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“No problem. It’s not like I haven’t seen women nursing before. Now, why am I here?”
“Well, the reason I invited you here is just a little odd. Susan’s stepson Albert needs a wife, and he wrote to me asking me to find him one. It’s a little odd with the family relation, but you’ve not only never met Albert, but he’s not blood related to you. If you marry him, our sister will be your mother-in-law, but she’ll also be there to help you with anything that comes along.”
Alice frowned for a moment, considering the situation. “So even though he’s our nephew—step-nephew—you think it would be all right for me to marry him?” It seemed a little stranger than Elizabeth’s usual matchups.
“I do think it’s fine. I’m sure Susan would love to have one of her sisters there full-time. I understand his property borders Susan and David’s.” Elizabeth picked up a letter and handed it to Alice. “Do you want to read what he has to say?”
Alice took the letter from her sister, flipping it over and over in her hands, before she finally opened it and read the contents.
Dear Aunt Elizabeth,
This letter may come as a surprise to you, but I’m out on my own now, and I’m in need of a wife. Susan tells me what a good matchmaker you are, and I would like to request your services in finding a bride for me. I have my own ranch, which borders Susan and Pa’s. I’m a cattle rancher, and I don’t do much with horse training like Pa does.
There was a girl at church, I was planning to ask to court, but I just found out she’s getting married next week. No one else here appeals to me at all. So, help me find a good wife.
I want someone who can cook because I am terrible at it. She has to not mind the long hours a rancher puts in as he’s starting out. And she must want children because I can’t imagine what life would be like without at least a dozen of them.
If you can find this woman, I will be eternally grateful. I think Susan would be happy to have a friend or a sister from back home. (And I must admit, I like the idea of marrying a member of the demon horde.) Please let me know when to be in Fort Worth to fetch my bride.
With great affection,
Albert Dailey
Alice couldn’t help but grin as she handed the letter back to her sister. “It sounds like he’s looking for me.”
“That’s exactly what I thought! How would you feel about moving to Texas and being Susan’s neighbor?”
“I barely remember Susan. I think I was about five when she left.”
“That sounds about right. She was probably more of a mother to you than a sibling.”
Alice nodded. “You both were. You were the only people who ever disciplined any of us.”
“I know! Well, I think you should write to Albert and marry him. What do you think?”
“Definitely! I’m excited to go to Texas, where it doesn’t get cold like it does here!” Alice had always imagined Texas as some sort of paradise with palm trees and sandy beaches. The idea of moving there was like a dream come true.
Elizabeth handed her a pen, a pot of ink, and a piece of paper. “Write to him. As soon as he wires back that he wants you to be his wife, I’ll put you on a train west. I’m excited to see what will happen with the next generation when a Dailey boy marries one of the demon horde. It’s like a horror story just waiting to be written.”
Alice laughed. “I wasn’t theworstof the demon horde.”
“No, you weren’t. That would have been Charlie. She was the worst out of all of us.” Elizabeth sighed. “It’s hard to send my siblings away, but it’s not hard to understand that they won’t find love and happiness here in Beckham. Not after their shenanigans when they were younger.”
“This is true. Now, hush! I’m writing my future husband.”
Alice had supper with Elizabeth and Bernard that evening, and they talked and laughed together. Alice couldn’t stop thinking about the man she was going west to marry and his stepmother, her eldest sister. She didn’t know Susan well enough to miss her, but from what she’d heard from other siblings, she would love her. And soon, she’d be going west to be near her.
*****
It was about two weeks later that a telegram came into Beckham accepting Alice as a bride for Albert. There was no message from Susan, and Alice couldn’t help but wonder if Susan knew what was happening.
Alice had given her notice at the store as soon as she’d talked to Elizabeth, not wanting to leave her employers hanging, and she hated the job with everything inside her, so she was happy to give it up.
Packing her meager belongings and walking to town one last time to spend the night with Elizabeth before her early train the following morning, Alice felt a little skip in her step. Maybe she wasn’t doing anything the normal way. She was marrying a man sight unseen, and she was going to be moving away from her family, but she didn’t care.
It was time for her to follow in her older siblings’ footsteps and head west to marry a stranger. At least there would be no ready-made family waiting for her as Susan had found when she’d gone west to marry Albert’s uncle. No, she’d be marrying a young man, not too much older than herself, and she would be able to keep house and live as God intended women to live.
At Elizabeth’s she took the same room she’d taken just a couple of weeks before, and took everything upstairs to that room, and then she went down to spend a last day with her sister, brother-in-law, niece, and nephew.
