She found the potholder and dug it out from beneath the pile of other projects she’d started.
“Is that for Ralph Linden to sell?” Dave asked.
She nodded. “I thought I’d see if any women are interested in buying more. I haven’t turned anything in to him in six months. He might be out of the ones I sold him by now.”
He frowned. “I didn’t think about the mercantile. Do you think I can drive the wagon?”
“No. You’re not going to get in the wagon. You’ll have to stay here.”
“But how will you get there?”
“I’m fully capable of taking myself to town in the wagon.”
“You’re going to go into town in the wagon without me?”
“We’re running low on staple items. I have to go. You’ll be fine while I’m gone. I’ll take Rachel and Adam. Isaac’s old enough to help you out in case you need it. He did fine yesterday.”
“Sure. He gave me everything but my drawers and socks.”
She chuckled. “He wanted to make sure he didn’t see your unmentionables. His heart was in the right place.”
“Mary, I never want to wear a pair of denim pants without underwear ever again. That was not comfortable at all.”
She chuckled again.
“You have it easy. You wear a dress,” Dave continued. “I bet it would be no trouble getting a dress on if your leg was injured.”
“I’d offer you one of my dresses, but something tells me you wouldn’t look good in it.”
He rolled his eyes, but he grinned in amusement. “I wouldn’t want to wear one of your dresses anyway. You fill them out better than I do.”
When she glanced at him, she saw him gesturing to her breasts. She clucked her tongue at him. “It’s nice to know your injury isn’t stopping you from thinking of private matters.”
“I don’t think there’s a man in the world who lets an injury stop him from thinking of a woman’s body. Though,” he glanced at his leg, “I don’t see how I can do anything about it right now. Do you think we won’t be able to do anything for six to eight weeks?”
“I don’t feel safe doing anything right away, but I’m sure after a couple of weeks, we can try something as long as we’re careful.”
“Alright. I promise not to jump up and down on the bed.”
She chuckled. “You don’t jump up and down when we’re together.”
“I might if I have to wait a couple of weeks. That’s a long time.”
“You’ve waited longer than that before,” she pointed out.
“That was different. I wanted to give you time to recover from the miscarriage.”
She gave him an understanding smile. “I was referring to after I had Isaac, Rachel, and Adam, but yes, that time counts, too.”
She started working on the knitting the rest of the potholder when he asked, “How long will you be gone tomorrow?”
“I’m not sure. I was planning to see Sally.”
“In that case, you’ll be gone until suppertime.”
“Just check on the animals a couple of times,” she said. “I’ll be back before you know it.”
Though he rolled his eyes, she chuckled and continued working on the potholder.
Chapter Four
“How did David fall off of Jack?” Sally asked the next day as she and Mary were in the mercantile.
“I don’t know,” Mary replied. “Isaac didn’t say. I think Jack lost his footing, and he fell off.”
“Yes, I suppose that’s possible. Horses can be unpredictable. It’s why I don’t care to ride them. I’d much rather have them pulling a buggy or wagon. Those are a lot more stable.”
Mary had to agree, but she couldn’t imagine Dave ever giving up riding horses. He loved it far too much. She was sure as soon as he could get the splint off, he’d be up and riding again.
“I’m not sure about these apples,” Maureen said as she inspected the group of red apples that were in a barrel. She picked one up and turned to Connie. “Do you think they’re fresh enough for our food?”
Mary leaned toward Sally and whispered, “We better finish our shopping before they get into another bidding war with Ralph.”
With a nod, Sally hurried to put more items on Mary’s list into the box she was holding. It was a good thing Jenny agreed to watch the children. That would make Mary’s time in the mercantile go a lot quicker.
They had managed to get everything but two items on the list into their boxes when Maureen came over to them. “Mary and Sally, how are you two doing?”
“We’re fine,” Mary greeted as she reached up to retrieve a sack of flour. “We’re just in to do some shopping. We’re almost done.” She didn’t want to come out and ask Maureen and Connie to wait until she had time to pay for the items before they started haggling with Ralph. She really hoped the hint would do the trick.
“Yes, Mary needs to get back home,” Sally added.
Maureen chuckled and clasped her hands together. “Then it’s a good thing I caught you when I did. Connie and I were just debating over how much sugar to put in an apple pie. We’re planning to make twenty of them to sell next weekend.”
“That’s a lot of pies,” Mary said.
“Yes, but we’re determined to make a go at our business. Just because we’re women, it doesn’t mean we can’t be industrious. Why, Jenny managed to make a living all on her own before she married the deputy.”
“It’s not that we need the money,” Connie intervened as she approached them. “We’re doing fine. We just thought it’d be fun to see how much we can make.”
Maureen nodded. “Yes. That’s it exactly.” In a lower voice, she added, “We read an article about a woman in New
