Mail Order Bride- Twenty-Two Brides Mega Boxed Set

by Emily Woods

  Fort Boise looked almost identical to Fort Hall, the last place they’d picked up provisions. However, this structure appeared ominous to her because it housed the one person who had been responsible for most of the misery in her life.

  “Let’s go,” her mother prompted gently, putting a hand on her daughter’s back. Lily hadn’t even realized that she’d stopped walking. Matthew was leading their wagon while she and her mother walked abreast, and she had halted when the fort came into her line of vision. “Nothing will change by standing here.”

  Lily had noticed a physical change come over her mother during the course of the day. She’d been tense from the moment she woke up. Physically, she was greatly recovered and walked for nearly an hour at a time without stopping. The rest of the day, she’d been riding in the wagon, but her health had improved beyond the doctor’s expectation.

  It was hard to tell if her mother was excited or something else. Lily didn’t ask about her feelings because she didn’t want to hear again how wonderful or loving her father used to be. Neither did she want to add to her mother’s worries.

  “Do you want me to go ahead and find out first?” Matthew offered quietly, but their mother shook her head.

  “I want to be the first to know,” she replied, her voice steady despite tears filling her eyes. “I want my face to be the first one he sees.”

  In that moment, Lily knew beyond any doubt that her mother truly loved her father, no matter what. The hope she saw reflected in her mother’s eyes was so obvious. She just prayed that her father proved to be worth it.

  Standing a respectful distance away, Lily and her brothers watched their mother approach the guard and inquire about her husband. He nodded and brought her inside while the six of them stood without speaking for several minutes.

  “Can we go see in now?” Andrew wanted to know. As the youngest, he felt less restrained about speaking up.

  “Not yet,” Matthew murmured back. “Let’s wait and see what happens.”

  Lily thought that her heart might beat right out of her chest while they stood and waited, but their mother emerged much sooner than she anticipated. The way her face shone, it was apparent that she’d received good news.

  “He’s here, and they’re letting him go!” she exclaimed, clasping her hands together. Then some of the light went out of her eyes. “He doesn’t look the same, though. I want you to be prepared.”

  Lily wondered what her mother meant. Had he lost weight? Had his beard become overgrown or some such?

  Despite her mother’s warnings, she felt shock run through her veins when her mother ran back to the fort and grasped the arm of a man she would have never recognized. Was that truly her father?

  Gone was the arrogant swagger and haughty look. The man she brought over to them now looked twenty years older than her father. And his eyes…his eyes were troubled.

  And yet, there was something else…something peaceful about him at the same time.

  “Well, hey there, young’uns,” he greeted them in a far more tender voice than she’d ever heard him use. “I’m sorry that I don’t too good. I haven’t had any of your mother’s good cooking for awhile now.” He gave them a tentative smile.

  Awkwardly, the boys returned his greeting. Since their father wasn’t a hugging man, they just sort of waved and tried to smile. However, her father extended a hand to first Matthew and then Mark. They shook their father’s hand formally and drew back. Then he did something Lily would have never imagined in a thousand years. He squatted down to level of the three younger boys and held out his arms. The look on his face was that of such hope and vulnerability that Lily felt tears come to her own eyes, and she found herself pushing them forward.

  With no hesitation, Andrew propelled himself into their father’s arms and the other two soon followed.

  Eugene Howard buried himself in their embrace, and Lily could see his shoulders shaking. Was this truly their father? She’d never seen him display such warmth before, not even a fraction of it. Had his detainment changed him so much?

  When he looked up, it was clear that he was even more moved than she’d imagined. Tears shimmered brightly in his eyes. And then he said the words that she never thought she’d hear.

  “I—I love you all…and I’m real sorry for being so hard on you, more sorry than I can say. I hope you all can forgive me.”

  Matthew and Mark nodded solemnly, but the younger three bobbed their heads fiercely. Lily was standing off to the side slightly, too overcome with emotion to move or speak. Her arms were wrapped around her stomach as though her midsection were in pain.

  Her father stood slowly, like an old man, and closed the distance between them. He didn’t touch her, but tilted his head down slightly, trying to catch her gaze.

  “Lily, I don’t rightly know what to say to you, girl, but I love you. Maybe someday…”

  She didn’t give him a chance to finish but threw her arms around his neck and cried like a baby. His arms came around her slowly, and he held her close, but gently, as though she were made of priceless crystal.

  “Oh, sweet girl. I’m sorry…for everything.”

  That only made her cry harder.

  When she finally calmed down and pulled away from his embrace, she saw the rest of her family standing behind him, their faces wreathed in smiles.

  No matter what had happened before, she felt sure that things were going to be different from here on out.

  Tom watched the reunion from several yards away. His own mind was more at peace than it had ever been after having a long talk with the preacher last night. He still wasn’t sure about a lot of things, but after hearing the older man read verses from the Bible that described the great love of God, he felt a lightness that he’d never experienced before.

  The preacher had explained about God’s forgiveness and how part of the healing process included forgiving the people in his life who had hurt him too. The two of them had talked for more than an hour, and by the end, he knew what he had to do. He had to give up trying to control every part of his life. It was exhausting. He had to accept God’s love and forgiveness and understand that his life had a purpose far greater than he’d ever believed.

  It was a struggle, and he knew he’d have to fight his natural instincts, but he also knew he’d have to forgive his mother for abandoning him. The preacher had helped him see that she must have been so miserable. Mostly he just felt pity for her now.

  After the preacher had gone to sleep, he’d spent some time talking to God, and before too long, Lily’s name had come up in the conversation. It felt strange praying, but wonderful too. He asked God to give him direction with regards to Lily. She was fragile too, but in a different way.

  Now, his heart warmed at the sight of her embracing her father. He felt joy for her, and a tiny bit of envy, but he asked God to help him deal with that. There would be no such reunion for him, but he’d found something even better: the unconditional love of a Father who would never leave him.

  “That’s a nice sight, isn’t it?”

  Tom turned to see the doctor standing at his elbow.

  “For sure,” he replied easily. “I just hope the rest of the wagon train will forgive him like that.”

  “Probably not exactly like that, but give them time. They’re a good group.”

  Tom decided to give Lily and her family some space that evening. He didn’t join them for the evening meal, but ate at the fort instead. No one seemed to notice his absence, and he tried not to feel too bad about it, but he was disappointed. He hoped to share his newfound faith with Lily.

  Closer to the end of the day when the group was retiring for the night, Eugene Howard sought him out.

  “I wanted to thank you for looking out for my family,” he said formally. “I understand you been keeping a close watch on them.”

  Tom nodded and tried to smile. “They’re a good group. I’m, uh, fond of them.”

  That was such an understatement, but he didn’t want
the man to feel that he was any kind of a threat.

  To his amazement, the man’s face softened, and he looked at Tom closely. “To one more than the others, I reckon.”

  The statement was issued so calmly that it took him off guard.

  “What? Oh, I, um, well, what?”

  Now Eugene laughed a little. “It’s okay, son. I ain’t upset, but it was easily to see my daughter’s got feelings for you. I just came over to see if you felt the same. I expect you do. Am I right?”

  Tom’s whole face flushed. “I’m a bit older than she is,” he mumbled.

  “There’s ten years between me and my wife, so that’s not a problem in my eyes. I just want to know if you have any plans towards her.”

  Swallowing hard, he tried to hold the man’s gaze. Was he actually going to admit his feelings about Lily to her father before he said anything to her? And did he even really know how he felt?

  “I, uh, don’t have much to offer,” he replied. “I’ve got a bit of savings, but it’s not much.”

  Eugene nodded. “I don’t have much more than the supplies in my wagon and the clothes on our backs,” he returned. “But I sure could use the help of a hard-working man in setting up my farm in Oregon.”

  Tom had a hard time reconciling the man before him with the one who had gone on a shooting rampage just a little over three weeks ago. The change in the man was too remarkable to ignore.

  “Can I, er, ask you what happened over the past three weeks? I mean…if it’s not too disrespectful.”

  Eugene smiled. “Nah, I don’t reckon you mean any disrespect.” He paused and ran a hand over his freshly shaven face. “Well, I guess you could say that I came to the end of myself. Sitting inside a cell twenty hours a day will do that to a man. When I thought about how I nearly killed my own wife and daughter…” The smile faded and his brows lowered. “I’m not ashamed to admit that I thought about ending my own life. But then, there was this man who brought the food, and he started talking to me about God. I thought I knew everything already, but I was wrong. He showed me parts of the Bible that I ain’t never seen before. It’s like I been walking around blind for the past twenty years, so swallowed up in my own hate that I couldn’t see nothing else. Well, anyhow, I guess you could say that I’ve been reborn. That’s the expression leastways.”

  Now Tom smiled. That made sense.

  “Me too,” he said simply. “Just last night.”

  The other man gave a booming laugh. “Ah, I thought so. That’s one of the things I came to ask you. I wouldn’t want my only girl getting hitched to anyone who didn’t know God personal like.”

  “It was just last night,” he repeated. “I don’t know much about it all.”

  Eugene shook his head. “That’s okay. Neither do I, as it turns out. We can learn together.”

  After that, they exchanged a few more words, and then the man left before getting any kind of firm statement from him about Lily. Tom figured that he just assumed, but that was fine with him. The first time he admitted his love for Lily, he wanted it to be to her directly.

  Now that he had her father’s blessing, he just had to wait for the right time.

  8

  The next week flew by in Lily’s feeling. Her father was a like a new man, full of love and affection for them all. The change was welcome, and indeed beyond her brightest hopes, but it was also disconcerting at times. Whenever she saw him, she braced herself for some kind of criticism, but it never came.

  Best of all, her mother was overjoyed. Lily could clearly see how in love the two of them were now that the hardness in her father was gone, and her heart was glad, but she still worried. Was this change going to last?

  Every so often, she found her father sitting off by himself, his head bowed and tears seeping from beneath his eyelids. She thought at first that he was in pain, but when she drew a little closer, she saw his lips moving and she realized that he was praying. She’d never seen him pray by himself before. It had always been in front of others and in a very loud voice, as though the volume indicated his level of righteousness.

  Something else changed too. Their whole family went to the preacher’s nightly meetings every evening. She was required to attend as well, no matter what excuse she tried to make.

  Tom was also present at the meetings, but she remembered that the preacher had advised him to show up because the people liked to think of their leader as a believer. However, she knew differently. Although he didn’t carry around the same bitterness in his heart, he was distant from God.

  Several times, he tried to smile and to talk to her, but her old worries about her father’s temper prevented her from reciprocating his attention. In fact, she tried to avoid him most of the time.

  Then one evening, she was collecting water from the river, and he was there.

  “Hi,” he said simply. “Can I help you with that?”

  She nearly dropped the buckets. “N-no. Thanks. I’ve got it.”

  “I’d really like to, Miss Lily.”

  It would be rude to keep refusing, so she allowed him to take the buckets. After all, he was the captain and they were supposed to follow orders. That was what she told herself.

  “I’m glad to see your father readjusting,” he said kindly. “I talked to everyone individually and they all notice the difference in him. I think that made it easier to, uh, well, not…”

  He was struggling to express himself, so she supplied the words.

  “To not hold a grudge?” She was well aware of how easy and how reasonable it would be to do so. “Well, I’m glad of that. He is acting very differently.”

  Tom frowned at the word. “Acting?”

  She bit her lip. She hadn’t meant to say that. “Uh, well, I mean he seems different.”

  Tom nodded slowly, but his face showed concern. “But you don’t really believe it?”

  They were close to the wagon now, and he set down the buckets. She didn’t want anyone to hear her doubts, so she lowered her voice.

  “I don’t know,” she whispered. He took a step closer to her, presumably to hear her better, but her heart started thumping at his nearness, and she took a step back so quickly that she started to fall. His hand snaked out and grabbed her. The moment she was no longer in danger of falling, he released her, but she still felt the imprint of his hands on her wrist. It felt hot, and her face started to burn.

  “I know it’s hard to accept when people change, especially so quickly,” he replied in a low voice, talking smoothly as though he was unaware that her face was the shade of a ripe tomato. “But in your father’s case, I really think he has changed.”

  “Why?” she asked. Forgetting her embarrassment, she leaned forward for the answer.

  “Because he didn’t change on his own.” A faraway look entered his eyes and she wondered what he was thinking. “When we try to change by ourselves, it doesn’t stick.”

  She swallowed hard. It was obvious that he knew more about their family’s situation than she thought.

  “Did my father talk to you?”

  He nodded. “We talk a lot when it’s time to change guards. His shift is right before mine.”

  When her father had returned, he insisted on taking the least desirable shift to stand guard. At first, the people didn’t want him to take on the responsibility, but it wasn’t their choice. As captain, Tom had made that decision and he’d had no reason to regret it since. Matthew was still taking a turn, so the rotation was even lighter.

  “And what do you talk about?” She tried to keep her voice light but failed miserably.

  Tom sighed and leaned against the wagon, crossing his arms and looking off into the distance. “He worries that he will be a disappointment to your family. Even though he will never go back to his old way, he’s unsure of himself…especially around you.”

  She glanced at him and then away. “And why is he telling you these things?”

  “Um, I don’t know. Maybe because I’m the captain and he respects
me?”

  It seemed to her that there might be a different reason, something he was trying to keep from her.

  “I would have thought the doctor or preacher would be preferable considering that they are closer to his age,” she replied, fiddling with the straps on the back of the wagon.

  Screwing up his face a bit, Tom appeared to be considering something.

  “Well, I guess he knows that we…got close while he was away, and he thought maybe I could give him some advice.”

  She inhaled sharply, and her fingers stilled.

  “You told him we’re close?” Her voice rose an octave on the last word and dread filled her heart, but a sad smile crossed Tom’s face.

  “Nah, I didn’t, but he thought that was the case.”

  Lily felt tears prick the backs of her eyes, and she had to turn away. While her father was gone, she thought she might be on the verge of something wonderful. Tom didn’t seem to mind her scar, and it was fading a little with the cream the doctor had given her. But once her father returned, she thought that meant their friendship was over.

  “How did he seem to you when you said this?” she whispered.

  Tom tilted his head to the side. “When I said what? Lily, I didn’t tell him a single thing. He figured it out himself. You must have said something to make him think that, but I guess you’ve changed your mind. You don’t seem to want to talk to me now.”

  His voice was sad, like that of a child who had lost a treasured item.

  Her lips quivered a little and a tear spilled over. “I do want to,” she murmured. “But I’m scared.”

  He took a step forward and touched her chin so that she looked up at him. “Of what?”

  How could she voice the worries that filled her mind? Would he think she was crazy? There was only one way to find out.

  Even though he had angled her face upward, she dropped her eyes. She couldn’t bear to look at him while she confessed what was in her heart.