Lauren grabs my sleeve. “Grant, can I talk to you?”
“Harvey, go ahead and start writing it up and give us a moment.”
The second he’s out of sight, her large hazel eyes pierce mine. “Have you lost your mind?”
“Not that I know of, no.”
“That is a ridiculous amount of money that we don’t need to spend; as long as I have the right ingredients, I can cookwhatever we need right over the fire. There’s no reason to purchase that.”
“Summer is coming, Lauren, and an open fire in the cabin is miserable. Will this stove make your life easier and the cabin cooler?”
“I suppose, but …”
“There is no but … now what all do we need for bread?”
“You are incorrigible.”
“Just figuring that out, huh?”
By the time we leave the mercantile, we have enough food to feed ten people for a month, two new rocking chairs, utensils, and seeds to start the garden.
“Harvey, I’ll bring the wagon up so we can load this stuff. We just need to make a quick stop at the Apothecary and I need to pay Beatrice.”
Thankfully, those shops are side by side, and I’m able to slip out one door and into another while Lauren is talking to the clerk about the salve.
“Beatrice, where are you, doll?”
“Coming, you handsome thing and I have all your things ready.”
“Here”, I hand her a twenty-dollar gold piece. “Will this pay for my sister’s silk?”
“And then some, let me get you change.”
“No, keep it. I want you to make a dress for Lauren for Christmas out of it.”
“Anything in particular?”
“I will leave that up to you. I am going to plan a trip for us, and she’ll need several nice dresses, a formal coat, and all the accessories.”
“I will get them started by the end of summer and they’ll be ready by November.”
“Perfect! I’d better get back before she realizes I am gone.”
“Grant?”
“Yes?”
“She’s standing strong right now, but that man was her husband, good or bad. Be gentle, a woman’s heart is a delicately strong thing, but easily damaged.”
“Thanks for the advice.”
I catch Lauren walking toward the door just as I am slipping back in. “My goodness, to be as large as you are, you disappear quite quickly on me, and I really wish you would stop that.”
Kissing her forehead, I can’t help but laugh. My Little Mouse can bite when she needs to.
CHAPTER 14
LAUREN
