#ruthpleasantfh

[lallyinthesims]

Morning breaks quietly in the Pleasant household as Sheriff Daniel saddles his horse and rides out for the day, already preoccupied with the town’s troubles (or perhaps his own). 

Angela spends the late morning in the parlor, needlepoint stretched tight, each stitch a small step toward the refinement she believes will secure her future. Mary-Sue sits at the piano, fingers moving through hymns and polite melodies, the music filling the space conversation would take up in any other family. 

As the afternoon wears on Angela moves to the kitchen, determined to prepare supper herself. She stirs the stew carefully, tasting and adjusting, intent on proving (mainly to herself) that she can master every skill expected of a proper wife. The ladies wait as long as they can for Daniel to return, but as the stew grows tepid and the sun dips low, they finally must make the call to eat without him. 

After the dishes are cleared Ruth’s birthday finally arrives and the toddler is ushered into childhood, her laughter briefly lifting the heaviness in the room. When night falls and Daniel still hasn't returned, Mary-Sue calmly reassures her children that there must be a perfectly sensible reason he missed the occasion, some unavoidable duty of the law. Inside, however, her anger settles deep and sharp, carried silently as she extinguishes the last candle and slams the piano lid closed.

[lallyinthesims]

Christmas Day dawns, smoke curling steadily from the chimney while snow blankets the property in untouched white. Inside, the kitchen is already alive, Mary-Sue carefully preparing a fruitcake, one reserved only for the holiday itself. Candied fruits, preserved cherries, and precious spices saved all season are folded carefully into the batter while Ruth watches from a stool nearby with enormous interest.

By midday, greenery and ribbon decorate the little fir tree Daniel brought home, and a bundle of mistletoe hangs somewhat suspiciously low; a placement that bears all the marks of Daniel having arranged it himself. Sure enough, Mary-Sue passes beneath it carrying folded linens only for Daniel to catch her gently by the waist.

“Oh no you don’t,” she warns immediately, already fighting a smile.

“I believe tradition requires it,” Daniel replies solemnly. Before she can properly protest, he kisses her warmly beneath the mistletoe while Ruth groans dramatically from across the room.

Later, gifts are exchanged beside the fire. Mary-Sue presents Daniel with a fresh tin of tobacco for his pipe along with a neatly embroidered handkerchief stitched lovingly with his initials. Daniel looks genuinely delighted by both.Mary-Sue, in turn, unwraps a beautiful pair of gold sewing scissors, polished brightly enough to catch the firelight. She turns them over delicately in her hands, visibly touched. 

Daniel settles happily into his chair afterward and immediately tries the new tobacco in his pipe, filling the parlor with the rich scent of smoke while he declares it far superior to whatever cheap blend he’d been using before. For a little while, the day feels peaceful, then comes Daniel’s final surprise.

The whining from inside an old blanket tucked beneath the fir tree first catches Ruth’s attention. She hurries over curiously, only to gasp as Daniel opens it dramatically to reveal a small puppy, ears too large for its head and paws too big for the rest of him.

“His name’s Cuffs,” Daniel announces proudly, and Ruth shrieks with absolute delight.

“A puppy?!” She scoops the wriggling creature into her arms immediately while the puppy enthusiastically licks her face and squirms with excitement Mary-Sue, meanwhile, goes perfectly still.

“Daniel.” Daniel glances over innocently through a puff of pipe smoke. “We never discussed getting a dog.”

“Well,” he says reasonably, “I saw him and thought perhaps the Lord intended him for our dear Ruth.” Mary-Sue stares at him in disbelief. 

“You brought home a living animal because the Lord intended it’?”

Ruth barely hears any of her parents' conversation, already hopelessly attached and hugging the puppy tighter against her chest, and Daniel appears quite pleased with the situation. Mary-Sue points a finger sharply at him.

“You will feed it. You will clean up after it. And if that creature chews one boot, Daniel Pleasant, so help me–” Daniel wisely nods in agreement, especially while the gold sewing scissors remain within Mary-Sue’s reach. 

[lallyinthesims]

The Pleasant house feels strangely quiet after the wedding. Not empty, exactly, but certainly altered. With Angela now settled into Jason Larson’s home as a married woman, and Lilith long since gone, the household has shrunk to just Mary-Sue, Daniel, and little Ruth, and the silence settles noticeably. 

Mary-Sue sits at the piano in the parlor, absentmindedly pressing out soft hymns and melodies while the fire crackles nearby. Across the room, Ruth hunches earnestly over her workbook, practicing her letters after her first proper day at the schoolhouse.

After her mother disappears to prepare supper, she abandons her studies entirely and climbs onto the piano bench instead, immediately beginning to poke at the keys with all the confidence of Stephen Foster himself. Mary-Sue returns to the doorway in an instant, wiping her hands on her apron. 

“That,” she informs Ruth as the child bangs out a dreadful cluster of notes, “is not quite how one plays.” Ruth presses several more keys proudly anyway.

Of course, we already know of Daniel Pleasant’s whereabouts for much of the evening.

Sometime well after dark, he finally trudges home pulling a small wooden sled behind him, atop which is a modest fir tree that he’d had cut and hidden outside town to retrieve under cover of darkness. 

He slips into the house only to freeze immediately at the sight of Mary-Sue waiting for him in the parlor, arms folded tightly.

“You have got some nerve,” she says sharply. 

“Now hold on–”

“You disappear all evening and come stumbling home smelling like whiskey and smoke–”

“Christmas!” Daniel protests, as if it is the most obvious thing in the world. “I was getting a tree for Ruth!” Mary-Sue stares at him, fully unconvinced.  “I didn’t reckon trying to bring Christmas cheer home to my family made a man a scoundrel.”

The word, paired with the ridiculous sight of him half-frozen gesturing dramatically to the tree propped beside the front door in the middle of the night takes enough wind from Mary-Sue’s fury that she cannot entirely maintain it, though she certainly tries. 

Still muttering under her breath, she helps him wrestle the little tree into a bucket near the hearth before they both retire upstairs. Wind howls against the windows while Daniel sits at the edge of the bed removing his boots, and Mary-Sue lingers nearby, watching him for a long moment before finally sighing.

“I may have spoken too harshly.” Daniel looks up immediately, expression already warming into that familiar easy charm. “I know you try, Daniel. Even when you make it difficult.” At that, he reaches for her gently, thumb brushing along her cheek with practiced tenderness, and Mary-Sue’s irritation melts away entirely. Daniel’s smile is all warmth and sincerity, and once again, without Mary-Sue ever quite realizing it, he has managed to talk his way around the truth.