MILITARY ROMANCE: The War Within Himself (Alpha Bad Boy Marine Army Seal) (Contemporary Military Suspense & Thriller Romance)

by Claire Branson

  In Omaha, they bought tickets for the Union Pacific Railroad for the next day since that day’s train had already left. After a night’s sleep in a nearby hotel, the trio boarded the Union Pacific and made their way to the Pullman car, where they had two long, padded seats facing each other. At night, the conductor came around and pulled down a bed from the wall, and made up the lower and upper bunks. The sisters took the bottom, and Elise climbed into the top bunk each night.

  During the days on the trip, Elise marveled at the variety of scenery they passed. Acre upon acre of wheat fields and cattle ranges lined the tracks in Nebraska, while Wyoming melted into cattle and horse ranches and mountains in the distance.

  At Ogden, Utah, they changed trains again, this time to the Central Pacific Railroad. This train took them across the upper part of Utah into California and on to San Francisco.

  After spending a couple of days exploring the city, Elise, Stina and Karin boarded a stagecoach for their final leg of their journey—to Forestville, California, and the logging community.

  On the stage, Elise’s nervousness increased steadily. What would happen when they reached their final destination? Would Lars be there waiting for their arrival? She had told him when they would be arriving, but she hadn’t received a response to her letter before they’d left Bishop Hill. She wasn’t even sure he knew they were coming, because sometimes the mail was pretty slow.

  “You okay, Elise?” Karin asked.

  “The people in your family ask me that question a lot,” Elise replied, trying her best to be cheerful. “I’m fine.”

  “She’s nervous,” Stina added.

  “You two have learned English far too well. I can’t keep any secrets from you like I could your parents.”

  Stina and Karin laughed, and Stina retorted, “We had a very good teacher.”

  “That’s right,” Karin said. “You have only yourself to blame.”

  But Elise couldn’t shake the notion that they weren’t expected at the company town, as Lars called it. She wasn’t sure what that meant, but she assumed that some company owned it, probably a logging or mill company given the industry there. What would they do if Lars had changed his mind about their joining him in Forestville?

  Forestville, Elise thought as she turned her gaze out the window. What an appropriate name for the town. She’d never seen such large trees. They seemed to reach heaven in some places.

  “Have you ever seen trees to tall?” Stina asked in amazement.

  “Never,” Elise replied. “I wonder what kind they are. We’ll have to make it a point to ask Lars.”

  Elise turned her gaze back out the window. In the distance she saw some men working on one of the enormously tall trees. The massive trunk had a large wedge cut out of it, large enough for two men to lie down in, head to foot, and still not fill the space. Four men chopped away at the wood with axes that looked like mere hammers against the tree. Two other men worked with a saw that had to be more than fifteen feet long. Unable to believe how hard that work must be, Elise watched them, awed by their stamina.

  From the other side of the coach, a man’s shout echoed through the air. “Timber!” She looked out the opposite window in time to see a gigantic tree crash to the ground, its sound reverberating throughout the area.

  “Forestville is about ten minutes from here!” the driver announced loudly.

  In an instant, Elise forgot the trees. She almost panicked. In only a few minutes, she would know if they’d come all this way for nothing. If only she’d waited until she heard from Lars again before she’d made these plans and left Bishop Hill.

  Chapter 5

  Much to Elise’s dismay, Lars Olson was nowhere in sight when the women arrived in Forestville. Elise looked down the street to see if he was coming, but all she saw was a church, a general store, a livery stable, and a silversmith’s shop.

  She looked the other way. At that end of the street sat a large mill, its waterwheel moving slowly through the river beside it. Several other buildings lined the short street, but no one even looking like Lars came out of them. Where could he be?

  A tall man in a plaid shirt with its sleeves rolled up to just above the elbow, a pair of suspenders on his pants, and a wide-brimmed hat approached them.

  “Elise?” he asked the trio.

  Elise gazed up into a pair of blue eyes, the shade unlike any she’d ever seen. “I’m Elise.”

  “I am Mauritz Sten,” he said in a thick Swedish accent. “Lars Olson sent me.”

  “Underbar!” Wonderful, but she used Swedish so he would know that she spoke it. She introduced her traveling companions by pointing to each as she said the name. “This is Stina Bengtson, and this is Karin Bengtson.”

  “Dere is a house ready for you,” he told them. “Ve vill go dere.”

  “Tack.” Thank you.

  By now, the stagecoach driver had taken their bags from the top of the wagon and set them on the boardwalk. After Elise told him in Swedish which ones were theirs, he picked up the largest of the six small bags and tucked it under his arm. Then he picked up two large bags, and the young women each took one.

  They followed him through the streets of Forestville until they reached a small house about three blocks away. There he mounted the steps to the front door and set the bags on the porch. He dug into his pocket, pulled out a key, unlocked the door, and opened it for the trio.

  “Tank,” they chorused as they entered the small house.

  Elise examined the sparse furnishings as she set her bag on the floor in a corner. They had only the essentials for a family of three—a Victorian sofa, a padded chair, and a kitchen table with four chairs around it. She assumed the fourth chair was in case one of them had a guest for dinner.

  She would have liked to see a footstool or two, but there were none. That didn’t matter, though. She had plenty of money with which to purchase one for each of them.

  Then she noticed something in the corner of the kitchen that surprised her—an icebox. She had seen pictures of them, but she’d never lived anywhere that had one. The prospect of using one unexpectedly excited her.

  When Mauritz removed his hat, Elise stared at the mass of curly blond hair he had. He obviously hadn’t had a haircut in quite a while, but Elise found the curls attractive on him. He was tall, too, taller than Lars. She herself was tall for a woman, but not overly so. Other than buying certain items of clothing, she liked being tall, too.

  Speaking in Swedish, Elise said, “Thank you for meeting us at the stagecoach, Mr. Sten.”

  With a wide grin, he replied in Swedish as well. “Please, call me Moya. And you’re welcome. There are two bedrooms here. One room is bigger than the other and has two beds. The other room has just one bed.”

  “We’ll take the bigger room,” Stina offered. “We wouldn’t even be here if it weren’t for you, Elise. You deserve to have your own room.”

  “Thanks, Stina,” Elise said. “I appreciate that.”

  Turning toward Moya, Elise smiled up at him. He was really quite attractive, with classically Swedish looks—the long face, the slightly larger nose, the blue eyes and blond hair. What she liked most was that his entire face lit up when he smiled.

  “Is there anything I can help you with, Miss Anderson?” he asked, still in Swedish.

  “If I’m to call you Moya, you must call me Elise. And I can’t think of anything else.”

  “Then I’ll leave you to your unpacking. Lars will come visit you after he finishes work.”

  “All right. Thank you again, Moya.”

  “Yes, thank you,” Stina inserted. “We appreciate your help, right, Karin?”

  “We do,” Karin added in her reserved tone. “Thank you.”

  “Then,” Moya said, “good day, ladies. I hope to see you around town often.”

  When he said the last sentence, he gazed directly into Elise’s eyes. The grin on his lips made her heart feel as though it skipped a beat. So far, she liked Moya a lot, but she had just m
et him, too. She needed to get to know him so she could make a determination as to if she could see more of him in the future.

  After the door closed behind Moya, the women dispersed to their rooms with their respective baggage. As Elise unpacked and put her clothes into the armoire in the corner of her room, she wished she could learn more about Moya. Unfortunately, she had no doubt that Lars expected them to resume their courtship. Why else had he invited her to join him?

  He’d said that he missed her. He’d said that he wanted her to join him. Unfortunately, he’d never said that he loved her. One thing her father had told her before he’d died was that she should never be with a man who couldn’t express his love for her in words. He’d said it several times, too, so she knew it was important to him that she not forget his advice. She wouldn’t forget, either. She would honor her father by remembering his main death-bed concern.

  She picked up the Swedish Bible that she’d previously laid on the nightstand and held her father’s book to her chest.

  “I can’t believe I’ve done this, fader,” she said to the empty room. “I can’t believe that I started out in New York and ended up in California. It’s been a long, trying trip, but here I am. Now what do I do, fader? I came without the man I followed using the words I love you.

  “The only reason I came was because Mrs. Bengtson said that I should. Now that I’m here, I worry that I made a mistake. Lars didn’t even care enough to meet me at the stage. Instead, he sent Moya. Have I been naïve in thinking that this would work out for me? Maybe I should have listened to my heart where Lars is concerned.

  “I told you before that I didn’t think I love him, yet I came here, anyway. How foolhardy could I be!

  “Now that I’m here, though, the first person I met is a very nice young man, who reminds me a lot of you.”

  She startled at the statement and dropped down to sit on the edge of the bed. She hadn’t even considered that. Moya reminded her of her father. Maybe that was why she wanted to get to know him better. Was that wise? Was it a good start to a courtship? Or even a mere friendship?

  Chapter 6

  When Lars stopped by the house later that evening, he greeted Elise with a long hug. Elise hugged him in return, if for no other reason than to see if she could feel some emotion about him. To her dismay, she felt nothing other than relief that he was glad that she was there.

  “I’m glad you made it safely,” he told Elise as they sat on the porch steps.

  “I was a bit surprised that it went mored smoothly than I expected. I think I read too many articles about how Jesse and Frank James robbed trains. I was always expecting it to happen to us.”

  “You were perfectly fine, though.”

  “I know, but that didn’t stop my thoughts.”

  “I suppose not.” He paused before he asked, “Do you have any ideas about how you’re going to support yourselves here?”

  Startled by his question, Elise said, “I thought people here needed an English teacher or an interpreter.”

  “They do, but the men are more interested in having a good woman to marry. Until they find a man, though, Stina and Karin need to support themselves.”

  “I’m sure they can take a job as a housekeeper or seamstress or laundress. My question is when can I start teaching English?”

  “As soon as you’re ready,” he replied, taking her hand in his. “And we can continue our courtship from Bishop Hill.”

  Something in the back of her mind alerted her. He had said that he missed her in his letter, but he didn’t say that to her now that she was with him. Would he ever admit it? What should she do if he didn’t?

  Elise yawned, exhausted by the long trip she’d had.

  “You’re tired,” Lars said. “I’ll go so you can get some rest. I know how hard it is to sleep on trains.”

  “Thank you,” Elise replied. “I’m glad you understand.”

  When she started to rise, Lars scrambled to his feet and helped her from her seat. Without a word, he pulled her into his arms and lowered his head toward hers. Elise stiffened. He was going to kiss her! Did she want it?

  His lips met hers for the first time. Even in Bishop Hill he hadn’t kissed her. Why now? His tongue taunted her lips until she opened them slightly. It slid passed them into her mouth and touched her tongue. It was nice, but …

  He pulled away and gazed into her eyes. The piercing blue of his orbs caught Elise’s attention, and their pleading expression melted her heart just a little.

  “Thank you, Elise,” he said. “We’ve never kissed before, and I wanted to remedy that. Good night.”

  “Good night,” she replied absently as she turned to go into the house.

  Once inside, she collapsed onto the sofa where Stina was sitting. The kiss had been a surprise, and she had reacted positively by kissing him back. Her reaction, however, had been more from instinct than from excitement of the moment.

  “Did you like it?” Stina asked.

  “Like what?” Elise replied, too tired to be startled by the question.

  “The kiss. Does he kiss good?”

  “That’s well, not good. I don’t know, Stina. I’ve never been kissed before, not by a suitor, anyway.”

  Stina sighed. “You’re so lucky, Elise. We just got here, and you have a suitor.”

  “You know that’s only because he courted me in Bishop Hill. If he hadn’t, you would be the first one with a suitor. You’ll meet somebody before you know it.” Elise shifted on the padded cushion so she could look directly at her friend. “Do you have any idea what you might want to do to contribute to finances until you find a man who wants to marry you?”

  “Why do you say it that way?”

  “Because we’re basically mail-order brides. That’s why we came here, so men could meet us and marry us and settle down.”

  “I don’t understand. What is a mail-order bride?”

  “The men here want wives, so Lars wrote to me about coming out here and bringing women with me. I don’t know how much the men here know about you and Karin, but I do know that Lars has told several about you.”

  “What about Lars?” Stina asked. “Did he ask you here so he could marry you?”

  “He hasn’t said so, but I suspect it. Why else would he kiss me when he never has before? He wants to lay claim to me before another man can do it, I suppose.”

  “You don’t sound happy about marrying him.”

  “For one thing, Stina,” Elise explained, “he’s never given me any indication that he wants to marry me, and for another thing, I practically promised my father that I would never marry a man who couldn’t tell me that he loves me.” Elise rose. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to bed. I can’t tell you how ready I am for a good night’s sleep in a real bed.”

  ***

  The next morning, Elise began her quest to become a teacher and interpreter. The first place she went was to the office of the Pacific Lumber Company. Mr. Jared Coleman, the owner to whom she spoke, told her that no one had ever mentioned about her interpreting for the company and that he had no intention of sending a woman into the forest where logging was underway. She asked about the possibility of opening a school where she could teach English to Swedes.

  “Now, that would be a good idea,” Mr. Coleman said. “I suppose we could set up an area where everyone could congregate at night. Maybe the church could handle everybody, or maybe you could use the schoolhouse.”

  “How much do you think I should charge them?” Elise asked. “I have no idea how much they can afford.”

  “Don’t worry about that, Miss Anderson. I won’t send a woman into the forest, but I will send my lumberjacks to you. I will pay you a weekly salary that will more than compensate for your work. It will be worth it to ease the communication problems we have here.”

  “I appreciate that, sir. When would you like me to start?”

  “Will next Monday be too soon?”

  “It would be perfect. Thank you.”
>
  Elise began to leave the office when his voice stopped her.

  “And, Miss Anderson, would you be willing to teach me some Swedish? I have an awful lot of Swedes here, and it would help me a great deal if I could communicate with them, as well.”

  “Certainly, I could.”

  “Wonderful,” he said. “Would you come to my home tonight and teach me and my daughter? It would be nice if she spoke a second language, too.”

  Before she left, Elise got the address, and Mr. Coleman gave her directions to his home. He also offered to pay her what she considered an extravagant amount. Maybe, she decided, if it was this easy for her to get a job, she could repay the Bengtsons by providing for their daughters until they found husbands.

  Chapter 7

  Although both Stina and Karin were relatively fluent in English, neither felt they knew enough to be either a translator or a teacher. Both of them put flyers around town to either do housekeeping or laundry. Right away, Mr. Coleman hired them both. His wife had died, and his daughter was only ten, so he had little time for either. He also hired Karin to watch his daughter while he was at work.

  With Stina and Karin taken care of job-wise, Elise focused on her own means of support. She began immediately with her private lessons with the Colemans and spent time planning lessons for teaching English to all the Swedes who immigrated just for working in the United States.

  Their lives settled into a pattern, with the three of the women finding that they actually liked California. Sure, as the fall came, so did the rains; but even so, the weather wasn’t nearly as cold as in Bishop Hill.

  Stina wasn’t very happy about having to do laundry for people, but she had taken in enough to wonder if she should open a shop in the business district. In order to do so, though, she needed someone to help with purchasing a building and the necessary equipment. She also did mending for the workers, who were always ripping shirts and pants.

  Karin was very happy with her job. Instead of her and Stina sharing the chores, Karin eventually took over all of the housekeeping, cooking, and child care in the home. She said the work made her feel fulfilled, like she was needed instead of just being paid for work.