Mail Order Bride: Montana Bride (A Clean Inspirational Historical New Adult Romance)

by Nathan Adams

  “What? What are you thinking?”

  “H.A.D.Hugh Alexander Doyle.”

  “Who is that, and what does he have to do with Jo?”

  “He’s a coal miner from Virginia who wanted to buy Belle Fields, but we refused his offer. Immediately after that, we received a summons from the county saying past taxes were owed on the farm. They were way more than we ever could have paid, especially after how the war and new types of tobacco began to effect how we were managing Belle Fields.”

  “And you think this Hugh Doyle made a deal with Jo to pay off the taxes in exchange for her?”

  Both men just stood there trying not to think the worse of the one woman they both loved in their own unconditional way.

  “But, obviously, JoJo didn’t, and now he’s come to get from her what she said she would give him. Or take from her what she wouldn’t give him.”

  Warren pushed up from the desk and ran to the front door.

  “Thomas, bring me my saddle bag!” He made his way to the picture hanging between the fireplace mantle and the large picture window in the living room.

  “What are you doing, Warren?”

  He pulled down the picture and revealed the safe door embedded into the face of the wall. He began turning the combination knob with stern concentration.

  “You don’t have all the money here.”

  The safe lock clicked, allowing Warren to pull up on the handle and pry open the heavy door. “No, T.W., I don’t. But I’m gonna give him every bit that I do have. I don’t care how much money it is. Jo means more than any piece of dollar or coin that I’ve ever have. I’m going to go get her and bring her back home—not broken and not dead.”

  “Here you go, Mr. Cooper.” The ranch hand offered the requested saddlebag to his boss.

  “Thank you, Thomas. Please make sure Mr. Walker’s and my horses are ready to ride.”

  “Yes, Sir.” The young teenager ran quickly to do what he was told.

  “I figured you were planning on riding.” Warren looked over to T.W., stuffing the saddlebags as quickly as he could.

  “Thanks, Warren.”

  “That’s what family does.” He continued to stuff the remaining cash into the bags. “I can throw these in here as well. The value of them should reach the remaining that I’m lacking.” He chucked in a jewelry box full of pearls, diamonds, rubies and sapphires, along with a platinum-silver flask, a gold pocket watch, and an emerald-eyed golden deer. “I always thought this deer reminded me of Jo’s beauty: her green eyes, golden-tanned skin and the resilience of a doe. I was saving it to give to her next month. But if I don’t have her, it’s all worthless.”

  T.W. was taken aback at the transparency that was unfolding before him. He had never seen a man so honest and dedicated to one woman. But the thing that struck him even more was that this wasn’t just any woman. It was his JoJo.

  “You ready to ride, Brother?” T.W. looked over at Warren, who was waiting for him in the broken doorway.

  “I’m ready to ride, Brother.” With that, the two men mounted their steeds and headed north to bring their beloved Josephine back home to them safe and sound, but most of all, alive.

  chapter seven

  The sound of a steady dripping brought a bruised Josephine out of her unconscious stupor. But opening her eyes she discovered the dark surroundings were just as black as her hellish nightmares had been. She reached her arm out, urgently searching for some kind of sign to tell her exactly where she was and just how safe she was in her current condition. Moving her arm behind her, she winced as a pain shot straight up and into the middle of her shoulder. The rest of her body began to wake up, each portion, one by one, revealing a different ache in a different location. The pain brought back the memory of exactly what had happened to her for her to be in so much agony.

  Suddenly, she heard large footsteps padding toward her. Realizing she was not alone and understanding whom it most probably was, Josephine closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep in hopes of gaining the upper hand on her captor. With her eyes closed, she could make out the movements and motions he was performing. A soft glow slowly moved toward her eyelids followed by the foul stench of body odor and the undeniable smell of whiskey. This was a very good sign: Hugh Doyle had drank himself to a daze.

  Patiently, Josephine waited for the opportune moment to better her situation so she was not being his helpless, little victim. She heard the swishing of liquid in a bottle and the heavy breathing of a man anxiously waiting for an immediate result. She had been around enough drunken coal miners in caves to know that the more they drank, the more they would begin to panic at being in such tight quarters. It was as if the cave walls and low ceilings above them were coming alive and inching closer and closer together until the miner would receive his final end.

  She had decided to take the chance of peaking through her eyelashes to determine exactly where Hugh was and where she needed to run. Slowly and discreetly, Josephine inched open her swollen eye, figuring it was the better of the two that she could get away with. Scanning her surroundings quickly, she discovered an enclosed path she guessed was the way to her freedom. She also determined the location of her subjugator, realizing his back was to her and that he was reclined on his side, oblivious to her presence in the cave.

  Cautiously, Josephine moved herself into a position that would allow her to grab the torch sitting in a crack in the cave wall that would give her the advantage over an inebriated Hugh Doyle in order to run her way to safety. Deciding that there was no better time than the present, Josephine pushed her body up, eased over picking up the torch and slowly turned to her way of freedom.

  “Just where you think you going?”

  Josephine didn’t wait around to answer. Immediately, she put one aching foot in front of the other and began her running decent to an opening in the cave.

  Oh, Father! Please get me out of this cave alive. I just want to go home to my husband and tell him everything. Please, Lord, help me find my way.

  “Hey, hold on there!” She could here Hugh scrambling like a cat on its back trying to get to his feet. She didn’t stop.

  “You not gettin’ away from me! I gonna find you!”

  Right.

  Left.

  Turn.

  Forward.

  “I can hear you. I’m gonna … ahhh!” Josephine stopped at the sound of a man in great anguishing pain. “Ah, my leg! It’s broken!”

  In that moment, she battled with what she should do: run for freedom or help her kidnapper to a doctor. She knew if she had left him, he would eventually pass out and his leg would develop an infection, leading to his ultimate death. The thought was tempting—extremely tempting—but the truth of the matter was she couldn’t leave a man, any man, to die.

  Slowly, she backtracked her steps, following his bellows until she found the injured man curled up and clinging to his broken leg.

  “My leg! It’s broken!”

  “I know it’s broken, Hugh. That’s why I came back. If you tell me which way to go, I’ll help you out of here and get you to a doctor.”

  “And what if I don’t?”

  “Then I find my own way out and I leave you here to die from infection. You pick.”

  She gave him about 10 seconds before turning around and heading back the way she came. “All right! Stop! I’ll tell ya how to get out of here. Just don’t leave me.”

  “I told you I wouldn’t. Now, you’ll have to lean on my shoulders because there’s no way I can carry you out of here.”

  “Fine.” Hugh eased himself up, throwing an arm around Josephine’s broad shoulders.

  “Now. Which way?”

  Hugh nodded toward the right. “Go straight through there and just follow the length of the cave wall. It’s about two miles.”

  “All right then, let’s go. And don’t you dare pass out on me or I’m leaving you here.”

  Hugh nodded. The two battered and bruised bodies maneuvered through the darkness of the
cave until they could finally see a glowing light about 30 feet in front of them.

  “That’s it. That’s the way out.” Hugh’s breath was heavy.

  “Before I get you there, you must promise me that this is it, that you’ll leave me alone and you’ll never come back to Texas.”

  “You’re getting away with breaking a promise.”

  “I’m sorry. I never should have made it. Just please, let this be the end.”

  “Just get me outta here.”

  Josephine knew she couldn’t just leave him this close to the exit. She just had to trust that the Lord would take care of the situation, just as he had taken care of her through this entire ordeal. A few minutes later, Josephine smelled the fresh Texas air and could see the bright stars shining in the dark silky sky.

  “Jo?” She thought she had heard the sound of her husband’s voice calling to her. “JoJo!” Yep, definitely hallucinating because that was her brother who was all the way in Virginia. She lowered Hugh to a rock and fell to the ground herself in exhaustion.

  “Jo, honey!” It wasn’t a dream! It was Warren’s arms, her husband’s arms, holding her and his hands caressing her forehead.

  “Warren?”

  “Are you OK, my love? Did he hurt you?”

  “JoJo!”

  “T.W., is that you?”

  “Yes, Sister, it’s me.”

  “What are you doing here?”

  “I came here to see you.”

  “Oh, well, hi there.” She smiled.

  “Jo, honey, I need you to look at me and tell me the truth.” She turned her face to Warren’s anxious eyes. “Did he … ?”

  She reached up and caressed his cheek. “No, sweetheart, he didn’t. And there’s something else I need to tell you.”

  “Let’s just get you home, JoJo. Then we can talk as much as you want.”

  “No, T.W., I have to say this right now. I made a promise to Hugh Doyle that if I slept with him, he would give me the money to pay the taxes on Belle Fields. I agreed, but at the very last minute as he was on top of me, I pushed him away and said I couldn’t do it. He got angry and came after me, beating me up until I thought he would kill me. Only by God’s grace was I able to get free and run away from him. He continued to threaten me. With that and the burden of the taxes, I decided I needed to get as far away from Virginia as I could but not without securing the future of Belle Fields. That’s why I put the ad out for marriage and made the stipulations that I did when I wrote you, Warren. I’m so sorry. I never meant to hurt you or to deceive you. I thought I’d come out here and find a place for me to go, leaving you and my past behind. But I fell in love with you. Everyday I felt more and more convicted to tell you the truth.”

  “But Hugh found you and decided to take matters for himself, didn’t he?”

  She nodded at Warren’s realization. “I’m so sorry, my love. I’ll pack my things as soon as I get to the ranch, and I’ll head back to Virginia with T.W. I’ll pay you back everything I ever took from you, and we’ll be out of your life forever.”

  “No, Jo. You’re coming home to the ranch to get better and to stay and make a life with me.”

  “But I don’t deserve it.”

  “That’s my unconditional love for you, Josephine Rose Cooper.”

  Tears began falling down her face as Warren lowered his lips to hers, giving her a kiss of passion and security and, most of all, unconditional love.

  “Isn’t that sweet!”

  Warren stood up and picked up Josephine, leaning her against T.W. “Stay here, Honey.” He walked over to the saddlebag, strapped it to Hugh’s horse and walked the horse over to him.

  “I’m only going to tell you this once. You’re going to get on your horse, take yourself into Wilson, get your leg taken care of, and then go back to Virginia and never come back to Texas. There is enough in that saddlebag to keep you set for life. If you ever come back, I will call the law, and I will have them throw you in jail to face your wrath with the judicial system.”

  “What’s in the bag?”

  “The million you wanted. It’s in cash and gems and gold and silver. Like I said, set for life. Now, get out of here.”

  Hugh looked over at Josephine, clinging to her brother. “You got off easy.”

  “Get out of here, Hugh! Now! Before I change my mind.”

  They watched as he climbed his horse and headed for Wilson and out of their lives for good. Warren looked over at his new family.

  “Let’s go home.”

  With that the three mounted their horses and set off for the ranch, leaving the past behind them.

  The End

  Return to the TOC for Bonus Content

  Caroline

  Chapter One:

  A light breeze blew off Lake Michigan as Caroline O’Leary (no relation to the woman with the infamous cow, as her father always liked to tell people) walked along the shore ine with her best friend, Annette. The girls had linked arms and kept their heads bowed together, sharing secrets for the entirety of the walk. They found that stance kept unwelcome advances from suitors at bay, and that was important to them, as they were frequently the objects of flattery from young men hoping to get close to their families’ fortunes.

  “My father wants me to marry within the year,” Caroline confided.

  Annette’s eyes widened. “Did he actually say that to you?”

  Caroline sighed. “No, not exactly. I might have been listening at the doorway while he was talking to my mother. But, in my defense, I have every right to eavesdrop. It’s my life. No, what he actually said was that he would have me married off within a month if the right offer came along.”

  “And what did your mother say?” Annette asked.

  The late May sunshine warmed the girls as they paused beside a stretch of park to gaze at the boats coming into the docks farther down the shore. Caroline adjusted her hat as she sighed. “She told him not to be too hasty, that my marriage was a good merger opportunity.”

  Annette laughed. “Isn’t that just the way you want to spend the rest of your life? As an acquisition or a means of expansion for your father’s business?”

  “What about you?” Caroline asked. “What does your father have planned for you?”

  With a roll of her eyes, Annette linked her arm back through Caroline’s and tugged her forward. As they began walking again, she said, “You know that I’m promised to Ethan Fairbanks. We’ve been betrothed since we were babies, though I heard that he went West last year to have some grand adventure. It won’t matter if I meet anyone else. I just don’t have a choice.”

  “And you’re OK with that?” Caroline asked, her pretty red bow of a mouth puckering into a frown. The way Annette described her future made Caroline feel empty and heartsick for her friend. Never mind that her own father had the same future in mind. Caroline still believed that she had a choice to make.

  Annette shrugged. “I like Ethan, and I think that we’ll have a nice life together. Besides, it’s not like we’re getting married tomorrow. I have plenty of time before I have to start that part of my life.”

  The friends walked along in silence for awhile, Caroline thinking about what Annette had said. She knew that just because that was her friend’s truth that didn’t mean it applied to her. God had different plans for each person. That was what her pastor always said anyway.

  Caroline had faith that the Lord did have a plan for her, and she needed pray so that she could follow His path. She had to admit, though, that she didn’t always feel like she knew what that meant. Sometimes her prayers felt hollow and selfish.

  “Oh, look, Pastor Danforth and his wife. Let’s go say hello,” Annette said, breaking into Caroline’s thoughts.

  The pastor and his wife were walking toward them, and it didn’t take the girls long to reach them. Mrs. Danforth smiled warmly as the girls approached. “How are you girls on this fine day?” she asked them.

  “Well, thank you,” Caroline said.

  �
��We were just enjoying the fine spring weather,” Annette added.

  They chatted for a few more minutes about the lovely warm May they’d been having when Pastor Danforth broke in. “Caroline,” he said, “your father stopped in to chat with me the other day. He wanted to know if I knew any eligible young men who might be a good match for you.”

  Caroline couldn’t help as her jaw came unhinged. Usually the pastor kept things to himself even when begged to share information, but when she saw the look he exchanged with his wife, she knew that he had already given some suggestions to her father. Her heart sank into the pit of her stomach.

  “Pardon me, Pastor Danforth, I don’t mean to be rude, but I don’t want to marry any of the men my father thinks would be right for me. I don’t mean to speak against him, but he wants me to wed for what the marriage can do for our family name, for our wealth, but I … I want to marry for love,” Caroline said, hardly daring to believe that she had been so bold. Beside her, Annette was barely containing her shock.

  A frown flickered onto the pastor’s face, but then Mrs. Danforth squeezed her husband’s arm, and his expression changed. “You know, I won’t interfere in your family’s affairs, but I did get a letter from an acquaintance who went West last year. He settled in Dakota Territory—South Dakota now. He’s looking for a wife. If you’d like, I’ll give you the letter, and you can correspond with him.”

  The pastor’s words intrigued Caroline. She wasn’t sure what to say at first, but an impulse, almost as if she was prompted by a higher power, made her say, “Yes, thank you. It can’t hurt to write a letter, can it?”

  “I think I still have it in my pocket here,” said Pastor Danforth, producing an envelope from his coat. He handed it to her, and then he and his wife bid the girls farewell.

  After they had walked away, Annette turned to Caroline, the look of disbelief still etched onto her face. “Are you really going to write to a stranger who is looking for a wife? You know that your father will have a fit if he finds out. Wait, is that why you’re doing it? Just to stir the pot?”