by Terri Grace
A Tall Plump Bride For The Handsome Cowboy Giant
Terri Grace
Clean Christian Romance
Contents
Copyright
1. A Personal Word From Terri
2. A Tall Plump Bride For The Handsome Cowboy Giant
** FOR YOU **
Copyright © 2016 by Terri Grace
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
A Personal Word From Terri
“How often do people look at our own reflection and feel that they don’t measure up? Tall people want to be shorter, short people long for a few more inches on their stature. All the time, we are just as God intended, because he has a perfect partner to compliment our frame. That is what lovely plump bride, Sarah Carlton, discovers in our story - and in the most unexpected way!”
Terri Grace (Author)
Thank you for choosing a PureRead Romance. As a way to thank you we would also like to give you a beautiful short story collection by Terri Grace.
Cry Of The Heart Short Story Collection
A Tall Plump Bride For The Handsome Cowboy Giant
A Tall Tale Of True Love
“Unrequited love cuts deep like a knife, especially when the object of your affection happens to be in love with your own half-sister,” Sarah Carlton thought. She could not believe that two years of hoping, waiting and anticipating had culminated into one short sentence that had ripped her heart to shreds.
“Sarah, you are the one person I can always confide in without fear,” Calvin Gilmore, her employer, had said just a few minutes ago. “I’m so deeply in love with your sister Marjory.”
Sarah had no idea how she had made it out of his office without breaking down. Thinking the news had merely overwhelmed her, Calvin had bid her return to work.
She sat at her desk, staring at her typewriter for a long time without doing anything. She had some correspondence to prepare but her hands felt heavy and the barest movement felt like an uphill task. “Calvin loves Marjory” were the words that kept running through her mind, not giving her any peace at all. What was she going to do? He had told her that he wanted to pay her sister a visit at home. What was worse, for many months now she had been telling Marjory how she felt about her young and handsome employer. The girls would giggle deep into the night, Sarah saying how much she loved Calvin and hoped he would make his move soon.
Calvin had been to her parents’ house on a number of occasions because her stepfather was one of his clients. It seemed as though the man had been eyeing her younger half-sister all this while, Sarah thought unkindly, and then was immediately contrite.
Calvin was a wonderful man to work for – very kind and considerate to her and the other employees. He also paid them slightly above the minimum government wage and Sarah had been saving for when she got married and stopped working. For a while she had believed she would be Mrs Calvin Gilmore, but not anymore. Maybe he had not been attracted to her at all because of their age difference – at twenty-eight, she was three years older than him.
* * *
***
* * *
Marjory Pennington stared at, dismay filling her as Calvin poured his heart out to her. This was the man her sister was in love with, and she knew so much about him, courtesy of Sarah.
Calvin had brought Sarah home that evening and the latter had excused herself, citing an earlier appointment with someone. Marjory had thought her sister was being rude, until Calvin declared his love for her and proposed. Of course, she had a crush on the man. He was handsome and charming, with thick, blond hair and baby-blue eyes that seemed to twinkle when he smiled. Every time she saw him, her heart would almost skip a beat, but because she knew of her sister’s feelings towards Calvin, Marjory had quashed her own feelings.
“Why are you telling me all this? Have you spoken to Sarah?” she asked him at last.
Calvin, quite unaware of what was going on, nodded enthusiastically. “Your sister is a wonderful lady and she was the first person I informed.”
“What did Sarah have to say?” Marjory held her breath.
“She was very happy for us, and congratulated me on finding a wonderful woman.” Calvin took her hand and though Marjory wanted to pull it away, she found that she could not. “Marge, I don’t want us to wait for long. I have loved you since your sister introduced us two years ago, on the day I first came to your house. I was just waiting for you to turn twenty-one before I made my move. Your birthday last week clinched it for me. What do you say, my lovely Marge?”
He kissed the back of her hand and the young lady almost swooned. This man was such a romantic. But then she remembered her sister.
“I have heard you, Calvin. Please give me time to tell my parents. I’ll give you my answer after a few days.”
“Of course, but please don’t keep me waiting. My heart belongs to you, Marge, and I need you in my life”
* * *
***
* * *
Marge held her sister as she wept. “I’m so sorry, Sarah. Of course, I will never accept Calvin’s suit. I know that you love him and it would tear me apart, knowing that you were so sad, if I went ahead and accepted his proposal.”
Sarah shook her head. “No, dear child.” She raised a wet face to her sister. “I’m merely being foolish. Calvin has never ever given any indication of seeing me as anything other than his stenographer. It was all in my mind, and I’m just grateful that you’re a wonderful sister, or else I would be so humiliated.”
“Sarah, I can’t marry Calvin knowing how you feel. That would be wicked.” Marge stood up from her sister’s bed. “Oh, that man is not kind at all. Why did he have to tell me all those things right now?”
Sarah patted the bed, urging Marge to return, and she did so. “Marge, honey, Calvin is a good man who will make you a wonderful husband. Please don’t reject him out of a misguided sense of loyalty to me. He is just the right man for you. Even Papa agrees, and you know just how Papa can be.”
Marjory nodded. Her father, who was Sarah’s stepfather, was overly strict and quite the snob. The girls rarely mixed with those who were considered beneath their station, and Sarah often wondered how it was that the high and mighty Francis Pennington had fallen in love with her widowed mother when Sarah was seven years old. Anna Carlton, as she was known then, worked as an assistant at the milliner where Francis bought all his dandy hats. One thing led to another and soon they were married.
From the moment Marjory was born, Sarah was attached to her little sister. Over the years as they grew, the girls became so close that they often formed a united front, much to their parents’ chagrin. Though they were so different, the girls shared their mother’s long, dark hair and hazel eyes. Marjory, at twenty-one, was rather petite, like her paternal grandmother, while Sarah was tall and her physique tended to plumpness, such that she towered over her sister and mother. Her father’s Nordic genes, as her mother would say from time to time. Her father had been half Swedish, half English.
“Calvin will be a good husband to you, and nothing will make me happier than to ensure that your wedding will be perfect. I’ll make sure your wedding is the talk of the next few decades.”
But Sarah was unable to sleep that night, because Marjory had exacted a promise from her. She would only agree to Calvin’s proposal if Sarah was her maid of honor, since it was through her that she had met Calvin. Marjory had also confessed that sh
e had been in love with Calvin for a long time, but he had been out of bounds to her because of Sarah’s feelings.
“Just how am I expected to act around the radiantly happy couple?” she wondered. The coming weeks were going to prove very tough for her as she helped Marge select her wedding trousseau and get ready for her new life as the wife of the young, up-and-coming attorney. Marjory would make a wonderful attorney’s wife, because she was very social, unlike Sarah, who preferred seclusion. Calvin had once hinted that when he was older and more established in the practice he had singlehandedly started, he would run for congress. Yes, Marge would be the ideal wife for him.
But it hurt so much. She covered her face with her pillow to muffle her sobs. She was so sure that no man would ever look twice at her, at least not the men she respected and admired, so she would end up as a spinster aunt to Marge and Calvin’s children. Of all the men she knew, only Calvin was taller than her.
“Oh Lord,” she wept silently. “Please help me to be happy for my sister, no matter how much it hurts.” Her pastor always told them that the best way of getting over one’s disappointment was to take the focus away from oneself and concentrate on making life good for others. That was exactly what she was going to do. She would shed her tears in private, but in public she would be the best sister ever.
* * *
***
* * *
Paul Montgomery stepped onto the platform of the train station at Washington, D.C. and looked around him, wondering why he never felt at ease in crowded places. It wasn’t as if he didn’t like being around people, it was just that, since he stood at a foot and a half over the average male, he tended to feel conspicuous everywhere he went. His bulky physique didn’t help matters. He remembered with a smile one child on the train who had asked his father if the white-haired man with the blue eyes was a giant.
Sometimes he felt like a giant, but he shrugged. He was fearfully and wonderfully made, and his size and stature enabled him to be one of the best and most sought-after carpenters in Sturgis, South Dakota, and the towns surrounding it. He had learned his skill from his grandfather, who had brought him up after his own parents died on the ship as they were traveling from England to the new world. Arriving in the United States when he was ten and moving to South Dakota with his grandfather, Paul had immediately decided that he would follow in his grandfather’s footsteps.
It was only as his grandpa lay dying that he had told Paul about his relatives in Washington, D.C. His grandfather’s brother had moved to Maryland to pursue his dream of being an attorney and had died many years ago. Grandpa Wilbur had tried to keep in touch with his nephews and nieces, for his brother had five children, but apart from a Christmas card once in a while, not much was forthcoming.
When his grandpa died, Paul had written to his distant relatives to inform them of the old man’s demise. Only one person had written back, sending his heartfelt condolences – Calvin Gilmore, the son of one of his cousins – he could never remember which. The two men had kept in touch because Calvin confessed that he had always wondered about his roots.
Now, here he was, to attend his distant cousin’s wedding, and he was late. He had missed the first train that would have enabled him to arrive the previous day. Well, at least he was here now. He hailed a chaise cab and gave the driver the directions to the Pennington residence, where the reception was being held. It was already three in the afternoon and he knew things would be well underway by now.
He would pay his respects and let his cousin know that he had come, and then would take his leave, for he had other business to attend to. His other business made him sad and he wondered if there was something wrong with him. Perhaps he was too honest in his dealings with men, but his grandfather had been a devout Christian who had instilled values in him that he would live by for the rest of his life. Honesty was one of them, and it had brought him right to Washington D.C.
“Well, first things first,” he thought, as the cab driver turned into a driveway that was lined with all manner of coaches and carriages.
* * *
***
* * *
Marjory’s happy day was only marred by the shadows she saw lurking in her sister’s eyes. True to her word, Sarah had ensured that she had the wedding of her dreams. Sarah was a good organizer and their mother had been only too glad to hand over the wedding preparations to her, just like she did all the social functions they held from time to time.
Sarah had been so happy when her parents agreed to Marjory holding her wedding in the Baptist church she attended. Her pastor was a kindly man who had listened to her confession about being in love with the man who was about to marry her sister. He had given her advice that she had held onto, and that had seen her through the days of preparation right up to the wedding day itself.
“Sarah, God knows that you are hurting, He sees each tear you cry in private. Your anguish is not in vain and because of your love for your sister, He will comfort you. One day you will look back and realize that this is Christian maturity, where a person is able to put their life aside and uplift another, no matter how much it’s hurting them. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man should lay down his life for his friend.”
Marjory was a beautiful bride and Sarah had wept with many others, quite awed at the deep love that the couple shared. From the moment Marjory had said ‘yes’ to Calvin, it seemed as though her sister just blossomed. Calvin courted her with flowers, poems and beautiful pieces of jewelry, but to Marjory, who had inherited her paternal grandmother’s very expensive jewelry, the poems and flowers meant more to her.
As the reception was in full blaze, with all guests being seated around tables for four on the large and green lawn, one of the ushers pulled Sarah aside. They knew that apart from being the maid of honor, she was the organizer, and so they came to her for everything.
“A certain gentleman has arrived – says he is a cousin to the groom. I don’t know where to place him.”
Sarah frowned slightly. Her sky-blue, floor-length gown made her look very slender and, unbeknownst to her, very appealing. “Why not, Matthew? Does he have an invitation card?”
“Yes, Miss Carlton. He is Calvin’s cousin from South Dakota.”
Sarah remembered sending out the invitation. “There’s a slight problem with the seating arrangement for him, however.”
“Why is that?” She was still puzzled. “Everyone’s name-card is at their table.”
“You just come with me and see,” was all Matthew said, and Sarah followed him into the hallway, where she did a double-take. Never in her life had she ever seen such a tall, large man, and now she understood why Matthew was flustered. This man would not fit at any of the tables because, while planning, they had only considered the average men. Calvin had never met his distant cousin and probably had no idea that the man was a giant.
“Good afternoon, sir.” She hurried over to him.
Paul turned and his eyes widened. The most beautiful woman he had ever seen was coming towards him.
“Good afternoon,” she repeated, holding out a hand.
He took it into his larger one and felt its softness, holding on longer than was necessary. “Please call me Paul – Paul Montgomery. Cousin to the groom.”
Sarah smiled sweetly at him. She had thought that Calvin was tall; this man towered over her employer and made her feel very small and feminine beside him. “I’m Sarah Carlton. Please come along. Someone will take your bag and put it in a room for you.”
“I don’t intend to stay for long, as I have to go to my hotel.”
“Nonsense,” Sarah found herself saying and then blushed at how casual she sounded. “We have rooms for out-of-town guests, and when I sent out the invitation I made sure there would be a room for you.”
“Thank you, Miss Carlton.”
Quick thinking soon settled Paul at a table where some of her stepfather’s associates and their wives were seated. It was larger than the others and seated eight
people – three couples and a single man who looked like he would rather be anywhere else.
Paul merely nodded at his table mates and a few responded. The one thing he never did was try to call any attention to himself. His height did it for him, but once he was seated he made himself as inconspicuous as he possibly could, and tuned into the talk that was going on around him. His grandfather had taught him that the best way to get information from people was to act as though you were not interested in what they were saying. People soon let down their guard.
His patience was rewarded when a while later the young single man turned to him.
“I know the bride very well. She and her sister, Sarah Carlton, went to the same school as me.”
“I see,” Paul said. He was taking his lunch, which had been served to him by the very thoughtful Sarah Carlton. He just could not stop staring at her whenever she passed by him. He was surprised that she was the bride’s sister, and wondered why they had different surnames.
“Many of us thought Calvin would ask Sarah to marry him, since she works for him and they seem to spend a lot of time together.”
One matronly woman hissed, joining in the conversation. “Calvin would never marry that woman. She is too old, for one, and look at how tall and huge she is! Sarah Carlton will die an old maid, mark my words.” She sealed this pronouncement with a haughty wave of her hand.
Another woman joined in. “Even her own mother has despaired of that girl ever finding a man to marry her. Her stepfather once complained that she was holding Marjory back from getting married. I bet he is glad that Marjory has finally seen sense and won’t end up an old maid like Sarah.”