by Kit Morgan
Jess and Sarah exchanged a quick glance. His mother was just as caught up in the mystery-matchmaker puzzle as everyone else – maybe more so, as her son and daughter-in-law were involved. “Mr. Myers couldn't tell us anything. Other than the matchmaker must have mailed letters from another town.”
“Another town? Which one?”
“Salem, Oregon City …” He shrugged. “Doesn't really matter. Except it wasn't Independence.”
“Brownsville, maybe?” his mother suggested.
“No sense worrying about where,” he told her. “It wasn't here. I’ll unhitch the horses, then see to what chores still need to be done.”
“You'll do no such thing,” his mother said. “Your pa and I saw to most of the chores this morning. Why don’t you rest awhile?”
Jess looked at his wife and gave her a tiny hint of a smile. She returned it, but her eyes flicked toward his mother. “Oh, yes.” He turned to his mother. “While I'm taking care of the horses, could you put some coffee on? Then we could all sit down and have a cup together.”
“Well, if you don't want to rest,” she said, glancing between them, “I can do that.”
“I'll help you,” Sarah told her as she followed her mother-in-law onto the porch.
A short time later they were seated in the parlor with cups of coffee and a plate of cookies. His mother was acting pleasant enough and seemed to be her old self again, not the short-tempered, agitated woman she'd been over the last few weeks. Now that he thought of it, she’d been behaving funny even before Sarah showed up in town …
He swallowed the last of the cookie he'd been munching on and looked at her. His father was upstairs napping, so now was as good a time as any to confront her on the matter of Mrs. Caulder and her offer. “Ma, Sarah and I were talking in town and …”
“You told him, didn't you?” his mother said to Sarah with a calm neither of them expected.
“Yes, ma'am, I did,” Sarah confessed, looking down at her plate. “I felt I had to.”
Mrs. Templeton gripped her coffee cup and closed her eyes. “I'm sorry, son. I never should've let that woman push me so far.”
“Sarah told me some of it,” said Jess. “But I want to hear it from you. Were you really considering selling our farm to Mrs. Caulder?”
“I'm afraid I was. She talked about how nice San Francisco could be for us, especially if we moved with the Rudshaws. You could still work the farm …”
“… so long as I was married to Bernice?” he concluded.
“Well,” she said with a sigh. “It's not like it’s going to happen now. But yes, we thought you and Bernice would make a good match. Eunice was especially excited about it.”
“And what about you?” Jess asked. “You've never been in the habit of fixing me up with anyone.”
“Oh, son, I'm so sorry. I guess seeing Mercy, Martha and Maude’s boys get married within weeks of each other got to me. What mother doesn't want to see her boy happily married?”
“Yes, but around here the mothers do take it a bit far, if you ask me!”
“Not to mention the mystery matchmaker,” Sarah said with a smile.
Jess said nothing and instead crammed another cookie into his mouth.
His mother studied him. “What is it? What's wrong?”
Sarah looked between the two. “Something's wrong? How can you tell?”
“Because the tips of his ears are turning pink. That always happens when he's hiding something.”
Both women stared at him. Jess gulped. “It's … nothing.”
“Are you sure?” his mother asked.
“That's what I'm wondering,” remarked Sarah. “Now your face is turning red.”
“I'm fine – really, I am,” he insisted.
“Maybe you ought to go upstairs and lie down?” Mrs. Templeton suggested.
“I could do with a little rest.” He turned to Sarah. “Why don't you come with me?”
Her eyes brightened and she quickly glanced at his mother, then back again. “But, what if …”
“Go ahead, I don't mind. I could do with a nap myself,” Mrs. Templeton said.
Jess and Sarah both smiled. “Thank you, ma'am,” Sarah told her.
“Oh for Heaven’s sake, you don't need to thank me just because I said you should go rest with your husband. It's a hard life here, and a nap does a body good. That is, when you have the chance to take one.”
They stood, and Sarah walked around the small parlor table to give Mrs. Templeton a hug. “Thank you, all the same.”
“For what?”
“For being the person I knew you must be.”
Now it was Mrs. Templeton’s turn to blush. “And not the fool I was acting like?”
“I think the fool in this case is Eunice Caulder,” Jess said as he came around the table. “But we won't know until we talk to Bernice.” He too gave his mother a hug. “I’m glad you decided to decline her offer.”
“At least we know she's not the mystery matchmaker,” his mother said with a smile.
“The only one she'd like to match up is Bernice, but I don't see that happening anytime soon.” With that they all went upstairs to rest.
* * *
Jess tossed and turned on the bed and finally, after flopping onto his back for about the twelfth time (Sarah was counting), turned to her and said, “Brownsville.”
“What?” she asked and turned to him.
“Brownsville,” he said again.
Sarah straightened the quilt she’d thrown over them earlier. “Your mother mentioned that town. What about it?”
“It's …” he gulped. “It's where I answered the advertisement from.”
Sarah sat upright. “What advertisement? What are you talking about?” She gasped. “Don't tell me you're the mystery matchmaker?!”
“No, of course not. But I do have a confession to make.”
Sarah's eyes grew wide. “What kind of a confession?” she asked with a hint of worry.
He propped himself up on his elbows. “The mad matchmaker didn't send away for you.”
Sarah's brow puckered. “He didn't?”
Jess shook his head.
“Then who did?”
He pointed to himself.
“You what?” Sarah blinked at him a few times in shock. “Then … what … how …”
He flopped back on the pillow and motioned for her to lay beside him. “Ma wrote to me while I was still at school that Morgan had gotten married, then Garrett, and that I should think about getting married too.” He looked at her. “I was already thinking about it and trying to decide what to do. There weren't any women to choose from around here …”
“Except Bernice Caulder?” she asked.
“I considered her. Apparently she’d changed a lot since I went off to school.” He sighed. “Poor Bernice – she's never going to find a husband in this town, not with her mother riling people up. She'll have to go someplace else.
“I feel sorry for her.”
“Well, Professor Hamilton and Cecil are trying to help her as much as they can. She’ll find a husband one day … just not here.”
She lay down next to him. “So when did you send in your request?”
“As soon as I came back to town. The first chance I got, I wired Mrs. Ridgley in New Orleans. Daisy Tindle gave me the information – she came from there too, you know.”
“So you wired Mrs. Ridgley's office from Brownsville?”
“Yep, and also sent the first letter along with the train and stage fare. Pa and I had gone to Brownsville to look at a horse, not long after I got back to town. I'd already made up my mind to send away for a bride, so I snuck over to the telegraph office and sent off the request, then the post office to send the rest.”
Sarah started to giggle. “Oh my goodness!”
“What's so funny?”
“Just think of the poor mystery matchmaker! Whoever it is probably doesn't know what to think!”
“I'm sure they’ve figured it
out by now, but they’re keeping their mouth shut. A good thing too. I’d hate for my mother to think I didn't want her to have a hand in my decision, but…”
“You didn’t?”
“After listening to Morgan, Garrett and Julian talk about what happened to them? Can you blame me?”
“No,” she said in a soft voice. “I don't blame you. I do wish you’d told me sooner.”
“I didn't think to tell you at all, until my mother made that comment about my ears.”
She giggled again. “Now I’ll know when you're telling stories.”
He kissed her. “I'll make you forget I told you anything.”
“Really? And how are you going to do that?”
He pulled her close. “Care to have me show you?”
“I would, except for the walls in this house being thin as paper. You are going to build us a house with thick walls, aren’t you?”
“With as many children as I plan for us to have? I guess I’d better!”
Fourteen
“Jess and Sarah Templeton were looking for you yesterday, Miss Caulder,” Cecil said as he thumbed through a book.
“They were? What did they want?” Bernice wasn't at the bookshop for a lesson that day – she’d come in to pick up a book she'd forgotten, and just happened to catch Cecil visiting with Professor Hamilton.
“Actually, they were looking for Garrett, but your name did come up. Don't be surprised if they pay you a visit soon.”
“I wonder what they want to talk to me about?” she mused aloud. She shrugged it off, choosing not to worry about it for now, and reached for the book she wanted. “Are you sure I need to learn French?” she asked Professor Hamilton as he fussed behind the front counter.
“All ladies of refinement speak at least a little,” he said as he came around the counter. “It wouldn't hurt to learn a few basic phrases.”
“But no one here speaks French,” she told him with a tone bordering on a whine.
“That's where you're wrong. Je parle très bien le français.”
Bernice's eyes widened as she stared at him. “Where did you learn how to speak French? And what did you just say?”
“In college, from the very book you're holding in your hands, my dear. And what I said was: I speak French very well.”
She smiled at him in awe. “Have you ever been to France?”
“Twice, yes.”
“You have?” she asked in shock.
“You'll find the dear professor is full of surprises,” Cecil said with a wry smile.
“Paris,” she sighed. “If only I could go. How lovely that would be!”
“Right now it would be lovely for you to see any place other than Independence,” the Professor told her.
She slumped in a nearby chair. “But what will happen when I do?”
“You’ll get married, most likely,” the Professor said with a wide smile.
“Easy for you to say – you don't live with my mother.”
“I'm sure with the appropriate match, your mother will be fine,” Cecil countered.
She perked up at that. “Do you really think so?” Then she seemed to deflate again. “But with Bernard leaving town, and Jess married … there’s no one left …”
“If we were to find a way for you to get out of Independence and find a husband, would you do it?”
She stilled, plunging the room into silence. The only thing she could hear was her own beating heart. “I … I don't know. I've never done anything like that before. What would my parents say?”
“I think, given the way your mother has been so eager to marry you off, that she’d say yes,” the Professor replied with a smile.
Bernice sat back in the chair. “But finding a husband is easier said than done.”
Just then, the bell above the door rang and Jess and Sarah entered. “Bernice!” Jess called. “There you are! We were hoping you'd be here.”
She sat up again. “Did I do something wrong?”
“My dear girl,” the Professor said with a sigh. “Don't assume that when someone wishes to speak to you, it's because you've done something wrong.”
“I'm sorry, I can't help it. Whenever my mother wants to speak to me it's almost always because I've done something wrong, at least in her eyes. I guess I'm used to it.”
“You haven't done anything wrong,” Sarah told her then gave her a warm smile. “But we do need to speak with you.” She glanced at the Professor and Cecil. “In private, if that’s all right.”
“That’s our cue, Professor,” Cecil said. “Care for a cup in the back room?”
“Don't mind if I do.” The Professor turned to Jess and Sarah. “When you're through with her, let us know, will you? Her French lesson awaits.”
Jess raised one eyebrow. “Bernice is learning French?”
“She is now,” the Professor called over his shoulder as he followed Cecil to the back of the bookshop.
Jess and Sarah stared at Bernice with newfound respect. Bernice could only stare back. “What did you want?”
“It’s about your mother,” Jess told her. “It seems she's been talking a lot the last month or two to my mother … um, about you and I …”
“Getting married? Oh, that,” she said flatly. “It’s a little late now, isn't it?” she said and smiled at Sarah. “My, but that's a pretty dress.”
Sarah’s hand moved over the skirt of the lilac dress she wore, the same one she was wearing when she and Jess had married. “Thank you. Can I ask you a question?”
Bernice shrugged.
“Your mother isn’t still talking about you and Jess getting married, is she?”
“Why would she? He’s married to you.”
Jess sighed and gave her a compassionate look. “We found out from my mother that your mother wanted to purchase our farm. Has she mentioned that to you?”
“No … this is the first I've heard of it.” Her face screwed up in confusion for a moment. “Why would she want to buy your farm? My mother hates farming.”
“Well …” Sarah took the chair next to her. “Mrs. Templeton told me that she and your mother were going to try and get our marriage annulled so that you could marry Jess.”
“What?” she screeched and jumped out of her chair, the book dropping to the floor with the thud. “Are you sure?”
Sarah nodded. “Mrs. Templeton told us herself.”
“But that's … crazy! And why would my mother want to buy your farm even if we did get married? What would she do with it?”
“We heard that she planned to have you and Jess work it, she’d just own it.”
“But what good would that do her? Yes, she’d own all the land and the house, but that doesn't make any …” Bernice's eyes widened. “Oh …”
“Oh what?” Jess asked.
“I’m not sure … but I wonder if it has anything to do with the outlaws that kidnapped Betsy and me.”
Jess stepped forward. “Go on.”
“Well … after the men took us, Betsy was being held by a man on one horse, me on another. We rode into the woods and for a long time I didn't know where we were. I thought maybe we were still on the Edmonsons’ property, but now I'm thinking we might have been on yours.”
Sarah gave Jess a quizzical look. “Our property borders the Edmonsons’, he explained.
“I don't remember much, I was too scared at the time. But they were talking about burying something and coming back for it later.”
“Burying something?” said Jess. “You don't suppose they robbed a bank, do you? Did they say anything that would indicate that’s where they got the money from?”
“I’m not even sure it was money,” Bernie said. “All I know is when they stopped to switch out their horses, two of them took off with a couple of sacks and when they came back, they didn't have them anymore.”
“You told your mother this?” Jess asked.
“Well, yes, she asked for all the details from that night. I think she was afraid that I’d bee
n …” She looked away, her face red with shame. “… you know … defiled. She wanted to know everything, step-by-step, that happened.”
“That's got to be it,” Jess said as he turned to Sarah. “If Mrs. Caulder thinks there's money hidden on our property somewhere …”
“Then she could look for it, find it and stash it away herself?” Sarah guessed.
“What? My mother?” Bernice said weakly. “Looking for money from bank robbers?”
“I'm terribly sorry, Bernice,” Jess told her.” But it's the best explanation for why she wants to get her hands on our farm so badly. I can't think of anything else.”
“I don't believe it,” Bernice said. “It can't be true!”
“What if we went looking for it ourselves?” Sarah suggested.
“If it's stolen money and we find it, we’d have to turn it over to Sheriff Walker,” Jess explained.
“Yes, of course, but at least it would give Bernice some peace of mind,” Sarah said, giving Bernice a concerned look. “And all this silliness would be over.”
“What do you think, Bernice?” Jess asked. “I realize I'm accusing your mother of a horrendous thing. But Sarah and I are married, and my parents aren't about to sell the farm now. There's no way she can get her hands on any stolen money unless she went out to our place and tried to dig it up herself. I doubt the outlaws have had a chance to get their hands on it, because they're all locked up.”
Bernice’s lower lip trembled. “Maybe that's what she meant when she told me the other day that something could happen around here that would make it possible for me to marry.”
“She said that?” Sarah asked.
Bernice nodded but said nothing.
“All right, that settles it then,” Jess said. “Bernice, would you like to come?”
“Where are you going?”
“Back to the farm – to do some digging.”
* * *
After saying their goodbyes to Professor Hamilton and Cecil, the trio hurried to the Templeton farm. Sarah and Bernice went into the house to say hello to Jess's parents – and give Mrs. Templeton a brief rundown of what was happening – before joining Jess outside.