Today is Wednesday and it is the day I used to spend with my friends after school. Mother says a girl does not need to go any further than 8th grade. I finished that last year. I miss it. The thing I miss most about school was reading as I do not seem to have time to read anymore. Now I am sewing a lot. I wonder if I will have enough sewn for my new life so I will get relief from it for awhile? Mother says no, that it will increase. I will have to make Avery's clothing, as well as my own. And when we have children, for them also. Mother says I should start making baby clothes as soon as I get married. She says you never have enough. Sometimes I think I need to take notes on what she tells me. She knows so much! How will I ever know all this? I do not want to disappoint my husband.
I made three apple pies, a kettle of applesauce and four loaves of whole wheat bread. It was nice being in the kitchen this morning alone. I could think and dream. I was dreaming that I was already married and living in my new house with Avery Longworth. Rachel Longworth has a nice sound to it. Sounds very proper. Then it struck me that I have no idea where we will be living. What if we have to live with his family? I know people who have done that. My friend from school, Mary Ellen Case got married two years ago, and she is still living with her husband, Eric Case's family. She having her third baby, and is living in that house with his whole family, even his grandparents live there. I think it was their house to begin with. Lots of people live there. It would be too crowded for me.
I am wondering about so much. There is really no one to ask since nobody knows but Avery what our plans are. Will he want to live in the country? I hope so, since I am taking my horses with me and do not want them at a stable. He knows that. I told him that when he was here. He didn't say no. In fact, he liked it that I knew how to handle a team and horses. He said so. Many girls never learn how to handle them, and their husbands have to teach them, or they have to wait for their husbands to tack them up. I know more than my brothers do about horses. I will always want to have my own horses so I have to live in the country. I am thinking of writing Avery a note to ask him if I have to make plans for my horses in town. I need to know now.
Father came in unexpectedly while I was still working in the kitchen. He smiled at me and looked at the pies cooling, "Mmmmm, apple pie today!"
"Yes, for supper. I am practicing pie making for my future husband." I answered.
""Avery Longworth is one lucky fellow. Getting the best girl in the county for his wife. He'd better appreciate you is all I can say," he replied back with a twinkle in his eye.
"Father, do you think Avery will want to live in the country? I want to have my horses nearby and not at a stable." I asked timidly, afraid of what he might already know.
"No, need to worry Rachel. He has a house all set up and waiting for you. In the country with a big barn and box stalls. Those horses of your's will be spoiled!" he answered as he stuck a finger in the apple filling in the bowl on the counter.
"Oh Father! You already knew that and never said a word?"
"You never asked," he replied as he walked out of the room looking for Mother to tell her what he learned in town that day.
In the country! A barn! Box stalls? I never knew anyone who had box stalls for their horses before. We live in a wild part of the county and horses out here were lucky to have a barn over their heads. Box stalls! I started singing as I cleaned up my kitchen. Maybe I'd surprise Mother and start the supper for her. I picked up the potatoes and started peeling them. I can't wait to see Avery again! To thank him for what he is doing for me. Oh yes, we have a house already. Don't have to live with his family either. I am truly blessed.
Copyright © 2010 Kathleen G. Lupole
Updated 2016
Updated 2016
