The following morning, Allegany found herself being rudely shaken awake. Her blurred vision at last cleared to reveal the man she'd known less than 24 hours. Any nightmare she'd dreamed during the night couldn't match up to the nightmare of her present reality.
"Ain't you going to get up and fix breakfast? The sun's been up pert near 2 hours," Jackson complained.
He spoke as if she had committed some grave sin by sleeping in. So much for a honeymoon. "I don't know how to fix anything. That was always my mother's job."
And her mother had tried to teach her, but she hadn't been interested and her father had supported her in it, saying she always had time to learn.
"Well, it's high time you learned. I'm going to be out all day checking traps. I'll get my own lunch together, but I expect food on the table when I get back."
She was his slave, his housekeeper. That's what he'd really wanted, not a wife or a companion. It all made sense now.
She waited until she heard the front door slam before she got out of bed. She dressed and put on her makeup though it hardly seemed worth the effort with only Jackson to see her.
Cecil Johnson had proposed to her after high school and she'd laughed in his face. She hadn't loved him. Things had only been physical between them for her part of it anyway, but how she regretted that decision now though she hadn't thought of about the proposal again until this very minute.
There was no phone in the house, he'd said that in one of his letters. Not even a mailbox that she had seen. She was cut off from all forms of communication. Of course, calling her parents would have been out of the question anyway, but there wasn't even so much as a neighbor within walking distance. She was going to go crazy living without anyone to talk to. She already felt suffocated just thinking about it.
Best thing to do was get her mind off of it, she reasoned. She unpacked her things, which only served to make her more miserable.
She went outside, hoping fresh air would revitalize her spirits, but it just reminded her that civilization was a long way from here, so she explored every nook and cranny of the house, which didn't take long.
Lunch was a slice of bread and jarred apple preserves simply because it required no cooking. She was thankful to see everything canned and jarred for the coming winter because she had no idea how to do that either.
She was dismayed to find the day only half gone. She read old copies of The New Yorker she'd brought with her until it was time to scrounge up supper for her "prince charming", a nickname she used sarcastically.
She found eggs, bacon, and coffee in the kitchen, which seemed a simple enough supper to fix. With grueling work, it founded its way to the table where it sat 30 minutes waiting for Jackson's return.
"Breakfast food for supper?" was the greeting out of his mouth.
"It seemed the easiest thing to cook and you did say you wanted breakfast, didn't you?"
He took a closer look at the contents of his plate. The eggs were dry from being overcooked, the bacon black from being overfried, and the coffee full of grounds from being improperly brewed. And it was all cold.
"Apparently not."
"Apparently not what?" she asked with narrowed eyes.
"Apparently it's not the easiest thing to cook. I can't believe a grown woman's never cooked before. I've never heard tell of such a thing." He sat down at the table rather reluctantly.
She burned with anger as she sat down across from him. He appreciated her efforts not at all. "And I can't believe a man your age has never had sex before. I've had better times with a pillow."
If he'd suspected she wasn't a virgin already, he knew it now without a doubt. He glowered without comment, but it was easy to see her comment had irked him.
His complaints about her cooking didn't keep him from stuffing his face though.
"Well, eat," he said when he saw her staring at him. "It's as bad as it looks, but money don't grow on trees. Especially now."
She speared her eggs with her fork imagining it was Jackson's hand instead. The resentment she felt at this impromptu marriage had grown tenfold in just one day. It confirmed what she'd known all along. She had to find a way to escape.