David groaned. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that. I had no idea how strongly you felt about poorly behaved children, but that’s no excuse. I just wanted to be married again and have help with them, but I shouldn’t have done that to you or any other woman. Will you forgive me?” His eyes were intense as they looked into hers, trying to determine just how angry she was.
She nodded slowly. “We’ll start fresh, but now you know the kind of things I absolutely cannot tolerate.”
“I do. Things will be better around here. I promise.”
*****
Susan left explicit instructions with Sam, who was in charge of the stables, before she left for coffee with Beverly and Wilma the following afternoon. The boys needed to work continuously and not take more than one fifteen minute break. Sam just nodded at her, obviously afraid to argue with her. He hitched the team to the buggy and watched as she drove off for coffee and cookies with her new friends.
David had given her instructions in how to get to the neighbor’s house, and she saw that Wilma was just getting out of her own buggy as she pulled up. “Wilma!” Susan called waving to her friend.
Wilma waited for Susan with a grin on her face. “I’m so glad you and Beverly invited me today,” Wilma said shyly.
Susan linked her arm through the other woman’s and led her to the door. “Why’s that?”
Wilma shrugged. “I’ve kind of kept to myself over the years, and the friends I made in school all moved on without me. Now that I’m married, I’d like to be able to do things with other ladies, but I’m just not sure how to go about it.”
Susan smiled at her. “Well, you’ve gotten started now. Next Wednesday we’ll meet at my house at the same time, and maybe the following week the three of us can meet at your house. I’m sure we’ll all be great friends in no time.” She truly enjoyed being around Wilma. Wilma seemed extremely shy, and Susan knew that shy women did better when they had outgoing friends. Susan didn’t have a shy bone in her body.
Beverly opened the door before they had a chance to knock. “Come in! I have the coffee and cookies all ready.”
Susan glanced around the house as she went in. It was as nicely furnished as the Dailey home, and she immediately wondered if Beverly had an indoor outhouse as well. She followed the other woman into the parlor and sat down on the couch. “Where are your girls?” Susan asked. She’d met the three girls at church on Sunday and had expected to see them again that day.
Beverly smiled. “I sent them into town to stay with their grandmother. She’s been itching to have them for a day, and I thought we’d have more fun without them here.”
Susan relaxed against the back of the couch. “Good. I could use an afternoon with no children.” She rolled her head on her neck, feeling extremely comfortable with both of her new friends.
Beverly looked over at her. “You getting anywhere with those hellions?”
Susan nodded. “I really think I am. Of course, Albert and Lewis went to Fort Worth yesterday and got lost. They ended up in The Acre.” She said the words casually knowing they’d have more impact that way.
Wilma gasped. “They’re okay?”
“We realized they were missing and went looking for them. I think I went to every ranch north of ours.” She looked at Wilma. “You must be south of us as well.”
“We share a border with Beverly on her south side.”
“Well, the two of them are at home mucking out the horse stalls. I wish David would let me spank them, but he’s adamant.” She stretched her arms above her head. “It’s hard being married to someone who feels as differently about discipline as David and I do.” She shook her head as she thought about the arguments she’d had with David in the past week regarding discipline.
Beverly nodded. “I’m glad Charles and I don’t have that problem. Of course, our girls are very well behaved.”
Susan nodded. “Compared to my boys most children are. They’re improving, though. I just have to keep telling myself that.”
“So how are you enjoying married life other than the boys?” Wilma asked.
“Other than the boys and fighting over the boys, it’s good. We do fight over them a lot more often than I like.” Susan shrugged. “I do enjoy being married, though. David is a good husband for the most part.”
Beverly leaned forward. “Do I sense trouble in paradise?”
“A little.” She wondered if it would be right to tell them what had happened, but decided she needed advice and the two of them were there. It would take a month to get a letter from back home if she wrote asking someone there for the advice she needed. “I found out yesterday he paid the boys to be good the night I met them. He knew I wouldn’t marry him if I saw how the boys really acted.”
Beverly’s eyes widened and then her lips quirked. “I know it was wrong, and deceptive, but it’s funny.”
Susan shook her head. “The boys just casually mentioned the dollars he’d given them to be good so I’d marry him. I was so furious with him I threatened to leave him.”
Wilma hid her smile behind her hand. “You haven’t even been married for a week. You can’t leave him.”
“Oh, I could! But I won’t. He does know now that I won’t put up with that kind of nonsense.” She picked up a sugar cookie and took a bite. “Why couldn’t he have simply said, ‘My boys are hellions, but I think you could get them to act right in no time?’”
Beverly gave Susan a knowing look. “Would you have married him if he had?”
Susan shook her head with a laugh. “Absolutely not.”
“That’s why he didn’t say it then,” Beverly said.
Wilma smiled at Susan. “I can’t help but remember how bad David, Charles and Jesse were in school. Every time I turned around they were getting in trouble for something.”
Beverly looked at Wilma. “What about Ned? Wasn’t he part of it?”
Wilma blushed. “Ned was too busy making eyes at me to get into trouble. We spent all of our recesses together even back then.”
Susan tilted her head to the side as she studied Wilma. “Why did he join the army then? Why didn’t he just stay here and marry you right after school?
Wilma looked down at her hands. “There was another boy who Ned thought I loved. We were just friends, and I was helping him to court another girl, but Ned saw us and thought there was more between us, so he joined the army. By the time he knew the truth, it was too late. He asked my pa if he could court me as soon as he came back, though.” Wilma took a sip of her coffee. “I think we’re closer because of the years apart. I think it taught us just how much we cared for one another. We did write to one another as often as possible, but it just wasn’t the same as being together.”
Susan sighed. “I love good love stories like that.”
They spent the rest of the afternoon laughing and joking about the antics the men had pulled when they were boys and the problems Susan’s boys were causing. Susan looked at Beverly just before she left. “One day, one of my boys is going to marry one of your girls and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
Beverly leaned back and groaned. “That’s the last thing I need!”
Wilma laughed. “I hope it happens.”
Beverly glared at Wilma. “Then I hope you have a girl for one of her twins to marry.”
Wilma smiled at Susan. “I wouldn’t mind being related to Susan through marriage.”
They all laughed, and agreed to meet at Susan’s house the following week at the same time. Susan was happy to have made two such good friends so soon after she arrived. She and Wilma walked out to their buggies together. “I’ll see you Sunday,” she called as she drove north toward her home.
Wilma waved at her, looking much happier than she had when Susan had met her at their wedding. Susan was glad she’d reached out to the shy woman, because she firmly believed a good friend could make all the difference in the world.
Chapter Ten
Things around the ranch became easier t
o deal with as the time passed. She helped the boys build their tree house, and then the three of them built a fort for the two younger boys. She made curtains and bought small rugs for the floors of the boys’ structures. Once the fort was built, it seemed as if she never saw Albert or Lewis anymore, because they spent their time in the tree house, planning their takeover of Texas and then the world, although they did still hold the belief that Texas was the world.
The twins enjoyed their fort, but didn’t spend nearly as much time in it as the older boys spent in the tree house, because either Susan or Mrs. Hackenshleimer had to be in the fort with them, and they’d picked up the idea of “no girls allowed” from their older brothers. They thought the women should stand outside the fort and watch them through the window, and neither of the women was willing to stand in the hot Texas sun to do that for long.
David and Susan made peace with one another, and he deferred to her judgment when it came to disciplining the boys. She was still wary of him, and unsure of whether he was going to give her the full authority she needed to keep the boys in line, but she was certainly enjoying their marriage. Yes, the days were long, but the nights were wonderful. She loved being married to David. She often wondered if she’d have gotten bored being married to Jesse.
Susan expected the temperature to cool off once September hit and the older boys started school, but the hot Texas sun just kept beating down on them. One Tuesday afternoon, toward the end of September, she was working on sewing some winter clothes for the twins. They did prefer to dress in different colors instead of always dressing alike, so she was trying to give them a variety of clothes to choose from. Baxter, their new kitten was curled up on the couch next to her, hiding from the twins to catch a nap.
Walter walked into the family parlor where she was doing her sewing and squatted down to play with his blocks. After a moment, she could smell his diaper, and looking up, she saw brown lines dripping down his legs. She made a face and set her sewing down, scooping him up and holding him at arms’ length to take him to the bathtub, hoping she wouldn’t get anything on her.
As soon as she started the water in the bathtub, Mrs. Hackenshleimer came up behind her with Thomas on her hip. “Do you want me to do that?”
Susan shook her head. “I can do it. Would you mind getting his dirty clothes to Sadie right away, though? And getting me some clean clothes for him?” Susan knelt beside the tub with Walter standing naked in his bath giggling as she used a glass to dump water over his back and legs.
Mrs. Hackenshleimer put Thomas down and told him to go play with the blocks in the family parlor before she left to do what Susan had asked. When she returned, Walter was sitting in the bathtub, splashing happily. He rarely got to take a bath without his brother, so Susan was letting him enjoy himself.
After Mrs. Hackenshleimer set Walter’s clean diaper and fresh clothes on the floor beside Susan, she said, “We need to talk about potty training these two. They’re plenty old enough to be using the toilet like the rest of the family.”
Susan nodded. “I totally agree. I think I’ll have the older boys take them outside and show them how to ‘water the flowers’ they see. Albert and Lewis won’t like it, but they’ll do it.”
Mrs. Hackenshleimer smiled as she leaned against the door jam. “The difference you’ve made in those two older boys is simply amazing. They were hellions when I first arrived. They tried to hide it, because they were afraid of me, but I could see it. That first night you came, I wanted to warn you to run as fast as you could in the other direction, but I can see now, you’re just what this family needed.”
Susan was surprised by the compliment from the older woman. Mrs. Hackenshleimer was always so serious and focused on her job Susan hadn’t realized she paid that much attention to what was going on in the family other than the twins. “Thank you. It’s nice to hear someone has noticed.”
“Everyone has noticed. You have worked wonders with the boys, and we’re all happier for it.” She glanced around and tilted her head to the side as if she was listening for a moment. “I don’t hear Thomas.”
Susan glanced at her. “I’m sure he’s just playing with the blocks like you suggested.”
Mrs. Hackenshleimer nodded. “Excuse me for a moment while I go check.” She was back a few moments later. “He’s not there. Why do we keep losing the boys?”
Susan jumped up, knowing she could cover more ground looking for the child than Mrs. Hackenshleimer could. “You finish his bath. I’ll go look for Thomas.” She ran through the house calling the boy’s name, but there was no response.
She rushed into the kitchen her eyes frightened. “Have you seen Thomas?”
Sadie turned away from the chicken she was frying for dinner. “No, is he missing?”
“Yes, we told him to play with the blocks while we were washing Walter. He’s not anywhere in the house I can see.” She hurried toward the door to the dining room. “I’m going to go get David to help me look for him.”
She ran out of the house, calling Thomas’s name. She checked in the fort, but he wasn’t there. She couldn’t see him anywhere. Running toward the corral still calling his name, she saw David turn to her with a concerned look. “Thomas is missing. We were giving Walter a bath and he was playing with blocks, and then suddenly he was gone.”
David noted the panicked look on his wife’s face and pulled her into his arms. “We’ll find him.” He called out to the nearest ranch hand that Thomas was missing, and the man ran to tell the others. “How long has he been missing?”
Susan shook her head. “Not more than twenty minutes. I’m so sorry, David.” Tears were coursing down her face. “I can’t believe I’ve lost him.” She should have paid more attention to Thomas than she had. She could have handled getting Walter’s dirty clothes to Sadie and taken Walter upstairs naked. She’d done it before. Why had she asked Mrs. Hackenshleimer to put Thomas down?
David took her hand and walked with her. “Where’s the kitten?”
“I’m not sure. He was sleeping beside me on the sofa while I was sewing, but then Walter made a huge mess, leaking out of his diaper, and needed to be bathed right away. I didn’t notice him again after that. He may still be sleeping in the family parlor.”
“You run and check, while I search all the outbuildings. He couldn’t have gone far. His legs aren’t long enough to cover much distance.” David turned toward the pigpen first. He knew how much the twins enjoyed chasing the pigs now that Albert had taught them that game.
Susan ran out of the house a few minutes later. “Baxter is missing too.”
David nodded. “I have a feeling we’ll find the two of them together.”
They searched the stable, but he wasn’t there. Sam said he hadn’t seen any of the boys that day. Susan was terrified. The ranch was huge and anything could happen to Thomas on it. He was so small. What if he wandered into the corral and got kicked by one of the horses?
Finally, they checked the barn, and there was Thomas, sitting in the corner playing with Baxter. Susan ran to him, picked him up and hugged him to her. Tears were coursing down her face and she didn’t care. She’d been so worried she’d lost him.
Thomas pulled away after a moment. “Mama cry?” He poked one of the tears with his finger.
Susan gave a half laugh. “I thought we lost you.”
“I play with kitty.” His face made it clear he thought she was crazy to be so worried when he was just playing with the animal.
She put Thomas back down. “You can play with kitty.” She turned to David and saw him watching with a relieved smile. She walked into his arms and held him tightly. “I thought we’d lost him. I’ll never let him out of my sight again.” She knew she was being melodramatic even as she said it, but she couldn’t stop the words. How could she live with herself if something happened to one of them?
David laughed. “Of course, you will. He’s fine.”
Susan shook her head. “I don’t know what I’d do if we lost o
ne of our boys.” Her voice was still shaking as she thought about what could have happened.
David smiled, stroking her hair. “Our boys?”
She nodded. “Of course, they’re our boys.”
“Does that mean you’re glad you married me?”
She laughed softly. “Of course, I’m glad I married you. I have a man I couldn’t live without, and four boys I love with all my heart.” How could he not know that after six weeks of marriage? Didn’t she show him every day how much she loved them all?
David gave her a serious look. “Is it only the boys you love?”
She smiled, stroking his cheek. “Of course, it’s not. I love you more than I ever dreamed I’d love anyone. I don’t think I knew how much I loved all of you until Thomas went missing, though. It’s amazing how losing a child puts everything in perspective.” She looked over at Thomas looking so content as he played with the kitten giggling.
“I’m so glad,” he whispered, kissing the top of her head. “I think I fell in love with you when you got so mad at me on our wedding day.”
Susan laughed. “So what you’re saying is what you love most about me is my horrible temper?” She thought about how she’d poked him in the chest and told him there was no way she’d share a bed with him.
“I wouldn’t go that far.”
Susan took Thomas’s hand before putting her arm around David’s waist and walking toward the house. “Well, if it’s when you knew you loved me….” She couldn’t believe she felt good enough to tease him so soon after the crisis with Thomas. It was amazing what the words, “I love you” could do.
“I was just so glad to see you had spirit. So many women let men run all over them, and I’m so proud that you don’t do that.”
She realized the older boys had made it home from school as she walked toward the house.
Albert looked at her with a shocked look. “You okay, Ma? You look like you’ve been crying. You never cry.”
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