While he was gone, she would have time to think things over and decide how to break the news to her employer—and her mama hen of a sister—that she was engaged to be married.
Chapter Three
“YOU’RE WHAT?” GABRIEL roared.
“Ssssh! Ssssh!” Letty implored, covering her ears. “You’ll disturb Willie with your shouting.”
“No chance, that boy is deep in the arms of Morpheus and he ain’t stirrin’ till t’morrow noon. Now just what have you got—”
“Marriage, Doctor. I’m getting ma
rried!” She all but stamped her foot in frustration.
“Great gobs of mud, girl, can’t any of you Burtons go ’round the block a couplea times before havin’ to get hitched right away? How’s a man s’posed to get any of you in between husbands, when you’re so all-fired set—”
“It’s what we had promised to do; it’s what we were expected to do!”
“Expected?” Unable to sit still during such a contretemps, Gabe had been pacing back and forth in his office ever since Letitia, who hoped that telling the doctor would be slightly easier than telling her sister, had informed him of her impending nuptials. No such luck. “What, y’ mean this was predestined since birth, or somethin’?”
From the frustration of fending off such a vehement rejoinder, she was now overcome by the discouraging urge to burst into tears. “We discussed the situation, we four girls, before we ever left St. Louis,” she explained, swallowing hard. “And it was decided that—”
“Oh, you each made the decision? Cut your palms and swore a blood oath on y’all four gettin’ hitched, soon as possible, didja?”
“You needn’t be sarcastic, Gabe. And I don’t see what business it is of yours, anyway. I was only trying to be considerate, by telling you first. Camellia doesn’t even know yet!”
Silence, broken by the sudden creak of a windmill, several streets further on, as a night breeze blew through the blades, and young drugged Willie’s snores. Gabriel raised his eyes to heaven and counted slowly aloud. His supper of beef stew and biscuits had decided not to sit easily on his stomach, at being so informed of great changes about to come. Or perhaps it was the cheap rotgut they served at Sittin’ Eat, known more for their cuisine than their alcoholic beverages. And even that wasn’t much.
Once he had reached the magic number of ten, and his complexion no longer resembled that of a raging bull’s, and the steam was done exploding from his ears, and his nostrils had stopped flaring, he plopped into his chair and extended a hand to her.
“You’re right, my dear Miss Burton. Imagine that: twice in one day I’ve admitted to being wrong. At any rate, I do apologize. Now sit here, and tell me all about what’s going on. I assure you that I will listen to the end without comment.”
“Well...” Mollified but still wary, Letty accepted his invitation and took a seat.
Perhaps he wasn’t fully aware of the Burtons’ background, she began to explain. The four of them had been left nearly destitute, thanks to their father’s—um—improvident investments. They needed financial support, above and beyond whatever amount of cash the sale of their jewelry might engender, and they needed it quickly.
“So we all decided that the best way to do that was to become mail order brides. Camellia started us off, by moving all of us down here and marrying Ben. And that’s been a success, hasn’t it?”
“Stellar.” But not, Gabe knew, without some tears and temper and a lot of hard work. Of course, that’s true of any relationship, isn’t it? Which might have been part of the reason Gabriel Havers had remained a bachelor into his late twenties’. Thus far.
“Then Molly, who has always been an impatient person, decided to take matters into her own hands, without advice or counsel. Well.” Letitia managed to look down her nose at those misguided efforts. “We see how that idea turned out.”
In a surprising move, he reached over to take her hand. “But, Letty, dear, isn’t that exactly what you’ve just done?”
Caught, she flushed a deep and becoming peony-pink. “Uh.”
“Ahuh. Well, go on, then. Tell me what you’ve done.”
She, along with the rest of Turnabout, had watched the cataclysmic mistakes of Molly’s hasty marriage, and then the heartening developments after. So it seemed that events would soon be satisfactorily settled for Burton Girl Number Two. Letty really felt that it was now her turn.
“Much as I have enjoyed my medical studies, Gabe, much as I have appreciated working with you, I would like to feel safe and established in my own home, with my own husband. So I—ahem. Well, I put myself on the auction block.”
“Advertised, you mean.”
“Exactly. Almost immediately, in fact, once Molly told us about Quinn.”
Hmmm. A bit of sisterly rivalry there? If she can do it, so can I...
“And you have a taker,” Gabriel guessed, with a crooked smile, “since you’re finally willing to ’fess up. Naughty girl. So, c’mon, give.”