her room, rage and hurt causing tears to spill over. A child! The man married her and then had the audacity to call her a child. If she was such a child why had he chosen her to be a glorified nurse maid turned prisoner? Alexandria impatiently splashed her face with water and blotted it dry. She had no use for tears and no time. Mr. Stewart would be waiting to escort her. She dressed quickly and efficiently in an appropriate dress and wrapped her braid into a thick configuration on her head before securing it. Her task completed, she stood before the mirror and raised her chin, squared her shoulders, and fixed her composure back in place. She didn’t want a near stranger being privy to her quiet anguish and she didn’t want to give Elijah any more power to hurt her. With determination she went to collect Lilly and exited the house.
The wagon stood ready; Mr. Stewart waiting.
“Eli asked me to pick up a few things while we’re in town,” Jonathon explained the choice of wagon over buggy.
“That’s fine,” she assured him as she set Lilly on the high seat and prepared to climb up after her.
“Here you go, Ma’am,” he quickly stepped forward to offer her aid over the wheel.
“Thank you,” Alexandria offered a polite smile and nod.
Jonathon circled the wagon and climbed onto the seat, he wasn’t certain but he suspected that Alexandria had been crying. He glanced her direction and then at the road ahead.
“I’m sorry to inconvenience you, Mr. Stewart, I’m afraid I bungled my first attempt at lady of the manor. Fortunately I am nothing if not tenacious; I’ll master it yet,” Alexandria attempted to make light of her very public humiliation.
“You haven’t inconvenienced me at all, it’s a beautiful afternoon to be out,” he assured her. “As for mastering the lady of the manor I assure you aren’t the first or the last newly wed to struggle with that. I came home one evening to find Emily sitting in the floor beside a burnt mess that should have been dinner.”
“Emily?”
“My wife, she died several weeks ago.”
Alexandria flinched at his words, “I’m sorry for your loss. I didn’t mean to cause you to…”
“No, no, you have nothing to apologize for; I brought her up. Actually it feels good to talk about her. I hadn’t realized until just now that I hadn’t and that makes me nearly as sad as losing her.”
Alexandria wasn’t sure what to say to that. Lilly, who had been watching Jonathon since they left the house, suddenly abandoned Alexandria’s lap for Jonathon’s.
“Lillian! Mr. Stewart is trying to drive,” Alexandria chastised as she attempted to reach for her step-daughter.
“She’s fine. I love kids,” Jonathon assured her as he settled Lilly more firmly in his lap. He placed the reigns in Lilly’s hands and kept his hands below hers. Lillian shot her new mommy a triumphant smile.
“Congratulations, Mr. Stewart, she doesn’t take to just anyone but when she does she’s loyal.”
“I’m honored; it isn’t everyday a pretty lady takes up with me,” he joked with a smile.
Alexandria thought back to the previous Sunday at church and it was her turn to smile, “You must not be aware of the stir caused at church Sunday.”
Alexandria watched him color but felt no remorse for her teasing.
“I’m not unaware, I simply wish to ignore it in the hope it will go away.” His expression was so woebegone that Alexandria found herself laughing. It felt good to laugh.
“I wish you luck with that one, Mr. Stewart. I’ve seen the young ladies around here when they are taken with a fellow; they are quite relentless.”
“Thanks for the warning.”
“You’re welcome. Where are you from, Mr. Stewart?”
“South Dakota.”
“So when your wife died you decided on a change of scenery?”
“I did,” he nodded.
“Do you have any other family?”
“I have an older half-brother Lewis, he’s married to Carol and they have Missy and Nate. I have an older sister Carol, she’s married to Frank and they have twin boys Matthew and Mark, and my brother-in-law keeps joking about a Luke and John,” he shared and watched her smile. “I also have a younger brother Theodore, though we all call him Ted.”
“No mother and father?” her eyes were lit with teasing.
“A mother, Dorothy, and a father, Nicolas,” he returned on a chuckle.
“Where do they live?”
“In the same community I did in South Dakota.”
“And you left them all?” her eyes were wide in disbelief.
“Had I not I would have been perpetually haunted; there