Melody

by Caroline Clemmons

  “I wrote your parents and suggested they extend their visit until after the baby is born in August. I thought that might tempt them to move here.”

  “What a kind thing to do, Melody. I regret all the pain I caused you when we met. I give thanks every day that you stayed with me.”

  “Getting me to leave would take blasting powder. I want us to be together forever.”

  “I’m glad my parents are coming to visit but I admit it’s nice just the two of us now.”

  “I agree. As fond as I’d become of Wapun, I was glad when she was well enough to go home. Now I love that more people are moving to Angel Creek. All your dreams may come true—except that your wife is not a nurse.”

  “That was a ridiculous notion I had when I thought I couldn’t love another woman. Now I know I have the best life possible with the perfect wife of my dreams. Your name is appropriate for you make my heart sing.” He held her shoulders and met her gaze. “And, if you ever tell anyone I said such a sissy thing, I’ll… well, I’ll admit it’s true.” He laughed.

  She joined him as they walked together to the kitchen where they’d make more plans for their future.

  Keep reading for the next book in this exciting series, Elizabeth, book 8, Angel Creek Christmas Brides.

  Angel Creek Christmas Brides: Elizabeth

  Chapter One

  November, 1866

  Elizabeth Byrd rubbed icy hands up and down her arms beneath her threadbare navy wool cloak as she stepped from the stagecoach. She gazed around her at the hard-packed earthen streets, scored by the ruts of many wagon wheels. They probably would have been soft and muddy if it weren’t for the brisk winds swirling above them. Instead, they were stiff with cold and covered in a layer of frost that glinted like rosy crystals beneath the setting sun. Plain saltbox buildings of weathered gray wood hovered over the streets like watchful sentinels, as faded and tattered as the handful of citizens scurrying past — women in faded gingham dresses and bonnets along with a half dozen or so men in work clothes and dusty top hats. More than likely, they were in a hurry to get home, since it was fast approaching the dinner hour.

  So this was Angel Creek, Montana.

  At least I’ll fit in. Elizabeth glanced ruefully down at her workaday brown dress and the scuffed toes of her boots. Perhaps, wearing the castoffs of her former maid, Lucy, wasn’t the most brilliant idea she’d ever come up with. However, it was the only plan she’d been able to conjure up on such short notice. For her own safety, she’d wanted to attract as little attention as possible during her long journey west. It had worked. Few folks had given her more than a cursory glance the entire trip, leaving her plenty of time to silently berate herself for accepting the challenge of her dear friend, Caroline, to change her stars by becoming a mail-order bride like a few of their friends had done the year before.

  “Thanks to the war, there’s nothing left for us here in Charleston, love. You know it, and I know it,” Caroline had chided gently. Then she’d leaned in to embrace her tenderly. “I know you miss him. We all do.” She was referring to Elizabeth’s fiancé who’d perished in battle. “But he would want you to go on and keep living. That means dusting off your broken heart and finding a man to marry while you’re still young enough to have a family of your own.”

  She and her friends were in their early twenties, practically rusticating on the shelf in the eyes of those who’d once comprised the social elite in Charleston.

  “There are plenty of marriageable men lined up and waiting for us in Angel Creek. Every one of our friends who did this last year is happily married and very anxious for us to join them. All you have to do is pack and get on the train with us.”

  And leave behind everyone and everything I’ve ever known. Elizabeth shivered and pulled her cloak tighter, wondering if she’d just made the biggest mistake of her life. She was in Angel Creek days later than most of her friends had agreed on, having wrestled like the dickens with her better judgment to make up her mind to join them.

  There were six of them this year — Caroline, Melody, Emma, Viola, Ginger and herself. All were friends and former debutantes from Charleston, just like the five brides who’d begun this outlandish venture the previous Christmas. All were from impoverished families whose properties and bank accounts had been devastated by the war. It was the only reason she’d been willing to even consider such a foolish idea. She was fast running out of options. Her widowed mother was barely keeping food on the table for her three younger sisters.

  Even so, it had been a last-minute decision, one she’d made too late to begin any correspondence with her intended groom. She didn’t even know the man’s name, only that he would be waiting for her in Angel Creek when her stagecoach arrived. Or so Caroline had promised. Her friend had arrived a few weeks earlier and was likely already married now.

  With a sigh of resignation, Elizabeth reached down to grasp the handles of her two travel bags that the stage driver had unloaded for her. She hoped and prayed she was doing the right thing for her loved ones. At worst, her reluctant decision to leave home meant one less mouth for her mama to feed. At best, she might claw her way back to some modicum of social significance and be in the position to help her family in some way. Some day…

  Her hopes in that regard plummeted the second she laid eyes on the two men in the wagon rumbling in her direction. It was a rickety vehicle with no overhead covering. It creaked and groaned with each turn of its wheels, a problem that might have easily been solved with a squirt of oil. Then again, the heavily patched trousers of both men indicated they were as poor as church mice. More than likely, they didn’t possess any extra coin for oil.

  Of all the rotten luck! She bit her lower lip. I’m about to marry a man poorer than myself. So much for her hopes of improving her lot in life enough to send money home to Mama and the girls!

  The driver slowed his team, a pair of red-brown geldings. They were much lovelier than the rattle-trap they were pulling. “Elizabeth Byrd, I presume?” he inquired in a rich baritone that was neither unpleasant nor overly warm and welcoming.

  Her insides froze to a block of ice. This time, it wasn’t because of the frigid northern temperatures. She recognized that face, that voice; and with them, came a flood of heart wrenching emotions.

  “You!” she exclaimed. A hand flew to her heart, as she relived the sickening dread all over again that she’d experienced at the Battle of James Island. She was the unlucky nurse who’d delivered the message to Captain David Pemberton that his wife had passed of a fever. But what, in heaven’s name, was the tragic officer doing so far from home? Unless she was mistaken, his family was from the Ft. Sumpter area.

  “Nurse Byrd.” The captain handed his reins to the man sitting next to him, a grizzled older fellow who was dressed nicer than him in a well-pressed brown suit, though both knees bore patches. “So we meet again.”

  He offered her a two-fingered salute and reached for her travel bags. He was even more handsome than she remembered despite the well-worn Stetson shading his piercing bourbon eyes. During their last encounter, he’d been clean-shaven. His light brown sideburns now traveled down to a shortly clipped beard. If the offbeat rhythm of her heart was any indication, he wore the more rugged look rather nicely.

  Which was neither here nor there. Elizabeth gave herself a mental shake. She’d been searching for a sign, anything that would shed light on whether she was doing the right thing by coming to Angel Creek. Encountering this man, of all people, only a handful of minutes after her arrival, seemed a pretty clear indication of just how horrible a mistake she’d made.

  She gripped the handles of her bags more tightly and held them away from him. “Y-you don’t have to go through with this, captain. I can only imagine how difficult it is for you to lay eyes on me again.” If it was anything close to how difficult it was for her to lay eyes on him, it would behoove them both to take off running in opposite directions.

  “I am quite happy to board with one of my fri
ends until I can secure passage back to South Carolina.” The whole trip had been a horrible mistake. She could see that now as she stared stonily into the face of the officer who’d led the man to which she was affianced into the battle that claimed his life. Captain Pemberton didn’t know that wretched fact, of course. How could he? They were neither personally nor closely acquainted at the time.

  The expression in his eyes softened a few degrees as he regarded her. “I gather you found the young man you were searching for during the war?” he said quietly. “Otherwise, you would not be here.”

  Preparing to marry him! “I found him, yes.” Her voice was tight with cold and misery. It was all she could do to keep her teeth from chattering. “Found him and buried him.”

  “Ah.” He nodded sadly. “Words are never adequate in situations like these. Nevertheless, I am deeply sorry for your loss.”

  His regret appeared genuine. She sensed he was a kind man, a good man, despite the deplorable circumstances under which they’d made their first acquaintance. More’s the pity! Though she couldn’t exactly hold the captain responsible for the Union bullet that had taken her Charley’s life, she couldn’t just up and marry the man responsible for leading him into harm’s way, either. Could she?

  Perhaps it was the cold breeze numbing her brain, but suddenly she was no longer certain about a good number of things.

  “Come, Elizabeth.” The commanding note in David Pemberton’s voice brooked no further arguments. “You must be famished after such a long journey, and you’ll catch your death out here if we linger in the cold.”

  This time, Elizabeth’s fingers were too icy to hang on when he reached for her travel bags. He tossed them inside his wagon. She was both shocked and grateful when he proceeded to unbutton his overcoat and slide it around her shoulders.

  It was toasty warm from his body heat and smelled woodsy and masculine. “I th-thank y-you.” She was no longer able to hide how badly her teeth were chattering.

  He slid a protective arm around her and guided her on down the street. “A friend of mine named Elijah has an eatery next door. Since our wedding isn’t for another two hours, how about we head over there for a spell? We can grab a bite to eat and thaw out at the same time.”

  Our wedding? Her lips parted in protest.

  As if sensing her confusion, he smiled and leaned closer to speak directly in her ear. His breath warmed her chilly lobe and sent a shot of…something…straight down to her toes. “Surely an angel of mercy like yourself can spare the time to swap a few war stories with an old soldier?”

  She clamped her teeth together. An angel of mercy, indeed! She’d felt more like an angel of death back there on the battlefield. There were days she lost more soldiers than the ones she managed to save. It was something she preferred never to think of again, much less discuss.

  “If I cannot make you smile at least once in the next two hours, I’ll purchase your passage back to South Carolina, myself,” he teased, tightening his arm around her waist.

  Now that was an offer she couldn’t afford to pass up. She didn’t currently possess the funds to make the purchase, though she had to wonder if the shabbily dressed captain was any better for the funds, himself.

  She gave him a tight-lipped nod and allowed him to lead her inside the eatery.

  The tantalizing aromas of fresh-baked bread, hot cider, and some other delectable entrée assailed her, making her mouth water. A pine tree graced one corner of the dining area. Its bows were weighed down with festive gingerbread ornaments and countless strands of red ribbon. A man in a white apron, whom she could only presume was Captain Pemberton’s friend, Elijah, cut between a line of tables and hurried in their direction, arms outstretched. “You rebel you! Someone might have at least warned me you were one of the lucky fellers gittin’ himself a new wife.”

  “Oh-h!” Elizabeth’s voice came out as a warble of alarm as, from the corner of her eye, she watched a young woman heading their way from the opposite direction. She was bearing a tray with a tall cake and holding it in such a manner that she couldn’t see over the top of it. She was very much at risk of running in to someone.

  David Pemberton glanced down at Elizabeth concern, but all she could do was wave her hand in the direction of the calamity about to take place.

  His gaze swiftly followed where she pointed, just in time to watch the young server and her cake collide with Elijah. White icing and peach preserves flew everywhere. His hair and one side of his face were plastered with a layer of sticky whiteness. The woman gave a strangled shriek and slid to her knees. A puppy dashed out of nowhere and began to lick the remains of the gooey fluff from her fingers.

  Afterwards, Elizabeth would blame it on the long journey for frazzling her nerves; because, otherwise, there was no excuse on heaven or earth for what she did next.

  She laughed — hysterically! It was ill-mannered and unladylike and completely uncalled for, but she couldn’t help it. She laughed until there were tears in her eyes.

  Captain Pemberton grinned in unholy glee down at her. There was such a delicious glint in his brown eyes that it made her knees tremble.

  “A deal’s a deal, nurse. You did more than smile. You laughed, which means I’ll not be needing to purchase that trip back to South Carolina for you, after all. Unless you’ve any further objections, we’ve a little less than two hours before we say our vows.” He arched one dark brow at her in challenge.

  Their gazes clashed, the world beneath her shifted. As a woman of her word, she suddenly couldn’t come up with any more reasons — not a blessed one — why they couldn’t or shouldn’t get married.

  Tonight!

  Purchase Elizabeth at Amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07XF82LXC/

  Or read free in KU.

  About Jo Grafford

  Jo Grafford writes sweet historical and contemporary romance stories — with humor, sass, and happily ever-afters.

  She loves to visit with readers in her Cuppa Jo Readers group on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/CuppaJoReaders/. To receive a personal email about each book she publishes, join her New Release Email List at http://www.JoGrafford.com or follow her on BookBub at https://www.bookbub.com/authors/jo-grafford.

  Caroline, by Lily Graison https://www.amazon.com/Caroline-Angel-Creek-Christmas-Brides-ebook/dp/B07XD5HTD2

  Melody, by Caroline Clemmons https://www.amazon.com/Melody-Angel-Creek-Christmas-Brides-ebook/dp/B07XJ6PZGF

  Elizabeth by Jo Grafford https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07XF82LXC/

  Emma by Peggy McKenzie https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XC8PP5Z/

  Viola by Cyndi Raye https://www.amazon.com/Viola-Angel-Creek-Christmas-Brides-ebook/dp/B07XB3G2PR/

  Ginger by Sylvia McDaniel https://www.amazon.com/Ginger-Sweet-Montana-Christmas-Brides-ebook/dp/B07XDCPRB2/

  About Caroline Clemmons

  Through a crazy twist of fate, Caroline Clemmons was not born on a Texas ranch. To compensate for this illogical error, she writes about handsome cowboys, feisty ranch women, and scheming villains in a tiny office her family calls her pink cave. She and her Hero live in North Central Texas cowboy country where they ride herd on their dog and three rescued indoor cats as well as providing nourishment outdoors for squirrels, birds, and other critters.

  The over fifty titles she has created in her pink cave have made her an Amazon bestselling author and won several awards. She writes sweet to sensual romances about the West, both historical and contemporary as well as time travel and mystery. Her series include the Kincaids, McClintocks, Stone Mountain Texas, Bride Brigade, Texas Time Travel, Texas Caprock Tales, Loving A Rancher, and Pearson Grove as well as numerous single titles and contributions to multi-author sets. When she’s not writing, she loves spending time with her family, reading her friends’ books, lunching with friends, browsing antique malls, checking Facebook, and taking the occasional nap.

  Website http://www.carolineclemmons.com

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