Wistful in Wisconsin

more cozy than small and Lilah sensed a welcoming hominess to it.
“Please, sit at the table while I set the kettle to boiling.” Her hostess indicated a chair across from the spot where they now stood. Lilah moved to it gracefully, spreading her skirt and petticoats as she sat.
Before turning away, Merrilee grinned at her. “You remind me of a teacher I had when I attended a day school for young ladies. She so tried to imbue some of that same grace into me.”
Her words ended with a sigh. “I’m afraid it didn’t work. Still, I’m happy with my ordinary life.”
Eyebrows raised, Lilah blurted out the question before thinking. “Someone actually tried to run a finishing school here in Idyll Wood? I can’t imagine there was much interest, not with the people I’ve met here.”
The other woman pushed her round spectacles up her nose and stared for a moment. Lilah resisted the urge to fidget in her chair, sure she’d offended her.
Tension melted as Merrilee giggled. “Imagine such a thing. Why not even the wealthiest man in town has that much polish to him.”
With the dull gray kettle in place, she sat across from her guest and shook her head. “No, it wasn’t here in Idyll Wood. I came from the East as a mail-order bride.”
Silence gripped the two women. Lilah’s mouth rounded in an “oh” as she wondered questions that she couldn’t politely ask. Merrilee smiled sweetly and waited without speaking.
Finally, she was the one to break the quiet as she nodded toward Lilah. “Please, go ahead and ask me the question I see in your eyes. I think you and I could be good friends. This might be a start to that.”
Lilah’s voice began with a hesitant note. “But, why would you come all this way to marry someone you didn’t know?”
A secret smile made the woman across from her suddenly very lovely. Lilah knew by it that Merrilee definitely found a great deal of joy in her marriage.
“I was desperate. So were Carl’s brothers. We were a good match because of that.”
She stopped and her smile widened. “Actually, we make a good couple for more reasons than that.” She rubbed her small belly. The action brought Lilah’s eyes to it, and for the first time she realized the woman was expecting.
Though she longed to mention the fact, good manners forbade her from doing so. Oh, but it made her happy to realize that she would be an aunt when she married Fred. As an only child, she longed for a large family.
Soft words pulled Lilah from her dream of marrying Fred. “My dear mother passed suddenly. My stepfather had terrible plans for me so I escaped to Wisconsin.”
Merrilee frowned without revealing what those plans had been. She rose when the kettle whistled behind her and filled a plain, white teapot. She placed it on the table along with two equally nondescript mugs.
“Not fancy china, I’m afraid. I don’t worry about such things here in Idyll Wood.”
As Lilah lifted the mug to her lips and daintily sipped at the steaming drink, Merrilee asked her a question. “Why do you think Fred should marry you?”

Chapter 2
The Purpose
Lilah choked on her sip of tea, quickly setting the cup back on the table. She pulled a lacy bit of linen from her pocket and coughed into it. Dabbing at her lips first, she returned the handkerchief to the pocket of her skirt.
Merrilee watched patiently, waiting for an answer. Lilah smiled, almost a conciliatory expression, as if she wanted to win the other woman over to her belief.
“There was a moment when he held me. Right after he stopped what was being done--.”
Her words drifted off to a whisper. She rarely allowed thoughts of that time to surface. Instead, she focused solely on the need to convince Fred of their love. The future drove her, not past mistakes. At least, that’s what she told herself.
Shaky hands brought the mug to her lips. Lilah sipped at the almost tepid liquid. One sip. Then another. It steadied her so her training took over again.
Lips turning upward, she apologized airily. “How awkward. I’m sorry to lose control for a moment.”
Merrilee frowned and leaned forward. “I think you need to lose control. A screaming, raging, crying fit would help you.”
Mouth agape, Lilah looked at the woman. It was like Merrilee had just told her to run naked through the town. Throw a fit? Why, she’d disgrace every teacher who’d ever molded her into a lady.
Her hostess stayed silent, waiting for her to respond. The conversation’s focus on Lilah made her uncomfortable so she turned it to Merrilee’s experience.
With a voice nearly devoid of emotion, a much-practiced tone at school, she threw out a challenge. “Is that what you did? When your stepfather had those plans for you?”
Cattiness. Anger. Coldness. Lilah expected one of those emotions. The friendship would be over before it began. She tamped down regret that surged strongly through her.
Merrilee Sittig surprised her. She didn’t respond like other so-called friends and acquaintances. Instead, she pursed her lips and tapped a finger against them.
“After I realized what that man planned to do to me, events seemed to race along. There just wasn’t time or an opportunity to privately fall apart.”
She smiled weakly. “When I finally had a cry about it, after the murderer was caught, Carl wanted to run for Doctor Weber. He was sure something had to be wrong with me.”
That drew a brief smile from Lilah. Then she raised a brow. “Why would crying frighten him like that?”
With a shake of her head, Merrilee sighed. “I never met her, but Carl’s mother seemed to be a martyr. From Myra’s description, Jennie never complained, wept, or raged. Not even on her deathbed.”