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

by Etta Foster

  “That sounds nice,” Anna replied with a smile.

  “My husband, Peter, went on to Glory last fall, and I’m finding that I have quite a bit of time on my hands since he passed on. I was greatly relieved when Katherine invited me to stay with them for a few months.”

  “I’m sure that you will enjoy your time with your family,” Anna said sincerely.

  “Now, tell me where you are going,” Mrs. Clark invited her, moving the subject from herself.

  “Ragford will be my last stop. My sister, Emma, married a rancher who lives nearby about a year ago.”

  “So you are traveling to visit family, too,” Mrs. Clark said with a nod.

  “I’m also going to get married,” Anna said, not sure why she gave Mrs. Clark that information. Most likely it was because she was feeling very nervous the closer she got to Ragford.

  Mrs. Clark’s face lit up in pleasure. “Oh, how nice. I’m sure that your young man is very anxious for your arrival.”

  Anna shrugged. “I’ve actually not met him yet.”

  Mrs. Clark settled herself more comfortably against the wooden seat and looked at Anna with interest. “Now, I hear a nice story in your voice. Why would you travel to marry a man that you haven’t yet met?”

  “I’m what you could call a mail-order bride.”

  “I’ve never heard of such a thing before.”

  “My sister was also a mail-order bride. She came to Ragford to marry Logan. After they married, she encouraged both Kent and me to write to each other, with the idea that we would eventually get married.

  Kent is good friends with Logan, so Emma knows him very well. We’ve written for about six months, and Kent finally asked me to travel to Ragford to marry him about a month ago. He sent me some money for travel, and here I am.”

  “I do hope that you know what you are getting yourself in for,” Mrs. Clark said with concern. “Why, my Peter courted me for a full two years before he even asked me for my hand, although granted, he lived in a different city than I did.

  It was difficult to see each other as often as we would have liked. But my father insisted that we get to know each other as much as we could before we married. I never regretted that decision.”

  Mrs. Clark’s words made Anna feel even more nervous. What if Kent turned out to be someone he wasn’t? She had been taking Emma’s word that he would be a good husband for her.

  But then she remembered the reason why she had agreed to write Kent in the first place.

  “Weren’t there any young men that you could have married where you lived?” Mrs. Clark asked.

  “There was an older man who has been trying to court me since last summer,” Anna told her. She couldn’t help but shudder at the thought of Mr. Monson.

  “He moved to town and took a job at the bank. He is a widower with three young children. He did pursue me heavily, although I’m not sure why he chose me since he is quite a bit older than me, in his mid-thirties.

  There were a few other women in town that were closer to his age, who would have been a much better choice for him.”

  “I can see why you weren’t interested in marrying him,” Mrs. Clark nodded. “I’m guessing that you are close to nineteen years of age?”

  Anna nodded, not bothering to tell her that she was really twenty years old, having just had a birthday last month.

  “I think he was looking for someone to be a mother to his children,” Emma confessed.

  “Most likely he was. I’m sure it is very difficult for a man to take care of such young children on his own.”

  “He also scared me. He was a very controlling man. Once he had decided that he wanted me to take his late wife's place, he did everything he could to convince me to marry him. He even asked my father if he could court me. He gave his permission, so Mr. Monson seemed to think that I would agree because of my father’s blessing.”

  She shuttered again, remembering the many conversations she’d had with her parents. Once her father knew that Anna had no desire to marry Mr. Monson, he did tell her that he wasn’t going to insist that she do so. But her mother had pushed the issue many times.

  Anna knew that her mother didn’t understand why Anna wouldn’t want to marry a wealthy man such as Mr. Monson, especially since he had a good job and would be able to easily provide for her.

  Anna wouldn’t have to always worry about money as her mother had needed to her entire life. But Anna felt that there needed to be a better reason to marry someone than because of money.

  She had always thought that she would marry for love. She would meet her dream man, they would fall deeply in love, and ride off into the sunset together like what was depicted in the fairytales she had read when she was young.

  But as she grew older and she observed the marriage of her parents and others around her, she knew that life didn’t always turn out the way she’d imagined it to be when she was a young girl.

  “Tell me about Kent,” Mrs. Clark invited her. “There must have been something about him to get you to agree to travel so far to marry him.”

  Anna smiled for the first time as she thought about her fiancé. “Kent is the sheriff of Ragford. He has held that job for a few years. As I said, he is good friends with my sister and her husband, Logan. In the letters I’ve received from him, he’s described the town quite well. He seems to be an interesting man.”

  Mrs. Clark gave a sigh. “I do wish you well, Anna, in your marriage. I know that we don’t know each other very well, but may I give you some advice?”

  Anna nodded. “Of course.”

  “Always keep God in your life and in your marriage. Doing this will help you through the good times and the bad. Never have secrets between you.”

  Anna nodded. She had seen evidence of that with her own parents. They lived a hard life, but she knew that they loved each other, and always made an effort to attend church in town. Prayer was also a large part of her life.

  “My last advice that I can give you is to never go to sleep angry at each other.” Mrs. Clark laughed and looked off into the distance as if reminiscing on her own marriage. “I can’t think of how many times Peter and I would be up late, talking about a problem or concern we had.

  But forcing ourselves to talk things out actually brought us closer together.”

  “That’s good advice,” Anna admitted. “I’m actually pretty nervous to meet Kent for the first time, even though I am so weary of traveling.”

  She had already decided that she would do whatever she could to have a good marriage with Kent. She only hoped that he felt the same.

  They did have the added issue that they hadn’t yet met. But Emma and Logan’s marriage had started out the exact same way.

  Anna had been able to tell by Emma’s frequent letters that they had become very close, and eventually grew to love each other. This thought greatly comforted her.

  She was sure that Kent wouldn’t have asked her to marry him if he wasn’t willing to do what it would take to make it work.

  Mrs. Clark’s hand reached out and squeezed hers in comfort. “I pray that your marriage will become as good as mine was with Peter. It will take a lot of work, but it will be worth it in the end.”

  Chapter 2

  Kent Wilcox looked up as one of the three deputies his town employed walked into the office.

  He had sent Jamie to take care of a brawl at the only saloon Ragford had only thirty minutes ago. Jamie’s quick return told Kent that there hadn’t been any problems.

  “How did it go?” Kent asked him.

  Jamie grinned at him. “The moment I showed my face, the fight instantly stopped. I did inform the two men that if they started a fight again inside the saloon, that they would be spending some time in our fine accommodations for a day or two.” He gestured towards the four jail cells that were located down the hall.

  Kent laughed. “I’m glad that you didn’t need to do anything else.”

  He pulled his pocket watch out of his pocket and gla
nced at the time. He kept this watch with him all the time, and it was the only item that he’d brought with him from his old life, a gift from his grandfather.

  “Do you want me to go with you to meet the stagecoach?” Jamie asked.

  Kent nodded, noting from the time that they would need to leave soon.

  “How much longer are we going to have to do this?” Jamie questioned, a slight frown on his face.

  “Until any threat of stagecoach attacks on the way to Ragford is eliminated,” Kent said determinedly. “Let’s leave in about thirty minutes.”

  “I’d like to let my wife know I most likely won’t be home for dinner then.”

  “Go ahead,” Kent said, giving his permission for Jamie to take a break. Jamie lived in the only boarding house Ragford had, and Kent knew he would be back in plenty of time.

  After Jamie left, Kent leaned back in his chair. He knew that all three of his deputies felt that he was being too cautious, insisting that they meet every stagecoach that was heading into Ragford.

  For the last two months, there were many reports from nearby towns of a group of outlaws attacking the stagecoaches.

  These men were mostly looking for money and other valuables, but they weren’t afraid to kill people who got in their way in order to get what they were looking for.

  In Kent’s mind, they were extremely dangerous, and they were very smart. They had somehow eluded other sheriffs in the surrounding towns and were always able to get away with the loot.

  They used to only attack stagecoaches in areas where they had good places to hide in the Montana territory, in nearby forests and areas that had dense trees and shrubbery.

  But they were becoming bolder. In the last few weeks, in almost every attack Kent had heard about, at least one person had been killed.

  A few weeks ago, Kent decided that it would be best to ride out and meet the stagecoaches when they were a few miles from town.

  Some of the sheriffs in other towns were also doing this, and it seemed to have at least slowed down the attacks. Even though the outlaws had become bolder, they didn’t want to be recognized and tied to the attacks.

  Kent was hoping that when the outlaws discovered that he was meeting every stagecoach, they’d give up trying to attack, at least in his area, so that they wouldn’t be recognized.

  But Kent had another reason why he wanted to make sure the stagecoaches arrived safely to his town. It was personal. His future bride, Anna Stephens, was traveling on one of them.

  He had been writing Anna for about six months and felt like he had gotten to know her as much as he could through letters.

  She seemed like a nice, down-to-earth woman. His good friend, Logan, and his new wife, Emma, also vouched for Anna, mainly because the two women were sisters.

  He wanted to start a family, and this seemed a good way for that to happen. Besides, Emma had also been a mail-order bride to Logan and things had ended up working very well for them.

  Logan had originally married Emma so his young daughter, Mary Jane, could have a mother, but Kent knew that they had also learned to love each other.

  He was aware that not all marriages had the love or respect that they should have. His parents’ marriage was a good example of that.

  Both of them had married for prestige and social status, and Kent was determined that his marriage with Anna was going to be different.

  He knew that love wasn’t going to be part of their marriage, at least in the beginning, but he hoped it would eventually be part of it. If it wasn’t, at least there could be deep respect between them.

  Once he had decided to bring Anna to Ragford so that they could marry, he had sent her some money for traveling. He had expected her to travel by train, the way her sister had. She would have only had to switch trains once, and it was a much safer way to travel.

  But instead he had received a letter about a week ago from Anna, informing him that she was traveling by stagecoach.

  From what he could tell from the dates she’d given, she should be arriving in Ragford in two days. He was very worried that she was traveling by stagecoach, and he couldn’t figure out why she had chosen to do so.

  For one thing, traveling by stagecoach would take almost twice as long as it would have if she had traveled by train.

  But he was also concerned because of the attacks that had been happening on the stagecoaches. All he could do was to pray for her safe arrival and do everything he could to keep things safe on his end and as the sheriff of Ragford.

  To get his mind off the arrival of his future bride, he forced his attention to a stack of wanted posters that he kept on the corner of his desk.

  He began to look through them carefully, doing his best to memorize each outlaw’s face. If he did ever run across any of these men, he would be able to recognize them and arrest them immediately.

  Jamie soon arrived. “We can go whenever you are ready.”

  Kent nodded and stood. “We might as well go now, even though it is a bit early.”

  The two men left the sheriff’s office and untied their horses that they kept under a nearby tree, saddled and ready to ride at a moment’s notice. Once they were on their way, Jamie began to chat.

  “So, are you excited for Anna to come?” Jamie asked curiously.

  Kent gave a silent groan. He wished that he hadn’t told his deputies about Anna, but he had because he wanted them to watch out for her. His other two deputies, Declan and Owen, had taken the information with a shrug of their shoulders.

  But for some reason, Jamie was fascinated by the fact that Kent had been writing Anna and had asked her to marry him without even meeting her.

  “I’ll be glad when she is in Ragford safely,” Kent responded.

  “I have to admit, I’m trying to figure out why you’d want to marry a woman you’ve never met before. There are other fine young women in Ragford who need husbands. Take Miss Pamela Henderson, for example.”

  Kent thought about Miss Pamela who now owned a large ranch that was located next to Logan’s since her father had died last fall.

  He was aware that she was struggling to keep things running after her father’s death the summer before, and he wondered how long it would be before she finally decided to sell the ranch.

  “Miss Henderson is a good woman and would make a fine wife, but not for me,” Kent commented.

  He had his reasons why he’d chosen Anna, one being that Miss Henderson had just lost her father and now had the burden of running a large ranch. Kent wasn’t interested in taking on that responsibility, so he didn’t feel it would be fair to try to get to know Miss Henderson better. But he wasn’t about to tell Jamie that.

  “Are you planning on getting married as soon as Anna arrives?” Jamie questioned with a quick glance at Kent.

  “Yep,” Kent replied.

  “What about…”

  Kent interrupted him, wanting to put a stop to Jamie’s constant questions. He pointed to a cluster of hills that eventually led into the mountains. “Why don’t you ride over there? Keep an eye out for anything suspicious. Those trees would be perfect hiding places for outlaws since the stagecoach rides close by them.”

  “Sure thing, sheriff,” Jamie agreed with a nod. He kicked his horse into a run and headed in that direction.

  Kent sighed as Jamie moved away, but he also couldn’t help but chuckle. He knew that his marriage wasn’t like most normal relationships started, but he felt good about his decision to marry Anna. He only hoped that she wouldn’t take one look at Ragford and change her mind.

  He had been living in Ragford for about five years now and he loved every inch of it. Having grown up in a large city in Pennsylvania, he enjoyed the qualities that small towns had.

  He liked how everyone knew everyone else. And he was glad Ragford only had one saloon instead of several. He loved his job as sheriff and planned to make it his work for as long as he could physically perform his duties.

  He had grown up in a very prestigious
family. His ancestors had come over on the Mayflower and an intense pride in that fact had been passed down through each generation, including himself.

  He liked the idea of being from a family who first arrived in this great country. But he didn’t like how some of his family felt that they were entitled because of it, and that they were better than those around them who didn’t have as much money as they did.

  His father owned a large shipping company and had expected Kent, as his oldest and only son, to eventually take over the operation of it.

  Kent had his own ideas of how he wanted to live his life. He had done his best to get his parents to understand that he wanted more out of his life, especially when he’d become an adult.