issue more commands and then demanding, “Doesn’t that sister of yours know
what time you have your supper? I hope everything isn’t going to get all dried out because some people choose to be inconsiderate.”
No. I can’t do it, Olivia thought. Anything would be better than living andworking with Mabel Mears. I’ll get a job in a textile mill. Go west to a logging
camp and do laundry. Become a mail order bride. Finally, Olivia could stand the cold no longer and pulled the back door open.
“Well, there you are,” Mabel said. “Oh my, you’d better leave those boots out
on the porch, before they leave a puddle. You boys sit down, everything’s
ready.”
Olivia did her best to ignore her, but Mabel took the chair next to her. After
Avis mumbled the Grace that Mabel had taught him and the food had been
passed, Mabel leaned back and reached for a journal that lay open on the pie safe
behind her.
“I know it’s not good manners to read at the table,” Mabel said, “but I’ve been wanting you to hear this, Olivia, and I don’t know when else I’ll get the chance, seeing as you spend so little time at home. And when you are here, you’ve got yourself locked in your room. Anyway, it’s the most interesting
article, here in my ‘Godey’s Lady’s Book.’” She looked pointedly at Olivia
before beginning to read. “A sensible woman is always aware of her inferiority.
She performs those tasks that she can, but never forgets her dependence on the
stronger sex and is always grateful for the support of a man. She knows that she
is the weaker vessel, and it is as such that man honors her. Her weakness is not a
blemish, but what endears her to man.”
Olivia refrained from rolling her eyes as she wondered if the will of big,
strong Avis had ever once prevailed over that of “endearingly weak” Mabel.
Olivia knew where this was going – a tedious lecture about how a young lady had to behave in order to attract gentlemen callers.
Olivia hid her annoyance and changed the subject, keeping her voice calm and neutral. “I was reading something in there myself the other day. Your
‘Godey’s Lady’s Book’ says it’s perfectly acceptable for a woman to travel on her own, without a chaperone.”
“Well, I suppose that depends on where she’s going, doesn’t it?” Mabel said
and licked a glob of gravy off her finger before setting the journal back down on
the pie safe.
“Why would it depend on that?” Avis asked. “If she needs a chaperone, she
needs a chaperone. And if she doesn’t, she doesn’t.”
“Well, dear, isn’t it obvious that there’s a difference between an overnight
journey and, say, a stagecoach ride to another town?”
“Not obvious to me. If it’s all right for her to take a stage to another town, I
don’t see why she can’t check herself into a hotel room in that other town and then go on with another stage ride the next day.”
“There is all the difference in the world. If family puts her on the stage and
she’s met by her hosts at the other end of the line, that’s a whole different thing.
She’s never actually alone.”
“Except when she’s on the stage,” Avis said and motioned for Olivia to pass
the bread basket.
Mabel’s impatience all but fumed out of her ears. “The driver is bound to
protect her as long as she’s in his coach, now isn’t he? So she’s not really alone.”
“Well, suppose the stage makes a stop?” Avis wasn’t actually grinning, but
