Chapter One
Lenox Samson filled the huge teapot and carried it across to a huge oak table. Slowly, carefully, and with love, she began to pour the hot brew into eleven waiting mugs.
"Here you go, girls. Choose one and help yourself to milk and sugar." Lenox was a tall woman with long gray hair wound into a neat bun at the nape of her neck. A kindly face and keen, intelligent brown eyes made her look motherly, but there was a strength to Lenox that all who crossed her discovered.
As she put down the teapot, the room was deadly silent, and none of the girls moved. She would have her work cut out here, that was for sure. Some of them bore the terrified eyes of a deer after a long hunt. They were scared, a long way from home and unsure what to do. As the seconds stretched, a feeling of trepidation hung in the room. “Come now, a good cup of tea will put the world to rights,” Lenox said in her most uplifting voice.
It seemed to work, ten hands reached out for the mugs and began to add what they needed. Lenox took the last one and added three sugar lumps, stirring it in with a generous helping of milk, while she watched the girls seated around the teapot in her modest-sized kitchen. All of them looked tired from their long journey, their conversation having dried up a while ago because of their exhaustion.
It had also given way to a little bit of fear, as the girls heard the raucous shouts from the main bar in her saloon. A couple of the younger ones had been terrified, hearing the men shouting for Lenox and demanding to see the girls.
Lenox was used to it, but even she found it surprising that the minute men found out there was an abundance of girls in a town where single women were in scarce supply that those men suddenly turned into animals. The big, macho men of Memphis who had declared they didn't want marriages and were fine as they were became big liars as soon as they set eyes on a pretty girl.
She hoped the sheriff would be here soon to control them, or she was going to do something drastic. While she had thought bringing girls to the single men as their wives was a good idea, maybe telling people what she was doing hadn't been so sensible. Still, it was her doing, and she was going to fix it.
One young woman - Mirjana, she remembered - flinched as a loud bang came from the bar, and she gave the closed kitchen door a look of distaste.
"Are the men here always like this?" she asked in a superior whine.
"Not usually." Lenox sipped her tea. "But the single men have heard there are ten single women in town, and they want first dibs."
“First dibs!” Mirjana’s haughty voice rose another notch.
“Don’t worry too much, it's all noise,” Lenox said.
It still amazed Lenox that she had managed to get ten girls who wanted to become mail order brides and move to their forlorn little town. She had originally hoped for five but was surprised, and a little overwhelmed, when double the amount she had expected turned up at the station. Keeping this number safe and chaste while she sorted out their husbands was going to be a challenge... but Lenox was ready for it.
A smile crossed her face. Matchmaking couldn't be t difficult. Could it?
Mirjana snorted. "How uncivilized."
That girl, however, might be a hard one to match. Men in Memphis didn't like snooty girls. Another girl, Candy, laughed.
"Come off it. We may be out in the middle of the desert, but that doesn't mean they don't have manners."
"The men back home weren't like this," Mirjana grumbled.
"No." Another girl, petite and blonde, murmured to Lenox's left. "They were worse."
Lenox wondered if Kari, who was the youngest one there, had had a bad experience with men.
She took a look again at the girls sitting around the table. There was Ivy to her right, followed by Nina and Raelia. The three girls huddled together, Raelia flinching whenever they heard a loud shout from the waiting men. Then there was Jourdan and Candy, the sunniest and easy-going ones. Mirjana was next with her snobby attitude, followed by Renee and Mally, who was holding her young baby. Penny and Kari sat to Lenox's left, Penny putting an arm around Kari's shoulders as she huddled in her chair.
They were a mixed bunch with personalities, sizes, and appearances all different, and some were with their babies. All of them had found difficulty getting a husband, many were running away. Lenox had no doubt that was why they were here. Candy, Mally, Penny and Renee were redheads in varying shades, Jourdan and Mirjana had dark brown hair, and Ivy's was light brown. Nina and Kari were blonde, and Raelia stood out with her black hair.
All of them were here for prospective husbands. If Lenox was honest... all of them seemed to be running from something. Lenox had been around people long enough to know when someone was hiding something. While she wouldn't question it immediately, she planned to keep an eye on them. If the secrets they were hiding were going to be dangerous to people around here, she would have to send them packing or notify the sheriff, depending on how severe those secrets were.
Candy gave Kari a gentle smile.
"Let's just wait for the situation to calm down and then see where we stand. At least it means we have the pick of a group of men."
"Knowing my luck I'll end up picking a man I can't have," Ivy grunted.
A chorus of agreements went around the table. Lenox's heart went out to them. They didn't have much confidence when it came to how attractive they were, and yet all of them were beautiful women. It seemed to her that they had been through the mill already, and she wanted to help them find happiness. One thing she was certain of was that the men of this town would be drooling all over these ladies. It would be her job to make sure that they came one at a time and in an orderly fashion. Right there and then Lenox decided that she would have one woman courted at a time. To do any more would be asking for trouble.
From out in the bar, there was the sound of breaking glass. Lenox growled and put her mug down.
"Right. That's it." She went to the corner and picked up the rifle she kept there. "Stay here, girls. We've already got a riot out there, and we don't need to give them any more incentive."
Lenox unlocked the kitchen door and stalked into the bar. There were at least twenty men in the room, all of them arguing amongst themselves and talking loudly. There was glass on the bar and the huge mirror behind the bar was broken.
Lenox felt her anger grow. While she knew the gents in Memphis were a little rowdy at times, this was unacceptable. They had more respect for her than to destroy her establishment, or so she thought!
Pointing the rifle at the ceiling, Lenox fired one shot. The sound echoed through the room, and the shouting suddenly stopped. The men turned to her, most of them staring at her in amazement.
"That's enough!" Lenox bellowed. "Stay right where you are. I don't want any more shouting." She pointed at her mirror. "Who broke my mirror?"
A few men muttered and shuffled their feet. To their credit, they looked sheepish.
"Whoever broke it is paying for it, no arguments." Lenox turned and glared at the big form of the sheriff, who stood guarding the kitchen door. "Romeo, why aren't you keeping them under control? I will not have this behavior, not in my saloon."
Romeo Sykes arched an eyebrow at her in amusement.
"That's a bit rich, isn't it, considering you've just shot a bullet into the ceiling?"
"If you think I'm going to lose my voice shouting over this lot, you're nuts."
"Oi!" A shout came from near the back, and one man pushed himself to the front, coming to stand in front of Lenox. "Where are the filly’s?"
Lenox's heart sank. Cory Stewart was one of the cowboys on cattle owner, Chris Cleary's, ranch, and was known for his reputation for being abusive. She was certainly not letting him anywhere near her girls. Already she thought of them as her girls since she was going to be looking after them.
She tried to keep her voice calm.
"I know you've heard about the women who have arrived here, and I know you're keen to see them, but this is not the way to go about it. They're not animals in
cages. If anything, you're going to frighten them, and they won't come near you, they may even run back East!"
A rumble of annoyance went through the crowd.
Lenox pushed back her shoulders and took a breath, and projecting her voice over the crowd, she started again. "Do you lot want wives or not?”
The noise died down to a series of grumbles and moans.
“Good,” Lenox shouted with a smile on her face. “Then act like men and not pathetic little boys."
There was more mumbling, but the room calmed, it seemed they could see where she was coming from.
"Then how are we going to decide who marries which girl? There are more of us than there are of them."
Lenox turned to the young man who had spoken. Dustin Phillips was the son of her childhood friend. He was one of the politest men she had known and would be a perfect choice for one of the girls. But his behavior right now was irking her, as was that of the rest of the men, particularly the sheriff, who had stood there letting them get on with destroying her bar.
"That's up to them, Dustin.” Then an idea came to her. It would work, and it would give her time to filter the men. “You can write a letter of introduction. All of you who’re interested. Write a letter telling these gals what there is about you that they might like. Then each of the girls can decide which one of you they want to meet in person. Since I am going to let them stay here, I will be in charge of them, and everything goes through me."
More grumbles and the noise was rising again.
She gave each of them a glare. "If you don't like it then don't bother writing. You can get out now if you're not going to follow my rules."
"Your rules?" Cody snorted. "They're pathetic. I want a woman now!"
He tried to get past Lenox, but she hit her rifle into his chest and stopped him.
"Go anywhere near them, Cody, and you'll be out the door faster than I can snap my fingers."
Cody sneered at her.
"I'd like to see you try. I say we get a woman each, first come, first served."
"No chance. They're not cattle. They're people." Lenox pushed him back. "Get out of here."
She saw it coming but didn't move out the way of Cody's fist quite quick enough.
Chapter Two
"Which one of you is a nurse?"
Candy Connor looked up and saw a tall dark-haired man wearing a sheriff's uniform in the doorway. She straightened up.
"That's me. What's happened?"
After hearing the gunshot and the commotion shortly after, Candy knew something had happened. One of the men had probably got shot by Lenox. The thought did not frighten her, it wouldn't be the first time Candy had dug a bullet out of someone.
"We've got a couple of casualties." The sheriff took off his Stetson, holding it in his hands as a blush spread across his cheeks. "Nothing much but they do need seeing to."
Candy wondered at the blush. Was he one of the single men? Or was it because he was in a room full of girls? She made her way around the table and looked behind him, seeing that the bar was now empty.
"Where's Mrs. Samson?"
"She was one of them. She got clocked by one of the cowboys who wanted to bypass her rules." The sheriff's mouth twisted in distaste. "Len is respected by everyone in this town so the other men fell on him. He got a few good swings on one of them before we managed to cart him out, but Len was already flat on her back."
Candy heard Mirjana snort rudely and pointedly ignored her. Her focus was the woman who had kindly taken them in.
"Is she all right? She's not unconscious?"
"She's awake. Not bleeding but she's refusing help." The sheriff shook his head. "Len's as stubborn as anything."
That was true enough. They had only met a couple of hours ago at the train station, but Candy knew that Len was one of those women who would prove hard to budge. She looked back at the table, seeing the girls watching her, and beckoned one of the other redheads to her.
"Penny, could you help?" Then to the sheriff, "Penny's a midwife. She can help with Mrs. Samson. I'll deal with the other casualty."
Then she noticed the sheriff staring at Penny, who came to stand at Candy's side, his mouth had fallen open. Penny blushed and looked down at the floor. Candy bit back a smile. It was looking like Penny was already matched up before Lenox started pairing them off at all.
The sheriff blinked and coughed, putting his Stetson back on.
"They're both in the bar. It's empty."
Candy nodded and using the pump, she filled a bowl with water, snatching up a clean cloth from the counter. Then she followed him into the main bar. It was a vast space with a raised platform in one corner and several tables scattered about. A few were upended, and the mirror behind the bar was broken. It looked like a hurricane had passed through.
Lenox sat at the bar, knocking back a large tumbler of something amber-colored. Even at their distance, Candy saw the bruise rising up on her cheek. Urging Penny in the older woman's direction, the sheriff following, Candy turned, and her eyes fell on the man sitting on the edge of the platform, nursing a tumbler of his own. There was a nasty cut on his head.
He raised his head and Candy bit back a gasp. He was a handsome man, tanned from the sun with curly black hair, but it was his eyes that rooted her to the spot. They were a stunning blue, as blue as the sky. They were a beautiful color.
Realizing she was standing in the middle of the bar, staring like an idiot, Candy forced herself to move. Quickly she walked towards him, holding the bowl in her hands and trying not to let the way her hands were trembling show.
"How are you feeling?" she said, and he looked up at her. Those eyes were mesmerizing, and she felt her heart leap in her chest and begin to race like the train that brought them here.
"I'm fine." He tried to wave her away. "It's nothing, really. I've had worse."
"I'm sure." Candy knelt before him and placed the bowl on the floor by her knee. "But that wound does need cleaning."
"I can do it."
"Which means you won't do anything at all. I've heard that before." Candy soaked a corner of the cloth in the water and rose up, urging his head to one side to see the cut better. "Now hold still. It'll sting a little, but it'll be better to clean it than to get an infection."
Being this close to him wasn't making her heart rate slow down, but Candy put on her nurse's persona and focused on the task at hand. The cut wasn't as bad as she first thought. Still, head wounds did bleed a lot. She needed to clean the blood away and get the cut covered.
He flinched as Candy dabbed at the cut but he didn't move away. If anything, he leaned into her touch.
As she drew away to wash the cloth, he turned to look at her.
"What are you doing here in Memphis?" he asked.
Candy paused.
"I'm trying to find a better life."
"I can't see that."
"Oh, really?" Candy frowned. "What do you see, then?"
"Someone who is running away." The expression on his face was soft, almost understanding. "There's a haunted look on your face... in your eyes."
That surprised her, and she sank down onto her heels. Should she tell him everything now? They had only just met. She didn't even know his name. He was meant to be a prospective husband. Did she dare tell him the truth about her family right now or let it come out slowly?
She decided it wouldn't matter either way. If he didn't want to know, he didn't want to know. That would lessen the field for her and give the other girls more chance.
Candy soaked the cloth and rose up again, giving him a wry smile.
"Are you a clairvoyant?"
The smile he gave her was overwhelming, and Candy felt it all the way down to her toes.
"Just a regular railway engineer. Nothing exciting."
Candy hadn't seen him as an engineer. With his canvas trousers and working shirt, she saw him as a rough and rugged cowboy. It showed how much she knew about people.
She decided to chance i
t and see what he thought.
"My father was a bad man. He liked to drink, he liked to gamble, and he liked to hit me, my mother and my little brother. Then he decided that the way to get more money was to marry me off to a drinking buddy, a man who is at least thirty years older than me." Candy shuddered when she remembered her father dropping the bombshell. "I wasn't having it so I ran away. I bumped into a few girls on the platform coming to Memphis as mail order brides so I decided to tag along."
"So you're running away from one marriage and into another one?"
That did sound silly, but the truth always sounded stranger than fiction in Candy's experience. She smiled.
"From the quick look I saw on our way here from the station, the men here are much better looking and much younger than the man Pa wanted me to marry." She raised an eyebrow. "I’m not sure about their behavior right now, though."
At least he had the decency to look embarrassed.
"Sorry about that. We're all right, really. It's just, well, there are no women here... some of us... we want families... we do tend to act a bit..."
"Animalistic?"
He chuckled.
"I was going to say primal, but that sounds more apt."
Candy sighed, wiping away the blood that had trickled down his cheek.
"You all just need to calm down and do things at our pace. If you don't, then you won't get a bride at all. We're all in a strange place, we’re a little scared, and we're carrying a lot of baggage that we need to work out. It's going to take time."
"I'm sure we can be patient if we know the outcome."
"I'm sure," Candy said drily. She tapped her finger into the center of his forehead. "You all need to think with your head and not with... well, with whatever men get to thinking with."
"Ouch."
His eyes were dancing with mirth.
"That's the way of it." Candy sat back. She couldn't stop looking at him. "We want love and to be cherished, not to be used and discarded."
That smile was back on his face. "I'll bear that in mind."
Christmas Miracles: Mega Mail Order Bride 20-Book Box Set: Multi-Author Box Set Page 33
