“They will give you much more light to work by.”
“Yes. . .that’s a good idea.” She stepped back to give herself breathing space.
The next time Anna went to the store, she was amazed at the amount of light they had in the workroom. The men had put three windows on the outside wall. She was touched by August’s thoughtfulness in making the suggestion.
As she returned to the Nilsson home, she started planning in her head where they should put the stove, the Singer sewing machine, the ironing table, and the cutting table. There was so much room. It was a real blessing.
The men finished their work on Thursday, so everyone planned to help Anna and Gerda move in on Friday. That way the first day of business would be Saturday, when many of the people from outlying farms came into town to shop.
“What are we going to display in the window?” Gerda came through the door carrying a basket with sewing notions in it. “We need something to catch people’s attention.”
Anna glanced at the dress form she was taking to the workroom. Then she looked at the big window in the front of the store. An idea began to form in her mind. Why not?
“I’ll take care of the window.” Anna turned toward Gerda. “You set up the rest of the salesroom. I have to go home for something.” With that, Anna strode from the building and mounted her mare that was tied to the hitching post in front of the mercantile.
With determination, she rode toward home, her head buzzing with plans. Before long she returned to the store, driving a wagon with a trunk in the back.
❧
August came out of the store when she stopped the wagon. “Do you need help with that trunk?” He liked the way Anna looked. The cold breeze had put a lot of color in her cheeks. “I’ll get it for you.” After August hefted the trunk onto his broad shoulders, he started toward the door of the dress shop. “Where do you want it?”
Anna hurried to keep up with him. “In the workroom. Over in the empty corner. I’ll take care of it from there.”
August could tell that she was excited about something. He wondered what it was. He wished he had time to just look at her, but there was still a lot that needed his attention. How could he have ever let his jealousy keep him from trying to establish a romantic relationship with Anna? Now her whole attention was being poured into this store. Would there ever be room in her life for him? Had he waited too long?
Six
“What are you doing?”
Gerda’s loud entrance startled Anna. She looked up from the dress she was pressing to where Gerda stood in the doorway with her arms full of packages.
“Is that your. . .?” Gerda looked troubled.
“Yes, it’s my wedding dress.” Anna returned the flatiron to the stove and picked up another one.
Gerda came into the room and dropped the packages on the table that sat in the middle of the room. “Why are you pressing your wedding dress?”
Anna remained intent on her task, pushing the heated iron carefully across the cloth that covered the delicate silk. Although most brides wore other colors, she had followed the example of the English Queen Victoria and chosen white.
“I won’t ever wear this dress.”
Gerda didn’t pick up on Anna’s meaning. “Because you didn’t marry Olaf doesn’t mean you won’t ever get married. But what are you going to do with it?”
Anna placed the cooling flatiron back on the stove and exchanged it for one that was ready to be used, ignoring Gerda’s first comment. “It will make a wonderful display. I’m going to put it on the dress form in the window. With the lace curtains you and Marja picked out, it should draw attention to the store.”
After once again placing the flatiron on the stove, Anna carefully picked up the dress and carried it into the salesroom without wrinkling it. She gently laid it on the counter, then went to the window and pulled the form back a little.
Gerda followed. “What if someone wants to buy it?”
Anna stopped what she was doing and thought a moment. “Then I guess we’ll sell it. . . That’s what we’re in business for, to make money.” She gathered up the dress and started fitting it on the form. “What do you have in those packages you brought in?” Anna hoped to take Gerda’s attention off the wedding dress, and it worked.
“I’ll show you.” Gerda went into the other room and returned with two of the packages.
She dropped them on the counter and started untying the string around one. When she pulled back the brown paper, handmade crocheted items spilled out.
“Olina thought we could sell these in the shop. She crochets when Olga takes a nap.” Gerda picked up a pair of lacy gloves. “We can put these things on the counter or a shelf right now. Maybe we could bring in a highboy or some small tables to place around the room. Then we could display these and other accessories to go with the dresses women order from us.”
Anna finished placing the form with the wedding dress in the center of the window. Then she came over to look at what Gerda had. “That’s a good idea, and it’ll help Olina, since she doesn’t feel like working in the shop.”
While Anna started arranging the items from the first two packages, Gerda retrieved the others from the workroom. When they had everything displayed to their satisfaction, both women turned around and surveyed the shop.
“This looks good.” Anna stood with her arms crossed.
“Yes,” Gerda agreed, “I think we’re ready for business tomorrow.”
“Not quite,” Marja said, from the doorway to the mercantile. “We have something for you.”
When Gerda and Anna turned, they saw Johan carrying in a lovely screen decorated with a hand-painted still life made up of many soft colors of roses.
“What lovely flowers!” Gerda walked over to Johan and leaned over to examine them more closely.
Anna joined her. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more lovely screen.”
“When the women come for fittings, they can change clothes behind it.” Marja smiled at them.
Anna straightened up and turned to Marja. “You don’t mean this screen is for us?”
“Yes.” Marja folded her hands in front of her waist.
Anna thought about the cost of such a screen. “We could pay you for it. We were planning on buying one later.”
Marja shook her head. “No, it’s our little gift for your new store.”
“Where do you want it?” Johan asked.
Gerda and Anna looked at each other. “The workroom,” they said in unison.
They followed Johan, and Anna showed him the corner where the screen should be placed. He unfolded the four panels and arranged it across the corner Anna indicated. It was over five feet tall, so it made a wonderful, private place, and the pretty flowers were a welcome addition to the room.
“Now.” Marja clapped her hands. “You’re ready for business.”
❧
Several people brought tools to the blacksmith shop to be repaired. And most of them wanted theirs fixed before they returned to their farms late in the afternoon. So August was busy. He was glad. With all the time he had spent helping Anna and Gerda with the dress shop, he welcomed the income from the repairs. But while he was working on these things, his mind was half on his work and half on the new store on Main Street. He couldn’t help wondering how potential shoppers were accepting the Dress Emporium.
August knew it looked good, even though he hadn’t been back after helping Gerda and Anna move in the larger items. He wondered what changes they had made to turn it into the store they wanted it to be.
When August was finally finished with all the work, he went to clean up, even taking a bath and shaving. Usually, he waited to shave on Sunday morning before going to church. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt his face too much to be shaved late in the afternoon and then the next morning, too.
As he walked down the sidewalk with his boots sounding a drumbeat on the wood, August was surprised to see what was in the window of the Dress Emporium. Usually he didn’t pay that m
uch attention to women’s fashions, but he knew instinctively that it was a wedding dress. He stopped and admired the intricate lacy designs scattered over filmy material. He knew that the only thing that would have made the dress more beautiful would have been if Anna was wearing it. Wearing it and walking down the aisle of the church. Walking down the aisle of the church to meet him. His heart started beating the speed of the clacking wheels on the steam engine of a train that was pulling into town. He hoped he wasn’t just torturing himself with these thoughts.
August pushed open the door to the Dress Emporium. “So who’s getting married? I didn’t hear about any weddings coming up.”
Anna looked up from folding several pieces of fabric on the counter. “August, come in and shut the door. It’s hard to keep the shop warm on a cold day like today.”
Gerda didn’t ignore his question. “No one we know is getting married soon.”
August looked from his sister to Anna. “Then whose wedding dress is in the window?”
When Anna gasped, August wondered why. His strong gaze held her captive for a moment that stretched into an eon.
Finally, Gerda blurted, “It’s Anna’s.”
When she did, something flickered in Anna’s eyes. Something August didn’t understand. Why was she selling her wedding dress? Anna tore her gaze from his and dropped hers to the items on the counter.
Gerda must have felt the uncomfortable silence, because she tried to fill it. “It’s the dress we made for Anna to wear when she was going to marry Olaf.” The statement ended almost in a whisper.
August turned to stare at the dress for a moment.
“I didn’t know,” he murmured, then glanced toward Anna. “I’m sorry I brought it up.”
Anna turned to replace the folded fabric on the shelves behind the counter. “It’s okay. I knew that everyone would see it when I put it in the window.”
August walked over to the counter and leaned across it toward Anna. “Why are you selling the dress?”
Anna didn’t turn around. She stood with one hand on the bolt of fabric so long that August thought she wasn’t going to answer his question.
“I’ll never wear it.”
August wasn’t sure what Anna meant, but he didn’t like the way it sounded. So final. Emotions roiled within him. Emotions he couldn’t even name. Why hadn’t Anna turned toward him to answer? Was he making her uncomfortable? That wasn’t what he wanted to do.
He moved back from the counter and looked around him. “I really like what you’ve done with the store.”
Anna turned around, and Gerda hurried over to hug him. “Thanks, August.”
“Have you had many customers?” He was talking to Gerda, but he couldn’t keep from glancing at Anna out of the corner of his eyes. For a moment their gazes met, then Anna turned and went into the workroom.
Gerda looked toward the doorway where Anna had disappeared. “Yes, a lot of people stopped in to see the store. We have several orders for dresses, and we even sold some of the gloves and scarves that Olina crocheted.”
August laughed. “It sounds as if you had a good day. I came to take you and Anna to the hotel for dinner.”
“I’ll ask her.”
While Gerda was in the workroom, August moved to the wedding dress and looked at it more closely. If his hands hadn’t been so rough, he would have touched its softness. He should have realized that it was Anna’s. Not many women in town were that tall. He still wanted to see Anna wearing the dress. It would set off her dark beauty.
When Gerda and Anna returned from the workroom, August couldn’t catch a glimpse of the Anna of a few minutes before. She had once again turned into the modern businesswoman who had emerged the last three weeks.
❧
On Monday, Gerda and Anna arrived at the shop at the same time. Immediately, they set to work on the orders they needed to finish right away. Before long, Marja breezed into the workroom.
“I have an idea.” Her clap indicated that she was excited about it. “We need to plan a special opening celebration for the Dress Emporium.”
Gerda looked up from the handwork she was doing. “But we’re already open.”
“Oh, the special opening doesn’t have to be the first day of business.” Marja nodded for emphasis. “We were open two weeks before we had our special opening. You can make sure that everything is all right with your store, and you have enough time to let people know to come.”
Anna turned from the machine where she was sewing the seams of a blouse. “What do you do for this opening?”
Marja sat on a trunk that was near the cutting table. “When we had ours, we had posters printed and hung them around town. We also handed them out to every customer who came into the mercantile. We could do that for yours, too.”
Gerda put the skirt she had finished hemming on a shelf and turned around. “But what do we have to do that day?”
Marja smiled. “You’re open for business, but it would be nice to have some tea or coffee for your customers. We could even bake cookies to serve people. Something like that would keep people talking about the Dress Emporium.”
Anna wanted to do whatever it took to make the store successful. It would be proof that she could take care of herself—that she didn’t need a man to make her life complete.
❧
The day of the special opening dawned bright and clear. Anna and Gerda arrived at the shop early to get everything ready.
“I wonder if anyone will even come?” Anna couldn’t keep from doubting.
“Well, I’m here.” A masculine voice boomed from the doorway of the mercantile. “I heard there were coffee and cookies for hungry men.” August’s laugh filled the room.
Anna laughed with him. “I’m not sure they’re for men. . .unless you want to order a dress or buy some lacy gloves.”
Gerda giggled and hugged her brother. Then she poured him a cup of coffee and gave him two large oatmeal raisin cookies.
“Is that all I get?” he teased, as he took a big bite of the spicy treat.
Anna tried to look stern. “We want to have enough for real customers.”
August stopped chewing for a moment and took a swig of the beverage.
“I might be a customer. Have you thought of making clothing for men?”
The question shocked Anna, and she could tell from the look on Gerda’s face that she was also surprised.
“Why don’t you buy your clothing from the mercantile?” Anna blurted.
August’s mouth was full of a bite of cookie, so he chewed it up before he answered. “I could, but they don’t often have anything that really fits me.”
Anna knew why. A big man with a barrel chest and muscled arms, he couldn’t wear regular-sized clothing. Then a picture of herself trying to take his measurements dropped into her mind. Heat climbed her neck and cheeks. She was sure that everyone in the room could see them glow.
“That’s why I ask Moder to make my shirts. I can usually find trousers and overalls that fit. It’s the shirts that are a problem.” August set his empty cup down. “Mor won’t let me pay her, so I thought maybe the two of you could help me. I’m a grown man. I shouldn’t be taking advantage of my mother’s generosity.”
“Could you bring us one of the shirts Mor made you so we can use it for a pattern?” Gerda probably didn’t know that she was rescuing Anna from her thoughts.
“I’ll bring one the next time I come.”
Anna looked toward the stacks of material they had on the shelves behind the counter. “Would you like to pick out the fabric you want us to use? We have several pieces that would work for a man’s shirt.”
The rest of the opening went well. A steady stream of people came into the shop all day. Some only wanted to look at the new store, but many of them became customers. At the end of the day, Anna and Gerda agreed that the opening had been successful.
❧
Several months went by, and winter melted into spring. The Dress Emporium was thrivin
g so much that Gerda and Anna could barely keep up with the orders. One day Marja entered their workroom, full of excitement. “I have another idea,” she said when she was barely into the store.
Gerda and Anna put down the items they were working on and went out into the shop to give her their full attention.
“So tell us.” Anna leaned on the empty counter.
Marja wandered around the shop fingering various items as she talked. “I’m tired of living above the store. Even though we expanded the apartment when we bought the building next door, it’s still above a store.” She picked up a pair of gloves and started trying them on. “The mercantile has been successful for several years. I’ve convinced Johan that we should build a house to live in.” She pulled the gloves off and laid them back on the small round table. Then she turned toward Anna and Gerda. “We won’t want the apartment to sit empty. Johan suggested that we offer it to the two of you. Would you like to live here over your shop?”
Anna looked at Gerda. For a moment, they were both speechless. Living over the store would have advantages. They would be close. If they wanted to go home for a few minutes, they could. It wouldn’t take them long to get home after work either. Ideas buzzed through Anna’s head. It would add to her independence. After all, she was in her midtwenties, not a child anymore.
Gerda looked hopeful. . .then doubtful. “I’m not sure Mor and Far would let me live in town.”
Suddenly, Anna doubted whether her parents would agree either. But it was something she had to try. “We won’t know until we ask them, will we?”
Marja looked from Gerda to Anna. “The question is, if your parents agree, would you want to live there?”
“Yes,” Gerda and Anna said at the same time, and they grabbed each other and hugged.
“It would be wonderful,” Anna gushed, sounding more like a child than a businesswoman.
❧
August was tired when he finished shoeing two teams of horses. He would have liked to go back to the boardinghouse and maybe read a book after eating, but Gerda had been insistent that he go to their parents’ home for dinner. When he had bathed and put on clean clothes, he did feel better. After mounting his big stallion, he set out in the cold evening air.
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