Lilly: Bride of Illinois (American Mail-Order Bride 21) (10 page)

“Thank you for reminding me of that.” Lilly rubbed her wedding ring while she stared at it. “For your sake, I think we should take our rings off before we get to Clear Creek though. I’m sure you’d prefer to get our annulment without everyone knowing we were married.”

“Let’s wait until we get near there. They are safer on our fingers, don’t you think?” He was getting used to wearing it, and wasn’t sure if he wanted to take it off—ever.

Chapter 9

Last night they had unloaded the horses to a pen for the night and found a hotel for themselves. Early this morning, they loaded the horses into a livestock car attached to a passenger train heading to Denver. Lilly had spent the day staring out the window, absorbing the layout of her new home state.

“This is it, we’re coming into Clear Creek,” Seth looked outside the window, then to her, then back out the window.

As the train slowed, her heartbeat increased.
This could be my new home
, where Seth’s family and friends live, where I’d shop and go to church. She squeezed her eyes tight, trying to control her runaway emotions, but started to hyperventilate instead.

“Lilly, what’s wrong?
Lilly?!
”

She tried to take deep breaths to calm herself, but sobs took over as she cupped her hand over her mouth.
Finally!
I finally have a home and a husband, a place free of hunger and worry!

“Lilly?!
Answer me!
What’s wrong?” Seth whispered as passengers around them looked on in concern.

“
Nothing!
Things are finally going to be all right for me! It’s been years since I’ve not had to worry about what’s around the corner, or where I’m going to find a meal.”

Lilly turned in her seat and wrapped her arms around Seth, tugging him tightly against her chest. “Thank you for bringing me here, Seth. I don’t know how I would have survived in Chicago…”

“Hey, dry your tears, you’re going to have a great life in Kansas. You’ll have plenty of Swedes around you to keep you happy now,” Seth whispered in her ear as he gave her a tight hug.

“Yes, I know I will, it’s just…”

“Overwhelming? I understand, but it will all work out.”

The final chug of the engine, screech of the wheels on the rails and the train came to a complete stop. People turned their attention from her crying spectacle to stand, gather their belongings and join the line to depart from the train.

“Let’s let the others leave first, then we will stand. Look clear down to the end of the street,” Seth pointed to his left. “There’s the church, and the parsonage is on this side of it. That’s where I grew up and where my parents still live.”

Lilly scanned the buildings down the street until she saw the small, white, wooden church with a plain bell tower on the roof above the double door entry. Trees were few and far between, and those weren’t very large compared to the trees back East. There was a big contrast between Boston, which had been there for over a hundred years, to Chicago, around fifty years, and Clear Creek, which Seth had told her was established just a little over twenty years ago.

But of the three places, she liked the looks and feel of Clear Creek the best.

Clothing on both men and women walking on the boardwalks were more basic, useful versus frivolous. Most men wore cowboy hats here instead of fedoras, and some wore gun belts around their waists.

“Let’s get off now and unload the horses. There are pens south of the railyard where they can rest. Once they’re taken care of, we’ll go over to my parents’ house so you can meet them.”

There were very few people milling around this depot compared to everywhere else she’d been, and Seth nodded or said hello to practically everyone, but he didn’t stop to introduce her to anyone, although people looked her over, likely wondering who she was. Seth was anxious to get the horses unloaded, because the train would be pulling out after a short stop.

The railyards were quiet compared to Chicago’s and the horses unloaded without any problems. The horses would rest in the railroad corral until Seth and Lilly could lead them to the horse ranch.

The afternoon temperature was warmer than she’d felt in a few weeks and she relished the feel of the sun on her face. There was no snow here, only fall–dried grass and those few leafless trees.

Seth pointed and told her about different places as they walked to the church; Taylor’s Mercantile, Clancy’s Café, the Paulson Hotel, the school...

Lilly wished she could have taken a bath somewhere before meeting Seth’s parents, but Seth brushed off her worries, saying it wouldn’t matter to them and walked on, apparently anxious to see his parents and introduce her to them.

Seth rapped on the front door twice before turning the knob and walking into his childhood home. Lilly followed, not expecting him to go in without being bade to enter.

“Ma? Da? You home?” Seth called, walking through the living room to where the kitchen must be.

“Seth! Glad you’re home!” a tall muscular woman with bright red curls met him before he stepped into the next room and gave him a big hug. “What happened to your face? You look like you walked into someone’s fist.

“Ma...”

“Well, glory be, son, who’s this lass with you?” Seth’s mother asked excitedly while grabbing Lilly’s hand. “Welcome to the Reagan household, my dear, I’m Kaitlyn Reagan and so pleased to meet you. And you are?”

Seth warned her his mother was a whirlwind of talk and motion but Lilly was still taken aback by her exuberant manner.

“Ma, this is Lilly, who I met in Chicago. She needed help and I came to her rescue, so to speak,” Seth said as he removed his hat, and pulled off his gloves.

“As you should, son.”

“Nice to meet you, Mrs. Reagan, I…”

“Oh, a delightful Swedish lass! You’ll have to meet the Hamners, so you can enjoy some good Swedish conversation. Come in the kitchen. Your Da is home having his afternoon coffee and biscuits.”

Seth smiled and shrugged his shoulders as Lilly was pulled through the door by his mother. Seth’s father was an older version of Seth with his auburn hair and features.

“Patrick, meet Lilly, Seth’s…” Mrs. Reagan caught sight of Seth’s wedding ring and she stopped talking, her mouth agape as she looked from her son to Lilly.
No. No.
They forgot to take off their rings!

“
You got married?!”
his mother plopped down on one of the kitchen chairs.

“Calm down, Ma, I married Lilly to help her escape a bad situation in Chicago.”

Lilly hastily added, “I answered a mail–order bride advertisement, but it turned out the man…” Lilly looked at Seth, not sure how they should explain her situation. What would his mother and father—a pastor for heaven’s sake—think of Seth finding her working in a saloon?

“Lilly worked in a textile mill in Lawrence, Massachusetts, that burned down in September. Many of the former workers decided their best option was to become mail–order brides. Lilly responded to a
Grooms’ Gazette
ad placed by a Chicago business owner. After they corresponded, the man sent Lilly a train ticket and she arrived the same day as I did, so we met briefly at the train depot before her escort showed up.

“But instead of wanting a wife, the man was wanting a singer and…uh ‘special hostess’…for his saloon. Turns out, he’d used this scheme to get other to his…establishment in the past.”

Lilly felt a deep blush creep up her neck to her hairline when Seth told his parents what she had stupidly walked into.

“She escaped from the saloon one night, and hid in a pen of horses in the middle of Union Stockyards. I found her and…” Seth stopped in mid–sentence.
He almost said, brought her to my hotel room!

“Why did you go to the horses, dear?” Mrs. Reagan interrupted.

Lilly looked at Seth, but he waved his hand to go ahead and answer his mother’s question. “Seth said he was going to the Stockyards to look at the horses the next morning. I spent most of my life working on a stud farm in Sweden, so I felt safe hidden in a pen of mares.”

“Oh you’ll fit right into the horse ranch Seth manages then!” Mrs. Reagan clapped her hands to show her excitement.

“So what does this have to do with you getting married during your
week
in Chicago?” Pastor Reagan finally spoke for the first time since they’d walked into the Reagan home.

Seth looked like a little boy—be it over six feet tall—when his father asked that pointed question.

“The saloon owner and his cohorts kept trying to grab Lilly, to force her back to the saloon—that’s why I have a black and blue jaw—
so
I suggested a marriage of convenience as a means of protection while in Chicago.”

“You must be an accomplished singer if he wanted you back. Where else have you sang, dear?” Lilly was a little taken aback by Mrs. Reagan’s change of subject.
Was this her nature?

“I sang in the church I attended in Lawrence, and I’d often led songs in the textile mill to boost the workers’ spirits.”

Seth spoke up before his mother asked her next question. “Lilly wanted to live among her countrymen again, so that’s why she chose the mail–order bride ad in Chicago. I told her about the Swedish settlements around here, so the marriage arrangement gave her safe passage to Kansas,” Seth patiently explained to his parents.

“So what is the plan now, son?” Pastor Reagan asked, then took a sip of coffee while looking between the two of them. Then Lilly noticed he raised an eyebrow to his wife, and she answered back with a nod.

Seth opened his mouth, then closed it before turning to look at Lilly. “We haven’t made any definite plans. I need to get the horses out to the Straight Arrow Ranch and catch up with things there. Lilly…”

“I’d like to see the ranch, and your community, besides the Swedish settlement when Seth has time to take me there,” Lilly spoke her wishes. “And Seth bought me a mare for my so–called ‘wedding present’, so I need to get her settled somewhere so I can take care of and ride her.”

“Oh my stars! Your surprise made me toss my manners aside. Please take off your coats and sit down. You need food after your long trip,” Mrs. Reagan shot out of her chair to reach for two cups from a shelf beside the stove.

Lilly was used to Seth taking off her coat, and waited for him to do so now, then he pulled a chair out for Lilly to sit. Seth carried their coats to hang on a coat stand by front door before sitting next to her.

Mrs. Reagan had coffee and plates of cookies, or what the Irish called ‘biscuits’, on the table in front of them. Lilly bowed her head a few seconds to give a word of thanks then took a biscuit.

“That’s a lovely blue coat and ensemble you have on, Lilly.” Mrs. Reagan smiled at her just as Lilly was ready to take her first bite. She set her biscuit back on the plate so she didn’t talk with her mouth full.

“Thank you. Seth bought these for me, and I truly have never had any clothing as nice as this,” Lilly said smiling at Seth.

“He has good taste. Blue looks good on you,” Mrs. Reagan commented, but then went silent. Seth said his parents were very talkative and outgoing. Were they shocked or disappointed with Seth marrying her to help her?
Oh no.
Did they think she was after his money?

“I intend to pay Seth back for all the things he bought me after I find a job in Kansas,” Lilly rushed to appease his parents’ minds. “He bought me clothing because I literally escaped from…the saloon with nothing but the dirty dress I wore.”

“A man provides for his wife, so you shouldn’t have to work to pay him back,” Pastor Reagan pointed out.

“But we’re not really…married, sir.”

“Your job as his wife is to take care of the house and children,” he replied back.

Where had she seen that quiet look of determination he was wearing?
On his son.
So what was Pastor Reagan’s meaning?

“We don’t plan to take up housekeeping as a normal couple, Da. In fact, I’d like Lilly to stay here with you so she’s properly chaperoned.” Seth looked back and forth between his parents, waiting for them to agree.

Lilly saw silent communication occurring between Seth’s parents again.

Mrs. Reagan cleared her throat. “Well, if you’re not going to stay married, it would be best for Lilly to live in town.”

Seth sighed and nodded to agree with his ma. So he’d be glad to get rid of her now they were in Kansas?

“Then Lilly can meet and marry someone else,” Mrs. Reagan said to her son, then turned to her. “There are several bachelors in town looking for ‘new blood’, so you’ll have your choice of husbands and can remarry in no time. Actually, there are three in our congregation alone I could introduce you to—one who is the son of Swedish immigrants, too.

“No, Lilly’s not going to…” Seth started to protest, then stopped.
What was Seth about to say?

“What Seth? Don’t you think Adolph Bjorklund would be a good match for Lilly? He’s handsome, on the church council, and he owns the butcher shop in town.”

“Uh, no I just think it’s a little early to push Lilly into matrimony again so soon…because…we were just married.”

“Son, she needs a husband and home as soon as possible. So if you’re not going to be her husband, why wait?”

What was his mother up to? Pushing Seth to release Lilly immediately from their vows? And why did Pastor Reagan give a positive nod to his wife?

Do I want to be free, or do I want to stay married to Seth?