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Constance looked behind her for Leonard, trying to see if he’d stand up for her, but to her amazement, he was across the church, talking to some men. “It’s a pleasure to meet you finally, Mrs. Berry.”
A grunt was the response she got. Constance longed for something to say to the woman, but no words were forthcoming.
Two minutes went by that way, seeming like forever. And then Betty and Caroline were on either side of Constance, Betty saying brightly, “Good morning, Ma Berry. I see you’ve met our Constance.”
Mrs. Berry nodded. “I did.”
“Isn’t she lovely?” Caroline asked.
“I suppose you’d call her that,” Mrs. Berry said. She looked down her nose at the three women in front of her.
Betty took Caroline’s arm. “Is it all right if I introduce her around? I’m sure everyone is dying to meet her!”
“I suppose that’s fine.”
With that, Betty pulled Constance away from their mother-in-law. “You okay?” Betty whispered.
Constance nodded. “I think so.”
“She measures all of our hips the same way, and she always announces we’ll die in childbirth,” Caroline said. “It seems to be a rite of passage.”
“I think it’s awful!” Constance said. “I felt like a slab of meat.”
“We all did,” Caroline said soothingly. “I’d known the family my entire life and she still did that to me. If I hadn’t been so in love with Luke, I would never have married him.”
“Oh. I had no idea!”
Betty nodded. “She’s just…odd. We all deal with it. But don’t worry…the support you get from your sisters-in-law will make up for how she is.” Betty stopped walking in front of a small group of women. “And here they are!”
One by one, Betty and Caroline introduced Constance to her new sisters-in-law. As she was greeted by each of them, she felt welcomed in a way she certainly hadn’t with Mrs. Berry.
“Are you and Leonard going to Ma Berry’s for Sunday dinner?” Patsy, Amos’s wife, asked.
“I think we are,” Constance said, trying not to let it show on her face she didn’t want to go. She needed to not make waves.
“We’ll all get to know one another better there,” Sally, Jack’s wife, said. “It’ll all be fine.”
None of the others mentioned what had just happened between Constance and their mother-in-law, but she saw understanding on each of their faces. It seemed that the sisters-in-law really would support her, and that was all she needed at that moment. Well, that and Leonard’s love, but she had a feeling that would not be forthcoming.
During the service, Constance sat with Leonard, paying rapt attention to the sermon. Pastor Abrams had chosen loving thy neighbor as his theme that week, and it was definitely a favorite sermon topic.
As soon as the service was over, she got into the buggy with Leonard, and they drove out to his parents’ farm. It was a longer drive than Constance expected, but it could be made in under thirty minutes.
“I don’t think your ma likes me,” Constance said after a few minutes of driving along in silence.
“Of course she does. Ma likes everyone.”
Constance realized the man truly believed what he said. “I think she wants me to die in childbirth.”
“There’s no call for you to say things like that about my ma. Ever. I will never put up with it.”
And that’s when Constance realized she would be relying on her sisters-in-law much more than she’d ever realized she would. But she would do her best to make the most of the situation. She could put up with one bad apple in her new family in exchange for six sweet sisters.
At the house, Leonard set the brake and helped Constance down. “No bad talk about my ma. You hear me?” He was starting to think he’d made a mistake by marrying Constance. If she was going to say bad things about his mother, he didn’t know what to do.
Once they were inside, Constance immediately asked if she could help with anything, and Mrs. Berry pointed to a hook where multiple aprons hung. Constance donned one before looking to her mother-in-law to see what she should do.
“You can peel the potatoes,” Mrs. Berry said, and when Constance looked, she saw an entire mountain of potatoes ready to be peeled. None of the others were there yet, so Constance went to the basin and began peeling, one potato after another.
