“You had given up all hope that John would have come home alive?” she asked him.
“No,” he said walking into the room to stand beside her. “I had given up all hope of him finding a woman worthy of carrying his child but you prove my fears unfounded almost every day.”
She turned to him. “There is a sadness about you Clive, a sadness that I am almost certain is not your own. Will you tell me someday what it is about?”
He smiled at her and turned to leave the room. “Maybe one day I won’t have to.”
His response was one of a contented sigh and she looked forward to life in this house. When she felt John’s hand encircle her waist moments later she smiled.
“I thought you had been to work,” she said leaning back against him.
“I was, but I found I wanted to be no place that you were not, and so I came home.”
*****
THE END.
Finding My True Love
Mail Order Bride
CHRISTIAN MICHAEL
Chapter 1
Melissa Thomas woke to the day she had long dreaded; she could feel it as soon as she opened her eyes. Even as the sun shone and glittered through the glass of her bedroom window, she knew this was not going to be a good day.
At breakfast, her parents were quieter than normal, returning her greeting and not much more. She watched them for furtive glances or any sign that she might be right in her supposition. They didn't show any outward signs of the conspiracy they were part of.
When breakfast was over her father folded up his newspaper and turning to her said with a broad smile,
“We have good news.” Melissa’s stomach turned upside down and she felt like what she had eaten could make itself known in the room once more.
“For who?” she managed to splutter.
“For you of course darling,” her mother said laughing lightly.
“M Turner has come to ask for your hand and I have accepted his proposal,” her father said, and then as if that was the end of the matter he stood up, pulled straight his waistcoat and was about to walk away when Melissa said,
“You said yes, without even discussing it with me?” She was incredulous. Though she had suspected this was long coming she had not expected that it would all be decided without so much as a word of input from her.
“I don’t need to discuss anything with you dear,” he answered her dismissively. She looked to her mother for some support but there was none coming from that quarter.
“But I dislike that man immensely,” she whined.
“You do not even know that man,” her father said.
“All the more reason why I shouldn’t be marrying him!”
“I know him well; he is a decent man and he will provide for you. All that will be asked of you is to keep his house and cook for him.”
“What about love?” she said.
“This is not some fairytale,” he scoffed and this time, before she could say anything else, he did leave the room. Melissa looked to her mother for support,
“This is the furthest thing from a fairytale,” Melissa said imploringly.
“It is time for you to grow up Melissa,” her mother said. “You need to start a family of your own and Mr. Turner is very well thought of in town.”
“Very wealthy you mean,” Melissa sulked. Her mother walked around the table and put a hand on Melissa’s shoulder.
“I know this can be a scary time, but you will spend some time with him now and you will see what he is really like,” she said.
“What if I still don’t like him after that?”
“You will,” her mother assured her. “Now you run along after your breakfast and put on a lovely dress. Mr. Turner will be here to see you this afternoon.”
“Today?” Melissa asked; it was all starting so soon, just like that.
“Yes, you are courting now,” her mother said smiling.
In her room after breakfast, Melissa looked through all of her clothes. She was trying to see which one looked the worst on her, gave her the most unflattering figure or showed up her pale coloring. She wanted to look as unappealing as possible for Mr. Turner in the hope that he would be turned off her and change his mind.
Her mother arrived in her room at about midday and looked at the disarray of the bed and floor.
“Have you still not dressed?” she asked seeing her daughter in a hideous dress that no longer fitted her.
“I am dressed,” Melissa smiled back at her.
“You are not wearing that horrid thing!” her mother said coldly.
“Why not?” Melissa asked innocently.
“I know what you are trying to do Melissa, and it will not work.”
“Wha…”
“Mr. Turner has seen you plenty of times before, he knows how you normally look, and I will remark in his presence today, if I must, that you have dressed poorly on purpose,” her mother said. Melissa conceded defeat and put on one of her nicer dresses and her mother tied up her hair and soon it was announced that Mr. Turner had arrived.
They came down the stairs and into the drawing room where her father and Mr. Turner were waiting. Turner stood up smiled at the two women as they came in, but even in this Melissa could see nothing pleasant. She had always hated the habit Turner had of ordering the help in this house around as if it were his own and she saw his smiles more as sneers that anything benevolent.
“Ms. Thomas,” Mr. Turner said, “You look splendid!” Melissa nodded but then felt a sharp jab in her back from her mother. It was so hard she took a step forward,
“Thank you, Mr. Turner,” she said turning and scowling at her mother.
“Why don’t we leave these two alone for a few moments, I’m sure they have much to discuss,” her father said. Melissa looked at both him and her mother as they smiled blandly and left the room. She turned back to Mr. Turner, who was still standing.
“Why don’t you come and sit, dear?” he said indicating the seat her father had just vacated. She came over slowly and sat down not looking at him. “I dare say this came as something of a shock to you?” Turner said smiling.
“Yes, sir,” she answered timidly.
“You don’t have to be frightened of me,” he said.
“I’m not,” she said looking at him. He was taken aback by her answer; it was clear he had not expected it. His face changed, he was not a man for surprises,
“Perhaps you should be,” he said meanly. She blushed and looked at the floor again. “This is not an ideal match for me either,” he went on, “But, you are young and healthy and your father is not a poor man. You will do well around the house and I can have some boys to pass my business on to.” Melissa was horrified at the way he was talking to her, and how he viewed her as no more than a means to an end, and as some house servant. Again, she wondered how her father could have gone along with this ludicrous idea. At least, she thought, Mr. Turner seemed to acknowledge that this was not a good match for her.
“Surely there is someone else who would suit you better than I?” she asked. He glared at her but this time, she held his gaze.
“How dare you,” he said, “Questioning me is one thing I will not permit, do you understand me?” His voice was level but his cheeks were glowing red and she could see the fury in him. She nodded meekly, she knew that there was no hope of finding any happiness with this man. If no one was going to help her, she was going to have to come up with a way out herself.
Chapter 2
Roger Fulton lived in California; he had been out west for seven years now and he worked on a large ranch south of San Francisco. He had worked hard and set himself up in a nice house on the main street of town. He had been unlucky in love and now with barely any unattached women in town, he was in something of a pickle. He did not want to have to leave town as he liked the place here. He liked the people and the life and especially the climate.
One day while he was in the saloon a man he knew called Jackson came up to him,
/> “Aren’t you going to congratulate me?”
“For what?”
“I’m getting married!” Jackson beamed.
“What? To who?” Roger asked; he had not even known Jackson was courting anyone, let alone was close to being engaged.
“Her name is Sandra, she’s from New York; she will arrive here in a week’s time,” his friend told him.
“I don’t understand,” Roger said, “Where did you meet this woman?”
“I sent off to one of those papers,” he said.
“What papers?” Roger really was lost now. Jackson leaned over to the bar and called the tender,
“Hey, Barney, do you have a ‘Matrimonial Times’ behind the bar?” The bartender leaned back and looked under the bar at the newspapers he gathered up sometimes to keep the place a little tidier. He pulled one loose and tossed it to Jackson,
“Here you go,” he said,
“Thanks,” Jackson said and then handing the newspaper to Roger said, “Look at this.”
Roger took the newspaper and scanned through it. It was filled with adverts of people seeking husbands and wives; he was shocked; he’d never heard of such a thing. He knew in that instant that this was how he was going to go about getting a wife of his own. He smiled widely and looked at his friend once more,
“Congratulations,” he said, “A round of drinks!” he called to the bartender and a cheer went up from a couple of people who were there.
The next day he worked at the ranch and all day long he only thought about what he would write in his advert. It was turning out to be harder than he had expected. He did not like to talk about himself but that was unavoidable in this case. Everything he came up with that he thought he would write sounded terrible to him and he grew frustrated. When he got home that evening, he looked at the copy of the newspaper that he had taken from the bar and read the adverts of other men to get a flavor of what to write. An awful lot of them were very similar but he guessed there were a lot of guys who lived very similar lives out here in the west. He wrote down what he thought was best and the following day he posted his advert to the newspapers offices.
A couple of weeks later he received a reply thanking him for his submission and telling him that his advert would run in the newspaper at the end of the month. It felt very real all of a sudden and he grew nervous. He hadn’t told anyone what he had been doing and he was afraid of what people might say. Jackson’s fiancé had arrived in town and they were already wed and everyone had been so nice to her. She was a lovely girl and Roger could only hope to meet someone like her in this way. The letter from the newspaper had told him to expect a lot of replies so he hoped that they were right and in those replies, there would be one who would be the woman he was looking for.
He bought the newspaper at the end of the month and he gazed lovingly at his advert. It was smaller than he had imagined it would be but he had faith that it would be seen. He wondered if at that very moment someone back east was holding this same newspaper and seeing his advert and saying to themselves ‘this seems like the man for me.’ He smiled at his own silliness and put the paper away. Now he would have to wait and see if what the people at the newspaper said was true.
Chapter 3
Melissa was in the back of Turner’s carriage when it took a turn she was not expecting. She looked at Turner,
“Where is the driver taking us?” she asked.
“We are going to my office for a little. I have not been in there today and there are a few people I want to talk to.”
“Can you drop me home first?”
“No, you can come and see where the money that will now be going towards feeding and keeping you is coming from. My office could do with a little tidy while you are here; you won’t be bored,” he said without even looking at her. The carriage pulled up outside of the newspaper offices and he got out and waited for her without offering assistance. She got out awkwardly and stepped down to the ground. As soon as her feet touched the ground Turner was marching inside the building and leaving her behind once more. Mellissa thought this was terribly rude, but it was what she had come to expect of him. He was a capricious man who had to have everything his own way, and he would go into a fit like a small child if he did not get it. She hurried behind him as quickly as she could without actually running and she saw him go up rickety stairs that ran up the side wall. She followed and found him outside an office talking to a man who was ink-stained all over.
“This is my office,” Turner said to her when he noticed she was there, “Do what you can but don’t touch anything on my desk, you hear?”
“Yes,” she agreed meekly and she went into the office and looked around. Turner was shouting at someone down on the printing floor now and he stormed off in that direction. Melissa looked around the office and she knew that no matter what she might do in here, he would not notice it. She peered at the papers on his desk in the hope that something interesting might catch her eye but there was nothing like that at all. She sat down on the couch that ran along the wall. As she did, she heard the crumple of newspaper underneath her. She pulled it out to look at it and saw it was like no newspaper she had ever seen. It was called ‘Matrimonial Times’ and inside it was covered page to page with adverts for people looking for a husband or a wife! She could not believe that such a thing existed. She looked through it at a glance; she was fascinated. There were so many people looking for someone.
Melissa must have been looking at it for some time when she heard Turner’s voice and knew he was returning. She stood up and looked for something she could do to make it look like she had been busy but he arrived at the door too quickly for her. She stood there with only the newspaper in her hands; she had forgotten to let go of it when she stood up, and a guilty look on her face. He looked at her in amusement and nodded to the paper,
“Looking for some pig farmer out west?” he sneered. Melissa didn’t know what he was talking about for a moment but then she caught on.
“I never knew such newspapers were printed,” she said.
“They are one of our best-selling titles at the moment,” he laughed. She could see that he didn’t see the romantic side of this, of how people all over America needed to have someone in their life and the lengths they would go to ensure that they did. “You can take that one as a souvenir,” he said to her. He looked around the office and nodded as though he was happy with something; he must have thought she had done some tidying for him while he was downstairs.
Later that evening, when her father went out to his club, Melissa sat by the fire and looked through the newspaper. She simply couldn’t get enough of it. She imagined all the people who placed the ads, what they must be like, how happy they would be when someone answered. Then she thought of her own sad predicament; trapped in an engagement to a man she had no hope of ever loving. If only one of these men in the newspaper would take her away from her life.
As she thought this, a plan suddenly sprang up in her mind – what was stopping her from replying to one of these adverts. If she could correspond with a good and honest man, she could find someone who will make her truly happy. Her heart beat faster at the thought of this; it suddenly felt like this was what she was destined to do all along. One had stuck in her mind from her first reading the paper earlier today, and now she sought out the ad with a new sense of purpose. She found it quickly; the man’s name was Roger Fulton and he worked as a ranch hand. His ad was simple and to the point and it seemed to her that he was laying all his cards on the table. Something in this easy honesty screamed that he was the man for her.
Melissa got some paper and some ink and she set about writing a response to him. It took her all evening, four drafts, and kept her up past her usual bedtime. She burned the discarded drafts in the dying fire and then put away the remaining paper and ink. She put the letter in an envelope and hid it amongst the clothes in her dresser; the last thing she needed was for anyone to find out what she was doing.
Next mornin
g after breakfast she crept out of the house and walked the short distance to town where she posted a letter in the post office. The whole time she had been walking with the letter in her hand she had been terrified. She felt like she was a spy delivering some secret communiqué behind enemy lines. Thankfully she saw nobody she knew and the letter was finally out of her possession. As she made her way back home it hit her for the first time just what she had done; she had set the course of her life on a new path, one that did not discount the notion of love out of hand.
Chapter 4
Roger Fulton received a steady stream of replies in the weeks after his ad ran in the newspaper. He was pleasantly surprised by both the number and the quality of the women who answered him. Each night when he had finished work he would sit down, read the letter he had received that day and write a response. It was tiring work but he felt it would be rude if he did not reply to each letter he received. One letter had struck a chord with him, and this girl – Melissa – from New York really spoke to him. His friend, Jackson, told him that he shouldn’t narrow this focus to just one girl just yet. Roger took his advice very soon it was clear that Melissa was the one he spent all his time thinking about.
He had spent more time on his reply to her, and any of the other letters and he was much more careful with his spelling, grammar and handwriting. He went into more detail about his work day, the town he lived in, and the people he worked for. He told of his little house just off the town and how he hoped to expand this if he were married so that it will accommodate a family more comfortably
The correspondence continued over the next few weeks and months and he grew to feel he knew Melissa more and more. He had a sense of what she looked like and he just knew in his heart that should he ever meet her; she would look just that way. After many letters had exchanged hands, and he had long since ceased communication with any other woman, Roger finally got up the courage to ask Melissa to marry.
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