Page 26 of A Joyful Ring
Risa had been around enough mining towns to know the town could be booming one day and gone the next. Which was why she wanted to marry a man with a job that kept him at home in a place where they could set down roots and build a life together. Not live like gypsies, without a place of their own.
Even if Risa didn’t particularly want to stay in the ugly town of Lovely, she liked living in Eastern Oregon and hoped to make it her permanent home. If her father and Mrs. Franklin decided to wed, she wasn’t sure what that would mean for her future. Would they leave the land they’d worked so hard to take out of sagebrush and turn into something beyond a dust-blown spot on the road? Risa wasn’t in a hurry to leave what they’d started. She’d planted four apricot trees from the seeds she’d taken out of the fruit Gunder had brought them in July, along with six cherry trees. If the trees took off and grew, one day she and her father would have all thefruit they wanted in the summer, with extra to sell. She supposed she could dig up the sapling trees that were growing, and the bushes she’d planted that were starting to thrive, along with her strawberry and raspberry plants, but she didn’t want to.
“There she is,” Gunder said, pulling Risa from her thoughts as a buggy coming from Baker City approached them.
Gunder drew the team to a stop in a wide spot of the road and lifted a hand in greeting. Risa knew she was coated in a layer of dust, but there wasn’t any help for it. Anxious and nervous, she ignored the urge to shrink back in the seat and act as though this meeting weren’t her doing.
Instead, she forced herself to draw in a calming breath, then another, before smiling as a small buggy driven by a beautiful woman came to a stop beside them.
“Hello!” Mrs. Franklin called as she set the brake and wrapped the lines out of the way.
Gunder stepped out of the wagonette and across the dirt-packed road to her, holding out a hand to help her down.
She gifted him with a brilliant smile that revealed even teeth, and took his hand. “So nice to see you, Gunder. Thank you for making the arrangements for today.”
“I only ferried messages back and forth. Risa gets the credit for planning the meeting.”
“You were knee-deep in this, son. Don’t deny it,” Lars said as he hurried around the wagonette and took the woman’s other hand in his, then boldly kissed her cheek.
Risa watched a becoming blush color Mrs. Franklin’s cheeks, but then she turned and smiled at Risa before looking at Lars. “Oh, she’s even prettier than you described, Lars.”
One moment, Risa had been stepping down from the wagonette, and the next she was engulfed in a soft lilac-scented hug that made a lump lodge in her throat and reminded her how much she missed her mother.
“Risa! It’s absolutely divine to meet you. Let me get a good look at you, dear girl.” Mrs. Franklin pulled back to study her, giving Risa the same opportunity to size up the woman who had captured her father’s heart.
Despite the dust and heat of the day, Mrs. Franklin looked as fresh as a daisy in a green gown that accentuated her green eyes as well as her rich chestnut hair artfully styled beneath a matching green hat set at a saucy angle. The woman was of medium height, with plenty of curves, and lines around her eyes that made Risa think she laughed often and enjoyed life.
From prior conversations about the woman with her father, as well as Gunder, Risa knew Gloria Franklin had been a widow for eight years, had turned the place she and her husband had built just before his passing into a boardinghouse, and was a good cook who kept an immaculately clean home.
After only a moment, Risa felt a connection to Mrs. Franklin she couldn’t begin to explain or understand, other than to think God had brought her into their lives for a reason. If that reason were tobring Lars Hoffman joy, then Risa certainly wouldn’t get in the way of it.
Risa glanced at her father as he looked at Mrs. Franklin with love in his expression. The woman was attractive, kind, fashionable, and friendly. It seemed to Risa there was much to love about Mrs. Franklin.
Impulsively, Risa gave her another hug, this one out of the joy of meeting her, and smiled when she heard Mrs. Franklin laugh softly.
“You are splendid, Risa,” the woman whispered in her ear before she drew back, then looked at their surroundings. “My friend had a sniffle this morning, so she stayed home from church and declined my offer to join us. It’s just as well. She’d likely pass dead away if she saw that rattler over there soaking up the autumn sun.”
Risa’s gaze followed where Mrs. Franklin pointed and noticed a rattlesnake stretched out on a boulder to capture the afternoon warmth.
Gunder’s eyebrows raised, impressed neither Risa nor Mrs. Franklin began screaming or fainting.
“It will leave us alone if we do the same,” Lars said, cupping Mrs. Franklin’s elbow and helping her into the back of the wagonette. “We thought it might be best to eat in the wagon, that way there’s no chance of anything crawling into our laps.”
“Not to mention trying to find a flat place to spread a blanket without rocks or sagebrush poking at us,” Gunder said, offering Risa a hand once Mrs. Franklin was settled on one of the two benches.
Risa took his hand and stepped up into the back, then settled across from the elegant woman,thoroughly charmed by her and the way her father couldn’t seem to keep his eyes off of her as he took a seat beside Mrs. Franklin.
Once he’d stepped into the back, Gunder retrieved the picnic basket from where they’d secured it beneath the front seat and set it on the floor next to Risa.
“Papa, would you give thanks for us?” Risa asked, doing her best not to giggle at the man who could sometimes be stern but now looked younger and happier than she’d seen him since her mother had died.
Lars offered a brief but tender prayer, then Risa opened the basket while Gunder removed the gun belt he wore and set it on the seat beside him. Her father and Jed had given him shooting lessons until he was more proficient at hitting a bullseye than either of them. Risa knew how to shoot, and guns were a way of life when you traveled like she and her father had for so many years. Regardless, she didn’t think Gunder had gotten used to wearing a gun belt or carrying a pistol with him everywhere he went. At least he could shoot with accuracy and defend himself from beast or foe if the need arose.
Risa took out plates and cutlery as well as napkins and passed them around while Gunder retrieved four jars filled with apple cider she’d left outside all night in a bucket of cold well water. They’d been partially frozen when she’d checked them as she did her morning chores. The ice had all melted, but the water was still cool and had kept the cider chilled on their trip to meet Mrs. Franklin. The bucket of water also gave them a way to wash up ifneeded.
“I hope you like meat pies, Mrs. Franklin,” Risa said, removing the cloth she’d wrapped around a plate piled high with meat pies she’d filled and baked that morning. Gunder had told her about the Swedish meat pies his mother used to make, and they were similar to a hand pie Risa’s mother had taught her to prepare.
She found it fascinating that despite their different cultures, there were many similarities between Gunder’s Swedish background and Risa’s German roots.
