Amaryllis (Suitors of Seattle) (11 page)

Amaryllis nodded.  “We are.”  She looked around their small house.  “How are we going to host everyone when we have our first baby?  I can just see us having everyone sit on the floor.”

Alex laughed and pulled her close to him.  “If all else fails, we’ll go stay with your parents or mine.  We don’t have to worry about what will happen when it’s our turn.”

Amaryllis wasn’t willing to let a child be born in their tiny apartment anyway.  If and when it came time to worry about that, she was going to insist they use the money she had saved for something bigger. 

*****

The walk to her aunt’s house the following day was filled with excitement for Amaryllis.  She loved holding new babies, but wasn’t ready to have one of her own.  They were so small and smelled so good.  Except when they’d filled their diapers, of course, but when that happened she would smile and hand them back to their mother to be changed.  It was one of the benefits of being the auntie or the cousin. 

She held Alex’s hand as they walked, enjoying just being a couple for a change.  They’d been at an impasse for a while, not worrying overmuch about their problems and instead just adjusting to being together.  The walk to Max and Harriett’s house only took about ten minutes, but Amaryllis was so excited to see the new baby, she half-dragged Alex, rushing him along.

She was excited to see her sisters as well.  They’d always seemed like an annoyance, but somehow she missed them.  Even Jasmine.  She grinned as she thought of her annoying sister.  It wouldn’t be long before Jasmine would be looking for a husband.  She was going to enjoy watching that.

When they arrived at the house, it wasn’t quite as chaotic as it had been when Aunt Harriett had her first baby.  Of course, that had been five years ago.  They’d all done a lot of growing up in the five years since.

Rose sat sedately on a sofa, holding little Carrie while Freddie played at her feet.  Lily was holding Lilac, while Bart sat on the floor staring at his older cousin.  Lily looked much different than she had five years ago.  Her red hair was no longer hanging in braids, but was instead arranged neatly atop her head.  She was wearing a skirt, which her mother had always made her do when she left the house, but Amaryllis didn’t think she was wearing boy’s pants under it, which was definitely new. 

Daisy, only six months shy of turning eighteen, was dressed beautifully, but obviously a little overwhelmed by the crowd; that much hadn’t changed.  She did fine at parties as long as there were one or two people in a small group for her to talk to.  Talking to everyone at once was too much for her still.  Amaryllis made a beeline for her shy sister, hoping she could make her feel more at home.

Amaryllis hugged Daisy, leaving Alex to talk to whomever he wanted.  He knew everyone there, a
nd his parents were there as well, so she didn’t have to worry about him. 

“It’s good to see you!” she said as she hugged Daisy.

“Good to see you, too.  Mama wasn’t sure if you two would make it.  She said this isn’t something newlyweds are really expected to take part in, but I told her you’d be here.”

Amaryllis smiled.  “I’
m happy to be here.”  She looked around the room to make sure no one was close enough to listen.  “So tell me more about how you feel about women’s rights.  I’ve been having some thoughts of my own.”

Da
isy laughed, her eyes sparkling as she began sharing what she thought.  “I’m a complete radical.  I not only think women should have the vote, but I think they should be able to work outside the home if they choose to.  And I think they should earn equal wages!  Most places pay men more than women for doing the same job, because men are the ‘breadwinners.’  What does that matter?  If a man chooses to stay home and take care of children while a woman works, would that be such a terrible thing?”

Amaryllis covered her cough as a laugh.  “You know, I thought Alex was forward thinking before we married, but I’d love to see you talk with him.  He’d have no idea what to make of your ideas.”

Jasmine walked over and joined them then.  She eyed Amaryllis carefully, looking her up and down.  “You seem the same.”

Amaryllis made a face at Jasmine.  “Why wouldn’t I?”

Jasmine shrugged.  “I don’t know.  It just seems that being married would radically transform you.  Are you still a bookworm?” she demanded.

Amaryllis sighed.  “I still read every chance I get.  Who I am hasn’t changed just because I married Alex.”

“Well, you do kind of have a glow about you.  Why’s that?”

Amaryllis didn’t respond, but turned to Daisy and sighed.  “Do you think Aunt Harriett would send her East to be a mail order bride?”

Daisy laughed.  “Probably not.  There are too many men here in Seattle who need wives.  It wouldn’t make sense to send a perfectly good… What am I saying?  Let’s go beg her to send her away!”  She linked arms with Amaryllis, and they headed off together to find Harriett, both of them doing their best not to giggle until they were out of Jasmine’s earshot.

Amaryllis leaned against the wall grinning in the parlor they’d ended up in.  “How many parlors does Aunt Harriett have?” she asked in wonder.  “I’ve never been in this one.”

Daisy shrugged.  “It’s a big house.”  She smiled happily at Amaryllis.  “That was really fun!  I’ve become her new favorite victim at home, because I’m the next in line to marry.”

“Oh, I’m sorry!  She’s the biggest annoyance!”

Daisy nodded emphatically.  “I love her, but I may have to kill her someday.”

Amaryllis giggled.  “Well, killing her may not be the answer, but you could certainly start playing pranks on her to get her back.”

Daisy’s eyes sparkled with laughter.  “Like?”

The two sisters laughed and came up with ideas for tormenting Jasmine until their mother found them twenty minutes later.  “What are you two doing hiding in here?”

Both girls burst out laughing at the question.  “Nothing, Mama,” Daisy said as soon as she could speak.

Amaryllis shook her head, refusing to even respond to the question.

Mary shook her head.  “What am I going to do with you two?”  She put her arm around each of them.  “The baby just woke from her nap.  Do you want to see her?”

They went with their mother to see the baby, but the two sisters exchanged one more look and dissolved into laughter again.  Jasmine wouldn’t know what hit her!

Hyacinth, Violet, and Iris were all crowded around Aunt Harriett and the baby when Amaryllis arrived with Daisy and their mother.  Iris, the youngest of the eight girls at eleven, was stroking the baby’s cheek.  “I love babies.”

As Iris stood there, Amaryllis noticed something moving in Iris’s pocket.  She quenched her giggle and looked at Daisy, who had obviously noticed as well.  “What is it?” she asked in a whisper.

“There was a lame kitten on the ground on the way here.  Papa told her not to touch it, but she lagged behind.  I knew she had it!”  Daisy shook her head.  Iris had never been able to stop helping small children or animals.  She wanted to be a doctor someday, but they all knew that she’d really just end up being a nurse, because only men could be doctors.

Harriett’s eyes met Amaryllis’s over the heads of her sisters.  “I hope your first comes soon!”

Amaryllis shook her head madly.  “Maybe in a few years.”

Harriett laughed softly.  “It’s all in God’s timing, Rilly.”  She used her left hand to completely cradle the baby, and patted the spot next to her on the sofa.  “Come sit next to me and hold her.”

Amaryllis moved past her sisters and took the infant from her aunt’s arms.  “She’s beautiful.”

Harriett smiled.  “All my babies are beautiful.”

Amaryllis had never been crazy about babies.  She liked them as much as the next woman, of course, but she wasn’t one who was determined to have a dozen of them, and she was never the first to rush toward a baby when they were born.  Yes, she liked to see them, and she loved the parties her family did as soon as a baby was born, but she loved the parties almost as much for the time with her family as the time with the baby.

This one was sweet, already sleeping peacefully in her arms.  So many babies cried all the time, so Amaryllis thought she liked her.  “What’s her name?”  She knew Daisy had told her, but it had slipped her mind. 

“Florence Mary.  I think we’ll probably call her Flo.”

“Flo.  I like that.”

She looked up and saw her three youngest sisters still watching her.  Hyacinth stared down at the baby with a dreamy expression.  “I want to have a baby someday,” she announced.

“I’m sure you will someday, Hyacinth,” her aunt told her. 

“I want to have an art studio, but no babies,” Violet announced loudly.  She turned to her mother, who was a few steps behind her.  “Instead of getting my own room, can I have an art studio instead?  We haven’t done anything with Rilly’s room yet.”

Mary patted Violet on the arm.  “We’ll talk about it when we get home.”  Mary hated talking about personal things at gatherings like this.  She felt that the small details of running her home should be between the people who live
d in the home. 

The afternoon flew by for Amaryllis.  She loved her job, but sometimes it was nice to have the weekend to spend with family.  She couldn’t wait until Thanksgiving, because that would be the next day the whole family would get together like this.

There was a small meal served, but they didn’t sit at the big table and eat together, it was more a case of everyone grabbing something when they were hungry.

There were tears in Amaryllis’s eyes when it was time to leave.  She knew she was only a ten minute walk from her parents’ house, but she missed the day to day chaos of living in the huge home she’d grown up in.  Mary hugged her close, understanding with no words being spoken.  “We all miss you too.  Why don’t you come to lunch after church next week?”

Amaryllis nodded.  “I’ll have to talk to Alex, of course, but I don’t think he’ll mind.”

She hugged everyone before leaving, while Alex stood patiently waiting for her.  He obviously understood her dilemma and wanted to make it as easy for her as possible.  She thought again about what a good man she’d married.

When Mildred hugged her goodbye, she whispered, “Come over for lunch again tomorrow, and we’ll have another quick cooking lesson.  You can learn to make another meal.”

“I’d like that,” Amaryllis whispered back, happy to have a mother-in-law who was so willing to help her in the areas she lacked in.  “We’ll see you tomorrow.”

Chapter Nine

As she and Alex walked toward their apartment, they held hands and talked about the afternoon.  Every time there was a gathering like that, the men disappeared for hours, while the women stayed in the house and talked about the baby and played with the small children.  She’d always wondered what the men did during that time.

“What did you and all the other men do while the rest of us were with the babies?” she asked.

He laughed.  “We just went to the backyard and talked about how we didn’t want to be in the house with all you women.  We talked politics some.  Really had a nice time.”

She grinned.  “So you don’t want to be around us?”

He slipped his arm around her waist and pulled her closer.  “I don’t want to be around a bunch of women.  I want to be around my wife.”

She smiled up at him, happy to be with just him again.  Glancing over past him, she saw a small yellow house for sale.  She stopped and walked toward the sign.  It didn’t give a price, but it couldn’t be too terribly much, could it?  She didn’t say a word, but walked toward the house, peering in the window.  It was five times the size of where they currently lived, but still very small by her standards.  She didn’t hear Alex as he called to her, but instead wandered around to the back of the house to see if there was an outhouse.  When there wasn’t, she knew the house had a real water closet.  It was all she could do not to jump for joy.  This was the house she wanted.

She turned and saw Alex frowning at her.  How was she going to be able to talk him into this?

She took a deep breath as she approached him, knowing this was important to her, but knowing it would anger him.  “I think this little house would be perfect for us.  You’d have room for an office there, and it has a water closet instead of an outhouse.  Once winter comes an outhouse is going to be hard.”

He shook his head.  “Maybe I can afford it in a year
, but I can’t now.”  He looked down at her with a solemn expression.  “I’d like to be able to give you what you want, but I can’t afford this.”

“You can’t afford it.  I understand that.  But
we
can.  I work hard, Alex.  The fruits of my labor sit in a bank and I can’t touch them.  How is that fair to either of us?”

He took her hand again and started walking toward home.  His eyes were downcast.  “I want to give you everything in the world, but it’s going to take time to get the money we need together for a big purchase like this.”

“Why won’t you listen to me?  I don’t need anything.  I want to spend the money I’ve worked hard to earn on a house for us.  I’m spending it on me because I’m the one who wants it so much.  Please at least think about it.”

He frowned.  “I’ll think about it, but the answer is going to be no.”

She sighed, kicking at a rock on the ground.  “I understand.”  She said the words by rote, but the truth was, she didn’t understand.  She worked too hard for her money to have him discount everything she made and not let her spend it.

*****

After church the following day, they again walked to his parents’ house to have lunch with them.  She hurried to the kitchen to help Mildred with the preparations.  “How do we make this?” she asked.

Mildred smiled over her shoulder as she continued to peel the potatoes in front of her.  “I’m making a pork roast today.  I put it in the oven before church, but made sure the heat was low.  So it’s been slowly cooking while we were at the sermon.  If I was going to be here the whole time, I’d have put the potatoes and carrots in with it when it was half done.  I wasn’t here, so I’m going to cook the potatoes and carrots on the stove.”

Amaryllis nodded.  “So you remove the peel with a knife before you cook potatoes?”

“I’m going to mash these, so yes, I’m removing the peel first.”  She demonstrated how to remove a peel and handed Amaryllis the knife.  “You try it.”

Alex stood watching his mother and wife work together for a minute before he hurried off to find John.  He had no desire to sit around and listen to his mother teach her cook.  As far as he was concerned, he’d always cook for her, but she seemed determined to learn how so she could share the burden.  He liked that about her.  She was always willing to do her share and then some.

He found John in his study and sat down across from him.  After a moment the older man looked up from his ledger.  “How’s married life treating you?” he asked.

Alex shrugged.  “For the most part, we’re doing really well.  We still have a few squabbles and misunderstandings, of course.  She trusts me now.”

John smiled and nodded.  “That’s good.  Trust is important.”  He put down the pen he’d been using to write.  “Is there something in particular you’re having trouble with so I can help?”

Alex sighed.  “Well, she was courting a man named Lawrence when I got back in town, and the man is a writer and still spends all his time at the library.  Amaryllis says he’s a friend, and it’s a good place for him to work, but it doesn’t feel right to me.”

John laughed.  “She’s just doing her job, Alex.  You need to start trusting her more.  She married you, not him.”

“I forced the issue.”

John shrugged.  “She wouldn’t have stayed if she hadn’t wanted to be with you.  She’d have told her Lawrence what happened and run away with him.  You know she would have.”

Alex made a face.  He hadn’t thought of that.  Lawrence had seemed awfully calm for a man who had just found out his girl had married another that day in the library.  “I’ll think about that.”  He stared off into space for a moment.  “Our other problem is that she wants to spend her money on us.  It makes me crazy.”

John frowned.  “What do you mean?”

“Well, she never spent any of the money she’s made while working at the library.  She’s got it all sitting in a saving’s account at the bank.  So she thinks I should let her use her money to buy us a house!”

“Let me ask you this.  Is the money you make your money
, or does it belong to both of you?”

“Both of us, of course.  I would never keep my money from her.”

“Why do you expect her to keep hers from you then?”

“Well, I’m the man.  I’m supposed to support us.”  How could John not see the logic of what he was saying?

“So the money she’s worked over a year to earn should sit in a bank account until she dies?  Or until you die, and she’s allowed to use it?”

“Well, no, but I should be supporting us.”

John shook his head.  “When you marry, you share everything.  You’ve decided to let her keep working?”

Alex nodded.  “I wouldn’t take the pleasure she gets f
rom her work from her.”

“But you’d take the pleasure she gets f
rom her earnings from her?  This house, is it bigger than where you live now?”

“Yes, and it has a water closet.  She’s never lived without a water closet, and she thinks they’re a necessity.”

“Then to her they are.  Look, son, she’s worked hard for over a year to save up that much money.  She has a right to use it, and by working for it, she has a right to use the money she’s earned to make her life easier and more comfortable.  Why are you denying her?”

Alex stood and paced the room.  “I want to be the one to give her what she wants.  I want to earn the things that we use.”

“But you can’t let her pitch in and help?  If she can buy the house outright, or use the money she makes to buy the house, why can’t you just do it that way?  I don’t think you’re being fair to her.”

Alex sighed.  “I was sure you’d back me up on this.”

John shook his head.  “I’d back you up if you were making sense and in the right.  She’s lived a privileged life.  There’s no doubt about that.  But she has a right to use the money she’s earned to make her life better, even now that you’re married.  Let her do it.”

Alex frowned.  “I’ll think about it.”

“Do that.  I think you’ll ruin your marriage otherwise.”

*****

After lunch, Amaryllis stayed in the kitchen with Mildred, learning how to make French toast and bacon.  Alex again went to talk to John in his study.

He settled into the chair across from John’s desk.  “I think you’re right,” he finally admitted.

“About?”

“I need to let Amaryllis use her money for the house.  I’m keeping her from luxuries that she’s used to because of my pride.”  He shook his head.  “I’ll talk to her about it, and we’ll look at the house.”

John smiled, nodding approvingly.  “That’s the right thing to do, son.  I know you have in your head that you need to be the sole support of your family, but she doesn’t do all the housework.  I know the girl can’t cook, so you must be doing that.  Why would you divide up men’s and women’s work, and then do part of hers and not let her do part of yours?”

“Because I’m pig-headed and stubborn, just like my wife says I am?”

John laughed.  “You said it, not me.”

*****

When Lawrence stopped by the library on Monday afternoon, he let her know he was moving on.  “I’ve finished the research and started writing here, but there’s nothing keeping me in Seattle anymore.  I’m going to head down to San Francisco and finish the book there.”

She nodded, wishing she could hug him goodbye, but knowing how Alex would feel about it.  Instead, she offered her hand to shake.  “I’ve enjoyed getting to know you.  Make sure you tell the Indian’s point of view!”

He laughed.  “I’d be afraid you’d hunt me down if I didn’t!”

She smiled as she watched him leave the library.  She knew Alex would be pleased when she told him.  She understood how he was feeling, because she knew there was an appearance that more had happened between her and Lawrence than truly had.  She wished she’d never told Alex she was seeing him when he first came back to town.

When she arrived home that evening, she slipped in the back door as always, and found Alex waiting for her.  “We need to go,” he said.

“Go where?”

He shrugged.  “It’s a surprise.”

She sighed.  “Okay.”  For some reason, Amaryllis had never been big on surprises.  She preferred to know how things would turn out.  She was the daughter who was unwrapping the gifts under the Christmas
tree and carefully tying the bow back on, keeping the creases exactly how they’d been.  She couldn’t wrap a gift herself, but she could sure follow the creases others made in the paper as she rewrapped her own gifts.

She walked with Alex, hand in hand, back toward her Aunt Harriett’s house.  She had no idea why they were going there, but she wasn’t particularly worried.  As they approached the little yellow house, she felt a sadness creep over her.  Alex hadn’t mentioned the house since he’d told her he would think about buying it, and she could see a man there, obviously the realtor.  Someone was going to buy it, and it wasn’t them.

She was surprised when Alex took her hand and let her up to the realtor.  “Mr. Friday?  This is my wife, Amaryllis.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Anderson.  Your husband told me you admired this house, so I wanted to give you a chance to see the inside, before you make your purchase decisions.”

Amaryllis stared at Alex in shock, but said nothing.  The realtor showed them through the house, indicating the water closet.  “I don’t have a lot of these for sale yet, so this house is sure to go fast.”

There were three bedrooms.  Amaryllis knew that Alex could use one
for an office, and the other could be for a baby when it happened to them.  The kitchen was small, but definitely large enough for her to figure out how to cook in.  The dining room cozy, and the front parlor was just big enough for their needs.  Between all the rooms, she was certain her family could fit in there if she ever hosted them all.

She smiled after looking through everything. “It’s exactly what I hoped for.”

Alex nodded to the agent, who walked outside for a moment, giving them a chance to talk.  “Do you want to buy it?”

She bit her lip.  “Would that be all right with you?”

“I had a long talk with John yesterday, and he made me realize what an idiot I was being about the house and your money.  I would never tell you that the money I make is mine, and it was ridiculous for me to say that your money was only yours.  Let’s use your money to buy this house, and then the money we make in the future will go further, because we won’t have to pay rent.”

“How much is it?”

He smiled.  “I found that out earlier today, and checked the balance in your account at the bank.  We have enough for the house, with a little bit left over for some furniture.”  He looked around.  “This house is so much bigger than where we live, we’ll need more furniture.”

She let out a squeal and threw her arms around him.  “I want it.  I really really want it.  Are you sure?”

He held her close.  “I’m sure that I want nothing more than for you to be happy.  If this house will make you happy, then we’ll get it.”

He took her hand and led her out to the realtor.  “We’ll take it.  Can I bring you the money tomorrow?”