A Husband for Margaret Read online

  “And good luck,” Debra added with a slight shake of her head as she glanced at the children.

  Connie and Debra strolled off together, already discussing Mrs. Lonny and how they knew the woman.

  Margaret waited until Connie and Debra were out of hearing distance before she gave the four children a big hug. “You all were wonderful!”

  “It worked, just like you said!” Bob cheered.

  “It did,” Doug added, amazed.

  “You bet it did,” she said. “I knew that Miss Potter was all talk. When push came to shove, she backed off. She won’t be a problem anymore.”

  “And we get cookies?” Bob pressed.

  “Of course, you do,” she replied, looking over her shoulder to see if Joseph would venture over to them. Sure enough, he was heading in their direction. “You go on and play with Charles and Ben right over there. I need to talk to your pa for a moment.”

  They obeyed and she turned her attention to a bewildered looking Joseph. “It worked.”

  “Of course, it did.” She raised her eyebrow. “Now, will you trust me to do what’s best for these children?”

  “Our children. And yes.” He leaned forward and kissed her cheek. “I’m sorry I gave you a hard time.”

  She pretended to think it over and smiled. “As long as it doesn’t happen again, I can overlook this incident.”

  “It’ll never happen again.”

  “Good.” She jabbed him in the side. “You better get back to work. I didn’t marry you so you could run about town and see what mischief I’m up to.”

  He chuckled. “Yes, dear.” He leaned forward and whispered, “You do know I love you, don’t you?”

  Blushing, she replied, “I love you too.”

  After he gave her another kiss on the cheek, he went over to the boys, and she caught a sudden notion that it might possibly be nice to have another child to welcome into the family. The thought caught her by surprise. She must be crazy to anticipate another one when her hands were already full, but she reasoned that what this family desperately needed was a girl or two to help even things out. As it was, she was horribly outnumbered by the boys.

  Yes, she decided. Now that she got the Debra Potter situation resolved, it was time to move onto the next mission: a girl.

  Chapter Sixteen

  One year later

  Margaret set down the pancakes on the table already filled with enough food to feed an army. Charles and Ben hovered nearby, watching everything she did with unbridled interest. One boy even patted his stomach in anticipation for the feast to come.

  “You boys eat all the time, but looking at your hungry stares, one would swear I never feed you,” she commented with a shake of her head. “When your sister is old enough, it’ll be nice to have her help in here.”

  She went over to the open kitchen window and saw that Doug was chasing Bob around the backyard.

  “Breakfast is ready!” she called out.

  They immediately stopped, cheered as if this was a grand old event, and ran to the kitchen door.

  She rolled her eyes. Seriously, she fed them every meal and even gave out snacks. Turning to Charles and Ben, she helped them into their chairs and began dishing out their portions of the meal.

  Joseph entered the kitchen just in time to be bombarded by Doug and Bob who pushed him aside so they could sit at their places. “You need to be careful,” he admonished them. “I’m carrying your sister.”

  “Sorry, Pa,” Bob said.

  “I’ll take her.” Margaret took the one month old girl and cradled her in her arms. Looking at Joseph, she said, “This is the big day.”

  Joseph gave her a kiss and nodded. “I’m not going to miss working at the mercantile.”

  “I’m excited for you,” she admitted. She knew how much working at the paper meant to him, and now he could work there full-time. “Well, you better sit down and eat so you have your energy for the day.”

  They all sat down, waited for him to say grace, and then they began their meal.

  She smiled at her daughter who stared back at the four boys who ate as if they hadn’t eaten in years. “You’ll have to get used to it, Charlotte. Your brothers are animals.”

  “Hey!” Doug protested before he stuffed a waffle in his mouth.

  “We’re not animals,” Bob agreed. He poured syrup on his eggs and then dug into them.

  “I swear, Bob,” she began, “if it doesn’t have sugar on it, you won’t touch it.”

  “Aren’t you going to eat anything?” Joseph asked her as he spread butter on his pancakes.

  “I already did.” She learned that it was best to eat ahead of time because this crowd was too much to keep up with and eat. There was always someone who needed something.

  Bob, like usual, was done first, so she put Charlotte down in the basinet in the corner of the room and helped him clean up. He brought his plate and cup to her and she washed them as he washed his hands. The process went unusually smooth that morning. She realized that this was going to be one of those good days. Each kid got done, one at a time with Ben taking the longest as he tore apart everything, carefully inspected it, and then took small bites of it. Ben was working on his last piece of toast when Joseph stood up.

  He brought his dish and cup to the sink before kissing her good-bye. “Have a good day.”

  “You too,” she replied as she washed his dishes.

  After he left, Ben was done and she instructed Doug to wipe down the table and Bob to pull in the chairs. Charles bent over the basinet and made funny faces at Charlotte who turned her wide eyes in his direction.

  “She’s just a baby,” Bob told Charles. “She doesn’t know what you’re doing.”

  Margaret brought Ben to the sink and washed him up. “I’m sure she’s enjoying it,” she told Bob who didn’t look convinced.

  Once the boys were clean and the kitchen in order, she decided to take them to the park across the street. This year Charles was four, so Doug and Bob declared that he was old enough to play ball with them. Ben, however, was still too young, but she gave him his own ball to toss around. Ben had gotten comfortable with her enough by now, so he often ran off to play with Charles or by himself.

  They went onto the porch, and she set a gurgling Charlotte into the baby carriage and placed the rattle in the child’s hand. Charlotte squealed and shook it. Margaret smiled and tapped her daughter’s nose.

  “You fuss over her too much,” Bob said, holding his ball under his arm.

  “That’s because I’m going to need her help keeping you boys in line,” Margaret told him. “I need her on my side.”

  Doug closed the screen door. “Women like babies, Bob. It can’t be helped.”

  “Babies are cuddly and cute,” Margaret replied. “They’re meant to be fussed over.”

  Doug and Bob grimaced so she ran over to them and hugged them.

  “Oh gross!” Bob shrieked while Doug grunted.

  “You boys need fussing from time to time too. But not as much as girls, I’m sure.” She nearly got tackled by Charles and Ben who decided to take that moment to rush in to hug her. Laughing, she tickled the four delighted boys before she realized that if she did this too long, she’d have no energy to walk around the park. “Alright, alright.” She stood up straight and took a deep breath. “I promised Jessica I’d meet her in fifteen minutes, so we better go.”

  Doug and Bob shot across the yard and made it to the park before she could get the baby carriage to the ground. Charles and Ben were trailing after their older brothers, but Ben tripped and fell. Ben cried and waited for her to come over to him.

  She stopped pushing the carriage and knelt beside him. Pulling up his pants, she saw the pink knee and patted it. “You’ll be fine. No blood. See?”

  Ben inspected his injury with tear-filled eyes. Assured that he was going to be alright, he nodded and stood up. She kissed him on the top of his head and noted he didn’t take offense to it.

  “At least yo
u’re still young enough to enjoy some motherly affection,” she commented.

  He smiled at her and took a step forward.

  “Um...Ben? The ball?” She motioned to the brown ball in the grass.

  “Oh!” He ran over to retrieve it and came back to her. “It’s my ball.”

  “Yes, it is.”

  They walked to the park where his brothers were already kicking their own ball around.

  “Not their ball,” Ben said, holding up his ball.

  “Nope. That is all yours.”

  He nodded and hugged it. “All mine.”

  She chuckled and stopped at a bench. “Yes, it is. Now, go on and play. I need to take a break. You boys wear me out.”

  She sat down and waited for Jessica to arrive. As tired as she was, she couldn’t deny that she was happy.

  Jessica came along about ten minutes later, holding her four month old daughter.

  Margaret’s eyebrows furrowed. “You didn’t bring her in a carriage? Aren’t your arms sore?”

  “Nelly’s not heavy,” Jessica replied as she sat beside her and set the girl on her lap so she could sit up and study her surroundings.

  “She looks so big from the last time I saw her.” She glanced at her own daughter who had fallen asleep. “I suppose it won’t be long before Charlotte’s off running around with her older brothers. I kind of enjoy babies.”

  “Me too. But that’s why we can have more than one, and then, after that, we get grandchildren!”

  Margaret laughed. “You are always thinking ahead, aren’t you?”

  “I take time to enjoy the moment too.”

  “Yes. I know you do. How are things with Tom?”

  “They’re fine. I think he’d like a boy some day, but he was tickled pink when he first saw Nelly.”

  “I think men like the idea of having a son to follow in their footsteps.”

  “How did Joseph feel about having a girl?”

  “He was relieved. He said at least a girl won’t pee in his face if he changes her diaper.”

  Jessica gasped. “He changes diapers?”

  Margaret smiled. “He had to do that and more with Ben and Charles before he married me.”

  “But now he has you to do that.”

  “Maybe. But if he wants me to have the time to cook, he has to chip in and help. You think I can handle all these children without a helping hand?”

  Jessica seemed to think about it.

  “You just wait until you have a couple more children and talk to me about what is and isn’t a man’s job in the house.”

  She sighed. “You’re probably right.”

  Two distinct sets of laughter caught Margaret’s attention. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw Peter with Debra and his mother. They had apparently decided to take a stroll through the park, and Debra held his arm on one side while his mother held his arm on the other.

  Margaret nudged Jessica in the side.

  Jessica looked up from fussing over her baby and turned her gaze in the direction Margaret motioned to.

  “I know just the color that will suit your new home,” Connie said to Debra. “Yellow.”

  Debra nodded. “A cheery yellow might work. It certainly is a friendly color.”

  “That it is.”

  “And the fence needs to be white. I always wanted a white picket fence,” Debra added. “It’s been a childhood dream.”

  Connie turned her attention to Peter and said, “That settles it. You’ll paint the house yellow and the fence white.”

  Margaret wondered how he’d take this apparent running of his life, and maybe she shouldn’t have been surprised when he simply smiled and agreed to what his mother and his wife wanted. In fact, she couldn’t recall a time when Peter James looked happier.

  The three passed Margaret and Jessica with a polite greeting that the two women returned. Then they continued to their conversation to discuss the types of flowers Debra would plant in the front yard.

  Margaret and Jessica watched them for a good minute before Margaret turned to her friend and said, “There goes the most content man in the world.”

  Jessica shook her head. “I don’t believe it. Those three get along beautifully, don’t they?”

  “A better match was never made,” Margaret agreed.

  “I guess you showed the rest of us.”

  “Meaning?”

  “To be honest, I thought it wasn’t going to work. I thought Connie or Debra would be miserable, but they’re not.”

  “Nope.”

  “I suppose you knew what you were doing when you got Debra and Connie together.”

  “I like to think I know something about people and how they think. Debra and Connie needed each other, and Peter needed a wife who could be friends with his mother.”

  Jessica chuckled. “Remind me to never doubt you again.”

  Margaret grinned. “Oh, I’ll be sure to do that.”

  The two women turned their attention back to their children and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon.

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  A Husband for Margaret