Mail Order Bride Leah: A Sweet Western Historical Romance (Montana Mail Order Brides Series Book 1) by Rose Jenster Page A

her to write to Jane. She and Henry had agreed to a three-week trial period to become acquainted. When that time had elapsed, they would have to decide if they had a future together. She both longed for and dreaded that day.
    The next morning at the quilting circle, she joined Mrs. Gibson and four other ladies in the tidy sitting room of the rectory. The minister’s wife took out the quilt top they were piecing and each woman fell to work. Leah looked over the pattern and took up some cut pieces. Threading her needle, she made laborious, crooked stitches that were far too wide. Becky Quinn leaned over and helped her remove her row of pitiful efforts, and suggested that she hold her needle differently.
    Even with Becky’s help, Leah felt she was hopeless as a quilter. As the talk drifted to a letter from one of the ladies’ married daughters, Leah took her embroidery out of her sewing basket and set to work on some French knots to add dimension to the vivid red and pink geraniums she was crafting on the tablecloth from Jane.
    “Oh!” Becky Quinn exclaimed. “That’s so beautiful! Look, Mrs. Gibson. I never saw the like!”
    “Truly, Leah, that is lovely handwork. You said your mother taught you some embroidery but I had no idea. Delia, isn’t that exquisite?” Mrs. Gibson addressed Delia Wilford, whose husband owned the dry goods store in town.
    “Certainly. I noticed in church, if you’ll forgive the fact that my thoughts were not on higher heavenly things, that you had some embroidery on your reticule. Did you do it yourself?”
    “Yes, I netted the purse and also embellished it with the vine pattern. I did a similar trim on my walking dress. I had it made up plain and I added the embroidery myself,” Leah said.
    “Do you think a vine embroidery would look nice on this quilt? Just here and here on the pattern?” Delia asked, indicating the area of the quilt block. Leah nodded and began to stitch a simple stem stitch and some couching for texture, with leaves in satin stitch.
    “Like so?” she asked. The women all nodded in unison.
    “Could you show me how to do that?” Becky asked, and Leah smiled.
    “I was a schoolteacher back in Albany. It would be a joy to teach you, and even better to share something my dear mother taught me to do,” Leah said warmly. Becky beamed.
    “Are you busy tomorrow?” Becky pressed.
    “Tomorrow would be fine. Can you come to Mrs. Hostleman’s? I believe she will let me use her sitting room."
    “Yes. I will. Do I need to bring anything special?”
    “I have embroidery silks we can use to start with. What about tatting? Do you know how to make lace with thread like that?”
    “Make lace? No. Lace comes very dear. I’ve never had any, though I have a cousin who had some on her wedding gown,” Becky said.
    “You use a little metal tool called a shuttle and make knots. There’s a knack to it but I’d be glad to show you. It makes a nice lace collar or even lace for cuffs, and it’s better than paying the prices they ask for point lace,” Leah said knowledgeably.
    “My grandmother did tatting,” Mrs. Gibson admitted. “She made doilies. I was never interested in it when I was growing up but I would dearly love to learn now.”
    “Perhaps on Mondays I could have a sort of learning circle. I could teach Becky to embroider and show you a bit of tatting.”
    “I believe that we carry shuttles at the shop,” Delia put in.
    “Put one back for me, dear. I’ll be in to pick it up before Monday’s class. Ten in the morning?” Mrs. Gibson said. Leah nodded, excited at the prospect of doing something useful and applying her instructional skills to help the women of the town.
    The next day, Becky came to Mrs. Hostleman’s and learned the satin stitch from Leah. By the end of the hour, Becky could make a creditable tight and smooth petal or leaf, and was quite proud of herself. She intended to go right to the dry goods shop and get some embroidery thread to add leaves