Mail Order Mommy

by Christine Johnson

  And Amanda. That realization sent a jolt up his spine. Regardless of the accusing letter, he wanted to believe she was innocent. She had to be. Soon he’d know.

  Excitement drove each step. Amanda was here. And safe. Soon he would see her. She might be frostbitten or suffering other ill effects from the cold. She might be feverish and need a doctor. Whatever she needed, he would get it for her.

  When he was just two houses away, the door of the Wardman place opened. Three women stepped out. Mrs. Wardman lingered on the stoop while the other two conversed with her. Pearl’s height hid the third woman. Then she moved aside.

  Garrett halted in his tracks.

  Before him stood Amanda Porter, and her gray skirts looked as neat and clean as if she’d just left the boardinghouse this morning.

  She’d deceived him. Just like Eva. Amanda hadn’t been lost at all. While the whole town had gone out searching for her, she’d been having tea with a friend.

  He fisted his hands, but there was nothing to punch. Only his foolish trust.

  Never again. He was done with Amanda Porter.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Pearl had been right. Amanda felt much better after a bowl of porridge and a general tidying up. Her coat was brushed clean. Debra Wardman loaned her a dress. It was plain, dull gray and made of coarse muslin, but it fit reasonably well. Her plum dress would require laundering and repair. Pearl graciously carried it for her.

  By the time Amanda and Pearl said goodbye to their generous hostess, Amanda was ready to face Garrett. She would hold her head high, like Pearl instructed, and tell him the truth. He needed to know, and she would accept his decision regarding her employment without dispute. In his place, she would be concerned, too.

  “I’ll send your dress back tomorrow,” she promised.

  Debra waved her hand. “No hurry. It’s an old one I use in the garden. It’ll be a long time before I’m digging in the dirt again.”

  Amanda liked Debra’s cheerfulness. Like Pearl, she could find the positive side to any calamity.

  “Thank you again,” she said, as she and Pearl bade Debra farewell. “I’m sorry that my foolish behavior closed down the school.”

  Amanda had never imagined her actions would affect the children. She’d figured life would go on as usual in Singapore, just without her. But along with losing the letter, she’d forgotten to write a note to Pearl. That showed she hadn’t been thinking straight. Of course Pearl came looking for her.

  “Don’t fret about it,” Debra said, with another wave of her hand. “It’ll be a pleasure having the girls home to help out with the baking.”

  After another round of farewells, Pearl turned to walk away, but halted at once. Amanda looked to her friend, who was staring down the street. She shifted her gaze and saw what had made Pearl freeze.

  Not twenty feet away stood Garrett. His hat was drawn low against the rising sun, but she couldn’t mistake his figure. His shoulders were squared, and his gloved hands were fisted at his sides. Tension radiated from him.

  “I found her,” Pearl said.

  He responded by wheeling about and stomping away from them.

  “Garrett!” His name caught in Amanda’s throat, coming out garbled. She started toward him. “I can explain.”

  But he didn’t stop. He didn’t turn around. He didn’t answer.

  She ran a few steps, but her head began to spin. She had to stop.

  Pearl took her arm. “Let him go.”

  “Why won’t he listen?”

  “He was worried,” Pearl suggested. “Maybe he feared you were dead.”

  Amanda shivered in spite of the thick woolen coat. Dead like his late wife. That was what Pearl had left out.

  “I’m sorry,” she breathed. “I’ve made a mess of things.”

  “Nothing that can’t be fixed.”

  Amanda wasn’t so sure.

  * * *

  Garrett couldn’t talk to her. He couldn’t stand to see her looking so pretty and cheerful, as if nothing had happened. The whole town was searching for her. He’d stopped work at the mill and the building berth to search for her, and she’d just gone to visit a friend.

  He stewed about it while bringing back the searchers with a blast of the mill’s steam whistle. He grumbled when Roland mentioned how everything had turned out for the best. But Garrett could not let her back in his household.

  “Have Pearl tell Miss Porter that her services are no longer needed,” he told his brother.

  Roland’s eyebrows rose. “You hired someone else?”

  “We’ll get by. Maybe you can find something for the children to do here at the store after school.”

  “Whoa, there. Those children need someone to cook their meals and spend time with them. I won’t be able to do either. I’m getting married next Monday. Remember?”

  Garrett shook that protest off with some mumbled excuse about it being temporary, but Roland was right. He needed to hire someone else.

  “I’ll start looking for a new housekeeper right away. But you get word to Miss Porter that she’s not to show up tonight.”

  “Oh, no. If you intend to dismiss Amanda, then you’ll have to do it yourself.”

  No amount of scowling and demanding would change Roland’s mind. Fortunately, Mrs. Calloway was more amenable. He met her at the boardinghouse door and handed her a note for Miss Porter. It detailed her dismissal.

  “Don’t you want to see her yourself?” the woman chattered, doubtless thinking that he and Amanda were still on friendly terms.

  “I have to get back to work. Lost a lot of time this morning.”

  “Oh. I see.” Mrs. Calloway’s smile faded. “I’ll give this to her.”

  “Thank you.” Before she could offer a sweet or a cup of coffee, he retreated, his boots clattering down the wooden steps.

  He had to do it. Not just for his sake but for the sake of his children. He couldn’t trust the most precious people in his life to a woman who lied.

  That’s what he told himself, but it didn’t loosen the knot in his stomach.

  * * *

  “I’ve been dismissed.” Amanda closed the simple note, scrawled in Garrett’s untidy hand.

  “Dismissed?” Pearl stopped removing the pins from her hair and sat down beside her on the bed. “Why would he dismiss you?”

  “Because of the letter.”

  “The one from Mrs. Chatsworth?”

  Amanda nodded.

  “But how would he know what she said?”

  Amanda then told Pearl how the letter had arrived, with the envelope recently glued back together and the flap open. “Anyone could read the opening line. Since he gave me the letter, I’m sure he read it.”

  “That doesn’t sound like something Garrett would do. He’s very particular about doing what’s right. He wouldn’t violate anyone’s privacy by reading a personal letter.”

  “It might have been inadvertent,” Amanda admitted. “Like I said, anyone and everyone could see it.”

  “But not everyone would read it.”

  “Regardless, I have been dismissed.” She heaved a sigh to push back the tears that threatened. “I’ll miss Sadie and Isaac so.”

  “We’ll straighten this out.” Pearl stood. “I have a mind to go over there right now and tell him just how wrong he is.”

  “No!” Amanda leaped to her feet to stop her friend. “Please don’t. This is between Garrett and me.”

  Pearl gazed at her a long while before conceding. “Very well, but don’t think for a minute that you can get out of being my bridesmaid.”

  Amanda had forgotten about that. She would have to stand beside Garrett during and after the ceremony. Somehow they needed to be civil to each other. Surely Garrett would do that much,
for his brother’s sake if for no other reason.

  Pearl hugged her. “This will pass. In time Garrett will see you for who you really are.”

  Amanda wasn’t so sure. “He is terribly stubborn.”

  “But he’s up against three equally stubborn people. In the end he’ll see reason.” Pearl smiled. “In the meantime you can see Sadie and Isaac every day at school.”

  “Except when Mrs. Calloway needs me at the boardinghouse,” Amanda pointed out. It was, after all, the only way that she could stay in Singapore.

  “I’m sure she’ll give you a little time off each day to stop by the school. And you must help out with the nativity play.”

  Amanda’s nerves flared, and she sank to the bed. Garrett would be there. He was narrating the play. “I can’t.”

  “You need to face him.”

  Though deep down she knew that, facing Garrett would not be easy. Earlier today, she’d been ready, but the more time passed, the harder it would be to reveal the full truth. She couldn’t upset Garrett in the midst of the nativity play or at Pearl’s wedding.

  “Later,” she promised. “After the holidays.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Garrett put out the word that he needed a housekeeper. For good measure he tacked the posting to the counter at the store. There, everyone would see the advertisement, and all those interested could apply in person during the evening hours, after seven o’clock.

  He didn’t have time to hunt around in person, like he’d done the last time. Work on the shipbuilding berth and launching ways was in full swing so they could finish before the ground froze. They were fortunate the weather had stayed warm this December, and the men could still drive the pilings into the ground at the riverbank.

  At the end of the day he returned home, gathering Sadie and Isaac from the store on the way.

  “Where’s Miss Amanda?” Sadie asked each day. “I miss her.”

  If Garrett was honest with himself, he did, too, but the Amanda he’d known wasn’t the real Amanda. That had been a figment of his imagination.

  “Is she sick?” Isaac asked.

  “She had some bad news and needs to rest.” That was probably true. Neither he nor Roland had seen her around town. But he still felt a twinge of guilt. He wasn’t telling his children the full story. Maybe someday. They were too young to understand now.

  He opened the door and ushered his children into the cold house.

  “I’m hungry,” Sadie complained. “Miss Amanda would have supper ready by now.”

  Garrett bit back his frustration and knelt so he could address his children at eye level. “Miss Amanda can’t be here anymore, but we’ll get another lady to help out around here. How does that sound?”

  Sadie’s face crumpled, and tears filled her eyes. “Why did she leave us? Doesn’t she love me anymore?”

  Garrett wrapped his arms around his daughter, his heart breaking. Wasn’t that why he’d vowed not to take a second wife? His children couldn’t handle another loss.

  “I’m sure she still loves you.” The words stuck in his throat even though they were doubtless true. Amanda did love his children. He saw it in the tender care she extended toward them, in the way she listened intently to everything they said, and the way she guided them toward doing the right thing. A pang shot through him. That’s what a true mother did. By that measure, Eva had never been a true mother. She would play with the children on occasion, but mostly she complained about the work or left them with Mrs. Calloway so she could go visit friends.

  He gripped his son and daughter tight. “I promise everything will work out.” It had to. His family depended on it. “And I’m not leaving you. Not anytime soon.”

  Isaac and Sadie buried their heads in his shoulders, nuzzling as close as possible.

  “Don’t ever leave us, Papa,” Sadie murmured.

  His mind flitted to the construction at the launching ways. The steam tractor had nearly run over Sawyer’s leg when the man slipped in the muck. How could Garrett promise to always be with his children when at any moment he could be struck dead in an accident?

  “And you’ll always have Uncle Roland and Aunt Pearl.”

  Sadie lifted her head to look him in the eye. “She’s not Aunt Pearl yet.”

  That little girl was perceptive.

  “You’re right.” He tousled her hair. “Now what do you say we light a couple lamps and make some supper?”

  Sadie liked to help out. Amanda must have taught her a lot about working in the kitchen, because she did things without being asked or instructed. Even Isaac knew how to set the table and keep the fire going. His children were growing up.

  After supper, the children played in front of the stove while Garrett settled in a chair to read the Bible. It fell open to the thirty-first chapter of Proverbs. The good wife. He began to turn the page when his eye caught the verse about making clothing for all in the family. And then the one that described her looking after all the needs of the household.

  Amanda. She fitted the description perfectly.

  Then what about that letter?

  He shut the Bible.

  A knock sounded on the door, and his heart beat harder. Someone had come in answer to his posting for a housekeeper. Two days had passed since he’d tacked it up in the store, and this was the first person to respond.

  A bit shaky, he rose to answer the door.

  “Maybe it’s Miss Amanda,” Sadie said excitedly.

  Before Garrett could get to the door, his daughter opened it.

  On the stoop stood Fiona O’Keefe in all her finery, the tall feather in her hat dancing in the breeze.

  Sadie stared, openmouthed. Garrett’s heart leaped into his throat. Fiona? She’d outright refused the position at the beginning of the month. Perhaps her situation had changed. He hadn’t paid any attention to the concerts lately. Maybe she wasn’t doing too well with them now that the town was quieter.

  “Are you going to invite me in?” she asked.

  “Uh. Yes. Come in, Miss O’Keefe.” He opened the door wide and stepped aside, while Sadie returned to play with her brother. Neither made a move to do so, though. They watched every move carefully.

  Fiona entered the house and surveyed the small main room with its little kitchen, dining table and seating area all in one. “I trust I’m not here too early.”

  “No.” Garrett shut the door. “That is, yes, you’re not too early. We’ve finished supper.”

  “I put the dishes away,” Sadie stated.

  Fiona nodded and turned to Garrett. “Could we have a moment alone?”

  Fingers of ice slid through his heart. Not only had Fiona failed to recognize Sadie’s need for recognition, but she’d asked to speak with him away from the children.

  “Isaac and Sadie will have a say in who I hire,” he pointed out.

  She gave him a funny look. “I’m not here for the position.”

  She wasn’t?

  “Then why are you here?”

  She lifted her chin. “It’s a rather personal matter.”

  Personal? With Fiona? But they’d had no relationship beyond sitting together in church and a couple outings, including one ill-advised evening walking her to her concert. And that was at Sawyer’s request.

  “Uh...” Garrett swallowed. “Oh, all right. I hope it won’t take long.”

  “That depends on you, Mr. Decker.”

  Mr. Decker? The formality struck an additional chill in his bones. Nevertheless, he would not be rid of her until he got through this “personal” conversation, whatever that was.

  “All right. Sadie, Isaac, please go to your room. You may take a lamp with you.”

  The children gave the two of them a suspicious look. They would probably try to listen. He would
have, in their situation. Fiona’s behavior was too perplexing to ignore.

  Once the children had retreated, and he ensured they’d closed the door, he turned back to the main room. Fiona stood in front of the small wood stove in the sitting area. No doubt she’d chosen this part of the room because it was farthest from where the children were located.

  He pushed a chair closer to the stove. “Would you care to sit, Miss O’Keefe?”

  “Thank you.” She settled in the chair without unbuttoning her coat.

  Good. She didn’t intend to stay a long time.

  He took the other chair and sat within easy hearing range, yet far enough away to not suggest he wanted to be close to her. “If you’re not here for the housekeeper position, then what is your purpose?”

  She settled back in her chair. “Direct and to the point. I always liked that about you, Garrett. Too bad you’re not that way in every matter.”

  He took the blow without comment. If she was here to insult him, best to let her have her say and get it over.

  She tilted her head. “You might be surprised by why I’ve come tonight.”

  Again he waited.

  “Not on my behalf,” she continued, “but on the behalf of another. Since you’ve been direct, so will I. You don’t need another housekeeper.”

  He couldn’t hold his tongue this time. “That’s not your decision.”

  “No, it’s not, but I can’t bear to see a friend suffer unnecessarily.”

  “If you’re talking about Miss Porter, I didn’t realize you were friends. You always seemed more like competitors.”

  Fiona smiled. “Perhaps we once were, but she has a kind heart and helped me when I needed it. That is the mark of a friend.” She thrummed her fingers on the arm of the chair. “Moreover, I hate injustice, and this is injustice.”

  Garrett steeled himself for whatever she had to say.

  She sat tall. “You have no cause to dismiss her.”

  “That is not your concern,” he said icily.