Read Pearl for Free Online Page B

Ruby realized anew how much Opal had grown since they came to Little Missouri a little less than a year ago. The clothes the Brandons, the family she worked for in New York, had sent with them when they came to Dakotah Territory were either too short, too tight, or too worn. Hems had been let down and then faced, seams let out, and even gussets added in the sides, all thanks to Cimarron’s nimble fingers with a needle.
    Ruby thought of the treadle sewing machine she had seen last time she shopped in Dickinson, the closest town of any size. While she’d read about them and seen one in operation when they lived back in New York, she’d never desired to own one like she did now. Still thinking on the things they needed but managed to get along without, she descended to the warmer regions and handed Opal her clothes.
    ‘‘Is someone else going to use the bath water?’’ Opal, now dried and wrapped in her towels, shivered in the draft from the long window. Floor to ceiling cupboards buried the walls on both sides of the narrow pantry.
    Ruby made a face. ‘‘I forgot to offer.’’ She returned to the kitchen. ‘‘Milly, you want to take a bath?’’
    ‘‘It’s not Saturday.’’
    ‘‘I know, but we can add more hot water.’’
    Milly wrung her cloth for a final time and wiped up the last of the scrub water. ‘‘No, might catch my death that way. If you ask me, you and Opal take far too many baths as it is. Not good for you. ’Specially not in the winter.’’
    Ruby just shook her head and leaned into the storeroom to get pretty much the same answer from Daisy who, mouth round in her oval face, nearly dropped the flatiron in shock.
    ‘‘Don’t say I didn’t ask. We’ll use the water tomorrow to scrub the cardroom floor. If we could only train those men to either hit the spittoons or chew outside.’’ Her shudder came from her stomach.
    Daisy brought the flatiron in for another exchange. ‘‘Sure smells good in here.’’ After setting the cool iron back on the stove, she peeked in the oven, inhaling as she held the door open. ‘‘Gingerbread. I don’t think anything can smell better.’’
    ‘‘Better than apple pie?’’ Milly came back in from dumping the water in a slop bucket on the back porch.
    ‘‘Bread’s best.’’ Ruby eyed the five loaves on the table, covered by clean dishcloths. ‘‘As long as you have your head in the oven, press on the top and see if it’s done.’’
    Instead Daisy took a length of broomstraw they kept in a jar on the shelf behind the stove and stuck it in the middle of the cake. ‘‘Nothing on it.’’ She lifted the stove lid and tossed the straw in the fire. Using the potholders kept on the warming shelf, she pulled the pan from the oven and sat it on a wooden rack on the table to cool. ‘‘Tonight we can serve it with either whipped cream or applesauce. Or both.’’
    At the beatific smile on Daisy’s face, Ruby chuckled. Whipped cream had been scarce for the months Johnson’s cow had been dry. Since she calved a couple of weeks earlier, they’d been churning butter, whipping cream, and letting some sour to serve on pancakes or use for sour-cream cookies.
    ‘‘Now I won’t have to take a bath for Easter, huh, Ruby?’’ Opal continued to dry her hair in front of the stove.
    ‘‘You wish. Easter is still ten days away. Would you like me to finish brushing and braiding your hair?’’
    ‘‘Please.’’ Opal handed her the brush and pulled a stool out from under the well-used oak table.
    Ruby started at the bottom and brushed all the tangles out, working her way up through the thick hair. ‘‘Mm, you smell like roses.’’
    ‘‘Better than egg and flour.’’ Opal turned to look up at her sister. ‘‘Are you going to bake kolaches like at the Brandons’?’’
    ‘‘I think not. They take too much time.’’ Ruby shrugged at the look on her sister’s face. ‘‘Sorry. Maybe next year.’’
    Milly stopped peeling potatoes