[2015] Cowboy for Christmas

by Christian Michael

  “Oh, Trent,” Gracie said. He felt her hand squeeze his and turned his hand over to capture her fingers. Her gray eyes met his and for the first time since Rachel’s passing, Trent felt his world shift. Here stood a beautiful woman who gave him peace in a way no woman had before or since Rachel. Still, doubts plagued his mind and heart about whether Gracie was really the woman God had sent for him.

  The following morning, Trent was surprised to wake and see that Gracie was already sitting down to teach Andrea her alphabet and numerical citation. He poured himself a cup of coffee and sat down to listen.

  “Let’s go through your letters again. A, b, c, d…” Trent listened to the melody of their voices as he watched Gracie with Andrea. He waited for her numbers to go through and then he excused himself silently, heading to the barn.

  A couple hours later, he heard giggling behind him and turned to see both Andrea and Gracie in men’s breeches and long-sleeved shirts. “What are you two doing?”

  “Andrea wanted to learn how to ride a horse,” Gracie smiled. “I told her that normally a young girl would ride sidesaddle. I also told her that riding like that is for sissies and we Baxter and Madden women ride like the men. She finds it incredibly hilarious.”

  “Does she?” he asked, chuckling at the sight of her in pants. “Well, let’s see what you’ve got Miss Madden.”

  ***

  Gracie looked over Trent’s horses and chose a lively one, whose stall named him Guardian. “You’re a fierce one aren’t you,” Gracie cooed to the horse as she opened his stall. She could tell Trent wanted to call out a warning to her, but she was transfixed on the horse now. His black coat glistened, the result of a recent and thorough grooming. Gracie liked that Trent Baxter seemed to take very good care of what was his.

  She placed a lead rope over the horse’s ears and let it slide down to the base of his neck. Then she led it out of the stall and into the riding coral. Swinging up onto the horses back, she rode him around a few times to get used to his movements, to get him used to hers. Then she asked Trent to open the gate to the coral. Riding Guardian out onto the track that ran through Trent’s farm from one end to the other, she turned in her seat and said. “Can you time me?”

  “Sure,” he said, his eyes squinting in the sun.

  “I’ll go down and come back. Keep Andrea close.”

  “Oh, I will.”

  Once she was on the track, Gracie leaned easily over, whispering to the horse and rubbing his neck as she did so. Then she gave a gentle kick that had Guardian racing down the track like a bolt of black lightning. When she made the turn at the end it was fluid, like cold water and just as smooth. She was back to Trent like the wind, laughing heartily as she dismounted.

  “I’ve never seen anyone who could ride him that fast,” Trent said, truly astonished.

  “He’s made for racing,” she smiled.

  ***

  Over the summer and fall Trent and Gracie nurtured their friendship and by Thanksgiving, both were very much in love. Gracie spent the holiday with Trent and his ranch hands, Andrea, Felicia, Claudette and Henry, the bagboy who’d recently asked Gracie’s best friend to marry him.

  “Would you walk with my tonight, Gracie?”

  “I’d love to,” she said, adding a smile that made his heart squeeze in his chest.

  “After Rachel died, I vowed never to fall in love again,” Trent started, tucking her hand into his elbow. “Then I watched my daughter and the way she silently yearned for a mother. After that I started asking God to send a woman to me that would be a good mother for Andrea. Someone who would love my little girl as if she were her own.

  “When I first met you, read your letter in fact, I figured you’d be harder to keep up with than my ranch. I judged you unfairly as a woman who needed the finer things in life to be happy. Then I saw you standing with my daughter in dirty men’s pants and knew I’d been wrong. After that, I asked God to help me see you through His eyes. I wanted to know the Gracie that didn’t fit into the boxes that I mistakenly wanted to put you in.”

  “And, did you find me lacking?”

  “I will be honest and say that like me and every other human I know, you have things to work on. However, those things don’t deter me from loving you. I’ve been head over heels in love with you for quite a while now. And I’d love nothing more than to go back and tell our family and friends that I’m most grateful this year for the gift of Gracie in my life. Will you marry me Gracie Noel Madden?”

  “Yes!” Gracie squealed, leaping into Trent’s open arms. He slid a small diamond on her finger and pressed a quick kiss to her lips before they turned and headed back in from the chilly night. The announcement went over with all the hoopla that one would expect of such an event and later that night, after Claudette had fallen asleep, Gracie wrote home to Angela and Rupert Curtis.

  November 1859

  Dear Rupert and Angela,

  I can’t tell you how fast the time as gone by. What started out as a teaching job has turned into a marriage proposal from Trent Baxter, whom I love dearly. We hope to marry in the spring, but the south is a very tumultuous place to be right now. Even going into town can be a hassle. Trent is not a supporter of slavery and in a slave loving state like Texas, it is next to ungodliness to not do dealing with slave traders.

  I’ve heard rumors of war breaking out, although so far it hasn’t been seen here, Praise God. I suspect though, given the large state of unrest that is spreading, especially in the south, that war is probably not so far away. I wish I could say that we’ll be safely secluded from the wages of war over the issue of slavery, however, I’d be remiss to think so.

  How are things back home? Are the orphanage children behaving so that Christmas will be good for them this year?

  I am unbelievably excited to start the New Year and my life as Mrs. Gracie Baxter. I suspect Claudette has written, but if not, you should know that she too has been blessed by God. She will marry just before us in February. I will send you more details as the date approaches and I will also send two train tickets for round trips. I know you’ll object, but it is my wedding gift to Claudette. After all, we wouldn’t be the women we are today if you hadn’t taken us in.

  With Much Love and Affection,

  Gracie N. Madden

  Two weeks later she received a reply. “They’re coming!” she yelled as she hopped off of Guardian and quickly latched him to a post outside the riding coral where Andrea was getting her first lessons of the day. “They’re coming.”

  “Who’s coming, darling?”

  “My parents, well, they became my parents after they took me in. Angela and Rupert Curtis.”

  “That’s wonderful,” Trent said, a smile creasing his handsome face. She couldn’t get over it, how handsome he was. She thought of him often, whether he was around or not. No matter what she happened to be doing during the day, Trent was always close to her thoughts.

  “I offered to pay their way so they could be here for Claudette’s wedding and they said they’d come and stay until ours.”

  “That’s terrific.”

  “Are you going to be my mommy now?”

  Gracie turned and looked at the sweet-faced little girl who sat atop a dappled pony, her eyes as big as saucers. “Oh, sweetheart,” Gracie said, maneuvering through the gate to come to her. “I would love nothing more than to nurture you and love you for the rest of our lives. And if you want to call me mommy I will be forever grateful, but I cannot and will not replace the mother you had, even if you don’t remember much about her. I know what it’s like to lose a parent when you’re so young. I barely remember my parents. That doesn’t mean that we love them less. You can love your mother with all your heart and still have room for your father and my and everyone you meet.”

  “I’d like to call you mommy,” Andrea smiled. “I’ve never been able to do it before.”

  Gracie pulled Andre down and hugged her as tears ran from her eyes. Six months later, Grac
ie walked down the aisle on Rupert’s arm as he and Angela gave her away to Trent and she became Mrs. Trent Allen Baxter. The reception was held at the ranch and thanks to Trent, Felicia was able to bring her mother and sister’s to Texas to help with the preparations. Gracie insisted on hiring the women as well and with their help she eventually opened a clothing company that focused on suitable riding attire for women and young girls.

  The next year the civil war broke out in South Carolina On December 20th, 1861, after the state respectfully asked President Lincoln to remove federal troops from Fort Sumter. In which the President responded in a letter to Horace Greeley:

  …I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored; the nearer the Union will be "the Union as it was." If there be those who would not save the Union, unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views.

  Gracie, Trent, and Andrea were lucky to be offered safe passage to Massachusetts where they remained for the remainder of the war. They brought a set of twins into the world during the times of the Civil War. They named the little boy Daniel Bradley after Gracie’s father and the little girl Darcie Rachel-Annette, after Andrea and Gracie’s mothers.

  Upon the ending of the Civil War on June 02, 1865, The Baxter’s returned to Texas where Trent and Gracie continued to farm and raise some of the best horseflesh west of the Mississippi.

  THE END.

  A Love Miracle

  Mail Order Bride

  By: Christian Michael

  Chapter One: Acceptance

  Maine, 1860

  “You are not old Elena,” Clarissa Elroy chided, once again, at the breakfast table. “God simply hasn’t brought the right gentleman along yet.

  “At this rate, mama, I doubt He ever will,” Elena complained. “It certainly isn’t my name that’s keeping me from finding a suitor. I’m nearly thirty. You were married at nineteen, my sisters at twenty and eighteen. They have babies, in the plural, and here I am still unmarried with zero prospects of even attracting a husband let alone securing one.”

  “As I’ve said before darling, you just have to wait. God knows what he’s doing and will bring a suitor when the right one comes calling.”

  Elena sighed, frustrated that at nearly thirty, she still didn’t have the life she wanted. Growing up, like most girls, she’d dreamed of marrying a handsome man who didn’t just see her family’s money, but loved her for the woman she was. A man she could respect and admire. She wanted to be a mother, to have babies, and to fall even more in love with the man she loved, because of them.

  “Will you go collect the paper for your father?” Clarissa asked, breaking Elena out of her daydream.

  Elena did as she was asked, sneaking a peek at the classified ads as she went. They were always so fascinating. Sort of like a small glimpse into a person’s life, what they were selling or what they were in need of. Occasionally there were even open letters to people in them. Today’s paper had one such letter, except Elena could feel in her bones that this letter was different, even before she read the first line.

  To Whom It May Concern, oh this one was so formal, Elena thought.

  She read on: I am in search of anyone who has information regarding the displacement of the Choctaw Indian Nation, especially during 1831. I have come to believe that their relocation was unconstitutional and am fighting the Supreme Court to have them returned to the land that was and still is, rightfully theirs.

  If anyone has any information on this subject, please send correspondence to: Paul Broche

  Silver City, Utah Territory 56553

  Elena tore the small section out before giving the paper to her father. She had no idea who Brett Larson was, but what he was doing resonated so strongly with her. Her parents never spoke of how they came to have her in their care. She hardly thought to ask anymore. Perhaps now that she had no prospects of marriage to their people, they would tell her more about her own.

  At dinner that night, Elena finally broached the subject. “Papa, where did you and mama adopt me from?”

  Elena waited for her father to clear his throat. “We found you in an orphanage in Mississippi, when I was stationed there.”

  “Where did I come from?” She watched her father share a look with her mother, who looked as if she might lose her dinner.

  “It’s time she knew Clarissa,” Richard Elroy said, reaching across the table to take his wife’s hand. “You were born on July 12, 1830. Your given name was The One Who Turns. Your mother and father were killed during their relocation to Utah territory during the Trail of Tears. Your people were relocated to designated land and the Choctaw Indian Nation moved to the reservation given to them. During the signing of the Dancing Rabbit Creek treaty, the Choctaw Nation gave nearly eleven million acres of land to the U.S. government. During the relocation of your people your parents died. We adopted you when you were still an infant.”

  Elena didn’t say anything for a while. She knew she wasn’t her parent’s natural child. Anyone who looked at them and then at her would obviously know. It was, what she believed, kept her from receiving suitors. She wiped her mouth and then asked, “With your permission father, I’d like to write some correspondence to a man who’s helping the Choctaw Nation regain the land that was surrendered during the treaty you speak of.”

  “Certainly Elena,” Richard Elroy agreed. “It’d be wonderful to learn more about getting your people back to the land that was once theirs.”

  ***

  Elena enjoyed the rest of her dinner as if she’d never tasted food so delicious before. After supper, when she was excused, she went straight to her room and spent time contemplating what she wanted to write to Mr. Broche. After a few rough drafts, Elena had the copy she approved of and sealed it shut. After securing a stamp from her father, she sent the mail off with the post and happily finished out her day with a spring in her step.

  Much later that night, when Elena finally fell asleep, she dreamed of the trail of tears and what it must have been like for her people.

  Smoke filled the air as muskets rang the hour. The treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek had been signed less than twenty-four hours before and now the Choctaw Nation would surrender land their ancestors had loved and lived on for hundreds of years.

  “It’s time to go,” Chief Musholatubbee said, waking his people. Old and wise, the Chief knew that his people needed to leave in their entirety, so he woke them, hut by hut. Once gathered, Chief Musholatubbee led hundreds of Choctaw Indians to their new home west of the Mississippi River to Indian Territory.

  “Where are we going?” asked a small boy who was still rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

  “We must go to a new land,” Musholatubbee said, ruffling the little one’s hair. “Stay close to your mother and father.”

  “Do you have everyone?” Frank Duboise asked, pulling his son closer to him.

  “We do,” the old man said with a solemn nod of his head. “We should go. With muskets already firing, I’d like to ease the tension that is thick in the air.”

  Musholatubbee led his people along the Tennessee River, forking t
hrough land they had once called home. After crossing the might Mississippi, they picked up the Arkansas River and finally after more than sixty miles of travel, the lower towns of the Choctaw Nation settled in Indian Territory, west of the Mississippi, in what became modern day Oklahoma.

  “Where are we going mama?” a small girl asked her mother as they set off.

  “To a new land,” the mother answered as she strapped a new baby on her back. Taking the little girls hand, she followed her husband, who carried their son on his shoulders. The walk to the Tennessee River was treacherous. With too little food and only the river to lead them, Muscholatubbee’s people suffered as they left the land of their ancestors.

  “I don’t feel good,” the little girl said after walking longer than any little girl should have to. Miles and miles stretched behind them and still miles and miles lay ahead. Two days later that little girl died of a fast moving fever that ravaged her already starving body.

  ***

  Paul Broche headed into town hoping that his search for information would lead to a break somewhere along the line. He picked up his mail and headed home to read it. He brewed a fresh pot of coffee and sat down, opening the first letter he’d received. The postmark said Maine and his heart sank.

  Dear Mr. Broche,

  My name is Elena Elroy and I am the oldest daughter of Richard and Clarissa Elroy. I was adopted twenty-nine years ago as a toddler. I’ve just learned, although I always suspected, that I am of Choctaw Indian heritage and was born, The One Who Turns. My father told me that they adopted me from an orphanage and that my parents died during the first Indian Removal of the Choctaw Nation in 1831. My birth certificate was made for my adoption so I’m not sure how to track down the full story of my birth and the death of my parents, but I’m incline to believe that they have told me the truth as far as they know it.