Mail Order Bride: 9 Book Boxed set : 9 Brides for 9 Cowboys: CLEAN Western Historical Romance Series Bundle

by Faye Sonja

  "I still worry every day when Ryan leaves if I will see him at the end of the day. After a while when he keeps showing up you just stop thinking about it. You will worry, but you won't let it consume you." Amy rubbed her back and Agnes pitched in.

  "The big advantage you have is that you have lived that life too Jas," Agnes said. Yes, Agnes had taken to shortening her name and she loved it. Agnes was the unpredictable one, who always had a look of mischief in her eyes. Amy was the older, more stoic one who tried to keep them all in order with kind advice and soft wisdom.

  They had never left her much over the last couple weeks and she had grown to love them for what they brought to her life. She had never had much of a family since she had been forced to leave her Amish home and she now felt like she had one she could count on.

  "Come on," Amy urged and took up the boil of vegetables to head outside. Agnes followed with the macaroni pie and Jasmine downed the rest of her wine in one go and headed after them.

  "I told you that you need to put oil or something of the sort on the thing or it will stick to the grill," Ryan said, studying a recipe book they had found among Jared’s vast collection.

  Mrs. Potter came out and gave them all a slap upside the head, something Jasmine learned she used to do when they were children. "This is not a toy you buffoons," she said and took the basting brush from Charlie who was too busy glaring at the others to follow Ryan's instructions. She basted the steak and turned it over, exposing the char on the other side.

  "That one's yours Jared," Charlie said laughing.

  "You burn it and I eat it? Not going to happen."

  Charlie turned and waved a piece of meat at him. “I am your boss now, so you do as I say."

  "Here we go," Amy laughed. They had spent day listening to the men banter about their positions now that Jared was home, with Ryan playing referee occasionally.

  Ryan intervened just before Jared and Charlie would have taken to sword fighting with their forks, the children in them rising to the surface.

  "Are you ready for the fight of your life?" Jared asked and a sorrowful shadow overtook Charlie's face.

  "Agnes will always come to my rescue," Charlie said sounding more like he was trying to convince himself.

  Agnes laughed and brought her glass to her lips. "Sure my love, always." The sarcasm in her voice was thick as she watched the two men carry on like children.

  "Tell me, when was the last time you had to stand up for yourself and defend your honor?" Jared chided, enjoying his moment. "Soon I will lead you to your demise!” he said as they fought on as if their forks were swords until Mrs. Potter smacked them upside the head again on her way out.

  Agnes went to hug Charlie, who was still glaring at Jared who was trying hard to contain his joy. Ryan slapped him across the head which didn't help at all and he laughed as he made his way to Jasmine.

  "Don't worry Charlie Boy, you can live vicariously through the stories Jasmine and I will tell you at the end of each day as we venture out on the road."

  "I am going to make sure you both get all the boring stuff," Charlie retorted and Jasmine nudged Jared to shut up.

  "If it is boring in the least you will be sleeping by yourself," she said. They all laughed at his pout and she kissed his cold lips in consolation.

  Dinner carried on with much of the same banter and hours later as the others turned in for the night, Jasmine pulled him onto the couch. She had been dying to have him to herself all day.

  They laid there without the need for words and she enjoyed his hand on hers.

  “I love you,” he whispered and she smiled for no words she could speak would ever be enough to tell him how much she loved him too.

  * * *

  The Unexpected Ex-Amish Bride

  Mail Order Ex-Amish Brides Ride West

  Book 3

  .

  .

  .

  .

  .

  b o o k 3

  …

  Watching her best friend fall in love and inherit all the perks that came along with marriage, love and family, young ex-Amish Amy, realizes one thing:

  She needed to go out into the world…

  For Brian, he wasn’t exactly looking for love, and so a mail order bride would most certainly fit the bill. But when he meets Amy, he knows right away that she is the one, even though falling in love wasn’t in his plans.

  When it finally happens... will a blast from the past change it all for him?

  …

  .

  .

  .

  Prologue

  .

  Alabama,

  1889

  Amy sat in the lounge chair on the large patio, trying her hardest to fan away the late summer heat before suffering a stroke from its relentlessness. She had downed a whole pitcher of water due to the intense heat and her more intense thirst. Maybe it was time she got away from Texas. She was beginning to feel like she had overstayed her welcome, even though they had told her she had not. If Jasmine had it her way she would live in the Matton Mansion, set in the middle of the beautiful and expansive farm until she found herself grey and old. All her life would have passed her by in the comfort of their company before she even realized she had yet to begin to live.

  She just could not have that.

  “What troubles you?” her thoughts were interrupted as Mrs. Potter, the frail house keeper crept up behind her.

  She turned with a smile at the woman who had been like a mother to them all. “I am thinking maybe it is time I move on from here,” she replied again, looking out across the lawn.

  In the distance she could see the speckled figures of Agnes, Charlie, Jasmine and Jared as they played and picnicked with their three children and she felt an aching in her troubled heart.

  “Why?” Mrs. Potter asked her taking a seat in the lounge chair beside her. “You don’t like it here?”

  Amy thought about it for a moment, though she really didn’t need to. “Yes, I love it here, but I need to go out and begin a life of my own now.”

  It had been almost a year since she had broken up with Ryan, the sweet young man she had met and thought she would have eventually married. Turned out he had a huge gambling debt, and when debtors had come a-calling, he had up and disappeared. All she had gotten from him was a letter saying he loved her, but for his safety he could not be with her, and then begged her to move on. She had done just that after a month of tears. Now here she was feeling a little pathetic watching her best friend enjoy love and family every day while she sat by feeling like her growth had been stunted. She was actually beginning to miss the days of looting and robbing she had enjoyed at one time in her life. And that was something she never wanted to think about doing again.

  “Well, if you have to go, you just have to,” Mrs. Potter said reaching over to pat her hand. “I will miss your company here and so will the others, but I understand. Do you know where you will go?”

  Amy had been thinking about that too, and her heart had been looking to the north. That was after all where she had come from. That was where her little Amish community was, and though she had been shunned and could never go back home, she wanted to be close by. She had been thinking as of late that maybe she will try getting a letter to her sister to maybe find out how their parents were doing. She had been missing them a lot lately.

  “I will head back north,” she told Mrs. Potter. “I feel a bit of a longing stirring in me, and I will follow it.”

  She didn’t mention that she had placed her own mail order advertisement and had gotten a couple responses she considered. She also had a job lined up there as she would need one. She had been lucky enough to find another ad in one of the traveling papers, placed by an Amish woman who had left home to start a hair salon for the fancy and elite of the town. She had been talking to her for about three months now and when she leaves Jasmine in a couple days, she will be well on her way to a new life.

  “Jasmine will not be pleased
,” Mrs. Potter pointed out.

  Amy gave her a tearful smile. “She will understand though. We had a good run and now it is time for me to move on.”

  Of that much she was certain as she excused herself to go finish her packing. She would soon be telling them all goodbye and it was just a part of life she had come to accept. Sad as it was she knew she had to say goodbye.

  * * *

  1

  Chapter ONE

  -

  -

  -

  -

  -

  -

  -

  “ … I beg that we speak of things we

  have yet to address …Our marriage?”

  .

  Ohio,

  three months later

  Amy sat on the train listening to the two employees argue about the twenty-four hour phenomenon. According to one of the men, everyone was given the same twenty-four hours in each and every day and success was determined by how you used them, while the other was trying to drill it into his dense skull that situations can sometimes impede or postpone success.

  “Take us for example,” the smarter of the two was saying, “you grew up with money so you were schooled in the fine arts of everything, and by the best tutors this town could offer. You finished before I did and have had three years to get to a better position than I am in. You simply take the train because your only friend does not own a carriage. I grew up poor and had to work for three years before I could even think of paying for schooling and it took me three years longer to get to where you are.”

  The other young man who had spoken with arrogance didn’t have a response to that, so his friend finished.

  “All I am saying is that yes, we all have twenty-four hours, but not everybody’s situation is the same.”

  Amy felt like giving him a hug, but just smiled as the train bustled along the railway making several briefs stops. The conversation made her think about her life. She had always wanted more for herself, and she knew she was smart, no one had to tell her that. But life had given her lemons and she was making the best lemonade she knew how to. She had left her Amish community for a better life once before, but had gone back home when nostalgia had hit and then she had left again. In leaving twice she no longer had the opportunity to go back again. It was their law.

  She had always been a smart child, knowing right from wrong, but that had never stopped her from making a few silly decisions and she knew they had cost her dearly. Now she was here trying to make the best of her life and this young man was right. Situations had a lot to do with how one’s success came about. Determination and will were common across the board, but if the heavens did not smile at you then you would find yourself out of favor.

  She could tell you all about being out of favor when it came to the men that she had met through her mail order bride advertisement. She had all but given up, and she swore that after the one she was to meet today, if he was not good for her she would not be taking up another offer. She had had enough disappointments, and after being here for several months now she had not met a single man who fancied her just yet.

  The train stopped and she turned to the young man who had spoken first, “Your friend is right, because not all of us come from the same places that promote excelling in life.”

  She smiled at him and walked off, heading to what her job was for the time being. She was trying to make enough money by working in the hair salon. When she had made enough, she planned to move to a better part of town, closer to where she might be able to take some lessons in accounting. Book keeping she was beginning to understand was where the money was for women. She remembered Jasmine used to do the same thing before she had married Jared, and she knew she made a bit of money. Living in this town was not going to be her entire story.

  But she was grateful for Lyca, who had made something wonderful out of her situation. She thought back to when Lyca had told her of how she had found out she was pregnant. The woman had only been sixteen, and Lyca had thought that keeping the child would make the young man she had gotten pregnant for love her enough to marry her. Turns out she was wrong. Lyca’s mother had kicked her out of the house and the elders had promptly demanded she be removed from the community. She had met and married a man who she thought she loved, but then after she had married him and had her second child, he had changed. She had promptly decided to remain single and had made her way in the world through blood sweat and tears. Amy had a strong admiration for her.

  “Ain’t no good men left out there honey,” Lyca had told her. “Best you just focus on living your own life.”

  She was still hopeful she would meet one someday but she wasn’t going to be stupid about it. Today she would meet the last mail order bride ad responder and from there she would decide what to do. She wanted love and a family and she would not settle for less.

  As she walked into the salon, which really wasn’t a salon at all, it was more like a community spot. People, old and young alike, had come to respect Lyca for the raw truth she gave and the way she treated her customers. To make it even better she only hired people who were just as real and humble as she was, so it made for a fun place to work and drink.

  They were both a barber and hair dressing salon and she didn’t separate her male clients from her female clients. She fostered the co-mingling and in her five years could boast that her salon had been the starting ground for quite a few successful relationships. The bar she had on the other side just made it that much more fun, and Amy looked forward to the occasional joker that wandered in from days on the road with wonderful stories to tell.

  Amy would be going home and hear people say quite often, “I am going to go grab a drink at Lyca’s!” She was immensely proud of her new friend.

  As Amy donned her working gear she chimed in on the conversation that was taking place between them. There was always a hot topic or two to chatter about around the salon.

  Women who courted or entertained married men. Again! No matter how many times they spoke about it, it was always an interesting conversation.

  “Personally,” Lyca began and everybody fell silent as she spoke. “I was not the one who walked down the aisle and said I do, so I have no moral obligations to another man’s wedding vows and if he isn’t thinking about them, then why should I?”

  Everybody started to talk as soon as she was finished, uttering their approval, disapproval or indifference, but Lyca’s eyes were busy taking in the tall, tanned and grey eyed man that was standing at the door and Amy followed her eyes in that direction. He definitely was not from about these parts, no sun shone long enough for anybody here to get such a tan.

  “Morning,” he said, looking at her with the most charming smile she had ever seen. “You folks cut hair here?”

  She seemed to have lost her ability to speak at the sight of how gorgeous he was, but she patted the seat instead and he came in and took a seat.

  “I am Brian by the way,” he said introducing himself as she suited him up for a haircut. Lyca had recently made sure she knew how to cut a man’s hair as well and in this moment she was more than grateful.

  “Amy,” she said with a smile, as their eyes met in the mirror. Amy felt a strange tingling creeping up her spine and for a moment she lost herself in his eyes. He was one gorgeous man.

  There was not much to be done with his hair, but Amy took her time. She didn’t want all that manly goodness to just get up and leave, so she went as slowly as she could without seeming incompetent. Every so often she would feel his eyes peering at her and looked in the mirror to see him giving her the once over.

  Amy was known to be confident and unfazed by such attention, and having been introduced to the world of English men a few years ago, she knew when a man got a certain look in his eye, a look like the one Brian wore now, it meant that he was interested in more than just a haircut.

  “So Amy,” he began and she paused to look at him, “you live around here?”

  She contemplated answ
ering that question right off the bat but decided against it.

  “That’s how you want to start this conversation?” she asked him with a mischievous smile. He chuckled, a melodious sound in her ears, every bit as masculine without being too overt. She could see the twinkle in his eyes as he stared at her through the mirror and then corrected himself.

  “To be honest no, I really wanted to ask you out but I figured I might work my way up to it.”

  Across the room Lyca looked at her and smiled encouragingly and Amy turned back to him.

  “One of those types, huh?”

  “One of what?” he asked her a tad bit confused.

  “The ones who start with conversation and then work their way to other things.”

  “Isn’t that how all things start though? A little conversation and then from there you decide how much further you want to take it. Besides, I love good conversation.”

  “I didn’t say I didn’t,” she countered, smiling at him in the mirror, “but if you know you want to ask me out, there’s no need to sugar coat it. Just ask me out. Then while we are out we can have all the conversations you want.”

  He chuckled again and shook his head. “I had a feeling you would be different.”

  “How so?” she asked, intrigued by where his train of thought might have taken him.

  “I just got that feeling,” he looked at her briefly and this time she saw more than just lust in his gaze, she saw a longing for something more and a pleased surprise that he might have actually found it. Amy was a bit taken aback, but found herself lost in the essence that was him for the moment.