“What do you think?”
“I don’t want to do that,” she cried, laying down on the bed. She curled up in a ball and softly sobbed into a handkerchief.
“Sarah, we haven’t found your father’s money yet. We can’t spend all our time digging up the farm.”
“We found a jar.”
“Yes. One jar. But one jar does not a fortune make.”
Sarah sat up in the bed. “What do you mean? Do you think it was my father’s intention to die? To leave me handling all this?” She waved her hand around the room.
“May I come in?” Sarah nodded. Ian walked over and sat down on the side of the bed. He pushed a strand of hair behind her ear then tilted her chin, so she was looking at him. “No, I don’t think that was his intention at all. From what you’ve told me, he was the type of man who wanted to make sure that his family was taken care of.”
“But I’m here all alone.”
“No, you aren’t.” Ian brushed away the tears with his thumbs. “You have me. And you’ll have me as long as you want.”
Sarah peered at him from behind her lashes. “What do you mean?”
“I know we said that once I recover my memories and you were able to secure the farm that we would part ways.” He heard Sarah’s breath catch. “But I don’t want to, honey. I don’t know much about farming. I’m a lousy husband and I don’t even know what I could do for work here in Creede. But I do know that I love you and I want to make this better.”
“You love me?” Sarah squeaked.
Ian nodded. “I know this is a terrible time to tell you, but I wanted to say it before I go see Snyder tomorrow. Your father wanted to lease him the land for his cattle. We don’t know enough about farming to continue. But we can earn enough to pay stay here on the farm.” He looked in her eyes. There was so much hurt and pain. He just wanted to absorb it. “That is if you want me to.”
“I’m not sure yet.”
Ian released his hold on her chin. “That’s alright, Sarah. You have a bit of time to think about it.” He lifted himself off the bed and headed towards the door.
“Ian?” Sarah called.
“Yes, Sarah.”
“Would… would you. I mean, could you hold me tonight?”
Ian thought his heart would burst from his chest. “I would love to.”
Sarah scooted over and arranged her skirt so that Ian could lay down next to her. Her back was to him, so he slid his hand under her head and wrapped his arm around her waist.
Sarah was still silently sobbing and it broke Ian’s heart. He just held her while she continued to cry. When the tears finally stopped, and the heaving ended, she looked over her shoulder. Her face was red and splotchy, and he had never seen anyone more beautiful.
“Ian?” Sarah whispered.
“Yes, love?”
“I love you, too.”
Ian’s grin was so big his cheeks hurt. He leaned forward and gave Sarah a gentle kiss on her lips. “Go to sleep, honey. I’ve got you.”
Sarah rolled back over, and Ian fell asleep for the first time with his wife in his arms.
The next morning Ian saddled a horse and rode up the hill to the neighboring ranch. Sarah was still asleep when he left. If he was going to do this, he needed to do it now so that he could go to town and have the papers drawn up that very day.
He rounded the corner to the path leading down to the ranch. The house was just like Sarah’s. A simple farmhouse that you could order from the Sears and Roebuck’s catalog. Unlike Sarah’s this one had a wraparound porch that extended all the way around the house.
The ranch hands were working as he rode into the yard. He heard the murmurs as he rode up to the house and dismounted. Arlan was standing on the porch smoking a cigar.
“What do you want?” Arlan said.
“Mr. Snyder, I’m here to talk to you.”
“Ain’t nothing to talk about.” He took a drag on his cigar and blew gray smoke in the air. “I heard you married Sarah Abrahams.”
“I did.”
“So, in essence the farm is yours.”
“No. The farm is Sarah’s. It will always be Sarah’s and someday, God willing it will go to our children.”
“That’s a nice story, but it doesn’t explain why you are here.”
“I have a business proposition for you.”
Arlan looked at Ian as if sizing him up. Ian wanted to shift under Arlan’s gaze, but he stood tall. Eventually Arlan nodded. “Let’s go inside and talk.”
Six months later
Sarah couldn’t believe it was happening! Today she would go down to the creek area and watch as the cattle moved from the Snyder’s ranch across the creek to the Poole farm.
It was no longer the Abrahams place, as she was Sarah Poole, and she intended to keep that name.
“Are you ready?” Ian asked. He was carrying Lacey’s quilt in his arms.
Sarah nodded. “You’ll have to help me up.” Ian held out his hand and Sarah used it to lift herself from the chair. “I swear, the way this baby keeps growing I’m going to have an elephant, not a human!”
Ian laughed. He put his hand on Sarah’s belly. “Don’t talk about my son that way.”
“It could be a daughter.”
Ian leaned down and gave Sarah a kiss. She felt her toes curl in her shoes. “Only if she is like her mother.”
Sarah gave him another quick kiss and then shooed his hands away. “We are going to be late.”
“They can’t do anything until we are there.”
Ian led Sarah to the wagon and then drove her to the side of the creek away from where the cattle would be crossing.
The past six months were spent preparing the land on the farm to receive the cattle. It involved building fences, stringing wire and marking boundaries.
Ian expanded on Jacob’s idea of clearing the wheat fields. He wanted to go into business with Arlan. Instead of charging to graze the land, Arlan and Sarah would split the profits when the cattle went to market. That profit would be reinvested into the herd and eventually the Abrahams would own half the herd.
As a show of good faith, Ian purchased twenty-five head of cattle to add to Arlan’s large herd.
Sarah grieved for Dell, but she knew he would want them to keep moving forward. So, she and Ian started digging at the places marked on the map. They started at the creek first, as they didn’t want to be digging when the cattle were crossing.
It took a bit, but they eventually uncovered the first jar. Then the second. Third and more until they found a total of twenty jars. Each jar was filled with amounts ranging from twenty dollars to over one hundred in some of them. Her father had been taking care of the family.
The first thing Sarah did was pay Ian back. He refused, but she insisted. He told her that he gained more in the deal than she did. He had a wife, friends, a place to live, a baby on the way. What more could a man want?
Ian pulled the wagon up next to the creek and hopped out. He went to the back and laid out the quilt on the wagon bed. Sarah waddled around and Ian assisted her into the back of the wagon to sit.
She could hear the lowing of the steers as they moved towards the creek bed.
“Here they come!” Sarah said.
Dusty was on a horse near the creek and signaled that it was time to open the fence. Jesse lifted the fence and pulled it back, allowing the steers and their babies to move across the creek.
Arlan’s men surrounded the cattle, guiding them to where they should go. When the last one had crossed, a baby that was catching up to his momma, Arlan appeared on his horse. He rode over to where Ian and Sarah sat on the wagon.
“Ma’am,” he said tipping his hat before taking off after the herd.
She and Arlan even made their own peace. Sarah understood that he was simply a businessman and it was business, not personal.
Sarah looked at her husband and a feeling of happiness so overwhelming came over her. Ian smiled as Sarah reached up to pull him down for
a kiss.
She still had her farm. Her family was expanding. They were going to name the baby Dell if it was a boy and Lacey if it was a girl.
Life was perfect. Just because she was married at midnight.
Epilogue
“I think we did quite well this time,” Mrs. Pennyworth said looking over at her husband.
“That we did, dear,” he replied.
“Just think! Eight more people found love here in Creede!”
“Once a matchmaker, always a matchmaker. It is a bit easier now, as we know more.”
“Easy?” Mrs. Pennyworth looked at her husband. “You call this easy?”
“Now, now, Louisa, stop your fretting.” Mr. Pennyworth said looking down at his wife. “Perhaps it is time that we permanently retire.”
“What are you saying?”
“We’ve done what we were asked. We found solutions for these young couples and we found each other again.”
Mrs. Pennyworth lowered her eyes. “Of course, Edward. How could I forget our true purpose?”
“That’s why I’m here, my love. To remind you.” He gave a little laugh. “I nearly forgot. We had a small wager on that young lad, Ian. I believe you need to settle, wife.”
“You know I detest gambling, but I am a woman of my word.” She lifted her lips, allowing him to kiss her softly. His lips were as warm as she remembered. “Maybe retirement does sound good.”
“I totally agree.” He looped his wife’s hand through his arm and held tightly as they floated through the fog that was covering the field.
Leave a Review
The End
If you enjoyed this story, I would appreciate it if you would leave a review, as it helps me reach new readers and continue to write stories that appeal to you.
Tap here to leave a review.
Join Christine’s newsletter here.
Tap here to see all of Christine’s books.
Click here to join the Cowboys and Angels Readers Community.
See all the Cowboys and Angels Series Books.
Author’s
Note
Two things I mentioned in this story were the Hobo Code and mail order homes. Although mail order homes didn't arrive until the early 1900s, I shifted time a bit and made them available in the 1890s (as authors we can bend time). Sears and Roebuck added prefabricated homes to their catalog which allowed the purchaser to build the house themselves without having to hire a contractor.
Where I live, in rural Pennsylvania, there are many prefabricated homes. They are beautiful and have stood the test of time for nearly a decade. You can learn more about Sears & Roebuck's catalog homes in this article here.
Quite a bit of research goes into writing historical western romance. So, I started looking for information about hobos and train jumpers. What I found was fascinating. I didn’t realize the whole community that revolved around train jumping.
Normally the word hobo conjures up images of a man with baggy pants and a handkerchief tied to a stick. When I think of the men that traveled the country via freight cars, terms like Boxcar Willie and King of the Road come to mind. Even the song Big Rock Candy Mountain was about the traveling life.
But that is just the images from songs and cartoons. In fact, there was a hierarchy in the traveling community, and the community was comprised of both men and women! (Who knew?)
Because trains became the primary source of transportation across the country, these men and women would jump into a box car of off the ground when the train slowed down or went around bends in the track.
Train jumpers is the phrase I used for Married by Midnight, even though it isn’t considered part of this lifestyle. It was simply easier to say jumper vs. hobo or tramp or vagabond.
Train jumpers were classified into two different groups – hobos and tramps. The term hobo refers to a migrant worker or homeless vagrant, especially one who is impoverished. The term originated in the Western—probably Northwestern—United States around 1890.
Tramps are the other class of train jumpers. These folks worked only when they needed something, like a few dollars or a meal.
And finally, there are the bums who didn’t work at all and usually begged for a meal or a drink. Any money they did make was usually spent on liquor.
The Hobo Code is real. It is a set of hieroglyphics that men used to communicate with one another through the different towns. Normally the markings were either carved in something or written on a wall/board in chalk.
In the case of the Abrahams, I wanted to make it a traveler friendly farm, so I chose to have the symbols painted on the side of the barn.
I’ve posted the code below so you can visualize some of the symbols I mentioned in this story.
Picture Credit: Logo Design Love
You can find out more about the Hobo life and code at the Logo Design Love article and in this Popular Mechanics article where someone shared a hospital room with a ninety year old nomadic worker.
Read all of Christine’s Books
Read all of Christine's Silverpines Romances:
1. Wanted: Medicine Man
2. Wanted: Gravedigger
3. Wanted: Redemption
Read all of Christine’s Silverpines Companion Tales Romances:
1. The Coffin Maker
2. Snowbound
3. Changing Seasons
Read all of Christine's Proxy Bride Romances:
1. A Bride for Jeremiah
2. A Bride for Elijah
3. A Bride for Benjamin
Read all of Christine's Pinkerton Matchmaker Romances:
1. The Pinkerton Matchmaker
2. An Agent for Claudette
3. An Agent for Penelope
Read all of Christine’s Cowboys and Angels Romances:
1. Bride in Blue
2. Beauty and the Baker
3. Tempting the Tailor
4. Married by Midnight
Read all of Christine's Belles of Wyoming Romances:
1. Wynter's Bride
2. The Homecoming
3. A Matter of Marriage
4. The Barn Raising
Read all of Christine's Holiday Romances
1. A Cozy Mitten Christmas
Click here to visit Christine’s Amazon page.
About Christine
Christine Sterling published her first book in 2017. She is the creator of the wildly popular Pinkerton Matchmaker Series and the Proxy Bride Series. She is an author in multiple collaborations, including: The Belles of Wyoming, Cowboys and Angels, The Widows of Wildcat Ridge and Silverpines, where her book Wanted: Medicine Man won best historical novel of 2018. She recently joined Sweet Promise Press as a historical romance author, writing for the Pioneer Brides of Rattlesnake Ridge series.
She writes sweet and wholesome historical western novels under the name Christine Sterling and sweet contemporary novels under Christi Bortner. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, a spoiled Shih Tzu, two German Shepherds and an energetic Border Collie, that keep her on her toes.
She spends her time writing, thinking about writing, and dreaming about writing. Her favorite things are a good cup of tea, puppy snuggles, a movie that will make you cry and hearing from her readers.
If you like this book, please take a few minutes to leave a review now! Christine appreciates it and you may help a reader find their next favorite book!
Married by Midnight
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are all products of the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblances to persons, organizations, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
The book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. All rights are reserved with the exceptions of quotes used in reviews. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage system withou
t express written permission from the author.
Scriptures quoted from the King James Holy Bible.
All books titled or quoted in this story belong to their respective authors.
Married by Midnight ©2019 Christine Sterling
Cover Design by EDH Designs
https://www.facebook.com/edameronhill
Editing by Carolyn Leggo and Amy Petrowich
1st Ed, 10/5/19
Married by Midnight Page 9
