Chance at Love Series: Book 2
The
Mistaken
Mail Order Bride
Ruth Ann Nordin
Wedded Bliss Romances, LLC
The Mistaken Mail Order Bride - Smashwords Edition
Published by Ruth Ann Nordin at Smashwords
Copyright © 2016 by Ruth Ann Nordin
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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Table of Contents
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Coming Soon in the Chance at Love Series
All Books by Ruth Ann Nordin
Find Ruth/Join Email List
Dedication: To Gail Palmere for sticking with me through the years and supporting me. Thank you!
Chapter One
Please Note: This book begins right before chapter 21 in The Convenient Mail Order Bride. (Chapter 21 was when Benny and Gene went to Abe and Phoebe’s property.)
***
Late June 1878
Colorado
Sheriff Eric Johnson twirled the hat in his hand, ignoring the way the tie around his neck made him feel as if he was choking. As much as he wanted to loosen it, he didn’t dare. He had spent a lot of time getting dressed up in his Sunday best, and he wasn’t about to ruin his appearance.
He cleared his throat and glanced at the path shaded with trees. This was it. His mail-order bride was coming in today, and the stagecoach would stop right in front of the general store, which was where he was waiting. His heart pounded so loudly in his chest he was sure the few people loitering around him could hear it.
He brushed away the strands of dark brown hair that fell into his eyes. He should have gotten a haircut. With getting everything ready for his bride, he’d forgotten that small detail. But he’d shaved, and that was better than nothing. At least he hoped so. He wanted to look his best. He sighed. He should have gotten that haircut. Oh well. There was nothing he could do about it now. He’d just have to hope she didn’t mind it.
The sound of horses coming up the path brought his attention to the dusty road. The stagecoach rounded the bend. His heart leapt, and for a moment, he thought it had stopped beating.
He took a deep breath and released it, hoping it would help him calm down. The activity, however, was pointless. He was about to meet the woman he’d be spending the rest of his life with. She seemed like such a nice person from the missives he’d read. He could only hope he’d live up to her expectations.
In front of the general store where Eric stood, a couple of men gathered around him. Across the street, two women stopped with their children to watch the stagecoach, and from the windows in a couple of the buildings, people peered out to see what kind of woman would be coming to marry him.
He should have expected this. Naturally, everyone was curious about his mail-order bride. It was hard enough to meet her in person, but he had to contend with an audience, too. He set his hat on his head and did his best to ignore them.
“You think she’ll be a looker?” Jerry Conner, the middle-aged man who was the school’s superintendent, asked, peering over Eric’s shoulder.
Startled, Eric jerked.
“Leave the poor man alone,” Jerry’s younger brother, Mike, said. “He’s so anxious you spooked him.”
“He didn’t spook me,” Eric argued.
Mike snorted. “Are you kidding? You nearly jumped ten feet into the air.”
“He’s right,” Jerry agreed. “None of the horses ever get as tense as you.”
Eric figured it’d be pointless to argue, so he said, “Fine. I am nervous. It’s not every day a man meets the woman he’s going to marry.”
“Nope, it’s not, thank goodness,” Mike replied.
“Come now, Mike,” Jerry began with a grin, “you were excited when you fell in love with your wife.”
“That was before I realized what a busybody she was,” Mike muttered under his breath.
Jerry snickered. “At least you know everything that happens before the rest of us do.”
“Yes. She’s like a newspaper. She reports everything to everyone.” Mike looked at Eric. “I hope you get a woman who knows when to keep quiet.”
“You still sore your wife told everyone about your rash?” Jerry asked, laughing.
Mike’s chin went up in the air. “That’s all healed now. It was a temporary condition, which is more than I can say for your balding head.”
“I’d rather have a balding head than a rash.”
“The rash was from the new soap your wife made. What ingredients did she put in it anyway?”
“How should I know? I don’t make soap.”
“Well, whatever she put it in, it was bad.”
“My kids and I were fine. You’re the only one with the rash.”
The stagecoach came closer, and Eric turned to them. “You two got anything better to do than argue?”
“Not really,” Jerry said. Then he glanced at Mike. “You?”
“Nope,” Mike replied. “Besides, my wife was insistent I learn more about your bride.” He wiggled his eyebrows.
Eric groaned. He was afraid of that. “Well, don’t make her nervous. It’s bad enough the lot of you,” he gestured to the other ten people who’d gathered along the road to watch the stagecoach, “are watching. I want you to be on your best behavior.”
“I don’t believe you, Sheriff,” Mike told Eric, his expression incredulous. “What do you take us for? Uncivilized folk? Why, we got a preacher who happens to be in town today.”
“Right,” Jerry agreed. “If that won’t make us upstanding citizens, I don’t know what will.”
Eric resisted the urge to grin. If he let them know he found their antics funny, he’d only be encouraging them, and that was the last thing he wanted to do, especially when he was about to meet his bride. It was much better to let them th
ink he meant business. Maybe then, they’d behave.
The stagecoach came to a stop, and the man sitting next to the driver let out a cheer and jumped onto the ground, the dust swirling around his boots. “I didn’t think we’d ever get here,” he said to no one in particular. He stepped toward the door but then stopped and glanced at the men who were watching him. “Which one of you is the groom?”
Eric’s face warmed. “I am.” Then, in case the man couldn’t tell which of them spoke, he waved.
“Good. Last time I brought in a mail-order bride to this place, the intended was nowhere in sight.”
Ignoring the chuckles from the men surrounding him, Eric followed the man to the stagecoach door. No one needed to go into all the mess Carl Richie had caused poor Abe Thomas by posting a mail-order bride ad on his behalf. Though, last time he checked, Abe looked pretty happy with Phoebe. And Phoebe was attractive. With any luck, Eric would be taking a bride much like her home with him today.
But as soon as the man opened the door, Eric saw a woman whose dress was covered in vomit. She was wiping the brow of a young black child in her arms. If Eric had to guess the child’s age, he’d say he was seven or eight.
The man stepped aside and waved his hand in front of his face. “You’d think by now I’d be used to the smell.” He pulled a handkerchief from his back pocket, put it over his mouth, and coughed. “This happens more often than you’d believe,” he told Eric.
The woman lifted the edge of her hat and looked up at the man. “My apologies, kind sir,” she said in a southern accent.
Eric blinked in surprise. Well, this was his bride, alright. Allie said she came from Tennessee. She’d even joked he’d know right away she was the right woman when he heard the slow drawl in her words. But she was a lot different from what he’d imagined. Too late did he think it might have been wise to ask her what she looked like. He just assumed she’d be as good looking as Phoebe.
“Caleb will get better now that the stage has stopped,” his bride added.
The child—Caleb—moaned and clutched his stomach.
Eric thought for sure the child was going to vomit again, but there must not have been anything left in his stomach since he only heaved.
“I’m going to lose my lunch if I keep watching this,” Mike whispered from behind Eric. “My wife’s going to have to meet her if she wants to learn anything else.”
Eric glanced over his shoulder and saw Mike scampering away from them, his face pale. Eric shook his head. It was a good thing Mike made tools. He wouldn’t be able to handle half the things Eric had seen in the past.
Remembering his manners, Eric dug out a handkerchief from his suit pocket and handed it to her. “Here. You can use this.”
“Thank you,” she replied, her smile lighting up her otherwise dull face.
Yes, she was on the plain side. There was nothing really pretty about her, nor did she have as generous a bosom as he’d hoped, but there was something sweet in watching her while she wiped the sweat off the child’s face.
“I’m the man who posted the ad for a mail-order bride,” Eric introduced.
“Oh good.” She smiled again. “Then you’re the one I’m going to marry today. I was afraid I wouldn’t know you when I came. There are so many gentlemen gathered here.”
Those gentlemen, as she put it, were slowly dispersing for the same reason Mike did. All probably got just as nauseous from the potent odor coming from the stagecoach. Only those used to binging on alcohol stuck around.
“Yes, I’m the groom.” He held his hand out to her and helped her down from the stagecoach while the man and driver went to grab her trunk. Eric glanced at the child. “I don’t recall you mentioning a child during our correspondence.”
“Oh, I didn’t.” The boy rested his head on her shoulder and closed his eyes, finally looking as if he wasn’t sick anymore. She rubbed his back then turned her attention back to Eric. “I found him in Kansas on my way out here to meet you. I have no idea who he belonged to. I searched around, but no one claimed him. I didn’t have the heart to turn him away.”
“So he’s not yours?”
“No. I’ve never had a child, as I told you in the missive.”
Yes, she had told him that. But the thought was crossing his mind that perhaps she had lied to him. Granted, she was twenty-one, but he’d heard of girls as young as thirteen or fourteen having children. He studied her expression, trying to deduct the honesty in her eyes. He was still learning to gauge a person’s integrity by looking at them, but he didn’t detect any deception on her part.
“Do you mind taking him in?” she asked when he didn’t say anything. “All I know is that his name is Caleb and he’s seven. He won’t tell me anything else. I think he’s scared.”
“Did he willingly come with you?”
She nodded. “I think he was so hungry he took a chance on me. Of course, after we got on the stage, he wasn’t able to keep anything down.”
Eric’s gaze went back to Caleb. He didn’t detect any similarities between the boy and the woman. For one, she had white skin and his was a deep rich brown color. But if she was his mother, then there should be something, like a facial feature, to indicate they were related. There was nothing there. And that further relaxed him. While he didn’t mind raising a child that wasn’t his, he didn’t exactly want a wife who lied to people.
“Caleb’s welcome into my home,” he assured his bride.
“Thank you,” she said, her expression so grateful he was glad he’d agreed to her request.
Well, this wasn’t quite the fantasy he’d envisioned from their correspondence. He’d entertained ideas of a beautiful woman who’d make his heart race in anticipation. However, she might make a good wife, given her sweet disposition.
“Caleb?” He waited for the boy’s eyes to flutter open before he continued, “Do you feel well enough to change clothes and get a quick bath?”
The boy stared at him but didn’t respond.
Glancing at his bride, Eric explained, “I’d hate to go to the preacher with you two in such a sorry state.” He gestured to their clothes.
“Oh!” She glanced down at her dress as if just noticing her soiled state. “I didn’t even think of how I must look.”
“You won’t look like that for long,” he assured her and picked up the trunk. “You got anything else?”
“No. My family lost everything after the war.”
Considering she came from the South and he’d heard of the poverty many were facing in that area, he had little doubt she’d gone through much more than he ever had. And maybe the same was true for Caleb. Caleb, after all, didn’t even have a trunk.
“You think his parents abandoned him?” he asked her, keeping his voice low so the people lingering nearby wouldn’t overhear him.
“All I know is that no one I asked knew who he was, and he wouldn’t tell me anything,” she replied.
“Well, let’s get the two of you cleaned up. I’ll let the preacher know you’re here, and I’ll get some clothes for him,” he nodded toward Caleb, “while you two clean up. Then we’ll get married. We’ll have the doctor look at him in a day or two. We have enough to do without rushing that one. Besides, he seems to be doing alright now.”
“Yes, he is, and he wasn’t sick at all when I found him in Kansas. It wasn’t until we were bouncing around in the stagecoach that he became ill.”
He carried her trunk to his wagon just in time for the judge to come running up to him. Sensing this was going to be a serious conversation, he hurried to help her and Caleb onto the wagon and then went around the side of the buckboard so he could talk to the judge.
“I didn’t think you’d make it to town for another week,” Eric told the man.
“I finished up everything I needed to earlier than expected in the other town,” Judge Barnes replied. “I hear you have two men in jail.”
“Yes. One was trying to take advantage of an innocent woman and the other watched it
happen. I don’t want anyone to think that’s acceptable in this place.”
“Oh, I don’t blame you. You did the right thing. My concern is the length of time you planned to keep them there.”
“Actually, I was waiting for you to judge the matter.”
“How long have they been there?”
“About a month.”
“Did any harm come to the woman?”
“No. She was rescued before anything bad happened.”
“In that case, I think a month has been long enough. I’d like them released today.”
“Today?”
Eric glanced over at his bride and the boy she was softly singing to. He wasn’t familiar with the tune, but he noticed the boy had a small smile on his face. Already, the two had developed a bond, and he thought it was further evidence that, despite her homely appearance, she’d be an excellent wife.
“Sheriff,” the judge spoke, directing Eric’s thoughts back to him.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to get distracted. That young lady is my mail-order bride, and she just came in today. I’d rather wait until tomorrow to release Benny and Enoch from jail. I need time to get her and the boy settled in, and then I need to get the preacher.”
“I’m a judge. I can marry you right now.”
“I know, but I’d rather have a preacher do it. She mentioned it being important in one of her letters. Said it would feel like she had God’s blessings that way since her parents aren’t alive to give it.”
“Who am I to argue with a woman’s logic?” The judge smiled. “Alright. You do what you need to, but I want you to release those men before sundown.”
“I’ll do it soon.”
The judge nodded, and Eric decided he’d better not waste any time. Between getting their bath ready, finding the preacher, tracking down someone who had clothes for a little boy, and releasing Enoch and Benny, he’d barely have time to get married, let alone make sure his new family had something to eat.
The Mistaken Mail Order Bride Page 1
