by Merry Farmer
“That’s it!” The exasperated exclamation came from none other than Piper. She marched up to stand in front of Athos and the five children who hadn’t escaped the disaster. “Athos, you’re my brother and I love you, but you can’t go on like this.”
“Go on like what?” He could pretend innocence all he wanted, but Athos knew exactly where Piper’s frustrated outburst was going.
“You’re only one man,” Piper went on. “And even though I’m your sister and would lay down my life for you, I need to have a life in order to lay it down in the first place.”
“What are you talking about?” Athos reached out to grasp Millie’s hand on one side and Neva’s on the other. They squeezed his hands in return, apparently also realizing where this was going.
“How do you expect me to start a millinery business when I am forever minding my nieces and nephews? I love them, but I need a life too. And Mama keeps writing for me to come back home to Connecticut for a visit,” Piper went on, losing some of her steam. “I haven’t been home in three years, Athos. I have friends there, a life.”
“I know that, Piper, and I’ve never forced you to stay with us or stopped you from visiting.”
“I know.” Piper pressed a hand to her temple. “But how was I supposed to leave you alone with all eight of them? I had hoped there would be some nice young woman in town, but…” She paused and sighed, shaking her head, then meeting Athos’s eyes. “Natalie has been gone for four years, Athos. These children need a mother. A full-time mother who can devote her life to them. I love you all,” she said to the children, “but I need a break. Athos, I’m putting my foot down. You need to remarry.”
“I know, Piper, I know.” Athos let his shoulders drop. Hadn’t he been saying the same thing for the last several months? Everyone from Franklin Haskell to Travis Montrose seemed to be sending for a bride from Hurst Home. He had declared several times that he would do the same, but something had always come up. The station was always busy, his children always needed some sort of attention, and between those two things, there simply wasn’t room for anything else.
“I think I see what’s needed here,” Charlie Garrett—who had stood close by watching the entire scene—spoke up. He gestured for Athos and Piper and the children to walk with him out of the way of the men and women who had swooped in to clean up the mess that had become of the tent. As soon as they were all a good ten yards out into the open yard beside the church, Charlie went on. “You need a bride from Hurst Home.”
“Yes!” Athos let out the single word with so much weary emotion that it caused his throat to close up. A moment later, he shook himself. “I mean, I don’t know. I…I wasn’t a very good husband the first time. What reason do I have to believe that I’ll be any good at it a second time?”
“No, Papa, no,” Neva and Millie disagreed with him in unison.
“You’re a great husband.” Vernon too tried to bolster his spirits.
Athos laughed and ruffled Vernon’s hair again. “And how would you know that?”
“Because you’re the best Papa ever?” Lael replied.
Something not too unlike tears stung at Athos’s eyes. He cleared his throat to fight the sensation. A good father—and a good husband—would be stronger than his emotions. He’d be organized and conscientious. He’d keep his children out of trouble and dress them, well, better than his poor things were dressed.
The oldest three children must have sensed something was in the air as Athos, Piper, and Charlie moved to the side. Hubert rushed to join the group, and even Ivy and Heather broke away from their friends long enough to gather with the rest of the family.
“What’s going on?” Hubert asked.
“Papa is going to get a new bride,” Vernon answered.
“Are you, Papa?” Heather asked.
“I…I…”
“He is,” Charlie answered for him. “And your Aunt Piper is going to take a nice, restoring vacation back home in Connecticut.”
“Yay!” Thomas exclaimed, although at four years old, Athos doubted he knew what he was cheering for.
“Mr. Garrett here is going to send for a bride for your father,” Piper picked up the explanation. “I’m sure he knows exactly how it’s done.”
“Not only that,” Charlie continued. He tilted his head to the side and tapped a finger to his chin. “I think I might know just the right woman for you.”
“Really?” Athos blinked. The entire concept of the right woman for him was so foreign to his way of thinking that the idea that someone else would know of one mystified him.
“Yes.” Charlie waved across the lawn to Virginia Piedmont and Josephine Evans.
The two of them stood somewhat aside from the crews that were cleaning up the tent, as if sensing they would soon be needed elsewhere. At Charlie’s signal, they made a bee-line across the lawn to join the ever-increasing group.
“Well, Charlie,” Virginia started. “If you’re the one waving at us and this lot are the ones you’re talking to as you wave, I have one guess what this is all about.”
“Especially after that display,” Josephine agreed. She bent to pinch Thomas’s chubby cheeks.
“You’ve finally decided to really, truly, and actually send for a wife, haven’t you?” Virginia asked.
“Yes.” Athos wished he didn’t feel so defeated as he said it. This was a good thing for everyone, after all. He wasn’t making the decision lightly, and judging by the smiles his friends and even his children wore, it was the right thing.
“I was thinking Elspeth Leonard,” Charlie said.
“Who?” Athos turned to him.
“Yes,” Josephine exclaimed, clapping her hands. “She would be perfect, wouldn’t she?”
“Why, I can’t think of a single other woman who would be more suited to the job of Mrs. Strong than Elspeth Leonard,” Virginia agreed. “Good idea, Charlie.”
“Who is Elspeth Leonard?” A tiny spark of hope had ignited in Athos’s chest at the amount of enthusiasm his friends were showing.
“Elspeth Leonard is one of the women currently living at Hurst Home,” Charlie explained. “She’s been there for a little over a year. Mrs. Breashears has been giving me updates on the histories and talents of each of the women under her care so that we might assist her in placing them in Haskell.”
“Elspeth is British,” Virginia rushed on, evidently impatient with Charlie’s storytelling pace. “British, though she’s been in this country for the past seven years, working as a nanny and governess.”
“Not only does Mrs. Breashears report she’s quick and intelligent, she has experience caring for children,” Josephine finished, eyes bright with excitement.
“She’d be our nanny?” Ivy asked, exchanging a confused look with her twin.
“No, she’d be your new mother, in a manner of speaking,” Charlie went on. “She’d come out here to marry your father.”
“But with the understanding that she is needed to care for the lot of you as well,” Virginia finished.
A stunned silence followed. Athos turned to his children with a shrug. “Well, what do you think?”
“A new mama?” Millicent asked.
“Is she pretty?” Lael followed her question with one of his own.
“Is she nice?” Geneva asked her question as if she considered it to be most important.
“Yes, I should hope so, and of course,” Charlie answered all three questions at once, then winked at the girls.
The girls giggled. The oldest three children turned to Athos, their expressions approving. Thomas swayed closer to his papa and took Athos’s hand.
“What do you say, Athos?” Charlie asked. “I can telegraph Mrs. Breashears today, and if Miss Leonard is willing, she could be in Haskell as your bride by May first.”
Athos studied his children, marked each one of their faces, looking for approval. He checked on Piper, who nodded in encouragement. Most of all, he searched his heart, wondering what Natalie would have said.
She probably would have said that the children should have a mother…and he probably wouldn’t have heard her as he rushed to get something else done or fix some other mistake.
Oh, Natalie. He sighed. The others would try to scold him and tell him he was wrong, but he really had been a terrible, absent-minded, inattentive husband. Miss Elspeth Leonard deserved better than his sorry bag of bones.
But he was desperate. In the end, only one thing mattered. His children needed a mother.
“All right.” He gave up with a shrug. “Send the telegram. We’ll do everything we can to get ready for Miss Elspeth Leonard.”
Chapter Two
The train whistle squealed, jolting Elspeth out of her all-consuming thoughts. She hadn’t felt the train slowing, so it came as something of a surprise to find the vast wilderness of Wyoming giving way to a growing town outside her window. Throughout the train car, people were standing to retrieve their bags and ready themselves to disembark.
“Haskell! Haskell, Wyoming!” The porter at the far end of the car called out.
Elspeth sucked in a breath, pressing a hand over her wriggling stomach. There was a family out there who needed her. Eight children was a lot, but she was up to the challenge. This was the right decision. This had to be the right decision. After more than half a decade of truly deplorable decisions, one of them had to be right.
She smoothed her gloved hands over her skirt and stood, scooting into the aisle so that she could retrieve her carpetbag from the rack above the seat. Her mother certainly wouldn’t think risking everything to move out into the middle of the American frontier and marry a man sight unseen was a good decision. She would lecture Elspeth about how, as the daughter of a marquis, she was destined for much better things. Although Elspeth failed to see how being maneuvered into marrying some titled lord that she might have danced with once or twice in order to secure someone’s line or fortune was any worse of a decision than becoming a mail-order bride. What her mother didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her…and seeing as Elspeth’s entire family had completely severed ties with her five years ago, she never would know.
The train whistle shrieked a final time as the train jerked to a stop. The writhing in Elspeth’s stomach grew. Thinking about the family that had disowned her wasn’t going to help her face the family that waited for her in this remote, new town. The past was the past, and any sort of step she took to get away from it was a step in the right direction.
“Need help there, missy?” the porter asked as Elspeth adjusted the grip on her carpetbag.
“No, thank you, sir.” She nodded, back straight, chin as high as she felt she deserved to lift it.
The porter’s brow flew up. “Not from around these parts are you, ma’am?”
Undoubtedly, he was referring to what was left of her English accent, but she answered, “I am lately from Nashville, Tennessee.”
The porter chuckled. “Well, you don’t sound like any Tennessean I’ve ever heard.” He stepped out of her way, extending an arm toward the front of the car as if inviting Elspeth on a stroll through Hyde Park. “Best of luck, ma’am.”
“And you as well.” She tried to smile as she nodded at the man. He continued to chuckle, probably at her manners this time. Some habits refused to leave a person, though. Her governess had taught her deportment when she was young, and for the past six years, she’d been attempting to teach it to the children she was hired to tutor.
Elspeth would have been much more confident in her abilities if any of those children had taken to her lessons. She squared her shoulders and marched toward the train car’s door. Perhaps the Strong children would be well-mannered souls who would soak up the lessons of her childhood the way she and her siblings had instead of being grubby little rascals. It wasn’t that she disliked her previous charges, but with no references, a dubious history, and nothing to distinguish her aside from an accent that Americans considered distinguished, the only families she’d found work with were social-climbing new money with one foot still in the gutter or the back alley.
The Strong family would be different. Mrs. Breashears had assured her of it. Elspeth turned to step down from the train car and onto the platform with hope in her heart. This time, she really would make a go of things, really would start over. Mr. Athos Strong came highly recommended after all, and she was marrying him, not entering his employment. This time, things would—
“That’s her! I know that’s her,” a child shouted.
“She looks just like Mrs. Breashears said she would,” a second, older child added.
“Hurray! Hurray for our new mother!” a third whooped.
More young shouts followed, and before Elspeth could get her bearings and assess the situation, a mob of eight children rushed her. Four or five of the youngest of the bunch slammed into her, nearly knocking her off her feet as they hugged, grabbed, and clutched her.
Elspeth yelped before she could stop herself. She dropped her bag and was bowled back several feet by the clinging crowd of happy youngsters.
“Your dress is so soft!”
“You’re just as pretty as I knew you’d be.”
“I’m going to be your favorite, I just know it.”
“Papa, Papa! Come and look!”
A chorus of voices and motion buzzed around her as Elspeth panted to catch her breath.
“You vagrants step back and leave her alone,” a slightly older girl scolded the younger ones.
“Papa, they’re going to smother her,” a second girl, who looked to be the first one’s twin, added.
Elspeth scrambled to remember the list of names Mrs. Breashears had given her. The twins must be Ivy and Heather. The littlest one—presently clinging to her skirt—was Thomas. The second set of twin girls were Geneva and Millicent. That meant the two boys who had hugged her and backed off must be Lael and Vernon, and the young man who stood on the fringes of the group wearing a grin on his pimply face must be Hubert. Good gracious! A paper list of names was one thing. A crush of children was another.
“Sorry, sorry, sorry.” An older woman in a moss-green riding dress with a fetching hat perched on her silver hair stepped forward, wedging her way between the children. “This lot always has been…exuberant. I’m Virginia Piedmont.”
Virginia thrust out her hand with as much exuberance as any of the children.
“Isn’t she pretty, Mrs. Piedmont?” one of the younger twin girls asked.
“Did somebody pick up her bag?” the boy who must have been Vernon shouted.
“Will you read me a story?” Thomas asked, eyes as big as moons.
“I…I…”
“Children, step back. Give Miss Leonard some air.”
The final command was given by a man who stood on the edges of the scene wearing a stationmaster’s uniform. He crushed a round, black hat in his hands and shifted his weight from foot to foot as he looked on. His sandy-blond hair framed a round face with soft, hazel eyes. Elspeth had hardly noticed him, but she knew in an instant that he must be Athos Strong. Her husband-to-be.
“Do as your papa says and give Miss Leonard some space,” Virginia declared. She shooed the kids as if they were cattle, with a bright smile and a teasing wink. As soon as they’d all backed up by several feet—Thomas only stepping away unwillingly from where he had grabbed onto Elspeth’s skirt—Virginia let out a happy breath. “Welcome to Haskell.”
At last, an interaction that had some sort of context in Elspeth’s experience. She belatedly took Virginia’s hand. “Thank you. I am most pleased to be here.”
“Ooh, did you hear the way she talks, Papa?” the other of the younger twin girls asked, turning to her father.
“Yes, I did, sweetness.” Athos smiled and rested a hand on his daughter’s head.
A small portion of the tension that had been growing in Elspeth’s whole body released. Athos smiled at his daughter, at all of his children, with such kindness and affection that emotion squeezed her throat. Her own parents would never have dared
show such attention in public. Anyone who showed that much consideration for children must be a gentleman, and she was not afraid to marry a gentleman. Not after being buffeted about by so many un-gentlemanly men.
“Well then,” Virginia went on, throwing up her hands. “The timing of this whole introduction has been blown to smithereens, so there’s no point in beating around the bush. Elspeth Leonard, I’d like you to meet Athos Strong. Athos, here’s Elspeth, your bride.”
Virginia stepped out of the way, clearing the space between Elspeth and Athos. Elspeth stiffened her spine and called on all of her courage to face the man she’d pledged to marry. Only instead of marching up to her and laying claim on her in any way, Athos Strong stood where he was, a bashful flush coming to his cheeks and a warm smile lighting his face. Another measure of the anxiety that the entire journey had built up in Elspeth melted away. The man was shy.
“Go on, Papa,” one of the older twins whispered.
“She’s waiting,” the second twin added.
Together, the two of them pushed his back, causing Athos to take a faltering step forward. The other children giggled.
That simple action seemed to break the spell. Athos cleared his throat and shook himself, then walked amiably forward, extending his hand. “I’m very pleased to meet you, Miss Leonard.”
Once again, Elspeth found herself on familiar footing. She could do this. She’d met new men in ballrooms and drawing rooms across London all the time. She could greet a widowed father on a train platform on the frontier.
“Call me Elspeth, please.” She took his hand with her gloved one and began to execute a perfect curtsy before grasping how inappropriate that was. “We are to be married, after all.”
