Free In Need of a Good Wife by Kelly O'Connor McNees Page A

your acquaintance in writing and look forward to the time when we shall meet in person. I cannot help but praise your beauty. Miss Bixby speaks highly of you and assures me that your sights are set, as mine are, on matrimony. She also tells me she has relayed to you the details of my situation and you remain undeterred by the prairie winter, among the other challenges. I see already signs that you are just the sort of steadfast woman I seek. Perhaps I should tell you a little more about myself and my home that might help you make your mind up.
The Gibson manse is a hectic place, as I’m sure you’ve gathered. The dining table is never empty, with at least the usual five guests at every meal. Conversation is lively, full of stories of adventure on the prairie such as rattlesnake hunting and wars with the Indians—though just between us I must admit that I suspect some of these tales are slightly exaggerated. Nonetheless, the storytellers make good company, and they have gotten better about remembering not to bring their guns to the table. Since our one young lady is learning to play the flute, we have music and sometimes, when the celebrants behave themselves, costumed tableaux in front of the hearth.
     
    Rowena stopped and looked up at her father, who stared blankly at the empty wall. She smiled, genuinely pleased by the description so far. “Doesn’t it sound wonderful, Papa?” she said. “Dinner parties with five or more guests every night! I can only imagine how many maids Mr. Gibson employs.” She turned back to the letter to see that the man did have a few concerns about the company he had been keeping, and rightly so.
But on the whole we are out of balance, each of us in need of the influence of a refined lady’s manners and speech. I lament that only half of them have yet learned to read and am counting on your education and abilities in this regard.
    Grown men and women, illiterate —what a scandal! Well , Rowena thought, it won’t be long after my arrival that I set that right .
     
As for myself, I suppose some folks have called me handsome. I work hard to maintain this household and what I need most in the world is a partner’s help. I am
Ever yours,
Daniel Gibson
     
    “Well, Papa, what do you think?” Rowena tucked the blanket on either side of his hips, unable to look into her father’s face. “Daniel Gibson,” she said softly, then cleared her throat, trying to wrestle the emotion out of her voice for what she had to say next. “Papa, I am going to have to go away for a while.”
    This harnessed his attention for a moment and he made true eye contact with Rowena for the first time since she could remember. “What’s that?”
    She gave him a weak smile and wondered if any of his strange behaviors were put on, to convince her or the nurses that he had given up trying to rein himself back in. If a man was only half crazy, people might expect things of him. The danger of breaking into tears seemed to have passed, like a cloud crossing over the sun, and Rowena spoke now in a firm voice. “I have to go to Nebraska, Papa, so that I can marry Daniel Gibson. Aside from you, there’s no one left for me here in New York. Once I get set up there in the town, Destination, I will send for you. It sounds as if there is plenty of room in the house.”
    Rowena’s father watched her without saying a word, then folded his hands the way she had when they were outside on the bench, one finger at a time. “If you are the one who took my hat,” he said, “I would like very much to have it back now.”
    “I didn’t take your hat, Papa,” she said, standing and kissing him on top of his head, then smoothing his unruly hair. “I won’t be leaving until the spring, so you will just have to put up with me until then.”
    Each time she left a visit with her father at the asylum, Rowena had to turn abruptly on her heel and walk straight for the door as quickly as possible, without turning to look back at him.