“Well, look at you. All of a sudden you have an abundance of men.”
Tonya blushed. “Yes, and while the brothers are indeed handsome I think I’ll stay with Braylon. He’s more what I’d want in a husband. Especially since the woodsmen are named Peter, James, and Paul Bunyan. I don’t think I’d want to be named Antonia Bunyan and I would never be able to marry a man named Paul Bunyan; I’d laugh every time he was introduced.”
Betsy giggled, “Really? You hired a man named Paul Bunyan who’s a lumberjack?”
Tony giggled with her. “I did. Maybe we should introduce him to Maude. It would give her three other men to ogle without coveting my husband.”
“Handsome then?”
“Tall, blonde, and lumberjacks, what do you think?”
“I think we should keep Maude as far away from the mill as we can.”
The two laughed again.
Betsy drank her tea. The two friends went to get Maude and tell her the good news about Braylon and help Tonya pick out a wedding dress and one to meet her future husband in. “Oh, and we need to stop by the parsonage on the way to the sisters’ house. I need to arrange a wedding with Pastor James.”
The two women put on their outerwear just as Betsy’s cook was arriving. “Hey, Mrs. Simpson, I’ll be home in time for dinner today but Alexzander won’t. He was going to ride out and check on the Winters this morning and some of the other ranchers.”
“All right, Betsy. By the way, there was a man in town looking for you. Looked like a rich easterner to me.”
“Really? That’s strange. I’ll keep my eyes open. We’re off to get Maude and then see Pastor James and also order Tonya a wedding dress,” Betsy crowed.
“Ah, saints be praised! He sent word back then?”
Tonya smiled and kissed the older woman’s cheek. She’d been the Pike family cook for a long time and had been one of the women who helped Tonya grow into the woman she was. Unlike Betsy, Tonya had actually paid attention to the cooking lessons the older lady had given them. “Yes, he’ll be here in ten days. Betsy will tell you when the wedding is. I will expect you to be there; it wouldn’t be right without you.”
The older woman hugged her. “Bless you, girl. I wouldn’t miss it. I’m sure your Papa is smiling down on ya.”
Tonya squeezed her just a hair tighter. “I think you might be right, Mrs. Simpson.”
Braylon stood just as the conductor called out, “Silverpines, this stop Silverpines with service on to Portland.”
Finally he was here. The last word he’d gotten was that his bride-to-be would meet him here and while there was a goodly number of people on the station boardwalk, he didn’t see anyone with hair that he would consider red. He looked at his pocket watch and realized they were about half an hour ahead of schedule. She probably just hadn’t gotten here yet. He’d have time to get off the train, collect his steamer trunks, and make arrangements to get them delivered.
He wondered if his wedding was today. She hadn’t said in her reply to his telegram, only that she would be here to greet him and show him around. He really hoped it was. He’d spent every spare minute of the last ten days looking at her photo and he was completely enamored of her. He knew in some western towns the pastor was only in town once a month and if he had to wait a few more weeks, he’d spring for a couple of tickets to Astoria or someplace with a preacher or justice of the peace.
Secondly, he wanted to get a look at the mill. He was anxious to see if the plans he’d drawn up for his father’s wheel could be adapted to theirs. If not, he needed to get a good look at the wheel and make the adjustments and see if one of the men in town was a blacksmith who could craft what he needed. He was anxious to get started and make his mark on the regrowth of Silverpines.
The train stopped; he grabbed his carpet bag and worked his way off the train. Luggage, transport, then finding his Tonya. Oh, and sending a wire home to his mother. She had asked that he let her know when he arrived safely so that she wouldn’t worry. As he stepped onto the platform, he took his first good look around. Everything you could see from the train station looked like any normal town. There was no hint that less than seven months ago the town was utterly devastated. Yet he’d seen the evidence on the way in. Trees down, some half buried in mud. He figured that was probably the timber town. He’d done some research his last week in town, going to the library and looking in papers at the devastation, searching papers from Oregon and finding the story of Silverpines. He learned the first quake caused a mine collapse. Most of the men were digging to save miners when the second quake hit, killing most of them and causing the mud from the timber cut to slide, taking out everything on the other side. Tonya’s father was listed as having died in the mine collapse but her business had taken the biggest hit from the mudslide which washed cut timbers into the river and caused a logjam. The lumberjacks and their families were crushed by trees and rocks and earth.
Tonya herself had mentioned logs sitting in the lumberyard waiting to be cut, the town needing that lumber to rebuild, and her spending money to bring it in from elsewhere. He couldn’t imagine the type of iron will and intestinal fortitude it took to keep going in the face of all that. Yet she had for eight long months. But now he was here; together they would start fresh and help others usher in a time of regrowth and prosperity for Silverpines. He couldn’t help but smile and think of the plans in his carpet bag. He couldn’t wait to show them to her and watch her get as excited as he was. Just think, they could be known as the couple that brought Silverpines into the twentieth century. The first small town out west with electricity!
He was startled to look up and see a man in buckskins standing on the boardwalk watching everyone move around. Even more startling was the fact that the man wore the badge of a lawman. A mountaineer in the west; interesting. It wasn’t that farfetched in Ohio. Men did stumble in from the Appalachian mountains every now and again with furs on their back or some small amount of ore in their pouch but he’d never seen one standing tall and proud wearing the badge of the law. This was a man he wanted to meet.
Braylon strode up to him. “Hello. Sheriff is it?”
“Marshal, Alexzander Sewell, town marshal. Mister…?”
Braylon held out his hand as the other man took it and they shook. “Braylon Watts.”
The mountain man smiled. “Tonya’s guy. Heard you were arriving today. Sort of expected to see your intended and her two pals here by now. Course the train’s early today. It’s usually late and those three are never on time if they’re together.”
Braylon smiled. “Sounds like you know them pretty well.”
“I should; I’m married to one of em. Tonya is one of my wife’s two best friends.”
“Well then, I’m doubly glad to have met you, Marshal.”
The man smiled. “May as well get used to calling me Alex. I reckon we’ll see a lot of each other if those two have anything to say about it. And they will.”
“All right, Alex. I go by Braylon. It sounds pretentious but I’ve never had a nickname. Wouldn’t know what to use if I did. Bray makes me sound like a donkey and Lon like someone’s grass, so...” He shrugged.
“You could try Ray if you wanted. Right there in the middle like that.”
“Hmm, guess I could; never thought of it. I’ll see what Antonia thinks.”
Sewell chuckled. “Word of advice. I wouldn’t call her that if I were you.”
Braylon’s brow knit. “Call her what?”
“Antonia, only person that gets away with calling Tonya that is Fannie Pearl and then only when she’s upset with the woman. Everyone, and I mean everyone, calls her Tonya.”
“Oh okay. Well, that will take some retraining. I’ve been calling her Antonia in my head all this time. It’s such a lovely name for such a lovely lady.”
Alex laughed. “Now if you tell her that you might actually get away with it until she gets upset with ya the first time.”
“How’s that?’
“Sh
e did tell you she was a redhead, didn’t she?”
“Yes, she mentioned she had red hair.”
“Yeah. Well, she’s a true red-haired woman with the quick temper to match. Calm one minute blazing, hot the next. Should make your life interesting for years to come.”
The bear of a man slapped him on the back.
“I’ll try to remember that. Could you tell me which way is the mill? I’d like to let her know I arrived.”
“Sure, just follow the tracks up the river; you’ll run right into it. Reckon she and the brothers will be there unless you meet her on the way here.”
Braylon’s brow puckered. “Thank you.” He wandered over to the stationmaster and asked if his trunks could be delivered to the mill, explaining he was there to marry Miss Woodson.
“Be glad to have it done soon as we can.” He thanked the man and then headed down the stairs and up the river. Sure enough, just like Alex had said, it wasn’t long till he saw the mill. The wheel was turning and he could hear the sound of the saw rasping through wood. Wait! How was that possible? Antonia had told him that the mill hadn’t been used since her father died six months ago. He hurried up to the entrance to the mill and saw three large men and one small female bent over a log on the saw plane. “What is going on here!” He yelled to be heard over the sound of the blade rasping against the log. All four stood up straight and turned to him. The woman in the middle was stunningly beautiful, so much so that his first thought at seeing her in the flesh was her picture didn’t do her justice. She smiled at him. “Braylon! You’re here! What time is it?”
“I asked a question, Antonia. What is going on? I was led to believe that the mill wasn’t running.”
She frowned. “It wasn’t before the brothers came.”
Now he was getting upset. “So am I to believe I’m no longer needed or wanted here?”
“What? What are you talking about?”
“Might I see you in private, Antonia? Somewhere without an audience and a bit quieter?”
“Of course.” She looked back at the three men. “Keep them at that width; six more logs at least.”
“Right, boss.”
Then she walked out the door and toward the house further down the river. “I’m happy you’re here. I’m sorry I wasn’t there to greet you; the train is never early.”
He stopped and stared at her with his arms crossed over his chest, knowing his irritation had to be showing but he hated being lied to and made to look like a fool. “Are you?”
“Yes, silly. I even bought this new dress to meet you in.”
“Who were those men?”
“What? Oh, those are the brothers.”
“Whose brothers?”
“Each other’s, of course.”
“I’m confused. Are we still getting married?”
Now he could see confusion on her face. “Yes, Sunday. Why would you think we weren’t getting married?”
“Antonia, did you or did you not tell me the reason you need a husband was to get the mill up and running again?”
“Don’t you take that tone with me, Braylon Watts. You don’t know me well enough to act all angry. Yes, I asked you to marry me because you had milling experience to help me get the mill up and running.”
“And what, pray tell, did you promise the “brothers” to help you get the mill up and running.”
She gasped. “What are you trying to say, Mr. Watts? That I am loose or playing you false?”
“You said it, sister, not me.”
She slapped him hard across the face. “How dare you.”
She reached back to slap him again and he caught her wrist. “How dare I? You invite me here under false pretenses, taking me across the country from everyone and everything I know, only to find you huddled in a building with three men running a mill that you told me wasn’t running and how dare I?”
“What did you expect me to do? I told you the mill hadn’t run since the day my father died. I sent you the last cash I had to buy your ticket here. When three timber men showed up, was I supposed to send them packing? I told you this is a town with 90% of its women living alone. Social niceties like not being alone with a man when business needs to be done have no place here. We are surviving and trying to regrow. So when three lumberjacks, one of which was a mill worker, showed up looking for work, I, as the owner of the mill, hired them. Can I help it they showed up after you told me you were coming to marry me? What was I supposed to do, let them leave because you were coming in ten days?”
“You aren’t married to any of them?”
“Why would I be married to one of them? I asked you to marry me before I ever met them.”
“Are we still getting married?”
“Of course, on Sunday.”
“It’s Tuesday.”
“I know but Pastor James is out of town until Sunday.”
“There wasn’t another pastor that could marry us?”
“There are a couple hanging around. They came to marry Abby, too, but she turned them down.”
“I see. Can’t one of them marry us?”
“No, I told everyone we’re getting married Sunday. They planned a wedding and a supper for after church Sunday so we can’t marry until Sunday.”
He sighed. “I guess I’ll have to wait till Sunday then. That’s going to be awfully difficult to do, though.”
She looked at him confused. “Why?”
“You’re just so beautiful. I don’t know how I’m supposed to wait until Sunday to marry the most beautiful woman in Silverpines.”
“You haven’t seen any other women in Silverpines.”
“I doubt they’re as lovely as my Antonia.”
“You can’t call me that.”
“What?”
“Antonia. No one knows who that is. I’m Tonya around here except to Miss Fanny Pearl but that’s only when I’m in trouble.”
“Well then, we have a problem because my wife is too beautiful to be a plain old Tonya. She is as beautiful as her name: Antonia.”
She bit her lip and stepped closer. “Well, in private that would be okay.”
“We’re in private now, Antonia. I don’t see anyone but you and me.”
“We’re in the middle of the lumberyard, Braylon.”
“May I kiss you, my beautiful Antonia? I know it’s brash and presumptuous but I’ve wondered for ten long days what kissing you would be like. Just one kiss?”
She stepped close and put her hands around his neck. “I’ve wondered, too. I sure wish you would kiss me, but just once.”
He wrapped his arms around her, pulled her close, and met her lips with his. She melted into him with a small whimper. She was even better than he thought she would be and he hated that it had to end but as she had told him, they were in the lumberyard. So he released her. “Oh, we’ll have to do that again in private, Antonia, because one just isn’t going to be enough.”
She giggled. “Well, maybe after supper. But for now we need to get you settled in and then I’m supposed to introduce you to people.”
He reluctantly stepped back. “Yes, of course. Until later then.”
She sighed and moved away, too.
“All right, then. Is there a boarding house or hotel for me to stay at?’
“There is but you don’t have to do that.”
“Antonia, as sweet as you are there is no way I can stay under a roof with you until we are married.”
She giggled again causing his blood to boil in his veins. “We may be a bit lax but we aren’t that lax, Braylon. I figured you’d stay with the brothers till Sunday.”
“The brothers?’
“Yes, our workers, Peter, James, and Paul Bunyan”
“Wait! You hired a lumberjack named Paul Bunyan?”
“Yes and don’t pick on him about it; he’s sensitive. Somebody’s already dyed one of the mules blue.”
“I don’t want to know.”
“There are six rooms in the top of the mill; the bro
thers are staying in three of them. You can stay there until Sunday.”
“All right. My things should be arriving from the depot soon. Is there a tub or someplace I can clean up there as well?”
“You could haul water up there or we could just go into town and I could show you where the barber shop and bath house is. I’ll show you where the Sewell’s house is at the same time because we are supposed to have supper with them and Maude tonight.”
“That sounds like a plan. Show me Silverpines. I’ll grab a change and get a bath in town and then have supper with your friends before bringing you home for a few kisses on the back porch before bedding down next to Paul Bunyan. My mother isn’t going to believe the letter I write her. Speaking of which, I need to send her a wire so she doesn’t worry.”
Tonya took his hand and they headed into town. As they passed the open door of the mill, one of the men came out. “Everything okay, boss.”
“Yes, Paul. This is Braylon, my fiancé. You’ll meet him this evening. You three know what needs to be done and cook will have your supper for you at six. We’re eating with Betsy and Alex tonight so I’ll see you all tomorrow when we’ll show Braylon around.”
“Are we gonna be moving on, sir?”
“Do you want to be moving on?”
“No sir, we like Miss Tonya and the work’s good.”
“Then I don’t see why you would have to. From what I can see there’s more than enough work for us and several other men, too.”
“Yes sir, quite a lot.”
“Then don’t worry about moving unless you men want to. We can talk more tonight. How’s that sound?”
The big man smiled. “Sounds good to me.”
Chapter Three
Tonya lay in her bed that night with her head full of Braylon’s good looks and sweet words. Her lips still swollen with his sweet kisses. Thank goodness Mrs. Carlson lived in the room off the kitchen and could act as sort of a chaperone. The way that man kissed, she would have lost her head had she not known the older woman could pop around the corner anytime. And thankfully, the woman was wise enough and discreet enough to know just when to make enough noise to remind them she was up and around. How in the world was she going to make it to Sunday?
Wanted: Miller (Silverpines Series Book 10) Page 3