A Wild West wedding!
Thomas Greenwood expected his mail-order bride to be plain and pregnant—not a willow-slim beauty! She’s clearly no practical farmer’s wife, but she’s his chance finally to have a loving family...
Runaway heiress Charlotte Fairfax fled the possibility of a forced marriage, yet now, assuming a stolen identity, she’s wed to a stranger the moment she steps off the train! She plans to stay only until it’s safe to leave. Except marriage to kindhearted Thomas is far more complicated—and pleasurable—than she ever imagined!
The Fairfax Brides
Three sisters find rugged husbands
in the wild Wild West
Beautiful heiresses Charlotte, Miranda and Annabel Fairfax have only ever known a life of luxury in Boston. Now orphaned and in danger, they are forced to flee, penniless and alone, into the lawless West. There they discover that people will risk all for gold and land—but when the sisters make three very different marriages to three enigmatic men, they will each find the most precious treasure of all!
Read Charlotte and Thomas’s story in
His Mail-Order Bride
Available now
Look out for
Miranda and James’s story
and
Annabel and Clay’s story
coming soon!
Author Note
I’ve always loved Westerns, and when I started writing historical romance, Western settings were the natural choice. The idea behind His Mail-Order Bride is simple: a young woman on the run assumes another woman’s identity—an action that lands her in trouble and leads to difficult moral choices.
Charlotte Fairfax is a complex heroine. Born to wealth but then deprived of every security she is accustomed to, she needs to evolve from a naive, innocent heiress into a resourceful young woman who is able to support herself in the frontier.
To contrast with Charlotte, Thomas Greenwood is a straightforward hero. He has had a tough life, filled with rejection and hard work. All he wants is a woman of his own. A wife. A companion. Someone to love. Someone to help with the chores.
When dainty, whimsical Charlotte turns up instead of the sturdy mail-order bride Thomas has been expecting, his life turns into chaos, in more ways than one.
In the opening scene of His Mail-Order Bride you’ll meet Charlotte’s sisters: the feisty, daring Miranda and the clever but highly strung Annabel. They deserved their own stories, which became a trilogy, The Fairfax Brides. At the end of Annabel’s story comes a solution to the family feud that forced the girls to flee to the West.
I hope you enjoy His Mail-Order Bride and will want to go on to read Miranda’s and Annabel’s stories.
Tatiana
March
His Mail-Order Bride
Before becoming a novelist, Tatiana March tried out various occupations, including being an accountant. Now she loves writing Western historical romance. In the course of her research, Tatiana has been detained by US border guards, had a skirmish with the Mexican army and stumbled upon a rattlesnake. This has not diminished her determination to create authentic settings for her stories.
Books by Tatiana March
Harlequin Historical
The Fairfax Brides
His Mail-Order Bride
Harlequin Historical Undone! eBooks
The Virgin’s Debt
Submit to the Warrior
Surrender to the Knight
The Drifter’s Bride
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For my sister,
who likes sea shanties.
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Excerpt from Surrender to the Marquess by Louise Allen
Chapter One
Boston, Massachusetts, May 1889
Charlotte Fairfax stood on the balcony at Merlin’s Leap, her hands clasped around the stone balustrade. Down in the restless ocean, waves crashed against the cliffs with an endless roar. Spray flew up in white columns. A chilly mist hung in the air. In the distance, the lighthouse at Merlin’s Point, not yet lit up for the night, silhouetted against the dark bank of clouds.
Morbid thoughts filled Charlotte’s mind. A hundred years ago her ancestor, Merlin Fairfax, had leaped to his death from this very spot. Had he been pushed, as his widow claimed? Had his younger brother murdered him? Rumors persisted even today, suggesting that he had.
Did cruel nature pass down through generations?
Was one branch of the Fairfax family tainted with evil?
How far might Cousin Gareth go to get his hands on her inheritance?
A tap on her shoulder made Charlotte jolt and cry out in alarm. She whirled around, fear throbbing through every muscle. Her shoulders sagged with relief when she saw her sister Miranda.
“You scared me.” Her words came on a nervous sigh. “I didn’t hear you open the door.”
“Come inside,” Miranda said. “We need to talk.”
Charlotte followed her sister into the upstairs parlor that overlooked the ocean. Through the wide bay window, she could see a flock of seagulls dipping and wheeling over the foaming whitecaps, could hear the muffled sounds of their screeching.
Built of gray stone, solid as a fortress, Merlin’s Leap stood on a rocky headland just north of Boston. All three Fairfax sisters had been born in the house, had enjoyed a happy childhood there, and had been looking forward to entering adulthood. And then, everything had changed four years ago, when their parents drowned in a boating accident.
The middle sister, Miranda, was the tallest, and the only one who took after their father. Blonde, blue-eyed, she looked elegant and feminine, but she could outrun, outride and outshoot most of the men on the estate.
At twenty-four, Charlotte was the eldest. Small and slender, with curly dark hair and hazel eyes, she was dreamier than her sisters, and less practical. When circumstances called for it, though, the stubborn streak that usually remained hidden behind her gentle facade came out, turning her into a fighter.
Annabel, the youngest, was only eighteen. She shared the same petite frame and dark coloring as Charlotte, but her hair was straight instead of curly. They were alike in personality, too, quieter, not nearly as bold or feisty as Miranda.
In the parlor, the big stone fireplace had been lit in deference to the cool spring day. Annabel stood by the hearth, a wool shawl wrapped around her threadbare gown. The rigid set of Annabel’s shoulders and her fraught expression filled Charlotte with alarm.
We need to talk, Miranda had said.
Not sisterly gossip.
But the kind of talk that altered lives.
Her pulse accelerating, Charlotte hurried across the room to her youngest sister. She halted beside Annabel in front of the fire and held
her hands out to the flames, fortifying herself.
Miranda tiptoed to the entrance and peeked into the corridor to make sure the housemaids were not spying on them. Then, taking care not to make a sound, she closed the door and returned to her sisters.
Turning to Charlotte, Miranda spoke bluntly. “You have to leave today.”
The fear inside Charlotte knotted tighter. “What did you find out?”
“Cousin Gareth has given the servants the day off on Saturday. He has given them money to spend, and offered them the use of the carriage to go into Boston.”
“He is getting everyone out of the way,” Annabel said. “He’ll ravish you, and then you’ll have to marry him, and he’ll get his dirty paws on Papa’s money.”
Charlotte flinched. Annabel was too young for such talk, but she had been the one to walk in on them and rescue her a week ago, the first time Cousin Gareth had tried to force his attentions on her. Gareth had been pursuing her since Mama and Papa died, but only recently had he made it clear that he would use any means to achieve his aim.
“At least the two of you are safe from him,” Charlotte reminded her sisters. “I don’t agree with the old English custom of leaving everything to the firstborn, but Papa did, and that means I’m the only one in danger.”
Miranda’s elegant features puckered into a frown. “Papa was a fool not to trust young women to manage their own fortune. You don’t get the money until you’re twenty-five, but if you marry your husband will get everything at once. Gareth has been gambling. He is in debt and desperately needs funds.”
“And he knows that on my next birthday we’ll be rid of him.” Anger rose in Charlotte. “I’ll throw him out of Merlin’s Leap. He’s been living on Papa’s money and keeping us prisoners here. One more year, and then we’ll be free of him.”
“He knows that,” Miranda said bleakly. “That’s why he is getting desperate. You’ll have to leave at once and find a safe place to hide from him. I stole a gold piece from his pocket this morning. Before the end of the day he’ll notice it’s gone.”
“How can I get away?” Charlotte spread her hands in a futile gesture. “Cousin Gareth has the footmen and the grooms watching every move we make. Even the cook and the housemaids are spying on us.”
Miranda leaned closer to her eldest sister and lowered her voice. “Annabel and I will distract the servants, so you can slip out. You must shelter in the forest and walk all the way to Boston. Once you get to the railroad station, you can blend in with the crowd and take a train to someplace where people don’t know you.”
“But I’ll only have ten dollars!”
“Twenty,” Miranda said. “The gold piece I stole was a double eagle.” She shifted her shoulders in an impatient gesture that brushed aside the obstacle of lack of funds. “You’ll have to find a safe place to hide, and come back to Merlin’s Leap next year, after your birthday, when you can claim your inheritance.”
“You can dress in boy’s clothing and—”
Miranda cut off Annabel’s excited chatter. “No, she can’t. She needs to look like a respectable lady. An educated person who can get a job as a governess or teacher, or a lady’s maid.”
“I can’t...” Charlotte inhaled a deep breath. “I wouldn’t know what to do...where to go...how to find a suitable position...”
“You have to,” Miranda said. “We can’t come with you, as we need to distract the servants so you can escape. If you stay here, Cousin Gareth will force you to marry him. You’ll be tied to him for the rest of your life.” Her tone hardened. “Of course, you can just let him bully you, and take Papa’s money, and anything else he might want.”
Like always, Miranda knew how to stir up courage in her sisters. Charlotte fisted her hands into the worn fabric of her ancient wool gown. One of Gareth’s petty tyrannies had been not to let them have any money, or buy anything new since their parents died. Up to now, they’d had enough to eat, but Charlotte suspected starvation might be his next weapon.
“All right,” she said. “I’ll go and pack.”
I’ll go and pack. Just like that. The end of one life and a leap into the unknown—perhaps not as drastic as a leap from the balcony into the churning ocean below, but equally frightening to Charlotte.
“But what about you...” She swallowed the lump of fear that clogged her throat. “What if Cousin Gareth takes out his fury on you? He might suspect you know where I’ve gone to and try to beat the information out of you.”
“Beat the information out of me?” Miranda’s tone held scorn. “I’d like to see him try.” She raised a clenched fist. “I haven’t forgotten those boxing lessons I got from the Irish stable lad when I was small. If Gareth lays a finger on me, I’ll punch him right on the nose.”
“I don’t think he’ll bother us.” Annabel spoke slowly, mulling it over. “He is not a violent man, but a scheming one. He’ll see no benefit in harming us. He’ll leave us alone because he’ll be too busy trying to find you.”
“I think the same,” Miranda said firmly. “He’ll rant and rave and then he’ll take off to the nearest Pinkerton bureau and hire detectives to track you down. And that means you’ll have to be very careful not to leave a trail.”
Charlotte suppressed her misgivings. Most likely, Annabel and Miranda were right. Moreover, as the heiress she was responsible for Papa’s money. The best way to protect her sisters was to stop Cousin Gareth from getting his hands on their fortune, and that meant she had to leave, go into hiding, just as they had agreed.
Miranda glanced at the grandfather clock ticking in the corner of the room. “You must be ready to slip out exactly at one o’clock. The servants will be sitting down for their lunch. Annabel will create a commotion in the kitchen. I’ll set fire to the papers on Gareth’s desk in the library. I have a bottle of lamp oil put aside for the purpose. You have less than ten minutes to get out of the house and down the gravel drive and into the shelter of the forest.”
Miranda stopped talking. Her arms came around Charlotte in a fierce hug. For a few seconds, they held on to each other. Charlotte inhaled the familiar scent of the lavender soap they all used and drew courage from the feel of her sister’s warmth.
Then Miranda released her grip and stepped back.
“Go,” she said. “We have no time to waste.”
Annabel took her turn to hug Charlotte, clinging tight with trembling arms. The excitement she’d shown only moments ago had dissolved into weeping. The most sensitive of them, Annabel sometimes appeared high-strung, but it might have merely been her youth.
“I’ll write to let you know where I am,” Charlotte said. She saw Miranda scowl and hurried to reassure her. “I know Cousin Gareth will intercept the mail. I’ll find a way to write and let you know I’m safe.”
Miranda gave a quick nod, blinking back tears. Charlotte was surprised to remain dry-eyed, but she suspected her calm was far from natural. The terror of what she was about to do had rendered her too numb to feel anything else.
“Emily Bickerstaff,” Annabel said through her sobs. “When Mama and Papa insisted you try out that horrible boarding school, Emily Bickerstaff was the nearest you had to a friend. If you write to us under that name, we’ll know it’s you, and we can read between the lines.”
“Excellent suggestion,” Miranda said. “Take note of that, Charlotte. Write to us using the name Emily Bickerstaff, or mention her name in the letter.”
“I’ll remember.” Charlotte forced a shaky smile for the benefit of the weeping Annabel. Sometimes they forgot that when their youngest sister managed to control her volatile emotions, she was the cleverest of them all.
Miranda went to the door, eased it open and glanced down the hall once more to make sure no one had been listening. Turning to look back, she signaled with her hand. Charlotte walked out of the parlor, her heart hammering against
her ribs as she headed along the deserted corridor toward her bedroom. If things went badly, the sisters might never see each other again.
* * *
Charlotte stood waiting by the tall window in the hall, hidden behind the thick velvet drapes. She wore leather half boots, a pale gray blouse, a green wool skirt and a jacket to match. Her oldest clothing. Something to blend in with the crowd. She’d packed a small traveling bag that contained a pair of kid slippers, two extra sets of underwear, a nightgown, another blouse, and a few toilet articles and personal treasures.
The clock chimed to announce the full hour. One o’clock. Charlotte strained her ears. A few seconds later, a high-pitched shriek came from the direction of the kitchens. Then a hysterical voice yelled something about a mouse. Well done, Annabel, Charlotte thought. A rodent would send the servants scurrying.
She could hear more voices, this time from the other end of the house. Masculine shouts. Then the tinkle of breaking glass and the acrid smell of smoke. Charlotte took a deep breath and emerged from behind the curtain. She hurried to the front door, unlatched the lock and darted out and clattered down the stone steps, speed more important than moving without a sound.
Her running footsteps crunched along the gravel drive. Arrow straight, the drive seemed to stretch ahead endlessly. In the sky the clouds had thickened, and were now shedding a fine drizzle that bathed the landscape in a curtain of mist.
Charlotte veered left, across the lawns, toward the forest. Her heels sank into the soft earth. The wide brim of her bonnet protected her face from the rain, but she could feel the dampness penetrate her clothing. Already, her skirts were heavy and clinging, hampering her speed.
The line of trees ahead formed a green wall that didn’t seem to get any nearer as she hurtled along. Her bag bounced against her thighs, a painful slam at every step. She didn’t dare to look back over her shoulder to see if anyone was watching. She simply ran, legs pumping, muscles straining, skirts flapping. It seemed an eternity before she reached the thick canopy of the forest and dived into its shelter.
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