The Convenient Mail Order Bride (4 page)

Eric began reading the missive, so Abe
forced his attention to what he was saying. His eyes rose
heavenward as he listened to Carl’s lies about Abe’s planning for a
family when he built his cabin. His uncle had built the cabin for
his mother. She’d always wanted a big one, so he’d added the extra
rooms for her sake, though he’d often thought it was a waste of
space.

“There is a nice stream on the land where
you can get water, bathe, and do laundry,” Eric read.

Abe stopped him. “That’s another lie. Sure
that stream is rightfully mine, but he won’t let me have it. The
poor woman has no idea she’d have to do all her bathing and washing
from the well water.”

“He does mention a well in the next
paragraph. Want me to read it?”

“Yes.” He might as well hear the whole
thing. Then he’d know exactly what she’d been promised.

When Eric was done reading the rest of the
missive, Abe turned his attention back to the woman and her
mother.

“I’m going to talk to her,” he told Eric as
he took the paper full of half-truths. He nodded for the man to
follow him, and Eric obeyed. Once he reached the wagon, he directed
his gaze to Phoebe. “Can I talk to you over there?”

He gestured to the spot outside the barn. He
didn’t think she’d talk to him alone inside the barn so he figured
if he gave her an open area where her mother could keep an eye on
her, she’d be more likely to leave the wagon.

She offered him a nod and extended her hand
toward him so he could help her down. Good grief. The woman was
wearing gloves. She was as prim and proper as they came. She was in
for a rude awakening to what life would be like if she stayed here.
Things like gloves and fancy dresses just weren’t practical. Biting
back the comment, he took her hand and guided her down.

He led to her to a spot where they wouldn’t
be overheard and handed her the missive. “It seems Carl left some
things out,” he began, setting his hands on his hips.

“He left out a lot, like him not being who
he claimed to be,” she replied. “I really believed you wrote
this.”

“I know. It’s in Carl’s nature to lie. He’s
just like his pa.” He sighed. “I don’t know what to do. So I’ll
give you some options, and you tell me which one you want,
alright?”

She slipped the missive back into the purse
then clasped her hands together. “Alright. What do you
propose?”

“One thing I could do is help you and your
ma return to Ohio. Carl was right about me not having much money. I
don’t value gold like the white men do.”

“White men? Aren’t you white?”

“No. My pa was. My mother was Cheyenne.” He
paused. “Can’t you tell I have Indian blood in me?”

“Your skin is darker, but I thought you had
a lot of sun on you, like some of the other men I’ve seen who don’t
always wear a hat. You aren’t wearing a hat right now.”

“I don’t like hats. My ancestors didn’t wear
white men’s hats. But the fact that I’m not wearing a hat shows you
my hair is darker than white men’s.”

“I’ve seen men with black hair before,
though I admit they always cut it short.”

“Where you come from, are there any
Indians?”

“I’ve never ventured outside the main area
of Cincinnati.” She shrugged and cleared her throat. “My knowledge
about these things is limited.”

“You haven’t heard anything about the savage
Indians out West?” She blinked at the bitter tone that found its
way into his voice, so he forced it back down. “I’m not saying
Indians are savage. They aren’t. All we do is try to protect
ourselves as you white people keep taking land that belongs to us.
And when we protect our land, you call us savage.”

She didn’t seem to know how to respond to
that, and her look of surprise told him she hadn’t been told much
of anything about what was going on outside the small world she’d
grown up in. She’d been sheltered from the truth her entire life.
It would be wrong to direct his anger at her.

“Forgive me. I thought all white people were
told the same thing about us,” he said, his voice quieting down.
“Would you like to return to Ohio? I don’t have much money, but I
do have enough to provide a way back for you and your mother. You
might be more comfortable with your own people.”

He fully expected her to take that option,
so he waited for her to accept his offer. But instead, she asked,
“What else can I choose?” When his eyebrows furrowed, she
explained, “You said we have a couple of options. I’d like to hear
what else there is to choose from.”

Having caught him off guard, it took him a
few seconds before he could reply. “Oh, well, I suppose we could
get married, but you don’t know what you’re asking in doing that.
You’d be marrying a half-breed. Out here, that’s not a good thing.
Eric’s one of the very few who’ll talk to me. The others try to
pretend I’m not there, if they aren’t talking down to me like I’m
too dumb to understand them. On top of that, I’m a bastard.”

“A bastard?”

“It means my parents weren’t married.”

“I know what it means. I just can’t recall
anyone saying the word so casually before. It took me by surprise
when you blurted it out so matter-of-factly.”

“Then that’s something you ought to consider
about me,” he told her. “I tell it like it is. I learned long ago
if I’m going to keep what’s mine, I need to blurt things out,
whether people want to hear them or not. I don’t know what kind of
place you grew up in, but around here, if you aren’t ready to fight
for what you have, you’re going to lose it. I’m not sure that’s the
best option for a gentle woman and her mother.”

She lowered her gaze and stared at her hands
for a long moment. When she finally spoke, the tears in her voice
made him wince. “My mother and I can’t return to Ohio. We don’t
have the money to support ourselves, and my brother is doing all he
can. I can’t impose on him and his wife anymore.” She brushed away
a tear. “What other options do I have?”

With a sigh, he said, “You can stay here and
answer another mail-order bride ad, and hopefully, this time it’ll
be from the person he claims to be. There’s no one else around here
I’d recommend you marry. Eric is already promised to a woman back
East, and Travis is too scared of women to take a wife. I’m sorry
to say this, but you’re too pretty to stay in a home with one of
the families in town. None of the wives would want to give you a
room. Besides that, your only other option is to get a job, but you
don’t want the kind of job a single woman around here can get.”

“I know. I’ve seen the town.” She sniffed
and dabbed her eyes again. “You don’t want to marry me?”

His jaw dropped. She was really considering
that option? If he was her, he would have searched more mail-order
bride ads. Setting his arms at his sides, he said, “I’m a
half-breed and a bastard. Life with me won’t be an easy one. I
never would post a mail-order bride ad. The last thing I want to do
is curse someone with my life.”

She glanced around his land, her gaze
pausing when it passed over her mother who was talking to Eric. Her
mother happened to look her way, and there was a private message
that seemed to be exchanged between them.

When she turned her attention back to him,
she said, “You take care of your cabin and barn.”

Not sure where she was going with this, he
ventured, “Yes. They’re my cabin and barn.”

“So it would be safe to assume you take care
of your things?”

“If I don’t, they’ll fall apart.”

“And when we were coming up here, you were
on the roof. Were you fixing it?”

“Yes. There was a small hole up there. I
noticed it after last night’s rain.”

“The horse looks well-fed.”

He glanced at the steed in the fenced
property behind the barn. “Is there a point to all of this?”

“Yes. My point is you take pride in the
things you have. You don’t let them fall apart or go hungry. I see
your garden by the cabin has no weeds in it. On the way out here, I
saw a lot of houses and barns. You’d be surprised how many people
don’t take the time to keep them in good condition. You, on the
other hand, do.”

“I still don’t know what any of this has to
do with you and your ma.”

“Well, it stands to reason you’d treat me
and my ma with the same care you treat your things. I could take my
chances on another man by answering more ads, but I already know
what I’d be getting here. Mr. Richie was wrong to lie about being
you when he wrote me the missive. I won’t argue that. But I have to
admit you are as good as he made you sound.”

“Carl and I aren’t friends,” he said.
“There’s been a feud going on between us for years.”

“Then that says something, doesn’t it? Even
your enemy can find good things to say about you.”

“He only said those things because he wanted
you to come out here. He didn’t say them because he believed
them.”

“Even so, he had no trouble coming up with
things to say.”

“Are you saying you want to marry me because
of the way I sounded in that missive?” he asked, just to make sure
he understood her.

“No. I came out here because of the missive.
I want to marry you because I can tell you’re the kind of man
who’ll be good to me and my ma.” She hesitated for a moment then
added, “Besides, I bet you could use a woman’s help. Wouldn’t it be
nice to have someone cook and clean for you?”

Surprised by the sudden change in topic, he
couldn’t help but chuckle. “You just got through telling me what a
great job I do taking care of everything, and then you say I could
use someone around here to help me?”

“If you had some help, you wouldn’t be doing
everything alone.”

“Well, yes, that stands to reason.”

“So why not let me help you by marrying
you?”

He studied her for a good minute. There was
a spark in her that intrigued him. “It won’t be an easy life.”

“You’ve made that clear.”

He glanced over at her mother who seemed
just as sweet as the woman in front of him. Since he was a man, he
wasn’t nearly as vulnerable as they were. At least he could defend
himself if he needed to, but they couldn’t. In fact, they were
naïve to the ways of the world.

“You said you have nowhere else to go?” he
asked, just to make sure because if he could give them a way to
escape the life he had to deal with, then it would be much better
for them.

She shook her head. “My brother is generous
to a fault, but we can’t impose on him anymore. He’d take us in,
but he doesn’t make enough to support us and three children. He’ll
have the third soon. I tried to get a job, but no one wants to hire
me because I’m too pretty. They’re all afraid I’ll get married and
leave. And my mother is too old.”

He almost laughed that people didn’t want to
hire her for such a simple reason. Instead of laughing, however, he
asked, “So where were all the bachelors vying to marry you?”

“I come with my mother. Not many men are
willing to take her in. We didn’t live in a prosperous area. You
have more than any of us did.”

Compared to all Carl and Eric had, he didn’t
have much at all, but she had no way of knowing that, at least not
with her brief time out here. “There’s more to life than how much a
man has,” he said before he had time to think of the hypocrisy in
his statement. How often had he’d argued with Carl over the
property line, claiming he didn’t have enough? “I mean that there’s
more than land and things that make marrying a good idea.”

“Yes, I know. I also need someone kind
enough to take my mother in and to be good to us.”

“And you think I would do that?”

“You haven’t been mean to me.”

“You were afraid of me when I asked to see
the letter,” he reminded her. “Your hand was shaking.”

“I wasn’t afraid of you. I was afraid you’d
tell me and my mother to go back to town without giving me a chance
to explain the situation to you.”

Oh.

“I grant you that I don’t know you well
enough to say we’d have a good marriage,” she allowed. “I wasn’t
expecting to know such a thing anyway when I agreed to be a
mail-order bride. But you do take what I want into consideration,
and I know some men don’t bother doing that with their wives. It
stands to reason you’ll be the same after we’re married.”

Since she was determined to pursue this
course of action, he settled for a compromise. “I’ll tell you what.
The preacher doesn’t come by this place except for once a month.
You and your mother are welcome to stay in the same room. Then you
can see what life with me will be like.” He was sure she’d be
running on the next stagecoach that pulled into town once she
realized just how hard life was out here, especially for a woman
who was used to a big city among her own kind, but let her figure
that out on her own. “When the preacher arrives, if you still want
to stay here, I’ll marry you.”

“Thank you.”

He wasn’t so sure she’d be thanking him once
she realized how much hardship she’d just asked for, but he figured
she’d learn her mistake soon enough. “I’ll bring your trunks into
the house, and you can put your things away.”

She nodded.

Deciding that was the end of their
conversation, he went to get the trunks.

Chapter Four