[2015] Western Love

by Christian Michael

Amy Anne spent her days going back and forth between the rooms, and keeping the farm running. She would do the chores and take care of the animals, then she would go inside and take care of Mary and Jason.

  Amy didn’t know what she would do if she lost them. They were the closest thing she ever felt she had to a family, and the idea of losing them was crushing. Every day she would dutifully go into both of their rooms, hour after hour, morning, noon, and night.

  Whether it took a day, or a year, Amy was going to do everything she could to get them well again.

  Jason and Mary’s recoveries were slow. Jason got a lot worse before he got better, but Mary had a slow and steady recovery from the beginning. As soon as she was able, she helped Amy Anne with the chores around the house, and with taking care of her father.

  Amy Ann was careful not to push Mary in her interest in what she was doing, but she was always careful to answer all of Mary’s questions about her and to tell her about anything from her own past.

  Little by little, Mary started to spend more time with Amy. She would follow her around the house when she was home from school, and she would walk with Amy Anne to and from school. She even started going to church with Amy on Sundays.

  “I think Papa would like to go to church as soon as he is able. Mama… I mean my real mama… she liked to go to church, and me and Papa used to go with her. Papa stopped when Mama died though.” The more comfortable Mary was becoming with Amy, the more of a glimpse into her past Amy was able to get.

  Amy Anne didn’t ask her a lot of questions. She didn’t want Mary to feel as though she were prying, but she did always remind Mary that her mother loved her very much, and that she was glad she got to be in a part of Mary’s life, too.

  Jason clucked to the horses, making them pick up their feet faster as they headed home. It was the first Sunday Jason felt well enough to be up and out of the house, and Mary begged him to join her and Amy Anne at church. Reluctantly, he agreed, and they had gone.

  Amy Anne for the first time in her life felt completely comfortable sitting with Mary and Jason. Mary seemed to be completely happy to stand next to her, and to hold her hand when they were getting ready to go.

  Now, she rode behind them in the wagon, standing up in the back with her hand on each of their shoulders.

  “I was thinking,” Mary said, breaking the silence with her shrill little voice.

  “Yes?” Jason asked, looking back over his shoulder at her.

  “Amy… can I call you Ma?”

  Amy Anne and Jason looked at each other, Amy put her hand over her heart, and gasped. She felt her eyes well with tears, and Jason smiled.

  “I would love that,” she said.

  Mary squealed and sat down in the back of the wagon, content to now look at the rocks that slid back and forth as her father drove over the bumps in the rode. Jason put both of the reins in one hand, and used his other hand to cover Amy’s.

  For the first time in her life, Amy felt that she belonged. Jason and Mary, they felt like her family. She felt like she was a part of theirs, and she didn’t feel like she could ever go anywhere else.

  That lonely feeling was gone for good.

  Amy Anne had finally found love.

  THE END.

  Cowboy For Christmas

  Mail Order Bride

  CHRISTIAN MICHAEL

  Bianca Cassidy tried to put on a brave face for the well-wishers in the receiving line. The shock was only just starting to wear off. As much as she tried to control them, her eyes kept straying to the two large wooden caskets lined up neatly beside each other. And the small one next to them.

  God, what am I going to do?

  “Thank you for coming, Mrs. Casey. I really appreciate it.”

  “Oh my dear! You poor thing!” the little rotund woman sniffled into her lace handkerchief. “To lose your family like this!”

  Yeah, you’re really not helping me out right now!

  But of course, she couldn’t say that out loud. Bianca just nodded and hoped her smile didn’t appear too pinched. She wished it was over. She was ready to go to her room and shut the door and bury herself under her covers.

  An orphan. That’s what I am now. And I don’t even have Little Betty anymore. And those two vultures! How dare they just waltz into our house like they own it and think to stay! Oh for shame!

  Her aunt, Jessy and her greedy cow of a husband, Gerald, had moved into her house like they owned it, without so much as a by-your-leave. When her parents were still living Jessy and Gerald wanted nothing to do with them, believing themselves too good to mess with “common-folk” like May and Jim. But all that had changed when Papa had been lucky enough to strike a line of gold in the mines just two months ago. Overnight their fortunes had changed and there was now talk of getting an education for Bianca – and a good husband- and raising Little Betty up right and in style. Her parents were generous souls who gave to everyone in need in the town, even when they had little. When they became wealthy, they gave even more generously than before. Everyone loved them.

  When Jessy and Gerald heard of the news, they had become like flies in honey with mama and papa. And the poor souls had swallowed their sap, never questioning why the two vultures were all of a sudden proud to call them family. Bianca knew better. She also knew that Jessy and Gerald would soon try to marry her off to some poor fellow far away so they could keep all the money for themselves. She had heard them talk about it just the night before.

  At twenty-one, Bianca knew that she was pretty much on the shelf. When they were poor, no man wanted anything to do with her even though she was widely regarded as a beauty. When they became rich, all the eligible men began to flock to their door. But Bianca refused to let her head be turned by some man who was just after her new money. She was a practical soul. She knew that they did not truly want her. And as soon as she realized Jessy and Gerald were planning to stay, she had gone to Mama’s hiding place and took the “rainy day” cash the woman had stored in the little cubby under the floor. She hid it in her bodice and sneaked to her room; there she was astonished to find four thousand dollars in her hands. It was more than enough to last a life-time if she was careful. She could even live a little lavishly if she wanted to. Bianca had furtively hidden the funds in the bottom of her trunk under some old papers so that no one else would ever be the wiser.

  Now as she stood with Jessy and Gerald at the funeral, she was glad that she had taken the money when she had. No doubt, the Vultures would go through the rest of Mama and Papa’s money in no time at all. And their plans for Bianca probably did not include any mercy or generosity.

  I wish they were still here. Oh why did you even have to go to that place, Papa?! If you hadn’t, all of you would still be here now.

  When Papa had struck gold in the mine that everyone had thought to be useless and dry, he had gone out and bought it that same day. Since no one knew the value hidden in it, he had gotten it for the price of dirt. Then, when he began to mine the gold, the cave’s value had soared and many people wanted to buy it from him. Rather than selling, he instead took up position as an overseer of the mines and hired others to do the work for him.

  The day Bianca saw him for the last time, he had gone over to speak to the foreman about opening up another cave, connected to his own, that had just been discovered. Mama and Betty had gone with him because they were going to go shopping later for the annual town Fall Picnic and Dance. Bianca had opted to stay home because of a headache.

  When she woke up from her noon nap, and discovered no one was home, she decided to go to town herself to join her mother and sister in shopping. On the way, she saw several people milling towards the mines on the edge of town. When she heard the dreaded words “cave in” fall from the lips of several people, she had thrown caution to the wind and made her horse gallop there a frenzy.

  Everything was still a blur in her mind. The only thing she remembered clearly was seeing Papa, Mama and Betty lying prone and lifeless on the ground
and Dr. White’s old and cloudy blue eyes misting with tears when he saw her. Bianca didn’t scream or cry or anything. She had slowly and unsteadily made her way over to them. She sank to the ground and placed her head and arms on Papa’s chest for the last time and lay there until the undertaker came to take them away.

  Now here I am. All alone. Without a clue what to do.

  The funeral was over; the crowds were gone. The bodies of Mama, Papa, and Little Betty had all been laid to rest in their graves. She was back home, in her room. And the Vultures were downstairs. Bianca slowly pulled off her clothes and dressed in her regular woolen dress and stockings before getting into bed. She needed to sleep. When she woke, she would face her future again.

  That evening, Jessy, Gerald and Bianca all sat down for dinner. Jessy rang the bell for the servants to bring in the food. It was an aspect of life Bianca was not used to. Even after they had money, they lived humbly. Mama had hired a maid to help her cook and clean but she had also done a lot of the work herself. And she served the food to her family by herself as she had always done. Jessy though, loved to play Lady of the Manor. She lorded herself over the maids and demanded that they wait on her and serve her. Gerald had already set plans in motion for a contractor to come and discuss building a grand home for them because he absolutely refused to live in the “hovel” that Papa had built with his own hands, any longer than necessary.

  Over dinner, Jessy pushed some ads under Bianca’s nose.

  “Here, Be-Be dear. Take a look at these. Gerald and I think it is high time you are married. Why you are twenty-one now – almost twenty-two! You are an old maid and no one here wants to marry you – trust me, we asked – you’re too old for their tastes.”

  Bianca nodded silently. She refused to rise to Jessy’s baits. What was the use anyway? The two of them wanted to get rid of her and marriage would be an opportunity to escape. As she perused the ads, she saw that they were all for mail order brides.

  It’s not enough that I be married, they want to ship me across the country!

  “We hired an agent to help you select a man,” Gerald said as he wiped his chin of gravy. “He will be here tomorrow.”

  Select a man? As if I am choosing a horse?

  “You should be grateful, girl” he continued. “We’re settling quite a sum on you – one hundred dollars, in fact – so that, if you’re lucky, your age won’t be too much of a deterrent.”

  If you’re lucky, you mean? If I am out of the way, and some other man’s property and burden, you will have free access to Papa’s money after all.

  Bianca smiled calmly, but inside she was seething.

  “When will this agent be coming by?”

  “He will be here tomorrow morning” was Jessy’s reply.

  “Then, if you will excuse me,” Bianca said, pushing away her plate -she suddenly did not have much of an appetite - “I will like to get an early night and go through these ads before he comes.”

  Mr. Renault, a wiry man, appeared at the front door at the stroke of nine the next morning. Bianca swallowed her nervousness and rose from the settee to greet the man as he was shown in by one of the new servants. She waited patiently while Jessy gushed over the man before inviting him to take a seat.

  “Now, Ms. Bianca, your aunt here tells me you want to be a mail order bride on the frontier. That’s very courageous of you. Very courageous. We need young women like you to stand up with those brave men to settle the new lands we have acquired. ‘From sea to shining sea’ indeed!”

  Bianca smiled politely and murmured what she hoped sounded like an agreement.

  “Yes,” Mr. Renault coughed into his palm, “let’s begin then, shall we?”

  As he spoke, the man began to place several small photographs on the table, explaining a little about each man: where they were, what they did, what kind of woman they were looking for and so on.

  Many of the men were downright unpleasant to look at. Even through the black and white photos it seemed like some of them had never seen bathwater in their lives! Others were old enough to be her father or worse, grand-father. There was even one family looking for a young bride for their seventeen-year-old son! There were only three men in the stack of some fifty photos that were even mildly attractive. Of the three, only one, at twenty-seven, was close to her age, and that was the man she chose. His name was Jonah Cassidy.

  At least I won’t have to change my last name. I will always be Bianca Cassidy.

  But there was no other term for the entire charade. It was a business transaction pure and simple. The man was willing to pay one hundred and twenty-five dollars for a suitable bride – according to the agent’s discretion – to be paid to the family of the bride for the “loss of their daughter”. The agent would be paid the hundred dollars that was to be her “dowry” and Jonah Cassidy would gain a wife.

  And, dear Lord in heaven, I have gained – perhaps “been saddled with” would be more appropriate – a husband.

  Jessy told the agent that Bianca would be ready to leave in two days’ time and would arrive in Louisiana in two weeks.

  Two days?! That’s all the time I get?!

  The two days flew by in a whirl. Bianca packed everything she wanted to keep in her trunk, including a doll that belonged to Betty, and May’s porcelain hair combs, an anniversary present from Jim, which she had gifted to Bianca on her eighteenth birthday (because eighteen was the traditional age for young women to marry). She also took Jim’s Bible; it was old and worn and well-loved. He had read from it, for them, every night after dinner and had counseled the family on how to live according to it.

  Jessy had refused to allow her to buy a few new articles of clothing, stating it was a waste of precious money. Apparently though that thought had obviously not crossed her mind when she bought a small hat with ostrich plumes on it that very morning for an exorbitant amount of money. Bianca was instead left to mend some of her old and torn petticoats by the light of a candle.

  She now regretted putting off buying new clothes when May had told her to. At that time, what she had suited her just fine. But Bianca found herself wanting to look a little nicer for when she met her new husband to be in the hopes that this match which started out as a business transaction would become much more. She found some old clothes in May’s trunk which fit her and decided to take it because if it was altered properly, it would look almost newly fashionable.

  Friday came and Jessy and Gerald loaded Bianca onto the train with as much tender loving care as they would show a sack of potatoes. Luckily some of the neighbors and friends were there on hand and treated her much more caringly. They wished her all the best and stuffed her hands with as much tiny packages of food as she could carry. Bianca hugged everyone, even Ms. Casey, with genuine warmth. She was really going to miss them. When the whistle blew the warning signal, Bianca boarded the train with a little anxiety in her heart. She knew she was saying good-bye to her girlhood for the last time. It was time to face the new chapter in her life.

  Two weeks later, Bianca arrived in Louisiana. She had altered the last of her mother’s dresses the day before on the train and now sat in the soft pink crinoline gown waiting for the train to come to a stop. As passengers got off the train, she took the time to look around at the little depot and the people milling about. Some were shopping in the stores, men were coming out of saloons with bottles and pipes in hand. There was a tiny white dog yapping after the heels of a little girl who was trailing behind her parents sipping on the new novelty, ice cones. As she took in the sights and sounds, her eyes came to rest on a man standing at the docking station looking over every woman that came off the train.

  Jonah Cassidy.

  My, he is handsome. I rather like that stubble on his jaw, makes him look manlier somehow.

  He had broad shoulders and powerful legs. When he paced around the dock his legs ate up the breadth of it in long easy strides. His face was all angular lines and harsh planes, as if he didn’t smile much, but there was st
ill a beauty to it she could not describe. With a deep breath, Bianca got up and walked off the train. Jonah saw her almost immediately. She nodded to him as he came her way.

  “Madam Bianca?” he asked. When she nodded again, he let out a breath of air and held out his hand. “Pleased to meet you ma’am. Thank you for answering my ad. I am glad you are finally here.”

  Bianca smiled at him and greeted him in kind.

  Well at least he is nice. Thank you, Jesus!

  He showed her to his carriage and then went back to the ticket master to collect her bags. After they were loaded on the back of the cart, he climbed in beside her. With his powerful frame next to her and his strangely unique scent surrounding her, Bianca suddenly found it quite difficult to breathe.

  In through the nose and out through the mouth, Bianca, it’s not that hard.

  As he drove, Jonah pointed out the sights around town. The low rumble of his voice made her tingle all over and she couldn’t fully focus on what he was saying.

  Jonah, for his part was also having difficulty talking. Or rather, shutting up. He was usually not one to ramble but he couldn’t seem to help himself around Bianca. She was beautiful, not at all what he expected. He had seen other mail-order brides and they were usually women, at least in these parts, who could not get a man any other way.

  She’s just another pretty face, Old Man. Calm down. You don’t need to go around being attracted to her. She’s just supposed to be a wife, someone to help you around the house, nothing more, and nothing less. Keep it professional. Yes. Professional.

  When Jonah’s voice trailed off into silence, Bianca heaved a silent sigh of relief. At least now she only had to focus on breathing and not also on responding to what the man was saying! But honestly, she was grateful she was attracted to him, maybe there was an opportunity to make this into a real marriage, based on friendship, at least, if not love.