Melissa noticed that smile. It was impossible not to. “Did the letter make you feel better?” she asked.
Annie wished that it wasn’t the case, but it was true. The letter had made her feel better. She looked at her friend and then carefully folded the letter up, placing it back into the envelope so she could easily return to it later. She set the envelope into the top drawer of her vanity. “I’m not sure what he expects of me,” she said honestly. “But I do feel somewhat better, yes. It takes a good soul to actually take the time to write a letter after such an event as today’s was. I can tell he’s sincere. I just fear that he really believes he can pick up right where we left off. As if he hasn’t disappointed me and hurt me a great deal.”
I also don’t know how he expects me to write to him. He hasn’t provided a return address, after all. She supposed that she would cross that bridge when she came to it. The post office in town very well might have known where Mr. Prescott lived. Stranger things had happened…
“Surely, he’s trying,” Melissa said, hugging her legs to her chest as she sat on the bed. “Even if you only become friends through this, that’s better than where you were before, right?”
Annie thought that Melissa was sweet for thinking that way. She wanted to give Mr. Prescott the benefit of the doubt and a chance, but she also fully intended to keep her heart safe. And she certainly didn’t need the distractions that a person like Thackery would surely bring to her life and her work.
Chapter 6
When Annie awoke the following morning, she quickly changed into one of her simple dresses that she wore outside of work hours. She threw on a blue skirt and then slipped into a pink bodice, not even caring that it wasn’t the best match she had. She wasn’t going to have much time before the breakfast train, so she didn’t concern herself too much about it. Hopefully no one of consequence will even see me.
She sat at her vanity and pulled out a piece of paper and a pen, scrawling hastily.
Dear Mr. Prescott,
I appreciate that you took the time to write a note to me. I admit that our meeting did not put a great deal of confidence in me as to your character, so I was pleased to find that you’d written to me right after to apologize in an attempt to start over.
It probably doesn’t surprise you that I wish to take things slowly and that I cannot promise much to you in the way of either forgiveness or companionship. Though I came to Kansas to start a life with you, I’ve since started a life without you, as you know. I do not wish to change or lose the happy placement which I have found in Wallace. The girl who once wrote to you is different now. I feel as though I am a woman at last, and it is with the clear-eyed pragmatism of a woman that I must tell you that you needn’t plan on moving to Wallace. I believe you’ve also found the right placement for yourself in Sharon Springs. I would feel bad if you were to give that up in order to move here because of me, when I cannot give you what you wish.
Best,
Annie O’Brien
She gently folded the page and placed it into a clean, new envelope. Not knowing where exactly this letter would be taken to, she simply wrote Mr. Thackery Prescott onto it. Then she left the dormitory, taking the letter down the street to the post office. If they didn’t know where to send it, she would never know.
“Good morning, sir,” she said to the man there at the desk. He looked up at her blearily and nodded a bit.
“Good morning, miss,” he replied. “What can I do for you today?”
“I have this letter to send,” she told him, placing the envelope onto the wood desk and then sliding it over to him. “The trouble is that I don’t know where exactly this gentleman lives, besides the next town over in Sharon Springs.”
The gentleman behind the desk took the letter into his hands and peered down at the name on its envelope. “Hmm,” he said thoughtfully. “I can send it along to the office in Sharon Springs in the hopes that they can figure out who it belongs to.”
Annie didn’t think he was using the most reassuring words possible, but she had no other alternative really. “Thank you, sir,” she said with a smile and a short curtsy. “I believe it’s in good hands with you.”
She turned and left the post office, quickly walking back to the dormitory so she could change into her uniform. Rita had washed all of the dresses and aprons last night, so she would need to pick hers up from the bottom floor of the dorm first anyway. I can get Melissa’s as well. She’ll appreciate that. She was in a better mood now that she had her letter on its way to Mr. Prescott. Perhaps she wouldn’t have to give it any more thought. Then again, he seemed to be a rather stubborn fellow.
“Where did you go this morning?” Melissa asked her as they dressed.
Annie smiled a little and told her. “I’m not so sure that they’ll have any luck finding him, but it was worth a try. Far better to attempt to write to him than to just keep mum. Suppose he came back because he didn’t hear from me!”
“That still might happen,” her roommate pointed out with a shrug. “What if he can’t take no for an answer?”
They tied on their white aprons and large, white bows and then headed down the steps and next door together. Annie was feeling a stronger affinity for the new waitress now that they had gone through the encounter with Mr. Prescott together, more or less. She had no other roommate to chat with about such matters. Talking with Rita wasn’t quite the same thing, as she was Annie’s superior and could potentially get her into trouble if she said the wrong things. Saying the wrong things was more of a thing that Beverly would do, but Annie found that the other girl’s spunk had rubbed off on her, at least a little bit. Rita had clearly noticed this as well, and it wasn’t such a pleasing change for her.
As the breakfast train arrived and its passengers spilled into the restaurant, Annie was ready to greet them with a smile and a friendly word like always. It helped her to take her mind off of things with Mr. Prescott, at least for a time. It’s funny, she thought. Before he told me who he was, I did think that he was handsome and sweet. It’s a shame in a way… But I’m glad that I’ve moved on with my life.
Somewhere deep in her mind, she thought, Keep telling yourself that.
“Good morning,” she said to a table of diners. “Welcome to Stewart House. My name is Annie. May I fetch you some beverages to get you started?”
She went back to the kitchen with their drink orders listed out carefully on her pad of paper. Though she was enjoying herself as she always did, Annie felt that something was missing now. She couldn’t think of what until she found herself imagining the handsome farmhand sitting at one of the tables, his hat in the seat next to him.
Now I’m just being ridiculous, she told herself as she placed the drinks onto the table she was serving. I need to focus on my work! I wish he’d never shown up here. He probably knew what he was doing…
Once Annie was on her next break, she decided that it was time to visit briefly with Carrie again. They hadn’t spoken since the other day when her friend had been gracious enough to come to the dorm and keep an eye on things while she met with Mr. Prescott. Carrie was likely wondering what had become of them.
She knocked on her friend’s front door and was surprised when it opened and the tall, friendly-faced coach driver Leeroy was the one standing there instead of Carrie. “Well, how do you do, Miss Annie?” He sounded as if he was greeting an old friend.
Annie smiled and blushed a bit. She could see why Carrie married him; he was quite a charmer. “Hello, Mr. Jackson. I hope that things are well for you both here.”
“Leeroy, Miss O’Brien,” he told her with a playful wink. “I think we’re friends enough now for you to call me by my given name, don’t you?”
She giggled a little. “Yes, sir. I mean. Yes, Leeroy. Is Carrie about? I have something I must speak with her about. She’ll be awfully miffed if I don’t.”
“Oh sure,” he said, holding the door open and inviting her to come inside. “She’s in the kitchen, planning
out today’s luncheon.”
Annie graciously made her way into the Jacksons’ home and followed his directions in order to find Carrie. Sure enough, her friend was standing in the kitchen, assembling a few meal items on the counter.
“Why hello there!” Carrie trilled as soon as she saw that her friend had appeared in the doorway to the kitchen. “How are you?”
Annie went to Carrie at once and gave her a tight hug. “I’ve been doing well, and yourself?”
“Nothing to complain about,” Carrie replied.
“That’s good to hear,” Annie said. “I just thought it was a good idea to stop by and let you know about what happened between me and Mr. Prescott.”
Carrie laughed a little. “I noticed you left him sitting there with a dumbfounded look on his face,” she said. “I escorted him out afterwards. I hope that was the correct thing to do. It sure felt like it.”
Annie nodded a little. “Oh, it was. I didn’t want to see him again… I’m still not sure I want to, but my feelings have become a little less clear. He left a letter for me at the dormitory, apologizing and letting me know more about where he was coming from and what his intentions were.”
Carrie raised her eyebrows. “Perhaps we should sit.” She led Annie over to the small table in her kitchen and they sat together. Annie explained a bit more of the saga that had gone on with her arrival in the town and Mr. Prescott’s failure to show up on the day she arrived.
“I know now that it was an accident and he means to make amends, but I am afraid that he means to move forward as if nothing happened. As if I still want to marry him.”
“Well, don’t you?” Carrie asked her. “What’s changed your mind about him?”
Annie had to think about that. “It’s a mixture of things. A complicated mixture. I don’t want to have to give up my life here, my job and the way that I’ve been enjoying things… I’m also still hurt by the fact that I trusted that he would be here and he let me down.”
“It was an honest mistake, though,” Carrie reasoned. “And who said anything about you having to give up your life here?”
“Mr. Stewart’s contract…”
Carrie scoffed a little, waving that dismissively away. “You don’t need to keep working for Mr. Stewart’s restaurant in order to find happiness and fulfillment here. Trust me, I know. A good husband and a place of your own to work on and cultivate? That’s the ultimate source of pride, in my opinion. Because no matter how hard you work in the restaurant, it’s always going to be Mr. Stewart’s restaurant. You won’t ever get all of the credit that you deserve.”
“I suppose I have been working there a long time,” Annie said thoughtfully. Her head was beginning to hurt with all of these new ideas. “And Mr. Stewart doesn’t intend to keep all of his waiter-girls there forever.”
Carrie nodded. “Exactly. It’s a one-year contract and after that, you’re free to pursue whichever path you’ve chosen. So, I think that you should continue this correspondence with Mr. Prescott and see where it leads you.”
Annie took Carrie’s hand. “I know that I could count on you to give me some sound advice. Thank you, Carrie. I hope that I hear back from him now.”
Carrie smiled and squeezed Annie’s hand gently. “From the sound of things, he will,” she said confidently. “I’m glad that you’ve found your knight in shining armor again. It’s true that his armor may have lost some of its sheen, but it’s still armor all the same. If he truly deserves you, you’ll know because he won’t disappoint you again.”
Annie returned to the restaurant after this brief conversation, glad to have gone to visit Carrie. She could easily vent her woes to Melissa and Rita, but their perspectives were not quite the same as the one that Carrie could offer. After all, Carrie was married and happy with where she’d ended up. Annie hoped to have a future a bit like Carrie’s, with a kind and loving man like Mr. Jackson. With a man like the one she’d written to… Even if Thackery had needed help in order to get his sweet words written down. She imagined that he could work on that just as well as she could work on forgiving him.
Chapter 7
Although she was doing her best to keep her mind off of Mr. Thackery Prescott, Annie was pleased to be handed another letter a few afternoons later, from Rita of all people. “He dropped it off at the restaurant. I asked him if he wanted to stop in for a quick bite, but he said no. He only comes here for you.”
Annie blushed a bit as she took the envelope. She didn’t necessarily enjoy hearing that, because she knew that her employer wanted customers to come for the meals and the ambiance of his restaurant, not for one of the waitresses. After all, he had made sure to keep them from being particularly eye-catching, but somehow Thackery had seen past the bland uniform and was attracted to her anyway. It helped that he knew who she was already. Mr. Stewart had to understand that.
“Thank you, Rita,” she said a bit sheepishly.
Rita held tight to the letter at first so Annie couldn’t just take it. She looked right into her eyes. “Don’t let this become a regular thing,” she intoned harshly.
Annie always got the feeling that Rita would’ve done well as a schoolmarm. She was nice and well-meaning enough, but there was something stern about her whenever she gave directions to Annie and the rest of the girls. She took her authority very seriously, and she was quite faithful to the business and their boss.
Nodding her head, Annie carefully received the paper from Rita. “Yes, ma’am,” she said. “I’ll see to that.”
She took the letter to the dormitory and sat in one of the courting parlors rather than rushing upstairs to her room just yet. She’d need to send out a new letter today, apparently.
Dear Miss Annie,
I’m very grateful to you for writing back to me. I can tell that you do not wish for your life to change. It is my belief however that your life and mine could change together without you having to make very many sacrifices at all. I don’t wish to make you have to quit your position at the restaurant. That is entirely up to Mr. Stewart, of course. If he has initiated a contract with you that requests you don’t get married, then I believe severing it wouldn’t necessarily be the worst thing. It seems to me that the restaurant is restricting you a great deal more than you think.
It is my wish to see you again, Miss Annie. I long to start a farm of my own in Wallace and have you as my wife. You shall have as much freedom as you’d like with me, I promise you that. There’s so much more that you can accomplish out here. You needn’t always be a server. I wish to make you happy and treat you like a princess now that we are together again, or nearly anyway.
What do you say?
With great affection,
Thackery
Annie sighed a bit and placed this letter back into its envelope. She didn’t know what she was supposed to say to any of this. He clearly wasn’t going to stop trying. And Rita was clearly not going to keep her temper about all of these letters. Climbing the staircase, Annie went into her room and sat at her vanity, taking out her pen and some paper in order to scrawl a quick response. She’d need to get back to work for the lunch train soon, but she had enough time to run to the post office as long as she didn’t change. Thinking of that, she swiftly removed her apron and bow. Carrie’s so smart, she thought, recalling her friend advising her to do just that when she wanted to keep her uniform on otherwise. She just hoped she wouldn’t get too much dust and dirt on her newly cleaned outfit…
Placing pen to paper, she quickly jotted out a note back for Mr. Prescott.
Dear Mr. Prescott,
I understand that you are decided on how you wish to create a future for yourself here and you don’t want to back down from your dreams, but you must take my feelings into account. I know that you say that I will be free to do whatever I like if I should quit my life here and start over again with you, but you fail to tell me how. How shall I fill my days with happiness if I’m to become simply a housewife? I know that my friends who have gone off and
gotten married have fared well in that endeavor, but I’m not like them. I believe I’m a great deal more tied to my job here than they were. As such, it’s going to take something more than the promise of a married life for me to want to quit the Stewart House.
Please consider my feelings. I was left here, alone, without knowing a soul or what I was supposed to do next. It was a miracle that Mr. Stewart offered me a job and a home. I don’t think I should’ve survived. You must understand my loyalty to this place. I know that it was a mistake on your part and you never meant to leave me here alone, but the fact of the matter is that you did. It doesn’t matter how either of us ended up where we are now; all that matters is the here and now.
As such, I wouldn’t mind calling you my friend. But you must stop delivering these amorous letters to my place of employment before I get in trouble. My supervisor suspects that you’re trying to court me away and no matter how often I say that is not the case, she is annoyed at me and at you, as well.
I would suggest that from now on, if you wish to speak with me, you do so in person at the restaurant. That way, you’re providing my boss with patronage.
Sincerely,
Annie
She folded up this letter and placed it onto a fresh envelope, scrawling his name onto the back of it once more. As before, she didn’t know his address but she figured that, since he was a migrant worker more than a settled farmer, he’d be easily found by the postman in Sharon Springs. Another reason to not be writing these letters to him – it was far easier to just speak with him in person, especially if he insisted on delivering them himself anyway.
What a silly man, she thought with a shake of her head as she went down the street to drop this new letter off with the postmaster there. I hope he will heed my warning and stop this nonsense before I lose my job.
Annie: A Bride For The Farmhand - A Clean Historical Western Romance (Stewart House Brides Book 3) Page 4