Entangled Hearts

Chapter 39

Two years had made a great difference in Clara Porter, without Eli there to boss her to do work that was too hard for any woman. She had rented her farm both years, keeping only one cow and her flock of purebred chickens to care for, besides her apple orchard and the garden plots where she raised vegetables and flowers. Everett Whitmer had shown her so much kindness and had helped her so much, that the embers of their love that had been concealed for so many years were again being fanned into a flame, that started a buzzing in the hive of the town gossipers.

The Sewing Circle members were meeting at the home of Katie Wilkins. Sadie Waller and Sophie Wenks, the doctor's wife, came unusually early that day. As they took out their sewing and threaded their needles, they began to buzz.

"Did Clara Porter accept our invitation to join the Circle?" Sadie Waller asked, working her needle in and out industriously.

"She has not decided for sure, but I think she will join. I have invited her to come and visit with us today, so we must make a favorable impression," Mrs. Wilkins answered as she adjusted her spectacles. "She gets out now and comes to church, she might as well join our club."

"Did it ever dawn on you that Eli belonged to the other denomination? I personally think that Clara comes to our church just because Everett Whitmer belongs to it," Mrs. Wenks put in. "And I think that she looks all of ten years younger than she used to."

"Yes, she does. If I did not know that it is natural roses that have come into her cheeks, I would swear she uses rouge," Sadie Waller said as she bit off an end of thread from the piece she was sewing on.

So, they continued to discuss their prospective member.

"You should have seen her and Everett Whitmer drive up to the picture show, in the new car of his, last night. I hear that they have been going to the shows often lately. It looks like a love match there."

"Say, won't she have an easy life is she marries him? She will have all of the conveniences of a modern home and a housekeeper besides to do the work for her. Everett surely won't turn Maria Beckman away after all these years of faithful service."

"I don't know but I imagine Eli was mean to her. She would never let on that he was, but I think that she deserves a nice home, if you want my opinion."

"Well, I wonder what ever became of that Whitmer boy and the youngest Porter girl," the doctor's wife remarked, "Do you know that my husband told me that the girl was married and going to have a baby before she ever went away from here. I tried to pump Maria Beckman about it one day a long time ago, but she never let on as if she knew anything about it. It must have been a secret marriage. I guess they are living together somewhere."

"It's mighty funny that they never write home," Katie Wilkens said with a peculiar look on her face. "All the time I had the Post Office, while Erick Johnson was to war, there never came one letter from either one of them. Clara asked and asked if there wasn't one for her, every time she called for her mail. I felt sorry for her!" Each continued to take her turn again at making a remark.

"This spring, she bought a brand-new rug for her parlor and new curtains for every window in the whole house."

"And a new dining table and chairs! I don't know what else she has gone and bought since I was there."

"Well, she can afford it. Besides the insurance Eli left her and the money he had hoarded away, she got the money from his share of the Porter estate in Denver. It was sold, you know, after the old maid sister of Eli's dies."

Sophia Wenks went to the dining table and snipped vigorously at a length of coarse blue cloth, calling back to the others while she worked the scissors, making a wry face and keeping time to the stories with the corners of her mouth. "When Josiah Peters (snip) was so awful sick (snip) the doctor had to (snip) call on Martha Porter (snip) to help him out (snip) he sure thinks that she is _snip) a mighty fine nurse."

"I am sure glad," Sadie Weller said, unwinding a second needleful of thread from her spool. "This town needs more nurses. Look at what a pickle we were in when the flu hit this town. Everyone as ignorant as sheep and scared to death they'd get it themselves. My daughter Minnie sure was a sick woman, I had to go there and take care of her myself."

"This town lost one of its best young men during that epidemic," Katie Wilkins said, wiping a tear from her eye. "Philip Dreyer was so handsome and he chose me to take his place in the Post Office. If he hadn't, I would not have known anything that was going on in this town, but I know everything!"

"Oh, look out the window, here comes Clara Porter now! Ain't that a new coat and hat she has on?" Sophie Wenks was pointing excitedly out the window.

"There comes Hilda Johnson too, a ways back there. For Heaven's sakes, let's get on our toes and make a good impression on Clara Porter, so she will join our Circle, we might need the help of some of her money in our treasure someday, you know, besides her being a mighty fine woman," Katie Wilkins said as she hurried to the door to welcome the special guest.