Mail Order Mommy

by Christine Johnson

  Her breath caught. Did she see a flicker of affection or was it simply gratitude?

  He backed away and nodded curtly. “Thank you, again, Miss Porter. I must be on my way to the hotel for my meeting.”

  “I hope it goes as you anticipate.”

  He shoved the cap on his head. “I’m sure it will.”

  They walked to the front door, where she saw him out. This time the frosty morning air didn’t bother her. She would not have to say farewell to Isaac and Sadie, after all. She would see them each and every day. Who knew where this might lead? Perhaps straight to Garrett Decker’s heart.

  Garrett paused on the porch to don his cap. “I see Mr. Elder’s at the mercantile. Probably heard that the mail came in.”

  The mail!

  Oh, no. Her letter begging a position with the Chatsworths was on its way to New York, and she could do nothing to stop it.

  Chapter Two

  Garrett surveyed the Cherry Street house the following morning. It didn’t take long to see why Stockton had readily agreed to include use of the house as part of Garrett’s compensation for taking the lead building the new ship. His excitement over putting to use skills he’d honed years ago in a Chicago shipyard waned in light of all the work that needed to be done on the house.

  “The roof leaks in at least four places.” He pointed each one out to his brother. “Right next to the kitchen stove and over the table. Look how warped the tabletop is.”

  “If anyone can fix it, you can.”

  “I wanted to move in today.”

  Roland shrugged. “You don’t need to move for a couple weeks. Why not fix what needs fixing first? It’s a lot warmer today. We could tackle the roof.”

  “You?” Garrett had a tough time imagining his brother picking up a hammer, much less using it. “You couldn’t fix a crooked picture.”

  He moved into the first bedroom before his brother could reply. Naturally, Roland followed.

  “Another leak, over the bed,” Garrett pointed out.

  “We’ll get the men from the mill to lend a hand and have it fixed by the end of the day.”

  Roland was right, but Garrett hated to admit that he’d made this deal without checking out the house first. Thankfully, Roland didn’t point out that error.

  “What about that project that Pearl wanted me to do?” Garrett prodded.

  Roland’s future wife wanted a stable built for a nativity play she had planned for the children.

  “That can wait until you move in.” Roland grinned. “Or you could stay put for another week.”

  Garrett couldn’t. “I hired Miss Porter starting Monday.”

  “Don’t you mean Amanda?”

  Garrett scowled. “This is a business arrangement, not personal. ‘Miss Porter’ will do.”

  If anything, Roland’s grin grew wider. “Good decision. She loves Sadie and Isaac and will be perfect for the job.”

  Garrett bristled, the memory of nearly losing Sadie still raw. “There wasn’t anyone else.”

  “Then God made sure it worked out for Amanda to get the job.”

  Garrett still couldn’t wrap his mind around Roland’s newfound faith. “Maybe God didn’t have anything to do with it. Maybe it was just circumstances.”

  “Maybe.” Roland’s grin said otherwise. “Either way, it ended up the best way possible.”

  Garrett didn’t quite see it that way. “How can I can trust her?”

  “She’s as trustworthy as Pearl.”

  They’d had this argument before, but Garrett couldn’t forget what happened during the fire. “Thanks to her inattention, Sadie almost died.”

  “She didn’t die.” Roland’s jaw set. “And you’re forgetting that Amanda led eleven children to safety, including Isaac.”

  Garrett knew he was being unfair. After all, Pearl was the schoolteacher in charge of the children. Amanda had volunteered to help. He shouldn’t hold her to a higher standard, but Sadie’s brush with death had shaken him. It hadn’t been that long since his wife, Eva, died. Less than two years. He couldn’t bear losing anyone else.

  Since this argument was leading nowhere, he put an end to the inspection. “Guess I’ll head back to the mill and round up some help.”

  “Can you wait a minute? Pearl’s on her way here.”

  “Why?” Garrett asked warily.

  “You’ll need a woman’s opinion on what needs to be done to get the place ready.”

  “I don’t need anyone else’s opinion. A woman will want to change everything.” Garrett thought back to his late wife’s demands. Nothing was ever good enough for Eva. Garrett had bought her everything he could afford, but it was never enough.

  Roland walked back into the main room, which combined the kitchen and sitting area with a table for meals, study and anything else the children needed to do.

  “The sideboard can go there, and the sofa would fit in that corner.” Roland pointed to various spots as he listed off the pieces of furniture that Garrett had put into storage after Eva’s death. “The china cabinet would fit in the corner.”

  “Stop!” Garrett couldn’t bear another word. “None of that furniture is coming here. You use it, and I’ll haul over the things we’re using now.”

  “Not a chance. Pearl would never stand for it.”

  “Why? Eva’s things are a lot nicer than what we’re using now.”

  “That doesn’t matter to someone like Pearl.”

  That’s what bothered Garrett about Amanda. Pearl might not care about worldly things, but Amanda obviously did. Her gowns were stunning. Her hair was always fixed just so. Nothing was ever out of place. She was the very picture of the delicate female. Too much like Eva. No, his late wife’s furniture would never do.

  “I can’t look at that furniture each day,” Garrett insisted.

  “Pearl feels the children need to be around their mother’s things, that they won’t get past her death until they can see and touch what’s left behind. I happen to agree.”

  “Stop it. First Miss Porter and now this. Stop pushing me.”

  “It’ll be two years come April. You need to let go.”

  “Don’t tell me what to do until you’re in my shoes.” Garrett didn’t point out that Pearl had nearly died rescuing Sadie in last month’s fire.

  Judging from Roland’s expression, he didn’t need to.

  * * *

  “First help me out,” Pearl told Amanda as she donned her cloak in the front hallway of the boardinghouse, “and then I’ll show you how to cook some basic things, like eggs and biscuits.”

  “That won’t help me for supper. He said I’d need to cook supper.”

  “All right, then I’ll teach you how to make hash and stew and that sort of thing.”

  “But...”

  Amanda had hoped to get started early. Mrs. Calloway had approved, as long as whatever they made could be served to the boardinghouse guests. Given Amanda’s current lack of knowledge, the guests were going to suffer. The very thought of cooking something terrified her. Aside from boiling water and collecting serving platters, she steered clear of the big cookstove.

  Pearl held out Amanda’s coat. “It will only take a few minutes.”

  “Then you will teach me to cook?”

  Pearl nodded.

  Amanda conceded defeat and threw on her coat. The hat took longer, since the pins refused to hold it in the proper place. Every time she thought she had it just right, she’d take a step, and the hat would slide to the side.

  “You don’t need to look perfect,” Pearl complained. “At this rate we will never get there. Here.” Pearl tied the ribbons under Amanda’s chin.

  “You know I hate to have anything tied under my chin.” Amanda tugged on the ribbons, but Pea
rl had knotted them.

  “If we don’t go now and get this taken care of, there won’t be any time left to cook.”

  “Then we can forget this little errand that you refuse to divulge and go straight into cooking lessons.”

  Pearl laughed. “You can’t wriggle out of this that easily.” She opened the front door. “Come along.”

  Amanda gave up and followed her friend. Instead of heading to the store, Pearl took off in the opposite direction, toward the dunes. Amanda hurried and caught up.

  “Where are you going?” Her words came out in gasps.

  “It’s a surprise. Don’t you love surprises?”

  “It depends. Some of your surprises didn’t turn out all that well. Like the excursions you proposed back at the orphanage.”

  “They would have been highly educational if Miss Hornswoggle could have overlooked that one little problem at the cathedral.”

  “The boys claimed we locked them in that room with all the robes, when they should never have gone in there in the first place. And you made me go tell Miss Hornswoggle, so she could fetch someone to unlock the door.”

  Pearl shrugged. “She always forgave you anything. I would have had to clean the floors for two months.”

  Amanda laughed at the memory. “She did have a soft spot for me.”

  “And no wonder. You are the sweetest, prettiest girl on earth.”

  Pearl’s words sent a shiver down Amanda’s spine. Hugh had said the very same thing, but he hadn’t meant it. “No surprises, please.”

  Pearl laughed. “This isn’t bad. I promise. And I won’t make you do anything you don’t want to do.”

  Amanda wasn’t certain she believed her. “Then tell me where we’re going and what we’re going to do there.”

  “You’ll find out soon enough.”

  Amanda sighed. She would have to guess. “Does it have something to do with that project you asked me to work on?”

  “Perhaps. In a roundabout way.”

  Amanda hated when Pearl acted like this. It meant she had come up with some grand idea that involved her. When Pearl had approached her about coming to Singapore, she’d held back all the details until Amanda agreed to consider it. By then Pearl had purchased the train ticket to Chicago for her. If Amanda hadn’t suffered such humiliation at Hugh’s hands, she might have asked more questions, but she was eager to leave. Only after they were settled on the train, carpetbags safely stowed, had Pearl shown her the advertisement. At first Amanda had rejected the idea of marrying a stranger. The memory of Hugh’s cruel treatment of her still stung. She couldn’t imagine allowing another man to touch her, but as the train ride wore on she began to realize the advantages. A man advertising for a wife would not expect a great deal. He wouldn’t care about her past. He must be desperate and could not possibly reject her.

  How wrong she’d been.

  Again she had to hurry her step to catch up to Pearl, who was heading in the wrong direction. “If we’re working on that project, why aren’t we going to the school or the store?”

  “Oh, I doubt you’ll work on it at either place, at least not until just before Christmas.” Pearl stopped in front of a weathered house that could use a good whitewashing. Even the shake shingles looked a bit threadbare. “Here we are.”

  “At a stranger’s house? Who lives here?”

  Pearl smiled coyly. “Let’s find out.”

  Amanda gasped. “You’re going to barge in on strangers?”

  Pearl only laughed as the opened the door. “Come in with me.” She grasped Amanda’s hand. “There’s nothing to be afraid of.”

  Pearl dragged, and Amanda reluctantly followed, but the tug up the single step made her stumble. She looked down to catch her footing, and her hat slipped to one side. She frantically tried to straighten it before entering the house.

  “Here we are,” Pearl called out as she tugged Amanda through the doorway.

  It took a few seconds for Amanda’s eyes to adjust to the lower light. When they did, she found herself face-to-face with Garrett Decker.

  * * *

  Garrett should have known that Pearl would drag her friend along. Since the day the ladies arrived on the Milwaukee, Pearl had been promoting Amanda. None of that matchmaking had been subtle, but for good measure Roland constantly pointed it out.

  “Oh!” Amanda gasped, quickly straightening the hat that had slipped slightly to the side. “I didn’t know.” Pink suffused her cheeks, not from the cold. “I would never have intruded.”

  “Nonsense,” Pearl said, her gaze sweeping around the room. “You’ll need furnishings, of course, but first a good scrubbing is in order.” She crossed to the kitchen stove and examined the firebox. “Full of ashes. No doubt one of the workers left it this way. No matter, a little elbow grease will take care of that. Speaking of grease, this stove needs to be scraped. It smells rancid. When was the last time someone lived here? You can’t bring children into this house until it’s clean from top to bottom.”

  Garrett’s head spun as Pearl continued her instructions. It didn’t help that Roland was snickering the whole time. As for Amanda, she looked even more confused and embarrassed than he was. For the first time since the fire, he felt for her. Clearly, Pearl had roped her into this without saying a word. Roland’s chortles meant he’d known exactly what his fiancée had been up to, yet he’d failed to mention that Pearl was bringing Amanda along. There was no doubt about it. He and Amanda had been thoroughly set up.

  “Of course you will need curtains. With ruffles, don’t you think?” Pearl addressed that last to her friend, who stared dumbfounded.

  “No ruffles,” Garrett snapped. A man had his limits.

  Pearl ignored him. “Roland says you can have any of the scraps and discarded fabrics from the store. I saw some pretty lace in the bin.”

  “No lace, either,” Garrett added.

  Again Pearl charged ahead without seeming to hear him. “With Mrs. Calloway’s sewing machine, it won’t take any time at all to make curtains for all the windows.” She looked around. “There aren’t that many. Two in front and this one in the kitchen. I assume those are bedrooms.” She headed to each, poked her head in and came back with the report that each bedroom contained one window. “That’s only five windows, and these front ones are the largest. What color would go best?”

  Considering the walls were a dingy, unplastered gray, the color didn’t much matter. Unless it was too bright.

  “No bright colors,” Garrett stated.

  Amanda finally found her voice. “I think that Mr. Decker and the children must approve the colors and design.”

  Garrett was warming more to Amanda Porter by the minute.

  Pearl blazed right ahead. “Of course. Perhaps you and Garrett should go through the available fabrics now.”

  Garrett coughed. This was getting out of hand. “I have repairs to make on the house before we move in tomorrow. I don’t have time for curtains. That can wait.”

  “You’ll think differently when the cold wind off the lake blows through those loose panes,” Pearl pointed out.

  Garrett had already noted the gaps between the glass panes and the frame, not to mention the windows and the siding. He’d have to caulk those before the snow began in earnest, or they’d wake up to drifts across the floor.

  “That’s why I have to get working on this place now,” Garrett stated firmly. “There’s a lot to do.”

  “Like cleaning out the firebox,” Pearl pointed out.

  Roland didn’t even attempt to hide his snicker.

  That drew Pearl’s attention toward her fiancé. “We will make a work bee of this. Roland, you round up as many of the men as you can. I’ll get together the ladies. Garrett and Amanda can get the supplies and materials they need from the mercantile.”


  “Yes, ma’am,” Roland answered crisply.

  To Garrett’s surprise, Pearl’s take-charge attitude melted into laughter.

  “But Pearl,” Amanda said, so softly that Garrett figured her friend wouldn’t hear her, especially since Pearl’s attention was fixed entirely on Roland. “You promised to help me...at the boardinghouse.” Every bit of rosiness had drained from her cheeks.

  “Later,” Pearl assured her. “I won’t forget.”

  Amanda nibbled on her lip, a girlish gesture that made her even more endearing. “But...”

  “I promise.” Pearl linked her arm around Roland’s. “All right, we’ll get everyone together and meet back here in thirty minutes. We can turn this house into the perfect home for Isaac and Sadie.”

  Garrett caught Amanda blinking back tears. Roland was right. She did care about his children. That made him feel a bit better about leaving them in her care for a few hours each day, but an instant later, those warm sentiments turned to annoyance. Pearl and Roland left, leaving him alone with Amanda.

  She gave him an apologetic look. “I’m sorry. Sometimes Pearl gets caught up in an idea, and nothing can make her change course.”

  Amanda looked as uncomfortable as he felt. They’d both gotten caught in the web of Pearl’s plans.

  He cleared his throat and shoved his hands into his coat pockets. For some reason he got tongue-tied around Amanda. He had to get out of here and into a public place. “I suppose we’d better get what we need before everyone shows up.”

  Her face bloomed pink. “I suppose.” She glanced up at him. “I won’t make anything for the house that you wouldn’t approve.”

  The tremble in her voice undid him. Amanda was nothing like Eva. His late wife would have begged and demanded until she got her way. Amanda only sought to please. Perhaps Roland was right, and Garrett had badly misjudged her.

  He drew in a deep breath. “As long as there’s no ruffles or lace, I don’t care.” An idea crossed his mind. “Have Sadie pick out what she likes.”

  Amanda visibly brightened, the hesitancy gone. “What a wonderful idea! She has an artist’s eye for color.”

  Garrett couldn’t help it. Amanda’s obvious affection for his daughter melted the coldness in his heart.