Page 14 of Mail Order Marvelous
“Because he wouldn’t have eaten it, and he would have beaten her for wasting food.”She sighed.“I couldn’t stop him.”
“Did you ever try?”he asked, half-afraid of the answer.
She lifted her hair—which had been cut into bangs since she was twelve, when she’d tried to help—and pointed to a scar.“Only once.”
He opened his mouth to ask what had happened, but he knew the answer would send him to Massachusetts, and he was afraid of what he’d do once he arrived.
Instead, he covered her hand with his.“He’s a monster.”
Josie closed her eyes and nodded.“He is.”
“Do you still hear from your mother?”
Josie shook her head.“I’ve kept up a correspondence with my sister, but not my mother.I think Ma is angry with me for leaving.”
“You did the right thing.Who knows what would have happened if you’d stayed?”
“Annie wrote me at the hotel, and I’ve told her I was moving to Yeti.I think Annie is ashamed.He’s her father, after all.”
“I hope she writes to you here.I think it would do you good to know how your mother is doing.”
“Perhaps,” Josie said.Every time she’d opened a letter from her sister, she’d worried that her mother was dead.
“Most men are not like him, you know.”
She shrugged.“I suppose not.”
They sat in silence for a long while as she continued working on the socks she was making, and he read from the Bible.
Finally, she stood and checked on the stew.“It’s done.”She quickly ladled two portions into bowls and cut bread, placing them both on the table.Then she refilled their coffee cups.
When he prayed before their meal, he prayed that her family would be safe.Josie wanted to cry that he cared enough to include that in his prayer, but instead, she took a tentative bite of her stew.
“It’s not as good as Myrtle’s, but it’s good,” she said, her voice full of surprise.
He chuckled.“I expected nothing less.”
That evening when they went to bed, instead of clinging to the side as she had been, she moved straight into his arms, kissing him softly.“Thank you,” she whispered.
He didn’t ask what she was thanking him for.He knew.She was thanking him for a future that didn’t include the brutality she’d witnessed as a child.
He held her close, his hands stroking over her back.
After a few minutes, she lifted her head and looked at him.“I was given to understand that men are always in a hurry to consummate a marriage, and we’ve waited weeks.”
“You needed time to get used to me.So, I’m giving you that time.”
She thought about it for a moment.“I don’t think I need more time.You didn’t burn me or beat me for being late with supper.You’re a better man than he is.”
He shook his head.“That’s not saying much.”It went against everything his body was screaming at him to do, but he held her close and didn’t try to do anything else.She needed more time, and he would give it to her.
Josie fell asleep in his arms that night, and he considered it a win.She was starting to trust him when she was awake as well as when she was asleep.
*****
For the next week,Josie knitted and made boots.Nothing seemed to be what she wanted to do though.She spent every morning with Myrtle, helping her with the dishes after the baking was finished.
“What do I want to be when I grow up?”she asked Myrtle late Friday morning.“I feel like I’m spinning my wheels, while everyone else knows what they want.”
