Mail Order Bride: JUMBO Mail Order Bride 20 Book Box Set

by Hope Sinclair

  When it was over, Jacob spent a few minutes talking to the preacher who seemed like a friend of his. Then they all trooped out back to the sunshine. Ada found the whole experience surreal, as though it was happening to someone else and she was just a spectator. The girls seemed as dazed as she was.

  She was now married again to a total stranger. Worse yet, she had let it happen without uttering a peep. All she could hope for now was that this marriage would not be one of endless disagreeable surprises.

  FOUR

  The Homestead

  “How far is it to the farm?” Ada asked Jacob, leaning forward so that her voice would not be carried away by the wind.

  “Not very far, about thirty minutes,” Jacob answered.

  She settled back into the bench and turned her attention to the two girls. She had many questions to ask but did not want to seem intrusive.

  “Elizabeth, do you go to school?” Ada inquired, smiling at the too thin girl.

  She shook her head in reply, her expression somber.

  “Elizabeth, Ms. Ada asked you a question!” Jacob bellowed from the front, startling Ada.

  The child jumped and then looked at Ada and said, ‘No,’ in a firm, albeit shaky voice.

  “My late wife Miriam did a wonderful job instilling values and good manners in our daughters,” Jacob said without turning back, his voice soft.

  His tone told of a man who had cared and loved his wife and Ada felt a pang of sympathy for his loss. It probably wasn’t easy for a man to raise girls and she felt momentarily ashamed at how quickly she had judged him. She promised herself to judge less and to be more compassionate. As much as Ada wanted to speak to the girls, she refrained from doing so, knowing that Jacob could hear their conversation.

  “We’re home Ms. Ada,” the youngest child Rachael said, speaking up for the first time.

  Ada smiled at her, “I can’t wait to see where you live.”

  The wagon came to a sudden stop, jostling the three of them. Ada giggled and the girls followed suit. She loved the sound of their laughter and for the first time since she had met them at the station, they sounded like children, rather than miniature adults. She stepped down from the wagon and found herself staring at a rather small timber house, raised from the ground and accessed by five or so steps.

  She had expected a house a little larger but she shrugged and plastered a smile on her face.

  “This is our humble abode,” Jacob said, his brown eyes boring into hers as though trying to read her thoughts.

  “I like it,” Ada said.

  He carried her trunks in and Ada followed the girls. Though it looked small from the outside, Ada was pleased to see that it had three fairly large bedrooms. Jacob led her to the largest of them and placed her trunks on the floor.

  “This is our bedroom,” he said, his eyes shifting about as though he wasn’t sure it was his room.

  “Thank you, it’s lovely,” she said.

  Without another word, Jacob left, gently shutting the door behind him. She realized that he had not even told her where the washroom was. There were two wooden wardrobes standing side by side and thought one must belong to her. She flung the first one open and then shut it when she saw Jacob’s shirts and suits.

  She opened the other and stopped short. Her jaw fell and she covered her mouth with her hands. Ada blinked again, thinking her eyes were deceiving her. The wardrobe was crammed with a woman’s clothing and she knew without anyone telling her that it had been Jacob’s late wife’s wardrobe. She shut it fast, as though she had been bitten by a snake. She stood rooted to the spot, her brain swirling with questions. Why were her clothes still there? Did Jacob expect her to share a bedroom with his late wife? Ada shook her head as though trying to rid it of lurking cobwebs.

  Finally, she got a washcloth and a towel from her trunk and placed a change of clothes on the bed. She left the room and went in search of the washroom. She checked all the bedrooms but none was a washroom. At loggerheads over what to do, Ada went in search of the girls and she found them in the kitchen.

  “We’re heating up some food for you, Ms. Ada,” Rachael said, giving Ada a heartwarming smile.

  “It’s carrot and peas stew and we have corn bread to go with it,” Elizabeth said, looking up at her.

  Her face was filled with expectation and Ada automatically smiled.

  “It smells heavenly,” she exclaimed and the two girls broke into giggles. “I need to wash up, where is the washroom?”

  “In the outhouse, come I’ll show you,” Rachael volunteered and led Ada out through the kitchen door to a small structure with two doors which looked as though they could cave in at any moment.

  “Here you are, Ms. Ada,” Rachael said and then skipped away.

  Ada tentatively pushed one of the doors open and was met with an army of flies buzzing around a dark hole on the ground. She quickly shut the door and closed her eyes. What had she brought upon herself? She gathered her courage and pushed the next door. The room was sparse with a drum full of water and a pail by the side that Ada assumed was for bathing. She stepped in and shut the door. She poured out water into the pail and stripped off her sweaty dress. She sighed when the cold water made contact with her skin. On spying a cake of soap on a protrusion of the wooden wall, Ada took it and soaped herself.

  She only realized that she had left her fresh clothes on the bed after she had finished toweling herself. The clothes she had worn for the journey lay in a dirty heap at the corner of the bathing-room and she couldn’t imagine wearing them again even for a distance as short as the house. Ada wrapped the towel under her armpits and grabbing the dirty clothes, she made a dash for it.

  The door to the kitchen was slightly ajar and she slipped in only to stop in her tracks when her eyes met Jacob’s brown ones. He appeared to be at a loss for words. She gave him an apologetic smile, glanced at the girls seated opposite him their faces looking as though they wanted to laugh, and she fled. She returned moments later and slipped into a vacant chair.

  “We adhere to a strict dress code around here and we would appreciate it if you did the same,” Jacob admonished her.

  Ada’s face grew hot and she looked down.

  “Shall we bow our heads in prayer?” he said.

  Five minutes later, Jacob was still engrossed in prayer and Ada opened her eyes to find the girls had opened theirs too. She winked at each of them and they covered their mouths with their hands. He wound up his prayer and Ada shut her eyes and echoed “Amen”. She opened her eyes and she and Elizabeth exchanged a cheeky look. She would enjoy getting to know the gems hidden underneath the seemingly quiet demeanors, Ada thought admiring the two girls.

  FIVE

  A Wind of Change

  “What this verse tells us is that no matter what our circumstances are, we should always be prepared to meet our Heavenly Father for we know not when or where He’ll come for us,” Jacob said, looking at the pair of eyes looking up at him.

  “What should we do to prepare ourselves, Elizabeth?”

  “We should avoid falling into sin and when we do, we should repent through prayer,” Elizabeth replied automatically.

  “What about you, Rachael?”

  The girl looked at her sister and then shrugged a gesture that infuriated Jacob to no end. She was the more talkative of the two, yet whenever he asked her a question, her eyes always fell on her elder sister.

  “Speak up!” Jacob said.

  “I don’t know father,” she finally said in a small voice.

  “You were not listening, were you?”

  “We should be obedient,” Elizabeth quickly said and Jacob turned his attention to Ada.

  His frowned slightly at her head bowed low, her concentration clearly on the sewing she was doing.

  “Ada?” he said.

  She looked up serenely.

  “What do you understand by that scripture?” he inquired.

  Her eyes darted around the room as though searching for answe
rs. He waited patiently, inwardly disappointed by her lack of attention. It was something he had noted in the week that they had lived together. Ada never contributed to the bible reading they did together. It was as though she was not there.

  To say he was dismayed was an understatement. He had even found himself questioning her beliefs. For a Christian, she never did anything to show it. Never offered to pray, she never said anything that could make someone know that she was a believer. However, it was not his place to judge, Jacob told himself.

  “That we should be prepared for the day when God comes for us,” she finally said, echoing the words he had said earlier.

  Jacob swallowed his annoyance and finished the scripture reading by saying a short prayer. The completion of the prayer was a signal they should all go to bed. He bid the girls and Ada goodnight and sat a while his hand resting on the bible. Jacob felt confused by everything.

  For one, he was no closer to understanding Ada now than when she had first arrived. She did not complain about the fact that every night, each of them slept on opposite ends of the bed. The truth was that he could not bear to touch her. From the moment he had brought her home, Jacob realized that he had made a huge mistake.

  It all felt wrong. Miriam belonged on that bed, just as her clothes belonged in the wardrobe. He had expected Ada to complain about the clothes, but she said nothing, merely storing her clothes in her trunks. He knew it was not fair of him to still hold on to Miriam by keeping her clothes.

  He had vowed to love her until death parted them. Why then couldn’t he open his heart up to another woman? He thought of Ada with her brown soft hair and brown eyes. She was pretty. If he was honest, the image of her in only a towel on her first day as his wife haunted him. He did not want it too. He only wanted Miriam.

  She seemed to have struck a chord with his daughters. That too, did not please him as much as it should have.

  Somehow, he did not trust Ada to continue teaching them the right values as Miriam had. He had heard her giggling with the girls, something that he could not understand. When Miriam was with the girls, you could clearly tell who the adult was among them. Sometimes Ada behaved like a child.

  She was twenty-three years old, old enough to be the girls’ mother, yet she behaved like their playmate. They had entered into a plot, the three of them. Laughing and talking when they thought he was out of earshot. Jacob pondered the problem. Perhaps he could speak to Ada and then she would see things his way. Yes, he decided, that was the best thing to do. He took the lamp and made his way to the bedroom. He could tell by her breathing that she was not asleep yet. She had her back to him and he changed out of day clothes and into his sleeping wear and slipped in beside her.

  “Ada?” he said.

  “Yes Jacob,” she said and turned to face him.

  He was struck by her innocent beauty. He cleared his throat and thought of what he intended to say. He found the words stuck in his throat.

  “Nothing Ada, goodnight. We shall talk in the morning, if the Lord wills.”

  He turned to his side and shut his eyes. How did you tell your wife that you don’t like the way she relates to your daughters and that they laughed too much together? Ada had taken to giving the girls lessons in the morning hours after their chores were done. He was happy about that, but the few times he had returned home from the fields to check in on them, he had heard their laughter and loud voices and wondered with annoyance what reading they got done.

  At first when she had arrived, he had thought her to be the talkative type, but she seemed to retreat into herself and she never said much. She was a dark horse, Ada was. He tried to recall what he knew of her, such as her family. She had mentioned writing a letter to Joanna Hunter, the woman who owned the agency, but other than that, Ada never spoke of herself.

  He vowed to ask her the following day about her family. At this time of night, when everyone was asleep, Jacob asked himself questions that he never dared to during the day. Besides, the farm kept him busy from dawn to dusk and there was no time to ponder on questions that he himself didn’t have the answers.

  He did not know what to make of this marriage. Surely, Ada must wonder what held him back from consummating their union. It was foolish of him to feel loyalty to a dead woman but Jacob reckoned part of it was Miriam. If only Ada possessed a few characteristics of Miriam, then they would have gotten along fine.

  As it was, the two women were as different as day and night. He had hoped for someone who could step into Miriam’s shoes and life to continue as it was. Ada was hard working and no one could fault her for shirking her duties. She woke up before dawn, saw to their breakfast and then tended to the house chores.

  She had even taken over the girls’ duties and that was another thing he did not like. Miriam had constantly said that children needed to be taught responsibility from a young age. In that last week, Jacob doubted whether any of them had lifted a finger to do anything. Ada was unraveling Miriam’s good work while he watched.

  His chest rose in a wave of fresh indignation. He glanced to his side and saw that Ada was asleep. Her breathing came out evenly and she had flung one arm to the edge of the bed. Disappointed, he laid his head back down trying to fall asleep.

  SIX

  Settling In

  Ada got up before sunrise, and with a lingering glance to Jacob, she swung her legs off the bed. He was a handsome man and sometimes she found herself gazing at him for no reason. Deep down, she knew he was a kind man despite his shortness with her and his daughters. She dressed quickly, her eyes adjusting to the dim light and then left, shutting the door softly behind her.

  Elizabeth and Rachael were sound asleep and would be for another hour or two. Ada was glad that she had taken over most of their duties. The only thing they did was to help her in the preparation of vegetables for dinner, and Elizabeth helped with washing up. She could see that the sparkle was slowly returning to their eyes. They were becoming children again.

  Ada hated to draw conclusions but by her observations, Miriam, Jacob’s late wife had been a bit on the lazy side. The girls had shouldered most of her responsibilities and from what they told her of their mother, she liked to curl up on the chair in the front room and devour the bible. It was a shame that Jacob never looked at it that way.

  It was ‘Miriam this, Miriam that.’ Ada was not jealous of her, after all, who would be jealous of a memory, she thought as she lit a lamp and took it with her to the kitchen. She just found it an unfair way of raising children. Add on to that, Miriam had not taught the girls how to read, even Elizabeth who was now seven years old.

  Ada had learned that Miriam had passed on almost ten months ago, and the girls had even taken her to the mound of soil under a huge oak tree where she had been buried. She lit a fire and then stepped outside using the light from the lamp and padded to the chicken coop. Elizabeth had taught her how to coax the eggs from the chicken without getting her fingers poked.

  The memory of that lesson brought a smile to Ada’s face. The girls had fallen over themselves with laughter over Ada’s attempts to get the eggs. She collected ten eggs and returned with them to the kitchen. Then she took the pail that they used for milking and trooped out and went to the barn.

  She found milking difficult but Elizabeth had assured her that once she did it several times, she would become good at it. She liked it in the barn, though. It was warm and quiet, save for the noises from the two cows. Fifteen minutes later and Ada was returning to the kitchen with a pail full of creamy milk.

  She opted to make pancakes for breakfast, beating two eggs into the flour while the griddle heated up. The girls had never eaten pancakes prior to Ada cooking them. It amazed her that Miriam had never prepared the meal for her family.

  Ada looked out to the window and saw that the sun was making its way out of the skies. It was a beautiful morning and moments like these, when she was alone and unguarded, her past haunted her.

  Despite Jacob’s belief that she did not
listen to bible readings, she actually did. What she was learning made her tremble in moments such as these, when she had no one to distract her. She recalled a reading from the Book of Proverbs, chapter twenty-eight. Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.

  The words had been imprinted in her mind. Her buried past was beginning to snake its way up, like a piece of glass buried deep in the soil, which slowly fights its way out.

  Ada had neglected to tell Jacob that she had once been married. To Ada, that had not been a marriage. The memories were part of a painful past she wished to leave behind.

  As far as she was concerned, her life began when she started working for Joanna Hunter. Why then was her past coming to haunt her now? According to the scriptures, concealing things about yourself was tantamount to a great sin against God, but what choice did she have? Jacob was not the kind of man to forgive such a huge lie. He would surely throw her out of his home and his daughters’ lives. No, she needed to leave well enough alone.

  Ada placed the pancakes on four plates, though she herself had no appetite. The tea was ready, too, but it was sitting by the side of the fire to keep warm. Just then, she heard Jacob’s boots as he walked from their bedroom. Ada smiled a little to herself when she recalled how closely he had held her the previous night.

  Nothing beyond that had happened and she had loved falling asleep on his chest, his hands on her back. She was not complaining about the lack of intimacy. The experience that Ada had about that part of marriage frightened her and she had no wish to go through it again. Roderick’s sneering face looking down on her floated through her mind and she shook it off.

  “Good morning,” Jacob said cheerfully, walking into the kitchen.

  “Good morning,” Ada replied shyly.

  “Where are Elizabeth and Rachael? I would have thought that they would be up by now,” he added with a scowl.