Nelly's Mail Order Husband Read online

  Decision made, she slapped her legs and let out a sigh. “If we’re going to get married, we should go over there before it gets dark.” Then she stood up.

  He didn’t hide his relief as he rose from the porch swing. “I wasn’t sure if you were going to do it or not, given the circumstances.”

  “Well, you’re in luck. I happen to be in a good mood today.”

  He chuckled at her joke. That was a promising sign. At least he could appreciate someone who had a sense of humor like her pa could. She headed down the porch steps and led him over to her family and Preacher Martin. She took a moment to glance in the direction of Seth’s homestead and was relieved to see he was almost of out sight. Good. He wasn’t coming back. He must not have figured out why her family was here. If he had, he would have returned and protested the marriage.

  It was a shame that it had to take Seth to get her to succumb to being a wife, but she supposed it was really only a matter of time before she had to take a husband. Even if Seth hadn’t been coming to her door, there would be some other man who’d want to get his greedy hands on her land. She might as well chain herself to someone who could respect her right to run the place.

  When she and Val stood in front of her family and the preacher, she said, “Alright. We’re ready to get married.”

  Her sisters looked at each other in a congratulatory manner and giggled. Daisy even hurried to pick up some wildflowers and held them out to Nelly.

  “It’s your bouquet,” Daisy explained as if Nelly couldn’t figure that out.

  Nelly took the flowers in hopes it would satisfy her sisters enough so that they would quiet down. If she had to listen to any more of their giggling, she might roll her eyes. Yes, they had wanted this. They’d wanted this so badly they made Val think she was the one asking him to come out here to marry her. But did they really have to be obnoxious about how well their scheme had worked?

  Her ma turned to the preacher and said, “Go on and start the wedding.”

  Preacher Martin, who looked relieved that this would soon be over, opened the small book he had been holding.

  Her pa directed his gaze to Nelly. “Are you sure you want to do this? Regardless of what your ma and sisters think, this is your choice.”

  “Val promised he’d let me lead things around here,” Nelly replied.

  “I did,” Val hurried to add. “She earned this homestead, and she deserves to operate it the way she deems necessary.”

  Good. If the time ever came when Val tried to get out of keeping his word, she had plenty of witnesses to put him back in line.

  “I’ll remember you said that,” her pa told him, evidence he was thinking the same thing she was.

  “Tom,” her ma spoke up.

  Her pa looked her way.

  “Don’t intimidate the poor young man,” her ma said. “If you read his letter, you’d understand he’s going to be good for Nelly.”

  “Given the circumstances, Mr. Larson’s concern is understandable,” Val told her mother. “I’m going to stand by my word. Besides, I don’t know the first thing about operating a homestead. I’m not the right person to be in charge of things.”

  At this, her pa relaxed. “Alright. In that case, start the wedding,” he told Preacher Martin.

  The preacher cleared his throat and started to read, “‘We are gathered here today in the sight of God and this company to join together Valentine Silverton and Nelly Larson in holy matrimony, which is an honorable estate instituted of God since the first man and the first woman walked on the earth.’”

  As he continued reading from the book, Nelly overheard Erin whisper to Patricia and Daisy, “Don’t they look good together? He’s the perfect height and everything.”

  “They were meant for each other,” Daisy whispered back.

  “Nelly’s lucky to have him,” Patricia replied in another whisper. “I just hope she’ll come to realize that.”

  Nelly’s face grew warm, and she glanced at the others to see if they’d overheard Erin. Since the preacher was still talking and her ma, pa, and Val were facing him, they weren’t giving any indication they had heard her. Until today, she had no idea her sisters could be such a meddlesome bunch. Why did they even care so much if she got married or not? They didn’t benefit from it.

  “Valentine, do you take Nelly Larson to be your lawfully wedded wife?” the preacher began, “to live together after God’s ordinance, in the holy estate of matrimony? Will you love, honor, comfort, and cherish her from this day forward, forsaking all others, keeping only unto her for as long as you both shall live?”

  “I do,” Val replied.

  Nelly heard her sisters give a light cheer, but this time she chose to ignore them.

  Preacher Martin then asked Nelly the same thing, and since she had already set her mind to bind herself to Val, she gave her consent.

  One of her sisters, she couldn’t tell which since she’d turned her back toward all of them, let out an audible sigh of relief as if she worried Nelly might change her mind at the last minute.

  Nelly’s ma turned to them and whispered for them to stop interrupting the preacher, to which Patricia argued, “We’re doing no such thing. We’re being quiet.”

  “No, you aren’t,” Nelly’s pa said. “All of us can hear you.”

  “Really?” Daisy asked.

  “Yes,” Nelly, her ma, and her pa all said in unison.

  Her sisters blinked in surprise as if they hadn’t expected that answer.

  After a moment, the preacher cleared his throat and continued. Thankfully, her sisters finally quieted down. Then he concluded with, “Those, whom God has joined together, let no man put asunder.” He paused and glanced at Val. “You may kiss the bride if you want. Usually, the groom does this, but most of the time the groom and bride are expecting to marry each other. So, I’ll leave this option up to you.”

  Nelly thought Val might say no, and she would have been secretly relieved for it since her sisters were watching them in unbridled interest. But Val took off his hat, leaned forward, and kissed her. The kiss sent strange sparks all through her body. That had never happened before. She didn’t know what to think. Were kisses supposed to be like that?

  Her sisters were giggling again. Of course, they liked the kiss. They were always talking about boys and romance and kisses. Well, Nelly had more sensible things to think about. She had a homestead to run. She didn’t have time to dwell on such nonsense as romance. She just hoped that having someone help around here would increase her profitability, in addition to keeping undesirables away.

  “Congratulations,” Nelly’s ma said as she hugged her.

  “I’ll be by soon to see how things are going,” her pa promised Nelly.

  Her ma shot him a pointed look. “You need to let the two have some time alone to get to know each other.”

  “I didn’t say I was going to come here to live with them,” her pa replied. “I only plan to stop by once in a while.”

  “How often is this ‘once in a while’?” her ma pressed.

  He shrugged. “It depends on how busy things are at our place.”

  “I hope you don’t interfere with them. They need time to get to know each other, and they’ll be able to do that much better if we give them some time alone.”

  “They’re going to be alone tonight.”

  By the way her pa said it, Nelly could tell he wasn’t all that thrilled with the idea.

  Her ma noticed it, too, since she said, “We were alone on our wedding night.”

  “That was different,” her pa began. “We knew each other before the day we got married. This whole thing happened all at once because of certain girls who were so bored they decided to play matchmaker.”

  Nelly followed his gaze to her sisters, wondering if they’d heard him. But the three were caught up in their own conversation.

  Nelly’s ma sighed. “I know things didn’t happen the way you wanted, but everything’s going to work out. Right, Preache
r?”

  Nelly, Val, and Nelly’s parents looked at the spot where Preacher Martin had been standing. The spot was vacant. They finally found him sitting in the wagon, patiently waiting for them.

  “That’s so much like Ben,” Nelly’s ma said. “He runs off at the first sign of conflict.”

  “I don’t blame him for not wanting to get involved in this mess.” Nelly’s pa turned his gaze to Val. “Don’t make me regret bringing you out here. I understand you’re as innocent in all of this as Nelly is, but it’s up to you to treat my little girl right.”

  Val blinked. “I’ll be good to her. I was brought up to be a gentleman at all times. I’m the son of an earl. One day I’ll be an earl. Because of that, I have my reputation to think about. That’s not something I take lightly.”

  Nelly could tell neither of her parents understood why this whole thing with him being the son of an earl was important any more than she did. Obviously, it meant a lot to Val.

  Her ma, not hiding her relief, went to Nelly’s sisters, and soon, her pa and Val were taking Val’s trunks into her home. Her home. Well, it wasn’t her home anymore. Now it belonged to Val, too. She really hoped this marriage wasn’t going to be something she ended up regretting.

  A cow mooed from the pasture behind the barn. Since the cow and her two horses were outside, she supposed they would be alright for the evening. They had plenty of grass to eat. She would put the rake away, close the door of the stall she’d been cleaning out, and go into the house. With a sigh, she hurried to get everything put away for the night.

  Chapter Seven

  “You can sleep here,” Nelly said as she put a blanket on the couch in the parlor. She glanced around the room and picked up a decorative pillow from a chair. “You can use this for your head. It’s a good thing my ma insisted I pretty up the place with it. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have a pillow at all.”

  Val knew it wasn’t his place to tell her where she let him sleep. If she’d been the one to answer the ad, then she would have expected him to share her bed with him. As it was, she hadn’t even known he was coming out to marry her until he showed up at this homestead. And a homestead, he had quickly learned, was no more than a couple of animals, a few acres of crops, and a house that was so small that he winced when he first saw it.

  He’d counted a total of four rooms in the entire house, including the loft one had to use a ladder to get up to. He had to go over it twice to make sure, but yes, there were only four rooms. She had a bedroom, a parlor, a kitchen, and the loft. That was it. Now that he thought about it, the carriage house his parents had was a little bigger than this. He knew he wasn’t in the position of being picky, but he couldn’t help feeling a bit disappointed.

  He was almost afraid to warn Jim that a landowner out in this part of the country wasn’t as well off as they’d assumed. Jim would probably tell him he should have married one of the other women who’d taken the time to answer his ad. Then, at least, he’d get to sleep on a large, comfortable bed instead of the narrow couch beside him. If he wasn’t going to get to have a wedding night, then it only seemed fair he be able to sleep in a large bed where he could sprawl out on.

  But what could he do about any of this? Nothing. All he could do was make the best of it.

  He wondered if there was any food in the place. Bypassing Nelly, he went to the kitchen and checked the cupboard. All of the shelves were full. What a relief. At least he’d have something to eat.

  “Are you hungry?” Nelly asked.

  Not realizing she’d followed him, he jerked and spun around. “No, I’m not hungry. I was just checking the kitchen out.”

  “Why? Do you cook?”

  He would have laughed if the situation wasn’t so grim. “No, I don’t know how to cook.”

  “That’s a shame. I know how to do it, but I’d rather be outside.” She paused then added, “What can you do?”

  Though he knew how to do plenty of things, he understood she was really asking him what he could do on a homestead. And as he took in what little he’d seen of the place, he couldn’t do very much. “I’ve never been on a homestead before.”

  “Yes, I’m aware that you don’t know what goes into running one, but you must have some skills.”

  He felt a chuckle rise up in his throat at the matter-of-fact tone in her voice. At least she came out and said what was on her mind. He wasn’t all that thrilled with women who insisted on making him guess what they wanted.

  “I have skills,” he said. “I just don’t know if you’ll find them all that useful. Unless you have visitors over here to entertain or go ballroom dancing, I don’t know what I can do out here.”

  Her eyebrows furrowed. “My pa has a couple of barn dances during the year, but that doesn’t contribute to the running of a homestead.”

  “To be honest, I thought I’d be overseeing the overall operation of the business.” When it occurred to him she didn’t know what he meant, he added, “I thought I’d put each employee in the position best suited for him, give the servants their daily tasks, and make sure the steward was doing a responsible job with the ledger.”

  Her eyebrows furrowed farther, and he could tell he hadn’t clarified things at all. Apparently, their worlds were complete opposites. She wasn’t the least bit used to the things he had taken for granted.

  Finally, he said, “I’m a quick learner. I can adapt to new situations when I need to.” And did he ever need to adapt to this place! “I’ve always been a good student. I pay attention to what’s going on around me and do what’s needed to get the task done. Tell me what you want me to do, and I’ll do it.”

  Her expression relaxed. “I can do that.” After a moment, she added, “It will be nice to have another pair of hands around here.” She glanced out the window. “It’s late. We should go to bed.”

  Surprised, he took out his pocket watch and saw that it was only eight. Actually, it wasn’t even that late. It was 7:55. If she hadn’t made it a point to let him know he wasn’t going to be sleeping in bed with her, he would have thought she was letting him know she was ready to consummate their marriage.

  What a shame. She was far prettier than he’d hoped she’d be, and she certainly had a nice figure. Though her sisters and mother had been wearing dresses, she wore pants, and he would be lying if he told someone he hadn’t noticed the way they accentuated her curves. But he wasn’t stupid. There was no way she was going to let him into her bed tonight. He was fortunate she’d been willing to marry him.

  Just what had motivated her sisters to answer his ad on her behalf? Sure, they’d told him Nelly could use a husband, but that didn’t really explain why they pretended to be her when they wrote to him. The least they could have done was let him know what they were doing. Well, they should have done that with Nelly, too. It wasn’t right for them to deceive everyone. And though he’d had to keep his face neutral during the wedding ceremony, it had been just as embarrassing for him as it’d been for Nelly when they made their comments.

  There wasn’t any way he could tell Jim all about this. It was too humiliating. Nothing had gone as they had expected.

  Nelly went to a container on a shelf and lifted the lid. She pulled out a short brown shriveled up stick. Glancing at him, she asked, “You want one?”

  “What is it?” he asked.

  “Jerky. It’s good. This is from a deer I shot.” She took a bite of it. “I have plenty in here.”

  She started to take the container down, but he shook his head. “Thank you, but I’m full. I ate dinner on the train.”

  She took out another piece of the strange meat and put the lid on the container. “I haven’t had time to eat yet.”

  “You mean, you haven’t eaten at all today?”

  Her eyes widened. “No. I ate this morning and again in the middle of the day. I meant I didn’t have supper yet. Of course,” she added as she went to a pitcher and poured milk into a glass, “sometimes I don’t have anything to eat for supper. The time c
an get away from me.”

  He couldn’t think of a single time in his life where he’d forgotten to eat, regardless of whether it was breakfast, lunch, or dinner. He decided not to ask if going without meals was going to be a common occurrence around here. At the moment, he’d rather assume he’d have all of his meals. He could deal with the reality of skipping meals tomorrow. As it was, he had enough information to process for one day.

  “Well, since it’s time for bed, I should change into the appropriate clothes for sleeping,” he said. “Where do you,” he cleared his throat, “take care of more private matters around here?”

  She finished pouring herself a glass of milk and looked at him. “Private matters? You mean, dressing and undressing?”

  “No.” This conversation wouldn’t have been so awkward if they would be sharing a bed this evening. At least then, he wouldn’t feel like he was having this conversation with his sister. “I was talking about the small room where you wash your hands.” There. That way, he didn’t have to say the more personal part.

  “I wash my hands at the well outside or in the wash basin in my bedroom.” She paused. “We’ll need to get a wash basin out in the parlor for you, too.”

  He ignored the reality that she was planning to make him sleep on the couch for more than one night and bluntly asked, “What do you do when you need to eliminate all the milk you drank?”

  “Oh! You need to use the outhouse. That’s outside on this side of the house.” She pointed to the south. “It’s the little wooden building with the little quarter moon carved into the door. I only have one chamber pot, but that’s under my bed, and I don’t want to share it. I’m afraid you’ll have to use the outhouse.”

  He cringed. There was no running water anywhere in the house? They had no indoor plumbing here? He was going to have to relieve his bladder in a place that was outside? There wasn’t a little small closet-sized bathing room off the side of her bedroom he could go to?

  “I prefer to use the outhouse,” she told him. “It’s a pain to clean the chamber pot. I only use it when it’s in the middle of winter.”