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Travis thought that was a brilliant idea. He loved the idea of her getting a wedding dress herself, and he also thought it would be a good idea to get Alaska out somewhere where Chelmer wouldn’t be looking for her.
“Bismark might be better.”
“All right. Let’s go to Bismark then. Will that work for you Travis?”
“Yeah. But leave the kids here. I’ll call Ezra, we’ll discuss it, and we’ll get things ready so that when you come back, we’ll have a spot for you at the Sweet View Ranch.
“How can I ever thank you?” Alaska said.
“Well, I originally told Ezra that you were looking for a job. He was willing to give you one as his personal assistant. You’d probably be in charge of keeping all the books for the ranch, and possibly cooking meals, I don’t know. This seems like it could be a new start for you. Something you might be interested in. It would be a good place for you to raise your children, and Ezra is an honest and upright man. So, the way you could repay me is by doing a good job. Being honest, and trustworthy. I couldn’t tell him you are, because I don’t know you. So he’ll be watching. I know he’ll give you the benefit of the doubt, but he probably won’t give that to you twice.”
Alaska nodded her head, and Travis hoped he hadn’t been too hard on her. He was trying to emphasize the fact that if she wanted to turn her life around, she was the one who had to do it. She couldn’t sit around waiting for someone else to fix her. She had to take the initiative.
Of course, it was easier for a Christian to do that, because they had the Holy Spirit helping them. Still, Alaska would be in an environment where she would surely hear about Jesus, if she hadn’t already, and she could make a decision for herself.
As much as Travis wanted to discuss it with her now, God gave a person free choice, and that’s what he needed to do as well. Wait on God’s timing.
“Do you need to get ready to go?” His voice softened as he looked at Ellen. She glowed, her cheeks were rosy, her eyes shone, and she looked at him with so much...love in her eyes that it made his heart feel like it was too big for his chest, and all he wanted to do was pull her close and never let her go.
“No. I’m ready now.”
“All right. The two of you can go, and I’ll call the police, let them know what’s going on. They might want to talk to you when you get back. I don’t know...I’ve never handled anything like this before. But after that, I’ll call Ezra and we’ll go from there.”
Chapter 25
“You should try that one on,” Ellen said.
Alaska looked where her fingers touched the satin material. Her fingers did not seem to go with the silk and elegance of the wedding gown.
“No. I couldn’t. I’m not getting married anytime soon.”
“It doesn’t matter. It’s fun to try fancy dresses on. And if I’m going to try one on, you can too.”
Alaska looked at the bridal attendant. “Go ahead. You never know when you’ll fall in love with a dress and want to sock it away for your own wedding.”
“Until I get married, I probably wouldn’t fit in this dress anyway.”
“Tell me your size. If you buy the dress we’ll make sure it fits you, but at the very least, you can feel like a princess for a few minutes.”
The wedding attendant was sweet, and since they were the only ones in the shop, they were getting all of her attention.
Ellen seemed a little uncomfortable with it, and Alaska assumed that was just the way she was. She didn’t seem like the kind of girl who would want a big fancy gown, but Alaska had to admit she’d been having fun. She almost felt like a kid again.
Although her childhood was so far away, and her innocence so long-lost, that it was hard to remember exactly what being a child felt like.
A little bit of bitterness welled up in her throat. Bitterness at the things that she had been forced to do. Bitterness at how her life turned out. A lot of the mistakes that she’d made she had no one to blame but herself, but she had started down this road because of her home life.
She pushed that aside, and tried to focus on the innocent fun of the day. Her children were in good hands, and she was actually doing something that she never thought she would. Trying on wedding dresses.
The dresses were complicated and difficult, and it was thirty minutes before the two of them were out of the changing areas and looking at each other across the wide room with all the mirrors.
She could see herself, front and back, as the angles of the mirror were situated for that type of view. The gown contained rows of lace and pearls and sequins and was much more frilly and feminine than anything she would pick out. The bottom of it puffed out, like every little girl’s dream, and she truly did feel like a princess. She couldn’t imagine wearing something like this every day, but she believed she could get used to it.
“You look gorgeous in that. Like you were born to wear it,” Ellen said, meeting Alaska’s eyes in the mirror.
“I feel like a princess,” Alaska said, even though the sleeves of her tattoos clashed with the gown. It was sleeveless, and while she had loved her tattoos when she got them, they didn’t really represent who she was now. They definitely didn’t look right with the dress.
“You look perfect in yours,” she said, and she hoped what she felt didn’t come out in her voice too much.
