No One's Bride (Escape to the West Book 1)

by Nerys Leigh

  I was so pleased to hear you like horses. My own horse is named Stride and he and I spend a lot of time together. Perhaps if you come here you would like your own horse? I would love to take you riding and show you the country around here. The beauty of the mountains will take your breath away. I’ve lived in this area all my life and I still enjoy just sitting and looking at them. In fact, at this moment I’m upstairs where there is a wonderful view I know you would love. I may be getting a little ahead of myself, but I am looking forward so much to introducing you to the north Californian countryside. Forgive me if it’s too soon to be thinking like that, but I can’t seem to help myself.

  I’ll be honest with you, Amy, I like you very much. I’ve been praying a lot about our future and I am hoping you have too. I’m trying to trust God to lead me in all I do and I’m hoping very much that He leads us to be together. I hope that doesn’t scare you, but I want to be honest about how I feel. I hope you know that you can be honest with me too.

  Kindest regards,

  Adam.

  ~ ~ ~

  When Amy woke the next morning the sun was already high in the sky.

  Horrified, she leapt out of bed, washed her face and struggled into her clothes, practically all at once. She ran down the stairs and found Adam seated at the table in the parlour. He smiled as she burst into the room.

  “What’s the time? I’m late!”

  She rushed to the cupboard to find something for her lunch. The quickest thing was a couple of apples. They would have to do. When she turned to get her bag, Adam was standing right behind her. She jumped, startled. In her haste, she hadn’t heard him leave the table.

  He took her hands in his. “George isn’t expecting you. I went down there while you were still asleep to say you wouldn’t be coming in, but he hadn’t thought you would anyway.”

  Although she knew Adam’s motives were kind, she was a little irritated at him for making the decision that she wouldn’t be going to work without asking her first. “But he needs me.”

  He smiled, which irked her even more because it made her insides wobble. It was very difficult to be annoyed with him when her insides were wobbling. Plus, he was still holding her hands. That wasn’t helping at all.

  “George was running the livery for a long time before he hired you,” he said. “He can cope on his own for today.”

  “But my face doesn’t even hurt anymore.” It didn’t, so long as she didn’t touch it. “I’m ready to go to work.”

  “But I’m not ready for you to go.” He sighed and looked down at their entwined hands. “I wasn’t there when you needed me. I should have been there to protect you, but I wasn’t.”

  He felt guilty? How could he possibly feel guilt for what another man did?

  “You’re not responsible in any way for what happened. You can’t be with me every second of the day.”

  “I know, and it isn’t logical to feel like this, but I can’t help it. At least for today I need to be with you. So either you take the day off from the livery or I come with you.”

  “What about the bank?” She suddenly realised he was as late as she was. “Wait, shouldn’t you have left already?”

  “I don’t have to go into the bank today.” He smiled again. “So here’s my idea. I was planning on doing deliveries today, so we could make a picnic, you could come with me on my rounds, then we could go to the lake and spend the afternoon. What do you say?”

  Amy’s objections faded. She couldn’t deny it sounded like an extremely good idea. “I think that’s an inspired way to spend a day playing hooky.”

  ~ ~ ~

  After they’d had breakfast, Adam went to fetch Stride while Amy prepared the food.

  They would be travelling by buggy so Amy packed sandwiches along with two slices of vegetable pie she and Adam had prepared the evening before when she’d woken up, feeling much better for having slept. And for having spent quite some time wrapped in Adam’s arms. They’d also made apple pie so she wrapped two slices of that along with a pear each, some grapes, and an apple for Stride.

  Adam’s voice called through the post office as she was finishing. “I’ll load everything up. You can come out whenever you’re ready.”

  “Almost finished,” she called back, tucking a cloth over the food she’d packed into a basket.

  Stride bent his head towards her when she got outside and she rubbed his neck, moving the basket back out of his reach when he surreptitiously stretched his nose towards it.

  “It’s for later,” she said. “And you can’t fool me. I know you’ve already had breakfast because it’s often me who gives it to you.”

  Adam jumped down from the buggy and took the basket from her, tucking it in behind the seat, next to the mail bag. “If he got to eat everything he wanted he wouldn’t be able to fit into his stall.”

  “Doesn’t he mind being harnessed to the buggy?” Stride always seemed to Amy like he wanted to be running free.

  Adam smiled and patted his side. “He has good reason to look forward to delivery day. You’ll understand why once we get going.” His eyes drifted down to her feet and then back to her face. “You changed. That’s the one you’ve been working on, isn’t it?”

  Amy looked down at the sage green dress she’d put on after he left. She’d bought the material out of her first week’s pay and finished it two nights ago. It was meant to be for church, but for reasons she suspected had very much to do with Adam, she’d wanted to wear it today.

  Shrugging one shoulder, she attempted nonchalance. “It is. I thought, since we’d be meeting your customers I should look presentable.”

  A small smile quirked one corner of his mouth, tiny wrinkles warming his eyes. “You always look presentable, but that colour suits you. You look stunning.”

  Amy gasped in a small breath as her insides somersaulted several times before landing in a panting heap in the vicinity of her navel. Adam held her gaze until she felt like she would drown in his blue eyes, not caring in the slightest that she’d never take another breath.

  The spell was broken when Stride nudged Adam’s arm with such insistence that he stumbled to one side.

  “Well,” he said, his voice sounding slightly breathless as he glanced at his horse and gave a small laugh, “looks like Stride is eager to be off. Are you ready?”

  Ready for what?

  Amy struggled to corral a coherent thought. “Oh, to go. Um...” Was she ready? Where were they going again? “Uh, I need to fetch my shawl. I’ll only be a moment.”

  She fled back into the house, gasping in a few deep breaths as she retrieved the brown shawl from where she’d left it on the settee.

  Pull yourself together. All he did was say you look stunning and then gaze into your eyes as if you were the only woman in the world. At least, that was how it had felt. She was probably over-romanticising it.

  But his eyes gazing into hers...

  Don’t make me slap myself, Amy.

  Squaring her shoulders, she marched back outside, determined to maintain some semblance of dignity. And this time she managed to keep herself more or less together, even when Adam flashed her a smile that made her stomach feel like it had become a thousand tiny butterflies. Things got a little hairy when he put his hands on her waist to help her into the buggy, but once she was seated it only took a few seconds to regain most of her faculties, even though the skin beneath the dress where he’d touched her was still tingling.

  What was wrong with her today? Was it possible that the time she’d spent the previous evening wrapped in the comfort of his embrace had had more effect on her than simply calming her fears?

  “Looking fine today, Miss Amy,” Isaiah called from his rocker as they rode past.

  “Thank you, kind sir,” Amy called back, smiling and waving to him.

  “Hmm,” Adam said as they turned onto a side street.

  “What?”

  “Seems maybe I should be watching out for Isaiah. I may have some competition.”<
br />
  “For what?” And then realisation struck; he meant her. At least, she thought he meant her. Did he mean her?

  Adam merely smiled mysteriously and returned his attention to the road ahead.

  ~ ~ ~

  It took half an hour, more or less, to reach the first delivery, a small farmhouse nestled in the foothills surrounded by fields of assorted crops, most of which Amy didn’t recognise as they weren’t near harvest time yet. She was ridiculously proud of herself when she correctly identified a small plot of carrots.

  Stride apparently needed no guidance as he came to a halt in the open area in front of the wraparound porch. A huge barn off to the left dwarfed the tiny house. It also dwarfed the tiny, wizened woman who hobbled out of the door of the barn and made her way towards them, leaning heavily on a gnarled walking stick.

  Stride nickered at her approach.

  “Good morning, Mrs Byrne,” Adam said, jumping from the buggy.

  Her wrinkled face broke into a grin. “Good morning to ye, Postmaster Emerson.” She moved her gaze to Amy. “And who’s your pretty young lady?”

  Amy found herself wanting to grin at being called Adam’s young lady, especially when he didn’t correct the assumption.

  “This is Miss Watts,” Adam said as he reached into the mail bag. “Amy, meet Mrs Byrne. She runs this farm.”

  “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mrs Byrne,” she said, wondering how on earth this small, ancient woman ran all of this. “You have a beautiful farm.”

  “Well, thank ye, Miss Watts. I do have a bit o’ help with it from me strappin’ sons and grandsons,” she replied, as if she could read Amy’s mind. She walked up to Stride and rubbed his nose. He bobbed his head and nickered again. “Oh, I know what you want.”

  She reached into a deep pocket at the front of her apron, withdrew a handful of strawberries, and fed them to the eager horse one by one.

  Adam looked up at Amy and winked. She smiled in understanding. So that was why Stride looked forward to delivery day.

  “Here’s your mail,” he said, handing Mrs Byrne a bundle of envelopes and a small package.

  She brushed her hands on the front of her apron then took the letters and slipped them into the pocket from where she’d produced the strawberries. Stride took the opportunity to peer inside, just in case she’d missed any.

  “He does get fed, I promise you,” Adam said.

  Mrs Byrne laughed and scratched behind Stride’s ear which he seemed to enjoy almost as much as the strawberries. “My boys are exactly the same.” She glanced up at Amy, leaned forward as if she was about to tell Adam a secret, then said in a very loud whisper that Amy had no trouble hearing, “Hold onto her. She’s a beauty.”

  Adam darted his eyes to Amy, replying in an equally theatrical whisper, “I’ll do my best, Ma’am.”

  Amy put one hand to her mouth to cover her smile, although she couldn’t do anything to hide the blush heating her cheeks.

  “Mrs Byrne is very forthright,” Adam said as they rode away.

  “I noticed that.”

  “Nice lady though. Stride loves her.”

  “I noticed that too. So her treats are why he likes going on deliveries so much?”

  Adam chuckled. “Oh, it’s not just her.”

  They spent the rest of the morning travelling, taking mail to those for whom getting into town was difficult. Most of those they visited were older and Amy discovered that Adam didn’t just deliver the mail. He would always ask after their wellbeing and if there was anything he could do for them. During the course of the morning Amy helped fix a broken fence, found a missing pair of spectacles, held Adam’s jacket while he unblocked a sink, and retrieved a cherished necklace only she could reach from beneath a huge chest of drawers so heavy it hadn’t been moved for fifty years.

  And every single person they visited had something delicious for Stride. The horse was in his element.

  Amy’s respect for Adam grew even further, if that were possible. He wasn’t just the postmaster, he was a lifeline for the isolated people around Green Hill Creek.

  “It’s wonderful what you do for these people,” she said as the buggy ambled in the direction of the lake after leaving the last homestead on Adam’s route. “What would they do without your visits?”

  She felt Adam’s arm raise and lower against hers in a shrug.

  “The church has people who visit the ones who can’t come into town when they can, but I think they like the regularity of me going. My uncle did the same thing when he was postmaster. When he nominated me to replace him after he got sick, he told me one of the reasons he wanted me to take over was because he knew I’d continue to come out here every couple of weeks. Not that I mind you thinking it’s completely altruistic on my part, but I admit I enjoy doing it. And Stride would never forgive me if I stopped.”

  Amy watched the horse’s head bobbing ahead of them, his sleek mane ruffling gently in the breeze. “He certainly seems to enjoy the attention. And the treats.”

  Adam glanced at her then back at the dirt track they were following. “I really liked having you along. Maybe we could work something out that you could come with me every time. If you’d like to.”

  Smiling, she kept her eyes ahead. “I’d like that very much.”

  Ten minutes later they arrived at the spot where they’d had their first picnic, the Sunday afternoon after Amy arrived in Green Hill Creek. It was just as beautiful as she remembered and while Adam unhitched Stride from the buggy she stood staring out over the lake, breathing in the warm spring air and absorbing the peace surrounding her.

  I want to stay here, she thought. I want to stay in this beautiful place with this wonderful man for the rest of my life. I don’t want to be anywhere else.

  It wasn’t the first time she’d considered what it would be like to stay, but it was the first time she’d truly admitted to herself that it was what she wanted more than anything.

  She didn’t know when it had happened, but sometime in the past two weeks her fear of the uncertainty of relying on other people had faded, and what happened to her yesterday had been the final proof she needed. Not only had she had the strength to fight off her attacker, but Adam and George had steadfastly been there for her. She knew now that being alone was no longer what she wanted. Staying here, with Adam, was.

  But would he want her in return?

  Stride sauntered past her and bent his head to the lake’s clear water. She turned from the tranquil scene and wandered over to help Adam with the picnic.

  “Do you think that maybe next time we come here we could bring Clem?” she said as they worked. “I’d like her to see the world outside the livery and paddock and I’m sure she’d love it here.”

  “I think that’s a great idea,” he said, taking the last of the food packages from the basket and setting it aside. “And I’m sure Stride would love to have his girl along. He might not even mind sharing the food.”

  After they’d finished eating, Adam stretched out on his side, his head propped up on one elbow as he gazed out at the lake. Amy pulled her legs up beneath her skirt and wrapped her arms around them, studying him surreptitiously. He seemed relaxed, but not sleepy. If she was going to do this, now was as good a time as she was likely to find.

  She drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “My father died when I was less than a year old. It was an accident in the factory where he worked. My mother told me he was a good man and loved us very much, but I never knew him.”

  She kept her eyes on the lake, but out of the corner of her eye she saw Adam slowly sit up, his gaze fixed on her.

  “My mother got ill when I was six and she died too,” she continued, before she lost her nerve. “Since I was all alone and had no relatives, I was sent to an orphanage. It was a place no child should ever have to go. We were made to work, had no schooling, got sold out to people who only wanted free labour. I’ve heard there are good orphanages, but the Mayfield Home for Destitute Children wasn’t o
ne of them. When I was ten, a couple took me to cook and clean for them. I hated it. After I’d run away three times they sent me back to the orphanage so I ran away from there too and spent a few years on the streets. It was dangerous and hard and sometimes I was so cold and hungry I thought I would die, but I learned how to survive. You’d be surprised how many children there are on the streets of New York with no one to look after them but each other. A lot of the time I was happier out there than I ever was in the orphanage.”

  She sighed, dropping her eyes to the grass at her feet and wondering what happened to the friends she’d made back then, children like her with only each other.

  “But I was caught and sent back when I was twelve. Then when I was fourteen I was taken in by a rich couple, the Courtneys. They lived in a big, grand mansion and I thought I’d struck gold. It was hard work, but I had a warm bed and regular meals and Mr Courtney told me I was getting paid, that it was all being put into a bank for me and when I was twenty-one I could do what I wanted with it. I was stupid enough to believe him.” She shook her head at her naivety, even at that young age. “Then when I was sixteen, he started taking an interest in me.”

  She heard Adam draw in a sharp breath but she didn’t look away from the grass.

  “I learned to stay away from him, make sure I was around other people all the time, and I slept in a room with four other girls so I was safe then. I was just biding my time until I could get my money and leave. I had my dream of going to San Francisco, I just had to wait until I was twenty-one and would have the money to get there.”

  She paused, trying to find strength she couldn’t feel. Adam stayed silent. She wanted to look at him, see what he was thinking, but her gaze remained locked on the grass in front of her. Her hands fisted around the material of her skirt.