Jewel's Dream (Valentine Mail Order Bride 3)

by Annie Boone

  Jewel’s Dream

  A Sweet & Clean Historical

  Frontier Western Mail

  Order Bride Romance

  Annie Boone

  Sweet Clean Book Club

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Epilogue

  Bonus – Chapter 1, Sarah’s Journey by Christina Ward

  Copyright 2016 Annie Boone

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission from the author. The exception is that brief quotations are allowed for critical articles or reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. All characters, places, organizations, and events portrayed in this story are products of the author’s imagination or have been embellished fictitiously. These should not be construed as real in any way. Any resemblance to places, organizations, or actual events are purely coincidental.

  For more information about the author, Annie Boone, check out her website.

  AnnieBoone.com

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  Be sure to check the end of this book for a listing of all Annie Boone books!

  Dedication

  This story is dedicated to my sweet, sweet Nannie. Her name was Jewel Wood before she married the love of her life, my grandfather. I felt her love cover me every time I was with her and I still feel it today when I think of her. She taught me to earn respect by my actions and my patience. She also taught me to love God with all my heart and seek His will for every decision. Though she’s been gone for many years, the lessons I learned from her get brighter and stronger with every passing year. I miss her still.

  Chapter 1

  Stitch. Stitch. Stitch. Around the cuffs, across the hemline. She’d been doing these same stitches since she started work here. It felt like decades, though it had only been two years. Jewel sighed, briefly dropping her work to her lap. Sweet mercy, she was so bored.

  “Jewel!”

  Jewel’s moment of inaction was interrupted by snapping fingers and a curt reprimand. Mrs. Grant had looked up from her own work at that exact moment and caught her. Hurriedly, Jewel bowed her head and picked up the blouse she’d been altering and continued to sew.

  “Idle hands are the devil’s plaything, Jewel. I don’t pay you to be idle.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Jewel mumbled.

  Mrs. Grant was in charge of all the seamstresses, mostly girls like Jewel stitching by hand in their seats. Only the older, more experienced women were allowed to use the sewing machines. Jewel had often watched the whirring machines enviously. Learning to use one might make this job a little more tolerable. It would at least be something new. She didn’t have enough experience, though, and would never even be considered for that kind of a move.

  Jewel had a secret, though. A secret something that made the dreadfully dull hours she was forced to spend in this cave of endless stitching almost bearable. At least for now. She had prayed fervently about this secret decision. She agreed with her friends that this was God’s will. There had been no sign from Above that this was not the path they should take.

  So, as soon as her brief lunch break rolled around, Jewel dashed out the door. She ignored all the questions from her coworkers and didn’t look back. It was a gray, rainy day, but her destination wasn’t far away. She’d brave the rain for a chance to change her life. Today was the day.

  The small storefront that Mae and Caroline had told her about would have what she was looking for. When she got there, she saw the tiny black and white sign in the bottom corner of the window that proclaimed “Ladies of Impeccable Character Interested in Exploring the Courtship Possibilities of the West - All Ages, Maid and Widow Welcome.” Yes, this was the place. She could get her copy of The Matrimonial Times here.

  Jewel still couldn’t believe she had agreed to do something so out of character. Even thinking about it was daring for her. Actually corresponding with a man she’d never met, on the other side of the country. Surely there was nothing wrong with such a thing, and it sent an impish little shiver up her spine. It was unusual, bold, and she had the cheek to say it, exciting.

  The whole thing had started last night in her YMCA Bible study class. She never missed a chance to study God’s Word with her friends. After the lesson was over the girls started their usual conversation. But this day had been more emotional for the girls.

  Valentine’s Day. None of them got cards or flowers. None of them even had a shadow of a suitor. Caroline did have that terrible Stuart she worked with chasing her, but that didn’t count because he was, well, terrible. The holiday might be meaningless, but it was still depressing.

  They’d all prayed for a proper and loving man to marry. In fact, they’d often prayed together, in a circle holding hands, about that very thing. God had not yet seen fit to bestow the perfect husband on any of them. Even Angie was still single and her father was a minister! Surely her prayers had been heard, hadn’t they?

  Maddie finally said what they’d all thought. “But we never get flowers or cards.” She blinked back tears. “How are we going to find husbands if we’re already old maids?”

  Sarah had done her best to comfort Maddie, but soon they all were equally distraught. Mae had pointed out that they all were at a disadvantage. In a large city such as New York, there were many wealthy families. Those daughters had connections. Their fathers offered dowries. None of that was available to Jewel or her friends.

  Always the practical one, Caroline said, “We need to make our own connections.”

  Eva agreed. “We’ve all been praying and I think we need to do something else. We need to find connections somewhere else.”

  Sarah told about a conversation she’d overheard a while ago but had discarded it. Did it make sense to consider it now? Using The Matrimonial Times to find a husband was indeed a bold idea. At least in Jewel’s mind it was. She hadn’t been interested in that sort of scheme for herself. At least not at first.

  “Marry a stranger? Move out west?” Jewel pursed her lips. “I can’t believe you’re suggesting it.”

  “It’s not going to hurt to buy a copy,” Caroline offered.

  “The worst that could happen is that we’d get a letter we wouldn’t want to answer,” Mae said.

  Eva added her thoughts. “No one’s going to make us write back.”

  Jewel remembered that moment of silence. Her best friends together, but thinking separately about how becoming a mail order bride would change her life. Each of them wanted and needed a change. Could this be the right thing to do? Then a harsh reality came to her.

  “If we do this, we might never see each other again,” Jewel said quietly. “We need to pray on it. What if God has another plan for us?”

  “God put the idea in Caroline’s head,” Maddie said.

  “And if it’s not a good idea, God will send us a sign that we should stop,” Sarah added.

  And that was that. The decision was made.

  “Everything worth doing is a risk.” Mae held her hands out to her friends. “A risk and an opportunity. We don’t know what life will be like on the frontier, but it will
be a fresh start. And no matter what, we’ll remain friends. We’ll write. We’ll visit. We’ll keep each other in our hearts, no matter what.”

  Jewel, however, still wasn’t certain. She left that day with the promise to do as her friends were doing. Mae’s words were still in her mind along with some she’d added herself. Risk, excitement, even danger. But what about the chance there might be happiness at the end? Could she ignore that part?

  It had to be better than sitting endless hours in the basement of Barnaby’s sewing the same flouncy dresses over and over again. Honestly, it couldn’t possibly be worse and there was no chance that anything would change if she didn’t try something new.

  So that was the winding footpath that had led her to the place she was standing right now. Looking into the window of the Downtown News Stand, trying to hold back her excitement and nervousness. Jewel took a deep breath, and with her heart pounding, she pushed the door open. Stepping inside hadn’t been as difficult as she’d imagined.

  The place was busy at the lunch hour and she didn’t have much time. She had to hurry so she wouldn’t be late back to work. Mrs. Grant watched the workers like a hawk. Facing her ire was an unpleasant event and she shouldn’t do anything to draw negative attention to herself.

  Jewel found a small opening at the rack and squeezed in to get a look at the publications that were displayed. She was dismayed to not find the one she wanted. As Jewel looked around, a man behind her cleared his throat.

  “May I help you, miss?”

  Jewel jumped. The speaker was behind the counter, and had thick round glasses and a curling mustache. Suddenly, Jewel realized that she had to make a decision. Did she tell him what she was looking for or did she just leave and come back another time? Maybe they’d have the magazine in stock next week. That would save her the embarrassment of asking for it. She’d walked four blocks in the rain to get this, it would be foolish to leave without it.

  “Um. Yes. I’d like to, uh, get a copy of the, um, The Matrimonial Times,” she gulped. The man behind the counter chuckled.

  “Just got the new issue in this mornin’. Haven’t had a chance to put it out yet,” he said, gesturing to the people in the place.

  Jewel nodded and smiled weakly trying to hide her discomfiture about buying a magazine full of men looking for wives. The clerk stooped down behind the counter and stood back up with a magazine on newsprint. It was bigger than she thought it would be and she wished the man would be a little more discreet. He was waving it around for anyone halfway looking to see.

  She had already taken the money out of her reticule so she could pay him fast and get out of the shop. He smiled and it was clear he wasn’t going to make it easy on her. He took her money and unhurriedly dug in the cash drawer for her change. She drummed her fingers on the counter top wishing he would stop dawdling.

  “I don’t understand what the appeal is, but we sell out of these things every week. No idea why so many lovely young women, such as yourself, are trying to run off out of the city. There’s plenty of men here lookin’ for wives.”

  Jewel took the paper and folded it so that the title was hidden. “Thank you,” she said and turned to go without acknowledging his comments at all.

  “Good luck with that, young lady,” he yelled as she walked away. “I hope you find someone who catches your fancy.”

  Jewel stuck the folded paper inside her heavy coat and closed the front door behind her as she rushed out. She desperately hoped she didn’t need a second copy. Surely she would find a match in the edition she had just purchased. She didn’t think she could take that embarrassment again.

  She rushed back to her sewing station in the dismal basement of Barnaby’s and slipped into her seat just in time. Mrs. Grant raised an eyebrow but didn’t call her out. Whew. That had been close.

  With the ordeal of her risqué purchase behind her, she couldn’t wait to look through the magazine. She believed that her future waited for her inside the pages of the paper now placed snugly inside her valise.

  Tonight. She would start her search tonight.

  Chapter 2

  Normally it was easy for Jewel to get time to herself after supper. The house was usually quiet in her quarters and her parents were busy most of the time. She was thankful for this tonight as she unfolded the newsprint paper that had been waiting in her valise since lunch time.

  She opened the magazine almost reverently as she anticipated what she was going to find inside. The pages were filled with ads. It was almost overwhelming. Men from all over were in need of brides. Everywhere from Kansas to California was represented. A few even had a photograph attached. Lots of farmers, some ranch workers… Arizona… Texas… Wyoming.

  Jewel blinked. The only thing she’d ever heard of Wyoming was when the papers mentioned that someone had dug up more giant bones, from some prehistoric beast. Curiosity piqued, Jewel read the rest of the ad.

  James Harland, aged 30. Six feet tall, neither large nor thin. Lawyer in Laramie, Wyoming in position to inherit the practice. Seeking a woman aged 20 to 27 who wishes to marry. Must not be silly.

  Jewel frowned at the last line, but considered the ad carefully. It was brief. Shorter than some of the others. He was a lawyer. Weren’t they typically more talkative than this? Maybe he was busy and didn’t have time to write much for the ad.

  Well, a lawyer was certainly different from a stable hand or a cowboy. It wasn’t that she looked down on hired help, she was hired help. She had no interested in trading what she had here for the same thing in Wyoming or any place else.

  As for silliness, Jewel didn’t think she was particularly silly, but this James Harland might have other ideas. What if this meant he didn’t like to have fun?

  Jewel hesitated. Was he the one she should write to? Why was his ad standing out to her? Well, the worst he could do was say he wasn’t interested. Or he could just not respond. That would waste her time. But it was a chance she’d take with any of them, lawyer or otherwise.

  She considered writing to two men to give herself a better chance, but decided against it. She felt that it was far more fair to correspond with only one man at a time. She was sure she’d get them mixed up, anyway, so it was just as well to just pick one.

  Jewel got up from her bed and went to her desk. She pulled out the best paper she had and dipped her pen in the inkwell. For a moment, she thought about sneaking down to the library and taking some fine linen paper to write on. She dismissed the idea quickly because it would be stealing. She didn’t want to have to ask God for forgiveness for something new. She’d never stolen before. It was also a bad idea because it could get her parents in trouble if she was caught. That, too, would cause problems she didn’t want to face. So, she used the paper she had. James Harland probably wouldn’t even notice the paper the letter was written on, anyway.

  After several minutes of reflection over what to write to this Wyoming lawyer, she put down her pen and bowed her head. She felt like her uncertainty needed some calm stillness. “Father, I know that this is the decision I made with my friends. We all feel like it’s what we must do. Just help me – and all of us – choose the right one. Please open the right doors and close those we should avoid,” she whispered. With her head still bowed, she took a deep breath.

  When she finally looked up, she was ready to write. She still was anxious about what she should write, but she knew the words would come. God would take care of that. And so, she picked up her pen and started to compose the letter that could change her life.

  Dear Mr. Harland,

  May I call you James, or is that too forward in our first letter? I’ll call you James until you reprimand me. (I’m smiling as I write that part)

  As you must have guessed, I found your ad in “The Matrimonial Times” just today. This is my first attempt to write to a gentleman from the west, so you’ll please excuse me if I fail to follow some rule I’m unaware of.

  My name is Jewel Wood and
I’m 22 years old. I live in New York City in the state of New York and I’ve been here all my life. Like you, I’m neither large nor thin and I’m of average height for a woman. I’m a seamstress by trade. Your ad specifies that a woman who responds must not be silly. I think I mostly meet this requirement, however I do enjoy a laugh. I’m good with people and believe I could be an asset to any man who is somewhat of a public figure.

  I have many questions about you and Wyoming. I’ll just list them, I suppose. What is your family like? What’s the weather in Wyoming? Is the view excellent? I’m told there are mountains in Wyoming. There’s no mountains in New York City, and I’d love to see them some day.

  What about wild animals? Are there wolves and bears lingering outside your door at night?

  I do look forward to your reply. Please ask any questions you’d like. I will be honest with each answer.

  Yours truly,

  Jewel (Wood)

  Jewel found herself unleashing a torrent of questions. It was probably too much at once, but she couldn’t help herself. There was so much she wanted to know about a place that was so far separated from the damp and dirty streets of New York City.

  She had wanted to write on one side of the paper only, but she had to finish on the back. She ended it sooner than she’d wanted, but she didn’t want to get too far into more questions and have to get a second page to write on. So she stopped. Jewel folded the letter up neatly and slid it into the envelope she had already prepared.

  She would dash out on her lunch break again tomorrow and mail the letter to Mr. James Harland. She wondered how long she’d have to wait for a response.

  Chapter 3

  Jewel was on pins and needles from the minute she handed the letter over to the man in the post office. At Bible study that week, the girls gave each other updates. Each was edgy waiting on response from out west.