ROMANCE: Mail Order Bride: A Sheriff's Bride (A Clean Christian Inspirational Historical Western Romance) (New Adult Short Stories) (83 page)

Chapter Two

The sisters spent their first few weeks in Wyoming getting to know their husbands and finding their place in the little town. This was a place where women were expected to work just as hard as the men, and that was something Esther and Hannah weren’t used to. Women in Edenton were expected to be delicate and quiet and spend their time working on needlepoint or caring for children.

Since their arrival in Wyoming, they’d seen women working plows, tilling the soil and even skinning animals. Men never cared for the houses—that was still the women’s job—but it seemed women were allowed, and even encouraged, to take part in their husband’s work. It was the strangest thing they’d ever seen.

The two sisters were more than thankful that their husbands weren’t ranchers like many of the other men in town. The Henry brothers owned the only funeral home in town and, thanks to the lucrative business of death, they made a good living for themselves and their wives. Hannah and Esther weren’t expected to do a lot of the work they witnessed other women doing, which was fine by them.

Esther and Hannah were delicate women with tender fingers and porcelain skin. They were raised to be ladies and full intended to be ladies, even in this harsh world. The only thing they were expected to do for their husbands was to keep a clean house, cook dinner and care for their eventual children. Esther was more or less the caretaker of the house. Hannah could often be found outside in the garden digging up fruits and vegetables for their dinner. Despite the arid climate, plants seemed to thrive rather well.

The entire family lived in a small farmhouse that was attached to the funeral home. Although it unnerved them at first, they’d both grown accustomed to living next to the place where their husbands made their money. Hannah always seemed to be afraid of the bodies going in and out of the funeral home and only calmed down when Esther explained that death wasn’t a bad thing: When you died, you went to heaven. Caleb and Aaron were seeing to these people’s final wishes and helping their family handle their passing. It was an honorable job.

Hannah spent her time worrying about the dead, and Esther thanked God for sending them good husbands. They were both good men with big hearts and handsome faces. For some, they might have been hard to tell apart, but Esther could easily tell who was who.

Aaron was a good man, and Esther cared for him, but when she saw Caleb, she felt a flutter in her chest that she just didn’t feel with Aaron. Caleb was a playful soul with a hearty laugh and a bright smile. He was everything that Esther wasn’t but wanted to be. She felt drawn to him in a way that she couldn’t explain.

How was she going to explain the attraction to her sister, though? Caleb was her husband, and it was wrong for Esther to have feelings for him. Didn’t God say that you shouldn’t covet your neighbor’s wife? She was certain that applied to her sister’s husband as well. It was causing a moral crisis within Esther that she couldn’t even begin to reconcile it. Along with that particular worry was the fear that one of the brothers would find out about the sisters’ secret and send them away.

Hannah nudged Esther, breaking her from her thoughts. Esther never let her thoughts wander during church, so Hannah couldn’t help but worry. The preacher’s voice echoed through the small church. It’s vaulted ceilings made the single room look much larger than it was.

Esther jumped when her sister nudged her, and her eyes widened. She wasn’t about to talk during church, but the look in her sister’s eyes told her everything she needed to know. Hannah was concerned about her, and Esther hated it. When Hannah got concerned about something, she would often pursue an answer, and Esther just wasn’t willing to give it to her this time.

She dropped her hand between them in the pews and gently squeezed Hannah’s hand, hoping that would alleviate some of her worries. Esther didn’t want her sister to worry. Hannah suffered enough already so much, and she didn’t want to put any more stress on her sister.

When the stepped out of the church, Hannah ran up beside Esther and took her hand. “Esther, are you all right? You seemed so distant in church. You are always the one who kept me from daydreaming. What’s weighing you down? I can tell you can’t stop thinking about something,” she said.

Esther just smiled and patted her sister on the shoulder. “It’s nothing, Hannah. I just haven’t been sleeping well. It’s much colder here than it is back home, isn’t it?”

The question was clearly meant to derail the conversation, and it worked like a charm. “It is a lot colder. There are a lot of things that are different here. At least, we always have the church, right?”

Esther smiled, wrapping her arms around her sister and hugging her tight. “At least we have church,” she echoed.

Chapter Three

Esther tried desperately to ignore her longing for Caleb but the more she ignored it, the more difficult it became. Hannah wasn’t as observant as Esther, but she was starting to notice her sister’s longing looks.

Esther hated the way Hannah always seemed to be on the cusp of figuring it out. She was in the kitchen, furiously stirring a pot with soap, trying to get the solid bar to melt at least a little bit so that she could scrub the dishes. She grunted and threw the spoon down just as Caleb wandered into the kitchen.

“Esther, are you all right?”

She jumped and turned around, her back pressing into the counter as she stared at him with wide eyes. She’d been doing her best to avoid Caleb, but it was impossible when they lived in the same house.

“I’m fine,” she said quickly, wiping hair from her eyes.

He cocked a brow and stepped forward, reaching into the pot and pulling out the soap. His sleeves were rolled back, and he smiled as he cut a small corner off the bar of soap.

“You didn’t use lye soap in North Carolina?”

She shook her head slowly and looked down. Her cheeks were so hot they must have been glowing.. Caleb set the larger piece of soap on a dish beside the pot and began scrubbing it, adding to it a little more water from the bucket Esther had brought from the well.    

“You seem stressed. In fact, you’ve seemed stressed since the moment you stepped off that train.”

“I’m always stressed. It’s what I get for being the responsible one,” Esther said softly, tucking hair behind her ear.

“That’s awfully rough. Have you always been the one in charge?”

“For the most part, yes. Mother and father expected me to take care of Hannah because I was five years older.”

“I suppose that’s the nice thing about being a twin: No one is obligated to be the one in charge. Aaron took that role willingly,” he said as he lifted the heavy pot and carried it outside to dump the water.

Esther followed him, wanting to hear anything Caleb said. He did that to her. He was able to grab her attention and keep her focused with just a few words. He glanced back at her and handed her the empty pot, tucking his hands in his pockets.

“They say that opposites attract, so I have to admit that I’m a little surprised that you are married to my brother. Just try and figure out how to calm down a little. You are going to drive yourself mad if you worry about every little thing out here.” He leaned down and placed a chaste kiss on her cheek.

As he walked away to return to the funeral home, Esther, shocked by the tender kiss and how good it felt, nearly dropped the heavy pot on her foot. The only thing she could think to do was pray for the strength to resist the urge to fall for Caleb. Lord knew she needed it.

_______________

A few days passed and Esther couldn’t get the encounter with Caleb out of her head. She was sitting on the edge of the porch, her pale legs hanging over the side and swinging freely in the cool night air. There were lightning bugs dancing in the sky, and Esther was surprised at just how peaceful the night felt. Catching the flash of one of the bugs out of her eye made her smile. At least this was something familiar. She was finding herself missing home every day, but she knew they couldn’t go back.

Hannah sat next to her, staring up at the twinkling stars in the sky. “It seems like it gets darker out here than it did back home,” she mused.

“There are fewer people,” Esther said, glancing at her sister.

“I suppose so. I like the dark, though. I know I used to be scared of it, but it feels purer out here. This feels like God’s country, like this is what the world was supposed to be like before people started destroying it.”

“That sounds about right,” Esther said, sounding far away and unfocused.

Hannah sighed and leaned forward, putting her chin in her hands to look up at the sky. “Can I tell you something?”

Esther didn’t care for that question. It normally came with bad news. She glanced over at Hannah and put an arm around her, nodding.

“Of course you can.”

Hannah was silent for a moment as she ran her fingers through her hair. “I feel like God didn’t mean for me to marry Caleb.”

Esther’s eyes widened, and she frowned. “What do you mean? They brought us here. This saved us.”

“I know, and I’m thankful, but sometimes I feel like I was meant to be with Aaron. I can’t explain it, but when I look at him I feel love. And sometimes I catch him looking at me the same way. I … I like Caleb well enough, but I don’t think I could ever love him.”

Esther suddenly burst into a fit of laughter, and the sound made Hannah jump. “Esther?”

“Do you really feel that way?”

Hannah seemed almost scared to answer, but she slowly nodded her head. “Is it … is it bad?”

Esther sighed, tears forming at the corners of her eyes. “I’ve been feeling the same way. I’ve been just too terrified to admit that I felt like I was meant to marry Caleb. He’s just so … he’s everything I need to keep me sane out here,” she said as she looked around.

Hannah smiled and tucked some hair behind her sister’s ear. “I think Aaron would keep me grounded. Given my situation, I think he’s the person I need.”

Esther sighed and ran a hand through her hair. “Well, it feels nice to finally say it and get it off my chest,” she said softly, glancing at her sister. “But how do we switch husbands?”

Hannah grinned, and Esther and took her hand. “You know Valentine’s Day is right around the corner,” she said softly.

Esther glanced over at her sister. “What are you suggesting?”

“Maybe you should ask Caleb to be your Valentine, and I’ll ask Aaron to be mine,” she suggested with a small shrug.

It wasn’t the worst idea Esther ever heard. After a moment of thought, she offered her sister a smile a and nod.

“All right, I suppose it’s worth a try, isn’t it? This way neither of us looks like we’re trying to steal the other’s husband,” Esther said.

Hannah offered Esther a playful look and shook her head. “You are always worrying about stuff like that.”

“One of us has to.”

With that their conversation turned to much lighter subjects. For the first time in a long time, Esther felt at peace—even a little excited at the prospect of their little swap.

Chapter Four

Valentine’s Day was a time of celebration for the people of Dickson, Wyoming. It was a town full of people who often worked themselves to the bone. There was no rest except for Sunday and holidays, and Valentine’s Day seemed as much a day for rest as any.

Wyoming was a brutal place to live, and people didn’t often get to see the gentler sides of their sweethearts. Romance was a thing that didn’t happen often, so people took advantage if it when they could.

Many of the marriages in Dickson were the result of either an arranged marriage or a mail-order bride situation. There were few women in the West , so men often sent East for wives. It gave women a chance to explore the West in relative safety and escape poverty and war back East. It was exactly what people like Hannah and Esther needed.

Considering few relationships were built on love, Valentine’s Day was something that everyone looked forward to. It allowed people who’d gotten married without much of a courtship to pretend, for at least a day, that they’d fallen in love like anyone else.

For Hannah and Esther, it was a way to fix what they considered a mix-up. They’d gone into town a few days before Valentine’s Day and gotten what they needed to craft their own Valentines. It was still very cold out, and snow littered the ground almost three feet deep, so they were locked inside the house most of the time.

They spent their extra time decorating their Valentines and writing heartfelt messages for the men they each adored. Neither knew what was going to come of this situation, but they could only hope that Aaron and Caleb would understand and accept them.

The morning of Valentine’s Day, Esther and Hannah snuck out of the bedrooms they shared with their husbands and left their little pink-and-white cards on their husband’s boots. They weren’t expected to get to work that day, but the sisters knew that their husbands would put their boots on to go check on the horses. They crawled back into their respective beds silently, smiling secretly in the dark.

Esther fell back asleep, but Hannah was far too excited to sleep. She closed her eyes but was fully awake when her husband slipped from the bed. She held her breath, her eyes squeezed tight as she tried to listen to what the men were saying. She could hear soft mumbling, but she couldn’t make out what was actually being said.

Hours seemed to pass, and Hannah was starting to feel her heart sink. Maybe this wasn’t a good idea, she though. Panic began to rise in her throat as she scolded herself for wanting more than what she’d been given. She should have been happy to find a husband as kind and caring as Caleb. It was selfish and greedy to wish for more. It should have been enough for her to find a husband who was willing to support her. Love was a faraway wish for girls who had options.

Just as the tears started to prick her eyes, she felt a weight settle on the bed. Her eyes snapped open. She sat up quickly, but was caught by Aaron’s strong arms. He held her close and pulled her to his chest..

“Good morning.”

She blushed and looked down, biting her lip. “Good morning,” she repeated, her cheeks hot with embarrassment.

Aaron just chuckled and rubbed her shoulders. “Are you all right?”

She nodded slowly and tucked her hair behind her ear. “I’m just surprised to see you here.”

Aaron glanced at the door and then back at her. “Why are you surprised? Did you leave the Valentine letters?”

“I didn’t really think it would work. I was starting to worry that you’d send us away.”

Aaron just shook his head and smiled, leaning down to stroke her cheek gently. “We thought the same thing, you know,” he said softly, running his fingers through her hair.

The gentle touches felt so good. She couldn’t help but lean into them, sighing and smiling.  After a moment, she pulled away and looked up at Aaron, a slow smile coming to her lips.

“Is Caleb with Esther?”

“He is,” he said with a nod.

“Good. I think she’ll relax a little with him,” she said. “He’s going to be good for her.”

“Am I good for you?” he asked softly, cocking his head to the side.

She smiled and nodded, touching his cheek and running her rough finger along his cheek. “I think so.”

“Why?”

“Because you … you’ll keep me grounded. You are responsible, like Esther. I need someone like you in my life and I just …When I saw you, my stomach did so many flip-flops,” she said with a laugh, looking away.

He cupped her cheek and guided her into a tender kiss, brushing his finger over her lower lip. She accepted the kiss gratefully and leaned into Aaron, practically melting into him. When they pulled away, he pressed his forehead to hers and smiled.

“Thank you,” he whispered.

“For what?”

“For being brave. There aren’t many women who would have done that, you know,” H=he said softly, kissing her cheek.

She giggled, hardly able to help the sound that pushed forth from her chest. Hannah felt like she was flying. She couldn’t have expected this plan to go better.

“We both admitted that we weren’t happy. Well, we were happy, but we knew we could be happier.”

“I’m glad you took a risk,” he said, offering her another kiss, though this one was a bit longer. Ittook her breath away.

“The moment I saw you, I knew I wanted you to be my wife,” he whispered.

Hannah smiled and wrapped her arms around his strong shoulders. “I wanted it, too.”

They spent the rest of the morning wrapped in each other’s arms, kissing and touching each other’s faces, thanking God for bringing them into each other’s lives and giving the sisters the confidence and bravery to voice their opinions.