Mail Order Meddler (11 page)

Andy was grinning at her.  “Do you like it?”

“Oh yes!  I don’t know who it’s from, though.  There was no name written on the tag.”

Francis grinned over at Tracy.  “Oh, it’s from Andy.  He walked around trading names until he finally got yours.  Drove everyone in the whole church crazy.”  He shook his head as he watched his big brother try to hide his embarrassment.

Tracy turned to Andy with surprise.  “You did that for me?”

Andy grinned, taking the necklace from her to fasten it around her neck.  “Do you realize yet that I would do anything for you?”  His thumb rubbed against her neck after he fastened it. 

Tracy turned back to him and rested her forehead against his shoulder.  “I love it.  Thank you.”

She watched as Mattie opened her present.  It was a shawl for cold days.  Tracy smiled.  “Who’s it from?”

Mattie looked at the tag.  “George’s wife.  From the mercantile.”
  She draped it around her shoulders happily.  She had the shawl she and Tracy had made, but this one was a bit fancier and would be perfect for wearing on Sundays.

Andy received a pair of gloves for working in the cold.  Francis got a book of poetry, which surprised Tracy.  “Do you like poetry?”
  She knew so little about the boys.  Arthur was painfully shy, and she only knew Francis a little bit from their drives into town and back.

Francis shrugged, blushing a little.  “I do like it a lot.” 

Arthur received a green scarf that he proudly wove around his neck. 

Tracy made sure to remind the children to go find whoever had given them their gifts and thank them.  Abigail came up behind Tracy and hugged her tightly.  “When I told you I liked your hat, I had no idea you had my name.”  Abigail was already wearing the hat.  “I adore it!  It’s just like yours but yours is green.”

Tracy grinned.  “I’m partial to green, because it matches my eyes.”  Her eyes found Mattie in the crowd wearing a dress identical to Tracy’s.  The two of them had labored many hours to get them just right.

“I love the matching dresses you and Mattie are wearing,” Abigail said with a grin
, following Tracy’s thoughts.  “She needed someone like you to come along.”

“I hope so.  I needed her as well to be honest with you.”
  How could Tracy possibly explain what it meant to her to have someone look up to her the way Mattie did?  She’d always felt like she was worth so little, but to this family, she was everything.

“Whatever happened with your mother?” Abigail asked.  “I don’t mean to pry, but she was here one day, and then the next she just left.”
 

Tracy shrugged.  “She went back to Boston.  I couldn’t give her what she wanted.”
  She didn’t want to talk about it.  She never wanted to talk about what her mother wanted from her again.

“What did she want?”  Abigail’s face showed her confusion.

Tracy shook her head.  “I’m just glad she’s gone.  I think she went back to Boston.”

Abigail asked no more questions sensing that Tracy wasn’t going to say anything more about it.

When they got home that evening Tracy tried to push the questions Abigail had asked from her mind.  How could a woman ask for a child to adopt when she hadn’t even raised her own?

*****

By the middle of March, their part of Texas looked like a paradise.  The trees were in bloom and the grass was a beautiful green.  Tracy had seen her midwife a few days before, and she was due any day.  Tracy hoped it was soon, because moving around was difficult, and she felt like she was as big as a house.  She knew it would all be worth it when she held her baby in her arms, though.

Andy assured her every day that she was beautiful to him, regardless of how swollen with his child she was.  Mattie was taking on a lot more of the chores, working to do the cooking by
herself as much as she possibly could.  Tracy had made stacks and stacks of small gowns for the baby to wear, and several little afghans and quilts.

“That baby is going to be the best dressed child this side of the Mississippi.” Andy said with a laugh. 

Tracy blushed in embarrassment, but she didn’t really care what Andy thought.  Her child would be loved and wanted.  She was going to show him that every day in every way she knew how. 

Andy brought the cradle he and his siblings had slept in down from the attic, and Tracy carefully polished it, and made it up for the baby.  Everything was ready for the new arrival.  It was just a waiting game at that point.

Tracy did her best to keep her spirits up despite being unwieldy, but a couple of times it affected her mood a little.  One time she snapped at Mattie, and as soon as the words came out of her mouth, she covered her face with her hand.  “I’m so sorry, Mattie.  I don’t know what came over me.”

Mattie hurried across the room and threw her arms around Tracy.  “I know you’re tired.  Andy said that having a baby inside you makes you grumpy and tired.”
  Mattie grinned at Tracy as she said the words.

Tracy let out a low laugh.  “Well, I’m glad Andy warned you that I would be grumpy then.”
  She wished someone had bothered to warn her.  She’d thought something was seriously wrong until the midwife assured her that all women became short tempered during pregnancy.

Mattie sat down in the chair beside Tracy.  “What can I do to make things easier for you?”

“You already do so much.  Just keep doing what you’re doing.”  Tracy couldn’t imagine asking the child to do one more thing.  Already she was working from the moment she got up until she went to bed between schoolwork and housework.  Tracy knew she was blessed to have her.

Mattie smiled at the praise.  “I can do more if I need to.  Do you need to take naps every day now?  Can I cook more?”

Tracy hugged the little girl to her.  “You’re already cooking two meals a day.  I can cook the third.”  She patted Mattie’s shoulder.  “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

Andy came into the house then to check on her.  He’d made a habit of sending one of his brothers to check on her every morning, and he always came back in the middle of the afternoon.  He was worried that she’d go into labor and have no way to get help.

Tracy looked up at him with a smile.  She’d been kneading bread for their supper, and had flour caking her arms and a small speck of it on her nose.  He walked to her and took a clean cloth from the work table, and wiped her nose.  “How are you feeling?”

“I’m doing fine.  You need to stop coming home to check on me every day.  I hate that I’m interrupting your work that way.” 
Tracy had told him over and over that she didn’t want him to constantly check on her, but she understood. 

“You and the baby are so much more important than my work.”

Tracy sighed.  “I’m ready for all this to be over.  I want to hold the baby in my arms.”  She knew she sounded petulant as she said the words, and at that very moment, she didn’t care.

Andy sat in a chair beside her while Mattie put the dough into a bowl to rise.  “I know.  It won’t be much longer.”

“The midwife said any day a week ago.  I want it over with.”  She wasn’t terribly nervous about the delivery, but she was certainly ready for the baby to be there and not to be pregnant any longer.

“I don’t blame you!”  He kissed her gently before getting back to his feet.  “I need to get back to work.  I’ll be home in a couple of hours.”

Tracy smiled up at him as he walked out, sighing heavily.  She felt so strange while she was pregnant.  One minute she wanted Andy to stay with her and never leave, and the next all she wanted to do was scream at people.  She was glad he remembered what it was like when Arthur and Mattie were born, or he’d think she’d lost her mind.

“I want something sweet for supper,” Tracy said.

Mattie’s face lit up.  Tracy had been craving sweets, and the rest of them were benefiting from it.  “I saw some ripe strawberries over by the chicken coop.  Do you want me to pick some?  We could have strawberry short cake.”  Mattie always loved sweets, and Tracy tried to accommodate everyone’s sweet tooth as often as she could, but for the last few months, she was making at least one sweet every day.

Tracy grinned.  “You know what I like! That sounds really good.”  She got up to wash her hands before taking the milk pail from the counter.  “We’ll put them in here.” 

The two of them went to the strawberry patch together, and Tracy smiled.  “I didn’t even know we had strawberries.”

Mattie smiled.  “Mama liked them, and she planted two plants years ago.  They’ve expanded.” 

Tracy looked down at her pail.  There was no way they could get all the ripe berries into it.  “We’ll pick what we can, and maybe after supper, we can all come out and pick more.  Do you want to help me make strawberry jam tomorrow?”

Mattie frowned.  “Are you up to that much work?”

“For strawberries?  I’m up for anything.”

The two girls worked together to pick as many berries as they could make fit into the pail.  When they were finished, Tracy whipped up a cake while Mattie added sugar to the strawberries.  She couldn’t wait for the treat that night.

“Do we have enough cream saved for whipped cream?” Tracy asked as she slid the cake into the oven. 

Mattie nodded.  “I think so.  Let me go check.”  She rushed from the house to the cellar and went down it looking for the cream.  She came back a few minutes later, holding up a half jar of the cream.  “Is that enough?”

Tracy looked at it.  “It should be.  It’ll be enough for us, and the boys can fight over whatever we have left.”  When Tracy had first arrived in Texas, she’d been careful to only take sweets after the others had what they wanted.  At this point in her pregnancy, though, she was more than willing to stab anyone who took her whipped cream with a fork.

They had a simple supper of beans and cornbread, but when she pulled out the cake and the strawberries she could see everyone was excited.  She served them each a piece of the cake, and they all poured the amount of strawberries they wanted over the top.  Mattie brought Tracy the whipped cream, and she carefully took what she wanted before passing it on.  Everyone was good with the amount they took so there was plenty to go around.
  No one asked why she got more than they did, because they all understood how she felt about sweets right then.

After eating the treat, Tracy sat back in her chair and patted her swollen belly.  “That’s what Junior needed tonight.”

It was late that night, after everyone was in bed that Tracy’s pains began.  She clutched the side of her stomach and walked around the house a bit until the pain went away.  Within a couple of hours, she woke Andy.  He came awake with a jerk.  “Is it time?”

Tracy nodded, immediately getting up to resume her pacing.  The midwife had told her that walking would help her labor to go faster, so she was more than willing to walk.
  She wanted the pain over with so she could hold her sweet baby in her arms.

While Andy was gone, Tracy prepared the bed with the extra cotton she’d purchased and started water boiling.  She wanted everything to be as easy for the midwife as possible.

Six long hours later, Tracy held her baby girl in her arms.  “What should we name her?” Andy asked Tracy, stroking the baby’s face with just one finger.  The midwife was still bustling around them, cleaning things up.

Tracy shook her head.  “I was sure it was going to be a boy.”
  They hadn’t discussed a single girl name.

“Me too!”
  He wasn’t disappointed, though.  He loved the idea of having a miniature Tracy in his life.

“What would you think of Edith?” she finally asked.  She’d known a girl named Edith in school, and they’d been friends for a short while.

He seemed to consider it for a moment before nodding.  “Edith.  Edith Harvey.  I like it.”  Their eyes met over the baby’s head, and he smiled at her.  “Thank you for giving me a beautiful baby.”

“You’re not disappointed it’s a girl?”

He shook her head.  “Of course not.  She’s perfect.”

Tracy sighed staring down at the baby.  “She is.”

The midwife rushed in then.  “I’m finished here.”  She’d insisted on bringing her own carriage, and Andy understood why then.  He wouldn’t have to leave to drive her home now.

“Thank you for your help,” Tracy said with a smile.

“I’ll be back to check on you and the baby in a few days.” 

Andy stood and walked the older woman to the door.  “We appreciate you coming in the middle of the night this way, Mrs. Borden.”

“All first babies seem to come in the middle of the night.  I expected as much.”  She went to her buggy and drove away.

Andy sighed happily.  How could life get any better?  He had a good woman who cared about him and a beautiful baby.  He couldn’t see anything ever happening to cause frustration.

Chapter
Eight

Tracy was nursing the baby a few weeks later while Mattie peeled potatoes for stew.   Tracy was thrilled she’d worked so hard to teach the younger girl the fundamentals of cooking, because it had made her own life so much easier since the baby was born.
  She was stunned by the amount of time a new baby took.  She’d seen it all happening at the orphanage, but she had only had to do it for an hour or two at a stretch.  Having a child she was responsible for around the clock was so much different.

Edith was as sweet as could be most of the time, but when she was hungry, she became very demanding.  Tracy stroked her little cheek as it pumped in and out sucking milk.

Tracy jumped at the sound of hoof prints in the yard.  It wasn’t time for the men to be home for several hours.  “Who is that, Mattie?”

Mattie went to the window and peered out.  “It’s George’s son again
.  Amos.”

“How odd.”  Tracy shrugged.  “Go see what he needs.”  She pulled the blanket she had the baby covered with up over her breast to conceal what she was doing as best she could.  She didn’t want to expose herself to all of Texas.

Mattie came back into the house and shrugged.  “He said he could only talk to Andy.”

The only other time since they’d been married that George’s son had ridden out there was the day the private detective had come to town.  Tracy sincerely hoped something like that wasn’t happening again.  She was happy with her life, and she didn’t need anyone to come along and mess things up.
  Who else would come though?  They’d made it clear to her mother that she was no longer welcome.  Surely she wouldn’t come back.

Less than fifteen minutes later, just after Tracy laid Edith down for her nap, they heard the sounds of horses again.  “It’s busy here today,” Tracy mumbled as she went to the door.
Liking guests as much as the next woman, she opened the door to greet whoever was there. She stopped and stared.

Her mother was in a buggy with a wealthy looking gentleman.  The man got down and helped Cecelia down, and the two of them walked toward the house.  Tracy shut her bedroom
door where Edith slept, before going back to the door to inquire why they were there.

Cecelia smiled and ran to Tracy as if they hadn’t parted on bad terms.  “Tracy!  I’ve missed you.”
  She grabbed Tracy in a bear hug.

Tracy pulled back.  “You don’t even know me.”

Cecelia sighed heavily.  “I want you to meet your step-daddy.  Bert, this is my daughter that I’ve told you so much about.” 

Tracy looked at her mother wondering what she possibly could have said about her.  She barely knew anything about her.  She hadn’t bothered to ask any questions or even to listen when Tracy offered details about her life.

Mattie put the potatoes she’d chopped up into the stew pot before walking over to stand beside Tracy.  “Why are you here?” she asked rudely.

Cecelia sighed.  “You haven’t taught this child any manners yet?”

“She has perfect manners around people who deserve her respect.  What can I do for you?”

Cecelia pouted dramatically.  “I’ve missed my little girl.”

“Yes, you did. You missed her entire childhood.  What do you want?”  Tracy knew her words were blunt and rude, but she couldn’t seem to force herself to be nice to the woman in front of her.  Why was she there?

“I wanted to come see how you were doing.”  Cecelia’s eyes dropped to Tracy’s waist.  “So you had the baby?”

Tracy didn’t want to answer that, but Edith was her mother’s granddaughter.  She may have been a terrible mother, but did that give Tracy the right to keep her granddaughter from her?  “Yes.”

Cecelia’s eyes widened and a smile spread across her face.  “Did you have a boy or girl?”

“A girl.”  She added nothing, not even the baby’s name.  She didn’t know why her mother was there, but she didn’t have a good feeling about it.

“Oh, a girl!  I’d like to see her,” Cecelia insisted.  “Where is she?”
  She looked around the room for the baby.

Tracy bit her lip for a moment before walking to her bedroom door and opening it.  “Keep your voices down.  She’s sleeping.”
  She didn’t feel like it was the right thing to do to keep her mother from the baby, but she didn’t want her to touch her either.

Cecelia looked at the baby with tears in her eyes, leaning down to pick up
her granddaughter.  “She looks just like you did as an infant.”  She clucked to the baby, holding her awkwardly.  It was all Tracy could do not to jump forward and snatch the baby from the older woman’s hands.  “What’s her name?”

“Edith.” 
Tracy stepped forward and gently took the baby from her mother’s arms.  If it had been anyone else there with her, she would have talked endlessly about what a good baby she was, but her mother deserved no information at all.

Tracy moved back into the kitchen and sat down in her rocking chair, soothing the baby who’d woken up the moment Cecelia plucked her from her cradle.  She wished with all her heart that Andy was there.  He’d know what to do.

Bert walked over to stand in front of Tracy.  He pulled his wallet from the pocket of his slacks and opened it.  “How much do you want?”

Tracy looked back and forth between the couple trying to figure out what he was talking about.  “What do you mean?”
  Why were they offering her money?

“For the baby.  Cecelia said you wouldn’t just let us have her.  So how much?”

Tracy stared at the man in disbelief.  “You think I’m going to sell you my baby?”  Her voice was shrill as she held the baby to her.  “You can’t have my daughter!”

“Why do you even want her?” Cecelia asked.  “Babies are a lot of work.  I’ll have servants to take care of her, but what do you have?”
  She seemed to think that the argument would work on Tracy.  Further proof that she didn’t know Tracy at all.

“I have a family who cares about me and a lot of love to give.  No matter how much work she is, I’m not giving her up.”

“They care about you?  Has your husband even told you he loves you?  You were a mail order bride.  Men don’t fall in love with mail order brides.”  Cecelia smirked when she saw the sad look that crossed over Tracy’s face.

“This is my baby, and you can’t have her,” Tracy said adamantly.
  She didn’t care if she would have to live under a bridge and live off berries she picked.  She wasn’t’ giving up her baby.

“Holding out for as much as you can get?  I don’t blame you.” 
Bert flipped through the bills there and took a wad out, offering them to Tracy.  “There.  Five hundred ought to do it.”

She shook her head, still not believing anyone would try to buy a baby.

“Not enough?”  He counted out a little more.  “Seven-fifty then?  It’s a ridiculous sum, but I like the idea of the baby being related to my wife.”  Bert made it very clear he was willing to go as high as necessary to buy his wife’s granddaughter.

The door crashed open and Tracy looked up.  She’d never been so thankful to see Andy in all her life.  He’d taken the time to stop off at the barn and grab his rifle, which he had cocked at his shoulder.  “Get out of my house.”

Bert turned and looked at Andy.  “Cecelia told me Tracy had married a crude outdoorsman.”  He shook his head as if the other man were beneath him. “Look, I’m offering a good sum of money for that baby.  Tracy said ‘no’ to five hundred, so how about seven fifty?”

Andy stared at him in shock.  “You’re offering to pay me seven-hundred and fifty dollars for my baby?  You’ve got to be kidding me!”

Bert sighed.  “Not enough?  I only have a thousand with me, but I can always go to a bank and get more.  We need a baby.”

Andy shook his head.  “I don’t care if you need a baby, you’re not getting mine!  Go to an orphanage.  There’s one in almost every town.  Take your pick of the children there.  You’re not getting my baby.  Now get out!”

Bert took a step toward Andy.  “Now, don’t be too hasty.  My wife has her heart set on raising her grandbaby, and I can see why.  She’s a little beauty.  I can get as much as you want.  There’s no need to get hostile.”

Andy took a deep breath, trying to control his temper.  “You cannot have my child for any sum of money on earth.  She is mine.  Her mother is mine.  Get out of my house!”
  He advanced on the older man gun raised, and prodded him toward the door with the barrel of his rifle.  “Don’t come back!”  He slammed the door behind the two of them and stood with his rifle at the ready watching out the window until he saw them drive off.

He rushed over to Tracy, taking her hand and pulling her to her feet and into his arms with the baby between them.
  Holding his rifle barrel down, he clutched her to him.  “They didn’t hurt you?  Or the baby?”

Tracy shook her head, still in utter shock over what had just happened.  “They traveled all this way to buy my baby
.”  She was embarrassed to admit she was related to the woman.

Andy sighed stroking her back.  He realized he was crushing Edith when she started squalling, and took a step back.  “I’m sorry.”  He set down his rifle and took the baby from Tracy, needing to feel her wiggling in his arms.  “I wish we could give you a better grandmother.”

Tracy sat down and only then began to cry.  How could anyone think it was all right to purchase a child?

Mattie ran to Tracy and threw her arms around her.  “I’m so glad that crazy lady left you at the orphanage.”

Tracy chuckled a bit through the tears.  Trust Mattie to say just the right thing to make her feel better.  “I think she may have done me a huge favor.”  Andy sat down still cradling the baby in his arms, and Tracy looked at him around the girl in her lap.  “How did you know?”

“Know what?” he asked.

“That they were here?  You came in from the range and immediately knew that I needed you.  You never come in at this time of day.”

He sighed.  “The best thing about small towns is everyone looks out for each other.  George noticed your mother get off a train with a man, so he went and pulled his kid out of school to ride out here and warn me that they were in town.  He had a head start, so I had some time to ride toward the house before he told me.”  He kissed he baby’s forehead.  “You need to bake those two a huge cake or something.”

Tracy nodded.  “I’ll do that.” 

Mattie pulled away and looked at Tracy with a smile.  “I’ll help.”

Andy had settled the baby down and gotten her back to sleep.  Tracy watched as he took her into the bedroom and laid her in her cradle.  “She didn’t need to eat did she?”  It had just occurred to him that maybe the baby wasn’t supposed to be sleeping just then.

Tracy shook her head.  “Cecelia woke her when she picked her up.”

Andy shuddered.  “I hate that she even touched the baby.”

Tracy stood and walked back into his arms.  “Thank you for riding so hard to get rid of them.”  She sighed.  “You don’t think she’ll try anything else, do you?”

“No, I don’t.  I’ll send Francis for the sheriff when he gets home, though.  I want him to have fair warning in advance there may be trouble.”  He shook his head.  “Why were they so fixated on Edith?  There are plenty of unwanted children all over.  They could go to the orphanage in Beckham and get one if they wanted one so badly.” 

“They wanted Edith because she’s related to my mother.”  Tracy looked into his eyes.  “I really can’t see why that matters.  I think you’re either a person who will accept any child that comes your way, or you’re a person who will reject the
m all.”

“That’s probably true.  I’m glad I married a woman who is willing to raise more than her share of children.”

Tracy looked at Mattie who was quietly peeling carrots for the stew.  “I couldn’t imagine being any other way.” 

*****

Their evening was busy as they explained exactly what had happened to the sheriff and he took notes on the situation.  “I’ll need descriptions of the couple.”

Tracy smiled.  “The woman looks identical to me, but she’s seventeen years older.  The man?  He had dark hair and brown eyes.  He looked as if he never dressed in anything but a business suit.”

“Should make them easy to spot around here.”  The sheriff finished taking notes.  “I’ll run into town and see if anyone’s seen them.  Have a talk with them if they’re still around.”

Andy stepped forward and shook the other man’s hand.  “Thank you, Sheriff.”

The sheriff looked down at Tracy.  “Don’t open the door to them again.  I hope I can just run them off, and I’ll make sure we add extra patrols through here, but just in case, don’t open the door.”

Tracy nodded.  “I won’t.  Thank you.”

Over supper, Tracy was quiet.  She’d just lived through a nightmare, and she wasn’t sure how to handle it.  After the dishes were done that evening, she stepped into her room to be alone, needing time away from the others with just her baby.  As she sat on her bed and nursed, she shook her head, still having a hard time believing anyone could think they could just buy a child.

She stroked Edith’s cheek, and the baby looked up at
her, her wide blue eyes staring.  “I’ll never leave you with anyone.  You know that?  I love you, Edith.  I’m your mama, and that makes you my responsibility.  I would never let anyone take you home with them.”