Mail Order Bride Historical Romance Collection ~ 3-Book Bundle (Brides of Virtue 2)

by Jill Maguire

  “My father, I remember my father. Oh, Papa!” Hope let out an anguished cry that shook Luke to his core. Hope’s frame trembled under silent sobs and Luke gingerly reach out and put a hand on her shoulder.

  “What do you remember?” He asked softly.

  “I – I remember his face, his eyes, his laugh. He was so kind and good.” Hope’s voice broke over more sobs. “It hurts, Luke. Why do I have to remember him now that he is gone?” Luke’s heart squeezed uncomfortably in his chest at Hope’s wrenching words. He wanted desperately to help her, to hold her and ease her pain.

  “Hope, isn’t it better to remember him as he was, though you have to grieve him fresh, than to not remember him at all?”

  But Hope didn’t answer. Instead she stopped crying and sat straight up and announced, “I remember the train ride. It’s coming back in a rush.” She put her fingers to her temples like she was begging her mind to remember every detail. “I was so excited to get to – to Whistle Stop, to be a bride. But Father, he kept telling me to follow my heart. No matter what, to follow my heart.” Hope stopped talking abruptly and looked into the water, her brow furrowed.

  Luke suddenly felt uncomfortable with Hope’s recollection and talk of her intended groom in Whistle Stop. He realized with a sudden jolt that he didn’t want her to leave. He wanted Hope to stay, forever if she was willing. But how could he tell her so?

  “I’m glad you’re getting your memory back. That’s a good sign, Hope,” Luke began slowly. He didn’t know quite how to say what he wanted to tell her, but he knew he had to communicate it somehow. Hope nodded her head absently, still gazing into the pool. Luke shifted his position to face her and hoped he could get her attention.

  “Hope?” Luke’s voice was tremulous.

  “Yes, Luke?” Hope looked up now, meeting Luke’s nervous eyes. Suddenly he felt hot and cold at the same time and his thoughts argued with themselves. He couldn’t go through with it, not right now while she was already overwhelmed by new memories. And yet the words ate at his heart and he had to get them out.

  “What is it, Luke?” Hope asked again.

  “Hope, I don’t know what your heart is telling you right now, but I have to confess my feelings for you. I think I may – I may be falling in love with you Hope.” Luke’s shaking hand came up to caress her cheek. “I never thought it would be possible for me to care for anyone, but you have softened my heart and I don’t want you to leave.” Luke halted his bumbling speech and exhaled a relieved breath. The air suddenly felt thin around them and tears welled in Hope’s eyes.

  “Oh Luke,” was all she said.

  Chapter 8

  Hope grew very tired all of a sudden. So many confused thoughts and feelings bombarded her senses. Images of her life before the accident were already flashing in her mind and now, Luke had confessed his love. She didn’t know what to say or how to feel.

  “This is all so overwhelming Luke. Please, I think I need to lie down.”

  “You’re right; we’ve been out here too long. We should get you back home. I shouldn’t have said anything.” Luke stood abruptly and then bent to lift Hope to her feet.

  “Luke, I’m glad you spoke,” Hope caught Luke’s arm before he could fully turn away from her. He looked so discouraged, and yet she was afraid to give him false hope. She didn’t know what her circumstances would hold now that her memories were coming back to her.

  “Come on, let’s get you back,” Luke responded rather gruffly and turned away. Hope straightened her skirt and followed Luke into the forest, but she wearied quickly and had to stop not far down the path.

  “Luke!” She called after him. Luke turned around and raced back to where she stood leaning against a tree. Without a word he picked her up, cradling her in his strong arms and carried her towards the cabin. Hope found herself distracted in Luke’s arms, feeling more confused than ever. They were both silent and the walk seemed much longer than it had previously.

  Nearly every day, Hope made a trip to the waterfall. She sat quietly alone and let the memories flood her mind so she could sift through them.

  Luke was more morose and less talkative since declaring his love to Hope, but he never failed to meet her every need with all the love he had in his heart. Hope grew stronger each day and thought of her father often, focusing mostly on his last words to her. Follow your heart, marry for love. The words haunted her as she considered seeking out her intended groom in Whistle Stop. She longed to follow her heart and heed her father’s advice, but what was her heart telling her? Was it telling her that she did in fact love Luke the way he loved her? She had become very fond of him, of that she was certain, and perhaps she had indeed come to love him more completely and more deeply than she was admitting.

  Over the past weeks, Hope had realized plenty about her new life in the woods. She loved cooking meals for Luke, giving back to him after he had cared, and continued to care for her, so tirelessly. She loved to look out the window as she worked, or rested, to watch Luke at his tasks, chopping wood or grooming his horse. Hope admired the way he kept everything well-cared for and neat and she thought surely it would be difficult to find another man to compare with these desirable qualities. Luke may have seemed rough upon their first meeting, but he was very kind and soft at heart toward all creatures. Hope noticed that even the animals that he killed for meat were taken special care of, as if he honored their lives and didn’t take for granted the gift and sacrifice that they gave him.

  Some days Luke would accompany Hope to the waterfall and they would sit quietly together, or talk of little things. Often Hope would tell Luke of the memories that had come back to her that day -- of her father and even her mother. Luke occasionally told Hope about his parents and his wild brother Cole, who was a cowboy somewhere in the vastness of Wyoming. Luke also told her about the people in Whistle Stop and how they had given him the nickname “Bear” because they were frightened of his burly appearance and his choice to live among the animals. Luke said he didn’t mind, as long as it kept them away.

  “Well, I don’t think you are too rough or wild,” Hope said a little awkwardly, looking down into the water. “I think you’re very kind.”

  Luke exhaled and Hope looked up to see his gaze also fixated on the water with a troubled look in his soft brown eyes.

  “I’m glad you think that way, miss,” Luke said softly. Hope found it endearing when he called his “miss.” They were past any need for such decorum, but when he said it now it fell off his lips more like a pet name. Hope smiled faintly, but there was sadness in her heart that she was hesitant to recognize. She didn’t like to admit that these days with Luke might not last forever. She had not told Luke how she felt about him, because she was afraid of the past coming back for her.

  And the day Hope dreaded came all too soon.

  Chapter 9

  Hope and Luke had been in the woods all morning picking berries among the patterns of sunlight and shadow on the forest floor. With full baskets they headed back to the cabin for lunch but as they drew closer, Hope heard horse hooves patting firmly upon the ground. Hope knew that Luke’s horse was tucked away in its stall and she feared it had gotten out somehow. Luke quickened his pace. When they reached the clearing at the cabin, two men stood by the door and two horses danced impatiently nearby. Luke set his basket of berries on the ground and stalked toward the men as Hope followed closely behind.

  “Sheriff McCabe, what brings you out here? Disrupting the peace, no doubt?”

  “Luke Boone, it’s been a while,” the sheriff extended a genial hand to Luke who continued to size up the man with his arms crossed over his broad chest. He eyed the other man, obviously a stranger to him, with a strong veil of distrust in his eyes. With that look, Hope could see why the townspeople were a little afraid of Luke, but she knew better.

  “And this must be the woman who has brought such a fuss to Whistle Stop that even my own wedding was interrupted.” Sheriff McCabe took his hat off to Hope. “Ma’am,
this man here claims that you were to be his mail-order bride, but you never showed up after the train accident.” McCabe motioned to the man standing next to him. He paused and looked from Hope to Luke and back again. “I must inform you that by law you are bound to marry him.”

  “That’s right,” the man announced. “I’ll take you from here and make you my wife and this man won’t be able to come anywhere near you again. My name is Flynn Jackson, ma’am.” The man addressed Hope with a smile and a flourish of his hat, but he threw a look of disgusted scorn towards Luke.

  Hope looked at Luke in wild terror. His face was a picture of anguish, and in that moment Hope, with bitter irony, regretted that she had never confessed her love to Luke. She had yet to tell him how much he meant to her or that she did not want to leave him, now or ever. She wished she could go back to the waterfall, to when Luke confessed his love and tell him that she felt the same way. But it was too late. Luke met Hope’s gaze and it was almost too much for her to see the despair of his heart written in his eyes.

  “You must go, Hope. I’ve been selfish. This life of isolation in the woods is no place for a beautiful lady. Go to Whistle Stop. Marry your intended.” Luke’s voice was husky with emotion and, with difficulty, he turned away from her and addressed Sheriff McCabe, disdaining to acknowledge the other man’s presence.

  “Take care of her Emmett. She is still weak from the accident.” With that Luke entered his cabin alone.

  Hope felt weaker than ever as the strange man, Flynn, helped her onto his horse. The ride was long and Hope cried silent, heartbroken tears – not only because she dreaded leaving Luke, but because she knew she must carry on and start her life over again.

  By the time Hope saw the vestiges of a town ahead, she had resolved to carry through with what she had intended before the train accident. A new fierceness and absence of grief filled her eyes but when Sheriff McCabe caught a glimpse of the way she surveyed the town around them, he wondered if a life in the woods with Luke Boone was what this woman would have preferred. But he had done his rightful duty and went about his way, keeping his thoughts to himself. Flynn thanked the sheriff for his help and took Hope to the church.

  “Now, I have to make a few arrangements, so we will have to put the wedding off until tomorrow.” Flynn flashed a wide, brilliant grin at his betrothed who trembled at the idea of spending her life with this stranger, in this strange town. “I will take you to the preacher’s house for the night, and I will come by early in the morning for the nuptials. You’ll be right comfortable here, I promise.” Flynn rapped on the door of the house and Hope was admitted by a sweet-looking woman, introduced as Mrs. Baker, who showed her to a guest bedroom.

  Hope shut herself in the small room and lay exhausted on the bed. She couldn’t remember the last time she had slept in a real bed like this, most likely it was the night before she left her home in Pennsylvania. A memory of her bedroom suddenly filled her mind, and Hope remembered what a nice home she had had there with mother and father. But oddly enough Hope thought, she would take Luke’s sagging cot over any real bed in the world. The cabin felt like home to her, more than any other home before it.

  Tears threatened on the edge of Hope’s emerald eyes, but she stubbornly built her resolve against them. She was getting married tomorrow and she would face her husband-to-be with clear, pride-filled eyes.

  Hope didn’t realize that she had fallen asleep until she heard a faint knock on the bedroom door.

  “Hello, dear, I brought you some tea.” The preacher’s wife bustled in without an invitation and placed two cups of tea on a small table under the window which was flanked by two chairs. The older woman settled herself primly in one of the chairs, took up her teacup and saucer and regarded Hope with an expectant look. Seeing she could do nothing else, Hope sat opposite the woman in the other chair and meekly sipped her tea.

  “I suppose you’ve been through a lot, dear. And now you’re getting married tomorrow. What a whirlwind it all must seem.” The women’s motherly kindness and the gentleness in her tone brought fresh pain to Hope already tender heart. She sensed that this may be a safe place to vent her true feelings, but she did not want to expose too much of her love for Luke to a complete stranger. “Are you happy to be getting married?” the woman continued. “I see all sorts of ladies come into town as mail-order brides and I think how strange it all is. But then they all seem to end up happy and in love,” she shrugged. “It truly is a wonder to behold.” Hope smiled faintly and averted her eyes. She couldn’t imagine she would be joining the ranks of those happy mail-order brides.

  “Though,” Mrs. Baker pondered. “Those women didn’t marry the men they intended too. Maybe that’s the secret. God works in His mysterious ways to put the right men in their lives, and the women I speak of all followed their hearts.” Mrs. Baker released a quaint giggle. “I suppose you are following your heart too, dear?”

  Hope choked slightly on her tea.

  Chapter 10

  “Following my heart?” Hope repeated in astonishment, trying to contain her fit of coughing. It was as if her father were there again, telling her to follow her heart with that indelible twinkle in his sharp eyes.

  “Why yes dear, I should hope that if you are marrying a person you must love him with your whole heart,” Mrs. Baker went on, undeterred by Hope’s obvious surprise.

  “Mrs. Baker, thank you for the tea. I am awfully tired and I have a big day tomorrow. I think I’ll go to bed now.” Hope set her teacup down and walked to the door waiting for Mrs. Baker to take the hint.

  “Yes, of course dear. Terrible of me to keep you up. I’ll see you in the morning with a cheery breakfast to get you through the day. And please, call me Eunice.” Mrs. Baker smiled sweetly and then surprised Hope even further by planting a kiss on her cheek.

  “Thank you, good night Eunice,” Hope said softly as she closed the door.

  Hope slept fitfully that night and in the morning felt irritated -- even her dress felt prickly and abrasive to her skin. In the small mirror hanging above the dresser Hope could see dark circles under her eyes. She slumped into the blue upholstered chair and cradled her head in her hands. How could she possibly go through with this? The words of her father and of Mrs. Baker echoed as loud as church bells in her mind, just as they had all night. Follow your heart. Marry for love. She knew what she had to do. There was only one man in the world that could send her heart fluttering and it wasn’t Mr. Flynn Jackson.

  Slipping out the back door of the house, Hope snuck away towards the cabin in the woods. She had to know once and for all if Luke wanted to marry her. If he did, she thought, they could run away together, go anywhere they wanted to outrun the law and her binding contract of marriage.

  Hope found a lone horse on the outskirts of town and mounted it for the ride to the cabin. She rode with speed and her confidence in Luke’s love for her became stronger with each thunder of the horse’s hooves. Finally she reached the cabin and jumped off, wild to see Luke again.

  But the cabin was empty.

  Hope’s heart fell, but she didn’t lose faith. Surely Luke would be at the waterfall. Hope fairly ran the whole way along the well-worn path calling Luke’s name as she went. But he wasn’t at the waterfall either. Hope began to feel worried, but she sat down on her favorite rock, hoping that Luke would know where to find her.

  The folks about town in Whistle Stop were shocked to see the apparition of Luke Boone walking hurriedly towards the sheriff’s office in town. He hadn’t been seen in town for years and most preferred it that way. Luke entered the jailhouse without a knock and asked after Sheriff McCabe.

  “Hello Luke, what can I do for you?” McCabe came out of a back room as soon as he heard the man’s voice.

  “Emmett, I need you to get Hope released from her obligation of marriage. I know she doesn’t want to go through with it. What is the legitimacy of a marriage when the bride doesn’t even remember signing the marriage contract? She lost all her memor
y in the accident.” Luke’s pleadings came across gruff and urgent.

  McCabe sighed. “Well, I suppose I can inquire after a friend of mine. He’s a lawyer in Cheyenne and he would know more about these matters than I do.”

  “Yes please, hurry.”

  McCabe approached the wire and sent out a dispatch to his friend in Cheyenne. After a few minutes of Luke pacing anxiously around the small office, an answer came back from Cheyenne. McCabe listened carefully and took down the message.

  “Luke, it seems that since the bride had amnesia, the marriage contract is in fact null and void.” McCabe smiled up at Luke who stood very still for a moment before racing out the door. What if he was too late? What if the wedding was already over, they had already said their vows and promised to love only each other?

  Reaching the church, Luke burst through the front doors and was met with a confused crowd of awaiting wedding guests. Flynn Jackson stood at the front of the church, clearly concerned about the whereabouts of his expectant bride. Hope was nowhere to be found.

  “What are you doing here, Luke?” Flynn demanded. “Have you taken Hope with you somewhere? Where is she? No one has seen her today.” That was all Luke needed to hear. He turned heel and sprinted back to his horse, knowing exactly where to find Hope.

  As Luke lumbered across the barren dirt, a young man stood coolly next to Luke’s horse. Just the sight of him stopped Luke dead in his tracks and for a brief moment all thoughts of Hope left his mind.

  “Cole?!” Luke approached his little brother. “What are you doing here?”

  “I saw you race into town so I thought I would follow you to see where the fire was.” Cole Boone laughed his trademark crazy laugh and threw his arms around his brother.