how much to say.

  Grammy was intuitive about these things. “Didn’t treat you well, eh? I thought there must be a reason for your sudden flight. Well, there are reasons for everything, my pet! You are here now. Now, let’s make a breakfast to end all breakfasts.”

  Chapter 17

  The next day Jared awoke with a start. He felt he had forgotten something important.

  That’s right. We’ve got a new housekeeper. Fat lot of good it will do us.

  Jared huffed as he rolled onto his stomach in bed. He propped himself up on his elbows, palms over his eyes. He was going to have to face her again today. And they were stuck with her for a whole month.

  Yesterday had not been a good day. That breakfast took the prize as the most terrible breakfast he had eaten in his life. He had only managed to eat half of it. Still it had rolled around in his stomach all morning like a leaden cannonball.

  He wouldn’t even feed that tripe to Eric and Fairy. They would probably turn up their noses at it in any case. They weren’t burdened by manners, those dogs, and all the better for it.

  Jared had stayed out all day yesterday, going into town for midday and taking his meal at the saloon. He had come back to work on the ranch for the rest of the day. After the sun went down he had stayed out in the barns working until late at night. He had polished off some of Grammy’s stew for supper.

  If he was honest with himself, he had to admit he was avoiding their new housekeeper. He had got used to it being just him and Grammy in the house. The fact that this housekeeper was originally intended to be his wife made him all the more uncomfortable.

  Just stick it out for a month. Then she’ll go and things can get back to normal.