Fresh eggs and milk were on the doorstep the following morning, so she made scrambled eggs for breakfast. He left while she was cooking, and came back a few minutes later with three other men. “We’re going to bring in your trunks.” He shook his head at her. “I’m just going to put them wherever I can find room so you can go through them.”
She nodded, smiling shyly at the men. She assumed they were from the church, but she had no idea. She put their breakfast in the oven when it was finished so it would keep warm before going in to make the bed. She wanted to use her own sheets on it, but that would have to wait until tomorrow when she’d had a chance to go through everything.
For today, she’d find places for all her things, and scrub the small house. She hated dirt to be anywhere, and all of the windows were full of grime. The floor had footprints on it. She had a lot of work to do.
It took the men almost an hour to get all the trunks into the house, and they were scattered everywhere. She could barely walk through the house by the time Samuel thanked them and they left.
“Are you hungry?” she asked.
He nodded, taking his seat at the table. “I am. And I have a sermon to write today, so I’ll be putting in a lot of hours. I’ll come home for lunch, but will have to go back. I usually only work half days on Fridays, but I was gone so much this week that I need to put in a full day today and tomorrow as well.”
“I’ll have lunch ready around noon. Will that work out for you?”
“That sounds good.”
She put the food onto the table, and he said a prayer for them. While they ate, he asked, “What do you have planned for today?”
“I need to deal with all the trunks first. Is there anything in particular you need me to do other than that?”
He shook his head. “No, I think the trunks need to be your first priority.”
She looked out at the sea of trunks covering the floor. She couldn’t disagree with that. “I’ll have them taken care of before I do anything else. Other than cook lunch, of course.”
When he left for the church, she spent time slowly walking through the house and getting acquainted with it. There was a small dresser in the bedroom, and he’d cleared out two drawers for her, which was nice, but she’d need those two drawers plus another dresser. There wasn’t a place to hang clothes, so she’d have to get creative there. She had a little money of her own, so she decided to walk to the mercantile and see what she could come up with.
Once she was outside, she realized she had no idea where the mercantile was. A woman was passing her, dressed in an old dress that looked like it had seen better days. Kristen smoothed her bright yellow dress down and smiled. She would be the best dressed woman in town. There was no doubt about that. “Excuse me, ma’am?”
The woman turned. “Yes?”
“Can you tell me where the mercantile is?”
“I’m on my way there now. Would you like to just walk with me?” She was younger than Kristen had first thought, probably not much older than she was.
“I’d love that.” She smiled at the other woman. “I’m Kristen Benner.” The new name felt strange on her lips.
“Oh! You’re the new pastor’s wife.”
Kristen nodded. “Do you go to our church?” she asked.
“Yes, I do! My husband and I were married by Pastor Benner just three months ago.” The woman didn’t seem to be in a hurry, so Kristen ambled along beside her, wishing she knew of a way to ask her to hurry without being so blunt. She had a lot of work to do that day.
“Oh, how nice. What’s your name?” It hadn’t occurred to her that Samuel had already performed some weddings. It made sense, though.
“Adelaide Tomlinson.” She pointed. “There’s the store. Where are you from?”
“Dallas.” Kristen didn’t realize how forlorn she sounded when she mentioned her home town.
Adelaide smiled. “Paradise is a nice place. You’ll like it here. I promise.”
Kristen sighed. “I hope so!” They walked into the store, and she went to the merchant. “Do you have any dressers? Or anything I can hang dresses from?”
The man looked at her for a moment before shrugging. “Most people around here make their own.”
She sighed. “If you know of someone who can make me one, please let me know.” She searched through the room, her eyes lighting on a broomstick. She could purchase two broom sticks and use them to hang her dresses from, couldn’t she? She made a face as she thought about it.
Adelaide touched her arm. “My husband makes furniture sometimes. I’m sure he’d be happy to make you a dresser if you need one.”
Kristen’s eyes lit up. “That would be wonderful.” She picked up the two brooms and put them on the counter, before turning back to Adelaide. “Do you have a saw I could borrow? Just for an hour or two?”
Adelaide nodded, seeming surprised by the question. “I’ll bring it to your house after I finish my shopping.”
“Thank you!” Kristen hurried from the store, thrilled she’d figured out her first problem. She got home and immediately started digging through her trunks. Until she had her dresser, she could use one trunk for her clothes that would be folded, and the broomsticks for her hanging clothes. She just had to cut them off.
She put all her clothes that needed to be hung up on her bed, laying them flat so they wouldn’t get more wrinkles and she put away her folded clothes in the drawers Samuel had cleaned out for her. She put one trunk at the foot of their bed, and she carefully placed her other clothes that needed to be folded into that trunk.
By the time Adelaide came with the saw, she’d accomplished a lot. She opened the door wide for the other woman to invite her in and saw her jaw drop. “You brought a lot of things with you,” Adelaide said in surprise.
Kristen shook her head. “Only the most important things.” She took the saw Adelaide offered and walked to the kitchen. She sat on one of the chairs and held the first broomstick between her knees. She carefully sawed off the end of the first broom and then the other while Adelaide stood watching her. “Would you help me hang these?” she asked.
Adelaide nodded, slightly bewildered. When she walked into the bedroom, she understood better. Kristen had fashioned two small planks of wood and she quickly nailed one end of the first broomstick into each. Then she nailed the whole thing into the wall. “I know it’s not pretty, but it’s functional.” She thought about using some of her precious fabric to fashion a curtain around the clothes, but that would need to happen later.
They did the same thing with the second broomstick, and Kristen stepped back, nodding happily. “That will be perfect.”
She went to the bed and carefully hung each of her dresses on one of the hangers she’d brought with her. When she was finished, Adelaide would take the dresses and hang them on their makeshift rods. When they were finished, Kristen smiled. “That will work beautifully for now.”
Adelaide stood looking around, noting all the shoes everywhere. “Is there anything else I can help with?”
Kristen smiled. “You’ve done more than enough. I need to get the floor in here scrubbed before I put my shoes down.” She sighed. “It’s going to be a long day.”
Adelaide looked at her new friend. “I really don’t mind helping.”
“Really, it’s okay. I’d rather do it myself.” She rubbed the small of her back. “Samuel’s worried I won’t be able to handle the work that comes with being a pastor’s wife.”
Adelaide smiled. “I think I understand.” She looked at all the trunks, most of them now empty. “What will you do with all the trunks? They look brand new.”
“I haven’t really thought about it. I certainly don’t need more than one or two.” She looked around the room. There were so many of them. “Do you think the mercantile would buy some from me?”
Adelaide nodded. “And I think we’d be happy to trade a dresser
for one of them.” She touched her stomach. “I’m expecting, and I’d like a trunk to put the baby’s things in as I sew them.”
“Oh, that’s a wonderful idea!” Kristen nodded emphatically. “I’d love to make that trade.”
“I’ll bring my husband by when he gets home from work, and we’ll pick one up to get it out of your way. He’ll start on your dresser first thing tomorrow.” Adelaide rubbed her hands together happily. “I’m so glad we ran into each other today!”
“Thank you!” Kristen’s eyes lit up as she thought about what she’d already accomplished. She was going to make it work, if only because Samuel didn’t think she could.
As soon as Adelaide left, there was a knock on the door. When she opened it, an older woman stood on her doorstep. “Mrs. Benner?”
“Yes?”
“I’m Alice Cheevy. I brought your lunch.” The woman held a small pot in her hands and held it out to Kristen.
Kristen smiled sweetly, although she was slightly annoyed. She’d wanted to make lunch herself. “Thank you so much. I’m sure we’ll enjoy it.” It was probably for the best with everything she had to do, though.
“Just heat it up when it’s time for lunch.” Alice peeked around Kristen and saw the trunks scattered everywhere. “Oh my! You have a lot of trunks!”
Kristen nodded, wondering why people always felt the need to state the obvious. “I do.”
“What will you do with them all?” she asked.
Kristen shrugged. “I’m planning on keeping two, and I’ve traded one for a dresser, but I’ll probably just take the others to sell at the mercantile if they’ll buy them from me.”
The woman looked at the trunks again before asking, “Could you use a bookshelf? I’d love to trade you a shelf for one of those trunks.”
Kristen thought about it. She had brought a few of her favorite books with her, and she had some things she wanted to display somewhere. “I’d like that.”
Alice clapped her hands. “I’ll send my husband over as soon as he’s finished with work today. He’ll pick up a trunk and drop off the shelf.”
“That sounds good.” Kristen was pleased with how things were working out. She’d rather get good trades for the trunks than money anyway.
She glanced at the clock and saw it was already after eleven. She started a fire in the stove and put the pot in it. The women there certainly were generous, she thought.
When Samuel got home for lunch, she had all of the trunks emptied and pushed to one corner of the big room. She had scrubbed the floor in the bedroom and put her shoes around underneath the hanging dresses. It was looking a great deal homier without her trunks scattered all over. He looked around, obviously happy with the work she’d done.
“Mrs. Cheevy brought lunch today,” she told him after he’d prayed. “I was getting ready to fix it when she came with the pot.”
He ate a quick bite. “That’s fine. I’m not fussy about who cooks or even what they cook. I just like to eat.”
She laughed. “She’s sending her husband back later. They want to trade a bookshelf for one of my trunks.”
“That sounds good to me. I don’t know what we’ll do with ten trunks.”
She grinned. “I want to keep two of them, at least for now. One for some of my clothes, and the other to keep linens and things in.”
He shrugged. “That’s fine. Do what you want with them.” He didn’t say it, but he was pleased to see that she was figuring things out. He hadn’t been sure how she was going to put things away, but she was managing. He had to admire her for that.
Once he’d left for the church again, she did the dishes, carefully setting the pot lunch had come in into one of the trunks, and making a mental note that the trunk would need to go home with Mr. Cheevy. She pushed the table out of the kitchen area and put the chairs onto it, before getting down on her knees to scrub the kitchen floor.
By the time Samuel got home from work, she had scrubbed every window, the kitchen floor, the stove and the work table. The kitchen practically sparkled, and she eyed it proudly. He carried the trunks that were to be picked up out onto the front lawn and helped carry in the bookshelf Mr. Cheevy brought with him. Kristen rushed over to scrub the shelf off, and then she carefully placed her books, the books of Samuel’s she’d found in various places while she’d cleaned, and the prized possession she couldn’t leave behind.
She smiled proudly at how the shelf looked when she was finished. The house was really starting to look better. Samuel came to her and said, “I’ve hitched up the wagon. I’m going to the mercantile to see if I can get Mr. Davidson to buy a couple of the trunks from us. That will give us a little extra money, and get the trunks out of our house.”
She nodded, happy with the solution. If he bought two, that would only leave four to get rid of. She walked to the kitchen to start dinner, but just as she started to dig through the cabinets, there was a knock at the door. She rushed to the door, throwing it wide. She’d expected to see Adelaide or her husband, but instead, it was another older woman. “Mrs. Benner, I brought dinner for you and the pastor.” She handed Kristen a pot filled to the top. “It’s beef stew. He loves my stew.”
Kristen smiled, hoping it didn’t look strained. She couldn’t complain that the sweet ladies of their church were feeding them, but she had hoped to make dinner for her husband. She wanted to make a meal other than breakfast sometime soon. “Thank you!” Kristen took the pot and the small basket that held a loaf of bread. “I’ll make sure you get your things back at church on Sunday, Mrs.?”
“Allen. Nancy Allen.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Allen.” Kristen put the things on the table, and when she turned, she saw that Mrs. Allen had already left. Kristen sighed, putting the stew on the stove to heat. Someday, she’d be able to cook for her new husband. She knew she would.
When Samuel got home from the mercantile, he was grinning from ear to ear. “He was about to order five trunks. That means that we only have one left to get rid of. I’ll take the other three over in the morning.”
Kristen smiled. “I can always use that one to store things in. I’m sure when we have a baby on the way, I’ll be doing a lot of sewing for him or her and having a place to put things will be nice.”
Samuel seemed to consider it before nodding. “That’s fine. We’ll keep three then.” He sat down at the table. “Dinner smells good.”
“Mrs. Allen brought it. She said you love her stew.”
He nodded. “I do love her stew.” He waited while she served him and sat across from him. “You’ve gotten a lot done today. Thank you.”
She smiled at him. “I was happy to do it. I want our home to be comfortable for both of us.”
He thought about that. He hadn’t spent any time trying to make his home comfortable. He was happy she thought about those things. After their prayer, they ate the dinner Mrs. Allen had brought over.
While he ate, he looked around the room. “You had time to wash the windows today?” he asked in surprise.
She shrugged. “They needed it, so I made the time. There’s so much I need to do that I didn’t have time to get to, but it doesn’t all have to be done today, I don’t guess.” She thought the stew had a bit too much salt, but she didn’t say anything. She couldn’t wait to start cooking herself. When would the women stop bringing over every meal?
Once she’d finished the dishes, she found Samuel sitting on the sofa on the other side of the main room of the house, reading his Bible. She smiled, curling up beside him. “Which book are you reading?”
He looked up. “Psalms. I’m going to do my sermon this week on the twenty-third Psalm, and the peace we can get from a combination of the Lord and his Word.”
She nodded, closing her eyes, more tired than she cared to admit. “I love the twenty-third Psalm. It calls me when I’m…upset.” She wasn’t sure what other word to u
se for how she felt when her hands were dirty.
“Do you get upset often?”
Kristen shrugged. How could she tell him that she became unreasonably upset at strange things? She’d wait and let him see it for himself. She couldn’t explain it in a way anyone would ever understand anyway. “Would you read to me?”
He looked at her for a moment, before dropping his eyes back to his Bible. His baritone voice read the familiar words, and she felt all the upsets of the day fade away. Truly, her first day in her new home had been good and very productive. She’d done so much, and her house was shining. Once the last trunk was out, she’d be able to scrub the rest of the big room and finish the cleaning.
Of course, she’d just start over again on Monday, with laundry, and recleaning the whole house, but she was happy to know it would only be dirt that had been there as long as she had.
Kristen hated dirt. There was just something about it that made her slightly crazy. She hoped she could hide her crazy from Samuel for as long as possible. It would be nice if he never had to see it of course, but she didn’t think that was at all possible.
She sat quietly, listening as he continued the Psalm. He was a good man, and she’d made the right decision to marry him. Even if she missed her family and it made her slightly crazy when people kept bringing them meals as if she didn’t know how to cook. Both meals they’d received that day had been edible, certainly, but she could have done better in both cases.
She looked up and realized that he’d quit reading and was watching her. “What’s on your mind?” he asked.
She sighed. “Well, I’m wondering if people are going to keep bringing us all of our meals. I prefer to cook myself.” She held up a hand. “Don’t get me wrong, I’ve appreciated it today, because I had so much to do, but is there any way to ask everyone to stop? If they want to use meals as their tithe, could they just bring ingredients, and let me do what I want with them?”
She preferred to wash her food the way she wanted it washed. She’d started doing most of the cooking at home when she was only fourteen because she wanted to know that the food she ate was clean enough. Everyone thought she was strange for it, but she didn’t care. Her mother hadn’t complained about giving up the duty.
“I wouldn’t know how to ask that. They’re being helpful and providing us with good meals to eat. How can we refuse?” He shrugged, wishing he knew what she wanted.
“And it wouldn’t be very frugal to give the meals to the poor, would it?” she asked, already knowing the answer.
“Does it mean that much to you to do the cooking yourself?”
She sighed. “It really does. I’ve been cooking for my family since I was fourteen. I want to know how everything is prepared, and if the vegetables are scrubbed thoroughly before they’re cooked. I want to know how long the fish sat out before someone did something with it. I know it probably seems strange to you, but it matters a lot to me.” She felt funny revealing this all to him, because she knew it was odd, but hopefully he’d understand.
He frowned. “I don’t think we can give the meals away. Maybe I can talk to the men and make it known that you like to cook for me? If they want to use food as a tithe, they should just bring the ingredients? Although, I don’t know how to say that without hurting feelings.”
“We’ll work through it. People are just being generous, and I certainly can’t fault them for that.” She stood and stretched, her muscles aching from the hard day she’d put in. “I’m going outside, and I’ll be back in a minute. I think I’m ready for bed.”
Samuel watched her leave, a slight smile on his face. She really didn’t like to eat food other people had cooked? How odd. It was going to be very hard for her to be an effective preacher’s wife
Chapter Six