Mail Order Bride 22 Book Boxed set: 22 Brides Ride West :CLEAN Western Historical Romance Series Bundle

by Faye Sonja

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  The doctor sat across from her, clearing his throat as he quietly delivered the news.

  Mollie drew her hands up to her mouth, gasping. Then, her hands dropped back into her lap, like they were a dead weight. "No..." she said, in a hushed voice.

  The doctor coughed a little, not quite making eye contact with her. "I assume this is...rather difficult news for you."

  Mollie shook her head slowly, her eyes filling with warm, full tears. "No. It's wonderful news."

  The doctor screwed his forehead up. "I would have thought a woman in your position, with a dead husband, would be horrified to receive such news." He looked at her with scorn. "How are you going to survive? Support yourself and this child?"

  Mollie looked over at him, horrified. She stood up and pushed her chair back. "I will do just fine, thank you very much, Doctor. And from now on, I suggest you use a bit more compassion - as well as some decent manners - when you address your female patients!"

  * * *

  "A Mail Order Bride?" he mother asked, bringing her hand up to her chest. "Why, I've never heard of such a thing. Mollie...surely you can't be serious, child."

  "Mama, I need a father for this child. This baby needs to be raised properly, in the eyes of God." She took a deep breath and swallowed. "And a husband for me. To take care of us."

  "Mollie, you've got us to take care of you, and the baby," her Ma said, putting her hand on her shoulder. "Don't be so silly, child. You'll live here, in our fine house, and the baby will do well here. What more could you ask for, than to have everything taken care of for you?"

  "Mama..." she whispered slowly, but her throat closed up before she could finish her sentence. There was much she wanted to say, but couldn't. The last thing she wanted was to seem ungrateful, after everything her Ma and Pa had done for her since John had died. But to stay here and raise the baby, with no father for the poor creature? She couldn't bear to do such a thing.

  "Mollie, just please, don't do anything without thinking it through. Give it till the morning. Sleep on the decision, child, please."

  But that night, Mollie drew her trunk out from underneath her bed, in the room she shared again with Annie. Annie woke and pulled her covers back, whispering quietly.

  "Mollie, can you really do this?"

  Mollie threw the clothes into her bag, not stopping to look over at Annie. "Of course I can. And I'm going to."

  "What will Ma and Pa do, when they find out? They will be frantic with worry. They wish for you to stay here with us. Please, Mollie, think of them."

  Mollie stopped throwing around her clothes, finally, and turned to look at her older sister. "Annie, I am thinking of them; that's what makes this so hard."

  Annie scoffed. "It doesn't seem as though it is very hard for you to do this."

  "Well it is." She snapped her case shut. "And I am thinking about mama and papa." She reached down and rubbed her belly. "But I'm also thinking about the baby, and what is best for him or her. And what's best is to have a father, as well as a mother."

  "But Mollie, you don't even know this man."

  "I know he is brave. A solider like John was. And I know he wants to marry me and take care of this baby." Her hand was still placed lovingly over her belly. She swallowed. "I need to go, take this chance while I can. It's best to go now, before the baby is born, so that it will be born into a proper family."

  Annie grabbed Mollie by the arm. "But you can have that here, if you stay..."

  Mollie shook her head, staring Annie straight in the eyes. "I can't. Men here aren't so willing to take on a widow with a baby, Annie. This is my best chance for a real family, of my own."

  Tears sprang to Annie's eyes. "I just can't believe this Mollie...After all that you said, how you could never love anyone again, after John died..."

  Mollie straightened herself up, placed her bag by her side, and gripped Annie by the shoulders. "I never said I had to love the man, Annie. My heart will remain my own, on that I give my promise. But I need to do what's best for my baby...what's best for John's baby." She gazed down at her stomach. "This is what John would have wanted. He wouldn't want me to stay here, lonely, like this."

  Annie's face fell. "You're lonely?"

  Mollie nodded. She picked her bag back up as Annie threw her arms around her younger sister's neck. "Oh, Mollie," she said, squeezing the girl hard. "I didn't know you were feeling like this." She pulled back, the tears streaming down her cheeks. "Go, my little sister. Go and find your happiness."

  Mollie gripped Annie's hand. "Oh, please say you are happy for me, Annie."

  Annie nodded, still gripping Mollie's hand. "I am. Go, quickly, before the others awake. I'll be praying for you, Mollie."

  Mollie picked her bag up and gave her sister one final hug. "I'll be praying for you as well, Annie."

  "Be safe, Mollie," Annie said, before Mollie broke the embrace and fled from the room, into the night.

  * * *

  2

  Thomas

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  “ My heart will remain my own, on

  that I give my promise. But I need

  to do what's best for my baby...”

  .

  White Elk,

  1871.

  Thomas Doherty headed up the hill, away from the valley where the town of White Elk sat quietly behind him, with his friend Kit in tow.

  "Forgive me for asking this, Thomas..." Kit started, and Thomas stopped walking, adjusting his hat and straightening his waistcoat when he heard the tone in Kit's voice.

  "Why are you going to need forgiveness, Kit?" Thomas asked, eyeing Kit from under the wide rim of his hat. "Is what you're about to say going to offend me?"

  Kit cleared his throat and turned towards the thick mass of blue-green pine trees ahead, the woods eerily still at that time of morning. "Not offend, I hope..."

  "Well spit it out, old man. We've got work to get to."

  "Well, it's just about this business of our brides arriving soon..." Kit said, still not looking Thomas in the eyes. "Ah, forget it, it's not my place to ask." Kit started to walk again but Thomas dug his boots into the earth.

  "Ask me what you want to ask me, Kit. You're clearly curious about something."

  "Well, it's just...I know why me and Jedediah sent for Mail Order Brides. Both of us are getting on in years, and we were badly injured in the war." He stopped and nodded at Thomas. "But you're young. Just a kid. You escaped with no injuries. Why did you decided to go in on the plan with us? It don't make no sense to me, Thomas."

  Thomas gripped his waistcoat and continued to walk again. "You're right, Kit. It isn't your place to ask."

  "Aww, come on, Thomas, I was just wondering. You've got everything going for you. Surely you could have any woman you want for a wife?"

  "We've got work to do," Thomas said quickly, walking confidently as he surveyed the land in front of them. He glanced towards the clearing, where the pine trees had already been cut. "Good," he thought. "Plenty of room for expansion there. We should be able to build four or five new houses." He nodded at the good work that Kit had done, with the help of Jedediah. As the newly appointed Sheriff of the town, Thomas was pleased to think that the town would grow soon, that they would be able to build more shops, have more farms, more trading options. "Yes, it's all going according to plan," he thought.

  "I guess I'll just get back to it then," Kit said softly, stopping when they came to the clearing. "You're right, I got plenty of work to do, and it ain't my business to be asking about your personal affairs." He turned away from Thomas and picked up his axe with his one good arm, the other lost during the war.

  Thomas sighed, feeling guilty. "Ah, it's alright, Kit. I appreciate your concern. You're likely just trying to look out for me."

  Kit turned ‘round. "You know I do consider you a kinda son to me, Thomas. I'm just wondering, is al
l. Makin' sure you know what you're getting yourself into. For the girl's sake as well as your own."

  Thomas stood silently for a moment, tilting his face up towards the thin sunlight. "And the baby's sake. She's pregnant, you know."

  Kit almost dropped his axe in his start. "Pregnant? Why, no, Thomas, I didn't know that."

  Thomas shrugged. "It's no big deal. I'm pleased to be able to marry her."

  Kit screwed up his face. "So...you're gonna be a father to this child?"

  Thomas bristled, straightening up his tie. "Yes, why do you seem so surprised to learn this?"

  Kit shrugged. "You're a little young for that, ain't ya Thomas?"

  Thomas frowned, looking down his nose at Kit. Despite being thirteen years younger than Kit, he was a good few inches taller than his former comrade. "The girl...Mollie...my bride, she's only nineteen. Not so young to be parents."

  Kit turned his head and muttered to himself. "I don't just mean your age..."

  "What was that you said?" Thomas asked.

  "Nuthin'..." Kit kept walking down towards the pine woods.

  "No, Kit, I heard you saying something. I'd much rather you said it to my face than under your breath. I thought there was more respect between us that that, after all that we've been through together."

  Kit stopped walking and turned to face his younger friend. "Sometimes I just think you go rushin' into things, getting in over your head. Getting too many grand ideas. You're just a kid still, Thomas," he said, pointing out over the town, which lay below them now in the valley. "Yet you think you got it in you to run all this. AND raise a kid of your own?" Kit shook his head. "Or rather, the kid of a man you ain't ever met. You're dreaming if you think you're going to be able to handle all that responsibility."

  Thomas was indignant. "I think you're underestimating me, Kit. I'm more than capable of taking care of this town, and this new baby." He stomped his foot in the dirt, and it echoed in the eerie stillness of the mountains, so early in the morning.

  "And your new wife," Kit added. "Did you forget about her in the bargain?"

  "No, of course not..." Thomas had to sprint to keep up with Kit, who was climbing the hill with long, quick strides. "But how difficult can it be, really?"

  Kit shrugged. "Not difficult, for a man. But you're still a boy, Thomas, in a lot of ways."

  Thomas felt himself turning red, and thought he might burst over the insult. "I fought in that war, right alongside you, Kit! If that doesn't make me a man, I don't know what does!"

  "Alright, alright, calm down." Kit held his hands up and took a step back as Thomas began to practically jump up and down. "I just meant...maybe you should give this a little more thought."

  "There is nothing to think about." Thomas turned and began to stomp up the hill. "Do you need to give your decision any more thought? You're not having second thoughts about your bride, Isabella, are you?"

  "No..." Kit admitted. "But she is not pregnant, and nineteen. She is mature, and she was a doctor back home."

  Thomas raised his eyebrows, quietly thinking that sounded like more of a handful than a pregnant bride, but he kept his opinion to himself. "Well, I don't need to think about it either. Kit, you, me - and Jedediah - are all going in on this scheme together..."

  "Scheme?" Kit asked.

  "Well, not scheme. Idea. Three brides for three comrades. I don't intend to back out now. I am going to give Mollie, and the baby, everything they need. And run this town while I'm at it."

  Kit shook his head and kept walking. He sighed to himself. "If you say so, Thomas...if you say so..."

  * * *

  3

  The Wedding Day Arrives

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  “ My heart will remain my own, on

  that I give my promise. But I need

  to do what's best for my baby...”

  .

  "Wow, a woman doctor..." Mollie said, eyes-wide, as she kept one hand over her belly. She leaned back on the rickety seat, the other hand clinging to the hand-rail, as warm air blew throughout the wagon. "Sure could have used one of those back at home..." she murmured.

  Isabella gave her a quizzical look. The older woman, kind looking, with crinkly lines around her eyes and sensible brown hair pinned back tight in a bun, asked Mollie, "So, you weren't happy with your doctor back home?" Although Isabella was also being sent rocking by the ups and downs of the wagon, she kept her hands placed firmly in her lap, her back arched straight, and her shoulders up high.

  Mollie shook her head. "He weren't real nice to me..." she dropped her head down. "Made me feel ashamed of the situation I got myself into. I would have much preferred to have a women to talk to."

  "Hey there," Isabella said, reaching over to place her hand on Mollie's. She ginned at Mollie and gave her a little wink. "You've got one now. And remember, you didn't get yourself into any situation. This isn't your fault, Mollie, that you've been widowed. I'm sure your husband was a very brave man."

  Mollie turned her face away again, her rosy cheeks whipped and lashed by the hot wind that was howling through the carriage. "How I hate this heat," she said, reaching up to dab at her forehead, hoping no sweat was showing. She glanced at the other woman, a younger girl, closer to her own age, named Susan, who dressed in modern, fancy clothes and gripped a fashionable looking bag. "Oh, I do feel so undignified, a lady in my condition, bumping up and down in a wagon like this with Susan sitting there, looking so beautiful."

  Isabella withdrew her hand and sat quietly for a moment. "You must miss him very much."

  Mollie kept her face turned down, focused on her belly. "Yes," she said quietly, her voice almost breaking as she did. "Oh, Mollie," she thought, "don't start crying now. You've only just met these two women, and they are going to think you are awful silly if you just burst into tears at the slightest provocation."

  She tried to keep her eyes focused, as she forced her mind away from thoughts of John.

  "It's okay," Isabella said. "Mollie, it's perfectly normal to still be grieving after such a terrible event."

  Mollie brought her eyes up finally, to find that Susan was also nodding at her. "It's true, Mollie. Don't worry, the two of us understand."

  Mollie sniffled. "There was a time when I thought I might mourn forever. That my heart would never be healed again. That it was so broken nothing could ever fix it..." She looked over the landscape, which was beginning to turn green, the closer to the mountains they got. She swallowed, setting her jaw firmly. "But now I know it is time to move on. I've got this baby to think about now, and my grief has to come second to finding a father for him or her." She forced her mouth into a little smile. "I can't afford to think about the past now."

  Isabella smiled back at her, thinly. "Of course. Mollie, you need to do what's best for you." Her and Susan exchanged a glance between them, and Mollie wondered if the two older women were somehow exchanging a secret language that she wasn't privy to.

  Susan leaned over and patted Mollie on the hand. "I'm sure Thomas is going to make a fine father for your baby. And a very good husband for you."

  Mollie sighed as she watched the fields in front of them turn to green. "I certainly hope so."

  * * *

  "Well how am I supposed to walk a full mile in my condition?" Mollie asked, indignant that the driver wasn't going to take them the full distance to White Elk. She turned to Isabella, her face a fit of despair. "Oh, Isabella, and the men think we are to be dropped off in town! What if we get lost?"

  Isabella let out a soft laugh, and, out of the corner of her eye, Mollie saw Susan suppress a giggle as well.

  "It's a straight road ahead," Isabella explained gently, pointing up the gravel road that was framed by a green field on either side. "Not much chance of getting lost."

  "Oh," Mollie said, dropping her head. Now she was convinced that Susan and Isabella thought she was very silly.
She glanced up. "I suppose I should have read the sign."

  Isabella placed an arm underneath Mollie to support her on the walk. As Mollie thanked her, and began the journey, she added, "Isabella, sometimes I don't know what's come over me lately. It's as though the baby has affected my thoughts at times. I get so foggy in my head, like it is full of cotton wool."

  Isabella smiled down warmly at the younger girl, with her ringlets and full, plump cheeks. "That's all perfectly normal, I'm afraid. Your doctor really didn't tell you much, did he?"

  Mollie shook her head. "Not that I minded. I didn't like being around him much." She glanced up at Isabella, as the cool air blowing in from the White Elk lake passed over both their faces. "I'm so glad to have you here with me now, Isabella. I can't tell you what a relief it is."

  Isabella gave her a squeeze. "I'm glad you're here too, Mollie. Now," she said, setting Mollie down for a moment, as three figures approached them in the distance. "I believe these are the men we came here to meet."

  Mollie gasped, and instinctively reached a hand down protectively over her belly. "Please God," she prayed. "Let Thomas be a kind and honest man, and a good father to this child."

  * * *

  Mollie was startled by how young Thomas looked. He'd said in his letters that he was twenty, but to her, he seemed a year or two younger still. "He doesn't look like someone who could have fought in a war," she thought, glancing over his flaxen blonde hair and blue eyes.

  "I wonder if he can really make a good father and husband, he looks so young."

  Thomas walked over to her and smiled at her shyly. "I'm awful glad you're here, Mollie," he said, in a voice that was a smooth, honey-like drawl, warm, and deeper than his looks would have implied. "Been waiting for you a long time."