Annie: A Bride For The Farmhand - A Clean Historical Western Romance (Stewart House Brides Book 3)

by Charity Phillips

  She packed up some of Nicky’s things into a bag so that he would at least have a few outfits to wear. Virginia did not want to be so obvious in her scheming and just pack everything he had, but she packed for at least a few days.

  Mrs. Kline was delighted by this turn of events. “Oh, Mrs. Monroe, it is always so wonderful when a member of our staff decides to adopt one of our children,” she told her.

  Virginia felt a bit shy at that. “I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up just yet, but I am optimistic. I always try to be.”

  Instead of stopping to meet with her friends, she took a carriage with Nicky and went straight home to the ranch house. She did not want to waste any time, especially because she knew that preparing the child for a proper introduction would take some time.

  “Welcome to my home,” she said to Nicky, carefully and gently ushering him inside. He was dressed in a shirt and trousers made of linen which Virginia herself had made for him. It was proper orphanage attire, though she hoped to have him dressed in sweet little boy clothes soon enough rather than the slightly militaristic uniform of an orphan.

  She sat Nicky down onto the sofa and offered him a small plate of left-over cakes from that morning. Virginia adored how his little legs could not touch the floor when he sat back on the sofa, getting comfortable in his new surroundings. She knew that, growing up in the orphanage, he had had no opportunity to relax like that, so she appreciated that she was giving it to him now.

  Archie came into the house and paused in the back doorway when he saw what was awaiting him in the living room. It was like he had forgotten or had not thought that Virginia was serious about the child of Indian parentage.

  “Come in, Archie,” Virginia said with a smile. He couldn’t tell who she was trying to comfort–him, or the little boy that was sitting on the sofa. He could not see much of him yet, except for the top of his shiny black-haired head.

  Slowly, Archie came into the room. He looked down at the little boy–the little Indian boy–who was likely related to the monsters who came in the night to destroy his property. The boy looked up at him, and Archie noticed his dark, puppy dog-like eyes; he had to admit, at least inwardly, that this child was adorable and seemed innocent enough.

  ****

  “Hello,” Archie said in a shy tone, letting himself sink down onto the sofa so that Nicky sat between him and Virginia. “You must be the little boy that my wife has been telling me about. I’m Mr. Monroe. What’s your name?”

  Virginia smiled at him. He was doing very well for someone who had been so vehemently opposed to this the night before. She also appreciated seeing the way that he interacted with the child, because she had never seen Archie with children before. She knew that Dorothy’s intended had children, and she had so longed to be a mother herself.

  Nicky, for his part, behaved splendidly. He really perked up just having another male there with them. “Hello!” he said enthusiastically back to Archie, rubbing his hands together to get rid of any crumbs from the coffee cakes. “My name is Nicky. It is nice to meet you, sir.”

  Archie looked from Nicky to Virginia. She could see that he was having some sort of inner battle with himself now, and it made her happy almost to the point of laughing.

  “Could I speak alone with Miss Virginia for a moment?” he asked the child. “Um…you may help yourself to any book you would like to read,” he added, gesturing to the vast bookshelf that surrounded the furniture in the room.

  She stood up from the couch and gave Nicky an encouraging smile. “Have fun,” she told him, “but be careful with Mr. Monroe’s books. He does not like it when they get messy.” That warning was not entirely based on fact; Archie had never voiced concern over the organization of his books before, but she figured that giving him this instruction could never hurt.

  Archie led Virginia across the hall and into the doorway of their dining room. They were able to keep Nicky in sight that way, in case anything of importance happened. Archie leaned an arm against the door frame and let a sigh escape him. “You are going to do me in, I know it,” he said, shaking his head. For a moment, Virginia was worried that she had overstepped her bounds by actually bringing the child there rather than just threatening to. However, when Archie looked at her, a smile suddenly found its way across his face.

  “Isn’t he sweet?” she asked him. “He is a very good little boy, and I really do feel like he could be the key to solving this crisis—regardless of anything else.”

  Archie chuckled a bit then and, glancing over his shoulder at Nicky, shook his head again before looking back at her. “Oh, don’t you even,” he said, chuckling some more. “You knew what you were doing when you brought him here. He is a sweet boy. He’s polite and quiet and, heck…if you really want him here with us, Ginny, who am I to say no? I’ve always wanted a child, and this one needs parents.”

  Virginia gazed at him, her mouth open in surprise and wonderment. “Oh, Archie!” she cried. She leapt into his arms and gave him a kiss. “You will not regret this. We will take such good care of him. He will make you proud, I just know it!”

  Nicky looked over at them, wondering what was going on to cause such an outburst. He slunk back from the bookshelf and moved back to the sofa as though he had been caught doing something he shouldn’t have.

  “I’ll believe it when I see it,” Archie said with a smile. “But you know me, Ginny. Do you think I’m heartless? The boy needs folks like us.”

  They went together, hand in hand, back to the sofa and told Nicky the good news. “Mr. Monroe and I would like to adopt you, Nicky,” Virginia explained to him. “Do you know what that means?”

  Nicky stared at them in happy surprise. He gasped and nodded, and then began to cry.

  “There, there, Nicky,” Virginia cooed, bringing the boy into her arms and petting his hair. “It’s okay. It’s all going to be okay now.”

  Archie reached over and gave the boy’s back a gentle rub. “We want you to come and live here with us,” he said. “I will teach you how to be a rancher like me.” He looked a bit uncomfortable saying it. The problems with the Indians were still there, but he was beginning to see the light in Virginia’s plans for the future.

  ****

  Virginia and Archie worked together to bring everything that belonged to Nicky over to the ranch from the orphanage. He was sad to say goodbye to the friends he had made there, though with his adoptive mother still working at the orphanage, he knew that he would be able to pay them all a visit as long as they continued to live there. Not long afterwards, Virginia and her friends–fresh after the arrival of her beloved friend Eliza at the orphanage’s school house!–organized a sewing circle. This allowed Virginia to make all of the clothing she had longed to make, but could not handle with only her two hands and one old sewing machine. Before too long, she had several new outfits ready for Nicky as well as some mended shirts and jackets for Archie. It felt wonderful to be doing an activity like that with her friends. Missoula Mills was starting to feel ever so much like home to her.

  Archie had really taken to Nicky and the little boy looked up to him with great admiration. One afternoon, Archie went outside with Nicky to show him the ropes of working in the stables and on the pasture, caring for the horses and making sure the cows were fed and watered. Just as Archie began to instruct Nicky on how to repair the gate to the stable, he noticed a flash in his peripheral vision: a trio of Indians were fast approaching, wielding spears and knives while shouting in their native language.

  Instinctively, Archie moved quickly to shield the boy, but Nicky stood his own ground like a natural, barking back at them in the same tongue. The Indians—and Archie, for that matter—were quite taken aback and they looked at him with great interest. They nodded and slowly began to retreat, allowing Nicky and Archie to get back to work in peace.

  Archie was astonished. He had no idea what had been said, but for once, it seemed that the Indians might back down and leave the land—and Archie—alone.
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br />   When Virginia returned home from work that evening, she found Archie and Nicky out back. Archie was leading Nicky around on a smaller horse, and they looked like they were having a great deal of fun talking and laughing. Virginia smiled and called out, “It looks like you’ve had a good day!”

  Archie thought it was best to not scare Virginia with the latest tale of the Indians. Nothing had come of it, and there was no sense in getting her upset about it after the fact. He smiled at her and nodded a little. “This boy is a natural, Ginny. He is going to be one heck of a ranch hand someday.”

  It was such a relief to her, to see her two boys getting along. She had feared that Archie would never like having an Indian boy in his home, but he treated little Nicky just like a son and it warmed her heart.

  One early evening after she had spent time with her friends, Virginia returned home to discover that the sheriff was there along with Archie, Nicky and their housekeeper, Marion. Everyone appeared grave-faced. “What is going on?” Virginia asked, removing her jacket from her shoulders and placing it on a hanging rack by the front door. “Has something happened?”

  “Sheriff Bradford says that the Indians want to come here–their leader, that is… They have requested a parley.”

  “A parley?” Virginia asked Archie, looking from him to the sheriff. “What on earth does that mean?” She was familiar with the term, of course, but she was disbelieving of the fact that the Indian chief wanted to come to an agreement with her husband.

  “It has come to the chief’s attention that you have a—a boy,” Sheriff Bradford said. It was the first full sentence he had said to her. After hearing Eliza explain her problems with the shy gentleman, Virginia understood why. “They have a proposition for you, and I…I believe they would like to settle this ongoing situation—peacefully.”

  “Oh! Can this be true, Sheriff?” Virginia asked; she was a bit uneasy, yet her heart was hopeful. She went to Nicky and gave his head a soothing kiss. The child seemed to be nowhere near as nervous as the adults that surrounded him were. “Well, then. Let’s parley.”

  Sheriff Bradford excused himself from the house via the back exit. That surprised her more than anything. “The chief is already out there?” she asked, amazed.

  Archie nodded. “Bradford brought him as soon as he could. I told him that I would agree to see him if it would help to get this horrible mess over with.”

  Virginia smiled, glad of the fact that Archie was doing his best to fix the issues with the Indians. The sheriff came back into the house a few moments later, leading the chief inside.

  The Indian chief was wearing an outfit made of leather and he had feathers in his long, black and slightly graying hair. He wore several long necklaces made up of many beads and had the same coffee-colored skin that Nicky had. He did not seem threatening, especially because he carried nothing in his hands. No weapon at all.

  “Hello,” Archie said to the man, stepping forward and offering his hand to the Indian. “Thank you for meeting with me.”

  Immediately, Nicky began to translate Archie’s words into a message that the Indian could understand. Virginia was overwhelmed with a supreme sense of pride in both of her boys. They were working together to mend things between the tribe and the Monroe ranch. She did not know what had set the Indians off in the first place, but she knew that they were about to find out.

  “He says that it has nothing to do with you,” Nicky said, looking up at his adoptive father and holding onto his hand as if that would help the two men stay in accord with each other. “This land was once theirs. They used part of it as their burial grounds, so the land is sacred to them.”

  Virginia was always impressed with how well the little Indian boy spoke English, but then she had to remember that he had been brought up by the orphanage, which was largely run by devout ladies who taught Bible lessons along with reading and arithmetic.

  Archie appeared to be taken aback and appalled that the lands where he kept his ranch were once Indian burial grounds. “That is a sacred thing, indeed,” he said thoughtfully and with care. For a moment, he did not say anything. Then he looked at Nicky, his brow set as if he had made up his mind. “Please tell this man that I will gladly work something out with him so that he and his people may come back here to honor their loved ones, provided that they respect my family and my property from here on out.”

  Nicky gladly translated this for him, smiling a bit at the older chief, who listened carefully to his words, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. Archie was not completely giving the land back. The land had been given to the settlers in the Treaty of Hellgate, and he could not break the terms of the treaty. However, if the Indians from the Nukiy tribe vowed to be faithful to Archie’s wishes, the rancher would respect them and their fallen family members.

  The chief said something, choosing his words carefully as well. Virginia was quite mesmerized by what was happening before her very eyes. A peace agreement was being made, all thanks to Nicky—and her light meddling. She was proud of herself, but of course she was not going to take credit.

  “He says that he will tell his people to do as you say,” Nicky translated. “They only wish for a small piece of the land here.” Then he pointed to the stable—the place where they had stolen a cow.

  Virginia wished that there had been a better way for the Indians to have requested such a thing without resorting to violent upheaval. But then again, she knew that they were savage and different from the hard-working settlers that had made the land their own. However, as she looked upon her brave and intelligent little boy, she thought about how he was just like them. He had learned English and lived amongst the settlers who dwelt in Missoula Mills, but he was still an Indian; still a Nukiy. Still a Kootenai, as Mrs. Kline had once referenced when she passed on the known information about him to Virginia.

  As she watched the three men conversing with each other, her husband on one side and the chief on the other, with her son as the bridge between the two cultures, Virginia realized the truth in what she had always believed to be right. Nicky seemed to live in two worlds, and the two worlds could benefit from that as long as Nicky was happy to help.

  At the end of the discussion, the chief shook hands with Archie and then made his way outside through the back door. “It sounds like you have made the beginnings of an alliance,” Virginia said optimistically.

  Archie smiled a bit, tousling Nicky’s dark hair. “That’s far better than I ever could have expected.”

  They each thanked Nicky for all of his help, and then they shared a dinner with him to celebrate this momentous occasion. Finally, the three of them could all live at peace—as a family.

  THE END

  Mail Order Bride: Dorothy’s Journey

  Story Description

  Boston, Massachusetts – 1887

  Dorothy Aldridge works diligently as a seamstress in a textile factory in Boston. She and her friends are starting to long for something new, however; they decide that they want to have an adventure out West and find husbands out on the frontier.

  As they look through the advertisements in the newspaper, Dorothy comes upon an ad placed by a young general store owner named Clint Edwards, a widower with twin, ten-year-old sons. Always one for a challenge, Dorothy is thrilled to start exchanging letters with Clint. To her delight, he soon invites her out to Missoula Mills, Montana to be his bride.

  It becomes clear fairly quickly that although Clint is quite smitten with young Dorothy, his twin boys, Hank and Sam, do not like the idea of a new woman coming along to take the place of their mother. They do not greet her warmly, and Dorothy begins to feel at odds with the family. Then things begin to mysteriously go missing in the general store and all eyes are on Dorothy as the culprit.

  Can she prove her worth to Clint and his sons? There is so much in store for Dorothy—if she can only find a way to melt Sam and Hank’s cold exteriors.

  Dorothy Aldridge and her wonderful group of friends, Eliza, Virginia, and Margaret, en
joyed giggling and dreaming about their futures together when they were on their lunch breaks at the textile factory in Boston and after they would leave work for the day. They lived together in an apartment building in the heart of the city, near enough to the factory that they never needed to worry about running into any trouble along the way to and from work.

  Although Dorothy liked the idea of marriage and finding a handsome young man to wed, she did not want to give up on her own personal dreams—or her independence. She enjoyed working in the factory and found the skill of sewing to be a worthwhile venture. Everyone needed someone who could sew, she thought. She had heard so many stories about ladies her age getting married and having to settle down. Dorothy did not want that to happen to her. She hoped to someday find a young man who would not only put up with her desire for autonomy and self-worth, but who would love her for it. She did not want to seem big-headed, but she believed that she was skilled and smart, and that those were valuable qualities in a wife.

  “I do not feel as though I need a husband in order to be happy,” Dorothy told her friends. “I simply want a husband because I would like a lifelong companion…aside from you three, of course.” She smiled.

  Virginia laughed a little. “Friends and husbands do not have to be such a different thing, though surely there are different levels of understanding.”

  “I am sure there is a great deal to be said for having the love of a kind, strong man,” Eliza said in a dreamy sort of voice.

  “Well, we will have to look further than our own backyard for gentlemen like that,” Margaret said with amusement in her tone.