Orphan Train Romance Series: Five Books in One! (Clean Western Historical Romances)

by Zoe Matthews

  Serena quickly started to finish breakfast when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Paul turned her around, enveloped her in a hug and Serena could not hold back her tears any longer. Paul just held her while she sobbed. She cried for quite a while and could not seem to stop.

  When the tears finally started to slow down, she apologized to Paul. “I’m sorry for crying so much. I know Ben is better off with his own family.”

  “I think these tears are more than just for sadness that Ben is gone,” Paul commented. “I think these are healing tears. We are starting a new life together. We have our whole lives ahead of us.”

  Serena thought about what Paul said and she knew that he was right. She had had many losses in her life, but now it was time to look forward and not dwell on her past. She had married a good man. She loved her new life and the fact that she would be living close to Anna and Katrina. Her childhood might not have been ideal, but it could have been worse. She realized that what she had gone through had made her a stronger woman.

  “In fact,” Paul said with a teasing grin. “Once we get back to the ranch, we can get started on growing our family.”

  Serena laughed at his words and allowed her husband to kiss her to seal his promise.

  CHAPTER 12

  When they arrived at the ranch, they were greeted almost like royalty. Serena was glad to see Anna and that she still felt well even though she was due to have her baby in a few weeks. Katrina looked very happy as she described her new school and students. The school had been open for a week and she loved her new job. Sage was jumping around giving her own details about how wonderful school was.

  Alex and Luke were there to greet them, too. They greeted each other with big bear hugs like brothers do and then Alex took the horses into the barn to be cared for. Paul gave Luke a leather pouch that had the proceeds of the cattle sale and told him a number, which made Luke smile pretty big.

  They must have done well with the sale of the cattle, Serena thought when she saw the exchange. Luke walked towards the main house with the leather pouch. Serena noticed Katrina following him with her eyes, which she thought was very interesting.

  Paul and Serena spent the next few days at the ranch. Paul had some chores he needed to get done and he wanted Serena to rest a bit before they took their honeymoon trip in nearby Pine Valley.

  When they finally arrived in Pine Valley, Serena was very excited to spend some quality time with her new husband. She no longer doubted the reasons behind her marriage to Paul. Anyone could see that he was very happy being married to her.

  They ate at the small restaurant in the hotel and then did quite a bit of shopping. Paul wanted to make sure she had enough dresses and other supplies since it was getting close to winter and sometimes the snow was too deep to go anywhere. They tended to stay on the ranch throughout the winter and did not take any trips into town since it just was not safe to be traveling when a huge blizzard or snowstorm could come upon them at any moment.

  Paul stopped in the post office to pick up their mail. As he leafed through the letters, he stopped suddenly and handed Serena an envelope. She saw that it was from Maple Grove and it was written in Charlotte’s handwriting.

  Serena wanted to read the letter right away, so they stopped and sat on a bench that had been placed in front of the post office. She quickly slit the letter open and started to read.

  My dear Serena,

  I am writing in hope you will be able to get this letter before winter sets in as I know you probably will not be able to leave the ranch for quite a few months.

  Everyone is doing well here. The children all miss you greatly, especially Rose. She has asked if she could stay in the loft that was your room and we agreed.

  Caleb has been spending quite a bit of time trying to perfect a pastry that he had heard about from a French couple that came to stay in Maple Grove a few weeks ago. It is delicious and I am sure it will become a favorite with our customers.

  I hope you are happy in your new marriage with Paul. Please write and tell me about your wedding. I so wish I could have been there to see you get married.

  You are always in my prayers, along with Anna and Serena. Please know that I love you very much.

  Love,

  Your mother, Charlotte

  Serena sighed with relief as started to replace the letter, but then allowed Paul read it when he requested. She had been afraid the letter would bear bad news.

  “It sounds like Charlotte thinks of herself as your mother,” Paul commented when he finished reading the letter.

  “Yes, she does, although I didn’t realize it until right before I left to come here,” Serena agreed. “I think I have had a hard time trusting people and I tend to push them away. It has been hard for me to know who really cares for me and who just pretends like they care.”

  “Maybe we can go visit your other family some day,” Paul offered, and with Paul’s words, Serena realized she did have another family. She had two families, the one who raised her during her teenage years and a new one with Paul and his brothers, along with Anna and Serena. She was blessed indeed.

  ****

  That evening when they had retired to their hotel room, Paul tried to give her a small box.

  “I have a wedding gift for you,” Paul explained when Serena questioned him with her eyes.

  “You didn’t need to get me anything,” Serena protested. She felt he had spent enough on her that day, although they had purchased material and other supplies for the entire family, not just her. Serena had had fun buying fabric and small gifts for the new baby that was coming. She also helped Paul choose a few toys, including a beautiful porcelain doll, for Sage for Christmas. Paul had bought himself a new pair of boots and a heavy overcoat.

  “This gift is a tradition,” Paul said and he handed her the box. Serena suddenly recognized the box as the one he had slipped in his pocket right after they were married.

  Serena slowly opened the lid and saw a beautiful cameo nestled among some white fabric.

  “A tradition?” she questioned as she carefully removed the jewelry piece from the box to look at it closer.

  “My grandfather gave my grandmother a necklace like this one when they married. My father did the same with my mother. Alex gave one to Anna and now I am giving one to you.”

  “Does it have a special meaning?” Serena wondered as she ran her finger over the beautiful piece. There was a finely carved side view of a woman made out of white stone that had been set in another stone that was light blue in color. The chain the cameo hung on was gold. Surrounding the woman in stone was metal that had been arranged to look like lace. It was the most beautiful piece of jewelry she had ever seen.

  “I don’t know if there is a special meaning for all cameos, but in our family, when a man gives his wife a cameo, it signifies his love for her, a love that will last throughout all time.”

  Serena threw her arms around Paul at his words. He held her silently for a moment, and then turned her around to help her put the necklace around her neck. She had found a family.

  THE END

  BIG SPRING RANCH BRIDES:

  KATRINA

  (Orphan Train Romance Series, Book 5)

  Written by Zoe Matthews

  Copyright © 2015

  All rights reserved

  No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced in any format, by any means, electronic or otherwise, without prior consent from the copyright owner and publisher of this book.

  This is a work of fiction. All characters, names, places and events are the product of the author's imagination and used fictitiously.

  PREFACE

  Orphan trains started to decline in the 1920s and by 1929 they had stopped all together. Part of the reason they stopped was because of the depression.

  Another reason was because different states started to pass laws to make it harder to bring children on trains across state lines. When these laws were passed, new programs were designed specifically
to help children.

  Michigan was the first state to pass a law that regulated the placement of children in the state and other states soon followed. Foster care started to replace orphanages.

  CHAPTER 1

  It was a cold spring morning in New York. Rain had been falling all morning and the large old building that housed 54 orphans was damp and cold. Inside a schoolroom, one of the older orphans, Katrina Taylor, sat close to a young girl she was helping with arithmetic. She encouraged the child to complete the last few addition problems before lunchtime. She looked around at the other young children in the room to make sure everyone was working as they were instructed. The teacher of the class sat behind her desk in the front of the room going over the afternoon’s lessons.

  Katrina sat back in her chair and stretched her back. She enjoyed her time helping the younger children in the orphanage. For the last year, she spent her mornings with them and her afternoons in her own classes. She had moved so far ahead of her class that she no longer needed to spend all day in school. For some reason, school had always been very easy for her. She understood a new concept very quickly and generally was the first one who completed the assignments. Her teacher had recently told her she had taught her just about everything she could and that it was soon time to move on.

  Katrina knew what her teacher meant. She would be turning 13 in about five months and she then would be required to leave the orphanage and find work around New York City. She was very concerned because she knew she would be lucky if she found a position that she enjoyed doing. Most people were not going to want to hire 13-year-olds to teach others. Her best friends, Anna and Serena, would be turning 13 before her and would be leaving first. She was afraid that when they left, she would never see them again.

  Katrina had been living at the orphanage since she was six years old. She tried hard to not think about her life before coming to the orphanage since it usually made her very depressed and sad for the rest of the day. Yet for some reason, she couldn’t help but think about it today. She remembered living in a small room with her mother, father and baby sister, Ruth Ann. They were so happy together. Her father would go to work at a local factory and her mother did her best to keep Katrina entertained. She taught her how to read out of the Bible and Katrina could read fairly well by the time she was five years old. Then her mother had Ruth Ann and became ill after the birth. She rarely left her bed and was very weak. Katrina did her best to care for her new baby sister since the only care her mother could do was nurse the baby. Then one day, when Ruth Ann was six months old, her mother died. She remembered that awful day very vividly. Her father had left to go to work and her mother passed away a few hours later. Katrina did not know what to do and so she spent the day caring for Ruth Ann the best she could until her father came home.

  A few days later, after a small graveyard service for her mother, her father dropped Katrina and Ruth Ann off at the orphanage. He had explained to Katrina on the way to the orphanage that he had to do this so he could continue to work. He promised her that he would find a better place to live and then hire a woman who could care for the two girls. When he was able to do this, he would return to get them.

  Katrina was very upset that her father was leaving them at the orphanage. Even though she was only six years old, she understood what orphanages were. They were for children who did not have a mother or father. She had lost her mother and now it felt as if she was losing her father. After her father had kissed her forehead in farewell and handed Ruth Ann to the orphanage worker, he walked away without looking back. That was the last time she ever saw him.

  She had been separated from Ruth Ann right from the very beginning since the older girls could not live with the babies, but she was promised by the director of the orphanage, Mrs. Brown, that she could spend time with her sister every afternoon. This she did faithfully. Katrina had loved her baby sister. She had essentially raised her since her mother had been so ill and she was the only mother Ruth Ann had known. After school was completed for the day, she would walk up the long flight of stairs to the second floor and go into the baby room. She would then play and care for her sister until it was time for dinner. She still remembered what Ruth Ann looked like. She had blonde, fine, baby hair, the same color as her own, which curled in ringlets. She had sky blue eyes, also like Katrina’s, given to them by their mother.

  Katrina wished that it was time to go to lunch. She did not want to remember anymore. She had noticed this always happened when she was not busy doing her own schoolwork or helping another child. When she had a moment to sit, she would think about her past life. She ended up remembering what would become the worst day of her life.

  She remembered that day very well. She and Ruth Ann had been at the orphanage for about six months. She had finished her schoolwork early that day and the teacher had released her to go to visit Ruth Ann. When she arrived in the baby room, she looked around, and her sister was nowhere to be found. She asked the woman who was caring for the babies where Ruth Ann was and the woman hesitated.

  “Were you not informed?” the woman asked her.

  “Where is my sister? Where is Ruth Ann?” Katrina had demanded loudly. “It’s my turn to take care of her now.”

  “I think you had better go talk to Mrs. Brown,” the woman had told her and then turned her back to Katrina and picked up a crying baby.

  Katrina had run as fast as she could all the way to Mrs. Brown’s office. She had burst into the room without permission, demanding to know where her sister was.

  It was then she learned that while she was in her classes that morning, a childless couple had come and adopted Ruth Ann. She also learned that her father had signed away his rights to both of them a few months before. He was not able to find a better job in order to care for them. He had felt Katrina and Ruth Ann would have a better life if he gave them up.

  Katrina cried bitterly that day and had refused to eat or do anything for two days. On the second day, she met Anna and Serena. She had been curled up in a corner of a hallway crying, missing her sister, her mother, and her father desperately. She felt a hand on her shoulder. Anna and Serena had both sat down beside her and put their arms around her in comfort. All three of them had formed a strong bond with each other and had been best friends since. In fact, they thought of each other as sisters.

  Katrina had later learned from the woman who cared for the babies that Mrs. Brown had not felt it appropriate for Katrina to know of the adoption and she had not allowed Karina to have the opportunity to say goodbye to Ruth Ann. Katrina saw in Mrs. Brown the woman who made her lose her entire family, even though as she grew older, she realized it was not totally the director’s fault. Katrina had developed a deep anger and even a hatred toward Mrs. Brown. For many years after this incident, she would not trust any adult. Mrs. Brown left her position with the orphanage a few years ago and had been replaced by a woman named Mrs. Young.

  Surprisingly, since Mrs. Brown had left, Katrina had been able to put her past behind her the best she could. She focused on her daily life in the orphanage with Anna and Serena, but she had learned to keep herself as busy as possible so she would not think about the family she had lost.

  Sometimes, when she talked about what family life was like with Anna and Serena, she would realize she was lucky because she did have memories of a family before being brought to the orphanage. She remembered how happy they were before her mother became ill. She remembered how her father would dance her mother around the small room, humming a silly tune, and then doing the same with Katrina. She would place her small feet on his large shoes and he would twirl her around until she was dizzy. Anna and Serena did not have any such memories. Anna had been abandoned by her mother right after she was born. Serena’s mother, who was an actress, brought her to the orphanage when she was three years old, but she had no memories of her.

  Katrina looked up as the teacher stood to collect papers and dismiss the class for lunch. After the class had lined up at the
door and left the room, Katrina handed her some extra papers she had gathered and turned to follow the children.

  “Wait for a moment,” the teacher requested. “I have a message for you.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Katrina stopped and waited for the woman to continue.

  “Mrs. Young has requested that you go to her office as soon as you finish lunch. She has something she wishes to discuss with you.”

  Katrina felt a panic in the pit of her stomach at the teacher’s words. “Do you know what she wants to see me about?”

  “Yes, I do,” the woman admitted. “But I feel I should let her tell you.”

  Katrina wanted to argue, but then just nodded her head and wished the teacher a good day. On the way to the lunchroom, she wondered what Mrs. Young wanted to tell her. She did not think it was about leaving the orphanage since she still had six months before she turned 13, but she also knew plans could always change.