Mail Order Bride- Twenty-Two Brides Mega Boxed Set

by Emily Woods

  The front door burst open, and Evana stepped outside, her green eyes glittering and her face flushed with excitement.

  “Mama,” Evana said, looking back into the house as she stepped outside. “What are you doing out here? Pa is just about to bring out some refreshments to celebrate!”

  “Evana?” Danny asked. Evana turned and saw Danny, and her eyes grew large.

  “Oh, Danny,” Evana said, the smile vanishing from her face. “What are you doing here?”

  Danny reached for the sunflowers and gave them to Evana. “Evana, I’m here to talk with your parents about our future. I’ve been praying about our courtship, and I think it’s time to have a talk with your parents about what is to come.”

  The color vanished from Evana’s face. She drew her hand to her heart and used the other hand to fan herself.

  “This isn’t the best time, Danny,” Evana murmured, looking back into the house frantically. “I think you should get on home.”

  Danny drew himself up to his full height and puffed out his chest. “What is going on?” Danny demanded, gently moving Evana aside and stepping into the inn. “Y’all know how much I love Evana, and y’all know that I have been praying for our future. What is wrong? Anna? Evana?”

  Danny walked into the foyer and saw Jed sitting in a chair across from a man Danny had never seen before. Jed rose to his feet, but the man remained seated.

  “Mister Jed? What’s going on here?” Danny asked, his eyes flashing with anger. “You and Miss Anna are acting so strange, and Evana told me to leave. My pa talked with you about my proposal. I came to ask for Evana’s hand, and y’all are being real strange. What is the matter?”

  The stranger stood from his chair. He looked to be in his early thirties, and with his dark eyes and dark hair, he had an exotic look to him. The man was tall and muscular, and Danny felt himself stretch up even taller.

  “A proposal? Evana’s hand? Jed, what is this?”

  Jed moved to stand between Danny and the dark stranger. Danny clenched his fists, unsure of what to say or do.

  “Danny, let’s speak outside. Now,” Jed ordered, waving Danny out of the foyer and back onto the porch. Evana and Anna quickly went back inside, and the door locked behind them.

  “What is going on with y’all?” Danny asked Jed, his blue eyes wide in concern. “Who is that man? What is happening?”

  Jed pointed to the row of rocking chairs that sat along the porch. “Have a seat, son,” Jed said. Danny obeyed, sitting in the rocking chair and burying his face in his hands.

  “Son,” Jed said, placing a gentle hand on Danny’s shoulder. “There are some things we need to discuss.”

  Danny nodded fervently. “Yes! Evana’s hand.”

  Jed shook his head, his eyes sad and his lips turned down into a frown. “No,” Jed whispered. “Things have changed.”

  Danny rose from the chair. “What? What are you talking about? Mister Jed, who is that man? What is going on?”

  Jed looked down at his black leather boots, unable to meet Danny’s gaze. “Danny,” he said softly. “You are like a son to us. You know that. Things have changed, though. I know that you wanted Evana’s hand in marriage real bad. The two of you have been real special together since you was children, and we all know that.”

  Danny waved his fists in frustration. “Then what is the problem?”

  Jed still looked away. “Evana’s hand has already been claimed,” he whispered. “That man inside has been a guest at the inn for a few weeks. His name is David Neuman, and he is a wealthy prospector from Nevada, and unbeknownst to us, he has been wooing our little girl over the last few weeks.”

  Danny’s jaw dropped. The older gentleman inside had been wooing his girl?

  “What does that mean?” Danny murmured.

  “Well,” Jed replied. “Evana told us that she and Mister Neuman have been spending some time together studying her favorite chapter in the Bible. They sat down with us this morning and told us that they feel like the Lord has spoken to them, and they asked for my blessing. You know how spirited my Evana is, and I just couldn’t refuse. Mister Neuman is a very powerful, wealthy man, Danny. Anna and I agree that we ain’t thrilled with this match, but we’re afraid that if we say no, Evana will run off anyway and do what she pleases.”

  Danny felt tears form in his eyes, and he stifled a moan. “Can I just talk to her real quick? Please, Mister Jed. Let me talk to her. This ain’t happening. I can’t let this happen. She and I just talked about being married last week!”

  Jed shook his head. “She loves you, Danny, but this morning, she told her mother and me that her feelings for you are more like loving a brother. I think this Mister Neuman just swept her away with his dark eyes and his money. She’s always loved nice things, and I think she is just thinking about pretty gowns and a fancy life.”

  Danny stormed away from Jed and beat on the door. “Evana! Evana! We need to talk.”

  Jed moved to block the door. “Just go home, Danny. I’m sorry it’s all ending like this, but Anna and I really ain’t got no other choice. If we say no to Evana, she’ll just go off with him, and we can’t have her virtue ruined by some man. He’ll marry her and do right by her, and the Lord will be by their side.”

  The tears spilled from Danny’s eyes. He turned on his heel and marched away from the Pinecone Inn, in utter disbelief that only moments ago, he had been walking toward the woman who he believed God had sent for him. How could this happen? How could Evana betray him and their love? Danny thought of Evana as a spirited, confident little girl. He remembered their first fumbling kiss in the schoolyard when they teenagers, and he remembered his own pa chastising him once word of the kiss got around.

  “You ain’t got any right to kiss a girl you ain’t gonna marry,” Jackson, Danny’s father, had roared. “That girl is a daughter of the Lord! She is practically your sister! You are responsible for keeping her heart pure.”

  Danny had nodded, terrified at his father’s anger. He had never kissed Evana again, but late at night, when he could not help but to succumb to the warm, deep tugs of lust that grew in his belly as he got older, he imagined his wedding day, and his wedding night with Evana. He had always loved her, and he had always wanted her, and now, she would never be his.

  1

  “Danny? Danny, come downstairs! There’s some food for you!” Timmy called, his heart sinking as he heard his brother’s moans of anguish.

  “Come on, Danny! You need to eat!”

  Danny did not reply, and Timmy frowned. His brother had been holed up at their parents’ house for weeks. Ever since Jed and Anna had announced their daughter’s engagement to the rich prospector, Danny had been consumed with sorrow. Timmy’s wife, Cassie, had volunteered to stay at the house with Danny during the day. Danny and Timmy’s parents were concerned for Danny’s well-being, and no one had ever seen him so dark with melancholy before.

  “Danny? Cassie and I are leaving for the night. She’ll be back in the morning to help Ma, and I’ll stop over in the evening. You ain’t had any food today, Danny. Are you sure you don’t want some of Cassie’s stew? It’s real good!”

  Danny did not answer, and Timmy’s shoulders sagged. He was deeply concerned for his brother. Danny was hardly eating or sleeping, and the family did not know how to heal his broken heart. The news of Evana’s engagement had come as a shock to everyone in town, and Timmy was eager for the rumor and gossip to stop. Even Timmy could hardly go out in Pinecone without someone stopping him and asking about the scandal.

  “Let’s go, sweetheart,” Timmy said to Cassie, thankful for her support. She was a wonderful woman. The daughter of the local chandler, she and Timmy had married last autumn. Timmy adored his wife, and he so grateful that she was so willing to help watch over Danny.

  “I’m real worried about him,” Cassie admitted as the couple walked home. “He’s in a real bad state, Tim. I ain’t never seen him so sad.”

  Timmy looked into his wife’s ey
es and frowned. They both knew that something had to change soon. Danny had been convalescing for too long, and if he kept up his days of isolation, he might never recover.

  The next morning, Cassie burst into the house after spending the morning with Danny, a smile on her face. “Tim! Tim!” Cassie shouted, her voice filled with excitement. “I have just the idea! I know just how we can make Danny real happy again!”

  Cassie explained her idea, and as she spoke, Timmy’s heart soared. “Danny needs to fall in love again!” Cassie exclaimed, her brown eyes dancing with joy. “If he falls in love, he’ll forget about the horrible Evana. He’ll fall in love, and the Lord will write a new love story for him!”

  Timmy kissed his wife on the mouth. “You are a real angel,” Timmy said, gazing adoringly into Cassie’s eyes. “That’s just what he needs to do. Danny needs to fall in love again.”

  When Cassie returned to spend the afternoon with Danny, Timmy wracked his mind for potential matches for Danny. There were not many eligible young women in town. Evana’s sister, Gracie, was not courting anyone, but Timmy doubted that Danny wanted to have anything to do with Evana, or her family.

  “Who could I find for Danny?” Timmy muttered to himself as he walked to work at the ranch, his brow furrowed in concentration as he considered the single ladies in town.

  As Timmy ventured home from work that evening, he was struck with an idea that would forever alter the course of his brother’s destiny. Timmy had been pondering his brother’s predicament all day, and as he narrowed down the list of eligible girls in town, he remembered his own parents’ love story.

  “A marriage advertisement!” Timmy shouted to himself, a grin on his face.

  Timmy’s own parents had met in an unconventional way. Years ago, Julia, the woman Timmy thought of as his mother, had been his aunt. Danny and Timmy were born to wealthy parents in Charleston, South Carolina, and but after their birth mother died, and their birth father ran off, the boys’ aunt, Julia, had cared for them. In an act of desperation, Julia had eventually answered an advertisement placed by Jackson, the man the boys now called father. Julia and Jackson corresponded, and Julia took the boys to California after agreeing to marry Jackson. Jackson and Julia had later adopted the boys, and the family felt as though they had truly had their happily ever after.

  “I’ll place a marriage advertisement for Danny! It worked for our parents. They’re still happily married after all of these years. I’ll place an advertisement for Danny, and the Lord will send a nice girl to be his wife! This is the perfect plan to make Danny happy again, and to help him find true love!”

  2

  Jeanne shivered as the frigid air hit the skin of her bare legs. It was a cold April morning, and Jeanne had already been up for hours. She worked nights at the nearby factory, and she was exhausted as she exited the building to tread home to her tiny room in the apartment building.

  “Hey! Hey, Miss!”

  Jeanne did not turn around. The factory was located in a bad neighborhood in her hometown of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Jeanne was used to rowdy boys and nasty men catcalling her as she traveled to and from work.

  “If only they would leave me alone,” Jeanne muttered to herself, keeping her eyes trained on the ground in front of her. “Lord, please keep me safe. Let me make it home safely to little Joela.”

  Jeanne walked quickly, rushing as fast as she could to reach Joela, her little daughter. Jeanne burst into the apartment, rushed to her room, and found her daughter curled up, still sound asleep in the narrow, hard wooden bed the mother and daughter shared.

  “My sweet girl,” Jeanne whispered as she kissed Joela’s head. “You slept the whole time I was away at work, didn’t you? I imagine you didn’t even know I was gone!”

  Joela did not stir, and Jeanne climbed into bed beside her daughter. She pulled Joela into the curve of her body, and the two slept peacefully for the next few hours.

  Jeanne’s life had never been easy. Jeanne’s father had been in prison since before Jeanne was born, and Jeanne’s mother struggled to make ends meet to provide for her ten children. Jeanne was the youngest, and by the time she was old enough to begin school, her mother passed away. Jeanne’s sister, Mary, had begrudgingly taken care of the girl, but as soon as Jeanne was fifteen, she ran off to marry Andrew, her childhood sweetheart. Mary had been pleased to see Jeanne leave her home, and Jeanne and Andrew settled into five happy years of married life.

  Everything had changed last winter. Andrew had been killed in an accident at the factory where he worked, and without anyone to care for Jeanne or Joela, Jeanne was forced to get a job. The factory offered her a position to make up for Andrew’s unexpected death, and Jeanne had nervously taken the job, knowing that her three-year old daughter needed food in her belly and a roof over her head. Jeanne had packed up their small flat and moved into a shared apartment, knowing that if she worked hard enough, she could provide a better life for Joela.

  The long nights at the factory were not easy, though, and with Joela getting older, Jeanne felt uncomfortable leaving her home alone at night. The other families in the shared apartment did not seem to care for Jeanne and Joela. Joela cried loudly during the day, and the other families often shot Jeanne dirty looks when Joela made a sound. Jeanne was worried about Joela’s well-being in the shared apartment, but with little money, she had no choice but to keep up her work and hope that the other families would accept them.

  “Mama?” Joela’s tiny voice pulled Jeanne out of her deep sleep. “Mama!”

  “Shhhhhh,” Jeanne cooed, holding her daughter close to her. “Mama is here.”

  The next morning, as Jeanne was walking home from the factory, she was stopped by a group of three dirty, angry men.

  “Look at that pretty little thing!”

  “I never seen such long, pretty, black hair!”

  “She looks like a dark angel! Pretty lady, why don’t you stop and talk to us?”

  Jeanne was terrified as the men cornered her. Her dark eyes were large with fear, and she balled her small, pale hands into fists.

  “This lady is looking for a fight! She’s a feisty one!”

  Jeanne growled at the men. She could feel her heart beating faster and faster in her chest, and she tried to maintain composure as the men crept closer to her. Remembering the long, sharp pins holding her black hair in its tidy bun at the nape of her neck, she reached behind her back and unfastened one. She pulled it out, and her hair tumbled around her shoulders.

  “Look at that pretty, shiny hair!”

  “She is making herself pretty just for us!”

  The blood drained from Jeanne’s face, but knowing her life was at risk, she jabbed the hairpin into one of the men’s stomachs.

  “Owwww!”

  “She stabbed me! The pretty lady stabbed me!”

  Jeanne reared back, pulling her arm close to her, and then lashed out again, this time sticking her hairpin into the eye of one of the men. She heard him howl, but she did not wait around to see if he was alright. Jeanne took off into a dead sprint, pumping her arms and moving her legs as quickly as she could.

  “Thank you, Lord,” Jeanne whispered as she finally reached the safety of her flat. “Thank you for delivering me from evil!”

  Jeanne climbed the stairs of her apartment building, and once she was safely in her room, she locked the door, collapsing into a pile as Joela slept quietly in the bed. Jeanne began to weep. Tears fell from her dark brown eyes, and she held her face in her hands as her sobs shook her narrow shoulders.

  “I can’t live like this, Lord,” Jeanne cried, her thin body shaking as she recounted her terrifying encounter with those men. “We’re not safe here, us two girls, all alone in the world. We aren’t safe in the city, and there is no one to look after us. Lord, what do I do? How do I keep my daughter safe if I can hardly keep myself safe from the terrible, dangerous men in this city?”

  Jeanne cried, but buried her face in her woolen skirts to muffle the s
ound, not wanting to frighten her daughter. When she finally finished, she took a long breath and looked at Joela. Joela was laying on her side, her thumb stuck in her mouth. Jeanne’s heart swelled with pride for her daughter. With her dark ringlets and chubby cheeks, Joela looked like a little doll, and Jeanne wished that Andrew could have seen their adorable daughter grow up.

  “Lord, help me,” Jeanne whispered, wiping her face and rising to her feet. “Deliver me from this terrible life. Deliver my daughter and me to a better place.”

  3

  “Cassie! Cassie, it’s time to go!” Timmy called. Timmy’s heart was pounding, and his stomach was churning. It was finally time to retrieve Danny’s future wife from the train station, and Timmy was thrilled with the prospect of meeting his new sister-in-law.

  “I’m ready! Let’s go meet Jeanne!” Cassie said, grinning at her husband as they walked into the warm sunshine.

  While Danny’s heartbreak had not improved over the last few months, Timmy was sure that today was the day that was going to fix everything. Nine weeks ago, he had posted a marriage advertisement in several newspapers, hoping that a nice, Christian woman would respond. Within days, Timmy had received a letter from Jeanne, a widowed mother in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Jeanne seemed down to earth and easy to like, and Timmy was sure that her calm, mild-mannered attitude would heal his brother’s heart. Jeanne seemed so different than the vain, selfish Evana, and Timmy and Cassie had both prayed that Jeanne would be the one to bring Danny back to his old self.

  “I just hope they ain’t cross when they realize that it was you writing,” Cassie said, slipping her hand into her husband’s as they walked into town. “It wasn’t my favorite idea of yours to pretend to be Danny when you posted that advertisement and responded to Jeanne’s letters, and I hope that she isn’t mad when she finds out Danny doesn’t even know she is coming.”