Tomorrow's Promise: Mail Order Bride

Chapter Ten Mistakes

Chapter Ten

Belinda took the rifle that Kris propped against the door and headed towards the hen house. How hard would it be to kill a hen for lunch? She helped the cook, cook a chicken once when she was little. She used to watch the cook go outside and come in with a dead hen. It never looked hard just shoot a hen, pluck, and cook. Wouldn’t Kris be so shock when he comes home and sees chicken on the table? She frowned at the gun, she never shot a gun before but that also didn’t look hard. Point the gun at what she wanted to shot and pull the trigger. Belinda opened the door headed towards the hen house but before she got there she saw a big hen heading towards her with its head up high. It stalked toward her, watching her like it wanted to kill her. As it went on the attack, Belinda screamed, closed her eyes and shot the gun at the same time. For a heartfelt moment she just breathed.  When she didn’t feel anything attacking her she opened her eyes. There were feathers all over the ground but no hen. Belinda smiled at herself; she did it! She shot and killed her first hen and she didn’t need help at all. Belinda looked up just in time to see three different people run to her from different places. The first one to get to her was Kris and right behind him was Adam and a women Belinda had not met yet.

“Belinda what in God’s name are you doing with the rifle? It was there for emergencies only!” Kris said out of breath.

“I wanted to make you lunch so I thought it would be ok if I came outside and shot a hen! I didn’t know that the hen would try to attack me!” Belinda looked down at her dirty boots.

That is when Kris looked at the hen she killed. Adam and the women burst into laugher while Kris just stared down at the pile of feathers and scattered remains of what had once been his only rooster. He looked at her with confusion in his eyes.

“Belinda you do know you just killed our rooster! Don’t you know the difference between roosters and hens?” Kris started pacing back and forward. “You could have killed someone or yourself.” He turned his angry eyes towards Belinda. “We can’t even eat the rooster there’s nothing left! Haven’t you ever lived on a farm? Can’t you use the sense God gave you, you can’t shot a rooster with a rifle!”

“I can’t believe you killed Jasper theirs nothing left of him!” Adam trying to look horrified said but it wasn’t working because he couldn’t stop laughing long enough to form a coherent sentence.

Belinda knew he didn’t mean to say that she was stupid, but how else could she kill the rooster? She felt the blush all over her face and the tears that threatened to fall. They must have all realized she was stupid just like David had always said.

“Well how do you kill one then?”  She howled, now very aware that he was insulting her intelligence. 

“You have to wring their neck!”  He howled and accompanied that with a gesture that told her everything she needed to know. 

She stared at him, more horrified by the prospect of killing the animal by hand than blowing it to kingdom come and Kris shook his head disgustedly.  He would never understand this woman. 

The older black women stepped up to her and glared at Kris. “Kris don’t you think your being too hard she didn’t know!” The women looked at her and smiled. “It’s ok child we all make mistakes and now you know what a rooster looks like.”  She shot Kris a withering look.  “And now you know how to kill one correctly.”  She tried to give Belinda a friendly smile and patted her arm comfortingly.

 “My name is Molly and I’m married to this foolish excuse of a man.” She said while pointing at Adam.

“Hello my name is Belinda.” She felt Kris still staring at her. “I’m really sorry Kris. I really didn’t know it was your only rooster.” She felt the tears threaten to fall again.  

Kris sighed and started to feel bad that he let his anger get out of control. He felt like a dog when it’s master has kicked it. She’s so fragile and it’s not Godly to yell at her. He could see the fear in her eyes.  “It’s alright Belinda I know you didn’t mean to well Adam and I have to get back to work. Molly well help you clean up. However, let me have the gun just in case you decide to cook anything else.” Kris said with a light tone in his voice.  He turned to walk back to the fields but stop and turned back towards her. He still felt bad and a picnic would put a smile on her face. All women loved picnics.

“I’ll be back in a little while for lunch maybe we’ll walk down towards the river and have picnic.” He smiled and Belinda couldn’t help but smile back. “I would love to Kris thank you for asking.” Belinda watched at Kris and Adam walked back towards the fields. When she looked back to Molly she saw her looking at her with a secret smile on her face.  

            With Molly’s help she make she made some lunch for her first picnic. She loved listening to Molly she felt that they had own each other forever. Molly did most of the talking and didn’t ask a lot of questions. She turned to make sure she had everything in the basket when Molly asked, “Why did a pretty girl like you become a mail order bride?”  Belinda didn’t know what to say at first the truth is to painful to talk about. She opened her mouth to say something, anything when the front door opened and Kris walked in. She never felt so happy to see anyone in her life.

“Are you ready Belinda?” He smiled at her and she felt the warm feeling again running through her whole body. They both stared into each others eyes for what seemed like several minutes without saying a word and Belinda wondered why she felt so safe with this man. When Molly cleared her throat they broke eye contact and turned to look at her.

She smiled at them, “Well I better get home and put something together for Adam to eat.” She didn’t say anything else as she quickly left out the door towards her home. Kris went over to the picnic basket with long even steps and picked it up. He turned his handsome grin towards her. Oh lord I think I’m in trouble now. Belinda thought to herself, she couldn’t be developing feelings towards this man… or could she?