She found them! Peaches. What man could resist a peach pie?
“Exactly right! I know my Carl loves peach pie.”
Lilah jumped. Truly, she didn’t know what startled her more, the woman’s unexpected approach or that she knew Lilah’s thoughts.
Without thinking first, Lilah blurted out her question. “How did you know I was planning a peach pie?”
Merrilee Sittig’s eyes widened. “Didn’t you know you were speaking out loud?” She folded her hands in front of her waist. “I am sorry if I intruded, Miss Levitt.”
Lilah quickly reassured the other woman. “No, of course not. And, no, I didn’t realize I’d picked up that habit.”
She let out a tsk. “I’ve only lived alone for two months. What will I be like in another two if Fred doesn’t—”
Her pale skin caught fire and burned. Lilah ducked her head, clenching her small hands. “Please, forget what I said a moment ago.”
Reaching out, Merrilee looped an arm through Lilah’s. She crooned her words. Her tone carried the fear that Lilah might burst into tears. “Come with me. We’ll have a cup of tea and talk.”
Willingly, Lilah followed her. She hadn’t had any invitations since coming back to Idyll Wood. Too many people knew what had happened to her. She’d never have returned to this tiny, unfriendly town if Fred wasn’t here.
Merrilee Sittig’s overture of friendship was certainly a God send. And not just because she was a member of Fred’s family. Lilah was lonely.
Lilah followed her around the counter and up a set of stairs set in a room behind the store. At the top, Merrilee opened a door and led her into a combination kitchen and dining room. It felt more cozy than small and Lilah sensed a welcoming hominess to it.
“Please, sit at the table while I set the kettle to boiling.” Her hostess indicated a chair across from the spot where they now stood. Lilah moved to it gracefully, spreading her skirt and petticoats as she sat.
Before turning away, Merrilee grinned at her. “You remind me of a teacher I had when I attended a day school for young ladies. She so tried to imbue some of that same grace into me.”
Her words ended with a sigh. “I’m afraid it didn’t work. Still, I’m happy with my ordinary life.”
Eyebrows raised, Lilah blurted out the question before thinking. “Someone actually tried to run a finishing school here in Idyll Wood? I can’t imagine there was much interest, not with the people I’ve met here.”
The other woman pushed her round spectacles up her nose and stared for a moment. Lilah resisted the urge to fidget in her chair, sure she’d offended her.
Tension melted as Merrilee giggled. “Imagine such a thing. Why not even the wealthiest man in town has that much polish to him.”
With the dull gray kettle in place, she sat across from her guest and shook her head. “No, it wasn’t here in Idyll Wood. I came from the East as a mail-order bride.”
Silence gripped the two women. Lilah’s mouth rounded in an “oh” as she wondered questions that she couldn’t politely ask. Merrilee smiled sweetly and waited without speaking.
Finally, she was the one to break the quiet as she nodded toward Lilah. “Please, go ahead and ask me the question I see in your eyes. I think you and I could be good friends. This might be a start to that.”
Lilah’s voice began with a hesitant note. “But, why would you come all this way to marry someone you didn’t know?”
A secret smile made the woman across from her suddenly very lovely. Lilah knew by it that Merrilee definitely found a great deal of joy in her marriage.
“I was desperate. So were Carl’s brothers. We were a good match because of that.”
She stopped and her smile widened. “Actually, we make a good couple for more reasons than that.” She rubbed her small belly. The action brought Lilah’s eyes to it, and for the first time she realized the woman was expecting.
Though she longed to mention the fact, good manners forbade her from doing so. Oh, but it made her happy to realize that she would be an aunt when she married Fred. As an only child, she longed for a large family.
Soft words pulled Lilah from her dream of marrying Fred. “My dear mother passed suddenly. My stepfather had terrible plans for me so I escaped to Wisconsin.”
Merrilee frowned without revealing what those plans had been. She rose when the kettle whistled behind her and filled a plain, white teapot. She placed it on the table along with two equally nondescript mugs.
“Not fancy china, I’m afraid. I don’t worry about such things here in Idyll Wood.”
As Lilah lifted the mug to her lips and daintily sipped at the steaming drink, Merrilee asked her a question. “Why do you think Fred should marry you?”
Books by Marisa Masterson
Find these titles at https://www.amazon.com//e/B07PRCNS49.
Belles of Wyoming:
Grace for a Drifter
The Teacher’s Star
Lockets and Lace: Ginger Snap
North and South:
The Massachusetts Bride
The Proxy Brides:
A Bride for Darrell
A Bride for Bode
Secrets in Idyll Wood Series:
Hart’s Longing
Manny’s Triumph
A Farmer for Christmas (Spinster Mail-Order Brides series)
A Keeper for Christmas (Spinster Mail-Order Brides series)
Wistful in Wisconsin (Yours Truly: The Lovelorn)
Spinster Mail-Order Brides:
A Shadowed Groom for Christmas
A Farmer for Christmas
A Keeper for Christmas
A Teacher for Christmas (coming Dec., 2020)
Westward Home and Hearts Series:
Ruby’s Risk
Yours Truly: The Lovelorn
Wistful in Wisconsin
About Marisa Masterson
Marisa Masterson and her husband of thirty-one years reside in Saginaw, Michigan. They have two grown children, one son-in-law, a precious granddaughter, and one old and lazy dog.
She is a retired high school English teacher and oversaw a high school writing center in partnership with the
