by Zina Abbott
Val’s voice reached through and drew her out of her reverie. “Come, now, Beth. Tell me what’s going on in your pretty little head. Whatever you’re frowning about, it can’t be that bad.”
“You see what they done, Val? You seen how Luther come up with one of his jokes to get the best of me? And Zelly—I mean, Hazel—she went right along with him. Them two get together pullin’ stunts, they ain’t goin’ to be fit to live with. I don’t see nothin’ in our future but trouble.”
“Now, don’t get all prickly about Luther and Hazel, Bethie Rose. I know my brother can be annoying at times, but you have to admit he’s a good worker—and dependable. And there’s something else I know, Beth. It has been quite a few years since my brother has shown an interest in a woman—any woman. But, he sure is taken with Hazel. So, you know what I see if those two get together?” Val leaned forward and whispered in Beth’s ear. “Double cousins.”
“That scares me spitless, Val. Ain’t no tellin’ what kind of trouble youngun’s from them two will get into. It ain’t goin’ to be safe in these parts for nobody.”
Val roared with laughter. “Come on, Beth, let’s talk about something more pleasant. Now your sister is here, that means we don’t need to wait until the end of the year to get married, doesn’t it?”
“You aim to have us run to the probate judge tomorrow, Val? I ain’t ready to get married that quick.”
“No, sweetheart. Our neighbors would never forgive us if we married at the courthouse. We need to tell Edwin so my brother can plan to get his family here, plus we need to schedule the church and make arrangements to serve our guests afterward. But, the weekend before or after Thanksgiving sounds a lot better to me than the first of next year.”
****
Luther deliberately dragged his feet taking Hazel’s trunk into the bedroom she would share with Beth. The longer he was around her, the more difficult the prospect of leaving her became. He felt like he could kiss Hiram Leavitt’s feet for asking him to let Hazel ride with him to Lundy. They didn’t make it to Lundy, but she rode right into his heart.
“Hazel, you know I still need to get back to the ranch so I can be ready to leave for Lundy at first light. I’ll be gone several days. But, when I get back, I hope you won’t mind if I call on you.”
“I expect I’d like that, Luther. I feel like it was meant to be, us meetin’ up like this.”
“I do too. Hazel, truth be told, I felt something between us as we rode out here. I’d like to do more than just come to visit as a friend. Is it too soon to ask if I can come courting?”
“She ain’t of age, Luther Caldwell,” Beth’s voice sailed out the front door. “I’m her guardian, and it’s up to me if she’s ready to be courtin’.”
“Now, Bethie Rose…” Val’s voice soothed her.
“Thanks for giving us your blessing, Beth,” Luther called back to her. “You won’t regret it.”
Hazel broke out into a fit of giggles. “Ain’t everyone who can stand up to Beth.”
“Oh, we have our moments. But, I’m more concerned how you feel about me, Hazel. Are you agreeable with me coming by to court you with the thought in mind that it might lead to something more serious?”
“I’d be right pleased if you was to come courtin’, Luther. It don’t make a lick of sense for us to wait ’til Bethie comes around.”
Luther grinned wide. His eyes sparkled as he studied Hazel’s face. “Hazel, you’re beautiful. I don’t just mean your face, although that is quite lovely, too. You are a beautiful person, inside and out.”
Hazel’s face turned bright pink and she dropped her gaze to study her feet. “I’m right pleased you think so, Luther, but I don’t figure I’m all that special.”
“You are, Hazel. And that’s why I want to have the first chance at knowing you better before all the men in the county find out you’ve moved here.”
“I’d like that, too, Luther.”
“Now that we’ve agreed to court, do you think we could seal it with a kiss?”
“You don’t need to be kissin’ my little sister none, Luther Caldwell. Bad enough you two are set on courtin’.”
Luther laughed. “I’m not asking for anything that didn’t take place when you agreed Val could court you. You did seal it with a kiss, didn’t you?”
“Where’d you come by a notion like that?”
“My brother told me.”
Beth turned to face Val, her arms akimbo. “Val Caldwell, don’t you know not go tellin’ everythin’ that goes on between us? How come you went and told Luther somethin’ like that?”
“He’s my brother, Beth. How was I to know he would want to start courting your sister as soon as he met her?”
Beth turned back to Luther and her sister. “Ain’t no time for no kissin’, Luther. Best you two come in and eat some dinner. By then, my bread should be about baked. Ain’t no need me hitchin’ the horse to the wagon and haulin’ these vittles to your bunkhouse for supper since you’re goin’ that way directly, especially with me needin’ to get Zelly…Hazel…settled in.”
“Just give them a few minutes while we get the food on the table, Beth,” Val coaxed.
Luther pulled Hazel around the corner of the house to a spot where they couldn’t be seen through the windows or heard through the door.
“I don’t want to press you if you’re not willing, Hazel, but would you consider sharing a kiss in honor of us starting to court?”
“Don’t pay Bethie no mind, Luther. She’s always bossin’ me around, but she means well. Yes, I’d be right proud to kiss you.”
“Have you ever kissed a man, Hazel?”
Hazel pinked prettily as she answered shyly. “Once or twice.”
“All right. Why don’t you show me how you’re used to kissing.”
Hazel placed her hands on Luther’s shoulders. Then she lifted up on her tip toes and leaned into him. She placed a sweet, chaste kiss on his lips before she stepped back.
“That was lovely, Hazel. I really enjoyed that. Now, would you like me to show you how I like to kiss? It’s nothing disrespectful, I promise.”
“All right. I’d be right pleased to learn another way to kiss.”
Luther wrapped one arm around the small of Hazel’s back and pulled her close to him until he felt her soft female body mold itself against his chest. With his other arm he guided her one arm so it slid up his shoulder and wrapped around the back of his neck. Taking her cue from him, Hazel’s other arm followed. As her arms tightened around his neck, he dipped his head, teasing the side of her nose, and then her lips until they were positioned where he wanted them. As their lips met, he gently pressed his against hers, closing his eyes so he could fully absorb the sensation of kissing the delectable woman before him. As he felt her respond, he deepened the kiss. All too soon for him, he slowly pulled back, breaking the seal of their lips. He gazed down into her eyes, studying them to try to gauge her reaction.
She sighed. “That was the best kiss I ever had, Luther.”
Luther smiled at her breathless declaration. He teased, “You sure? You want to try again, just to make sure?”
“Oh, yes!”
This time, Hazel took the lead as she leaned into Luther and lifted her lips to be caressed by his. They clung to each other, loathe to allow this second kiss, this magic moment between them, to end.
“Luther, you done kissed my little sister enough for one day.”
At the sound of Beth’s voice calling through the doorway, the two broke apart.
“Dinner’s on the table, Luther. Best get in here and eat your vittles afore I toss them to the chickens.”
With his arm around her waist, Luther slowly guided Hazel into Beth’s kitchen. He leaned over and spoke softly into Hazel’s ear. “Beth is probably the only woman who will ever haunt me, Hazel. But your ghostly friend Charlotte was right about one thing. I have been waiting a long time for you to come to me.”
AUTHOR’S NOTE
The lege
nd of the White Lady has existed for years. Mention of it is made on a historical plaque mounted by the Bridgeport Inn in Bridgeport, California. According to the information on the plaque, no one knows who the White Lady was in real life, when she died, or what caused her death. However, numerous sightings of a woman dressed in white who haunts Room 16 of the Bridgeport Inn, formerly Leavitt House, have been reported over the years.
One story to explain who the White Lady might be can be found in a copyrighted story written by Robert Peters, current owner of the Bridgeport Inn. He gave me permission to use his story, for which I am very grateful. However, due to the story involving suicide, I chose another scenario that is often found in stories of haunted rooms and buildings in the California Sierra-Nevada mountain range and its foothills as my possible explanation for the White Lady who clings to the earth and occasionally appears in Room 16 of the Bridgeport Inn. I hope you enjoyed it.
COMING NEXT:
BRIDGEPORT HOLIDAY BRIDES
Beth Dodd’s sister is now in California living with her on their homestead along Robinson Creek. There is no longer any reason to delay her marriage to Val Caldwell until the first of the year. Around Thanksgiving strikes the couple as a good time to tie the knot. But, when Val’s older half-brother and family show up for the wedding, things fall apart. The Sacramento lawyer does not think much of women owning their own land and running their own businesses. He doesn’t think much of his future headstrong and determined future sister-in-law. Will Val give in to his brother’s persuasive arguments to wrest control of Beth’s holdings from her and absorb them into the Caldwell ranch? Will Beth call the wedding off to protect what she’s worked so hard to gain?
Beth’s younger sister, Hazel Jessup has only recently arrived in California, but she’s been there long enough to have fallen in love with Val’s younger brother, Luther Caldwell. Will Beth, who has a stormy relationship with her future brother-in-law and who thinks her sister is too young to marry, thwart their budding romance? And, dealing with family isn’t Luther and Hazel’s only concern as local bandits threaten the citizens of the Bridgeport area. Will Hazel and Luther achieve their dream of a wedding of their own?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Zina Abbott is the pen name used by Robyn Echols for her historical novels.
The author currently lives with her husband in California near the “Gateway to Yosemite.” She is a member of Women Writing the West, American Night Writers Association, and Modesto Writers Meet Up. She enjoys any kind of history including family history. When she is not piecing together novel plots, she pieces together quilt blocks.
This is the author’s fourth book in her Eastern Sierra Brides 1884 series.
Eastern Sierra BRIDES 1884
BIG MEADOWS VALENTINE
Some men left the civilized settlements of the east to risk life and limb in the lawless gold and silver mines of California and Nevada for wealth. Beth Dodd left behind her little sister and the civilized farming region of southern Ohio that she loved to travel to those same gold and silver regions in search for her scalawag of a husband who deserted her. In Lundy, Beth finds rancher named Val Caldwell with a heart bigger than all the gold in the Mono County mountains of the eastern Sierra-Nevada. She stays, knowing she has a responsibility to settle affairs with her husband. But, having lost almost everything she valued due to the decisions forced upon her first by her father and then by her husband, can she ever again trust a man to have any degree of influence or control over her life?
Bitter over laws that favor men over women and determined to start a new life for herself and her sister on her own terms and through her own efforts, Beth resists the attraction she feels toward Val. Can Val make any headway in his quest to persuade Beth to consider a future with him someday? AMAZON LINK
A RESURRECTED HEART
Gold miners are pouring into Lundy, California for the Resurrection Day celebration. Val Caldwell drives a herd of cattle up from Big Meadows to Lundy—and he can’t wait to see Beth Dodd, the woman he hopes to marry.
Beth unexpectedly finds she must convince the new miners that, though she is a widow, she expects to be treated with respect—and she holds her own amongst the roughest of the bunch with the help of her derringer and her pa’s hunting knife.
A woman of many talents, Beth receives a frantic request from the madam at the Blue Feather to help with the birth of a prostitute’s baby—an experience that calls up emotions from her own past, and reveals her own heart’s desire—something she’s tried to forget.
Val, anxious to convince Beth to marry him, is willing to help her any way he can. But, just how much will the independent woman be able to give of herself after the pain of her first marriage? Can Beth ever trust him enough to give him the love of A RESURRECTED HEART?
AMAZON LINK
HER INDEPENDENT SPIRIT
Beth Dodd has made a promise to help “Lulu”, a young prostitute at the Blue Feather, keep her baby if she decides to leave the whorehouse and become a respectable woman. But Beth hadn’t counted on the obstacles she and the new mother will face from society in the mining town of Lundy. From the obstinate landlady, Mrs. Ford, to her intractable German boss, Gus Herschel, Beth must fight for the woman she’s promised to help. But Beth Dodd never gives in, and she keeps her word with a stubbornness that Lundy folks are not accustomed to seeing from a woman.
Once Lulu, now known as the more respectable Louisa Parmley, starts working for Gus in his kitchen, she proves that Beth was right to take a chance on her. She has every intention of making a good life for her new daughter. But can she also hope to find happiness with Gus? And will Gus be able to accept her and baby Sophie Ann as his? Love was never in the cards for Gus, but Louisa dreams of happiness with the stoic man, and Beth is determined to bring them together through HER INDEPENDENT SPIRIT. AMAZON LINK