[2016] My True Love

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[2016] My True Love Page 35

by Christian Michael


  She sighed and closed her eyes, mixed emotions running through her the entire time. She wished Lizbeth were here to tell her what to do. Lizbeth always knew what to do, and she wasn’t afraid to tell everyone around her what they ought to be doing, too.

  A smile crossed her lips as she thought about her rambunctious friend back home. She had written to her after she arrived in California, but there hadn’t been a reply to her letter yet. Jessie knew Lizbeth would write to her when she got the chance, she just had to be patient.

  She’s probably busy running the town now. I used to be her project, but now that I’m gone, I’m sure she found someone else to raise.

  Suddenly a wave of sadness crossed over Jessie. It was the first time she had felt sad since she left Missouri. It wasn’t a sadness for her friends, and it wasn’t a sadness for John. It was just a general sadness that seemed to sweep over her and grasp onto her heart like a cold fist.

  She wanted to be loved, and she wanted to love again, but love seemed like a dream she had when she was young, or a dream of a dream.

  Toby lay awake in the living room, also staring up at the ceiling. With the crackling of the fire in the kitchen he couldn’t hear Jessie breathing, so he only assumed she was asleep. He lay still, lest the creaking of the cot wake her.

  His mind was a mess. He couldn’t get the picture of Jessie in the field, surrounded by flowers, off his mind. She had looked so perfect, and so pretty, it was like an angel had come down out of heaven and had been sitting there right next to him.

  Those big brown eyes she had, framed in by those thick brown locks of hair. She was captivating, and she was his bride. He wanted to treat her well. He wanted to make her happy, but he didn’t know why he couldn’t get her off of his mind. It was getting harder and harder to concentrate on the work he had to do.

  Every move he made, he saw her. He could see her in the flowers that were along the path to the house, and in the sunrise he watched every morning as he did the chores. He thought about her as he milked the cow, and when he actually got to see her, his heart pounded inside his chest so strong he wondered if she could hear it, too.

  With each passing day he wanted to be with her more and more, and that feeling terrified him. He had promised himself he wasn’t going to feel this way about anyone, but the more he saw her, the harder it was to not feel anything.

  She is having a baby that I am not the father of. How could you feel this strongly about her? She came out here to marry you out of sheer need. If she had been in a different situation, you never would have had a chance with her.

  Toby yawned and rubbed his eyes. He rolled over, his back to the fire. With thoughts of Jessie still running through his mind, he desperately tried to fall asleep. Whether he got any rest or not, the morning was coming, and he was going to have to do the chores no matter how tired he was.

  He didn’t know when sleep finally claimed him, all he knew was it only felt like a few minutes before the rooster was crowing outside.

  Chapter 8 – A New Start

  Fall leaves crowned the tree line at the edge of the field now. Jessie walked slowly, a basked in one hand, the other hand wrapping her shawl around her shoulders. The air was getting chillier, and she rarely left the house without her shawl or a coat.

  This morning, Jessie wanted to take a stroll in the field she had gone to with Toby a couple months before. There was a peacefulness there that she couldn’t find anywhere else. Toby was busy most of the time now, doing something out in the barn.

  He spent almost all of this free time out there, working with the wood he had left over from the extra room he had built on to the house. It had taken him nearly a month to complete it, but was finally done. As soon as that project had been finished, he spent every spare minute he had in the barn.

  Jessie missed Toby. She had grown used to the business like nature of their marriage, and was enjoying the companionship she found with Toby around. She still felt that twinge of emptiness in her heart every now and then, but for the most part she was happy.

  After all, her baby was to be born in just over a month, and she would have her hands full. Every now and then she wanted to go out to the barn and talk to Toby while he worked, but he told her she wouldn’t want to be in that dirty old barn, breathing in the dust in the condition she was in, so she spent her days alone in the house.

  In her free time, Jessie spent hours knitting things for the baby. She had made a scarf for Toby for the turning weather, but she hadn’t seen him wear it. Now she worked diligently on a baby blanket for her little one. It was a bright blue, like the sky had been the first day she had arrived in California.

  Suddenly, she heard a shout, and turned. Toby was calling for her, and hurried to catch up to her.

  “There you are Missy! I have been looking all over for you… come here, I want to show you something.” Toby reached for her hand, and Jessie looked at him in surprise.

  She reluctantly agreed and hurried as best she could beside his lively steps. There was something different about him, something she couldn’t put her finger on, but something that made her heart pound.

  Was it the way he looked at her? Normally, he would speak looking away from her, or just give her a glance when he finished. Now, he looked at her full on, gazing into her eyes. She felt vulnerable when he did that, but excited at the same time.

  They hurried to the barn, and Toby suddenly turned to face her.

  “Now, I want you to go in front of me, and I am going to cover your eyes. Don’t worry, there’s nothing in the way for you to trip on, just walk in a few steps, and stop when I say.”

  “Toby?” She asked, but he shushed her and walked behind her, covering her eyes from behind.

  They walked into the barn, and Toby stopped.

  “Are you ready?” He asked, and she nodded.

  “Look!”

  He lifted his hands off of her eyes, and Jessie blinked, letting her eyes adjust to the darkness of the barn. There, right in front of her, stood the most beautiful cradle she had ever seen. It was carved out of mahogany, and stained with a chestnut stain.

  “Oh Toby!” She cried.

  “Do you like it?” He asked, concerned, then continued. “I wanted to make you something special for your little one, Jess.

  Listen to me. This is hard for me to say, mostly because I don’t understand it myself, but I love you Jessie. I really do. When I was young, and I saw the pain my father felt when my mother passed away, I promised myself I wouldn’t fall in love.

  I wanted to save myself that pain, until I met you. You changed everything for me, Jessie. You are so beautiful and so kind and so charming. I just couldn’t help it. I fell in love.”

  Jessie felt her throat get tight as he spoke. She had never dreamed this is what he was doing out here in the barn, and the fact that he told her how much he loved her made her feel like she was on top of the world. All she had wanted when she came out here was to find love, and now she had.

  “Toby I-“ She began, but he interrupted her.

  “Don’t anything. I don’t want to hear you say anything. All I want is the truth. I know I haven’t been the kind of husband you deserve, and I know I wasn’t the man you thought I was when you moved out here, but I have to know… Do you love me?”

  He looked anxiously into her eyes, and waited.

  A smile slowly spread across Jessie’s face, and she had tears in her eyes as she nodded.

  “Yes, I do love you Toby. I do!”

  Jessie threw her arms around his neck and kissed him, and he gently lifted her up off the floor. She felt complete at last. Her child was going to be born into a home filled with love. A home that was happy. A home that was ready for a baby.

  Toby paced back and forth in the living room. Jessie had gone into labor earlier that day, and now the doctor was in the room with her, and all he could do was wait for the news. He wished there was more he could do to help, this waiting was driving him crazy.

  He cou
ld hear Jessie making noise in the other room, and he prayed she would be ok. He couldn’t shake the fear of losing her out of his mind no matter how hard he tried, and he wouldn’t feel better until he knew she was ok.

  After what felt like hours, the doctor finally appeared in the door. Toby turned quickly, though he stayed in the middle of the room.

  “You should be very proud, Mr. Mathews,” the doctor said as he wiped his hands on a towel.

  “You have a new son. Mother and child are both just fine, would you like to see them?”

  Toby hurried into the room to find Jessie holding a small bundle in her arms. She looked up and smiled as he came into the room, and he kissed her. He reached out and took the little baby in his arms, and kissed his son on the forehead.

  Jessie smiled at the sight, and laid back on the pillow. She had never been so happy in her whole life, and she knew no matter what happened next, she was going to be ok. She had her son, she had Toby, and she had love. Everything in life was absolutely perfect.

  She wouldn’t change a thing.

  THE END.

  Runaway Love

  Mail Order Bride

  CHRISTIAN MICHAEL

  Chapter 1

  New York

  “What a bore,” the girl said, fanning herself and searching the room for yet another young gentleman to flirt with over the top of her fan.

  “Isabel, he’s a nice man,” Lucy Castle said, pushing a dark brown curl back into place and allowing her gaze to rest on the couples dancing in front of her. Some days, like this one, she dreamed of a different life. A life where she wasn’t required to attend balls and where she didn’t have to listen to friends defame one of the only, truly nice men in the room.

  “You must be joking,” Isabel said, her laugh brash for such a delicate frame.

  “Not at all. I find his conversation fascinating.”

  “Maybe because you think more of politics and the topics of horses than you do truly interesting things.”

  Lucy sighed. “I may not enjoy common gossip like you do, but that doesn’t mean my interest are boring.”

  Isabel rolled her eyes and pushed away from the settee she had been leaning against. “I see Lord Grandle eyeing me from across the room. I think I prefer his company to yours right now.”

  Lucy watched as Isabel left, feeling no regret at her leaving. Her eyes trailed the room and came to rest on a new face. One she didn't recognize immediately. He looked familiar but she couldn’t place him immediately. Then she remembered. Her father had introduced him as the son of one of his wealthy counter parts from the Chicago area. Charles…something.

  She couldn’t remember and pulled her gaze from him, looking to the other side of the room. It was warm, as it always was during heavily packed balls, and she wished she could be upstairs reading or out in the woods on her father’s country estate. What she wouldn’t give to be riding a horse right—

  “Excuse me, but aren’t you Miss Castle?”

  She turned to the voice, startled to see the man she’d been observing. “Yes. Um, Mr.—?”

  “Benning. Charles Benning. My father is Langston Benning. I'm sure you’ve heard of him.”

  The touch of arrogance in his voice irked her immediately. “Yes. I suppose I have,” she replied, going for an air of indifference. Maybe he would take the hint and leave.

  “I dare say you should have. He nearly owns half of Chicago.” Charles laughed, the sound like nails grating on a chalkboard to Lucy.

  She tried to keep herself from rolling her eyes. Money. That was all anyone ever talked about during these balls.

  “Well, how nice for him.”

  Charles narrowed his eyes. “You don’t seem thrilled to meet me.”

  She almost laughed. How was she supposed to respond to that?

  He saved her the trouble. “I mean, I thought you would be, seeing as how we’re practically engaged.”

  Lucy had the misfortune to be in the middle of a sip of punch when he delivered this information and, before she could stop herself, she’d spewed half the liquid out.

  “What?”

  Charles stepped back, appalled at her lack of decorum. “There’s an arrangement between our fathers. I was just made privy to it a few weeks ago. Your father must not have told you yet.”

  She wanted to refute him, to tell him he was mistaken, but she couldn’t. The sad truth was that her father would do something exactly like this. He only saw her—and everyone else in his life—as a pawn to be used in whatever way benefited him best.

  Marriage to Charles had to be his next, strategic move. It made her furious. She may not be a man, or in a position to refute her father, but she wasn’t about to sit by and let him marry her off to whomever he wanted.

  It was time for a plan she had long thought to implement. One that took daring and no small amount of courage. If she wanted to live the life of adventure she longed for she would have to accept the risks and hope they would reap far greater rewards.

  She was going to become a mail order bride.

  ***

  Montana

  Ben Epps folded his hands over his flat stomach, gazing down the length of the empty table. It was nights like these that he felt the extent of his loneliness. Perhaps his mother was right. In her last letter to him she had espoused the benefits of marriage, not so subtly hinting that it was in his best interest to take a wife and settle down.

  He laughed into the growing darkness of the dining room. In his best interests, or hers? She had wanted grandchildren for years, assurance their line would continue, but she was stuck with a son who valued hard work and the life of a rancher over the finer things like high society and dinner parties.

  Not that he minded that lifestyle. In fact, over the past few months he’d missed the business of coming home after working in an office and getting ready to go to a party. He missed the social life that Boston had offered.

  “Mr. Ben,” a man said, stepping into the dining room, “Did you want dessert now?”

  Ben smiled. “How many times do I have to tell you that you can call me Ben if you want to, Carl?”

  “Nah,” the older man said, nodding his head. “Can’t do that, Mr. Ben.”

  Ben sighed, giving in to the older man whom he’d hired mainly to give him a job more than out of necessity. The man was an excellent cook and had been given a raw deal at the local hotel. At least here on the ranch Carl was treated well and had a place to sleep.

  “Bring on the dessert then, Mr. Carl.”

  Carl laughed at that and disappeared, coming back with a plate holding a large slice of apple pie. “Your favorite, Mr. Ben.”

  He accepted the plate and motioned for Carl to sit down. “Join me. It’s too quite in here.”

  Carl did and watched as Ben took his first bite. It was heavenly.

  “Mmm,” he said, licking the fork, “This is the best pie I’ve ever had.”

  “Glad to hear it. Was my wife’s recipe.”

  Ben blinked. “Your wife?”

  “Yes, sir,” he said, nodding slowly. His eyes glazed over in memory. “She was the prettiest little thing there ever was. Like a ray of sunshine came down to earth and became a woman. I would have married her on sight, but I was only ten years old.” Carl let out a rough laugh, slapping the table.

  “Oh my,” Ben said, enjoying the man’s enthusiasm.

  “I waited until we were seventeen the up and married her.” He sighed, rubbing a hand over his jaw.

  Ben hated to ask, but he hated to know. “What happened to her?”

  “The fever,” Carl said, looking down at his weathered hands clasped in front of him on the table. “She took sick at age twenty and died in late fall.”

  Ben felt the loss as if he’d known the woman. “I'm so sorry to hear that.”

  “The Good Lord blessed us with many happy years. I can’t complain.” He shook his head then met Ben’s eyes. “What about you, Mr. Ben? Got any plans to marry?”

  Ben
smiled, surprised where the conversation had taken them. Was this God’s prompting?

  “I'm not sure, but maybe,” he admitted.

  Carl nodded, and leaned in conspiratorially. “Sir, I’d recommend the Matrimonial Journal. You won’t find suitable young women in this town—believe me—but there’s some fine young women back East. Though you probably already know that.”

  Ben considered the man’s words, savoring the last bite of his pie. He’d heard many men in town tell of their efforts to find a wife through advertisements and mail order brides. Some had even had great success.

  Surely his mother would approve of a woman from a larger city and good standing.

  Ben nodded, his thoughts turning as sweet as the pie he’d just had. Maybe it was time he settled down.

  “You may just have something there, Carl,” he said.

  Tomorrow he’d put plans in motion to place and advertisement in the better-known and more expensive matrimonial journals in New York and Boston. If the Lord saw fit, maybe he’d find himself a wife that even his mother couldn’t find fault with.

  Chapter 2

  Lucy clutched Ben’s last letter in her hand like it was a lifeline to her future, and in some ways it was. She had told her father she was going out to a party that night but it was only a ruse to get out of the house. Telling the driver to wait, she rushed to the side of the house where her maid, one of the most loyal girls Lucy knew, had hidden her bags and all of the things she’d be taking West with her.

  Then, instructing the driver to take her to the train station, she tried in vain to calm her frayed nerves. This was the right thing to do, she knew it, but it was also the most difficult. Her mother would be devastated when she found the note inscribed personally to her. Her father, on the other hand, would be livid.

 

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