Chapter 2
Kevin Munson sat in the cart beside his bride-to-be and tried not to stare. She was beautiful, with her golden-brown hair and her hazel eyes. And then there was that smile. It was a little shy and sweet, and it truly took Kevin’s breath away.
He was petrified of making a mistake and saying something dumb, but also afraid of not saying anything at all. What should he do?
“So, I still have a few things to do for everyone back home,” he blurted inarticulately. “I have to go to the bank and the apothecary.”
“That’s fine,” she said. “I brought my bank book with me. We’ll need some money to buy the cows to start the farm … Unless you’ve bought them already?”
“Well, I bought one,” Kevin said a little nervously.
The dairy farm had been an idea in the back of his mind that had turned into a full-fledged plan after several months of writing to Anita.
He still didn’t quite know how it would all work, but he had faith God would show them the way.
Plus, he knew his bride-to-be had ample experience thanks to her family farm.
He had no problem letting her lead the endeavor.
The notion that women should be strictly submissive to their husbands was thankfully falling by the wayside now that they were in modern times.
“I don’t know much about them. My friend Kyle brought her from one of the nearby farms.”
“One cow isn’t enough for a dairy farm, although it is a good start,” she said with a smile. “I thought I could withdraw some of my savings, and we could use that to get some more.”
Kevin nodded, very much appreciating her obvious desire to make the entire endeavor a partnership. That was how things should be between man and wife, he thought. It was the example his parents had always set. “I’ll do the same, and we can buy them together.”
She smiled brightly and his heart warmed. “That sounds wonderful.”
“Mmm, if we’re going to fit all of that in today,” he realized, “then we might have to stay in San Antonio for the night. We can stay in the saloon if you like.”
“That sounds good,” Anita said with a nod. “But … we would have separate rooms, of course?”
Flushing beet red at the suggestion he’d ever be inappropriate with any woman, much less his fiancée, he hastily clarified, “Yes, absolutely. Of course.”
She smiled and blushed a little herself. “Thank you.”
With something like a plan in place, Kevin started the cart down the streets of San Antonio.
“Ah, so, how was the journey?” he asked, settling on something to say to keep the conversation going.
“It was fine,” she said. And then, as though realizing that she should say more, she added, “It was long … But I got some time to read.”
“Anything interesting?” he asked.
She chuckled. “Only if you like cheese. There were some rather nosy women on the train, and when they caught sight of what I was reading, they mocked me. Mind you, I was unimpressed by their own selection of literature. I suppose it’s all very personal to an individual. What one likes, I mean.”
“Right,” he said. “I know the feeling. I tend to read books no one else enjoys.”
“Really? What kind?” she asked curiously.
Kevin pulled a face. “Don’t tell my friends back at camp, or I’ll never hear the end of it. But I, uh, I’m rather fond of recipe books.”
“Really?” To his relief, she didn’t mock him. “I thought you would read those adventure stories everyone seems to love.”
Kevin shook his head. “Nope, those aren’t for me.
” He’d read them once, but after the real-life adventures the mining town had seen …
He didn’t need to see similar adventures played out on paper.
“I’m a decent cook. And even though I’ll never make half the stuff in those books, I like to see what people elsewhere come up with. ”
He’d mentioned in his letters that he often cooked for the camp, but he hadn’t mentioned his hopes for a future culinary career. He thought he’d save that for a bit. The dairy farm was enough to occupy them for a while.
“I’m glad you can cook well. I do all right, but I’m honestly better with cheeses,” she admitted. “And one can’t live on cheese alone, though I’d be happy to try.”
They arrived at the apothecary, and Kevin drew the cart to a halt. “I have a list of supplies as long as my arm. Do you want to come in?”
Anita nodded, and they climbed down from the cart.
“So, why recipe books?” she asked as they entered the store.
It was large and smelled very strongly of herbs and alcohol. There was a long counter along one wall, and everyone had to wait to be served. There were benches in the front of the store, and Kevin and Anita sat on one to wait their turn.
“I read the recipe books because I love to cook, and I’m kind of hoping to make my living that way one of these days,” Kevin admitted, surprised at the admission when he’d only just decided to wait to tell her.
But there was something about Anita that inspired confidence in her.
“I didn’t tell you in my letters because I thought you might not want to come all this way for a cook.
But I hope to open a restaurant soon in town. ”
“A family restaurant would be lovely,” she said without the slightest hesitation. Then she gave him such a beautiful smile that he went warm inside at her obvious and immediate confidence in him. “But don’t you like geology?”
Kevin had been thinking about that for a while now. “I do, but not when it has to be done in a mine. Testing for copper content is not very interesting, and I’m a little sick of the pressure from the mine. There’s a lot riding on it, and some of the folks involved are getting a little grumpy.”
“Oh dear,” she said, looking concerned. “And they won’t mind you starting up a restaurant instead?”
“I’m not the only geologist in town,” he said. “They’ll be fine.”
She smiled. “I like it. I’ll make the cheese, and you can turn it into wonderful dishes.”
Delighted, Kevin held out his hand for her to shake. “It’s a deal.”
“Yes, it is,” she agreed, shaking his hand.
Her hand was soft and small in his large one, and he was careful not to crush it. He regretted having to let it go and hoped that one day soon he’d be allowed to hold it for a more extended time.
For a while as they waited to reach the front of the line, they chatted.
Kevin found that it was getting easier and easier for them to have a conversation as they spent more time together.
Their initial nerves at meeting each other evaporated, and soon they were talking as though they had known each other for a few months and not just a few minutes.
Of course, if the letters were taken into consideration, then they had known each other for months, and this connection that Kevin now felt building between him and Anita was not a figment of his imagination.
He wouldn’t have asked her to come out west if he hadn’t liked the person she came across as being on paper.
But now—now he could see that this was a woman he could more than like. He could easily fall in love with her.
When it was their turn, Kevin pulled out the list that Julie had given him from camp. He handed it to the man behind the counter and watched him read it.
“All of this?” he asked.
Kevin nodded.
“It will take me a long time,” the apothecary said. “Some of these remedies are in the storeroom. I have other customers to attend to immediately, so I’ll need to put your list together this evening. Can you come back tomorrow morning and pick up your order?”
“Yes, of course,” Kevin said.
They left the list with the apothecary and went back outside.
“It’s lunchtime,” Kevin said, consulting his pocket watch. “Would you like to get something to eat?”
“Yes, definitely,” Anita said. “I think it might be all the excitement, but I’m quite hungry.”
“The saloon makes a good lunch,” he said. “Should we go there? We can get two rooms and settle in.”
She agreed, and so they drove over to the saloon. Their cart and horse were taken around the back to the stable by one of the boys who worked there, and then Kevin went inside to book their rooms.
He had no trouble; the saloon wasn’t full. But people were trickling in quickly.
“If we leave it too late to come in for lunch, we might not get a table,” he said, coming back out to the cart. “When the workers get their break, this place fills up. We might want to eat now rather than settle into our rooms first.”
Anita nodded, and they found themselves a table near the window. Kevin and Anita ordered glasses of small cider and bowls of stew.
“What was it like growing up with eight of you in the house?” Kevin asked as they ate. “I was an only child, so I can’t imagine.”
Anita thought for a moment as she dug her spoon into her bowl of stew. “Loud is probably the best adjective. Loud and busy. I loved it, but your childhood must have been lovely and quiet with just you and your folks.”
“Just me and my mother after my father passed when I was seven, yes,” Kevin said, watching some men jostling each other at the bar.
It looked friendly enough, but he hoped they weren’t in for some trouble.
There had been enough of that lately, and the last thing he wanted to do was frighten Anita even more on her first day.
“And it was lonely sometimes. My mother worked for a professor in Boston. She was his cook, so we lived in his house. He was a confirmed bachelor, but he seemed to like me and my mother. In fact, she’s still there, running his house. ” He chuckled.
“He sounds like a nice man,” Anita said.
“He was very kind to us, and he helped her to put me through college,” Kevin admitted. “I don’t think I would be where I am today if I had siblings. I think another child would have been too much for my mother to handle.”
“What happened to your father, if you don’t mind my asking?” Anita asked. “I always wanted to broach the subject in our letters, but I thought perhaps it wouldn’t be wise.”