Page 151 of Conveniently Wed
“Oh, yes.” Leah didn’t even try to hide her eagerness.
Miriam pushed through the doorway with a leather sack, a bowl, and two knives. “I need to peel potatoes for the evening meal and thought you could keep me comp’ny if you’re up to it.”
“I believe your offer earlier was for me tohelp, so I intend to hold you to that. I feel lazy lying in this bed all day when you’re both so busy.”
As soon as she finished speaking, the irony of her statement sank through her. Three months ago, she wouldn’t have thought twice about lying around all day. Her life had been full of leisure and reading, with a party thrown in here and there for spice. What a different person she was becoming.
A better person.
Miriam didn’t sit until she settled Leah comfortably against the pillows, knife in hand, a rag in her lap to catch the peelings, and the bowl in between them.
Leah picked up a potato and looked at the knife, trying to determine the best way to go at this. Finally, she held the underside of the potato in her left hand, and the knife in her right, blade facing away. She skimmed the top of the potato with the knife, stroking away from her body. After the first slice, only a few small brown strips of potato peel had been removed. She frowned at the potato. This might take longer than she’d thought.
“What are you doing?”
When she looked up, Miriam was watching her, curiosity marking every line of her face.
“Trying to peel this potato.” She worked to keep annoyance from sneaking into her voice.
“Did you bump your head when you fell?”
Leah gave her a dark look. “No.” Miriam’s humor wasn’t always funny.
Understanding flowed over her friend’s face, and she covered a giggle with her hand. “You’ve never peeled potatoes before, have you?”
Leah pushed down her defenses. “I’m sure I can do it.”
Miriam nodded. “Of course you can. Here, hold your knife like this.” She demonstrated turning the knife so the blade faced toward herself. “And peel the potato toward you, but watch your thumb. You want to take just the top layer off and not get very much of the white meat.”
Leah studied as Miriam peeled a continuous strip that wrapped all the way around the potato almost two times before breaking. That looked easy enough. She tried the same and came away with a peeling about the length of her thumbnail. Maybeit was a little harder than it appeared, but she would get the job done.
They worked in silence for a few minutes before she had the hang of it enough to talk while she worked. She really wanted to know the story that had brought the Bryant family to such a remote part of the country. Besides, it was probably better for the potatoes if Leah asked the questions and Miriam did most of the talking. The work took quite a bit of focus.
“So, have you always lived in the Montana Territory?”
“No, we moved here when I was five.” Miriam kept her eyes on the potato slipping around in her hands. “We used to live in Kentucky, on a little farm near Lexington. Pa and Mama came out west to claim land under Lincoln’s Free Homestead Act.”
She had a faint memory of her father talking about the Free Homestead Acts. He’d said they weren’t a good idea, that they would encourage Europeans to come to America to claim the free land. At least that hadn’t been the case with the Bryants.
Miriam continued. “We just had ten acres back in Kentucky, and Pa was a tobacco farmer, but he always wanted to raise cattle and horses on a big ranch. He finally had the chance to make his dreams come true.”
Leah smiled. “Not everyone gets that chance, but I’m glad he was able to. He certainly picked a beautiful place to build a ranch.”
Miriam had already peeled three potatoes to Leah’s one, despite the fact she was doing most of the talking. “Yep, it is a pretty place. Pa got the ranch started and taught the boys how to tend to things. Winters are hard, though, and we lost him in a snowstorm almost six years ago.”
“Oh, Miriam, I’m so sorry.” She knew so well the pressing ache of losing a father.
The girl shrugged, but the act didn’t seem nonchalant. “It was hard. Hard on us all, but especially Mama. She loved Pa somuch, she never was the same after he died. She took sick the next fall and died of a fever, but I think it was really a broken heart that took her.”
“And how old were you when she passed?” Leah asked quietly.
Miriam sighed. “I was eleven.”
“Oh, Miri… You were just a girl.” Leah laid the potato in her lap and released her own sigh. “I was sixteen when my mama died, but I had Emily to help me through things.”
“Who’s Emily?”
“She was my governess growing up, but she stayed on to be my companion after Mama died. I don’t think I would have made it through those years without her.” This wasn’t the topic she’d planned to discuss though. She had to turn the conversation to something less painful. “So do you raise both cattle and horses here?”
