Three Sisters

Three Sisters

By

Sandy Grissom

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the author.

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2014 by S.K.G. Haag

Cover image Attribution: C.C.A. Christensen used by permission in Public Domain

About The Author

Sandy Grissom has loved books all her life. That love began by listening to her older sister read when she was still too young to discover the magic for herself. She reads everything from history to the phone book but her favorite authors are James Michener, Agatha Christie and the mystic William Blake.

Over the years, romantic novels became a favorite. The top of that list is Pride and Prejudice. When she retired she had too much time on her hands and spent too much money and trips to the library to get books in order to satisfy her restless soul. It was then she began to write herself.

As an adult she held a variety of jobs, all of them grist for her imaginative mind. A widow, Sandy recently moved to southern Indiana from the Pacific Northwest where she lives near the younger of her two beloved sisters.

I dedicate this book to everyone who loves the settling of the west. Ever since I wrote The Wedding Train Bride, I’ve wanted to write again about that period in America’s history.

Chapter One

February, 1847, Baltimore

So, are we all agreed, Callie Lewis asked.

Her voice was filled with conviction as she cajoled them to her point of view. Callie was sure in her heart that it was the right thing to do. She’d prayed long and hard to be certain.

Callie’s sister, Debbie, knew that it was right thing for Callie. It might even help Emily get past the hurt in her heart. But for herself, Debbie was scared.

Travelling west and then living the rest of your life out in that desolate land was terribly frightening to a girl who’d only lived in the city. They were three women all lone with no man to protect them. The journey itself would be mired in danger, no matter what came afterward. For that would surely be dangerous, too.

They knew no one in the west but then, Debbie had to admit, they had no one here anymore either. If there were any hope of a decent future by staying in Baltimore, Debbie would refuse to go. But she could see no chance of finding a happy life here. Not for any of the sisters. For herself Debbie hoped to find a husband and create a family but she knew that the odds of doing that in Baltimore had become unlikely. Maybe it would different out west.

With that hope in her heart, Debbie softly sighed, Yes.

For Emily it was a rhetorical question. She felt that Callie had already decided for the three of them. She had no true choice. Even if she said ‘no’, they would be leaving Baltimore. And what did it really matter anyway?

Emily nodded sadly with a barely whispered a sigh of, Yes.

The three sisters sat together in the tiny boarding house room that Callie had rented for them. The women had to carefully manage what little money they had. That meant that they had to share the small room.

The dingy wallpapered space contained a dresser, a chair and a double bed that two of the girls shared. Callie had taken over as their protector when their father died. So she made up a pallet on the floor.

As often was the case, Callie sat next to Debbie on the bed. Emily, the youngest, sat near them in the one chair. Debbie was the middle sister, though she was a twin to Callie and only a few minutes younger. They had always been terribly close. After all neither had ever been without the other. Perhaps their bond was such that Emily felt left out at times. If so, it was not intentional.

Most of their clothing, which was just about all they had left of their former life, was packed in three trunks and lined up along the longest wall. That caused the usable space in the room to be less than adequate for much walking around. So the three sat quite near to one another as they made the decision to take a wagon train west, all the way to Oregon territory. The Willamette Valley, to be exact.

Callie called the family meeting because it was time they must discuss the trip. If they waited any longer to make the decision, it would be too late to start this year. It was unacceptable they wait until next year. Callie knew that their meagre funds would not last that long.

She also realized that whatever they decided tonight, it was their future that was at stake. If they were to go west, time was of the essence. They had to decide now for there was much to do before they could leave the city. If the girls agreed on nothing else, they each, in their own way, must realize that any future here in Baltimore would be a woeful one indeed.

Emily barely listened to the plans they spoke of. Instead, she pushed a needle in and out of the pillow case she was busily, almost furiously, embroidering. Callie looked across at her young sister with real sympathy. She knew Emily only agreed to go west because she had no reason to stay in the city. It was certainly not because she had any excitement for the freer and happier lives they might find out there.

The way Callie hoped it would be. She and Debbie had talked about the journey often. They both knew they had a better chance of leading fulfilling lives out west than they could in Baltimore. Even if they could find a way to survive here. There was truly little to hope for if they stayed. All they would realistically find in the way of work was the type of job wherein you were little more than a servant. You might become a companion to an elderly lady or a nanny caring for someone else’s children, all the while never having children of your own.

The sisters were not high society but they had been on the fringes of it until they lost their father. He’d been a well-respected businessman and so accepted in society as much as merchants could be. That meant that one or more of them might have made an acceptable match if not for his untimely death.

The three were alone now without even a distant relative to fall back on. They had no man’s protection and were considered orphans despite their ages. Their father’s position had granted them a degree of privilege. That estimation and position fell from them quickly and absolutely when he died. Now they had nothing. No parent protector, no other relatives and very little money. Life looked bleak indeed for the sisters.

Callie, like her sisters, wanted a husband and children though she didn’t talk about it much. Her sisters didn’t think she was marriage material. They laughed at any remarks she made in that regard. She really couldn’t blame them for their attitude.

Callie was twenty one years old and mostly overlooked by the eligible bachelors of Baltimore. She was considered an old maid by the men her age. There were so many younger girls to choose from. Why should they settle for a spinster?

Callie herself feared that she might never find a husband. She was far from a lady. Well, the kind of lady that got courted at any rate. Callie was a tomboy. She’d always been a tomboy. At a very early age, Callie discovered she enjoyed working outdoors and doing the tasks that men usually did. She liked it much better than working in the house. It wasn’t that she couldn’t cook or clean. She had learned those domestics. It just wasn’t her favorite thing.

Callie was happier outside. She relished a task like mucking out a barn stall or milking a cow. She woke up each day excited for the day to begin. What her sisters called ‘men’s work’ gave Callie a feeling of accomplishment. Callie thought that most women would cook and clean and probably love doing it. But the outside work made her feel more useful. It gave her a sense of triumph for a job well done. Callie felt the animals, if no one else, appreciated her efforts.

Housework, it seemed to Callie, was a never ending process. No matter how many times one cleaned or cooked, it had to be done all over again quite soon. Callie could shoe a horse and it would be long months before she’d have to do it again.

Though she knew that outside chore were repetitive too, the two types of tasks didn’t feel the same to Callie. Bottom line, she just never got that ‘aah’ feeling of completion doing housework the way she did currying a horse.

Callie was smart enough to know that the few men available as husband material wanted more genteel ladies for wives, not women with work roughened hands. Callie hoped that she might meet some man out west who would appreciate a capable woman, a true helpmate, not just a housekeeper and cook. She might never find love, Callie worried, but she might find a measure of contentment with such a man.

Callie’s twin, Debbie, was also twenty one. She too was old compared to the slew of young women that kept coming out each year. Unlike Callie, though, Debbie was a homemaker through and through. She had kept their home spotless for a number of years. Debbie cooked and baked with the experience of someone twice her age. Debbie wanted a family as much as Callie did and Callie knew that Debbie would make a great wife and mother. She was more likely to find love than Callie was.

If their father had lived longer, Debbie would have found an acceptable match in Baltimore, perhaps a widower with children, for she had much love to give to a family. But that wouldn’t happen now. No men they would deem acceptable would choose one of those two sisters. Any others, they wouldn’t take. So Debbie wanted to go west. She believed her chance for happiness would be greatly increased there. It was why she agreed that they leave all they knew and travel out to the unknown.

Emily, though, was different in many ways than her twin sisters. She was the lady of the family, often even somewhat prissy in nature. Perhaps it was because she was only eighteen and due to immaturity. Though Callie had to admit that most girls her age didn’t behave in such a way. Maybe their father and the twins had unconsciously babied her. Or it could be that it was her unique nature to be a little high and mighty. Whatever it was that made the girl who she was, Emily hadn’t been at all prepared for her recent shattering disappointment.

A business owner’s son had been calling on Emily over the fall. His visits were steady enough that Emily felt he was about to ask for her hand in marriage. Of course, that was before they lost their father. It was a considerable shock when Emily learned that James had proposed to the daughter of a fellow merchant, a girl whose family were good friends with his parents.

Emily had entertained him in the parlor of the boarding house only the weekend before the announcement was made. James never said a word that might have given Emily a clue of what was coming. Emily was left to find out about the engagement from other than James. That, of course, hurt the most.

Callie could only imagine their reduced circumstances along with pressure from James’ father had made the decision for him. Perhaps, he’d meant to tell Emily that night but lost his courage. Or it could be that his parents arranged the engagement and James didn’t know about it until after he visited Emily that last time.

However it came about, as soon as he decided upon another woman, James should have found a way tell Emily, to let her down easily. But the coward hadn’t. The engagement was fait accompli by the time Emily learned of it. It was just one of many hard blows Emily had had to deal with.

The sisters’ mother had deserted them and their father when they were young. She ran off to Europe with another man and the girls hadn’t heard from her in years. Callie knew that Emily missed having a mother more than her sisters did. Maybe because they were two years older, they were able to adapt to the situation better. And they had each other. But Emily had no one.

Callie thought she’d adjusted because she had their father. Callie had always felt safer around him than the girls’ mother. Early on, Callie had followed him around like a puppy. And her father had allowed it. No wonder she took upon herself all the chores that men did.

Debbie fell into the role of housekeeper and surrogate mother to Emily after their mother deserted them. Yet Emily knew all the while that Debbie wasn’t her mother. It could be now that Callie thought of it why they allowed Emily to become what she was, a young woman who expected to be taken care of.

Unlike her older sisters, Emily took very little responsibility at home. Perhaps she truly felt as if she had no place in the family, at least not in the same way as Callie and Debbie, who had obvious jobs to do. It might even be why she wanted so badly to marry James, to make a place that was truly hers. If their mother hadn’t left, perhaps Emily might have grown up differently. On the other hand, it could be that who she was came from who their mother was. She had left them looking for more than their father could give her.

Callie loved her father so that she resented her mother early on. But she hadn’t for a long time now. Life simply was what it was. Callie knew resentment was a waste of time. She came to resent her mother even less after their father’s death for the girls found letters from her they hadn’t known about. Their mother had kept in contact with their father. They learned that she had even sent money on occasion so she must have felt some responsibility for the girls…if not enough love to stay with them.

Callie decided anew it was a waste of time to blame her for leaving. Their mother had come from a moneyed family whereas their father was working class. They’d married while quite young. Apparently youthful passion wasn’t enough to hold her mother to the marriage. She came to hate living in reduced circumstances. She wasn’t used to it and obviously was never was able to accept such a fate. With three children, she must have tried. Callie had to give her that.

She assumed her mother’s second marriage must be more privileged, perhaps the same way she’d lived as a girl. It was sad that the lady felt as she did. For the girls’ father was a good man. He worked hard all his life to be sure his daughters had everything he was able to give them. They loved him a lot, missed him terribly and would no doubt use him as a pattern for whatever men they chose as husbands. That is, if anyone should ever come calling.

To Callie, it was her mother who had come up with the short end of the stick. She gave up a good man and three daughters for a better lifestyle. Callie imagined her mother was quite pampered now. She hoped it was enough for her.

Callie couldn’t help but wonder how often the lady thought of the man she left. Had she loved him but just not enough to stay? Did she think about the girls with any bit of longing?

Callie had almost written to her about their father’s death when they found the letters. But in the end, she didn’t feel strongly that she should do it. Perhaps, she would consider it again once they were settled out west.

It was true that Emily pined the hardest for her mother those long years ago. She was still young so it was natural she would. Emily was the youngest and needed her mother more than the older girls. It was understandable she would feel the loss deeply.