by Sarah Banks
His Surprise Bride
Mail Order Matrimony, Book 1
By Sarah Banks
Copyright © 2019 Sarah Banks
All Rights Reserved
Chapter One
Brandon and his sister Dorothea watched the stagecoach empty from behind a post in front of the mercantile several feet away. They were watching for their brother’s mail order bride. A mail order bride that Gabriel didn’t exactly know about. Because they had ordered her for him. But so far the only people that had gotten off the stagecoach were men. Brandon’s brows drew together in disappointment. All this excitement over nothing. She hadn’t even come.
“I think I see her,” his sister said in a loud whisper even though no one was paying them the least bit of attention. Despite only being eleven months apart, Thea was several inches shorter than he was, but they shared the same dark hair and eyes. There was no mistaking they were siblings and that he was older, even if it was only by less than a year.
Brandon was just about to ask where but then he saw her. She was tall, taller than he was, and thin, dressed all in dark blue from chin to hem. Her hair was pulled back in a severe bun. She had sharp cheekbones, a deep wrinkle between her brows and a mouth that looked like she had swallowed a mouthful of vinegar.
“Do you think that’s her?” Thea asked, a slight waver in her voice.
Brandon swallowed. “I don’t know.”
“I hope not. If it is, I think we’ll be getting sent to our room even more than we already do. What if that’s her?”
“Then we don’t step forward to introduce ourselves and she’ll return to where she came from eventually.”
Thea gave him a look. “You always make things sound easier than they actually are.”
He shrugged.
She sighed. “I shouldn’t have let you rope me into this. Gabriel is going to kill us.”
Brandon ignored her and they both turned back to watch the woman with the pruney mouth. Moments later she was greeted by a man they didn’t recognize, shorter and much heavier than she was, with bright red hair and equally red cheeks. The stocky man led her away and they both sighed in relief.
“See, you worried for nothing.”
Another minute went by before they saw a second woman. Brandon made a face.
“She’s too fat,” he said.
“Portly is a nicer word,” Thea corrected him. She was always doing that, even though it never took. He always said the first thing that came to his mind.
“Whatever,” he replied. “She’ll eat all of our food.”
“But maybe she can cook,” his sister added hopefully, and Brandon reconsidered. The mail order bride had said in her letters that she was a passable cook. Passable sounded better than any of the three of them could do and Brandon’s stomach growled at the thought of a good, hot meal made in more than just a single pot and slopped into a bowl.
The larger woman waved happily to someone in the crowd and she too stepped away to reveal a third woman. The third woman was neither fat nor pruney mouthed.
“Too pretty,” he said and forced his eyes away from her to look for a fourth woman but there was no one else. The team of horses was almost done being changed and soon the passengers that had gotten off to stretch their legs would board again to continue their journey further west. Brandon was beginning to lose what little hope he had arrived with.
“Very pretty,” his sister agreed. “I love her hair. It’s so long.” She touched her own tangled mane that barely touched her shoulders.
Brandon’s eyes went back to the woman. She hadn’t moved from her spot, her eyes scanning the crowd. No one stepped forward to meet her nor did she seem to recognize anyone.
“How can you tell?” He asked. “It’s all tied up.”
“Yes, but look how big the knot is. I bet it goes down past her waist,” Thea said dreamily.
“Yours might too if you didn’t get pitch stuck in it two summers past.”
The dreamy look bubbled into anger. “Shut up Brandon!”
He laughed and waited for a smack that didn’t come.
“It’s so shiny.”
“What is?”
“Her hair!”
“We’re still talking about her hair?”
“I wonder if she could make my hair that shiny.”
“Doesn’t matter, it’s not her.”
“Maybe it is.”
“No mail order bride is that pretty. I’m telling you that isn’t her and if it is, there’s something really wrong with her. No one that pretty would answer an ad for a mail order bride unless there was something really wrong with her.”
The woman in question took a step forward and she limped. Badly.
“Oh,” Thea breathed out.
“Yeah, oh,” Brandon repeated, again forcing his eyes away from the woman.
They continued to wait. No one else got off the stagecoach but two men got back on and closed the door. The horses were fresh and ready to run. The stagecoach driver climbed up onto the box. Still the woman with the limp stood there, her carpet bag at her feet.
Finally her eyes came across him and his sister, still half-hiding behind the post, trying to look as if they weren’t staring at her. Her gaze passed over them and then came right back.
She half-cupped her mouth and called, “Might you know a Gabriel Campbell?”
Brandon shook his head while his sister nodded.
“Thea!” He ground out.
“But it’s her!” Thea insisted.
Brandon looked back at the woman. She cocked her head, a half smile on her face.
He shrugged and changed his answer. “Maybe,” he called back.
The half-smile grew full. She picked up her bag and made her way awkwardly over until she stood below them.
“What do you want with him anyway?” Brandon asked.
She squinted her eyes up at him and then surprised him by throwing back her head and laughing. “I’m not really sure anymore. I was supposed to marry him but I somehow get the feeling you already knew that. He didn’t mention in his letters he had children.”
“Gabriel’s our brother,” Thea said.
“Half-brother,” Brandon corrected her.
“I see.” The woman tapped her lip thoughtfully. “Now that you mention it, I do recall him writing in his letters that he had a brother and a sister. I didn’t realize you’d be so young.”
Neither one of them said anything. They knew exactly what was in the letters. They had written them. Well actually they had paid someone else to do the writing for them, an older student at school, but together they had told her exactly what to write.
“Now I’m just trying to figure out why you two are here and he isn’t. Is your brother sick?” She looked genuinely concerned.
They simultaneously shook their heads.
“Dead?”
They drew back in horror.
She laughed at their reactions. “Well not sick or dead then. That’s good I suppose. Did an axle break on the wagon?”
They shook their head and she continued, “Stuck in the mud? Did one of his horses throw a shoe? Go lame? Is he chasing down a stray cow? Delivering a calf? Couldn’t find his boots?”
Thea let out a small giggle.
“I could come up with a hundred more. Why don’t you just save us all some time and tell me where he is?”
Thea opened her mouth to answer but Brandon spoke before she could. “He’s at home.”
“He’s at home,” the woman slowly repeated. She was no longer smiling. She just looked confused and Brandon realized Thea had been right earlier. He did always make things sound easier
than they were. They had ordered a bride for their brother but Gabriel would never marry her. Not in a million years. And by bringing her here, they had hurt the woman with the pretty hair, who liked to laugh, who said in her letters she was a passable cook. Who had a limp.
Her brows drew together. “Even though he knew my stage was coming today?”
They didn’t answer.
Finally she sighed wearily and gave a single nod. “Okay, I think I’m beginning to get the picture here. Look, it’s okay if he changed his mind. I nearly changed mine a half dozen times myself. I’ve done my fair share of foolish things over the years but this certainly takes the cake. If he changed his mind, I can’t say I blame him. He just came to his senses first is all. I understand, I do,” she insisted. “But he didn’t have to be a coward about it. He didn’t have to send two innocent children to break the news to me.”
“He didn’t send us. He didn’t even know you were coming.”
“Shut up Thea!”
But the woman had heard Thea’s softly spoken words. A wrinkle appeared between her brows. “He didn’t know I was coming? I’m afraid I don’t understand. Where is he exactly? Maybe I can speak with him and we can work this all out.”
“We told you, he’s at home. We locked him in the cellar.”
Chapter Two
“You locked him in the cellar?”
“Thea!” The boy yelled at his sister.
Jane shook her head. She was more confused than ever but she knew that she would get to the bottom of this, eventually.
She held out her hand. “My name is Jane, and you are?”
The girl gave up her position behind the post of the mercantile first and descended the steps to take her hand. It was small, dirty and callused. She had tangled dark brown hair and equally dark eyes. Her skin was tanned and she had an adorable smattering of freckles across her nose and cheeks. Her head came up to Jane’s shoulder. Jane would guess the girl was between the ages of eleven and twelve give or take a year.
“My name is Dorothea, but everyone calls me Thea.” She looked at her brother who had ignored the steps and jumped to the ground sending up a cloud of dirt around them. He didn’t offer his own hand. Instead he crossed his arms and glared at them both. There was no mistaking the pair were brother and sister. They shared the same dark looks down to the freckles. He was obviously the older of the pair, she guessed about thirteen and was several inches taller than his sister. Jane suspected he’d tower even over her pretty soon and she was tall for a woman.
Thea thumbed over her shoulder. “That’s my brother Brandon.”
“Nice to meet you both.” I think, she silently added. “Well, I’ve come this far, you might as well take me to your brother.” She picked up her bag. “Which way to the wagon?”
Thea only gaped at her.
Brandon straightened and dropped his arms. “We walked.” He looked at her leg.
Ah, so he had noticed. Well, there was no hiding it. She should have mentioned it in her letter. Her intention wasn’t to be dishonest but neither did she feel like her limp defined her, it just was. She wasn’t ashamed of it and she would never let anyone try to make her so.
She gestured, “Lead the way.”
“It’s almost five miles!” Brandon said incredulously.
Jane hoped he was joking. She was stiff and sore from sitting on first the train and then an overcrowded stage for days and days. Despite the distraction of the beautiful countryside outside the window, she could hardly wait to finally arrive at her destination and stretch her legs. But five miles was a bit ambitious. She had never walked five miles in her entire life.
“Well the sooner we start, the sooner we’ll finish,” Jane said matter-of-factly. “It’s time to rescue your brother from the cellar and face the music.” And she would get to the bottom of this. Find out if her groom really didn’t know he had a mail order bride on the way. It couldn’t be as bad as it sounded.
Thea glanced at her numerous times during the walk, casting her sympathetic glances, mostly in the direction of her leg. She had even tried to help her walk, as a crutch of sorts. Jane shooed her away. She could do it. She would do it. She was awkward and slow certainly, but she would do this so help her. She did allow Thea to take her bag and halfway through the walk she noticed that Thea had passed it off to her brother.
Sweat dripped down Jane’s brow despite it not being all that hot out. They finally turned down another road that sloped gently up. She prayed they were getting close when she spied a large rooftop in the distance.
Conversation had been limited during the near two-hour trek. Normally Jane wasn’t so quiet, but she needed all her energy to focus on every step.
“I don’t think you mentioned why you didn’t bring a wagon to pick up your brother’s bride.”
Thea looked at Brandon. This pair was thick as thieves Jane realized. She would have to be on her toes with these two.
“We didn’t know Gabriel was replacing one of the wheels until after we locked him in the cellar. And Brandon didn’t know how to put it back together,” Thea explained with a roll of her eyes.
“Neither did you!”
“Of course not, I’m a girl!”
Jane cut off any further bickering by asking, “Then why not just horses? This is a horse ranch, isn’t it?”
“You said you couldn’t ride in your letters,” Brandon said.
They both looked at her expectantly.
Jane nodded. “That’s true. I’ve never been on a horse before.” She had admitted that in her letters at least. She figured it was only fair on account that her potential groom was in the horse business. But had she known she would have to walk five miles, she would have readily agreed to be tied to the saddle.
Nearly at the top of the long, gently sloping hill a modest house came into view and to the left, a huge barn. She stopped and took it all in. It was beautiful. All of it. The countryside from both the train and stagecoach windows, the small town of Dalton, the tall trees, grass fields and wildflowers along the road on the walk here with the mountains in the distance, and now this place. And it was also so eerily quiet. She glanced at the children who fidgeted and were casting nervous glances toward the house.
A long, low moo broke the silence and they all jumped.
“Bessie needs milking,” Brandon said.
“After we let your brother out of the cellar. Maybe he won’t kill you on account that he would have to do the milking himself.”
Brandon didn’t look so sure.
“Cellar’s around back.”
Brandon led the way and Jane brought up the tail. She wasn’t sure if they could possibly walk any slower than they were right now nor did she think they were doing it on her account. Well, she guessed she’d soon learn if their brother was mean because being locked in a cellar for hours would test any man’s patience.
They all stood outside the large door that led down into an underground root cellar. Jane gave a shiver. She would be terrified to be locked in there for any amount of time, let alone hours.
Thea pressed her ear against the wooden door and asked softly, “Gabriel, are you still in there?”
“Let. Me. Out.” A low voice said slowly from the other side of the wood. He was right on the other side of the door. So silent. Jane bit her lip nervously and watched Brandon and Thea exchange solemn looks.
“He’s going to kill us,” Thea whispered.
Brandon didn’t disagree.
“Alright, alright,” Jane interrupted, stepping forward. “We’d better just let him out. His temper’s not cooling any letting him sit in there even longer with us standing out here.”
She tried to lift the board holding the door shut. It was larger and heavier than she realized but Brandon stepped forward and together they lifted the board up and away. The door remained shut for a long moment before it slowly pushed outward and then Jane saw him, half in the shadows of the doorway. He was incredibly tall, incredibly handsome and incredi
bly furious. All three of them took a step back.
His eyes only briefly flickered across Jane before returning to his siblings. He took a step forward into the full sunlight. Thea stepped behind Brandon who stood defiantly facing Gabriel with his arms crossed.
Jane took a deep breath, “Now, now, why don’t we all go inside and discuss this calmly. I don’t know about you three, but I could use a tall glass of water.”
“Send your little friend home Thea, this is family business.”
“She is family!” Brandon countered.
Jane felt a giggle bubble up at the back of her throat. Well that was one way to break the news. In a blink Gabriel’s expression turned from anger to confusion. He looked her way again.
She gave a little wave. “Surprise, I’m your mail order bride.”
Chapter Three
Gabriel leaned back against the kitchen counter and watched his supposed mail order bride drain her glass of water almost as fast as he had his own. He had built up quite a thirst being locked in the cellar for the past five hours. And he had built up quite a temper. That had been almost immediate when he realized they weren’t coming back right away to let him out. He knew they would come back eventually, they were family after all, but he had no idea what they were up to. Still didn’t. Although he figured it had something to do with the too pretty brunette who just set her empty glass on the table and looked at him.
He forced his gaze away from her and set his own glass on the counter. He looked at his sister Thea sitting quietly beside the woman who had introduced herself as Jane from Tumbury only a minute earlier. Thea’s hands were knotted on her lap and she refused to meet his gaze. Brandon on the other hand had no problem doing such. He was leaning against the opposite wall facing Gabriel with his arms crossed and glaring at him. For the first time Gabriel saw a glimpse of the man Brandon would become. When had he grown so tall? And so angry? And precisely when had Gabriel lost control of the situation? Or maybe he had never had it to begin with.
“Okay enough dillydallying, who wants to start? How about you Brandon since I know this had to be your idea from the get-go, Thea never gets into mischief on her own.”
