Dear Braxton,
Piper stared at the words she’d written what seemed like a half hour ago. Dear Braxton. Nothing more. The lamplight flickered and made shadows on her stationery. She shifted her gaze from Braxton’s name to the oil lamp on the small writing desk between the beds. Suze, visiting from her room as she did every evening, was at the desk, sketching a flower she’d discovered that day. Marlie lounged on her bed and leafed through a tattered Saturday Evening Post.
“Only a year old.” Marlie held up the cover with a Norman Rockwell illustration of a little boy going fishing. “These covers make you smile every time you see them. But a movie mag would be more fun. Gosh, I miss going to the movies.”
Suze spoke without looking around. “They have movies in Hazard.”
“Yeah, movies I probably saw two years ago.”
“That could be.” Suze erased something on her drawing. “I wish I could draw like Norman Rockwell.” She held her sketch up to the light and sighed. “I just can’t get this right.”
Marlie pitched the magazine on the floor and stood up to look over Suze’s shoulder. “Looks pretty good to me.”
“But it doesn’t look that much like the flower I saw. Oh well, I should have taken a picture.” Suze put the drawing in a folder and looked at Piper. “So do you miss going to the movies too?”
“Not that much.” Piper looked at the blank paper. Maybe she could ask Braxton what movies he’d seen. It would be something to write. “I was ready for something different.”
“Bet you weren’t expecting this different.” Marlie bounced up on her toes and stretched. She was barefoot and in her nightgown. “Neither was I when my mother decided I needed to expand my horizons after she heard Mrs. Breckinridge talk. I wasn’t all that keen for it, but once my mother gets an idea, you might as well go along. No changing her mind. I had to pack my bags, but I’m not sorry I came. Are you?”
“Not at all, but I’m doing things I would have never imagined doing three weeks ago. Hauling water. Giving horses baths in the river. Trying to keep geese from nipping me.”
“Oh yeah.” Marlie laughed. “What about dressing Puddin’s sore leg? Eww. Nothing fun about that.”
“But it’s helping, isn’t it?” Maybe she could tell Braxton about spending most of the night in Puddin’s stall to tend his leg. The old horse might be slow, but he was sweet.
“I don’t want to think about it. I’m not into pus unless I have to be.” Marlie shivered and made a face. “So let’s come up with something happier to talk about.” She peeked at Piper’s letter. “Like who is Braxton? Your sweetheart?”
“I wouldn’t say that. Exactly.” Piper looked down at her pen. The ink had dried on the nib. She should have put the cap back on it, but she did need to write something. She’d promised Braxton a letter. And a promise was a promise.
“What would you say?” Marlie teased. “Exactly?”
“My father wants me to like him.”
“And you don’t?” Suze asked. “If you don’t mind me asking. If you do, then just tell us both to hush and go to bed.”
“I don’t mind.” It might be good to talk about it. “Braxton was my chosen escort for my debut.”
“But not your choice.” Marlie plopped down on the floor and leaned back against her bed. She grabbed a pillow to stuff behind her back.
When Piper didn’t answer right away, Marlie went on. “Braxton is a great name. Sounds handsome.”
“He is nice looking.”
“With money?” Marlie raised her eyebrows.
“Money isn’t everything,” Suze said.
“But it helps everything,” Marlie said.
Piper sighed. “Yes, he has money. His family is in railroads.”
“Oh my.” Marlie whistled softly. “That could mean lots of money. Lucky you.”
“What’s his last name?” Suze asked. “I know a Braxton whose family had something to do with railroads. His name was Crandall.”
“You’re joking.” Piper stared at her. “You know Braxton Crandall?”
“I do. We used to talk whenever we were at the same social events in New York. Seems like back then there was some kind of party or dinner every day. Before the crash. His father or maybe his grandfather and my father had some kind of business connection. I don’t know what.” Suze shrugged. “I was younger then, with little interest in commerce.”
“You have interest in commerce now?” Marlie sounded as though that would be the very last thing that might catch her interest.
“Sure.” Suze gave her a “why not” look. “I’m interested in everything that makes the world go around.”
“I thought you were just rewriting the nature encyclopedia,” Marlie said.
Suze laughed. “I think that task is beyond me, but I do like noticing whatever is growing around me. Or happening. Don’t you want to know what’s going on?”
Marlie waved her hand. “I take things as they come. What can I do about it anyway? Except maybe help out by going to shows or buying a new dress.” She grinned at Suze before she looked over at Piper. “You’re awfully quiet. Forget commerce and tell us about this Braxton. Sounds like our Suze was impressed by him, and not much impresses Suze unless it’s blooming or sprouting money now, I guess.”
“I barely know him. We danced at my debut. Then we went out to dinner where I told him I was coming here.”
“Ooh.” Marlie grinned. “Playing hard to get. How did he take that?”
“Not too well. I think he thought he and my father had already worked out an arrangement, but I’m not something to be auctioned off to the highest bidder.”
“Sounds like he could bid pretty high,” Marlie said.
“Come on, Marlie,” Suze said. “The girl is right. Women have made some strides. We don’t have to simper and coo and hope for a man to rescue us.”
“No, we can come to Wendover and brush horses and scoop up their Easter eggs.” Marlie laughed.
Suze frowned at her. “You know what I mean.”
“Yeah, I’m sorry. But what about it, Danny? You must not have rejected him outright.” She pointed toward the letter. “You are writing him a letter.”
“I know.” Piper sighed and stared down to the page. “He asked me to write him and I told him I would. But I figure by now he’s already been captured by a more-eager-to-be-married girl than me. He told me straight out he was ready to get married.”
“Wow! You really did turn down the jackpot. Good-looking. Money. Ready to settle down and have babies. Well, you’d have the babies.” Marlie got an odd look on her face. “You know, I’m down here where babies are being born right and left. I was with one of the nurses a couple of weeks ago and she delivered the baby of a sixteen-year-old. Sixteen. Said she got married when she was fourteen. I’m almost twenty and I can’t imagine having a baby yet. I want to someday, but not tomorrow or anytime soon.”
“That’s good,” Suze said dryly. “Mrs. Breckinridge would be very upset if that kind of thing was going on among her couriers. We aren’t supposed to think about boys while we’re here. Only work.”
Marlie yanked the pillow out from behind her head and slung it at Suze. “You know what I mean.”
Suze caught it and pitched it back. “Just how many boys did you leave on a string back in Chicago?”
Marlie stuffed the pillow behind her head and then held up her hand with all fingers up. “Not more than five.” She curled her fingers to stare at her nails. “I could use a manicure.” She looked back at Suze. “That is, five if I don’t count Ray.”
“I thought Ray was the one who counted most,” Suze said.
“He’s okay.” Marlie shrugged a little. “But he better not be running around with other girls back there in Chicago or he’ll be history. A girl has her pride.”
“‘Pride goeth before a fall,’” Suze said.
Marlie groaned. “Now you’re quoting the Bible at me. Do you give lovelorn advice too?”
“As if you would listen.” Suze made a face.
“So what about you, Suze?” Piper asked. “Do you have some fellow waiting for you in New York?”
“I’m no Marlie with her dozen guys on a string.”
“I said five. Not a dozen.” Marlie held up her hand again and wiggled her fingers. “Five.”
“Okay, five plus Ray.” Suze looked from Marlie to Piper. “And I’m no Danny with guys asking me to write them letters.” Suze shook her head and sighed dramatically. “Guys like petite and cute or willowy and beautiful like the Gibson Girl.”
“Don’t talk about that Gibson Girl,” Marlie said. “Whatever magazine came up with her did all us not-so-tall girls a major disservice.”
“True enough, but that Gibson Girl seems to be one guys want. Not someone like me, a little too stout through the middle. But worse than that, a girl who is way too ready to tell guys when they’re wrong. But only when they’re stupidly wrong.”
“Oh, come on, Suze,” Marlie said. “Nothing at all wrong with how you look. A little lipstick and rouge and you’ll knock their socks off.”
“Yeah. That’s me.” Suze threw out her arms wide. “The next Miss America.”
Marlie giggled. “I’m not tall enough to be Miss America. But Danny here might fit the bill. Tall and beautiful.”
“That’s funny,” Piper said. “I lack a lot being beautiful.”
Marlie frowned. “No boy ever told you you’re pretty? Made you feel beautiful?”
“See, there you go again. Thinking we can’t feel pretty unless some guy thinks it for us,” Suze said.
“Didn’t you just say the same thing?” Marlie’s frown got deeper. “About yourself.”
“I guess I did,” Suze admitted. “But we’re not letting Danny say anything. Come on, girl. Surely something makes you feel pretty. Gosh, I can feel almost pretty when I first get up in the morning and splash some cold water on my face and then look outside. Everything is so fresh then, with the promise of something good about to happen.”
“What do you expect to happen?” Marlie asked. “Cleaning out more stalls? Weeding gardens? Cleaning tack?”
“Watching a baby come into the world. Finding a new flower,” Suze said. “That’s just it. I don’t know what might happen, but I know something will. So why not expect something that’s going to make me feel good? Works for me. So what do you say, Danny girl?”
They both looked at Piper.
“What makes me feel good?” Piper ran her hand across the paper in her lap to give herself a moment to think. “Maybe riding into the wind. You don’t have to worry about your hair or what you look like. It’s just you and the horse.”
And the guy on the horse beside her. She left that out. No need getting the girls curious about Jamie too. But back when they spent every weekend riding, he had a way of making Piper feel pretty. When they dismounted, he would snatch up a daisy or some other handy flower to present to her with a smile that wrapped around her like a hug.
“That’s a pretty dreamy look if you’re only thinking about a horse,” Marlie said.
Piper lifted her chin a little. “A girl can love her horse, can’t she?”
“Spoken like a true horse lover,” Suze said. “Me, a horse just gets me there faster than on foot. I always seem to get the pesky ones that want to nip you when you’re saddling them. Give me a faithful dog companion any day.”
Piper looked toward their door. “So where is our faithful dog buddy? Ginger is usually settled down on the rug in here by now.”
“She is missing.” Marlie jumped up, grabbed her jeans, and jerked them on under her nightgown. “Come on. I’ll bet she’s having her pups out in the barn. She was curled up in one of the empty stalls earlier today.”
Piper stuffed her feet in her shoes and grabbed her flashlight. The three of them tiptoed out into the hallway but not quietly enough.
Miss Aileen stuck her head out her door. “Where are you going?”
“We think Ginger is having her pups. She didn’t come inside,” Marlie said.
“Oh. Well, check on Puddin while you’re out there. But if nothing’s wrong, I can wait until morning to know how many new mouths we have to feed.” She shut her door.
Puddin nickered when they went in the barn.
“Spoiled baby.” Marlie gave his nose a touch on the way past his stall.
Ginger looked up at them and flapped her tail when Piper shined the light on her. Little golden pups wriggled in the straw next to her.
“How many did you have, girl?” Suze reached for the flashlight and then knelt down to count the pups. “Looks like several sets of triplets.”
Piper leaned over to caress Ginger’s head. “Way to go, girl.”
The dog scooted one of the pups closer with her nose.
“Ten,” Suze announced.
“Aren’t they the cutest things?” Marlie gently picked up one of them. It fit in her hand. “This one’s a boy.”
Ginger whined as she watched Marlie.
“Maybe we should leave them alone. We don’t want to get Ginger agitated.” Suze stroked Ginger from head to tail. “What a good girl.”
“Here he is, sweetie.” Marlie placed the pup right beside Ginger.
When they went out of the barn, the moon was so bright, Suze turned off the flashlight. Down below the river rushed by. The whippoorwills and tree frogs competed to see which could be loudest. Crickets played their songs too. Piper didn’t know whether it was the moonlight or seeing those puppies, but she felt like dancing.
Suddenly there was a splash down at the river and a shout of “Halloo” came ringing up the hill to them.