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When Patrick got up after the meal, he said, “I’ll go and hitch up the team.”
Heather hurried after him to the door. “Perhaps we could walk alone tonight. It would be nice to talk to you alone for a while.”
He chuckled. “It would at that. Bring a couple of baskets, and we’ll go pick some huckleberries.”
“Huckleberries?” she asked. “I’ve never tried them.”
“They make a wonderful pie!” he said, winking at her. With that, he hurried out to the stable to hitch up the team, and she returned to the table to help with the cleanup.
Sally grinned at her when she came back from the door. “You’re starting to like my boy there, aren’t you?”
Heather nodded. “He’s easy to like.” Hopefully that would be the most intrusive thing his mother said all day. She said a silent prayer that there would be no more probing questions. It was hard to know how to answer to satisfy her but not tell her anything.
“Well, I sure hope he was gentle on your wedding night. My boy is a bit like a bull in a china shop at times.” Sally shook her head, piling plates atop one another to carry them into the kitchen. “Why, once at church, he leaned back in the pew, and his legs are so strong, the entire pew leaned backward. There were squeals heard right in the middle of the pastor’s sermon. He was embarrassed, but his pa and I just laughed.”
“Before we go to town, would you show me how to use the bathtub? I just washed with a cloth last night and didn’t bathe. I feel disgusting.” Heather was so looking forward to learning how to use the built-in bathtub. She’d never had one at her disposal.
“Oh, of course!”
After they finished the breakfast dishes, Heather mixed the dough for their bread, took a bath, and then they headed into town, with Heather wearing her new dress for the first time.
The mercantile wasn’t a big store at all, but it had what they needed to purchase. Sally and Heather chose different fabrics for all the projects they had in mind. “I’d like to make curtains for our bedroom,” Heather said, looking through the fabrics. “Do you think Patrick would mind?”
Sally shook her head. “Of course not. I think at this point, the man would strip naked and swim across Bear Lake in the middle of winter if it would make you happy.”
A voice behind Sally said, “Patrick?”
Heather turned to look at the woman who’d asked the question. “Do you know Patrick?”
“Yes, of course I do. I’ve been in this town since its inception.” The woman held her hand out to Heather. “I’m Margaret Prewitt. I run the boarding house here in town. Well, my daughter, granddaughter, and I run it together. I’m not moving as well as I once was.” The woman was obviously around eighty years old.
“It’s so nice to meet you. I’m Heather O’Brien. I married Patrick yesterday.”
Mrs. Prewitt smiled. “That’s wonderful. Patrick is a good man! You’ll have to come and see me for tea one day. You’ll bring her, won’t you, Sally?”
“I’d love to, Margaret. You know I enjoy spending time with you and those fabulous cookies you make.”
“I always have some ready to be served. Come soon.” Mrs. Prewitt patted Heather’s arm and turned away.
“She’s nice,” Heather said to Sally.
“She really is. She was on the wagon train that settled here back in 1852. There’s a whole community of people from that train, and then others of us settled in around them. I feel so much love in this place. I wouldn’t move for the world.”
When they checked out, the man, Amos Jensen, smiled at Sally. “Are you having a good day, Mrs. O’Brien.”
“Yes, a perfectly wonderful day,” Sally said. “This is my new daughter-in-law, Heather.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. O’Brien,” the man said, smiling. “My family has been here since the valley was first settled. You’ll feel at home here in no time.”
After they’d paid for their purchases, Amos carried the items out to their wagon himself. “When is that grandfather of yours going to retire?” Sally asked.
Amos laughed. “I think my grandpa is going to be a blacksmith until he falls over.”
“That wouldn’t surprise me a lick!” Sally said, climbing over the wagon wheel into the wagon seat and picking up the leads.
Heather climbed up as well and sat beside her new mother-in-law. “It was nice meeting you,” she said to Amos.
“And you!” Amos said.
