Chapter Sixteen
After taking Susannah back to the inn, Wesley took the time on his ride home to think about the feelings welling inside him.
They were strong. He had had an inkling for a while that Susannah was the woman he wanted to marry.
He was sure of it now, but she was so calm and quiet about her feelings.
There was a chance that she was trying to figure out how to tell him that she had misinterpreted her feelings about him now that they were in Bakersfield together.
However, he knew that she was also rather outspoken. He doubted that she would have waited so long to tell him. He was certain that she was the one he wanted, but if he were not what she wanted, then he would bury these feelings.
He arrived home shortly after coming to that conclusion, only to find Thomas waiting for him.
“Ah, there you are, Wesley,” Thomas said. “I’ve been wondering where you were. What’s been going on with you? You’ve missed the last three poker nights with the rest of us.”
“I’ve been courting a young woman who’s arrived from Washington, D.C., to court me, specifically,” he said. “Miss Susannah Peterson. I believe I was telling you about her earlier?”
“Yes, when you first started writing to her,” Thomas said. “I hadn’t realized you had arranged for her to come to Bakersfield. How long has she been in town?”
“Only a couple of months, but they’ve been some of the best months of my life,” he said.
“And, I have to admit that I have no idea how to handle the feelings that have started to well up. She is outspoken, but she has said nothing to the contrary about her feelings for me. As far as I’m aware, she is still just as open to marrying me as she was when I proposed my intention. ”
“That’s good to hear. Why do you sound as if you doubt it, though? I know you too well. Come, let me in, and let’s talk over a drink. Perhaps we can calm those doubts of yours if you talk me through everything that you’ve done with her.”
Wesley nodded. Thomas may not have looked it, but he was the expert on love in their group, as he had been the first to find a wife and get married out here in Bakersfield.
Everyone else, up to that point, had brought a wife with them instead of relying on finding a wife out east after they had arrived.
Once it was proven possible, the news spread.
Once inside, Wesley and Thomas made tea because that was what he had. He thought it funny that Thomas had come over often enough to know his drink of choice by heart. However, it only meant that Thomas cared.
“So, tell me everything about this Miss Peterson and your endeavors so far. I imagine she’s staying in the inn?” Thomas asked.
Wesley nodded.
“And, she’s taken up a job at the restaurant that Pauline has opened at the inn,” he said.
“I hear she’s a great cook, but since the restaurant hasn’t quite officially opened, I suspect that we’ll have to wait and see on that one.
I’ve not yet had a chance to invite her over to see if that’s true, but it was one of the accomplishments she boasted about when I wrote to her. ”
“What did she do in Washington, D.C.? I don’t think you ever told me that.”
“She worked at an orphanage, the same one that she grew up in,” Wesley continued.
“She’s just told me that she wants a family, but thinks she needs a couple of years to make sure she’s ready for the burden that comes with childcare.
I’m surprised caring for so many without the proper resources hasn’t entirely soured the idea of a family.
” He shook his head. “There’s no telling how easily she could have become averse to the idea of starting a family with the orphanage so understaffed. ”
“I hear many are understaffed,” Thomas said.
“I don’t think that’s any reason for her to feel that she’s unqualified to raise a family.
It’s different, I hear, when you have a husband by your side and extended family or a town that doesn’t mind helping out.
Orphans in a large city are another story entirely, unfortunately. ”
Wesley nodded slowly. That much he could attest to as well, by the way Susannah had spoken of her time in the orphanage, both growing up there and working there.
It hadn’t sounded fun. Wesley was glad that his family had been relatively intact.
He may have lost a younger sister at birth, but that was the most traumatic thing to happen to his family.
Both his parents were still alive, and he regularly received letters from them. They were getting ready to move to Bakersfield so that they could be closer to their grandchildren since the rest of his siblings also thought Bakersfield sounded like a good place to be.
“Well, it sounds as if she’s got a good handle on her feelings. She may just need some time to come to terms with the fact that she wants to stay here instead of returning to the large city, or that someone cares who didn’t grow up with her,” Thomas said.
“Whatever it is, I hope she knows that I will be happy with her for the rest of my life if she stays here,” Wesley said forlornly.