He had to admit it was nicer having lumber delivered to the store than having to haul it out to the farm. However, Philip missed seeing Thomas every day and riding the Pony Express trail.
Caleb had started school that morning. He’d been so excited that he’d almost forgotten his boxed lunch. Mark wanted to go also but was told he was still too young.
The bell jingled over the door. Philip stepped out from behind the wall he and Thomas had built to separate the store from his workshop. Bella and Mark stood inside.
She held up a picnic basket. “Hope you are hungry.”
“For your cooking, always,” he answered, motioning for them to come back to the workshop.
Bella walked toward him. The sweet scent of sugar and cinnamon drifted with her. When she came even with him, Philip leaned in and took a sniff of her.
“Something smells wonderful,” he said.
She slapped at him. “Stop that.”
Mark giggled. “It’s the sweet rolls.” He clapped a hand over his mouth.
Bella narrowed her eyes at the little boy. “You rascal. That was supposed to be a surprise.”
“I’m sorry, Aunt Bella. I was just so excited.” He looked down at the toes of his boots.
Philip rubbed the boy’s hair. “No harm done. The smell gave them away.”
The doorbell jingled again.
The sheriff walked in. “Howdy, folks. I hope I’m not disturbing your lunch.”
“Not at all, Sheriff. What can I do for you today?” Philip glanced at the chairs, tables and small boxes he’d created, thinking the sheriff might be looking to buy new furniture.
“Nothing today. I’m here on official business,” he answered.
Bella’s face turned white. “Have you heard something?” she asked, gripping the basket with white knuckles.
He took off his hat and twisted the brim. “I have bad news.”
Philip grabbed the closest chair and carried it to where she stood. “Here, sit down.” He took the basket from her hands and handed it to Mark. “Son, take this to the workshop and wait for us. We’ll be back in just a few minutes.”
Mark did as he was told. When he was out of the room, Philip asked the lawman, “What news?”
“Well, part of what Brooks said was truth. I’m sorry, ma’am, but Sam Jackson is dead.”
She gasped and covered her mouth. Philip placed a hand on her shoulder. “Are you here to arrest me?”
“Oh, no, ma’am. Sam died at home in his sleep. He wasn’t murdered. The Douglas City doctor says his heart simply gave out. I came by to tell you the sad news about your friend, not to scare the life out of you. So sorry.” He looked wearily from Philip to Bella.
She sagged. “So it’s over. He lied.”
“Yes, ma’am. He lied about the murder.” He twisted his hat in his hands.
Bella jumped up and ran to him. She hugged him around the waist. “Thank you so much.”
The sheriff’s shocked look shot to Philip. Philip laughed. “Sheriff, that’s the best news we’ve gotten, ever.”
Bella released him. “I’m sorry. I am just so happy. Thank you, thank you.” She moved to Philip’s side and put an arm around his waist.
The sheriff put his hat back on. “My pleasure. You folks have a good day.”
* * *
Bella turned and gave Philip a hug. She looked up at him and laughed. “I’m free, Philip. Free to tell you how much I love you, and even though you don’t feel the same way, it’s all right.” She laid her head against his chest.
She couldn’t help but think Philip probably thought her terrible, but Bella didn’t care. She’d wanted to tell him how she felt since the day Mark had almost drowned. Her love for him was so great she could endure him not loving her back.
Philip pulled her back and looked into her face. “You love me?”
Bella swallowed hard. “I do, more than I can express. I’m sorry, I know we said we’d only be friends, but I love you more than any friend I’ve ever had.” Bella watched his face. The last thing she expected from him was joyous laughter.
He cupped his hands around her face. “Honey, I love you, too. I’ve wanted to tell you for a long time that I prayed to God, and I realized a few things, making it possible for me to understand that everyone deals with grief differently. Honey, I’m free to love you, too.” Then Philip kissed her.
He kissed her like a husband who’d been out of town for far too long. Bella savored his closeness. Her heart sang that they loved each other and now could express that love.
“Aunt Bella, I’m hungry. Can you kiss Philip later?” Mark asked.
She pulled away from Philip and laughed. “Well, if you insist.” Bella glanced down at her nephew.
“I do,” he answered, then turned toward the workshop.
Philip growled, “He really is a little rascal, isn’t he?”
Bella laughed.
Philip pulled her to him for one more sweet kiss.
Her heart pounded in her chest with joy and love. When he released her, Bella praised the Lord that she’d been the woman who had answered the mail-order-bride advertisement that brought them together.
Epilogue
Two months later, Bella and Philip stood in front of their family. Her heart beat rapidly in her chest. They had an announcement to make. One that gave her great joy.
Philip smiled at his family. “Bella and I are expecting our first child.”
Rebecca and Seth were the first to reach them and give hugs. Thomas and Josephine were next.
Thomas smiled from ear to ear. “Our kids are only going to be a few months apart.” He was pushed to the side by the rest of their brothers and sister.
After all the hugs were given, Seth called everyone to order. “That’s wonderful news, Philip and Bella. Our family is growing by leaps and bounds.”
Bella looked around. Rebecca was expecting her and Seth’s first child together. Josephine was also expecting, and now her. She felt Philip looking at her and turned to smile at him. His family was now her family and she loved them all.
Seth pressed on and asked, “Andrew, do you and Emma have anything you’d like to share?”
Bella smiled. She was happy for Emma and Andrew. They had decided to move out to the relay station and live in Josephine and Thomas’s house. Philip had told her that he’d talked to Andrew about taking over his job as station manager and Andrew had accepted. Bella was glad that Andrew and Emma would be living near Hazel. She was sure they would grow to love Hazel as much as Thomas, Josephine and Philip did.
To her surprise, Andrew and Emma stood. It seemed kind of a funny thing to do just to tell the family they were moving.
Andrew cleared his throat and looked at Emma. “I think I’ll let Emma tell you.”
Mark looked up. “Tell us what?”
“That we’re going to have a baby, too.” Emma beamed.
Once more the festivities began. Since they were sitting closest to Emma and Andrew, Bella and Philip each congratulated them.
Philip grabbed Bella’s hand and pulled her into the kitchen, where he wrapped her in his arms. He held her close for several long moments before releasing her enough to still hold her but let her have room to look up at him.
“What was that for?” Bella asked.
He smiled at her. “I’m sorry that Andrew and Emma stole your moment to shine.”
Bella laughed. “They did no such thing. I’m happy for them.”
Philip kissed her quickly on the lips. “Have I told you how happy I am that you and the boys were my special delivery package?”
“Yes, but I can live my whole life hearing you say it again and again.”
Philip pulled her close and whispered in her ear. “I love you, Bel
la Young. You were a special delivery from the Pony Express, but more important, from God above. I am a blessed man.”
She rested her head on his chest and listened to his steady heartbeat. Bella knew she was the one who was blessed. “I love you, too.” These were the moments she loved. The moments she’d been waiting for all her life.
* * * * *
Don’t miss these other
SADDLES AND SPURS stories
from Rhonda Gibson:
PONY EXPRESS COURTSHIP
PONY EXPRESS HERO
PONY EXPRESS CHRISTMAS BRIDE
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Dear Reader,
Writing Philip’s story was fun. Bella and the boys were just the special delivery he needed to make his life interesting. Years ago my husband, James, came up with the idea of sending a mail-order bride on the Pony Express. I liked the general idea and tweaked it a little for Philip’s story. I hope you enjoyed meeting Philip and Bella and the boys as much as I did. Feel free to connect with me on Facebook and Twitter. Also, if you’d like to receive my newsletter, email me at [email protected]. I love connecting with my readers. You may also write to me at: Rhonda Gibson, PO Box 835, Kirtland, NM 87417.
Warmly,
Rhonda Gibson
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A Temporary Family
by Sherri Shackelford
Chapter One
Stagecoach relay station
Pyrite, Nebraska, 1869
Nolan West couldn’t shake the feeling he was being watched.
He flipped open the cover of his timepiece and checked the hour. Twenty minutes before the next stagecoach arrived.
For the past year, he’d been manning the Pioneer Stagecoach relay station out of the abandoned town of Pyrite. Three years before his arrival, an overly optimistic prospector had discovered gold in the nearby Niobrara River. A town had sprung up practically overnight. Within a year, the claim had dried up, and the town was abandoned. Only the relay station remained occupied.
Prairie grass nudged through the slats in the derelict boardwalk, and a wet spring had fed the wild brush reclaiming the spaces between the empty buildings. A cacophony of crickets, frogs and birds called from the shelter of the lush buttress.
Nolan’s sense of unease lingered, raising the fine hairs on the nape of his neck. He searched the shadows, catching only the rustle of the cottonwood leaves. He was alone. Yet the sensation lingered.
A bugle call sounded, startling him from his reverie, and Nolan replied in kind. He replaced his instrument on the peg just inside the livery door, ensuring the bell tube was directly vertical and the mouthpiece rigidly horizontal.
He slapped the reins against the rumps of the hitched horses. There was no time to waste. Because he worked the station alone, when he finished here, he’d have to hightail it back to the kitchen and serve the passengers dinner.
The rumble of hoofbeats sounded, and the distinctive orange Concord, with its gold trim, rumbled down Main Street. Harnesses jingled, echoing off the block-long stretch of deserted and dilapidated buildings. The driver swayed in time beside an outrider who cradled a shotgun in his arms. Reflections of the passing stagecoach appeared in the few windows that hadn’t yet been broken or boarded over.
As the driver slowed the Concord parallel to where Nolan’s hitched team waited before the town livery, the wheels kicked up dust. His horses surged forward.
The outrider stowed his gun and leaped from his seat. Bill Golden was a perpetually rumpled, stocky man in his midforties with a grizzled face and a mop of graying hair beneath his tattered hat. Considering he was usually drunk by this point in the journey, he appeared remarkably steady on his feet.
Bill lifted his hand in greeting. “Top of the day to you, West.”
“You’re early.”
“We’re traveling light.”
The stocky outrider pulled down the collapsible stairs and swung open the door.
A little girl, no more than three years old, appeared in the opening. A passenger inside the traveling carriage held the child suspended with her legs dangling. Bill grasped the child around the waist and set her on the ground. Two more girls appeared—chestnut-haired, brown-eyed, identical replicas of each other, probably around five or six years of age respectively.
Nolan tilted his head. This route served Virginia City, Montana, and catered almost exclusively to prospectors seeking their fortune.
Bill extended his hand, and a woman grasped his fingers. Her bonnet concealed her face and hair, and Nolan allowed himself only one brief, admiring glimpse of her figure, which was encased in a lively green calico dress. Though he’d come to appreciate his solitude, he couldn’t help but notice her. The last woman he’d seen had been the sixty-year-old wife of the traveling doctor.
“Thank you, Mr. Golden,” she said, her voice at once crisp and soothing. “How are you feeling?”
Bill doffed his hat. “I feel all right, I guess, ma’am. I mean, Miss Hargreaves. Thank you for asking.”
She fixed her gaze on the outrider as though she was peering into his very heart. The intensity of the moment raised Nolan’s guard, but there was nowhere to hide while he held the horses. Shifting on his feet, he glanced away and back again.
“I know the change hasn’t been easy.” Her attention didn’t flicker toward her new surroundings. She kept her interest directed solely on the outrider. “But you’re doing well. I’m proud of you. Whenever you find yourself straying from the path, remember what we talked about.”
“Yes, ma’am.” A flush spre
ad across the outrider’s face. “I will, ma’am. I surely do appreciate your kind words and all. I’ll try and do my best.”
She patted his arm. “That’s all any of us can do.”
Her words were gentle and sincere, and a pulse throbbed in Nolan’s throat. He made a mental note to avoid the woman at all costs. Since returning from the war, he kept to himself. He didn’t want anyone looking at him the way she was studying Bill. He didn’t want anyone peering close enough to see the troubling battles he fought each day.
“I’d best see to the horses, Miss Hargreaves.” The mottled blush on Bill’s face deepened. “This here is the dinner stop. You can stretch your legs and enjoy some solid ground. If you need anything, let me know.”
“You’re too kind,” she said. “Solid ground sounds marvelous. When I agreed to assist my sister, this was not at all what I imagined.”
While Nolan pondered the odd change in the normally taciturn outrider, the second-oldest girl clutched her stomach and pitched forward.
“I don’t feel so good, Aunt Tilly.” The girl groaned.
“Are you certain, Caroline?” Miss Hargreaves was by the child’s side in an instant. “Do you not feel good a little or a lot?”
“I’m certain,” the girl replied with a gulp. “I don’t feel good a lot.”
“Oh, dear.”
The woman glanced around and Nolan caught his first glimpse of her face. His curiosity deepened. She was younger than he’d expected. On first impression, her looks hovered somewhere between plain and pretty. On second glance he placed her nearer to pretty. She had eyes the color of a Virginia bluebell, a complexion bronzed by the sun and a pert nose. Though none of those features was particularly remarkable on its own, taken together they were uniquely pleasing.
She caught his interested gaze. “What should I do?”
Nolan placed a hand against his chest. “Are you asking me?”
Miss Hargreaves nodded.
Passengers rarely paid him any mind. Nolan frowned. He preferred it that way.
Pony Express Mail-Order Bride Page 23
