Double Wedding: Sweet Historical Mail Order Brides of Lowell
Page 3
Annie nodded her head and leaned into George.
Molly hurried to stay ahead as George took long strides back to the house. He sat in a chair at the table with Annie still in his arms.
Annie savored the feeling of being in George’s strong embrace. She felt safe and protected. He had saved her. When she’d been certain she was going to die, George had saved her. He sat rocking her on his lap murmuring endearments to her. Annie felt like she was in a dream.
But wait. The fog was lifting from her mind. She pulled back to look at him.
“The letters.”
“I should have told you as soon as you got here.” He looked into her eyes. “When Molly told me what she’d done, she handed me all your letters. The night before you came, I read those letters and half fell in love with you then and there.” His hand played with a lock of her hair that had fallen loose. “When I saw you get off the train, you were so beautiful and proper that I couldn’t let myself believe that you would want to give up the city to live on a farm. So I tried to stay away from you. Since you were going to be headed back, there was no need to tell you about the letters."
His fingers caressed her cheek and despite the words he was confessing, she leaned into his touch.
“But I couldn’t stay away. Each moment I spent with you I fell more and more in love. At that point, I was afraid to tell you about the letters. Afraid you would leave me.”
He held her face in his hands. “I was wrong. Can you ever find it in your heart to forgive me?”
She stared into those same beautiful, hazel eyes that had mesmerized her that first day at the train station. “When I thought I was going to die, I realized God had given me this wonderful gift of a life with you and I’d thrown a tantrum because of the way He’d seen fit to bring us together. My dear sweet George, can you forgive me?”
George didn’t speak. Instead, he leaned in and kissed Annie. All her fear and all the years of yearning flowed out of her as she returned his kiss.
After a few minutes, he lifted his lips from hers. “Our wedding on Sunday cannot come soon enough.”
CHAPTER TEN
The sun shone brightly in the sky without a cloud in sight. Annie’s toes inside her pearl-buttoned boots danced to the fiddle music as she stood wrapped in the arms of her husband on their porch steps. She wished she could have worn her periwinkle blue dress that she’d gotten married in last summer. But as she looked down on the sleeping face of their new daughter, Annie didn’t mind the few extra inches she still carried around her waist. And from the squeeze George gave her, he didn’t mind either.
It was hard to believe so much had happened in her life. A year ago, her life had revolved around spending her days inside a dark, dirty factory with no hope of a husband or children.
Annie and George stepped down into the yard. Annie handed her daughter, Daisy, to Auntie Molly whose swollen belly was keeping her in a chair for their double anniversary party. Her husband, James, hovering nearby.
George took her hand and led her to the area where the dancing was.
“May I have this dance, Mrs. Pulaski?” He asked as he wrapped his arms around her.
“Yes, you may, Mr. Pulaski.” Not caring who saw, she leaned up and kissed his cheek. Annie’s last thought before the music started and the world began to spin was that she was so glad she’d answered that advertisement.
Preview the next story in the Sweet Historical Mail Order Brides of Lowell series. Telegraph Bride
Elizabeth Stemple stood on the station platform, next to her wooden trunks, waiting for the man who should have been here to meet her train. The station master, a handsome man with warm chocolate eyes and nice broad shoulders, had already stopped by to check on her. It wasn’t often that she met a man who was taller than she was. Usually she saw over most women’s heads and was on eye level with most tall men. But this brawny station master almost made her feel petite. He didn’t just check on her once either but twice. He stopped once on his way to help the steam engine take on water and once on the way to the back of the train to help unload cargo. Having run a train station for seven years, more than four of those by herself, she watched him with a critical eye. He was good. He knew when to be where, and how to keep a conductor on time who wanted to dawdle and chitchat. Too bad he wasn’t the one who had written the advertisement in the Lowell Gazette looking for a wife. Her gaze swept the nearly empty platform.
With a sigh of impatience, Elizabeth lifted the large pocket watch she wore around her waist. She paused for a moment and rubbed a loving hand over the ornate letter S. She’d given that watch to her husband on their wedding day. When he’d stepped on the train that last day, he’d said for her to hold it until he came back. She let another sigh escape, this one filled with sadness. If not for that dreadful war, she and Henry would still be running their train station. She tucked a stray brown curl back into her bonnet, rubbed the cover of the watch one more time, then popped the cover open in a swift, experienced motion.
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For more Historical Mail Order Bride stories and other historical romances by MaryAnn Burnett, visit –
http://www.MaryAnnBurnett.com
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
MaryAnn Burnett grew up reading historical and contemporary romance novels and never stopped. She loves history, particularly women’s history, and has tried her hand at many needlecrafts. (A hint from MaryAnn: If you ever want a good workout, make a quilt on a treadle sewing machine…)
MaryAnn wanders through life holding the hand of her best friend and husband. After almost ten years of marriage, strangers still ask them if they’re newlyweds.
MaryAnn and her husband live on a hillside near a small southern town where she writes from her sunroom overlooking the garden. Two cocker spaniels keep her feet warm as she writes and sneak-attack kisses occur if she gets too lost in a story.
A note from MaryAnn:
If you have a moment, please leave a review for this book on Amazon or GoodReads. It will help other readers find this book and it will let me know what you liked and didn’t like.
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Copyright © 2014 by MaryAnn Burnett
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, without prior written permission.
MaryAnn Burnett/Spanielhill Publishing
Walkertown, NC
www.SpanielhillPublishing.com
Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.
Book Layout © 2014 BookDesignTemplates.com
Cover Design by AnnieMoril.com
Double Wedding/ MaryAnn Burnett. -- 1st ed.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN