by Linda Ford
“There aren’t any neighbors?”
Nellie smiled. “The Welty family lives to the east. About three miles. Then there’s the ladies in town. It’s not that far, but we don’t go often, and when we do, Tom is always anxious to get our business done and hurry home.” She paused from unwrapping china plates. “This is the longest visit I’ve had with a woman since we married.”
Grace nodded. Despite Nellie’s serenity, Grace could see she longed for a visit. “How long have you been married?”
“Eighteen months.” Nellie ducked her head. “We’re going to have a little one in a few months.”
“How exciting.” Grace refrained from saying the idea positively frightened her. How would she cope with a baby when she didn’t even know how to make a proper meal? Was it possible to live on beans and scrambled eggs?
“I can hardly wait.” Nellie sighed. “I prayed so hard that I would have a baby right away. It seemed to take so long before it happened.” She smiled gently. “I guess God knew I wasn’t quite ready. It takes time to get used to being a married woman, let alone a mother.”
Grace paused from setting supplies on the shelves. “I’ve been married more than a year, but I still haven’t gotten used to it.” She lined up a tin of tea and some spices she had no idea what to do with. “I suppose it doesn’t help that we’ve always lived with someone else.”
“This is your first time alone?”
Grace nodded.
“Oh my. I guess you’ll have a lot of adjusting to do yet.”
“What do you mean?”
Nellie looked serious for a moment, then chuckled. “Two people don’t become one without knocking off some edges.” She shrugged. “Maybe you’ve already learned this, but I can’t imagine me being able to do so if I lived with either set of parents. Nor can I imagine how I would have managed without God’s help.”
Grace turned back to her task without answering. Nellie talked about God like He was a special friend. Grace hadn’t heard talk like that before. But what she said about not being able to get to know each other while living with parents made sense. No wonder she often felt Billy was more stranger than husband. There was so much for her to learn. “Tell me about the community.”
“Daystown is a nice place. Real friendly. And growing. Why even since we came there’s been another grocery store opened and Rexal Pharmacy. And we have a nice church.” She paused suddenly. “Here I am assuming you are a church goer. Maybe I’m assuming too much.”
Grace shook her head. “No, I go to church every Sunday if possible.”
“That’s nice. I hoped we would share the same faith.”
Grace didn’t respond as she lined up cans of beans. Suddenly, she giggled. “The man at the grocers told Billy beans were the best staple. I think Billy took him seriously.” She added four more cans to the growing row.
Nellie laughed. “Don’t think I’d want to eat nothing but beans.” She looked into the box of groceries. “What else do you have?”
“A few cans of peaches. Oats, sugar, cornmeal, flour—” Grace lifted out more cans. “Baking powder, soda—what’s this?” She held up a square can.
“Corned beef. Another of those staples.” Nellie shook her head. “Mr. Tunney certainly outfitted you well, but this looks like a grubstake for a cowboy or a prospector. Most folk eat a little better than this.” She leaned against the table as she considered. “Several people go together and butcher a cow. I like to can as much as possible so it lasts.”
“I don’t know how to do that.”
Nellie shrugged. “It’s not hard. I’ll show you the first time and then you’re set.”
“I hope so.” Everything was easy for those who knew what to do. It seemed to Grace she didn’t know how to do anything. “I guess I shouldn’t have been so content to let others look after me.”
Nellie studied her openly. “I can see why people want to take care of you.”
“Why do you say that?” She didn’t think her helplessness was quite so apparent.
“With those big, dinner-plate blue eyes, hair the color of golden velvet, and that English complexion. Why, girl, you look like you should be sitting on a royal throne with servants at your beck and call.”
Grace burst into laughter at Nellie’s description. She held her hand out in a royal gesture. “How generous of you, but that’s not why I’ve been coddled.”
“Then why?”
“I was never a strong baby. My mother was ill following my birth and died when I was an infant. I guess that’s why I was sickly. Anyway, according to my sister, Irene, it was a miracle I lived. I suppose they never got over the fear that I might get ill again.”
“You’re fine now, aren’t you?”
Grace snorted. “I’m as strong as a horse and haven’t been sick since I was very young. I’ve had to fight to be allowed to run and play. I suppose I lacked the will to fight for anything more until Billy came along.”
“Well, we all have to start someplace.” On those practical words, Nellie resumed unpacking dishes.
The men staggered into the house under the weight of the stove and lowered it into place.
“We were looking around,” Tom said. “Billy was anxious to see what needed to be done in the barn. He’s got an airplane in Edmonton he’s going to bring here. He’s offered to take me for a ride.”
“The barn will do nicely as a workshop.” Billy addressed Grace. “I’ll be able to do repairs and tinker about.”
The men went out, returning with stovepipes and a handful of spanners, and immediately set to work joining pipes and adjusting things.
Nellie had a puzzled expression. “Won’t you be needing the barn for your cow and horse and chickens?”
“There’s a little pen at the far end where I can put chickens when we get them.”
“I said we could spare some milk,” Tom added. “Even with the baby, we have more milk than we can use.”
Satisfied that everything had been arranged, Nellie returned to her task.
“Let’s try it out,” Tom said a few minutes later. A fire was soon going in the stove, and Grace set the kettle to boil. “I’m afraid I haven’t much to offer except beans.” Everyone laughed. “But we can have tea.”
“Tom, I put in a tin of cookies if you want to fetch them from the wagon.”
“I can’t tell you how much I appreciate all this help,” Billy said as the four of them sat down for a break.
“Yes, thank you.” Grace glanced around the room. “It looks ready to live in.”
“We’ll help bring in the bed and dresser before we leave,” Tom announced.
“And I’ll get you started on supper,” Nellie told Grace. She stared at the row of cans. “There’s lots here, I guess. If you’ve a particular fondness for beans.”
Grace giggled. “We have flour and sugar.”
“If you had eggs I could show you how to make pancakes. As it is…”
“I’m beginning to suspect we don’t have an adequately stocked pantry.”
Nellie sighed. “Unless you truly like beans.”
Grace wrinkled her nose. “I wouldn’t mind them once in awhile, I guess.”
“Maybe we should begin at the beginning. I’ll help you make a list of what you need.” Grace found pencil and paper and began to write as Nellie listed items. “Yeast so you can make bread. Potatoes and maybe some vegetables. I have so much in my garden. Too bad I didn’t think to bring some over. I will next time.”
As the list grew, Grace’s doubts doubled. “I have no idea what to do with all these things.”
“I’ll come over again in a day or two and give you a few lessons. In the meantime, ask Mr. Tunney for a cookbook. He’s bound to have something.” She picked up a pail of lard. “How would you like to learn how to make biscuits?”
Under Nellie’s capable supervision, Grace soon had a pan of biscuits ready to go in the oven.
“You could open a can of beans or the corned beef to eat along wit
h this. Or you could eat them with syrup. I see Tunney gave you the largest pail available. Anyway, you won’t starve. Do you know how to make porridge?”
“Don’t you pour oats into something?”
Nellie rolled her eyes. “Close. Here, I’ll show you what to do.”
The men went back and forth with boxes, a dresser for the bedroom, and two rockers for the front room.
“That’s that.” Billy dusted his hands against his trousers. “Again, thank you.”
“I’ll be back first chance I get,” Nellie promised.
Amid a flurry of good-byes, the Deans left. Grace stared after them until the wagon disappeared behind a dip. “That was nice.”
“Sure was. I bet it would have taken us three days to do all that by ourselves.” He turned toward the barn. “Supper won’t be ready for awhile, will it?”
Following his gaze, she smiled. “Supper will be very simple tonight.”
“That’s fine.”
She knew his attention had already gone to the work he wanted to do in the barn. “I’ll be busy for awhile getting the bedroom set up. I’ll call when the meal is ready.”
“Fine.” He headed away.
Grace watched his long, easy gait. Everything about him spoke of self-confidence. It was part of the reason she loved him. For him, nothing was too big a challenge. Probably why he was a good war pilot; he loved the risk and excitement. She turned toward the house. It was no wonder he never noticed her reluctance, her lack of confidence. She took a deep breath. He didn’t seem to need the reassurance of her love the way she needed his assurances. Nellie’s words came back to her. If Nellie and Tom needed time to learn to be man and wife even though they had known each other for years, was it any wonder she felt as if she didn’t know who she was or what was expected of her?
As she filled the drawers in the bureau and made up the bed, she heard crashing about in the barn and smelled pungent smoke. Billy didn’t intend to waste time getting the barn to rights. When she finished and the biscuits were baked, she walked out to get him, pausing in the open door to watch him. She never got tired of watching him; he attacked everything with such enthusiasm.
He saw her, and a quick smile creased his face. “Isn’t this great?” He waved at the pile of straw he’d pushed up in the middle of the floor. “As soon as I clean this out, I’ll have room to work. I have a ton of ideas I want to work on. I’m sure if I changed the struts on the wings, I could strengthen them. And if I mount a camera, I could take aerial surveys. Wop May said several companies have been asking about that.” He looked past her, out the door. “I can hardly wait to get my airplane and park her right out there. It’s been way too long since I’ve been up in the air.” His eyes focused on her. “You’ll have to come up with me.”
She jerked back. “Me, fly?” She shook her head. “I couldn’t. I don’t want to.”
His mouth fell open. “You’re joking. There’s nothing like it. Once you’ve been up, nothing else in life is as exciting. It’s like being free for the first time in your life.” He nodded. “You’ll change your mind for sure when I get the airplane here and you see how beautiful she is.”
She narrowed her eyes. When was the last time he’d looked at her with that gleam in his eye and raved about her beauty? Or admired her with eyes burning with such passion? What was so special about a stupid airplane?
Her chin shot up. “Supper’s ready.” She couldn’t seem to help the way her lips tightened. Not that Billy noticed. His dreamy gaze sought the place where his airplane would one day stand. She spun on her heel and marched toward the house.
3
“Good supper.” Billy tipped his chair back. “You did fine.”
Grace had opened beans and corned beef for him, but biscuits and syrup had been enough for her. “I couldn’t have done it without Nellie’s help.”
“It certainly was kind of them to come help.”
“They seem like a nice couple.”
“Very.”
“Did Tom mention God at all?”
“It came up a time or two, why?”
“Nellie talked like God was a good friend. Like she thought of Him being right at her side. I didn’t know whether to be impressed or put off by it.”
Billy gave her words a moment’s consideration. “Now that you mention it, Tom talked much the same.”
“What do you make of it?”
He shrugged. “Maybe it’s part of their upbringing. Or maybe they’ve had some sort of profound experience.”
“What do you mean?”
“When I was overseas there were pilots who claimed they had some sort of mystical experience with God. I remember one fellow who’d been shot and figured he was done for. He said he called out to God and somehow—he said he couldn’t explain it—he felt a warm presence with him. All I know is he made it back to the airfield even though his machine was damaged beyond belief.”
“Did he act differently afterward?”
“Only in that he talked like God was sitting in the seat next to him. I found it a little annoying after awhile.”
“Sort of like Nellie.”
“I guess.”
“But what do you think of it? Could God really feel that close to someone?”
He took the last biscuit, drowning it in syrup. “Seems strange to me. I figure we’re all right the way we are. I believe in God. I believe in salvation, but after that it seems to me God pretty well leaves us to live by the seat of our pants. Seems to me God has little interest in the affairs of man. After all, look at the war, the flu epidemic, and stuff like that. Where is God when that happens? Obviously He expects us to make the best of a bad situation.”
“Yes, that seems right to me. But Nellie and Tom are so nice. It’s hard to understand how they think the way they do.”
“Certainly doesn’t make them any less likeable, does it?”
“Not a bit. I liked Nellie right off. And they were so helpful. Nellie helped me make a list of food we’ll need to get started.” She giggled. “It’s a little different than Mr. Tunney’s.”
“No more beans?”
“Nellie said that was cowboy grub.”
He nodded. “Things have fallen into place much faster than I thought they would, thanks to the Deans’ help. I think I’ll take the train to Edmonton tomorrow and pick up my plane.”
She nodded. Again that gleam of excitement in his eyes.
“Why don’t you come to town with me and do the shopping?” he suggested.
Grace quickly agreed.
As soon as the kitchen was tidied up, Billy yawned, “Bed sounds awfully good. I know it’s early but I’m tired.”
“I’m not about to argue.” Weariness had plagued her most of the day, and she willingly followed him upstairs.
“Everything unpacked and sorted out?”
“Yes. I put your things here.” She pointed toward the top drawers. “My belongings are in the bottom. The rest is still in the trunk.” She’d pushed it to the end of the bed and draped a plaid robe over it.
“It looks fine, don’t you think?” he said as he looked around.
Pleased with how she’d arranged the room, and pleased Billy seemed to appreciate it, Grace smiled. “It does.”
He dropped his trousers to the floor and draped his shirt over the bedpost, then crawled between the covers. “This feels good. A bit more comfortable than sleeping outdoors.” He opened the covers invitingly. “A lot more private too.”
She jumped in beside him, eager for his kisses.
He pulled her to his bare chest. She trailed a finger along his ribs, pausing to trace around the spider-shaped scar near his waist. Beneath the covers, a longer, silver scar went from knee to thigh—reminders of how he had flirted with death during the war. The thought of how she might have lost him in one of his daring forays into enemy territory sent a shudder across her shoulder.
His arm tightened around her. “Not cold, are you?”
“No. Someone must h
ave tiptoed over my grave.”
“Boo,” he yelled.
“What was that for?”
“Chasing away whoever was tiptoeing over your grave.”
His expression grew serious, and he trailed a tickling finger across her lips, then cradled her head, pulling her toward him until their lips met. With one hand at her neck and the other holding her cheek, Grace felt sheltered in his love. She wrapped her arms around him, hugging him desperately.
Later, after he’d fallen asleep, one arm draped over her, she listened to his slow, deep breathing. He’d fallen asleep without saying the words she longed to hear. She stared into the darkness. Why didn’t he ever say how he felt? A treacherous thought stole in. Did he not speak of love because to do so would be to lie?
She sighed. There was no point in thinking about it. All it did was make her feel lost and uncertain. But there were times she could barely contain her own feelings; she longed to say “I love you” all day long. So why didn’t she? Because, she admitted, something inside would not allow her to do so. Not until he spoke first.
Billy stood at her side as the train chugged into the station. “I wish I could help you with the grub. Keep in mind, whatever you buy, you have to carry.”
“I’ll try and judge accordingly.”
“Here’s money to buy what you need.” He gave her a handful of bills. “If you need more, Mr. Tunney will give you credit. I haven’t made arrangements at any of the other stores yet.”
She nodded. Steam puffed incessantly from beneath the train, warning blasts reminding her Billy would soon board the train and leave her alone.
“I’m not sure how long I’ll be, but I’ll probably be back before dark. There’s no need for you to hurry home. Take your time looking around town. Go see Nellie if you like.” He paused. “You can find the way?”
She nodded. The two-mile walk from home was direct enough. And to go to the Deans’ simply meant turning right instead of left at the first road.
Billy hurried up the steps as if he could make the train get to Edmonton sooner by his efforts. He turned to wave. “Have a good day.”
“You too.” She waited until the train pulled away before she turned toward town.