Whiter Than Snow Read Online Free PDF Page B

Dredge, up the Swan River from Swandyke, Ted asked Lucy to marry him. The proposal came as a shock to the girl, because she had refused to let herself consider the possibility of marriage, and she was so surprised that she couldn’t speak. Ted was sitting across the counter from her at the drugstore, and he said, “I guess I should have been more romantic, taken you to dinner or brought you flowers. But I got the job only an hour ago, and I was so excited, I couldn’t wait.” He grinned and added, “I expect at the least I should have taken a bath.”
    “No, oh no…”
    “No? What do you mean, no? I’ve got it all figured out. I’ll support us, and you can turn your wages over to your folks, the whole paycheck, if you want to. You’ll go back to Swandyke like you promised, but we’ll go together.”
    “I meant you didn’t have to take a bath.” She smiled at him for a long time, then frowned. “I won’t quit school.”
    “You won’t have to. We’ll get married next year, after you graduate. By then, I’ll have the hang of the job, and I’ll have time to find a house and maybe get to know your family, too. Don’t you see, Luce, it’s perfect. You know I’ve been crazy about you ever since that day you painted my finger with Mercurochrome. I didn’t wash it for a week. I must have eaten a hundred grilled cheese sandwiches here, and I don’t even like cheese. Promise me you’ll never fix me another grilled cheese.” He grinned. “I hope you feel the same way about me.”
    Lucy nodded. “I guess I swabbed that cut so I could hold your hand.” She blushed and added, “Now I can hold it for the rest of my life.”
    “Then you’ll do it.”
    “Of course I’ll do it. I’ll marry you.”
    Ted leaned across the counter and kissed her. He’d never done that before, and Lucy drew away. But then she reconsidered and kissed him back.
    The drugstore owner came over then and asked, “What’s this about, Lucy? You can’t do that in here.”
    “It’s about we just got engaged,” Ted told him.
    “Oh, I guess that’s different. Isn’t that fine!” the man said, and, as the store was empty, he went behind the drug counter and took down a bottle and poured shots of whiskey into three Coca-Cola glasses and handed them around.
    They told Aunt Alice right away, and she said it was about time.
    “Now that I have your approval, I’ll have to get Lucy’s father’s,” Ted said. “I guess I’ll go to Swandyke and ask him.”
    “No,” Aunt Alice said. “No, you won’t ask him. I know Gus, and he’ll put conditions on it, just like he did about Lucy going to college. You two just tell him you’re getting married, so that there’ll be nothing he can do about it.”
    Lucy admitted her aunt was right. So not until the day she stepped off the train in Swandyke at the end of the school year, Ted behind her, did the family have the least knowing of her plans. It was a Sunday, a day off for both Gus and Dolly, and the entire family had gathered at the depot to meet the train. Lucy hugged her mother and Dolly and the little ones, then shook hands with her father, all before anyone became aware that Ted was waiting beside her. They looked him over, thinking perhaps that Lucy had met him on the train. But before they could wonder about it, Lucy blurted out, “This is Ted Turpin. Ted’s my fiancé.”
    “He’s what?” Dolly asked, not understanding the word.
    “My fiancé. That means we’re engaged.”
    “Oh,” Margaret, Lucy’s mother, said. “Oh.”
    “You mean you’re getting married?” Dolly’s eyes were wide with surprise, her mouth open a little. “Oh, Lucia!” She grabbed her sister’s wrist and squeezed it so tightly that Lucy thought the blood would stop going into her hand. Then Dolly turned to Ted. “Mr. Turpin, you are the luckiest man ever I met.”
    “I am that.” Ted grinned, but he looked at Gus when he said it.
    Gus was frowning. “I guess I’ll say who my daughter