Authors: Alice White
Chapter 2
Nora had seen many maps in her time. She pored over them when preparing her lesson plans and assured her students that there was a wide open world still waiting to be conquered. Her pupils could hardly fathom life beyond the radius of the few paved blocks stretching between their homes and the schoolroom. How could they believe her? Maybe they didn’t want to take the chance and find their hopes dashed because they lacked the power to simply pick up and leave home on a whim.
But Nora was no longer a child, and the man’s letter held the key to an unknown future that she could rise to meet.
Looking out the window as the horizon shifted from the sights of sidewalks and factories before turning into rolling hills dotted with blades of long grass billowing in the breeze, Nora pressed her fingers to the glass. She felt the smog from the city fading away as she heard a crying child from the next seat. A weary looking woman bounced the baby swaddled in several blankets as she moved up and down the aisle and begged for the little one to calm.
“I know, Mary,” the woman said. “It’s such a long ride. But please just sleep.”
The anguish in the woman’s voice stirred something deep in her soul, and Nora moved past the groans emanating from the other passengers and touched her fellow traveler on her arm.
“Can I help you?” Nora asked. The woman’s shoulders sagged, but she still shook her head.
“I doubt it,” she said. “She won’t settle.”
Every other man and woman in the car kept clicking their tongues as Nora sprang into action and eased the woman through a door. The second car was almost abandoned save for one man snoring against his window. Placing the mother and her child in the nearest seat, Nora ran one finger up and down the baby’s flushed cheek and laughed at the infant’s giggles as she reached into her the folds of her skirt and revealed a small tin of milk left over from her morning’s breakfast.
“I take my coffee black,” Nora confessed. “I was saving this for later.”
“Oh, miss, I don’t want to take your--”
“It looks to me like your little girl needs it more,” Nora reasoned. “She must be so hungry.”
“And it’s not as if I can feed her around all these strangers.”
The women shared a quick, knowing glance, and Nora dotted her fingers with the milk. Mary turned her tiny head to the side for all of a second before she stared to suckle, and her tears dried around her pink cheeks.
“That was all you needed, little one,” Nora crooned. “I’m sure you’ll sleep now.”
“Thank you, Miss. I’m Beatrice. It’s so nice to see a friendly face.”
Nora sat beside her and clutched her hand.
“Where are you headed?” Nora asked.
“I hardly know,” Beatrice answered
Thinking that an even more daring man might have sent Beatrice a letter and longed to share her life and be a father to her child, Nora started to smile when Beatrice looked to the land rushing past the window and released a heavy sigh.
“My husband is gone,” Beatrice confessed. “He came East to make his fortune and lost his life.”
“I’m so sorry,” Nora said. “May I ask you how?”
“A fight in a bar,” she said. “I have no people of my own to count on. So I’m off to live with his father. It’s the only place in the world left for me.”
Nora smiled as she rubbed Beatrice’s back and played with the baby’s fine blonde hairs. Her life would be better out of the city, and she tried to tell Beatrice as much when the woman slumped against her shoulder and fell into a much needed sleep of her own. As soon as she started to snore, Nora dared to take the baby into her arms and let her finish off the milk as she kissed her tiny ears.
“You and I are so much alike,” Nora confessed. “Both of us heading off for an adventure. Looks like you have a head start. But mark my words I’m going to catch up.”
She stuck close to Beatrice’s side as the train continued to wind through the wilderness.
“What if there are savages?” Beatrice asked once she was awake and she tapped her toes to the moving ground underneath their shared seat. “I have no way to go back.”
“I’m sure that it won’t be like that,” Nora insisted.
“So you don’t think that I’m stepping into a trap?”
Nora firmly shook her head and told Beatrice that she wasn’t wrong to leave the city.
“Why are you making the move?”
The story of the letters might give Beatrice pause, and Nora simply said that she was en route to meet the man that she planned to marry.
“That’s a happy time,” Beatrice said. “It’s a new beginning.”
“One that I cannot wait for,” Nora said.
When the train finally came to their shared stop, Beatrice wrung her hands as Nora carried the baby to the platform and savored the smell of fresh air spinning all around them. Her stomach started to flutter at the realization that she was so far from home. And like Beatrice, she had no way of turning back.
“Is your fiancé in Tracy?” Beatrice asked.
“I think, yes,” Nora said, quickly correcting herself. “It appears that we’re going to be neighbors.”
“And friends,” Beatrice said. “I hope.”
“I don’t see why not,” Nora answered. Beatrice hugged her close as little Mary gurgled between them.
“Thank you,” Beatrice murmured. “I almost feel better now that I’ve--”
Beatrice’s voice came to a halt and her legs began to buckle when a silver haired man in a fine suit stepped closer. The entirety of his stare fell on the infant, and Nora started to move between them when the man doffed his wide-brimmed hat and bowed his head.
“Forgive me,” he murmured in a shocked voice. “It’s just that he looks so much like Andrew. I would know my son’s child on sight.”
Nora watched the man pat the baby’s head with one hand as his free set of fingers surrounded Beatrice’s trembling palm.
“Mr. Welsh?” Beatrice asked. “You… he would have looked like you if--”
Her voice broke, and Nora watched the older man take her into his arms.
“I know how much you must miss him,” he said. “But it doesn’t mean that you have to be alone any longer.”
A smile crossed Beatrice’s lips as tears streamed down her face. Mary laughed as Mr. Welsh lifted the infant into the air, and the man kept Beatrice close as he regarded Nora with a curious but welcoming stare.
“Forgive me, miss,” he started. “And you are?”
“A friend,” Nora said.
“She’s here to get married,” Beatrice said. ‘”Isn’t that wonderful?”
“I should say so,” Welsh answered. “Who’s the lucky fellow?”
Nora didn’t see the harm in revealing the truth now, and she uttered the name emblazoned across her eager heart.
“Mr. Henry Russell,” Nora said. For a second Welsh seemed stunned, but he dialed his wide-eyed stare back as he readjusted his hat and turned his attention back to his family.
“How nice,” the man said. “You’ll have to come around to see us some time.”
Welsh guided a smiling Beatrice away, and Nora wondered why the man had suddenly turned so strange in the space of a second. As his carriage disappeared with Beatrice and the baby into the horizon, Nora perused the platform in search of her chance at happiness carried by an army of white horses. The wheels of the train started to churn, and she feared that she
would
be left alone when the sound of someone clearing their throat turned her head the other way around.
“Are you Nora?”
Chapter 3
Was this her mystery man?
He wore a rumpled suit and sported a fresh shave. His dark hair was lacquered in place behind his ears, and Nora noticed the mud on his boots before returning to his eyes, which were greener than the grass. His smile revealed a set of teeth the same shade as ivory, and Nora lightly bowed her head as she offered her hand.
“Nora Miller,” she said by way of introduction. “And you… you are Mr.---”
“Russell,” he said, offering the surname to finish her thought. “I smiled when you answered my letter.”
She almost returned his grin when she looked to his wagon and jutted her chin towards her bag.
“I brought some things,” Nora started. “Just give me a moment and I’ll--”
“That would hardly be the gentlemanly thing to do,” he said. “Please, allow me.”
He seemed happy to have a task, and Nora watched him tip the porter as he stored her suitcase for safety in a simple wagon and brushed his hands together as he stood before her.
“We’re all set,” he said. “Are you ready to ride?”
“I’m counting on you to lead the way, sir.” Her heart fluttered in her chest when he scrunched his nose and shook his head.
“No need to be so formal,” he said. “After all, we’re going to be married.”
For a single second, the entire venture seemed insane. Miles away from home on account of a few shared scribbles on a page. What if her mother was right? What if he was a mad man even as he glistened under the fresh light of the sun?
“Of course we… if I’ve said too much too soon please forgive me.”
It was strange to see a man so strong turn sheepish, and Nora took comfort in the blush spreading across his clean cheeks and dared to touch his smooth skin. He leaned into her palm, and she felt the breath on the back of his smile drifting over her palm.
“Not at all,” Nora said as she folded her arm under his. “Please lead the way,
Henry
.”
Looking as happy as a child on Christmas morning, Henry helped her up and furrowed his brow as he focused on her dress.
“Is something wrong?” she asked.
“Not at all,” he said. “You really are very lovely.”
“So are you,” Nora said. “I mean that.”
“Thanks for the compliment. And you have such a sweet voice.”
He urged the horse forward, and Nora smiled as she took in the lay of the land.
“So much space!” she declared.
“Must be a lot for a city girl to get used to,” Henry said.
The East 20s also stretched for miles. But it was one house on top of another as carriages crossed the pavement at all hours, and a patch of open air was hard to come by. Sometimes Nora made her way to the Hudson on foot and tried to imagine a wider world. But there were always barges and ferries blocking her view, and she returned home with a sag in her step. Was she destined to tread the same path until her hair turned gray after a life without love? Her students only provided so much comfort, and the thought of home without Emily seemed like a prison sentence without the possibility of parole.
“But then everything changed,” she said.
“Come again, Nora?”
She had not realized that she was speaking aloud when Henry’s smile gave her strength.
“I was wandering,” she started. “And then I picked up a paper and found your letter.”
“First time you’ve ever done that sort of thing?”
Maybe he had to ask. She pictured him wondering who was going to chance upon his sweet words sent to parts unknown. What if the wrong girl had decided to play a part and fleece him for all that he was worth?
“The only time,” she assured him. “You can trust me, Henry.”
“I like the sound of that.”
They fell silent as the wheels continued to turn against the path bordered by sheaves of long grass, and when Nora finally caught sight of a proud house on the horizon, she squeezed his elbow.
“Is this really all yours?” she asked in a breathless voice.
Henry brought the horse to a halt and winked with a smile.
“”No,” he said. Her face started to fall as he pushed one finger under her chin.
“Ours,” he said. “Do you like what you see?”
“Very much so,” she answered as he helped her down and led her up the steps of the wraparound porch. As soon as they entered the main room, Nora smelled freshly cut flowers and saw a bouquet of wild roses resting at the center of the table.
“Did you do this for me?” she asked as she fingered the stems and watched him lower her suitcase.
“Do you like them?” he asked. “I have so much more to show you.”
Sniffing the petals as she nodded her head, Nora felt his large hand at the small of her back and instinctively leaned into his touch as he grabbed her hand and guided her away from the scent.
“Your room,” he declared as he opened a door. It was clean and neat with an inviting bed and curtains billowing in the breeze. She fixed her stare on a box resting against the mattress when the sound of his voice echoed in her brain.
“
My
room,” she said. “Aren’t we going to share?”
“Yours until we make it official,” he said. “Of course I hope that happens sooner rather than later.”
Henry fell to one knee and reached into his pocket. He flipped the lid of a small velvet box, and Nora gasped at the sight of a silver band with a perfect diamond at its center.
“You honor me with your presence,” he started. “And your courage. I don’t quite know how, but I’m going to give you everything that you said you wanted in your letters.”
Nora fought back a few tears as the ring became one with her hand. Longing to kiss him, she joined him on the ground and cradled his chin.
“It’s like a fairytale,” she mused.
“Does that make me a prince?” Henry asked.
“My prince.”
Their lips met, and any doubts fell away as he eased her back to her feet and pointed towards the box on the bed.
“Open your present,” he said.
“Another one?” she squealed. “I could get used to this.
“That’s the idea, Nora.”
She tore into the box and gasped at the sight of an orange dress lined with ebony leaves and flowers. Nora pressed the gift just under her chin and turned around to see his expanding smile.
“It’s calico,” he said.
“It’s so special, Henry.”
“Put it on.”
Nora laughed when Henry backed away with his hands in the air.
“I’ll wait for you in the other room.”
Nora was left alone and looked at her reflection in the mirror. No one had ever presented her with such a gift, and she changed quickly to find him rearranging the roses as she uttered his name.
“It’s a perfect fit,” she said. “How did you know?”
“A lucky guess,” he said. “Come closer.”
Obeying the order, she let his hands move down her neck, and she felt her hair starting to spill through his fingers.
“You said it was a dull brown,” he said.
“That’s what my mother always called it.”
“The woman knows nothing of color,” he said. “And I like it looking like this.”
Nora leaned into his arm and savored his warmth as he guided her back to the porch.
“The barn is a few paces off,” he started. “Mornings are for tending to the livestock. Crops are farther away.”
“I want to see all of it,” Nora said. Henry leaned into her lips, and she wanted to live out the rest of her life around his kiss when he hurried her back to the wagon as he gripped the reins.
“A princess deserves a kingdom.”
Nora drank in the view of the rolling fields and listened to Henry ramble on and on about his best season ever when the wagon stopped and she just held his hand.
“Thank you for answering my letter.”
He tightened his grip and moved towards her lips.
“You don’t have to wander anymore,” he promised. “I’ll keep you happy. And safe."
They made their way back to the house, and Nora became acquainted with every corner. So many rooms were unfurnished, and when she asked why, Henry just shrugged his shoulders.
“You’ll figure out what to do with them,” he said. “To make it a home.”
She sat him down before the roses and wanted nothing more than to make him dinner when he patted his lap and asked if he could hold her.
“A good wife makes her man a proper dinner,” Nora said as she nuzzled his neck and felt his hands running up and down her back.
“Let me do it,” he said. “I’m a sad excuse for a cook. But if a sandwich is enough?”
“You are enough, Henry.”
They munched on bits of cheese between two crusts of bread. Did it really only take one day to fall completely in love? Nora brushed the crumbs from his lips and accepted his languid kisses until the need for sleep took over.
“To bed with you now.”
Henry carried her into the room and removed the dress. Hiding her body under the blankets, he fondled her hair and gave her one last kiss before he told her that he’d see her soon.
And Nora fell asleep with a smile on her face.