Orphan Train Brides

by Caroline Clemmons

  “I don’t need to learn something I already know. I’ve fallen in love with you. I suppose I fell for you that day you were so patient with Calvin when he hired you to defend him against the man who killed his father.”

  “Ah, I thought I saw the shadow of an eavesdropper that day.”

  He pressed his lips to hers and heat sizzled through her. She wanted to be closer, to meld with him. When he ended the kiss, his breath was as ragged as hers.

  She tucked her head against his strong chest. “I was so nervous when I asked you to marry me. When you said we’d have a real marriage, I almost shouted for joy.”

  He caressed her arms. “I was kicking myself for not having the nerve to propose when you received that letter. But, here I am living in your boardinghouse with not much savings and my mother’s care to oversee. I definitely didn’t feel worthy.”

  “You are the most wonderful man.”

  “Now, though, I’m hoping we can turn in for our wedding night, my love. I’ll wait in the other room if you want me to so you can get ready in private.”

  “I don’t want to be apart from you unless I have to be.”

  “At least for the next fifty or sixty years, I’m yours.”

  “Barely long enough, my love.”

  Epilogue

  Eighteen months later.

  Merry cradled baby George. “Lucky we built an extra room for us when we added Ma’s. Calvin’s too old to share a room with babies.”

  Standing near the bed, Blake cradled baby Murphy. “Having twins is very efficient, my love, but I wasn’t certain I’d survive their arrival. Are you certain you’re all right?”

  “Yes, I am now they’re here and I won’t have to waddle when I walk or feel like an elephant. Having twins will make our lives busier than we ever dreamed but they’re so precious.”

  Ma took charge of Murphy. “Everyone out so Merry can rest. Blake, you go rest up, too. You look like a horse stomped you.”

  “Thank you, Ma. Actually, I feel like I’m walking on clouds. I’m not abandoning you to look after the children when you were up all night being midwife for Dr. Bushnell.”

  Calvin peered at little George. “They sure are red and wrinkled. Never mind, I’ll take Abigail and Tammie to our tree house. I promise I’ll watch ’em real good so you can nap.”

  Blake patted the boy’s back. “Thanks, son. I know I can depend on you.”

  Calvin ushered Abigail and Tammie out of the room. Ma laid the babies in their cradles. She brought a damp cloth for Merry to use on her face.

  Blake took charge of smoothing the wet cloth across Merry’s face and then her arms and hands. When he finished, he leaned down to kiss Merry. “Don’t forget how much I love you. Have sweet dreams of me while you sleep.”

  “My good dreams are always of you, dear. Stay here with me? You can nap beside me.” She patted the bed.

  He glanced at his mother. “If General Grandma will allow me.” He tentatively stretched out beside her, his feet sticking off the end of the bed several inches.

  Ma shook her finger at him. “Don’t you dare wiggle, Blake Woolf. Merry needs a lot of rest.”

  He raised his hand. “Solemn vow, Ma. I’ll be still as a statue.”

  “See that you are. You’ll have to give our little mother the babies as soon as they’re hungry.”

  “I can do that. You know, I remember how to change diapers.”

  “Yes, you’ve had practice. I’ll toddle off to bed then and leave you in charge of the babies and their mother.”

  When her mother-in-law had gone, Merry rested her head against her husband’s arm. “Thank you for staying with me. I’m really tired, but I need you here.”

  “I’ll try always to be available whenever you wish, my lady love. Go to sleep and I’ll stay beside you.”

  She turned on her side and rested her hand on his broad chest. “Forever, I hope.”

  Gently, he kissed her forehead and held her close. “Count on me, my love. You can count on me.”

  About Caroline Clemmons

  Through a crazy twist of fate, Caroline Clemmons was born in town instead of on a Texas ranch. To compensate for this illogical error, she writes about handsome cowboys, feisty ranch women, and scheming villains in a tiny office her family calls her pink cave. She and her Hero live in North Central Texas cowboy country where they ride herd on their three rescued indoor cats and dog as well as providing nourishment outdoors for squirrels, birds, and a collection of wild critters who stop by to visit.

  The books she creates in her pink cave have made her a bestselling western author who has won awards. She writes both sweet and sensual romances about the West, both historical and contemporary as well as time travel and mystery. Her series include the Kincaids, McClintocks, Stone Mountain Texas, Bride Brigade, Texas Time Travel, Texas Caprock Tales, Pearson Grove, and Loving A Rancher as well as numerous single titles and contributions to multi-author sets including Pinkerton Matchmaker, Proxy Brides, Widows of Wildcat Ridge, and Bachelors and Babies.

  When she’s not writing, she loves spending time with her family, reading books written by her friends, eating out, browsing antique malls, checking Facebook, and taking the occasional nap. Find her on her blog, website, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Google+, and Pinterest.

  Join her and other readers at Caroline’s Cuties, a Facebook readers group for special excerpts, exchanging ideas, contests, giveaways, recipes, and talking to like-minded people about books at https://www.facebook.com/groups/277082053015947/

  Click on her Amazon Author Page for a complete list of her books and follow her there.

  Follow her on BookBub.

  To stay up-to-date with her releases and contests, subscribe to Caroline’s newsletter here and receive a FREE novella of HAPPY IS THE BRIDE, a humorous historical wedding disaster that ends happily—but you knew it would, didn’t you?

  A Family For Merry

  By

  Caroline Clemmons

  Copyright © 2019 by Caroline Clemmons

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

  Occasionally a character will be named after a reader with the reader’s knowledge and permission. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously. Any other resemblance to actual persons living or dead, businesses, events, or locales is purely coincidental.

  A FAMILY FOR POLLY

  Chapter One

  Mockingbird Flats, Texas, 1878

  Polly Friday Bird snapped the tablecloth crisply over the makeshift wooden table while her sister Merry directed two men carrying benches. Polly wasn’t so sure she wanted to meet the orphan train and help with recording which children were picked by local couples. Actually, she was very sure—she didn’t want to do it at all. The very thought of the orphan train put a lump in her throat.

  As Merry sat on the bench and took out the list of children and a pencil, Polly said, “I remember when we stood on the platform waiting for someone to pick us. Dread weighed down my insides as if I’d swallowed a cannonball.”

  Her sister half smiled and half grimaced. “I’d so hoped for a wonderful family that day. The Birds weren’t it—but you were. I’ll always be honored to call you my sister.”

  The train whistle blew and Polly heard the hiss of steam from the slowing train. “Yes, at least we have each other, and our brothers, too. Bart and Newt saved my behind from a lickin’ more than once. Then again, I hated to see our brothers have to work as hard as they did, and the whippings.”

  She closed her eyes and willed the memories to go away. “I still remember putting horse liniment on the welts on their backs. None of us could get out of Nebraska fast enough, but I sur
e wish they’d come to Texas with us instead of heading to Colorado.”

  Merry nodded, an unfallen tear in her eye. “We’ll see them again someday. I hope they’ve found their riches already.”

  Polly knew her sister was right to volunteer them both to assist with placing the orphans, painful as it might be. If the two of them helped, maybe they could find some way to prevent dreadful people from adopting any children. Mr. and Mrs. Bird, the couple who’d adopted her and Merry along with Bartholomew and Newton, had been horrible and the Children’s Society should have rejected them outright. The Birds had worked her and her adopted siblings until their hands bled and they’d collapsed from fatigue, only to be rousted out of bed at dawn the next day for even more backbreaking work.

  Neither she nor her adopted siblings had been too sorrowful when the Birds passed on from eating a rhubarb pie that had accidentally included some of the poisonous leaves. Fortunately for Polly and her sister and brothers, the Birds had bought the pies at a church social and devoured them without sharing. Later, the young woman who’d donated the pie realized what must have happened and confessed, or Polly and Merry most certainly would’ve been blamed for the deaths.

  Polly’s thoughts returned to the job at hand when the Children’s Society matron herded the orphans onto the platform and lined them up. Various couples, all of whom were good citizens, chose children, and Merry recorded them as Polly repeated the children’s names. As always, there were some stragglers—those who weren’t as pretty or perfect. Her heart went out to those children most of all.

  “You see the last five, Merry? I don’t want these orphans to wake up every morning wishing they’d perished on the streets of New York City, and go to bed wondering how they could do themselves in—anything to end it all.”

  Apparently that wouldn’t happen to all of them because Merry wrote her own name beside the names of three of the children—a little girl with a limp named Abigail, the toddler that Abigail tended named Tamara, and then Calvin, a defiant boy of nine who’d most certainly have faced adversity had Merry not picked him.

  Even so, Polly worried that Merry had overstepped. Merry assured her otherwise but she wasn’t nearly as positive of a happy outcome. Still, she loved the idea of children in the house—they had plenty of room at the Mockingbird Flats Boardinghouse and a huge yard, an ideal place for the youngsters to run and play.

  Then the last two children caught her eye—Noah, a strong boy, ten years old, whose eyes constantly scanned the crowd, and a waif-like girl named Evelyn who seemed glued to Noah’s side.

  “Next to last is this young fellow,” the matron announced as she pressed his shoulder to get him to step forward. “He’s mute but generally biddable and stays out of trouble. He’s strong enough to help on a farm or in a store.”

  Polly knew that if Noah grew into his ears and feet, he’d be a brawny fellow, and was at terrible risk to be put to hard labor. No one would want the scrawny girl, and Polly shuddered to think what atrocities could lie in wait for her.

  She hurried to the two children. Evelyn clutched Noah’s hand for dear life and pursed her lips, but she didn’t cry. The matron nodded, so Polly said, “Evelyn, Noah, I’d like you to come live with me. Both of you. Would you like that?”

  Noah studied her for a moment with a fretful frown then gestured to the girl, who slowly nodded.

  “He wants to know if you promise to always take care of me...us?”

  “I certainly will, and I also promise to make us all a family, complete with home and trust.” Trust had been a hard quality for Polly to learn and she suspected Noah and Evelyn would have the same difficulty.

  Noah pointed to his mouth.

  “With food every day?” Evelyn asked.

  “Three times a day. And snacks.”

  Evelyn squeezed Noah’s hand. “And a warm place to sleep?”

  “We have several quilts and you’ll each have a feather mattress in a cozy room.”

  “Noah don’t talk, but you can tell me and I’ll tell you what his hand signals mean.”

  “That’s perfectly fine. Actions speak louder than words, anyway. I just want the both of you to have a happy home, and I’d like that home to be with me.”

  “Then call me Evie, not Evelyn. Only the matron calls me Evelyn.”

  “Very well, I like that name.” Polly smiled and motioned for them to follow her, which they did, and then she asked them to sit beside Merry’s newly adopted children until the proceedings were over. After dodging the matron and speaking briefly with Reverend Zebediah Jones then giving him the list of adoptive parents and their chosen children, she and Merry took their new families and discreetly left the church for home.

  With children, it really would be a home.

  * * *

  The first few days, Noah and Evie—as she insisted to be called—were on their best behavior, other than a few missing dinner rolls and a missing plate of cheese. Polly couldn’t get too bothered about that because she knew the filching would stop once the children became confident they’d always have three meals a day. Evie had caught some sort of stomach bug so had been sick on and off, but it didn’t seem to slow her down much.

  Polly was thankful for their compliance because she needed some time to get in the swing of being a mother. Besides, she had decided to move her family upstairs to the third-floor suite since the seven of them had been too crowded in the owner’s suite on the ground floor. It didn’t have a kitchen but then she didn’t need one, and it did have two small bedrooms, a sitting room, and a washroom.

  “Noah, will you be all right sleeping in a room by yourself?”

  He shot her a scowl, threw his bag over his shoulder, and disappeared into his new bedroom.

  Polly followed him. “Let me know how you’d like to redecorate the room. I’m of a mind that pink flowered wallpaper isn’t your first choice.”

  Noah shrugged and proceeded to put his meager belongings in the trunk at the foot of the bed. Merry had taken her three children shopping, but because of Evie’s continual stomach ailments, Polly hadn’t been able to buy the things her two needed. Luckily, Merry had purchased a few things to tide them over until Evie felt more the thing.

  The boy hadn’t uttered a word since Polly had first seen him, and she had wracked her brain thinking of how she could get him to speak, if he even could. Maybe his vocal chords had been damaged and he was physically unable. Either way, she intended to take him to the doctor for a professional opinion and hopefully some advice.

  But in the short term, his lack of speech didn’t worry her as much as Evie’s health. The little girl couldn’t keep food down and had other digestive disruptions as well, which embarrassed the poor girl to no end. On several occasions, Noah had tried to prevent Polly from caring for Evie by standing between them while Evie cleaned up her own messes. After two days, Noah began to understand that Polly wanted to make Evie more comfortable, not punish her, although he was still a mite skeptical.

  When Polly returned to her own bedroom that she shared with Evie, she found the girl quickly cleaning up after yet another bout of vomiting.

  Polly grabbed a towel. “I’ll help you, Evie.”

  Noah pushed his way past her to shield his sister, and Polly wondered again what wrath Evie’s illness had brought upon her before. Noah, no matter his other faults, was a loyal and honorable boy, defending his new sister as best he could.

  “Noah, she isn’t in trouble and won’t be punished—I do realize she’s ill. As soon as the doctor gets back to Mockingbird Flats, I’ll make an appointment for her and maybe he can make her better.”

  Noah did relax his shoulders some, which made Polly happy.

  She handed him a bowl. “Would you please fetch some warm water from the stove reservoir downstairs?”

  He took the bowl but seemed torn about whether to leave Polly alone with Evie, or to get the water with which to wash her.

  Polly wiped Evie’s face with a handkerchief. “Would you lik
e to lie down? Or sit in the chair?”

  “I’ll sit but I still need a bucket if you have one.” Evie turned to Noah. “It’s all right for you to get the water. I’ll be fine with Miss Polly.”

  Noah studied them both, and must have been satisfied for he took the bowl and headed downstairs.

  Polly straightened Evie’s collar and brushed the girl’s wispy light brown hair away from her cheeks. “Best get used to calling me Mama, or if you’re not comfortable with that, then Mama Polly.”

  “I’ll remember. But I ain’t never had no mama before that I know of.”

  “And Noah?”

  “Ain’t sayin’.”

  Polly smiled to reassure the girl, and stood as Noah brought the warm water in and put it on the night stand. “We’ll get you washed up and then if you’re feeling better, we’ll take a trip to the dress shop.” She turned to Noah. “You’re welcome to come along with us, and after we get some clothes for Evie, we’ll go to the mercantile and buy you some shirts and britches. Looks like you both could use a new pair of shoes, too.”

  Later that afternoon, Evie finally felt better so Polly took the two children downtown to shop. Noah looked miserably uncomfortable in the dress shop but refused to leave his sister. Evie, however, was delighted to pick out materials for two new dresses.

  On the way to the mercantile, Noah bumped into her and threw her off her stride. Then he moved to the other side of Evie. Polly saw him stash something in his jacket pocket. She smiled, remembering her own time on the back alleys of New York.

  “I do believe we’ll pass right by the confectionery,” she told the children. “How would you like some candy?”

  “Oh, yes!” Evie squealed.

  But Noah just scuffed his new shoes on the boardwalk.

  Polly maneuvered so that she was again walking beside him, then nudged him and lifted her coin purse out of his pocket.