Free Bride of Paradise by Katie Crabapple

me?” 
    Adelaide nodded.  “And I think we’d be happy to trade a dresser for one of them.”  She touched her stomach.  “I’m expecting, and I’d like a trunk to put the baby’s things in as I sew them.”
    “Oh, that’s a wonderful idea!”  Kristen nodded emphatically.  “I’d love to make that trade.”
    “I’ll bring my husband by when he gets home from work, and we’ll pick one up to get it out of your way.  He’ll start on your dresser first thing tomorrow.”   Adelaide rubbed her hands together happily.  “I’m so glad we ran into each other today!”
    “Thank you!”  Kristen’s eyes lit up as she thought about what she’d already accomplished.  She was going to make it work, if only because Samuel didn’t think she could.
    As soon as Adelaide left, there was a knock on the door.  When she opened it, an older woman stood on her doorstep.  “Mrs. Benner?”
    “Yes?”
    “I’m Alice Cheevy.  I brought your lunch.”  The woman held a small pot in her hands and held it out to Kristen.
    Kristen smiled sweetly, although she was slightly annoyed.  She’d wanted to make lunch herself.  “Thank you so much.  I’m sure we’ll enjoy it.”   It was probably for the best with everything she had to do, though.
    “Just heat it up when it’s time for lunch.”  Alice peeked around Kristen and saw the trunks scattered everywhere.  “Oh my!  You have a lot of trunks!”
    Kristen nodded, wondering why people always felt the need to state the obvious.  “I do.”
    “What will you do with them all?” she asked.
    Kristen shrugged.  “I’m planning on keeping two, and I’ve traded one for a dresser, but I’ll probably just take the others to sell at the mercantile if they’ll buy them from me.”
    The woman looked at the trunks again before asking, “Could you use a bookshelf?  I’d love to trade you a shelf for one of those trunks.”
    Kristen thought about it.  She had brought a few of her favorite books with her, and she had some things she wanted to display somewhere.  “I’d like that.”
    Alice clapped her hands.  “I’ll send my husband over as soon as he’s finished with work today.  He’ll pick up a trunk and drop off the shelf.”
    “That sounds good.”  Kristen was pleased with how things were working out.  She’d rather get good trades for the trunks than money anyway.
    She glanced at the clock and saw it was already after eleven.  She started a fire in the stove and put the pot in it.  The women there certainly were generous, she thought.
    When Samuel got home for lunch, she had all of the trunks emptied and pushed to one corner of the big room.  She had scrubbed the floor in the bedroom and put her shoes around underneath the hanging dresses.  It was looking a great deal homier without her trunks scattered all over.  He looked around, obviously happy with the work she’d done. 
    “Mrs. Cheev y brought lunch today,” she told him after he’d prayed.  “I was getting ready to fix it when she came with the pot.” 
    He ate a quick bite.  “That’s fine.  I’m not fussy about who cooks or even what they cook.  I just like to eat.”
    She laughed.  “She’s sending her husband back later.  They want to trade a bookshelf for one of my trunks.”
    “That sounds good to me.  I don’t know what we’ll do with ten trunks.”
    She grinned.  “I want to keep two of them, at least for now.  One for some of my clothes, and the other to keep linens and things in.”
    He shrugged.  “That’s fine.  Do what you want with them.”   He didn’t say it, but he was pleased to see that she was figuring things out.  He hadn’t been sure how she was going to put things away, but she was managing.  He had to admire her for that.
    Once he’d left for the church again, she did the dishes, carefully setting the pot lunch had come in into one of the trunks, and making a mental note that the trunk would need to go home with Mr.