The Delivery

by James Edwin Branch

  The Delivery!

  by

  James Edwin Branch

  Edited by

  Ward Morrill

  This work is pure fiction any

  Resemblance to persons places or

  Events are only coincidental.

  To my friend

  Ward Morrill

  Printed in the United States of America ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

  Chapter 1

  The Stage to Pittsburgh

  Millicent boarded the stage in Philadelphia just before noon on August the eighth. It was late in the year and she knew she wouldn’t reach her destination for nearly a month. She was well aware of the climate and environmental changes that were ahead of her. She was used to a world that was different from Texas.

  It was dry and hot, more desert than her beloved New England. It seemed unbelievable that she could travel halfway across the nation in a month.

  The refinement of the east and her life in the seaport here were far removed from the desert like terrain and the ranch that would be her destination and new home.

  The passengers stood on the walk as a fresh team of horses were harnessed and a new driver took control of the stage.

  It was only a few moments before they were asked to board the coach. A pair of leaf springs under the coach’s heavy body bent and then contracted as the passengers got on board, causing the coach to sway slightly. The coach creaked and moaned as the load increased.

  At the advice of the station manager, she took a seat placing her back to the front of the stage. As she wiggled and tried to get comfortable on the sparsely padded seat, she recalled his words.

  “There is not as much to see, but you will get a lot less dust sitting there, missy,” he’d told her.

  A few minutes after she boarded the driver climbed up to his lofty perch and took the reins to the four-horse team.

  As the stage began to roll, she looked out the window and wished that someone had been there to see her off. She was leaving her early life behind and going far away, to a strange place where she would start a new life.

  Earlier in the day, she’d checked her bags and put on her best traveling clothes. She wore a tailored traveling dress and a lovely pair of black leather ladies boots. Under her dress was a fluffy white petticoat to give the dress just enough body to show off its flair and style.

  In Philadelphia, the dress probably wouldn’t have raised an eyebrow, but where she was going in west Texas, it would immediately label her as a stylish lady. Her Texas arrival was a long way off, but that first impression was still on her mind.

  She knew the dress wouldn’t look as graceful when she arrived as it did today, but this was the beginning and she needed to put her best foot forward now. Considering everything she was doing, the dress was also a sign of her confidence. If only for her own edification, she had to let it show.

  She carried a small coin purse that held a tintype photo and the money the agency provided for a comfortable trip.

  The dress she wore hardly showed her hourglass figure, but was more for the comfort she would need as the days wore on. It was a long way to west Texas and the new life ahead of her.

  These days of travel to her new life would be testing her fortitude and the peace that she’d found in her decision to go.

  The tintype in her purse was of the man she was going to marry. He was a west Texas rancher named Jason Taylor. She glanced at the letters from him she carried and wondered if she could rely on his words and promises. He seemed like a kind, compassionate soul, but was he really?

  They had never really met in person; it was all arranged like a business transaction. She was taking a chance. She’d travel for more than a month to marry this man she’d never spoken to or seen before outside of the two grainy pictures they’d exchanged. All she had was the tintype of him and nearly a year’s worth of correspondence.

  This wasn’t the plan she had for her life originally. Her parents had done right by her. They sent her to finishing school and provided her with a wonderful first-rate education.

  Everyone she knew was very supportive as she grew up. Like many young women, she hoped that someone would come courting and fulfill her dreams of love and a family, but that never happened for her.

  It wasn’t because she wasn’t attractive; she was beautiful. Maybe she was a little too attractive. She was so striking that available bachelors often turned from her, assuming that unless they were perfect, she might not be interested. It was odd, but her beauty actually worked against her.

  As she got older, her chances seemed to slip away, and she knew it. The years passed without a suitable suitor.

  She would be 24 years old next month. In these times, it was hard for a girl that age to find a husband and start a family. Millicent was worried that if she didn’t take this opportunity, she might never be married.

  At a time when she was most vulnerable to suggestion, the offer came. She saw it in a bridal agency periodical, an ad for a frontier wife. The ad described her to perfection.

  Wanted: Attractive woman willing to relocate to West Texas to be a rancher’s wife. Must be willing and able to have children and help raise them. Education, good health and a desire to build a future are required. Rancher is sober, honest, hard working Christian man. Respond to the ad first and then by letter.

  She answered the ad giving him her particulars, and a few weeks later, the letters from him began to arrive. She was apprehensive at first, but the more she read his words, the more she seemed to adjust to the idea. He was only four years older than she was, still in his twenties and he seemed well grounded.

  For nearly a year, they exchanged letter after letter. The feelings began to grow from within, and before she knew it, she could hardly wait for the next mail shipment to arrive.

  Just last month the long awaited question came, would she come to west Texas to be his bride? For this question, he wired enough money for her to send a telegram and wanted the answer wired to Sweetwater, Texas. He wasn’t willing to wait another few weeks for a letter containing her answer.

  She understood that it was time to make a decision and after thinking about it for two days, she sent him her reply. It was yes, but it still sent a slight tremor of discomfort through her stomach as she watched the telegraph operator send it.

  She hoped her tiny pains of apprehension would pass when they finally met. She wasn’t a gambler, but she was wagering her entire life on a moment in time. Her heart and all her faith were hanging in the balance for that one singular shared heartbeat when they would meet face to face.

  The bridal agency began to arrange her travel after that. They accepted their fee from Jason Taylor and she signed the contracts that would promise her safe delivery to her new home and the man that would become her husband.

  Once she signed the contract, she was officially his mail order bride. She was engaged, spoken for, and that in itself seemed to ease some of her discomfort.

  She was certain her family wouldn’t understand when she told them, but she didn’t expect the reaction they gave her.

  It was okay for her to be the last one in the family to marry. It was okay for her to remain home while the rest of her sisters began their lives and started families of their own. However, when she announced her intention to accept the mail order contract, they all seemed to gasp for breath.

  It wasn’t acceptable for her to do anything other than what her father had planned for her. She could see it in all of their faces. She had c
rossed the family line and gone against father’s wishes. All she saw before her now was disappointment in her father’s eyes.

  He demanded that if she wasn’t going to marry someone local, she was to use her education and become a schoolteacher. It was an honorable profession for a spinster. There was no room within any of the family member’s minds for her to become a mail order bride.

  That stature in life was supposed to be reserved for more comely women or those that lacked a quality education. Millicent had been provided the best education Philadelphia could provide. Her father, her mother, and her sisters all stood firm against her.

  Not one of them even came to see her off at the stage depot. She was suddenly an outcast from the only family she’d ever known. She was completely alone, venturing forth to start a family with a complete stranger. She hoped that some day she could repair the rift that her decision caused, but for now, she would have to take her chances. The thought of being alone for the rest of her life scared her more than going against her father or the danger of crossing the country and marrying a man she didn’t know.

  She knew a couple of ladies that had never married, and the thought of growing old with only a beloved cat to keep her company scared her half to death.

  Jason’s letters were warm and kind. As she read them, she looked at the tintype and tried to see his eyes through the grainy appearance of the photograph. It was a shame they couldn’t provide a true window into his soul.

  All she could see in the photo was his rumpled clothing and his clean-shaven face. He seemed tall and strong; his letters said he was nearly 6 foot. A desert rancher, he admitted that he wasn’t rich, but he was well enough off to pay the fee that ensured her travel.

  According to his letters, he owned more than a thousand cattle and several hundred acres of land. He promised he could provide whatever she needed if she would only come to him. Though that was as far as he would discuss his station in life, the agency assured her that they had done a thorough investigation and he could afford to care for her.

  It was important for her to know what she was getting into. Though the family thought she was jumping into this thing, she had been very careful to make it as painless as possible. His letters helped; as they increased in number, they became more and more personal.

  Her heart was opening up to him, and she hoped that whatever they had discovered in their correspondence could and would turn into the love she’d always dreamt of having.

  The more she stared into the tintype, the more she seemed to care for him. She’d sent him one of her also, and his letter after receiving it seemed so excited and amazed that such a beauty would be interested in him. She laughed when she saw the first line of his letter after receiving her picture.

  “Is this really you?”

  It was those letters between them that actually sealed the deal. Each of them was more interested in the person within than what they saw in their pictures. She’d found a man who was warm, compassionate, and full of honor and faith. He’d found a woman who wanted to share his life and a future the two of them could build together. They both wanted children and a large family.

  Still, she was a long way away, and eventually she would have to leave the East and come to him.

  A journey of this magnitude was quite the undertaking in those days. The railroad ran from major city to major city, but it was often days before the train came through. Many times, it didn’t take the exact path a traveler wanted. A trip like this required careful planning, much patience, and considerable travel time.

  The first leg of her journey required that she travel from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh by stage. Then, she would ride the train south to Atlanta to begin her trip across the country. Once she reached Dallas, Texas, she would ride the stage again until she reached Sweetwater. This leg of her journey was dependent on whether they had finished a spur line that was being constructed. If the spur line was complete, she could ride the train all the way to Sweetwater.

  That’s where he was to meet her. One month from now, she would meet him in Sweetwater, Texas. Her anticipation over that meeting was nearly more than she could handle. Her heart seemed to swell in her chest each time she thought of it.

  She folded some of his letters and carefully stowed them away in a hidden compartment in her dress. They waited there patiently in a place close to her heart until her next viewing. She slid the tintype into her bag after she wrapped it up carefully so that it wouldn’t get damaged. It was precious to her even though she had never met him. He was going to be her husband, and she would honor that, along with the image he’d sent her.

  She smiled as she put it in her bag, remembering the line from the letter that arrived with it. He wrote her that he had the picture made just for her, and he was as nervous as a cat while the photographer took it. He knew it would be the first time that she saw him, and he wanted it to be perfect. She could tell by his words that he was afraid she’d be disappointed. What she saw first was a kind smile to go with his letters of hope.

  He was a little thin, but she figured in time she could change that. Some steady home cooked meals prepared with love and the hope in her heart would transform him into a pillar of health. His rugged good looks and his kind heart would be a good starting place for her feelings to continue to grow.

  Her attention was called to the stage once more as they began moving down the trail towards Pittsburgh.

  The stage was well equipped for comfort. In those days, they were outfitted with leaf springs to soften the ride. Despite the springs, it seemed to sway forward and back with each bump in the road as it rolled along. The roads were often traveled by heavy-laden freight wagons and there were always ruts and bumps near the towns they passed through.

  One of the other passengers told them that the road would be smoother when they put some distance between themselves and the city.

  She’d never been on a stagecoach so it seemed foreign to her as the journey began. It was filled with odd smells and sensations. She wondered if she could even get used to it.

  By the time they had traveled for several hours, she was becoming comfortable enough that she was willing to ask some of the other passengers where they were going.

  Counting her, there were four of them: A well-dressed man in a business suit, a young man not much more than 16 years old, and another woman. The other woman was older and seemed quite comfortable as she worked on some knitting that she carried in a large carpetbag in her lap.

  The well-dressed man seemed eager to answer her question when she asked why he was traveling.

  “I don’t intend to be forward, sir, but I was wondering where you’re going on this stage?”

  “I’m just riding as far as Pittsburgh,” he replied, “I’m going there to manage a mill for the shipping company that is my employer.”

  She nodded her head showing that she understood what he was telling her, but she couldn’t help but notice the discomfort of the young man to his right.

  “And what about you, sir?” she asked.

  He didn’t answer her and just kept his eyes straightforward. She couldn’t help but notice the pistol strapped to his side. She’d seen the sheriff’s deputies place it in his holster when they put him in the coach. One of them made sure to tell him that the weapon no longer held any ammunition.

  “You seem so young to be carrying such a large pistol?” she commented.

  He still didn’t answer her and only looked ahead. The older woman seemed to get a little agitated at the young man’s demeanor and finally broke the ice.

  “The sheriff put him on the stage while I was buying my ticket,” she told them. “It appears our young friend is quite the ruffian.”

  “Oh,” Millicent responded, “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you were in trouble.”

  The young man merely nodded and looked as though he was more comfortable now that his secret was out. He kept glancing at the Dime Novel that he carried and avoided eye contact with the two meddlesome wome
n.

  His Dime Novel contained several stories of colorful western figures and included drawings of their exploits. The drawings depicted scenes filled with action and adventure. The cover of the pamphlet was adorned with a drawing of Wild Bill Hickok standing in a frontier street with his gun in hand.

  The conversation between them stopped again and it was more than an hour before the well-dressed man started it up again.

  “It’s going to take us three days to get to Pittsburgh,” he began, “We might as well all get acquainted.”

  He sighed, and then after a moment, he took a store bought package of cigars from his pocket, and lit one of them.

  “I hope you ladies don’t mind if I smoke,” he continued, “This is the last of Philadelphia I’ll have for awhile. I don’t believe you can buy this brand in Pittsburgh.”

  Both ladies smiled and nodded, but the young man seemed disappointed as if he expected to be offered one.

  “You didn’t say why you were traveling, missy,” the well-dressed man asked as he smiled at Millicent.

  “I’m going to West Texas to be married,” she replied.

  “Well then, you must be very happy,” he responded.

  “I’m sure I will be,” she began, “I’ve never really met him, but I’m certainly anxious to do so.”

  “Never met him?” the other woman asked.

  “No, I’m a mail order bride.” Millicent answered.

  The young man gave a snicker as he turned his head towards the window. The other woman seemed a little angry about his attitude and showed her obvious disdain.

  “I’ll have you know that I have been married to the same man for twenty two years next month, and I never laid eyes on him until the day we married.”

  Millicent smiled at her as she spoke. Her tone seemed to reassure Millicent that she’d made the right decision.