Chapter 71: More Courting

 

Zeke kept working Jenny’s land two days a week through the stifling July heat.

“Don’t you need to spend time on your own claim more?” she asked.

He shrugged. “If we marry, this farm will be mine as much as the claim I have.”

“Mr. Abercrombie is trying to take the land away from me. He says Douglass should have it.”

“Over my dead body,” Zeke said. “As long as the land is being improved—and that’s what I’m doing—we can pay the taxes and McDougall’s filing will stand. You don’t have to worry about Abercrombie.”

He seemed so sure. Maybe it was a help to have Zeke on her side.

Jenny found it odd to have Zeke courting her. After the Fourth of July celebration, she rarely made it into Oregon City during the busy summer, even for church on Sunday. But Jenny noticed Zeke watching her whenever he was on her farm, and he was quick to assist with any lifting she needed done.

“You don’t have to leave what you’re doing to help me, Zeke,” she told him one day. “I can carry the water bucket, and you’re busy.”

“Now, Jenny, you let me help you.” Zeke wiped his arm across his sweaty brow. “That’s what courting is.”

It wasn’t like courting in New Orleans, at least not what Jenny remembered of her mama’s sisters when she was a child. The young ladies in New Orleans sat in the parlor, waiting for debonair men in flashy suits and oiled hair to call on them, chaperoned by Jenny’s married mother or her grandmama. No beau in New Orleans ever sweated through courtship, toting buckets of oats and water for the women they wooed.

And it wasn’t like Mr. Peterson courting her mama after Jenny’s papa died either. That courtship had been sudden and short—Jenny had seen no romance between her mama and Mr. Peterson.

In fact, the man had been as likely to touch Jenny as her mother. Jenny shivered at the remembered feel of Peterson’s wandering fingers. She still had nightmares about the day when Peterson and the Arrow Rock sheriff and his son all attacked her.

It didn’t do any good to remember that attack, Jenny chided herself as she considered marriage to Zeke. She’d always been comfortable around Zeke. She’d known him for three years, and he’d never done anything improper. He’d been courteous and kind to her—in fact, more attentive than Mac had been. She shouldn’t be so reluctant to marry him, she scolded herself.

She wished Zeke would try to kiss her. She needed to know if she liked his touch.

How did a girl ask a man to kiss her? Her mama had never raised the subject of kissing. Even if Mama was here now, Jenny wasn’t sure she could talk to her.

Mac had kissed her—the once—then seemed to regret it. Rachel had managed to get O’Neil to kiss her before they were married—and enjoyed it. Should she ask Rachel? Or maybe Esther, who had flirted openly with Daniel when they were courting—surely Esther and Daniel had kissed before they were married.

But she and Zeke were rarely alone. Even when no other adults were on the claim, William was there. She couldn’t let a man kiss her in front of her son. Not a man she wasn’t sure she would marry.

And Jenny still hadn’t talked to Zeke about William’s father. She knew she must, but that conversation couldn’t happen with William around either.

So all she did to show an interest in Zeke was to cook his supper at the end of the long summer days. But most evenings they were both too tired to talk while they ate.

 

Thursday, July 18th—Zeke has been such a help. I almost think I must marry him. Yet isn’t that why Mama married Mr. Peterson—simply to have a man around? Better no man than the wrong man, it seems to me.

Jenny made time one morning in late July to visit Mrs. Tuller. She hitched Poulette to the wagon and loaded William and a bowl of blackberries to take to the Tullers.

“How lovely, Jenny,” Mrs. Tuller said. “It’s been too hot for me to go berrying. These will be a treat.”

“I can’t stay long, Mrs. Tuller,” Jenny said. “I only wanted some company. I haven’t seen anyone but Zeke and Mr. O’Neil since the Fourth of July.”

Mrs. Tuller sent William into the barn to look at the new kittens. “Have you told your young man you’d marry him yet?” she asked Jenny.

Jenny shook her head.

“What’s keeping you, dear?”

“I want to be sure.”

Mrs. Tuller laughed. “No one’s ever sure, Jenny. No matter what you might read in those silly novels.”

“I don’t read Gothic novels. I’ve never even seen one, and I wouldn’t have time if I had one.” Jenny sighed. “I’m not looking for romance like most young girls. I have a son to think of. I need to be certain of Zeke for William’s sake as well as my own.”

Mrs. Tuller clucked her teeth. “You’ve seen how Zeke helps his pa, how he looks after his twin brothers, how he treats Rachel—he made sure Mr. O’Neil was right for her. He won’t do no less for you and William.”

“I’m being silly, I suppose,” Jenny said. “But I don’t know if I even want to be married at all.”

“It’s what you need, girl, so don’t let this man go.”

Doc came in for dinner, William in tow. “Jenny,” he said. “I found this youngster in the barn. Will you take a kitten home?”

William’s face shone, “Can we, Mama?”

“What will Wags think?” she asked. But at William’s bright-eyed face, she could only nod. “We’ll just hope the two of them get along. And the cat has to stay in the barn as a mouser.”

“Hear tell there’s been trouble with mail deliveries in town,” Doc said, plunking his black bag down on the table. “Postmaster can’t keep a regular schedule on the routes to Portland and Astoria. Heaven only knows when our mail will be sent, or when letters from the States will arrive here.”

“I haven’t sent anything,” Jenny said. “And I’m not expecting any letters either. Still, it’s a shame to know we’re so far removed from home.”