Chapter Ten
Sally drew a picture of what she wanted for her smokehouse, both inside and out. “I’ve never really used one,” she told Tom, “but there are lots of pictures of them in my homesteading books.”
Tom looked at them, brow furrowed for a minute. “I can do this! How many rods do you want to suspend the fish from?”
“Eight. From what I read, if we want them to store long-term, it’s best to smoke them for five to seven days.
So I’m going to put a string of salmon on one hook daily.
When all the hooks are full, I’ll take down the first because it will be ready, and I’ll fill it the next day. Does that make sense?”
“It does. It might be smart if we fashioned you a trap instead of nets. That way you’ll be sure to get a few every day.”
“Sounds good to me. I’m so excited about this. I know it’s silly, but every little way I can improve our farm feels like a huge accomplishment.”
He smiled. “I didn’t know I lived on a farm until you arrived. I simply had one milk goat and a few chickens.”
“Does it bother you that I’ve changed so much?” she asked, worried he secretly resented her for what she’d done there.
“Not at all. I’m glad you’ve found your place here. Though at times I worry you’ve bitten off more than you can chew.”
“I haven’t,” she said. “I love all the work I’m doing. Well, not so much the days I watch a baby who only wants his mother, but what I do here on the farm makes me so happy.”
“Have you talked to Mrs. Johnson about the salmon yet? Will she sell it?” Tom asked. He knew even if the store didn’t sell it, he could sell to some of the men at work.
“I have. She loves the idea. And Maggie loves salmon any way it can be prepared. We’re not fishing for just us.”
“I hope the daily take from the trap will work out well for us. I’d be happy to eat salmon every other day all winter, but I’m a fan of variety as well.
We’ll see how it all shakes out. Oh! Belle is going to try some of the smoked salmon when we have it ready.
She’s never had salmon, and I’m hoping she’ll like it as much as the rest of us. ”
“Has anyone thought about what Agnes will do when she arrives?” he asked.
“We’ve thought about it, but until we know if she wants to be part of it, we can’t really know. She’ll hopefully be here soon, and we can talk about it all then.”
“It’s probably going to be another month,” he told her.
“I know. I just wish she were here now. Should we share food with her?” Sally asked, wanting to help her friend, but not certain he would agree with her generosity.
He shrugged. “You’re doing all the work for the food. You can make that decision. Keep in mind that she’s marrying Jasper, who is my closest friend. I’d be inclined to help them. But it’s up to you.”
“All right,” she said.
On Saturday, the other two couples came over. While the men worked on the smokehouse, Sally, Belle, and Maggie made traps for the fish following some illustrations from Sally’s homesteading book.
Belle was finished with hers first, and she held it up. “What do you think?”
Sally nodded. “I think that will work well.”
Maggie nodded her agreement. “There’s something Belle and I discussed that we want to talk to you about.”
“What’s that?” Sally asked. She hoped her friends hadn’t decided they didn’t want salmon.
“We think all the money you make from the salmon should be yours. We’ll take a share for our families, but anything left over should go into your account not ours.”
“But you two do so much for me!” Sally protested.
“Your share was supposed to be the garden. Now it’s pigs, fish, and the garden, as well as helping with the baby,” Belle said. “It’s fair for you to keep it. And I think we should pay for our pigs as well.”
Sally shook her head emphatically. “That was not the agreement. Everett donated wood for the pig pen. All three men were here building it. No, I can’t charge you for it.
I’m sure your husbands will help with the butchering as well.
And the castration. I see the pigs as a joint endeavor.
I may have them on my farm, but that’s only because I know more about pigs than the two of you do. ”
Maggie sighed. “What if we share the cost of feeding the pigs?”
“We do! You two give me table scraps every day. And the fish will help cover the amount of food they need. Pigs love fish heads and entrails.”
“All right. Just know we’re willing to pay for them if that’s what you want.”
“It’s not. I think Tom would agree with me.”
“Talk to him, and if he wants money for our share, we’re happy to pay,” Belle said. “Maggie tries not to spend money on anything, but Katie could easily transfer some of her balance from the work she does to you.”
“Sounds good. I’ve never even asked what my balance is at the store.
I simply buy things with it, and Katie never protests!
” Sally said. “Never in my life have I been able to buy something I wanted and didn’t need, but now I can.
” She frowned. “I don’t know what I’ll do all winter though. I can’t grow crops.”
“You’ll take care of your pigs. We’ll sew together. I still want to make some quilts together. We can sew and knit for the store. The men are always losing their mittens with the work they do,” Belle said.
“And we can bake. I promise, there are never enough baked goods at that store. You could bake a dozen loaves of bread every day and add it to what we make, and it still wouldn’t be enough.
The men try to get their lunches when we drop off our baked goods at the store each morning.
There’s almost always a line.” Maggie shook her head.
“I can’t imagine how it was when it was just Katie baking.
She said she would occasionally bake extra bread to sell, and it would be gone before it touched the shelves. ”
“It’s still that way most of the time!” Belle said.
“I’ll think about it. I took my rhubarb pies in, and Katie said they sold out immediately as well. These men need wives!” Sally said.
“No, they don’t,” Maggie told her. “If they had wives, our little enterprise would be useless.”
“Very true...” Sally knew what Belle said was right. “Should we stop telling our friends to come?”
Belle shook her head. “Not at all. All of our friends could come, and there would still be lots more men than women.”
“All right. I think I’m just glad that I have friends here, and another one on the way. I hope she wants to join us in what we’re doing.”
“I hope so too,” Belle said. “We’ll find out soon enough.”
The smokehouse was finished quicker than Sally had expected, and all three women went out to investigate. Sally nodded as she looked at it, opening the flap and poking her head inside. “That’s going to work perfectly. We’ve finished the traps.”
“Let’s see them,” Tom said. “I haven’t felt the need to fish with traps here, but on the scale Sally feels the need to do everything, we’ll need them.”
“Do I start too big?” Sally asked.
Everett laughed. “All of you ladies from Beckham are the same. You come here and look for a way to make money. Aren’t there any women in Beckham who just want to be wives and take care of their homes?”
Though Sally knew the men were joking, she worried that she had come there and changed everything in Tom’s life.
It wasn’t enough he’d had to adjust to a new wife, but she was constantly suggesting new things for them to do.
New things to try. She knew she’d need to speak with him once the others had left.
She loved the man too much to make him uncomfortable. As soon as the words passed through her mind, she realized they were true. She did love him. It hadn’t happened all at once as she’d imagined, with their eyes meeting, and them instantly knowing they were destined to be in love.
It had come slowly. Every little thing that had happened had added to how she felt.
When he’d been willing to plow a huge plot of land and fence it.
When he’d agreed to raising pigs. Everything he did had added to how she felt.
And she’d never told him. What kind of wife didn’t tell a man as sweet and considerate as Tom that she was in love with him?
They went inside and ate the stew she’d prepared. “We should have smoked salmon within a week. I wish I’d started earlier in the year.”
“It’s my fault we didn’t. I told you I didn’t think we needed to include fish. We should have been fishing all along,” Belle said, shaking her head.
As they ate, Sally couldn’t stop thinking about her feelings for Tom and feeling more than a little guilty for not sharing those feelings with him. She wanted to tell everyone to leave so she could talk to her husband, but she knew that wasn’t a good idea either. No, she’d wait.
After the meal, they sat at the table and visited. Normally, they were so busy with projects that they simply worked side by side instead of talking much.
“Someone needs to raise cattle,” Everett said.
“I think goats or reindeer would be a better bet. They were bred for the colder climates,” James said. “I prefer cow milk and beef, but I don’t think they’re practical here. Think of how much hay it takes to feed a cow through the winter. It’s ridiculous.”
“A friend of mine that I’m in touch with started a herd of reindeer near Seward,” James said. “He’s always telling me we should raise them because they dig through the snow and eat lichens. They do well in the Alaska climate.”
“I’d say we should raise reindeer,” Maggie said, “but I wouldn’t be able to butcher them.”
James covered her hand with his. “You’re too soft.”
“I know I am. It just feels so barbaric to me.”
Everett chuckled. “Maybe you should have stayed in Massachusetts so you could buy your meat from a butcher.”
Maggie wrinkled her nose at him.
Sally said nothing to contribute to the conversation. She was still thinking about the talk she needed to have with Tom.
It was getting close to suppertime when the other couples got up to leave. “Are you sure you won’t stay for supper?” Sally asked. After all the conversations she’d had in her head, she was suddenly nervous to talk to him.
Belle shook her head. “No, not tonight, but thank you. We’ll see you at the church service in the morning.”
Their “church service” was nothing like church back east. They met in the store and did a little Bible study. There was no preaching. They just got together to pray and learn. Sally found that she liked their way of worship a great deal.
After the others left, Sally immediately fixed supper. Eggs with bacon seemed to be the easiest thing with no prior preparation. As she cooked, Tom sat at the table, looking over the traps they’d made.
Sally waited to talk to Tom about what was on her mind until the supper dishes were done. “I realized something today, and I need to talk to you about it.”
Tom looked at her, puzzled. “Yes?”
“You’ve been a model husband, making me feel more loved than I ever imagined I could be.
I expected to see you and feel a blinding flash of love immediately, but instead, I’ve come to love you slowly.
Every time you build something for me. Every time you agree to one of my ideas, I fall a little more in love with you.
You’re a wonderful husband, Tom, and you deserve to hear how I feel.
I won’t hold it back ever again. I love you, Tom. More than I ever thought possible.”
He got to his feet and walked around the table to where she was sitting and pulled her to her feet. “I knew I loved you when you invited me to write letters to you instead of stammering in nervousness. You are exactly the woman I was looking for.”
“And you’re not annoyed that I keep making you build things for me?”
A smile broke out across his face. “I don’t build them for you. I build them for the future. Our future that someday, we’ll share with our children. You mean everything to me, Sally. I don’t think I knew something was missing in my life until you came along.”
She threw her arms around him, holding him close. “Let me know if I ever ask too much of you. I’ll try not to, but I’m not so good at not asking when I come up with an idea.”
He leaned down and kissed her. “You could never ask too much. Everything I have to give is yours for the taking.”