Once they were seated, and he’d prayed over the meal, they began the whole process of him eating a bite and closing his eyes to savor the taste once more. She had to wonder if he would still be that appreciative of her cooking after fifty years of marriage.
Chapter 4
Trudie’s afternoon was just as busy as her morning, preparing the evening meal and working in the garden. It was going to take her a couple of days to get all the plants put in, and she wondered if she should do any laundry before she was done. There wasn’t really a way to not get dirt on yourself while gardening.
She was happy with her day’s work when she went into the house to finish up supper. Doug came in just as she was taking the pot roast out of the oven. “Wash up, and I’ll put supper on the table.” She needed to remember to spend some time that evening writing letters to all of her friends she’d promised them to as well as her sisters and her mother.
He washed his hands quickly, and saw that she already had a huge pot of water on the stove for the dishes that evening. He found it impressive how efficient she was with everything she did.
His eyes were wide as she carried a platter full of roast beef to the table, and then she added a bowl of potatoes, and a bowl of carrots, following it up with bread, butter, and gravy. “You made all this just for supper?”
Trudie put her hands on her hips. “I got a letter from a man who told me repeatedly he was hungry. I’m feeding that man.”
“That man has had three good meals in a row, and he finds himself very appreciative of his pretty new wife who can cook, and apparently knows how to plant a garden.” His gaze was on the roast, and he couldn’t seem to stop looking at it. She was mesmerizing him with her cooking.
She shrugged. “I’m a farm girl. Of course, I can plant a garden. I can also take a slingshot and shoot a crow from thirty feet away, so be on your best behavior, Mr. Charleston.” Trudie had always been proud of her skills with a slingshot. Well, anything that needed to be shot actually. She could use a gun and a bow and arrow very well too.
He narrowed his eyes at her. “Can you really do that?” He’d never seen a woman who could shoot anything, and he found himself very impressed.
She nodded emphatically. “I can also knock an apple off a brother’s head with my slingshot, but after my ma caught me doing that, I had my slingshot taken away for a week. Then I had to throw apples at people as they drove past my farm. It wasn’t nearly as fun.” Her brothers had actually fought to decide who could put the apple on their head to have her shoot it off. Her mother had not been at all impressed with her.
He paused serving his food. “Really?”
“Oh, yeah. And I helped put a snake in a teacher’s desk, tied another teacher in an outhouse and dismissed school...I’m not a woman to be trifled with.” Many teachers had left in the middle of the semesters, and she and her siblings had always been blamed. To be fair, it was usually their fault.
“I can see that. Why did you do all those things?” he asked.
“Oh, it was expected.” She smiled sweetly. “Would you like to pray for us?”
“Uh, sure.” The look he gave her thrilled her. He knew now she wasn’t some mild little housewife. She had a spirit, and she was good with weapons. Perfect. Now he knew what to expect a little better. He’d seen the sass, but this was way beyond having a sassy wife.
After the prayer, he looked at her questioningly. “Why was it expected?” he asked.
“I was raised a Miller, and in my town, that means being a hellion. The whole town referred to us as the demon horde. That’s why I couldn’t find a husband back east. Didn’t you wonder why you got a wife who wasn’t old, ugly, or fat, who could cook in a way that made you want to sing?”
“Well, yeah, but...”
She grinned. “Just know that how you treat me is how I will treat you. Plain and simple. You want good meals and a sweet wife? She’s easy to get. You want burned food while you watch her eat a perfect meal? You can have her too.”
“Umm...Can you just keep being the wife you’ve been so far?” Doug was almost nervous that he would bring out the person she was describing to him. He wasn’t the easiest person in the world to live with.
“If you can keep being a good husband, I certainly can. Just remember. What you give is what you get from me. Pass the bread, please.”
He handed her the bread, realizing only then that the food was getting cold on his plate. “I will do my best to be on good behavior.”
“I got a lot planted today,” she said, acting as if she’d never threatened him. “I had lots of seeds from my mother’s garden in my trunk, and it was fun to make little rows with them. I can’t wait to get out there and weed the garden and really get my hands dirty.”
“I didn’t think women liked to dirty their hands that way?” He was realizing quickly that everything he’d expected of a wife was very different than what he’d gotten. This woman...well, she was a bit awe-inspiring.
“I don’t mind a bit. As I said, I was a farmer’s daughter.” She poured gravy on her potatoes and ate a big bite. “Tomorrow I’m going to plant a few other crops, and then I’ll be done for the season. We can buy canned goods in town, but I prefer to can my own when I have
