Chapter Three
Tom was right.Shedid talk all day, but she didn’t seem to expect more than nods or head shakes from him.A few times he turned around and lifted an eyebrow as if to tell her she was in need of a lunatic asylum, but she seemed to understand that too.In fact, the first time he did it, she poked him with her oar.
She once again set up their bedrolls that night, and she placed them far closer than he ever had.When he realized she was only putting down one blanket to pull over both of them, and the other three for a mattress for them both...well, he couldn’t help but laugh.The woman knew what she wanted, and she was going to get it no matter how he felt about it.
He wrote her three notes to give her throughout the following day and one for that night.The notes for the following day were to give her new topics.When left to her own devices, she talked about the world as if it were a giant fairy tale and he was prince charming.He knew he was anything but, and she should by now, but she seemed to prefer to look at things differently than he’d ever been able to.
The note for that night made her smile and kiss him again, this time deepening the kiss before he had a chance to do it himself.He’d always imagined he would be the one in charge of kisses, but she didn’t seem to care.No, she was a special woman this wife of his.
When they went to bed for the night, she didn’t even pretend to sleep any distance from him.She crawled under the top cover and laid her head on his shoulder.“I like being this close to you,” she whispered to him in the dark.
“I like it too,” he said, amazed that he was able to say it without stammering.His heart was beating so quickly, as if all the eyes of the world were on him, but the words came easily.
“I love the notes you write me,” she said softly.“Thank you for taking the time to do it.”
He didn’t answer her aloud, but instead, he rubbed her back and pressed a kiss to the top of her head.
“Don’t you want to consummate the marriage yet?”she asked.
He chuckled, still in disbelief about just how forward his new wife was.“Home,” he said.
“I guess it will be nice for both of us to have a chance to take a bath before we get too close.I’d take a dip in the river, but I let one hand rest in the river earlier, and it was so cold.No, I’ll wait for a bath.But I won’t like it.”
That earned her another kiss, something that was happening much more frequently since they’d gotten the first one out of the way.The man wasn’t much for spoken words, but he was priceless in her eyes.And she couldn’t wait to get home.
*****
IN TOTAL, THEY SPENTtwo weeks in a boat on the Yukon River, and Sally kept up a steady stream of mostly one-sided conversation with Tom the entire way.He was happy she was so comfortable talking in front of him, and he became less nervous and spoke more freely every day.
But still he wrote her sweet notes.He wrote them at night, and she’d receive one right away, and then a few more interspersed the following day.She was almost sad when he pulled the boat over in the middle of the afternoon one day.“Now we walk,” he said.
“Are we a long way from Yeti?”she asked.
He shrugged.“If we hurry, we could make it before nightfall.”He smiled when he realized he’d spoken a longer sentence and not stammered once.He was getting more comfortable speaking around his beautiful, fanciful wife.
“Let’s hurry then!”Sally all but bounced up and down.“I want to get to your beautiful cabin in the woods.”
He frowned.“Just a cabin.”
“It will be our home.If it’s not already beautiful, I’ll make it that way.”
He chuckled, shaking his head.The woman had her dreams, and he would do his best not to let the difficult life she had ahead of her crush those dreams.
It was just past sunset when he turned off the road—which was really no more than a path through the forest—and after walking for a few minutes, she spotted a cabin.He was right.It was just a cabin.But she would make curtains for the window and turn it into a home they could both be proud of.
He opened the door, and she noted he hadn’t bothered to lock it.She hadn’t lived in a place where she didn’t need to lock her door since she was a child.Alaskan life would be difficult, and she would embrace the difficulty.She was home, and it would be glorious.
She hurried around the tiny one-room cabin.There was a bed off to one side and a counter with a few shelves above it.There were a few tin dishes, a pot, and a frying pan.That was all she would need to cook wonderful meals for the man she loved.
“What time do you go to work in the mornings?”
“Eight,” he said.
“And when do you get home?”
“Five or so.”
“I’ll make certain supper is always on the table at five.Is there a well so I can draw water for our baths?”
