Mail Order Brides: Western Romance Collection: The Brides of Wyldewood: Volume One

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Mail Order Brides: Western Romance Collection: The Brides of Wyldewood: Volume One Page 5

by Holly Blake


  “I was hoping we might have some time to talk and if fitting that prosthetic is what it will take to get some time with you Ivy Sullivan, then I will do whatever you say.” Ivy laughed at Cade’s intensity.

  “Why Cade Montgomery, I thought you would put up more of a fight than this! I thought you hated the arm”

  “I do but if it will help, and get me time with my fiancé, I’m willing to do whatever it takes.” Cade smiled. His blue eyes twinkled and those dimples that Ivy loved appeared. Ivy couldn’t help but smile and her heart melted like ice in spring.

  “Fiancé?” She questioned.

  “If you’ll have me,” Cade said, looking into her eyes and melting her heart even more.

  “I will have you Cade Montgomery, I will marry you tomorrow.”

  “How about today?” Cade asked a twinkle of mischief in his eyes.

  “Today, but how could we manage?” Ivy began, but Cade put his stump on the table and said, “I have my ways.”

  They both laughed and Ivy worked to fit the arm. Cade took to it well and showed it off to Anna as soon as he felt comfortable with it.

  “What do you think Anna? Does it suit me?”

  “I think it is wonderful Cade!” Anna laughed. Cade was smiling again; the same old Cade that everyone knew and loved.

  Chapter Twelve

  Cade was true to his word. His arm was perfectly fitted by noon and by four o’clock they stood at the church, the entire town and all its visiting and regular citizens waiting to witness their vows. There were too many people to fit in the church so the minister suggested they hold the ceremony on the front steps. The afternoon was cool but could not dampen the excitement of the well wishers or the love that Cade and Ivy felt for each other.

  The service was beautiful. Anna stood up for Ivy as her bridesmaid and John Barnaby stood for Cade as best man. After the wedding the entire congregation headed to the Inn. James Halverson put on a spread of food for everyone that could not be rivaled. There was singing and dancing late into the evening and Ivy and Cade left for the farm after a happy celebration.

  Ivy sat in the wagon next to Cade, Rex on the floor at their feet. “I do love you Cade.” Ivy said, looking up into Cade’s eyes.

  “I love you too Mrs. Montgomery.” He smiled down at her and put his arm around her shoulders. The reins were held in his prosthetic hand and as he looked at the hand he realized that he was whole. Ivy had made him whole, physically, spiritually and emotionally.

  “That’s Dr. Montgomery to you sir.” Ivy laughed and Cade joined in. Rex sat up and whined at the two of them. “It’s ok boy.” Ivy reassured the dog. “We’re just teasing each other. With that Rex laid back down and Cade gave the reins a flick to hurry the horses. He couldn’t wait to get his new wife home.

  ***

  The next morning Cade and Ivy woke early. Ivy had to get back to the clinic to see to her patients and Cade had to tend to the farm. It was amazing how quickly they fell into a routine. Ivy cooked breakfast while Cade tended to the animals. Rex followed Cade around for chores and while Cade was getting washed and changed to go into town, he stayed in the kitchen with Ivy hoping for treats. Ivy obliged the dog with a scrap of bacon and a piece of toast. The happy dog barked his approval as Cade came into the kitchen to join them.

  “Are you spoiling Rex? You know he’ll come to expect it.” Cade laughed as he eased into a chair at the table.

  “He deserves spoiling; he’s such a good boy.” Ivy set down two plates at the table with eggs, bacon, toast and fried potatoes with onion. Before sitting down to enjoy her breakfast she gave Rex a pat on the head, bent down and looking into the dogs eyes she purred “Aren’t you boy! There’s no dog smarter or more deserving than our Rex.” Ivy returned to the table and sat across from Cade.

  Cade smiled and gazed at Ivy. “What are you looking at?” Ivy asked him, taking a bite of her potatoes.

  “My happiness, my future, my life.” Cade took Ivy’s hand and leaned over the table to kiss her. She giggled and raised her chin to connect her lips with his. She was happier than she had ever been and her life had become complete. His kiss was soft, warm and filled with promise and acceptance.

  ***

  After their first breakfast together as man and wife, Ivy hurried to the clinic to check on all of the patients. Cade accompanied her to help with any heavy lifting that might need to be done. Ivy took the first patient chart and noticed that no morning notes had been made by Anna.

  “Will we have our pain medication soon?” The young man asked. “I’m quite hungry too. The nurse hasn’t been in with breakfast like she usually is.”

  “Anna hasn’t been here yet?” Ivy asked. She looked at Cade who had begun to pick up some dinner trays from the night before.

  “She usually takes these trays back to the Inn at night. I’ll go down and see if James has seen her,” Cade offered. Ivy nodded her head in agreement. A knot of worry began to form in her stomach.

  “Bring the breakfasts if they are ready and I’ll see to the patient’s medications,” Ivy said, trying to hide her concern. Cade picked up the trays and left quickly.

  Ivy went to the medicine room and noticed that several bottles of pain medication were gone along with other supplies. She put together the medication for the patients in the clinic and distributed them. She then went from room to room to see if there was any sign of Anna or any other items missing. Some surgical tools seemed to be gone. Ivy grew more and more concerned.

  When Cade returned she informed him of the missing items and voiced her concerns about Anna.

  “What do you suppose has happened to her?”

  “James hasn’t seen her. He’s bringing the breakfast trays himself. We looked into her room to see if she was sick or something, but her bed hasn’t been slept in.”

  Ivy felt panic rising in her chest. “Oh, Cade. What if this has something to do with the train robbery? What if the outlaws have Anna?”

  Cade’s brow creased with worry. “I think maybe it’s time we go get the Sherriff.”

  They found the Sherriff in the Saloon with the soldiers. The men were heading out that day to deliver the wages and the Sherriff was planning on accompanying them.

  Cade and Anna quickly explained what they had found. As they explained Ivy’s suspicions the shorter of the two soldiers spoke up. “We hit at least two of their men. Think we got them pretty good too.”

  “When we hit the leader, the outlaws rode off. I would bet that they came into town and took your nurse to help mend them up,” the taller one said.

  “Lieutenant Johnson, Lieutenant Briggs, I could sure use your help in tracking these outlaws down and finding Miss Anna, if that’s where she is.” Sherriff Wright blushed at Anna’s name and continued, “She’s a fine woman and who knows what terrible things those outlaws might do to her. We must find her soon.”

  The soldiers nodded and upon their assurances that they would find and return Anna home, Ivy and Cade headed back to the clinic to wait.

  “Anna will be fine, Ivy. Sherriff Wright is the best lawman the west has ever seen. He’ll find Anna and bring her home safe and sound. I promise.”

  Cade held Ivy close. In his arms she knew that no matter what happened, he would always be there and everything would turn out fine.

  She had taught him to have faith in himself and now she would put her faith in him too. And then, sending a silent prayer heavenward, she asked for Anna’s safe return.

  The End

  The Brides of Wyldewood: Book Two

  Anna and Brody

  ©2015 Holly Blake

  All Rights Reserved

  Anna and Brody

  Chapter One

  Anna sat in the dark, dusty room listening to the rain falling outside the cabin. The sound of the rain on the roof was usually a comfort to her but now with each beat her heart thrummed with fear.

  She began to question why in the world she had ever come to this God forsaken country. It had been bad eno
ugh that she was jilted as a Mail Order Bride but now she had been kidnapped and was being held prisoner. Things like this just didn’t happen to a simple girl from Wyldewood Wyoming.

  Just a few short hours ago she had been celebrating at Ivy and Cade’s wedding. Oh how she wished now that she had just stayed there. But a strong sense of duty drew her back to the clinic and she had decided to take a quick peek in on the patients who were staying overnight there. She was only there a short while and then headed back to the Inn to continue celebrating.

  As she passed the Saloon two men came up behind her. She felt them more than saw them and a surge of fear filled her body. She was about to bolt away from them when another man stepped in front of her from the shadows. Before she could scream for help they were on top of her, hands on her mouth and strong arms holding her tight. She felt a sharp pain in her head and then darkness. She had woken up some time later in this musty dark room.

  Trying to steal a look around the room without drawing any attention to herself, she counted eight men altogether. Two of them had been shot and were resting on filthy, foul smelling cots. She had been forced at gunpoint to administer what aid she could to them, and, in spite of her insistence that they needed a real doctor, the men continued to demand she fix them up.

  They kept calling her Doc and no matter how hard she tried to explain they just wouldn’t listen. They insisted that she was the new lady doctor they had heard rumors about. Anna realized then, that they thought she was Dr. Ivy Sullivan.

  “Well, better me than her,” Anna thought, picturing Ivy at her wedding, beaming with happiness.

  Anna glanced over at the injured men. One was an older man with dark, greasy hair, cold black eyes and a snarling voice that made Anna cringe every time he spoke. He had suffered a single shot in the leg but it was starting to look red with infection and the man lay in pools of his own sweat, delirious and angry.

  The other man was younger. His pale green eyes showed a kindness that was non-existent in the eyes of any of the other men. He had been badly wounded as well, shot in the back and he had lost a lot of blood. His strength was evident in the fact that he still lived. Lesser men would have perished quickly from such a wound, but not this man.

  Anna had performed the two surgeries, removing bullets and stitching up the wounds as best she could. Fortunately, in her past she had assisted in some surgeries, or she might very well have killed these men on the dirty kitchen table of this old cabin.

  She listened carefully to the men as they spoke and learned that the man with the wounded leg was the boss of these outlaws. They were far more concerned with his wellbeing than they were with the other man. They called their leader “Black Heart” Bennett and the other man was called “Long-Tall” Laramie.

  Neither man had gained full consciousness since Anna had performed the surgeries. She prayed that they both survived and that when they recovered she would be set free, but Bennett was showing no sign of recovery, and it was obvious he didn’t have Laramie’s strength. He had become more and more delirious and fevered and Anna was worried at what her fate might be if he died.

  She sat on the floor in the corner of the room, deep in the shadows, her knees pulled up to her chest and she cried again, wondering what had brought her here, to this moment in time. She was the plain Duncan girl, with little to offer the world and now her life was hinged upon what she had seen others do during her nursing career.

  She pulled herself deeper into the shadows, listening to the rain dance upon the roof and wished she could go back to being the quiet shy daughter in her family’s house.

  Chapter Two

  Little did Anna know that the younger injured man in that room also listened to the rain, regretting the fact that he had ever gotten himself involved with such a bunch of no goods.

  Brody Laramie, Long-Tall Laramie to most people who knew him had been a wild teen. He had gotten into trouble with the law a few times and so his father had sent him away to West Point where he had learned to be a man.

  Brody’s father, Ashley Laramie, had moved his young family west to open his own carpentry business in Wyoming, a place he had grown to love as much as his family’s plantation back in Georgia.

  Brody loved and admired his father and went to West Point with pride. He took his education seriously and excelled at everything, graduating at the top of his class, and looking ahead to a very bright military future.

  But when his father passed away suddenly, he left his schooling and returned to Wyldewood Wyoming to take over his father’s business and care for his ailing mother and younger brother. He arrived home just in time for the funeral. His father had been ill for over a year but death had come suddenly and without much warning.

  Brody had seen his family only a handful of times over the past few years and he had no idea what a mess their life had become. The carpentry business was failing as his father took on less and less work due to his health. The farm had been sold and they were living in a small run down house in town. There was no money, little food and poor living conditions.

  When Brody asked his Mother why they had never told him of their troubles she smiled her soft sweet smile and told him, “Precious one. You were off making a future for yourself. You didn’t need to worry about our troubles. Your father will fix everything when he gets home so you needn’t worry now.”

  He knew at that moment that his Mother was lost to him. He stayed by her bedside and listened to her stories of a past she had lived so many years before. Billy was of no help. He had gotten himself into trouble and blamed everyone for it but himself. He was sixteen and not yet a man but he thought he was. He was no longer the sweet little boy that Brody remembered. He was hurt and angry at having to take on so much of the burdens of tending to his ailing parents.

  “They swore me to secrecy any time I wrote you. They said you were doing important things and shouldn’t be bothered. In the truth of it all you were just gallivanting around the world having the time of your life while I was here looking after our parents, the farm and the carpentry shop. I did all that I could to help out, but we needed money! And where were you but playing soldier with your friends?” Billy was full of resentment and anger.

  Brody felt awful. He would have come home had he known what was happening. As it stood the family was deeply in debt and Billy had gotten mixed up with some bad men. Brody remembered their gang from when they were all young bucks looking to cause trouble and have a bit of harmless fun. Now these same men, under the leadership of a truly evil man, were all grown up and had become grisly outlaws.

  They had lured Billy into pulling a heist with them. The appeal of fast, easy money had turned the young boy’s head and he had agreed to help them out.

  “How could you be so stupid?” Brody shouted when he learned what Billy had done.

  “I had to do what I had to do!” Billy defended. “You weren’t here and Mother and Daddy needed money. They needed help now or we would have lost everything. And don’t play like you are all saintly and good. You weren’t here! You don’t know what it was like! Seeing Daddy cry was too much for any man to bear. I had to do it for him, for Mother!”

  Brody had no words. He was sickened by his own neglect. He should have seen what was happening; he should have stayed home and taken over the carpentry business like his father had hoped he would. It was his fault for being away so long, for not appreciating the stress the family was under. Billy was his only family now and he had to get him out of this deal he had made. So he made a deal with Black Heart, the leader of the outlaws. He re-organized the plan to rob a train carrying army wages and put himself in Billy’s place. When the boy found out he was furious.

  “It was my job, my idea! You stole it from me!”

  “You’re too young and too inexperienced to be anywhere near that train. You’ll get yourself killed for sure. You said I wasn’t here when I should have been, well I’m here now, and I aim to do this. There will be trained men on that train and they wo
n’t hesitate to shoot to kill.”

  Reluctantly, Billy agreed to wait behind while Brody took his place with the team. He could only hope that his brother would survive.

  Now, Brody and Black Heart lie wounded in this filthy place. Brody’s mind drifted off to thoughts of Billy as he fell in and out of consciousness. He knew Bennett’s injuries were far worse than his own, and it looked like no matter what the pretty nurse did the old man would die.

  Brody feared for the young woman’s life. He knew the gang would blame her if their leader died. He knew he had to survive this and protect the sweet girl he heard sobbing in the corner. He closed his eyes and rested, lulled by the droning sound of rain on the roof.

  Chapter Three

  Sheriff Grover Wright stretched his back as he rode out looking for Anna. He would move heaven and earth to have her back in the safe haven of Wyldewood, Wyoming. He had danced with her at the wedding of his friend Cade Montgomery to the good doctor Ivy Sullivan. He nearly told her of his feelings too, but he was a quiet man, not one to get sentimental. He had missed an opportunity and he chastised himself for it.

  Anna had swept into Wyldewood like a cool, sweet breeze. She stole his heart the minute he saw her running up the street chasing after some children she had befriended. Her pale blue dress made her eyes shine like diamonds and her soft golden curls looked like the wheat just before harvest. When she laughed it was like birds singing at dawn. She was a treasure that he hoped to win.

  Grover wasn’t a shy man; he just never put much stock in idle talk. He had spent his whole life on the back of a horse in open prairies and wild mountains. He was part Indian and part Scottish, but all cowboy. He spent so much time alone he learned to only speak when he had something important to say. He listened to other men wax on about the affairs of the day, laughing to himself that time spent voicing these concerns would pass away like dust.

 

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