Regency Romance: An Intriguing Invitation (Historical Billionaire Military Romance) (19th Century Victorian Romance) (30 page)

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THE END

The Gambler’s Bride – A Clean Western Romance

Chapter One

The sun was burning
brightly
in the Virginia sky. Caroline was grateful she had thought to wear
a pretty
hat with a wide brim. It kept her face from burning. She walked briskly down the sidewalk, anxious to get home. Her shoes were beginning to wear and she hadn’t thought to ask her mother to purchase her a new pair while she was out.

She preferred to choose her own shoes anyway. She would just go past the store on her way to work in the morning and stop for a pair. She passed several young men who were walking in the opposite direction. They all looked at her and smiled. She smiled back.

She could see the differences in their smiles and wondered if they realized they did that. She passed them every day on her way home. One of them was tall and thin and though he wore a shirt and tie, he didn’t look like he was coming from an office. The two with him were dressed in work clothes. They were shorter than their companion and were almost always covered in dirt. It was an odd sight until Caroline became used to seeing them.

Over the last six months or so of passing them every day, she had noticed that they all looked at her in different ways. The tall one greeted her with a quick nod of his head and half a grin. One of the other boys gave her a leering look and his eyes scanned her from head to toe every day. The third was the one she liked. He looked friendly, his smile was warm and genuine and she saw a gentleman in him.

The three never spoke to her and she never said anything to them.

She was almost home, turning
onto
her street and walking to the third house on her left. She didn’t look up at it as she went through the gate and down the sidewalk, missing all the new flowers that had recently been planted and the artfully shaped sculptures and fountains that dotted the wide green yard. The groundskeeper was a master at his craft. But Caroline didn’t notice.

She went up the steps to the front porch, crossed it and pulled open the storm door first. She went through both doors and immediately stopped to the sound of
upset
voices in the den. She made a
beeline
for it, dropping her light shawl, which she had regretted taking in the first place and her hat on the foyer table.

“Who’s there?” She asked as she went, not recognizing the voices. She was surprised when she turned into the den to see it was her family that was upset, not some visiting stranger. Raised voices were not common in Caroline’s home. Her parents were extremely calm people, upstanding citizens in their small town.

“Caroline!” Her little sister Dorothy came running over to her and threw her arms around her middle.

“Ooof, Dottie, what’s the problem?” Caroline attempted to disentangle herself from her sister’s
grip,
but Dottie was too upset.

“Oh, Caroline, that’s it. We’re done. Nothing left. It’s all gone!
Oh,
Caroline!”

Caroline looked up at her parents in
confusion,
but they weren’t much help. Her mother was holding a glass that had some type of liquor in it, probably brandy. Another wave of shock went through Caroline. What in heaven’s name could have happened that would make her mother drink the brandy that had been in the cupboard ever since Caroline could
remember.

“Please someone tell me what’s going on here?” She said, taking her sister’s face in between her hands and giving her kisses on her forehead. She hugged her and Dottie finally released her.

“It’s a terrible situation for us, Caroline.” Her brother replied. He was standing with their father next to the huge bay window, staring out over the land, where their cows and horses were.

“What is?”

“We’re bust! Got no money left! We’re done!” His words came out forceful and he didn’t even look at her. She shook her head.

“I am afraid I don’t understand, David. What does that mean?”

Her father was the first to look at her. His round face was red with anger and frustration. When he spoke, she knew the underlying pain in his voice was real. The anger he felt wasn’t directed at her, she could see that. “Mr. Stapleton has up and stole all the profits from our restaurant for the last three years. He’s been fudging the books, lining his pockets with stolen cash for a long time. Now he has disappeared and no one knows where he or the money he stole is at.”

Caroline frowned. “I don’t understand. How can that be? Is there anything you can do? Do you know where he is?”

Her father shook his head. “I don’t know where he is. There is nothing I can do. He has pulled off a scam that will ruin this family. We can’t keep the business going for long with no money behind it. We would have to start from scratch with a corner food stand.”

Fear ran down Caroline’s spine. The restaurant had been her family’s life. They all worked there, they were comfortable because of it and the plan was to continue running it for the next hundred years if possible. Without it, there was only her job.

Her secretary’s job.

She looked around herself at the furnishings and other luxuries she hadn’t seen before. Her mind even took her to the front yard, where there were beautiful sights to be seen. This would all disappear.

Her breath caught and her mind began to race. There had to be some way to prevent this from happening.

“Father,” she said. “What will we do? Do you have a plan?”

He stomped to the couch and dropped down as if he had given up on life. “Right now, I’m too angry to think of one. Surely there will be one. But no, I have no plan for now. We will have to do something.”

“Can we get a loan from the bank?” Caroline sat next to him and put one hand on his knee. “Papa, we have to do something! We can’t just give up.”

He nodded. “
Oh,
we might not have a choice, daughter. Our loans at the bank are already in place from the expansion this summer.”

Her heart fell into her stomach. She had forgotten about the expansion. They had been considering opening another restaurant, as well. She shook her head. This couldn’t be happening. The weight of it all gave her a headache.

She lowered her head to her hands, trying to think. No loan from the bank. No money in profits.
Very little
in petty cash kept on hand in the restaurant safe. What would they do?

Dorothy began crying loudly. “
Oh,
papa. We will be living on the street.”

He shook his head. “No. That won’t happen, Dottie. We will get through this. God is on our side.”

“On our side?” Dorothy stood up, her small face pale and thin. Red rings had formed around her eyes and she shook her long brown curls around as she spoke. She clenched her fists and stomped her foot. “If he was on our side, then why did this happen? We haven’t done anything wrong to deserve this! We go to church every Sunday and all that. Why would he do this to us? Why didn’t he stop Mr. Stapleton??”

David was the one who replied to their sister, looking at her, his hands pushed deep into the pockets of his pants, his suit jacket open and pushed back
behind
his elbows. “That’s not the way he works, Dottie. You’re just too young to understand it.”

“Well, I don’t
understand
it! I don’t
understand
it!” She stomped her foot again. “Mr. Stapleton is the Devil! He’s the Devil!”

With that, she turned on her heel and ran out the door, weeping. David turned back to the window. Her mother began to cry. Caroline stood up.

“I’ll go after her. I will talk to her.”

She was out the door only a few minutes after her sister and could see when she opened the door that Dottie was already at the barn. She was going for her horse. Caroline had to get to her before she went riding off. She wasn’t in the mood for a horse race.

“Dottie, wait!” She called out. Her sister stopped at the door of the barn, turned back to look at her and then dropped to her knees, crying. Caroline ran to her and dropped to her knees next to her, wrapping her in her arms tightly. “Sshhh. It’s going to be okay, Dottie. It really is.”

“No. This is too much. We can’t run the restaurant with no money. You heard what Daddy said.”

“I did. But you have to trust that things are going to work out the way they should. There is always a blessing on the horizon.”

Dottie shook her head, covering her face with her small hands. “No, Caroline. This is too much. This is too much. God hates us.”

“Dottie, don’t say that. You know that isn’t true. He has blessed us tremendously all through our lives. There are dark times, too. You can’t expect all sunshine and roses all of your life.”

“Why not?” Dottie was just being unreasonable. Caroline could tell that even her young sister could see that. “I want sunshine and roses. I don’t
want
to be desolate and
poor
. Where will we live when they take the house? Why is God doing this to us?”

“Dottie, this isn’t the work of God. This is the work of evil. It was evil and deception that caused Mr. Stapleton to do what he’s done.”

“But why did God allow it to happen to
us
? We are good people!”

“He doesn’t exactly allow these things to happen. He just takes what’s bad and makes something good out of it. This is a fractured world, Dottie, it’s imperfect and
there are bad people who don’t
know or care about following God’s laws or even moral laws.”

Dottie snorted.

“Please don’t believe otherwise, Dottie, just because you are in
a bad
place. You can’t lose faith because he is going to come through for us. There will be a way.”

“Lots of people lose their money and never recover.”

“Lots of people don’t know God. When you have to start out all over, you have to trust that he knows what he’s doing and that he’s there with you through the storm.”

Dottie became quiet, her tears stopped. She was thinking about Caroline’s words. She didn’t really see what God could do at this
point
since he didn’t give money
out like
a bank. She looked up at her sister’s eyes.

“Do you really think things will work out just because we go to church every week?”

Caroline smiled softly. “No, that’s not what I’m saying, Dottie. I’m talking about faith.” She put her finger on her sister’s chest just above her heart. “It’s in here. That’s where you have faith. And if you have it, you will have peace, too. Trust in him. He will give you peace to get through this.”

Again, Dottie was quiet, staring out over the land. “I don’t want to leave here, Caroline.”

“I know you don’t. I don’t either. We will have to see what happens. But right now, we really need to be strong for mama and papa. Do you agree?”

After a moment, Dottie nodded. “Okay, Caroline. I’ll pray
on
it and maybe he will make me feel better and bring someone who will give Daddy a lot of money and everything will be okay.”

“That’s the spirit, honey. You pray and we’ll see what happens.”

Chapter Two

When Caroline woke up the next morning, her first thought was that she wanted to go back to sleep. She didn’t want what was happening to happen and her anxiety level was rising. She swung her legs over the side and sat there for a moment, thinking.

She was just twenty and had concentrated on her family’s business and her secretary job since she was 17. She had only one boyfriend in her life so far. He had left with his family the year before and she had missed him ever since. She’d had no love interests since then and hadn’t really been looking. She was always busy with work, her family or the restaurant.

She pulled on her robe and went down the stairs, smelling the strong smell of fresh coffee. That meant her father and brother were either already up or about to. She and her sisters didn’t drink coffee.

She pushed open the door to the kitchen and saw her mother at the table, crying. When her daughter came in, Anna tried to stop, wiping her tears with a tissue. “Oh. Good morning, Caroline.”

“Good morning, mama. Are you all right?”

Her mother didn’t answer, just held in a new batch of tears. She shook her head.

Caroline went to her and
leaned
to put her arms around her shoulders. “It’s going to be okay, mama. Something will change this situation and make it
right
again.”

“I hope you are right, Caroline.” Anna got up and went to the stove. She stood there cracking eggs into the pan and moving a spatula around to scramble them. Caroline wondered how many she was going to put in the pan when she didn’t stop adding them. She went to the stove and took the egg batch from her mother and stopped her from her cooking.

“Mama, you must calm down. You must have faith. Something will make this
turn around
. I just know it.”

“I can’t imagine what will save us, dear.”

Caroline sighed. “God will provide, mama.”

Her mother only stirred the eggs around in the pan, listening to them sizzling as they cooked. She added some butter and continued stirring.
“Yes,
” She said, finally, in a calmer voice. “I do believe that.”

Caroline set the eggs in the refrigerator and turned back to her mother. “Good. You know, that’s gonna be the biggest batch of eggs you’ve made for just this family. There’s no way we will eat them all.”

Her mother didn’t reply. Caroline went to the table and sat down, pouring herself a glass of water first. She pulled her father’s newspaper to her and read the headlines. She pulled the paper to her when she saw the headline.
New
president of the United States had been elected. It was supposed to be a good thing for the country. They would see.

“Did you see this?” She asked, pushing the newspaper toward him.

“I just got up,
Caroline,
” He answered, nodding at his mother when she set a cup of coffee in front of him. “Thank you, mama.”

“Look at it.”

He pulled the paper to himself and read the headline. “Well good. That’s what this country needs. I’m glad.” He said, pulling it closer and reading the article, unfolding the paper as she had done to read the whole article. “It’s
a good
thing.”

“I agree.”

“Did you see this, mother?” David pulled the top paper from the rest and left it there on the table. He stood up and went to his mother, who took the paper from him.

Caroline looked down at the paper still on the table. She pulled it to her and read through the ads while they remarked on the new president. When her sister and father came in, they were notified of the event immediately. For a while, their personal problems were almost forgotten.

Caroline sat at the table, reading
through
the ads while they talked. There were jobs open and obituaries displayed there. One particular set of ads caught her eye and she slowed her scanning. There were men in the West looking for brides.

It wasn’t something she’d ever thought about or considered. She barely knew such a thing existed. None of them looked particularly enticing until she came to the second to the last.

Well-to-do casino owner looking for
bride
from the West
. It said.
Intelligent, kind-hearted woman requested. Any age.

Her mind began to spin. He had money. She rolled the possibilities around in her head. She looked up at her family, noticing they had their mind taken off their problem. She didn’t want to bring it back up.

In fact, she wasn’t sure she wanted to tell them about it at all. It was something she would need to consider herself. It was her whose life would change drastically. She couldn’t imagine being away from her family and the business. But sacrifices would need to be made. And if that’s what it took to save her family from ruin, she would do it.

She took the sheet from the others and folded it up. Her robe had a convenient small pocket on one side and she slid it in to hide it. She would think about it some
more
later.

They sat around the table eating breakfast and discussing the world as it was. They didn’t
discuss
their financial situation at all. Caroline was glad. Even Dottie seemed in better spirits than the day before. They looked hopeful and happy. The way she wanted them to be.

She got dressed for work in a hurry, brushing her hair and pulling it back
into
a ponytail. Her face and hands were clean and she rubbed a cloth over her teeth, hoping it would make them a little cleaner. She smiled at herself and was satisfied.

Before she left, she pulled the paper from the pocket of her robe, unfolded it and looked at it. The thought of going across the country and starting a new life was unnerving and discomforting. She wasn’t sure she could go through with it. Would she ever see her family again? Even if she went, there was no guarantee that the man would help her family’s finances. What would she have to do to convince him?

The thoughts that
ran
through her mind made her feel even worse about the situation. She swallowed hard and lowered the paper to her lap. She stared at the wall in front of her. It might be the only solution.

She didn’t have time to think about it long. The situation was desperate. She decided to take the day to decide, got up and went out the door.

Before the day was through, she had decided. It was the only way to save her family. She walked back from work the same way she always did but this time the trip was a little different. When she passed the three boys, the
friendly
one stopped as she went by. The other two continued on.

“Hello,
” He said with a smile.

She stopped in surprise. “Hello.”

“My name is Mark.” He held out his hand.

“I’m
Caroline,
” She responded, taking his hand to shake.

“I’ve seen you every day for months. I have wanted to say hello for just as long. Are you coming from work?”

“Yes, I work as a secretary for a clothing company.”

“Do you enjoy your job?”

She nodded. “I do.”

“That is good to hear.”

“And you?”

“My brother and I work constructing buildings.”

“And the other man you walk with?”

“Boss.”

“Oh.”

He smiled at her. “I am glad to learn your name.”

“Good to know yours, Mark.”

He took a few steps backward to indicate he needed to leave. “I gotta catch up with them. I’ll talk to you tomorrow?”

She smiled. “Perhaps.”

They nodded at each other and she turned to walk away. Before she reached her street, she turned into the post building. She paused at the door and turned back to look down the
road
, even though the men were long gone. Why did he choose to speak to her today?

Her heart torn, she opened the door and went in.

She was nervous as she wrote out a response to the ad. The clerk was eyeing her in a strange way. He knew her, she often came in to get the mail for her family. She had seen him here nearly every time, convinced he must be the only one who worked there. She knew he knew what she was doing and it made her even more anxious.

She handed the response to the clerk. He took it, looked at it and then at her. She could feel him judging her as he looked at her. She lifted up her chin and tilted her head to challenge him to say something.

“That will be five
cents,
” He said, setting the paper she’d given him to the side. She dug out five pennies from her bag and gave them to him.

“When will the letter be sent?”

“Tomorrow.”

“Do you know when it will arrive in Arizona?”

“Should be near the end of next week, I’d say. If you want it there sooner, you have to send a telegraph.”

“No. I will wait.”

“As you wish.” He turned away as if he was dismissing her.

She didn’t say anything and turned back to the front door.

As she walked home, she thought about Mark. What a coincidence. He starts talking to her the day she decides to leave and travel all the way across the country, probably never to return.

Though if he was wealthy, perhaps he would be kind enough to send her home for the holidays. Or maybe he would want to come along, too. Maybe he would be a kind and generous man who would take care of her the rest of her days?

Or maybe he was looking for a new housekeeper or a
workhorse
.

She shook her head and laughed softly under her breath. A wealthy man wasn’t going to need a wife to be a
workhorse
. He could pay anyone he wanted to do work for him. She debated whether she wanted to tell her family. Should she warn them that she was leaving? Surely, she couldn’t just disappear. She had to
tell
them. She had to
tell
them tonight.

She helped her mother prepare dinner and even set the table for the family. While she set the plates down, she noticed her mother watching her. She stopped and looked at her. “What is it, mother?”

“You are very helpful tonight. Is everything okay?”

Caroline smiled. “Yes, of course.” She shook her head and went about what she was doing.

When the family was all seated and they gave thanks for the food, her mother stood to fill the plates.

Caroline debated when she should tell them – before or after they ate. They seemed comfortable, free from the problem that was haunting them. She waited for the right time.

The time came when David spoke up, revealing what they were all thinking. “Dad, have you thought anything more about our financial problem?”

The family fell quiet. Dottie moaned a little and lowered her head, sitting back in her chair.

“I think I have a
solution.
” Caroline spoke up. They all looked at her. Dottie’s eyes were wide. She looked at them all and tried to smile. “I have answered an ad for a bride to go to the West. There is a wealthy man there who placed the ad I responded to.”

She recognized shock on their faces. Her announcement had rendered them speechless.

“I know it’s a surprise. I didn’t even think of such a thing until I saw the ad in the paper today. I…think it’s the only thing we can do at this point.”

“But…we’ll never see you
again,
” Dottie said, her voice weak. Caroline could see she was about to burst into fresh tears.

She got up and went to her sister, who stood up to meet her. She wrapped her arms around Dottie and held her close.

“Of course you
will,
” She said. “He has a lot of money. I’ll come back often. And if I am able, I will ask him to help our restaurant.”

The rest of her family got up and surrounded her.

“It’s going to be all
right,
” She said, softly, feeling surrounded by their love. “You will see.”