Dorthy’s Disasters
The Alphabet Mail-Order Brides
George H. McVey
Copyright © 2019 by George H. McVey All rights reserved.
Cover design by Erin Dameron Hill/ EDH Graphics
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental or used fictitiously.
Introduction
Dorthy James is convinced she is bad luck, a Jonah, a pariah. When she’s around disasters happen to her, to others, all around her. Things break, people get hurt and there’s nothing she can do about it. The safest place for her is in her classroom at The Wigg School and Foundling Home or in the garden. Those two places are the only places nothing bad happens.
But now even those safe places have been taken from her. The only mother she ever knew as an orphan is sick and maybe dying. The school is closing and Madame Wigg insists she and all the other teachers become mail-order brides out west.
How is she going to survive when her husband-to-be finds out she is a walking magnet for trouble? Case in point: an accident, and a groom in prison. A new groom and several disasters later, can Dorthy learn to live a new way? Will she learn that love is possible for her or will she end up alone and hiding from Dorthy’s Disasters?
Dedication
This book is dedicated to the memory of my Aunt Dorthy and Uncle Pete. I will miss you both. Thank you for the examples of love and family that you gave me over the years.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
About the Author
Books by George
Chapter One
Dorthy sat looking at Wiggie, the woman who found her on the doorstep as a baby and took her in. She was the closest thing to a mother Dorthy had ever known and to hear her sit there calmly and with certainty tell them her doctor said she was dying hurt Dorthy’s heart. But before she could even come to terms with that shocking bit of news Wiggie, as they all called Madame Wigg, had informed them that they would all need to leave The Wigg School and Foundling Home and seek husbands. She wanted them to go west as mail order brides and open schools using her philosophy of inclusion and modern teaching methods. She was willing to fund the schools but had informed the four of them that they would need husbands in their new communities for protection and provision.
Dorthy’s mouth fell open. “But Wiggie, I can’t get married!”
Wiggie straightened herself on the rock she was sitting on. “Of course you can, Dorthy. Why you’ll make some man a lovely wife.”
Dorthy’s head was shaking vigorously side to side. “No I won’t, I’m bad luck. Everything around me goes wrong. No man will want to marry a woman who will bring disasters into his life.” Catalina handed her the paper that Wiggie had given them to choose the men they would write to. “Maybe I could just see if any schools out west need a teacher?”
“I want you to find a husband, Dorthy. You deserve to be loved and have children of your own to teach how to grow any plant.”
Dorthy sighed, she knew that Wiggie wasn’t going to let her out of this. So she just closed her eyes and put her finger on the page. “Colton Saunders is a horse trainer in Redemption New Mexico; that’s who I’ll write.”
She handed the paper to her roommate and friend Emmeline and then stood and peered over her shoulder. She knew her friend would need help. “This one! I’ll write to him.”
“Lawson Aldridge,” Dorthy read out, peering over Emmeline’s shoulder and gripping it tightly in one hand to let her friend know she’d cover for her and keep her secret. “He’s a pharmacist from a town in Wyoming called Buffalo Creek.”
Wiggie struggled to stand up from the large rock she’d perched on and Dorthy frowned. Maybe this time Wiggie really was sick. They had often heard rumors that she was but this time she’d confirmed them and now to watch her struggle was scary. Even more so was that the woman who had been like a mother to her, since the day she was found on the church steps and brought to the Foundling home as a baby, was insisting that she become a mail order bride out west. All Dorthy could do was obey Wiggie’s wishes and write to this horse trainer and pray her bad luck didn’t follow her to Redemption.
As Dorthy sat on the train she wiped her tears. Leaving the only home and family she ever knew was hard, knowing that the four “sisters” she loved were all heading west to marry men they’d never seen was making her even more nervous than normal. She’d had three disasters just getting to the train station. First she’d slipped coming down the stairs at the Foundling home, causing her to fall into the two men carrying her trunks down the stairs. She’d knocked the trunk with her books on botany out of the hands of the man she fell against, causing the trunk to push the second worker down the stairs and breaking his leg. Then after the wagon had been loaded she went to climb up into the seat to head to the station and the wheel spoke she put her foot on had broken, necessitating that the wagon be unloaded and a replacement wheel installed on the wagon. By then the men were talking about her bad luck and how it seemed to be spreading to anyone around her.
As if to prove their point, as they were unloading the trunk with her clothes in it at the depot, the bottom of the trunk broke and all her dresses spilled onto the cobblestones. That had forced Dorthy to go and open her other two trunks and her carpet bag and stuff the things from the broken trunk into them, overstuffing them. The men refused to load her trunks onto the train until she had left the area. Which had caused her tears to start falling as it seemed to prove the thoughts she’d been having since Wiggie told her she had to move west. Outside of the foundling home no one would accept her for herself and it was very unlikely that her new husband would want to marry or even stay married to someone who was a walking disaster.
Things didn’t get better at the depot, thankfully they didn’t get worse either. She only tripped on her skirt hem and fell into the ticket counter knocking two people aside. Then her shoe got caught climbing into the train car causing her to fall into the conductor striking his nose with her forehead and giving him a bloody nose. Thankfully her last accident was for her foot to slip out from under her as she moved to sit down and she just sat a bit harder in her seat probably bruising her backside. She didn’t mind when her disasters only affected her so much even if everyone did look at the loud sound she made and the slight yelp.
Now here she sat on her bruised bottom leaving New York and the only home she’d ever known, to become the bride of a man whose response to her letter was a ticket and directions, along with the statement that he was sure a teaching position could be found. Nothing about himself beyond what was in his advertisement and nothing to help her know him when she got off the train in New Mexico. All Dorthy could do was pray that she’d make it to Redemption without any more disasters and find Colton Saunders wit
hout any trouble. However with her bad luck she doubted that her prayers would be answered the way she wanted them to be.
Very carefully Dorthy stepped off the train in Independence, Missouri where she was to change trains heading south into Kansas and on into New Mexico. She had an overnight stay here, then in the morning she would get on the southbound train and continue on to Redemption, New Mexico where she would finally meet Colton Saunders. She was thankful that she was staying overnight in Independence. The ground still felt like it was swaying like the train and a good night’s sleep in a real bed and the opportunity for a bath would be a welcome respite from the constant soot, dirt and motion of the train. While Dorthy liked working in the dirt and had no problem with having dirty knees or hands, she was still a woman and to feel covered in a film of soot and dirt was disgusting.
She wondered about Abigail and her children who were the first of the schools’ teachers to head west. She’d written to a man in Black Aces, Montana and she and her children had moved there. Dorthy smiled remembering little Maggie, always so full of energy and always willing to work with Dorthy in the garden. That girl loved being outdoors almost as much as Dorthy did. She hoped that Abigail’s new husband understood that need and nurtured the child in her pursuits.
Thoughts of Abigail and the children led to thoughts of Beulah, Catalina and Emmeline. All of them either already married now and working to start their schools or teach at a school. Beulah in Texas, Catalina in Arizona and Emmeline had left New York the day before her, heading to Wyoming. She couldn’t help but say a prayer for her friend that her new husband would accept her and that Emmeline’s secret wouldn’t be too much for him. That had been her best friend and roommate’s biggest fear: that her secret would cause the man she was to marry to set her aside in the wilds of Wyoming and she would be alone and in worse shape than she had been at Wigg’s Home. It was Dorthy’s biggest fear too that her husband would find out about the disasters that followed her everywhere and want nothing to do with her either. Nothing she could do about it now, she was more than halfway there now. Either Colton would accept her or he wouldn’t. Now to find a hotel and a bath.
Dorthy gripped the handles of her carpet bag and started across the depot heading for the stairs. She figured there would be a hotel close to the train station and she’d ask about a bath before she registered. She reached the stairs and lifted her foot to step down when she felt a bump from behind and she pitched forward. Before she could cry out or grab the handrail she saw the ground approaching her face fast. She slammed into the dirt and felt pain then everything blessedly disappeared into blackness as her consciousness fled.
Chapter Two
Dorthy lay still trying not to open her eyes; the pain in her head was worse when she moved. Something wasn’t right, the bed under her felt wrong. It didn’t feel like the bed in her room at the foundling home and she didn’t hear Emmeline’s breathing across the room from her either. Slowly she opened her eyes and realized this was not her dorm room. She fought through the pain of the headache and remembered that she was on her way to New Mexico to get married and start her own school.
“Oh you’re awake again! Will you be staying awake this time?”
Dorthy glanced over to the right where the voice came from to see a tall, thin grey-haired woman sitting in the chair beside her. “I don’t know.”
“Well you’re talking in sentences this time so that’s a good sign.” The woman smiled.
“Where am I?”
“You’re in the hospital in Independence, Missouri. You had an accident at the train depot and were brought here unconscious. Can you tell me your name, dear?”
“Dorthy James. I’m on my way to New Mexico to get married.”
“Oh my! When were you supposed to arrive?”
Dorthy caught the note of worry in the woman’s voice. “As soon as I got off the train. I’m a mail order bride.”
“Oh no! You may have a problem, dear. You’ve been unconscious for seven days! We didn’t know who you were or where you were headed besides to Redemption, New Mexico. That was on your ticket.”
Dorthy sat up and grabbed her head as everything spun and the pain grew worse. “Seven days! I need to send a telegram. My groom is going to think I’m not coming.”
The older woman stood and placed a hand on Dorthy’s shoulder. “You need to lay back down, young lady. You’ve had quite an ordeal and you are in no shape to go anywhere. I’ll get your doctor and a pencil and paper. Then you can write what you need your telegram to say and who it’s for and I’ll send it for you when I get my lunch break.”
Dorthy let the older woman help her lay back down. As much as she wanted to get up and send the telegram herself and get on the next train heading south, she had to admit that she felt weak and her head still pounded with pain. This was her worst disaster to date. She’d lost a week after her fall off the train depot platform. She just hoped that when she got to send Mister Saunders a telegram, he’d be understanding.
Just then in walked a man in a white coat. He was short and heavyset with kind eyes and almost white hair. “Well now, it seems that Nurse Houlihan was correct, our sleeping beauty has awoke! How are you feeling, young lady?”
“My head hurts something terrible and I’m weak and a bit lightheaded.”
The doctor nodded and felt around on her forehead a bit, causing a different kind of pain than her headache. “That’s to be expected in the kind of accident you had. I had wondered if you were going to awaken at all. From what I was told you fell down the stairs at the train depot and landed on your head. You’ve been in what we call a coma for several days while your brain tried to heal itself. You have a nasty bump above your left eye but at least the bruising is subsiding. Do you know your name and where you are?”
Dorthy winced at the pain in her head and from his fingers that were still probing around the bump. “Dorthy James is my name and I was told I’m in the hospital in Independence. Have I really been unconscious for seven days?”
The doctor stood up and looked at her. “Yes, Miss James, for the most part. You opened your eyes a few times but you never really answered any questions or showed signs that you were actually awake and aware of your surroundings. Where were you heading when you fell?”
“I was on my way to find a hotel and take a bath. I was to spend the night and be on the train to Redemption, New Mexico the next morning. I need to send a telegram to my groom, doctor can you tell me when I can leave?”
The doctor shook his head. “Not anytime soon. I’m not going to release you until your lightheadedness and pain is gone. I expect you’ll be here in the hospital several more days and you’ll be weak for a few more after that. I suggest you let your groom know it’s going to be at least another week or two before you can continue your trip.”
Dorthy winced as she shook her head. “I can’t afford to be here another two weeks. I don’t know how I’m going to pay for being here now.”
The doctor patted her hand. “The railroad is covering your expenses, Miss James, it seems that one of the cargo stewards bumped into you causing your fall. They will see to your needs and put you on the next train to your destination when you’ve been released from my care. So don’t worry about that, you just concentrate on resting and getting yourself well. Now the nurse is going to give you a light dose of laudanum for your headache and then bring you a tray of some light broth to eat. If you can keep that down we will go with soft foods later today. But you need to rest. I’ll be back to check on you later this evening. Rest, Miss James, that’s what you need to get well enough to travel to your groom.”
The doctor made some notes on the chart hanging at the end of her bed and then left the room. Shortly the nurse came in with a bowl of vegetable broth and a pencil and paper. Dorthy wrote a quick note to be telegraphed to Colton Saunders, drank her broth and ate a piece of bread and took the dose of medicine that the nurse gave her. She was slipping back to sleep as Nurse Houlihan left to go s
end her telegram to Mister Saunders. The way her bad luck had been going he’d tell her to not even bother coming to New Mexico now.
Samuel Ryder sat looking at the telegram in his hand. It wasn’t addressed to him but the telegraph operator had brought it to him because he didn’t know what to do with it. The telegram was addressed to Colton Saunders, a man that Sam and his nephew, Nate had arrested the week before for polygamy.
The man had been working as a wrangler for his older brother Nathan on the Dueling N’s ranch, but they’d found out quite by accident that he’d sent for a total of six different mail-order brides at train stops in towns close to Redemption. He’d then stashed the brides in various line shacks on the Dueling N’s ranch. They’d only caught him when two different hands had ridden in with women in tow, which they found when they’d went to two of the shacks to work on bringing in a herd of horses in different parts of the ranch. Nathan had then sent men to all the line shacks and they found four more women all with marriage licenses listing Colton Saunders as the husband. Now it looked like they had a seventh bride on her way. Sam stood and put his Stetson on his head and his Colt in the holster. He needed to go talk to Nathan and figure out what to do with Miss Dorthy James.
He climbed on Blade and headed out of Redemption toward his brother’s ranch. He knew Nathan wasn’t at the Marshal’s office today because it was round up. The herds of horses his brother raised were being brought in for branding and to check on the condition of the brooding mares. Nathan would be in the middle of the action just like he’d done every year for as long as Sam could remember. Nathan wasn’t going to like the news that there was another bride on her way. This one in the hospital in Missouri because of an accident on her way to Redemption. This seventh bride had actually been told to come to town, not one of the other towns, so Colton must have expected to keep this one in the wrangler’s cabin as his main wife. How the man thought he’d get away with seven wives on one ranch he’d never understand.
Dorthy's Disasters: A Ryders Legacy Historical Book (The Alphabet Mail-Order Brides 4) Page 1