Page 22 of A Groom for Millie
Millie shook her head, tossing the tears that clung to her lashes. “I think the excitement from today is just catching up.” She leaned over and grabbed her mother’s hand, giving it a little squeeze. “I’m very happy you are here. How long are you staying?”
“I don’t know. There isn’t much for me back home since your father died.”
“What about Stuart and William?”
Regina scoffed. “Your brothers are too busy with their wives and businesses to have to worry about an old woman.”
“You aren’t that old, Momma.”
Regina gave Millie’s hand a return squeeze and then released it so she could pull Mary Rose closer. “You know when your father died, I thought I would never recover. I would wake up every single morning wondering why God didn’t take me in the night.”
“I am sorry I wasn’t there, Momma.”
“You wanted to leave, so you did. You were right that Boston had nothing to offer you. The city is changing so much.”
“How so?”
Regina looked out at the passing fields. Millie could see a few black silhouettes in the distance from Heather’s cattle.
“It’s just busy. Everything is so busy. Always somewhere to go, someone to see. With your father being sick these past few years it was visiting doctors and attorneys. Visiting friends and wrapping up business. Towards the end, I was doing most of the visits. Even though I knew it was coming, I still wasn’t prepared for it to finally happen.”
“Is that why you didn’t write?”
“What was I supposed to say? All I could think about was your father and how I couldn’t help him. I was in no place to write a letter. But I did enjoy the ones you sent me.”
“Why did you come out here, Momma?” Millie gave the horse a little slap with the reins, urging it to move faster towards home.
“When I heard what happened I knew you needed me. You didn’t have the option to say goodbye to George. I can’t imagine what that pain is like. But you can’t stop living, Millie. You have this little girl to take care of. Your students need you. This town needs you. I could tell how much they love you at dinner tonight. You women have pulled together.”
Millie glanced over at her mother in the dark. “So, you didn’t come to try to get me to return home?”
“Well… I did at first but let me see how the town grows on me. Who knows? I might stick around. There is one thing I don’t understand, though. Why you are sending for husbands. The women in town seem very self-sufficient.”
Millie thought for a moment about the women who banded together after the blizzard. Even those that didn’t know each other, began to reach out and a different kind of family was born. Millie could honestly say she was proud to be a part of the Last Chance community.
“That was Pastor Collin’s doing. He insisted that every woman needed to either get married as quickly as possible or make plans to go back East. He was afraid of what might happen in a town filled with desperate women.”
“Are you desperate?”
Millie snorted. “Desperate for help at the ranch, yes. Desperate to get married again, no.”
“Is Pastor Collin’s adamant about these marriages?”
Millie nodded. “Several women have already gotten married. I just don’t think I can ever love another man.”
“Well then, maybe you should just get married to someone you wouldn’t love.”
“Why would I do that?”
“It’s done all the time. Why, most marriages in Boston are based on business arrangements. The man gets something out of it. In this case, perhaps a share of your farm. And the woman benefits too. She gets protection and a helpmate. Love doesn’t even have to enter into it.”
“Maybe.” Millie thought about the letter she wrote to Dr. Spaulding. Last Chance needed a doctor, so maybe there would be something there for both of them. But it wouldn’t matter if he didn’t respond.
They rode past the Fulton farm then past the field where Millie kept her horses. Finally, she could see her barn and cabin come into view. Just as she thought, she had forgotten to leave the lantern on. She guided the wagon next to the porch so they could unload Regina’s trunk. Millie set the brake on the wagon and hopped down.
“Come on, sleepy girl,” Millie said, gently picking up Mary Rose. She tucked the little girl under her chin and put her nose in Mary Rose’s hair. Her daughter still had the scent of roses in her hair from the soap Millie used to bathe her the previous evening. She inhaled deeply, relishing in the sweetness of her daughter, and kissed her snow-speckled curls.
Millie went up the two steps to the door and turned to her mother who was climbing out of the wagon. “Let me get her settled and we’ll get your trunk.”
