Out West Ch. 05: Morning After

Two could tease. Mary smiled.

We wandered over, and Kate and Emma had the breakfast table spread.

I tended to Eliza and Elijah, who seemed to have an endless appetite for pancakes and molasses. They were such fun. Eliza told me proudly they "was twinses - two of us in Mama's tummy." I showed them how to make their pancakes into rolls and suck the molasses out of the middle, which they both enjoyed. Mary looked over to me and winked.

Martha expounded her plans to Mary and Ben. She would, she said, let them lease the farm at a peppercorn rent.

"Y'all put the money back into the place, I know Jacob would appreciate it. I know Abe promised the coloreds forty acres and a mule, well the mule is out in the barn but the farm is a bit over one-hundred sixty acres. We know our minds, ain't nobody else business no how. You take care, her voice caught, you take care of Jacob's dream and I will take care of you."

Ben looked at her with amazement.

"But Ma'am, ya don't even know us. We could be robbers 'n' thieves, why'd ya wanna trust two coloreds?"

"Now Benjamin," Martha said firmly, "some folk is good judges of horse flesh, I'm a good judge of people flesh. I seen the way you and Mary is and my instincts tell me you can be trusted, an' if I'm wrong, well Jacob left enough money for me to afford it."

"Ma'am, you ain't wrong. You not listen to ma fool husband. We'se honest an' we works hard. You given' us an' ours this chance is somethin' we'se gonna make sure ya never regrets, Ma'am. Ya hear that kiddos, we'se gonna be livin' here! Whaddya say to your Auntie Martha?"

Adorably, they threw their sticky little selves on her and kissed her.

Martha pretended to brush them off, well as much as you could pretend when you were crying.

"Now then, now then," she said, gathering herself.

"It's just sound business, you'all hear!"

At that Emm and I burst out giggling.

''An' you two little ones, you get more coffee and less giggling."

"Yes... Auntie Martha!" I teased, and grabbing Emma's hand, we went and made more coffee.

Emma looked at me as we waited to the kettle to boil.

"You were so cute with those kiddos. Do you not want any of your own?"

I told her, honestly, that the issue had never detained me.

She asked what I intended to do when I'd found my brother?

I told her that I rightly didn't know.

The original intention had been to find him, tell him of our parents death and then go back to England with him.

"And now?" She said.

"Well I don't quite know. America is supposed to be the land of opportunity, and I have a house in New York, and mining interests in California. I also have Kate, and now you and Martha. All I have back in England is what you would call an apartment in a swish district of London."

"So you could stay here?"

"I could."

"Why is your brother even here?"

I told her about Tim. He was not, I said, a man who could be contained even by an English peerage and an old Estate. He'd always been a man of action. He was restless at home. Papa was an autocrat, but so was Tim, and the two had managed their stand-off by letting him go to California where he'd made a pile of money of his own."

"He sounds a handful!"

"Oh you've no idea," I said, "between him and Gwen and Papa, Mama and I had our work cut out keeping the peace."

"Is that why you're the way you are, Pixie?"

"What do you mean?"

"You're a natural pleaser. You like pleasing people. You don't push your needs, do you?"

With that, she kissed me on the lips.

"Why did you do that, Emma?" I smiled as I asked the question, liking the look in her pale blue eyes.

"Because I like pleasing, too - and because you are cute."

"But I thought you were Martha's girl?"

"I am, Pixie, but Martha knows I need babies. And as she an' your Kate are close, I figured we might be?"

I smiled and squeezed her hand and said I would like that.

We took the fresh coffee back, and finished breakfast.

Martha unfolded the rest of he plan.

The reason she was leasing the farm was that she wanted to go "out West". The farm had been her dream with Jacob, and she saw him everywhere. It was time to find fresh fields and pastures new - her own version of the Promised Land. She was proposing to come with Kate and myself to South Dakota, and, with Emma, "see how we feel when we get there."

I told her that I'd get in touch with Smithers in New York and advised her to let him handle her lawyers and the legacy. If Papa and Tim both trusted him, he was a man to be trusted.

"Much obliged, Pixie. Money's like the field after Gettysburg - attractions carrion. If you say this man's a keeper, I'll go with that."

She did, and she and Emma never regretted it, indeed, as the future was to show, Smithers was indeed what my Papa used to call him, "a man of parts."

Martha smiled, and polishing off the last of the bread announced:

"I got some chores to do, then we will head into Marion to make it all nice and legal, that will take most of a day probably two. You think you three," she looked at Mary too, "you four, can stay out of each others drawers long enough to not get in trouble while me and Ben go into town?"

I blushed and said, "yes Mama Martha."

Emma and Kate laughed, the latter said:

"As long as you don't take too long!"

There was a frisson between Kate and Martha. Emma and I sensed it, and it was a tribute to all of us that it created no jealousy. Even then, before things settled, we were each beginning to find out places. Martha was the clear leader and I was the back-marker. The question at this stage was where Kate and Emma stood. Though Kate was with me, she was leaning towards Martha's dominating presence, while Emma seemed to incline towards my soft femininity. Could Martha and Kate manage us, and each other?

The next weeks or so would determine much. But that special morning, we knew our fates would be entwined together.