Chapter 6

May 20, 1850

The kids are getting married today. I thought we'd never get the invitations finished and sent out announcing the engagement. We had just gotten through with that when we had to send out announcements about the wedding. I suggested that we send them out together and my wives had a fit. Apparently it was considered to be the height of bad manners to tell people about the marriage before everyone knew about the engagement. I gave Josh some rings I had found in the slavers' wagon and he had them melted down and recast into matching diamond rings for his fiances. We finally had to get a Mormon preacher to do the ceremony for them, since the Methodist preacher refused to perform it. None of the kids really minded, since Josh is a Southern Baptist, Frieda is Lutheran, and Sun Lee is a Buddhist. It seemed rather strange when Josh was escorted by his groomsmen down the aisle followed by Mr. Simeroth escorting Frieda while I escorted Sun Lee to the preacher. For a while there I was worried that we wouldn't have enough room for everyone to sit, but between the neighbors and some chairs I rented from town we finally had enough for the ceremony.

We had the wedding breakfast and will be having a dinner afterwards before the kids slip away to a hotel in Salem for the night. I have given Josh a hundred and fifty dollars as a wedding present to use for his honeymoon and he is planning on seeing where his new wives want to go before they decide. They are to return next week and I, Josie and Elizabeth will be taking care of his place until they do.

I was surprised to see all the people who attended. I hadn't realized that we had so many close friends before I saw how many showed up. Between Claire's students and their parents, my patients and the people I met while I was acting as a deputy, Elizabeth's friends she made while teaching Krav Magen, Louise's that she made when we went to California, Frieda's family and the kids' friends, we had over eighty people who attended the wedding events.

We had finished Josh's house on his claim a week ago and my wives and the girls spent most of the week prior to the wedding setting up the house with the wedding gifts and stuff they had purchased at Fort Vancouver before they were kidnapped. I was surprised about getting the wedding presents before the wedding, but apparently they are supposed to set out so people can admire them before the wedding. The only change my wives made was to trade the bed they purchased for Josh and Frieda for the one we had in our main bedroom and buying us a bigger one. They had bought and saved a lot of feathers since we got here and finally had enough to make both beds a feather tick mattress.

I told the young men that there would be no chivarree tonight and Willy and Mr. Simeroth supported me. That is one tradition that I hope dies a quick death. Josie has been staying with us since we finished taking care of the patients and she and Elizabeth have remained as thick as thieves. While Claire and Louise have been getting Josh ready for the wedding, Elizabeth and Josie have been getting Sun Lee's outfit and her trousseau done. I had to explain to her that here we wore white to weddings to celebrate life, not as a sign of mourning as they did in Asia. After that she got into the spirit of the occasion as much as the rest.

I don't know who had more fun, Claire and Louise dressing Josh or Elizabeth and Josie dressing Sun Lee. Frieda and her mother were frequent visitors to the house while they were making the dresses and Josh's suit trying to coordinate everything for the wedding. I would never have imagined that so much planning went into a wedding before. Thank God, I was able to buy the white gloves and ties Frieda's mother insisted on for the groomsmen. Mrs. Simeroth acted like she expected to have a formal Victorian ceremony for the wedding, but Mr. Simeroth was able to talk her out of that. I don't know where I would have been able to find so much white silk or a veil around here.

I had wondered why my wives were buying so much silver service when we were at Oregon City until I found that I was expected to give the newlywed bride away with the trousseau filled with linens, silverware and new clothes. I was glad I found out, because if this is normal when my girls grow up I better start saving now. It will be strange not having Josh and Sun Lee around all the time. They only are going to be living about two miles away so I expect to see them fairly often, but it won't be the same.

I teased Elizabeth and Josie that they acted like Sun Lee was their daughter and both turned to me and said almost simultaneously, "She is!" and giggled together like school children. I was happy to see that Elizabeth had found a good friend, since she had been isolated due to her needing to run the farm since I was gone so often. I was surprised at how much alike the two were after I got to know Josie better. Both had been forced to take on men's work early due to the death of their parents while they were still fairly young.

Josie had lost both parents in the same smallpox outbreak that had left her so scarred. They were still on the Oregon Trail when this occurred but she had been taken care of by the Whitmans at their mission until she had recovered. When she got to Oregon the land claims office refused to let her file a land claim as she was neither a male over 18 or a widow. She had managed to live by selling the contents of her wagon for a while until she was offered a job by a sutler to deliver goods to Oregon City... She managed to deliver the goods in time and in good condition. Things grew from there until she was regularly hired to deliver loads and finally was hired by the sutler that supplied the forts and wagon stops for the Oregon Trail up to Wyoming.

Both women were knowledgeable about farming and they often got into discussions about what crops would be best to plant for the best yield and discussions about watering the crops and taking care of the farm animals. Josie had brought Elizabeth some corn that she swore would get ripe in this area and we planted two acres of it as an experiment. I hope it works, I'm looking forward to corn on the cob, although I'd be satisfied with enough dry corn to supplement what I've been forced to buy. With California still booming, we have a market for everything we can produce and we have expanded the plantings this year. We have over one hundred acres under cultivation at this time and I don't think we'll be able to handle much more by ourselves.

I know the women have been plotting something, because I continue to find they stop talking whenever I come into the room. No one will tell me what is going on, no matter how I beat around the bush asking. All I get is a kiss and a, "Don't worry, dear", look whenever I try.

May 28, 1850

When I got back to my house I found Josh and his wives visiting with his mothers and Josie. They were talking about how much room they had in their new house and Frieda was asking Louise how to prepare one of Josh's favorite dishes.

Claire spoke up, "Alex, Louise and I want to move into another house with the babies. We still want to be your wives but the babies are the most important thing for us."

I was in shock. Two of my wives had just told me that they wanted to leave without warning. I wasn't the only one shocked, Elizabeth looked like she couldn't believe it either. She tore into both, "How dare you tell Alex that? We swore we would discuss things like this and then decide among us, not give anyone an ultimatum about what we were going to do!"

Josh and his wives were uncomfortable listening to the argument that seemed to be starting, I held up my hand, "This is not the place or the time to be talking about this. Josh, if you and your wives will excuse us, we will see you tomorrow and tell you what we have decided."

I looked at Josie who had been sitting there next to Elizabeth. She didn't show any sign of embarrassment with the argument we were having. I was about to ask her to go with Josh when Elizabeth spoke up, "Alex, Josie needs to be here when we talk." I gave my wives a look and saw them all nodding. This had to be about what they had been keeping secret.

After Josh and his wives had left we gathered around the kitchen table. Elizabeth was the first to speak, "Alex, we wives want to have Josie join the family. We all love her and she is loved by the kids as well."

"Wait! Do I get a vote here? I have to marry her too!", I objected. I turned to Josie, who seemed to have become smaller as the conversation went on, "Josie, what do you have to say?"

She looked at the floor like she was expecting me to reject her, "Alex, I love you and have since you talked to me when I brought the kids in. I grew to love you even more when I saw how hard you worked to save as many people as you could while we were at Lisa's house and how you felt when one of the kids died. I fell in love with your family as well when they treated me as another woman, not as some sort of freak. You've been the only family that I have ever met that looks at me not my scars." She broke out in tears and my wives moved over to support her. I sat there stunned. I had no idea that she felt like that. I examined my feelings and while I was fond of Josie I had never thought of her as a possible wife. As for her scarred face, I had stopped noticing that shortly after I had met her. If she hadn't mentioned it I wouldn't have now.

I struggled with my answer, "Josie, I don't know what to say. I like you a lot, but I've thought of you as a friend not a lover. This is going to take some time for me to think about it. I'm not rejecting you, and your scars don't mean anything to me either. If I was unmarried than I wouldn't have any hesitation about marrying you. Let's court for a while and then we'll see what happens."

Josie looked up at me with a big smile and jumped into my lap and gave me a big kiss. Wow! I'd have to rate that as a 9.5 out of 10 on the passion scale. I looked up at my wives and saw looks ranging from satisfaction to disappointment on their faces, "You have got to stop hiding things from me!", I told them sternly. "I don't appreciate being blindsided by your plotting!"

Elizabeth looked at me in appeal, "We didn't say anything because we hadn't asked Josie either!"

I looked at Josie, "You were blindsided as well?" She nodded and I got pissed at my wives, "Don't you ever do something like this again! You've treated Josie and I like children who didn't have any say about what happens. Neither I nor Josie deserve to be blindsided like this!"

I got up and started to stomp out of the room when Josie grabbed my arm, "Alex, if they hadn't done it this way I never would have had the courage to say anything! I know I'm a freak and I don't blame you for being mad that your wives are trying to make you marry someone who looks like me!" She began crying, deep heartbreaking sobs that shook her body.

I gathered Josie in my arms and held her close, "Josie, unless you mention them I don't think anyone would notice the scars after they know you. You're a beautiful woman in more than one way and deserve to be happy. I apologize for the way my wives have treated you. I don't think you're a freak in any way. Now give me a kiss and we'll leave my wives to think about the way they've behaved."