Cullen felt responsible for her being stuck in Clear Creek without a husband, but he was relieved the delicate lady wasn’t going to be living with Richard. Being there wasn’t an outhouse, of course.
He watched Miss Leander and his ma walk down the boardwalk chatting as if they were already good friends—or plotting the end of Cullen’s bachelorhood.
Cullen prayed Adolph was interested in Miss Leander because he knew Kiowa wouldn’t be. And heaven forbid if Seth took a shining to her because then Miss Leander would be at every Sunday family dinner.
But why would that bother him? Because Cullen met her first?
Chapter 2
“If you want to go home, we can raise funds for your train ticket, Miss Leander,” Mrs. Reagan told her for the second time.
“No, I prefer to stay here, and start over,” Rose answered without giving any more details as to why. She’d liked the idea of being a rancher’s wife, able to write in solitude, but she was glad the Reagan’s changed her plans. Mr. Kandt seemed nice, in a rumpled way, but Rose was drawn to Cullen because he’d written her letters and she felt as if she already knew him. Plus, Rose liked Cullen’s blonde hair and arresting blue eyes.
“Mr. Kandt is a kind soul, but he immigrated here from Germany without two nickels to rub together. Homesteading his claim and building a cattle herd is more important to him than his living conditions, for himself or someone else.
“Cullen, on the other hand, needs a wife and his postmaster’s job can support a family.”
“But he isn’t looking for a wife,” Rose said as they walked toward the parsonage.
“Cullen needs love and will be a good husband and father if he’s pushed into it. Of all my adopted sons, I’ve always worried about him the most.”
“Adopted sons?” Mrs. Reagan’s comment piqued Rose’s curiosity.
“I raised six boys but only gave birth to the youngest.”
“The three I just met didn’t look alike now that you mention it.”
“As different as night and day in their looks and personalities.
“Angus, the depot master, and Seth, now a rancher north of Clear Creek, were my husband’s children with his first wife. Angus’ wife is Daisy, and she owns the pharmacy in town. They have a toddler and an infant.
“Seth is a quiet and patient man, but you’re more suited as Cullen’s wife. Seth stays on the ranch except for Sundays when he comes to church and to visit us.”
“When Patrick’s wife, Shona, died, he wrote back to Ireland for a mail-order bride, and I sailed in.”
“You were a mail-order bride too?” Rose thought of how different it would have been to come from another country to marry a stranger. Mrs. Reagan made a serious commitment with no turning back.
“Yes, so I can tell you what it’s like to start over in a new place. But I have a twist in my story. I befriended a young woman with two young sons on the ship. When she died, I claimed her boys as my own and brought them to Kansas with me.”
“I bet Pastor Reagan was surprised.”
“He took it all in stride when I showed up with the boys, Fergus and Mack. Fergus and his wife, Iris, have the photography studio across the street. You met Mack, the carpenter, and his wife, Pansy, is the town’s doctor.”
“When and how did Cullen join your family then?”
“It’s a touchy subject to him, especially since everyone knows his background. His mother worked in a brothel in the neighboring cowtown, and Cullen lived in the house with her. When she died, Cullen was kicked out of the brothel and left to fend for himself.”
“How old was Cullen when it happened?”
“Six years old. Cullen survived eating scraps out of the trash behind cafés. Patrick heard about his plight, and the whole family went searching for him.”
“That’s so sad. How did you get Cullen to leave with you though?”
Mrs. Reagan laughed. “Our boys tackled him, then bribed him onto the train with a sandwich and peppermints.”
Rose could imagine the scene realizing how Cullen, Angus, and Mack had acted toward each other a few minutes ago. The older brothers protecting but teasing, and Cullen grudgingly admiring them.
“Our youngest son, Tully is living and working with Seth at the Straight Arrow Horse Ranch. Seth manages it for Isaac Connely, and both Isaac and Seth are good influences on Tully, rather than us, his parents now.”
They went past a variety of businesses as they walked toward the school, church, and parsonage at the end of town.
“Young widow Mary Jenkins has the dress shop. Frank Tolbert the barbershop. I told you about Fergus’ photo studio, Daisy’s pharmacy, and Doc Pansy’s office.”
Rose would have time to explore the town’s business district tomorrow.
“On the other end of downtown is Lyle Elison’s Lawyer’s Office, the Clancy Café, Taylor’s Mercantile, the bank, the post office, the marshal’s office and jail, Shepard’s Saddle Shop, Paulson’s Hotel, and the livery.
“Oh, and Adolph Bjorklund’s Meat Market. He’s a tall Swedish immigrant who has done well in town. Adolph is actively looking for a wife, but he won’t go out of town to meet a woman or write to an agency to find a bride. If he hears in church that we have a guest at the parsonage, he’ll invite himself to Sunday dinner to meet her.”
“Maybe Mr. Bjorklund would be a better match for me since your son doesn’t want to marry me.”
“I won’t count Cullen out yet, but Adolph could be a possibility. Cullen doesn’t realize it, but he’s opened up and formed a friendship with you, even if it was supposed to be between you and Richard. Cullen is a shy and private man, but you have many things in common.”
“What about the other man you mentioned?” Rose asked, hoping there were more than two men to pick from.
“Mr. Jones isn’t looking for a wife, but I threw out his name to make Cullen squirm.”
All this talk of strangers made Rose uneasy. When Rose performed, she could smile at people, but never had to talk to them. In Clear Creek, she was going to be spending hours with the people Mrs. Reagan was mentioning.
Rose needed to fly, literally, to calm her nerves, but she hadn’t been able to swing on the trapeze since her accident. The ability to walk on a high wire was also gone because her left arm wasn’t available to balance her body anymore.
She watched two carpenters framing the second story of a building down the street while she stood at the depot waiting for her groom. Rose could imagine tiptoeing across the top two by four board, twirling in place before flipping into a handstand.
She’d done acrobatics since she was a toddler because she’d grown up in the Flying Leander Family. But her life changed with the circus train accident.
The train wreck pushed Rose’s decision to leave the traveling life. She’d always yearned for a normal life, as she’d seen people have in the towns they’d stopped in to perform.
She could have stayed with her family, doing menial jobs for the circus, hoping that her shoulder would heal, but the range of motion she needed for the safety of herself and others wasn’t coming back.
“Why did you decide to become a mail-order bride?” Mrs. Reagan continued with her questioning.
What should she say? She wanted to live in one place, have a typical family with a husband and children, instead of visiting another town every few days?
“The train accident made me think about my future, and I wanted to get away from the crowded city.”
“Do you still have family in Chicago?”
“Bloomington, Illinois, actually. Yes, my grandparents, father and several other relatives still live there.” Anyway, that’s where her family and other trapeze acts practiced when not on the circus route.
“What did they think of you leaving home?”
What did they think when she couldn’t perform anymore? They hated to see her leave, but they also acted as if she was no longer part of the family since she couldn’t perform.
“They wa
nted what was best for me, and we can still write back and forth. I can travel back to Illinois to visit too.”
Mrs. Reagan nodded, but she looked as if she wanted to ask more questions.
They passed the white schoolhouse, empty for the summer, but children still played on the swings and teeter-totters beside the school.
What would people think if she sat down and swung?” Or tied the ropes higher so she could dangle upside down from the swing?
“Here’s our community church and the parsonage,” Mrs. Reagan proudly pointed out. “The wooden church was built in 1868 shortly after the railroad built through the area, and the town was started. The founders of the town built a church first thing, hoping it would make it a law-abiding town. Patrick was looking for a place to start over after his wife died and answered their newspaper advertisement.”
“And you arrived shortly after that?”
“Yes, after Patrick decided he wanted a wife again. That’s why we want Cullen to marry. He doesn’t believe it, but a wife and children will give him what’s he’s wanted for years—a family.”
The rumble of the wagon and hitched horse met up with them as they stepped onto the porch.
Pastor Reagan drove the wagon up to the porch, and Angus jumped out of the back where he’d been sitting on one of her two trunks.
“Why are the trunks stamped with ‘The Flying Leanders,’ Miss Leander?” Angus asked as he pulled the first trunk out of the wagon bed.
Rose stopped to turn toward the wagon. She hadn’t written about her previous life to Richard, for fear he’d think poorly of her. People liked to go to the circus but tended to look down on the people who traveled from town to town to perform.
“Miss Leander, were you and your family in the terrible train wreck last January which killed performers and animals?” The depot agent just revealed her past because she’d failed to cover or change the name on the trunks.
What could she do but reveal the truth? Rose was standing in front of a pastor and his wife.
“Yes. That’s how I was injured and why I left my family.”
Chapter 3
Cullen held the letter under his nose, inhaling the floral scent wafting from the envelope. He’d read Rose’s letters so many times this afternoon he could almost recite them by memory.
His heart jerked to a stop when he first looked into Rose’s beautiful mesmerizing eyes three hours ago. Rose looked at him before Richard when she was standing with Cullen’s parents.
Now he knew what Mack felt like when Mack announced he’d marry Doctor Pansy the first time Mack had seen her standing on the depot platform.
Cullen had scoffed at Mack’s declaration, even calling the woman a big moose because of her size and wide-bowed brown hat.
But Rose was to marry Richard Kandt, so Cullen pulled his heart and feelings back into his chest. Until the couple decided not to marry by mutual agreement. Cullen was surprised Rose didn’t have a crying fit and demand a return train ticket, as many women would have reacted.
No, for whatever reason, Rose was calm and agreed to his father’s suggestion to marry someone else in the area, after Cullen rejected the notion of him marrying her.
The idea of being close to a woman made Cullen panic. He’d never kissed a girl when he was a teenager or ever courted a woman. Even hugging his ma was quick and light so he didn’t have to make their contact last too long.
What was wrong with him that he wasn’t girl crazy when he was young, or wanting a wife now?
A flash of scenes from his early childhood is why. A man pushing his real mother up against a wall and groping her body while pressing his mouth hard against his mother’s. Her moans a combination of pain and acting as if she liked it.
But why did Cullen think only of that, when he’d seen tender moments between his adoptive parents, and his brothers and their wives?
“Picked out her ring yet?”
Cullen’s splayed hands slapped down on top of Rose’s letters on the counter as Mack surprised him.
“Don’t surprise me like that!”
“Why are you surprised? I’ve been standing here five minutes watching you reading…” Mack leaned over the counter to study the return address on the corner of an envelope, “…Rose’s letters, huh. Did Kandt give you Rose’s letters since you’re her next-in-line groom?”
“I’m not marrying Rose,” Cullen quickly answered as he pushed the pile of letters down the counter out of Mack’s long reach.
“Why not? I saw your spark of attention.”
“No, you didn’t, because you were standing behind me.”
“Well okay, after we moved out of Ma’s peashooter range. I could see your face. You’re interested.”
“No, I’m not.”
“Well, I’m just saying it’s okay if you are. I think Miss Leander was nice…and your size.”
“What? Short like me?” Cullen bristled. Even their little brother, Tully, skinny as a beanpole, towered over Cullen now.
“Quit bringing up your height, Cullen. No one thinks of it until you rub it in our faces. And there are times, although few, I’d rather not be so danged tall. Low doorways are a real pain in the head.”
“Sorry,” Cullen said, but he really wasn’t since it was a sore subject to him.
“I just thought you’d make a nice couple and you wouldn’t have to bend in half to kiss her.” That was one of the features of Doc Pansy that had attracted Mack to his new wife. They would look each other straight in the eye, no looking down for either of them.
“You stop by for any particular reason? It’s about time to close the post office.”
“I’m passing on the word you’re invited to the parsonage for a family supper tonight. Ma thought it would be nice if Rose met the family.”
“She’s setting me and Rose up for next week’s wedding.”
“I think at this point it’s more so Miss Leander can meet Daisy, Iris, and Pansy. She needs some friends since she’s planning to stay in town. If you don’t want to be social, I can ask Adolph to fill your seat.”
Cullen stared at Mack, knowing why he’d brought up Adolph’s name—to make Cullen jealous.
“Okay. I’ll be at supper since I know Rose the best because of her letters.”
“Oh, Angus said you don’t’ know everything about Miss Leander, so be prepared for a shock.”
Mack rapped his knuckles on the counter. “See you at six o’clock.”
Be prepared for a shock? Cullen huffed at the thought as he pulled down the postal window. He’d read Rose’s letters enough times he could recite her life’s history by heart.
*
“Oh, my goodness! I could never stand to be that high off the ground, and hanging upside down too?” Angus’ wife, Daisy, exclaimed as Cullen walked in the back door of the parsonage.
“Boots!” Angus’ toddler son, Benjamin, pointed to Cullen’s boots and then to the line of boots and shoes against the back wall.
“Yes, Benji. I know I have to take off my boots to keep your Grammy Kay happy.”
Shoot. Now he was talking like the kid.
“Glad you could make it, Cullen. Pour the water off the potatoes and mash them,” Fergus ordered.
Cullen sighed but did as he was told. As soon as the sons were old enough to do it themselves, Ma fixed family meals, but her sons set the table and washed the dishes afterward.
Cullen was given the task of mashing potatoes when he joined the family because he was angry about everything. Ma thought smashing potatoes would work out his frustrations and it had helped.
Cullen looked toward the dining room again when another burst of laughter came from that direction.
“What are the women talking about? They usually aren’t that noisy.”
“Miss Leander’s telling them stories about her circus days,” Angus replied while cutting the large roast into thick slices with a large butcher knife.
“Her circus days?” Cullen asked while silently questioning M
ack’s nod. Surely Rose wasn’t living and traveling with a circus. She hadn’t written any such thing in her letters to him...or uh, to Richard.
“Miss Leander grew up in the circus. You’ve heard of the famous Flying Leanders, haven’t you?” Fergus questioned as he stacked silverware on top of a large stack of china plates.
Cullen stopped mashing the potatoes, remembering something he’d read in the newspaper about the trapeze family. Three generations of the family traveled all over the country performing in circuses. They were in the big circus train wreck that had occurred in Illinois back a while.
“Rose is from that family?” Cullen asked his brothers.
“None other. The women are looking through her trunk of costumes and souvenirs right now as Rose tells about traveling with the circus.”
Their mother stepped into the kitchen doorway. “Ready to eat?”
“Yep. Get the family around the table, and we’ll start carrying in the food,” Fergus told their mother.
What was Rose doing hiding out in the middle of the Kansas prairie if her family was famous? Right, her shoulder was damaged, preventing her from working with her family, but surely she wasn’t running away from them.
Cullen carefully carried the two-brimming bowls of mashed potatoes to the table. One dish had never been enough to go around with six growing boys.
After the second bowl was safely on the table, Cullen glanced at Rose, now seated at the table. The chair beside her was empty, so Cullen moved around to sit by her before anyone else did.
“Nice to see you again, Mr. Reagan,” Rose’s words and smile didn’t reveal any tension from their last visit.
“Please call me Cullen, Miss Leander, since there are so many Reagan men at the table.
“Then please call me Rose. I feel like I already know you.”
“Hold hands while I say grace.” Cullen froze at his father’s words. He was sitting on Rose’s left side, and she couldn’t move her hand out of her lap to grasp his hand.
Grooms with Honor Series, Books 4-6 Page 13