New Beginnings Spring 20 Book Box Set

by Hope Sinclair

  For the first time since arriving in Ruby—or rather, for the first time in even longer—Sylvia felt hopeful about her future. And as the two of them went on to discuss the finer details of their plan, she became excited. She’d gotten a way out and wound up with the charming ranch hand for whom she was developing romantic feelings. The way she saw it, she’d won all around.

  When Sylvia and Jacob were about to part ways, Jacob reached into his pocket. “By the way,” he said with a soft smile that made Sylvia swoon, “I did bring you an apple.” He handed her the fruit, and her face warmed up to match it.

  “Thank you,” she said, taking the apple from him. She put it in her own pocket, then headed back to the house.

  TEN

  It was a warm November night. The moon was high in the sky, and Sylvia gazed up at it. She was standing on the far side of the barn, just beyond the rack where the tools were stored… exactly where Jacob had told her to wait for him. Jacob wasn’t there yet, but she wasn’t worried. She’d gotten there a bit earlier than he told her—right before midnight, instead of right after—and she knew, without doubt, that he’d be there within a few minutes of when he was expected.

  After she left Jacob the day before, Sylvia went back to the house and tried to go about her day casually, as if nothing had happened or was about to. She was a bit more high-spirited and pleasantly disposed, she couldn’t help it. But neither Roger nor her father seemed to notice it, and she continued to avoid them whenever possible, just as she’d been doing the whole while.

  Sure enough, Sylvia was able to avoid them for most of Saturday. She joined them for dinner, but retired immediately after. And on Sunday, after their late breakfast, she feigned an upset stomach and pregnancy pains to avoid them for the bulk of the day, then fell asleep in the late afternoon and missed dinner. She awoke around nine or so and immediately started getting things ready for her rendezvous with Jacob.

  But here she was at their meeting point, and he wasn’t there with her. She didn’t have a watch on her, and there wasn’t a clock in sight. But she knew sure enough that is was well past “right after midnight.”

  Where is he? she wondered.

  Suddenly, a coldness crept over her. All of this seemed way too familiar.

  In her mind, Sylvia saw herself on the train platform back in New York, waiting to run off to Boston with Travis Hawthorne. She remembered their plans, and the way he’d broken them. And she remembered the heartache she felt when she learned that he’d abandoned her.

  No, Sylvia told herself. She shook her head, trying to shake the thought out of her mind. It can’t be happening again! Jacob isn’t abandoning me like Travis did. He’s too… he’s too goodhearted. He cares too much about me, my baby, and our connection. He—

  Sylvia stopped herself mid-thought. She was reminded of how foolish she’d been with Travis, how she’d thought his feelings were deep and true. She’d been wrong about him, so she wondered if she’d been wrong about Jacob too?

  Sylvia stepped out from her hiding spot and looked out over the land, on the chance Jacob was approaching—and lo and behold, she saw a figure on the horizon.

  “Thank goodness,” she said as he walked closer. “I was worried you’d changed your mind and weren’t going to show.”

  As the figure came upon her, Sylvia realized she’d spoken prematurely.

  “Hello, dear,” Roger said. He sounded like a snake hissing.

  Sylvia’s jaw dropped, and she scrambled to pick it up and come up with something to say. “I… I… Oh, Roger, I thought… I… I—” she stuttered.

  “Don’t even try to explain yourself,” Roger interrupted. “And rest assured, there’s no need to. I already know what’s going on… I know you were here to meet Jacob.”

  Sylvia’s jaw dropped again, and she was rendered speechless.

  “Yesterday, after lunch, I walked out front with your father ” Roger continued. “When I started back toward the house, I overheard you and Jacob talking out back. I came closer to listen, and I heard… everything.

  “I heard the two of you make plans to run away and get married, and about the feelings you’ve been fostering for each other. And I heard Jacob say how he didn’t care about his job or the land. So I decided to do what any man with my power would. I decided to take his job away from him and kick him off of this land, just like you’d warned him could happen.

  “But of course, I wanted to be cautious about it. While you were locked up in your room this afternoon, I went to town to get the sheriff. I asked him to come with me, in case Jacob gave me any problems when I fired him and told him to leave.

  “And good thing I brought the sheriff with me! When we got to the servants’ house to confront Jacob, we found him in his room with a packed suitcase. I accidentally kicked the thing in anger when talking to him—and when it fell over, my pocket watch fell out of it.

  “I picked it up and asked Jacob why he had it, and as I did, the sheriff grabbed Jacob’s suitcase and started going through it. He found several more of my valuables, and he found… my ledger, the one in which I record information pertaining to the cattle runs.”

  Sylvia’s jaw was still hanging open, and she still had no idea what to say. But she felt compelled to say something. A few minutes earlier, she wondered if she’d misjudged Jacob’s character. But she knew there was no way she could have misjudged him this severely. There’s no way he could have done what Roger’s suggesting, she told herself.

  “Jacob robbed me,” Roger reiterated, sensing Sylvia’s disbelief. “And given the evidence against him, it’s clear he was at least involved in, if not entirely responsible, for the recent rustlings.”

  “No,” Sylvia said firmly, finally finding her words. “No. He wouldn’t. He couldn’t. There’s no way. He’s not that—”

  “My ledger was in his suitcase!” Roger barked. “And who has more incentive than him to ruin my business? This ranch was acquired from his no-good father for a pittance, and he’s been reduced to a ranch hand while other men around him have risen to power. If anyone has motive, it’s him! He’s out for revenge. He wants to see this ranch fail because it’s not his.”

  “You’re all wrong about him,” Sylvia said. “He wants to see the ranch succeed. He loves this land—”

  “He loves this land?” Roger interrupted with a sarcastic laugh. “You’re the one who’s wrong about him, just like you were wrong about the last man you had feelings for… You need to grow up, little girl. You’re about to become a mother. It’s time you think and act like a woman.”

  Sylvia felt slighted by Roger’s insult. But it didn’t bother her as much as what else he’d said. Again, she questioned whether she’d misjudged Jacob—and again, she concluded that he couldn’t have done what Roger had accused him of.

  “He loves this land,” Sylvia repeated. “And he’s committed himself to it, despite what—”

  “There you go with ‘love’ again,” Roger said, stepping forward. “If it’s love you want to talk about, we’ll talk about it… inside… in the bedroom.” He reached out and tried to grab Sylvia’s arm, but she pulled away just in time.

  “I’m not going in—” Sylvia started before she was interrupted again. But this time, it wasn’t Roger who interrupted her. It was the sound of horses coming upon the land.

  “Who on God’s earth is that?” Roger asked, turning away from Sylvia. Sylvia cringed at the sound of him using God’s name in any of this.

  As Roger looked off into the distance, Sylvia did too—and she was shocked when she recognized the face of the closest of the three approaching riders.

  “Jacob!” she shouted, rushing out and waving her arms in the air. Roger turned and scowled at her, but that didn’t stop her from calling out again.

  Within several seconds, Jacob was on the land, and the other two men weren’t far behind him. He jumped off of his horse as soon as he could and started toward the barn.

  “You’ve escaped?” Roger asked, arching
his eyebrow. He was surprisingly nonchalant in his question.

  “No,” Jacob replied, trying to catch his breath. “I was released.”

  Roger arched his eyebrow even higher.

  “Are you okay?” Jacob asked, directing his attention to Sylvia.

  “I am now,” she answered. “But what’s… what’s going on?”

  “Your fiancé here had me arrested,” Jacob answered. “He tried to set me up by putting evidence in my suitcase, but little did he know, I already had something incriminating on him.”

  Both Sylvia and Roger looked at Jacob curiously.

  “It seems he knows about the conversation we had yesterday,” Jacob explained. “But he doesn’t know about the conversation we had the night before, or about what happened afterward. He doesn’t know that I saw what I saw.”

  “He’s talking nonsense,” Roger asserted, moving his arms around in the air. “Don’t listen to him!”

  “The other night, when I left the kitchen to investigate the noise we’d heard, I saw Roger out by the shed. He was with another man—a fellow of questionable character, named Kenneth Chambers. I eavesdropped on them and heard Roger say how the ‘next one’ would have to be postponed until after the ‘old man’ left for California.”

  “Don’t listen to him!” Roger reasserted. “He’s making all of this up… He’s just trying to vindicate himself… He’s lying!”

  Roger was putting up such a fuss that none of them realized that the other two horsemen had arrived on the land and dismounted. But a moment later, they were all aware.

  “No,” one of the men said, as if from out of nowhere. “He’s not.”

  Sylvia, Jacob, and Roger all turned to look at the men. Roger recognized them immediately, and even though Sylvia was new to Ruby, she did too. Their uniforms gave them away.

  “When I took Jacob into the station, he told me he’d seen you and Chambers together,” the sheriff picked up the story, narrowing his eyes on Roger. “And he told me what he heard you discussing… Now, I’ve known Jacob for about fifteen years or so, and I always thought he was a good man. So I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and sent one of my men out to find Chambers and bring him in for questioning. And wouldn’t you know it, Chambers caved.”

  “He wasn’t even in the cell for five minutes, when he voluntarily started telling me things,” the sheriff’s deputy said. “And he told me more than enough to verify what Jacob just said and tie Roger to the previous rustlings, as well as to a couple other unsolved business-related crimes in the area.”

  “You’ll… you’ll never prove it,” Roger said. He tried to laugh sarcastically, or triumphantly, but couldn’t.

  “I’m sure the town attorney will do his best to,” the sheriff said, moving closer to Roger. “And I hear he’s pretty good at what he does,” he added, pulling out his handcuffs.

  “Do you really have to arrest me?” Roger asking, challenging the sheriff with his words, rather than his actions.

  He was fat and lazy, remember. So there was no way he’d try to run away or combat the much more active, virile man taking him into custody.

  “Isn’t there some other way we can work this out?” Roger postured. “I’m a wealthy man, you know. Perhaps there’s some amenity your station needs—or some piece of fancy jewelry your wife would like? Name your price… I’ll pay anything.”

  “My price is justice,” the sheriff sniggered as he and his deputy readied their prisoner for transport.

  Now that things were under control, Jacob felt comfortable to do as he’d wanted to all along. He rushed over to Sylvia and, without pause, embraced her. “I’m sorry I didn’t show up when I was supposed to,” he whispered as he lightly squeezed her.

  Sylvia’s heart fluttered. She couldn’t believe that Jacob was apologizing to her for being late in light of all else that’d happened. “Well, at least you showed up,” she replied with both a laugh and a tear.

  Jacob slowly pulled away from her to be respectful. “A lot of good has happened tonight,” he said, staring at her adoringly. “We’ve caught the man who was stealing from this ranch and saved you from marrying him.”

  “Indeed,” Sylvia said with a smile. But then, her smile turned upside down. “Now that Roger’s out of the picture,” she added, “I guess that means we don’t have to run away and get married, like we’d planned.”

  “You’re right,” Jacob nodded. “We don’t have to… But I’d still like to. Only I don’t want to do it in a rushed ceremony at the magistrate’s office tomorrow morning. I’d like to do it a little bit later, after we’ve had a chance to fall more in love with each other and put meaning behind the vows we’ll take—and I’d like to do it in a church in front of our fellow townsfolk.”

  Sylvia’s heart fluttered again. “I’d like that too,” she answered.

  Sylvia Wallace and Jacob Marshall began courting the next day, and they were married three weeks later just as Jacob had described. Mr. Wallace wasn’t too happy about the publicity of the ceremony, but there had already been publicity over Roger’s arrest, so he couldn’t really argue against it.

  He also couldn’t argue against his daughter’s decision to marry Jacob. After all, he’d saved his business—and that alone made him worthy in Mr. Wallace’s opinion.

  About two months after the wedding, Mr. Wallace signed ownership of the ranch over to Jacob. It was clear that he and Sylvia were very much in love and would live happily ever after, and Mr. Wallace felt confident that he could manage the operation.

  Once the paperwork was finalized, Sylvia and Jacob went out to the front gate together with a ladder, and Sylvia watched as Jacob climbed it and removed the awkward iron letter that had been the topic of their first conversation. He flipped it over and reattached it to the gate, so that the M would introduce others to what was once again the Marshall Bonanza.

  Approximately three weeks later, Sylvia gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, whom she and Jacob named Amanda. Jacob went on to raise her as his own, and she grew up to be a wonderful big sister to the baby brother they gave her two years later.

  THE END

  10. THE mONTANA Bride

  Copyright © Hope Sinclair 2018

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher and writer except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a contemporary work of fiction. All characters, names, places and events are the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously.

  For queries, comments or feedback please use the following contact details:

  hopesinclair.cleanandwholesomeromance.com

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  Contents

  ONE

  TWO

  THREE

  FOUR

  FIVE

  SIX

  SEVEN

  EIGHT

  NINE

  TEN

  ELEVEN

  EPILOGUE

  ONE

  “Are you certain?” James Matthews asked.

  Though Alice Bell had always considered James to be a gentleman, she couldn’t help but notice his sudden inability to look her in the eye. They sat side by side on a gingham quilt that Alice had draped over the flat patch of dusty earth, anchored with a metal milk pail that she had filled with bits of bread crust and cured meat. She hadn’t been entirely sure how long this conversation would last, so she had brought enough rations of food to sustain them.

  James was reclined on the blanket, his chest and shoulders propped up by his elbows while his legs were stretched and crossed in front of him. He gazed out toward the vast emptiness of dusty earth and, beyond, the ridge of mountains dotted with patches of tired green grass and dry brown brush. His eyes wandered, tracing the curves of the earth and exploring the pasture. He seem
ed eager to look anywhere, at anything, if it meant avoiding the woman who sat at his side, whose gaze was locked solely on him.

  “I’m certain,” Alice said, her voice steady and strong. “I’ve been to the doctor.”

  If Alice was to be honest with herself, she hadn’t really needed to visit the doctor in Cimarron, his diagnosis was only confirmation of what she already knew to be true.

  It was hard to pinpoint the exact moment that she realized the truth about her predicament. Was it the morning she awoke, shivering uncontrollably while a clammy sweat perspired from her skin and soaked through her bed sheets? Was it the sudden onset of a vicious illness that seized in her stomach, rendering her incapable of ingesting so much as a morsel of food or a sip of water without retching it back up twofold? Was it the tension fighting against the threads and seams in her dress, which every day seemed less and less easy to squeeze over her usually petite frame?

  No, Alice decided. While all of her symptoms, when observed together, surely pointed to one very clear conclusion, Alice had actually realized the truth about her predicament long before the first shiver rattled through her spine, or the first lick of sweat seeped from her skin, or the first wave of nausea sent her running for an empty pail… No, it hadn’t been any of these symptoms that revealed the truth. Rather, it had been sheer instinct.

  Out of habit, Alice rested a hand on her stomach, feeling her swollen form through the strained bodice of her dress. In many ways, she thought, she had been aware of the baby growing in her womb from the very beginning, from the very moment that she had given into temptation and allowed sin to take a foothold.

  Of course she felt embarrassed at how easily she had abandoned her resolve, how easily she had become intoxicated with the flurry of love and affection that she felt for James. Theirs had been a whirlwind romance, a fire that ignited from a single spark, and had quickly engulfed Alice’s mind and heart entirely.