“You call this a home, O’Bryan?” Ned called out from the doorway of Declan’s cabin. “It looks more like a bear’s den!”
“I’m not finished yet,” he shot back, trying to keep the irritation from his voice. Declan had neglected his work at the mill on the excuse of needing to make furniture for his cabin, something he’d been able to do without for these many months of his claim. But now that he’d followed his nearest neighbor’s advice and proposed marriage to a complete stranger, he felt the least he could do—apart from paying her passage to Montana—was have a decent chair built by a real hearth and a comfortable bed to sleep in. The barn had served him well as he tended his animals, but even he knew that any wife worth having would be furious—and rightly so—at not finding so much as a stick of furniture in the place.
“Well, I’d loan you some of my own pieces, but with Clara just arrived almost two months ago, I can’t very well go telling her she’ll have to sit on the floor and eat her meals at the back of the wagon ‘causes I gave away all our sticks!” Ned laughed, and Declan struggled to find the humor in it.
“No, you’re right. ‘Twould not do at all! I just have to work faster, and I’ll have some things ready before she e’er gets here.” Declan swept his hand across the newly constructed kitchen table he’d made, brushing the tell-tale signs of sawdust into his palm and throwing them out the door. The sawed-off tree stumps he’d arranged around the table would have to do until he finished the more necessary pieces.
“You’ll be finished in no time, I’ll bring some of the boys out to help us tomorrow night. How does that sound?”
“I could naw put anyone out like that,” he started to protest, but stopped when he saw Ned shaking his head, glaring fiercely.
“Have you not learned this lesson by now, young ‘un? We help one another out around here! And you’ve already done more than your fair share of pitching in! Your farm won’t last a season if you don’t stop helping everyone else, and then refusing to be beholden to another! Now, we’re coming by tomorrow to make you some furniture, and you can either smile and help us or get out of the way!”
It took Declan a moment to realize the older man was having some fun at his expense, but for those first brief few seconds he worried that he’d actually offended Ned. After all, it was the neighborly thing to do to offer to help out, but Declan had turned him down before the sentence was even finished being spoken.
“Well then, I’m grateful to you. And I know Margaret will be, too, seeing as how you’re making it possible for her to sit in a proper chair or sleep in a proper bed!” He blushed for a second at his accidental mention of their bed, but was relieved to see that Ned didn’t seem to think anything of it.
“Ah, Margaret. Yes. The girl that my new wife can’t stop jabbering on about!” he said, his eyes twinkling in a way that belied his words. “She can’t wait for another female to live in these parts!”
“And I appreciate that Margaret will have someone else to speak to. I admit, I was greatly vexed at the thought of hauling a stranger out here and having her suffer from loneliness. I’ve seen those cities, and there’s not a moment’s quiet to be had anywhere. Out here, though, there’s nothing but quiet! ‘Twill do both Margaret and Clara good to have someone else like-minded to talk to.”
“True enough,” Ned said with a sage nod. “There’s a difference in their ages, to be sure, but I couldn’t very well expect a young lady to be too interested in an old goat like me. Clara lost a husband in the fighting, and she’s of a goodly older age. A calmer age, I’d say. She’s the right wife for someone like me.”
“And I’m proud for you to have found a match that ‘twas so sound,” Declan said with a nod, acknowledging the wisdom in Ned’s approach. “I can only hope that Margaret and I get along so well as the two of you.”
“I’m sure you’ll get on famously, ‘specially seeing as how she’s marrying you sight unseen. I had to invite Clara out and let her make up her mind for a couple of weeks before she’d even agree to take a look at my property. You, though… why, you’ve already asked her to marry you and everything! You don’t suppose… no, never mind.”
“What? I don’t suppose what?” Declan demanded, a hint of fear in his voice.
“Well, I do hate to be the one to put the thought in your head, but… you don’t think this girl was too quick to agree to marriage? She hasn’t even seen you, you could have two heads for all she knows, but she’s coming all this way to get married to a stranger.”
“Did naw your wife do the same thing? Come all the way to the Montana territory without knowing a soul, least of all you?” Declan countered, trying to keep his anger and hurt from getting the better of him. Of course it was easy for someone in Ned’s position to be cautious; he was already legally wed.
“That she did, but it’s as I said. She waited a while and got to know me. She made me court her like we were young ‘uns again. And only then did she give me her answer, after getting to know me in person. But now don’t be sore, I’m just wondering if there’s something this girl’s running from that she’s not telling you. That’s all. I hate to see a hard-working man like you get taken in, or taken advantage of.”
“So what would you have me do? Leave her at the train and tell her she’s to put up at a campfire on the outskirts of town?” Declan demanded, trying to calm down.
“Not at all. But I don’t mind putting up over here at your place and letting Clara welcome her. Let the girl get to know you proper, and get to know Montana a little bit, before either of you two goes making a decision that can’t be undone. Me, I’m old, so I don’t have that many years left if I didn’t adore Clara the way I do. But you two? You’ll find out exactly how long a body can live if you’re with the wrong person.”
Declan grimaced, but even he could hear the wisdom of his neighbor’s words. He finally nodded his head. “If you’re certain ‘twill naw be putting you to any trouble…”
“No trouble at all, son! I’ll bunk up in your barn ‘til you all figure out your plans. I’m off to let Clara know we’ll be having company, but the boys and I’ll be back around tomorrow to get some of this stuff finished. See you then!”
Declan sat down on a low stump and looked around the cabin. Surely, it wasn’t as bad as Ned had made it out to be, he decided, but even he could agree that the lone straight-backed chair by the gaping fireplace didn’t do anything to make the four walls seem more like a home. The table was finished, wrought from boards Declan had hewn at the mill, but without any chairs around it, the whole thing seemed more functional than inviting. There were no work surfaces by the corner kitchen, and the bucket of water from the well sat directly on the dirt floor instead of on a pedestal of any kind. The boards for the bed still stood leaned against the wall where the bedroom would one day have walls of its own, and the hay-filled sack he’d been using as his mattress still rested in a lumpy pile on the floor.
That Ned is right, he thought bitterly, a feeling of desperation creeping up his spine and causing him to jump up to get back to work. This is no home fit for a lady. ‘Tis naw even fit for a bachelor such as me, let alone a wife. I’ve work to do to get it ready in time!
He worked long into the night, sawing and hammering at the wood he’d prepared himself. He used a good many of his precious nails on the bed to make it sturdy in order to keep anyone from falling to the ground in the night, but for all of the other pieces he carved and whittled intricate tongue-and-groove joints or cut small pegs to serve as fasteners, nails being too precious to waste on a chair or a footstool.
As he toiled, Declan couldn’t shake off Ned’s warning: what if Margaret wasn’t what she seemed? What if there was more to her story than she’d let on in her letters? As their brief, written relationship replayed itself in his mind, he couldn’t help but think that all of this had happened so fast. She’d accepted his arrangement in the very next letter, even going so far as to ask when he would send for her. She’d made it plain that she was a good girl and
that she wouldn’t stay on his property until they were husband and wife, but even that had been such an unusually hurried reply.
One thing was for certain: there was no backing out now. The train should have already departed from the east and was at that moment crossing the country. He would have only a matter of a few weeks to meet this young woman and decide if she could be trusted.
Chapter Four