He stretched his long legs out in front of him. Back to Liberty Bell before nightfall. He’d take her home. He had a feeling that she’d get along fine with Lady Jane and Luther and Jezebel and Stonewall. There were stumbling blocks ahead, he realized. There were things in his past that she didn’t know. And maybe there were different things in her past that he was unaware of. Maybe marriage meant that when a man and a woman became one, forsaking all others, they found a shared place where their secrets, whether divulged or kept, were safe.
He didn’t know. But he did know that nothing in life had ever prepared him for the joy of his mail-order bride from Boston.
The End
Return to the TOC for Bonus Content
Seeking The Lord’s Grace
Chapter One
Krista always knew why her parents chose the great state of Vermont to raise a family. Vermont was warm in the summer, though not unbearably so. The mild climate was the exact reason Krista’s parents settled down in Vermont. Her mother was from Michigan, where the winters were brutal, and her father was from Tennessee, where the summers were stifling.
Vermont was the perfect compromise. Mild summers and snowy winters meant they could have the best of both worlds while leaving the worst behind. Krista lived among the rolling hills her entire life and didn’t know anything other than Vermont. Her eldest sister was born in Tennessee, though the family made the move to Vermont shortly after Rebecca found out she was pregnant with Krista.
Krista adored the hills and green trees. She loved her farm, and she loved her family. They lived on a farm that was miles from the nearest neighbor and a good day’s trip away from the nearest town. She and her sisters never went to school with other children and were taught to read and write at the hearth of the fireplace after a long day in the field.
Those moments spent with her family by the fireplace were some of the best memories Krista had. She would crawl next to her older sisters as her mother draped a blanket around their shoulders and went to sit in her own chair, a quilt in her lap and knitting needles in her hands. Krista opened her copy of the Bible and would follow along as her father read passages about grace and forgiveness.
She grew up in a devout family with close ties to the church and even closer ties to their small farming community. Mt. Pleasant, Vermont, was the type of community with a church at the center of everything. It was the type of place where everyone woke up on Sunday morning, dressed in their best clothes and enjoyed a heartfelt sermon. When the service was over, everyone would gather in a large field off to the side of the church to eat and pray together.
Krista thought she lived a perfect life. They weren’t rich, but they were happy, and they loved one another. She never wanted to leave her family or her farm behind, though she knew she would have to one day. Eventually Krista would be married off to a man who had something to offer her family. The only thing that consoled her was the fact that she would most likely stay in Mt. Pleasant.
Most girls were married off by the time they were 17, but as 17 came and went, Krista remained unmarried and continued living on the farm and working with her father, despite her mother’s constant insistence that she stay in the house and work on her needlepoint and cooking.
Krista wasn’t like most girls. She didn’t like staying locked inside, cooking and cleaning. She wasn’t worried about her fair complexion or tender hands. She was far more worried about the state of their cornfields and the health of their cows. She liked working with her hands and seeing the fruits of her labors. It only made it better that it kept the men at bay. No one was interested in such a strong-willed woman with rough hands and tanned skin.
Her mother suspected that if she were more ladylike she’d be married off in a heartbeat. She was beautiful, after all. Her long blond hair was often worn in a solid plait, and her big blue eyes were so wide and clear that people seemed to get lost in them. Freckles were peppered across her face like tiny kisses from angels, but even this ethereal beauty wasn’t enough to attract suitors.
Krista’s mother was always concerned about her daughter’s future, and they got into many heated fights on the subject of marriage. The last night she’d ever see her parents was on a night when one of these fights occurred. The sound of the screen door slamming closed was a sound that would haunt her for the rest of her life.
She was tired of fighting with her mother and ran into the woods to gather tinder to stoke the fire. The first snows of winter were starting to fall, and it seemed better to be prepared than not. Besides, it gave her a reason to get out of the house. Krista grunted angrily and snapped one of the thin branches, adding twig after twig to the little sled she brought with her.
By the time she turned around to go back to the house, the sun had disappeared behind the trees. She was sure that her family was in bed and asleep by now, which meant her mother couldn’t scold her for working outside anymore.
The first hint that something was wrong wasn’t the smell of smoke. It was cold in the winter, and they often ran the fire all night long. A strange orange glow managed to find its way through the trees. Krista’s heart skipped a beat. What could be putting off this light? She left the sled in the snow, picked the hem of her dress up and sprinted through the woods, eyes wide. She hardly even noticed the stinging of branches cutting into the flesh of her legs.
When she broke through the tree line, she saw a sight that would burn itself into her mind for the rest of her life. The farmhouse she loved so dearly was engulfed by hot flames. Long, orange fingers reached into the sky as the fire crackled and popped. Neighbors were already on the scene, desperately throwing water and sand onto the inferno, though nothing seemed to be helping. The house was gone and so were the people who’d been left inside. Most people suspected that a stray ember popped out of the fireplace and set the cabin on fire.
Krista’s first instinct was to try and run inside the house. She barely made it to the porch before a family friend snagged her around the waist and pulled her away.
“No! Mother! Father!” she screamed, her arm outstretched toward the house.
The man dragged her away, collapsing in the snow due to the struggle. “They’re gone, Krista! They’re gone!”
Krista shook her head, fat tears spilling down her cheeks as she tried crawling back toward the house, falling into the dirty snow and curling up on her side. The noises around her became a hum. All she could hear was the crackling of beams as the fire ate through what she held closest to her heart. She lay on the freezing ground, sobbing and trying to figure out why this happened to her. She couldn’t help but wish she’d been in the house when it went up. It would have been easier to die than to live without them.
Chapter Two
Krista wasn’t ever going to be the same again. She knew it, and the people around her seemed to know it as well. How could anyone expect her to be normal after what happened? This loss shook the entire community, but no one suffered as much as Krista.
The first two weeks following the fire the poor girl didn’t speak at all. She just stared out the church window for hours at a time, lost in a daze. No one could shake her out of it no matter how hard they tried. It was the only way Krista knew how to handle the sudden loss of everything that was important to her. There was nothing left for her, and she didn’t know how to reconcile that loss.
Everyone in town was very kind and very generous following the fire, but the people who stepped forward and offered to take Krista in were the preacher and his wife. It only made sense for them to take care of her because they’d known Krista and her family her whole life. Michael served as the priest in Mt. Pleasant for the past 40 years and his father before him.
They were more than kind, and Krista couldn’t have asked for better caretakers, but she didn’t feel at ease. Michael and his wife were elderly and didn’t have much money to spare. They lived on donations and a government stipend. Their house was on the church property and so small that Krista wasn’t even able to have a room
inside of it. She stayed in the church itself, creating a makeshift bed out of a small loft used for storage. It was small, but it was a warm bed out of the snow.
Michael and Sara did their best to make sure Krista had everything she could ever want, but as winter turned to spring, their purse strings got a little tighter. It was clear that funds were running low, and their limited budget was being stretched. The longer she stayed, the more Sara tried to find Krista a man to marry.
If the men of Mt. Pleasant weren’t interested before, they definitely weren’t interested now. Krista went from a loud, opinionated woman to one who barely spoke and always seemed to have a faraway look in her eyes. She wasn’t stable, and that scared most of the men around town. They didn’t know what to think of her.
Krista was a smart girl and quickly picked up on why Sara seemed so desperate to find her a husband. She knew she was wearing out her welcome and needed to figure out what she was going to do. Krista knew that she couldn’t say in Mt. Pleasant. She was a marked woman here. No man would look at her twice. She would have to go somewhere where no one knew who she was and what she’d been through.
She considered asking Michael and Sara for money so that she could go to Chicago. She’d heard that women in Chicago worked and made their own way. Maybe she wouldn’t have to get married if she could make it in a place like that. It seemed like a good idea—until she learned how expensive it was to get to the White City. She tossed that idea out and went back to the drawing board.
Krista prayed every night for an answer, hoping that someone upstairs was listening to her. Someone must have been because her answer came to her in the most unexpected way.
She was buying Michael and Sara some food supplies at the local market when she spotted the newspaper. It was advertising the World Fair in Chicago. She was still dreaming of make it there one day, so she picked up a copy of the newspaper and skimmed through the article as she waited for the store clerk to fetch what she’d ordered.
The back of the newspaper was full of want ads. They were mostly for businesses looking to hire someone to work for the World Fair, though there were some that were people looking for a specific item or animal. The ad that caught her attention, however, was not one for farm animals or work. It was for a bride. The man who’d written it was very forthcoming about the nature of this transaction. He needed a wife to help him take care of his expansive ranch, and he was willing to pay good money to get her there.
Her heart skipped a beat. She stared at the ad, hearing a chorus of angels in her mind. This was it. This was the answer she’d been looking for. She cradled the newspaper to her chest, eyes wide. Her mouth felt dry, and a smile was coming to her lips. It was so wide it hurt her cheeks.
The store clerk offered her a strange look, cocking a bushy eyebrow as his assistants stacked the potatoes and sugar she’d ordered on the back of her cart.
“Ma’am? Are you all right?”
“I’m …wonderful,” she whispered, her voice breathless as she turned and slammed the newspaper onto the counter. “Add this to the bill, please.”
She knew she shouldn’t be spending the extra money, but this ad was her only way out and the only way she was going to keep her head above water. This was the answer to her prayers. She wasn’t about to ignore it.
Chapter Three
Krista kept her communication with the man from Montana a secret. She didn't want Michael and Sara catching on, knowing that they'd be worried about her and probably ban her from going. They were good people. It would be difficult for them to understand why Krista was willing to take the risk
The letters sent back and forth between Vermont and Montana were few and far between. They exchanged very little personal information and kept the tone of the conversation professional. She managed to get him to agree to pay all of her travel expenses as well as a $500 dowry that would be sent to the church upon her arrival. It would be her last gesture of kindness to the loving preacher who took her in.
Once the travel money was sent, Krista slipped away in the night, planting one final kiss on foreheads of the two people in this town who never gave up on her. She was sad to be leaving the only town she’d ever known, but she couldn’t help but feel some excitement at the fact that she was going to a place where no one knew her name. She was eager to be in town where no one gave her pitied looks.
Once she boarded the train she didn't look back. She was ready to start her life over again, even if it meant traveling far, far away from her lush green home.
The train ride was absolutely terrifying. She'd never been on one before, so every time it rumbled or shook, she would let out a frightened squeak and close her eyes, gripping the armrest near her seat. Her reactions caused the more well-traveled folks to look at her with confused, worried expressions. Krista was far too concerned with the movement of the train to be worried about the other passengers.
She tried to distract herself by watching the American landscape roll by. A man in a handsome blue uniform with shiny buttons would occasionally stroll through the cars and point out the various states and landmarks. He pointed out Chicago as they passed. Krista’s heart ached for it. She could have been a working woman and instead she was on her way to Montana to be someone's wife. She considered hopping off the train in Chicago but then remembered the kindly preacher who would only receive the money he desperately needed if Krista made it to Billings.
She gave the White City a halfhearted wave as the train rolled on and leaned back against her seat, deciding she was going to try and sleep as much of the way as possible. It seemed like the best possible option because the jolting movements of the train still made her stomach roll. The strategy seemed to work. Krista made it the rest of the way through the trip to Montana.
When the train finally arrived in Billings, Krista was the first one off the train, more than happy to have her feet back on solid, unmoving ground. She could have kissed the ground but managed to keep her composure and stood up straight, taking a moment to observe her surroundings. Tall, red mountains rose in the distance, though the land directly in front of her was mostly flat with a few rolling hills. The ground was bare except for a few fir trees that sprouted tall, reaching for the clouds.
The landscape was absolutely beautiful. She nearly forgot to breathe. All she’d ever known were the green hills and woods of Vermont. This was like a totally different world all together. She was so busy staring at the mountains and vast, clear sky that she didn’t notice the large mob of people trying to move around her like a river around a rock.
She finally shook her head, coming back to reality and following the rest of the crowd into the train station. The building was large and packed with people. Mothers sat with children, and rugged men smoked cigarettes, blowing gray smoke into the air. The smell made her nose itch, and she covered her mouth and nose as she all but ran out of the station, eager to see what was just outside the doors.
Just beyond the train station was a town bigger than anything Krista ever saw before. The little town she frequently went to in order to retrieve food orders and other supplies was much smaller than the shop-lined streets she stood in front of now. There was everything from hat shops to general stores all in one strip. Women walked around the streets in fashionable dresses, kicking up red dust as they moved about.
Krista’s baby blue eyes were wide, hardly believing what she was seeing. She expected very little from a Western city. All she’d heard of the West was that it was barren and lifeless. It was a place where gunmen roamed and women were constantly being kidnapped for ransom. It was hard to imagine any of that stuff happening in a place so full of life.
She tucked some hair behind her ear and stepped off the porch of the train station, looking around for any sign of the man who was going to be her husband.
One of the first things she noticed was that there were far more men than women, and it worried her. How was she supposed to find her husband?
Just as she started to feel nervou
s, she turned and saw a man with jet-black hair riding into town. His horse was just as dark as his hair, and his nearly black eyes seemed to burn into her. He wore a serious expression. There was a sign draped around his horse’s neck: Krista Richards.
Chapter Four
Krista stared up at the man on the horse, hesitating to walk over to him. She thought he looked intimidating. She chewed her lip a little but took a deep breath before jogging over toward the towering man on the horse, picking her dress up off the dusty ground.
“Sir!” she called, one delicate hand in the air.
The man looked down at her from the horse, seemingly sizing her up. He grunted, tugging on his horse’s reins, though he didn’t actually say anything. She stopped just short of the lumbering horse and took a breath.
“I’m Krista.”
He cocked a brow and crossed his arms over his and shook his head slowly. “I expected someone more … delicate.”
She frowned, her brows knitting together as she took a step back, standing her ground and crossing her own arms. “Well, I’m sorry, but you got me,” she said sternly.
He sighed and shook his head back and forth, holding his worn hand out to her. Krista walked over and took his hand, lifting her foot and putting one on the stirrup and hauling herself up onto the horse. Now that she was closer to the man, she could see that he hadn’t shaved in a few days, and there were wrinkles in the corner of his rich brown eyes. His eyelashes were surprisingly long, and his nose sloped to an almost delicate point. His features were masculine and pleasing to the eye. It was a shame his attitude was so rotten.
She wrapped her arms around him for a moment, leaning against his back. She didn’t want to be this thankful for his warmth, but she couldn’t help it. It felt good, and it felt safe to be so close to someone like him. Krista could feel the rippling of muscles under his shirt and closed her eyes, allowing herself to rest. She’d managed to sleep a lot on the train ride, but it wasn’t good sleep. It was desperate sleep to try to forget the fact that she left everything she loved and knew behind.
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