ROMANCE: Mail Order Bride: A Sheriff's Bride (A Clean Christian Inspirational Historical Western Romance) (New Adult Short Stories) (80 page)

Clean Western Mail Order Bride

By: Samuel Grace

Chapter One:

A light breeze blew off Lake Michigan as Caroline O’Leary (no relation to the woman with the infamous cow, as her father always liked to tell people) walked along the shore ine with her best friend, Annette. The girls had linked arms and kept their heads bowed together, sharing secrets for the entirety of the walk. They found that stance kept unwelcome advances from suitors at bay, and that was important to them, as they were frequently the objects of flattery from young men hoping to get close to their families’ fortunes.

“My father wants me to marry within the year,” Caroline confided.

Annette’s eyes widened. “Did he actually say that to you?”

Caroline sighed. “No, not exactly. I might have been listening at the doorway while he was talking to my mother. But, in my defense, I have every right to eavesdrop. It’s my life. No, what he actually said was that he would have me married off within a month if the right offer came along.”

“And what did your mother say?” Annette asked.

The late May sunshine warmed the girls as they paused beside a stretch of park to gaze at the boats coming into the docks farther down the shore. Caroline adjusted her hat as she sighed. “She told him not to be too hasty, that my marriage was a good merger opportunity.”

Annette laughed. “Isn’t that just the way you want to spend the rest of your life? As an acquisition or a means of expansion for your father’s business?”

“What about you?” Caroline asked. “What does your father have planned for you?”

With a roll of her eyes, Annette linked her arm back through Caroline’s and tugged her forward. As they began walking again, she said, “You know that I’m promised to Ethan Fairbanks. We’ve been betrothed since we were babies, though I heard that he went West last year to have some grand adventure. It won’t matter if I meet anyone else. I just don’t have a choice.”

“And you’re OK with that?” Caroline asked, her pretty red bow of a mouth puckering into a frown. The way Annette described her future made Caroline feel empty and heartsick for her friend. Never mind that her own father had the same future in mind. Caroline still believed that she had a choice to make.

Annette shrugged. “I like Ethan, and I think that we’ll have a nice life together. Besides, it’s not like we’re getting married tomorrow. I have plenty of time before I have to start that part of my life.”

The friends walked along in silence for awhile, Caroline thinking about what Annette had said. She knew that just because that was her friend’s truth that didn’t mean it applied to her. God had different plans for each person. That was what her pastor always said anyway.

Caroline had faith that the Lord did have a plan for her, and she needed pray so that she could follow His path. She had to admit, though, that she didn’t always feel like she knew what that meant. Sometimes her prayers felt hollow and selfish.

“Oh, look, Pastor Danforth and his wife. Let’s go say hello,” Annette said, breaking into Caroline’s thoughts.

The pastor and his wife were walking toward them, and it didn’t take the girls long to reach them. Mrs. Danforth smiled warmly as the girls approached. “How are you girls on this fine day?” she asked them.

“Well, thank you,” Caroline said.

“We were just enjoying the fine spring weather,” Annette added.

They chatted for a few more minutes about the lovely warm May they’d been having when Pastor Danforth broke in. “Caroline,” he said, “your father stopped in to chat with me the other day. He wanted to know if I knew any eligible young men who might be a good match for you.”

Caroline couldn’t help as her jaw came unhinged. Usually the pastor kept things to himself even when begged to share information, but when she saw the look he exchanged with his wife, she knew that he had already given some suggestions to her father. Her heart sank into the pit of her stomach.

“Pardon me, Pastor Danforth, I don’t mean to be rude, but I don’t want to marry any of the men my father thinks would be right for me. I don’t mean to speak against him, but he wants me to wed for what the marriage can do for our family name, for our wealth, but I … I want to marry for love,” Caroline said, hardly daring to believe that she had been so bold. Beside her, Annette was barely containing her shock.

A frown flickered onto the pastor’s face, but then Mrs. Danforth squeezed her husband’s arm, and his expression changed. “You know, I won’t interfere in your family’s affairs, but I did get a letter from an acquaintance who went West last year. He settled in Dakota Territory—South Dakota now. He’s looking for a wife. If you’d like, I’ll give you the letter, and you can correspond with him.”

The pastor’s words intrigued Caroline. She wasn’t sure what to say at first, but an impulse, almost as if she was prompted by a higher power, made her say, “Yes, thank you. It can’t hurt to write a letter, can it?”

“I think I still have it in my pocket here,” said Pastor Danforth, producing an envelope from his coat. He handed it to her, and then he and his wife bid the girls farewell.

After they had walked away, Annette turned to Caroline, the look of disbelief still etched onto her face. “Are you really going to write to a stranger who is looking for a wife? You know that your father will have a fit if he finds out. Wait, is that why you’re doing it? Just to stir the pot?”

Caroline shook her head. “I don’t know why I took the letter, but you know what? I’m going to answer it. And whatever happens, I’m going to leave it in God’s hands.”

Chapter Two:

The letter was sitting on the entry table when she got back from her afternoon visiting. A thrill shot through her chest when she realized that the envelope was addressed to her. As quickly as she could, she grabbed the letter and slipped it into the waistband of her skirt. She wasn’t sure if anyone else had seen it in the family, and she was sure that she didn’t want any of them to know what she was doing—not just yet—and especially not her father. He still wanted to marry her off to the highest bidder, whoever could do the most for his business interests.

Glancing around to make sure that no one in her family was around still, Caroline walked toward the kitchen. Eleanor, the downstairs maid, and Edna, the cook, were sitting at the table chatting when Caroline swept in and headed straight for the cookie jar.

“Now don’t you go spoiling your dinner,” Edna said in her thick Irish accent.

Caroline grinned, feeling like a 10-year-old again, not her mature 18 years. “I could eat a dozen of your cookies but still want to eat every bite of your dinner,” she said.

She grabbed another cookie before she headed toward the back stairs. Her father was forever telling her that only servants used the back stairs, but Caroline didn’t care. All she knew was that she needed to avoid exposure to her family at all costs at that moment in time. She knew that she was being slightly melodramatic, but she wanted to read this letter. If she was right about her gut feeling from the original letter, then this man, Elliot, might be her solution to the problem of being married off as an asset.

Eagerly, Caroline dropped down onto her window seat and tore open the letter. The handwriting was faded, as if it had gotten wet on its journey, but she could still make out the small, cramped words.

Dear Caroline,

I was glad to hear from you. This feels mighty awkward, but I’ll do my best to tell you all about myself. I live on the prairie to the east of the Black Hills of South Dakota. Have you ever heard of the Black Hills or South Dakota? That’s a silly question, I suppose. You are obviously a well-educated young woman, but with South Dakota having just become a state last November, I wasn’t sure whether or not you would be familiar with this place.

It’s beautiful here. That’s the only way I can explain this place I live. To the west you can see the mountains of the Black Hills, their slopes look place from the thick stands of pine that cover all the hillsides. That’s how they go their name, the Black Hills.

My cabin is on the edge of a town called Rapid City. I work for the newspaper here, covering all manner of city business and affairs. You mentioned that your father is a banker there in Chicago. That must be a hard job. Mine is exciting, and I love writing stories that inform and delight people out here.

I’m sure that Chicago is much different than anything you’ll find out here. Don’t let the name fool you. Rapid City is not a true city. Not yet anyway. Someday I expect that it will be a bustling urban center, but for now, it has the comforts and amenities of any good-sized town. Though things are still wild out here in many regards, where I live feels a lot like the other places I have lived in my life, though smaller and friendlier.

I suppose I should tell you a bit more about myself than I did in that first letter. I grew up in St. Louis, the oldest of 10 brothers and sisters. My father owned a general store, and I grew up listening to talk of politics and gossip. When I was 16, my older brother decided to head West, and I went with him. We got all the way out to the Black Hills before we ran out of money.

Martin decided that we needed to take out a gold claim. For almost a year we spent every day panning in the creek and sleeping in our little lean-to. The winter was by far the worst. After the first thaw, I moved down to Rapid City and started working for the newspaper.

I decided to write to Pastor Danforth because, though the Black Hills are thriving, there still aren’t good Christian women here that are interested in getting married. This will seem forward, but I am going to ask if you have any interest in coming West as my wife. I expect that we will continue to write and get to know each other, but it seems like a good idea to get the looming question out of the way.

The Lord has a plan for each of us, and I’m hopeful that our plans will coincide. Please respond at your earliest possible convenience.

Regards,

Elliot Reynolds

Caroline reread the letter, committing it to memory. A stranger—well, nearly a stranger, she did know about some of his life—had just asked her to marry him. She understood that there was nothing more romantic about this proposal than what her father had in mind for her, but she also knew that she had control of this situation.

She leaned back against the wall and gazed out her window. The buds on the trees had begun to unfurl last week, and now the green shoots were brilliant against the blue sky. From where she sat, she could just make out the lake in the distance. She had always thought that this place was pretty, but now she was curious about where Elliot lived.

The letter crinkled in her hand, and she wondered what she should do, how she should answer Elliot. Whatever she decided, she knew that God had huge plans for her, and everything was going to change.

Chapter Three:

“I can’t believe that you actually went through with it,” Annette said, the awe in her voice evident. The girls were out for another walk along the lakeshore, and Caroline hadn’t been able to keep her news in any longer.

Caroline slipped off the path to climb onto the big boulders that lined the lakefront. She loved the way the spray from the lake felt on her face. If she agreed to marry Elliot, she would miss this place. She would miss her daily walks with Annette, and she would miss the way Chicago seemed so stunning after a long, hard winter. She had no idea what the Black Hills would be like. The fear of the unknown was certainly a deterrent, she realized, but it wasn’t so large that she wasn’t still considering it.

“Caroline, get away from there,” Annette scolded.

Turning to look at her friend, Caroline threw her a teasing smile before she climbed down to a rock even closer to the splashing waves. “I had to write back to him,” she said. “I could feel the future pulling on me.”

“I don’t understand you sometimes,” Annette said with a sigh. She shifted from one foot to the other, and Caroline laughed again. She knew that her friend was not quite so taken with the lakefront as she was, but she often tried to coax Annette to do just that.

“What’s to understand?” Caroline asked as she sat down on one of the rocks. She began to unlace the ties on her boots. When she finished she set them on a higher rock and then she hitched her skirt up to her knees so she could dip her feet into the cold waves as they lapped against her legs. “I mean,” then looking over at her best friend with a sly smile, “he proposed.”

“What? You don’t even know the man? And he already proposed?” Annette was clearly having trouble controlling the pitch of her voice because she began to get the shrill tone that indicated she was upset. “How is that any different than what your father wants you to do?”

Caroline wrapped her arms around her knees and hugged them closer to her chest and stared out across the lake. Annette’s words, and the deep concern in her voice, made Caroline squirm. Those had been her own thoughts on the matter, yet there was something deeper she couldn’t quite explain.

“It’s not the same,” she said. “My father wants me to marry a man that he chooses for me so that his business interests can grow. At least with Elliot, I’m the one making the decision. Besides, it sounds like he lives a simple life. I think that’s what I want. And I can tell that he would be easy to fall in love with.”

“Yeah, but maybe the man your father chooses for you would have the same characteristics,” Annette suggested.

Caroline grabbed her boots and stood. She sighed. “You don’t understand,” she said, unable to keep the frustration out of her voice. “Anyone my father chooses for me is going to be exactly like him. The only thing that will matter is money and status. I just … I just can’t live like that anymore. I need something more. Don’t you ever sit in church and think that there’s more that God wants for you in your life?”

“Not really,” Annette said. “My life is exactly the way I want it.”

The irritation she felt with her best friend surprised her because a few months ago Caroline had felt the same way about the life, right up until the moment her parents had started talking about marrying her off. She hadn’t realized it in the beginning, but it was at that moment that she had started looking for a way to get out of the life she was currently living and into another one, a simpler one. Elliot provided her with that outlet.

Caroline glanced at Annette and then climbed back up onto the pathway. The dirt felt gritty under her toes, but she didn’t care. She didn’t bother to put her shoes back on as they started walking again. Annette gave her a look of pure horror but said nothing.

“Your life might be exactly how you want it, but mine is not,” Caroline said. “That’s why I wrote to Elliot. If I accept his proposal, it isn’t like I’m just going to jump on the next train to go marry him. We’ll spend an appropriate amount of time getting to know each other.”

“Aren’t you scared, though?” Annette asked.

“Of what?” Caroline replied.

Annette shrugged. “I don’t know. Going to meet someone who you don’t know, going to live in a place you’ve never seen. Leaving everything you’ve ever known.”

Caroline laughed. Her best friend had the same penchant for the dramatic that she did. “Of course it scares me. It all scares me, but what scares me even more is the idea that I might end up living a life like my father’s.”

The girls walked along in silence for a while, and after a fourth lady gave her the stink eye, Caroline flopped down on the grass beside a large sprawling tree. As she wrestled her stockings and boots back on, she sighed. “Honestly, I don’t know what the future looks like.”

“None of us do,” Annette said, sitting down beside Caroline beneath the tree. “Only the Lord can tell what our future holds.”

“And I think that the Lord is leading me toward Elliot,” Caroline said.

The silence that filled the air now was deep but not uncomfortable. Caroline flopped back down on the grass and closed her eyes. There were too many thoughts pounding through her head. She couldn’t make sense of any of them. Finally, she opened her eyes and said, “I’m going to say yes.”