Convenient Christmas Bride (9781460389034) Read online

  He nodded. “Well, first off we need to pull her out here so she’s easier to manage.”

  Anna Mae watched him put a rope through one of the loops in the new halter she wore. He handed over the rope. “Now open the door and gently pull her out into the aisle.”

  Anna Mae nodded, a flicker of apprehension coursed through her as the big animal took a step toward her. Jersey is just a cow, Jersey is just a cow. She will not bite you. Or step on you. The encouraging yet fearful thoughts kept her backing up.

  “Whoa, Annie.” Josiah stopped her by standing behind her. “The cow’s not trying to get you. She’s just coming out to be milked.”

  He placed his hands on her arms and gently rubbed them up and down in what she assumed was his way of trying to comfort her. Anna Mae knew it was silly to fear the cow, and she had no real basis for doing so other than she’d never been allowed around animals before. Well, horses didn’t count, because they weren’t farm animals—at least that’s what her father always said. Anna Mae tried to halt her runaway thoughts and listen to Josiah.

  “Tie the rope around that pole.” He indicated a post that was part of the stall beside them.

  When she’d done that, he continued, “Now, give her these oats.” He put the bucket in her hands and watched.

  Anna Mae closed her eyes. Could she get close enough to the cow’s mouth to set the bucket down? What if it decided to bite her with those big teeth? She opened her eyes and looked to Josiah. “Maybe we should sell her. I don’t know that I can do this.”

  He turned her to face him. “Think of the cow as one of the older, bigger boys in your classroom. Would you not teach him because he’s bigger and older than the rest?”

  “Of course I would teach him, but he isn’t a cow!” Her voice and frustration rose with each word. Josiah simply didn’t understand her fear. And how could he? She didn’t even understand it.

  “No, she’s a dumb animal who is hurting because her bag is full of milk. By milking her, you are helping her. Just like you helped the bigger boys in your classroom get an education. Try thinking of her as an oversize dog that doesn’t bite,” Josiah suggested with a grin.

  A big dog. Anna Mae turned back to the cow. She looked into her beautiful brown eyes and tried to imagine her as a dog. Then Anna Mae squared her shoulders, took two steps forward and set the bucket down within reach of the cow’s head.

  “See? That wasn’t so bad.” Josiah praised her from behind.

  “For you,” she murmured. Then she turned to face him with a nervous smile. “Now what?”

  He shrugged. “Now we milk the cow.” Josiah picked up the stool and a milk bucket and sat down. “It’s really easy once you get the hang of it.” He reached out, took a teat in his big hand and gave it a tug and a squeeze. Milk spurted into the bucket. “See? Nothing to it. And look, Jersey isn’t paying us no never mind because she’s happily eating.”

  Anna Mae nodded. She knew she had to try to milk the cow. Deep inside she told herself she wanted to, but her feet wouldn’t move. “I seem to be stuck here, Josiah. Why don’t you show me again how it’s done?”

  A grin split his handsome face. “All right.” He demonstrated again. “Now it’s your turn.” He stood and moved aside so she could sit on the stool.

  It took all Anna Mae’s willpower to walk forward and sit down.

  “Now reach out and do what I did.”

  She closed her eyes. Lord, please help me. That was as far as she got with her prayer. Big warm hands wrapped around hers. Heat from Josiah seeped into her back. He’d come up behind her and was guiding her hands toward Jersey.

  Without another word, together they milked the cow. When the job was done, Josiah eased away from her. She turned around and faced him. Anna Mae whispered, “I did it.”

  He grinned. “Yes, you did. Now grab the milk and put it on the hay bale over there.” He looked a little flustered and Anna Mae wondered if he felt all right.

  She did as he said. The warm milk sloshed as she walked it over. She couldn’t believe she’d milked a cow. The cow hadn’t seemed to mind and she’d done it, with Josiah’s help of course.

  He set the stool off to the side and then instructed, “Untie Jersey and then take the feed bucket and hold it in front of her while pulling on the lead rope. Turn her around and lead her back into her stall.”

  Anna Mae looked at him. Was he nuts? A twinkle filled his eyes. He knew she couldn’t do that. Was he making fun of her? Or was it a challenge? Tomorrow she’d try, but for today Anna Mae thought she’d come a long way. She smiled sweetly at him. “How about we make that a part of my lessons tomorrow and you do all that right now?”

  Josiah walked over to her and leaned toward her. He kissed her on the cheek. “All right. I’m proud of you. You did good, but tomorrow you have to do it all.”

  The warmth of his lips lingered on her skin and it was all she could do not to reach up and touch where he’d kissed. Anna Mae sighed, telling herself it was only because she was happy not to have to put the animal away. It had nothing to do with the sweet kiss he’d just delivered.

  She watched as he and Jersey entered the stall. New fear pushed romantic thoughts away. Would she be able to milk the cow tomorrow morning? Or would Josiah have to help her again?

  The thought of them milking together sent a shiver down her back. Maybe she really should try to do it on her own. Getting too close to him wasn’t good for her mending heart.

  * * *

  By the end of the following week, Anna Mae had a handle on the milking thing; in fact, she felt accomplished about most everything she put her hand to these days. She could walk among the chickens to feed them, and though it took her much longer than Josiah to milk Jersey, she still got the job done. She’d even petted the brown-spotted cow a time or two.

  Day by day the house took on more of her personality, and Josiah and the girls seemed pleased. While thoroughly cleaning one day she discovered that the bed in the third bedroom was broken. As fast as the girls were growing they’d soon be moving into the bedroom. Anna Mae decided she’d start working on it now.

  She tried to repair the bed but couldn’t, so she took it apart. She carried the frame piece by piece to the barn, then emptied the straw tick mattress and washed the covering. While working on this, she ran through different ideas of what to do with the room. The girls were too young to sleep in there still but maybe they could use it as a playroom.

  There was an old table in the barn that had only three legs. She toyed with the idea of nailing a board in place of the missing leg. She could use it as a sewing table; a place to cut out material and quilt pieces. Then she thought about an office for Josiah. With the same plan, she could shorten the legs and make him a desk. Or maybe she should make something for the girls.

  Anna Mae made her way back to the house to look the room over. It was a corner room with windows on both outside walls. The natural lighting was wonderful.

  She stood looking at the room with fresh eyes, worrying her lower lip between her teeth. Excitement threatened to overwhelm her good sense from time to time, so she examined her new idea with extreme caution. It would work. After a long pause, she checked to make sure the girls still slept, and then she headed for the barn. In less than an hour the table was clean and a forth leg was nailed into place. She dragged the table onto the porch. All she needed was for the girls to wake so she could finish her plans.

  Quietly she carried, from other parts of the house, things that were needed to make the room perfect. She made a little more noise each time she entered the room where the twins slept. Surely by now they were ready to get up. Finally Ruby wiggled around to peer through the slats in her crib, and Anna Mae ran back to the porch and in a few minutes had dragged the heavy table to its new home. By the time she finished, both girls stood in their cribs yelling “Out.”
r />   With happy expectation she set them on the floor and led them to see what she’d been doing. Their squeals of delight caused her smile to broaden in relentless joy. They ran from the table to the dolls on the lower shelf of a small bookshelf, back to the table, then back to the higher shelf to get a book. They carried it to the table and sat to read, then were up again. Anna Mae watched with complete pleasure.

  She’d chopped the three legs off the table and made it the exact height for the girls. The shelves also were within hand reach for them. It left a large part of the room unoccupied, but maybe she could make a rug for them to play upon. All in all, it had been a morning of hard work that had paid off for her little ones.

  She left them playing and went to the kitchen to see what else she could tackle. Anna Mae felt an indefinable feeling of rightness. Who knew she could be so creative? Just the thought sent her confidence level soaring.

  All this time, she’d thought teaching was all she had a talent for. Now Anna Mae saw that she could accomplish whatever she set her hand to. Philippians 4:13 immediately came to mind. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

  She looked at the churn Josiah had brought up from the cellar. His instructions were “You just mash this thing up and down till the milk turns hard. Then you have butter.”

  However, Anna Mae had helped her mother make butter a few times so she knew that wasn’t all. Making butter had been one of the chores that her mother enjoyed as a child and so had continued to do, even though she hadn’t needed to. A smile touched her lips at the memory.

  Anna Mae washed the churn thoroughly and the paddle board, too. Then she packed snow into the churn to get it good and cold inside. She took the fat off the top of the milk Josiah had left covered and sitting on the porch this morning, and carried it back into the warm house. As she was churning the noise brought the girls to the kitchen, but they soon lost interest and went back to their room.

  The whole process took about forty-five minutes, and then Anna Mae poured the butter onto a cold slab. She salted it, then rolled it into round balls. When finished, she had fifteen beautiful balls of butter, which she placed in a dish and put in the larder outside. She quickly cleaned up the kitchen, humming, with a dance in her steps.

  Anna Mae played with the girls for a few minutes, then went to put on supper. She salted a slab of rabbit meat and put it on to fry. When it was almost done, she dropped a pat of butter in the pan and her mouth began to water. Biscuit dough rose in the side oven of the wood stove. It would taste wonderful tonight with fresh butter tucked between the flaky bread.

  As she peeled potatoes, something kept niggling at her brain, something she’d forgotten to do. Or maybe it was something she’d promised to do. Anna Mae thought and thought, but nothing rang a bell. Maybe if she focused on something else, it would come to her. She washed the potatoes, intent on concentrating on dinner.

  Finally she heard Josiah ride into the yard. Anna Mae felt giddy with excitement. She had accomplished so much today and knew he would be so pleased. Why, she might even get another hug. To be quite frank, she had enjoyed their hug from last week. Thoughts of it had occupied a lot of her time.

  Ten minutes later, the back door swung open and hit the wall with a thud. “Anna Mae!” To say he roared would be putting it mildly.

  She rushed from the kitchen. “Yes, Josiah. What is it?”

  She watched him struggle for composure. “Did you use the turpentine today?”

  A feeling of dread shook her from head to toe. “Yes, I mixed it with beeswax and polished a table for—”

  He interrupted her. “And did you seal it up and put it back where you found it?”

  She sank down into a chair, her legs too weak to hold her. “No, I—”

  “No, you didn’t. And the chickens turned it over and it’s all over the barn floor. One strike of a match could burn our barn down right now, and Lord only knows how much the chickens have ingested.”

  Anna Mae’s hands flew to her cheeks in dismay. “Oh, Josiah, are they dead?”

  His lips puckered with annoyance, but his voice became calmer. “Not yet, but they are wobbling around like they’re drunk. My main concern is getting the spill clean before an accident or fire breaks out. I carry the lantern out in the mornings to milk by. If it turned over, God forbid, the entire thing would go up in smoke.”

  “I’m so sorry. You stay with the girls and I’ll go clean it up.” She stood and reached for her coat.

  “No, put the girls’ coats on and we’ll both clean it up.” He paused, then turned back to her. “That won’t work. The smell might overpower them. I’ll do it. Hold supper, this will take a while.”

  He was gone before Anna Mae could even respond. Tears welled in her eyes and ran down her face. Josiah had seemed so disappointed in her. Smothering a sob, she checked the biscuits.

  She’d had such a great day. Now this. Her joy in all she’d accomplished suddenly left her and she sat down at the table and wept. Why did it always seem she took two steps forward and three backward? Would Josiah ever see her as a suitable wife and mother?

  Chapter Eighteen

  Josiah pulled Roy to a stop. He searched for tracks in the mud. His prey were slicker than foxes when it came to hiding. They’d evaded him so many times over the past few weeks that he’d began to doubt his tracking ability.

  With a heavy sigh, he turned the horse back toward town. It wasn’t helping that his thoughts continued to dwell on Annie and the girls. His heart had leaped out of his chest at the turpentine on the barn floor and he’d snapped at Annie. To say things between them had been strained over the past few weeks would have been an understatement.

  Now they’d been invited to William and Emily Jane’s tonight to celebrate with a big meal, thanks to the new holiday that everyone was so excited about. He understood the need to be thankful to the Lord in all things, but wondered if this new holiday wasn’t really just an excuse to get together and call off a day of work.

  Josiah knew he was simply irritated that he’d lost the communication he’d begun to enjoy with Anna Mae, his Annie. It ate at him and he hated that he’d hurt her with the harshness of his words. Maybe he’d overreacted. No, she needed to understand the severity of what could have happened to the barn and the animals that lived inside it. Thankfully, the chickens had recovered.

  He rubbed the back of his neck. Worry ate at him. Would she behave the same tonight as she had earlier in the day? They’d gone to church that morning and he’d endured her silence during the service. It was the first time they’d had to sit so closely since the turpentine incident weeks ago. The church had been packed due to it being Thanksgiving Day.

  He’d been aware of the tension in her body. It felt as if she strained to get away from him. He might be sorry that he’d snapped at her, but Josiah wouldn’t apologize.

  When he arrived at the bakery, Roy snorted a greeting to the other horses in William’s barn. Josiah patted his faithful companion on the neck. “We’ll be heading home soon, ole boy.”

  William stepped out of a stall he’d been mucking. “Any news?”

  Josiah grew so tired of that question. “No, just when I think I’m on the trail, I lose it.”

  “Are you even sure you’re trailing the right men?” William asked, picking up a pitchfork and jabbing it into the hay.

  “Yep, one of the horses has lost a shoe. Makes it easy to follow until they do something like cross the river, and then I lose them.” Josiah helped William spread the hay in the stall. “What are you doing out here?”

  “The women were all quiet and Emily Jane gave me ‘the look’ so I hightailed it out of there with the excuse I needed to tend to these critters.” He indicated the two mares and gelding that stood in stalls.

  Josiah felt his ears turning red. Anna Mae was probably telling Emil
y Jane what a clod he’d been to her.

  William leaned against the pitchfork and eyed him. “Yep, that’s what I figured. What did you say or do? Maybe I can help you get back in her good graces.”

  He shook his head.

  “Might as well tell me. You know Emily Jane will later, anyway.” William grinned, knowing he was right.

  “I didn’t do anything but clean up her mess.” He jerked the pitchfork from William’s hands and stabbed it into the hay.

  Catching his balance, William asked, “Before or after you scolded her?”

  “What makes you think I scolded her?” Josiah wondered if he were truly that predictable.

  William chuckled. “Let me guess. You came home, and she’d either left something out, burned dinner or done something even more ghastly. Your first instinct was to find her and tell her what she’d done wrong.” Sensing he was on the right track, William continued with a dramatic flair. “Or if it was something dangerous that she did, you told her how foolish she was and then proceeded to condemn her for it, not out of spite but so that she’d learn her lesson and not do it again. And when she apologized, you didn’t except it graciously but told her that now you had to fix whatever it was that she’d messed up.”

  Josiah sank onto a hay bale. “Now how do you know all that?” he asked, baffled. He was sure that Anna Mae would not confide in William, and she hadn’t had time to convey to Emily Jane all the sordid details William had just supplied.

  William joined him on the hay bale and slapped him on the back. “I’m married now, too, remember?”

  “You’ve done that, too?” At William’s questioning look, he clarified, “Accused her of all she did wrong? And all the other stuff you said?” Josiah dropped his head into his hands.

  “Sure, a couple of months after we were married, I did just that. Emily Jane forgot about the bread and it burned to a crisp in the oven. I felt it was my place to tell her how dangerous, foolish and wasteful that was. I wasn’t very smart back then, either.”