ROMANCE: Mail Order Bride: A Sheriff's Bride (A Clean Christian Inspirational Historical Western Romance) (New Adult Short Stories)

by Nathan Adams

  When she broke through the tree line, she saw a sight that would burn itself into her mind for the rest of her life. The farmhouse she loved so dearly was engulfed by hot flames. Long, orange fingers reached into the sky as the fire crackled and popped. Neighbors were already on the scene, desperately throwing water and sand onto the inferno, though nothing seemed to be helping. The house was gone and so were the people who’d been left inside. Most people suspected that a stray ember popped out of the fireplace and set the cabin on fire.

  Krista’s first instinct was to try and run inside the house. She barely made it to the porch before a family friend snagged her around the waist and pulled her away.

  “No! Mother! Father!” she screamed, her arm outstretched toward the house.

  The man dragged her away, collapsing in the snow due to the struggle. “They’re gone, Krista! They’re gone!”

  Krista shook her head, fat tears spilling down her cheeks as she tried crawling back toward the house, falling into the dirty snow and curling up on her side. The noises around her became a hum. All she could hear was the crackling of beams as the fire ate through what she held closest to her heart. She lay on the freezing ground, sobbing and trying to figure out why this happened to her. She couldn’t help but wish she’d been in the house when it went up. It would have been easier to die than to live without them.

  Chapter Two

  Krista wasn’t ever going to be the same again. She knew it, and the people around her seemed to know it as well. How could anyone expect her to be normal after what happened? This loss shook the entire community, but no one suffered as much as Krista.

  The first two weeks following the fire the poor girl didn’t speak at all. She just stared out the church window for hours at a time, lost in a daze. No one could shake her out of it no matter how hard they tried. It was the only way Krista knew how to handle the sudden loss of everything that was important to her. There was nothing left for her, and she didn’t know how to reconcile that loss.

  Everyone in town was very kind and very generous following the fire, but the people who stepped forward and offered to take Krista in were the preacher and his wife. It only made sense for them to take care of her because they’d known Krista and her family her whole life. Michael served as the priest in Mt. Pleasant for the past 40 years and his father before him.

  They were more than kind, and Krista couldn’t have asked for better caretakers, but she didn’t feel at ease. Michael and his wife were elderly and didn’t have much money to spare. They lived on donations and a government stipend. Their house was on the church property and so small that Krista wasn’t even able to have a room inside of it. She stayed in the church itself, creating a makeshift bed out of a small loft used for storage. It was small, but it was a warm bed out of the snow.

  Michael and Sara did their best to make sure Krista had everything she could ever want, but as winter turned to spring, their purse strings got a little tighter. It was clear that funds were running low, and their limited budget was being stretched. The longer she stayed, the more Sara tried to find Krista a man to marry.

  If the men of Mt. Pleasant weren’t interested before, they definitely weren’t interested now. Krista went from a loud, opinionated woman to one who barely spoke and always seemed to have a faraway look in her eyes. She wasn’t stable, and that scared most of the men around town. They didn’t know what to think of her.

  Krista was a smart girl and quickly picked up on why Sara seemed so desperate to find her a husband. She knew she was wearing out her welcome and needed to figure out what she was going to do. Krista knew that she couldn’t say in Mt. Pleasant. She was a marked woman here. No man would look at her twice. She would have to go somewhere where no one knew who she was and what she’d been through.

  She considered asking Michael and Sara for money so that she could go to Chicago. She’d heard that women in Chicago worked and made their own way. Maybe she wouldn’t have to get married if she could make it in a place like that. It seemed like a good idea—until she learned how expensive it was to get to the White City. She tossed that idea out and went back to the drawing board.

  Krista prayed every night for an answer, hoping that someone upstairs was listening to her. Someone must have been because her answer came to her in the most unexpected way.

  She was buying Michael and Sara some food supplies at the local market when she spotted the newspaper. It was advertising the World Fair in Chicago. She was still dreaming of make it there one day, so she picked up a copy of the newspaper and skimmed through the article as she waited for the store clerk to fetch what she’d ordered.

  The back of the newspaper was full of want ads. They were mostly for businesses looking to hire someone to work for the World Fair, though there were some that were people looking for a specific item or animal. The ad that caught her attention, however, was not one for farm animals or work. It was for a bride. The man who’d written it was very forthcoming about the nature of this transaction. He needed a wife to help him take care of his expansive ranch, and he was willing to pay good money to get her there.

  Her heart skipped a beat. She stared at the ad, hearing a chorus of angels in her mind. This was it. This was the answer she’d been looking for. She cradled the newspaper to her chest, eyes wide. Her mouth felt dry, and a smile was coming to her lips. It was so wide it hurt her cheeks.

  The store clerk offered her a strange look, cocking a bushy eyebrow as his assistants stacked the potatoes and sugar she’d ordered on the back of her cart.

  “Ma’am? Are you all right?”

  “I’m …wonderful,” she whispered, her voice breathless as she turned and slammed the newspaper onto the counter. “Add this to the bill, please.”

  She knew she shouldn’t be spending the extra money, but this ad was her only way out and the only way she was going to keep her head above water. This was the answer to her prayers. She wasn’t about to ignore it.

  Chapter Three

  Krista kept her communication with the man from Montana a secret. She didn't want Michael and Sara catching on, knowing that they'd be worried about her and probably ban her from going. They were good people. It would be difficult for them to understand why Krista was willing to take the risk

  The letters sent back and forth between Vermont and Montana were few and far between. They exchanged very little personal information and kept the tone of the conversation professional. She managed to get him to agree to pay all of her travel expenses as well as a $500 dowry that would be sent to the church upon her arrival. It would be her last gesture of kindness to the loving preacher who took her in.

  Once the travel money was sent, Krista slipped away in the night, planting one final kiss on foreheads of the two people in this town who never gave up on her. She was sad to be leaving the only town she’d ever known, but she couldn’t help but feel some excitement at the fact that she was going to a place where no one knew her name. She was eager to be in town where no one gave her pitied looks.

  Once she boarded the train she didn't look back. She was ready to start her life over again, even if it meant traveling far, far away from her lush green home.

  The train ride was absolutely terrifying. She'd never been on one before, so every time it rumbled or shook, she would let out a frightened squeak and close her eyes, gripping the armrest near her seat. Her reactions caused the more well-traveled folks to look at her with confused, worried expressions. Krista was far too concerned with the movement of the train to be worried about the other passengers.

  She tried to distract herself by watching the American landscape roll by. A man in a handsome blue uniform with shiny buttons would occasionally stroll through the cars and point out the various states and landmarks. He pointed out Chicago as they passed. Krista’s heart ached for it. She could have been a working woman and instead she was on her way to Montana to be someone's wife. She considered hopping off the train in Chicago but then remembered the kindly preacher who wo
uld only receive the money he desperately needed if Krista made it to Billings.

  She gave the White City a halfhearted wave as the train rolled on and leaned back against her seat, deciding she was going to try and sleep as much of the way as possible. It seemed like the best possible option because the jolting movements of the train still made her stomach roll. The strategy seemed to work. Krista made it the rest of the way through the trip to Montana.

  When the train finally arrived in Billings, Krista was the first one off the train, more than happy to have her feet back on solid, unmoving ground. She could have kissed the ground but managed to keep her composure and stood up straight, taking a moment to observe her surroundings. Tall, red mountains rose in the distance, though the land directly in front of her was mostly flat with a few rolling hills. The ground was bare except for a few fir trees that sprouted tall, reaching for the clouds.

  The landscape was absolutely beautiful. She nearly forgot to breathe. All she’d ever known were the green hills and woods of Vermont. This was like a totally different world all together. She was so busy staring at the mountains and vast, clear sky that she didn’t notice the large mob of people trying to move around her like a river around a rock.

  She finally shook her head, coming back to reality and following the rest of the crowd into the train station. The building was large and packed with people. Mothers sat with children, and rugged men smoked cigarettes, blowing gray smoke into the air. The smell made her nose itch, and she covered her mouth and nose as she all but ran out of the station, eager to see what was just outside the doors.

  Just beyond the train station was a town bigger than anything Krista ever saw before. The little town she frequently went to in order to retrieve food orders and other supplies was much smaller than the shop-lined streets she stood in front of now. There was everything from hat shops to general stores all in one strip. Women walked around the streets in fashionable dresses, kicking up red dust as they moved about.

  Krista’s baby blue eyes were wide, hardly believing what she was seeing. She expected very little from a Western city. All she’d heard of the West was that it was barren and lifeless. It was a place where gunmen roamed and women were constantly being kidnapped for ransom. It was hard to imagine any of that stuff happening in a place so full of life.

  She tucked some hair behind her ear and stepped off the porch of the train station, looking around for any sign of the man who was going to be her husband.

  One of the first things she noticed was that there were far more men than women, and it worried her. How was she supposed to find her husband?

  Just as she started to feel nervous, she turned and saw a man with jet-black hair riding into town. His horse was just as dark as his hair, and his nearly black eyes seemed to burn into her. He wore a serious expression. There was a sign draped around his horse’s neck: Krista Richards.

  Chapter Four

  Krista stared up at the man on the horse, hesitating to walk over to him. She thought he looked intimidating. She chewed her lip a little but took a deep breath before jogging over toward the towering man on the horse, picking her dress up off the dusty ground.

  “Sir!” she called, one delicate hand in the air.

  The man looked down at her from the horse, seemingly sizing her up. He grunted, tugging on his horse’s reins, though he didn’t actually say anything. She stopped just short of the lumbering horse and took a breath.

  “I’m Krista.”

  He cocked a brow and crossed his arms over his and shook his head slowly. “I expected someone more … delicate.”

  She frowned, her brows knitting together as she took a step back, standing her ground and crossing her own arms. “Well, I’m sorry, but you got me,” she said sternly.

  He sighed and shook his head back and forth, holding his worn hand out to her. Krista walked over and took his hand, lifting her foot and putting one on the stirrup and hauling herself up onto the horse. Now that she was closer to the man, she could see that he hadn’t shaved in a few days, and there were wrinkles in the corner of his rich brown eyes. His eyelashes were surprisingly long, and his nose sloped to an almost delicate point. His features were masculine and pleasing to the eye. It was a shame his attitude was so rotten.

  She wrapped her arms around him for a moment, leaning against his back. She didn’t want to be this thankful for his warmth, but she couldn’t help it. It felt good, and it felt safe to be so close to someone like him. Krista could feel the rippling of muscles under his shirt and closed her eyes, allowing herself to rest. She’d managed to sleep a lot on the train ride, but it wasn’t good sleep. It was desperate sleep to try to forget the fact that she left everything she loved and knew behind.

  Krista stayed silent for a long time but finally let her eyes open and scanned the empty horizon. Now that they were out of town there was nothing but dirt and flat land with a spattering of trees. A gust of wind swept through the plains and kicked up a cloud of dust so thick she couldn’t see through it.

  They rode on for well over an hour until a large ranch came into view. When Krista saw the faint silhouette of the ranch, she raised her head and squinted her eyes, trying to make out more details. The house was flat but much larger than any house she’d seen in Vermont. It was a single-story home, which she found to be a little strange, but managed to nearly be a mansion.

  “What is this place?” she whispered, wide-eyed.

  A large pen stretched on farther than her eyes could see and held a sea of cattle. A smaller pen beside that held a small herd of sheep, crying out whenever the wind whipped up another dust storm. Their white wool was stained a dark brown color with red hues. She could help but think that the wool was ruined. It was the farmer inside of her.

  They got close enough to the house for her to see some of the detail. She silently admitted that she was impressed. The sloping roof was made of perfectly cut wooden pieces that laid one on top of the other in order to keeping out the chilling winter winds as well as the summer rains, and the front porch wrapped around the entire length of the house with two rocking chairs that moved back and forth with the wind.

  Large windows gave her a peek into the relatively empty house, and she frowned a little, wondering why he didn’t have much furniture. He was clearly a very successful man. Krista closed up to ask him that very question but stopped short. She couldn’t quite it, but this man scared him. He’d signed his name William, but she doubted he went by that. His working shirt was far too dirty and his demeanor too rugged for him to be a William.

  “Bill?” she asked, hoping she got it right.

  He paused and looked up at her, tying his horse to a post and patting its thick neck. “Yes?”

  She cleared her throat and looked away. “Well, we haven’t spoken since we were in town.”

  “Is that going to be a problem? I hate to disappoint you, but I’m not a very talkative man.”

  Krista frowned deeply and watched him walk up the porch, opening the door to head inside. She followed close behind, catching the door before it closed and throwing it open. She reached out and grabbed his arm to stop him, her grip firm and surprisingly strong. He turned and looked at her hand, brow cocked.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I’m stopping you so you’ll listen to me,” she said sharply.

  He pulled his arm out of her hands and scoffed, shaking his head a little and clicking his tongue. “You’re tired and clearly need to lie down.”

  “Don’t treat me like a child! I’m not asking for a lengthy conversation. You didn’t even tell me your name.”

  “I told you in my letters.”

  Krista glared and shook her head. “Look, I know this is all business, but can’t we be at least civil?”

  She didn’t want to admit it, but she was feeling scared and alone. The last thing she wanted was a husband who was going to ignore her and treat her coldly.

  Bill turned and looked at her, shaking his head slowly as he steppe
d forward, pinning her between the frame of the house and his own large body.

  “You’ve been awfully mouthy since you got here, and I haven’t thrown you out yet. As far as I’m concerned, I have been civil,” he said simply. “Now, you can either accept that this is the way things are, or you can go back to Vermont.”

  Her chest tightened a little, and she took a step back, eyes wide and wet. She didn’t want to cry, but she could feel the tears threatening to come. The threat hit her at her core and rendered her speechless. She knew she was at his mercy, and knowing she had nowhere to go was the worst feeling in the world. She couldn’t argue with him or turn him away. If she did, she would be stranded in this strange land with no way to get home and no way to keep herself alive.

  Krista looked down, remaining silent though Bill seemed to understand that she was accepting his proposal. He knew just as well as Krista that she couldn’t go back to Vermont. She wouldn’t have left if there were any other options. Being a mail-order bride was a big risk. People didn’t do it unless there was nowhere left to turn.

  “Have we reached an understanding?”

  Krista nodded and closed her eyes, trying not to cry. “Yes.”

  Her answer came out as a defeated whimper, though Bill didn’t seem to care and just turned to leave her in the foyer to contemplate her fate.

  Chapter Five

  Bill was just as cold toward Krista in the following weeks as he was the first day she arrived, though she hadn’t expected much else from him. He made his intentions very clear that day. She was here to clean the house and cook the meals, even if she wasn’t so good at it. She wanted to be out with him, handling the cattle and learning to sheer the sheep, though she knew he wouldn’t let her do anything like that. His opinions of what women were supposed to do around the house were very clear, and farm work wasn’t one of those things. She was destined to be holed up in the house doing what she hated.