Page 2 of Sudden Mail-Order Bride (Frontier Brides #1)

Why hadn’t he told her he was so handsome? The light in those deep-set green eyes was as compelling as the forest edging the ranch. And when those firm lips turned up in a smile, she felt all tingly inside, as if Christmas had come early.

Then again, men probably didn’t think to mention their looks, although they certainly considered a woman’s looks before deciding on a courtship. They considered her dowry and family connections too. At least, those were the reasons her father had insisted none of the young men of their acquaintance had been interested in being more than friends.

“You’re clever and kind,”

he’d say, standing over the sink and scrubbing the ink stains off his cuffs. “And you have a good heart. That will count for something with the right man.”

Somehow, she’d reached the age of three and twenty, and the right man hadn’t come knocking at the door. So, she’d emboldened herself to purchase one of the newspapers in which frontier gentlemen advertised for brides. Her correspondence with Jeremy Willets had made her hope that they would be comfortable together.

But gazing at him now, all muscle and bright eyes and smile that tugged at her heart, she wasn’t nearly so sure. Would someone like Jeremy Willets really want to marry her?

He’d said he’d protect her. That was the most important thing, and she was thankful. She shouldn’t get her hopes up for more.

“Let me take your coat,”

he said now, rising.

Caroline rose as well. She started pulling on the sleeves, but he came around behind her and lifted the wool smoothly from her shoulders, as if they were an old married couple and had been tending to each other’s needs for decades. His fingers brushed her neck, soft as a caress, and that tingle grew.

“So your father was convicted?”

he asked, draping the coat over her chair as if he thought she’d need it again shortly. “The last letter I had from you, he had just been arrested.”

That had been a very difficult letter to write, but she’d felt it only fair that he know. Her father might be innocent of the crimes that had landed him in prison, but the scandal of the trial had tainted the entire family.

“A lot has happened since I wrote you,”

she explained, returning to her seat. “My father is in prison while his lawyer attempts to appeal. And Ned disappeared with no explanation. I left Cincinnati two weeks ago, so if you wrote back, I didn’t get it.”

A thought popped into her head, and she stiffened. “You didn’t stop writing, did you? Had you decided we wouldn’t suit?”

“No, I…”

he started, but footsteps heralded the arrival of his mother and two sisters. Joy wore a big smile. Jane wore a frown, but at least she carried a plate of cookies.

“Ma says you’re going to marry Jeremy,”

his littlest sister said, plopping down on the chair on the other side of Caroline and gazing at her with eyes a storm cloud gray at odds with her sunny personality.

Caroline’s cheeks heated. “We’re still talking about that.”

Joy’s brow puckered. “Why?”

“Because that’s what folks do when they’re courting,”

her mother said, setting down a tray with a pitcher of lemonade and glasses on a nearby side table. “Jeremy, introduce Miss Cadhill to your sisters.”

“Caroline,”

he said obligingly, “this is my oldest sister, Jane, and my youngest, Joy.”

Jane inclined her head as she held out the platter for Caroline to take a cookie that smelled of ginger.

Joy hopped to her feet and spread her skirts in a curtsey. “Very pleased to make your acquaintance, I’m sure.”

Their mother smiled her approval as more voices sounded from the hallway. In a matter of moments, the parlor filled with Willetses: his father, three of his brothers, and another sister. Jeremy introduced her to them while his mother handed her a glass of lemonade.

Caroline nodded, clinging to the cool glass with one hand and the soft, warm cookie with the other as she recalled what Jeremy had written about them.

The tall, burly fellow with the flaming hair was his older brother Jack. He acted as ranch foreman.

Jason and Joshua were the youngest boys, on the edge of adulthood, jostling each other for position. Joshua’s hair was a deeper red than his brother’s, but they both had brown eyes.

Joanna’s hair was curly, like Joy’s, though Joanna’s was almost brown, and her gray eyes were brighter, like silver. When she grinned, it was impossible not to grin back.

Caroline enjoyed every moment in matching names to faces and descriptions, but perhaps she looked dazed, because his mother rose and flapped her hands. “That’s enough for now. You can all become better acquainted over dinner. We’ll see you then.”

The clump of boots and the clack of heels disappeared down the corridor, and doors closed in the distance, leaving her and Jeremy alone with his mother and father.

Caroline munched on the cookie a moment in the silence that fell. She tasted another spice under the ginger—nutmeg? Perhaps she’d have a chance to ask.

“How do we come to find such a lovely young lady in our parlor?”

Jeremy’s father asked with a kind look her way. He couldn’t have been more different from her father, who was small, slender, and stoop-backed from bending over his ledgers all day. Mr. Willets was tall and well built, leaning back on the sofa as if comfortable with his place in the world. It was clear where everyone’s red hair had come from, even if his was beginning to gray at the temples.

Mrs. Willets looked to Jeremy. “Exactly what I’d like to know. We taught you better than this, Jeremy Willets.”

Caroline would have wilted under the tone if anyone had used it with her. She hastily downed a slug of lemonade.

Jeremy merely set aside his glass and smiled at his parents. “You and Pa taught me very well, Ma. And I will always be grateful. But you claim to have fallen for each other at first sight, as if God put a big red sign on your foreheads saying, ‘This is the one.’”

Caroline gaped at them. “Love at first sight! How marvelous!”

Jeremy raised his brows even as his mother raised her chin.

“It was marvelous,”

she insisted. “And that’s the sort of love I want for all my children.”

“A very noble goal,”

Caroline assured her.

“But not everyone gets that kind of love,”

Jeremy was quick to point out. “Look at Jesse and Alice. They wed after being forced to spend the night together in a storm.”

Jesse was the oldest of the sons. Jeremy had written to her about how his brother and his bride were now very happy together.

“But love grew,”

his mother protested. “They just had to try harder than some.”

“And what makes you think love can’t grow between me and Caroline?”

Jeremy asked. He reached for her hand and held on tight, as if he’d never let go.

Caroline stared at their entwined fingers, then up at him. Did he truly hope for a love between them, a love like his parents had? Her own hope rekindled until she was sure it was shining from her eyes, her face. She’d come all this way with the idea of seeking safety and had been prepared to wed for convenience. Wouldn’t it be simply wonderful if Jeremy Willets came to love her instead?

***

He’d thought he’d have to fight, but he hadn’t been prepared for Ma to marshal her arguments and demand true love from the start. He’d mistaken the emotion once before. He didn’t intend to fool himself again.

“Love can grow, son,”

his father said, “if you and Miss Cadhill are certain you have enough in common.”

That was Pa, always the peacemaker. Jesse had learned it at his knee, and everyone else had benefitted from it. Jeremy nodded his thanks for the support now.

“Caroline and I have written to each other for months,”

he told both his parents. “I can reasonably say I know all about her.”

For some reason, that made Caroline drop her gaze and fiddle with her skirts.

“Well, that’s real nice,”

his father said, giving his mother a look as if to encourage her to agree.

“What people write and what they do are not always the same,”

she said primly. “You likely need more time together to know your own minds.”

Jeremy tried for charm, giving her his best smile. “Why, Ma, you always said I knew my mind entirely too well.”

“And can your Caroline say the same?”

she challenged.

“Well, I…”

Caroline started, gaze coming up to his. Was that doubt in the depths of the brown? His spirits sank, and his grip on her hand tightened as if some part of him thought she’d be ripped away at any moment.

His mother pointed a finger at his chest, as dangerous as a loaded revolver. “You see? You can’t rush a woman to the altar, Jeremy! No good will come of it. I expect you two to enter into a proper courtship.”

Caroline bit her lip. Proper courtships generally meant the gentleman living in one house and the lady in another. Her house was thousands of miles away. And she wouldn’t have funds for lodging here, even if Puget City had held a hotel or rooming house where he’d feel comfortable leaving her.

“I promised Caroline she could stay here,”

he told his mother. “Knowing how you feel about hospitality, I’m sure you’ll agree.”

“Of course Caroline can stay here,”

his mother said. “She can sleep in your room. You and Jacob can move in with Jason and Joshua.”

Four of them in a room built for two? His brothers weren’t going to thank him for that. But at least she wasn’t going to order Caroline out of the house. He’d take that concession as a victory.

“Maybe I can bunk with Jack over the barn,”

he suggested. His oldest brother had been given his own quarters in deference to his seniority. That and the fact that he was the most likely to butt heads like a goat with the others. The rooms had been Pa’s idea. Of course.

“Perhaps I should be the one to stay in the barn,”

Caroline offered. “Hay can be very comfortable, I hear.”

She was easing the way. Jeremy was ready to protest, but even his mother would have none of it.

“Nonsense,”

she said. “You’re a guest in this house. Jeremy, go clear out your things and your brother’s. Caroline can stay here with us until the room is ready.”

Leave her to his mother’s questionable graces? Not on his life.

Pa must have had similar concerns, for he put his hand back on Ma’s shoulder. “Perhaps Caroline would like to rest. We can be a bit much.”

He winked at Caroline, and she smiled. The tightness in Jeremy’s chest loosened.

He stood and held out his hand to her. “I have a better idea. The best way to get to know each other is to spend time together. You said so yourself, Ma. Caroline can help me clear out the room. We’ll leave the door open, and you can come check on us at any time.”

Their busy household didn’t hold much privacy as it was.

Caroline put her hand in his. Such a tiny hand, soft and fragile. He wanted to cradle it close.

“I’d be happy to help,” she said.

He took her valise with his free hand, and she pulled her coat from the chair. Then he led her out the parlor door before his mother could protest.

“I’ll send Joy up to act as chaperone!”

she threatened from behind him.

Jeremy didn’t respond. He could manage his littlest sister.

“Are you all right?”

he asked as he led Caroline up the stairs for the top story of the house. The second floor was divided into four rooms, two front and two back. His sisters had the north side rooms, and he and his brothers had the south side.

“Your mother is very angry with us,”

she murmured with a glance back toward the parlor door.

“My mother is very angry with me,”

he told her, opening the door at the top of the stairs on the right. “I’ve heard worse.”

He ushered her into the room he shared with Jacob. A bed stood on either side of the dormer window, the colorful quilts and wool blankets neatly tucked in as Ma insisted. Pa had built the bedsteads along with the wardrobe and highboy dresser against the wall on their right. It was all plain and simple, but it was home.

He’d slept in this room, in that bed, since he was nine, and his father had finished the house after they’d lived first in a tent and then in a single-room log cabin.

But Caroline looked around, wide-eyed, as if she’d never seen anything finer. More likely she had seen many things finer and was wondering how he made do with such a small space.

“You never had to share a room,”

he guessed, bending to smooth the quilt.

“Ned and I had our own rooms,”

she said. “But I always wanted a sister to share with. You’re blessed to have so many!”

He chuckled, straightening. “It feels like a blessing, most days. But don’t get on Jane’s bad side. She has a vocabulary, and she isn’t afraid to use it.”

She glanced toward the door again. “They all seem so friendly. Do you think they’ll like me?”

It was a question that every bride must ask about her new family, but her voice sounded plaintive, as if she was certain he’d tell her no.

Jeremy went to take her hand and give it a squeeze. “None of my brothers and sisters lack for intelligence. So, of course, they’ll like you.”

She beamed at him. When she pulled her hand from his, he felt as if he’d lost something precious.

“Where are your brother’s things?”

she asked. “I can gather those while you gather yours.”

Jeremy roused himself. They had a purpose for being up here, besides this ridiculous courtship Ma was insisting on. Maybe Pa would talk her out of that before dinner.

Though he didn’t hold out much hope. Once Ma made up her mind, little changed it.

“Start in the wardrobe,”

he advised. “The charcoal-colored suit, white dress shirt, and black shoes are Jacob’s church clothes. The second drawer in the dresser has his, um…”

A lady shouldn’t have to deal with his brother’s underthings, or his.

“I’ll take the dresser,”

he decided. “You just gather everything in the wardrobe.”

She went to work, but she kept eyeing him, as if she thought he’d run out on her. It sounded as if many in her life had left her, even if they’d had no choice. Her mother had died when Caroline was a girl, and Caroline had helped raise her little brother, who was only a year or two younger. Now it seemed Ned was gone, and her father was in jail.

“How’s your pa doing?”

he asked. “It can’t be easy for a gentleman to be sent to prison, especially knowing himself innocent.”

“I’m very proud of the way he’s persevering,”

she said, carefully folding his brother’s shirt. “I told Mr. Marchand, the manager at Cincinnati Savings and Trust, that Father couldn’t have done what they said. He promised he would look at the audit again but that he didn’t think leniency was called for with such a large amount of money missing.”

“Where did it go?”

Joy asked, flouncing into the room and throwing herself down on Jacob’s bed. She gazed at Caroline expectantly, as if the story was fiction and not the facts of Caroline’s life.

Caroline straightened and licked her lips. They were full and rosy, and they likely felt as soft as they looked. He was so busy staring that he almost missed her answer.

“No one knows, Joy. The trustees of the bank blamed my father for embezzlement and held him up on charges. They claimed he’d been siphoning off money and giving it to people who needed it, but they only found one witness who said he’d seen my father doing it. So, my father was convicted and sent to prison, and the bank took everything we had to recoup their loss.”

How could she say that with such a sunny smile? His heart would be breaking. It broke just listening to her.

“Maybe he hid the money,”

Joy said. “Maybe he knew the bank would use it for wicked purposes.”

Caroline wrinkled her nose as she folded Jacob’s coat as well. “Cincinnati Savings and Trust mostly helps families and their businesses. I don’t think they’ve done anything wicked or illegal, except for insisting my father was a criminal. For all I know, at some point, they’ll discover it was just a clerical error.”

There she went again, trying to make a tragedy less tragic. All he could see was that her father, her brother, and even the bank manager had failed her.

Did he have it in him to be the hero she needed, or would she turn away from him like the last woman he’d thought he’d loved?