Western Christmas Brides

by Lauri Robinson

  “She’s joining the mayor and reverend at Rollie Austin’s place that day.”

  “And you weren’t invited?” That seemed terribly rude, even for Abigail.

  “Yes, I was invited, but I eat at the hotel almost every day. Brett’s invitation sounded more enjoyable.”

  His smile enticed her to offer one in return. “Then I hope you won’t be disappointed.”

  “That would be impossible.” He touched the brim of his hat. “Good day, Mrs. Olsen.”

  “Good day, Mr. White.” Upon closing the door behind him, she drew a deep breath and leaned her forehead against the solid wood for a moment. Why? Why couldn’t any of the other men on her list make her heart thud? Teddy was as opposite from Eric as a man could be. Eric had been loud and impulsive—two things Teddy certainly wasn’t.

  However, he did have one thing in common with Eric. His family hated her. She had lived with hatred her entire life, and was determined her child would never experience it.

  Chapter Two

  Teddy willed himself not to turn around for a final look. Hannah had already closed the door, so he wouldn’t see her. Other than in his mind. A place where her image was etched as perfectly as the pictures she flawlessly carved into the blocks of wood. He’d been printing newspapers for as long as he could remember and producing multiple copies of pictures was not an easy task. Leastwise it never used to be. His and Abigail’s engravings always collected ink and left globs that bled into the print. That hadn’t happened once with Hannah’s creations.

  Her etchings were as flawless as her beauty. He’d been alongside Brett the day Hannah had stepped off the train, and had tried to keep his distance from that moment on. He’d fallen for a forlorn young woman once before and promised himself it would never happen again.

  Keeping his distance had been easy at first. Brett’s mother had sent Hannah to Oak Grove and Brett and Fiona had taken her into their home and protected her as strongly as a mother bear would a cub in spring. The entire town discovered why when Hannah’s shape had begun to change.

  Teddy let out a long sigh as his hands started to tingle. Touching her, feeling that baby move inside her, had been amazing. Miraculous even. And caused a large amount of compassion to well inside him. She was so young to be widowed and now was expecting a child all on her own.

  Only she wasn’t on her own. Brett and Fiona treated her like family and would continue to.

  Still, in a town the size of Oak Grove, which was small compared to many but growing steadily, a single woman—widowed or not, expecting or not—was a highly sought after commodity. Last summer the town had formed a Betterment Committee in order to bring suitable women of marrying age to town. Several men had married the mail-order brides, but although he’d contributed to the committee, too, he hadn’t sought out any of the brides. Hadn’t even considered doing so. He’d only gone along with the cause for appearance’s sake. Five years ago he’d gone down the road that led to marriage, but had hit a painful roadblock, which had taught him a valuable lesson.

  That was part of the reason he’d kept his distance from Hannah and would continue to, even though her growing stomach made her all the more beautiful to him. He could imagine her having a baby girl with golden curls and blue eyes as lovely as her mother’s.

  A tremendous sense of satisfaction grew inside of him as he once again recalled touching her stomach. Feeling the baby move. He couldn’t believe that had happened. Knew it shouldn’t have happened, because every time he looked at her, he was reminded of another young girl carrying a baby. One he’d been ready to claim as his own.

  A gust of wind caught him off guard. Teddy tightened his hold on the papers and blocks of wood in his hands, but relentless, the wind won and the bottom piece of paper caught the air. Teddy hurried after it, and stopped it with a stomp of one foot. While bending down to pick it up, he paused. Rather than a drawing, this one held writing. Neat and stylish penmanship he instantly recognized as Hannah’s.

  He grasped the paper and turned about, all set to return it to her, until he scanned the sheet a bit more closely.

  A shiver that had nothing to do with the blustery wind, or the bits of ice it tossed about, raced across his shoulders. It was a list of men. Of men he knew full well were actively looking for a wife. And his name wasn’t on it.

  That should make him happy, yet his shoulders slumped as his gaze bounced between Brett’s house and the list a couple times.

  “What are you studying so hard?”

  Teddy spun around at the sound of Brett’s voice. Teddy had said he’d stop by on his way back and knew Brett would be watching for him. Stuffing the paper into his pocket, he replied, “Just a list.”

  “Of Hannah’s drawings?”

  He gestured to his arm load. “Got them all right here.”

  “I was just walking over to check on you. You were there quite a while.”

  “She offered me a cup of coffee and I accepted.”

  With black hair and shoulders as broad as the back end of a horse, Brett towered over most men in town. His size didn’t intimidate Teddy, but he did respect Brett, and valued their friendship.

  As Brett glanced toward his house again, Teddy said, “I’ve already spoken to Abigail. She won’t request so many etchings all at one time again. I hadn’t realized it was so many.”

  “Make sure she doesn’t,” Brett said. “Hannah’s time is getting closer and she needs her rest.”

  “When did you become a doctor?”

  Brett grinned. “I’m not, but I should be with half the women in town asking about Hannah and giving me advice about what she needs to do, including my own wife.” Brett’s face turned serious. “Hannah’s become awfully quiet lately, like she was when she first arrived. I’m worried about her, Teddy. Real worried.”

  His heart skipped a beat. “Do you think she’s ill?”

  “Fiona says she’s not. But she’s back to barely eating enough to keep a bird alive.”

  Recalling something Hannah had said, Teddy suggested, “Maybe she’s homesick. She mentioned thinking about the holidays back home.”

  “That could be it,” Brett said, turning about.

  Teddy fell into step beside his friend. Brett’s blacksmith shop as well as the feed store he owned was on the edge of town and only a short distance from his house.

  Most of the blacksmithing took place in the lean-to, and as they skirted the far wall, Teddy let out a whistle. “That wind is brutal today.” Thankful to be out of the biting wind he moved closer to the blazing fire in the open forge in the center of the open area.

  “Yeah, it is,” Brett replied. “Homesick, huh?”

  Teddy nodded. “The first few holidays after our parents died were hard for me and Abigail.”

  “That’s why Fiona suggested inviting you to Thanksgiving,” Brett said as he rubbed his chin. “She thought the company would do Hannah good. I’ll talk to her about inviting others.”

  Teddy’s first instinct had been to say no when Brett had invited him to Thanksgiving, but out of respect, he’d said yes. Now his concern was for Hannah. “I don’t know about that,” he said. “Too many would just be more work for her and Fiona.”

  “That’s true,” Brett said.

  “And don’t forget the recital at the school that afternoon. There will be a lot of people there.”

  “It would be impossible to forget about that,” Brett said, grinning. “Rhett and Wyatt have been practicing their lines so often I know Lincoln’s proclamation by heart.”

  Teddy laughed. Brett had taken to Fiona’s two boys as soon as they’d hit town, and treated them as if they were his own. Teddy turned to stare into the flames of the fire. He’d been willing to do that once. Love a child that wasn’t his. It hadn’t come to be, though. A week before the wedding, the real father
had shown up. He’d stepped back, told Becky he understood and buried the pain of rejection.

  To others Becky may only have been a barmaid who’d gotten herself into the family way, but she’d been more than that to him. He’d fallen in love with her, and when she’d first said she was going to have a baby, he’d thought he was the father. She’d insisted he wasn’t. That it was a cowboy who had visited her regularly, but hadn’t come back since she told him about the baby. Without any contemplation, he’d told her not to worry, that he’d marry her and claim the baby as his own, and had set plans in place to do just that.

  Shaking aside ghosts of the past, Teddy moved away from the forge. “I better get these over to the office,” he said.

  “Thanks, Teddy,” Brett said. “You’ve been a good friend, and helped Hannah out by letting her make those etchings.”

  “She’s very good at it,” he answered honestly.

  Brett nodded. “She is, but...”

  The hair on the back of his neck tingled. “But what?”

  Brett seemed to shrink a bit as he shook his head slowly. “Hannah’s been through some rough times.”

  “Well, she seems to have handled it well,” Teddy replied. “Maybe she’s stronger than she looks.”

  Brett shook his head with more purpose this time. “You haven’t heard her crying herself to sleep at night.”

  Teddy had no answer for that, and the paper in his pocket suddenly felt as hot as the flames of Brett’s forge.

  Chapter Three

  With so much that needed to be done, Hannah was up early. Quietly, so not to wake Brett and Fiona, whose bedroom was off the kitchen, she stoked up the fire and then gathered a knife and bowl to start cleaning out the three pumpkins sitting on the counter.

  She loved all the cooking that went into preparing Thanksgiving dinner. A wave of sadness that she wouldn’t be there to help Gram this year had her squeezing the knife a bit harder as she sliced the top off the first pumpkin. She missed Gram and it made her heart hurt to think of never seeing her and Pappy again. They were the only two people, besides Eric, who truly cared about her. But the warning from her father never to return to her family couldn’t be ignored.

  A sound on the porch had her spinning about, and the knock that sounded a moment later had her glancing toward the closed bedroom door before she started across the room.

  It was awfully early for company. The sun was just starting to rise. Cautiously, Hannah pulled open the door just wide enough to see who stood there. Her heart thudded at the sight of Teddy.

  “T—Mr. White, what are you doing here so early?” she asked, taking a step back, away from the blast of cold air.

  The bedroom door opened just then. “Come in, Teddy,” Brett said, poking only his head around the door. “I’ll be right out.”

  Teddy stepped into the kitchen and closed the door. “Brett and I are going turkey hunting this morning.” His gaze dropped to her side, to her hand specifically. “Do you always answer the door with a butcher knife in hand?”

  His question, or perhaps the twinkle in his eyes, allowed her to relax enough that the air she’d been holding whooshed out. “No, I was cleaning pumpkins,” she answered, using the knife to gesture to the counter.

  “Oh, I see,” Teddy said.

  She hadn’t made any coffee yet, so couldn’t offer him that, and was in the midst of wondering what to say next and how to maneuver around him when the bedroom door opened and Brett strolled out. She used that opportunity to scurry across the room, hoping the distance would calm her insides.

  “Ready to shoot a bird?” Brett asked Teddy.

  “I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t,” Teddy replied.

  Brett sat down in the chair to pull on his boots. “Hannah, I told Fiona I’ll do the chores when I get back,” he said. “There’s no need for either of you to go out in the cold this morning.”

  “We’ll have breakfast ready when you get back,” Fiona said, walking out of the bedroom.

  Tall and slender with long brown hair and hazel eyes, Fiona was a pretty woman, but it was her happiness that made her beautiful. It was as if she was part angel the way she floated around, smiling and glowing. Having seven sisters, all married, Hannah had been around a lot of couples, and Brett and Fiona had to love each other more than any two people she’d ever seen. The longer she lived with them, the more deeply she wanted to experience love like that. To have someone look at her the way those two looked at each other.

  “There will be plenty for you, too, Teddy,” Fiona said, “so come back hungry.”

  “Thank you.”

  The sound of his voice sent her heart into another unexpected bout of hammering and Hannah dropped the knife. She caught it before it fell all the way to the floor, but flinched as the blade nicked the end of her finger.

  “Are you all right?” Teddy asked, instantly arriving at her side.

  “Fine, just clumsy.” Hannah set the knife down, but wrapped the tip of her finger with her other hand. It couldn’t be very deep, so it shouldn’t be bleeding too much. There was no reason for any of this. Not for her heart to pound so hard, or for him to have rushed to her side.

  “Let me see,” he insisted.

  “It’s nothing, really,” Hannah replied, cautiously unfolding her fingers to take a peek. Relieved, she held the finger up. “See? It’s not even bleeding.”

  He took ahold of her hand to give her finger a thorough inspection, and she was glad she’d set the knife down, otherwise she’d have dropped it all over again. Her heart was racing faster than ever, and her hand, where he touched it, burned as if on fire.

  “Here, let me see,” Fiona said.

  “It’s fine,” Hannah said, pulling her hand to her side as soon as Teddy’s hold relaxed. “Really.” She stepped back, and tried to slow her breathing.

  “Well, you men best get going,” Fiona said, while giving her a scrutinizing gaze.

  Hannah turned about and moved the pumpkins around just for something to do.

  As soon as the men left, Fiona asked, “Are you doing all right? You’ve seemed a bit preoccupied lately.”

  Hannah started scraping the inside of a pumpkin. “I’m fine. Just excited about the holidays. They’ve always been my favorite time of the year.” That was true. Despite everything, the joy the holidays always instilled in her was still there. The idea of hope, of miracles happening, still lived within her.

  “I’m more excited about them than I’ve ever been.”

  Something in Fiona’s soft tone had Hannah turning to look at her. “You haven’t always enjoyed them?”

  Fiona shook her head. “Most years they were no different than any other day. There wasn’t the money to have special meals. I always managed to come up with some small gifts for Rhett and Wyatt on Christmas Day, but...” She sighed and wiped her hands on her apron. “That’s in the past. This year will be the best Christmas ever. And Thanksgiving, too. I can’t remember the last time I ate turkey.”

  Hannah couldn’t help but notice how Fiona was rubbing her stomach. As their eyes met again, Fiona’s smile grew. Comprehension hit Hannah like a gust of wind. “You’re expecting.”

  Fiona glanced over her shoulder, toward the parlor where stairs led to the second floor and the bedrooms Wyatt and Rhett slept in. “Yes, but we haven’t told the boys yet. Haven’t told anyone. Dr. Graham confirmed my suspicions last week. I saw him after attending the quilting club. Brett and I decided we’ll tell the boys on Christmas Day.”

  Hannah wiped her hands clean in order to hug her friend. “They will be so happy.”

  “I believe they will. So many things have happened this past year, since their father died,” Fiona said. “I’d almost lost hope. Then we moved out here and I married Brett. Some days I pinch myself, just to make sure I’m not dreaming.
That my life really is this wonderful.” Fiona pressed a hand to her stomach as they parted. “I love my sons with all my heart, but I can’t say I was ever this excited about being pregnant. With each of them, I worried about feeding them, providing for them. I no longer have those worries, all because of Brett.”

  “He loves you very much,” Hannah said. How Brett and Fiona behaved toward one another had influenced her thoughts when it came to considering her options for a possible husband. They were kind to each other, which seemed obvious, but it hadn’t been that way in her family.

  Fiona’s smile grew soft. “Brett is so easy to love. At first that seemed so strange to me. He’s the exact opposite of Sam.”

  “He is?” Hannah asked. Fiona had made mention of her first husband, but never said much about him.

  “Oh, yes,” Fiona said. “But it’s more than that. My love for Brett is different than what I felt for Sam. Love is like that. We can love different people, in different ways. Sam was Rhett and Wyatt’s father, and I will always honor his memory, but I will also embrace my new life for what it is now.” She giggled. “You could say I now look at things with a whole new perspective.” Fiona closed her eyes as she laid both hands on her stomach. “This baby is more than a blessing. It’s a true gift from God.”

  Hannah couldn’t help but place a hand on her own stomach and wonder if she would ever look at things with a new perspective. She and Eric had loved each other very much, and planned on leaving Wisconsin, leaving all the hatred between their families behind. The very hatred that had ultimately killed him.

  “Oh, listen to me, going on,” Fiona said. “I’m sorry.”

  “Why would you be sorry?” As soon as she asked, Hannah read the sadness in Fiona’s eyes.

  “Your baby is a blessing, too,” Fiona said. “Just think about it. Our babies will grow up together. They’ll be as close as siblings.”

  Hannah forced the smile to remain on her lips. “Yes, yes they will.” It was a wonderful thought, but her baby needed a father before siblings. However, she refused to dampen Fiona’s joy.