by Eveline Hart
He flew to the front of his home to confront the unwanted visitor. “May I help you, sir?”
Obadiah Jessup’s temper had flared. His jowls had flushed red, and a network of small capillaries had broken on the bulbous end of his nose. “I’ve come to collect my girl. She’s indentured to me and, by law, she and any child she has borne, are my rightful property until such time as her debt to me is worked off.”
“You are speaking of my family, sir. I’d like to see you try and take them from their home,” Jesse grabbed a red-hot poker from the nearby fireplace.
The Marshal burst in with Cassidy and Pedro. “Jesse, now, why don’t we put that poker down before you go and do something we’ll all regret.”
“Did you see that?” Jessup simpered, pointing crazily toward Jesse and the poker. “He was going to kill me with that thing! You all saw it.”
“Now, that’s not what I saw at all. How about you gentlemen?” The Marshal turned to Cassidy and Pedro.
“No, sir, Marshal, not us,” the two men chimed in.
“No, indeed not,” the Marshal continued. “I simply see an honest man protecting his family from an intruder.”
Any fear Jessup had felt at being threatened by Jesse dissolved instantly. He turned in a ruby flush and got in the Marshal’s face. “I demand that you, as a representative of the law, uphold the law!”
“Ahem. Well, in that case then, Mr. Jessup, I will have to ask you to vacate these premises, or I will be forced to uphold the laws of California and arrest you for trespassing and possibly kidnapping.”
“This–this is preposterous! That girl, Anna Murphy, belongs to me!”
“Not according to this telegram. Mrs. Callahan’s contract to you was accepted paid in full as of four hours ago.” The Marshal held out a piece of paper.
Jessup scrambled for the telegram. “On whose authority?”
“I believe the funds were accepted by a Mrs. Obadiah Jessup. If you read further along in the telegram, I believe she states you best ‘get your arse back to New York’ before she takes you for every penny you’re worth.”
Everyone in the room found it amusing save Obadiah Jessup. He glared at everyone in the room and left with a huff. Jesse patted the Marshal on the shoulder.
“Thank you for forwarding that telegram to Mrs. Jessup. You’ll see to it that my reward money for the McAllister job gets to her right away?”
“Consider it done. Lucky for us you’d saved all the girl’s letters, and we were able to get the proper address. That was a whole lotta money to give up for a girl you hardly know. You sure you made the right choice, son?”
“Everybody deserves a second chance at a better life,” Jesse replied as he glanced down the hall at the closed door. “I just hope she’ll understand what I did.”
The men said their goodbyes. Mr. Williams straightened a few things that had gotten upended in the kerfuffle while Mrs. Williams busied herself down the hall. Then the Williams couple made their way down to their small cottage, leaving Jesse alone. He sat in the dark, staring at the flames dancing in the fireplace. Somehow, they reminded him of her. If this was the only way he could be close to her for now, he could accept that. She’d lived a hard life.
He almost didn’t hear the soft padding of footsteps behind him until he heard the quiet coo of baby Fiona.
“I think she’s cravin’ sarsaparilla root. Nae sure where she picked up that habit.” Anna smiled softly.
Jesse spun around. She was so beautiful standing there with the reflection of the flames dancing on her face. “I-I’m sorry ‘bout that. I was afraid if McAllister heard her, well, it wouldn’t have ended pretty.”
Anna dipped her head. “Thank ye for that. It seems I owe you more than just a bit o’ thanks.”
“Weren’t nothin’,” Jesse mumbled. Anna stretched her arms towards Jesse.
“Would ye like ta hold her…Da?”
A wide smile broke out across Jesse’s face. He took Fiona gently into his arms. The baby cooed happily.
“Mrs. Williams told me how you lost your family and how you tried to save them. That’s the burn on your hand.” Anna traced the wound. “Wee Fiona and I, we can ne’er replace them, but, we’d like to give a fair go at makin’ our own sort of family with ya. If’n you’ll have a tarnished Irish lass.”
Jesse leaned in gently and pressed a gentle, but earnest kiss upon Anna’s lips. “You will always be my Irish Lass. No one will ever hurt you again.”
Anna ran her hands through his hair as he turned to Fiona. “Lil one, you will always be my little angel.” Tears welled up in Jesse’s eyes as his new family stood there holding each other. The fire crackled in the silence. He had not felt this loved in years. He laid Fiona in the basket beside him and turned to Anna, taking her in his arms. “I will love you for the rest of my life Anna Murphy Callahan. You are my wife, and you and Fiona will always be safe.”
“I love you, too, Jesse Callahan. We are all finally at home.”
THE END
Based off a true story . . .
This was a magical time in history when the Wild West was tamed by handsome cowboys who fought the bad guys and won, and then stole women’s hearts. We love to read about it and write about it, but in the real world, these stories did not always have happy endings.
One of the most famous mail-order bride stories happened in 1873 when a twenty-two-year-old schoolteacher named Elenore Berry from Gilroy, California read an article in the San Francisco Magazine.
“Lonesome miner wants wife to share stake and prospects. Please respond to Louis Dreibelbis in Grass Valley, California.”
In the article, Louis said he was a wealthy, average looking man who wanted to settle down. She replied to his article, and they exchanged letters for three months. Louis wrote that he found her letters “Intelligent and sincere in tone,” and “such a woman will make a fine mother.”
He asked her to marry him, and they set a date for July 27th, 1873.
Elenore quit her job as Gilroy’s schoolmistress. She packed her bags and headed out on an eastbound train to get married. Once she reached Colfax, California, she transferred to a six-horse stagecoach. She was the only woman of thirteen passengers.
The stage driver, Bob Scott, promised the passengers a safe trip by telling them the highwaymen didn’t rob the coaches. Scott may have been trying to convince himself of this fact because on this trip, unlike any other trip, he was carrying a strongbox that contained over $7,000 in gold that was to be deposited in the Grass Valley bank.
The first part of the trip was uneventful. The newspaper wrote that the passengers were swapping stories about places they had lived or visited. Their smooth ride came to a quick halt when the stage suddenly stopped, and Eleanor tumbled to the floor.
Loud voices outside were demanding the passengers come out with their hands in the air. Four armed men were wearing gunnysack masks over their heads and shouting commands to the passengers. The stage driver, Scott, lowered his hands a bit and one of the highwaymen let off a shot from his six-shooter forcing him to put them back up again.
With his gun still pointed at Scott, he said he wanted the treasure box. Scott told him the box was sent on another stage, to which the bandit said they would all just sit and wait on the other stage.
When Scott noticed the men had covered their feet with gunnysacks (a trick professionals used so they would not leave any footprints), he confessed there was no other stage, and the treasure box was strapped to the top of the coach.
The highwaymen lined all of the travelers against a nearby fence so they could get the box. They picked the lock but could not get it open easily, so they decided to blow it open with gunpowder. Eleanor yelled for the robbers to stop before they blew up her trousseau, which was in her trunk. One of the thieves, who appeared to be the chief, motioned for the gunman near the strongbox to toss down her trunk. As he did, Eleanor noticed he had a long jagged scar on the back of his hand.
The men blew the b
ox open and started collecting their ill-gotten goods. They filled their saddlebags, mounted up and galloped off, disappearing from sight.
When Scott inspected the damage to the coach and saw the frame was intact, he and fellow passengers settled the horses and re-boarded for their trip into Grass Valley. On arrival, Bob reported the holdup to the local sheriff who formed a posse to track the robbers down. The stage took Eleanor to the cottage of her betrothed before continuing.
Louis Dreibelbis’s landlady greeted her and told her that her fiancé had been away on business but would return shortly. The woman escorted her to a room so she could bath, rest and prepare for the wedding. Eleanor did just that as she waited for her soon to be husband.
When she was summoned, she walked from the room into a parlor that the landlady had set up. She saw two men sitting off to one side, the minister, and a witness, and then she saw Louis dressed in his Sunday best. He was much older than she pictured him being but saw it as strength of character. He, on the other hand, appeared shocked at the very sight of her.
The nervous couple took their places before the minister, who opened a bible and began the proceedings. As Louis recited his vows, Eleanor was struck by his voice. It sounded familiar.
After the minister pronounced the two “man and wife,” he escorted the couple to a table to sign the marriage license. It was then, when Louis leaned forward to sign his name that Eleanor saw the long jagged mark on the back of his hand and realized immediately where she had seen that mark before. She ran screaming from the parlor and locked herself in one of the other bedrooms.
Louis had realized she was one of the people from the stagecoach he had robbed, but he had no idea that she would recognize him. He ran out of the house without saying a word, mounted his horse and rode off leaving the minister, the landlady and the witnesses standing in the parlor.
The distraught bride left the bedroom the following morning. The minister and the landlady greeted her with apologies and words of comfort when she insisted, “Mr. Dreibelbis and I never married. I have no memory of a wedding, only a dream that in the night I was carried off by robbers.” She packed her trunk, and the minister took her to catch a coach ride back home to Gilroy to continue her life as Miss Berry.
A few weeks after the robbery a Wells Fargo agent caught up with Dreibelbis who confessed to the robbery of the stage, and he testified against his fellow bandits. Because he gave them the names of the other robbers, he agreed to leave the state of California and not return. He left on a stagecoach back to his home state of Illinois.
Eleanor slipped back into Gilroy during the night, too embarrassed to admit to her friends and neighbors that she had married a thief. If anyone asked what happened, she simply said her mail-order groom had not been what she expected. Eventually, however, the truth of the ordeal became public knowledge, and Eleanor was the topic of scandalous gossip. Humiliated beyond words, the young woman decided to end her life.
Her guardian and the fast action by a local doctor kept the distraught mail-order bride from succeeding with her plan. It is not known what became of Eleanor after she got well. We can only hope that she found true love and lived happily ever after like they do in the books. And that’s what this story was about, giving her the happy ending that she likely deserved.
Other books by Natalie Dean & Eveline Hart
NATALIE DEAN
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BRIDES OF BANNACK SERIES
Lottie
Cecilia
Sarah
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BRIDES AND TWINS SERIES
A Soldier’s Love
Taming the Rancher
The Wrong Bride
A Surprise Love
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BOULDER BRIDES SERIES
The Teacher’s Bride
The Independent Bride
The Perfect Bride
The Indian’s Bride
The Civil War Bride
BOULDER BRIDES BOX SET
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LOVE ON THE TRAILS SERIES
A Love Beyond Suspicion
EVELINE HART
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The Ranger’s Wife
More books in this well-loved series coming soon!
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Though I try to keep this list updated in each book, you may also visit my website EVELINEHART.COM for the most up to date information on my book list.
About Author - Natalie Dean
Natalie Dean has always loved reading historical fiction and writing. She pursued creative writing courses in college, but due to trying life circumstances, couldn’t pursue a writing career as she wanted in her early days. Now that her children are all grown, she is finally able to pursue writing like she has always dreamed of doing. She has several cats and one very spoiled Pomeranian at home. In addition to writing, she also has a beekeeping business that keeps her busy.
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Visit the co-author’s website EVELINEHART.COM to check out my blog and find out more about me : )
