“I think I’ve found a man like that too,” she grinned.
“We’ve only been in Texas for one day.”
“The bellboy, the one who carried your trunk up.”
“Seriously?”
“I have an inclination, yes. He hasn’t come right out and said it yet, but I get this feeling about him when he’s near.”
“Maybe you should ask him.”
“I absolutely will not!” Claudette giggled. “It’s not a woman’s place to do the asking.”
“If you say so my friend,”
“You’d really ask Trent how he felt about you?”
“If I was curious enough and he hadn’t made it plain as day by the time I got impatient, then yes.”
“Well good luck with that,” Claudette laughed. “I prefer to wait for the mystery.”
“We shall see, Claudette. We shall see.”
***
Trent couldn’t believe the young woman who’d taken it upon herself to just show up at his home. He had no doubt that she was a spitfire if he’d ever seen one. The realization brought back memories of Rachel, his late wife. She’d been much like Gracie, full of wonder and curiosity. He couldn’t push away how Andrea had taken to her either.
They’d been nearly inseparable for the remainder of the afternoon and Andrea had talked about little else on the way home. He’d tried to reassure her that Gracie and Claudette would be back the next day, but she’d still refused to settle down right away come bedtime. He’d had to get firm with her and the thought ate at him. He hated having to be strict with her at times, but he had little other choice. How often had he felt useless since Rachel passed away? He’d lost count by now, feeling everything from angry denial to complete and utter helplessness.
Gracie’s appearance in his life, along with finding help for his ranch, and Felicia’s involvement were the only times when he’d had any sort of hope at all. He took his pipe and tobacco out to the porch and having packed his pipe, set a match to it, inhaling the soft cherry flavor. He let out a stream of smoke and contemplated the young woman he couldn’t seem to shove aside. He’d done well to control his thoughts of her since responding to her letter. Since that afternoon, however, he’d been much less inclined to do so.
She was stunning without a doubt. Her hair, while easily tamed, was no match for the wind that had plucked it from her pins. He liked that it was long and wavy. He’d forgotten how it felt to run his fingers through a woman’s hair. He knew she was young, but there was a confident bearing that she held, as if life had taught her to rely on herself and little else.
It made his heart hurt to think that a woman so young had grown up under such circumstances. Finishing his pipe, he retired to bed. That week flew by as Trent became accustomed to Gracie’s presence. She came every day after breakfast and stayed through supper, always grateful for Felicia’s meals.
“This is fantastic,” she smiled one night after Felicia had served beef, bean, and cheese burritos.
“Gracias,” Felicia said with a smile. “It is my mother’s recipe.” Trent noticed a sadness pass over Gracie’s face.
“Would you be agreeable to staying until after I put Andrea down for bed?” he asked.
“I will tuck her in Mr. Trent,” Felicia smiled. “Miss Madden needs to get home to rest and you two need time to talk. Take the time now.” Looking at Gracie whose gray eyes seemed so vulnerable, he smiled and offered her his hand.
“Shall we?”
“Alright,” she agreed.
“How is Claudette?”
“She’s doing lovely. It seems she’s fallen in love with the bellboy who helped us at the hotel our first day here. They’re having dinner at his parent’s home tonight.”
“I’m glad to hear that she doesn’t feel like a third wheel where you and I are concerned. I hope that my asking this question doesn’t cause you undo pain.”
“You’d like to know about my parents, how I became an orphan.”
“If you’d care to share,” Trent prompted gently.
Chapter Five: Unburdened
“I was six when they passed away,” she said, her voice carrying a far off tone. As if she was back to the little girl who’d probably never grieved for her loss. “I was staying at a friend’s house for a sleepover. It was her birthday and I was finally allowed to be away from them for the night. It wasn’t something I was comfortable with before. Early in the morning, before the sun had risen, a constable came to my friend’s door and asked if I was there. When they woke me up, he sat down with my friend’s parents and myself and told us that my parents had been in a terrible accident. My father was driving a steam powered contraption that he’d been wanting to show my mother for weeks. I was so young that I only really remember what was told to me. Anyway, he was driving and missed a danger sign that warned of impending danger that lay ahead. By the time he reached that point it was too late. Whatever my parents were riding in was struck by an oncoming train. I wasn’t allowed to see the wreckage, or even photos of it. “
“I’m sorry for your loss,” Trent said, giving her hand a gentle squeeze.”
“It seems we have some things in common,” she replied. “Although I’m not sure that exactly what two people should start a courtship on.”
“It might not be the best basis to begin with, but I’m sure there are other things, as well. Our mutual love of horses for instance.”
“There’s that,” Gracie giggled. “There’s Andrea, who couldn’t be turned away by anyone with a heart.”
It warmed him to hear her talk so fondly of his daughter. He’d prayed for years now for a woman who would love his little girl as her own. The fact that Gracie seemed to was another step in the right direction. “I lost Rachel, Andrea’s mother, when she had Andrea. The doctors couldn’t stop the bleeding after Andrea had been delivered. Rachel passed away the following morning.”
“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 Guard
ian 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, Gracie 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.
An Orphan Finds A Mother
Mail Order Bride
CHRISTIAN MICHAEL
Chapter 1 – Raindrops and Gumdrops
“You are the only relative she has left, I’m afraid, so there really isn’t a choice. Unless you want to assign your niece to an orphanage, you are her guardian.”
Mrs. Higgins slammed the book closed, leaving Mr. Train speechless. He didn’t know the first thing about children, and he hadn’t seen or heard from his brother in years.
Now that his brother and his sister-in-law had been killed in a wagon accident, it was left to him to raise his niece… a situation he couldn’t fully grasp.
“Well, I can’t leave her to an orphanage. There’s no telling how long she’ll be in there before she finds a home, if she ever does. I guess I’m going to have to take her home with me. Is she… um… is she well behaved?”
Thomas Train fidgeted with his hat. He didn’t know how else to phrase it, but he really wasn’t sure what he was going to do about this.
“Olivia is a child, Mr. Train, and as such she is going to need guidance and discipline right along with love and care. You need to be there for her in every way you can, more now than ever. If you concur with this decision, I need you to sign your name here, and here.”
Mrs. Higgins had pulled out a piece of paper, and now pointed to two lines. Thomas took the quill pen that stood on the desk and signed where she indicated, then rose to leave.
“She’s outside with our pastor. I’ll have him fetch her in here directly.”
Mrs. Higgins also rose, and before Thomas could reply, she was gone. He could hear her wooden soled boots clanking on each step even after she had gone outside.
As he waited in the office of the courthouse, Thomas tossed his hat up into the air and caught it again, but his mind was far from what he was actually doing.
[2016] Finding My Cowboy Page 5
