When at last the coach pulled into Eternity and stopped before the depot, she saw him long before the vehicle halted.
“Is he there?” the woman across from her asked.
Carrie smiled shyly and nodded. She and this woman had traveled together for the last seven hundred miles, and Carrie had told her that she was going to meet her new husband. She had not told all the details, preferring to leave out that her letter to Josh had contained some untruths, but she’d told her all the most romantic parts of the approaching love affair. Carrie had told of the adventure of being a mail-order bride and being married by proxy because they had fallen in love through letters and that now she was going to meet her husband for the first time.
The woman, who lived with her husband and four children in California, leaned over and patted Carrie’s hand. “He’ll be even more in love with you the moment he sees you. He’s a very lucky man.”
Looking down at her hands, Carrie blushed.
When the stage finally stopped, Carrie found herself suddenly frightened, and every word that her friends and parents had said to her came back to her. Quite suddenly, she thought, What in the world have I done?
Two men got out of the coach, but Carrie hung back, drawing the coach’s leather curtain aside and looking out at the man standing on the porch gazing at the coach with unreadable eyes.
She would have known him anywhere. This was Josh, this was the man who was her husband. In secret, behind the cover of the leather shade, she examined him. He was shorter than her brothers, standing about five foot nine or ten, but he was as strongly built as they were, just as broad shouldered and slim hipped, and he was just as handsome. He had piercing dark eyes that stared at the coach intently, and he was leaning against the wall of the stage depot, looking for all the world as though he didn’t have a care in the world. He was wearing a black suit of excellent cut and quality, and Carrie’s expert eye knew that when it was new it had been very expensive, but the suit was a bit worn now, frayed here and there.
Wiping her hands on her traveling skirt, Carrie listened to the stage driver unloading the bags from the top of the coach, but still she sat where she was, holding Choo-choo on her lap and looking out at Josh. She wanted to see him to make sure that what she had felt from the photo was true when she saw him in person. What kind of man was he?
He didn’t move from his place against the wall even when there seemed to be no more passengers disembarking. Standing very still, he watched and waited.
He knows that I’m inside, Carrie thought. He knows it and he’s waiting for me. At that thought she relaxed and smiled, and the woman across from her smiled also.
Putting the loop of Choo-choo’s leash over her wrist, Carrie got up from her seat and went to the coach door.
The moment Josh saw a skirt in the doorway, he stepped away from the wall and came forward, and when he saw Carrie, he paused.
In the instant Carrie met his eyes, she knew without one doubt in the world that she had made no mistake. Mr. Joshua Greene was hers and would be for the rest of her life.
She smiled at him. It was a tremulous smile, for her heart was beating in her throat so hard that she seemed to have trouble thinking.
Without smiling, Josh came forward quickly. By the expression on his handsome face a person might not have known he was anxious, but he nearly knocked the stage driver to the ground in his rush to get to Carrie. Putting his strong hands up toward her waist, he waited to help her down.
As Josh’s hands touched Carrie’s waist, the moment they connected, the two of them froze in place. He held her waist, looking up at her as she stood in the doorway, and there was a charge of such excitement between the two of them that Carrie was sure her pounding heart was going to burst her bodice.
For minutes the two of them stood there, Josh’s hands about her waist, Carrie’s feet barely grazing the stage step, neither of them moving as they stared at each other. To an outsider they might have been statues except for the fact that every visible blood vessel was engorged and throbbing.
“You two lovebirds mind gettin’ out of my way?” the stage driver said as he tried to push Josh aside. But Josh was as firmly rooted where he was as though he’d been planted and grown roots a hundred feet deep.
It was Carrie who broke the spell when she smiled at her husband.
When Josh returned her smile, Carrie thought she might melt. He had the most beautiful smile in the world, with perfect, even, white teeth and lips that were finely shaped.
Slowly, ignoring the stage driver who stood looking at them in disgust, Josh lowered Carrie to the ground. As he lowered her, his hands—strong hands—moved from her waist all the way up to her armpits. When his palms went past her breasts, Carrie was sure she was going to faint.
When Carrie’s feet were on the ground (literally speaking), Josh stepped away and tipped his hat. “Ma’am,” he said softly.
If Carrie hadn’t been in love with him before, she was sure she would have been after she heard his voice. Odd, but in all her imaginings she hadn’t thought about what his voice would be like. It was deep and…and, well, beautiful, almost like a singer’s voice.
She knew she should introduce herself, but suddenly the words stuck in her throat. What could she say? “Hello, I’m your wife?” Or “Did you really, actually, truly want a farm girl?” Or should she say what first came to her mind, which was, “Kiss me”?
After discarding all those alternatives, she didn’t say anything, but stepped away from the coach, Choo-choo panting and following her, and walked to the shade of the porch of the stage depot. Standing there, she took the fan from her wrist and used it as she watched Josh turn back toward the stage.
As Carrie watched, the woman who had traveled with her stepped from the coach, and Josh politely put his hands up to help her down. The woman was at least fifty pounds overweight, as well as being several years older than Josh.
“Are you Miss Montgomery?” she heard him ask. “I mean, Mrs. Greene?”
The woman smiled at Josh. “You can get that worried look off your face, young man, I’m not your bride.”
Instantly, Josh removed his hat and bowed before her. (What lovely hair, Carrie thought.) “Had I been so honored, my lady, I would feel myself the most fortunate of men,” he said.