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Mail Order Marvel
Kirsten Osbourne
Coral has always been different than other young ladies, and not just because of the circumstances of her birth. When her sister, Esther, moves west to Montana to be a mail order bride, she goes with her, hoping that she will quickly find a husband herself and not long be a burden on her sister and her new husband. She agrees to meet any of the men her brother-in-law finds suitable for her, hoping she will find a match and leave the newlywed’s home.
Jackson is new to the rural area of Montana where he is now teaching. When he’s approached by one of the local ranchers to meet his younger sister-in-law, he goes along with it, because he realizes having a wife would make his life a great deal easier. Upon meeting Coral, he is initially put off by her bold manner, but he agrees to the match, and soon the couple is off to Sweetwater Springs to marry. Will he be able to get past Coral’s boldness to see the woman within? Or will they spend the rest of their lives in a loveless marriage?
Chapter One
Coral ate slowly as she peered at Jackson from under her lashes. She knew her sister, Esther, and her brother-in-law, Brody, both desperately wanted her to marry him, so she could move from their home. He didn’t seem like a terrible person, and he was obviously intelligent. He’d do. As long as he’d agree to her terms, of course.
She listened to the other three talk as she ate the meal she’d overseen the preparations for. Her sister had only barely learned to cook, and she would have lots of difficulties once Coral was married and gone, but that didn’t matter. She’d been married almost a week, and she still hadn’t been able to consummate her marriage, because her sister lived there in her tiny little cabin.
Coral and Esther had grown up with money, but just six weeks before, they’d discovered their father was an embezzler. Esther’s fiancé, and the son of the man their father was embezzling from, had immediately called off their wedding, and Esther had agreed to be a mail order bride. She hadn’t told her future husband, Brody, that she was bringing her sister along to live with them, though.
“Tell me about yourself, Coral,” Jackson said, his voice strong and deep. It wasn’t a question either. It was an order. He was demanding she tell him about herself.
“What do you want to know?” Coral asked, needing to learn about him, rather than disclose any information about herself at all. What if he wasn’t the one she’d end up marrying? She didn’t want him to know anything about her. She’d had enough gossip spread about her back in Massachusetts. She didn’t need that nonsense here in Montana.
Jackson stared at her, noting that she still wasn’t looking at him. Was she shy? “Anything you want to tell me. What do you like to do in your spare time?”
At that, Coral’s eyes met his. “Back home I enjoyed studying anatomy text books and daydreaming that someday someone would allow me to become a doctor, even though I’m a woman. I doubt if I’ll be able to continue that particular activity.”
Jackson blinked a couple of times. He sensed something other than shyness in her voice. She didn’t seem shy at all suddenly. No, she seemed angry. But at whom? “Why won’t you continue? Did you not bring your books?”
Coral raised one eyebrow at him, the brown just a shade darker than her auburn hair. “I brought my books. I just have an inkling that whomever I end up married to will want his wife to do things he considers important, instead of reading about being a doctor, which will never happen in this world.”
“Why won’t it? You don’t think you’re capable?” Jackson asked, knowing he was going to annoy her with the question, but unable to stop it from escaping his lips. It was how he motivated his students.
“I know I’m capable. I just don’t think anyone else will believe I’m capable, because I’m a female.”
He shrugged. “There has to be a first for everything. Do you think the first man who said he could move West and ranch was believed? If you think you can, then you’ve fought ninety percent of the battle.” He finished his meal, and thanked her when dessert was put before him.
After eating her delicious gingerbread, he pushed away from the table and invited her to walk with him.
As they walked away from the house, he was aware they could be watched from the windows of the small cabin. He knew her sister and brother-in-law had invested a lot of hope on the two of them getting married, but he wasn’t sure how they’d do together. Coral was obviously intelligent, a trait he admired, but she was also headstrong. He would have preferred a malleable wife.
“So I hear you need to marry,” he said, refusing to beat around the bush with the woman. “I enjoyed your dessert. Do you cook as well as you bake?”
Coral gave a brief nod. “I’m an excellent cook. In fact, I think you’ll find I excel at everything I do.”
He laughed briefly. “No one is good at everything.”
“So I’ve been told,” she said, refusing to argue with the man.
“But you’re good at everything?”
She nodded again. “Maybe it’s only my perception, though.” Of course, she knew it wasn’t. She’d even heard her sister and Brody laughing at how good she was at everything, as if it was a fault, when she knew darn well it wasn’t.
Jackson stared at her for a moment, looking her up and down. She wasn’t classically pretty. Her hair was red, and she was covered in freckles. She was rounder than was fashionable, but her eyes were absolutely stunning. She’d do. He didn’t need a beauty anyway. He just needed someone who would cook his meals and be a good companion. She’d surely have opinions on everything, and be willing to debate whenever he needed a good argument. While he’d prefer someone who would recognize his authority in everything, a woman who could hold her own may be just what he needed.
“Why are you in such a hurry to marry?” he asked. “There is such an overwhelming ratio of men to women here, you’d have no trouble finding a husband if you’d just let nature take its course.”
She sighed at his words. “That’s what I thought when we left Massachusetts, but Esther and Brody’s marriage isn’t going to work if I stay much longer. I’m in the way.” She didn’t mention the fact that the couple hadn’t been able to consummate their marriage, but she knew he’d understand.
“I see. How old are you?” he asked. She seemed so smart, but really, she didn’t look much older than some of his students.
“I’m seventeen. My eighteenth birthday is in November. I don’t really think anyone should marry before they turn eighteen, but I don’t feel like I have a choice. I would ask that you’d wait to consummate the marriage for that long if you do decide to marry me.” She started to tell him that normally she wouldn’t be so frank about such an intimate topic, but she stopped herself. Why lie?
“Is that a proposal?”
Coral refused to blush, which she knew had to be the only reason for his words. No, she wouldn’t give him the pleasure of getting embarrassed. “If you want it to be, it is. Do you want to marry me?”
He blinked, surprised that Coral hadn’t reacted to his teasing. Most women would rather be tortured than ask a man to marry them. “I can’t wait to tell our child
ren that their mother proposed to me within an hour and a half of meeting me.”
“I guess that’s a yes?”
He nodded, not certain if he enjoyed her frankness or was put off by it. “When do you want to do it?”
“Could we make it to Sweetwater Springs and back before you have to go to school on Monday morning?”
He pursed his lips, thinking about it. “I’m relatively certain we can make it work. We’ll both be tired Monday, but it can’t be helped.”
Coral stepped toward him, knowing she was being forward, but just not caring. “You don’t think you should kiss me to seal the engagement?”
He looked down at her, surprised by how pretty her upturned face looked to him by the light of the full moon overhead. “Do you think that’s wise? If we’re not going to consummate for two months, shouldn’t we wait to start kissing?”
“Don’t you want to know that we’re compatible?”
He laughed. “We’re compatible. I don’t need to kiss you to know that.”
Coral took a step back, surprised that she was disappointed. Obviously he found the idea of kissing her to be a chore. What a way to start a marriage. “Let’s go tell Esther and Brody then. If we’re getting such an early start, surely you need to go home and sleep.”
She turned on her heel and strode toward the house, not looking back at him. If Jackson didn’t want to kiss her, then she had no reason to stand with him in the dark. The man already made her crazy.
Jackson hurried to catch up with her, realizing he’d hurt her feelings by not wanting to kiss her. He hadn’t explained it well. “Coral, wait. It’s not that I don’t want to kiss you.”
Coral shrugged and kept walking, until he caught her hand and pulled her to a stop. “What?”
“I don’t want to start kissing you and then have to stop. I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to get our passions all riled up, and then have to wait for two months.”
She nodded briefly, not meeting his eyes. “I understand.”
“Your voice tells me you understand, but your body language is saying differently. I don’t think you do understand.”
“Does it really matter? You’re getting your cook. I’m getting out of my sister’s house, so she can be a newlywed. Nothing else really matters, does it?”
“Yes, it does. I don’t want to hurt your feelings with this.” He watched her face, but she kept her eyes downcast, so he couldn’t read them. “I’ll kiss you.” He pulled her to him with the hand he still held, his free hand moving to tilt her chin up.
Coral turned her face away. “I’m not going to kiss an unwilling man. What kind of girl do you think I am?”
He wanted to laugh, knowing he’d already made a mess of things. “Just let me kiss you once, so I can put your fears to rest.”
“What fears? I told you, I’m good at everything, which means I’m afraid of nothing. Let’s go inside and tell my sister the good news.”
He sighed. If she didn’t want to kiss him, then she didn’t want to kiss him. He didn’t want to kiss her anyway, did he? Then why did he suddenly feel so disappointed?
He kept her hand in his, and she half-dragged him back to the house. For such a short woman, she was very strong. He wasn’t sure if he liked that or not. He wanted her to feel like she needed him to keep her safe.
When they reached the house, Esther and Brody were standing close but they jumped apart as if embarrassed to be found that way. Coral quickly explained the situation.
The plans were made for him to return to get her at four the following morning, and he left quickly, not trying to kiss Coral again. The woman was being downright persnickety about that, and he wasn’t going to fight her for the privilege.
Coral ignored all the arguments from her sister and went to the sink, rolling up her sleeves.
When Esther sent her to bed, she went willingly. She knew she wouldn’t really sleep that night, but she had to at least try. Why, she was getting married. Tomorrow or Sunday at the latest.
She went to the room she shared with Esther and pulled her dress off, quickly changing into her nightgown. It was eight, and four would come very early. She packed up all of her things into the two carpet bags she’d brought with her from Massachusetts before climbing into the bed and rolling onto her side.
Her tears fell as soon as she was covered up to her chin. How could she possibly marry a man who didn’t even want to kiss her? Their lives together would never be worth anything. Oh how she wished she had time to just be a young woman and court whomever came along.
It wasn’t that she didn’t like Jackson, of course. She did. She just didn’t want to feel forced into a marriage.
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Tomorrow would be a new day. Tomorrow she would be strong. Tomorrow would be a blessing. It always was.
Chapter Two
Waking earlier than necessary after a fitful night’s sleep, Coral hurriedly carried her carpet bags into the main room of the cabin to wait for Jackson. She wanted to put her face in her hands and sob, but what if someone heard her? No, she wouldn’t show weakness. She couldn’t. She was a bride, whether she wanted to be or not.
When she heard Jackson’s buggy pull up into the yard, she hurried outside, wishing she had someone to ride along with them as a chaperone. She wasn’t afraid of him, but it wasn’t natural to be alone with a man she wasn’t married to. Well, it didn’t feel natural to her anyway. She’d always been very strict with her moral code for herself, worried she’d take after her birth mother in every way.
Jackson didn’t get down from the buggy, but he did offer her a hand and help her up. She threw her bag into the back, smoothed her skirts, and covered herself with the lap robe he was already under. “How did you sleep?” he asked, his voice sounding deeper than it had the night before.
Coral felt a shiver travel up her spine. His voice did things to her that she could never admit to. “Fine,” she lied. She wasn’t about to tell her fiancé that she’d spent the entire night tossing and turning, trying to figure out how she could leave her sister’s house but still not marry yet. She’d come to no conclusions.
Jackson drove out onto the road, looking at Coral out of the corner of his eye. Something was wrong, but he had no idea what it was. “That’s good.” What did one say to the woman he was about to marry, when one knew almost nothing about her?
Coral sighed, wishing things weren’t quite so awkward between them. “What are you getting out of this?” she asked bluntly, knowing she’d either offend him, and he’d turn the buggy around and take her right back to her sister, or it would break the ice between them. She wasn’t certain which she preferred at that moment.
He frowned, wondering if she would always say exactly what was on her mind. “I’m a terrible cook,” he admitted. “I hate doing household chores. I want to be able to teach all day and come home to a clean house and supper on the table.”
“Well, that’s honest.” She stared off into the darkness, knowing the sun wouldn’t be up for a couple of hours yet. “I can do those things.”
“And eventually, I’ll have a wife to warm my bed and children.”
She swallowed hard at his words. “But not until after I turn eighteen, right? And we get used to each other?” She hated the idea of going straight to his bed, even though she was strongly attracted to him. The woman who had given birth to her had been her father’s mistress. She considered her mother to be the woman who had raised her and her father's wife. She had no desire to be like her birth mother—a woman whose life was ruled by passion.
At least, that’s what she assumed her birth mother was like. She’d never met the woman.
Jackson shook his head. “Of course not. I gave you my word.” He was offended that she would even question him. A man’s word should never be questioned by his wife. Then he sighed. The woman barely knew him. Of course, she wouldn’t simply take him at his word. How could she? “I’ll install a lock on your door if necessary.”<
br />
Coral looked over at him in the darkness. “You have two bedrooms then?”
He shook his head. “I’m afraid not. I have just the one. If you’re not comfortable sharing the bed with me platonically, then I will make a bed on the floor in the main room.”
She frowned. “I don’t like the idea of you sleeping on the floor, but I’m not sure how I feel about sharing a bed either. Give me a little while, and I’ll let you know.”
“Fair enough.” He glanced over at her, noticing that she was sitting ramrod straight on the seat beside him. She’d never make it all the way to Sweetwater Springs if she held herself so rigidly. He was worried for her. “I’m not going to bite you.”
She glanced at him, surprised by his words. “Why do you say that?”
He shrugged. “You just seem very tense. I’ve never seen someone sit up so straight when they didn’t have to.”
“Really? I don’t see a reason to do anything halfway. If you’re going to do it, you may as well do it right.”
Was she really that rigid in thinking as well as posture? No wonder her sister and brother-in-law hadn’t been able to wait to get rid of her. “Why fatigue yourself when you could rest? If you want, you can use my shoulder to rest against. I’ll drive while you sleep.”
As tired as she was, the offer was tempting. “No thank you. I’m fine.” She couldn’t show him, or anyone else, weakness. Maybe eventually, but not as soon as they met. “Tell me about your family. How did you end up teaching in Montana?”
“My mother and step-father moved to Montana when I was twelve. I was already mostly through with my schooling, because I worked as many hours as I could to finish early. When we moved out here, I helped with the farm chores as much as I could, while continuing to study in the evenings.” He shrugged. “It didn’t take me long to determine that I had no desire to be a farmer. I didn’t like the idea of relying on the fickle weather for my well-being, so I applied to teach. I took a couple of jobs locally, and I enjoyed them, but I realized that I wanted to teach where there was a greater need for teachers. In a place where students would either have me or no education at all. So when I saw the community here was looking for a teacher, I applied.
Montana Sky: Mail Order Marvel (Kindle Worlds Novella) Page 1