Page 13 of A Groom for Lauren
Pastor Colin spoke up. “Why would you want to do that? We can see to her without your help.”
Christopher could see the suspicion in the pastor’s eyes. The man seemed inordinately concerned that people did not sin under his watch. What did he think he was going to do to the woman?Try to accost her?
He wouldn’t let the man intimidate him, though. “Because I was there to help her, Pastor Collins. I want to have the honor of seeing her home. There is nothing more than that beyond the reason for my escort.”
Pastor Collins opened his mouth to say something when his sister spoke up. “Barnaby, be quiet. If Doctor Spaulding was going to do anything, he would have done it with none of us being there. His intentions must be honorable.”
The pastor glared at his sister.
Christopher sent her a thankful glance. The woman wasn’t the most attractive one in town, but he sensed a gentle spirit about her. “I’ll wait outside until it’s time to escort Mrs. Hale home.”
Without another word, he went out of the house and settled on a wooden bench under the tree and waited until Lauren was ready to leave.
Ruth suspected that people who were very poor were the only ones who wanted to go west. The west was certainly welcomed to them. For herself, if she never saw the west again, it would be too soon.
There wasn’t a part of her that wasn’t covered in dust.
It scratched the inside of her eyes, coated her tongue, sheathed her hair, and scraped like fine needles across her body. Every single surface inside and out of the overland stage was covered in the brown dust. The wooden wheels kicked up rocks that hit against the outside of the carriage with a small series of pops. Ruth was grateful for the shade that covered the window. It made the inside insufferably warm, but that was better than having one of the rocks hit her in the face.
Tendrils of the dust curled around the fabric and gathered in a cloud in the middle of the carriage. If she didn’t know better, she would think there was some vicious horrible being running next to the vehicle blowing dust into her face at every opportunity!
Her teeth hurt from clenching so hard as the stagecoach rattled along the rocky ground.
Ruth bit back her complaints she wished she could give voice to. After all, she wasn’t the only one uncomfortable. She was cramped between people she did not know or wish to know. One man, an oily looking fellow, smelled so bad she would have given money for him to jump in a puddle of water. Across from her was a woman with her husband and a baby. Every so often she would have to see to the needs of the child, who cried incessantly. Why on earth the stagecoach driver allowed it, she had no idea. Whatever the reason, the babe needed to have its nourishment.Unfortunately, there was no privacy. The other men in the vehicle showed they were raised with some sort of decency and were respectful enough to turn their heads whenever that happened.
Everywhere she turned she was surrounded by uncouth, unsophisticated, and uneducated people. If she could have ridden the rest of the way unconscious she would have.
How had Snow White and Rose Red fallen!
It was only for the fact that she sensed Lauren needed her that she did what she could to endure the harrowing journey. She lifted the window covering a bit and waited for the cloud of dust to dissipate so she could see some of the scenery. The coach was passing rolling hills and wide-open spaces that seemed to extend into an eternal expanse. The sun caused the landscape to shimmer in the heat. She could have been dropped in the middle of a desert if it weren’t for the masses of emerald, silky-looking grass waving as the coach raced past.
How long would this journey last? She had no idea.But it couldn't end soon enough.And when it did end, she was going to take Lauren and drag her back to civilization where they both belonged. There, they could enjoy the theater, various women's issues functions, lively politics, a robust city life, evening parties, and so much more.
What could a person do out here in the west but talk to their horses and eat grass all day?
Ruth couldn't help but wonder why her sister hadn't sent for her before now? Surely, she could not have been happy. And based off what she read in the letter she knew that was the case. Her gloved hand tightened into a fist. Why had that horrid man taken away her beloved sister from everything she had known?
No, Ruth told herself. It wasn't Jonah that took her sister away.Lauren took herself away.She took an unfortunate gamble on marriage and lost.
And now Lauren was living to regret it.
As the woman across from her once again saw to the needs of her child, Ruth remembered that Lauren mentioned she was expecting. Ruth couldn’t remember when the baby was due, and she hadn’t heard anything since the last letter.
She raised her eyes towards the ceiling of the coach and said a little prayer for Lauren. She hoped that her sister was all right.
The sound of a soft lullaby filled the coach as the mother rocked her baby to sleep. Ruth managed a smile. Once asleep, she had to admit the child was rather charming. Some part of her wished to see what Lauren's baby would look like. She wished Lauren had taken precautions to prevent such a thing from happening. One refrain that the leaders at the women's issues meetings often stated was that marriage and childbearing were shackles that kept women locked in the institution of servitude. Once a woman was a wife and then a mother, she was no longer a woman but chattel to a man and to those children of his loins.It was too late now, however.
Ruth was so thankful that she would never marry. And Lauren was going to be glad, too, that she was coming to save her from this life of misery.
A particularly large billowing cloud of dust enclosed the stagecoach, causing Ruth to sneeze several times into her linen handkerchief.
When would this awful journey end?
Chapter Five
Esther was crying again.
Lauren wondered if staying above water was the best decision.
