Chapter Thirteen
The ride to town was peaceful, and Runa couldn’t help but smile as she sat beside Steve on the wagon seat. They were losing some of the awkwardness that seemed to hang between them during the trip, Steve pointing out the Bartons’ farm as they passed it, pointing out other things as they passed them, Runa asking questions about flowers or animals they saw. Eventually, talk turned to their pasts.
“My parents came from Ireland before I was born.” Steve explained, “Da actually died before I was born. Ma was a nurse, and she managed to take care of us. I grew up in a rented room next to Bucky’s family, and when the tuberculosis took Ma, the Barneses took me in. Bucky and I grew up together. Best friends from the start.” Steve was smiling as he talked, his eyes distant with memories, “When the war broke out we both wanted to go and fight. I didn’t think I’d get my chance to serve the country, but a man named Erskine gave me a chance, and I promised not to waste it. Bucky told me to go ahead and join as soon as I was able, but I couldn’t go without him. Day after his eighteenth birthday we both went to join up together. Served together through the rest of it. That’s where we met, well… Just about everyone on the ranch. We all served in the same company. Except for Junior. We didn’t meet him until he rode through Amaranto Springs about three years back, looking for work.”
“What made you and Bucky decide to buy a cattle ranch?” She asked, planning to ask him later why he had thought he wouldn’t get a chance to fight in the war. Then again, she recalled how, at the beginning, everyone said the war would be over in a month. He must have chafed at waiting until he was eighteen, she mused.
“We’d always talked about going West when we were growing up, making our fortunes. After the war, we drifted a bit. Went home to the family for a while, but then we felt the urge to move on. We made our way West, worked a couple of cattle drives and any odd job we could find, saved all the money we could. We’d been saving since we were little, when we first started planning on making our fortunes out west. When we got to Amaranto Springs it just… It felt like it could be home. We found out Franklin Ducain was looking to sell. He’d lost all four sons in the war and then his wife died and… Everyone says it just took the heart out of him. We didn’t have much of a chance to get to know him, but he wanted out so badly he was willing to sell the ranch for a song, didn’t even care which side we’d fought for. We couldn’t buy the ranch outright, but Tony Stark, he owns the bank in town and the local silver mine, he was willing to give us a loan. We didn’t need much, and we’ve had good years since then, so I expect to pay it off in the next five or so years if things keep on like this. Anyway. Frank lost most of his hands during the war and wasn’t doing well, but we sent out letters to our friends from the Army, brought everyone to Bluestone. Made up our own family.”
“You’ve done very well.”
“What about your family?” He looked to her. “I know you mentioned in your last letter you’d been orphaned for a long time, and you said your uncle died in a fire, but that’s all I know.”
“My father and uncle came over from Norway. I was named for my Grandmother, Sigrun.” Runa explained, “They started a shipping company, and did quite well. Father managed to catch the eye of my mother, Elisse, who was from a well to do family. They were married, and after a few years, I came along.” Steve looked at her in surprise.
“If your parents were so well off, why did you have to go into service?” He asked, bewildered.
“They died when I was nine in a carriage accident, and then I went to live with my uncle. He died in a house fire when I was twelve. Father and Uncle’s business partner, Mister Rumlow, took me in as his ward, but he said that the shipping company was failing, that all the money was tied up into it and there was nothing left. So I had to work for my keep.”
“I’m sorry. That must have been hard for you.”
“I’m not. It was hard, but I learned a lot. I made friends with Iris, the cook, who was only about eight years older than me. It was good to have a friend. And then a year after I started working for the Rumlows, their butler was ready to retire and they hired on my Uncle’s old butler, Titus. He worked for my parents before he worked for my Uncle, and… Leaving him behind was my one regret. Titus was all the family I had left, even though we aren’t related by blood. Sort of a second father, or another Uncle.” She explained.
“I’m surprised he let you come out here to marry someone you’d never met.” Steve frowned. “I don’t think I could have done that, if I was in his place.”
“He was the one who gave me the idea to answer an ad.” Runa explained, remembering the conversation in the Rumlows’ kitchen what felt like forever ago. True she hadn’t sent out the letters, but she didn’t want Steve knowing that. “It was time to move on. Start a life of my own, instead of spending it in service. As he said, there is nothing wrong with spending your life in service, but… It wasn’t what my family wanted for me.”
“What made you choose to reply to my ad?”
“I couldn’t say.” Well, that wasn’t exactly a lie. “Just… Something compelled me to, I suppose.”
“Well, I’m glad you did.” He confessed as they entered the outskirts of town. “We all like having you around the ranch.”
She forced a smile. She wanted him to like having her around. “You mean everyone likes having my cooking.” She countered.
“Well, that too, but it’s more than that.” He protested. “Things have just been better since you’ve arrived. Not just the food. The place is… Lighter, somehow.”
“Because it’s cleaner. You can actually see through the windows.” She teased, and he laughed.
“Maybe that’s it. The missing curtains help too.” He smiled over at her, a sunny smile that made her feel warm to see it. She laughed, enjoying the joke.
“Well I’ll have new curtains up soon enough and it will be dark and dismal again.” She promised as he brought the wagon to a halt in front of a store. There were a few other wagons on the street, but not many.
“I hope not.” Steve got down from the wagon once it was parked and came around to help her down. “It’s still early. Mister Lang probably just opened the store.” He explained, taking her arm and walking to the open doors with her.
The man behind the counter looked up and smiled when he saw them. “Steve! And Missus Rogers.”
“Scott.” Steve grinned at the man. “This is Scott Lang.”
“We met at your wedding.” Scott told Runa, “But I think you were a little too overwhelmed to remember me.”
“It was a lot of people.” Runa agreed rather sheepishly as she pulled the shopping list they had written out the day before out of her reticule. There hadn’t been time the night before they originally planned to go to town, but she had made time the previous day to sit down with Steve and Bucky to make certain they had everything they needed written down so that nothing was forgotten.
“I think anyone would have been overwhelmed, facing the entire town the way you did.” Scott took the list she offered him. He glanced at it and grinned. “I have to admit, I’m glad you’re not here for the regular order.”
“I’ve heard dire tales about the regular order. I am afraid we might be buying you out of canning supplies and bushel baskets, though. I couldn’t find any jars on the ranch and all the baskets are in terrible shape.”
“Mister Ducaine probably took the jars and the stuff in them when he headed to Oregon.” Scott agreed, “Missus Ducaine kept a well stocked larder from what I’d heard. Now, I think we can manage all this. I’ll need to order more jars, though. I’ll sell you all I have, but the volume you need…”
“I know. It’s almost ridiculous, but with as many trees as we have...” Runa tried to explain. Scott grinned.
“We’ll find a way to make it work out, Missus Rogers. I’ll talk to Luis, we’ll start getting the order ready and he can help load the wagon.”
“I’d appreciate that.” Steve smiled as Cassie ran into the store from the back room where Steve knew there was a staircase leading to the apartment she shared with Scott. Cassie stopped short when she saw Steve and Runa.
“Hello, Mister Rogers. Hello, ma’am.” Cassie said uncertainly, clutching her bunny a bit tighter.
“Hey, Peanut. This is Mister Rogers’ new wife. We watched them get married on Sunday, remember? Missus Rogers, this is my daughter Cassie.”
Runa smiled at Cassie. “Hello.”
“Hello.” Cassie hesitated, “Would you like to see my bunny?”
“The bunny is important.” Steve murmured quietly, even as Runa was nodding that she would love to see the bunny.
Upon seeing the face of the stuffed bunny, Runa was a bit taken aback, though she tried not to show it. Cassie was grinning so broadly that she didn’t want to upset her.
“He’s the ugliest.” Cassie told her proudly. Runa was relieved to know that the bunny with the round red nose, red rimmed painted wooden eyes, and the sharp wooden teeth painted white and set in a gaping grin with its red felt tongue hanging out were all supposed to give the bunny such a unique look.
“He is the ugliest bunny I have ever seen.” Runa agreed, earning a shining smile from Cassie, before looking to Scott. “Can she show me where the fabric is?” She asked, earning a nod.
“This way, Missus Rogers!” Cassie grabbed her hand and pulled her along towards the back of the store.
Cassie chattered like a magpie the entire time she was leading Runa through the store. “I like when Mister Barnes comes in, because he always buys me a peppermint stick. But I can buy my own peppermint sticks now! Mister Sitwell who owns the rest’raunt pays me a nickel every week to take old Mister Stanley his lunch at the train depot! And sometimes Mister Stanley tips me a penny, too. Daddy said I could buy candy, but I can only buy one piece of candy a week.”
“That is very sensible.” They reached the fabric, “Now, I need to make new curtains… What do you recommend, Cassie?” She asked, even though she knew what she had her eyes on as soon as she spotted it. There was a navy gingham that would be perfect with the whitewashed walls and bluestone tiles.
“I dunno. I’ve never been to Bluestone Ranch.” Cassie frowned. “What’s the inside of the house like?”
“Well, the walls are whitewashed, and the floors are made out of tiles made from a stone called bluestone. It’s sort of a dark bluish gray.”
“Then you probably want blue curtains to match. Daddy says that ladies always want things to match.” Cassie said sagely. “But the red checkers might be pretty. We have yellow checkered curtains in our kitchen, and I like those best though.”
“Well, I can make a set of red curtains and hang them in one of the bedrooms, see how that looks. Maybe a yellow set, too.”
“You should make Mister Barnes’ the red ones. Red and white.” Cassie decided with an air of authority.
“Like peppermint sticks?”
“Just like peppermint sticks.” Cassie grinned a gap-toothed smile at Runa, who smiled back.
“All right. Red and white checks for Mister Barnes. What about this one for the kitchen and dining room?” Runa pointed to the navy gingham, earning a nod from Cassie. The two discussed fabric a bit longer, before they walked back to the front of the store, where Scott was putting the smaller goods she and Steve were purchasing into crates. He looked up at their approach, and smiled at them.
“Was Peanut good help?” He asked.
“Very good help. She convinced me to try a few different colors I wouldn’t have chosen on my own.” Runa agreed.
“I’ll come over and measure fabric for you in a few minutes, Missus Rogers. Soon as I finish boxing all this up.”
“Thank you.” She smiled. “Would it be all right if I purchased a peppermint stick for Cassie, since she was so helpful? She told me that Mister Barnes usually gets her one.”
“Half the town usually gets her one. She has a supply of them upstairs.” Scott grinned.
“I share with the other girls at school!” Cassie protested, “We break the sticks up so we can all share a piece.”
“That seems far more reasonable than you eating all that candy by yourself.” Runa smiled as she opened her reticule and drew out a penny, before hesitating. She then drew out a quarter as well. “And a twenty five cent bag of lemon drops for me to take home.” She decided. Even with the sweets she cooked, there was something nice about having a bit of candy, and lemon drops were her absolute favorite. She would offer Steve and Bucky some, of course, but they would be nice to have. And it was her birthday. She was allowed to buy herself a small treat on her birthday, wasn’t she?
“Fond of lemon drops?” Scott asked as he finished filling up the crate and went to the candy counter.
“They’re a weakness.” Runa sighed. “Just about anything citrus is.”
“So I should put you down for a crate of oranges when we start getting them around Christmas time?”
“Oh yes. I’ll even share them with everyone on the ranch as long as I get a few to myself.”
“I’ll talk to Mister Rogers about special ordering a crate then.”
Runa shook her head. A crate of oranges was an extravagance she couldn’t ask Steve to pay for. “They’re to be gifts, and I have a bit of money of my own. I can take care of the cost.”
Scott nodded after a minute. “All right. I’ll remind you when we get closer to Christmas, then.”
She smiled. “Thank you, Mister Lang.”
“Now come and tell me which fabrics you were looking at, and how much you want me to cut. Your husband said you had a few letters to post as well.”
She liked the warm feeling that hearing the words ‘your husband’ said to her made her feel. “Yes, I have them in my reticule.”
“We’ll post those as soon as we finish with the fabric. Mail hasn’t come yet today, but we should be able to get your letters out on the afternoon train.”
“That would be wonderful.”