When they broke the kiss, he said, “The day we found you, was the luckiest day of my life.”
“I’m glad it was your family who found me.” She slid her hand down his chest and over his belly. She felt him tense when she touched his member. She let out a low moan that grew louder as his hand found the entrance to her treasure vault.
A river of wetness washed over his fingers as he inserted first one and then a second finger inside stretching the walls. Her body began moving against his hand involuntarily. The moans grew louder and louder and she increased the movements of her hips. Then she lost all control and began thrusting upward, harder and harder until a long sigh escaped and she was still.
“Honey, are you all right?” he asked.
She didn’t answer at first, and then said, “Wow. That was the most incredible feeling I have ever had. I don’t see how it can get any better, but I’m ready to try the next part.”
She pulled him on top and guided him to the entrance. He felt the resistance. “Push,” she told him.
He pushed against the resistance. The pain was sharp and intense. Her scream was involuntary and she forced herself to relax as she slowly exhaled.
He stopped moving and began to withdraw.
“Don’t stop. It’s not as bad as it was,” she said. “I expected it to hurt at first.”
Later…
“We are truly a married couple now,” she said.
“It’s kind of scary isn’t it?” he replied.
“It is scary,” she agreed. “Here we are married and both of us are just eighteen. What do we know about anything other than we love each other? What if that isn’t enough?
“What if we just made a baby?”
“Then it will be the most loved baby in the state of Oregon. As much as I love you, love will be enough,” he promised.
“We’re going to be all right. We have a nice sized farm and we’ll have a crop of wheat in the spring. Best of all, we have each other.”
“I don’t know why I’ve gotten to be such a worry wart,” she said. “I never was before. I had responsibilities to the other players on the teams and didn’t want to let them down, but this seems to be so much more. It bothers me that we will be so dependent on your family until we can begin growing our own food. You know how I am about having to depend on someone when I have nothing to offer in return.”
“With three cows there will be plenty of milk, and we may have to eat a lot of mush and beans.”
“That’s all right with me. I can help with the milking. I can also cook mush. Beans can’t be all that hard to cook.
“Jed?” she said, running her fingers through the sparse hairs on his chest. “I would kind of like to try it again.”
“Your wish is my command,” he said.
Later…
“Mm, that felt good. A lot easier than the first time.” She lay back on his outstretched arm and snuggled her chin into the space between his shoulder and chin. “I’m going to like being married. Goodnight, Jed.”
“Good night, honey.”
Chapter twenty-nine
Where’s Seth?
The next week…
Angie picked Martha up from her rocking cradle. “Isn’t she beautiful?” she asked.
“She is, and she looks so much like Polly, it is unreal.”
“How often does Seth come to see her?”
“We haven’t seen him since the funeral,” Sophie said.
“He hasn’t even been here to see his daughter?” Angie asked.
“Not one time.”
“Something has to be done about this,” Angie said. “I promised Polly I would help look after Martha, and I keep my promises. I’ll get Jed to take me to see him.”
“Honey, let Hiram talk to him. There’s no telling what he might do if you try to force him to accept Polly’s gone and he has a daughter.”
* * *
Hiram saddled his horse and rode to Seth’s homestead. “We haven’t seen much of you lately, so I came to see how you’re doing,” Hiram said.
“As well as can be expected for somebody that lost everything,” Seth replied.
“You haven’t lost everything, you have a daughter,” Hiram reminded him.
“No way I can take care of a child,” Seth said. “I’ve got to put seed in the ground. I’m living in the wagon. I can’t very well take care of a baby while I’m plowing.”
“You could at least visit her. You haven’t seen her in two months. You know we’ve moved in, and we’re just the next farm over.”
“Yeah, well I couldn’t hire a bunch of Chinese to do my work. I have to do the work myself.”
Hiram ignored the sarcasm. “Do you think Polly would like to see you like this? Didn’t you promise to take care of her baby? We weren’t in the room, but we could hear what was said. She would be ashamed of what you’ve become.”
“You got no call talking to me like this,” Seth said, angrily.
“Go down to the creek and look at yourself. You’re filthy and I can smell you over here. Get hold of yourself man, you’re not the first person to lose his wife. We’re getting mighty attached to Martha, and she’s a happy baby. If you don’t want her, we’d be more than happy to adopt her.”
He wheeled his horse around and called back over his shoulder, “You know where we live if you decide to visit.”
Saturday afternoon…
Seth called, “Hello the house!”
Sophie came to the door. “Seth, this is a pleasant surprise!” She turned and called over her shoulder, “Mandy, we have a visitor. Come in, I’ve got a pot of coffee on.”
“Would it be all right if I visited Martha?” he asked.
“Well of course it would. She’s probably still asleep, but I’ll get her up to see her papa.”
When she returned, she said, “I had to change her. Martha, your papa has come to see you.” She thrust the baby at Seth, leaving him no choice but to take her.
“I’m afraid I might drop her,” he said.
“Nonsense. Take the rocker. She loves to be rocked.”
“Where are the others?” Seth asked.
“Hiram and Jed are working on their cabin.”
“What about Angie?”
Mandy answered, “Angie and Jed live on their farm.”
“They married?” he asked.
“They did, and they are as happy as hogs in fresh mud. I didn’t hold out a lot of hope it would happen for a while there. Angie’s a very pretty girl and there are a lot of men looking for a wife,” she continued. “I was afraid he might dawdle around and lose her.
“I’m going to start looking around for myself,” Mandy said.
Both Seth and Sophie had surprised looks on their faces. “Why are you looking at me like that, Mama?” Mandy asked.
“It’s just not something you’ve said before. I would be very happy if you found some nice young man. It seemed for a while like you might be my last chance for another grandbaby to go along with Martha, but now with Jed and Angie there’s renewed hope.”
“How are you doing, Seth?” Mandy asked.
“I miss her every day. I keep hoping this is a bad dream and she will walk in with her usual smile, and everything will be fine.”
“I miss her too. I counted her among my best friends. Angie took it as hard as the rest of us.
“How is your cabin coming along?”
He looked at his daughter. “I’m embarrassed to say I haven’t done a thing with it. I’m living in the wagon. I did get the seed for winter wheat in the ground, but my heart just is not in it.
“Would it be all right if I came to see my daughter?”
“Now that is the dumbest question I’ve heard all day,” Sophie told him. Of course it will. Why don’t you come tomorrow for Sunday dinner?”
“I’ve promised myself I will start working on some shelter. I had better be getting back now,” he said. “I’m going to try to get some more work in today.”
“Set
h, don’t be a stranger. The latchstring is always out for you.”
“Thank you, Sophie. I appreciate what you’re doing for Martha.”
“She’s a little darling. And she looks just like her mother.”
“Do you think so?”
“Just look at her eyes and the shape of her face. She’s her mother’s daughter all right.”
Later…
“Guess who was here today?” Sophie asked when Jed and Hiram came in.
“Seth came over. He held Martha and talked to her. I have never seen a sadder person. Do you know he hasn’t done anything toward building shelter?”
“I saw that the other day. I’m not surprised,” Hiram said. “He was the filthiest one human I’ve ever seen when I was over there.”
“He was all cleaned up today. Shaved and everything. He does need help. Why don’t you and Jed go help get him started? It would be the neighborly thing to do. I’ll fix lunch. I don’t think he’s had a decent meal since he left the boarding house.”
“Let’s do that,” Hiram said. “It would be nice if we had some neighbors. We could have an old fashioned wall raising.”
“That would be nice,” Sophie said. “It was always done through the church. The next time we go into Salem, I want to see whether there are any in the area. I miss that.”
“We’ll need to go in next week,” Hiram said. “Get a list together of what you need. I need some nails. I want to finish flooring the loft and build a lean-to for another room.”
“Angie asked me if we decorated the house for Christmas. We never have before, but she had some suggestions using colored paper and popcorn strings. I think Jed is going to take her and Mandy to look for a tree. It would be nice to have one for our first Christmas here. I am going to ask Seth to have Christmas dinner with us too.”
Chapter thirty
A Confrontation
They found the perfect tree. Six feet tall and well filled out on all sides. “This is going to be perfect,” Angie told them. Jed loaded it into the back of the wagon and they headed home.
Jed nailed boards onto the base of the tree so it would stand. They picked a spot in a corner, away from the fireplace. Angie and Mandy began cutting strips of colored paper to make chains of rings, while Sophie popped the popcorn and made a flour paste to glue the paper strips into rings.
They made strings from the popped popcorn and the girls strung them on the tree along with the colored rings. “The only thing we need is an ornament for the top,” Angie told them.
Jed and Hiram pronounced it beautiful when they returned from their work in the barn.
Christmas day…
Sophie served dinner at 2:00PM. Crowded around the table were seven people including Martha. Angie greeted Seth warmly and sat next to him at the table. “I haven’t seen you in months. How are you doing?”
“Not too well,” he replied. “I can’t seem to get anything done. I just can’t concentrate long enough to get anything beyond starting.”
“Come with me,” she said, and led him to the cradle Hiram had made. “Look at what you and Polly did together. You created this little human being. Concentrate on her.”
“It’s all I can do to look at her. She looks so much like Polly, I can’t stand it.”
“Don’t you think that’s what God intended? He took Polly but left you something just as precious. She’s more dependent on you than Polly was. She needs her father.”
“Hiram and Sophie are taking far better care of her than I ever could,” he said.
“They are forty years older than she is. They are like her grandparents. I stayed with my grandparents one summer, and I could hardly wait to get back to Mom and Dad.”
“It’s different. You knew them. She doesn’t know me.”
“Whose fault is that? She can’t ride a horse or hitch a wagon. She can’t even talk to ask someone to take her to see her father. Don’t you want her?”
“It’s not that,” he said. “It’s…”
“If you don’t want her, tell me. Jed and I will take her and raise her as our own. Come on Seth. You and Polly took me in when I had nothing. I loved her and I admired you. No longer. If you want to be rid of Polly’s daughter, say the word and come to the courthouse tomorrow. Jed and I will meet you there. We can file for adoption and you’ll be rid of her and all of this responsibility you have that you don’t want to face.
“It’s a good thing Polly isn’t here to see the way you are treating the little girl that she carried through so much pain and hurt.
“Yes, I said pain and hurt. She never let you see it, but she told me about it when she was so sick on the trail. She told me how she hoped the baby would wait to be born in her new home. She was so afraid she was going to die without giving this little girl a chance to live. She was able to hold her, once or twice, and I’ll bet she died happier for it. You don’t deserve either one of them.
“She made me promise to help look after Martha. Now, do we meet you in the courthouse tomorrow or not?”
Hiram came to where they were standing. “Is there anything wrong?”
Angie looked up and smiled. “No, nothing’s wrong. Seth is struggling with a decision he has to make. I’m going to see if I can help Mama.”
“You look as if you ran into a wall,” Hiram said.
“It was a wall named Angie. She let me have it with both barrels.”
“About what?”
“What else? Martha. She said if I didn’t want her, then I should meet her and Jed at the courthouse and they’d adopt her on the spot.”
“Are you going to meet them?”
“No. I have to do what I promised Polly I would do. Did you know about this?”
“No, and I doubt Jed does either. The happiest day of his life was the day they married. She’s something special, that girl,” Hiram said.
“Just like that day on the raft. She didn’t even stop to think, but went into the water after Mandy. We are all glad she is part of our family.”
“We loved her too. She took good care of Polly. She apparently was sicker than she ever let on to me. I will keep my promise to her. I’m going to advertise for a bride. Who could refuse my ‘I live in a lean-to and I have a three month old baby girl’ advertisement?”
Hiram laughed. “It does have a certain ring to it. Unless they’re in town adopting a daughter, we’ll be over tomorrow.”
Later…
“I need to be going,” Seth said. “I’ve got a lot of work to do.” He lifted his daughter from her cradle. “You do look like your mama, baby girl, and I do love you.” He put her back in the cradle. “You’re going to outgrow that. I need to get to work on a crib.”
He told everyone goodbye, but Angie hugged him. “Will we see you tomorrow?” she whispered.
“If you come to my place, you will. I won’t be at the courthouse.”
“Good. I’m not sure how good our parenting skills would be, but we would love her. She is that important to me.”
“I believe you, and thanks, Angie. I owe you.”
“No, you owe Martha and Polly.”
Later…
“Seth told me what you told him,” Hiram said. “I think he believed you.”
“It wasn’t a bluff, Mr. Hiram. I would have. I made Polly a promise too, and I intend to keep mine.”
“Well, you won’t have to follow through. He’s going to advertise for one of them mail order brides. There’s no one around here for him that I know about.
“Jed and I are going to help him finish out his cabin. We’re going over tomorrow to help make it livable.”
“There is one girl,” Angie said. “You forgot about Mandy. He’s only a year or two older.”
“Mandy’s not interested in getting married,” he told her.
“I wouldn’t bet the farm on that if I were you.”
“Not Mandy. You’re kidding, right?”
That evening…
“Has Mandy said anything about getting marri
ed?” Hiram asked Sophie after they had gone to bed.
“We’ve talked a bit about it, but no one in particular, why?”
“Angie gave Seth a real talking to, even told him if he didn’t want Martha, then she and Jed would meet him at the courthouse and they’d adopt her.”
“She didn’t!”
“She did and she told me she meant it. Anyway, Seth told me he ain’t going to do it, and said he’s going to advertise for a wife.
“I mentioned it to her and she said he didn’t have to, Mandy’s here. When I told her Mandy wasn’t interested in marriage, she told me not to bet on it. That girl is something else. I’d hate to get sideways with her.”
“She told me she’s not sure she’s mature enough to be a mother. She’s a lot more mature than she thinks. She’s going to make a good wife for Jed and they are going to be very happy together.”
Chapter thirty-one
A New Beginning
Mandy and Angie were removing the decorations from the tree. “What do we do with these?” Mandy asked.
“We should probably burn the rings,” Angie said. “The popcorn would smell pretty bad if we burned it. We can’t feed it to the animals because of the thread we used to string it together. I guess if we threw it in the chicken pen, they would eat it.”
“What about the tree?”
“Let Jed drag it out into the field and just let it decay. They do make a spectacular fire, but that might not be such a good idea.”
“I’m glad you suggested we do this. It has made it one of our best Christmases ever,” Mandy told her.
“I snuck some pictures of the tree,” Angie told her. “They will give me something to look at and remember over the winter. My iPhone is not going to hold out forever and when it’s gone it can’t be repaired. I might as well get all of the enjoyment I can.”
“What will you do when it dies?”
“Cry. It’s the only thing I have to remind me of Mom and Dad.”
[Oregon Trail Time Travel 04.0] Angie and the Farmer Page 12