Josiah sipped his coffee. He’d read the letter over Anna Mae’s shoulder. Not to be nosy but because he wanted to make sure she was happy. The letter hadn’t indicated either sadness or unhappiness. She did seem a little awed when she’d said her married name aloud. He guessed all women had to get used to the name change and possibly enjoyed the sound of their married name. It seemed odd to him but what did he know?
She looked up from the envelope she held. “I’m sure my parents will approve of our marriage.” Her hand shook slightly, leading him to believe that maybe she wasn’t as sure as she sounded. “After all, what’s not to like? You were the catch of the season. Never mind that I had to catch a few other things before I caught you, like pneumonia, high fever...” Her voice contained a strong suggestion of reproach, but her eyes flashed with humor and teasing.
He couldn’t help himself as he burst out laughing. On almost every topic they’d discussed, Anna Mae had the best attitude of anyone he’d ever met. “I hope you think you wound up with the best deal of all that catching.” He grinned.
“What about you? I noticed a few heads turning in your direction before I allowed you to catch me. One of them being Mrs. Bradshaw’s,” she teased back.
Josiah frowned. “I refuse to give the woman any more of my thoughts. As the sheriff, I am duty bound to protect her, but as a citizen I think I’ll give her a wide berth.”
Why had she brought up Mrs. Bradshaw? The woman left a sour taste in his mouth and stomach. He took his coffee to the sink. Or maybe it was the coffee. He might need to stop drinking the stuff for a while if it kept affecting his stomach. Josiah decided to change the subject. “I need to go to town early in the morning. I’ll try to be back by midafternoon to help hang those pots and pans.” He set the half-empty cup down.
Her gaze moved to the window. “What about the storm?” Was that concern he heard in her voice?
“I’ll be fine. It’s not supposed to be as bad as the last one, and besides, with my job I have to be out in all kinds of weather.”
Anna Mae nodded. “I suppose you do. It will take some getting used to, being married to the town sheriff.”
As if to deny his very words, the wind whipped fiercely about the farmhouse windows. Anna Mae noticed it, too, and caught her lower lip between her teeth. He sought for ways to distract her. He’d never asked her about her family. “What does your father do for a living?”
Josiah rinsed his coffee cup, refilled it with cider and walked back to the table. He enjoyed the feel of the warmth of the cup against his palms. Maybe he was addicted to having something occupy his hands more than actual coffee.
She set back in her chair. “Papa runs a shipping company.”
“So I gather that doesn’t require him to be away from home in the evenings?”
Her brown hair swayed with the shake of her head. “No, he keeps regular business hours.”
“And your mother? Does she work outside the home?”
An amused laugh bubbled out of Anna Mae. “Hardly. She thought I was crazy for wanting to be a teacher. Said a woman’s place is in the home.”
“What do you think, Annie?” Josiah looked over at her and raised his eyebrows. Did she want to work outside the home or was she content to stay at the house and watch the girls? Perhaps he should have asked her those questions before they got married, Josiah mused.
“I loved being a teacher but I think I’ll enjoy staying at home and taking care of things around here.” She smiled at him. “Did Mary enjoy staying home or did she want to work?”
“You know, it never occurred to me to ask her.” Josiah had just assumed when he’d married his first wife that she wanted to stay home and raise his children. As far as he knew, Mary had never worked.
“Do you have anything against women working?”
“No. Not that I’ve thought much on the matter. I guess as long as a woman’s job didn’t interfere with the running of the house or care of her husband and family, it’s fine.”
“And if it did interfere, how would you feel?”
He couldn’t tell from Anna Mae’s expression what she was getting at, so he thought carefully about his answer. “Again, to be fair, I don’t know how I’d feel. I think the Bible is the final authority and it states that a woman’s place is in the home. In other places in God’s word, like Proverbs, it speaks of all the work that a woman does and a lot of it is outside the home. So like everything else the Bible teaches, I think moderation is the key.”
In neat tight handwriting, Anna Mae wrote her mother’s name and address on the envelope. Josiah wondered briefly why she didn’t address the letter to both parents. The more he learned about his new wife, the more he realized Anna Mae thought carefully about the decisions she made, never acted flighty or careless, and observed the dictates of society on manners and charity. She made a perfect sheriff’s wife. But he guessed correctly, it might take him a lifetime to find out the reasoning going on behind those beautiful eyes.
“Will you mail this for me tomorrow?” She ran a finger over the flap, sealing it tight.
“Be glad to. Do you have a list of things you might need from the dry goods store?”
“No, I haven’t checked the larder, but Emily Jane told me there was food in the root cellar that the former owners left.”
“Why, yes, there is. I’ll bring some of it up tomorrow when I get home. I know there’s a lot of beans in a sack down there. I’ll get some salt pork from the store and milk from the Smiths’ dairy.”
Josiah made a mental note to bring other goodies to make their next few weeks a little easier, because from the sound of the storm, they would be closed in for a little while.
“I know it may be a bit uncomfortable for you, but could you bring my book satchel from the school? It has my sight cards...” Her eyes grew round. “Oh, Josiah, those are my writing examples on the walls, and the two red readers are mine. Would it be wrong of me to want to keep them? I could use them to teach the girls when they’re older, on snowy days when we can’t get to the school. They mean a lot to me. I spent my first paycheck on them.”
That was his Annie. She had an inherent kindness and sense of rightness that showed up in her thought processes. He, on the other hand, wouldn’t leave anything in the school to help Mrs. Anderson. Let her buy her own books and supplies. Yes, Lord, I know that’s the wrong way to be. I’ll try harder.
“I’ll get your things for you. And no, it isn’t wrong. If you can think of anything else, let me know before I leave and I’ll get it for you.”
“Thanks, Josiah.” Anna Mae propped the letter against the saltshaker, then stood. “Well, I’ll say good-night. Will you be leaving early in the morning or sometime after breakfast?”
“I’ll leave before daylight so no need to get up. I’ll let the latch down behind me so you’ll be locked in. If all goes as planned I should be back shortly after lunch.”
“Be safe, Josiah. ’Night.”
Josiah savored the feeling of satisfaction her words left with him. It had been a long time since anyone cared about his safety. It felt good.
“’Night, Annie.”
* * *
The next morning, Anna Mae heard the latch fall into the slot and jumped from the bed as if it was on fire. She’d awakened at the first sound of Josiah moving in the next room. She’d lain perfectly still, aware that the walls were paper thin, and hoping and praying the twins wouldn’t wake just yet. She’d like to get a start on the day while they still slept.
In less than fifteen minutes she’d finished her morning ablutions, dressed and tiptoed into the sitting room. She stood back a ways from the window, but watched as Josiah vanished into the gray dawn. Then she ran and stared, faced pressed against the pane, to see if she could spot him at any other site down the road. Thankfully, it had stopped precipitating, so she could see clearly across the snowy landscape. The road dipped and when he came back up the other side she could barely make him out, but this satisfied one of her many curiosities. If she watched for him at lunch, he wouldn’t be able to sneak up on her; for some reason that was important right now.
After all, she planned to move some of his stuff around. Well, she had no idea if the things in the house were his or the former owners, but she knew she could make it look better than it did right now. To her way of thinking it was easier to ask forgiveness than permission. Still, she’d rather not get caught in the act. She was totally bewildered by her mixed emotions, but decided the job before her was more important than analyzing why she felt like a trespasser in her own home. Besides, it would be hers after she put her mark on it.
She looked around the sitting room. It was partially open to the kitchen, but the entrance, which should have permitted one to see all of the kitchen except the pantry and back door, had been blocked off by crates, and Anna Mae could see a shovel and what looked like the girls’ wagon that William had used to pull them about in a few months ago.
She quietly lifted the first crate from the top and carried it to the table. Stacks of wanted posters and official looking forms were tossed in haphazardly, so she set it against the wall in the kitchen.
Thirty minutes later, the wagon had been moved to the third bedroom, where Anna Mae nearly fainted. The room looked like the gardener’s shed at her parents’ estate. Everything from hoes to milk cans filled the space, and even the bed was covered with junk. She closed the door quickly so she wouldn’t be tempted to drag everything out and rearrange. If she did that, she’d never be through by the time Josiah arrived home.
Finally, she had the opening cleared and the couch pulled out from the wall. She never had been one to cover windows, and furniture pushed up against one seemed out of place to her. She put a chair on either side of the fireplace and moved the couch in closer. If they sat on the sofa and read to the girls, they could stretch their toes toward the fire. Anna Mae could envision their happy family doing just that and felt deep satisfaction that her thoughts were for their well-being.
She heard the girls stirring, but decided not to rush them. She stepped out on the back porch and pulled bacon from the larder. She did a quick check of the other contents and found quite a bit of meat. There were several packages marked Rabbit and those she had no problem with, but the ones marked Squirrel gave her a moment’s pause.
Anna Mae shivered from the cold air whipping at the bottom of her dress, and hurriedly reentered the house. She put bacon in the pan and set it on the stove. Next she whipped up three eggs with a little milk, salt and pepper, and dipped in it three slices of bread from last night’s supper. She set another pan on the stove and put in the bread to fry.
The whines and calls from the bedroom had gotten louder and she could barely control her burst of laughter when she peeped around the door. Ruby, with one leg over the rail, could neither get herself over enough to fall to the floor, nor climb back in the crib. Considering she was only about a foot and a half off the floor, the fall would not have hurt her, but her diaper had caught on a decorative wooden knob and she pretty much hung suspended in the air. Rose sat staring at her as if to say, “I told you not to try it, but you wouldn’t listen. Now what are we going to do?”
Anna Mae masked her humor and rushed to rescue Ruby. “You naughty girl. What are you doing?” She unhooked the little one and set her on the bed. Then she reached for Rose, who’d stood up with arms raised. Anna Mae could barely scold for laughing. “What if you had fallen and banged your head, Ruby?”
“Uby bad.” Rose had no intention of taking her sister’s side.
“No bad. Me no bad,” Ruby insisted, as Anna Mae pulled off the soiled diaper and set her on the chamber pot.
By the time she freed Rose of her soiled diaper, Ruby had used the potty and was running happily around the room in her gown, with her backside showing. Giggling as Anna Mae tried to catch her, she screamed with joy to be finally caught, tossed in the air, then pinned on the bed.
Minutes later, with both freshly diapered, Anna Mae carried a girl under each arm into the kitchen. She set them at their respective places and hurried to rescue the bacon and bread. She saw Rose shiver and realized she had let the fire get too low, which had been good for cooking breakfast and her cleaning spree, but bad because the house had gotten chilly.
As she stoked the fire, Anna Mae couldn’t help but worry about Josiah’s reaction to her rearranging his home. Would he like it? Or demand she put things back the way she’d found them?