Indiana Goes West (Mail Order Brides of Pioneer Town, Book 1)

by Ruth Hartzler

  Running at an angle to the street she had just come down, there was another street that rose to crest a hill. About halfway up the street there was a section of ruptured paved road, and sticking through the black jagged hole was a thick pipe, which had apparently just burst open. Frothy white water was rushing out of the pipe, and due to gravity, came swirling and leaping down toward Indiana and the others. It was certainly better than fire, but Indiana knew that she would be unable to stay on her feet when the water reached her, and it was due to do so within seconds.

  Indiana was thrown from her feet as the water slammed into the back of her legs, soaking her from her heel to the back of her thigh. She fell backward, splashed through the water, and came down hard on the pavement. She struggled to get her head above the water, but she couldn’t. Her lungs were burning. The water had forced itself into her mouth. It tasted dirty, having picked up a number of pollutants from the filthy city street. Her head broke the surface, and she gasped for breath.

  A young man stepped forward, and seized Indiana’s arm. She braced against the running water, which was lessening its power.

  The chilly, gray water flowed away, and was now only ankle deep. Indiana wiped her face with her hands, and took a deep breath. “Is everyone okay?” she asked the family. It seemed as though they were all accounted for.

  “Yes. Are you all right?” the red-haired woman asked, and Indiana nodded.

  “I have to find someone,” she said, and she turned and ran.

  She sloshed through the water as she went, and thankful that it was lessening. She figured that while overwhelmed, the drainage systems on the road were doing their job. The water had even been a blessing in disguise. She ran by a butcher’s shop which had clearly been ablaze. The wood was blackened and smoldering, but the flame was gone, extinguished by the flash flood and leaving nothing but thick white smoke which hung in the air.

  Indiana was beginning to despair. Everywhere she turned were people, but none of them Morgan. She went on to the hotel. Surely he would go there. When she rounded a corner and saw the place, she almost fell to her knees. Ahead of her the hotel stood, or rather, half of the building did. It was like Cade’s home, but even worse. Half the building stood as it once had, but then it stopped in jagged lines, and the other half was just gone.

  Tears stung her eyes and she placed a hand over her mouth.

  “I’m here!” a voice called from behind her, and there were so many people on the street she subconsciously didn’t let it in, figuring it was for someone else. It wasn’t until a strong hand fell on her shoulder that she turned around.

  “I’m here,” Morgan said again, looking into her eyes.

  Indiana didn’t hesitate. She leaped forward, through the foot that separated them, forcing herself into the man’s arms, wrapping her own around his neck, and their lips met and there was nothing else, if only for a moment, beside the two of them.

  “You found me!” she said when they finally pulled away from one another.

  Morgan was covered in gray dust. “I’m never letting you out of my sight again,” he said tenderly. “All I could think about was you.” Behind him the city burned, and he was backlit by orange and red and yellow. Indiana couldn’t take her eyes from him. “When I was that man’s prisoner, I wondered if that was the end, and all I thought of was you. I needed to see you again. When the ground started to shake, and the house came down, I was in the cellar. And in a way it would have been easy to just let the ground swallow me up. It wanted to. But I thought of you. I knew I had to make it, and I had to come to you. I had to ask you something.”

  Indiana looked baffled, but the man before her was sure of himself. He dropped to one knee, as a grand city continued to be ruined all around them. “Indiana, I love you more than words can say. Will you marry me?”

  Chapter 21

  Indiana’s mouth fell open. It was as if she were in a dream.

  “Yes!” she said.

  Without realizing it, Indiana parted her lips. At once, his mouth was upon hers. Their lips met tenderly. The tender touch of his lips sent her heart racing, as she returned his kiss with longing. His warm, soft lips tasted of honeyed almonds.

  It seemed like forever before Morgan pulled away. “I need you on one of those ferries,” Morgan said. “It’s going to be a long time until this city is safe. These fires will burn for days. I’ll go find your mother and your sisters. I’ll help them. But I can’t do it if I think for just one moment that you’re in trouble, that you’re not safe. Do you understand?”

  Indiana sighed. She did understand, but it didn’t mean she liked it. Still, she nodded. Above her, the sun was rising, mixing with the orange light of the burning city. She was tired. She was in fact exhausted, having been pushed to the limit of what her body and mind could handle.

  “Fine,” she said simply, as she continued to nod. “Fine. But I don’t want to go on a ferry, not without you.”

  “That’s not good enough for me,” Morgan said, shaking his head. “I don’t want you to be anywhere near this city. As your husband to be, allow me to go in and get your family to safety.”

  Indiana knew the longer she argued, the longer it would be before Morgan and her family were back, safe. She nodded. She needed to rest, and that was the absolute truth of the matter. She needed to sit. She needed to sleep.

  A police officer approached the pair. “Are you people all right?” he asked. He was older than either of them, with dark eyes and a tired look upon his face. Indiana guessed they all looked tired.

  “She’s going to need to be on the next boat out of here,” Morgan said.

  “What about you, sir?” the officer asked.

  “I have others I need to find and bring here.”

  “You’re going back in there?” the officer asked incredulously.

  “I am,” Morgan said, nodding. He was determined, and Indiana loved him for it.

  “Suit yourself,” the cop said, and then he placed a hand on Indiana’s arm. “Are you ready, miss?” he asked her.

  Indiana wanted to tell him no. She wanted to jump back into Morgan’s arms. She wanted to kiss him again, but she knew if she did that she would never let him go, and her mother and sisters would be lost forever. She just nodded at Morgan, and then turned away with the police officer and walked toward the end of one long dock.

  A ferry boat was sitting there, and passengers were being loaded into it. The line was long, and the police officer deposited Indiana at the end of it, and then went forward to help another officer lift an elderly woman across the side of the boat. Indiana was still twenty people back from the ship when the officers announced it was full and stopped more people getting on. Indiana turned and looked for Morgan, but he was long gone.

  Another ferry was ready as soon as that ferry pulled away. Indiana boarded this boat. She sat near the bow of the ship, and watched the city with tired eyes as the boat left the end of the dock. From even that slight distance, she could see the city as a whole, instead of individual streets and alleys. And it was horrifying. Her mind hadn’t stopped thinking of Morgan, but seeing just how ruined the city was, and how far the fires had spread, she thought of him anew. She was filled with worry.

  The water beneath the boat was black, even in the morning light, and churning with all the traffic in the bay. The ferry slid away from San Francisco, and Indiana shifted her body, keen on keeping the city in sight as long as possible. She wondered where Morgan was. She wondered what he was doing, and she wondered how he was going to find her family.

  Thinking of her mother, sisters, and Misty, made her think of her father. It hadn’t been many months since he had died, and still, every day, even if she wasn’t keenly aware of it, her heart hurt for him. He had been a loving, attentive father, and he was gone. She wondered what he would have done had he been alive for the earthquake. He would surely have rushed headlong into danger, wanting only to help others.

  Her father had always been a man eager to help oth
ers. He gave away a considerable amount of money each year to various charities and causes. She had never seen him walk past a beggar without dropping some amount of money into their tin cups.

  Of course, he had left his money to his only male family, but that was simply the way the world worked. It was what he was expected to do, but that didn’t mean Indiana had to like it. She pushed the thoughts from her mind. She tried to think of him how he had been, his warm smile, his jovial laugh.

  But Indiana was unable to think of her father without that small taste of bitterness, so she went back to thinking about Morgan, as the city faded away in a haze of orange behind her and the boat. At least, she was sure her father would have liked the man, and would have been excited to hear of her engagement. Indiana wondered what her mother would say, when Morgan brought her to Indiana, and she could tell her. She wasn’t sure. She found herself not really caring.

  The ferry swiftly slid out of the bay and turned, following other ferries a mile or two down the coast, where they landed in a small port town. The ground was not shaking there.

  People from the city were being put up in whatever buildings they could. Indiana was placed into a small group of five women and taken into a home, where the man of the house welcomed them and told them his wife was making some breakfast. He said that they were welcome to go to sleep in one of the two bedrooms in the back of the house, if they didn’t mind sharing beds with one another.

  Indiana headed for a bedroom, along with two other women. It was the children’s bedroom, and had two small beds in it. Indiana lay on one bed, the two other women crawled into the other bed together. They whispered quietly and it occurred to Indiana that they knew each other. Indiana was alone, and it made her feel sad all at once.

  But then thoughts of the man she loved came flooding back, and while those thoughts brought worry with them, they also brought happiness. Indiana was not alone—she realized that now. And in a time when she had certainly felt rather alone, with her father’s death and her mother’s insistence she marry a man she didn’t love, a hideous, evil man, she could have wallowed in sadness and the feeling of loneliness. But Morgan had come, like a shining beacon, and he had changed all that.

  And somehow, somewhere in Indiana’s heart, she had the assurance that Morgan would indeed come back to her. She would marry the man, sometime after he returned. She pictured him stepping off a boat, her mother and sisters alive and well because of him, stepping off behind him. He would be even dirtier, covered in soot and ash. But he was strong, and he loved her, and that was enough. Her father had told her that love was enough.

  As she fell asleep finally, her nightmare over, safe from the burning city, Indiana thought once more of her father, and remembered something he had said to her once, when her mother had been mean to her, and she had asked how he could bear to put up with her. He hadn’t been mad, and he hadn’t admonished her for her remark. He had admitted that her mother could be abrasive, but then he sat her down and spoke words that came flooding back to her, even though she did not even remember committing them to memory.

  “Love is enough,” he had said. “Love can get you through anything—worry, even death. Love is enough. Love will keep you sustained, and keep you moving. If you’re lucky enough to love someone, like I do, any faults they might have are of no matter, and it doesn’t matter where they are in the world. They will always be yours. Love is enough, my dear. Do you understand that?”

  And as Indiana closed her eyes, to open them only hours later, she smiled. She understood.

  * * * The End * * *

  Connect with Ruth.

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  The next book in the series.

  Misty’s True Love (Mail Order Brides of Pioneer Town, Book 2)

  Misty went to live with her elderly aunt after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, but when her aunt dies, Misty answers a mail order bride advertisement in the local Matrimonial News. The man is a rancher from Pioneer Town, where Indiana now lives with her new husband, Morgan.

  When Misty arrives in Pioneer Town, she is shocked but pleased to see that she already knows the man. The man’s mother is not so happy with her son’s choice of a former lady’s maid as a bride, as she has already chosen for him Rosamund Swire, a suitable woman with class and good breeding. He assures Misty he will not bend to his mother’s will, but when happiness is almost in her grasp, a devious plot brings her hopes crashing down around her.

  When Misty is accused of a wrongdoing, will her betrothed believe she is innocent, or will his mother’s hopes be realized with his attentions turning to Rosamund Swire?

  Other Books by Ruth Hartzler.

  The Amish Millers Sisters’ Christmas.

  Did you love the series, The Amish Millers Get Married?

  Find out what happens next!

  In The Amish Millers Sisters’ Christmas, the whole Miller family meets for Christmas, all the Miller sisters with their husbands and young children. Their peaceful time is shattered by their two guests, Sarah’s friend, Beth, and the Hostetlers’ cousin, Mark. Why do Beth and Mark dislike each other so much? Will their constant disagreements ruin the Millers’ Christmas?

  How will the arrival of an abandoned kitten change everything?

  #1 Best-selling series, The Amish Buggy Horse, by Ruth Hartzler.

  Faith (Book 1)

  For years, Nettie looked after her aged mother Elma, a demanding woman who did not want any involvement with the community.

  Now that her mother has died, Nettie is alone. She is regarded with suspicion by the local townspeople, and has had no visitors from her community for some years.

  Nettie’s buggy horse has gone lame and has had to be retired, but Nettie cannot afford a new horse. Just as Nettie is despairing about not having any means of transport, a lost horse appears in her driveway, bringing with him far-reaching consequences.

  Daniel Glick is drawn to the lonely figure of Nettie, but Nettie wants to be left alone.

  However, when Jebediah Sprinkler tries to force Nettie to hand over her house, Daniel springs to the rescue.

  As Nettie’s struggles mount, she has to decide whether to take the law into her own hands.

  And what will Daniel do when he discovers the secret that Nettie is hiding from him?

  #1 Best-selling series, Amish Safe House, by Ruth Hartzler.

  Amish Romantic Suspense

  Off the Grid (Amish Safe House Book 1)

  Kate Briggs is a U.S. Marshal who works in WITSEC, the federal witness protection program. After an attempt on her life, her boss sends her to live in a small Amish community until the mole in the agency is found. Will Kate, who is used to the ways of the world, be convincing as a sweet Amish woman?

  When a murder is committed in the community, how will Kate assist the handsome police officer heading up the case without revealing her true identity?

  And will Kate be able to leave behind her English ways as she finds herself off the grid in more ways than one?

  * * *

  About the Author.

  Ruth Hartzler

  Ruth Hartzler’s father was from generations of Brethren. Ruth’s mother, a Southern Baptist, had years of struggle adapting to the cultural differences, and always cut her hair, which was a continual concern to Ruth’s father’s family. Ruth was raised strictly Brethren and from birth attended three meetings every Sunday, the Wednesday night meeting, and the yearly “Conference,” until she left the Brethren at the age of twenty one. Ruth still has close friends in the Brethren, as well as the Amish, both groups having Anabaptist (literally: re-baptizers: belief in adult baptism) roots. Ruth’s family had electricity, but not television, radio, or magazines, and they had plain cars. Make up, bright or fashionable clothes, and hair cutting were
not permitted for women. Women had to wear hats in meetings (what others would call church meetings) but not elsewhere. The word “church” was never used and there were no bishops or ministers. All baptized men were able to speak (preach, or give out a hymn) spontaneously at meetings. Musical instruments were forbidden, with the exception of the traditional pump organ which was allowed only if played in the home for hymn music. Even so, singing of hymns in accompaniment was forbidden.

  Ruth Hartzler is a widow with one adult child and two grandchildren. She lives alone with her Yorkshire Terrier and two cats. She is a retired middle school teacher and enjoys quilting, reading, and writing.