by Montana West
Much of the current ranch operations focused on preparing for the winter. The ranch hands were kept busy with any number of tasks, ranging from readying the bunk houses for the winter drafts and snows to unloading wagons full of hay and dry goods in case a heavy snow cut off access to Cheyenne. But despite their dedication to their work, harvest celebration week usually saw Margaret telling all of them to knock off for the day around midafternoon so they could go enjoy themselves.
Of course, the ranch hands all knew that their generous employer was also giving them the afternoons and evenings off so she could focus on her preparation for the show-riding event in Cheyenne. And with their ranch boss, John Baldwin, in on the event too, they all knew something special was brewing.
True to form, Maggie and John spent the afternoon and early evening running through the routine they’d prepared for the celebration, a mixture of their own tricks and a few they’d picked up from Chase and his riders two months previous.
There was just enough time for the two of them to make it back to the homestead to clean up and put on their best riding clothes before remounting their horses and preparing for the ride into Cheyenne. Abigail, wearing one of her more colorful dresses, followed along behind the couple in a wagon driven by Fergus Finnegan, Maggie and Leyla’s devoted godfather. The two would watch from the stands as John and Maggie performed the routine they’d been practicing for weeks.
All said and told, it looked to be a memorable evening for all involved.
CHEYENNE, WYOMING TERRITORY, October 1885
Cheyenne was truly a sight to behold during the yearly harvest celebration. While not as grandiose an affair as the show-riding competition the town had hosted four months previous, the harvest celebration was a far more intimate event best enjoyed by the local residents of the town and the surrounding areas.
All of the streets were lit with the lamps as well as colorful paper lanterns strung from building to building while farmers, ranchers, and business owners all celebrated another year for better or worse in the town on the plains.
Bonfires on every street helped warm the denizens in the crisp October air, the flames of each reaching high into the night sky, which was slowly yielding its star-filled bounty. All around the scents of countless foods assaulted the nostrils from every which way, ranging from sweet to savory and back again. The odors were wonderful to everyone passing through the town.
Everyone, that is, except for Margaret McNeal Baldwin.
The brunette ranch owner and her husband had just entered Cheyenne and were heading for the corral where the show-riding event was set to take place, but the minute that her nose registered the myriad scents wafting through the air, she felt her stomach perform a somersault inside of her. It took every ounce of willpower she had to not allow herself to double over and vomit when it all hit her.
When she finally regained control of herself, she glanced at John out of the corner of her eye to see if he’d noticed. She sighed in relief when she was certain that he hadn’t, distracted as he was by all the sights and sounds surrounding him.
I don’t what that was, she groused, but I hope it’s gone. Thank goodness John didn’t notice it or else he’d call the whole routine off.
Maggie knew John would be acting out of concern for her well-being, the fact that he’d remained by her side after she’d fallen from Apollo during the show-riding competition was evidence enough of that, but she didn’t want to let all of their hard work and training go to waste over something as silly as a little nausea.
No, she thought defiantly as she drew determination up from the well of her being, I’m going to ride tonight, and I’m going to give the audience a real show.
But as she and John continued riding toward the corral where the show riding was set to begin, an uneasy feeling began to settle in the pit of her stomach, and Margaret was unable to tell if it was dread or something far worse.
LOOKS LIKE IT’S GOING to be a good night for a show, John thought excitedly as he peered out from the stable near the corral where the show was already in progress. He and Maggie had been directed to their own stalls where they could tend to Apollo and Longbow and prepare for their demonstration.
The stands surrounding the corral still smelled of freshly milled pine and paint as they were filled to capacity with an audience raucously watching the best riders in the Wyoming Territory perform their best tricks on horseback. Those who weren’t lucky enough to have a seat made the best of their situation by watching from the corral fences, packed in with countless others to watch the antics of Cheyenne’s most skilled riders.
But as each rider performed his tricks and moved along, two names still hung anxiously on everyone’s lips: Margaret and John Baldwin.
Jeremiah Weatherby, editor in chief of one of Cheyenne’s larger newspapers, hadn’t been exaggerating when he’d said that the announcement that Margaret McNeal was finally taking a husband would be one of the biggest scoops of the year. The bespectacled journalist had later profusely thanked the couple when he told them that, even though they’d kept the announcement of their coming nuptials to a simple section in the newspaper, that edition had sold like it was the recipe to some genuine miracle cure. The news had spread like wildfire, and all of Cheyenne now knew that Margaret McNeal was married to a man who was as deft a hand at horses as she was.
And it hadn’t taken long before the newly married couple had taken to showing their horse riding skills together in front of the crowds in Cheyenne.
But their previous demonstrations would pale in comparison to what they had planned tonight. It’d taken a week or two of hard practice, but they’d come up with something daringly unique, something that would make even Chase, Leyla, and their fellow show riders gawk in amazement had they been present.
However, like many things in life, the wait that preceded the moment itself was always the toughest, and though John was still relatively new to show riding, he found a touch of anxiety swirling in his stomach. He looked to Longbow for some measure of comfort, but his ebony black mount simply returned his stare.
“Fat lotta help you are,” John chuckled, running his hand along his partner’s mane.
Longbow blew a strong gust from his flared nostrils, as though he took offense to John’s little slight, but otherwise didn’t appear vexed.
“Yeah, well, we better go get Maggie and Apollo,” he assured his horse, giving him another appreciative pat before moving to the next stall. “After all, it’d be a pretty poor show if it were just me and— Maggie?”
John’s boots ground to a halt on the hay-covered floor as he found the stall next to him to be occupied by Apollo. His wife, however, was nowhere to be seen.
“Maggie?” John asked aloud again, hoping for some kind of response. But once more, relative silence answered him back.
Where in the Devil could she have gone to? he wondered, knowing full well that it was not in Maggie’s repertoire to leave her prized steed alone in a stable other than her own. He was just about to turn around and ask one of the stable hands if they’d seen where she’d gone when he heard a sound reminiscent of someone heaving their insides up.
That can’t be good, John worried as he moved two stalls down to where the noise had come from.
Peering his head slowly into the stall, he saw the unmistakable figure of his wife hunched over a barrel and chucking what was likely her dinner into it.
All thoughts of the upcoming performance vanished from John’s mind as concern for his wife immediately took over.
“Maggie!” he cried out as he rushed to her side.
THANK YOU FOR READING!
I hope you enjoyed reading this sample as much as I enjoyed writing it! If so, you can start reading the next book in the series when you click here.
You can also learn more about my free starter library and how to get it in the next chapter.
Lastly, if you have a minute to leave a review (click on the platform you bought this book on), that would be a
mazing! And if, for some reason, you feel this book does not deserve 5-stars (*YIKES*) please drop me a line at [email protected] and I’ll do my best to fix the problem if I can.
All the best,
Montana!
A WORD FROM MONTANA
BUILDING A RELATIONSHIP with my readers and sharing my love of Amish books is the very best thing about writing. For those who choose to hear from me via email, I send out alerts with details on new releases, free and discount books from myself and occasional alerts about specials from Christian authors Ruth Price & Rachel Stoltzfus who also sweet romantic fiction.
And if you sign up for my reader club, you'll get to read all of these books on me:
1.A digital copy of Mail Order Wife, retailing at $2.99. This is the first book I ever published online, and it’s still one of the most popular. Read the book one Kindle Reader described as: "A very special story about people finding real love in unexpected places where they are searching for their place in life. The story was one of the books that keep you interested from beginning to end. A great book to read and enjoy. "
2.A digital copy of A Mail Order Marriage Mistake, retailing at $0.99. This is the first of the Mail Order Marriage Mistake series. About the book, Willie Spencer raves: "Take a good mystery, add romance with a Christian perspective and you have a great novel that you don't want to put down."
3.A digital copy of Wayward Mail Order Bride. This is the first book of the series and retails at $2.99. About the book, one reader, Melinda, simply states: " It was a good story I really enjoyed it."
You can get all three of these books for free by signing up at http://familychristianbookstore.net/Montana-Starter.
ENJOY THIS BOOK? You can make a big difference
REVIEWS ARE THE MOST powerful tools in my arsenal when it comes to getting attention for my books. As much as I'd love to, I don't have the financial muscle of a New York publisher. I can't take out full page ads in the newspaper or put up billboards on the highway.
(Not yet, anyway.)
But I have a blessing that is much more powerful and effective than that, and it's something those publishers would do anything to get their hands on.
A loyal and committed group of wonderful readers.
Honest reviews of my books from readers like you help bring them to the attention of other readers.
If you've enjoyed this book, I would be very grateful if you could spend just 3 minutes leaving a review (it can be as short as you like) on this book's review page. You can jump right to the page by clicking here and choosing your reading platform.
And if, *YIKES* you find an issue in the book that makes you think it deserves less than 5-stars, send me an email at [email protected] and I'll do everything I can to fix it.
Thank you so much!
Blessings,
Montana West
ACKOWLEDGEMENTS
FIRST, OF COURSE I have to give thanks to God for giving me the gift of writing and the opportunity to share my work with others. Second, I want to thank my family who has been a true rock to me as I’ve started this indie publishing endeavor. Third, I have to thank the ladies at Global Grafx Press (familychrisitanbookstore.net) who have really worked with me in all aspects of getting these books from my hard drive to your hands. Lastly, and most importantly, I have to thank you, my readers, for taking the time to read my work. I hope it touches you as much as it does me.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 2017 MONTANA WEST
All rights reserved.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
EVER SINCE SHE WAS a child watching Westerns like Hondo and the Big Valley with her dad, Montana West has always had a fascination with the Wild West. Now she lives on her Indiana farm with her husband, Jim, two cats, four horses and an elderly goat named Bluebeard. Montana and Jim are avid collectors of the work of artists of the American West, her favorites of the Hudson River School whose artists like Thomas Hill celebrated nature through their transformative works.
Also by Montana West
Christian Mail Order Brides Boxed Set Bundles
Mail Order Wife 3-Book Boxed Set Bundle
Christian Mail Order Brides Boxed Sets
Mail Order Wife 3-Book Boxed Set Bundle
Christian Mail Order Brides Collection (A Mail Order Marriage Mistake)
A Mail Order Marriage Mistake
A Mail Order Marriage Mistake 2
Christian Mail Order Brides Series
Mail Order Wife
Mail Order Gold Rush
Second Hand Heart
New Mexico Mail Order Bride Serial (Christian Mail Order Bride Romance)
A New Mexico Mail Order Bride 1
A New Mexico Mail Order Bride 2
A New Mexico Mail Order Bride 3
A New Mexico Mail Order Bride 3-Book Boxed Set
Rejected Bride
Rejected Mail Order Bride
Wayward Mail Order Bride Series (Christian Mail Order Brides)
Wayward Mail Order Bride
Wayward Mail Order Bride 2
Wayward Mail Order Bride 3
Wild Horses, Wild Hearts
Wild Horses, Wild Hearts
Wild Horses, Wild Hearts 2
Wild Horses, Wild Hearts 3