Romance: Western Mail Order Bride "Bethany's Love"-Clean Christian Historical Romance (Western Mail Order Bride Short Shorties Series) (149 page)

“Yessir,” Sam said. His gaze never left Maxine's face “I wouldn't dream of doing anything else.”

Wilkinson nodded. “Good,” he said, then cast his eyes over the rest of his staff. “Well? There's still work to be done, is there not? I don't pay you to hang around!”

A chorus of “no sirs” answered him and the crowd dispersed.

“Do you mean it, Sam?” Maxine asked.

“I don't say anything I don't mean,” Sam replied, “but I'm not one to rush things neither. I sure do like you a lot, but I'll wait as long as I need to. You don't need to worry about anythin' now, I promise.” The only thing Maxine could think of to do was kiss him, and so she did.

“Maybe we can take a walk later?” she asked. “After supper, maybe.”

Sam smiled. “Anything you want,” he said. “I know I don't have much money but whatever I have, it's yours.”

“You're all I want,” Maxine said, and she meant it with all of her heart.

THE END
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Chapter 1

“Nora? Are you coming?”

The sound of her sister’s voice startled her where she stood. Looking long and hard at her reflection in the glass, Nora Miller let the letter that she had read too many times to count slip out of her grasp. The time to follow the sweet words on the page through to their perfect promise would come soon enough. For the moment, she had no choice but to play the Maid of Honor. Her light brown locks sat atop her head in a tight bun, and the gown just swirled around her legs. In pale blue, she would be far from the center of attention. No matter. This was Emily’s day, and Nora made sure to tuck the letter into the nearest drawer before pinching her cheeks and moving to meet her sister’s call.

“There you are!” Emily cried. With a wreath of flowers surrounding her blonde hair and a veil stretching down her back until it nearly met her feet, Emily looked every inch the ideal bride. She held a bouquet of freshly trimmed roses in her small hands, and she started to drag her sister into an embrace when the sharp voice of their mother cut in on the action.

“You’ll muss her!” Harriet Miller warned. “We can’t have her looking out of sorts before she even makes it to the end of the aisle.”

Not that Emily could ever look anything but pristine. It was why she was the pick of the county when her older sister had yet to manage even one suitor.

“Sorry, Mama,” Nora said. “I know how much this means to… to you.”

Her sister beamed as their mother smoothed imaginary wrinkles from her baby girl’s skirt. The string quartet started to strum from below the steps of their cottage just off the coast of Manhattan, and Harriet regarded Nora with the quickest of glances before fixing her gaze on her husband.

“Remember, Albert,” she started. “Not too fast. My little girl has to float down those steps like she’s Joshua’s dream come true.”

“I think he’s already sold on that idea,” Nora said with a light laugh. Emily and her father started to join in on the joke when Harriet snapped her fingers and twisted her mouth into the beginnings of a frown.

“I know a little more about such things, Nora,” her mother chided. “When and if you have a wedding, then you can play the expert.”

The way she dragged out the single syllable that was the word
if
brought Nora’s blood to a boil. Because of course her oldest girl, too tall and too pale with a long nose and eyes spread too far apart was doomed to be a bridesmaid now and a spinster aunt down the line.

“Fine, Mama,” Nora said in a clipped tone. “May I be allowed to lead the way?”

“You best not trip either, Nora.”

Holding her breath, Nora sauntered down the staircase lined with ribbons and watched as every man, woman, and child in attendance stayed in their seats. Not that she expected any one of them to rise, but the pity in their eyes was almost too much to bear. She clutched her fingers tighter around the stems and acknowledged Joshua’s persistently silly smile as she took her place on the makeshift altar and listened to the wedding march fill the air around the breeze just dotting her mother’s back.

Everyone stood at the sight of Emily on their father’s arm. The girls had spent many long nights in the shadows of their shared bedroom dreaming of wedding days, and Nora blinked back a few tears as it became a reality for one of them. Albert Miller tenderly kissed his youngest daughter’s cheeks and passed her off to the tall boy with bright red hair and sparkling blue eyes as the crowd sat again on Reverend Potts’s orders. As Nora listened to what marriage meant and the journey the pretty pair before him was about to embark upon, Nora felt a buzz in the pit of her stomach creeping its way up her throat. This was so close to what Emily had always wanted.

Nora’s version would not fit the mold.

“I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss your bride.”

Joshua didn’t seem to need permission as he claimed Emily’s mouth. The room erupted into applause, and Emily smiled at her sister before her new husband took her by the arm and led her in the direction of the receiving line already starting to form. Their mother was off to bask in the glory as Albert touched his daughter’s shoulder.

“Don’t feel too bad, Nora,” he said in a gentle voice. “You have so many other things to look forward to.”

“By that you mean my students,” Nora said, and she saw her father nod. The children that she taught to read and write and add their numbers in a straight line were beyond precious to her. But it wasn’t enough. And if Nora couldn’t find the happiness she craved most in this world, there were wide open spaces ripe for the taking. Along with an invitation that she simply could not pass up.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

She had fled the reception and swapped out her gown for a sensible blouse and a long brown skirt meant for traveling on a train. Her bags were already packed without anyone being the wiser, everyone too consumed by the bride and her upcoming honeymoon to Europe to meet with Joshua’s people on the other side of the pond.

“I… I’m taking off,” Nora said as her mother tapped her nails against the doorframe. “Congratulations.”

“And what exactly is that supposed to mean?” Harriet asked.

If she was ever going to tell her mother the whole truth, this was the time.

“It means that you’re not going to have to put up with either one of us after today,” Nora continued. “Emily’s married. And I’m about to find my own happiness.”

Harriet’s brow furrowed in confusion, and Nora’s tongue tied as she searched for the right words.

“Mama, I’ve had my own proposal.”

Harriet cocked one eyebrow and barely suppressed a sneer.

“You, Nora? It isn’t wise to read too many romance novels. But I suppose you have to find some way to pass the--”

“This is not fiction, Mama.”

Struggling to keep her head up as she moved to the drawer, Nora pulled out the letter, the paper faded by the force of her fingers running over the page. Nora kept the letter in her palm as she waved it before Harriet’s eyes and let the words sink into her mother’s mind.

“What does this mean?” Harriet asked.

“Just what it says,” Nora shot back. “A man in Montana is looking for a wife. Someone strong and true to share his days. I think I want to be that woman, Mama. And so I’m taking a train out West to give him his heart’s desire.”

It had sounded right in her head as she pictured a rugged cowboy with hard hands and an ache in his heart. A man like that could have his share of Emilys with one glance. But he longed for something more. Nora wanted to be that to him,
for
him, and she hoped for a split second that her mother would bless the idea and stroke her hair as the bun fell out of place.

“Well this makes sense.”

Did her mother actually understand? Nora’s heart lifted at the idea, and she hoped for a few kind words as Harriet crumpled the letter in her hand and let it fall to her feet.

“It’s not as if you find someone of quality, looking like you do.”

And she was back to being a little girl singing out of tune during her music lessons until it was decided that Nora could never be anything special or desirable.

“Not here,” Nora said. “Not with you looking over my shoulder and judging me at every turn.”

“And you think that means that I want you to go and live among the savages?” Harriet asked. “I’d prefer that you’d never been born.”

There it was. Like the thorns on the roses at every turn. Pleasing to the eye and the nose. But there was brutality just under the petals and only punctuated by her mother’s foot kicking the letter into the farthest corner.

“But be that as it may, I will not see you bring this family down with a bad choice just because you have nothing else to cling to.”

Nora’s cheeks flushed crimson as she curled her fingers back around the words and smoothed the letter against the surface of the wall.

I am willing to offer the world to someone ready to rise to the challenge. Your most recent letter makes me believe that it’s you, Nora. I can’t wait to see and show you so many things.

With words like that, he was far from a bad call, and Nora eased the letter into the band of her skirt as she stared her mother down.

“You do not get to tell me what to do anymore,” Nora said. She reached for the handle of her meager suitcase and wanted nothing more than the night’s cool air on her face as Harriet seized her free wrist and spun her deeper into the room.

“Do you realize what you are setting yourself up for?” Harriet challenged. “The man is probably a maniac.”

“You would say that,” Nora said. “Because how could a sane man want me?”

“
That
is the question of the hour.”

Trembling at the thought that she would not make her way to the depot in time to meet the train, Nora gasped when Emily appeared.

“What’s going on?” she asked as her smile started to fade.

“I am glad that you asked!” Harriet spat. “Just take a look.”

The letter found its way under Emily’s eyes, and Nora shuffled from one foot to the other as Emily scanned the page.

“I see,” she muttered. “Mama?”

“Yes, my sweet girl. What do you need me to do?”

“Can you please see why the wine is getting warm?” Emily asked. “I’d do it myself but--”

“I would be happy to. But your sister is--”

“I’ll deal with Nora.”

Harriet seemed giddy at the prospect of a co-conspirator in her midst, and she gave Nora a glare full of warning as she started down the stairs to see that nothing would spoil the party.

“So this is why you’ve looked so happy all week,” Emily said.

Nora shrugged her shoulders and got the letter back under her fingers.

“It has nothing to do with you,” Nora assured her. “I just--”

“You still have to run away.”

Emily offered the observation without malice, and she neatly folded the letter into a triangle as she cupped her sister’s face in her hands.

“I just didn’t want to ruin the wedding,” Nora insisted.

“You didn’t,” Emily said. “And is this what you really need?”

“I… yes,” she started. “He’s a mystery. But I want to figure it out. Do you follow?”

“I seem to remember you telling me once that the wedding was one thing. You always wanted a marriage.”

Nora stated to nod her head when she feared that it must seem cruel when her sister was dressed like a princess on the verge of a happy ending.

“The ceremony
was
beautiful, Em,” she said. “I wasn’t trying to--”

“I know that,” Emily said. “And now it’s your turn to be happy.”

They made the move towards the back steps as the guests drank and danced. Once they were almost out the door, Nora came to a stop.

“How will you explain it?” she asked.

“I’ll tell Mama that you saw reason and went back to the city. They’re planning to stay on for a fortnight to recover from the festivities.”

“She shouldn’t keep making your day all about her,” Nora said. Emily kissed her cheek through a small smile.

“It
was
mine,” she insisted. “And so is Joshua. Now go and take your turn, Sis.”

Nora started to sputter at the prospect of the sweetest gift, but Emily folded her into her arms and brought her lips close to her ear.

“Have an adventure, Nora. No one deserves it more.”

Chapter 2

Nora had seen many maps in her time. She pored over them when preparing her lesson plans and assured her students that there was a wide open world still waiting to be conquered. Her pupils could hardly fathom life beyond the radius of the few paved blocks stretching between their homes and the schoolroom. How could they believe her? Maybe they didn’t want to take the chance and find their hopes dashed because they lacked the power to simply pick up and leave home on a whim.

But Nora was no longer a child, and the man’s letter held the key to an unknown future that she could rise to meet.

Looking out the window as the horizon shifted from the sights of sidewalks and factories before turning into rolling hills dotted with blades of long grass billowing in the breeze, Nora pressed her fingers to the glass. She felt the smog from the city fading away as she heard a crying child from the next seat. A weary looking woman bounced the baby swaddled in several blankets as she moved up and down the aisle and begged for the little one to calm.

“I know, Mary,” the woman said. “It’s such a long ride. But please just sleep.”

The anguish in the woman’s voice stirred something deep in her soul, and Nora moved past the groans emanating from the other passengers and touched her fellow traveler on her arm.

“Can I help you?” Nora asked. The woman’s shoulders sagged, but she still shook her head.

“I doubt it,” she said. “She won’t settle.”

Every other man and woman in the car kept clicking their tongues as Nora sprang into action and eased the woman through a door. The second car was almost abandoned save for one man snoring against his window. Placing the mother and her child in the nearest seat, Nora ran one finger up and down the baby’s flushed cheek and laughed at the infant’s giggles as she reached into her the folds of her skirt and revealed a small tin of milk left over from her morning’s breakfast.

“I take my coffee black,” Nora confessed. “I was saving this for later.”

“Oh, miss, I don’t want to take your--”

“It looks to me like your little girl needs it more,” Nora reasoned. “She must be so hungry.”

“And it’s not as if I can feed her around all these strangers.”

The women shared a quick, knowing glance, and Nora dotted her fingers with the milk. Mary turned her tiny head to the side for all of a second before she stared to suckle, and her tears dried around her pink cheeks.

“That was all you needed, little one,” Nora crooned. “I’m sure you’ll sleep now.”

“Thank you, Miss. I’m Beatrice. It’s so nice to see a friendly face.”

Nora sat beside her and clutched her hand.

“Where are you headed?” Nora asked.

“I hardly know,” Beatrice answered

Thinking that an even more daring man might have sent Beatrice a letter and longed to share her life and be a father to her child, Nora started to smile when Beatrice looked to the land rushing past the window and released a heavy sigh.

“My husband is gone,” Beatrice confessed. “He came East to make his fortune and lost his life.”

“I’m so sorry,” Nora said. “May I ask you how?”

“A fight in a bar,” she said. “I have no people of my own to count on. So I’m off to live with his father. It’s the only place in the world left for me.”

Nora smiled as she rubbed Beatrice’s back and played with the baby’s fine blonde hairs. Her life would be better out of the city, and she tried to tell Beatrice as much when the woman slumped against her shoulder and fell into a much needed sleep of her own. As soon as she started to snore, Nora dared to take the baby into her arms and let her finish off the milk as she kissed her tiny ears.

“You and I are so much alike,” Nora confessed. “Both of us heading off for an adventure. Looks like you have a head start. But mark my words I’m going to catch up.”

She stuck close to Beatrice’s side as the train continued to wind through the wilderness.

“What if there are savages?” Beatrice asked once she was awake and she tapped her toes to the moving ground underneath their shared seat. “I have no way to go back.”

“I’m sure that it won’t be like that,” Nora insisted.

“So you don’t think that I’m stepping into a trap?”

Nora firmly shook her head and told Beatrice that she wasn’t wrong to leave the city.

“Why are you making the move?”

The story of the letters might give Beatrice pause, and Nora simply said that she was en route to meet the man that she planned to marry.

“That’s a happy time,” Beatrice said. “It’s a new beginning.”

“One that I cannot wait for,” Nora said.

When the train finally came to their shared stop, Beatrice wrung her hands as Nora carried the baby to the platform and savored the smell of fresh air spinning all around them. Her stomach started to flutter at the realization that she was so far from home. And like Beatrice, she had no way of turning back.

“Is your fiancé in Tracy?” Beatrice asked.

“I think, yes,” Nora said, quickly correcting herself. “It appears that we’re going to be neighbors.”

“And friends,” Beatrice said. “I hope.”

“I don’t see why not,” Nora answered. Beatrice hugged her close as little Mary gurgled between them.

“Thank you,” Beatrice murmured. “I almost feel better now that I’ve--”

Beatrice’s voice came to a halt and her legs began to buckle when a silver haired man in a fine suit stepped closer. The entirety of his stare fell on the infant, and Nora started to move between them when the man doffed his wide-brimmed hat and bowed his head.

“Forgive me,” he murmured in a shocked voice. “It’s just that he looks so much like Andrew. I would know my son’s child on sight.”

Nora watched the man pat the baby’s head with one hand as his free set of fingers surrounded Beatrice’s trembling palm.

“Mr. Welsh?” Beatrice asked. “You… he would have looked like you if--”

Her voice broke, and Nora watched the older man take her into his arms.

“I know how much you must miss him,” he said. “But it doesn’t mean that you have to be alone any longer.”

A smile crossed Beatrice’s lips as tears streamed down her face. Mary laughed as Mr. Welsh lifted the infant into the air, and the man kept Beatrice close as he regarded Nora with a curious but welcoming stare.

“Forgive me, miss,” he started. “And you are?”

“A friend,” Nora said.

“She’s here to get married,” Beatrice said. ‘”Isn’t that wonderful?”

“I should say so,” Welsh answered. “Who’s the lucky fellow?”

Nora didn’t see the harm in revealing the truth now, and she uttered the name emblazoned across her eager heart.

“Mr. Henry Russell,” Nora said. For a second Welsh seemed stunned, but he dialed his wide-eyed stare back as he readjusted his hat and turned his attention back to his family.

“How nice,” the man said. “You’ll have to come around to see us some time.”

Welsh guided a smiling Beatrice away, and Nora wondered why the man had suddenly turned so strange in the space of a second. As his carriage disappeared with Beatrice and the baby into the horizon, Nora perused the platform in search of her chance at happiness carried by an army of white horses. The wheels of the train started to churn, and she feared that she
would
be left alone when the sound of someone clearing their throat turned her head the other way around.

“Are you Nora?”