Angie's Hope (Valentine Mail Order Bride 7)

by Lorena Dove

  Henry looked at their joyful faces and relaxed. The reality that his gold claims were real began to sink in.

  “What am I thinking, I’m in debt to you, Cal,” Henry said. He stepped forward to shake his hand but found himself embracing the young man whom his sister so loved.

  “Never in debt, Henry.” Cal said. “Sherman Adams cheated me too. And, I think my reward is worth more than gold.” He turned to Angie.

  “Angie, will you marry me? I love you and want you to be mine.”

  “Yes, Cal. I will marry you! I love you too, and have, since the moment I first read your reply to my letter.” Angie’s face glowed with happiness.

  Nancy squeezed her arm with excitement. “I can’t wait to write Mother,” Nancy said. “They can come here for the wedding, Angie, and we can plan it out…”

  “If it’s all right with you, Henry. I’d like to marry Angie right now. I don’t want to take any chances on a woman who’s had three engagements. Especially around Valentine’s Day. There might yet be another suitor waiting in the wings.”

  “Cal!” Angie laughed and smacked him on the arm.

  Henry burst out laughing. “Yes, yes! The minister is ready, after all. Nancy my girl, we’ll plan a great festivity, but you can see the lovebirds must have their way.”

  “Then I can at least be your maid of honor,” Nancy said. “And won’t Mae, Jewell, Caroline, Maddie and Sarah be surprised!”

  “Yes, they will,” Angie smiled back at her. “I pray they are each as happy as I am today.”

  ~~THE END~~

  Thank you for reading Angie’s Hope! This book is part of the Valentine’s Mail Order Bride series by the Sweet & Clean Book Club.

  The bestselling authors in the Sweet & Clean Book Club love to collaborate on romance and other stories. We share characters, locations, and all sorts of details. You can learn more about the other books in this Valentine’s Day series at our Facebook page and on our Amazon page.

  Authors in this series are:

  Lorena Dove

  Annie Boone,

  Christina Ward,

  Jackie Marie Stephens

  Trinity Bellingham

  Kate Cambridge

  Faith Parsons

  About the Sweet Land of Liberty Brides Series

  Book One: Giovanna: The Cowboy’s Calabrese Mail Order Bride Read free Chapter One below!

  Book Two: Nathalie: The Circuit Rider’s Rhineland Mail Order Bride

  Thank you for reading my books in the Sweet Land of Liberty Brides series. This series highlights the courage and travails of first-generation Americans as they brought the customs, language, religion and pride of their native countries to the open lands of the great American west. These hardy and loving people formed the backbone of the young nation as they blended lives together in America’s “melting pot.” This series is a pleasure to write and if you enjoy it, please add an Amazon review to let others know.

  To find out when the next book will be released and receive sneak peek chapters and other unique content, join my Readers’ Appreciation email list at www.LorenaDove.com. I will never send spam or share your email with others.

  About the Author

  Lorena Dove has been reading and dreaming about living during the great westward migration since she was a young child growing up in New York and then Virginia. A descendent of Italian and German immigrants, she enjoys the interplay of cultures and passing down of traditions, recipes and family values to her children and grandchildren.

  Lorena raised four children in a modernized 1880s log cabin for 10 years in West Virginia. The seasons of nature, the beauty of the mountains and rivers, and the simple enjoyment of gardening, reading and quilting have been her passions. She lives with her husband, a retired Marine Corps colonel, and sons in Virginia. She collaborates on books with her daughter, whose passion for historical fiction exceeds her own, and is waiting for her granddaughters to fit into their mother’s dress-up hoopskirts and bonnets.

  You can keep in touch with Lorena by visiting her Facebook page, sign up for her Reader’s Appreciation list at www.LorenaDove.com, or send an email to Lorena@LorenaDove.com.

  Continue reading for Free Bonus Chapter from Mae’s Choice, Book 1 of Valentine’s Day Mail Order Brides=

  MAE’S CHOICE

  By Kate Cambridge

  KateCambridge.com

  CHAPTER ONE

  The paper tickled her fingertip as she traced the carefully formed letters. His handwriting. His words were the only way she recognized him. This last letter in particular she'd read dozens of times. She closed her eyes and pressed the letter against her chest. She drew a deep breath and willed herself to connect with a man thousands of miles away. It might as well have been another planet, as she couldn't envision the life he lived.

  A single man, who owned a general store, and fought to gain his footing in the West; as he struggled to maintain his business, he hoped for a wife to aid him. She imagined baking goods for his store and organizing merchandise. Finally, she hoped she would have the chance to show her skills as a baker, something that was still difficult for her to do in the traditional setting she was surrounded by. Although she worked at a local bakery, she could only create and sell what the owner instructed. She loved the thought of being surrounded by delicious pastries and cakes. As her mind drifted off to another life, one where she owned her own bakery and made her own choices, she lost sight of the childhood home she still lived in.

  Did he wear a gun on his belt? Was the west really as wild as the stories she had heard? It all seemed so exotic and foreign, and hard to imagine from her family’s small apartment in New York City.

  "Mae?"

  Mae jumped so high that the letter wafted out of her hand and fell to the floor. With wide eyes she looked up to see her older sister standing in the small doorframe of the bedroom they had shared together. "What are you doing?" Alice asked.

  "Alice, you startled me! I – I was just daydreaming," Mae stuttered and picked up the letter, careful not to let her sister view the words.

  "You've been toying with that letter for two weeks now. Who is it from?" Alice grabbed for it, but Mae pulled it away before she could touch it.

  "It's a private matter."

  "I'm your sister." Alice declared, hands placed firmly on her hips.

  Mae smiled playfully at the woman before her. At twenty, Alice was married, and had been for over two years. She had always been bossy, but seemed more so now that she was married and thought she was so grown up. To Mae, she was still just her sister, the one she had laughed with and played with, done chores with, and stayed awake long after their bedtime to talk about their dreams for their future.

  Since they were only two years apart, Mae had watched with curiosity and disdain as Alice went through the routine of their parents picking out and approving a suitable husband for Alice. Never once did Alice complain about the process, but it had horrified Mae to witness it. Instead of Alice having any say over who she married, she submitted to her father's selection, almost without question. As the eldest daughter of a pastor, it was as if she had been groomed to expect it when the time was right - not that Daniel Allen was a bad man. He was kind to Alice. But he was not the type to stand by while his wife exercised her right to vote, or opened her own business. Then again, Alice was not the type to want to run her own business. In fact her only focus these days seemed to focus around having a child, something that had so far eluded her.

  Not long after Alice was married, their father had begun to present different suitors to Mae. Mae despised the thought of marrying someone who she didn't love, and she hadn’t hesitated to tell her parents that, and the suitors. She longed for the opportunity to meet someone who would understand her, not only as a wife, not as ‘the pastor's daughter,’ and most certainly not as a mere vehicle for future children, but as a person with dreams and an endless amount of ideas.

  All Mae could think of was having her own bakery some day, and evading
the men who sought to pin her down inside of a home. She wanted the chance to grow and be her own person first. Unfortunately, progress was slow in New York City where she lived, and even slower in her father's home. He was a pastor who believed in traditional Christian values. She respected him deeply, but on this one topic, he would not compromise. The only way to experience the kind of freedom she hoped for was to marry the right kind of man, a man who might be understanding enough to allow her that freedom. Unfortunately, that was proving to be impossible with her parent’s close involvement and position in the community.

  Mae hated having to sneak around to attend the Suffragette meetings, but oh how they gave her hope and spurred her dreams on more than ever. Her parents would never have allowed her to attend if they had known, not that her father didn’t respect women, but he clearly felt they had their place in the home, submitting to their husbands, and taking care of the house and children.

  Mae felt her heart twist. She had heard enough sermons that she didn’t want to question God or disobey Him – she loved Him! She just felt certain that He understood her. He had made her after all, with all the desires of her heart, but she hadn’t yet figured out how to reconcile her dreams in her heart and what God truly thought about it all.

  “Hello, Mae, are you there?” Alice interrupted. “A penny for your thoughts! Why did you go from a smile that stretched from ear to ear to a scowl just as deep in a matter of seconds? Does it have something to do with that letter you won’t let me see?”

  "Yes, yes you are my sister, and I love you. All I can say is, soon enough you will know."

  "Is it from a suitor, Mae?" Alice asked, eyes wide as she sat beside Mae on the bed. "Did you choose someone? Oh , mother and father will be so happy!"

  Mae scoffed, "I haven't exactly had many offers, Alice, so don’t get ahead of yourself, and don’t say anything to mother and father."

  "Oh Mae, that's only because you are always talking about that silly bakery. Every man father brings home you scare off with your talk about books and business. You're a beautiful woman, but you're getting older now. It’s time to take marriage seriously."

  "Please, don't remind me, and the idea of running my own bakery is not silly to me." Mae brushed a hand back through her golden locks self-consciously. At eighteen there was still time for her to marry, but the selection was thinner, of that there was no doubt. It seemed to her that women married far too young. There was so much of life to live, and so much more she wanted to do, and once she belonged to a man, she wouldn't have those opportunities. Even as she looked at her sister, she wondered how they'd gone from girls with pigtails and skinned knees to women. In the blink of an eye, Mae thought.

  "Don’t be angry with me, Mae, I just hate to think of being with child before you even get married.” She frowned and looked into her sister's eyes. "I want us to raise our babies together."

  Mae bit her lip to hold back a harsh response, even as her cheeks grew hot from the secret she had held from her sister for weeks. Alice would be disappointed when she found out that Mae had planned this with her Bible Study group friends, and kept it from her all this time. Her heart ached at the thought of leaving Alice behind. She knew how her sister longed to be with child, and Mae wanted to be with her when that happened, but there was something she wanted much more. She believed there was only one way to get that.

  "That's a lovely thought Alice. Try not to worry too much about me."

  "How can I not? You're the baby!" Alice laughed and patted her knee. "I'll let you get back to your secrets. But if you'd like to join Daniel and me for dinner, he is inviting his friend over."

  "A Friend?" Mae groaned.

  Alice laughed. "You’re incorrigible. Wouldn't it be wonderful if our husbands were friends too? Think of it, Mae!"

  Mae plastered a smile on her face, and patted her sister’s knee. She could see that kind of future unfurl before her, and it was not what she wanted.

  As her sister walked away, Mae felt the warmth of the letter in her hand. There was no question that the man who wrote the letter was a mystery to her, but a mystery was better than what the alternatives New York offered. She stood up and walked across the room to look out through the bedroom window. New York was the only world she had ever known. Yes, they had moved around from church to church, and borough to borough, but the sights and sounds of this bustling city, and life with her parents, until now had always been home.

  Soon, she would get to discover an entirely new way of life. Just that made it worth it. It was an adventure she longed for, and despite the flutter of fear in her heart, there was no turning back.

  ***

  Thank you for reading chapter one from Mae’s Choice! Please visit: KateCambridge.com/Mae to continue reading the full story. Find out if Mae’s Mail-Order Bride adventure turns out to be all she had hoped and dreamed.