Giovanna: The Cowboy's Calabrese Mail Order Bride (Sweet Land of Liberty Brides Book 1) (4 page)

“My goodness, I was wondering when this lunk would bring you by to see me!” The sweet sound of Mrs. Pavente’s heavily accented voice came to Giovanna’s ears as soon as they stepped in to the store. “Laars Gundersen, what a beautiful young wife you have!”

“’Mornin’, Mrs. Pavente,” Laars said, ignoring her pleasantries. “Giovanna here—Mrs. Gundersen—will be needing some medicinal salve for the child.”

Laars’s stiff introduction would never do for Mrs. Pavente. “Oh my dear, come right her, bring her to me,” she said and rushed to Giovanna’s side to help her carry Rosa. Feeling the heat of the limp girl in the blanket, Mrs. Pavente looked into Giovanna’s worried face.

“
Dio mio
, she’s burning up with fever. Follow me.”

Giovanna followed Mrs. Pavente to the back of the store and up a small flight of steps. Mrs. Pavente opened the door to a sparsely furnished room at the top of the stairs, with a table, lantern and small cot. Giovanna laid Rosa on the coverlet and slowly unwrapped the blanket from around her.

“She’s been coughing all night, and this morning her fever hasn’t come down,” Giovanna said. “Please, can you help her?”

Mrs. Pavente was already pouring water into a basin and wringing out a small cloth to place on Rosa’s forehead. “There, there. I have some salve in the store we’ll put on her chest, poor thing. And it’s fortunate, too, that Dr. Ledville is coming today to pick up a delivery.”

“Oh, thank goodness,” Giovanna said. “Only, I don’t have money for a doctor.”

“No money! And you, married to Laars Gundersen! I happen to know, he has money enough for an emergency like this. Now you go down and look next to the candy counter for the shelf with blue bottles and ointments. Bring me the small jar on the end.”

Giovanna descended the steps to the store and crossed over next to the candy counter. Laars came to her side. “Well?” he asked.

“Mrs. Pavente is trying to cool her down and if we could, we need to buy this salve.” Giovanna scanned the wooden shelf and found the jar Mrs. Pavente needed. “That is, if it is ok with you.”

“It’ll have to be ok, it’s what we came for, isn’t it?” Laars said. “Look, Giovanna, yes, I can pay for it and I’ve spoken to Mr. Pavente to add your name on my store account so you can get the things you need when we are in town. I have some money saved, but it’s for the hay and grain we need for the animals this winter, and a new hub and wheel for the wagon, and an addition on the shed, and a new gate for the fence…” He stopped when he saw the alarmed look on her face.

“Oh, Laars! How can I thank you? But please, I beg you, Mrs. Pavente says the doctor will be here today! Can I please stay with Rosa so he can see her?” Giovanna had never begged for anything in her life, and never would, for herself.

Laars’s broad shoulders bent down towards her and he drew her against his chest. Giovanna had been strong for a long time, on her own. She had lied to him by not telling him about Rosa’s illness. He hadn’t even wanted a wife who already had a child. And yet … the pleading look in her eyes: it shouldn’t be there. He liked the spark he saw as she defended her actions earlier better than this. If she was hurting, he would take care of her. And if she needed his help for Rosa, he would give her whatever he could.

The realization of his love for her gripped his throat. “Jo,” was all he could say as he stroked her hair.

“It’s settled then, Pavente. Tell the doctor I’m good for the money,” Laars said as he readied to head back to the claim. “I’ll be back tomorrow for Giovanna and Rosa, and thank you for letting them stay tonight,” he said.

Giovanna paced the upstairs room where Rosa lay, looking every few minutes out the window for Dr. Ledville. Finally, a single horse pulling a beautiful black carriage came into view, driven by a man with a black coat, tall black hat, and large leather bag on the seat next to him. She ran down the steps in time to hear Mrs. Pavente’s greeting.

“Dr. Ledville, we are in need of you today! We have your order, right here ready to go for you. But if you please—”

“Dr. Ledville? I’m Giovanna Gundersen,” she said, rushing headlong up to the astonished gentleman. “Please, sir, will you come upstairs? It’s my daughter.”

“My, little lady, we are in quite the rush. Hmm, Gundersen, eh?” Dr. Ledville took mental inventory of the accounts he had in Faring. “I haven’t treated a Gundersen before, have I, Pavente?”

“No,
Dottore
. It’s ok; her husband is a good man. I have his word on it for you. He pays his account on time and asked you to please look at the child.”

“Well, in that case,” Dr. Ledville took off his coat and handed it to Mrs. Pavente. “Lead the way, Giovanna.”

Dr. Ledville’s jocularity left him as soon as he saw Rosa lying on the bed. He listened to her chest, and had her sit up and cough for him.

“Very bad, it’s very bad indeed,” he told Giovanna gravely. “This child needs treatment beyond what ointments can provide. There’s a sanitarium in Sioux Falls and she must be transported there at morning light.” Dr. Ledville stopped himself.
If she makes it.

Giovanna’s face fell and a cry of grief poured from her. “Oh, my poor Rosa, I’m so sorry,” she said. She put her face in her hands and let herself feel the full shock. Dr. Ledville stood quietly and finally put a hand on her arm.

“Don’t worry, my dear. I’ll do the best I can for her.”

“Doctor, can I accompany her?” Giovanna’s voice was so quiet he bent his head to hear her.

“It isn’t wise, my dear,” he said gently. “We can’t know what other illness you might be exposed to. It’s best if I take her, and you can come to see her in a few days’ time.”

“What’s this?” Mrs. Pavente was at the doorway. Seeing Giovanna’s face, she took her in her arms. “There, there. You stay by me a day or so. I can use the help, and it will be easier for you to travel from here.”

Dr. Ledville made his way out, leaving the two women alone.

“She’s all that I have,” Giovanna said, her eyes brimming with tears.

“All? You have a fine husband, and—”

“She’s all that is mine! All that’s left from my Frank,” Giovanna unburdened herself and slumped down on the cot next to Rosa’s still form.

“You will never forget your first love; that is true.” Mrs. Pavente said. “
Tempo, marito e figli—
Weather husbands and children—we must take them as they come.”

Giovanna nodded at the familiar saying. Her own mother had said the same when Giovanna discovered she was pregnant with Rosa before her trip to America.

“Now, Laars Gundersen is a fine man. Your heart will learn to love him soon enough. In the meantime, he’s treating the child as his own. Although it’s going to be a bit of a blow for him to hear that she must be in a hospital. What’s needed is needed. You will find a way.”

Giovanna gratefully accepted Mrs. Pavente’s words and prayed.
Please let Laars agree to the hospital. I’ll pay for it myself if I have to.

The next morning, Giovanna kept a brave face saying good-bye to Dr. Ledville and kissing and holding Rosa as long as she could. Rosa could say nothing but smiled faintly at her mother. “I’ll be right beside you soon, my darling,” Giovanna whispered. “May God go with you.” She pulled off her grandmother’s white shawl and laid it over Rosa. As the carriage pulled onto the road, Giovanna stood in shock watching it take with it all that she loved in the world.

As the carriage started out down the road, Mrs. Pavente held Giovanna back, fearing the distraught mother would race after it.

She made the sign of the cross as she helped Giovanna back into the store. “Come now, Giovanna,” she clucked. “She will get good care now. We must pray for God’s help and the angels to protect her.”

“She’ll be scared without me. I should have gone with her! What am I going to do?”

“When we don’t know what to do, we must do the next thing in front of us that needs to be done. Right now, you can help me clean the store. Mr. Pavente is not as careful as I like, and it needs to be straightened.” Mrs. Pavente wanted to keep busy herself.

Laars arrived at noon and tied up the horse to the post in front of the store. Ducking his head under the door, he called out to Mr. Pavente.

“Pavente! I’m back to fetch my wife. Tell her—” He stopped short seeing Giovanna wearing an apron with broom in hand.

“Laars, I’m so glad to see you,” she said, coming toward him. “Dr. Ledville has taken Rosa with him and I don’t know what I’ll do if she doesn’t get well!”

“Taken her? Where?”

“To his house in Springvale and on to the hospital in Sioux Falls so she can be treated.”

“The hospital! Pavente! I didn’t approve of this!” Laars’s blue eyes had turned a smoky color and redness had crept up from his neck and spread to his cheeks.

“Giovanna, we can’t afford this. What were you thinking?”

Givoanna saw her husband’s angry face and dropped the broom. Turning away, she ran up the stairs to the little room and shut the door.

“Laars Gundersen, have you no heart?” Mrs. Pavente said. “The poor woman is worried sick about Rosa. Did you even think to ask if she would get well?”

Laars stood staring at the place where Giovanna had been.

“And she is helping me to keep your account low, is that not a good wife?” Mrs. Pavente continued.

“If anyone needs help, it is me, on the claim,” Laars said. “Tell her to meet me outside.” His eyes had changed to a look of defeat. He turned on his heel and left the store.

Mrs. Pavente started to speak, but at her husband’s look, she closed her mouth. Mr. Pavente took off his apron and went outside. Laars was roughly checking the laces on his horse and about to step up into the wagon. 

“I see the new buckles are holding up well,” Mr. Pavente said.

“Mm-hmm,” Laars allowed.

“Those are the best ones I carry,” Mr. Pavente said.

Laars looked up from the horse. “Yes, that’s what you told me when I bought them. You were right.”

Mr. Pavente took out his handkerchief and polished his glasses. When he was finished, he put them back on and wiped his forehead. As he carefully folded the cloth before returning it to his pocket, he said, “Laars, I tell you straight, about everything, right? You’ve been married what, all of a week now?”

Laars considered. “Almost.”

“Good, good. Me? I’ve been married going on 30 years. Mrs. Pavente, she’s a real woman. Left her mama and her sisters and moved across this great country with me. She works in the store and takes care of me. We had five children before we were married eight years. Two of them are gone now. And mostly, she never complains. We laugh, we cry, we have everything we need. We didn’t love each other at first, but we learned to.”

Again the redness began to creep up Laars’s face from the neck up. He wasn’t used to hearing such personal details from the shopkeeper.

Mr. Pavente took no notice. “Take it from me. Your Giovanna, she’s-a strong like this.” Mr. Pavente held his hand up in a fist. “Give her some time.”

“Come now, Julius. Into your stall.” Laars returned to the claim in time to put the horse up and check on the cows. He walked through the darkening light to the house.

The stove stood like a cold rebuke and the unwashed dishes mocked him.
Right back where I started—alone, with no help
. Laars opened the oven door and retrieved the last two biscuits from the morning’s breakfast that Giovanna had made, when was it—yesterday? The trips back and forth to town gave him less time to do his chores and he was dog tired.

Laars lit a lantern and saw Giovanna’s and Rosa’s bonnets hanging on the hook by the door where she had rushed right past without stopping.

She comes to me with this burden, and expects me to pay and pay.
The gloom he felt beget more dark thoughts.
Well, if she thinks she can snooker me into losing my life savings, she has another thing coming!

Laars took off his boots and tossed them across the floor angrily. With no one to talk to and no energy to read, Laars went into his room and lay down with his arms folded behind his head and his large frame sprawled across the top of the bed. Through the open door across the hall, he could see Giovanna’s hairbrush and night cream next to the wash basin.

Achh, is there no end to it?
He blew out the lantern to snuff out the view. When his eyes adjusted to the dark, a vision of Giovanna brushing her long, black hair came to him. His mind quieted and he reconciled himself to indulging the image. His last memory before falling asleep was of her looking up and smiling.

At dawn in her tiny room at the top of the stairs, Giovanna pushed up from the cot and rose stiffly from her knees. Rosa was in God’s and Dr. Ledville’s hands, and Giovanna could do little now but offer her supplications and tears.

All her years of work to keep Rosa safe, her long trip to Dakota territory, her decision to marry Laars—all of it for nothing if it meant living without Rosa. She splashed water on her face, and wearily headed down the stairs to the store.

“There she is—dear Giovanna,” Mrs. Pavente announced as she appeared in the doorway. “Have you slept at all? You poor thing! Come, have some coffee.”

Mrs. Pavente bustled about the kitchen in the back of the store, preparing the days’ baked goods for sale and breakfast for her husband and the store helpers.

“I can help you with that,” Giovanna said, pointing to the flour-dusted board where Mrs. Pavente was preparing to roll out dough. “I can at least be of some use to you for all your kindness.”

“You are more than use to me, you are like a ray of sunshine from the old country, my dear girl,” Mrs. Pavente said. “Please, drink up and then yes, you can help as much as you want.”

Giovanna spent the morning rolling out biscuits and baking them on large pans in Mrs. Pavente’s huge oven. It was the biggest kitchen she had ever seen, and her mind settled as she focused on the familiar work, made easier by the abundance of ingredients and tools at her disposal.

She used a small baking pan to pour batter into 12 long impressions, smiling as she baked the familiar
biscotti
of her village. When they were done, she arranged them on a tray and brought them to the storefront to put in the display case.

“
Bene
,
benesssima
, Giovanna you have a true talent,” Mrs. Pavente said upon sampling the warm treat.

Mr. Pavente unlocked the door to the shop and the first customers of the day trickled in. Giovanna stayed in the kitchen, cleaning and baking, as Mr. and Mrs. Pavente tended to their duties.

“Giovanna, come here!” She heard Mrs. Pavente call. Giovanna dropped her pan and rushed to the front, wiping her hands on her apron.

Mrs. Pavente held a slip of paper toward her. “From Dr. Ledville.”

Giovanna reached for the note, but pulled her hand back as if it were the hot stove. “Please, can you read it?”

Mrs. Pavente pursed her lips, opened the page and read:

Dear Giovanna,

I have word that the hospital is full. Rosa requires treatments that I do not have time to give. Come to her and I will show you what to do.

Dr. Ledville

“Oh no! Mrs. Pavente, I must leave right away!” Giovanna implored her.

“Exactly right. Yes, the boy who brought the note can take you back with him. Giovanni! Finish up with young Jimmy right away!”

Laars awoke with a stiff neck from a fitful night’s sleep. It was light outside already, meaning he had overslept. He searched for his missing boot from where he had tossed them last night, and went to his reading chair to pull it onto his foot.

He sat down on something and pulled Rosa’s book out from under his leg. In the light from the window, he traced the intricate letters on the cover. Opening the pages, he turned to where Rosa had finished.

A small, dried flower held her place in the book. Laars picked it up carefully by its stiff stem in his large fingers. The light from the window shown through the pale lavender petals, and the small bright center retained its full yellow color.

So beautiful, yet so easily broken
. Laars looked down at the page and saw something in a small child’s hand. He opened the book wider and made out a crudely drawn face of a small cat. The child’s letters underneath read,
Pearl
. She had drawn a wobbly heart around the name.

Laars gently replaced the flower in the crease of the book. Closing it, he held the book to his bowed head. Laars Gundersen forgot about the cattle, and his claim, and the dollar amount of his savings. He saw Rosa with Giovanna’s arm across her shoulders at the station. He pictured her hiding behind her mother’s skirts when they first met his family. He remembered her smiling and laughing with Anna after the wedding. Then the sound of her piteous coughing filled his ears.

Rosa!
For the first time, he said the child’s name as if talking to her. He looked up and thought he could just see them standing there together in the kitchen. What a fool he’d been. Giovanna hadn’t brought him an extra burden, just another mouth to feed and someone whose bills he had to pay. She had brought him herself, and her most precious possession: little Rosa. A precious gift if only he had seen it.

Giovanna!
He thought of her face and her eyes turning away each time before he could kiss her. She had accepted him and his rough ways and the work to be done without complaint. And he had expected more of her than she could give. No wonder she couldn’t love him. He was denying the very truth of her as a woman. She was a mother and loving her child was the key to her loving him.

Father!
Mr. Gundersen’s words came back to him:
You may go where you want, but you cannot escape yourself
. Before he boarded the train back to Minnesota, he had added: “You left home to start a new life, just as I did so many years ago. You wanted a wife to be the heart of your home, and partner in your efforts. Your responsibility is to love and care for her. Since you have not much practice, expect to have to work as hard at that as you do on the claim.”

Laars knew what he had to do. He raced to finish his morning chores, hooked up Julius to the wagon, and took off for town.