Chapter 6 – Summer 1909 – So young to fall in love

Peter turned sixteen on the twenty-fifth of July.

Abigail had planned all of his favorites for supper and just needed a few last-minute items that Saturday from the mercantile. The bell jingled above her as she stepped into the familiar store, the smell of wood and fruit an immediate comfort. Ned's daughter Katie looked up and gave her a wave from behind the counter. She couldn't see Katie Yost without remembering the year that her Peter would turn red as a beet any time Abigail brought him to the mercantile. While eventually the infatuation had faded and they simply became friends, she cherished the memories of talking about it with Peter whenever he would open up. Even at a young age, her son had been a true romantic, devoted to one object of affection and wanting to make that person happy. On the occasions that the other students had invited their mothers to some performance or event at the school, Peter had always gone out of his way to make sure Katie was not standing alone.

Abigail was traversing the aisles, reminiscing, when a voice behind her said good morning.

She was pleased when she turned to see Henry Gowen.

"Good morning, Henry. How are you today?"

"Oh, fine, just getting some shopping done." He gestured awkwardly, as though he was embarrassed to have nothing more to say than the obvious. After almost four months in Coal Valley, he was still clearly not used to the frequent small talk, so she decided to rescue him.

"I'm glad I ran into you. How has Peter been doing at the mine? I understand he's started going on supply outings."

"Yes, Colm Green's son went with him the last time. I think he enjoyed the travel, as he's volunteered to go on the next run already. I take it he hasn't left the town much."

"Unfortunately no – only back home to see my mother on occasion."

"Ah. And Noah's mother?" he asked politely.

"She passed, a few years after Noah's father. Peter was barely three years old. It's one of the reasons we finally decided to move out west. We didn't have much to keep us afterward, and the Lee mine was having its own difficulties." She paused for a moment, remembering the argument she and Noah had had about leaving her mother behind. In the end, though, her husband's work took precedence. And of course, she had grown to love Coal Valley even more than her childhood home, so she couldn't regret it.

"Anyway," she continued, clearing her head, "I appreciate that Peter will have some measure of freedom outside of the house and the mine, even if it is a bit of an adjustment for me. I can't believe he'll be sixteen tomorrow."

"Is that right?" Henry perked up. "Well, I'm not at the mine today, but I'll be sure to say something when I see him on Monday." He peered into her basket. "I take it this is shopping for a birthday celebration then."

Abigail nodded. "Just finishing up. I'm planning on a beef pot pie with a cream of potato soup and then Bakewell pudding for dessert." For a second she thought she might invite Henry to join them, but she stopped herself, realizing that might feel intrusive to Peter and Noah. Still, she felt she was being rude talking about dinner without offering an invitation. Thankfully it was Henry's turn to let her off the hook.

"I'm sure he'll enjoy it. Any special sort of presents this year besides?"

She shook her head. "I was looking over at the children's games before," she gestured to a corner shelf. "It was always so fun picking out a special something for him. He used to love kaleidoscopes of all things."

"I can understand that. There's a beautiful contradiction of order and chaos to them. I find it appealing myself."

The surprising poetry of the sentiment flustered her. A beautiful contradiction of order and chaos, she repeated to herself, the words traveling a strange, tingling path around her mind. The silence between them felt suddenly vulnerable and she reached to fill it.

"So were those your favorite too as a child?"

"No," he said, a soft humility in his voice, "I had a collection of war toys."

"Really?"

"Well, 'collection' might be stretching it, but it felt like one to me. Some toy soldiers with little drums and muskets, that kind of thing. But I was younger than Peter when I really took to those. At sixteen, well, I just enjoyed a good meal and a good shave."

He grinned widely at her, with a charm so boyish that she thought she might have even blushed. She put it down to adolescent enjoyments having been the topic of conversation, and turned her face away to look at the shelves once more.

Beside her, she heard Henry shuffle his feet on the dusty planks. "Well, I'll leave you to it. Enjoy the supper and give my best to your family."

They offered each other clumsy parting gestures, and Abigail watched surreptitiously from behind a row of beans as Henry picked up his mail and exchanged friendly words with Ned, who had reappeared from the back of the store. Henry was slapping the letters idly against his free hand, apparently in a good mood as he turned to leave. Abigail didn't know if he glanced back at her, having quickly refocused herself to what she hoped looked like an intense decision between kidney and navy. It occurred to her after the bell had signaled his exit that she didn't know exactly why she was hiding or what she had hoped to observe. It also occurred to her that Katie Yost was giving her a very curious look.

Abigail cleared her throat and smoothed her dress, emerging from her covert operation to awkwardly approach the counter.

"Got everything you need?" Ned asked.

ooo


Later that night, she lay next to Noah, trying to put aside the distance she'd been feeling lately. Maybe Cat was right and she and Noah needed to just focus on each other right now, and enjoy the next stage of their lives together.

She scooted closer, putting her head on his chest. She could tell from the way he paused and shifted that he was surprised by this sudden affection, but he leaned into her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

"Do you ever think about what we'll do when Peter is married?" she asked. "When we have no children in the house?"

"We don't have to wait for Peter to leave the house," her husband joked, beginning to move over her.

"Noah, I'm serious." She laid a gentle hand on his chest, stopping his intended kiss. "What do you want for our lives now?"

Noah sighed and the breath blew lightly over her face. "I don't know. I still think about buying my own claim one of these days. This promotion put me closer. And then with that money, there's no limit to what we could do. I'd love to take you out to nice dinners in Hamilton, or tool around in one of them Fords out in the countryside. We could buy a house out somewhere, maybe Union City – "

"You would want to leave Coal Valley?"

"Well, okay, maybe not to Union City, but we would probably have to move to wherever the mining land was. Anything good around here is already bought up by the Company. Why," he looked at her, "what do you think we should do?"

Abigail honestly had never thought much about it, and this was an unsettling realization. "I'm not sure. Maybe I would find a job."

"What would you need a job for?" Noah said, cutting her musing short with a furrowed brow. "There's never been a need for you to work, and there certainly wouldn't be once Peter was on his own."

She flinched at the response, her head jerking into the pillow. "Did you ever consider that perhaps I'd like working? Maybe I could find a position in a dress shop, or learn to type in an office."

"Oh yes, or work the telephone exchange," Noah chuckled.

"You don't have to dismiss the idea so casually," she said, her irritation growing. "I am actually a strong and intelligent woman, you know." She turned her face away from him, disappointed and restless. Her arm was trapped underneath him where he'd rolled over her. She closed her eyes and felt the hard pressure of it. Words she had never said wound their way around her heart and squeezed.

"Abigail… Abigail, what is this about?"

He moved, releasing her, and she exhaled like she had been waiting for air. But his caring voice was already making her feel guilty for the bitterness she felt. It was not like her to be so disagreeable. And why should Noah believe she wanted to work when she hadn't said a word about it in over fifteen years?

Taking a deep breath, she reached up and stroked his stubbled face. "I'm sorry. We just spent so long trying to have and raise a child, I feel like we haven't thought beyond that in years. And I'm trying to remember what we wanted when we were first married."

Noah's eyes met hers lovingly. "All that I wanted when we got married was you. Because I do know how strong and intelligent you are, even if you think I've forgotten." He leaned down and pressed a kiss on her lips. "And because you were the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen." A kiss on her jaw. "And because I couldn't believe you finally said yes," he teased, another kiss lingering on her neck.

She let herself relax as her husband began to undress her, whispering words of love over her skin.