Mail Order Mama (Brides of Beckham Book 2) (8 page)

Benjamin finished with the woman and turned to the men playing checkers.  “Better to be a tiny little thing like my wife than an overbearing woman like your wife!”

Emily’s eyes widened in surprise as she looked at the man to see how he’d react.  Why would Benjamin talk to one of his customers that way?

He threw back his head and laughed out loud.  “That’s true.  Very true.”  The man sniffed.  “Your lunch smells good.  Better than the bread your mother brings in even.”

Benjamin put his arm around Emily’s waist.  “My wife is a good cook.”  He gestured to the man at the table.  “The loud mouth over there is my cousin, Thomas.  His friend is my brother, Samuel.  They were both at the wedding, but I know you didn’t have a chance to meet everyone.”

Emily smiled toward the men and waved timidly.  She felt like she was on display and she hated that.  “Do you need anything else before I go back upstairs?” she asked softly.  She wanted to hurry away so she could hide.  She needed to feed the girls, of course, but getting out of the room was even more important to her.

“I talked to the butcher this morning.  I got some chicken for our supper.”  He indicated a wrapped piece of meat on the counter.  “Any day you want meat for supper, you tell me and I’ll get it for you.  We can have fresh every day with a butcher in town.”

She nodded.  “Thank you.”  She picked up the wrapped chicken from the counter and headed toward the stairs. 

Benjamin caught her hand.  “Are the girls minding you?”

Emily’s face lit up at the question.  “They’ve been wonderful.  I don’t have a single complaint.  We’re about to eat lunch, and then we’ll bake some bread for supper.”

His eyes searched hers.  He’d worried a little that the girls wouldn’t mind her because she was so little she wouldn’t seem like an authority figure.  “You would tell me if they didn’t?”

“Of course, I would.  Our girls are wonderful.  They do everything I say.”  Both girls nodded to emphasize her words, and he let go of her arm. 

“Okay, I believe you.  You go and have a good lunch.  I’ll be home a little after six.”

She picked up the chicken and hurried out of the store and into the back room, going up the stairs with the girls to have her lunch.

After lunch, Emily asked, “Do you girls like chicken and dumplings?”  She’d always loved chicken and dumplings, and wanted to share the dish with the girls. 

The girls looked at each other.  “We’ve never had chicken with our dumplings, but we love dumplings.  And chicken,” Abbie told her.

Emily frowned.  “Well, we’ll try it and see then.”  The three of them made the bread.  Each girl was given a ball of dough the size of her fist to make her own bread with while Emily made four loaves of bread and a dozen dinner rolls to serve with their chicken and dumplings. 

As soon as the bread was in the oven, she began preparing to boil the chicken.  Once it was on, she boiled the water to wash dishes.  “Will you girls wash the dishes for me while I clean off the table and finish darning your socks?”

“You want us to do the dishes?” Abbie asked in surprise.

Emily wasn’t certain what she’d said wrong.  By Abbie’s age, she’d been doing the dishes on her own.  “Yes, would you wash so Georgie can dry?”  After the girls were used to doing the dishes together that way, she’d have Georgie start washing.  They were certainly old enough to learn to do simple tasks.

“We’ve never done dishes before,” Abbie explained.

“Never done dishes?  Really?”  Emily went to the sink and put the bowls they’d used for lunch into it.  “Just wash them until there’s no food left, and Georgie can dry them.  If you can’t reach to put them away, set them aside and I’ll do that.”

She mixed the rice in with the beans for another meal, and covered the pot with the lid.  She’d have to ask the girls how to get down to the cellar.  She was sure there had to be one to keep the food cold, so they could store it for the next day.

She darned the last of the socks while the girls washed the dishes.  She was glad they were so eager to help, even when it wasn’t something they normally did.  They talked back and forth as they worked together, somehow not realizing she was listening.

“Mama never made us do dishes,” Georgie said, a slight whine in her voice.

“Well, our new mama says we have to do the dishes so we have to do the dishes.  We’re older now, and we can do them.”  Abbie’s voice was patient while she explained how she thought things should be.

“Do you think we’ll have to do them
every
day?”

“Maybe even after every meal, but that’s okay.  She can cook!”

Georgie agreed reluctantly.  “That’s true, but dishes aren’t any fun.”

“If they’re not fun for us, then they’re not fun for Mama either.  Don’t you want her to be happy here?  We need to do some of the things that aren’t fun to make her happy.”

Emily bit her lip to keep from laughing.  She honestly didn’t mind doing the dishes, but the girls were certainly old enough to learn how and to start doing them on their own.  Part of her job with her new family was to teach the girls to be good wives when they married.  That meant teaching them to sew, cook, clean and do the dishes.

She finished up Georgie’s last sock as the girls finished the dishes.  Then she went to check on the bread.  It was perfectly browned, so she pulled it out and dumped it on a cloth on the table.  The girls looked at their own small pieces of bread.  Abbie’s was again pretty and smelled delicious.  Georgie’s looked like she’d rolled it in mud.

“Can we eat them now, Mama?” Abbie asked. “They’ll be better warm.”

Georgie frowned down at hers.  “I don’t think mine’s going to be good warm or cold.”

“Yes, you can eat them warm.”  Emily handed Georgie a dinner roll she’d put butter and a little cinnamon and sugar on.  “Now you can eat something that tastes good too.  Next time, don’t put pepper on it.”

Georgie smiled and bit into her roll.  “Thank you, Mama!”

Emily checked the chicken boiling in a pot on the stove and decided to give it a little more time.  She wanted the chicken to fall off the bone before she added the dumplings and made a gravy for it.  “After you’re finished, would one of you girls show me how to get to the cellar?”

“We both will,” Abbie told her.  “There’s a little food down there, but not much.  Mama usually kept a kitchen garden and canned in the fall, but she died and the garden was overrun with weeds.”  She made a face.  “I kept telling Papa I’d grow the plants, but he didn’t want me to.”

Emily stroked her hand over Abbie’s head.  “We’ll plant a garden together in the spring, and you girls can help me weed it, and then we’ll can them all next fall.”

Abbie’s eyes met Emily’s.  “I start school in September.”  She looked down at her food, obviously nervous at the idea.

Emily smiled.  “Before you start school, we’ll make you two pretty dresses and I’ll make sure you know how to read and write.  It’ll be easier for you that way.”  She certainly understood Abbie’s reticence. 

Abbie let out a sigh of relief.  “It’s not going to be easy anyway.  I don’t want to go to school.”

“I didn’t want to go either,” Emily admitted, “but I made some really good friends there, and I’m so glad I did.  It was hard, because like you, I’m really shy about talking to strangers.  Will you have any cousins in school?”

Abbie nodded.  “Lots and lots.”

“That’ll make it easier.  We have almost a year before you start, though, and we’ll have everything ready before then.”  She squeezed Abbie’s hand to let her know they’d work together to get everything ready.

*****

Benjamin closed the shop a few minutes early, and headed across the street to the cemetery.  He’d told Anna that Emily was coming, but he wanted her to know how good Emily was with their girls.  He knelt on the edge of her grave and started pulling the weeds as usual. 

“I got married yesterday.  She’s nothing like you.  I guess in my head, I was sending off for a wife exactly like my first one.”  He set the weeds he’d picked off to the side.  “The girls love her.  She’s very kind and gentle, and so far she seems to be a good cook.  She’s a tiny little thing, though.  I feel like I’m going to break her if I touch her, and then I feel like I’m betraying you.” 

He sighed heavily.  “I still miss you every day.  I’m not sure how I feel about her, but I know she’s making our lives easier.  I’m sorry I had to marry her, but our girls, they needed a new mama.  Abbie is finally smiling again.  The first time she smiled after your death is when I agreed to send off for a bride.  Now that Emily’s here, she’s smiling all the time.  Emily’s more like Abbie than you and Georgie.  She’s quiet.  I have to work to talk to her, which I never had to do with you.  I know it’s strange, but I can’t help but compare the two of you.  I miss you, Anna.”  He stood up, still looking down at the gravestone.  “I’ll be late for supper if I don’t go.  I’ll come see you again soon.”

He turned and walked back toward the house.  He hoped Emily had fried up the chicken, but whatever she’d done, he was certain it would be tasty.  She didn’t cook Norwegian, but so far, he’d liked everything she’d made.

He went into the house and washed his hands, inhaling the scent of the food she’d cooked.  “That smells wonderful.”

Emily smiled at him.  “It’s all ready.  We were just waiting on you.”  She was nervous about serving her new family their first real dinner with her.  Sure, she’d made him breakfast, but any idiot could make eggs and bacon.  Beans were easy as well.  Hopefully they’d enjoy the chicken and dumplings.

He looked around.  She had made bread and it looked like there was a cake on the work table.  His stomach growled, as he took his seat at the table.  She served him a bowl of pieces of chicken and something else.  There were sliced up carrots as well.  He wasn’t sure what it was.  He looked at it for a moment, and then bowed his head to pray for his family. 

“So what’s this?” he asked, poking at it with his spoon.

“Chicken and dumplings.  I can’t believe you’ve never had it.” Emily looked nervous that no one had ever eaten the food she’d fixed.  It was a common meal in the East.

“So those white things are dumplings?” he asked.

“The girls said they’d had dumplings before.  What do you think dumplings look like?”  Emily bit her lip.  No one had eaten a single bite of food yet.

“Well, usually they’re darker.”  He noticed then the girls weren’t eating and were waiting for him.  He took a bite and was surprised at how good it was.  “This is delicious.”  After another quick bite, he took a sip of his water.  “You can make this every night!”

The girls each took bites and smiled.  They obviously liked it, too.  Emily breathed a sigh of relief and started eating her own food.  “I can learn to make dumplings the way you’re used to eating them if you’d like.”

Benjamin shook his head.  “Maybe, but I’ll be happy to eat these any time you want to fix them for us.”  He reached out for a dinner roll and buttered it.  After taking a bite he set it down.  “Your bread is different from what we’re used to as well, but it’s very good.  I guess food that’s not Norwegian is good too.”

Benjamin polished off three bowls and each of the girls had two.  Emily had been planning to serve leftovers for lunch the following day, but she could see there wouldn’t be enough.  She couldn’t complain, though, because they’d obviously enjoyed the meal.

Benjamin leaned back and patted his full stomach.  “If you cook like that every day, I won’t be able to fit through the door soon.”

Emily smiled.  “There’s cake, too.”

His eyes flitted to the work table where he’d noticed the cake earlier.  “I’ll hate myself later, but I’ll take a piece of cake.”

“Girls?”  She looked to Abbie and Georgie to see if they were interested in a piece of the cake they’d helped her make.

Both girls nodded to indicate they wanted cake as well.  She was surprised at how little the family talked while they ate.  They seemed to take their food a lot more seriously than she was used to.  She cut them each a slice of cake and returned to the table.  She’d made a buttercream frosting for it she’d learned to make for the family she’d worked for. 

As before, both girls waited for Benjamin to try it, and at his smile, they ate theirs as well.  Emily took small bites of her cake while watching the others.  Obviously she’d done well with the meal.

Finally, Benjamin pushed back from the table.  “I know you said you’d worked as a cook, but when you said you didn’t even know what Norwegian foods were, I doubted we’d be happy.  I was wrong.  This meal was simply wonderful.”

Emily blushed, pleased with the praise.  “Thank you.”  She turned to the girls.  “Let’s clear the table together, and then you girls can wash the dishes for me.”  She stood and began moving the dirty dishes from the table to the work table so they could be washed.

Benjamin watched as the girls helped her clear off the table, and then went into the kitchen to wash the dishes with no argument.  He stared at Emily in disbelief when she joined him in the parlor a few minutes later.  “How did you do that?”

Emily was confused.  “How did I do what?”  She hadn’t done anything miraculous that she could see.

“Get them to do dishes so easily.  I’ve been trying to get them to help with dishes ever since Anna died, but Georgie would start to whine, and Abbie would say she needed to calm Georgie down, so I would do the dishes myself.  Every day.”