Chapter 9 #3
Leviticus Johnson stepped away from the forge and wiped away the perspiration on his brow.
He took a long gulp of cool water, then pulled the letter out again.
He ran the pad of his thumb over the delicate script.
A feminine hand had written his name. He wondered about the woman who had held the quill.
She had only given sketchy details about herself in her letter.
Brown hair and blue eyes didn’t reveal a whole lot.
Instead, she devoted most of the page to explaining why her brother, Wes, had to come with her.
He pictured a willowy light brown-haired woman with intelligent blue eyes, hanging tightly to a tow-headed boy who had outgrown his trousers so his ankles showed.
The image made him smile. A woman like that would make a good mother.
More than anything, Levi wanted a family.
Not to replace what had been lost to him, but to help him carry on.
That was what was important, out here in wild Texas.
Women were needed to help tame it, and children were needed to carry it forward.
Schools and churches dotted the towns when women entered the picture.
Salt Fork needed more of all three—schools, churches, and most importantly, women folk.
Levi glanced at the letter again. Rubbed it against his cheek.
Lily with the light brown hair beckoned.
He rolled his shoulders. Work was waiting.
Those horses weren’t going to shoe themselves.
But it was as if the whole barn was holding its breath.
Waiting to see what he was going to do. Could he be a husband and father all at once?
A man usually had to have some time to get used to one before the other happened.
If his brother had lived, he’d be about the age of Lily’s.
He could easily imagine himself being a big brother.
What he had trouble picturing was being a husband.
But Lily with the light brown hair was waiting for a reply.
He’d been holding onto her letter for three days now, Time to give her an answer. Time to be a husband to Lily.
When he’d first placed the advert in a big east-coast newspaper, he thought it was a fool’s mission.
A lonely lady back east was one thing. A lonely lady on the Texas plain was quite another.
Who would want the life Levi was offering?
Months went by without a word, proving him right.
Then, this letter with its lovely script and its hint of roses arrived three days ago.
It was time he did something about it. He’d arrange train fare for Lily and Wes during his trip to the Lubbock station and see what happened.
Either he’d be picking up a bride on his next trip to Lubbock or he wouldn’t.
Either she and Wes would be on the platform waiting for him or he’d spend the rest of his days wondering what life with Lily with the light brown hair would have been like.
Four weeks later, Levi pulled his wagon into Lubbock and wiped his sweaty palms down his pants.
The telegram he had received said Lily and Wes should be on this train—that is, if they hadn’t backed out of the deal.
He tied his horses up at the hitching post and bounded up the steps.
The train had just pulled into the station, and the platform was brimming with people.
Being taller than most had its advantages at times like these, and Levi quickly glanced at everyone on the deck.
No Lily. Levi told himself he wasn’t surprised, but he had been hoping for a different outcome. He walked over to the freight boss.
“Got my order on this one?” Levi hoped his lead bars had been shipped, at least, since his supply was getting low. That would make this trip to Lubbock not a total waste of his time.
“What kind of blacksmith shop would it be without lead bars? ’Course I got your bars, Levi. And somethin’ else, too.” The freight boss nodded to the train. “Know anythin’ about some passengers?”
Levi’s heart skipped a beat, but he tried to act casual. “Lady with brown hair and a tow-headed boy?”
“Them’s the ones.” The freight boss laughed and shot a stream of tobacco juice onto the train tracks. “I guess yer mail-order bride brought a little somethin’ extra.”
Then, suddenly, Lily with the light brown hair was standing in front of him, holding tightly onto her brother.
As if he’d dreamed it, a beautiful woman with long hair had her arm around a gangly young blond boy with blue eyes.
Levi quickly gave the boy the once-over.
Sure enough, his pants were too short, and his ankles were sticking out.
“Mr. Johnson?” She held out a hand to him.
“I’m Lily Bradshaw. Your mail-order bride. ”
Levi’s heart had skipped a beat earlier. Now it just plumb stopped as he stared at her. He reached up and removed his hat. “Ma’am. Nice to meet you.” He grinned at her. “Guess we’ll be needing to stop at the Justice of the Peace on our way out of town and make it official.”
Levi noticed she took a big gulp of air and straightened up tall. “We only have one trunk and our carry-on baggage.”
“Should be easy enough to get everything loaded. We’ll be on our way in no time.” He had to quit gawking at his bride, so he turned again to the boy. “And you must be Wesley. Texas needs boys like you.”
“Oh, yeah? Why?”
Levi lifted a brow while Lily yanked on her brother’s arm. “Behave, Wes.”
Levi caught the quick glimmer of tears in Wes’s eyes before he blinked them away and recalled from Lily’s letter that they’d recently lost their father in a mine cave-in. He’d cut the boy some slack for now.
Soon enough, the wagon was loaded, and Levi and Lily were standing in front of the justice with a sullen-faced Wes as their witness to the hurried-up ceremony.
When the justice said, “You can now kiss your bride, Levi”, Lily’s cheeks flushed pink, making her even prettier.
Levi obliged, kissing one warm cheek. Then they climbed back up into the wagon and headed out of town.
Levi watched her out of the corner of his eye and Lily wrung her hands together as they rode farther and farther from town. “How far away is your blacksmithing shop?” Lily looked around as the landscape rolled by.
“You and Wes might as well settle back and enjoy the ride. Salt Fork is a three-day drive from here, but it’s beautiful country.
And there are people as far away as Lubbock who come to me with their horses to be shod.
They’re willing to ride the extra miles for quality horseshoes for their stock.
And mine are the best.” Levi’s chest puffed out a bit.
“You hear that, Wes? Plenty of horses for you,” Lily said to her brother, sitting in the bed of the wagon alongside their trunk.
“Horses ain’t always enough, Lily.” Wes’s voice was soft when he answered his sister, but Levi was certain Wes wanted him to hear it, too. Yes, the boy would bear watching. But Levi was well pleased with Lily with the light brown hair.
“Look, Wes, at that pretty lake on the hill,” Lily pointed at the blue in the midst of a field. Levi pulled the wagon to a stop.
“Might as well take a break here and eat some.” Levi jumped down from the seat. “We’re making good time. That ‘lake’ you are looking at is really a field of bluebonnet flowers.”
“No! There must be thousands of stalks, then.” Lily gazed once more at the field of flowers and squinted as she stood on her tiptoes.
“We can hike up there if you want to see them up close. It won’t take but a few minutes to get there.
” Levi held out his hand to Lily. She climbed down and Wes tumbled out of the bed of the wagon.
Levi smiled to himself. He had been hoping to get Lily alone for a few minutes, but he admired the boy’s attentiveness to his sister.
Together they climbed the small hill to the wildflowers.
Lily marveled at the mass of bright blue flowers and picked one to bring back to the wagon.
Wes tried for nonchalance, but he was as amazed as Lily at the sheer volume of flowers growing wild on the hill.
The first night on the road back to Salt Fork, Levi slept alone under the wagon, leaving the bed of the wagon for Lily and Wes.
Not exactly the wedding night he had envisioned.
But he had waited this long, what were a couple more days?
He slept with a rifle beside him and one eye open.
In the early morning, he heard a stirring from the wagon and watched as Wes lowered himself and walked toward some scraggly bushes.
Levi quietly followed. When Wes finished relieving himself, he turned back to the wagon and drew in his breath when he spied Levi.
“Sorry I woke you, Mr. Johnson. I was as quiet as I could be. You didn’t need to follow me. I wasn’t going far and I’m not a baby.” Wes rose to his full height.
“Call me Levi. And you didn’t wake me. Out here on the road, there are plenty of things to keep me awake. I didn’t follow you because I thought you’d get lost, but to keep you safe. I bet you didn’t even see that snake in the bushes where you stood.”
Wes looked over his shoulder and caught sight of a small snake slithering away. His jaw dropped open as he turned back to Levi.
“Fortunately for you, that was a harmless one, but it could easily have been a rattler. You don’t yet know all the dangers Texas has to offer. You’ll learn.”
“Maybe I don’t want to learn.”
“Suit yourself. But I don’t think you’d want me tailing you the first time you take a girl out on the town.
” Levi grinned. “Maybe you didn’t pay attention to the words I swore to at the justice of the peace.
Your sister is now my responsibility. And since you and her are a package deal, that makes you my responsibility, too. Get used to it.”