Mail-Order Miranda (Brides of Beckham) by Margery Scott

Author:Margery Scott [Scott, Margery]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2017-01-26T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

Over the next few days, life began to fall into a pattern. Miranda cooked breakfast every morning for John and the girls before he left for the diner. Every night, while John worked on the accounts for the diner, Miranda either played games with the girls, taught them to play the piano or read to them. And when she and John went to bed, he kissed her goodnight.

Miranda was almost happy. She loved the girls like she’d given them life, and she was falling more and more in love with John every day. Other than the physical part of marriage, he was everything a woman could ask for – kind, considerate, generous. He worked hard, laughed easily and seemed to be happy, too.

There was only one fly in the ointment – Ruth.

Every morning, she arrived shortly after John left, and took over ... everything.

No matter what Miranda did, Ruth either criticized the way she did it or took over and did it herself. One morning, she’d even caught Ruth rearranging the clean clothes she’d hung on the clothesline. Miranda was tempted to say something, but decided against it. She’d only end up feeling as if she was wrong, and she was tired of always feeling inferior and unworthy.

At least Hope and Ellie seemed to be happy with her, she thought as she rolled out pastry for the pie she planned to bake for dessert. Realizing she’d forgotten to ask the girls whether they wanted apple or cherry pie, she wiped her hands on her apron and headed up the stairs.

As she approached the bedroom, she heard Ruth’s sharp voice. “That’s not the way I showed you, Hope,” she was saying. “The corners must be tucked in like this. Now do it again.”

Miranda stepped into the room. Hope was standing at the foot of her bed, her face a mask of misery, tears drying on her cheeks. “Is there a problem, Ruth?”

Her gaze shifted from Hope to Miranda. “Not at all,” she replied. “I was just showing Hope how to do square corners. You do know how to make a bed using square corners, don’t you?”

“Of course I do,” Miranda said. “Not when I was five years old, I admit.”

“It’s never too early to teach children how things should be done properly.”

Miranda disagreed, just as she disagreed with many of her child-rearing beliefs, but she kept quiet. Ruth was John’s aunt, and she didn’t want to come between them. Instead of contradicting her, she turned her attention back to Hope. “Hope?” she asked. “Where’s Ellie?”

“She went ... outside ...” Hope hiccupped.

“Please go and find her and wait for me on the porch,” Miranda said, then smiled sweetly at Ruth. “I’ve decided to take the girls to see their father at the diner.”

Ruth’s face twisted in a frown. “They haven’t finished their chores yet—”

“An unmade bed isn’t the end of the world, is it?”

“Cleanliness—”

“I know, but I’m taking the children out. We’ll be back later.”

Before Ruth could protest any further, Miranda hurried downstairs.

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