“You passed out, Dorthy. The young man caught you and carried you to your room and I just woke you with some smelling salts. How do you feel? Any headache, weakness?”
“I feel fine, Margaret. It was just a shock hearing that Mister Saunders had been arrested.”
The older nurse looked at her intently. “I understand that, but a shock like that could set back your recovery, Dorthy. I think you should stay in bed today and rest. Have your talk with your guests but after that I think you should rest. If any of your old symptoms come back I’ll have to contact Doctor Spurlock.”
Sam watched as the woman nodded. “I understand and thank you for looking after me.”
“Oh honey, there’s no need to thank me, it’s my job.”
With that the nurse looked at Sam and glared. “You tell her what she needs to know but you be gentle and don’t shock her system again.”
Sam nodded. “Yes ma’am.”
Then the nurse looked at his niece. “I expect you to keep him civil, young lady.”
Cindy smiled. “I’ll try ma’am, but he’s a Ryder; it’s hard to do at times.”
The older woman chuckled as she walked out of the room exclaiming, “He’s a man, ain’t got nothing to do with being a Ryder.”
Sam pulled the chair up beside the bed that Miss James was sitting in as she turned facing him. “Now then, who are you and why are you here?”
Sam smiled; this woman had grit, she reminded him of his sister-in-law, Grace and his mother. She was the perfect wife for a Ryder. “My name, Miss James, is Samuel Ryder. I’m the sheriff of Redemption, New Mexico and the surrounding countryside. As to why I’m here, the telegraph operator in Redemption brought me the telegraph that you sent to Colton Saunders after he’d been arrested.”
The beautiful woman’s face showed how devastating that news was. “So you did say that Mister Saunders had been arrested? I wasn’t sure if I had heard you right.”
Sam wanted to reach out and take her hands and he hesitated, then decided he was going to go all in. He reached out and took both of her small slender hands in his large ones. Holding hers gently but securely in his, his thumbs instantly starting to rub small patterns across the backs of her small smooth hands. “Yes Miss James, I’m afraid you did hear me right. He worked for my brother as a wrangler. Two weeks ago my brother sent men out to start gathering his herd of horses all together for branding and a count. Slowly, six of those ranch hands came in, each with a woman on the back of his horse. Each of the women were at a different line shack on my brother’s large ranch. Each of them had the same tale: they were Mrs. Colton Saunders and he’d told them that his boss had given him permission to set up housekeeping in that particular shack. Each woman had travelled by train to a different town and each had a marriage license signed by a different preacher. The only thing not different was each of them was also signed by Colton Saunders as the groom. My brother is a preacher, a rancher and a U.S. Marshal. He had already been approached by Saunders to conduct a wedding later that week where he was going to marry you as well. We arrested him on five counts of polygamy, four counts of trespassing and four counts of falsifying legal documents. He’s headed for the state prison for quite a while, ma’am.”
Sam watched as all color drained from Dorthy’s face and tears started to roll down her checks. “So I don’t guess there is any need for me to continue on to Redemption, yet I have nowhere to return to in New York either.”
She looked up at Sam, her eyes full of fear and sadness. “What am I going to do?”
“Well that’s up to you, Miss James. Can I ask you a question or two?”
“You may.”
“Were you in love with Mister Saunders?”
She snorted and Sam thought it was one of the cutest sounds he’d ever heard. “In love with him? Mister Ryder, I didn’t even know him. I answered an advertisement in the Grooms Gazette that he posted for a mail order bride. He sent me a ticket to Redemption and a small amount of money for incidentals along the way.”
“I see. You said that you had nothing to return to in New York; what about your home? Your family?”
Dorthy pulled one of her hands away from Sam’s and swiped at the tears still running down her cheeks. Sam reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a clean bandana and wiped her tears for her. “I have no home to return to, Mister Ryder. I was an orphaned foundling and I grew up in The Wigg School and Foundling Home. When I came of age and received my teacher’s certification, I stayed on there as a teacher of botany and science. However, the founder is sick and closing the school so she has sent us teachers west to spread her methodology of all-inclusive schools.”
Sam smiled. “You’re an orphan? So am I. I was sent west on an orphan train. Reverend Ryder and his wife adopted me and my sister and raised us in New Mexico. We were originally from New York as well.”
Sam saw Dorthy try to smile but the light of it didn’t reach her eyes which had darkened with her worry and sorrow. “Strange how we have that in common, isn’t it? Madam Wigg was more like a mother to me than the head mistress of an orphanage and school.”
Sam took both of Dorthy’s hands in his again and scooted to the edge of the chair he was sitting in. “I have just a couple more questions for you, Miss James.” He sighed. “May I call you Dorthy? Would that be acceptable?”
The woman thought for a moment and then nodded. “I believe that would be acceptable, Mister Ryder.”
Sam gave her hands a gentle squeeze “Call me Sam. It’s only right if I’m going to call you by your given name you should call me by mine. Well, by the name my friends call me anyway.”
“I’d like that, Sam.” The woman sitting in front of him blushed and his heart raced. He leaned forward doing everything in his power to keep from pulling her into his arms and kissing her like he wanted to. “I must ask, Dorthy, did you feel the connection downstairs when we met? I mean, when I looked at you that first time I just knew we were meant to belong to each other. Did you feel it too?”
“Yes I did, it was kind of shocking considering I was planning on marrying another man.”
“Yes only now you aren’t going to be marrying another man so I want to know, Dorthy James, will you marry me instead?”
“You want me to marry you?”
“Yes. You said you had nothing to return to and no idea what to go to New Mexico for; so marry me and come home with me. What do you say, Dorthy? Will you marry me?”
She looked at him, her eyes focused on his, just staring deep like she was looking for something. Just as Sam was sure she wasn’t going to answer him, she smiled and nodded. “Yes Sam Ryder, I will marry you.”
Chapter Four
Dorthy didn’t know what had come over her. Ever since Samuel Ryder strode into the hospital she had felt drawn to him. Even before he’d told her that Colton Saunders was a lying womanizing criminal with six other wives, she had felt a connection unlike any she’d ever known before. When he’d told his niece that he was going to marry her before ever speaking to her, she knew if he asked she was going to say yes. If it had been possible she’d have followed him to the closest church or justice of the peace moments after he asked her. Instead she had told him she’d marry him and he’d slipped off the chair he’d been setting on, settled on his knees and reached over to cup her face in both hands before he placed a gentle kiss her lips.
Her first kiss and it had been sweet and gentle and filled with passion at the same time. Dorthy had felt the connection between them grow as her hands slid up to his shoulders. As his lips moved against hers their hearts had slipped into the same rhythm. Just a few short moments that felt like eternity and altogether too short at the same time. He pulled back just as the door opened and in walked Margaret followed by Doctor Spurlock.
Sam rose to his feet, his right hand softly caressing the side of her cheek before he stepped back to allow the doctor access. “Well I would say by the color in your face, young lady, that you are feeling much better
. I’m going to guess it has something to do with your visitors or at least one of them.” The old doctor smiled and winked at her, causing her to blush even more. “Now, Nurse Houlihan said you received some shocking news and took a case of the vapors. Is your head hurting?”
“No sir, my head feels fine.”
“Any lightheadedness or that dizzy feeling you had after you woke from your fall? And is your weakness any better?”
“I still seem to tire easily but I’m not weak like earlier, no.”
The doctor felt around on her head watching for her to wince from the pressure he was putting on her head and face. “Good, good. Yes, you’re making tremendous progress. If it wasn’t for the fact that I know you’re going to be stuck on those hard seats and that constant rocking of the train, I would probably release you tomorrow unless you had any complications tonight.”
Just then Sam cleared his throat. “Doctor, what is your concern on Miss James traveling? Is it the uncomfortable conditions aggravating her injuries?”
The doctor looked at her handsome fiancé. “I’m sorry young man, who are you again?”
She watched as Sam moved toward the doctor, his hand extended to shake. “Samuel Ryder; perhaps you’ve heard of my big brother Nathan Ryder, or my Grandfather Nugget Nate Ryder.”
“You’re kin to Nathan. I know the man. Treated a bullet wound his lady received in the town of Franklin many years ago. Why are you visiting Miss James?”
“She is my fiancé. I’ve come to make sure she was alright and protected the rest of the way to Redemption. Would you be willing to release her if you knew I was traveling in my family’s private luxury Pullman car? That Dorthy would not be sitting on hard bench seats but in comfortable stuffed furniture, and that at night she would be sleeping in a bed with a feather tick over the mattress?”
“I’ve heard of this private car. Your grandfather had it made for your grandmother, correct?”
Samuel shook his head. “No, my brother retired that one a few years ago, it was getting old and out of date. It now sits on a little piece of mountain property in Colorado as a hunting cabin. He had this one commissioned five years ago for my sister-in-law, the woman whose wound you treated all those years ago. It’s all modern and up to date. It is as smooth a ride as anyone is likely to have on the rails.”
“Then with your assurance that she will travel that way and continue to rest often, then I would be willing to release her tomorrow. That is if she continues to show no symptoms of a relapse today and tonight.”
Dorthy’s heart speed up as he looked at her and smiled. “I appreciate that, Doctor. I’ll see that she rests often and is afforded every convenience on the way to Redemption.”
The doctor nodded his head as he looked between the two of them. “I know your family are men of their word so I’ll take you at yours. Now I must check on a few other patients. I would ask that you say your goodbyes for now and allow Miss James to rest. You may visit her again for a few hours around supper time.”
The doctor shook Sam’s hand again and then at the door looked back at her. “When your young man leaves, Miss James, I expect you to try and rest. Your body is still trying to recover from the fall you took the other week.”
She blushed and smiled. “Yes doctor. Thank you.”
“It’s my pleasure, young lady.”
Dorthy couldn’t tear her eyes off of Samuel. He was so caring and so very handsome. She needed to tell him about her bad luck but she didn’t want to run him off. She startled a bit as his niece stepped forward. “I know where I’m not wanted or needed. I’m going to wait out in the hall. Dorthy, it was a pleasure to meet you and I hope we get to spend some time together before long but I won’t be back tonight to visit you. I think you and Sam need that time to get to know each other better.”
“Thank you, Miss Ryder, I appreciate that.”
“It’s Cindy, I think we’re going to be great friends.”
Then the door shut and Dorthy was alone with Samuel. “I guess I’ll see you later this evening?”
Samuel walked over to where she was sitting, and taking her hands in his, he pulled her to her feet. “Darlin’ you can certain-sure count on it.” He leaned close to her, letting go of her right hand and stroking her cheek with his hand again. “Can I kiss you again, Dorthy James?”
She looked into his eyes and again felt the connection between them deepen. “Yes please.”
He let go of her hand and slid his arm around her waist pulling her close against him. The hand that had been stroking her cheek opened and his thumb ran across her plump lower lip. Then his hand slid to the nape of her neck tilting her head up. He slowly lowered his mouth to her kissing her eyes, then the tip of her nose, followed by each edge of her mouth before finally landing firmly on her lips.
This kiss while just as sweet was not gentle. No this kiss was full of passion and desire and want. His lips devoured hers until her hands slid up his chest and over his shoulders, finally settling behind his head pulling him tighter to her giving as good as she had been getting. With that kiss she felt their hearts not just synchronize but metaphorically touch each other and recognize that this was the missing half of each other.
Before she was ready Sam pulled back, gentling the kiss before releasing her lips all together. After a couple of quick light kisses he made sure she was firmly on her own two feet and stepped away from her. “Rest, my love. I’ll be back to have supper with you. We can talk more then.”
She looked at him. “Was that what we were doing, Sam Ryder? Talking?”
He nodded. “Yes love, we were. Our hearts were communicating loud and clear, I thought.”
She blushed as she smiled. “Yes, I guess they were.”
With one last quick kiss Samuel Ryder walked out the door to her room leaving her to lie down and contemplate everything that had transpired since he walked through the door downstairs. For the first time in her life Dorthy thought that maybe, just maybe, her luck was changing.
Samuel left the hospital and felt like he was walking on air. Here he’d come to Missouri to tell a woman that her fiancé was a criminal and headed for prison and instead he’d found her. The woman made just for him. He’d been told over and over again by both his parents and his brother and sister-in-law that it would happen, but he’d never believed them. Until he’d walked through that door and there she was. The woman he came to see to break her heart in person was the woman created just for him. His missing half, his one true love, Dorthy James.
He’d taken one look at her and known she was going to be his wife before he left Missouri. The train south didn’t stop for two days, so tomorrow she’d be released from the hospital and he’d buy her a new dress and then go see a preacher and make her Dorthy Ryder. Then if his niece decided to go to work for the Pinkerton Agency here in Independence, he’d deal with his brother when he got home but with a wife by his side.
And what a wife. Two kisses, well okay a few more, but two real kisses and she set him on fire like no other woman ever had. Not that he’d kissed a lot of women but he had kissed a few. None of those kisses affected him like Dorthy’s did. And tomorrow she would walk down the aisle and say I do and be all his. Sure they would have to get to know each other and learn to live together, but if she’d come to Redemption as a mail-order bride that would have happened as well.
Today though, while she rested and proved she was well enough to be released from the hospital, he’d take care of a few things. He thanked God that Independence wasn’t a small town like Redemption but a true western city. He entered the tailor shop and soon exited with a new suit that was being sent to his hotel room. He wasn’t going to marry the love of his life in the clothes he’d worn for the last several days.
“Cindy, go on over to the Pinkerton offices, I know you want to. You did what I asked and stayed with me so go talk to them and see if they have a position for you. If nothing else get your application in. I’ll give you a recommendation as the local sh
eriff and you know Bart and Nathan will as well.”
Cindy smiled and kissed his cheek. “Thanks Uncle Sam. I’ll see you this evening after you get back from the hospital.”
He watched as she hurried away, not running, because as his mother and hers had told her more times than he could count, “A lady doesn’t run unless her or another’s life is in danger.”
But her ginger braid swung back and forth like a fast pendulum on a clock and all Sam could do was shake his head. His next stop was at a dress shop to make an appointment for Dorthy the next day. The owner had at first refused, saying she was full. But when he mentioned his family name and that it was for his bride who had been in the hospital and unable to procure a dress, she’d changed her tune and right quick. He may not have as much money as Nathan but the trust his parents had given him when he turned eighteen had done nothing but grow since then. He had no need to spend it, so he’d allowed Nathan’s lawyer to invest it along with Nathan’s for him.
His next stop was the jewelry store. As he entered the man behind the counter had smiled at him. “Good afternoon, sir, how can I help you?”
“I need some rings. Woman’s engagement and wedding set and a man’s wedding ring.”
The man looked him over and moved to stand by a display of used rings. “I have a good selection of quality second hand rings right here, young man.”
Sam hated that people looked at his clothing and assumed he was a poor cowboy. Sam reached into his duster and pulled out his wallet, opened it, and removed a silver certificate. His brother for his eighteen birthday had given him a quarter of the Ryder mining operations that their grandfather had started. “I didn’t ask you for some second-hand ring. I asked you for three rings. My bride will wear a ring meant for her and her only. I’ll just take my business elsewhere. I’m sure in a city like Independence I can find another jeweler.”
Dorthy's Disasters: A Ryders Legacy Historical Book (The Alphabet Mail-Order Brides 4) Page 3
