A Christmas Miracle for the Rancher: A Historical Western Romance Novel

by Etta Foster

  Consequently, he had written to Emmeline Hudson and asked her to tell him all about herself. For months, they had exchanged letters, and he had grown to like the woman. So, it was only natural for him to ask her to come to the Thomas’s ranch in Stanton.

  When he had written to his brother to inform him of his decision to get married, Henry had replied, giving his support. His elder brother had thought it was an excellent idea. Henry had given him his blessing and prayed he would be happy.

  Charles chuckled when he remembered his brother’s last words in his letter.

  All I ask of you is sanity. When your bride comes from New York, I beg of you with everything you hold dear not to fall in love and start behaving like a ninny. I have to withstand our sister’s husband and his brother behaving silly towards their women. If you were to join them, I swear, I’d go crazy.

  Charles laughed heartily. Although he felt a connection with Emmeline, and truth be told, a natural liking, he didn’t think love would play a part in their union.

  All he needed was a woman who would prepare his meals, do his laundry, be a companion to him, and bear him children. Wanting to spend every hour of the day with her, saying sweet nothings to her, holding hands with her, and kissing her every chance he got wasn’t in the cards.

  Winston and his brother, Carl, had taught him to stay away from such mushy emotions. Love made one lose all his senses. He wasn’t about to succumb to the silly feeling.

  Emmeline, if they were suited to be married, would know her place. She would speak to him only when spoken to, and he would greatly discourage public displays of emotion.

  Love wasn’t for him.

  Besides, he didn’t even think he was capable of such an emotion. After five years in prison, it was a wonder he could still smile and laugh.

  With his face set in grim lines at the recollection of horrible memories, he dismounted to join his workers in helping the calving cows.

  Chapter 2

  “Well, I still think it’s a preposterous idea!” Mrs. Barnes complained bitterly, her mouth forming a pout.

  Emmeline sighed. Naturally, her former employer would disagree with her because she was leaving them.

  Carefully, Emmeline placed her cup of tea on the stool beside the sofa. She reached forward and clasped the woman’s hands in hers.

  “Mrs. Barnes, I know you’re going to miss me. I’m going to miss you and the children, too,” she gently told the woman who was trying to hide her quivering lips by looking away.

  The young lady studied the older woman. Ever since she told her employer that she would be leaving for the West, Mrs. Barnes had done everything possible to discourage her from going.

  She had started with saying that the men there were known to be vile and ill-mannered. Then she had talked about the tedious train journey from the East to the West.

  Going on, she had added that New York was by far safer than Montana. The Wild West was known to be the home of outlaws and all sorts of people who committed various vices.

  When all her words had fallen on deaf ears, the woman had resorted to using emotional blackmail to keep Emmeline with her.

  “The children would miss you dearly,” she had said over a week ago. “Why, Anna is already having nightmares about you leaving. Anthony Joseph cried himself to sleep last night.”

  Emmeline had stood her ground in wanting to leave even though she knew she would sorely miss the two children she had been taking care of for years. As their governess, she had learned to love them dearly, but she had to go.

  While she was handsomely paid by Mr. Barnes, she couldn’t envisage being a governess all her life. What did life have in store for her besides taking children for walks, to the park, and teaching them? Admittedly, this wasn’t the only thing God had created her to do. Deep within her, she accepted that there was more.

  “This isn’t about missing you,” Mrs. Barnes cut into her thoughts. “It’s about you going to throw your life away in that backwater!”

  Emmeline sighed again. When her employer had suddenly stopped talking ill about her journey, she had thought she had accepted her decision. Just mentioning to her a few minutes ago that she would be leaving by train come morning had put the woman in a spiral of negativity again.

  As if reading her thoughts, the woman went on, “I thought you had given up such foolishness when you didn’t mention the letters from that man anymore.” She sobbed. “I’d no idea you were still nursing the ridiculous idea.”

  Emmeline remained silent, waiting for the woman to tire herself out, then she would explain again why she had to leave.

  Waving her hand about, Mrs. Barnes carried on. “I cannot understand why such a beautiful and well-bred lady like you would choose to leave the city for a rural place. And most shocking of all is to go and marry a total stranger! Such foolishness, I cannot fathom.”

  “You have everything here yet you want to throw it away. For what? An adventure? The thrill of the unknown? What is possibly driving you to such foolishness? Please tell me because I can’t understand.” The distraught woman dabbed at her eyes with her handkerchief.

  Emmeline studied the woman who had been an outstanding employer to her and understood that no matter how much she explained, the woman wouldn’t understand.

  Life was already made for the woman. She had a wealthy husband, two wonderful and intelligent children, and not a care in the world. Servants were employed to attend to her every need. She took vacations outside the country with her family every year.

  The younger woman shook her head. Mrs. Barnes wouldn’t understand the need for a change like she did. While she had enjoyed being with them, she had to move on to something else.

  Marriage and having children were one of the things she desperately wanted. Mrs. Barnes had argued that she could get all that here and more. Emmeline didn’t think so.

  Most times, she was ensconced in the house with the children, only taking walks with them or going to the park. Very few men had approached her for a relationship.

  In the end, when they saw how dedicated she was to her job, they walked away or had one excuse or the other to give. Moreover, God forgive her, but she didn’t really like the men in the city. Additionally, she had always longed to travel, to see the other side of America.

  It was by chance she had seen the man’s ad in the newspaper. Occasionally, she read the papers when she had the opportunity. But such opportunities were few and far between. That day, however, something which she couldn’t place her finger on had told her to have a look at the papers.

  And right there she had seen the simple ad which attracted her. Its simplicity had spoken volumes to her, and she had yearned to know the poster of such an ad.

  The idea of being a mail-order bride had never crossed her mind. Nevertheless, she had quickly adapted to the idea after seeing the ad.

  “What harm could it be?” she had asked herself as she brought out her writing materials to answer the post.

  That had been the beginning of a beautiful correspondence with Charles, the rancher. Her heart usually beat in anticipation of his letters to her. With all her heart, she hoped that the man was just the way he described in his letters and not a pretender.

  Granted, sometimes, she told herself she was in over her head. It couldn’t be helped. Fear coursed through her occasionally at what she might be getting herself into.

  What if he’s an outlaw? What if he doesn’t own a ranch but is a mere ranch hand?

  Not that she cared, but she wouldn’t care for the lies.

  Her attention was drawn to the present when she noted that the dark-haired woman with a pinched face was still complaining about her departure.

  She wanted to tell the woman to save her breath. Nothing would get her to change her mind. She didn’t want to sound rude, though, so she kept her mouth shut.

  The woman eventually ran out of steam and grew quiet. Her trembling hands reached for her cup of tea. So very unlike her, she gulped down the liqu
id instead of sipping it like the gentle lady she was.

  “I’m sorry you’re so distressed, Mrs. Barnes,” Emmeline remarked after moments of silence had elapsed. “I don’t expect you to understand why I’m doing this. I’d like you to.”

  The woman’s brows were still creased in a frown. She didn’t say anything but replaced her teacup on the stool and stared at her hands.

  “You have to understand that I’ve got to do something with my life.”

  “You are doing something with your life,” the woman countered sharply.

  “Something else with my life, then,” Emmeline stubbornly inserted. “You have a family. I need a family of my own.”

  Sniffing, the woman turned to glare at her. “No one is stopping you from having a family. Haven’t I matchmade you with some of our family friends in the past?”

  Emmeline bit her lip to prevent herself from scoffing. The stiff-backed, stuffed shirts Mrs. Barnes was talking about were terrible matches for her. Staring down their arrogant noses at her because they were well to do, and she was just a governess, they had made her feel like she was the lowest of the low.

  They had taken her out for walks after Mrs. Barnes invited them for dinner, but they had had nothing to say to each other because they were ill-suited and had nothing in common.

  Unlike Charles.

  Even though she knew next to nothing about ranching, and had never met the man, she filled pages and pages with words when she was writing to him. Although he seemed not to be much of a talker, he too wrote to her extensively.

  Exhaling softly, she replied, “I know you mean well for me, Mrs. Barnes, but none of those matches ever worked. They made me realize that I had to find my own man and blessed be God, I’ve found him. Well, I think I have.”

  “A stranger? Someone you haven’t met or seen?” the woman looked like she was about to have a fit.

  Emmeline nodded. She had wanted to suggest to Charles to send a photograph of himself and then decided against it. The allure of never seeing each other and meeting for the first time was scintillating. It added to the thrill of being a mail-order bride.

  A smile played at her lips as Charles had also mentioned the same thing. It was like their souls were alike. She pinched herself to stop from thinking and drooling over a man she had to admit she was already half in love with.

  She looked pitifully at the woman who was trying to hold back tears. Mrs. Barnes might be a hard woman, but she was a good one, and Emmeline was grateful to her for the years of service in her household.

  “What you can do for me, Mrs. Barnes is to pray for me. I want you to tell God to make things beautiful for me when I get there. Believe it or not, I think He’s the one ordering my steps.”

  “Ha!” Mrs. Barnes sneered.

  Emmeline stifled a giggle at the woman’s snort. Of course, the woman would think she was nuts, bringing God into the matter. Most likely, she wouldn’t agree that God worked in mysterious ways, although she was a Christian woman like her.

  With a calmness she couldn’t quite fathom, she knew she was taking the right step and had made the right decision to go and be Charles Thomas’s wife.

  To the world, it might seem crazy being a mail-order bride, but not everyone was destined to meet their spouses in a conventional way.

  Thus far, nothing had been conventional in her life. Growing up had been unusual; even getting this job she was leaving. So, God always found a way to make her crooked paths straight, and she was counting on him to do so once more.

  Mrs. Barnes, unable to hide her emotions now, began sobbing loudly. Emmeline put her arms around the middle-aged woman and tears rolled down her face.

  Indeed, she was going to miss her and her family.

  “You’re the best employee we’ve ever had,” Mrs. Barnes sobbed. “We can never replace you because there’d be no one like you ever again.”

  Emmeline nodded in receipt of the kind words. “Thank you, Mrs. Barnes. You’ve been more than an employer to me as well. I’ll forever cherish my years spent in service at your household.”

  Emmeline wished there was something she could do to take away the woman’s sorrow. Alas, there was nothing she could do. Staying was the only solution, but it wasn’t an option. She just had to leave.

  After she had pulled herself together, she rose and went to her small room to put the finishing touches to her packing. Tears poured down her face as she stared at the goodbye card the children had made her, and the gifts Mr. and Mrs. Barnes had given her.

  Oh, dear, she hoped she was doing the right thing. Because come morning, she would take the train to the West where her life would change forever.

  Dear God, please order my steps.

  This story will be Live soon!

  A Mail Order Bride for his Montana Heart –A Preview

  Chapter 1

  Anna Stephens leaned back against the hard bench of the stagecoach and tried not to groan, her body protesting at the inactivity.

  It seemed to her that the driver did his best to allow the vehicle to hit every large bump or hole in the dirt road. One of the wheels also squeaked horribly which was grating on her nerves.

  She wasn’t used to sitting so still and for so long.

  She was glad that this was her last day traveling. She should arrive in Ragford, Montana by late afternoon, and she made an instant promise to herself that she would never travel in this way again, if she could help it.

  She had been traveling by stagecoach for almost a week, and she had grown very tired of it by the second day.

  Her first day was spent crammed inside with four other people, an older man and his wife, and two businessmen. There was hardly any room to even move her legs, and she could have sworn that one of the businessmen did his best to touch her leg every time the stagecoach rode over a bump.

  On the second day, she traveled with a young woman who had a young boy. The child cried most of the day even though his mother had done everything she could think of to comfort him.

  Anna knew that she should have taken the train from the town she had grown up in in Kansas, but she had chosen to travel on the stagecoach to save money. It had cost less than half the amount to ride the stagecoach as it would have if she had taken the train.

  Her heart clenched as she thought about her family she had left behind. She had grown up on a dirt-poor farm, raised with an older sister, Emma, and a younger brother, William.

  Her father worked from sunup to sundown trying to keep the farm going. She had spent most of her time helping her father on the farm while Emma had mostly worked with their mother in the house and in the garden until she had moved to Ragford and had married a successful rancher.

  William, at eleven years of age, was now getting old enough and big enough to be of some help to their father. She hoped that her leaving wasn’t going to cause too much hardship on her father.

  At least she had been able to give her parents the money she’d saved by riding the stagecoach, instead of the train before she left. She hoped that it would make a difference to them, at least for a while.

  The stagecoach ran over another large bump in the road and the movement threw her almost into the lap of the other passenger, an older heavyset woman. For this last leg of her journey, there were only two of them inside the stagecoach.

  “I’m so sorry,” Anna said as she moved her body back to her side of the bench.

  The woman waved a hand in the air. “It’s not your fault.” She looked at Anna carefully, a twinkle in her eyes. “We might as well get acquainted while we travel. I’ve found that talking with the people I travel with makes the time go by faster. What is your name?”

  “Anna Stephens,” she replied after a brief hesitation.

  She wasn’t sure she wanted to converse with this woman. She was so tired and weary, but she also wondered if the woman had made a good point.

  She had hardly talked to any of the other passengers she’d traveled with over the last week. Maybe talking wo
uld help pass the time and get her mind off what was waiting for her in Ragford.

  “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Anna Stephens. I’m Mrs. Lucy Clark.”

  Anna smiled at the woman. “It’s nice to meet you, too. Are you heading to Ragford?”

  Mrs. Clark shook her head. “No, I still have another day before I get to the town I’m going to, Wolf River.”

  “Do you live there?”

  “No, I’m from Billings. I’m going to Wolf River with the plan to spend the rest of summer there. My daughter and her family live there, and I am looking forward to finally getting to know my grandchildren.”