Her long, dark hair was limp from the heat, and sweat beads were clinging to her temples and above her lip. Her large dark eyes held a look of desperation as she stared up the almost dried main street in the small town of Laws. She sighed heavily, wiping her upper lip with the now-wet, dainty hanky. Where was Jake Spiral?
"Maybe Jake got cold feet, Miss." The ticket agent smiled a toothless smile.
"I don't think so." The young girl tried to sound polite. "Jake is as eager to meet me as I am to meet him. We've corresponded for quite awhile."
"Writin' them letters ain't knowin' each other."
Nettie didn't want to debate with the old man, but she obliged him with an answer. "Letters are very much like conversations between blind people—they tell a lot about a person."
"Humph!" The agent chuckled. "I guess I just cain't see rough and rugged Jake ever writing letters."
"Rough and rugged Jake," Nettie whispered to herself with a smile. The letters he had written hadn't displayed those characteristics. Jake most certainly related that he was his own man and that he worked very hard to develop the Concord Ranch into a money maker. Jake and she had begun writing to each other over eight months ago.
Two years earlier medical debt from the extended illness of Nettie's mother had lost the Yelter family farm outside of Boston. That illness, still not controlled, was followed by the typhoid epidemic that took her mother and father.
At fifteen she moved to Boston to live with her aunt Mildred Jasper. It seemed a good fit with Mildred being widowed and needing help with her little boy, but that fell apart when Mildred met Fredrick, and Nettie was not as welcomed by Fred after the marriage took place.
She had worked hard in the two years she was with her Aunt, but in 1865 with so much poverty a girl didn't earn much. It was Mildred's suggestion—with Fred's insistence—that she should consider the ads for mail-order brides and find a new home in the great out West.
"Here's one right here, Nettie." Mildred supplied the article. "Wife wanted for a prominent rancher. Should be unmarried, between the ages of 18 and 21, able to take care of children and a home. Respond to Jake Spiral, Concord Ranch in Laws, California."
Nettie didn't want to argue anymore. She had no friends in Boston and was not likely to find any on a job she worked alone in a dank basement, washing linens from the Hotel. Fred said she wasn't bringing in enough to take care of herself, though she worked long hours and gave the couple all she made. She knew Fred just wanted her out of the house; after all Mildred and he were newlyweds and didn't need another woman in the house.
So began Nettie's correspondence with Jake. She began to look forward to the letters. Jake wrote sensitive, caring letters and even displayed a romantic side after two months of writing back and forth. She could not help but wonder what he looked like, as the two shared quite deep feelings about life, about faith, likes and dislikes. Then the letter came asking her if she would come.
"It's about time!" Fred had stated, not caring if Nettie could hear in her closet-type room next to the kitchen.
"Fred, shhh! You can't expect a young girl to just go running off not knowing a man," Mildred reprimanded her husband.
"It's been almost a year. How many others took off the same week they wrote?" Fred continued. "Harry's niece went, Bertha's daughter, George's niece. And they aren't near as attractive as Nettie. Why so long for Nettie?"
"He's just sent the money for her to come. How would she afford to go without it?"
Whether ready or not, Nettie packed her bags, took the money and bought a one-way train ticket to Laws. Even though Jake sent enough for a two-way ticket, there was no need to waste the money. She wouldn't be back to Boston no matter what happened.
From way up the road Nettie saw the buggy approaching the depot and watched tremulously to meet the man she'd come to know so well but had never met. As the black buggy neared the street Nettie saw that one of the men was young, maybe her age. His hat was thrown back and his white-blond hair gleamed in the sunlight. Even from the distance she could tell he had a strong face.
The other man was driving, and his hat shaded his face so that she couldn't tell what he looked like, but he was tall on the seat and broad-shouldered, perhaps older. It wasn't until the two men hopped onto the platform that Nettie got a good look. The driver was older; his graying hair fitted his firm, ruggedly attractive face. The young man was slightly shorter, but it was obvious they were related.
The two men passed Nettie and went to the agent's window. She relaxed thinking she had mistook the strangers until she heard the question to the agent.
"Did Miss Yelter get off, Henry?" It was the younger man. His voice was low with a pleasing drawl.
"Sure did. Seated on her trunk yonder."
Nettie could feel the little old agent's finger pointed at her back, and then there was a grand silence. Was this her Jake? Her blue velveteen dress became extremely warm, and the blood rushed to her cheeks. She heard boot heels on the platform, and suddenly the two men stood on either side of her, casting big shadows.
"Miss Yelter?" A voice spoke to her left, and Nettie turned to see the young man, maybe twenty, hat in hand with a confused look on his face. He smiled nervously as he took her hand. His blue eyes, his blond hair were just as she thought, and she smiled back.
"Jake?" Nettie questioned, so glad he looked as she had expected then blushed wondering if her rather plain looks disappointed him. Her Aunt had told her that she had pretty eyes and acceptable good looks and figure but to not be too choosy if given a proposal.
"David—David Spiral." The young man lowered his brilliant blue eyes. "I would like to introduce you to my father, Jake Spiral."
"Not Jake?" was all that she could muster. Her heart sank. If Jake had a son David's age then Jake must be—pretty old. She turned her dark eyes to the older man and tried to smile.
"This is my father, Jake Spiral." David gestured to the older man.
Jake, hat in hand, returned a sheepish smile. He was a big man, rough and rugged, with nothing to say.
A sinking feeling overtook Nettie. "You told me of your son, but I didn't realize, I mean—I guess we never spoke of ages at all, did we? I just assumed from the ad that—"
Jake interrupted, "I thought, I mean from your letters, Miss Yelter, that you were—well, I mean more my age."
"I don't suppose the age matters so much." Nettie felt stung at being called Miss Yelter after months of the familiar `Nettie' in the letters. She wasn't disillusioned with her proposed fiancé except that he was slightly older than she'd expected. She asked cautiously, "Are you very disappointed, Jake?"
"No, that ain't it, it's just—well, you're young enough to be my daughter!" Jake stated rather loudly then calmed and slapped his hat on his thigh. "I just didn't think you were so young."
"Then why did you ask for some…" Nettie started then lowered her head trying to control the hurt. "I'm the woman you asked to marry you if we still feel the same way after meeting, remember? We are still the same people who wrote the letters, shared our feelings—does the age really matter that much?" Her glance flickered to David, and she quickly looked away.
"But it might matter to my Son." Jake, with head slightly lowered, eyed David.
"Pa, it ain't for me to decide. It's how you feel." The young man sighed heavily.
"You're a big help!" Jake muttered his jaw line tensing. He motioned for his son to grab one end of the big trunk. "We'll all stay at the hotel tonight. I gotta have time to think this out!"
Nettie's temper suddenly flared with sarcasm as she picked her skirts up and tracked across the street toward the hotel. "Don't hurry on my account, Jake Spiral!"
"Wait a minute!"
She felt herself being lifted from the muddy ground and found herself in David's strong arms. He didn't look at her, and when he spoke it was rough but still with trepidation.
"You don't want to ruin them shoes, do ya?"
She glanced back to Jake, who'd sat down on the trunk. He had a pleased expression on his face that puzzled her.
"This town is as muddy as your father said." Nettie spoke, enjoying her ride.
"It ain't hardly muddy at all right now. You should see it right after a rain."
"I'd like to."
David set her on the steps and swung around. "Gotta get your trunk."
Sometime later after Nettie had settled in her room she went out and slowly paced back and forth across the hotel porch. She pretended not to see the young Spiral until he was climbing the rough wooden steps, then she turned to greet him.
"Hello, David." Her greeting was simple but warm.
"Nettie." He pushed back his hat. "Pa told me to keep you company—have supper. He, uh, he had some work to do."
"You don't have to cover up for him." She couldn't fault the son for his father's behavior. "Although I don't really understand his shock."
"Well, it's not exactly that." He laughed shortly and then sat on the top step. "You see, it was my idea for Pa to put his name in that paper. Since my mother died three years ago he just seemed so lost around the house. I said I thought he needed to marry again."
"And he agreed?"
"Not at first. Said my mother was all the wife a man needed for a lifetime." David scratched the back of his head as he pulled off his hat. "He said we have Tessie—that's our housekeeper—and I thought the subject was dropped. Then last year when he came back from Aunt Marge's in Boston he told me he had placed the ad so not to bother him anymore."
"You know it seems strange now that we never mentioned ages—but I just assumed from the ad that I was writing to someone close to my age. I mean, from the letters I never thought about ages. Do you know what I mean?"
"Yeah, I do," David nodded standing. "I guess that's one thing you can't always tell from letters."
"I thought I could." Nettie said under her breath.
"What?"
"Nothing. Are we ready for supper?"
"If you are." David smiled and opened the hotel's dining room door.
Nettie couldn't miss the stares and whispers in the dining room and wondered what they must think of her, if they knew, and she supposed they did in a small town. She was aware of what girls were called in Boston who chose much older men for the security of wealth; her face reddened at the thought.
She assumed her face was a shade of crimson by the time David and she sat at the corner table. Everyone the couple passed gave some sort of greeting, many blatantly raising eyebrows or passing a knowing wink to David. Many of the women in the dining room simply held their heads aloof or whispered behind a gloved hand.
"Did they all know I was coming?" Nettie leaned across the table and spoke in low tones.
"Most everyone knows everyone else's business 'round here." David hedged the answer as the waitress swiftly appeared. "Should I order for us both?"
"That would be a good idee since he knows the menu by heart." The plump woman leaned on the empty chair next to the young man and pointed her pencil and pad at Nettie with that same raised brow. "This can't be the one! Why, she's just a baby! What is old Jake a-thinkin'?"
David cleared his throat. "Rose, this is Nettie Yelter—a friend from Boston come to visit." He motioned to Rose. "Nettie, this is Rose."
"Nice to meet you." Nettie got a handshake so vigorous that her hat trembled.
"That's okay—a friend from Boston—okay, good to have you here." Rose winked at Nettie then continued her job. "So what will you have?"
The order taken, the steak, potato and vegetables were on the table before Nettie commented on David's statement. "A friend? Come to visit?"
"It's enough for them to know right now." Visibly upset, David forked in a mouthful.
"The advertisement said, 'must be unmarried between the ages of 18 and 21.'" Nettie kept her tone low. "I guess I just assumed I was writing to someone in that age range. I never thought... I mean—"
Agitated, the young man put down the fork but kept his voice under control. "Neither did I—I never saw the ad, had no idea you were so young. In the letters back and forth—"
"You read my letters? His letters?" Again she felt the color rising in her cheeks.
"I can't believe he would have listed it like that!"
At that statement Nettie sat straight and bristled. "I assure you that is what the ad said! I did not write your father under false pretenses!"
"Oh, no, no." David reached out and placed his hand on hers. "I never intended that you would think that."
Pursing her lips, her vision blurred as tears began to form. "I would like to go to my room now, please." As she stood David assisted with the chair.
"I'm sorry. You must be tired." He laid some money on the table and followed her from the dining room. When they reached the room he pulled the key from his pocket, unlocked the door and handed her the key. "Since you are here, please let me take you out and show you the ranch tomorrow."
Nettie hesitated then nodded her head. "Come at nine in the morning?"
David smiled again and sighed. "That would be great—great. See you then."
She pushed open the door as he walked away. Why? Why couldn't this be the Spiral she had poured her heart out to—had grown so affectionate for?
She was so tense that she couldn't just go to sleep so she sat down to read for awhile. The Bible was on the nightstand so she picked it up. As she read she remembered the conversations—the letter conversations between her and Jake that let her know he shared the same faith as she did. That made it easier, knowing that he trusted in a God who had helped him throughout the years.
She thought back to the years since her parents' death, the years with Aunt Mildred and how comforting it was to know she was not alone. She was interrupted by a soft knock on the door.
She opened the door a crack and saw Jake standing there, hat in hand. She opened the door wider. "Come in."
Jake quietly came in and as she sat he sat next to her on the settee. He fumbled the hat before he spoke. "Tell me—weren't you a mite scared I wouldn't be what you were expecting?"
Nettie laughed softly. "I must admit, there was a time I almost turned back."
"And why didn't you?" The settee creaked as he stood.
"Because," she tried to keep her voice light, "I remembered your letters—and I knew if that man was waiting for me I had nothing to fear." She lowered her eyes, for she wasn't accustomed to speaking so much.
Suddenly her companion turned sharply. "I've never felt like such a foolish man!" His voice was loud, with a quiet correction. "Not since—well, I gotta think this out!" Then his long legs carried him to the door and out. Nettie was left sitting in the musty room, staring at the closed door. As tears welled up she got ready for bed.
A light tapping woke her up to the sunlit room, the drab walls not looking quite so drab.
"Just a moment," she mumbled, her thoughts going back to the day before. Could she ever be a good wife to a man like Jake? Pulling on her dressing robe she went to the door. "Who is it?"
"It's me—David."
She opened the door a few inches, still partly asleep. "I am so sorry, David. I didn't realize how tired I was." Nettie's eyes met his, and she saw the flushed look on his face, but he smiled. "Can you give me...maybe fifteen minutes?"
"I'll be downstairs waiting. Take your time." His voice was forgiving, and he nodded slightly as he turned to go.
Nettie seldom had to rush the way she did, and she almost forgot her hat as she swung the door open thirty minutes later. She didn't want to run but did some quick stepping until she reached the stairway landing. She slowed and checked her buttons one more time. She saw David sitting in a relaxed state against the dining room wall. He was the picture of all she had hoped in the months of writing.
"We can have some breakfast before we head out." David stood as she approached.
"Maybe a cup of tea?" She nodded as he took her arm.
Later as the couple left the hotel, David helped her into the buggy parked by the plank walkway.
Nettie could only think if things were as they should be, she would be going home as this man's wife this morning. By a horrible twist of fate it was not to be. David's mannerisms and speech were so like all the letters with which Nettie had literally fallen in love.
Jake had described the countryside around Laws in such detail that it seemed familiar to Nettie. The distant mountains capped with snow, the lush, green valley dotted here and there with cattle and the spirited horses that came to the fence as the buggy passed by were in her memory as if she had been there already.
"It is just as Jake described." She sighed removing her hat to let the warm spring breeze filter through her dark hair. She closed her eyes. "I can almost see the fields blanketed in snow in winter."
"Some winters we don't get much, and then—well, sometimes we get snowed in close to the mountains." David held the reins loosely, and the horse picked his pace.
"Jake said he grew up here; his father and grandfather founded the ranch. So it will come to you when they are gone?" Nettie stared at the young man's strong jawline.
"Pa and me are all that's left. Always thought I would take over. I love ranchin', but now…"
She wasn't sure what the pause meant but supposed it might be because she may become Mrs. Spiral. "David, you don't have to worry about the ranch on my behalf. It belongs to you. I would never contest that."
"No, maybe it's time for me to head out. Pa will have someone to take care of him so I won't have that responsibility no more. No, you two should plan your life, children maybe."
She blushed involuntarily at the mention of children. She couldn't imagine David having a baby brother or sister at his age.
"Does your father own all of this?" Nettie changed the subject.
David stopped the buggy under the shade of a huge spreading tree. "A good part of it." He reached up to help Nettie. His arms around her waist lifted her out of the buggy and for a moment they stood very close. His eyes reflected an unspoken truth that made her move away.
"Uh—are there many neighbors?"
"Not many neighbors." David continued to stare at her. "But if a woman loved the land and her husband, she'd be happy."
"Do you think so?" She met his concentrated gaze.
"My mother was with my father." A smile touched his lips, and he nodded replacing his hat. He then put his arm at her waist and took her hand. She closed her eyes wanting to turn around, and then she felt herself being turned to face David. She looked into his face, and, just as she thought he was going to enfold her in his arms, he looked away and boosted her up onto the buggy seat. "We better get on to the ranch."
Her voice was so low she could barely hear it. "I can't do this!"
"Can't?"
"David, your father came to see me last night. He isn't the same man I wrote to all those months. He is different. Can you understand that?"
Nettie realized by his straight ahead look and lack of answer that he did understand, and that made her decision sure. How could she have been so wrong in reading Jake's feelings in the letters he had written? It broke her heart, but she was certain that with the feelings she was having toward David, a marriage to Jake would never work.
When the house came into view it was as if a picture book had been opened. Nettie knew it so well from the letters that it was no surprise at all when David took her inside. Even the housekeeper, Tessie, looked as Jake had described, and her husband, Will, seemed like an old friend. She expected they would be surprised at her age, but if they were it didn't show in the hospitality.
"Why don't you take Miss Nettie out and show her the new foal, Davy?" Will prodded. "Just birthed last night."
"She's from a farm, Will. She's probably seen lots of foals." David looked to Nettie to gauge her interest.
"I'd love to see it. We had a milk cow, some chickens and such but only work horses." She appreciated the look of approval from the young man.
In the barn David knelt beside the foal and caressed the soft muzzle. "It's like a miracle, don't you think? All those scrawny, long legs and that big head curled up inside the mare until God gives the go-ahead and out she comes in a bundle." He laughed at the foal's hopping action. "But it doesn't take long for those legs to unfold and stand up."
In the letters Jake had expressed his faith in a God that handles the good and bad, a protector and strength to people who believe. That Jake believed was important in her choice to come so far.
Leaving the stall, David moved close in front of Nettie to open the door. Her hand was on the rail, and he placed his over hers, and their eyes met. She knew at that moment she could not go through with marriage to Jake. All the feelings she had built up from the letters were transposed to David, and she knew she must leave.
It was silent on the way back to town. She would meet Jake and let him know the plan just would not work. She need not mention the attraction to David. Though the only mention of age was in the ad, Jake had been a little deceptive in making her believe he and she were close in age.
Back at the hotel Nettie packed her suitcase slowly. What she was going to do, where she was going to go from Laws, she had no idea, but she knew for sure she had to go.
A heavy rapping on the door startled her, and she called out, "Who is it?"
Jake strode into the room, his long legs bringing him to her side in three steps. "Nettie, I have something to say." He looked at the suitcase contemplatively, then back to the lowered dark-haired head. He reached out and gently put a finger under her chin and lifted her head. "Don't look so ashamed, missy. You got no reason."
Nettie's eyes filled with tears and questioning.
"I didn't write none of them letters. I can't write. David wrote 'em." Jake rubbed the back of his head smiling wryly then leaned on the iron bedpost. "I told his Aunt Marge it wouldn't work! David told me you brought up the ad—the age there—and he wanted to know why I did that."
Her tear stained face showed surprise. "David wrote? It was David I fell in love with? Why, Jake? Why would you do something so hurtful?"
"I didn't mean it to be hurtful." Jake shrugged and put a hand on her shoulder. "I should of given that more thought. You see, my son kept bringing up the subject of me getting married again over and over so I thought—well, two can play with this lasso, and it's about time he got hitched and leave me alone." He sighed heavily. "I had his Aunt Marge put the ad in the Boston paper."
It was silent in the room. Through the open window the sound of tinkling glasses could be heard from the saloon across the street. A weight had been lifted off her shoulders knowing she no longer was expected to marry Jake, but something else took its place.
"This was not a game to me. This is my life, not a plaything." Nettie was angry.
"But something good has come from this, and I think you two should give it a chance."
"I'm leaving." She shrugged trying to explain, not able to look at Jake. "David wrote those letters for YOU. If he thought he was writing someone your age—they couldn't have been sincere."
"Maybe not at first, but it wasn't just a short while after you were going back and forth that he wanted to stop. Didn't feel it was right, but I talked him out of it. I could tell after he continued that he wasn't really thinkin' about me when he was answering and how anxious he was to get every letter from you."
Nettie continued to fold her dresses and stuff them into the cardboard suitcase. She did not want to be fooled again.
"Nettie! You tell me why my son came to me and said that if we married, he'd have to be moving on. Why would he say that—the way he loves the ranch? Tell me that!" Jake almost pleaded.
She had never unpacked her truck so when she remained silent Jake picked up the trunk with a grunt. "All right, but you are making a mistake!"
The afternoon sun found Nettie again sitting on her trunk at the depot. There was no train until seven, but she felt better sitting in the sun than in her hotel room. She hadn't seen David; she wanted to but felt it better if she didn't.
Suddenly heavy steps on the depot planks made her turn, and David stood before her, very much a man and plainly very sincere.
"You can't go back after comin' out here. Come on home with us."
She stared at the man she had come to love, wanting very much to go with him, and then she sighed. "I don't want to stay just because I came a long way." She shook her head hopelessly. "You ask so abruptly, like it's a chore. I liked it better today when you stopped being...oh, David."
He moved around in front of her then hesitantly took her hand. "Nettie, I didn't lie in those letters. I guess I got to the point of loving you, and, well, I guess I forgot it would be my Pa you'd come to meet, not me." David looked down the street. "In my letters I could share how I felt."
"I'm the same Nettie." A smile played at her lips. She held her breath waiting.
"Dear Nettie—don't go. Let's be ourselves, and let what happens, happen." David's eyes held a deep affection and a hopeful expression that made the young girl smile as he finished his "letter." "With my deep, abiding love for you always, David."
Nettie began to laugh as she slipped her arms around his waist and leaned on his shoulder. "David, David, let's not have any more letters!" And for the first time their lips met in a long-overdue kiss.