The Marriage Agreement Read online

  Laura gasped, and heat rose up to her face. “I don’t believe that’s any of your business.”

  “Of course, it is. I have a right to know if you’ve been whoring yourself.”

  Her eyes widened. “Whoring myself?”

  “Oh, don’t play innocent with me. It’s obvious Jesse only married you to have you in his bed. A man has needs, you know. But I was hoping you’d put him in his place. A wife ought not to be letting herself play the whore. That’s a prostitute’s job. A wife’s station is honorable. I tell you this so you’ll know better tonight. Don’t make it easy for him. You let him know it’s a duty, but only one you’ll do once a month. That’s all you need to try for a baby. And having a baby is the only reason you need to be doing it anyway, so when you do get in the family way, such activity with Jesse must stop at once.”

  Laura couldn’t speak. Was this really happening? Was Fanny actually standing in front of her and telling her how to behave when she was alone with her husband?

  Fanny pulled a small booklet out of her pocket. “Here. I brought this over for you to read.” She held it out to Laura.

  It was only due to her shock that Laura accepted the thing. Her gaze went to the cover, and she saw the words Purity in the Bedroom on it.

  From the kitchen, she heard Elliot banging on the tray of his high chair, probably hoping to get her attention so she’d let him out, but she couldn’t move. Indeed, she was frozen to the spot. Never in a million years did she think Fanny would do something this…this… Unbelievable? Bold? Rude? Just how did she describe it?

  “Women are delicate creatures,” Fanny continued, not the least bit disturbed by this topic. “They need to be handled with great care and tenderness. If my darling Elsie had listened to me, I bet she would be alive right now. But she didn’t. You keep that in mind. A woman who’s carrying a child doesn’t need to be engaging in rough activity.”

  Laura resisted the urge to cringe. Just how did Fanny know about Jesse and Elsie’s love life? On second thought, she didn’t want to know. It was best she didn’t even think about it!

  “It’s all there in that little book.” Fanny tapped the booklet and offered a firm nod, as if that settled everything. “Read it, and you’ll see what I mean. I went by it, and as you can see, I’m still here.”

  Laura swallowed the lump in her throat. Good heavens. Was this conversation ever going to end?

  The sound of a horse neighing drew Laura’s attention off of Fanny and to the buggy that was coming up to the house. She squinted and breathed a sigh of relief when she realized it was Amanda and Richard.

  Thank goodness. She slipped the booklet into her skirt pocket and cleared her throat. “I better see that my company is taken care of. Would you like to spend some time with Elliot?”

  “Oh no, you don’t,” Fanny said. For a moment, Laura thought the woman was going to forbid her to talk to Amanda and Richard, but then she continued, “You married Jesse to be a mother to Elliot. It’s your duty to take care of him. You will not shirk your responsibilities. You will have to watch him while socializing.”

  Then Fanny turned and hurried back to her little home, her nose up in the air in that self-righteous way of hers.

  Shirking her responsibilities? Laura had no intention of doing any such thing. Biting her tongue, she stepped out onto the porch and waved to Amanda and Richard. “Come on in! I need to get Elliot, but I’ll be with you soon.”

  Since Amanda and Richard nodded that they understood, Laura went back into the house to get the poor baby out of the highchair. The boy was so active these days.

  “I’m sorry, Elliot,” she told him as she finished cleaning up the kitchen. “If your grandmother hadn’t kept talking, I would have gotten you out sooner.”

  Elliot babbled, and it came out sounding so much like a question, she felt compelled to answer it.

  “You don’t need to know what she wanted to talk about,” Laura told him. “In fact, you should be glad you didn’t have to hear it.” How she wished she could un-hear the whole, sordid thing.

  She washed his hands with the clean towel then helped him down from the highchair. He grabbed her skirt and wobbled on his feet.

  “I can’t believe he’s so big already,” Amanda said.

  Laura jerked then laughed. She looked over at Amanda, who was holding a covered dish. “I didn’t hear you come into the house.”

  Amanda smiled. “I didn’t knock. I’m sorry.”

  “No, don’t be sorry.” Laura picked up Elliot, who voiced his disappointment. She patted his back and kissed his forehead. “I’ll let you stand up in a moment. Be patient.” She glanced at Amanda. “Would you like something to drink or eat?”

  “No. Richard and I already had breakfast.” Amanda lifted the covered dish. “I thought I’d bring this over as a house warming gift.”

  “You didn’t have to do that.”

  “It was no trouble.” Amanda placed it on the worktable. “I made some extra cinnamon rolls. You’ll be doing me a favor by taking them off my hands.”

  Leave it to Amanda to make it sound like Laura was helping her out. On impulse, Laura gave her friend a hug, mindful she was still holding Elliot.

  “What was that for?” Amanda asked.

  “Just for being you,” Laura replied, pulling away from her before Elliot could grab Amanda’s hair. “You’re a good friend.”

  “Well, you’ve been there for me when I needed someone. The least I can do is help you out.” She glanced around and then turned her attention back to Laura. “Is there anything I can help you with?”

  “Everything’s fine at the moment.” When Elliot squirmed in her arms, she giggled. “I think Elliot’s days of wanting to be held are over. Why don’t we go into the parlor and talk? Then he can move about where there’s more room.”

  Amanda nodded and followed Laura to the parlor. “I haven’t been here before. The place is quaint.”

  Laura sat on the couch and gestured for Amanda to do the same.

  “I saw Fanny leaving. How are things going now that you’re stuck with her?” Amanda asked once she was settled beside Laura.

  Laura let Elliot down then turned toward Amanda. “I underestimated how much Jesse has to go through every day.”

  Amanda winced. “That bad, huh?”

  Despite the very uncomfortable conversation she’d just had with Fanny, she found herself chuckling. “I don’t know how someone as sweet and patient as Elsie came from her. I bet Jesse had no idea how bad Fanny was until after they married.”

  “I couldn’t stop thinking of you all night,” Amanda admitted. “I know it sounds silly, but I actually had nightmares where Fanny poisoned you or dug a hole so you fell into it and no one could find you.”

  Laura laughed. “Fanny wouldn’t kill me.”

  “Not physically,” Amanda conceded, “but she worries me. Of all the people I’ve known, you have a hope and joy that few others do. I don’t want Fanny to rob you of that.”

  “I have Elliot. He brings me hope and joy whenever I’m with him, and now I have the honor of being his mother.”

  “So you’re happy with the arrangement you and Jesse have? That your marriage will only be one of convenience?”

  Laura wished Amanda would stop asking her that. Ever since Laura had mentioned her idea to propose this arrangement to Jesse, Amanda had been hesitant to believe it was the best thing to do. And, unfortunately, the spark she’d experienced that morning when she watched Jesse gather his things from this room made her question whether or not she’d been wise to pursue this path.

  Elliot pulled himself up on the chair and looked over at her, his wide grin warming her heart. She’d done this for Elliot. She loved the child. Since the time she first held him, it seemed there had been a connection between them.

  “Elliot makes me happy,” Laura finally told Amanda. “I might not have given birth to him, but I love him as if I did.”

  Amanda smiled. “It is wonderful that you�
�re taking on the responsibility of raising him. And there’s no denying he thinks the world of you.” She glanced at Elliot. “All that being the case, I hope you will find some happiness with Jesse, too.”

  Laura shifted on the couch, not sure she wanted to discuss this particular topic. It’d been much easier to deal with Fanny earlier—and that was saying something!

  “You know,” Laura began, “I learned a lot about your in-laws while staying with them. I don’t know if it’s because I was an only child or if they’re an unusual bunch, but I noticed Tom and Joel like to fight. A lot.”

  Amanda chuckled. “They do. Joel is the one who instigates most of the fights, too. I keep telling Tom if he’d ignore him, Joel would stop.”

  “Tom instigates some of the fights.”

  “He does?”

  “There were a couple times when he did something to annoy Joel, and I think he did it so that Joel would fight back.”

  “Really?”

  With a nod, Laura giggled and proceeded to give her some examples.

  Chapter Eleven

  “You built this place up in a short amount of time,” Richard told Jesse as the two sat on a couple of barrels in the barn.

  “Fanny had certain standards on what kind of place she’d let her grandchild grow up in,” Jesse replied. Though, as Jesse now recalled, it hadn’t done any good to go into debt. All his efforts hadn’t appeased her. “Looking back, I should have gone with my original plan to build a sod house and barn.” Then, as an afterthought, he added, “I would have still put her in a separate home.”

  Richard chuckled, and the mood lightened considerably between them. “I don’t think anyone wants to be near her.”

  “No, they don’t. After Elsie died, I wrote her family a letter, telling them to take Fanny back to New York. I only brought her out here because of Elsie.”

  “I’m guessing they said no.”

  “Yep. I don’t think there’s anyone who’d willingly take her.” After a moment, Jesse released his breath. “I’m sorry, Richard. I shouldn’t keep complaining. It’s not like it’s all bad out here. I have Elliot. He gives me a reason to get up each day. I wouldn’t trade him for the world. And it definitely helps that Laura agreed to come out here and help me raise him. He’s at the age now where he wants to move around. It was easier to take him with me when he was content to be in the baby carrier I made. But now he wants to get into all kinds of trouble, and I have a feeling it’s only going to get worse once he starts walking.”

  “You can’t stop a child from growing up,” Richard said in amusement. “I have enough brothers and sisters to know that firsthand. Just wait until Elliot has a brother or sister. That’s when things really get interesting.”

  Jesse didn’t know if he should tell Richard he and Laura didn’t have that kind of marriage. It had been awkward enough to discuss the sleeping arrangement with Laura last night when it was time for bed.

  Yes, he’d had her own bed made, and God knew his was small as it was. But he’d wondered if, deep down, Laura had had her heart set on a real marriage. However, his worries had been for nothing. She’d made it clear she was fine with the arrangement as it was, saving him from having to tell her he just couldn’t give her more than what they’d agreed on.

  Thinking it best to change topics, Jesse asked, “Did you get a homestead?”

  “No,” Richard replied. “Farming isn’t for me. I like building things, especially houses. In fact, I helped my parents build their own home. With the size of my family, it didn’t seem right to have them confined to a sod house.”

  “You do have a big family,” Jesse recalled from seeing them at the wedding. “Growing up, it was me, my sister, and my brother. My family was small compared to yours.” After a moment, he asked, “Do you ever wish you’d stayed back East?”

  “No. Coming out here was the best thing I ever did.”

  “I suppose that’s true since your whole family came out here, too.”

  “It was more than that. Coming out here was a good chance to start new.” After a moment of silence, Richard asked, “Do you regret coming out here?”

  “I don’t let myself think about it often,” Jesse admitted, his gaze going to his hands which were folded in his lap. “Coming out here was a dream I had since I was a boy. I imagined building a legacy for my children. My family didn’t have anything back East. I worked in the factory with my father as soon as I was old enough, and that whole time, I kept thinking of how nice it would be to keep the fruits of my labor instead of giving it in rent to the landlord. I thought I would finally be ahead.”

  Richard studied him. “You’re not better off?”

  “No.” Jesse swallowed the lump in his throat. “I wasn’t in debt before, but I am now. So everything I make is going to go to the bank. It seems that no matter what I do I can’t get ahead.” Before Richard got the wrong idea, he added, “I don’t mean to say I’m not grateful. Elliot made it despite everything, and Joe Otto gave me a good deal on the lumber through his friend. I have many things to be thankful for.”

  “Yes, but you’re still disappointed. That’s natural, Jesse. When we think things will go a certain way and they don’t, you’re bound to be disappointed. It’s human.”

  “Maybe.”

  Or maybe it meant Jesse wasn’t good at making decisions. Maybe everything he did was wrong. Maybe he’d unknowingly brought Laura into the mess with him. The cow mooed from one of the stalls, and Jesse glanced at it, recalling it was time to milk her.

  “I better take care of her,” he told Richard. “If I don’t, she gets annoyed.”

  Richard chuckled. “One thing I’ll say about working with tools is that they don’t complain like animals do.”

  Jesse felt his mood lighten at his joke. “That’s true, but I’m sure you have your own troubles to deal with.”

  “Sometimes people want things done too fast or they don’t like a particular design even though they asked for it. I love the building part, though. It makes the other things bearable.” He paused. “Even if things aren’t what you expected, do you still like it here?”

  “Yes, I suppose I do.”

  “I know it’s hard to focus on the things that are good about this place, but maybe it’ll help take the sting out of everything else.”

  Richard was right. Maybe it was time Jesse did that. It was too easy to fall into despair otherwise. “I’ll give it a try.”

  “And if you need anything, Amanda and I will be happy to help. Laura is one of the few women Amanda’s ever had for a friend.”

  “Oh?”

  “Growing up, Amanda couldn’t be sure who her real friends were when it came to the other girls, and she’d learned to close herself off from almost everyone as a result of it. Laura managed to break through her walls, and to be honest, it’s been one of the best things that happened to her. Amanda’s a lot happier than she ever was in New York.”

  “Laura’s a good person.”

  “She is. And there’s nothing Amanda wouldn’t do for her. So, if you ever need anything, don’t hesitate to ask. I don’t mind lending a hand if you need it.”

  “Thanks.”

  Richard smiled. “Why don’t you give me a chore to do so I can make myself useful?”

  Jesse laughed, and in doing so, he felt some of the weight he’d been carrying around ease from his shoulders. “Alright, but remember, you asked for it.”

  “I did, and I won’t forget.”

  Willing to put Richard to the test, Jesse did as Richard wished.

  ***

  That evening, Jesse and Laura ate their meal mostly in silence. Elliot was the only one who made the meal easier with his laughter and calling out “Mama” and “food” from time to time. Laura couldn’t help but smile. This was how she imagined her life would be once she became his mother.

  Every time he looked at her with those bright eyes and that wide grin, it made everything else worth it, even the strained tension with Jesse. That
was the one thing she hadn’t expected. Up to now, she and Jesse had shared a friendship. They hadn’t lacked for anything to talk about. But something in the transition into marriage had changed things. She couldn’t quite figure out why or even how. It was just different, and she didn’t know how to get things back to the way they’d been just a couple weeks ago.

  “I saw Fanny come in here right after breakfast,” Jesse spoke up, ending the silence between them. “I was just wondering if she said or did anything to upset you.”

  Laura hesitated, not sure what to say. There was no way she could tell him the subject of the conversation they’d had. Or rather, the lecture Fanny had given her. In all the excitement of seeing Amanda and Richard, she’d forgotten about the booklet. She wasn’t sure what she’d do with it. Did she hide it? Burn it? Tear it into pieces and let the wind carry it off?

  “Laura?” Jesse asked.

  Face growing warm, Laura turned her attention back to him. “Oh, you know Fanny. She was just letting me know she wasn’t happy we got married.”

  Yes, that was probably the best way to put it. Then, lowering her gaze back to the plate, she picked up the last of the roast and ate it, praying he wouldn’t ask her exactly what Fanny had said.

  “It seems like the entire world isn’t happy we got married,” he finally replied after a long pause.

  “Well, the Larsons have been accepting of it.”

  “Yes, but they aren’t related to us. They have nothing to gain or lose from the union.”

  Yes, there was that.

  “Mama,” Elliot called out, holding his hand out for more food.

  She took another biscuit from the middle of the table and ripped it up into little pieces before putting them on his tray. With an excited squeal, he picked all of them up into his hands and started shoving them into his mouth. Startled, Laura grabbed all but one piece from him and put them on the table by her plate. Elliot studied his empty hands—well, empty except for the one piece he had left—and frowned.