Claimed on the Frontier (17 page)

Aaron muttered under his breath. I ate slowly. I marveled at my man. My strong, no-nonsense man who could be foreboding, but who loved his family with all that was in him. Just that very day, he’d strapped my bottom, and yet I did not fear him. I felt safe around him. I couldn’t imagine him raising a hand to me the way Hannah’s ma feared. I couldn’t imagine him neglecting my needs, or the needs of our children if ever children came our way.

“You’ll come with me, Samuel?” Aaron said, his eyes meeting Samuel’s. Samuel froze with a slice of bread halfway to his mouth.

“To school?” he asked.

“No. To Hannah’s place after we meet with the teacher at school. We’ll just happen on by, as I’m sure we have an errand to run on the other side of town, don’t we?”

“You do,” ma said, her eyes shining at her boys. “I borrowed an apron from Hannah’s ma the last time I visited. I wanted to use the pattern. You boys need to bring it back to her, don’t you? And maybe our hens are givin’ us too many eggs these days…”

“Too many eggs?” Geraldine said, her eyes wide as saucers. “Whatever are you talkin’ about?”

“Hush, girl,” ma scolded. Geraldine looked confused, and I forced myself not to roll my eyes.

The rest of the meal we ate quietly, but I fairly beamed at my husband. First, to grant leniency to his brother showed him a just and reasonable man. But then to be making a trip to see Hannah’s ma? I could only imagine he was checking in on her, to see if what Matthew told him was true. I wanted to throw my arms around him and squeeze him. But I held myself in check.

When it was time for Aaron to leave again and return to his work, I rose and walked with him just outside the door, so we were alone, the cool autumn air rustling my hair and skirts.

“I love you,” I whispered, kissing his prickly cheek and enjoying the warmth of his hands at my waist. I laid my head on his broad chest, feeling his warmth and strength, and thanking the Lord almighty I was his.

“What’s gotten into you, girl?” he whispered.

“You’re just… it’s just… oh, lands, I don’t even know how to say it.”

He chuckled. “Maybe I should take my belt to your naughty backside more often,” he murmured, reaching a hand to my bottom and squeezing.

I gasped. “Aaron!”

He laughed, but pulled me closer and kissed me. “I want you right pert and waitin’ for me tonight, you hear? You get these womenfolk outta this house before I’m home for my dinner. I have a surprise for you.”

I pulled back and eyed him, and he chuckled. “Nothin’ wanton or private this time, girl. You’ll see. But I think you’ll like it. You mind what I say. No one in the house when I get home, and you keep yourself away from Geraldine’s claws while I’m gone. You hear?”

I smiled up at him. “Yes, sir.”

I wondered what the surprise would be.

I had no idea it was something that would change my life forever.

Chapter Nine: Pearl Stanley

I was able to roust both Geraldine and ma from the house quickly. We’d gotten a good day’s work in. I had a new apron cut and ready to begin sewing, our bread for the days ahead baked and cooling, and a large pot of stewed chicken ready for Aaron’s dinner. The floors were scrubbed clean and lovely new curtains fluttered in my windows. We had many preparations to make for the upcoming winter months, but setting up my new home was in full swing. Carrots simmered in a pot nearby deep in the flames, and biscuits were crisping up nicely. I was an awfully good hand at making biscuits, and it pleased me to see Aaron downing them by the plateful.

The night before, as he was tucking into his third plateful of dinner, I told him he worked up quite an appetite plowing the fields and tending to our property. He told me it was chasing after his naughty wife that kept his appetite up. I whipped my apron strings at him and told him he was a cad. He reminded me what he’d done with those apron strings.

I would sometimes wait for him with my hands tucked behind my back. I’d brush my long hair until it gleamed, braid it, and pin it back to the nape of my neck. I’d put on a clean apron and scrub my face, pinching my cheeks just as I heard the footfall of Aaron’s heavy boots. I liked to be clean and presentable to him, ready for when he opened the door and came in. But as I watched the door open now, my heart leapt into my throat.

I’d forgotten to latch it. Samuel had been quite right that Aaron was serious about latching the door behind him. How could I have been so silly as to have forgotten to latch it behind ma and Geraldine?

He entered, and his eyes were already darkened.

“What have I told you about that door, girl?”

I swallowed and looked at the floor. I’d tried so hard
to obey him and I’d forgotten something that was important to him. He merely leveled a steady look to me, then shut the door deliberately and latched it. Without facing me, he called me to him.

“Come here, Pearl. You’ve got food you need to tend to?”

“Biscuits, Aaron. They’ll burn.”

“Get ‘em. Then you come here.”

Quickly I obeyed, approaching him with trepidation. He stood feet planted on the floor and his arms crossed firmly across his chest. As soon as I was within arm’s reach, he snatched me to him and spun me around so that I faced the door.

“Undo the latch and open the door,” he ordered.

My hands shaking, I obeyed.

“Now shut it.”

Again, I obeyed. As the door shut, I fixed the latch and went to turn around and face him, but a sharp word from him cut me short.

“No. Open the door.” I opened it.

“Now latch it.”

I latched the door.

“Do it again.”

I did.

“And again.”

Over and over, he made me open the door then close it, fastening and unfastening it so many times, the air outside began to chill and I feared dinner would be ruined. But I dared not contradict him. My bottom still smarted from the whipping I’d gotten earlier that day. I knew he meant what he said. I also knew he was hungry, and a hungry Aaron was not to be disobeyed. Finally, I heard him speak again.

“That will do. Latch it one final time and come to me.”

Chastened, I obeyed, my head dipped low. I was humbled, but not harmed. In a thrice, I was by his side and to my surprise, he swung one arm under my legs and the other around my arms, lifting me like a child. He walked with firm, purposeful steps to the chair by the fire, sat down, and held me on his lap.

I was grateful I’d removed the biscuits from the flame, as I never did quite know what the man would do next. He was wholly unpredictable at times.

We sat that way for a few minutes, while he rocked me in front of the fire. I took the liberty of burying my head on his chest. I still felt humbled, and had an odd desire to cry, but I enjoyed the feeling of his arms about me.

“Do you know the type of man who would harm his wife, Pearl?” Aaron asked quietly, as he continued to rock me.

“Yes, sir, I do. It was the kind of man I lived with all my life.”

The breath hissed out of him, but he did not reply for a moment. When he did, his voice was strangely husky.

“I thought of our morning, after dinner while I was out mendin’ our fence. And I thought about how I’d whipped you for puttin’ yourself in danger. I thought about the man who takes to drink and abuses his family. And though I know why I expect you to obey me, and why I would punish you even now if you disobeyed, I could not lick you again, when you’d forgotten the latch.”

“I know,” I whispered.

He tucked my head under his chin, and his own voice was a whisper in return. “You’ve already gotten a sore backside this morning. And there are other means to make you remember what I need you to remember. Would that I could stay with you all day, little one. But I can’t. And since I can’t, I must press upon you the importance of makin’ careful choices. You heed me?”

“Yes, sir.”

“I don’t think you’ll be forgettin’ to latch that door anytime soon. Now hop on off my lap and get your man some dinner, so I can show you what I have for you when we’re done.”

So he’d make me wait! I sighed. He was not to be moved, so I did as I was told, and served him supper.

“Geraldine behave herself today?” he asked, as he tucked into the chicken and biscuits. I merely shrugged.

“She’s better when ma’s here, but she’s still a cranky ninny.”

He nearly choked on his biscuit. “A what?”

“A cranky ninny,” I repeated, taking another large bite of biscuit.

“Now, Pearl, let’s not be name-callin’.”

I simmered silently. “She makes fun of me, Aaron. Knows I can’t read and pokes fun at that. Made comments about my scorched petticoat all day long. Said no wonder I’d scorched myself, cooking over an open flame like a heathen, and if you cared two licks about me you’d buy me a stove.”

The second the words came out, I wished to take them back. My hand shot out and covered my mouth.

My
mouth.
It
would
get the better of me.

“Is that right?” he asked. I nodded.

“And how do you feel about that?”

I sat straighter and met his eyes. “I feel that I’d rather live outside or in a hovel and cook over an open flame, eat nothin’ but berries and grubs for the rest of my life than live in a fancy home with the fanciest cook stove with any other man. And I think Geraldine can cook her pies and cakes and roasts in her oven all she wants but they’d still taste bitter because they were made by her hand.”

Aaron choked on his water.

I jumped to my feet.

“Land’s sake, are you all right?” I asked. But he was laughing too hard. I wished he’d laugh when I intended him to, and not when my mouth got the better of me, but there was no help for it.

“You are a pip, you know that?” he asked.

“No, sir, I don’t know what a pip is.”

“A pip is someone who does unbelievable things,” he said. He shook his head. “And you, darlin’, are a pip.”

“I speak my mind, Aaron. I don’t mean to offend. It’s just how I think and behave.”

He nodded. “I know it. And don’t I love that about you. Now, between me and you, I don’t care much for the way Geraldine behaves, but how she behaves is of little consequence to us. I want you to hold your tongue when she’s around, you hear?”

I nodded.

“I mean it, Pearl. I may’ve gone soft on you a bit after today, but tomorrow I’m sure I’ll be itchin’ to take you across my knee soon. So you mind how you behave around her.”

I smiled, barely stifling a laugh. “Yes, sir. I will.”

“All right then. Let’s get these dishes cleared and I’ll show you my surprise.”

I cleared everything up in a jiffy, eager to see what he had for me. I didn’t even allow myself to wonder what it was, since I hadn’t the foggiest notion. And when the dishes were wiped and dried, the floors swept, and our home neat as a pin, I turned to where Aaron sat, still sitting at the table.

I gasped.

Upon the table, he’d laid a primer, a slate, and a pencil.

“Come, now, darlin’. It’s time you learned to read.”

* * *

As the days grew shorter, night falling earlier and the leaves now fallen to the ground, leaving the branches bare, as we plodded on toward winter and prepared for the snow to fly, Aaron taught me my letters. It seemed I was an apt learner.

Aaron was an avid reader, and he often took me on his lap in the evening by the fire, using precious fuel to burn the lamp. And now when he read, he would hold me on his lap and read aloud to me. It didn’t matter much what he read to me. He would often read from the Bible, or the paper if he was lucky enough to get one from Samuel when he visited town. I loved hearing the deep timbre of his voice as he read, and after I’d begun to put the letter sounds with words, he’d occasionally point to a passage and have me read along with him.

First, he taught me to write my name. I marveled at it, scratching the pencil along the slate and watching the straight line of the ‘P,’ followed by a half-circle, the curlicue of the ‘e,’ and a delicate ‘a.’

“Pearl,”
I’d whisper, and after some time, I learned how to write ‘Stanley.’

Pearl Stanley
. That was me. That was my
name
. No longer were they just words that tickled my ears, but a real thing to marvel at, written upon the slate.

Within weeks, I’d finished the primer. I hastened to finish my chores during the day so that I could finish my lessons. Every bit as much as I yearned to sit with a book and read on my own, I loved showing Aaron the progress I made when he returned home.

By the time the first snowflakes fell, I was reading the second year primer, and by the time it was the week before Christmas, I could read along with Aaron as I sat upon his knee. His finger would trace under the words, and I’d begin haltingly, but soon, the words were coming from my mouth in a steady stream.

A whole new world was opened to me. I yearned to read, and read more, but books were scarce where we were. Ma had a
Farmer’s Almanac
,
and I spent a whole week telling Aaron about what I read, and cautioning him against planting during certain times and when we could expect bad rain or snow, until finally one day he whisked me into his arms, wrapped me in a hug, and said, “Girl, you’re
almost
makin’ me regret teaching you to read. Now quit gettin’ on me about my job, and you busy yourself with bein’ a good girl.”

He sent me off with a teasing swat, and I did keep my thoughts to myself, but still would often mutter things I’d read under my breath.

Samuel and Matthew knew how excited I was about my newfound skill. Geraldine, naturally, didn’t much care for reading, and though she certainly could read on her own, she thought little of my new skill. But the boys knew I was ravenous, so whenever they came upon something that was reading-related, they brought it to me.

One day Matthew brought a magazine to me. It was of the latest fashions in the city, and I marveled at the wide hoop skirts the women wore.

“Fancy me wearing such things and cooking over this hearth,” I muttered to Matthew. The mere thought would’ve been humorous, if I hadn’t been hauled over Aaron’s knee just a week prior for not being careful enough by the fire again. He’d come in from watering the cattle, and I had just dropped the lid to my pan in the fire. I was doing my best to fetch it out, cursing something awful under my breath, when he came in. He wasted no time, then; he merely took me by the wrist, scraped a chair along the floor until he sat in the middle of the room, and pulled me over his lap. Up went the skirts, down came his hand, and I was sitting on a sore bottom for the rest of the evening.