Calico Christmas at Dry Creek

Elizabeth noticed her breathing was betraying her again as she looked at him. She realized she was actually gawking at the man.

“I could still be dying,” she finally muttered and then turned to face the soldiers. It wasn’t all she’d meant to say, but that piece of information alone should put the men off the idea of marriage. “The doctor could be wrong. It’s a bad death—influenza. I’d probably pass it along to any man I…ah…married.”

There. Elizabeth crossed her arms. She’d said enough. She’d be left in peace.

Jake should have realized what would happen. He’d gone to beg some hot water off the blacksmith so he could shave again without needing to build a fire and, when he had gotten back, he’d seen the men. He wouldn’t have taken so long, but he had a new razor strap and he felt a wedding proposal deserved a careful shave. While he was gone, the men had gathered.

He knew right away what that meant. It hadn’t taken long for word to get around that the woman was going to live. There weren’t many women at the fort and it wasn’t often an opportunity to marry presented itself to these soldiers. If the men hadn’t been so scared of the fever, they would have been lined up to court Elizabeth before now.

Jake couldn’t blame them for taking any chance they could. He knew how tired a man got of his own company. He just wished they were not lining up for this particular woman. Jake could see the men looking at each other and wondering if the doctor really had miscalculated how long it would take for someone to come down with the fever.

“I can’t marry one of them,” Elizabeth said as she turned to Jake. Her eyes were wide. “I’ve never even seen most of them until this morning. They’re absolute strangers.”

Jake wished he could ease the panic he saw in Elizabeth’s eyes, but he knew he wasn’t going to. “Given that you’ve known me a bit longer, maybe you should marry me instead.”

She just stared at him as if she hadn’t heard him right. Jake figured he better add some more persuasion. “You’re going to have to do something before winter comes anyway.”

Jake could hear Elizabeth’s breathing as she considered his words. He’d heard the same shallow breaths from wild horses that had been corralled for the first time. He would have put his hand on her arm to soothe her, but he thought it would have done the opposite.

“But what if she does get sick?” one of the soldiers called out. “You’d likely die, too, if you married her.”

“I’m not worried. She looks healthy enough to me. And pretty, too.”

Ah, good, he thought. She wasn’t looking so scared now that she was a bit angry again. He found it hard to believe Elizabeth was a widow when she blushed up pink the way she was doing.

“They’re right. If the doctor’s wrong, I could be dying any day now,” Elizabeth said. Jake thought she sounded downright hopeful. “You need someone else for your daughters.”

“They’re my nieces, not my daughters.”

“Oh.”

“The doctor’s not wrong,” he said. She looked so troubled that he decided to reach out to touch her arm anyway; he only pulled back when he saw her move away. “If you’re waiting to see if you get the fever, you could wait just as easy if you are a married woman.”

“I am a married woman. At least, I—I was.”

Jake nodded. He’d expected that. She was still in love with her husband. Well, it was probably better that way. All he really needed was someone for the girls. “I’m not asking for myself. It’s for the baby.”

“I don’t need to marry you to help with the baby. Of course I’ll help with the baby.”

Jake nodded. That was something. “I can’t keep the girls here at the fort all winter, though. We have to go back to my place and folks won’t understand us living under the same roof and not being married.”

Jake didn’t add that the girls wouldn’t be welcome at the fort. The only Indians at the fort were the Crow scouts and the Sioux who were here against their will. The girls would be treated like captives and he couldn’t do that to them. They would have a hard time gaining acceptance with civilians; but they would have no hope of finding it among the soldiers and their families. The girls’ tribe had fought General Custer and his men. No army man would forget that defeat soon.

“I could take my tent with me,” Elizabeth said.

“You would need to be with the baby at night. The baby can’t sleep in your tent when it gets colder.” He wondered if the woman had any idea what winters were like here.

Elizabeth nodded. “Still, we don’t need to get married.”

“The people of Miles City will see it differently.”

“I don’t care about gossip.”

“Neither do I, but Spotted Fawn needs to go to school.”

“Ah.” Elizabeth nodded.

She still didn’t look convinced. And she was looking at him as though there was something lacking in him.

Jake had known a woman from back East would have a hard time with the land out here. But he’d never quite considered that she might have an even harder time with him. He’d changed out of his buckskins, but he knew he didn’t look like what an Eastern woman would expect in a husband. Well, he decided, it was best she know the truth about him.

Jake wasn’t the man his mother had hoped he would grow up to be. He didn’t much care for big cities. Or small ones, either. He was wearing wool now, but he preferred buckskin. Still, he was a fair-minded man and he didn’t expect more in a bargain than someone should have to give. “It can just be a piece of paper between us. All I need is someone for the baby.”

She was silent.

“My girls, they’re good girls.”

“Oh, I’m sure they are.”

Jake could see he wasn’t making progress. Her eyes still seemed drawn to that grave, as if she was afraid the ones who were dead and under the ground could hear what she was saying and would rise up to accuse her of disloyalty.

“It wouldn’t need to be a real marriage,” Jake made his words even clearer. “You’ll be able to get it annulled in the spring if you want.”

He’d do whatever she wanted in that regard.

Elizabeth just stood there looking sad. “I just buried my husband. I don’t need another one.”

As a boy, Jake had watched his father trading pelts. Everyone, no matter their tribe, had something they wanted. A good trader just watched until he figured out what that was. It didn’t take long to figure out what Elizabeth really wanted.

“I can make you a marker for that grave if you agree to help me. We can get a good-sized piece of granite sent down from Fort Benton. It’ll last forever.”

Elizabeth was looking at him now.

“I’m a pretty good carver. I’ll set their names on it and anything else you want to say. There won’t be a fancier headstone in the whole territory.” It was the best he could do.

“Oh.” Elizabeth breathed out. “Matthew would like that, but—”

“And an angel. I could carve an angel on the corner of it for your daughter.”

Jake hadn’t carved anything but letters on his mother’s stone. But he whittled some in the evenings and he’d carved shapes of most of the animals around here. He could do an angel.

Elizabeth just stood there, blinking.

“Don’t cry,” Jake said.

“I never cry,” Elizabeth whispered and then took a deep breath. “You have yourself a deal.”

Now it was Jake’s turn to be surprised into silence.

“You can’t marry him,” one of the soldiers in line protested. “I haven’t had a chance to read you my poetry. I wrote a poem for you and everything.”

Elizabeth turned to the soldiers in line and squared her shoulders. “I’m sorry. I haven’t thanked any of you properly. You’ve paid me a great compliment. I’m honored, of course. Could I give you each a jar of sweet pickles? I canned them myself.”

“Well, that’d be nice of you,” the soldier who had removed his hat said. “I haven’t had anything like that since I was back home.”

Jake helped Elizabeth hand out four jars of pickles.

After the soldiers left the campsite, Elizabeth turned to Jake. “This marriage—it’s only for the baby?”

“I’ll bunk down in the lean-to and give the rest of the place to you and the girls.”

Elizabeth nodded. “I gave Mr. Miller my oxen in exchange for his promise to bury me when the time comes so—well—I expect him to do what he said. Even if he has to come to your place and get me.”

“You don’t need Mr. Miller now. You have me.”

“Oh.” Elizabeth looked at him skeptically. “Are you a God-fearing man, Mr. Hargrove?”

Jake was a little taken back. “Yes.”

She still looked suspicious. “The God of the Bible?”

Jake smiled. “Yes.”

“Well, then…” She paused as though weighing his words. “Do you promise to dig the burying hole yourself?”

“If that’s what you want.”

“I don’t want any easy promises here. I know I can’t come back and make sure you’ve done that particular job properly so I’d be relying on your word. I want you to dig the hole yourself and do it with prayer in your heart.”

“You’ve got my word.” Jake had seen peace pipes passed with less resolve than Elizabeth showed. “I’ll take care of you in good times and bad times. Dead or alive.”

“When I go, I’ll want to be buried beside my baby.”

“I’ll see to it. I’ll even leave room on the headstone for all three of you.”

Elizabeth nodded. “Then I think we should ask for the oxen back.”

Jake knew a battle could be lost if a man didn’t act quickly to secure his victory. “I’ll get the oxen and then we’ll head out. I know the minister in Miles City. The Reverend Olson. He’ll say the words for us.”

“Matthew and I never did get as far as Miles City. But I heard they had a fine preacher there. Mr. Miller promised to ask the man to come and say a few words over my grave when I—you know—” Elizabeth nodded to the grave “—when I died—which I guess isn’t going to be as soon as I thought.”

Elizabeth pressed her lips together firmly.

Jake hoped that meant she was accepting her new life. “The reverend’s a good man.”

“If we’re going to see him about getting married, I’d like to have some time alone with him before I take my vows.”

Jake figured that meant she wasn’t accepting her new life at all. She was probably going to ask the minister about her funeral. He didn’t know what the Reverend Olson would think when Jake rode into town with a bride who was more intent on her funeral than she was on getting married to him.

Of course, she probably wouldn’t be content with just talking to the reverend about her worries. She might mention it to anyone who would listen until finally even the old trappers would hear about it. They’d have a fine time telling about the woman who’d rather go to her own funeral than marry up with Jake Hargrove.

Oh, well, Jake told himself with a wry grin; he never was one to begrudge others a good laugh around their evening fires. He just hoped they got a few things straight. Like the fact that his bride’s eyes were some of the most beautiful eyes a man was likely to see this side of the Missouri. He hadn’t expected that. They reminded him of the moss that grew on the side of those ponderosa pines high in the mountains where he’d lived as a boy.

Being married, even temporarily, to a woman with eyes like that couldn’t be all bad. He’d just have to think of ways to keep her happy until she decided to leave. Even his mother had taken a few months to judge this land before she decided that she hated it. His mother might have gone longer before making her decision if she’d had something to distract her. Women always liked new clothes. Maybe he should buy the woman a new dress to match those eyes of hers.

And a pretty brooch. His mother had set great store by her few jewels. Jake stopped himself. He wondered if he should offer to pay the woman outright. Eastern women were touchy about money, but even he wasn’t so sure about paying a woman to marry him. Of course, he’d see that she had plenty of money for her trouble; he’d panned a modest amount of gold in the Black Hills southeast of here this past spring so he had enough. But it just didn’t seem right somehow to bring up money quite yet.

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