Alice simply laughed. “Susan is the oldest and there are sixteen of us. I’m much younger, and she’s actually my step-mother-in-law as well as my sister.”
“What’s a step-mother-in-law?” Amy asked. She’d never heard anyone use that phrase.
Alice grinned. “Susan moved west because she was tired of being the oldest of twelve children who were all unruly and acted crazy. In town, they called us the Demon Horde.”
Brenda gasped. “You guys are legendary!”
“We really are. Do you believe only the youngest is unmarried now?” Alice shook her head. “I digress. Susan agreed to come west as a mail-order bride to marry Jesse Dailey. When she arrived, Jesse had been killed, and his brother David greeted her at the train station. David asked her to marry him. He had four boys already, and she insisted on meeting all of them before she’d agree, because let’s face it, we were difficult to be around.”
“I’ll say!” Brenda said, awe in her voice.
“Anyway, David bribed his older boys to behave all through the meal. She agreed to marry him. It wasn’t until the wedding was over that the boys were fighting in the streets and rolling in mud.”
Amy sighed. “That was so unfair to her!”
“It was.” Alice shook her head. “They were already married, so she stayed with him. I married David’s oldest son, Albert, who is my step-nephew, but I’d never even met him, so it wasn’t a problem.”
“Is Susan happy now?” Amy asked.
“Oh, she has been for ages. She and David are a true love match. And so are Albert and I. But that makes her my sister and my mother-in-law. Strange, isn’t it?”
“Very,” Brenda agreed as Alice pulled up in front of a beautiful home. “Is this yours?”
Alice laughed. “No, I live in a little cabin on the ranch’s land. This is Susan and David’s house.”
“It’s beautiful,” Amy said, admiring it.
“It is. I love it.”
Alice jumped down from the wagon, and the girls in it followed suit.
Brenda put her hand on Alice’s arm. “The party? Do you know when it is?”
Alice grinned. “Tomorrow night at seven. At the church.”
“So if any of us marry there, it’ll be a church wedding?” Hannah asked, sounding disappointed.
“I guess so,” Alice replied.
ELIZABETH TANDY HADoutdone herself, Amy thought, as she took in the tastefully decorated space, festooned with ribbons and fresh flowers. The wooden floor gleamed underfoot, polished to a shine, ready for tentative steps and hopeful hearts.
They’d had supper with Susan and her family at five, and they were there for the night, as far as Amy could tell. She was excited though. Her first real dance.
Oh, she’d learned to dance in the orphanage. Mrs. Jackson had tried to make sure they had all the skills children with two parents had, and she’d danced with her “brothers” many times. But this would be real. She could dance with a man she just might marry.
“Quite something, isn’t it?” Amy whispered to Brenda, her eyes wide with a blend of awe and nerves.
“Never seen anything like it,” came the hushed reply, just as awestruck.
Amy’s gaze flitted across the room, her fingers playing with the fabric of her dress—a subtle shade of blue that brought out the warmth in her cheeks. Men of Fort Worth mingled about, their postures ranging from confident struts to shy shuffles.
“Remember, breathe,” Erna reminded her gently.
Amy let out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding and managed a grateful smile.
Then, amid the sea of faces, a particular figure caught her attention. He stood somewhat apart from the others. His hair was neatly combed, and he wore a black suit with a white shirt. He sipped his drink slowly, observing the crowd through guarded eyes that seemed to hold a reservoir of unspoken sorrow.
“Who’s that?” Amy asked, nodding subtly toward the somber cowboy.
