Chapter 2
“Well, what now?”
Andrew Carter twirled his hat once more.
He’d picked up the mannerism since moving out west. He’d been born in a little town in Pennsylvania.
The move out west was a relatively recent one, but somehow Andrew had assimilated the habit of removing his broad-brimmed hat and holding it in front of himself as though it were a shield.
Not that he felt at all threatened by the dark-haired woman who stood in front of him, smelling strongly of alcohol and herbs.
And yet, the hat twirled. Perhaps it was excitement.
He was so overjoyed that she was finally standing in front of him.
She had taken the breath right out of him when she turned around.
Julie Tully’s deep blue eyes had pulled him in, and for a long moment he hadn’t known where he was. There had been nothing but her and him … Was it possible to feel such a strong pull to someone a person had only just met?
She was the perfect height, with mischief in her lovely eyes and rich chocolate-brown hair.
One eyebrow arched a little more than the other, but that only made her more interesting to look at.
Andrew was intrigued. Why had such a lovely woman not found a husband in her own town?
Why had she agreed to come out to him? It was a mystery, but he liked those.
“What do we do now?” Julie repeated, making him realize he was daydreaming, and he hastily came back to the present.
“I’ve arranged with Father Sumner that we can go over there now.”
Julia regarded him curiously, and he got the feeling that she wasn’t entirely willing to go through the whole marriage process just yet. Was she getting cold feet? Did she not like the look of him?
“Is there a problem?”
“A little one,” she said, stepping closer to him. “I just want to be sure that you understand exactly where I stand on this. We might be getting married today, but it is in name only, at least until we get to know each other. Okay?”
He smiled, relieved. That was a very reasonable request. “Let me set your mind at ease. I have no designs on you. The marriage is simply because no Christian man can take an unmarried woman into his home in good conscience. Or, uh, into his tent, as it were. Also, as the only woman in the camp at the moment, it would be best if you belonged to someone.”
“Belonged?” Her eyebrows rose.
“So to speak,” Andrew said, holding up his hands in a pacifying gesture.
His fiancée had made it clear in her letters that she was an independent-minded woman, and he appreciated her backbone.
The weak and meek didn’t last long out here.
“Look, it’s a mining town. The men are rough, and it has been a while since some of them saw a woman.
It would be best if they knew that trying to court you was pointless.
Otherwise, my entire mine might shut down, all because of a pretty face. ”
Julie seemed to ponder that for a moment and then nodded. “All right. Off to the church, it is.”
With her things loaded in the back of the cart, Andrew drove them to St Agnes’s church, which took about forty minutes to reach. The church was tiny, but Father Sumner was a good man who was always willing to help out someone in need.
The chapel was whitewashed with a black slate roof and spire that reached to the blue sky. It stood alone in the grassland, a few trees lining one side of the building.
“There’s nothing but trees, cows, and rows of crops,” Julie said, sounding awestruck. “This really is the middle of nowhere.”
Andrew wondered what she’d think of their new home, which was far more remote than even this place.
He parked the cart beside another one and they walked to the church. Opening the door, they went inside and found Father Sumner waiting.
The ceremony was devoid of any flowery, romantic elements aside from a soft kiss at the very end. Andrew and Julie were husband and wife and the documents signed and stamped within fifteen minutes of their arrival. And they weren’t the only ones.
A young couple, who made Andrew feel very old at twenty-seven, were married at the same time. Andrew felt obliged to ask how old they were as he and Julie walked out of the church with them.
“Nineteen,” the young woman said. She and her new husband hurried off to their cart, giggling all the way. They left in a terrible hurry, their wheels kicking up dust.
“Well, they clearly have somewhere to be,” Julie said with a chuckle.
Andrew nodded. “Listen, I’m sorry that ceremony was so, er … efficient. Father Sumner is a kind man, but he does keep busy.”
“It’s all right,” she said. “Tell you what. If we ever fall in love, we can come back and have a proper ceremony, with friends and flowers and the whole thing. We can add in all that romantic stuff that we skipped this time.”
Andrew nodded. “I think that would be good. This felt like a formality.”
“It was,” Julie said. “But you never know. We might find out we like each other.” She playfully nudged his shoulder and he smiled. “So, now that we’re legal in God’s eyes, let’s head home.”
He liked that his home would now also be hers.
It felt right somehow. “All right, but it’s another two hours on the road.
Are you sure you don’t want to take a rest first?
” Andrew glanced around at the empty landscape, realizing the absurdity of his comment.
Where could they rest, aside from the church or the cart?
“I’ve been traveling for what feels like an eternity. What’s another couple of hours?” Julie shrugged.
They climbed back onto the driver’s seat on the cart and set off once again.
It had been a hot day, and the dregs of it were still in the air. Despite the cool late afternoon breeze that had sprung up, the warmth of the day still lingered, and the humidity made it worse. Soon Andrew had sweated through his shirt, and drops of perspiration were dotting Julie’s forehead.
“Would you like to use my hat?” he asked.
“I would, thank you,” she said, accepting it. She looked cute like that, with her pink cheeks and the big hat completely swamping her head. He would have to get her one of her own. “Goodness, it’s broiling out here.”
“Wait until August. The humidity is hard to believe.”
“Where does that come from?” Julie asked. “We’re so far inland.”
“Actually, we’re only about forty miles from the coast.”
“The ocean is that close?” She smiled. “And there I thought I might get homesick, longing for the ocean spray.” She tilted her head back and his hat went flying.
Reaching out, Andrew caught the hat before it could be lost to the Texas prairie.
“Good catch!” she said as he handed it back to her. “I’m impressed.”
It was an odd thing, but he liked that he’d impressed her.
A little trickle of silence slid between them, and Julie broke it by asking how long he’d been in Texas.
“Gee, I’ll have to do some math for that one,” Andrew pondered.
“We started the survey about two years ago. We did the fieldwork and then went back to New York to do the analysis. Then, we came back out again to confirm our findings and do a projection for the load. Mmmm, yes, I think I can say about two years on and off.”
“I thought you said the town was brand new?”
“It is,” Andrew said. “The tents have only been in place about six months. Before that, we were further east. The ore load is better where we are now, and we found a natural cave opening, which makes things easier.”
“What are you mining for?” she asked. “You were so secretive in your letters.”
Andrew chuckled. “Yes, sorry about that. I had to be, in case someone read your letters. You see, this is a delicate time. We’ve only just gotten started, and our financiers don’t want other people with money sniffing around the project.
They’re putting the money in to get it all up and running, and they obviously don’t want it to be snatched out from under us. So, we’re keeping quiet.”
“What do people think you’re doing out there?”
“Farming. And we are … well, sort of. I mean we have to eat. We have a whole kitchen garden going and everything. You’ll see.”
“I’m excited,” Julie said with a smile.
And there it was, the reason that he’d asked her to come west and take a chance on marriage with him.
Quite apart from the fact that she was as close to a doctor as they could entice to come out to the middle of nowhere, she also had the right attitude.
Things in the camp were not easy. When one was used to a scorpion-free outhouse and to snake-free beds, coming to a place where every step could be dangerous was either a horror or an adventure of the highest order.
It all depended on how a person looked at it.
And Andrew had thought as he read Julie’s letters, full of high spirits and cheerful laughter about the sometimes-frustrating goings-on of everyday life, he’d thought, yes.
This was a woman who could brave the wilds of the west and keep smiling through the challenges.
“I take it the closest other apothecary store is in San Antonio?”
“That is correct,” Andrew said, watching the horse flick his ears against the ever-present flies. Julie hadn’t complained of them yet. One more small detail about her that he liked.
“Then I will need a patch of garden,” she told him. “I’ll see what supplies I can order from back east, but some things are just better grown fresh.”
“The soil isn’t great. We can mostly grow some basic vegetables and the like, but you’re welcome to stake out your plot and see what you can coax to life.”
No fuss about their minimal wedding. Barely a complaint about the sweltering heat.
Not a word about the lack of any frills for her welcoming to this new place or its obvious inconveniences.
Just a ready smile and a willingness to jump right in alongside him on this adventure.
Plus, she was darn pretty. Andrew whispered a prayer of thanks—and made himself a promise that he’d find a way to also live up to whatever her hopes and expectations were of him.