by Davis, Mary
Her bottom lip quivered, but she said, “Okay.”
He gave her a gentle kiss on the lips.
“Do you want to come in for supper?” she asked. “It won’t be ready for a while yet.”
“I was hoping you’d ask.” He took her by the hand and led her inside. Tomorrow she would see just how committed he was to sticking around.
❧
The next day, Lizzie drove across the field toward Pete’s Jenny parked next to hers, which was draped in canvas to keep the animals away. Mr. Johnson had been very generous to let them use his land. Next to the aeroplanes, Pete had pitched a tent for himself. He slept in it most nights, but on the really cold, late-October nights, he stayed at Bill’s. He was staying at Bill’s more and more.
She parked and got out.
Pete greeted her with a hug and a kiss. “I just need to adjust the wires on the left wing, and we’ll be ready to go. Go ahead and climb aboard. Fred’s already in the seat.”
She did, putting Fred on her lap, and watched Pete work. She remembered what Pete had told her over two months ago about her not being as modern as she thought she was. He was right. If she was truly a modern girl, she’d propose to him. She was not that bold.
Pete hadn’t mentioned marriage, and he hadn’t proposed again. But between his going off for days and her working at Liberty Orchard making candy all day now that the season was in full swing, she didn’t get to spend as much time with him as she wanted to. And the time they did spend was usually around her family’s table. Not much time alone.
Grandpa had jumped in with helping and even did some of the cooking. It was nice to come home to supper, even if it was only beans and biscuits. Daddy even talked about moving into town.
Lizzie did not want to get her hopes up about Pete’s surprise. She’d thought a lot about Pete yesterday and realized he was not the kind of fellow who settled down and took a wife. He was a gypsy and needed to move around. Every day was one day closer to the time he would leave.
Pete gave her a blanket to keep warm and gifted her with a smile.
How many more of those would she get?
He flew over the trees and to Wenatchee ten miles away, landing on a field that looked like it was designed for aero-planes to land on its smooth terrain.
Pete pulled up by one of the buildings and stopped, then helped her down.
“What is this place? I didn’t know Wenatchee had a landing field.”
Pete smiled. “It does now.” He waved his hand toward the top of the high hangar building. Garfield-Spencer Flying School.
“Is that you?” She pointed toward the sign.
Pete hooked his thumbs in the waist of his pants. “Sure is. I met this guy Spencer at the hardware store. We got to talking, and I found out he was a pilot, too. We pooled what we had and made a down payment on this land. I’ve been working with Spencer to smooth the runway.”
“This is what you’ve been doing? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I wanted it to be a surprise. Come inside and meet Spencer, and I’ll show you around.” He took her inside and introduced her to a beanpole of a man who had to be over six foot six inches with wiry black hair.
Spencer shook her hand. “Pleased to finally meet you. And welcome to the team.”
She looked from Spencer to Pete.
Pete leaned toward Spencer. “I haven’t told her yet.”
“Told me what?”
“We want you to work here with us.” Pete handed her a set of leather flying togs. “These are for you.”
She should be excited but found herself disappointed. This was no marriage proposal or a ring, only a job offer. Her heart sank. “Can I think about it?”
“Of course,” Pete said to her, then leaned toward Spencer. “She’ll take it. She won’t be able to stay away.”
Would she? Taking this position would mean giving up her dream of ever getting married. Did Pete only think of her as a potential partner and not as a potential wife? Did he regret proposing on a whim?
Pete showed her around, then flew her back to Cashmere.
She was warmer in her leather flying gear than with the blanket.
“Wait here. Fred has something for you.” Pete took Fred into his tent and returned a moment later with Fred limping at his side.
“He’s hurt.” She rushed over.
Pete knelt beside Fred, who raised the offending paw. He had something on it. She knelt to see what it was. Fred rose up on his haunches and waved his front paws at her. She took the one paw and saw that there was a diamond ring tied to it. She sucked in a breath.
Pete untied it. “Will you marry me?”
“Are you sure?” It’s what she wanted, but not if he didn’t really want to stay. “You would have to stay here and not fly all over the country.”
“That’s why I built a flying school, so I could stay.” He raised her to her feet. “Look around.” He turned her in a circle in the field. “Everything you see is mine. Or will be mine when I get it paid off.”
“What? Since when? No, it’s not.”
“I bought it from Mr. Johnson three weeks ago.” He led her by the hand to the corner of the field. A rock foundation had been started. “I’m building you a house. I told you I’d prove to you that I was serious. Tell me what else to do, and I’ll do it.”
Tears sprang to her eyes. He really did want to stay. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”
He slipped the ring onto her finger, then swooped her into his arms and kissed her.
“I love you, Pete.”
He smiled. “I know.”
“You do? How?”
“You told me once. I figured if you ever changed your mind, you’d tell me.”
“And?”
“And what?”
“You’re supposed to tell me you love me, too.”
He caressed her face. “Don’t you know how much I love you? I’d do just about anything for you.”
“A girl likes to hear it.”
“I love you, the future Mrs. Pete Garfield.” He kissed her again.
“How soon can we get married?”
Pete waved a hand toward the unfinished foundation. “I don’t have a house for you yet.”
“I don’t care.”
“I do. You can help me plan it out.”
“Can I help you build it, too?”
Pete shook his head. “You really are amazing. What other doll would want to help build a house?”
“One who wants to get married to the man she loves.”
Seventeen
Six months later
Two days before the wedding in Cashmere, Pete put the last of his tools into his toolbox that Lizzie had bought him. He surveyed the first floor of his and Lizzie’s recently completed house. There was no furniture yet. That had been due to arrive yesterday but hadn’t. Maybe sometime today. Everything would be set on their wedding day.
He’d had offers to fly some stunts, but he’d turned them down. He didn’t want to widow his bride before they were even married. He’d waited a long time for a special doll like Lizzie; he wanted to spend at least fifty years growing old with her.
He stood in the empty room and waited for that choking feeling he’d been expecting every day since Lizzie agreed to marry him to overtake him. But it never came. He never once had doubts that putting down roots with her was going to be a struggle. The roots that had already grown had grown out of his love for Lizzie and had been a source of strength for him. He was more afraid of Lizzie changing her mind than of being tethered to the ground, but Lizzie seemed more excited than he to get married. She was finally going to be his wife and move in.
Gratitude overwhelmed him, and he dropped to his knees. Lord, You have blessed me beyond measure. You took a poor orphan boy with nothing and gave him the world.
A knock interrupted him, and he went to the door. Lizzie stood rosy-cheeked like a breath of fresh spring air on the porch. He took her hand and pulled her inside. “I finished the til
es in the kitchen. Come see.” He pulled her to the other room. He’d found the pale blue and pink tiles she’d wanted and had set them in all the countertops. He hoped she liked it. When she didn’t say anything, he turned to her.
She wasn’t even looking at the kitchen; instead she studied him. “I love you.”
He kissed her. “I love you, too. Do you like it?”
“It’s perfect.”
“None of the furniture is here yet. It should come today. I hope it’s here before the wedding.”
“Even if it’s not, that’s fine.”
“I want your house to be perfect.”
“This house has everything in it right now to be perfect.”
He frowned. “It’s empty.”
“It has you. That’s all I need.”
“And all I need is you.”
A holler came from outside. “Yoo-hoo!”
Lizzie smiled and bit her bottom lip. “I have a surprise for you.” She pulled him by the hand out the front door. “You said it didn’t matter that you didn’t have much family to come to the wedding.”
A crowd of strangers, about a dozen, stood smiling up at the two of them. In front were Aunt Ethel and Uncle Merle. Who were the other people? His gaze fixed on an older woman with black hair. Even well into her forties, she had an arresting beauty about her. Without prodding, his feet propelled him forward to the woman. He could never forget those loving violet eyes. “Miss Vivian.”
“Hello, Peter.”
He took her hand and kissed it. “You saved my life.” When he was an orphan living on the streets of Port Townsend with four other orphans, Miss Vivian had brought them food so they wouldn’t have to go hungry or steal. Then she had helped build an orphanage to give the unwanted children a home.
He turned to the man standing next to her. “Mr. Jackson.”
“It’s Conner.” Conner shook his hand.
He met Ruby, Vivian and Conner’s adopted daughter with flaming red hair and a clubfoot. Unable to have children of their own, they had adopted Ruby when she was eight and later had adopted three other children. She was a lovely young lady in her early twenties. They still lived in Port Townsend and ran the general store as well as helped with Carlyle Shipping and the orphanage.
He saw Abigail, who still ran the orphanage, standing next to her husband, Martin. He shook hands with Harry, Abigail’s son with whom he’d played as a child. Harry now had five younger siblings.
Pete next shook hands with a strapping man he remembered. “George.” George had been the oldest of the orphans, and by the way he held the woman beside him, Pete would say she was George’s wife. She held a two-year-old girl on her hip.
“You remember Betsy?” George looked lovingly at the woman.
“You’re Betsy?” She didn’t look anything like the scrawny, sad girl who always kept her head down.
“Pipe down. That ain’t polite.” Betsy said in an all-too-familiar tone, then smiled. She was always trying to get him to watch what he said and to behave.
“I never would have recognized you.”
She was a woman of simple beauty. “This is our son, Malcolm.” A boy of ten stood next to George.
He shook the boy’s hand. “It’s good to meet you.”
“Where are Samuel and Tommy?” he asked George.
“They joined a ship’s crew when they were old enough.” Sadness crossed George’s face. “It went down more than ten years ago.”
Then Pete came to the last in the crowd, a stooped-shouldered old lady. She held out her hand to him. “It’s Maggie.”
He took her hand. Maggie had been Miss Vivian’s housekeeper. “You made the best fried chicken.”
Maggie smiled and patted his hand. “I’m glad you liked it.”
He stepped back and looked at the crowd. This was his family. Not by blood, but by choice.
❧
Two days later
Lizzie’s breath caught when she saw Pete smiling at her from the front of the packed church. She was finally going to be his wife. She’d feared over the months that he’d change his mind and realize he didn’t want to stay put, even for her. But he seemed happy in Cashmere, and his flying school was thriving and growing. He and his partner, Spencer, had even signed a contract to fly the mail routes between Wenatchee and Spokane and Seattle. Fred sat at Pete’s feet.
Daddy squeezed her hand. “I like the boy.”
Tears welled. “Oh, Daddy, that means so much to me.” Daddy had sold the small farm and moved into town with Ivan and Grandpa. The three were getting on well and had hired a woman to come cook and clean. Mrs. Altman had helped Lizzie with her wedding dress. Lizzie was glad not to have to worry over Daddy so much.
“I tried hard not to like him.”
She knew the feeling. She’d tried not to like Pete either because she never expected him to stay, but there was something about him that wrapped around her heart.
She and Daddy stopped at the front, and Daddy gave her away. He kissed her on the cheek. “I love you, Elizabeth.”
She would always be Elizabeth to Daddy, but he’d accepted that other people called her Lizzie. “I love you, too, Daddy.” Daddy sat down next to Grandpa Finn and Ivan.
She took Pete’s arm and finally was able to take her vows and start her life as a married woman.
After Pastor Littleman pronounced them husband and wife and Pete had kissed her for the first time as his wife, everyone proceeded to the reception at her brand-new, yet empty, house. The furniture still had not arrived.
Pete’s friend David stood next to the red-haired beauty named Ruby. She was one of the group of people Aunt Ethel had rounded up, all of whom were proud to call Pete family. David had garnered one of the two window seats for Ruby to get off her poor leg. The elderly Maggie held the other window seat.
Pete came up and hooked his arm around Lizzie’s waist. “It’s time for you to go up and change so we can take off.”
“So soon?”
“We need the daylight.”
“Where are you taking me?”
Pete put his index finger on her lips. “Shh. I can’t tell you that. It’s a surprise.”
She rushed upstairs, anxious for them to be on their way, and returned with her one small bag that Pete had said she could take along. Everyone poured out of the house to send the couple off. Someone had tied red fabric strips to Jenny’s wing wires, and a banner lay on the ground behind her. Lizzie and Pete went over to it. Just Married. Pete and Lizzie.
Pete held out a hand to her. “Climb in, and I’ll get our bags.”
“Can I fly?”
He kissed her on the cheek and whispered, “No one flies my Jenny but me.”
“Is that a yes?”
“You don’t know where we’re going.”
She poked out a pouty bottom lip. “You could tell me.”
“Get in front. You can fly us home again.”
“I love you so much.”
“I love you, too, more than I ever thought possible.” He gave her another quick kiss. “Now get in.”
She climbed up onto the wing and into the front seat. Pete handed her their bags to put at her feet. He started the aeroplane moving, and she waved to the cheering crowd.
Ivan held Fred and made his paw wave. He’d promised to take care of the dog while they were gone.
Pete thrust the throttle forward, and Jenny took off across the field. Lizzie waited, then felt the rush of leaving the ground. She never grew tired of it. She was flying, and she was married. Two things she had thought would never happen.
The banner fluttered behind them. She turned to try to read it but couldn’t. It was enough that she knew what it said. Pete blew her a kiss then flew back and forth across town and even over Wenatchee to let everyone know they were married before heading toward the sunset and their honeymoon.
About the Author
Mary Davis is a full-time writer whose first published novel was Newlywed Games from Multnomah. She enjoy
s going into schools and talking to kids about writing. Mary lives near Colorado’s Rocky Mountains with her husband, three teens, and seven pets. Please visit her Web site at marydavisbooks.com.
Dedication
To Grandma Elizabeth Calkin
And to Pete
A note from the Author:
I love to hear from my readers! You may correspond with me by writing:
Mary Davis
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