Chapter 6
May 20, 1850
The kids are getting married today. I thought we'd never get the invitations finished and sent out announcing the engagement. We had just gotten through with that when we had to send out announcements about the wedding. I suggested that we send them out together and my wives had a fit. Apparently it was considered to be the height of bad manners to tell people about the marriage before everyone knew about the engagement. I gave Josh some rings I had found in the slavers' wagon and he had them melted down and recast into matching diamond rings for his fiances. We finally had to get a Mormon preacher to do the ceremony for them, since the Methodist preacher refused to perform it. None of the kids really minded, since Josh is a Southern Baptist, Frieda is Lutheran, and Sun Lee is a Buddhist. It seemed rather strange when Josh was escorted by his groomsmen down the aisle followed by Mr. Simeroth escorting Frieda while I escorted Sun Lee to the preacher. For a while there I was worried that we wouldn't have enough room for everyone to sit, but between the neighbors and some chairs I rented from town we finally had enough for the ceremony.
We had the wedding breakfast and will be having a dinner afterwards before the kids slip away to a hotel in Salem for the night. I have given Josh a hundred and fifty dollars as a wedding present to use for his honeymoon and he is planning on seeing where his new wives want to go before they decide. They are to return next week and I, Josie and Elizabeth will be taking care of his place until they do.
I was surprised to see all the people who attended. I hadn't realized that we had so many close friends before I saw how many showed up. Between Claire's students and their parents, my patients and the people I met while I was acting as a deputy, Elizabeth's friends she made while teaching Krav Magen, Louise's that she made when we went to California, Frieda's family and the kids' friends, we had over eighty people who attended the wedding events.
We had finished Josh's house on his claim a week ago and my wives and the girls spent most of the week prior to the wedding setting up the house with the wedding gifts and stuff they had purchased at Fort Vancouver before they were kidnapped. I was surprised about getting the wedding presents before the wedding, but apparently they are supposed to set out so people can admire them before the wedding. The only change my wives made was to trade the bed they purchased for Josh and Frieda for the one we had in our main bedroom and buying us a bigger one. They had bought and saved a lot of feathers since we got here and finally had enough to make both beds a feather tick mattress.
I told the young men that there would be no chivarree tonight and Willy and Mr. Simeroth supported me. That is one tradition that I hope dies a quick death. Josie has been staying with us since we finished taking care of the patients and she and Elizabeth have remained as thick as thieves. While Claire and Louise have been getting Josh ready for the wedding, Elizabeth and Josie have been getting Sun Lee's outfit and her trousseau done. I had to explain to her that here we wore white to weddings to celebrate life, not as a sign of mourning as they did in Asia. After that she got into the spirit of the occasion as much as the rest.
I don't know who had more fun, Claire and Louise dressing Josh or Elizabeth and Josie dressing Sun Lee. Frieda and her mother were frequent visitors to the house while they were making the dresses and Josh's suit trying to coordinate everything for the wedding. I would never have imagined that so much planning went into a wedding before. Thank God, I was able to buy the white gloves and ties Frieda's mother insisted on for the groomsmen. Mrs. Simeroth acted like she expected to have a formal Victorian ceremony for the wedding, but Mr. Simeroth was able to talk her out of that. I don't know where I would have been able to find so much white silk or a veil around here.
I had wondered why my wives were buying so much silver service when we were at Oregon City until I found that I was expected to give the newlywed bride away with the trousseau filled with linens, silverware and new clothes. I was glad I found out, because if this is normal when my girls grow up I better start saving now. It will be strange not having Josh and Sun Lee around all the time. They only are going to be living about two miles away so I expect to see them fairly often, but it won't be the same.
I teased Elizabeth and Josie that they acted like Sun Lee was their daughter and both turned to me and said almost simultaneously, "She is!" and giggled together like school children. I was happy to see that Elizabeth had found a good friend, since she had been isolated due to her needing to run the farm since I was gone so often. I was surprised at how much alike the two were after I got to know Josie better. Both had been forced to take on men's work early due to the death of their parents while they were still fairly young.
Josie had lost both parents in the same smallpox outbreak that had left her so scarred. They were still on the Oregon Trail when this occurred but she had been taken care of by the Whitmans at their mission until she had recovered. When she got to Oregon the land claims office refused to let her file a land claim as she was neither a male over 18 or a widow. She had managed to live by selling the contents of her wagon for a while until she was offered a job by a sutler to deliver goods to Oregon City... She managed to deliver the goods in time and in good condition. Things grew from there until she was regularly hired to deliver loads and finally was hired by the sutler that supplied the forts and wagon stops for the Oregon Trail up to Wyoming.
Both women were knowledgeable about farming and they often got into discussions about what crops would be best to plant for the best yield and discussions about watering the crops and taking care of the farm animals. Josie had brought Elizabeth some corn that she swore would get ripe in this area and we planted two acres of it as an experiment. I hope it works, I'm looking forward to corn on the cob, although I'd be satisfied with enough dry corn to supplement what I've been forced to buy. With California still booming, we have a market for everything we can produce and we have expanded the plantings this year. We have over one hundred acres under cultivation at this time and I don't think we'll be able to handle much more by ourselves.
I know the women have been plotting something, because I continue to find they stop talking whenever I come into the room. No one will tell me what is going on, no matter how I beat around the bush asking. All I get is a kiss and a, "Don't worry, dear", look whenever I try.
May 28, 1850
When I got back to my house I found Josh and his wives visiting with his mothers and Josie. They were talking about how much room they had in their new house and Frieda was asking Louise how to prepare one of Josh's favorite dishes.
Claire spoke up, "Alex, Louise and I want to move into another house with the babies. We still want to be your wives but the babies are the most important thing for us."
I was in shock. Two of my wives had just told me that they wanted to leave without warning. I wasn't the only one shocked, Elizabeth looked like she couldn't believe it either. She tore into both, "How dare you tell Alex that? We swore we would discuss things like this and then decide among us, not give anyone an ultimatum about what we were going to do!"
Josh and his wives were uncomfortable listening to the argument that seemed to be starting, I held up my hand, "This is not the place or the time to be talking about this. Josh, if you and your wives will excuse us, we will see you tomorrow and tell you what we have decided."
I looked at Josie who had been sitting there next to Elizabeth. She didn't show any sign of embarrassment with the argument we were having. I was about to ask her to go with Josh when Elizabeth spoke up, "Alex, Josie needs to be here when we talk." I gave my wives a look and saw them all nodding. This had to be about what they had been keeping secret.
After Josh and his wives had left we gathered around the kitchen table. Elizabeth was the first to speak, "Alex, we wives want to have Josie join the family. We all love her and she is loved by the kids as well."
"Wait! Do I get a vote here? I have to marry her too!", I objected. I turned to Josie, who seemed to have become smaller as the conversation went on, "Josie, what do you have to say?"
She looked at the floor like she was expecting me to reject her, "Alex, I love you and have since you talked to me when I brought the kids in. I grew to love you even more when I saw how hard you worked to save as many people as you could while we were at Lisa's house and how you felt when one of the kids died. I fell in love with your family as well when they treated me as another woman, not as some sort of freak. You've been the only family that I have ever met that looks at me not my scars." She broke out in tears and my wives moved over to support her. I sat there stunned. I had no idea that she felt like that. I examined my feelings and while I was fond of Josie I had never thought of her as a possible wife. As for her scarred face, I had stopped noticing that shortly after I had met her. If she hadn't mentioned it I wouldn't have now.
I struggled with my answer, "Josie, I don't know what to say. I like you a lot, but I've thought of you as a friend not a lover. This is going to take some time for me to think about it. I'm not rejecting you, and your scars don't mean anything to me either. If I was unmarried than I wouldn't have any hesitation about marrying you. Let's court for a while and then we'll see what happens."
Josie looked up at me with a big smile and jumped into my lap and gave me a big kiss. Wow! I'd have to rate that as a 9.5 out of 10 on the passion scale. I looked up at my wives and saw looks ranging from satisfaction to disappointment on their faces, "You have got to stop hiding things from me!", I told them sternly. "I don't appreciate being blindsided by your plotting!"
Elizabeth looked at me in appeal, "We didn't say anything because we hadn't asked Josie either!"
I looked at Josie, "You were blindsided as well?" She nodded and I got pissed at my wives, "Don't you ever do something like this again! You've treated Josie and I like children who didn't have any say about what happens. Neither I nor Josie deserve to be blindsided like this!"
I got up and started to stomp out of the room when Josie grabbed my arm, "Alex, if they hadn't done it this way I never would have had the courage to say anything! I know I'm a freak and I don't blame you for being mad that your wives are trying to make you marry someone who looks like me!" She began crying, deep heartbreaking sobs that shook her body.
I gathered Josie in my arms and held her close, "Josie, unless you mention them I don't think anyone would notice the scars after they know you. You're a beautiful woman in more than one way and deserve to be happy. I apologize for the way my wives have treated you. I don't think you're a freak in any way. Now give me a kiss and we'll leave my wives to think about the way they've behaved."
Josie and I went to the front yard where I saw Corrie sitting in a chair on the porch rocking, "Corrie!", I greeted her. She looked at Josie and I and nodded. We sat next to her in the rocking chairs in silence.
After a while Corrie turned to me, "I heard the end of your speech in there... Want to talk about it?"
I considered what had happened and decided that I needed to talk to someone, "Corrie, my wives just keep surprising me with secrets that I should have known about earlier. I'm tired of being told about things at the last second. I'm an equal member in this marriage and want them to treat me like I am."
She rocked in the chair for a while and then asked, "Are you happy?"
"Yes, I am."
"No marriage is without its problems. You have to decide if the problems you are running into are worse than the alternatives. Would you be willing to give up your wives?"
"No!"
"Would you be willing to give up some of your wives?"
"Hell, no!", I replied. Corrie and Josie looked faintly shocked. I keep forgetting that men don't curse around women as much now as they did in the future.
"Then you have to decide if the marriage is better than the secrets they keep. Alex, every marriage has secrets. The big ones can cause problems, but everyone has them. You, Josie, Elizabeth, Claire, Sun Lee, everyone."
I had to stop and think while Josie held my hand. Would I be better off with a different marriage or different wives? Did I love my wives enough to ignore the secrets? I decided I did. Even though they pissed me off when they sprang them on me, I still loved them.
We sat rocking in silence while I thought. About half an hour later Claire came out, "Alex can we talk to you and Josie?" She nodded at Corrie and offered her some tea.
Corrie shook her head, "I'll come back tomorrow and talk to all of you. We need to go over some things for the group as well."
Corrie took off in her buggy and Josie and I went into the house. Inside we found my wives lined up in the drawing room on the couch. Claire took the lead this time instead of Elizabeth, the usual spokeswoman for the wives, "We want to apologize about keeping the thought of marrying Josie secret. We have to tell you that the last one of the wives just agreed last night that it would be a good idea. We knew that Josie loved you and you felt something for her, a blind man could see it. We now realize that we should have mentioned it earlier, but we thought you knew what was going on before we said anything."
"Claire, I am not clairvoyant and I don't read minds. I need to have something said to me about things like that. Don't assume that I know something is going on."
Josie spoke up, "I forgive you, but you have to know Alex is a bit slow about understanding women. That I saw almost immediately. He really doesn't know how he affects us."
I gave Josie a hurt look that got even worse when I saw my wives nod in agreement. I really felt hurt when first Elizabeth and then the rest started to laugh at the expression on my face. Elizabeth finally stopped and looked at me. "Alex, you're a good man, but even you have to admit that you constantly get surprised by things everyone else can see clearly about women. You just don't seem to realize how different we really are and seem to think we'll react like men."
I had to admit that I did seem to get surprised by the women. I thought it was just because of the cultural difference between my time period and this one. I began to wonder if there was a different explanation. After all, women were always surprising me in the future too.
After the women settled down Claire began talking, "Alex, we really want Josie in the family but you were right. You have to want her to be in the family as well. Louise and I were thinking that we wanted another house for the family or to expand this one. We love you but the children are getting too big to sleep with any more. Plus Louise and I have to tell you something. We're pregnant again."
This was starting to get too much for me. First the declaration that they wanted Josie in the marriage and now telling me that they were pregnant! I sat down and looked at both Claire and Louise. They saw my look and came over to me. "Alex, we were just sure today. We missed our last period and the new one should have started last week and didn't." I had to accept that they were telling the truth because I really didn't want to call them liars without proof.
Louise began then, "Alex we need a bigger kitchen! The one here is bigger than most of the places I've seen but we need to have a stove with an oven so I don't have to go outside to bake all the time. I also want to have water available in the kitchen so I don't have to go outside to fetch the water for the meals. Also, is there anyway we can get indoor plumbing for a bathroom? Some of the houses in town are getting one."
This I hadn't known about. I knew that Joseph Crapper had invented the toilet already but I hadn't been aware that they had already begun to be used in Oregon. They had been brought in by the Hudson Bay Company for their stores and my wives had seen one in the stores in Oregon City. Here I had no idea about what to do. I had never put in a septic system and had few ideas about how to go about it. This was going to take some study or I would have to find someone who knew what they were doing.
I felt better when I found that my wives weren't telling me that they wanted to leave, just wanted more space. I promised that I would think about what to do about either expanding the house or building another one. We decided we had covered everything we had to talk about for now and I went outside. Soon afterwards Elizabeth and Josie came out to join me... We sat on the porch and rocked in silence. Suddenly Josie spoke up, "Alex, do you realize that Claire and Louise want to set up a Boston marriage in the second house?"
I had no idea what she was talking about and said so. Elizabeth and Josie looked at each other and began explaining. A Boston marriage I learned was a marriage-like relationship between two women who were able to support themselves that had a sexual element in the relationship. I knew that Josie knew about the rotation we had between the wives, but I hadn't known that she was aware of the relationship between Claire and Louise. I surprised her when I didn't get upset about their relationship. Apparently she expected me to worry about my own masculinity after I became aware of their bisexual feelings.
I looked at Josie and commented, "You need to learn if you're going to be a member of this family that I don't worry about whether any of my wives is attracted to another woman. All I care about is that they keep their relationship in the family. I also don't really like people who try and make trouble by spreading tales."
Josie blushed and replied, "I just wanted you to know since you said that you didn't want to be surprised by your wives again."
I nodded my acceptance of her reasoning and didn't assume she was trying to start problems. I didn't know how to react around Josie now. Before I had just treated her as a friend, but now I was supposed to treat her as a possible wife and I had no idea about what to do. As we sat there becoming more uncomfortable as time went by, Elizabeth finally got impatient, "Alex xxxxxxx! Don't you have any idea about how to woo a woman?" I gave her a look of desperation. She looked at me and began giggling, "You really don't know!" Her giggles went into a full laugh as she looked at both Josie and I and our expressions.
When she finally settled down she explained the circumstances of our meeting and getting married. Josie's eyes got big and remained that way until she finished. She looked at both of us and finally began to laugh, "Sounds to me that the women did the wooing, not Alex!" I tried to look offended but she was right, I didn't have any idea how to woo a woman. Josie gave me a speculative look and got in my lap. Using her hand she smoothed my hair and touched my face gently. Looking me in the eye she said, "Alex, will you walk with me?"
I looked at Elizabeth and she gave me a visual push. I got up and we started moving around the claim. At first we just walked but toward the end we began talking about our lives and our views of what things should be like. I found that Josie had strong views about not being equal to men in the eyes of the law. We agreed that it was ridiculous that women didn't get equal treatment. We were holding hands while we walked. Suddenly Josie stopped and grabbed my head to kiss me, "Alex look to the south and tell me if you see anything?"
I kissed her and casually let my eyes wander over the south. I saw movement in the brush. I pulled her to me and asked, "What did you see? I saw some movement but I couldn't see anyone."
She looked at me and over my shoulder, "There are two men moving toward us armed with rifles and handguns."
I had my Colt with me, but Josie had not carried a weapon since she started staying with us. I had to think. I didn't believe that the men had ever been here before or someone would have seen them. There was a thick copse ahead where we might be able to ambush the men if they were careless. I held Josie close beside me and told her about what I had in mind, "When we get around the corner and out of sight, I want you to run to the house. I'll wait here and make sure they don't get by."
Josie looked at me, "What makes you thing that they're the only ones around? They may be around the house as well." I cussed to myself because she was right. My wives would come looking for the gunfire if they heard it. If someone was around the house they might be shot as they came out of the house. I pulled my holdout knife out of the back sheath and gave it to Josie.
"Wait in the copse until they get by and wait for me." I pulled out the bandanna out of my pocket and put it on my head. I grabbed some dirt from the ground and used it to smear my face and hands. I was wearing dark clothes already so I buttoned the coat up over the white shirt and stepped deeper into the brush. Pulling my knife from my belt I waited in the copse. I went into a sort of fugue state where everything faded away except for my hearing and sense of smell. I listened for anything out of place and soon heard the movements of someone walking. They must have been from the city because they weren't very quiet. in the woods. They walked at a steady pace that made them really obvious. I caught a hint of tobacco and sweat in the breeze.
I waited for someone to walk around into sight.
My thanks to Drahkan for his work in making sure the story is readable. It helps to have a good editor.