by Indiana Wake
“I said I would kill him for you.” Sam searched her eyes.
“I know, and for a while I wanted you to. I wanted to bury my past and him with it.” Miriam took Sam’s blood-spattered face into her hands and kissed his lips in full view of the crowd that had gathered. “I no longer need him dead to accomplish that. My shame has been buried under a storm of love. Just knowing you love me that much is enough. All I want right now is to go home with my husband and begin our life together.”
Sam pushed to his feet, leaving her past lying still and bloody in the street.
“The preacher said he would meet us in the church. He’s probably there now.” Sam wiped his bloody knuckles on the torn remnants of his shirt. Bart had put up a fight before falling to the relentless power of the farmer’s fists. Someone handed him a fresh shirt. They looked up to see Zach standing there with a sheepish face.
“I got there too late to help.” He looked at Miriam. “I don’t know what… Did… he… Why didn’t you… Miriam, I would not have stopped short of killing him.”
“Then I’m glad it was Sam who got him. I wouldn’t want either of my favorite men to kill for my sake, no matter how much he deserves it. A man like that will end up in Boot Hill eventually.” She reached for her brother’s hand. “Will you come see me married and give me your blessing before you go?”
Zach shrugged. “I suppose. I never could get you to see sense once you got your mind made up.” He wrapped his arms around her. “The old farm just won’t be the same without you.”
Epilogue
A crowd of well wishers followed them to a plain and simple white church covered in dust. Yet to Miriam it was glorious. In this house of God she would leave behind her shame and her fear and with this good man she would start a new life. As she walked into the church she whispered a prayer of thanks.
Up ahead stood a small preacher, his head bowed in a permanent stoop.
Holding his Bible he said the words and the simple wedding was held as the sun slipped toward the horizon sending golden rays of light through the windows of the church. The light settled on the joined hands of Miriam and Sam as if giving its blessing.
Sam bent down and kissed her lips and she forgot everything except this good man. With the fading sun warm on her back she knew the light of love had chased away the shadows.
The End.
A Wild Angel for a Lonely Farmer
Mail Order Brides of Harmony
Tess – Book 3
Indiana Wake
©Copyright 2015 Indiana Wake
All Rights Reserved.
Chapter 1
1896
Zach let the door slam behind him and tossed his hat on the dusty table. The fire that was supposed to be cooking his supper had gone out. Again. He stuck a finger into the broth … stone cold. A few sad looking potatoes bobbed on the surface. Somewhere at the bottom was the meat left over from yesterday’s roast.
Zach collapsed into the nearest chair and bracing his elbows on his knees, gripped his too-long hair in tired fingers. His stomach rumbled in protest at the delay. After working in the fields all day, it would have been nice to come home to a big bowl of hot soup.
He wouldn’t have had to worry about it if his sister hadn’t deserted him. He scowled at the thought of her making a tempting supper for her husband with her son perched on one hip and another on the way, according to her last letter.
After two years in Kansas, her letters were growing fewer in number. She was obviously too busy and happy in her new life to remember her brother struggling along on the family farm all alone. She had forgotten about him, although they had once been the best of friends.
Of course, she may be writing less because he hadn’t answered a single one of her letters. Zach squashed the traitorous though. He didn’t have time to write. Without her here to help, he had all the farm work, barn chores, and house chores to do all by himself. Not to mention the cooking. He sent a sour look at the cold, uncooked soup and stood up.
Well, he had to eat something, and there was nothing left in the cupboards to scrounge. He would have to ride into town to replenish his supplies. Maybe he would treat himself to a meal at the saloon. At least there he wouldn’t have the silence weighing him down like a millstone.
It didn’t take long to get to town. It was a small place and its only excuse for existing was as a supply point for the neighboring coal mines. There was a steady flow of traffic from the town to the nearby city of Charleston. It was a handy place to stock up on supplies and sell goods even if prices were not as good as in the city itself.
Zach swung down from his horse and gave its reins a quick wrap around the hitching post in front of the saloon. He would get a drink and something to eat before heading over to the general store.
“Hey, Mr. Owen, Zachariah Owen.” A slender man from the post office waved him down. Zach paused with one foot on the edge of the boardwalk and waited for the man to approach.
“I thought that was you. Got another letter for you on today’s mail train.” The man puffed, winded from his run across the street. “The writin’ don’t look like your sister’s, but I thought maybe someone else addressed it for her.” The man handed a crumpled envelope to Zach and waited, his birdlike eyes bright and curious.
“Thanks, Ned.” Zach tucked the mysterious letter into his pocket and smiled at the disappointed postmaster. “I’ll look at it later.”
“I hope nothin’s wrong with Miriam. She ain’t sent you a letter in a long time. Maybe this is to tell you she’s sick or dyin’ maybe.” The other man rubbed a finger across his upper lip. “Never could understand why she wanted to move so far way anyhow. From what I hear, there ain’t nothin’ in Kansas but dust wind and Indians.”
“It’s not so bad. There’s good farm land out there too.” Zach caught himself defending his sister’s choice and scowled. His little place here in West Virginia was just fine. Without another word, he turned and stalked away from the messenger.
He found an empty table on the far side of the room. After giving his order to the waitress, he scanned the dining room hoping to see a familiar face to drive away his nagging loneliness. The room was more than half-full, but he knew none of them. These men were better dressed than most of the people around. Their hard eyes surveyed the room seeming to look for trouble.
One look at the broad shoulders and scarred knuckles was enough to tell Zach what kind of men these were. Thugs and strikebreakers from the New York City. He knew the mine owners were starting to ship them in, preparing for the inevitable fight between the unions and the owners. But he had never seen so many in one place at one time. Things were starting to look bad for the miners.
He should have found somewhere else to eat.
Zach kept his head down and focused on the plate of beef and potatoes the waitress slid onto the table. He didn’t want any of the strangers taking note of him. No reason they should of course. It wasn’t like he was a miner, just a farmer trying to make ends meet on the family farm.
It wasn’t like he smuggled food and basic necessities to the poverty-stricken families that depended on the mines for their scant existence.
Well, he hadn’t gotten caught anyway.
There was no reason for them to know him. Zach swallowed a bite of beef as a man separated himself from the group and walked to his table.
No reason at all.
Chapter 2
The man turned a chair around and sat in it backwards, facing Zach’s table. Zack took a swallow of beer and returned the man’s gaze steadily.
“Where you from?” the man’s voice was gravelly and rough as though his vocal cords had been damaged at some point. “You a miner?”
“No. You think a miner would have enough money to eat here? They can barely buy bread.” Zach immediately regretted his words as the man narrowed his eyes.
“You sayin’ that my bosses don’t do right by their workers?” the man leaned in close enough for Zach to get a good whif
f of the alcohol on the other man’s breath. “You a sympathizer?”
“Sympathizer of what?” Zach chuckled. “I sympathize with widows and orphans like the good book says. I sympathize with the poor and downtrodden … “
“I’m talkin’ unions, boy.” The other man scowled. Zach could see him trying to decide if Zach’s words were a confession of guilt or not.
“I don’t know much about unions. I’m just a farmer coming to town for a hot meal that I didn’t have to cook.” Much as he would like to give in to the man’s obvious quest for a fight. Zack was smart enough to know that he didn’t stand a chance against a man who made fighting his life’s work. Not to mention the thug’s friends were unlikely to stand by quietly. He met the man’s bleary-eyed stare. “I’m going to finish my meal then I’m going to leave.”
The thug stood up to leave. Then he turned back. “I don’t like you, farmer. You better watch yourself.”
Zach breathed a sigh of relief when the man returned to the bar. This town was changing and not for the better.
To distract himself from the menacing stares from the bar, Zach took the letter out of his pocket and hunched closer to the lamp burning on the table. The stamp on it was Kansas, but the handwriting was cramped and childish, not at all like his sister’s flowing script. Could it be that Ned was right and something had happened to Miriam?
Suddenly concerned, he ripped open the letter. It took him a while to get used to the poor writing, but he was finally able to decipher it.
Dear Mr. Owen,
You don’t no me, but I think you no my sister pretty well. Her names Loretta and shes a good frend of yor sister. You mite no that Loretta and her husband brang Ma and us kids to Kansas. They set Ma up in a nice house ware she takes in wash for other folks. Thats good fer her, Ma dont mind it. But I got other plans. I dont want to spend my life with my hands in the wash bucket. Yor brother in law says that a body can file for a homestead with the govner and if they live on the land for five years and make some improovmints, then the land is theres for free. The only problem is Im a girl. They wont let me file a claim. So I need a husband. I was hopin you would be willing to marry me and sine the forms. You aint got to stay here or nothing just sine the papers. I can do the rest. I thot you mite come visit yor sister and we can get it done then.
Sinseerly,
Tessy Bonner
The girl’s spelling was terrible, but she likely had received little schooling. Zach sat back in his seat and sipped his drink. The idea was ridiculous, yet the girl’s frankness appealed to him. This was no shrinking miss with wide eyes and fearful expression. The girls he had seen in the mining towns where he had taken food were exposed to the darker side of life from an early age and had learned to expect nothing good from anyone. How had Loretta’s sister escaped it?
Of course, Loretta herself had escaped the horrors of life in the mining towns and had gotten her family out as well. Their parents must have been an unusual sort to guard their girls against the corruption. Still the girl’s suggestion was absurd. He would have to write back and tell her exactly what he thought of a young girl being so forward as to ask a man to marry her. And all because she wanted to try to homestead alone.
Ridiculous.
Zach tucked the letter into his pocket and pushed away from his half-finished dinner. Ignoring the glares of the strangers crowding around the bar, he stalked out and crossed the road to the store.
Chapter 3
“Hey, Zach.” Ned looked up from the letters he was sorting into boxes. “Did you read your letter yet? Is Miriam well?”
“It wasn’t from Miriam. I got a list of supplies here; can you fill it for me?” Zach tried to change the subject, but Ned persisted.
The other man began to wander the shelves, pulling down items and filling the satchel Zach set on the counter. “Who was it from? I didn’t know you had any other family out there.”
“Not family, just a … friend.” Zach headed for the door. “I got some other stuff to do. I’ll be back to settle with you in a bit.”
He didn’t really have anything else to do but was looking to escape Ned’s inquisitive gaze. For lack of any better ideas, he wandered in the direction of the barbershop. With no one nagging him about his scraggly whiskers, he hadn’t had a proper shave since Miriam had left. He scratched his chin through the beard that was long enough to brush his chest.
An hour later, he emerged with smooth cheeks and a cheerier outlook on life in general. He tipped his hat to a young woman as he passed her on the street. She didn’t even bother to nod in response. That was the trouble with the young women in this town. If you didn’t look successful in business or own a large, prosperous farm, they wanted nothing to do with you.
Zach missed on both counts. He knew nothing about business and his farm did well enough for a small family but not much more.
Not that he cared. He was content with his bachelor life.
Returning to the store, Ned was busy with another customer. Zack left a few coins on the counter to pay for his purchases and hurried out the door happy to escape the clerk’s awkward questions. He strapped the now full sack to the back of his saddle and headed home.
The moon had risen by the time Zach rode into the farmyard. Everything was quiet except for the occasional cackle of a sleepy chicken or the grunt of a cow as it shifted position without waking. Zack pulled his horse to a stop and viewed the scene.
The house looked deserted. There was no welcoming glow in the window. There was no wisp of smoke from the chimney. The silver light of the moon painted everything in sharp relief. There was a sudden dread in his chest.
He did not want to go into that house where emptiness pressed down on him like an invisible weight.
The horse shifted under him, anxious to return to the barn and his feed bucket. Zach reached down to pat the smooth neck.
The strange letter crackled in his pocket.
What would it be like to come home and have a warm welcome, not from his sister but from a wife? Zach knew that he wanted to marry someday, but there never seemed to be any hurry. He still was in no hurry, but the fleeting vision had taken on a new charm. He nudged the horse to continue to the barn and settled him in for the night.
Zach climbed to the haymow and made a bed for himself in the fragrant hay. At least in the barn there were other creatures that breathed and filled the emptiness with their presence. As he lay there waiting for sleep to come, he stared at the empty house through a crack between boards.
The idea of moving to Kansas to marry a woman he had never met was preposterous, even in his newfound yearning. But perhaps it was time to consider nearby women in a new light and find a bride among his own hills.
Chapter 4
Tess slipped her foot from the stirrup and hooked it over the saddle horn. She leaned on the raised knee and rested her chin on her fist. The early morning light shimmered over the waving buffalo grass. In her mind’s eye, she could see a sturdy stone house nestled under the spreading cottonwood tree below her.
As she dreamed, other buildings sprang into being. A stone barn, the counterpart to the house would stretch, long and low, on the far side of the stream, behind it would be a corral to hold the best saddle horses in the territory. There was a springhouse, a hencoop, a small blacksmith’s forge, and a bunkhouse for the hired men. Then the coarse buffalo grass gave way to wide fields of corn, wheat, and oats reaching to the horizon.
Charlie shook his head and snorted bringing Tess out of her dream. She sighed and let the vision fade away. She patted the horse’s silky red neck and gave him a good scratch under his heavy black mane.
“Someday, Charlie, you’ll be livin’ like a king. We’ll find you a few good mares and show the world what a couple of misfits can do.” She sighed again. If only Miriam’s brother had answered her letter. It had been months with no reply. “He was prob’ly offended by my poor writin’.”
Charlie shook his head again and started down into the li
ttle valley without being told. He stopped beside the seep and dipped his head to drink. Tess dismounted and grabbed the tin cup she had left stashed in the fork of the cottonwood.
She dipped her cup into the small pool she had dug out and lined with stones on a previous visit. The water was cool and good, tasting far better than anything she could get in town. It was just one of the reasons she wanted to file a homestead on this spot.
It was one of the few lots left unclaimed, largely because of the lack of easy access. A narrow, rocky ravine lay between the town and her chosen home. There was no way to get a wagon in here, even Charlie, as sure-footed as he was, had some trouble on the rough trail. Of course, the trail could be made easier with a little work, but she had no desire to make it easy until she could claim the little valley as her own. No sense in letting competitors know her plans.
She lingered in the valley, clearing rock from the spot she had picked for her house. With only a few hand tools, it was slow going but dreaming of what it could be made it worth it. It would be hers and hers alone. Not some rickety shack that her parents had rented from the mining company, not a tiny room shared with her little sisters in a rundown hut in town where Ma made a living taking in the wash. It would be hers.
All she needed was a husband to sign his name to some papers. Unfortunately, the men in the area saw her as one of two things. Either they saw a poor young girl who should be grateful to accept their lewd suggestions, or they saw a strange creature that spoke like a woman, but dressed like a man.
Tess brushed the dirt from her trousers and loose shirt. She loved the freedom of movement they gave her. She didn’t mind dressing like a girl for church and box socials and such, but for riding and hunting, the men’s clothes felt so much more comfortable. She knew Ma shook her head in despair, but had no complaints about the meat that her daughter brought in.
