Mail Order Bride- Twenty-Two Brides Mega Boxed Set

by Emily Woods

  “Katie May,” Henry whispered, taking her hand. “Katie May, listen to your heart. What is your heart telling you? Come on, my beauty…”

  Katie May pulled away from Henry. “No,” she cried out. “No! Henry Davenport, I did not come here to run away with you! I ran out of my house in anger and frustration, but I did not run away to be with you, another man. I love my husband! I am to be a noble wife, Henry, more precious than rubies! I will be like the wife in Proverbs 31. I will watch over my household, and my husband will be respected because of my respect to him. Henry, I did not come to this train station to see you, and I hope that if I ever see you again, you will honor me as a married woman, and treat me with more respect instead of encouraging me to run away with you!”

  Katie May gave Henry one last look, and as she turned on her heel to run home to her husband, she called, “May God be with you, Henry!”

  10

  Lawrence rose to his feet and dusted off his trousers, ashamed at his outburst. “I should have just listened to her,” he muttered as he wiped a tear from his cheek. “I know that Katie May loves me, but I let fear and pride get the best of me. Forgive me, Lord! Forgive me for letting my pride and my fear cause me to lash out at my wonderful, loving wife.”

  “Lawrence?”

  Lawrence heard the creak of the front door, and the soft pitter-patter of Katie May’s footsteps as she walked into the kitchen. “Katie May,” Lawrence whispered, his eyes wide. “I’m so happy to see you. Can you forgive me?”

  Katie May raced into her husband’s arms and buried her face in his chest. He kissed her forehead, breathing in the feminine, floral scent of his wife. “Where have you been?” Lawrence asked.

  Katie May wiped her own eyes and peered up at her husband. “I went to the train station,” she confessed. “Henry was there. I talked with him.”

  Lawrence shook his head. “I don’t care. All I care about is that you are here now and that you forgive me, Katie May. I should never have gotten cross with you. Forgive me, please.”

  Katie May put a finger to her husband’s lips and leaned into his embrace. “I must tell you what I told him,” she whispered into Lawrence’s ear. “I told Henry that I would never, ever leave my husband,” Katie May explained. “I told Henry that it is God’s will that I love you and respect you, until death do us part. I am yours, Lawrence. Do you understand that, Lawrence?”

  Lawrence stared down at his beautiful wife. “Yes,” he said breathlessly. “I understand.” He leaned down, taking Katie May by the chin and leading her lips to his. Lawrence pressed his mouth against hers. His touch was soft at first, but then, he could no longer contain his urgency as he felt Katie May melt into his arms. Lawrence bent down and scooped her up, carrying her out of the kitchen and to their bedroom.

  “I am yours,” Katie May whispered to her husband as they joined together in all senses of matrimony. “I am yours.”

  Epilogue

  Lydia smiled as she waved good-bye to her daughter and son-in-law. She was bound for Louisiana at last. After delaying her departure from Indiana for months after her disastrous farewell party, Lydia knew it was time to move on and let her daughter and son-in-law enjoy their life alone as a married couple.

  As the train pulled out of the station, Lydia giggled as Karon and Barbara ran along beside it, their honey-colored curls bouncing behind them. She blew kisses at her new granddaughters, and they pretended to catch each one.

  Lawrence and Katie May stood together on the platform, both waving as the train grew more and more distant. Lydia’s heart warmed as she took in the last sights of her daughter. Katie May looked radiant as she leaned into her husband. Her blonde hair was shiny and long, and her countenance was peaceful and content. Her hand rested on her swollen belly. She and Lawrence had announced only weeks ago that Katie May was pregnant with their first child, and Lydia could hardly wait to return and meet the newest addition to her expanding family.

  As Connersville disappeared from view, Lydia leaned against her seat and looked up at the sky. Her heart swelled as she pictured her family, and she closed her eyes. “Thank You, Lord,” she prayed, folding her hands in front of her like the proper southern woman she was. “You knew, Lord. Thank You for guiding us to the north, and thank You for giving my daughter the life she never knew she needed.”

  New Love for Ellen

  Civil War Brides, Book 2

  1

  Henry Davenport buried his handsome face in his hands as the train moved slowly through the empty, flat plains of central Indiana. He had only been traveling for an hour, but it felt like a lifetime. In front of Henry lay a future he had not anticipated, and behind him was the woman he loved with all of his heart.

  He rubbed his left knee slowly. His old injury from the Battle of Mobile was aching again, probably from the stress of the long journey north and the terrible news Henry had just received, and he winced as the throbbing beneath his kneecap intensified.

  “Blast,” Henry muttered as he leaned his head against the dirt-streaked window. “This is not what I expected when I left Alabama three weeks ago… This is not what I planned for when I fought my way back to health after that battle nearly killed me. What am I to do next?”

  Henry Geoffrey Davenport, the oldest son of one of Alabama’s wealthiest families, had spent months regaining his strength after almost perishing in the Battle of Mobile. His entire family had believed him dead, and all were shocked when Henry arrived on the steps of his family’s plantation after being away for years.

  “We thought you died!” Henry’s mother had wept as she pulled him into her arms. “The newspapers reported that all were killed in the Battle of Mobile! How did you make it home to us, my darling?”

  Henry had shaken his head. “I couldn’t stop thinking of my Katie May, Mama. I’m home now, and I am going to go marry the girl I have loved since I was a child!”

  Henry’s heart had fallen as he watched tears filled his mother’s eyes. “Henry,” his mother began softly. “Darling, Katie May…”

  Henry raised a blond eyebrow. “What about Katie May, Mama? Where is she? Are she and her mother still in Louisiana? Last I heard from your letters, Katie May and her mother were staying in Louisiana with family until the end of the war. Have they returned home yet?”

  Henry’s mother had taken both of his large, calloused hands in hers. She stared sadly into his large, sparkling green eyes, and Henry shook his head. “What is the matter, Mama? Where is the love of my life?”

  Henry’s mother took a deep breath. “She’s gone, Henry.”

  “She’s dead?” Henry cried out, his brawny shoulders shaking. “What happened?”

  Henry’s mother placed her hands on Henry’s bearded face. “No! Darling, she’s gone from the South. Everyone thought you were dead, Henry. Katie May and her mother left so that Katie May could be married.”

  Henry had struggled to maintain his composure. “She’s married?”

  His mother nodded. “We all thought you had been killed in the battle, Henry! Even in my mother’s heart, I did not know that you had survived. I prayed for your soul, and the Lord brought me peace, and everyone went on with their lives, my son. It was terrible. Katie May was heartbroken when she learned that you had been killed. I was there when the news was delivered to her. She fainted upon hearing of your death, my son! She loved you. She, and all of us, just thought that you were lost forever, Henry.”

  Henry’s vision had clouded, and he could hardly remain standing as his mother gathered him into her arms. Henry’s mother soothed him as he began to weep. “It will be alright, Henry. The Lord brought you home, and He will guide you now. It’s a miracle that you are home with us, and He will use this pain to bring meaning to your life, my son.”

  Now, weeks after receiving the news that Katie May had wed, Henry was heartbroken all over again. He had packed his things and ventured north in search of his beloved. Henry had used part of his inheritance to purchase a last-minute train ti
cket to Indiana, and he had been prepared to do whatever was needed to win Katie May back.

  “She is a married woman now, Henry,” his mother had cautioned him as they exchanged farewells. “Things are different now, my son. I don’t want you to be disappointed if this doesn’t work out the way you’ve hoped…”

  “It will go in my favor,” Henry assured his mother. “I’ve prayed about this, and I believe the Lord is telling me to go bring my girl back to the South. Rumor is that Katie May is living in a little town in Indiana, and I am going to go get my girl!”

  Upon arriving in Connersville, Indiana, Katie May’s rumored home, Henry had asked for directions at train station. “Is there a new woman in town named Katie May?” Henry had asked the uniformed porter at the ticket booth. “She’s beautiful and young, and she has the slow, easy way of talking, just as we Southerners do.”

  The porter confirmed that Katie May was living only a few blocks away from the train station. “She’s a beauty,” he agreed. “She is new to town and just married one of our best! We’re happy to have her in Connersville. Sir, are you family of hers?”

  Henry did not answer the porter. He smoothed back his honey-colored hair and marched out of the train station, eager to wrap his arms around Katie May after years apart. Despite his aching legs from the long journey, Henry walked proudly through the streets of Connersville. He knew that the years had done him well, and the ladies stopped on the street and stared at him as he passed.

  “I don’t care about any of these ladies,” Henry thought as he walked faster. “As long as my Katie May still wants me, I will be the happiest man alive.”

  While he had been hopeful about his venture north, Henry’s brief stay in Connersville, Indiana, had been an utter disaster. While Katie May’s mother, Lydia, had been thrilled to see him, Henry had not been able to convince Katie May to leave her husband and come home with him.

  In the last moments of his trip, just as Henry had purchased his ticket to leave the north forever, he saw Katie May appear in the train station. Henry felt his heart beat furiously in his chest—perhaps Katie May had changed her mind and Henry would get his happily ever after! He saw her across the station and approached her, his face growing hot as he studied her beautiful face.

  “Katie May?” Henry said, watching as she turned around.

  “You startled me,” Katie May confessed. “I was covering my ears because of the noise from the trains! I didn’t hear you sneak up on me.”

  Henry laughed. “I’ve been calling your name since I saw you run into the train station! I thought you might be running after me?”

  Henry’s face fell as Katie May shook her head. “I’m sorry, Henry,” she said. “I told you that I am happily married.”

  Henry stared into Katie May’s exquisite eyes. “Are you sure? You don’t look too happy right now, Katie May, and your husband didn’t look too happy to see me coming out of your kitchen.”

  “It was a misunderstanding,” Katie May assured him. “My husband didn’t realize that we were saying good-bye. He didn’t understand that my heart is fully with him.”

  Henry frowned, running a hand through his beard and shaking his head. He was frustrated, but he didn’t want to isolate Katie May any further. He could already sense that their connection had withered away in his absence, and his heart flooded with desperation.

  “That’s truly tragic if your own husband doesn’t know that his wife’s heart is with him,” Henry teased, struggling to maintain a jovial attitude as he looked in Katie May’s enormous eyes. “Are you sure you don’t want to return to the South with me? Come on, Katie May! You’re here in the train station! You came here for a reason, and you know it! We were almost betrothed once, Katie May. You can find love for me again. We can buy a ticket for you right now, and we can go home. We’ll rebuild your family’s home, and we’ll start our own family there! I’ll take care of the land and the house, and you can manage our family! It’ll be everything you ever dreamed of, Katie May! You know that’s why you are here! Come on! Come away with me!”

  Henry’s thick shoulders began to shake as he watched Katie May stare back at him. He had been the one to win her heart when she was only nine years old. The two had grown up together, and Henry knew that her schoolgirl crush had grown into something deeper, a wild, untamed love that had brought Katie May to her knees when she believed Henry to be dead.

  “Katie May,” Henry whispered, taking her hand and pressing it to his lips. “Katie May, listen to your heart. What is your heart telling you? Come on, my beauty…”

  Henry gasped as Katie May pulled away from him. “No,” Katie May cried out. “No! Henry Davenport, I did not come here to run away with you! I ran out of my house in anger and frustration, but I did not run away to be with you, another man. I love my husband! I am to be a noble wife, Henry, more precious than rubies! I will be like the wife in Proverbs 31. I will watch over my household, and my husband will be respected because of my respect to him. Henry, I did not come to this train station to see you, and I hope that if I ever see you again, you will honor me as a married woman, and treat me with more respect instead of encouraging me to run away with you!”

  Katie May gave Henry one last look, and as she turned on her heel to run home to her husband, she cried, “May God be with you, Henry!”

  Henry had been stunned. Not only had he unsuccessfully traveled hundreds of miles to win back the love of his life, but he had acted in an ungodly fashion while doing so. Henry had tried to convince a Christian woman to leave her husband, and now, as he was flooded with memories of the short stay in Indiana, Henry felt ashamed.

  Henry buried his face in his hands as the train picked up speed outside of Connersville. “Oh, Lord,” he whispered as the train tore through the plain, flat cornfields. “Lord, forgive me. Forgive me for trying to tear Katie May away from her husband. I was blinded by desperation, Lord, and that desperation turned me into a tyrant. Forgive me, Lord, and please, let Katie May forgive me someday…”

  2

  “Mama? Mama, I’m so hungry,” ten-year-old Bella whined as Ellen Grace Mosely bit her bottom lip.

  Ellen brushed a stray lock of dark, curly hair from her pale forehead and sighed. “I know, Bella,” Ellen told her daughter. “I know you and your sister are both hungry. Your Mama is hungry too, my love, but we need to save the food we have left right now, my dear.”

  Bella pursed her lips and began to cry. “Mama! Mama, I miss Papa. When is Papa coming home? We were never hungry when Papa was home.”

  Ellen closed her brown eyes and stifled tears. She was still adjusting to the loss of her husband, Peter, and she treaded lightly when talking about his death with her daughters. They had already lost so much during the war, including their home, their wealth, and their possessions, and the recent loss of Peter was simply unbearable.

  “Bella,” Ellen said gently. “Bella, you know that Papa is gone now. He is in Heaven with Jesus, Bella, just like we talked about.”

  Bella shook her head. “I want him to come home, Mama! I want Papa to come home from Heaven. I want Papa to come home, and I want to go back to our real home!”

  Ellen wrinkled her nose in frustration. “Bella,” she hissed. “That is enough. You need to set a good example for your younger sister, and this complaining is not helping anyone!”

  Ellen’s heart sank as Bella ran out of the room, and she dropped to the wooden floor and began to cry. She was trying her best to give her children a sense of normalcy. After their spacious, beautiful estate on the outskirts of Arlington, Virginia, had been destroyed in the war, Ellen had moved the small family into a cramped, but clean, flat on the other side of town. She knew that her girls were used to the finery of their formerly opulent lifestyle, but once her husband was declared missing-in-action, Ellen did not have access to their money and could no longer afford to maintain the house, pay for the girls’ school, or to pay their servants.

  Life had changed so quickly for Ellen, and
while her daughters struggled to acclimate to their new lives, Ellen had surprised herself with how easily she settled into their new reality. Upon receiving word of her husband’s death at the very end of the war, she had also received news that there would be no money for her or the girls. The war had taken everything. So, Ellen had gotten a job as a seamstress and took in as much work as she could. She read to the girls each night, hoping that studying the Bible at home would make up for the years of school they had missed out on in the midst of the terrible war. Ellen went about her life with grace, and while there was not always enough food, and while she ached for her husband’s familiar touch, Ellen knew that she had to be a strong example of Godliness for her little girls.

  “Mama?” Ellen turned to see Melly, her youngest daughter, toddle into the room. “Mama, I hungry!”

  Ellen sighed. She had fixed a meager pot of weak stew for the girls for lunch, knowing that it would likely be the only meal they would have that day. The war had taken its toll on Arlington. Hardly any of the shops had reopened, and the ones that were open barely had enough food to sell, let alone enough to fill the bellies of the Virginian children who were growing thinner by the day. Ellen grimaced as she looked at Melly’s melancholy face. The child’s cheeks were sunken in, and even Melly’s voice was weak with hunger.

  “I know,” Ellen soothed Melly as she pulled the child onto her lap. “I know you are hungry, my love, but remember what Mama told you? We have to be brave and strong, Melly, even when there isn’t enough food to make us full! I know that you would like more to eat, but we must not complain. We must cling to the food of the Word and say our prayers! That will make our hearts full, and that is what matters.”