Brides of Grasshopper Creek Read online

  Randy smiled at her. “They are called redwoods,” he answered, his voice taking on an air of excitement. “They are also known as Sequoias. Sophie, wait until you see just how tall they are when you stand up close to them.”

  Sophie smiled shyly. She could not wait to go on adventures with him.

  Chapter 8

  “Mama! Mama!” Anna shouted from her bedroom later in the afternoon.

  Sophie rushed up the stairs to find her sitting up in bed, looking confused and scared. “Aww, Anna. Did you have a bad dream?”

  Anna shook her head quickly. “Where are we?”

  “Is this the logger man’s house?” Teddy asked from his bed. He was also sitting up, but he was more mystified than scared. Sophie was grateful that her older child was right there with Anna to help calm his little sister down.

  Sophie sat on the edge of Anna’s bed and petted her daughter’s cheek a bit with her fingertips. Anna felt warm, but not hot as Sophie had started to fear. She did not want her children to be sick so soon after arriving at Mr. Parker’s – Randy’s – home. “Yes, we are at Mr. Parker’s home now. Isn’t it lovely and comfortable?”

  “We’re in Seattle?” Anna asked with wide eyes. She had been so sleepy as they travelled from the docks to the house. Sophie knew that the little girl had not been able to pay attention to much of their new life yet.

  Sophie smiled at her children. “Why don’t you come downstairs and see? Mr. Parker may even take you outside and show you his yard. There is some snow on the ground!”

  At the word ‘snow’, the children threw off their blankets and came out of bed, hurrying down the stairs to see the house and the new people they were going to live with, and the snow!

  Laughing, Sophie followed them down the stairs. “You’ll have to forgive their inquisitiveness, Randolph,” she said pleasantly, smiling when he came into her view. “They have never lived in a place like this, or seen such wondrous trees.”

  Anna and Teddy were staring out of one of the large windows, into the house’s back yard. It was becoming dark outside as the sun set, but they could make out the white on the ground and the greenness that surrounded them.

  “Children, come and meet Mr. Parker and Mrs. Pierce,” Sophie called to them.

  They turned from the window and came over to stand on either side of their mother. Anna clung to Sophie’s skirt, sucking her thumb a bit in her nervousness.

  Mrs. Pierce rose, smiling, from the couch and set her knitting aside. She joined Mr. Parker as he stood to meet the children.

  “Randolph, Mrs. Pierce, these are my children, Anna and Theodore,” Sophie introduced. She smiled down at the children by her sides. “Teddy, Anna, these are your new nanny and your… host.” She blushed a bit. She did not quite know what she should have the children call Mr. Parker yet.

  Randy, friendly as ever, grinned at Teddy and Anna. “You can call me Papa Randy, please,” he said. Leaning down on his knees, he looked each of the children in the eye as he spoke to them. “I am glad to have you here with me for the holidays. Very glad. I hope that you will love it here.”

  Anna looked from him to her mother. “He is very nice, like you said, Mama.”

  Sophie smiled bashfully. She could feel that Randy was beaming at her, and he let out a warm laugh. “We were just discussing going out on an adventure tomorrow, to look at the evergreens and maybe pick one for our Christmas tree. What do you say to that?” he asked the children, keeping his eyes on Sophie, amused and happy at her blushing bashfulness. She definitely felt beautiful, when he gazed at her like that.

  “Mrs. Pierce!” a tiny voice suddenly called from upstairs.

  The governess smiled. “Gwendolyn! Excuse me a moment. The little miss of the house has awoken.” She curtsied politely and rushed up the stairs.

  Teddy and Anna looked at each other, surprised and happy to hear the sound of another child in the house.

  “Will I be able to climb one of the trees, and cut it down like you do, Mr. Papa Randy?” Teddy asked, enthusiastic about the idea. Ever since Sophie had mentioned that Mr. Parker was a logger, he had been fascinated and wanted to learn all about it.

  Randy laughed loudly at that, beaming proudly at the little boy. Sophie wondered if he was happy to get the chance to have a son now. “Perhaps someday you can become a lumberjack like me, but it will take lots of training before you shall be climbing any redwoods. Wait and see how tall they are. They are the size of a million of you.”

  Not to be discouraged, Teddy grinned back at him. “I can learn. I am a fast learner.”

  Randy gently put a hand on Teddy’s shoulder. “I don’t doubt that you are, my boy. I will be happy to show you.”

  Sophie bit her lip at that. She did not mind if Teddy was curious and wanted to help Randy with his woodworking, but she was not fond of the idea of little Teddy going up into those tall trees. He could very possibly fall and break his little neck.

  Anna was not paying attention to the boys and their logging talk, but she gasped and grinned when she saw Mrs. Pierce coming down the steps with Gwen.

  Randolph Parker’s little girl was as lovely as a porcelain doll. She had ringlets of strawberry blonde and eyes that were big, bright and blue, like her father’s. It did not appear as though she had ever tampered with trees like her father, and Sophie could see that the girl had been well educated and trained in the proper etiquette of ladies.

  All that Anna was concerned with was that Gwendolyn Parker was her age. She rushed up to the bottom of the staircase and smiled at her as Gwen hopped down to meet her. “Hello! My name is Anna Miller. We live here now. Your house is amazing and your daddy is nice and I am happy to meet you.” She gave a little, excited curtsy.

  Sophie was pleased to see that Anna remembered her manners, even if she was a little rushed because of her joy. “How do you do, Miss Gwen,” she said. “This is my daughter. And this is my son, Theodore.” She gestured an arm towards Teddy, who glanced over and smiled his hello.

  Randy turned his attention to his daughter, and seemed overjoyed that Anna had already rushed over to her. “I think that you three are going to have such fun together,” he said, smiling.

  “I am pleased to meet you,” Gwen said. She had the sweetest little voice. “Mrs. Pierce said we are going to pick out a Christmas tree.”

  Mr. Parker chuckled, rising up to his full height after his conversation with Teddy. “We won’t go out tonight; it is much too dark and cold now. But we shall go out tomorrow morning, all right? Let’s make a plan of it.”

  Gwen smiled. “That would be lovely,” she said. She sounded like a little lady, which greatly amused and amazed Sophie. Mrs. Pierce had done a remarkable job helping to raise the girl. “May we have a very large tree this year?”

  “Oh, the largest we can find, my dear,” Randy replied.

  The house had high ceilings, but Sophie did not believe they would be able to fit a whole redwood in the house. She was sure that Randolph could cut one into a suitable size, if they wanted, however. But surely there were trees that were smaller and more suited to their needs.

  “I will help the cook get started with dinner,” Mrs. Pierce offered. She went from the room, her skirts rustling against the hardwood floor.

  “Come, Anna and Teddy,” Gwen said, her voice sounding regal. “I will introduce you to my dolls.” Carefully, she led them back up the stairs to her playroom.

  Sophie was pleased that they were getting along so well already. She had not been too worried about it, but she knew that little children could find it difficult to be polite and generous with strangers. “Your daughter seems like she will be a great influence on my children,” she told Randy, smiling at him.

  “She gets that from her mother, not from me,” he said modestly.

  Sophie shook her head. “You have been a wonderful host for us thus far.”

  Randolph took her hand and gently kissed it. “So, you do not regret your decision to come here and be with me? I fel
t for sure, once I saw those photographs and how beautiful you are, that you would change your opinion about me. How could such a lovely woman as yourself want to marry me?”

  She blushed, smiling at him. His words were flattering, but she believed he was being incredibly modest. “Oh, Mr. Parker, you are being silly again. You are handsome and you are a proper gentleman, just as I supposed when I read your letters and saw your photographs. Why, I do believe that we were made for each other. God works in mysterious ways, after all. I think perhaps He wanted us to find one another after losing…” She looked down.

  Randy admired her dark, long lashes as she gazed downward. “Do not be sad, Sophie,” he said sweetly. “I know what you mean. I believe it, too. I want nothing else this Christmas other than to call you my new wife.”

  She could not believe what she was hearing. It was not as if this trip was not planned with marriage in mind, but part of her had still thought of it more as a possibility, not a given thing. When she gazed up at Randy, he smiled at her and pulled a ring from his pocket.

  “You’ve had that in your pocket this whole time?” she gasped, laughing a little and feeling overcome with emotion.

  Gently, Randy placed the ring on her finger. It was gold, with a bright, sparkly diamond and a Celtic knot engraved on it. “This was my mother’s ring,” he told her. “She was Irish. I can get you another ring, if you don’t like it.”

  Sophie beamed at him, tears slipping down her cheeks. “There you go, being silly again.” She gave him a swift kiss on his cheek. “I love it. I shall be very proud to be your wife.”

  Randolph was clearly overjoyed. “I was so afraid that the advertisement would be ignored, or that the only response I would get would be from people who were laughing at me. It hasn’t been easy, creating the home life we have now. I thought that, after Polly died, no one would want to be my companion and share in adventures with me.”

  “If we are being honest,” Sophie replied, “for the longest time, I doubted that I would ever be happy with a husband again. I thought that I had everything I could ever want back in Baltimore. But then I read your note in the newspaper, and you made me smile and remember how nice it is to spend time with a man who truly cares for you.”

  Randy took her hand. “I do truly care for you,” he said, smiling. “You and your children are a real gift to me. And to Gwen as well. She is already so happy to have you here with us.”

  He sat on the couch and she sat beside him, careful to keep a bit of distance between them. There would be plenty of time for cuddling once they were married. Sophie looked towards the fireplace hearth at the other end of the living room and imagined the sort of wonderful tree they would be placing there.

  “I am going to be as excited as a child this Christmas,” she told him. She looked down and saw that they were still holding hands. Blushing, she kept her hand in his, feeling comforted just by him being there for her.

  Chapter 9

  The next morning, Randolph woke everyone up bright and early. Everyone dressed in their warmest clothes and put on coats. They were going out into the snow to find their Christmas tree. Sophie initially thought that they would be taking the carriage to his land of sprawling woods, but instead Randy led them out on a walk.

  Thankfully, it was not quite as cold as it appeared when looking out the window. The snow was still a slight, dusty blanket on the grass. But it all was so beautiful! Sophie filled up with pride when she thought to herself that this was her home and this was her family.

  Teddy bounded through the snow, pointing up excitedly at the tall Sequoias and Douglas firs. “Look at those!” he shouted to his sister. “Have you ever seen a tree so tall?”

  Anna and Gwen were talking and giggling with each other. “Of course, I have not,” Anna told her brother. “You know I haven’t.”

  Sophie walked along with Randolph and Mrs. Pierce. She could tell that Randy wanted to run ahead of everyone and be the tour guide, but he also clearly wanted to be close to Sophie. The calm, slightly dull governess did a good job acting as chaperone. Sometimes Sophie wished that the older woman would not tag along. Sophie was a grown woman who had been married before; surely, she could handle time alone with Mr. Parker. But decorum prevailed.

  The group finally came upon a gathering of pine trees that looked more like what Sophie was used to for Christmas. The gigantic trees dwarfed the pines, but that only served to endear them to her more. “Oh, how lovely,” she said, her breath hanging in the air when she spoke.

  “Do you want to do the honors of picking a tree, Sophie?” Randy asked, smiling at her.

  She thought about it. “I think we should let the children choose,” she said kindly. “As long as they are good and they don’t argue about it.” She knew that Gwen and Anna would behave, but Teddy might squabble a little bit. He was a young boy, after all, and he was the eldest and therefore more used to getting his way.

  “Good idea,” Randy said merrily. “Children! Stop here and take a look at these trees. We want you to work together and choose one to be our Christmas tree.”

  Teddy beamed, rushing over to the pines. He pointed to one. “I like the way this one smells!”

  Gwen laughed. “I like the way this one looks. It matters more what the tree looks like, doesn’t it?”

  Anna sniffed a third tree, scratching her head a bit in confusion. “This one looks nice and smells nice,” she concluded, looking over at Gwen and her brother.

  Randy lumbered over towards them and admired the tree that Anna had picked out. He smiled. “This is a nice tree. It has lots of branches for ornaments.” He turned towards Sophie. “What do you think?”

  Rushing over, Teddy sniffed Anna’s choice. He grinned and nodded. “It smells right and looks right,” he said approvingly.

  The tree looked perfect. Sophie gently touched one of its branches. “We have a winner,” she said.

  “Excellent!” Randolph shouted happily. “You all wait right here. I will go get my axe from our shed.”

  With that, he went off back through the trees towards his house. Sophie hugged herself to keep warm, though it still was a pleasant sort of chilly outside, not at all as frigid as she had expected. She smiled at Mrs. Pierce. “I bet Christmas is always beautiful here,” she said to her.

  The kind governess looked at her and gave a little smile of her own. “Now that you three are with us, I believe this Christmas will be the best one I have experienced at Parker Woods. You have no idea how lonely he and Gwen have been…”

  Sophie was suddenly curious about what had become of Mrs. Pierce, but she did not want to ask for fear of upsetting the nanny. She realized that she and Mrs. Pierce had more in common than teaching.

  “I am glad that you have been with them,” she told her. “I imagine it’s hard to find a good governess like you all the way out here.”

  Mrs. Pierce smiled a bit sadly. “My late husband used to work with Mr. Parker,” she explained. “So, I suppose you could say things worked out well, unfortunate though the circumstances were.”

  Sophie gently took the older woman’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “You are part of the family,” she said. “I am grateful to have you with us.”

  Just then, Randy reappeared with his axe. He had everyone stand back and chopped down the pretty-looking, good-smelling pine tree. Carefully, he lowered it to the ground and tied a rope around it for easier pulling.

  The newly-formed family happily strolled along with him as he brought the tree back to the house. Everyone worked together to situate the tree in the corner of the living room by the hearth, where Sophie had anticipated it standing. Teddy filled a bucket with water and Randy carefully placed the tree inside it. They all then stood back and admired their work.

  “Santa couldn’t have found a better tree,” Gwen said, and Anna blushed.

  Mrs. Pierce took Sophie to one of the closets in the hall and they came back with a large box full of ornaments, garlands and wreaths. Randolph began leading th
em all in song as they decorated the tree together.

  Hark! The herald angels sing, glory to the newborn king

  Peace on Earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled!

  Chapter 10

  On Christmas Eve, carriages took the family to a nearby church. Everyone filed into the chapel and Teddy, Anna and Gwen sat beside Mrs. Pierce in the front pew. The church was done up splendidly with candles and green and white ribbons.

  Sophie stood in her white wedding gown, feeling more nervous than she had felt when she married Albert. Or perhaps it was simply a different kind of nervous? When she walked down the aisle, she smiled up at Randolph and felt tears welling in her eyes. She never could have imagined, as she made her long voyage to marry a stranger, that she would end up marrying a friend.

  As she reached the altar, she was overcome with emotion as Randy took both of her hands in his. “Do you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband,” the priest asked her, “to have and to hold, to love and to cherish, to honor and obey, as long as you both shall live?”

  Sophie blushed and nodded, tears sliding down her cheeks. She felt as if she was glowing and could float away at any minute. “I do,” she said.

  Teddy and Anna let out a cheer and she laughed a little. Randy grinned at her.

  “Randolph,” the priest said. “Do you take this woman as your lawfully wedded wife?”

  Taking a cue from her, Randy nodded at Sophie before saying, “Yes, I do.”

  Her heart pounded throughout the rest of the ceremony, until at last the priest proclaimed that Randolph Parker could now kiss the bride.

  Randy came forward a little and lifted her veil. Leaning in and caressing her cheeks with his strong and gentle hands, he kissed her mouth. She kissed him back, overjoyed to be Mrs. Parker at last.

  Everyone was then asked to bow their heads as the priest concluded the ceremony with a verse from the Bible. “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud…”