To Everything There Is A Season

Prologue

January 20

I got married yesterday.

When I woke up today, I hurt in parts of me I didn't know could hurt. Jed says I must meet his needs every night until I get pregnant and whenever he is in need of release after that. He also says that it doesn't matter if I like what he does or not as long as I work hard and give him children.

There isn't time to get to know him well, we have to prepare for the spring planting. I only met Jed yesterday when father announced he'd found a man willing to take me off their hands, and that I would be going home with him that evening. Not sure what mother is going to do now that both Marie and I are gone.

I was up early to make Jed breakfast before he spent the day preparing fields. It was weird to only make food for two rather than three or four. Over breakfast Jed informed me of what my responsibilities would be. I'm to keep the house clean, prepare three meals a day, bake bread at least twice a week, the kitchen garden planning, planting, upkeep and picking as well as all the canning was mine and I would be required to wash Jed's clothing twice a week and mine once a week. I would also be allowed to tend to the chickens. He would prepare and tend the fields as well as look after the barn and pastured animals. He might add to my list as I prove myself a good wife.

Jed showed me around the house, so I would know where everything was. His house is huge. It has been in his family for 200 years. He said his great, great grandfather built the house at the height of the cotton trade. Jed says he wants to fill the rooms with sons to help on the farm and carry on his legacy. As there are five large bedrooms beyond the one we share. I know I am expected to have children and with any luck the first will be a boy, so Jed has his heir. He said his mother had eight and he wants more than that. I'm not sure how I feel about the prospect of that many children, but my place is not to question my husband, I just need to obey.

He has a wringer washer! Laundry is going to be so easy. I had to wring everything out by hand at home. The clothes line is located conveniently close to the house, the laundry room is right off the backdoor and the line is right by the step! The garden is huge, and he even has a greenhouse so I can start the garden earlier. I'm looking forward to spending time outside again. I like the gardening and preparing of vegetables for canning, though heat-treating the jars is probably my least favourite part. I always feel stressed about what I am doing as there is always a chance of something going wrong, and boiling water in the heat of summer is a recipe for frizzy, sweaty hair, not very pretty for a new wife. I like baking bread and meals were always my usual job at home, so nothing has changed there. In all honesty not much is different from before I was married to now. My jobs around the house are the same especially after my parents married Marie off to a community elder when I was 15. The biggest difference is that I now have a little more input into what I plant, cook and sew than I had when I was at home. Jed says he doesn't care what I do as long as he sees me very little and he is fed on time and year-round. Mother always told me what she wanted planted, cooked and what or if I was allowed to sew. Given how hostile Mother always was towards me, I was surprised they kept me home till I was 18 instead of marrying me off at 16 like most of the girls I went to camp with.

Time for bed. I hope tonight is less painful.

March 12

I was sick again this morning. Jed doesn't know. I don't want to disappoint him anymore than I already do. He made me kneel in the kitchen again last night when the floor wasn't scrubbed to his standards. I made him his favourite breakfast as an apology for being such a bad wife.

My plants are almost ready to be moved to the outside garden from the greenhouse. A few more weeks and the threat of frost will be over, and everything can go into the ground. Jed will be happier when he can spend time in the field away from my displeasing presence. He says he will be planting cotton and wheat for sure and possibly corn. I made the mistake of asking if the state was allowing him to grow cotton. My throat still hurts, a week later, from the lemon juice and vinegar he made me drink for questioning his authority.