Amy Admires an Amish Man: A Historical Western Romance (Brides with Grit Book 12)

by Linda K. Hubalek

  Amy Admires an Amish Man

  Brides with Grit Series, Book 12

  Copyright © 2019 by Linda K. Hubalek

  Published by Butterfield Books Inc.

  Printed Book ISBN—978-1791558345

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2018914761

  Kindle Edition, License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to the retailer and buy your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This book is a work of fiction. Except for the history of Kansas mentioned in the book, the names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  A sweet historical romance set in 1874.

  Rancher’s daughter Amy Sanders escapes her job in a saloon by pretending to be her younger brother Amos and signs on to take care of a railcar load of bulls heading to Kansas. Once the bulls are delivered to the Bar E Ranch, she’ll find a way to survive, even if it means working as a ranch hand.

  Eli Fisher, the foreman at the Bar E Ranch, left his Amish community in Pennsylvania after his betrothed ran off with another man. Although he misses his family and home state, he’s adapted to the Kansas prairie and admires the wonderful couple he works for. Now settled, he longs for a woman to share his life and start their own family.

  Amy’s and Eli’s upbringing and pasts clash in more ways than one, but once it’s revealed that “Amos” is actually “Amy,” sparks of a different kind ignite.

  Can past hurts be forgiven to open the path to a new future for the two, or will it block their chance of happiness together?

  Chapter 1

  May 1874

  Austin, Texas

  Amy Sanders peeked around the corner of the saloon door before stepping out to purposely walk four blocks to the post office. She hadn’t heard from her sister, Ruth, in over two weeks and she was anxious for news from home. Now that Amy wasn’t welcome at home anymore, her sister’s letters were the only link left to her family. Only twelve miles separated the Austin post office and the little town west of the ranch where Ruth mailed her letters, but now they were worlds apart.

  Ruth last wrote saying their younger brother, Amos, had disappeared one night after having a fight with their father. Amos, now fourteen, was physically big enough to fight back when cornered by their belligerent parent. Amy didn’t know if she wanted Ruth’s next letter to say he’d come home, or instead, they just knew he was safe somewhere else.

  Amy kept her head down, avoiding eye contact with anyone on the boardwalk. No one approved of what she had to do, but then no one had tried to improve her life for her either. She cooked and washed for the saloon, rather than “entertaining” men, but everyone assumed she did that too by the association of the place.

  She’d been on her own ever since her father hauled her into Austin and traded her for his drinking debt at Osbourne’s Saloon, literally. Just because her father caught Billy Slater kissing her. Her father should have had it out with Billy instead since he started it, but no, he didn’t want to lose a good hand…better to get rid of a “worthless” daughter as he’d stated rather plainly when leaving her in the saloon.

  Amy threw her shoulders back, lifted her head up, and walked to the post office, standing straighter at the thought. This was not her fault she was here, and she was doing the best she could right now. Amy wished she could get her mother and sister off her father’s ranch, but so far her mama refused to leave, so Ruth was staying to protect her as well as she could.

  “Good day, Mr. Humphries, any letters for me today?”

  The postmaster looked over his spectacles at her then went back to his work ignoring her. The man knew who she was, but Amy refused to be bullied by him, or anyone else.

  “Good day, Mr. Humphries, any mail for me today?” she had to repeat this same greeting to him every morning, often more than once before he finally acknowledged she was standing in front of his window.

  Again, silence. She knew there was at least one person standing behind her now waiting for mail, also.

  Amy sighed, then started again in a louder voice, “Good morning, Mr. Humphries, is there any mail for me today?”

  The postmaster flicked a glance at her before looking at the person behind her.

  “Humphries, please give the woman her mail. That’s your job,” a base voice boomed behind her.

  She jumped in surprise by the voice, then was surprised again when Mr. Humphries actually handed her two letters.

  “Thank you,” she nodded, refusing to show the postmaster anything but proper manners, even though the man didn’t use them himself. Then Amy turned to do the same for the man behind her, who she really owed the acknowledgment to since the man came to her aid.

  Amy murmured a polite thank you before moving out of his way. Even though the older man probably knew what she did to survive, he still politely nodded back before moving up to the window himself.

  She backed to the corner of the room, anxious to see who she’d received two letters from. Amy sighed with relief when seeing her sister’s handwriting, knowing Ruth had been able to slip a note to their little town’s post office near their family ranch.

  The handwriting on the other envelope didn’t look familiar, and the postmark was from Ellsworth, Kansas. She stared at the letter again, sure that the postmaster gave her a letter that was addressed to someone else instead.

  Miss Amy Sanders, Austin, Texas.

  She doubted there was another woman in this town with the same name, so it was her letter.

  Amy opened her sister’s letter first, and gleaned the pages, looking for information about her brother. She sighed, almost relieved Amos hadn’t come home, but wondering where he was in the meantime. At fourteen, he was old enough to be on his own. Amos probably signed up on a cattle drive or as a ranch hand elsewhere. Hopefully, someday he’d write to tell them where he was.

  She was too curious to read the letter in detail when the other held a mystery. Amy flipped the letter back and forth, trying to think who may have sent the correspondence. Who did she know in Kansas?

  After she carefully unsealed the wax on the back of the enveloped, she pulled out a piece of paper which was wrapped around…currency. Who was mailing money to her? Amy carefully tucked the bills back in the envelope before unfolding the paper to read it.

  Dear Amy,

  I can never thank you enough for saving my life and those of my children.

  Amy flipped the pages over to see who had sent this letter.

  It was signed, Mrs. Tina Martin Hamner.

  Oh, my word. Tina was the woman Amy cared for last year after the train wrecked on the edge of town. There were so many injured passengers from the accident that they were put wherever someone in town had a room, be it a home or a business. Tina was brought to the saloon Amy worked at, and she tended her for a week before a man took Tina away. Was his name Hamner?

  What a relief to know the woman had survived. Besides being injured, the widow gave birth to a baby boy a few days after the accident. The saloon owner told Amy to take the tiny baby to the orphanage in town because it didn�
�t look like Tina would survive, and if she did, Mr. Osbourne hoped she’d stay and work there to repay them for her care.

  Turned out the orphanage was overflowing with injured children and couldn’t take the baby. At the last minute, Amy put the baby in the back of a canvased farm wagon, hoping the family would take care of it.

  Low and behold a tall, blonde-haired man walked into the saloon later in the day, holding the infant, asking for a wet nurse for his motherless child. Amy recognized the baby immediately and knew the man was trying to unite it with his mother. The man paid Mr. Osbourne for “care” for Tina and left with both of them.

  Amy always wondered what happened to Tina and her boy. She started rereading the letter to find out.

  Dear Amy,

  I can never thank you enough for saving my life and those of my children. By putting baby Oliver in Mr. Leif Hamner’s wagon, you set off a chain of events I could never have hoped for, considered the terrible train wreck we were in.

  I thought my children, Emma and Robby, had died in the wreckage, but it turned out they were at the orphanage! Leif saw the children when he tried to leave Oliver at the orphanage before finding me in the saloon, and we were reunited a few days before we left for Kansas.

  Leif, a widower who lost his wife last year, had been heading north on a cattle drive with his parents, but then had turned around when he decided to stay in Texas instead.

  After valiantly taking care of the four of us for days, he decided to catch up with the drive, as I was on my way on the train to live with my brother in Kansas in the first place, and Leif decided he wanted to be with his family too. Leif’s three siblings had settled in Kansas after their first trail drive to Kansas last spring, and his parents were moving there also after this final cattle drive.

  I was too scared to travel on the train again, plus I needed help due to my injuries—and with three young children—so I welcomed his gesture to accompany us to Kansas. His dear parents took over the care of the children while my back mended as best as it could.

  Upon arriving in Kansas, I learned my brother had died, but I wasn’t homeless and destitute again as I was after the accident.

  Leif proposed marriage, and I gladly accepted, as I had fallen very much in love with the kind man, and my children adore him. We’re now living on a ranch between Ellsworth and Clear Creek Kansas. Leif’s parents and siblings live on land near us, and we’re very happy.

  Please accept this money as a token of our appreciation for your help. I hope this can help improve your life’s situation. You are always more than welcome to come to Kansas and stay with us, no matter if it’s this month or two years from now.

  If you can make it to Clear Creek, ask for Marshal Adam Wilerson, and he or someone he knows, will bring you out to our home.

  Kansas is colder during the winter than Texas, but the welcoming community has more than outweighed the weather so far.

  Please write back if you would like to. Due to my situation, we didn’t have time to get to know each other, but I think we would have become good friends.

  Sincerely, Mrs. Tina Martin Hamner

  Amy carefully folded the letter, thinking about Tina’s invitation. She had probably sent enough money to cover a train ticket to Kansas, but could Amy leave the area? What about her mother and sister?

  Why did this woman write and send money? Amy felt guilty trying to find a home for the infant, but she would have been in deep trouble if she’d gone against Mr. Osbourne’s demands.

  Why did men mistreat women? Why couldn’t her father love and protect his family like this Mr. Hammer had done for Tina and her children? Why did men like her boss and his customers think women could be used as if they were livestock instead of fellow human beings?

  Well, maybe she would use the money to leave town. If Tina could improve her situation now, then perhaps Amy could do the same for her sister in the near future. Even if given a chance, her mother would never leave her father, but Ruth would in a heartbeat.

  Her first plan of action would be to find out the cost of a ticket to Kansas, without drawing attention to herself. She didn’t need for Mr. Osbourne to hear she was thinking of skipping out of town.

  “If you hear of anyone wanting to travel to Kansas, please let me know. I have the cattle car reserved for Thursday and need a man to travel along and take care of the bulls for the buyer.” Amy caught the word “Kansas” and looked up to see who was talking. Two ranchers had met near the doorway and were in conversation.

  “Why don’t you want to send one of your ranch hands along with load?”

  “I was hoping to find a young fellow who would take a one-way ticket, so I don’t have to pay for a round trip.”

  “Why would someone want that?”

  “Maybe someone would want to visit relatives up there, and this would pay for half of their train fare. Or, give someone an opportunity to move north, find a new job. Lots of Texas cattle are going up to Kansas to stock new ranches in the area and further west. Not all the cattle are shipping to meat packers in Chicago. I’m sure there would be jobs in area ranches.”

  Amy looked at Tina’s address again. She knew vast herds of cattle were driven up to central Kansas to ship out of towns like Ellsworth. This man was talking about a one-way ticket to the very area Tina resided.

  “Excuse me, sirs,” Amy politely interrupted them. “I heard you talking about needing someone to travel with livestock up to Kansas?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” said the man who had helped get her mail.

  “Move on, girlie.” The other man jerked his head toward the door.

  “Mind your manners or move on yourself, Harvey.”

  The first man stood silent, watching Harvey leave before turning back to Amy. “Do you know someone who’d take the job?”

  Amy took a deep breath, wondering if she’d dare ask any questions. “Where would the person end up in Kansas?”

  “Ellsworth, Kansas. Buyer at the Bar E Ranch paid top dollar for six bulls, so I want someone traveling along to be sure they are fed and watered along the way.”

  “Then what would the person do after he got there?”

  “The buyer will drive the bulls from the rail yards to his ranch, so the man who traveled with the bulls would be free to do what he wants. Get a job in the area or travel back, but the latter would be at his expense.”

  She glanced at her sister’s letter, thinking of her missing brother. This would have been the perfect opportunity to send Amos to Tina and Leif.

  Amy's heart pounded in her chest with another thought. Or, could this be a way to get herself to Kansas without spending all the money Tina had sent in her letter? This rancher wouldn’t let a woman handle the job though. But what if?

  “Sir, I have a younger brother who could watch the bulls on the train for you. We have friends near Ellsworth he could visit afterward.”

  “He has to know how to work around livestock. Don’t want him or the bulls hurt along the way.”

  “He’s grown up on a ranch, and…Amos is fourteen, so he’d be fine.” Amy tried to look calmer than she felt. Women dressed as men served undetected in the Civil War. Surely she could pretend to be her brother for a few days.

  “Amos…what’s his last name?”

  “Amos Sanders.”

  “Clifford Sanders’ boy by chance?”

  Amy’s heart sank. The rancher knew her father? Did he already know Amos had run away from home? Amy’s face reddened, remembering he probably heard how her father had thrown her off the ranch last spring, too.

  “Yes, sir.” Amy looked down to the post office floorboards rather than met his eyes.

  “I’m guessing Sander’s daughters know how to do ranch work, too?” His question and the way he said it made Amy looked up. She nodded, embarrassed he knew how his father used his children. It was one thing to understand how to ranch, but another to start at a too young age and do the hardest work instead of the adult rancher.

  The man shifted
on one hip then the other while Amy waited for him to tell her to go away.

  “Uh, could you tell your brother to meet me before dawn at the yards on Thursday morning to load the bulls? I’m guessing it’s a four day trip to Ellsworth.”

  Now Amy didn’t know what to say. Maybe the man didn’t know her brother had run away then? But could she pull off pretending to be her brother to take his place? Amy was twenty-four years old and more mature looking than her younger brother.

  “I’m Will Ferguson, by the way.” He touched the brim of his hat rather than put his hand out for a handshake.

  She’d heard of the Ferguson Ranch but didn’t know the family personally. The Sanders ranch was east of the other by a few miles. Her father hadn’t allowed them to socialize with the neighbors.

  “So, you want your…brother to do this so he can visit your friends in Kansas? Maybe it would be best he stays up there, rather than come back to Texas?”

  A shiver ran down Amy’s back. Did he know she was thinking about portraying her brother? And did he think she could do it?

  “Make up your mind, Miss Sanders. I do need those bulls escorted to Kansas. They’re young, so still easy to handle. Can you arrange for Amos to be there, before dawn?”

  The man looked dead serious, giving Amy the opportunity, she needed to flee Austin.

  Amy drew a deep breath and met his eyes. “Yes, Amos will be there.”

  “Good,” was all he said before reaching to open the door and motion her outside. She quickly took his hint and stepped out on the boardwalk, ready to flee back to her room. “Miss Sanders…” Amy reluctantly turned around, afraid he’d changed his mind.

  Mr. Ferguson held out his palm, showing a double eagle coin in his hand. “Buy your brother some clothes, boots, and a hat for his trip. He needs to look he’s capable of the job he’s going to do.”

  Amy stared at the twenty-dollar coin, afraid Mr. Ferguson would snatch his hand back if she reached for it.

  Oh, gracious, she hadn’t thought about how she’d find clothing of a young man, especially to fit her. Steal from someone’s clothesline if they forgot to bring their wash in that night? She wouldn’t be that lucky.