Adventure For A Bride: A clean historical mail order bride romance (Montana Passion Book 3)

by Amelia Rose

  Though their opinions differed, the four of them toasted with their mugs to Wyatt’s future happiness, however it may come about. Moira added a silent prayer for Millie, too, and the Lord knew she would need it.

  *****

  The recent sunshine wasn’t the only bright spot on the prairie, and Millie found herself adjusting to her routine as the days began to blend together. The children helped her tidy up while she cooked. She instructed them in their letters and numbers and in the Bible, and then they found ways to be a help to Wyatt. It was a pleasant existence, even if it still felt upended by the lack of a commitment. Still, Millie knew there was nowhere else she’d rather be than in the open territory of Montana.

  She’d taken to going for walks with the children once the sun was high enough to warm them. Having lived in a somewhat squalid area of a large city, Millie was a firm believer in getting plenty of exercise and breathing in the fresh mountain air, even when the weather threatened to turn foul. She was delighted on the occasions that Wyatt had offered to go with them, usually when he claimed to fear that a storm may roll in and he might be needed to protect them.

  “I’ve been thinking, Miss Carter,” Wyatt began in a serious tone during one of their walks. The children were a good bit ahead of them, Rose balanced on little Micah’s hip and Luke helping to hold up her back, but unfortunately, they weren’t far enough that their prying ears didn’t pick up on their father’s words.

  “Why do you call her Miss Carter?” Luke asked innocently, doubling back to look his father in the face. Wyatt stammered for only a second.

  “Why, it’s her name. What do you think I should call her?” he asked, purposely trying to emulate the tone and patience that Millie always had with them.

  “Ma’am! Just like I do!” he said matter-of-factly before running ahead to catch up with Micah. Millie laughed, but Wyatt was more perplexed than ever.

  “They just call you ‘ma’am’? Why is that?” he asked.

  “Well, I never actually figured out an appropriate name for who I am. And if… if things didn’t work out with us, then they wouldn’t have a name to go by whenever they did think of me. I thought it would make it easier to forget me if they couldn’t remember my name.” She gave him a reassuring look, one that told him it hurt her to be overlooked but that she’d be all right.

  “What do you want them to call you?” he asked in a quieter voice, careful that they didn’t hear him.

  “Mr. Flynn, I’m not going to lie to you,” she answered, stopping her walk and turning to face him. “I was hoping by now they’d be calling me their ma, or something of the kind.” She dared him to look away, but this time, he didn’t.

  “But Anna Mae is their—”

  “No, she’s not,” Millie interrupted firmly. “She was, and she always will be in their hearts and in their minds, but today, no. She’s not their mother. And I’m very sorry that I had to tell you that just now.” Millie hitched her skirts slightly and began to storm after the children, realizing she’d just opened her heart again only to have it slammed shut by Anna Mae’s ghost and Wyatt’s inability to move on with his life.

  “Miss Carter, wait!” Wyatt called. It only took him a few steps to catch up with her. “That’s not what I meant! You didn’t let me finish!”

  “What is it, Mr. Flynn?” she demanded in an irritated voice. She hadn’t meant to become cross with him and she certainly hadn’t planned to ruin their nice outing with the children. But she had walked on egg shells for far too long, and she was prepared to end their truce once and for all.

  “I only meant to say that Anna Mae had the children call her ‘ma,’ and I think you should choose another word. It’s only fitting. They had a ma once, but now… now I hope they have you.” He wanted desperately to look away from her searching face, but he’d steeled himself for this moment and refused to break eye contact with her.

  “Are you saying… you want me to stay?”

  “Yes, that’s precisely what I’m saying,” he replied, but there was still a hint of defeat in his voice that caused her to question his sincerity.

  “And you don’t just mean as your housekeeper, or their nanny,” she clarified, pointing to where the boys rolled in the grass while Rose sat laughing. “You mean for me to stay here, with you, and actually be your wife.”

  Wyatt nodded. He knew it was what he wanted more than anything at that moment, even as his heart screamed at him for his betrayal. Millie was a veritable saint, so far as he could tell, and he didn’t know of any other woman who’d have been half so patient with him or so understanding of his pain. A lesser woman would have turned and run at the first cross word he’d spoken, but Millie seemed to understand where his anger came from, even during the times when he didn’t know himself.

  “Well, Mr. Flynn, that pleases me greatly,” Millie said formally, containing both her surprise and her joy. She’d learned enough about Wyatt from her weeks in Montana to know that he wasn’t given to tremendous displays of emotion, but her heart was ready to burst over this announcement.

  “I know I’ve been hard to put up with, but I want you to know that it pleases me greatly, too!” he said, teasing her with her own words. “I can’t promise I’m going to be easy to live with all the time, but I promise that I’ll try. I want to be happy again, and you’ve made me happier than anyone else in a long time. I’m even… very fond of you.”

  “I have to say you’re not quite suited to writing love poems just yet, but I’ll take it!” She smiled, and hesitantly slipped her hand in his, thrilled when he didn’t pull away. Instead, he wrapped his work-worn fingers around her slender ones and held them tightly before covering her hand with his other one as well.

  He kept her hand wrapped in his as they walked along, and it didn’t escape Micah’s notice. The boy kept casting quick glances at them, aware of the way they walked close together, the way they talked with their heads leaned toward each other, the way their words didn’t carry as they spoke in hushed tones. It was unsettling, for some reason.

  “Pa! Is she gonna be stayin’ with us forever now?” he finally asked, unable to contain his curiosity a moment longer. He put his little hands on his hips and waited with his head cocked for his father to explain.

  “She sure is, Micah. What do you think of that?” Wyatt asked nervously. Micah had been old enough to know his mother well, and he’d been the one the man had had to push aside the most whenever he asked questions that Wyatt was too broken to answer.

  “I think it’s a fine idea, but if she’s gonna be our new ma, she can’t live in our smokehouse no more! We won’t never get a baby sister for Rose if our ma lives in the smokehouse!” He turned around and took off after his little brother, the wisdom beyond his years causing both adults to stare after him, mouths agape, before breaking into nervous giggles.

  “Is that something you wanted?” Millie asked shyly, looking down at her feet on the pretense of watching where she stepped.

  “You mean for you to keep living in the smokehouse? Well, it’s worked for us so far…”

  “I’m not talking about the smokehouse, silly! And if it’s working so well, you can move your things out there and take a turn!” she retorted, laughing in spite of herself. “I meant… a sister for Rose. Were you thinking of having more children?”

  “I hadn’t given it any thought, to be honest, but as you know, I hadn’t thought of having a new wife, either. Right now, I’m just getting used to the idea of being happy again, of waking up every day with a purpose again, that I can’t even imagine something that would make me prouder. Of course, I’m sure you answered my letters, as unrevealing as they were, expecting to become a wife and mother. Am I right?”

  “It’s true, I suppose. But more that I just thought it was a normal part of married life. I didn’t plan for how many children, or what I’d name them, if that’s what you mean. Your children were certainly a surprise, but it was a wonderful surprise. I get to become a wife and mother to three ch
ildren all at the same time!”

  The group rambled back to the cabin in due time for dinner. Millie bade the children take their baths, careful to pay special attention to their feet after their barefoot walk along the countryside, while Wyatt went to do the milking and feed the livestock for the evening. While he was at the barn, a noise out front of the cabin caused Millie to put down her washrag and remind Micah to watch Rose in the water while she saw to the commotion.

  She opened the front door and saw the horse and buggy that Jorgenson used to make deliveries closer to town. The old man sat in the driver’s seat, the reins still in his grasp, looking somewhat uncomfortable beside a young woman with a pinched expression and ramrod straight posture. Wyatt had come around to the front of the house when he heard the hoofbeats approaching, and stood talking to both of them. Millie waited on the porch out of respect for their privacy, but remembered that anything affecting Wyatt and his family now included her.

  “Hello!” she said brightly when she approached. “I’m Millie Carter, won’t you please come inside for some tea or supper?”

  “No, I don’t think that will be necessary,” the young woman said. “I’ll just have my things brought inside and then you may go.”

  Millie blinked at her cryptic, unpleasant statement before turning to Wyatt for an explanation. He didn’t look at her, he just stood holding the horse’s bridle and looking at the ground.

  “I’m sorry? I don’t think I understand…” Millie began, but Wyatt interrupted her.

  “She’s not going anywhere. But Mr. Jorgenson, I’d be obliged if you’d carry Miss Ellison back to New Hope to catch the next train. She won’t be staying here. Goodbye, Corrine.”

  Wyatt took Millie by the elbow and turned wordlessly to escort her back into the house. She looked to him for some kind of explanation, but somehow knew to wait until they were safe behind closed doors to demand an answer.

  “I’m not leaving, Wyatt. You may think you’ve won right now, but I’ll be staying right here.” Behind them, Corrine climbed down from Jorgenson’s buggy and ordered him to take her trunks out of the back.

  “I’m not sure that’s the right thing to do, miss, seeing as how they don’t seem to want you here,” the old man offered, holding fast to his reins and not budging from where he sat. Corrine turned on him and pinned him back with a vicious glare.

  “I said, I’ll be staying here and I’ll be needing my things. I paid you for your trouble in bringing me all this way, now I expect my trunks to be placed on the porch.” She turned around and headed for the house, stomping across the yard in her dainty buttoned up boots, ignoring the dangers that mud and little boys’ excavation efforts may cause. She threw herself down in one of the rocking chairs on the cabin’s spacious porch and waited.

  “Pa! She’s not leaving!” Luke cried loudly from inside the house before his older brother could shush him. “What? All I said was she’s still out there!”

  “Pa don’t want her here, Luke, so hush!” Micah insisted, looking to the corner where Wyatt sat with his head down and Millie stood by him, nervous but silent. She wanted to ask him what was going on, but he was withdrawing again, she could tell. He looked half ready to bolt for the barn and shut himself inside, and the last thing she wanted to do was pester him with accusing questions. Finally, though, the sound of the last of Corrine’s trunks hitting the wooden boards of the porch echoed through the cabin. She had no choice but to inquire.

  “Mr. Flynn? I mean, Wyatt? Please tell me what that woman wants from you. How can I help you?” she asked, dropping down to sit on her heels and look up at his distraught face, one gentle, reassuring hand on his knee.

  “It’s Anna Mae’s sister,” he whispered. “We wrote to her when Anna Mae first took sick, but we never suggested that she come all the way to Montana. She just told me, though… she’s here to take her sister’s place. She said it’s only right that the family stay together and the children grow up knowing who their ma was.”

  “Well, there’s no law requiring you to let her stay. You know that, right?” Millie asked gently.

  “I don’t know what to do. I told her she could visit with the boys and meet the baby, but that you and I were… betrothed. She said she won’t hear of such a thing as a stranger raising her sister’s children. I swear I didn’t ask her to come, Miss— I mean, Millie. But I don’t know how to send her away without hurting her, or hurting Anna Mae.”

  “I see. Then we’ll just have to make her visit a pleasant one, and then see to it that she goes on about her way. If that’s what you want, of course,” she added at the end, trying to keep her words from sounding as accusing as they felt in her heart.

  “Of course it’s what I want!” Wyatt shouted without thinking. He fumed for only a second before recovering himself and apologizing to the woman who’d already tolerated so much. “I’m so sorry, Millie. None of this is your fault, and for the hundredth time since you stepped off that train, you’ve been kinder than any one of us deserves.”

  “It’s good to hear, thank you. Shall I speak to Miss Ellison, and explain?” Millie asked firmly. Wyatt didn’t look up, but gestured with his open hand toward the door for her to be his guest.

  “Good luck to you. Remember, I’ve known her since we were all children. She can be stubborn.”

  So can I, Millie thought grimly to herself.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “And?” Wyatt asked directly from he stood stirring a pot of stew for their supper. “What did she say?”

  Millie stepped inside and closed the door, careful to pull in the latch string first. She looked out the front window briefly to where Corrine still sat in the chair, rocking furiously. The rhythm of the rockers beat a pattern in the walls, shaking all of them slightly.

  “For starters, she called me a harlot and an interloper. I’m not very certain of her intelligence and education, seeing as how she must not know what those words mean if she’s applying them to me.” Wyatt looked enraged for a moment, but Millie put up her hands to stop him, closing her eyes briefly. “Now, don’t take it out on her. I’m sure this must be hard on her, too. She came all this way not even knowing if her sister was still alive or not, only to find out in town that Anna Mae had passed and that you had another woman, one you’re not married to, living out at your farm. What would you expect her to think? Of course she must assume she’s tasked with rescuing you and the children from my evil, tainted clutches.”

  “That doesn’t give her a right to speak to you that way!” Wyatt insisted, keeping his voice down only so the little ones didn’t know he was angry. The last thing he wanted to do was explain all of this to them, imagining their bright, round eyes as he did so.

  “You’re right, of course, but I’ve overlooked it and forgotten it already. It does no good to keep revisiting a hurt feeling. But the real problem now is what we shall do with her. Jorgenson turned tail and headed back to New Hope, not that I blame him, and the sun is already setting. She’ll just have to stay here until we can figure something out.”

  “She can stay right where she sits, for all that I care! She’ll leave when she gets hungry!” Wyatt hissed. Millie shook her head.

  “For as long as I’ve wanted you to hurry up and make an honest woman of me, I have to say that I’m right proud I’m not your wife just yet. It means I don’t have to do as you say!” she argued with a forced smile.

  “Not that you plan to be all that obedient once we’re married, I suspect,” Wyatt said in a dark voice, his eyebrows knitting menacingly. If it weren’t for the hint of a smile at the corners of his mouth, Millie would be worried that she’d angered him.

  “Good, then we already see eye to eye on the subject of obedience!” Millie reached for a tin bowl and a mug. “In the meantime, I’m sure she’s hungry. I’ll take her some supper, and then offer her the house to come in, wash up, and rest. I’ll be keeping to my little cabin until this mess is all cleared up.”

  “And where am I to sleep?
” he demanded, already knowing what his future wife would say.

  “I’m afraid it’s the barn for you!” she said with a sympathetic smile. Wyatt shook his head.

  “No. I’m telling you, you don’t know her like I do. Once she sets foot in this house, she will not ever leave it. So she can sleep just fine in the barn!” Millie looked horrified at the mere suggestion of putting a lady up where the animals were bedded down, but Wyatt crossed his arms and looked resolute.

  “Fine. But only because you know her as well as you do, and I believe you!” Millie patted his arm and served up a dish of the stew, then poured a glass of buttermilk from the pitcher in the pie safe. She left them on the table while she told the children goodnight, kissing each one on the cheek in turn and reminding them to wash their faces and clean their teeth. “And all of you mind your pa at bedtime, remember!”

  They promised her they would, and she bid them goodnight. Millie told Wyatt goodnight as well, accepting his chaste and half-hearted kiss on the cheek before carrying the supper outside to Corrine.

  “I’ve brought you something to eat,” she began, but Corrine only turned to look away, refusing to acknowledge the woman who surely must be of poor reputation. “I’ll just set it here on the porch rail. I’m off to my cabin for the evening, but Mr. Flynn will be fixing you a bed in the barn shortly so you can get some rest.”

  Her words had the desired effect. Corrine turned to look at her sharply, her nostrils flaring slightly in her fury.

  “The barn? I’m expected to share my quarters with the animals after traveling all this way?” she demanded in a shrill voice. Her tone made it hard to imagine any resemblance to the wonderful Anna Mae who Millie had heard so much about.

  “I’m afraid that’s all Mr. Flynn has to offer you. He’ll need to be near his children during the night in case they need anything, and with you being a stranger to them, he didn’t wish to be far. And since Mr. Flynn and I are not yet married, I stay in my cabin when the children don’t need me,” Millie explained, pointing to the small living quarters across the yard. “Therefore, the only other space to offer you, a space that would be proper, of course, is the barn. I’m sure you’ll be quite comfortable.”