A Bride
for
Hamilton
Wendy May Andrews
∞∞∞
Sparrow Ink
www.sparrowdeck.com
Copyright © 2020 Wendy May Andrews
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced, transmitted, or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
ISBN - 978-1-989634-11-0
www.wendymayandrews.com
Marry in haste, repent at leisure…
Sadie Fitzsimmons must choose between total destitution and marriage by proxy with someone she’s never met.
When Sadie steps off the train to meet her new husband for the first time, life in Nebraska is not at all what she had expected. Torn between honoring the vows she spoke to a stranger, and her desire to be free of all obligations, Sadie must face the consequences of her choices.
Hamilton Foster had worked hard for his successes. All that was missing from his perfect life was a family of his own. Sending home to Boston for a wife seemed like a good idea until she arrived and she was too pretty to be trusted.
Follow along to see if these two can find their happily ever after.
Dedication
Honesty and communication are themes running through this book. I believe strongly in both of these, especially in any relationship. I dedicate this book to everyone struggling with either or both. You will enjoy watching Sadie and Hamilton learn.
Acknowledgements
My books wouldn’t happen without the support of my fabulous hubby. He helps in every way imaginable. I’m blessed to have my own real-life hero.
My parents are my biggest fans, supporting and cheering for me every step of the way. I wouldn’t have life without them, nor would I enjoy it nearly as much.
My beta readers – Marlene, Suzanne, Monique, Alfred, and Christina – help me immeasurably. Their help with the story as well as care and compassion for the author are a blessing.
Thanks to Virginia McKevitt for this beautiful cover.
Julie Sherwood’s edits are amazing and she is a delight to work with. Any remaining errors are the author’s.
Chapter One
The two men leaning against the faded clapboard wall watched the passengers disembarking from the train with interest. Hamilton Foster’s interest was somewhat more intense than that of his foreman, whose interest seemed more amused than involved.
“Do you think that’s her?” Herman asked, indicating the young woman just stepping down from the train with the thrust of his chin.
“No,” Hamilton’s answer was immediate and terse.
“How can you be sure? I thought you said your friend didn’t send any pictures.”
“I haven’t seen an image of her, but I’m certain that is not my wife. I was very specific in the request that my wife be homely. That woman is ridiculously pretty, so she is surely not Mrs. Foster.”
The chuckle with which Herman answered his statement caused Hamilton to scowl more fiercely.
“As long as you’re sure, Foster, then we’ll keep waiting.”
Hamilton glared at the man for his flippant tone but didn’t move from his slouch in the growing shade of the building. He couldn’t imagine what was taking his bride so long to get off the train. It would seem the girl wasn’t eager to meet him. What a bother.
After a futile ten minutes of standing there with no other passengers getting down from the train, Hamilton shook his head. “She must have missed her last connection,” he said, trying to keep the disgust from his voice. It wouldn’t do to speak ill of his wife in front of any of his men, even if it was the stupidest thing to do. He thought he had emphasized he didn’t want a dull-witted woman as his wife. He stood straight and was about to head toward the wagon when Herman interrupted his movement.
“Don’t you suppose we ought to ask that woman if she’s met your bride?”
“Why would you assume they would have met?”
Herman shrugged. “Women are a scarcity. I would imagine any heading West would have introduced themselves.”
Hamilton scowled but nodded, turning back toward the train platform without another word.
“Excuse me, ma’am, might I have a word?”
Hamilton thought he had braced himself for the impact of her beauty, but he was mistaken. He felt the reaction all the way down to his heels as they rocked backward away from the vision before him.
“Yes?” she asked in a soft, questioning, timid voice.
“We’re looking for Sadie Foster. She was travelling West from Boston. Is there any chance you might have encountered her on your journey?”
The woman blinked at him as a frown wrinkled her brow.
“I’m Sadie,” she answered simply.
Hamilton stared at her and had to fight to stifle a curse, turning his glare from the woman to his supposed friend who was doing a poor job of hiding his laughter. The woman looked puzzled and nervous.
“Are you Mr. Foster? Did Mr. Fredericksburg not describe me to you? He bade me to remember to wear my hat so you would recognize me.”
Hamilton could tell that he was scaring the girl, so he tried to clamp down on the anger that was simmering inside him. It would not do to allow it to boil over and scorch his wife, no matter how angry he might be. It wasn’t her fault Fredericksburg had lied. Or perhaps it was. Hamilton wasn’t to know for sure.
“He did write about the hat. I just wouldn’t have described that little thing as a hat. It’s not going to provide you much protection in these parts.”
As he spoke, her hand flew to her head, and she blushed as though she were guilty of something, making Hamilton’s frown deepen.
“It’s true that it’s not at all practical, but Mr. Fredericksburg said you’d have an easier time finding me if I wore it.”
Herman snorted behind him, no longer bothering to conceal his laughter. The discomfort and embarrassment covering his wife’s face made Hamilton turn and shove his foreman.
“Cut it out, Herman,” he growled. It didn’t seem to help his wife. She looked all the more uncomfortable as her wide eyes gazed up at him, filling with fear.
In that moment, Hamilton deeply regretted the decision he had made to send for a wife. Marrying a stranger had clearly been a mistake. He didn’t know how to deal with taking responsibility for a woman in the first place, but especially not one he didn’t even know. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, but Hamilton was beginning to question the wisdom of his rash actions. But they were already married, had been legally committed by proxy, before the girl even got on the westbound train.
“You are Mr. Foster, are you not?” the girl asked, her nervous hands fluttering as she gazed up at him. She was a tiny little thing, he thought, wondering how she would be able to manage life on the frontier.
“I am,” he finally answered her. “Where are your trunks? We ought to get going.” Hamilton was none too happy about the attention his beautiful wife was drawing. Herman hadn’t been exaggerating when he said women were a scarcity. And a beautiful woman was nearly as rare as some mythological creature. This one would be a draw that he’d have to protect. It was a complication he could ill afford. A small part of him wanted to put her on the next train back to Boston, but that would be cowardly and deceitful. He had committed himself by means of the proxy papers he had signed. He would have to honor his word. But he didn’t have to like it. His scowl deepened.
“Over
there.” Her hand and voice shook as she pointed toward the two small bags on the platform. Hamilton looked at her with disapproval.
“Will we have to come to meet the train another day for the rest of your things?”
“What were you expecting me to bring with me? This is all I have.”
Hamilton couldn’t name all the emotions that flitted across her face, but he was fairly certain she was embarrassed and angry. He couldn’t, for the life of him, understand why.
“I just expected you’d have brought more with you for such a big move,” he tried to explain himself, although he was uncomfortable with the need to do so.
The girl merely nodded and shrugged, not providing any further information. Hamilton was surprised by her reticence. He had never met a woman who didn’t chatter. Not that he had met many women in the past several years. As Herman had said, women were scarce in the West. But small, pretty women from Boston – he had known plenty of those in the past, and they had been chatterboxes, every last one of them.
Gritting his teeth, Hamilton stalked over to the bags and tucked one under each arm while he listened to his foreman attempt to charm his wife.
“I’m Herman, Mrs. Foster, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”
He couldn’t hear a response, but that might have been just because she was soft spoken.
“Don’t mind Foster, he’s just surly.”
Hamilton wanted to put his fist through his friend’s face to relieve his tension. He threw the bags in the wagon instead then climbed up onto the bench and waited for Herman to hand up his wife. The small woman now looked terrified. But she was still beautiful. Hamilton wanted to curse. She was supposed to be homely. How was he going to handle having a pretty woman as his wife?
~~~
Sadie swallowed her misgivings and allowed the men to squish her between them. She would rather be anywhere but there. The man who was her husband had barely done anything but glower and growl at her but still, her ridiculous heart had sped up whenever she caught a glimpse of him.
Her palms felt sweaty, and her stomach fluttered uncomfortably. Maybe she was coming down with some dreadful disease. She never should have agreed to marry a stranger and move to the literal ends of the earth. Jane had tried to help her see that it was a better choice than whatever Oscar had to offer her.
Just the thought of Oscar sent a shiver up Sadie’s spine. She stifled a sigh. Maybe she really was coming down with some deadly disease. Perhaps death would be better than the great unknown yawning before her. Marriage to this stranger had saved her from Oscar, but could she really trust whatever future this frowning stranger had to offer her? At that moment, it didn’t matter that a friend of a friend had vouched for him. That was the flimsiest of references, Sadie now realized.
Staring out around her, Sadie still couldn’t get over how very flat it all was. And as soon as they had left the small village where the train station was, it seemed like they were the only living creatures around. At least the only humans. She had spotted various creatures in the distance or startled off the roadway in front of them as they passed swiftly through the landscape, pulled by the very large horses.
While she normally enjoyed silence, since there was often so little of it, now the fact that neither man was speaking grated on her nerves. Sadie thought to fill the silence but hadn’t a clue where to start.
She cleared her throat before speaking, which brought the gaze of both men toward her, making her falter. But when her raised eyebrows didn’t prompt either of them into speech, Sadie forced herself to begin talking.
“Do we have very far to go?”
Mr. Foster was holding the reins in a fashion that looked like he was skilled in the matter. Sadie had next to no experience in such things, but it seemed to her that he did. He divided his attention between her and the horses.
“We live about three hours from town,” he finally answered as his frown returned. “I probably should have asked if you needed to make any purchases before we left. Have you eaten?”
His frown was discouraging, but Sadie managed not to falter. She was relieved to hear that they had such a short distance to travel. She had actually feared they might have to spend the night on the trail. She had accepted that as a possibility after talking with people on the long train ride West.
“I’m fine, thank you.”
She was also lying. She was extremely intimidated by the situation she found herself in. Sandwiched in between the two large men, she was left to wonder why her new husband had brought the other man with him. Perhaps he had thought he would be bored on the three-hour drive to collect her. But they didn’t seem to be on particularly good terms with each other, barely exchanging a word since she had joined them.
Sadie chastised herself for her stupidity. She should have insisted on having more information about the man who was now her husband. She had committed her future to a stranger. And now she had to live with the consequences. Namely, fear and uncertainty.
Very well, Sadie, pull it together, she admonished herself. You’ve lived through challenges in the past. You’ll live through this one as well. Or you won’t, she thought with the threat of hysterical laughter as all her fears piled on top of one another. Refusing to succumb to her fears and give in to a fit of hysterics, Sadie tried for more conversation.
“Do you live nearby, Mr. Herman?”
The man on her left chuckled. “Nearby to you, do you mean, Mrs. Foster?”
Sadie nodded, but the action was tentative.
“That I do, ma’am. I’m your husband’s foreman, so I live right next door to you.”
Not even sure why she had asked, Sadie was undecided if she were relieved with this information or not. She nodded again.
“Do you have many other neighbors?”
The driver merely grunted in response, prompting another chuckle from the foreman. “I suppose it depends on your definition of neighbor.”
It wasn’t much of an answer; Sadie couldn’t stop her sigh. Herman laughed again. “Foster has a great deal of land, ma’am, so neighboring properties are a fair distance away. But the men live on the property, and there’s a small village less than an hour away with plenty of people. In between Foster’s and the village there are a few other homesteads. It’s not exactly Boston, but if you’re looking for company, you will be able to find it.”
Sadie turned back to watching the road. From the side of her gaze, she could see Mr. Foster’s profile. It would be a while before she could think of him as her husband, she was sure. He was handsome in a stark kind of way with a wide, firm chin and cheekbones that were slashes in his sun burnished face. The tanned hue to his face seemed to enhance the blueness of his eyes. Sadie normally liked blue eyes, but on Mr. Foster they seemed to only contribute to the sense that he was cold and hard. With all that, it was rather ridiculous that Sadie found herself wanting to gaze at him. She would normally consider herself to be a sensible woman, but she had clearly become addled somewhere along the way, as she had absolutely no intention of finding the man appealing. He was a means to an end.
But why would such a good looking, obviously successful financially, man still be single, in need of arranging a bride by proxy? It made no sense to Sadie, even if you factored in the shortage of women in the West. There might not be as many as in the East, but surely there were some! And if not, the trains that had brought Sadie here ran in both directions. Surely, the man could have done some travelling and found a wife for himself. She had good reason to be a little skeptical. She was no longer quick to offer her trust. In this particular case, despite the fact that she was married to the man, there was no way she could trust him.
Sadie had been expecting a rather off-putting man from a physical perspective. She had been wrong on that front, but his grouchy demeanor was still off-putting, even if he was pleasant to look at. Perhaps that was why he had needed a bride by proxy. No woman would have him after meeting him in person. The thought made her smile slightly. Perhaps it w
asn’t such a mismatch after all. At first glance, Mr. Foster seemed like a matrimonial prize. But clearly, there were reasons for his single state. It was a strangely comforting thought for Sadie. She could never give him her heart, and if she could find a way out of the marriage eventually, she would happily take it, but for now, she would do her best to uphold her end of their bargain.
Just nobody better expect her to love the man. She’d seen the damage love could do. Look at what she went through loving and losing her entire family. No, she would be loyal to Mr. Foster for as long as he was her husband, and do her best to fill whatever role he expected of her, but she would never give him her heart. It didn’t matter if he was handsome as the devil. Even if he turned out not to be the surly bear he appeared to be, she added as a reminder to her heart, just to cover all the possible aspects of the matter.
Turning her attention once more to the road ahead, Sadie tried to ignore the gnawing ache in her stomach. Some of it was nerves, but mostly it was because she had run out of money and had thus not eaten since the previous morning. Feeling the churning inside, Sadie only hoped it didn’t actually growl out loud. She didn’t think she could bear the mortification. She had thought she had packed enough food for the journey, but there had been delays and there had been other hungry passengers she just couldn’t ignore. After sharing a little of her provisions and sending the telegraph to Mr. Foster as Mr. Fredericksburg had instructed, she had nothing left. Sadie blocked the unwelcome thoughts and sensations from her mind. It wasn’t the first time she had experienced hunger pangs; she doubted it would be the last. Lamenting would accomplish nothing.
But then a wild growl erupted from her middle, and Sadie wanted to leap from the wagon and disappear. No way would the handsome man consider her a proper wife if she couldn’t even control the unwelcome sounds that a body makes.
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