“Charlie delivered this to me today with overflowing apologies. Seems he received it four days ago and it somehow fell behind something or other at the depot. He found it this morning,” she said as she handed Mary an opened envelope that was a bit soiled, as if it had, indeed, had rough treatment.
Examining the return address, Mary saw that it was from Pauline’s mother, Pearl, in Louisville.
“A letter from your mother?” she asked, not understanding the urgency.
“Yes, from Mama. But it’s what the letter says that’s the kicker.”
Mary fixed her nervous gaze on Pauline’s unblinking, brown eyes. “Just tell me, Pebs, you’re scaring me!”
She watched her friend swallow, take a breath, and blurt, “Dwight is coming here, Mary. Mama says some girl in Louisville has been harassing him, trying to get him to marry her or something, I don’t know. But she won’t leave him alone, and she’s been making trouble for him with his employer. So, Elvira Fetterman…you remember her?”
Mary, in spite of her heart pounding with the news, managed a strangled sounding snort. “Who could forget her?”
Pauline let out a chuckle. “Yes, true. Well, she’s my mama’s employer, and she’s from Brownville, remember, and she decided to come here for a few weeks to visit her family. She’s asked Mama and my sisters to come, too. Anyway, Dwight is coming with them!”
“But…but I thought…I mean, I didn’t th…think that we…oh goodness, I can’t even talk!” Mary squealed, placing her hands on her cheeks. “Pebs! What am I supposed to do?”
“I don’t know, exactly. But…we don’t have much time to make a plan. The letter says they will be arriving August second. That’s tomorrow!”
Mary moaned with sheer dread and misery. “What next? Now, how am I supposed to act around him? Everyone in town…what will they think? Here’s this husband of mine who is supposed to be working somewhere that I couldn’t join him. Now…he’s coming here? People will expect us to act like a married couple! Does he realize that? A married couple expecting a baby! Oh, what a mess. What an awful, confusing, terrible mess!” she wailed as tears filled her eyes.
Pauline, instantly realizing the news was upsetting Mary more than she had anticipated, switched gears and slipped her arm comfortingly around Mary’s back.
“Oh, what’s wrong with me, upsetting you like this?” she fussed at herself. “Everything will be fine, Mary. We’ll meet him—them—at the train, and whisk them directly to Doc’s house. Doc will straighten everything out. Don’t worry.”
Mary swallowed hard and swiped at her tears with her fingertips as she met her friend’s eyes. She shook her head slowly. An ominous cloud seemed to be hovering over her head and shoulders. “Pebs, I have a bad feeling about this. Papa always said don’t tell a lie, because you have to tell ten others to get out of that one, and then before you know it, all heck breaks loose and you can’t remember what you’ve told who.”
Pauline pressed her lips together for a moment before reluctantly nodding her head. “Normally I would agree. Especially since it’s one of the ten commandments and all. You know I don’t usually tell lies of any kind…but this time, the fault lies squarely on Doc’s shoulders—although I do admit that I chose to go along with him, to my everlasting shame. But, he’s the one who came up with this harebrained scheme—and he’s the one who will just have to keep that cat firmly in the bag.”
With a decisive nod, Pauline stood and reached down to grasp Mary’s hands and tug her to her feet.
“Let’s go find him right now and tell him the exciting news, shall we?”
Chapter 5
D wight picked up his large portmanteau and hat from the seat beside him, already rising to his feet before the train even came to a full stop at the Brownville Depot. He was immensely grateful to have finally reached their destination after five days of travel.
“Lloyd, Jr., now you help keep your brothers and sisters in line,” said a voice that grated on his nerves worse than a squeaky wagon wheel. “And children, you all be very good and Mama will give you that treat we talked about—now, stop that, Louisa! Frederick, Charles, Tabitha, Franklin, Jeremy, you sit down right there and wait for us. Frederick, stop pulling Tabitha's hair. Charles, give that back to your brother. If I’ve told you children once, I’ve told you a thousand times, one must be—oh, Olivia! Grab Matilda for me and—Pearl, oh, be a dear and stop Harriet from putting that dirty old toy in her mouth,” the voice went on and on, over the top of the children's shrieks, like an unstoppable steam engine at full speed, barreling down a steep grade. The woman’s eight children, including three-year-old male triplets, who were the worst, were doing what they always did—causing mischief, mayhem, and downright chaos, just for the fun of it.
Great Caesar’s ghost—one more hour in the company of Elvira Fetterman and her brood of little monsters and I might go stark raving mad!
More than once, he had gotten roped into helping corral the little beasts, and had been bitten, kicked in the shins, his hair pulled, and milk spilled on his best suit—for all his efforts. One thing this trip had accomplished, however, was that his respect and admiration for the seemingly unending patience of his own mother had risen one hundred-fold. She had been amazing. Olivia had been no lollygagger herself, but none could hold a candle to Pearl’s graceful composure.
Setting his feet against the train’s movement, he placed one hand on the back of the seat directly ahead and bent to peer out of one of the dusty windows across the aisle as the depot came into view. The release
