“Hang on there, and I’ll get your luggage.” He set Emma on the ground. Clara came next. Then he strode to the tailgate as the girls ran to the house. Probably glad to get away.
With her anger reaching the boiling point, she faced him, a fist on each hip. “I don’t know what your problem with me is, especially since we only just met, but I was not expecting you to help me because I’m not used to being waited on. I totally agree with putting your mother first. She’s earned that right, I certainly haven’t.”
His eyes widened, as if he couldn’t believe what he’d heard. Let him chew on that for a while. She turned to the tailgate. “If you’ll open this, I’ll get my luggage.”
He pulled the end piece down, but before she could reach them, he blocked her and pulled both items out. With one in his grasp, he stepped back with a pointed look. “Please go ahead and get the door. I’ll return for the other.”
She hesitated, but his look insisted she obey. Biting her tongue to keep from giving him the scolding he deserved for his attitude, she trotted ahead.
What had she gotten herself into? Jacob, for all his charm, had never carried more than he had to for her. Certainly not after they married. He’d spent more waking hours with her father than he had with her. Would she have agreed to marry if he hadn’t at first seemed the exact opposite of her father? No, because that’s what had attracted her, falsely thinking she would once and for all be done with her father’s ways. After what had happened to the senior Mr. Lewis, she’d wanted no more to do with her father. Thankfully, her marriage had been short-lived.
And look at the mess she’d gotten into now. Mr. Lewis junior acted and treated her as much like her father had, as if he, instead of the kind Mr. Lewis senior she remembered, was his father. She shook her head as she followed the man into his home. Surely he wasn’t as dishonest. He might brood, but he seemed to treat his family well. And in all his snapping at her, he’d been trying to help. She sighed and continued tagging along up a flight of stairs to the second floor. At the end of the hall, he entered an open door into a bedroom.
“This is your room.” He deposited the trunk on the floor and turned to leave. “You’ll need to speak to my mother about whatever duties she wants performed. Just don’t allow her to do your work, and we’ll get along fine.”
She watched with wide eyes as he strode from the room. Then she muttered, “Well, now what, Maggie? You’ve set yourself up this time but good.”
Closing her eyes, she bowed her head as the weight of her situation pressed into her spirit. “Lord Jesus, I believe You led me here to make amends as best I can, but I’ll need Your help so I don’t make another mistake. Show me the way. Help me help this family even if they don’t like me.”
A single tear fell on her folded hands.
~*~*~*~
Watch for Housekeeper Bride—Book 5—Sweet Water, Kansas, Mail-Order Brides.
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About the Author
Born and raised in the Midwest, Mildred Colvin writes what she enjoys, clean and wholesome stories of romance, most of them set in—where else? The Midwest! Sweet romance is her favorite to read and write. Especially second chances. Who wouldn’t like a second chance if they messed up the first time? Her stories cover both historical and contemporary times.
She is an award-winning author of over sixty novels, including Mama’s Bible, the first book of The Oregon Trail series, and an Indie best-seller.
Mildred is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers and keeps busy dreaming up more stories than she has time to write.
Note from the Author
I hope you enjoyed Stealing the Preacher’s Heart! If so, please tell a friend. I will continue adding to this series of mail-order brides in Sweet Water, Kansas. Several more are planned and in the writing process now. I can only imagine what marrying someone sight unseen must have been like, but people truly did this especially after the Civil War when so few men remained in the East and the shortage of women in the western areas made it difficult for the men to find wives.
In Housekeeper Bride, coming next, Maggie arrives in Kansas as a housekeeper to help a woman she knew in New York. She carries guilt from the death of the woman’s husband. Their son doesn’t trust her and doesn’t care if she knows it. Jim nor Maggie know his mother brought her to Kansas to marry him and become mother to his two young daughters... But I’ll let you read the sample chapter included here, if you haven’t already. Enjoy it, and I hope you enjoy the entire story soon. Watch for Housekeeper Bride at your favorite online bookstore. It’s coming soon!
If you’d like to learn more about my books, I encourage you to visit my website at http://www.mildredcolvin.weebly.com. Be sure to fill out the newsletter sign-up form to be notified when a new book is released, or when I participate in a promotional sale with savings for you. Occasionally I’m able to offer some of my books for free for a short time, and I don’t want you to miss out on that.
And while it’s fresh on your mind, please take the next few minutes and leave a quick review of Stealing the Preacher’s Heart where you purchased your copy to help others know what you think. Reviews are important to help other readers find books they would like to read, and it’s a way to say thank you to the author for a story you’ve enjoyed. I read all of my reviews.
The Sweet Water Mail-Order Brides Series:
Silver Lining-Book 1
Danya Morrison flees white slavers in New York City by becoming a mail-order bride in Kansas only to find the man she’s come to marry already has a wife. Matthew Tucker has kept his wife a secret for three years, little knowing she’s been keeping a secret from him. Danya’s presence brings more to the front than anyone expected.
Refuge in Sweet Water-Book 2
Adam expects letters from potential mail-order brides, not a woman on the run for her life showing up before he's ready. He wants to get acquainted first. Emily needs to be married to save her life. She hasn't got time to spare. Can this couple make a good marriage with true love, or will everything fall apart when their pasts catch up with them?
Borrowed Family-Book 3
Raylene made a deathbed promise to care for her cousin’s children, but keeping the promise seems impossible. She’s never met their father, and they live over a thousand miles away. Then John, the widowed father of four, sends for a mail-order bride, and with his daughter’s help, she’s able to fill his request. He doesn’t know he’s marrying his wife cousin, and she puts off telling him because she fears he will blame her for his wife’s death, and she can’t bear to be sent away. Caring for his children is only one reason she wants to stay. There’s also the fact she’s falling in love for the first time in her life. But the most important reason is a secret she hopes to guard with her dying breath.
Stealing the Preacher’s Heart-Book 4
She’s an outlaw’s daughter. He’s a preacher with a teenaged daughter.
Lily agrees to her father’s deathbed request and impersonates a mail-order bride to marry Elliott Cooper, a preacher in Kansas, until the real bride decides she wants him after all.
Coming Soon!
Housekeeper Bride-Book 5
And More to follow!
Other Historical Romances by
Mildred Colvin
Hands of Love series
Five-book Nineteenth Century family saga of two families brought together by the marriage of their children.
Awakening Joy & Through the Valley
“This is the man I will Marry!” Hannah Zorn declares to her friend the first time she sees Gus Rohmeier. They struggle to begin their lives together and raise their family through loss, heartache, fear of the future, and great joy and love.
Love-Scarred Hands
Was she a mail-order bride or the ill-gotten prize of a gambler?
Rose O’Brien and Thomas Atwood meet in a most unusual way the day they marry.
Their lives become a roller coaster ride of emotions, but love is never in question.
Can a woman love a man so much he becomes her idol? Rose must make a choice when, more than anything, she wants both her husband and her heavenly Father, even if the cost is her life.
Walking His Way
Double cousins raised as sisters, Anne Atwood and Colleen O’Brien, navigate the troubled waters of growing up and falling in love.
William Rohmeier and Graham Prescott each love one of the cousins, but respect, duty, and the enticement of wealth becomes a barrier to truth.
Two couples search for love, but will they find the right partners? Or is the confusion a tool in God’s hands to bring each to a right relationship with Him
In Search of Gold
He promised he’d never leave her.
Sarah Rohmeier and David Latshaw fell in love while young, but survive family disapproval, loss. Jealousy, greed, and even a separation that almost tears them apart.
Experience their emotions as they waver in the loss of their dreams and the harsh reality of a long distance relationship without God as their center. Watch them grow through joys and heartbreak of life and love during the 1890s. Experience their time together in the Alaska gold rush.
Wow! Is the word readers have most often used to describe this book. Each book in this series can be read alone, but to get the full impact of these families it is better to read all from the first.
The Oregon Trail series
Mama’s Bible (Oregon Trail-Book 1)—1850
Running from the Law. Leaving everything behind. What more is there to lose? Katie Donovan soon learns she has much to lose, but even more to gain on the long journey to Oregon in 1850.
Clay Monroe is ready to marry and vows he will win Katie’s heart before they reach Oregon.
Jason Barnett is attracted to Katie, but her rebellion against God keeps him in turmoil.
Home’s Promise (Oregon Trail-Book 2)—1850
In 1850, Rachel Morgan is ready for marriage. She’d loved Tommy Donovan from the first when they met on the Oregon Trail. Now they’ve arrived in Oregon, and Tommy puts off their wedding. Should she use her attractive new neighbor to make Tommy jealous? If he doesn’t stop talking about the wonderful Miss Preston, a girl he’s met in town, then maybe she will!
Love’s Forgiveness (Oregon Trail-Book 3)—1853
Could she give her heart to the man who killed her husband? In 1853, Abigail Marshall only wants to be left alone in the log cabin Jacob built, but everyone says she should remarry.
Clay Monroe blames himself for Jacob’s death, so he encourages another man to marry Abigail, then realizes he’s just made the biggest mistake of his life.
Ellen’s Choice (Oregon Trail-Book 4)—1862
Ellen Bartlett is forced to choose between two men and the career she loves as schoolteacher to Willtown’s children in 1862.
Love’s Healing (Oregon Trail-Book 5)—1965
Daniel Morgan returns to Willtown to find more surprises than a man should be subjected to after almost giving his life to bring safety and peace to the settlers.
Coming Next in this Series
Mother’s Tears-Book 6—1866
Her father gave her infant son away the night he was born, then took her to Oregon so she would never find him. A letter of confession holds the secret of his whereabouts, but will knowing keep her from the man she loves?
~*~*~*~
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