They were all staring at her now. She shoved the bread back into her bag and dusted crumbs from her skirt. “I must look ridiculous shoving all that into my mouth like that." She forced a laugh and kept her eyes downcast. “I was late getting up, so I threw on the first thing I saw, grabbed the loaf of bread, and ran all the way to the station.” She glanced over at Hazel. “I ran Hazel over in my haste.”
Hazel nodded. “It’s true. She was huffing for breath when she bumped into me.”
The lie seemed to have worked. The ladies went back to talking as if they hadn’t even been interrupted, and now that they'd left Charleston behind, Rebecca lifted the curtain over the window and tied it back up. She didn't know where she was going, but for the first time in forever, she looked forward to tomorrow. Thanks to Diana Hale, she had a brand new life waiting for her somewhere other than Charleston and she wasn’t going to waste a minute of it.
Chapter 2
Caleb yanked at his tie, untwisting it before trying again. He hadn’t put one on in so long, he couldn't remember how to make the knots. He sighed in frustration after his fourth failed attempt and pulled it from his neck. "The tie is too much, anyway."
Tossing it to the bed, he straightened his suit jacket and studied his reflection in the mirror. He'd not bothered with his appearance in years. He still shaved when he needed to and had his hair cut once a month, but other than that, what he looked like didn't even cross his mind. Today it did.
As he'd done since the day it arrived, he grabbed the letter from his soon-to-be bride. He read it again and ignored his anxiety and apprehension about the entire arrangement. Why had he let his mother talk him into this?
"How do I look?"
Amanda stood at the door, holding out the skirt of her new dress. He smiled. Now he remembered. He'd done it for her.
"Do you think she'll like me?"
"She's not fit to be my wife if she doesn't. And to answer your question, you're the prettiest girl in all of Angel Creek."
Amanda beamed at the compliment. As much as he'd been dreading the arrival of his mail-order bride, his daughter had been beside herself with anticipation. She'd talked of little else since the letter arrived three months earlier, saying she was coming.
He glanced at the crumpled pieces of paper his bride had sent him. Diana Hale sounded pleasant enough. She was tall for a woman and according to her, stick-thin with hair in a boring shade of brown. But she'd been a governess to a family in Charleston which meant his daughter would be raised to be a proper young lady. She was also an accomplished cook and could read and write and knew how to sew. On paper, Diana Hale was the perfect wife. He only wished he wanted one.
"The stagecoach just came through town."
His mother's voice carried down the hall from the other room.
Amanda bounced on her feet and clapped her hands. "Let's go, Pa! She’ll think we're not coming if we’re not there to greet her."
Amanda grabbed his hand and pulled him from the bedroom all the way to the front door, letting him go long enough to grab her cloak and drape it around her shoulders.
His mother was in her chair by the window, watching those outside pass by the house. "I sure wish I could go with you.” She motioned Amanda over and helped her fasten her cloak. "Don't linger in town and leave an old woman to wonder what's going on down at that stagecoach station. I'll have a crick in my neck staring out that window by the time you get back." She pulled up the hood on Amanda's cloak. "Keep this up today, child, it's snowing again."
Caleb grabbed his coat and slipped it on, that knot of unease in his stomach getting larger as he hooked the buttons.
"I hope you get that look off your face before you meet your bride, Caleb, or she'll get right back on the stagecoach and leave you standing there as she waves goodbye."
He smiled and hoped it appeared genuine. "I just have a lot on my mind, mother."
"I know you do. But things will get better now. You'll have help around here so stop looking so glum."
He crossed the room and leaned down, kissing his mother's weathered cheek. "We'll be home soon."
"Hurry about it, then. I'll be fidgeting until I see you coming around the corner."
He and Amanda hurried outside. The snow he'd cleared from the steps the day before was piling up again. He'd have to add shoveling it off for the third time this week to his ever-growing list of things to do.
"Let's go,Pa!" Amanda grabbed his hand and started dragging him toward town.
He'd been dreading this day for weeks now. When his mother had talked him into ordering himself a wife from that periodical they keep down at the mercantile, he'd been in such an exhausted stupor, he'd written a letter and let Amanda run it into town with little thought. The moment he saw the stagecoach drive off with the mailbag, he'd wanted to chase it down and get his request back.
There's no backing out now.
He took smaller steps than was necessary as they headed down the street toward the stagecoach station. He'd spent so many nights wondering what Diana Hale looked like. Not that it mattered. Their agreement was simple, their marriage one of convenience, nothing more, but he'd have to present her to everyone he knew as his wife and as vain as it was, no man wanted to tie himself to a woman who wasn't pleasant in appearance, even if he had no plans of making a proper wife out of her.
He needed a wife to help him raise Amanda and take care of his mother, nothing else, and he'd said as much in his letter. Diana had wanted a more stable life without the worry she’d be homeless if her employers decided their young daughter no longer needed her. Their marriage was on paper only, her suggestion, one he agreed upon, but he’d be lying if he didn’t say he hoped Diana Hale wasn't unfortunate looking.
She probably thinks the same about you. He supposed most people would when faced with the possibility of marrying someone they’ve never even seen.
The fact someone wanted a platonic marriage still shocked him, but he'd accepted her requirements, which were nothing more than a room of her own and time to see if the arrangement was suitable. He’d given her to the new year to decide. If she wasn’t happy, he’d pay for her return trip to Charleston, but he hoped she stayed. He’d spent all his savings paying for her passage all the way across the country. Where he'd find enough to send her home was beyond him. That one stipulation was the only thing that gave him pause about the entire thing, but in the end, he'd signed the papers—then regretted it in an instant. Amanda standing beside him with a big radiant smile on her face was the only reason he'd not torn it up and tossed it into the fire.
"You think she'll mind if I call her, ma?"
Caleb gave her hand a slight squeeze. "I'm not sure why she would. Once we marry, that's what she'll be."
Amanda talked nonstop all the way to town and didn't pause for a breath until they reached the stagecoach station. There were half a dozen people clustered around it, trunks and bags being tossed down to the sidewalk, and as he stood there staring at them, his pulse quickened. One of those women was his future bride, and he hated the very thought of it.