“Thank you,” he said softly.
“You’re welcome.” She got up and removed their lunch from the oven, giving him a huge portion and herself a small one. “I’m making venison stew for supper.” She couldn’t wait until he tried her stew. It was one of the best things she made.
“That sounds so good. Are you still spending the day at the March’s?” he asked.
“Yes, Marion still needs me there watching her until she gets a little more confidence. It’s hard for her to learn to cook.”
“Why didn’t her mother teach her?” Doug asked. “Isn’t that a mother’s job?” He really couldn’t understand why his wife was off teaching the neighbor to cook.
“I really don’t think her mother knew how to cook,” Trudie told him. “She was raised in a well-off family in New York. They had servants, and there was never any need for Marion to learn.”
Doug stared at her for a moment. “Is that why she needs help?”
“Yes, it is. I know it seems strange to those of us who were raised under very different circumstances, but since I can help, I’m happy to do it.”
“Do you know if Thomas was raised the same way? He seems to know how to work.”
Trudie shrugged. “I really don’t know, but I don’t think so. He was annoyed with Marion for not being able to cook well and for burning everything, so I think he was probably raised more like we were.” And she thought it was very sad that they were just now having this conversation instead of having had it when she first started helping the neighbors.
“I suppose it’s all right that you’re helping then.”
“Have you been angry with me for it?” she asked. Maybe that would account for some of his strange behavior, but it had started before she’d met the Marches, so that couldn’t be it.
He shook his head. “Not really angry. I may have felt a little neglected, but that’s something else entirely.”
“I’m sorry I made you feel neglected. And now I’m going to run off again this afternoon.” She wondered if she should stay home with him, since he’d injured himself.
“I understand better now. Go do what you need to do. I’ll be all right. I’m heading back out to work anyway.”
Trudie gave him a questioning look. “Are you sure?”
He nodded.
“All right.” She put the dishes into the sink and ran water over them. She would wash them with the supper dishes in a few hours. “I’ll be back soon.”
She was very aware that he watched her leave, and she wished she knew what to say to him to get him to be open with her. Maybe there was nothing that would get him to be the man he’d seemed to be those first two days. This could be the real him, and the idea frightened her. She needed a man who would talk to her about day to day life.
Trudie saddled a horse and headed over to her friend’s house, thinking the entire way. She wanted to make Doug happy, but she just didn’t know how.
Chapter 10
By the end of the week, Doug had slipped back into barely talking to Trudie, and she was starting to worry that he was angry with her again. To see if she could figure out what was going on in his head, instead of going to the March’s house on Saturday, she stayed home and did some housework, making a big meal for Doug.
When he got home after his long day, he walked in and sniffed deeply, smelling the fresh bread that had just come from the oven and the smell of something sweet. “Pie?” he called as he walked into the kitchen.
Trudie laughed. “You don’t even bother to greet me when you ask what I have cooking anymore. Maybe I should go back to Massachusetts and you should find yourself an old woman to marry like you wanted at first.”
Doug stopped in his tracks and looked at Trudie. “Is that what you want?”
She realized he’d taken her words literally, and she started to take them back, but they were long overdue for a serious discussion. “It’s not what I want, but I sometimes think it would make you happy.”
“Why would you think that?” He washed his hands and turned to her. “I’ve been on my very best behavior.”
She frowned. “You have?”
He nodded. “I’m trying really hard to stay quiet for the most part, so you won’t want to leave me. I have tried very hard not to be annoying.” Everyone else in his life had left because of how annoying he was. He didn’t want her to leave as well.
“Annoying? Doug, you’ve barely spoken to me in two weeks. How on earth could I find that annoying?”
“And you don’t want me to speak, right? It’s better when I’m quiet and keep all my strange thoughts inside my head instead of sharing them with you.”
She shook her head adamantly. “I want you to talk to me. I don’t care if your thoughts are strange or not. They’re your thoughts and we should discuss them.” Why would he think he had to hide his thoughts from her?
He took a deep breath. “My whole life, people have been annoyed by me. I was three when my mother left me at the orphanage, and I never knew why, but I think that’s why. The matron told me almost daily that I needed to go and annoy someone else. I had a girl I was sweet on at school, and she told me to go away.” He shrugged. “I’ve been trying to be quiet so you wouldn’t find me annoying and want me to go away like everyone else did.”
She shook her head. “Doug, I’m going to find you annoying at times, but I’m not going to leave you because of it. Or ask you to go away. I love you, and I’ll be by your side every day for the rest of our lives.”
Doug’s eyes
