"I'm the one to say thank you, for being a virtuous wife and keeping your commitment to our marriage even when I failed you." She started to speak but he placed a finger over her lips. "You are the woman who has captured my heart and I love you so much Annie. I want you as my wife forever, and besides that," he threw a glance at the baby. "Thank you for giving me such a wonderful son."
"Oh Richard," Annie felt as though her heart had been released from a cage and it went soaring up to the sky. Her fears fled instantly and her heart filled with renewed hope. He pulled her close and she rested her head on his chest. "I'm so happy."
"Not more than I am," he spoke from above her head. "You are my treasure and I'll never ever take you for granted again."
"Richard," she pulled away slightly. "I'm so sorry for not telling you about James and my life in Plymouth. I was afraid that once you found out I'd killed a man you'd turn me over to the Sheriff."
"My love, it wasn't your fault, and neither was it James Duvall's fault that he left you penniless." She stiffened. "It's true, Roger confessed that he and Charles Thornton, that man who frightened you in Tipton, were blackmailing your husband. He had to pay them so much money he ended up in debt."
"What were they blackmailing him for?" Annie frowned. "James was the most open and honest man I ever knew."
"The man did not give me details," Richard lied. This was no time to besmirch the dead man's reputation in Annie's eyes. She needed to preserve good memories in her heart and mind, of the man who had given her the son he would never see. The child needed to grow up believing his father had been a good man, and that would only happen if his mother treasured the good memories she held of him. "Must have been some business deal that went sour," he said by way of explanation. "Your husband was a good man, I met the supervisor he worked under and a few of the other men who knew him, and they all said James was an honorable man just caught in a bad deal."
To his relief Annie did not pursue the matter. She nodded. "I'm sorry for lying to you and I promise never to do so again."
"All is forgiven my darling. We have a bright future to look forward to." Then his expression fell. "But one thing is missing though."
"What is it?" Annie saw her husband's sad look. "Please tell me if it's anything I can do."
"It is," he nodded slightly. "I have declared my love for you but you are silent. Does this mean you have no feelings for me?"
"You silly man," Annie touched his cheek gently and playfully. "You know I love you so much, it devastated me when you left because I thought you didn't want me anymore. That's why I worked so hard to make sure you'd be pleased with me when you came back, and not send me away."
"Annie, Annie, my silly wife," he crooned. "We have both been so wrong."
"From here on I'll always be by your side, helping you to build up this farm and I know God will help us. He had a purpose for bringing us together and I know He'll not forsake us."
"As much as what you are saying is good my love, I don't want you straining yourself in any way. Your friend Cora is really kind and she seems to have the outside work under control."
"I feel sorry for her, she lost her husband tragically and then his family kicked her out. Now she's penniless and homeless."
"She'll always have a home with us, if she wants to stay."
"We talked about it and she'll be happy to stay here. Do you know that her husband taught her how to catch wild horses and tame them? We can get one or two and once they are broken in, we can sell them and that will give us money to get more to help around the farm."
"Your friend is industrious."
"She is indeed, and I hope some good man will see her worth and marry her. She deserves to be as happy as we are."
The two of them were lost in thought for a short while. Now they had extra help, they could grow more food and raise more animals. If Cora was as good with horses as Annie said, they'd have another ready source of income which would mean they could buy more stock and undertake improvements to both farm and house. A good future lay ahead of them.
"Maybe Jeremy Paine will meet her and fall in love with her." Richard said after a while and got cuffed playfully on the arm for his efforts. He took no offense, grinning at his wife.
"Not that lousy man who rejected me," Annie protested.
"But just think about it my love, if he had'nt rejected you, then you and I would never have met and we wouldn't be sitting here in each other's arms planning our future. Don't be mad at him, we can say God intervened in all our affairs."
Annie laughed happily. "Okay dear husband, I forgive your friend. But if he as much as hurts a single hair on my friend's head I'll skin him alive."
"We're putting the cart before the horse my love. Let's at least get them to meet and then take things from there."
"Thank you my dearest," Annie reached forward and brushed her lips softly against his. "Now, shall we go and share our good news with Cora?"
Richard stood up and helped her to her feet. "It's time that we did, but before we leave this room I want to do something."
Annie looked at him questioningly. He bent down and scooped the baby into his arms. "What is his name, have you named him yet?" He looked at the infant in his arms. It felt so right, as if he'd been handed a most precious gift, which indeed he had.
"Alexander, after his father," Annie said softly, happiness almost overwhelming her. Yes, she had made the right choice in marrying Richard. He was a good man and the way he held Alexander gently in his arms showed her how much he cared for the child.
"Alexander," he said slowly, as it dawned on him that his wife had named the child after him and referred to the baby as his son. "Thank you."
"I love you so much Richard."
Richard kissed the baby's forehead and the child stretched himself out sleepily. The two adults laughed, careful not to wake him up. He placed the child back in the bed and turned to take his wife in his arms.
"And I love you too Mrs. Annie West."
Then hand in hand they walked out of the bedroom to go and share their good news with their friend.
The End
Love Him Love His Mother
A Clean Historical Mail Order Bride Romance
WYOMING MAIL ORDER BRIDES
~ BOOK 2 ~
TRINITY BELLINGHAM
Chapter One
Cora O'Malley threw her head back, her thick carrot colored hair cascading down her shoulders and glittering in the morning sunshine. It looked like her head was on fire and she had no idea of the pretty picture she made out on the range as she rode Thunder, her black appaloosa, the one friend she could always count on and tell her secrets to. Of course, there was Annie West, someone she had become very close to in the past few weeks, but Annie had Richard her husband. Not that Cora begrudged her friend her happiness, it was just difficult to pour out one's heart and mar another's happiness.
This was freedom, and she laughed, a soft tinkling sound that made Thunder snort in approval. She was happy, she was free and she was never going to allow herself to be put in a position where she had no control over her own life ever again.
Bright green eyes surveyed the area around her and she sat still. Thunder also sensed the importance of the silence and aped his mistress. When she had first gone to live with her husband in Granger she was plump, but hard work and many hours in the open had turned the fat into sinews. It hadn't lessened her attractiveness, if anything it enhanced her beauty of which she was unaware. She thought of herself merely as a plain Irish woman. Her arms were stronger now and she believed she had toughened up in the short time she had lived in the Wild Country. Bartholomew Spinks her husband of only four months, had often told her that even though she was nothing much to look at, she was still good at something because she seemed to be a natural with horses. As she became accustomed to his cruel words, his barbs stopped hurting after a while. Cora smiled sadly as she thought about her brief marriage that had ended so tr
agically.
Born to Irish parents twenty two years ago, Cora was the first of eight children and it seemed as though from the moment she began walking she never sat down to rest. All her life she had to help her mother with household chores and then look after her siblings. Because her father was a simple uneducated dock worker there was never enough money to feed the family. It was only part of the problem though, because plenty of other uneducated dock workers managed to work hard and make enough money to feed their families. It was the drink that that ate up the money and Rita O'Malley had to take in washing to supplement her husband's wages. Life was tough for the O'Malleys and Cora and her mother together rued the Irish propensity for drowning their sorrows in whiskey and beer.
Even as a child Cora always felt that she was different, that she was destined for bigger things and not ending up as a dock worker's wife and repeating her mother's circle of misery. On her twentieth birthday her father proposed that she marry one of the Irish boys in the district and she knew that unless she took matters into her own hands, she would end up doing just that.
One thing Cora thanked her mama for was the daily trips they made to the upscale parts of Boston to do other people's laundry. In a number of the houses Cora found children her own age who were willing to teach her to read. The children didn't see the differences in their stations in life until they were older, after their parents made sure they'd absorbed the true nature of such things. She took to reading like a duck to water and her favorite subject was arithmetic. By the time Cora was ten years old she already had a small bank stash where she put her savings, which of course she took pains to hide from her parents and siblings. It was destined to be her ticket to freedom and she was very careful about saving every penny.
When the local parish priest insisted that Cora and her siblings join school for basic classes she was way ahead of her peers and seemed set to excel. While in school she started a small, yet flourishing business. She would buy candy blocks from the general store, break it down into smaller pieces and sell them to her fellow students. She went on saving and soon had a substantial amount. Sadly though, her father found it one day.
Tom O'Malley loved his beer and Cora watched with sadness and repressed anger as her hard earned cash was transformed into amber liquid that slid her father's throat. Because her mother would have borne the brunt of his anger, Cora kept her emotions well hidden, promising that one day she would be free of such control.
When her father threatened to marry her off by force she decided enough was enough and knew it was time to leave home. But where to go? The answer came to her as she was standing at the railway station watching passengers alight and board the different trains. This was her favorite pastime. Dreaming about a life beyond the Boston slums and at the train station, she could imagine herself boarding one of the trains to take her away to a new life.
She was curious about the number of young ladies her age who seemed to be always traveling. Where do they always go? She wondered and decided to strike up a conversation with one of them.
"Are you visiting family?" She asked a girl about two years younger than herself who smilingly told her that her name was Mirabelle Simmons.
"No, I am going to get married," Mirabelle answered with a dreamy expression in her baby blue eyes. She had two huge trunks that she said contained her clothes as well as other items she would need for her new life as a frontier wife.
Anne looked around her with interest but could see no man that looked like he was Mirabelle's fiancé. "I don't see your husband, is he traveling with you or has he gone on ahead?"
"No, silly," Mirabelle giggled. "I am a Mail Order Bride." She tossed her blond hair backwards.
"What does that mean?"
"Men out in the west place advertisements in the newspapers. There are not enough women in the West so men have to find wives back here in the East. You respond to the adverts and if you are lucky, one of the men will write back and then he'll send you the fare and you go out to the West and marry him." Anne could not contain her excitement. This was her way out, and she tuned the younger girl out as she began to make plans right there on the platform.
She helped Mirabelle get her luggage onto her train when it came and she waved until it left the station. Armed with this new information she began looking for a husband and a few weeks later Bartholomew Spinks a ranch owner in Granger, Wyoming declared that he was ready to marry her and if she consented he was sending her fare with his next letter.
~#~#~#~
Rita wept when her eldest daughter informed her that she was leaving home for the unknown, to be the wife of a man she had never met.
"What will your papa say?" The tired looking woman with listless eyes and shaggy carrot hair like her daughter's asked. Her green eyes masked a lot of pain. "He was set on you marrying the O'Brien boy."
"Please don't tell him until I've left," she begged her mother. "This life is not for me mama, it would kill me."
Rita nodded in understanding. "You do what you have to do Cora, may the good Lord go with you."
Cora sighed. Coming West had been a painful but good learning experience. She would always be thankful that she had sat next to Annie Duvall on the train. By the time Annie got off at Tipton the two women had become good friends and exchanged addresses, promising to write to each other.
Life as Bartholomew's wife had not been what she'd expected. From the moment she met her husband when he picked her up from the railway station at Granger, Cora had known that this was going to be a difficult marriage. Bart as she called him was a strong man but like her father, he loved his whiskey. When he was sober, however, he was a good teacher and he took her to the wilds with him and taught her how to catch, break and tame the wild horses that roamed freely out there. Of course, he laughed at her first feeble attempts, mocking her upbringing and threatening to send her back East if she didn't pull her weight.
On the train from Boston, Cora had made a promise to herself that she would never return home to the kind of life her mother lived. She'd promised her two younger sisters Marie and Joanna that once she was settled, she would send for them so they could find good men in the West too. Bart's threats made her work harder and by the time of his tragic death she was as good as, if not better than most of his hired hands - even though she'd only been catching horses for less than three months. Her efforts brought in a lot of money and Bart began referring to her as his asset.
That's why they called her a natural with horses. Cora wiped the tears from her eyes. She was never going to subject herself to a life of misery again and this was her ticket out of it. Much as she had not loved Bart, she had been determined to be a very good wife to him and help run his ranch, which was large and set to make a good profit.
Then the accident happened. Bart and a few others had gone to catch some horses and this time Cora had stayed behind to help her mother in law. Regina Spinks was a toughened woman from Virginia and she ran her son's ranch with a firm hand. Cora was glad she wasn't too keen on domesticated indoors life or else their personalities would have clashed, as indeed they did on a number of occasions. Regina did not think Cora was good enough for her son. She had wanted a gentle girl who would sit at home and birth as many babies as her son wanted and who wouldn't have the temerity to challenge her authority. Cora preferred the outdoors and catching horses.
On the fateful day, Cora finished helping with the cleaning and cooking inside the house and just as she was getting ready to help clean the barn, she saw the workers returning but she didn't see her husband. Then she noticed he had been jackknifed over his horse.
"He's dead," Peter her brother in law answered her silent question, and that was when Cora's nightmares began. Her husband had left the house drunk and he was not watching carefully, and his horse stumbled into a rabbit hole. He was thrown off because he was intoxicated and not alert enough to grab the horse's reins as he went over. He fell on some rocks, hit his head and died instantly
. In a not so subtle way Regina blamed Cora for her son's death.
"Bartholomew was not happy in his marriage which is why he drank too much, and you did nothing to make him stop," she had pointed out cruelly. "I always told my son that he'd made a mistake by marrying you." She was not allowed anywhere near her husband's body and he was buried the next day. In the coming weeks her mother in law watched her waistline keenly and then one day just blurted out, "Are you with child?"
"No ma'am," Cora had said, quite surprised by the question and wondered what her mother in law meant by it. She didn't have to wonder about for long though, because the very next day she was asked to leave the farm since her services and presence were no longer required. Cora was not sad to leave because life on the ranch had become intolerable. She was just glad that Annie's letter had arrived a few days earlier and so she packed her small valise and left her matrimonial home forever. It was by chance that she'd taken Thunder to the farrier's, otherwise she would probably not have been allowed to take him with her. Her mother in law hadn't let her take most of her own clothes either, as well as the items she'd brought with her from Boston, claiming that it was her son who had sent Cora the money to purchase them.
Not willing to argue Cora had left Granger, riding Thunder for a whole day and night until she reached Tipton. Finding Ruth's farm was not hard and that was how she had come to live in Tipton. She'd arrived to find her friend Annie in a troubled state about events from the past come back to haunt her. Richard, Annie's husband had left and Cora found herself a desperately needed home with the Wests.
~#~#~#
Now she had cause to smile. Richard West was a man of integrity and Cora had met very few of those. When she came to help Annie when her baby was born, the couple had invited her to live with them. She did the outdoor chores without complaining but noticed that the Wests were struggling financially.
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