by Holly Blake
Brides of Wyldewood: Volume Two
©2016 Holly Blake
Prairie Wind Publishing
All Rights Reserved
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Brides of Wyldewood: Volume Two
Table of Contents
Book One: Millie and Grover
Book Two: Hope and Darby
Book Three: Gwen and Billy
Further Reading
Brides of Wyldewood: Volume Two
Millie and Grover
Chapter One
Grover Wright sat on Lightening’s back surveying the vast land below the cliff he was on. He had been on patrol for the last week by himself. Brody Laramie had recently been made deputy sheriff as the Wyoming Territory had become so vast that Grover had to admit he needed help; and who better to help him than a man who had military training and the ability to worm his way into any situation. Grover knew he wasn’t being fair to Brody. It wasn’t his fault that Anna had chosen him over Grover. She hadn’t even known of Grover’s affections until it was too late. And that was his fault and his fault alone.
Grover always seemed to be too late when it came to women folk. He had met another lovely woman over the summer and had let her go without telling her how fond he was of her. Millie Granger, James Halverson’s niece had become the new apple of Grover’s eye. She had been here to visit for a week while her uncle got wed. He thought of writing to her after she left but he felt that her father wouldn’t approve of his mixed blood heritage and would never condone the match. Millie was from a very traditional family and he knew that her father’s blessing would be important to her.
Grover let his mind wander as he looked over the land. The purple hues of the distant mountain range with their snow covered peaks looked colder than he usually found them. The grassy valley looked empty to his lonely eyes. He wiped the dust from his eyes and patted Lightening’s back.
“Let’s get back to town boy. I wrote an ad and sent it to one of those papers. Maybe someone will have replied by now.” Grover pulled Lightening’s reins and led him away from the lonely hills where he had always found solace in the past. But now they seemed only to intensify his loneliness. Something about meeting Millie had changed him. She was so warm and welcoming. He had admired other women before, including Anna, but then he met Millie. At once he knew that he had witnessed true beauty and depth like he had never seen before. When they talked she spoke of books and poetry that he had never heard of. He usually didn’t like a lot of social interactions, but when Millie talked she spoke of things that lit up Grover’s mind and made him wonder about life again, just as he had when he was a boy.
After she left he began to feel a loneliness that he had never experienced before. He had always been happy to be alone and he longed to go out on patrol and get away from the people who, in his mind, polluted the world.
Now he felt an empty pit of loneliness growing ever deeper inside his heart and he wanted desperately to sit in a home with a wife and children at his knee. He wanted the warmth of a home cooked meal and a loving embrace. He wanted to talk for long hours to a woman who understood the world and appreciated the majestic beauty of the tiniest fly and the largest mountain. He wanted Millie, but he would settle for a woman he might actually be able to get.
Grover rode for several hours feeling the weight of his loneliness. He had recently bought a plot of land and begun to build a home. He hoped that some woman would answer his ad and agree to at least meet him. His mother always said that he didn’t think highly enough of himself but he knew that as a half-breed he would face challenges that she would never understand. His father had warned him that he should marry an Indian girl, because white folk would never let a redskin marry their daughters.
He didn’t understand why it mattered so much. This was the “New World”; surely it should have new rules? That being said he had been happy and content to be alone. He had met many of his tribe’s daughters, but they seemed just as foreign to him as he must seem to most white folk. He had only gone to his mother’s tribe a few times growing up. He was thirteen when his father died in a terrible hunting accident and his mother had taken him to live with her tribe. After only a couple of years he was off on his own.
He became a Sheriff because the old Sheriff, having been a friend of Grover’s father had given him a chance. He also thought that with Grover’s command of the language he would be an asset in settling disputes amongst the settlers and the Indians. The old man’s idea’s had been accurate and Grover made many peace agreements between the peoples of this great land. He was pleased by all of his accomplishments.
Now he was thirty and it was well over time for him to find a wife. The Indian girls called him white-hair and laughed at him when he mentioned getting married as they thought of him as too old. Maybe some woman would see past his Indian roots and judge him as the man he had become. There was only one way to find out, and he knew he was putting a lot of hope in his matrimonial letters.
Wyldewood was just at the bottom of the valley and he would soon be at the mercantile where the post office was situated. If there was no letter waiting, he would talk to James and ask him to enquire after his niece. Perhaps James could negotiate with Millie’s father and speak for him, proving to the man that Grover was more white than Indian. He shook his head. He was proud of both his Indian and his Scottish roots. He hoped that someday the people of this great country would see past their petty discriminations and see a man for his honor and integrity, his character and not for the color of his skin or the people he was born to. He could only hope that one day such concerns would no longer be necessary for a man to be accepted.
As Grover made his way through the town of Wyldewood he saw all the changes in progress. A newspaper man had just moved to town and was building an office and printer for his trade. A barber had moved to town and was selling a shave and a haircut for five cents. His three daughters helped out in his shop and were nice girls. They were much too young and empty headed for Grover’s liking but they were sweet in their ways.
The wood mill was expanding and John Barnaby was sending job postings out east to bring men to Wyldewood for work. He had recently hired a Chinese man who had come to work on the railway, but when the work was nearly done he ran away not wanting to be returned to China. So many new faces and stories; it seemed to Grover that his small quiet world was changing just as he was. It was growing and becoming cluttered with people and ideas. It seemed that both he and the country longed for companionship; at least the country was getting what it wanted.
Chapter Two
Millie Granger’s life was not easy. She was the middle of three daughters. It was a family custom in old European families that the last daughter to wed would not be allowed a husband, instead she was to care for her aging parents and become the spinster caregiver. Millie was already well on her way to being the spinster daughter.
Her older sister, Theresa was married to a fine young businessman. Her younger sister, Carlotta, was being seriously courted by an upstanding young officer in the military. Millie had no serious beaus. She had met a lovely man not long ago in Wyldewood, Wyoming, but she was only there for one week and then her father insisted that they had to head on to oversee some business interests he had farther west. They traveled for several weeks and finally came back home to New York. The whole time Millie could not keep her thoughts from the quiet man n
amed Grover Wright.
Millie’s friends and family had always called her Millie, but when Grover said her name it sounded almost musical to her ear. Grover was a few years older than she was, but he had a sparkle in his eye that made him seem like a boy just discovering the world. He was not naive though; he was a seasoned Sheriff in the Wyoming Territory and had faced many challenges in his life. His being half Indian on his mother’s side gave him a stoic countenance that was only amplified by his inherited Scottish solemnity which he got from his father. Millie couldn’t stop thinking about Grover even now.
She knew that she did not want to become the spinster daughter, which should be her younger sister’s job, not hers. It was usually the youngest girl to take on the dreaded role, and in many families it was like a race to the alter for the daughters of a family. Millie knew that she needed to find a man before Carlotta’s beau could ask for her hand, but Grover had let her leave without a word, and she had no other prospects.
Millie had been studying the matrimonial papers for over a year but had not found a decent man that interested her. She hoped that on her trip over the summer to the wilds of the west that she would meet someone nice. She had been reading about these men, all seeking wives in places there weren’t many women, so why had she only met one man with potential in the entire west. She held the latest installment of the paper in her hands now but was dread to go through another fruitless search. It was her only hope for a quick marriage proposal, but who would she wind up with? She sat on her bed mulling over her predicament. She hadn’t written to her Uncle James to ask after Grover. She knew he was single but it would be much too forward of her to inquire after him.
Millie glanced over at the stack of old matrimonial papers she had collected over the last few months. She saved them and went through them again and again only disposing of them after she had worn them to shreds. She had to get her mind off of Grover! He probably wasn’t interested in her anyway; not that they had had time to find out if there was a mutual attraction. She didn’t even know him that well. Despite her uncle’s clear admiration for the man he he had seemed very distant and withdrawn to her.
But try as she might she couldn’t diminish the sheriff in her mind. She shook her head and began to look through the paper. She read every word in every ad. The first three pages were the same as all the other papers she had picked through. Men trumpeting their great value to some poor woman who should be flattered and anxious to win their hearts only to find that the wording they used was so vague you might find yourself staring at a man not even close to his description of himself and his place in society. It really was a man’s world. It seemed every man in these papers thought that a woman should fall over themselves to get to him. He was a gift from heaven and they were the mere mortals who should drop to their knees and give thanks for his presence. Millie’s brothers acted the same way most of the time and it angered her terribly. She felt she was just as important as any man and should be treated with equal respect.
When in Wyoming she learned that women could vote there. It made her thrill with excitement at the thought of being allowed the privilege. She also met the town doctor, a woman who everyone called Dr. Ivy. She was an idol to Millie now; a woman of respect and admiration. That is what Millie wanted for herself, not to be a doctor, but to be respected and admired.
Millie decided to go through the paper with the sole purpose of finding a husband in Wyoming and preferably in Wyldewood. Perhaps that was where her future might be. If she didn’t like the man when she met him she could always say no and then convince her Uncle James to let her work in his Inn until she could find her own way, just like Dr. Ivy and Anna Laramie had done.
Scanning through the paper quickly she found five ads from Wyoming and two from Wyldewood. She read through them and one caught her eye. It read “Quiet gentleman looking for an independent and capable woman with good morals and an upright character. He offers a fine home and a listening ear and asks for reasonable companionship in return.” Millie’s heart leapt, it made her think of Grover. She immediately went to her desk and took out pen and paper and wrote to the man in the ad. When she was done and the envelope was sealed she held it to her breast and said a silent prayer. She hoped it was Grover, and if not, a man as good and kind as the Sheriff was.
Millie stuck the letter into her skirt pocket and without a word to anyone she bolted down the stairs out the door and straight to the post office. The faster she could get herself to Wyldewood, the faster she would know she was free of her possible obligations. And if the man in the ad really was Grover, the faster she could talk to him again.
Chapter Three
Grover tied up Lightening outside the mercantile store and went inside.
“Good morning,” he said to Peggy Barnaby who seemed to be in a conspiratorial conversation with Adam Maguire the newsman. They both straightened up when they heard his voice and Peggy blushed a deep crimson. Grover wondered what was going on, but he knew it was none of his business so he didn’t let on that he noticed anything.
“Good morning Sheriff.” Peggy swept her hands down her apron and over her hair as if trying to make herself decent. “Haven’t seen you in awhile how’s the countryside?”
“It’s fine Mrs. Barnaby, peaceful and quiet. Mr. Maguire.” Grover tipped his hat to the tall, dark haired man with the brown eyes. Maguire wore a pinstriped suit and a thin black tie. He was dapper in a way you just didn’t see in these parts. He was a little too handsome and a little too smooth. His hair was slicked back and molded to perfection and his eyes were so dark they almost looked black. He was taller than Grover with a gentile gait that made him seem like he was slithering across the ground. The man oozed charm and had an air about him that Grover could only describe as oily.
“Good day Sheriff,” Maguire offered, hesitating a moment before asking, “I was wondering if there was any news in the territories. I will be publishing the first Wyldewood Chronicle next week and was hoping for something less mundane than birth announcements and coming events.” Maguire chuckled lightly and winked at Peggy.
“Well this isn’t the big city Mr. Maguire. We don’t see a lot of big news around these parts.”
Maguire shrugged. “I wasn’t thinking big, necessarily. I was just hoping for some action somewhere. It seems the whole world has gone to sleep over the last few months.”
“Isn’t it wonderful?” Grover smiled and turned to Peggy. “Any mail for me my dear?”
“I do have a few letters for you Grover. They came over the last few weeks since you placed that ad.”
Now it was Grover who blushed. He really didn’t want a man like Adam Maguire to know his desperate search for a woman who would have him. He supposed that Maguire never had a problem finding an eager woman willing to spend time with him. Maguire was a similar age to himself and Grover couldn’t help but wonder why the man was still single. The way he saw women, even married ones like Peggy Barnaby, swoon over him, it was surely a wonder that he’d never been wed. Peggy brought over a huge pile of letters, far more than Grover ever thought he would get.
“There must be about fifty in this pile,” Peggy laughed. “I have another bunch in the back, wait here and I’ll go grab them too.”
“That must have been some ad you placed Sheriff. Are you enquiring after a new deputy or something?”
“No, it’s a private matter.” Grover turned away from Maguire. He really didn’t like the man but didn’t know why.
“Sheriff, I was wondering if I might join you on patrol sometime. It would make an interesting article for my readers to see what a sheriff does on a typical day.”
“Mr. Maguire, there are no typical days for a sheriff, just a long series of looking and finding trouble. If that is what you are interested in, I would be happy for you to come along, but I think you would be bored pretty fast.”
“Well that’s a more promising response than Brody Laramie told me to expect.”
“Brody?”
“Yes. I asked him if he thought you might allow me to follow you around a bit and he said that I shouldn’t expect a positive response as you don’t much care for company.”
“Well I don’t, but I have had other fools follow me around, so why not a newsman.”
“I don’t quite know how to take that Sheriff Wright, but I will grin and bear it. Brody has told me a lot about you and what a great man you are. He tells me that you are half Indian, is that true?”
“It is, why?” Grover was not liking this line of questioning, something about it made him nervous and even more suspicious of this man.
“I just think it’s interesting that you have come so far for someone from such an…. unusual background.” The statement dripped of condescension and Grover saw through the man’s veneer for an instant.
Maguire pulled back a little, seeming to realize that he’d let his guard down and he recovered his usual pensive grin, cleared his throat and continued but it was too late; Grover disliked the man even more and made a mental note to watch him carefully from now on. “I just mean that you have provided such a great service to the community.” Maguire’s smile widened and he smoothed down his pinstripes as if wiping away a piece of invisible dirt he had previously overlooked.
“Here they are!” Peggy sang as she returned with a handful of letters. Grover whistled with amazement.
“These all for me?” He was astonished at the volume of letters.
“They are!” Peggy laughed and her huge warm smile beamed like sunshine at the end of a rainstorm. “You are a very popular man Sheriff. I know you’ll chose wisely, but make sure you take your time and pick someone really special. You deserve a truly spectacular woman.” Peggy’s eyes sparkled with excitement. The woman had always loved the romance in life. She had married while very young and to a man as equally if not even more quiet than Grover.