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

by Faye Sonja

  As Jemma's sleepy eyelid flickered open he whispered to her. "Happy birthday little one."

  Jane stood back and watched the grin spread clear across her face. She had never before seen her daughter so happy and there was lots of reason for it.

  "Who wants to bake a pie with me?" Alex chimed in from the doorway and Jemma bounded out of the bed and right into her arms. Sleep was forgotten and nothing but joy at seeing her Aunt Alex was written on her face.

  Today was not only Jemma's birthday, it was also the day she would marry Byron, and as Alex took Jemma to the kitchen for a quick breakfast, he stepped up behind her and wrapped her in a hug.

  "Are you sure about this?" He asked her. It was a valid question considering the many little issues they had had.

  She turned and smiled at him placing a gentle kiss on his face. "Yes, I think I have been sure of this for a very long time."

  He smiled contented and rubbed his nose against hers. "And you don't want a big wedding? We can put it off and plan the kind of wedding you deserve."

  "No," that much she was absolutely sure of. "I have already done the big wedding once and though this is my first time with you, I want it to be small and intimate. Besides, today is Jemma's day. I don't want anything to take away from that."

  He nodded in agreement. "And I will not give her any reason to have to fuss with me."

  They both laughed at that because the little arguments she saw them having now were beautiful. For the last three months she had watched them break down the barriers of communication with each other and make the transition from being rivals into a loving relationship of father and daughter. They fussed about vegetables and horses and he almost always won her over with a kiss to the forehead to seal the deal. She loved them both more than anything else in the wold, and that evening as she exchanged vows before a judge in his study, they were vows she knew she would hold dear to her heart.

  "It wasn't a mistake after all," Alex said nudging her playfully as they stood on the porch watching Jemma play with her mother’s new husband. They squealed and ran across the lawn with no care in the world.

  "No it was not," she said hugging Alex to her. "Thank you."

  "That is what friends are for," Alex responded with a smile.

  "Are you sure you have to go come morning?"

  Jane had written to Alex months before about the length of her visit, but being a worker in the governor's house did not give her friend much free time.

  "Yes. I am sorry. I will be back come summer though. Who knows, I might just find me a man right here in Springfield."

  They laughed and made their way down the stairs to enjoy the evening play. Jane didn't say it out loud, but she was looking forward to carrying Byron's child and more so she was looking forward to a life in Kansas and the news that Alex had finally found the man she had always dreamed of.

  Who knows? That might be very, very soon.

  * * *

  The Damaged Cowboy’s Spinster Bride

  Courageous Mail Order Brides

  Book 2

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  b o o k 2

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  Unemployed, Alex decides to become a mail order bride after seeing an unusual ad that spoke to her heart. But she didn't know Nathan’s scars and past could possibly put her life in danger and perhaps bring her outrageous pain. And when that had passed, it seems tragedy may just strike again between the two.

  Will they ever find true love?

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  Prologue

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  Rock County – Minnesota

  1904

  Alex hummed away while she worked. She had never aspired to be a simple house maid, but then again she had not come from some rich well-to-do family whose daughters were ever waited on. No, not at all, she was born of a salt of the earth family who had to toil all day to make ends meet. She had been born into it and she didn’t complain. Her mother had just passed and her father was ill himself. They weren’t too young, having waited until they were older to have children. She was the first, and at thirty-two she was sure she was somewhat of a disappointment to them.

  Her younger sister would soon be married and her younger brothers both already had wives and children of their own, and here she was behaving like she was immortal. She smiled at the thought. It was an intriguing impossibility.

  “Alex,” Mrs. Mason, the woman whose mansion she kept up called to her.

  “Good morning ma’am,” she responded with a chirpy smile. “How are you today?”

  Mrs. Mason smiled. “Couldn’t be better, but I need to speak to you before you go home today.”

  “Yes ma’am,” she answered with a smile. She probably wanted to talk to her about an event that was coming up soon. The Masons were deeply involved in some rather extravagant events that the whole town became involved in, and they usually needed all the help they could get. Alex smiled again and went back to work. She had been expecting to be asked to help for weeks now as she always was.

  The woman walked away in a flurry of lavender, smelling like a breath of fresh air. Alex returned to humming her song and went right back to work.

  “Hey, have you heard what happened to Old Joe?” Susan, the kitchen maid asked her. She rolled her eyes at the question knowing full well that whatever had happened to Old Joe, the truth of the matter would be lost on Susan. The maid was someone Alex avoided like the plague for she was always telling tall tales. She told stories like only a real story teller could, often inventing a more entertaining version of events. She was a tedious one.

  “No, I have not heard,” she said flatly, going back to shining the silver she had been working on.

  “He was let go this morning. How sad!”

  That got Alex’s attention for sure. “What?”

  “Yes,” she said taking a seat, and Alex just knew she was only getting comfortable to spin her little tale, but surely she would not be lying about Old Joe.

  “Why was he let go?” she asked, worried about the ailing man who had been nothing but a friend to her. He had been more than just a hand working the lands around the expansive Mason ranch.

  “Seems Mrs. Mason had a bit of a fuss with him yesterday and got up today with a chip on her shoulder and just couldn’t let it go,” Susan explained.

  “But I just saw her and she seemed to be in good spirits,” she explained.

  “You know that woman ain't right in the head,” Susan whispered.

  Alex took offense to what she was inferring. It was true that Mrs. Mason was very temperamental. She would be alright with the world by seven in the morning and by twelve nothing would be as it was. Alex had seen that but she had never before experienced it.

  “Well I am sure she had her reasons,” she said and excused herself to go find something else in the big house to do.

  That was no difficult task, for there was always so much to be done around the expansive home. She made a mental note to ensure to pass by John’s place when she was finished that day, and see if there was anything she could do for him. She couldn’t understand what would make Mrs. Mason let go of a man who had been working that ranch since he was just a boy. No doubt he would have worked that ranch until his dying day. For the rest of the day her thoughts were troubled and she could do nothing but hope and wish her fate was not to be the same.

  But, as luck would have it, Mrs. Mason would be waiting for her on her way out that day.

  “You wanted to see me, Mrs. Mason?” she asked the woman who was having tea as she entered the foyer.

  “Yes, Alex. Please sit.”

  Alex took a hesitant seat, noting that it was first in the seven years she had worked in that house that she was invited to take a seat to have a talk. She could only wonder and imagine, and think the worst as she pulled up a chair.

  “Is everything okay ma’am?” she asked.

 
“Well Alex, regretfully no,” the woman said and Alex knew instantly that her fate would be no different. “I have to let you go, Alex.”

  She could not speak for instantly she began thinking about how she would now look after her father and feed herself and these days, jobs were not easy to come by. In a split second she remembered how hard her friend Jane had it after her husband had died. She could not go through that again.

  “Is it something I did, Mrs. Mason?” she asked, trying hard to keep the tears from streaming down her face.

  “No Alex,” the woman said in a chirpy tone. “We simply find ourselves in a position where we have to let a few people go...”

  Whatever she said next faded in a haze for Alex. It was not easy for a woman without a husband to survive in these tough times and she was finding it hard to accept that she had worked all these years only to be let go without a hint of warning.

  She decided then and there that she would leave this town if she had to. Nothing seemed to be going right for her here.

  “We will pay you two months’ salary and we hope you can find something else really soon,” Mrs. Mason said pushing a small padded envelope towards her. That envelope represented something good for her to embark on a new beginning, and she was going to do the best she could to have just that.

  * * *

  1

  Chapter ONE

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  “… something she did not quite

  understand. His ad was not the usual ad

  a man would place when seeking a bride.”

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  Valley, Texas

  “You do know you can go talk to her, right?” Kate asked Nathan where they stood, staring down at the courtyard at the lovely Samantha who was visiting from the north. He stood looking at her wondering why it was that he had no interest in courting her.

  “I would rather not,” he said with disdain and offered a smile at his old friend.

  She was blind in one eye, but that did not take away from her beauty at all. Growing up it had always been thought that they would have someday married and settled down to have children of their own. After all, they were virtually inseparable. But the love they had for each other was a strange kind of love, and not the kind of love that would see them to the altar. They were like brother and sister, bonded together through hardship. They were extremely close, but to settle as husband and wife, they did not feel that way for each other.

  “She doesn’t catch your eye, does she?” she teased him taking a sip from his of bourbon.

  “Maybe after an entire bottle of bourbon I might forget she is as witless as she is feather brained,” he scoffed.

  “Nathan Matthews!” his great aunt exclaimed at his insolent remarks. “You were raised better than to insult people like that.”

  He kissed her cheek. “She is not my guest, she is yours, and I would appreciate a swift departure.”

  He was unremorseful about it. She had been trying to find him a wife for over a year now and it was not working out so well for her. She had brought everyone around, from the neighborhood mouthpiece to the southern hag to his doorsteps. Now in her last valiant effort, Aunt May had brought Samantha back around after a few years in the north, in the hopes that she would somehow catch her nephews eye.

  “At this rate you will end up single in this hovel!” Aunt May shouted after him.

  “Not when I have your chirpy presence to keep me company,” he giggled over his shoulder.

  She held her head in dismay. “His stubbornness will be the death of me.”

  Kate laughed at her exasperation and Nathan looked back at the two stalwart women in his life. He almost laughed, but had a special appreciation for having them around. He had had a rough childhood that made him less than easy to deal with, but these two had stayed there, never leaving his side even an inch.

  Kate had been there to pick his spirits up time and time again. Even after her accident that had nearly cost her the ability to see, she had stayed with him. She had nursed his bruises and helped him build himself back from the broken child he was to the most eligible bachelor in town. She had an unfaltering faith in him and was like the big sister he never had, making sure he knew he was worthy every step of his lonely journey. For her he would give his life.

  His Aunt May was a healthy dose of reality. She never babied him. She never lied to him and told him life would be okay. No, instead she had all but put a boot to his rear end every time she caught him wallowing in self-pity. She had told him every step of the way that life was not easy, and most of the best people weren’t born with silver spoons in their mouths. She had pushed him to be who he was, making sure he spent no time wallowing in sorrow and that he only aspired for greatness. To him, he owed her so much more than just the love and respect he gave freely.

  It was for that reason he could not stand the thought of marrying the woman downstairs, who was no doubt a close friend, but he just couldn’t see himself committing to her for the rest of his life.

  Slowly making his way up the stairs to his large bedroom, he sat at his writing table and decided to do the one thing he had never thought he ever would. He wanted to meet a woman from far away, a woman who would stir the embers of his soul in a way no other ever had. He wanted to meet a woman who understood adversity and was made strong by it. He wanted a woman with a soul so deep he could see no end to it, and that woman did not live around these parts.

  So he sat to pen the advertisement he would publish for a mail order bride. Some among his peers would consider him foolish for having gone that route, but he didn’t really care about their opinions and he didn’t think they were any better off in finding true love for themselves here in Valley, Texas.

  So he wrote:

  For the woman of strength, born of adversity,

  For the woman who believes in building a life from the ground up,

  For the woman who understands that scars may fade, though the pain may never,

  For the woman who understands that love is often guided by fate,

  For the woman who wants more than social status and is willing to build a home,

  I am the man she seeks and I am seeking her.

  He knew it might sound too poetic and a tad bit vague, but he did not care. For the woman who was meant for him would understand every word he had written. He ended the ad with a means to send an immediate telegram in her response and smiled as he reread the lines a few more times.

  He knew what he wanted, and if he had to meet twenty more women before he settled on one, then he was quite okay with it.

  The next morning he got up and made his way to the local post office. He stood aside to allow the lady coming behind him to enter, tipping his hat at her as she went along.

  She smiled at him as she passed. “You must be making some girl a happy one,” she said.

  The coquettish flicker of her eyelashes was enough to tell him what she was hinting at, and he was instantly annoyed. He was tired of having his politeness mistaken for a flirtatious advance. It just went to show that these local women were definitely not for him.

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  It was three days since she had last worked and already she was going crazy with nothing to do. She missed Jane, and wrote to her telling her about her plight, but a response would not come for another week or so. It was too silent in the little cottage on the hill that she had been given by her friend Jane when she had decided to become a mail order bride and head south. It was far too quiet for her to stay.

  She put some clothes on and made her way to town. Her sole intention was to make a stop at the ice-cream parlor and get herself a scoop while she contemplated or bemoaned life- whichever was most convenient.

  “Alex,” the owner greeted her and stepped aside, allowing her inside. He smiled a suggestive smile and she averted her gaze. He had been doing that for years now, and word in town was that he
fancied her. But it wasn’t his pot belly, or his uncanny smile that turned her away from him. It was the fact that he somehow lacked the class she was looking for in a man.

  She got herself an ice cream cone and made her way to the docks where she could watch the ships come in as the children played close by. She found a seat beneath the wild willow tree that blew in the rough ocean breeze. It spoke of a storm on the horizon. She would look forward to the weather being in sync with her mood. Somehow the thought of a rainy and thunderous storm intrigued her.

  “Is this seat taken?” asked a small wiry man who looked like he truly avoided food. It instantly made her think of Old John, whom she had paid a visit to just recently. She wondered how he was faring today. His old bones always got achy whenever a storm was brewing.

  “No it is not,” she said courteously, praying the man did not take that as an invite to strike up a conversation with her. She would very much rather be left alone with her thoughts.

  But that was not to be.

  “A storm is coming this way,” he said taking his hat off as he spoke to her. She recognized a kind of turbulent sadness in his eyes and wondered what storm was raging in him.

  She didn’t ask though. “Seems like these days all that is on the horizon is one storm after the next.”

  He chuckled. “No peace resides in this tired old world… well, sometimes it seems.”

  A tense silence fell between them as they each got lost in their own thoughts of struggle. But for Alex, it was not the thought of the storm that had her feeling a bit weepy. It was the fact that when the storm did come she would be enduring it alone. Jane had warned her that her job could be ungrateful and when she was left alone she would regret not taking up someone’s offer of marriage. At the time they had had that conversation, she had been happy with life as it was. Now that was not so, and even worse was the fact that here she was without a job.