“I know all this, Mr. Colbert.” Heat rose from her middle and traveled to her face. Her jaw tightened, and she fisted her hands. “I’m an annoyance, trouble, and a disaster waiting to happen. I’m in your way, you would love to get me out of your school, and you hate everything about me.” She raised her chin. “Does that about cover it?”
His lips moved into a slow smile. “No. I love everything about you, and I love you.” He slid onto one knee in front of her.
Tori sniffed, and Jesse dropped his arm around her shoulders and tugged her to his side.
“Ellie Henderson. Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”
She sat there, stunned. This man, the proudest man she’d ever met, was on his knee in front of her entire family, proposing marriage. A giggle started deep inside her and she covered her mouth to keep it in. She bent toward him and whispered, “Get up, everyone is watching.”
“I know,” he whispered back. “That’s what I planned.”
“You look silly. Get off the floor.”
“Not until you say yes,” he said, his voice still a whisper.
“What about the superintendent job, and the hours you need to spend traveling. Your desire to remain single?”
“I just asked Senator Cochran to remove my name from the list. I don’t want any job that would keep me from you.” He smiled that lopsided grin, and her heart did a double-time thump. “Besides, I tremble at the thought of the trouble you would get into with me not here.” He raised her hands to his mouth and kissed them.
“What about your plan to marry me off to one of your horrible friends?”
“Merely a lapse of judgment.” His face softened. “I could never stand to watch another man walk off with you. You are mine. I’m just sorry it took me so long to realize it. Well? What do you say?”
“I say you need to get off the floor.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Answer me, Ellie.”
“If I say yes, will you get up?”
“Perhaps.”
She studied him for a moment. “Okay. Yes!” she shouted and threw her arms around him, knocking them both to the floor. The impossible had happened. The very stern, very rigid Max Colbert had put his life plan aside to marry the crazy and troublesome Ellie Henderson. Her heart soared.
Cheers and laughter erupted around the room as they rolled on the floor. Max gave her an enthusiastic kiss and helped her up.
“One more thing.” He placed her on the couch and sat alongside her. He slid his hand into his jacket pocket and took out a ring. “This belonged to my mother. It was left to me when she died. Since you’re so much like her, I’d like you to wear it as an engagement ring.” He slipped the gold ring with a ruby stone onto her finger. It fit perfectly.
“Dinner is served,” Tori announced, blotting her eyes with the corner of her apron. Hugs and congratulations followed the noisy group to the dining room. Max held Ellie back.
“Now that we’re alone, I want to properly kiss my future wife.” He cupped her face in his hands and gently kissed her. When she moaned, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close, deepening the kiss. He reluctantly pulled away. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
“Dinner’s getting cold.” Jesse leaned against the doorway, arms crossed, grinning at the two of them.
Ellie eyed the mounds of dirty dishes and partially filled serving plates and bowls scattered around the long table. The baby slept in Heidi’s lap, and eleven-year-old Benjamin sat on Jesse’s lap playing thumb war with his papa. Tori looked as though she could use a nap, as did the two pregnant ladies. The end of a perfect Christmas dinner.
She turned to Max, her eyes sparkling. “Do you really love me?”
He placed his arm around the back of her chair and smiled. “Ellie, believe me, I really love you.”
She looked at him from underneath lowered eyelashes. “I can think of a way you can prove it.”
“Isn’t giving up the superintendent’s job enough?”
“Um. It helps. But I can think of another way.”
“How?”
She sat forward on her seat, smiling brightly. “Let me drive your automobile.”
Max’s face leeched all color. He looked quickly from face to face, catching quite a few smiles. His shoulders slumped, and he swallowed convulsively. Reaching into his pocket, he slowly pulled out the goggles he’d shoved in there earlier and handed them to her.
“I love you, Ellie Henderson.”
The End
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A Wife by Christmas is the fourth book in the Oklahoma Lovers series. Although the books are all standalones, the series, in reading order, is:
A Run for Love
A Prescription for Love
A Chance to Love Again
A Wife by Christmas
Anyplace But Here
A Dogtown Christmas
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A Dogtown Christmas
About the Book
Guthrie, Oklahoma, 1912. Priscilla Cochran intends to prove to the world she is a grown up woman, able to take care of herself. She accepts a job as a teacher in Dogtown, Colorado, where the man who hired her thinks she is a woman of “mature years.”
Mitch Beaumont is tired of young women who come to Dogtown and leave in tears because it is not a built up city with entertainment a young woman would want. He has finally secured a teacher for the town who has assured him she is a middle-aged spinster and will be able to last through the hard winters.
Then twenty-year-old Priscilla steps off the mail coach and falls at his feet in the mud.
Chapter 1
October 1912, Guthrie, Oklahoma
Priscilla Cochran gripped her new satchel, her stomach tightening with anticipation. During the time she’d waited with her father, the train platform had begun to fill up with passengers waiting for the train to Denver, Colorado.
“I know I’ve asked you this numerous times, but honey, are you absolutely sure this is what you want to do?” With the strain of anxiety in his voice, her father’s loving gaze roamed her face.
“Yes, Papa. I do.” She gave him a warm smile. “You know I love you and Mama so much, and most times I can even tolerate my brothers. But I need to have my own life. I have to get away from all the family constantly surrounding me.” She hesitated, not wanting to hurt him, but needing for him to understand. “Sometimes I feel as though I am smothered with love.”
“Ah, honey,” he said, tucking a strand of golden brown hair behind her ear, “no one can have too much love.”
She regarded her father, Senator Jesse Cochran, who had been such a major influence in her life. He’d started from dubious beginnings as the illegitimate son of a whore, raised in a brothel, to become a United States Senator. “Oh, Papa. You say that because of your own childhood.”
Their attention was caught by the blast of a whistle and whoosh of steam coming from the eight-ten train to Denver as it chugged into the station. With a sigh, her father arranged for the loading of Priscilla’s trunks onto the train, then turned to her. “If you change your mind, just send a message and I’ll come fetch you.”
“See Papa, that’s exactly what I mean. Suppose I do change my mind. I don’t need you to ‘fetch’ me. I’m a grown woman, college educated, and ready for an adventure.”
Her papa took her face in his large hands. “You will always be your mama’s and my little girl, honey.” He bent and kissed her on the forehead. “Have a safe trip, and please write. I’m sure your mama is already waiting for a letter.”
Priscilla fought back tears she didn’t want to fall. She was an adult woman. Chin trembling, she kissed him on the cheek and turned to mount the train. Taking the conductor’s hand, she climbed the steps and hurried down the ai
sle as the train began to move forward. She found a seat next to a window and waved goodbye to her papa and her life of twenty years in Guthrie, Oklahoma.
By noontime, Priscilla was restless and hungry. She’d never been one to sit still for long periods of time, and the ride had already become arduous. Perhaps if she ate something, she might be able to take a short nap, since her excitement the last few days had not allowed for many restful nights.
She pulled out the cheese sandwich, apple, and oatmeal cookies Mama had packed for her. One look at the lovingly made food tightened her throat, and she had to push the tears away again. She shook her head. This was ridiculous. She was an adult, headed to Dogtown, Colorado, to teach children in a town far away from civilization. She was a trained educator, and this would be her opportunity to help children who needed her. She could make a huge difference in their lives.
Despite the pep talk she’d given herself, she still had a hard time getting the food past the lump in her throat. She wrapped the scraps from her meal and tucked it into her satchel, then leaned back, closing her eyes, thinking about her new life.
She’d been slightly misleading when she’d answered the ad in The Guthrie Daily Leader. A Mr. Mitchell Beaumont had advertised for a single or widowed female teacher of mature years to teach the children of Dogtown. Perhaps she wasn’t truly of “mature years” but she was certainly enthusiastic and a graduate of Central State Normal School.
Although she could have taken a job in her home town of Guthrie, she wanted to travel from home. Her cousin, Ellie, taught at the high school before her children were born, and her husband, Max, was still the principal there.
From the time she’d been a girl, Priscilla had known it was her destiny to make a difference in the world. Ellie had made her mark by being involved in women’s rights for years, and while Priscilla agreed with her cousin, her passion was children. There were so many who needed her. Beginning the career she was passionate about as a teacher in a school so far from the things she’d grown up with, and taken for granted, excited her.
It was four twenty-two in the afternoon when the train rolled into the Topeka station. She would spend the night at the hotel one block from the depot and then board the nine o’clock train the next morning with an arrival in Denver at nine that night. Although going to Topeka first seemed to take her out of the way, it was the only route to Denver from Oklahoma.
She checked the packet Papa had prepared for her. Her reservation was made for the Topeka Hotel for one night. The ticket for Topeka to Denver was tucked into the envelope, along with the pass for her ride on the Mail Coach from Denver to Dogtown. She could ride that conveyance any Monday, Wednesday or Saturday that she wished. There was more than sufficient money for her to pay for her meals and room in Denver until she took the Mail Coach.
As she studied the papers Papa had so diligently put together for her, tears welled in her eyes once again. Yes, she would certainly miss her family. She sniffed and reached for her satchel. But this was her new life. And she was more than ready for it.
Mitch Beaumont checked his appearance in the mirror over his dresser. He straightened his string tie and tucked his straight black hair behind his ears. He frowned, thinking he should have gotten a haircut. As the representative of the Dogtown Town Council to greet the new teacher, he wanted to make an impression and have her know she wasn’t coming to some backwoods town to teach a bunch of roughneck kids.
“Ian, you ready to go with me to meet the coach?”
“Pa, I don’t see why I have to go meet the new teacher.” His eleven-year-old son, Ian, leaned against the doorframe, his hands crossed over his chest, giving Mitch a jolt at how the boy was slowly turning into a man.
“I have to meet her, and it would be nice for her to see one of her students.”
“I don’t need a teacher. You’ve taught me all I need to know.”
Mitch backed up from the mirror and turned to his son. “No one knows enough, Ian. I’m learning every day. And besides, I’ve told you many times I want you to go to college. You’ll need more education than I can give you to pass those entrance exams.” He pulled his jacket from the back of the chair and shrugged into it. “Now hurry and wash up and change your shirt. The mail coach is due to arrive in about half an hour.”
He was relieved to be meeting the coach so the town would finally have a stable school. It had been a clever idea to advertise for a mature woman for the position. They’d had a difficult time with the last teacher Dogtown had hired. Miss Sally Fisher had stepped off the mail coach, looked around, and burst into tears. For two weeks she cried as she taught school until Mitch finally put her back on the mail coach with a month’s pay and wished her well.
This was not the town for a young woman. They wanted more stores, more social life, and more young men to flirt with. Miss Priscilla Cochran had sent her teaching certificate from a Normal School and said she was a woman of mature years, loved children, and teaching. She’d written that she would bring the list of schools she’d worked for with her. She was anxious to bring education and enlightenment to the children of a small town.
He envisioned a cheerful, plump woman of maybe fifty or so years, who would take the children to task and make them learn. If they ever expected to have the town grow by attracting more families and businesses, they had to have a stable school. The twenty or so children in Dogtown hadn’t had consistent teaching for the last two years since their last teacher, Mr. Hudson, had up and died.
“Ian, let’s go,” Mitch yelled as he headed to the front door. He wanted to make a quick stop at his gunsmith shop before he met the mail coach to make sure Ernest, the man who ran the shop in his absence, had everything under control. He was getting on in years and had a hard time hearing customer questions.
Mitch and Ian walked the length of the boardwalk, the heels of their boots thumping on the boards in rhythm. Mitch tried to see the town as the new teacher would. Up and down the street were his gunsmith shop, the church, a small schoolhouse, the general store with the telegraph office inside, Miss Janson’s dress shop, the bank, Mrs. Gillis’s boarding house, the newly opened restaurant, and the marshal’s office that doubled as Justice of the Peace and courtroom. Luckily the town saw very little in the way of crime so Marshal Anders performed more civic duties than anything else.
Doctor Benson attended to patients and mixed medicine out of his home two blocks over. There were many more businesses that would help the town grow, and Mitch worked hard on attracting them to Dogtown. The town desperately needed a blacksmith, a real pharmacy, an undertaker, and a barber. He also envisioned a butcher and bakery, but any new business he could attract would help,
The main street where the businesses stood was muddy from an earlier rainstorm, another drawback, especially for the ladies concerned about their skirts dragging in the mud.
“Run over to Mrs. Stevens’s house and see if she’ll part with a few of her flowers for us to give to Miss Cochran,” Mitch said to Ian as he entered the gunsmith shop. “I’ll meet you over at the mail coach stop in a little while.”
“Aw, Pa. You gonna make me carry flowers, too, like some girl?”
“If you ever want to have a girl, you better learn how important it is to the females.”
Ian made a face that looked like he’d tasted something nasty. “Ugh. Why would I want a girl?”
Mitch laughed. “I’ll ask you that in about four years. Now go on. Ernest, how’s business today?”
The man who had sold the gun shop to Mitch’s father years ago peered at him from behind his thick spectacles. “Is that you, Mitch?”
“Yeah, it’s me, Ernest.” Mitch sometimes worried about having a man who was half-blind behind the counter of a gun shop. One day he would have to hire another employee. Once he got the new teacher settled, he would have more time to devote to his business and to growing the town.
“That new teacher show up yet?” Ernest blinked rapidly.
“No. She’s ar
riving on the mail coach in about twenty minutes.”
“I sure hope this one stays. My granddaughter was upset when the last one left. Mary Lou said that goldarn teacher cried every day.”
“Well, I have that solved. I made sure the woman I hired this time was of more mature years. A young woman from outside just doesn’t take well to a town like ours. I’m sure Miss Cochran will be with us for a long, long time.”
The walk from his store to the mail coach was a quick one. Mitch looked around his town and smiled with satisfaction. There were a lot of things still needed, but they were on the right track to make Dogtown a nice town for families and a nice place to raise children.
He’d seen Dogtown for the first time when he was younger than Ian. His father, a French Canadian fur trapper, and his mother, a beautiful young woman from the Crow Nation, left Canada and moved south to the settlement called Dogtown in Colorado. So named because of all the dogs that roamed the streets of the tent town until the settlers rid the area of them.
Mitch had watched the settlement grow from tents to a thriving town that he hoped to see prosper even more. His father, Pierre Beaumont, had brought with him a cache of guns and rifles and set up the gun shop. His mother, Little Bright Star, made beaded clothing that she sold until she died of consumption when Mitch was eighteen. His brokenhearted father followed her to the grave not long after.
That was the year Mitch married Polly Gardner, who he buried nine months later after she died birthing Ian. Since then, it had been him and his son. Just the way he liked it. Loving a woman made a man weak and vulnerable. He suffered when Polly died, leaving him alone with an infant. He’d also watched his father wither and die after Little Bright Star had passed on.
Merry Christmas, My Love Page 10
