ROMANCE: Mail Order Bride: A Sheriff's Bride (A Clean Christian Inspirational Historical Western Romance) (New Adult Short Stories) (105 page)

The landscape was absolutely beautiful. She nearly forgot to breathe. All she’d ever known were the green hills and woods of Vermont. This was like a totally different world all together. She was so busy staring at the mountains and vast, clear sky that she didn’t notice the large mob of people trying to move around her like a river around a rock.

She finally shook her head, coming back to reality and following the rest of the crowd into the train station. The building was large and packed with people. Mothers sat with children, and rugged men smoked cigarettes, blowing gray smoke into the air. The smell made her nose itch, and she covered her mouth and nose as she all but ran out of the station, eager to see what was just outside the doors.

Just beyond the train station was a town bigger than anything Krista ever saw before. The little town she frequently went to in order to retrieve food orders and other supplies was much smaller than the shop-lined streets she stood in front of now. There was everything from hat shops to general stores all in one strip. Women walked around the streets in fashionable dresses, kicking up red dust as they moved about.

Krista’s baby blue eyes were wide, hardly believing what she was seeing. She expected very little from a Western city. All she’d heard of the West was that it was barren and lifeless. It was a place where gunmen roamed and women were constantly being kidnapped for ransom. It was hard to imagine any of that stuff happening in a place so full of life.

She tucked some hair behind her ear and stepped off the porch of the train station, looking around for any sign of the man who was going to be her husband.

One of the first things she noticed was that there were far more men than women, and it worried her. How was she supposed to find her husband?

Just as she started to feel nervous, she turned and saw a man with jet-black hair riding into town. His horse was just as dark as his hair, and his nearly black eyes seemed to burn into her. He wore a serious expression. There was a sign draped around his horse’s neck:
Krista Richards.

Chapter Four

Krista stared up at the man on the horse, hesitating to walk over to him. She thought he looked intimidating. She chewed her lip a little but took a deep breath before jogging over toward the towering man on the horse, picking her dress up off the dusty ground.

“Sir!” she called, one delicate hand in the air.

The man looked down at her from the horse, seemingly sizing her up. He grunted, tugging on his horse’s reins, though he didn’t actually say anything. She stopped just short of the lumbering horse and took a breath.

“I’m Krista.”

He cocked a brow and crossed his arms over his and shook his head slowly. “I expected someone more … delicate.”

She frowned, her brows knitting together as she took a step back, standing her ground and crossing her own arms. “Well, I’m sorry, but you got me,” she said sternly.

He sighed and shook his head back and forth, holding his worn hand out to her. Krista walked over and took his hand, lifting her foot and putting one on the stirrup and hauling herself up onto the horse. Now that she was closer to the man, she could see that he hadn’t shaved in a few days, and there were wrinkles in the corner of his rich brown eyes. His eyelashes were surprisingly long, and his nose sloped to an almost delicate point. His features were masculine and pleasing to the eye. It was a shame his attitude was so rotten.

She wrapped her arms around him for a moment, leaning against his back. She didn’t want to be this thankful for his warmth, but she couldn’t help it. It felt good, and it felt safe to be so close to someone like him. Krista could feel the rippling of muscles under his shirt and closed her eyes, allowing herself to rest. She’d managed to sleep a lot on the train ride, but it wasn’t good sleep. It was desperate sleep to try to forget the fact that she left everything she loved and knew behind.

Krista stayed silent for a long time but finally let her eyes open and scanned the empty horizon. Now that they were out of town there was nothing but dirt and flat land with a spattering of trees. A gust of wind swept through the plains and kicked up a cloud of dust so thick she couldn’t see through it.

They rode on for well over an hour until a large ranch came into view. When Krista saw the faint silhouette of the ranch, she raised her head and squinted her eyes, trying to make out more details. The house was flat but much larger than any house she’d seen in Vermont. It was a single-story home, which she found to be a little strange, but managed to nearly be a mansion.

“What is this place?” she whispered, wide-eyed.

A large pen stretched on farther than her eyes could see and held a sea of cattle. A smaller pen beside that held a small herd of sheep, crying out whenever the wind whipped up another dust storm. Their white wool was stained a dark brown color with red hues. She could help but think that the wool was ruined. It was the farmer inside of her.

They got close enough to the house for her to see some of the detail. She silently admitted that she was impressed. The sloping roof was made of perfectly cut wooden pieces that laid one on top of the other in order to keeping out the chilling winter winds as well as the summer rains, and the front porch wrapped around the entire length of the house with two rocking chairs that moved back and forth with the wind.

Large windows gave her a peek into the relatively empty house, and she frowned a little, wondering why he didn’t have much furniture. He was clearly a very successful man. Krista closed up to ask him that very question but stopped short. She couldn’t quite it, but this man scared him. He’d signed his name William, but she doubted he went by that. His working shirt was far too dirty and his demeanor too rugged for him to be a William.

“Bill?” she asked, hoping she got it right.

He paused and looked up at her, tying his horse to a post and patting its thick neck. “Yes?”
She cleared her throat and looked away. “Well, we haven’t spoken since we were in town.”

“Is that going to be a problem? I hate to disappoint you, but I’m not a very talkative man.”

Krista frowned deeply and watched him walk up the porch, opening the door to head inside. She followed close behind, catching the door before it closed and throwing it open. She reached out and grabbed his arm to stop him, her grip firm and surprisingly strong. He turned and looked at her hand, brow cocked.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m stopping you so you’ll listen to me,” she said sharply.

He pulled his arm out of her hands and scoffed, shaking his head a little and clicking his tongue. “You’re tired and clearly need to lie down.”

“Don’t treat me like a child! I’m not asking for a lengthy conversation. You didn’t even tell me your name.”

“I told you in my letters.”

Krista glared and shook her head. “Look, I know this is all business, but can’t we be at least civil?”

She didn’t want to admit it, but she was feeling scared and alone. The last thing she wanted was a husband who was going to ignore her and treat her coldly.

Bill turned and looked at her, shaking his head slowly as he stepped forward, pinning her between the frame of the house and his own large body.

“You’ve been awfully mouthy since you got here, and I haven’t thrown you out yet. As far as I’m concerned, I have been civil,” he said simply. “Now, you can either accept that this is the way things are, or you can go back to Vermont.”

Her chest tightened a little, and she took a step back, eyes wide and wet. She didn’t want to cry, but she could feel the tears threatening to come. The threat hit her at her core and rendered her speechless. She knew she was at his mercy, and knowing she had nowhere to go was the worst feeling in the world. She couldn’t argue with him or turn him away. If she did, she would be stranded in this strange land with no way to get home and no way to keep herself alive.

Krista looked down, remaining silent though Bill seemed to understand that she was accepting his proposal. He knew just as well as Krista that she couldn’t go back to Vermont. She wouldn’t have left if there were any other options. Being a mail-order bride was a big risk. People didn’t do it unless there was nowhere left to turn.

“Have we reached an understanding?”

Krista nodded and closed her eyes, trying not to cry. “Yes.”

Her answer came out as a defeated whimper, though Bill didn’t seem to care and just turned to leave her in the foyer to contemplate her fate.

Chapter Five

Bill was just as cold toward Krista in the following weeks as he was the first day she arrived, though she hadn’t expected much else from him. He made his intentions very clear that day. She was here to clean the house and cook the meals, even if she wasn’t so good at it. She wanted to be out with him, handling the cattle and learning to sheer the sheep, though she knew he wouldn’t let her do anything like that. His opinions of what women were supposed to do around the house were very clear, and farm work wasn’t one of those things. She was destined to be holed up in the house doing what she hated.

Krista was tired of spending her days sad and lonely and decided that she was going to make the best of her situation. It was made clear when they signed the very official-looking marriage license that he wasn’t there to make her happy. She’d hoped for a wedding, but all she got was a small meeting with a priest and a lawyer, who notarized the license. In less than half an hour, they were married. It was far from the fantasy she imagined in her head, but she didn’t have much of a say when it came to stuff like this. That was something she was going to have to get used to.

It was a little disappointing to have all of the restrictions of marriage and not the ceremony that went with it. She wasn’t so different that she hadn’t dreamt of a wedding. Of course she imagined having a wedding with a white dress and beautiful flowers. She dreamed of a handsome husband who would kiss her after they said, “I do.” She dreamed of a husband who she would swear to love and serve until the day she died. Krista dreamed of swearing herself to her husband in the eyes of God. She couldn’t help but be disappointed when she didn’t get what she’d dreamed of.

Instead of lingering on the sadness and regret, she decided she was going to brighten up the house she’d be stuck in while Bill was out in the field. The house was mostly empty except for the large fireplace and a few chairs. They shared a bed upstairs, but even the bedroom was empty. While exploring the house, she’d stumbled upon some furniture and decorations that were put in the basement haphazardly. She decided to drag what she could up to the house, hoping to surprise her husband and gain his approval.

When she heard the sound of his boots stomping up the porch that night, she felt hope flutter in her belly. He threw the screen door open, leaving his muddy boots on the porch as he walked inside the house. It was summer, so the fire wasn’t crackling. Krista was thankful for that. She hadn’t been able to be around fireplaces since her family died. She was dreading fall and winter. She was sure the fireplace would be the source of many sleepless nights.

She turned around and beamed brightly when Bill stepped in the house, waiting to see the shocked but impressed look on his face. Instead, he looked around the house calmly, and his eyes finally settled on hers, dark and full of emotion. Bill ran a hand through his thick black hair. His lips pressed into a thin line as he looked around the house, his hands on his hips.

“What is all this?”

She looked around, blinking a little. “I found some of this stuff in the basement. I thought it made the house seem a little more welcoming.”

“Get rid of it.”

The order stunned Krista. She frowned deeply, clearly shocked. “But it was so empty in here before. It needed a little character.”

“I said get rid of it!” he snapped, his eyes raging.

The sudden change in his demeanor frightened Krista. She took a step back, eyes wide. “I don’t understand.”

“Of course you don’t. You can’t just come into someone’s house and start changing things around,” he snapped.

Krista glared and stepped forward, putting her finger in his face. “Listen here: This is just as much my house as it is yours. I will not let you boss me around like this! I’m the one who sits in this house day in and day out while you get to go in the fields with the animals. If I’m going to be stuck in here, I’m going to enjoy myself!”

Bill glared down at her and stepped forward. “I don’t know what kind of place you think this is, but you will not talk to me like this. You will listen and obey. That is what you swore before God.”

“I swore to care for you, and that is what I’m trying to do,” she said desperately. “You can’t live like this, Bill. Your home is sad and depressing and so full of anger. I can’t understand why you would want to hold onto these feelings,” she pleaded.

He stepped forward again, and Krista gasped, falling back into the chair. He put his hands on the armrests and leaned close enough that she could feel his breath on her cheek. “I said get them out of here,” he hissed sharply, pushing away from his frightened wife.

Bill walked away, leaving Krista shaking and in tears. She couldn’t understand what went wrong. All she’d wanted to do was bring some warmth and hope into the house, and she’d been punished for it. All she could do was cry and wonder why God was testing her like this. She felt she’d paid her dues. She was quickly losing hope. Perhaps it was her plight in life to be sad and suffer. She hoped desperately that it wasn’t true, but it was certainly beginning to look that way.