The Mail Order Brides of Last Chance

by Lucille Chisum

  Althea nodded, and slowly Caleb began to position Thunder to make it as easy as possible. Fortunately the horse seemed to calm down as soon as he got within range of Althea, and Caleb was able to bring Thunder close to Joseph.

  The boy looked down at Joseph, then at Althea once Thunder was in position.

  “How about if you support his legs, and I’ll do what I can with the upper body?” Caleb asked.

  Althea nodded. “That sounds all right,” she said, wincing at the pain it would doubtless cause poor Joseph.

  “I know,” he replied, seeing her grimace. “But it’s the only way I can think of doing this, unless you can think of something better.”

  “Not really,” Althea replied, and then she felt a tear form in the corner of her eye. She summoned up all the courage she could and nodded at Caleb. “Let’s do this.”

  He nodded in return, and they positioned themselves to lift Joseph. They both wanted to do it slowly, but that really wasn’t an option.

  They lifted together, and Joseph moaned again, the loudest noise he’d made so far.

  For a moment Althea thought they wouldn’t be able to get him up on the horse, but Caleb reached down under Joseph’s thighs when he realized she was too short to push him up all the way, and the boy managed the rest of it.

  “That’ll do it,” he said, keeping his hands positioned on Joseph’s body so he wouldn’t fall off. “Let’s walk him back to the stage.”

  Althea nodded. For a moment she thought about suggesting a faster pace, but she knew it wasn’t possible.

  “Quickly, then,” she said. “Who knows how much time we have.”

  Caleb nodded, and they walked the horse back together. He wanted to push the pace, but Joseph was balanced precariously, so he focused instead on reaching the stage.

  Fortunately things got easier once they were there. The bench was long enough for Joseph to nearly stretch out, and they leaned his head and upper body up against the side of the cab so his legs could be extended.

  And with that, they were underway. For the first minute or two Caleb kept the pace relatively slow, not wanting to jostle Joseph too much. But then, finally, he realized that he didn’t have that luxury.

  Althea stayed in the cab with her husband, scrunched into the tiny area in front of the bench.

  She could barely fit, and for a moment she’d considered riding up top with Caleb, but Althea knew she had to stay below to make sure he was alright.

  Althea had no idea how they made it back with Joseph still alive, but somehow they did. They went straight to Doctor Jessup’s office, and Caleb rushed in to get the doctor.

  Aaron’s examination was quick but thorough.

  “You’re right,” he said, turning and nodding to both of them after fitting himself into the cab to look Joseph over. “His leg’s definitely broken. I think we can save him, but we need to get him inside as quickly as possible.”

  Althea and Caleb nodded at each other, and once again they performed the operation of getting Joseph inside.

  This time Aaron supervised, but there really wasn’t much difference between the way they’d done it back in the pass and what they did now.

  Althea wanted to go with the doctor into the exam room, but Aaron insisted it wasn’t a good idea. He waited until they had him up on the table, and then he insisted they leave.

  And that was all she could do, at least for now. Finally, when she left the exam room, Althea felt the hot tears coming from her eyes, and she allowed several of them to drip down her cheeks before she shook her head, deciding it was enough.

  It’s all in the hands of God now, she said to herself. God and Doctor Jessup. My sense tells me that everything will be fine . . . but the waiting will be agony for sure.

  It took several weeks for Althea to nurse Joseph back to health once he was allowed to come home. This happened just before Christmas, which meant they would be able to spend the holiday together.

  Doctor Jessup told her there was a possibility he might always walk with a limp, but other than that he would likely be fine.

  The limp never materialized. Althea insisted that Joseph get up and around as soon as the doctor told her that was alright, but not before. She knew how important the timing of it would be, and fortunately Joseph was a patient man who wasn’t stubborn.

  When it was nearly over and Joseph began trying to talk, Althea finally understood what part of her urgency had been about.

  She’d felt the child growing inside her as soon as Joseph recovered to the point where she was sure he would be fine.

  It would be a fine way to celebrate Christmas, and Althea and Joseph spent the holiday giving thanks for the many blessings they’d received.

  6

  Lightning Strikes the Stranded Bride

  Caleb was bored. He realized this several days after helping Althea rescue Joseph, when he was brushing down the horses.

  The days that followed the rescue were something of a whirlwind. Caleb thought he would just go back to work, but he couldn’t have been more wrong about that if he’d tried.

  The next day, late in the afternoon, he’d been summoned to the mayor’s office.

  For a moment Caleb was both startled and alarmed. He wondered if something had gone wrong with Joseph, if his health might have taken a turn for the worse.

  If that was the case, all their effort might have gone for naught, and Caleb would have had trouble forgiving himself. He’d already gone over the events of the day many times in his mind, questioning whether he’d done the right thing.

  But that wasn’t why he’d been summoned at all.

  “There you are!” the mayor said as soon as Caleb walked in the door. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

  “Sorry, Mister Mayor,” Caleb said. “Been a busy day taking care of the horses after yesterday.”

  “Understandable,” Owen replied, smiling at the boy’s use of his title. He kept trying to get everyone to use his first name, but for some reason his request never seemed to stick. “But we’ve got some additional business to attend to.”

  Caleb frowned slightly, wondering what this was about. His assignments for the day were usually posted in a note that was delivered to the stables early in the morning, and after that it was Caleb’s job to make sure the stagecoach was properly prepared.

  That hadn’t happened on this particular day, though, and Caleb simply assumed it was because of the energy required to execute the rescue.

  “Is something wrong?” he asked, blinking.

  “No, no, not at all,” Owen said. “Can you come into my office for a moment?”

  Caleb shrugged. “Sure,” he replied. But he was eager to know what this was about, and more than a little worried as well.

  When he entered the office, the boy got the surprise of his young life. The members of the town council were all assembled there, along with Jason McCourty, for whom Caleb worked as a scout.

  For a moment Caleb thought he’d really done something wrong, but then he saw the broad smile on Owen’s face. The others were smiling too, and Caleb’s confusion grew, especially when they all stood as he entered.

  “We thought it would be appropriate to honor you for what you did yesterday,” Owen said.

  “Wh—what?” Caleb asked, looking around in alarm.

  “Your efforts,” the mayor explained. “Without you the rescue could not have happened.”

  But it’s my job, the boy thought.

  He silenced the voice in his mind, and Caleb simply gave the mayor a shy smile. Then he looked around the office, as if there might be an escape route, and Owen smiled and shook his head.

  “It’s just a simple token, and a citation as well,” Owen said, nodding at the medal he held in his hands.

  It was golden in color, tied to a bright, multicolored ribbon that Caleb quickly realized was designed to fit around his neck.

  The president of the town council looked at the mayor, indicating that it was time to present the medal. Owen
nodded, realizing that he had a tendency to go on a bit once he got started, and the president was looking to prevent that.

  “If you would come forward please, then,” Owen said, and Caleb took a couple of hesitant steps toward the mayor.

  “Caleb Wells, we would like to honor you for your meritorious service in the rescue of Joseph Conway,” he proclaimed, looking around the room.

  The others smiled, and Caleb realized that this was something they took seriously, but not overly so.

  Then Jason McCourty stepped forward to present the medal, taking it from the mayor once he reached him.

  “You did an amazing thing, Caleb,” Jason said softly as he hung the medal around Caleb’s neck. “It’s a miracle that Joseph survived out there, and it’s all due to you.”

  Caleb nodded, and he came close to choking up with tears. This meant far more to him than the actual physical medal, or any words from the mayor.

  Jason McCourty had gotten him hired to work in the stables and drive the town stagecoach after he arrived from Denver. Caleb knew how to ride, and he knew a bit about horses, but other than that he’d had to learn the whole job from scratch.

  And it was Jason who’d taken the time to teach him. In spite of his own duties scouting, and supervising the other scouts, all of which kept him incredibly busy.

  But Jason had come to the stables on a regular basis, showing Caleb things about the horses, increasing his knowledge, and of course teaching him about the stagecoach as well.

  Jason knew so much that it took no time at all for Caleb to become competent at the job, and after that he’d quickly gone from competent to good to excellent.

  And now here he was, getting a medal from Jason and the mayor, in front of the other members of the town council.

  He was slightly overcome by emotion, but the last thing Caleb wanted was to show it in front of these men.

  He looked down at the floor to hide the fact that his eyes were growing moist, and then Caleb met Jason’s eyes and shook Jason’s hand when he offered it.

  “This is just the beginning, you know,” Jason said softly as the others clapped in the background.

  Caleb’s eyes lit up.

  This was the best news of all, Jason actually saying these words.

  He’d told Caleb there would be a position for him as a scout once Jason had seen how quickly Caleb picked up the job, but Jason had also told him it would take a while before that could happen.

  Now, though, the pace seemed to be picking up a little. Caleb was incredibly grateful for this; truth be told, he was tired of running the stage, and much of what he was doing was becoming so familiar that his boredom was steadily growing.

  He’d heard the stories from the other scouts he’d gotten to know. It was a hard life, Caleb knew that, but he loved hearing about their adventures, the situations they found themselves in, all the different things they had to learn.

  And Caleb longed for that, more than he could say.

  Once Jason presented him with the medal, the “ceremony,” such as it was, wound down quickly. Caleb stayed and chatted with everyone, but he knew full well he was quiet and shy, so the aftermath didn’t last long either.

  Just before he left, Owen invited Caleb to come have dinner with him, at his house, later that week.

  This was something of a coup as well, for Owen’s wife Dottie was known throughout the town and beyond for her talents as a cook.

  And Caleb could barely scratch out a meal for himself in the small cottage that had been built for him behind the stables; cooking had never been his strong suit.

  He walked back to the stables afterward, somewhat buoyed by what had taken place.

  To Caleb, what he’d done during the rescue had been nothing—more than just a day’s work, obviously, given the difficulty of the situation.

  But Caleb knew he was the type of person who tended to rise to the demands of whatever was happening without thinking much about it, and in his own mind that was all he’d done.

  When he returned to the stables Caleb began attending to his duties with the horses, smiling at the familiarity of everything.

  He’d been working in a store in Denver a few short months ago, tanning leather for a man who made shoes and boots, and all of this had been unimaginable back then.

  Maybe I shouldn’t be so casual about all this, he thought. I should probably be more thankful for everything that’s happened to me. I’ve prayed every day for months, and God certainly seems to have sent me on a better path.

  In spite of this, however, Caleb found it hard to suppress his impatience. Things were going quickly, but he wanted them to go even faster. He simply couldn’t help it; Caleb felt like he was ready for more, but he knew better than to try to force something like that.

  Despite the busyness of the day and the rescue that led up to it, Caleb finished his duties early. He didn’t wish to return to the cottage right away, for Caleb knew he was lonely and not meant for a solitary life.

  Who knows? he thought. Perhaps something will happen to change all that as well.

  But as much as Caleb was able to sense that things were about to change for him, there was no way he could have anticipated the events that were about to take place.

  For they would change his life completely, and in ways he never would have considered in his wildest dreams.

  Hallie Newman looked around, trying to see where the prairie ended. It struck her immediately that this was akin to trying to see to the end of the universe; it simply couldn’t be done.

  After twisting her neck into a pretzel trying to solve the problem, Hallie simply gave up.

  The prairie never ends, she thought. It just goes on forever. In a different set of circumstances this might be heaven on earth . . . but right now it’s just the opposite.

  She looked back at their camp, considering their situation, which seemed beyond dire at the moment.

  There were two other girls with her, prospective mail order brides, and they were still in the small tent, in which the three had managed to shoehorn themselves in for the night.

  They’d barely slept at all. The three girls had all tossed and turned, keeping each other awake, until finally exhaustion had overtaken them and they’d passed out from sheer fatigue.

  Hallie had been the first to wake up. She was a light sleeper; in fact it often seemed like she barely needed sleep at all. Throughout her young life, she’d gotten by on a few hours, sometimes even less when the situation demanded it.

  And it certainly did now. The first thing Hallie noticed when she extracted herself from the tent was the rising sun, along with the crispness of the late fall air.

  Under different circumstances, this combination would have been idyllic. Now, though, it filled Hallie with a dread she couldn’t explain.

  Until she saw that the stagecoach that had taken them out here in the middle of the prairie had vanished.

  She blinked, thinking it might be an illusion of sorts. But when she opened her eyes, it still wasn’t there.

  Perhaps he’s gone to pick up supplies, Hallie thought, and then she smiled at how foolish that idea was. Where would the driver pick up supplies, out here in the middle of nowhere, to someplace that would require him taking the stagecoach?

  She began to walk around, feeling the need to move about. It was simply inconceivable that the driver, whose name was Emile, could leave them stranded here in the middle of nowhere.

  But that was exactly what had happened, apparently.

  Hallie felt her eyes begin to water, and she knew she was tearing up, in spite of herself. She sniffed, trying to hold back the tears, but the harder she tried the more Hallie realized how impossible it was.

  Finally she let a few of them trickle out, but that was all. Hallie was determined to keep her wits about her, for the two girls with her were even less experienced in the ways of the world than she was. So it would be up to her to keep things together.

  She continued to walk, and as she did Hall
ie thought bitterly about the initial optimism that had characterized her journey.

  The matchmaker back in Providence had assured her that there would be husbands aplenty waiting for them in Denver; they simply had to arrive, and then pick and choose which one they wanted.

  Something about his words had told Hallie that she should be wary, but she’d chosen to ignore her own internal signals.

  The boredom and hardship of working in a dress shop had been driving her insane, and Hallie knew her prospects for the future were so limited that she simply had to get out.

  And now here she was, out. But out where, exactly?

  For the moment that meant stranded somewhere in what she assumed was the middle of the prairie. Although she had no way of knowing that for sure, of course.

  The only thing Hallie did know for sure was that the other girls were still asleep in the tent.

  She thought for a moment about waking them, but they were both more than a little silly, and Hallie couldn’t help but think they’d be of little help at the moment. So she would wait before she got them up.

  Once she got it through her head that the prairie was endless—Hallie knew she could be a bit thick at times—she looked around and began to consider the more practical aspects of their situation.

  There was water nearby, she knew that. In fact, their “guide” had selected the spot where they’d camped because it was close to a stream.

  The water probably wouldn’t be potable—one of the other girls had learned the danger of that problem the first night they’d camped. But at least they wouldn’t die of thirst. Diarrhea, cramps and starvation, perhaps. But definitely not thirst.

  Beyond that, though, things looked more or less hopeless. They had the tent, of course, and that was something, it meant they wouldn’t have to try and sleep out in the open, assuming they survived long enough to do that on multiple nights.

  And then there was the nearby lone oak, which would might have provided shade at another time of year. Now, though, that was completely irrelevant.