Bride for Keeps (Unexpected Brides Book #1)

Melissa Jagears

Description

"Melissa Jagears is a stand-out talent! Her fresh new voice is strong, stylish, and makes A Bride for Keeps a page-turner for anyone who fancies a stirring love story."-Rosslyn Elliot, author of Fairer Than Morning and Sweeter Than Birdsong "A Bride for Keeps treats readers to an engaging, prairie romance...delivering a heartwarming, satisfying read."-Maggie Brendan, CBA bestselling author of The Heart of the West and The Blue Willow Brides series."Melissa Jagears has penned a tender tale of a mail-order bride who takes both the groom--and herself--by surprise when love comes softly...quietly... to heal their broken hearts."-Julie Lessman, author of Love at any Cost"A Bride for Keeps is just beautiful. It put me in mind of Janette Oke's sweet prairie romances but with a bit more edge, which I found compelling...I loved it."-Mary Connealy, author of Fired UpEverett Cline will never humiliate himself by seeking a mail-order bride. Not again. He's already been jilted by three mail-order brides and figures a wife just isn't in his future. However, a well-meaning neighbor hasn't given up on seeing him settled, so she goes behind his back to bring yet another woman to town for him.Julia Lockwood has never been anything more than a pretty pawn for her father or a business acquisition for her former fiance. A mail-order marriage in faraway Kansas is a last resort, but she'll do anything to leave her life in Massachusetts and the heartbreak she's experienced there.Although Everett doesn't see how a beautiful, cultured woman like Julia could be happy sharing his simple life, he could really use a helpmate on his homestead. Determined to prove she's more than just a pretty face, Julia agrees to a marriage in name only. Faced with the harsh realities of life on the prairie and hesitant to explore the tentative feelings growing between them, can Everett and Julia ever let each other in long enough to fall in love?

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 01 octobre 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781441263339
• Langue: English

Extrait

© 2013 by Melissa Jagears
Published by Bethany House Publishers
11400 Hampshire Avenue South
Bloomington, Minnesota 55438
www.bethanyhouse.com
Bethany House Publishers is a division of
Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan
www.bakerpublishinggroup.com
Ebook edition created 2013
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means for example, electronic, photocopy, recording without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4412-6333-9
Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible.
Wedding vows in chapter seven are from The Book of Common Prayer .
The hymn in chapter fourteen is Fairest Lord Jesus , translated from German to English by Joseph A. Seiss, 1873.
Cover design by Dan Pitts
Cover photography by Mike Habermann Photography, LLC
Author represented by The Natasha Kern Literary Agency
Praise for A Bride for Keeps
“ A Bride for Keeps treats readers to an engaging prairie romance when God’s will and love collide, delivering a heartwarming, satisfying read.”
Maggie Brendan, CBA bestselling author of The Heart of the West and The Blue Willow Brides series
“Melissa Jagears is a stand-out talent! Her fresh new voice is strong, stylish, and makes A Bride for Keeps a page-turner for anyone who fancies a stirring love story. Vivid description and unforgettable, heart-tugging scenes between hero and heroine transform the ever-popular mail-order bride storyline into something much more real and three-dimensional. In this appealing novel, Ms. Jagears demonstrates beyond doubt that the aplomb of the writer determines the quality of the story.”
Rosslyn Elliot, author of Fairer Than Morning and Sweeter Than Birdsong
“Melissa Jagears has penned a tender tale of a mail-order bride who takes both the groom and herself by surprise when love comes softly . . . quietly . . . to heal their broken hearts.”
Julie Lessman, author of Love at Any Cost
“ A Bride for Keeps is just beautiful. It put me in mind of Janette Oke’s sweet prairie romances but with a bit more edge, which I found compelling. . . . I loved it.”
Mary Connealy, author of Fired Up
To my husband, who puts up with a lot so I can write and believes in me when I don’t believe in myself. I wish I was more like you.
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Praise for A Bride for Keeps
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Back Ad
Back Cover
Chapter 1
K ANSAS S PRING 1876
Everett Cline loosened his grip on the mercantile’s doorknob and let the door shut behind him. Kathleen Hampden waddled straight toward him, the white feathers in her hat dancing like bluestem grass in the late March breeze. In the three years she’d been married to the store’s owner instead of him, couldn’t she have bought a new hat?
He hadn’t talked to her alone since the day she arrived in Salt Flatts with those identifying white feathers he’d been told to expect, but he hadn’t anticipated her being married to Carl before she stepped off the train. Why hadn’t she thrown her hat out a passenger car window and pretended she’d never been his mail-order bride?
“Afternoon, ma’am. Is your husband around?”
He glanced behind the long glossy counter cluttered with candy jars and sundry items and saw that the door to the empty back room stood ajar. The two overflowing shelves that cut the store into thirds kept him from being able to see into every corner. The fabric table was a jumbled mess, and a few potatoes lay on the floor in the corner, escaped from their bin. Were they the only ones in the store?
Mrs. Hampden stopped three feet from him, the tang of the wood polish on her rag warring with the leather and tobacco smells permeating the room. She was such a tiny thing, even large with child. Perhaps it was a good thing she had married Carl. If she worked outside as Everett did every day, the wind would have blown her away sooner or later.
“Mr. Hampden’s away on business, otherwise he’d have rushed out at the bell. Especially since it’s you.” Her cheeks pinked.
Carl needn’t worry about him. Stealing someone’s mail-order bride was different from stealing someone’s wife.
Everett fidgeted. “He has no reason to be concerned.”
“I know.” She rubbed her swollen stomach. “But he’s still worried your good looks might make me wish I’d chosen differently.”
The skin under his collar grew warm, and he pulled at the strangling fabric. He might be a decent-looking sort of man, but a lot of good that did him.
“I hope you have better luck today than you did with me, and you know . . . the others.” She bit her lip. “I’m sure this time it will be for keeps.”
He swallowed hard and eyed her. What was she talking about? Surely another rumor about him ordering a bride again wasn’t circulating. “I’m afraid I don’t understand.”
“It’s all right. Rachel told me.” Her voice was hushed, as if someone might hear.
He leaned down and whispered back. “Told you what?”
“About the lady coming on the afternoon train. She said you’d need prayer.”
Rachel.
He ran his tongue along his teeth and nodded absently. Surely his best friend’s wife wasn’t pulling another one of her matchmaking schemes. She’d tried to set him up with every girl in the county since the day her sister, Patricia, had left him for someone else. When matchmaking failed, she’d pushed him into mail-order bride advertisements.
If she’d gone and ordered another one for him, by golly
“I hope I haven’t upset you.” Mrs. Hampden’s concerned tone reminded him of her presence. “I haven’t told anyone since . . . well, you know how they are.”
Yes, the townsfolk. Everett clenched his teeth. Every unescorted woman who stepped off the train was asked if she belonged to Everett Cline. When she answered negatively, some young man in the gathered crowd would drop to his knee and propose.
He stared at the saddle soap on the shelf beside him. What had he come in here for?
“I wish you luck.” Mrs. Hampden’s eyes looked dewy.
Everett squashed the felt brim of his hat in his clammy hands. Third time’s a charm hadn’t worked for him, and he’d never heard anything like the fourth’s a keeper . There wouldn’t be a fourth time for him. Well, fifth, if he added being jilted by Patricia so long ago. Was there a saying akin to five failures prove a fool ? He was a hairsbreadth away from confirming himself a dunce. “You have nothing to wish me luck for.”
“Oh, Everett, surely this time it will work.”
“Really, Mrs. Hampden, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I can understand why you don’t want to say anything, but I’m the last person in Salt Flatts who would tease you.”
He’d let her believe whatever she wanted, because nothing would happen. “Thanks just the same.” He smashed his hat back on and hightailed it out the door, down the steps, and toward the weathered wagon belonging to his neighbors. Was this why Rachel insisted they needed him in town even though any train porter could have helped her husband load the shipment she was waiting on?
He wouldn’t believe it. She wouldn’t do that.
“Come on now, Everett,” she’d said. “You can’t avoid town forever. Surely you have supplies to get.”
He reached into his pocket, clasped his scribbled list, and stopped in the middle of the road. Rachel wouldn’t have gone so far as to invite another woman to Salt Flatts to marry him without even telling him. Would she?
A horse sidestepped beside him, the boot of its rider grazing his arm. “Hey, watch what you’re doing.” The cowboy glared down at him, the stench of bovine overpowering the scent of the cheap cigar wiggling between his lips.
Everett turned and scurried across the dusty road and onto the boardwalk. He glanced at his list. Should he return to the mercantile and face Kathleen again or confront Rachel? Neither would be pleasant.
“Got me a letter to send, Everett?” Jedidiah Langston stepped out of the false-front post office and stood next to his son, eighteen-year-old Axel, who perched on a stool, absently whittling a stick. A smirk twitched the corners of the younger man’s mouth.
Everett’s hand itched to swipe the boy’s lips clean off his face, but he shook his head instead. He hadn’t personally posted something for over a year always sent his mail in with the Stantons but it seemed as if Rachel had decided to mail some correspondence for him.
“Surely you’re hankerin’ for another bride by now. Helga’s been Mrs. Parker for plumb near a year. Seems to me it’s about time you up and tried again.”
Axel chuckled at his father’s joke, and Everett scowled at the mention of his third and absolutely last mail-order bride.
He crammed the shopping list back into his pocket. “No letter, gentlemen.”
“Axel needs a wife about as bad as I need him off of my porch.” Jedidiah glared at his lazy son, who only rolled his eyes. “Maybe your next one can marry him.”
Axel sliced the tip off his pointy stick. “Only if he orders a stunner this time.”
Any woman dumb enough to marry that boy would have to work to support them both. Everett tipped his hat. “Good day, gentlemen.”
He’d been Axel’s age eighteen years ago, but he’d at least had some gumption, a promising future, and an adoring girl on his arm. Yet he was still single. A mail-order bride was probably the boy’s only hope, though Everett doubted he’d ever try for one. Axel’s ma had once been a mail-order bride, and when her marriage plans hadn’t worked out,