Mail Order Wife

by Montana West

  After a long while he stood up and looked at his handiwork. Amelia’s grave looked fresh and pretty from the flowers that he had picked on his way up there. He kissed the tombstone and then turned homeward.

  ~~~ *** ~~~

  “Abigail, where are you?” Katherine called in exasperation. The child could be trying at times. “Where are you at?”

  “Auntie Kate, I am going to feed Misty and Spitfire and Primrose,” Abigail called out.

  Katherine sighed. Her brother’s children were a strange lot, and she knew that if she did not work so hard to visit every two months, they would slowly turn into vagabonds because their father seemed to be lost in a world of his own since his wife’s death.

  “What these girls need is a mother,” Katherine muttered as she aired the girls’ bedroom. Her brown hair was neatly wrapped in a headscarf as she worked, her plump body shaking with exertion. Her nieces worried her greatly. They were growing up very fast, and she was fearful that without a woman to guide them they might fall prey to the wranglers who frequented the ranch from time to time in search of work.

  William’s ranch was mostly wild ground because he allowed his horses freedom to roam the property. But he also had a few head of cattle, and Amelia had kept some chickens and goats. The number had dwindled after her death, but she could see that Mary was trying to keep her mother’s dream of having a self-sufficient farm alive. But the girl was only a child. Whenever the grass was tall William would look for wranglers to come and help him cut it to make hay for his animals.

  Katherine sighed, her blue eyes quite troubled. She finished making the girls’ beds, left their bedroom and walked to the kitchen, wondering where Mary was. She had allowed her brother to grieve for his wife, but four months after her death she had tried to broach the subject of him getting another wife, and almost got her head bitten off for her efforts.

  “We are alright,” William had snapped at her. “If you are tired of coming to check on us then stay at home with your husband and children. We do not want to be a bother to you.”

  At the time Kate had put it down to grief and excused her brother’s behavior. But now, a year later, he was still not showing any signs of moving on. She knew that he visited Amelia’s grave every morning when he was home, and she felt that it was becoming an obsession with him. She realized that she would have to use tough love to wake her brother up, or else he would lose his children. William was like their mother, very soft-hearted, and when their father had run off with another woman, Brigitte had slowly given up the will to live and one day they had found her dead in her bed.

  When Kate heard Abigail laughing happily, she knew her brother had returned from his morning ritual at Amelia’s graveside. She heard the ten year old chattering and her father responding, and soon the back door opened.

  “Good day.” William entered the kitchen.

  “Hello, William,” she smiled at him. “How was your morning ride?”

  “Refreshing.” He pulled out a chair at the round table and sat down, and Abigail immediately sat on his lap. He ruffled her hair. It was brown, like his.

  “Why did you cut your hair again, Abigail?” her aunt asked her. The child turned her blue eyes, so much like her father’s, and looked at her aunt.

  “It is too heavy, and besides, when I ride the horses and the wind blows, it gets in my eyes.”

  Kate sighed inwardly. That girl was a trial and a growing one. “Where is Mary? Go and fetch her so we can have lunch together. I need to have an early start back home today. The stagecoach should be at Hellgate at around four, and I do not want to miss it.”

  William raised his tanned face to his sister. “You promised you would stay until Saturday, and it is only Wednesday.”

  Kate twisted her lips. “I know, but I think I have to leave.”

  Mary walked in at that moment and heard her aunt saying that she wanted to leave, and she rushed to her.

  “Aunt Kate, please don’t go,” she hugged the surprised woman. “I will be good. Please don’t go today. Promise that you will stay.” Her large brown eyes held fear and sadness, and now welled with tears as she looked pleadingly at her aunt.

  “Okay, okay,” Kate laughingly extracted herself from the girl’s thin hands. Her brown hair was messed up, and Kate sighed. She could never get it to look neat, much as she combed it. Her usual style was a thick braid that Kate did her best to comb out whenever she could, in order to avoid the child getting head lice.

  Mary was becoming clingy and Kate realized this was not a good sign. She would serve lunch, and when the girls were done eating she would send them off on an errand and have a heart-to-heart talk with her brother.

  “William,” she said, after the girls had left for Pastor Thomas’ home just a few miles away on the ridge.

  “Yes?”

  “I want you to listen to me,” Katherine said in a quiet voice, and something in her tone made William look at her sharply.

  “What is it?”

  “It is about Abby and Mary. I love those girls and you know it, but I cannot take the place of their mother, William.”

  “No one can ever take Amelia’s place.”

  “I know that. But what I mean is that they need a woman full-time, and I can only be here every other month at most. My own family needs me, and it is becoming increasingly difficult for me to keep coming over, especially since Marshall was voted-in as sheriff of Butte.”

  “I am sorry that we have imposed so much on your time.”

  She shook her head. “That is not what I am saying, William.” She sighed. “What I mean is that the girls are growing up fast, and before you know it, boys and men will be beating a path to your doorstep. Are you ready for that to happen?”

  “No,” William growled. “I will kill any man who dares show his face around here.”

  “You cannot stop the river from flowing, and so you need to be prepared for when that happens. Mary is turning out to be a beautiful young lady, and I am getting quite disturbed.”

  “Why?”

  “You are not around much, and even when you are, you seem to be lost in a world of your own. Have you noticed that the wranglers, who come in search of work, tend to hang around long after the work is over, on pretext of one thing or the other?”

  “What?”

  Kate nodded. “I am getting worried, because without proper monitoring one of those boys will ‘convince’ Mary, and take advantage of her.”

  William put his head in his hands and looked down. “What do I do? I cannot stay here all day to look after Mary! And when I am away, Mrs. Thomas comes to look after the girls.”

  “But do you see what an inconvenience that is? She has to leave Pastor Thomas, and the children, and come to take on extra work.”

  “What do you want me to do?”

  “Get a wife,” Katherine held up a hand when he would have spoken. “I know you loved Amelia so much, no one can ever doubt that. But you have got to consider that the children now need a mother, and someone to be here full-time for them.”

  “We are doing alright.”

  “No, William. You are trying to convince yourself of that fact, but you also know that what I am saying is true. Besides, the girls are at a very sensitive stage, and on the threshold of turning into young women. Who do you want to help them transition? A new mother? Or the wranglers who come here?”

  “Don’t say that.”

  “I have to. You need to face reality. It is not easy, and I am not saying you jump on just any woman, but please, think about what I am telling you.”

  “But Kate, all the good ladies I know are married. And those who are not married are not the kind that I want around my girls.”

  “Then let me help you get a wife.”

  “Where from?”

  “Mail order.”

  “What?” William hooted with laughter. “Are you serious?”

  “Yes, William. Many of the ladies who live around here have acquired a certain class because o
f the exposure to miners and wealth, and so they have extreme demands. And besides, many of them are not even Christians. But think about the ladies who come west to be brides. They are women who are serious about building their own homes, and that is why they would risk leaving everything behind to come to the Wild West.”

  William was shaking his head in amusement. “Have you heard of anyone ordering for a bride through the mail?”

  “In Butte, yes,” Katherine nodded. “It happens all the time. And the women are hard-working and soon settle down and become good farmers’ wives and mothers.”

  Later that night as William lay on his bed, he thought about what his sister had told him. What she said made perfect sense, but he could not imagine another woman coming into his life, into his house, and into the bed which he had shared with Amelia. He could not imagine getting intimate with any other woman. He put his hands behind his head and stared at the ceiling in the darkness. He heard murmurs and realized that his sister and daughters were not yet asleep.

  He listened and heard sniffles, and knew that one of his daughters was crying again. He sighed and got out of bed to go and find out what was going on. He opened the door and walked barefoot, his feet making no sound on the wooden floor. When he got to the girls’ room the door was slightly ajar, and he could see Kate sitting on Mary’s bed. The little girl was in her aunt’s arms for a while, and then she sat back.

  “Aunt Kate, why can’t you be our mother?”

  “Because dear, I have a family of my own, and I can only be your aunt.”

  “Why can’t you talk to Papa to get us a new mom? All the other children have mothers.

  We don’t.”

  “I know, child, I know. Give your father time, and he will soon get you a mother.”

  “When?” she demanded. “Even Betsy’s father married another mother for them when their mother died, and now they have a mother. Why can’t we have a mother?”

  “Your pa will soon get you a mother,” Kate said, but there was doubt in her voice.

  “It is okay, aunty. Because Pa is shy, I have already started looking for a wife for him.”

  “What?”

  “I will find a mother for Abigail and me, and a wife for Pa.”

  “Where from, child?”

  “Mrs. Thomas said if I put an advert in the newspaper, some woman from the east is bound to be looking for a husband and will reply, and she can come here and be our mom. So I asked Daddy for some money, went with Mrs. Thomas to town in Hellgate, and placed an advert. The kind man said he will run it and send it to different newspapers in different cities, so that Papa can get a wife quickly.”

  “Oh, child.”

  William went back to his room and flung himself on the bed, face down. Now his daughter too? He groaned silently. Why couldn’t everyone leave him alone? He loved Amelia and there was no room in his heart for another woman. Pastor Thomas had been visiting every week since Amelia died, and lately he and his wife had been hinting at the same thing. It was as though everyone was conspiring against him. He fumed silently.

  “I won’t be forced into marriage,” he gritted through his teeth. “They have to realize that I am not interested.”

  But in the morning, when William looked at his children and especially Mary, compassion welled up in his heart. As usual, Mary was the one who set the table for meals, and as usual she took her mother’s coffee mug out of the cabinet and set it on the table. But then as usual, she did not use it, nor did she put anything in it, and once again at the end of the meal she put it back in the cabinet.

  Katherine was observing her brother as he observed his daughter, and when he realized she was staring at him, he looked up. Her eyes were pleading with him. He nodded and she smiled.

  His daughter’s actions were not normal for a twelve-year-old girl, and he realized that, much as he did not want to, he was going to make some changes in his household and find a mother for his girls.

  As he walked out to feed the horses Abigail skipped happily beside him. She seemed to cling to him more, and he realized that whenever he was around she was very happy, but the moment he mentioned that he had to go to the mountains she would weep and pout and cling. Mrs. Thomas had told him that she refused to join other children and preferred being with the horses. By nature, Mary was the clingy one, but he realized that Abigail had begun clinging to him and staying very close to him.

  “Pa?”

  “Yes, Abby?”

  “Will you ever leave us?”

  William stopped abruptly and she bumped into him. He wheeled around to look at her.

  “What?”

  “Will you go away to the mountains, and not come back again one day?”

  He crouched until he was on eye level with the little girl.

  “Why would you think that?”

  “Because, you are always so sad after Ma died, and Aunt Kate said you were pining so much, and might fade away.”

  William kissed his daughter’s forehead. “Your pa is here to stay with you, okay?”

  “Pa?”

  “Yes?”

  “Will you take me with you to the mountains?”

  “Abby, we have talked about this. Besides, who will stay with Mary if we both go?”

  Abigail sighed. “If we had a ma, she could stay with Mary, and then I could come with you to the mountains to catch horses.”

  ~~~ *** ~~~

  The girls were asleep, but William was wide awake. He sat on the porch and wished he could smoke his pipe, but it was a habit he had given up when he married Amelia. He just kept the pipe to remind him of days gone by.

  The moon was new and gave some light, and he sat deep in thought. The stagecoach had come to Hellgate while he was there escorting Kate to return home, and the driver, who knew him very well, had given him a letter. It was from a woman in New York who had seen his advert and had responded. According to the letter she was twenty-two years old and a widow. Her husband had died three years previously, leaving her with two young sons to raise, and now life in New York was proving very tough. She mentioned that she was a hard worker and was ready to get more children, something which had made William shudder. He could not imagine holding any other woman in his arms. It would be a deep betrayal to Amelia. This was definitely not the kind of woman he wanted, but out of courtesy he sent her a letter requesting her to share more information about her and her expectations for life as a settler’s wife.

  Over the next week four more letters came for William, and he straight away discarded two of them. The women were sixteen years old, only a few years older than his own daughters. He did not need another child to look after. He wanted a mother for Mary and Abigail.

  He pondered the remaining two. One was from a woman in Chicago who was twenty and had never been married, neither did she have any children. William shook his head at this one, too. She wanted children, but he was not interested in the intimacy side of the marriage. But just like with the first woman, he sent her a letter asking her to give her expectations as a frontier wife.

  The last letter had him thinking deeply.

  Dear Mr. William Edwards,

  My name is Elizabeth Anne Lowell and I am nineteen years old. I am a Christian, and belong to the Boston Baptist Church. I read your advert in the Boston Daily and realize that you are the kind of man that I am hoping to meet and marry. My sister, Virginia, who is fifteen years old, and I are orphans. Mama died when I was nine and Virginia was six, and Papa died two months ago, leaving us all alone in the world.

  I am well-educated because Papa engaged the services of an English school madam for us. I play the violin very well, as I was taught by an Italian immigrant. I can also cook very well and clean the house. Besides that, my nanny Ruth also taught me how to make soap and oils, and I know that these are items that many frontier wives have need for, and so when it comes to the matter of upkeep, I will easily make money to fend for Virginia and myself.

  As this is the first letter, I do not want to w
rite too much for fear of being thought a chatterer. Let me mention that I wear glasses, especially to read with. I hope this will not make you think that I am blind and cannot make a good settler’s wife. Most days I do not wear them because I can see alright. However, when I need to read, then I put them on.

  Having said all this, if my letter meets with your favor I will be glad to receive a response from you.

  Elizabeth.

  William thought about this letter deeply. The woman did not mention children anywhere. And she talked of going into business for herself. This sounded like a woman who was very independent, and perhaps they could come to an agreement. He frowned. But he would not be quick to accept her. She might just get here and begin to demand her conjugal rights.

  “I will test and see if this woman is the kind that I am looking for.” So he wrote back and asked her how many children she thought they should have together, should they get married. Her answer surprised him and brought a smile to his face.

  Dear Mr. William Edwards,

  Thank you for responding to my letter. I am most touched that you thought of asking about our welfare. We live in a rooming house, and I work for the landlady as a scullery maid. In return, we have the room rent-free and she gives us two meals a day.

  Regarding the matter of children, I believe your advert said you already have two children and I feel that there is no need to add more, at least not at this point in time. Mary and Abigail are at an age where they need a mother, probably more than you need a wife, and so it would be better to hold off thinking about children until the girls are established and settled in their new life with a new mother. I have been reading up a little on life on the frontier, as written by early settlers’ wives, and it seems like hard work, which I of course will be glad to do. However, that will probably not leave any room for children, because you told me that your ranch is still small and you are working to make it bigger and more productive. Therefore, what I am saying is that I am begging your pardon, but should you and I get married, can we hold off having more children for another five years?