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“Pearl feels the children need to be around their mother’s things, that they won’t get past her death until they can see and touch what’s left behind. I happen to agree.”
“Stop it. First Miss Porter and now this. Stop pushing me.”
“It’ll be two years come April. You need to let go.”
“Don’t tell me what to do until you’re in my shoes.” Garrett didn’t point out that Pearl had nearly died rescuing Sadie in last month’s fire.
Judging from Roland’s expression, he didn’t need to.
* * *
“First help me out,” Pearl told Amanda as she donned her cloak in the front hallway of the boardinghouse, “and then I’ll show you how to cook some basic things, like eggs and biscuits.”
“That won’t help me for supper. He said I’d need to cook supper.”
“All right, then I’ll teach you how to make hash and stew and that sort of thing.”
“But...”
Amanda had hoped to get started early. Mrs. Calloway had approved, as long as whatever they made could be served to the boardinghouse guests. Given Amanda’s current lack of knowledge, the guests were going to suffer. The very thought of cooking something terrified her. Aside from boiling water and collecting serving platters, she steered clear of the big cookstove.
Pearl held out Amanda’s coat. “It will only take a few minutes.”
“Then you will teach me to cook?”
Pearl nodded.
Amanda conceded defeat and threw on her coat. The hat took longer, since the pins refused to hold it in the proper place. Every time she thought she had it just right, she’d take a step, and the hat would slide to the side.
“You don’t need to look perfect,” Pearl complained. “At this rate we will never get there. Here.” Pearl tied the ribbons under Amanda’s chin.
“You know I hate to have anything tied under my chin.” Amanda tugged on the ribbons, but Pearl had knotted them.
“If we don’t go now and get this taken care of, there won’t be any time left to cook.”
“Then we can forget this little errand that you refuse to divulge and go straight into cooking lessons.”
Pearl laughed. “You can’t wriggle out of this that easily.” She opened the front door. “Come along.”
Amanda gave up and followed her friend. Instead of heading to the store, Pearl took off in the opposite direction, toward the dunes. Amanda hurried and caught up.
“Where are you going?” Her words came out in gasps.
“It’s a surprise. Don’t you love surprises?”
“It depends. Some of your surprises didn’t turn out all that well. Like the excursions you proposed back at the orphanage.”
“They would have been highly educational if Miss Hornswoggle could have overlooked that one little problem at the cathedral.”
“The boys claimed we locked them in that room with all the robes, when they should never have gone in there in the first place. And you made me go tell Miss Hornswoggle, so she could fetch someone to unlock the door.”
Pearl shrugged. “She always forgave you anything. I would have had to clean the floors for two months.”
Amanda laughed at the memory. “She did have a soft spot for me.”
“And no wonder. You are the sweetest, prettiest girl on earth.”
Pearl’s words sent a shiver down Amanda’s spine. Hugh had said the very same thing, but he hadn’t meant it. “No surprises, please.”
Pearl laughed. “This isn’t bad. I promise. And I won’t make you do anything you don’t want to do.”
Amanda wasn’t certain she believed her. “Then tell me where we’re going and what we’re going to do there.”
“You’ll find out soon enough.”
Amanda sighed. She would have to guess. “Does it have something to do with that project you asked me to work on?”
“Perhaps. In a roundabout way.”
Amanda hated when Pearl acted like this. It meant she had come up with some grand idea that involved her. When Pearl had approached her about coming to Singapore, she’d held back all the details until Amanda agreed to consider it. By then Pearl had purchased the train ticket to Chicago for her. If Amanda hadn’t suffered such humiliation at Hugh’s hands, she might have asked more questions, but she was eager to leave. Only after they were settled on the train, carpetbags safely stowed, had Pearl shown her the advertisement. At first Amanda had rejected the idea of marrying a stranger. The memory of Hugh’s cruel treatment of her still stung. She couldn’t imagine allowing another man to touch her, but as the train ride wore on she began to realize the advantages. A man advertising for a wife would not expect a great deal. He wouldn’t care about her past. He must be desperate and could not possibly reject her.
How wrong she’d been.
Again she had to hurry her step to catch up to Pearl, who was heading in the wrong direction. “If we’re working on that project, why aren’t we going to the school or the store?”
“Oh, I doubt you’ll work on it at either place, at least not until just before Christmas.” Pearl stopped in front of a weathered house that could use a good whitewashing. Even the shake shingles looked a bit threadbare. “Here we are.”
“At a stranger’s house? Who lives here?”
Pearl smiled coyly. “Let’s find out.”
Amanda gasped. “You’re going to barge in on strangers?”
Pearl only laughed as the opened the door. “Come in with me.” She grasped Amanda’s hand. “There’s nothing to be afraid of.”
Pearl dragged, and Amanda reluctantly followed, but the tug up the single step made her stumble. She looked down to catch her footing, and her hat slipped to one side. She frantically tried to straighten it before entering the house.
“Here we are,” Pearl called out as she tugged Amanda through the doorway.
It took a few seconds for Amanda’s eyes to adjust to the lower light. When they did, she found herself face-to-face with Garrett Decker.
* * *
Garrett should have known that Pearl would drag her friend along. Since the day the ladies arrived on the Milwaukee, Pearl had been promoting Amanda. None of that matchmaking had been subtle, but for good measure Roland constantly pointed it out.
“Oh!” Amanda gasped, quickly straightening the hat that had slipped slightly to the side. “I didn’t know.” Pink suffused her cheeks, not from the cold. “I would never have intruded.”
“Nonsense,” Pearl said, her gaze sweeping around the room. “You’ll need furnishings, of course, but first a good scrubbing is in order.” She crossed to the kitchen stove and examined the firebox. “Full of ashes. No doubt one of the workers left it this way. No matter, a little elbow grease will take care of that. Speaking of grease, this stove needs to be scraped. It smells rancid. When was the last time someone lived here? You can’t bring children into this house until it’s clean from top to bottom.”
Garrett’s head spun as Pearl continued her instructions. It didn’t help that Roland was snickering the whole time. As for Amanda, she looked even more confused and embarrassed than he was. For the first time since the fire, he felt for her. Clearly, Pearl had roped her into this without saying a word. Roland’s chortles meant he’d known exactly what his fiancée had been up to, yet he’d failed to mention that Pearl was bringing Amanda along. There was no doubt about it. He and Amanda had been thoroughly set up.
“Of course you will need curtains. With ruffles, don’t you think?” Pearl addressed that last to her friend, who stared dumbfounded.
“No ruffles,” Garrett snapped. A man had his limits.
Pearl ignored him. “Roland says you can have any of the scraps and discarded fabrics from the store. I saw some pretty lace in the bin.”
“No lace, either,” Garrett added.
Again Pearl charged ahead without seeming to hear him. “With Mrs. Calloway’s sewing machine, it won’t take any time at all to make curtains for all the windows.” She looked around. “There aren’t that many. Two in front and this one in the kitchen. I assume those are bedrooms.” She headed to each, poked her head in and came back with the report that each bedroom contained one window. “That’s only five windows, and these front ones are the largest. What color would go best?”
Considering the walls were a dingy, unplastered gray, the color didn’t much matter. Unless it was too bright.
“No bright colors,” Garrett stated.
Amanda finally found her voice. “I think that Mr. Decker and the children must approve the colors and design.”
Garrett was warming more to Amanda Porter by the minute.
Pearl blazed right ahead. “Of course. Perhaps you and Garrett should go through the available fabrics now.”
Garrett coughed. This was getting out of hand. “I have repairs to make on the house before we move in tomorrow. I don’t have time for curtains. That can wait.”
“You’ll think differently when the cold wind off the lake blows through those loose panes,” Pearl pointed out.
Garrett had already noted the gaps between the glass panes and the frame, not to mention the windows and the siding. He’d have to caulk those before the snow began in earnest, or they’d wake up to drifts across the floor.
“That’s why I have to get working on this place now,” Garrett stated firmly. “There’s a lot to do.”
“Like cleaning out the firebox,” Pearl pointed out.
Roland didn’t even attempt to hide his snicker.
That drew Pearl’s attention toward her fiancé. “We will make a work bee of this. Roland, you round up as many of the men as you can. I’ll get together the ladies. Garrett and Amanda can get the supplies and materials they need from the mercantile.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Roland answered crisply.
To Garrett’s surprise, Pearl’s take-charge attitude melted into laughter.
“But Pearl,” Amanda said, so softly that Garrett figured her friend wouldn’t hear her, especially since Pearl’s attention was fixed entirely on Roland. “You promised to help me...at the boardinghouse.” Every bit of rosiness had drained from her cheeks.
“Later,” Pearl assured her. “I won’t forget.”
Amanda nibbled on her lip, a girlish gesture that made her even more endearing. “But...”
“I promise.” Pearl linked her arm around Roland’s. “All right, we’ll get everyone together and meet back here in thirty minutes. We can turn this house into the perfect home for Isaac and Sadie.”
Garrett caught Amanda blinking back tears. Roland was right. She did care about his children. That made him feel a bit better about leaving them in her care for a few hours each day, but an instant later, those warm sentiments turned to annoyance. Pearl and Roland left, leaving him alone with Amanda.
She gave him an apologetic look. “I’m sorry. Sometimes Pearl gets caught up in an idea, and nothing can make her change course.”
Amanda looked as uncomfortable as he felt. They’d both gotten caught in the web of Pearl’s plans.
He cleared his throat and shoved his hands into his coat pockets. For some reason he got tongue-tied around Amanda. He had to get out of here and into a public place. “I suppose we’d better get what we need before everyone shows up.”
Her face bloomed pink. “I suppose.” She glanced up at him. “I won’t make anything for the house that you wouldn’t approve.”
The tremble in her voice undid him. Amanda was nothing like Eva. His late wife would have begged and demanded until she got her way. Amanda only sought to please. Perhaps Roland was right, and Garrett had badly misjudged her.
He drew in a deep breath. “As long as there’s no ruffles or lace, I don’t care.” An idea crossed his mind. “Have Sadie pick out what she likes.”
Amanda visibly brightened, the hesitancy gone. “What a wonderful idea! She has an artist’s eye for color.”
Garrett couldn’t help it. Amanda’s obvious affection for his daughter melted the coldness in his heart.
He smiled.
Chapter Three (#ulink_b5028896-905d-533e-9d57-5955a155fb05)
Since cleaning the Cherry Street house took all day, Amanda never got her cooking lesson. She’d counted on helping Mrs. Calloway prepare Sunday dinner, until Louise Smythe invited Pearl, Fiona and her to join the Elders. Fiona had other plans, but Pearl accepted for herself and Amanda.
“But I’m needed to help with dinner,” Amanda had protested.
Unfortunately, Mrs. Calloway overheard and put an end to that thought. “Go. It’s only brisket and cabbage. Simple as can be.”
Nothing was simple when it came to cooking, but with Pearl and Mrs. Calloway insisting she accept the invitation, once again the opportunity to learn slipped away.
Louise expressed such gratitude that Amanda felt badly for wishing she could be elsewhere. “Captain and Mrs. Elder are desperate for company. She is too frail to go out-of-doors anymore, and he won’t leave her side.” Her friend blinked back a tear. “He’s so devoted to her. I wish...well, I can only hope to find someone like that.”
Poor Louise had lost her first husband in the War Between the States. Widowed and poverty-stricken, she had spent everything she had hoping that Garrett Decker would marry her. So had Amanda. As for Fiona, no one quite knew if the concerts were given from financial necessity or to hone her talents.
When Louise learned Garrett did not want to marry, she took the position caring for Mrs. Elder in their home and found a perfect match for her love of books in Mr. Elder’s extensive library.
That afternoon they gathered around the Elders’ dinner table and listened to Captain Elder’s tales from when he’d captained a ship on the Great Lakes. Mrs. Elder smiled at each story, though she must have heard them a thousand times, and encouraged her husband to continue.
He said with a twinkle in his eye, “Adeline indulges me.” He leaned over and pecked her on the temple, drawing a playful scolding. “That’s why I married her, that and her walnut tarts.”
Mrs. Elder giggled like a young girl, her adoration wiping away the years for a moment. “Billy is such a tease.”
Amanda’s heart ached for such a close relationship, one that weathered the trials of time. Once she had dreamed of it with Hugh. He had been so attentive. Compliments flowed from his lips each time they met, and she began to believe his professions of love in spite of the vast difference between them. He was a man of society, and she an orphan who was little better than a maid in her foster family’s home. He told her she was more beautiful than her foster sister, Lena, whom the Chatsworths believed he would soon court. When Hugh said that he would rather marry Amanda, she took it as a proposal, only to discover that his real purpose was to ruin her so she would become his mistress.
She shuddered at the memory of that day and the liberties he had taken in spite of her protests, tears and struggles. If not for Mrs. Brighton’s timely intervention...
“Are you warm enough, dear?” Mrs. Elder asked. “I have plenty of shawls if you need one.”
Amanda pulled her thoughts from the terrible past. “Oh! No, thank you. I am quite warm.”
By the time she and Pearl left, daylight was slipping away. Soon darkness would shroud the landscape, just as memory had darkened Amanda’s spirits.
