Mail Order Bride - Westward Sunrise: Historical Cowboy Romance (Montana Mail Order Brides Book 9) (3 page)

Dear Montana Man,

              My name is Abby Porter and I live in Wabasha, Minnesota.  I work at the button factory here.  It’s not glamorous but it keeps the bills paid.  I live in a boarding house where I do chores and such in exchange for reduced rent.  I’m very frugal.  Your ad said that you enjoy good books and sunrises.  I adore books and I’m always up before dawn.  I don’t seem to require much sleep.  Everyone says that I’m hyper and I guess they’re right.  I can’t sit still most of the time, even when I’m reading.  We have an excellent library here.

              Children are definitely in my plans and I’m twenty-four years old.  I’m about five feet, five inches tall and I weigh about 130 pounds.  My hair is dark brown and my eyes are blue.  I like to dance.  Do you?  I go to the dances here, but they don’t have them all that often.  My parents passed away when I was eleven and my Aunt Dawn finished raising me.  I have a brother, but he lives in California.  I miss him.  He’s a great guy.

              It must be great to own your own store.  I’ll bet it’s fun to stock the shelves and then watch what people buy.  I don’t know how big Dawson is, but I’m sure that you know most of the people since they shop at your store.  Are you able to remember their names?  Some people can’t.  I remember names right off.  I’m not sure why, but I do.  I can handle money very well, but I can’t do algebra and that kind of math.  I’ve tried and I stink at it.

              Are there a lot of cowboys there?  We have some around here and a lot of Sioux Indians, too.  I speak some Sioux.  Do you have Indians there?  I would love to meet them if you do.  Do you like animals?  I do.  I’d like to have a dog one day.  I had one when I was younger but he died.  I miss him.  What is your absolute favorite book?  I’ll tell you mine when you tell me yours.

Sincerely,

Wabasha Woman

PS.  I’ve enclosed a penny for your thoughts.  I hope you’re still on sale by the time you get this.

              Joe had told Elliot to watch for the letter that was the most unusual and answer that one.  Elliot finished reading Abby’s letter and figured that it was the most unusual letter he’d received thus far.  Her erratic yet intelligent style of writing amused him.  She bounced all over the place and it definitely made for interesting reading. 

Elliot tipped over the envelope and a penny dropped into his palm.  He smiled as he turned it around.  None of the other women who’d sent letters had sent him money.  She had a good sense of humor, too.  Her wise crack about hoping he was still on sale made him laugh.

It was going to be a challenge to answer her letter in any way that made sense.  Elliot’s logical mind wasn’t going to let him respond in a haphazard manner.  He read the letter again and then began writing.

Dear Wabasha Woman,

              My absolute favorite book is
The Last of the Mohicans
by James Fenimore Cooper.  I guess you could say that this book is a study of our lives here in a way.  Dawson’s population is growing, but it’s a long time coming.  We are a frontier town complete with cowboys and Indians.  I have good friends from each category and a few who are a mixture of both, such as our town doctor. 

Our Lakota tribe is full of good people and many of us are close friends with them.  I call them “ours” because they’re so close to our town that it feels as though their village is an extension of Dawson.  If you ever come here, you would be welcome in their village.

I’m sorry to hear that you lost your parents at such a young age.  I know that couldn’t have been easy, but it sounds like you’re close to your aunt.  My father recently passed.  I consider myself very lucky to have had him as long as I did.  I have no idea where my mother is since she ran off when I was only five.  She didn’t like Montana and Pa wouldn’t leave. 

He started Bradbury’s General Store and I grew up working in it.  You’re right about it being interesting to see what people will buy.  Sometimes they surprise me and purchase things that seem out of character for them.  I always look forward to shipment day, although it’s frustrating when I find things that are damaged and have to send them back.  As for remembering names?  I’m pretty good at that, but we have some new people moving into the area and I’ll have to talk to them a couple of times before their names will stick.

I’m happy that you want children, too.  I don’t have a set number in mind.  I will tell you that I don’t want to wait too long to start having a family, though.  Being frugal is a good thing. I cut costs whenever I can as long as it doesn’t affect the quality of my merchandise.  People aren’t going to keep buying things from me if they don’t measure up to their expectations. 

If you like to dance, then you would like our saloon, the Watering Hole.  We have a group of people who play instruments and sing.  There are a lot of people who like to dance, including the owner of the place.  He’s an amazing dancer.  I am not.  Sorry if that disappoints you, but it’s best that I’m honest.  His wife plays classical piano and is extraordinarily talented.

I prefer to be busy, too.  My pa wasn’t in good health for a number of years, so that left me to take care of him and run the store.  As you can imagine, there wasn’t a whole lot of time left for anything else.  How are buttons made?  I’ve never really thought about it before.

Sincerely,

Montana Man

PS.  I’ve sent back your penny in return for your thoughts.

              “Betty, I’d leave tomorrow if I could!” Abby said as they ate breakfast the day after she’d received Elliot’s response. 

              Betty said, “I know you would, but you need to be cautious.  You don’t know this man and although he seems nice, he could turn out to be something completely different.”

              “I know, but I have a feeling about him,” Abby said.  “Too bad I can’t ask for a reference like when you apply for a job.  Wait!  Why couldn’t I?  I mean, not right away.  I have to reel him in a little, but before I make a final decision.  What do you think?  Because if he’s not willing to provide one, then that tells me something about his character, right?”

              “Abby, you might be on to something,” Betty said as she looked at her younger friend.  Betty was in her later thirties and had never married.  She wasn’t without suitors, but she’d never felt the need to be tied down.  She also didn’t trust men very much and was always warning Abby of being too trusting. 

              Abby said, “Do you think so?  Oh, I really like him.  He took my hodgepodge of questions and topics and put them in order, so he’s intelligent.  I’ll keep sending them that way.  I was trying to get my thoughts down and then I was going to rewrite it, but then I changed my mind and just sent it that way to see what he would do.  He actually took the time to make sense of it.  It’s a wonderful letter and—”

              “Abby!  Slow down and take a breath!” Betty said with a laugh.  “It’s time for you to go to work.  You don’t want to be late since you told Reggie how you really feel.  I’m proud of you for doing that, by the way.  It was high time.  You were too nice for too long.”

              “You know me.  I hate hurting people’s feelings, but you’re right.  I’d had enough.  See ya!” she said, and ran from the house.

Dear Elliot,

              I’m very sorry for the loss of your father.  I am certain that he was a wonderful man.  How terrible of your mother to run off and leave you like that!  That’s not my idea of a mother.  I could never leave my child that way.  My favorite book is
Frankenstein
by Mary Shelley because I love scary things.  When I was little, Pa would make a fire outside and tell me and Duncan ghost stories late at night.  When my parents passed, I was afraid that I would forget them, so I wrote them down.  I’m not sure which ones were passed down to him and which came from his imagination, but they’re all wonderful.

              The Watering Hole sounds fun!  I like the name.  It sounds very cowboy-ish.  The Lakota language is beautiful.  Please tell your doctor Hau for me.  I don’t have any particular number of kids in mind, either.  Whatever we’d be blessed with is fine.  I think it’s nice that your store is a family business.  Is it what you always dreamed about doing?  For some it is and others not.

              I would love to see the Lakota village there.  I’d be able to understand a lot of what they’re saying, too.  If you’ve gotten a shipment by the time you get this, I hope you don’t find one single thing broken.  I’ll think positively about it for you.  It’s ok if you don’t dance.  I won’t base an opinion of you on that. 

              Buttons are made differently depending on the type being made.  We make a lot of the new brass buttons.  The process is very simple really and not really exciting.  I have short hair because I accidentally caught my hair in the button machine about a year ago and they had to cut a big hunk of it off to free me.  I cried at first, but I prefer the shorter style now.  This is not only because it looks very becoming, but also because I know I won’t get it caught again.  It also takes a lot less time to fix.

              Tell me more about your store!

Sincerely,

Abby

PS.  Here’s our penny back.  Are you still on sale?

              Elliot leaned against the counter reading Abby’s letter.  He smiled and chuckled the whole time he read it.  If she was like this in a letter, what would she be like in person? 
Most likely she would be an even more intense person to be around,
he thought. 

              “That must be a good letter,” Tessa said as she came up to the counter with some material and sat it on the counter.  Katie and D.J., Tessa and Dean’s seven-year-old twins, each put a penny on the counter with which to buy candy.

              Elliot laughed.  “Yeah, it is.  This girl is a piece of work.”

              “Is she?  How so?” Tessa asked.  Elliot had told her that he had put an ad in for a bride and she was as curious about how things were going for him as she was anything else.

              Elliot surprised her by handing her the letter.  “See for yourself.”

              “Are you sure?” Tessa asked.

              “It’ll just be easier since you’re gonna keep pestering me until I tell you everything anyway,” Elliot said.  “You read that and I’ll take care of these two stinkers.”

              D.J. and Katie laughed and Elliot saw how much they resembled their father.  Katie always knew what kind of candy she wanted, but D.J. took a long time to decide.  It was typical for him to change his mind three or four times.  As D.J. was deciding, Tessa’s other son, Mikey, came up to the counter.  At twelve, he was growing by leaps and bounds and was his mother’s son through and through. 

              “C’mon, D.J.  Make up your mind for gosh sakes!  Elliot’s busy and I got things to do, too.  Pa wants me to get that wood stacked today and if you get me in trouble with him, you’ll be sorry,” Mikey told his little brother.

              “Okay, okay,” D.J. said.  He finally chose the sour balls and Mikey gave him a look that said he'd better stick with that choice.

              Elliot smiled as he bagged the candy.  He always enjoyed all of the kids in the community because it was hard to tell what was going to come out of their mouths.

              Mikey sat a bunch of nails on the counter and made sure they didn’t roll off it.  His cousin Raven came to lean against the counter. 

              “Hi, Elliot,” the Lakota youth said.  As he got older, Raven looked more like his father, Black Fox, who was the chief of the Lakota tribe.  He and Mikey were best friends despite Raven being two years older.

              “Hey, Raven.  You guys are back right on schedule, huh?” Elliot said.

              “Yeah.  Father is predictable that way.  He says it’s one of the things that the people like about him being chief.  Me?  I’d keep them on their toes, that way they’d always listen to me,” he said with a smile.

              Mikey snorted.  “And no one would follow you if you did that.  Pa says you have to be dependable in order for people to listen to you.”

              Raven laughed.  “That’s one of the few things our fathers agree on.  Mikey, buy me some candy and I’ll help you with that wood Uncle Dean wants stacked.”

              “Who says I have any money?” Mikey said.

              “Me.  You always have money,” Raven said.

              Mikey rolled his eyes.  “Okay.  Pick out what you want and do it quick.  I ain’t got all day.”

              Tessa said, “You
haven’t
got all day, Mikey.”  She’d finished reading the letter and handed it back to Elliot.