Mail Order Bride: 9 Book Boxed set : 9 Brides for 9 Cowboys: CLEAN Western Historical Romance Series Bundle

by Faye Sonja

  Agnes did not respond to that and so Charlie stepped in. “They both have a home with me for as long as they like.”

  George turned and smiled. “See Agnes, I told you not all Englishmen are like Jim Carlson. Some of us are actually good people.”

  Charlie stared at them wondering how she knew Jim Carlson, but he didn’t ask just yet. The pleasantries were exchanged, an update given to the progress of the repairs of the library and a promise that she would have work there again when it was finished. With that George excused himself with another promise to visit them and then he went back to work. That was to be their last stop before going home, and so when they piled back into the carriage his curiosity got the better of him.

  “So you have met Jim Carlson? What for?”

  There was hesitation as if she did not want to answer him. “I was to be his mail order bride.”

  “His what now?” Charlie asked not familiar with the term.

  “I saw his ad in the newspapers when I was looking for a home here in the English world.”

  He thought about it for a moment. “So you were going to sell yourself to another man?!”

  Maybe she wasn’t the person he thought her to be.

  “Sell?” she asked offended. “I am not an item for sale like a bag of groceries Mr. Matton!”

  He looked at her. “Mr. Matton? So that is what we are back to now?”

  “How dare you speak of me so lowly!” she said looking away from him and he could see the tears in her eyes. “I made a decision that could have resulted in something beautiful had the man not been an ogre. When I realized what kind of person he was I decided to take my chances on my own.”

  “I meant no offense-” he began but she held up a hand.

  “Yes you did, and I do not appreciate it.”

  He did not know what else to say to her. He reached to take the fussing Cameron from her arms and she would not let him. Right then and there he was reminded that the child was not his and neither was she. He fell silent as she fumed the rest of the ride back home and when they got to the stairs she did not wait for him to assist her.

  “What did you do?” Mrs. Potter looked at him when he walked into the house.

  “Why do you think I did something?” he asked trying to be nonchalant.

  “Because Mr. Charlie Matton,” she began glaring at him. “You have that look on your face like the one you wore every time you hid your brother’s britches and he got royally mad at you.”

  He had no response to that, but took a pastry from the layout on the table before she slapped him on the back of the head.

  “Ouch! What was that for?”

  Mrs. Potter slapped him again. “Whatever you did wrong, you go right it this minute. That woman and child are the best things that have happened to this family in over a decade. You go fix it this instant!”

  He walked away from her intending to go apologize, but when he got to the top of the stairs he headed to his room. He did not know what he would say to her that could bring about a truce, and he was not sure he wanted to approach her without knowing what to say. He stopped just outside her door and heard her reading to Cameron. He thought that maybe they would be better off without him.

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  6

  Chapter SIX

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  “ … The child in her arms screamed… ”

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  Putting Cameron to sleep in his little cot by the window shortly after midday, she decided she needed a break.

  “Anna,” she called to the maid who always seemed to be posted outside her door. “I am going for a walk, can you please keep an eye on Cameron?”

  “Yes ma’am,” the young girl replied enthusiastically.

  Agnes slipped out of the house through the side stairwell, wanting to avoid all contact with Charlie and Mrs. Potter. She needed to think. She needed to think of what he had said. He had referred to her selling herself as if she were just some woman of the night and she did not appreciate it. He had had such an adverse reaction to the thought that she could be a mail order bride that she didn’t know what to think of him anymore. In her head meeting a man in such a way to see if there was a possibility of a future was not a bad thing. It was not a traditional thing, but it was a decision made by consenting adults.

  Tears threatened the corner of her eyes as she thought about how he had responded, and the hope she had that there might be more between them quickly disappeared.

  “A woman walking through the woods alone is never a good sign,” the cold voice of his brother said from behind her. She turned in surprise to look at his face, etched hard with lines that told stories of years past that she could not quite read.

  “I just needed some air,” she said with a nervous smile. “How are you today?”

  He didn’t respond at first. “I am okay, but wondering what is your plan with my brother.”

  “Plan?” she asked confused.

  “Yes,” he said picking a blade of grass and walking to stand before her. She wanted to step back but she held her ground. “I think you showing up is all a matter of convenience and I do not approve of your presence here.”

  She sighed. “You think almost burning to death with a child and having to be saved was arranged to get into your brother’s life?”

  He did not bat an eyelash at her gloom and despair.

  “How very genius of me,” she said with her head hung low.

  “When will you be leaving?” Jared asked her narrowing his eyes.

  She looked at him in shock. “Am I really such a horrible thing around here?”

  Jared chuckled coldly. “You are not the first woman to play on the kindness that my brother wears on his sleeve. There had been two before you who made it seem as if they were in need of solace and a roof over their heads, only to later find they had ulterior motives. My brother will not be your meal ticket.”

  “I never asked for him to be. I initially turned his offer down but he insisted.”

  “Another ploy of authenticity no doubt,” Jared said walking around her.

  “I will go if you want me to,” she resigned feeling too exhausted to fight against the things that pushed at her from all angles. “I will go.”

  She didn’t wait on him to answer, and she let the tears slip down her face as she returned to the house and the room she was given. She thanked Anna and then set about packing her things to leave that very evening. She was not one to stay where she was not welcomed, and for him to think she was after what they had was an insult that cut her to the core.

  The rest of her day passed by in relative quietness. She dozed and checked on a sleeping Cameron weary from the day’s adventures, dreading that she would have to take him from the comfort of the bed he had come to call his own. When mid-afternoon rolled around, she felt as if she had overstayed her welcome and had taken advantage of the hospitality Charlie offered. Hearing him come in from the road, she made her way down the stairs dressed and with Cameron ready to go.

  “I need to get back to the inn,” she told him. Truth be told she wanted to do anything but that.

  “Why when you can stay here?”

  She busied her hands with the task of feeding the baby who smiled up at her. This was a life she could get used to, but that was just a dream, reality was a whole other story altogether.

  “I am grateful for all you have done and I am sure you don’t expect me to just shack up with you,” she pointed out.

  He walked around the counter to her. “Say that again,” he calmly instructed her.

  She narrowed her eyes at him and tried to move out of the way but he was having none of that. “I won’t be shacking up with you.”

  This time her words were a whisper fighting to leave her throat and his pleased smiled said he knew exactly the effect he had on her. He was strong while being soft and supportive. Stern and absolute without ta
king her right of an opinion away. He was a man in every right and though she took orders from no one, he was right that she would likely be safer with him than in a hotel and he was sweet while he was pointing that out. He was a man she could get used to having around.

  “I am sorry for what I said earlier but you do not need to go.” As he spoke he stepped closer to her, invading her personal space, breathing in her air and making her head swim with his presence. What amazed her was that the entire time he was endearing without being sexual- a refreshing realization.

  “Why do you want me here? You barely know me and in the short amount of time you and I have spent together has brought more stress into our lives than anything else.” He was just becoming a bit too good to be true, and she already had trust issues among many others.

  His smile was one of reassurance as she ran a thumb across the fading bruise on her cheek. “You fascinate me Agnes. You fascinate me like no other woman ever has and I am not letting you out of my sight for you to go back to the horrors of the streets. You fascinate me and above all else you have become a friend.”

  “I have survived this long without help,” she pointed out.

  “And you deserve a medal for that, but now you don’t have to continue alone, so let us just move forward from here. I want you to stay.”

  “But your brother has made it perfectly clear that we are not welcome here and I am tired of feeling like an outcast. I will leave and go make a life for myself outside your home. It will be hard but I will be okay.”

  “My brother?”

  “Yes,” Jared said from behind them. “Let the woman go, she is not our responsibility.”

  They were all shocked at the apparent coldness in his voice.”

  “Jared,” Charlie began.

  “No!” his brother stopped him. “You have said enough and it is time you stop falling prey to women like her. I want her out of this house tonight, or I will put her out myself.”

  She waited for Charlie to say something, but his jaw slammed shut and without another word she had her things brought down the stairs and to the carriage that waited out front.

  “Thank you all,” she turned to the maids and a weeping Mrs. Potter when she climbed aboard the carriage with Cameron cooing in her arms. There was nothing but tears and she departed before she too fell apart from despair. She had enough money to get by for about a month, and by then she hoped the library would be back up and running. She would see George in the morning about Cameron and hoped she wouldn’t lose the child who was the only person keeping her afloat. For the second time in recent months she found herself homeless and without a family. This would not become the narrative of her life. She would find better and be better.

  She had no choice.

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  7

  Chapter SEVEN

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  “ … The child in her arms screamed… ”

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  For two weeks Agnes pushed the thought that she was all alone from her mind. She had gotten a job waiting tables in the saloon in the inn. It was hard work, and while she catered to the drunken and disorderly who came in off the streets, she had to think about the child she left in the care of the nanny who already took care of so many other children.

  The first day she picked him up he had bite marks from where another child had bitten him.

  The second day he had a rash all over his little derriere that made him miserable all night and so she got no sleep. George, bless his soul, gave her a little bit of money to help out. Cameron had become her child, her responsibility and she wouldn’t have it any other way, but it was not easy work. For the first time she got insight into what her mother must have gone through with her and her brother and she had a newfound appreciation for motherhood.

  “You look like you good use a break,” she heard a familiar voice say as she walked by a table.

  Her heart skipped a beat in pure joy as she turned to see Charlie’s smiling face. She began to smile back but caught herself just in time.

  “What are you doing here?”

  He stood nervously. “I am sorry you had to leave the house. I should have never allowed that to happen.”

  She walked away from him. His apologies were beginning to exhaust her. He was always having to apologize for one thing or the next and she had had enough of it all.

  “You said you wanted me to stay. You said Jared could not make me leave, and the one time you should have stood up for me, he had me hightailing it out of your house. Tell me Charlie, what do you expect to gain from coming here?"

  “Your forgiveness,” he said lowering his head in humility.

  “It is yours then,” she replied before walking off. “Take it and go.”

  She went back to her duties checking the clock as she served the others who came in. She was well aware of his presence and she couldn’t deny it. She felt him watching her as she strode with purpose about the place. She could feel him admiring her as she went, and it made her stomach flutter just the slightest. She took pride in her confidence born of pain and disappointments. If she didn’t who else would? When he looked at her, it wasn’t as if he was undressing her with his eyes, it was more as if he was trying to see into her soul, and she felt like he saw her for who she truly was. It was a warming feeling that endeared her to him, but it was also another one of those things that was quite scary.

  “Come back,” he said to her as she walked past his table. “Come back and bring Cameron back to me. My house and my heart just aren’t the same.”

  She was shocked at his words, but she ignored him and went about her duties. When the clock struck six she rushed out the door to pick up the little boy from the nanny.

  “Agnes!” Charlie called to her as she walked briskly through the streets. She wanted to stop and tell him to go about his way, but she feared that might make her late and she did not have the time.

  “Will you stop for a minute,” he said catching up to her and taking her hand.

  She pulled away from him. “I will not stop because you don’t deserve it.”

  “You know I will never understand you,” he said and she heard the frustration in his voice. “For days on end you were intent on leaving and I fought you tooth and nail to stay. Then Jared forces you to and you are mad at me for letting you go. What is it that you truly want Agnes?”

  “Right now for you to leave me be,” she replied and again walked away. She could not allow herself to fall back into the warmth of his eyes and arms. She had been cast away too many times and it hurt.

  “Well, choose something else, because I will not leave you alone. For as long as it takes every day I will be on your doorstep begging you to come back and I will not stop until you return.”

  “Then you have a lot of energy you need to invest elsewhere,” she said as she turned down the alley and to the door that would take her to Cameron. She walked up, opened it and then put a hand on his chest to stop him from entering.

  “I will wait Agnes, until you see what I am trying to tell you.”

  She took Cameron and left through the door on the opposite side of the house, not wanting to put up with any more of Charlie’s rants, but when she came upon the inn she was surprised to see him seated on the outside with her belongings being loaded into the carriage.

  “What are you doing?” she asked him.

  “What I should have done a long time ago,” he replied as Cameron reached for him with joy and he plucked the baby from her reluctant arms. “You both came into my life and changed it for the better, and I will not have you slumming it out like you have no choice when my home is yours to have should you allow me to give it to you. Right now you will not come willingly and so I am taking the choice from you. If you hate me and refuse to speak to me then fine, but at least allow me the opportunity to make it all right Agnes. I am begging you.”

  Her heart wante
d to accept his pleas, but her mind wanted nothing more than to run. She could feel herself slipping back into the feeling of comfort and the safety he provided, but she just could not accept being turned out again. She reached for Cameron in one final attempt to say no, but Charlie stepped away.

  “Please come back,” he begged. “We miss you both.”

  When she wouldn’t respond he boarded the carriage with Cameron and gave her a daring glance. She was happy and upset all at the same time, but she didn’t want to cause a scene while she tried to figure out which emotion she would give in to. She climbed aboard and he grinned, happy she was with him. He wasted no time in telling the coach driver to take them home.

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  8

  Chapter EIGHT

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  “ … The child in her arms screamed… ”

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  Agnes sat there in the carriage fuming. She had been trying her best to get away from flirting Charlie who she just wanted to clobber, feeling as though she couldn’t win no matter what she did. The universe hated her and right now she hated it right back.

  “You know I am not yours, right?” she said to Charlie who looked at her in confused surprise.

  “I am sorry,” he said, his eyes demanding an explanation.

  “You say let’s go home like you think I belong to you. I am making it clear that this arrangement is very temporary.”