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“Only on days we were feeling kind,” Lewis said grinning at her.
She laughed. “Sounds like we have a lot of notes to compare.”
“I think Albert is secretly hoping that a merger between the Dailey boys and the demon horde will produce children who are able to come up with pranks that will change the world.”
“It never even occurred to me he wanted to have prankster children. In my family, we grow out of it, and then have a difficult time holding our heads up in public, because we know how shameful everyone finds us.” Alice sighed. “We did have fun though. Once all eight of us who were school age were suspended at the same time. We had so much fun during that week off school. I think my mother was ready to actually discipline us for a minute or two.”
Lewis laughed. “Albert and I would have been thrilled. Susan had some stories about your behavior that even we had a hard time believing was true.”
“Oh, if Susan said it, it’s true. She and Elizabeth were the perfect daughters. They cooked, cleaned, took care of all of us, and they even worked jobs outside the home to help the family out. Sometimes I think if it hadn’t been for Susan and Elizabeth, we’d allstillbe running wild.”
“We got to meet Aunt Elizabeth a few years back. She was really nice, and I really liked Uncle Bernard.”
“This may be where things get strange. I think of Elizabeth as my big sister, and here you are calling her ‘aunt.’ Do you call Susan by her name, or is she Ma?”
“Albert and I never got into the habit of calling her Ma, but our younger brothers do.”
“The twins?”
He nodded. “Though there are other twins of course. Susan had twins as well.”
She smiled. “There’s only one set of twins in my family. They painted the cow purple once.”
“And they put newspaper under it so they wouldn’t get the barn floor dirty!” Lewis said with a laugh.
“I guess you’ve heard that story.” Alice liked this young man and for just a moment, she thought it might be nice to marry him. Of course, she wasn’t there for that, so she shoved the thought from her mind.
The drive out to the Dailey family ranch was a long one, but she and Lewis kept each other entertained with stories of their childish misdeeds. Lewis pointed out important things, and they passed the time quickly.
When they pulled in beside the house, Lewis put on the parking brake. There was another young man approaching the wagon, though he looked as if he might be a year or two older than Lewis. He walked to Alice’s side of the wagon and helped her down. “Did Lewis fill you in on how we’re playing this?” he whispered.
Alice nodded, her eyes twinkling as she met her future husband for the first time. “He did. We’ll have fun. How’s your heifer?”
“She’s all right. One of the babies doesn’t seem to have much strength, but I’ll watch her for a few days to see what happens. It won’t break me to lose one of the babies, but I’d have been sad to lose the heifer.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Albert.” Alice felt stupid for not saying that first, but she was a farmer’s daughter, and she knew the importance of each and every cow.
He grinned, his brown eyes twinkling with laughter. “And it’s nice to meet you, Alice.”
“She knows my name is Alice, right?” she asked, her voice lowered.
He nodded. “Everything is the truth, except your last name is Moore.”
“Got it.”
A blond woman came out of the house with a baby on her hip. She walked over to Alice and looked her up and down. “You remind me of someone,” she said, her eyes narrowing.
“Well, from what Mrs. Tandy tells me, we’re both from the same town. Perhaps you knew one of my older sisters.”
Susan frowned, pursing her lips. “Perhaps.” With one more skeptical look at Alice, Susan said, “Come with me. I have a room made up for you. I thought we’d have a small wedding ceremony in the morning here at the ranch. The pastor said he’d come by around ten, and I’ve invited a few locals to join us.”
“I’d like that a lot,” Alice said sweetly, smiling at her sister. She looked in the back of the wagon, but both of her carpet bags were gone, and then she saw Lewis with one and Albert with the other. “Would you mind if I cleaned up a bit? My stomach didn’t like that train one bit.”
Susan gave her a sympathetic glance. “I remember when I came here, I helped a woman with her little boy, and I got off the train covered in vomit only to find that my fiancé was dead, and his brother wanted to marry me. It was not the way I wanted to arrive in Fort Worth.”
“I can understand that perfectly. I don’t think I would have enjoyed getting off the train to all of that either.” Alice followed her sister, smiling at her little niece in Susan’s arms. “What’s the baby’s name?” She knew it was Clarissa, but there was no way she was giving up her connection this early in the game.
“Clarissa. I think she’s my last. I had four children instantly when I married David, and then I’ve had six more. Thankfully, there have been a few girls in the mix, and it hasn’t always been mischievous boys.”
