His trunks proved slightly more challenging, as they were not only larger but also triple the weight. What feels like hours later, I am sweeping the entire area, amazed at how much larger the place looks now that it’s all opened up.
I move the table over, then position the rockers back from the fireplace a little, giving us a lot more room to simply move around. I’ve just sat down to take a break when I hear a wagon coming up the road. Walking out the front door, old man Harvey waves and I wave back, wondering where Grant is.
My thoughts must have conjured him up, because he appears around the corner.
“Right on time, do you need any help inside?”
“Nope, I cleared that whole corner out so that they could work, but we may need to move the rockers out of the way for them to get it in. I’ll do that now.”
It doesn’t take the three of them long to get the stove in and in place. Grant works on the vent hole while the other men run the piping outside. Before he leaves, Mr. Harvey shows me how to light the stove and adjust the temperature. When Grant walks out with the other two men, Harvey turns to me.
“I think that’s it, young lady. You sure got the place looking nice in here. You settling in alright?”
“I am, thank you for asking.”
“Oh, I almost forgot, Beatrice sent this with me. I should have known better than to stick it in my pocket.”
I unwrap the small package, finding a set of needles and a crochet hook. “Oh, these are wonderful. Would you please hug her for me? This was so thoughtful.”
“Well, hugging might get me smacked, but I’ll sure try.”
“She also sent a crate with scrap cloth and some yarn. I’ll have one of the men set it on the porch before we leave. Good luck with the stove and I am sure you will get years of good meals from it.”
“Thank you again.”
Grant came in a little after I heard the wagon leaving. “My goodness Lauren, the place doesn’t even look the same with the bed and that screen missing. You should have waited for me to move those trunks.”
“After I moved them, I got a little worried that I’d overstepped by just assuming you wanted us to sleep in the same bed.”
“I will take any excuse to hold you in my arms and now you can’t kick me out, because I no longer have another bed to go to. So, no complaining if I snore too loud, it’s all your fault. I still need to tend to the animals, but I’ll return in a little bit. Harvey brought some soup from the inn, so if you want to heat it up for supper, that’s fine with me; you’ve worked hard enough today.”
“Are you sending a messenger pigeon to town or something. How would he know to do that?”
“No, but that sounds like a good idea; keep me from riding back and forth. The inn was having a fundraiser and I saw the flyer when we were leaving, so I placed the order and then asked Harvey to bring it with him.”
Following him out the back door, I bring in the food and the crate that Beatrice had sent. Just as I’m getting the bowls out of the cupboard, he comes in, hands and face freshly washed, and I realize I could use a good bath myself after everything today.
I shake my head, watching as he digs into his food, but I guess if I were his size, it would take quite a bit to fuel all that mass. He must have seen me looking because he wipes his mouth off on one of the towels.
“I have been thinking.”
“Is that a bad thing?”
“No, Little Mouse … but I’m curious.”
“About what?”
“What’s your dream home?”
“Oh my, I never really thought about it.”
“Lauren, if money were not a problem, what features would you like or not like in a home?”
I sit there for a moment pondering. “No ladders! When I was a kid, I can’t tell you how many times I almost fell off that ladder in the middle of the night, half asleep, needing to pee. A close water source, like a well, would be nice for two reasons. No breaking ice in the creek in the winter, and no lugging multiple heavy pails up slick banks. Off the top of my head, that’s all I’ve got.”
“There must be more than that. What about a porch or other outdoor features?”
“Normally, I don’t pay much attention to such things, but when I was little, I traveled with my dad to the neighboring county. I don’t recall why right now, but we stopped at this house to water our horses, and I remember thinking it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. It wasn’t rare to see a one-level home, but this one had a wraparound porch with big double doors open to let the air in. It had windows in what looked like every room, with pretty, painted shutters surrounding them. And even though all that was beautiful, it was the stone walkway around the house that led into the garden, with an arched trellis over its entry, that I remember the most. The house was not huge, but it looked like a home, with laundry hanging in the breeze and flowers neatly tended in pots all over the porch. Why?”
