Authors: Alice White
Romance: Mail Order Bride "The Ideal Bride" Clean Christian Western Historical Romance (Western Mail Order Bride Short Shorties Series)
Copyright 2016 by Alice White - All rights reserved.
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Chapter 1
“Nora? Are you coming?”
The sound of her sister’s voice startled her where she stood. Looking long and hard at her reflection in the glass, Nora Miller let the letter that she had read too many times to count slip out of her grasp. The time to follow the sweet words on the page through to their perfect promise would come soon enough. For the moment, she had no choice but to play the Maid of Honor. Her light brown locks sat atop her head in a tight bun, and the gown just swirled around her legs. In pale blue, she would be far from the center of attention. No matter. This was Emily’s day, and Nora made sure to tuck the letter into the nearest drawer before pinching her cheeks and moving to meet her sister’s call.
“There you are!” Emily cried. With a wreath of flowers surrounding her blonde hair and a veil stretching down her back until it nearly met her feet, Emily looked every inch the ideal bride. She held a bouquet of freshly trimmed roses in her small hands, and she started to drag her sister into an embrace when the sharp voice of their mother cut in on the action.
“You’ll muss her!” Harriet Miller warned. “We can’t have her looking out of sorts before she even makes it to the end of the aisle.”
Not that Emily could ever look anything but pristine. It was why she was the pick of the county when her older sister had yet to manage even one suitor.
“Sorry, Mama,” Nora said. “I know how much this means to… to you.”
Her sister beamed as their mother smoothed imaginary wrinkles from her baby girl’s skirt. The string quartet started to strum from below the steps of their cottage just off the coast of Manhattan, and Harriet regarded Nora with the quickest of glances before fixing her gaze on her husband.
“Remember, Albert,” she started. “Not too fast. My little girl has to float down those steps like she’s Joshua’s dream come true.”
“I think he’s already sold on that idea,” Nora said with a light laugh. Emily and her father started to join in on the joke when Harriet snapped her fingers and twisted her mouth into the beginnings of a frown.
“I know a little more about such things, Nora,” her mother chided. “When and if you have a wedding, then you can play the expert.”
The way she dragged out the single syllable that was the word
if
brought Nora’s blood to a boil. Because of course her oldest girl, too tall and too pale with a long nose and eyes spread too far apart was doomed to be a bridesmaid now and a spinster aunt down the line.
“Fine, Mama,” Nora said in a clipped tone. “May I be allowed to lead the way?”
“You best not trip either, Nora.”
Holding her breath, Nora sauntered down the staircase lined with ribbons and watched as every man, woman, and child in attendance stayed in their seats. Not that she expected any one of them to rise, but the pity in their eyes was almost too much to bear. She clutched her fingers tighter around the stems and acknowledged Joshua’s persistently silly smile as she took her place on the makeshift altar and listened to the wedding march fill the air around the breeze just dotting her mother’s back.
Everyone stood at the sight of Emily on their father’s arm. The girls had spent many long nights in the shadows of their shared bedroom dreaming of wedding days, and Nora blinked back a few tears as it became a reality for one of them. Albert Miller tenderly kissed his youngest daughter’s cheeks and passed her off to the tall boy with bright red hair and sparkling blue eyes as the crowd sat again on Reverend Potts’s orders. As Nora listened to what marriage meant and the journey the pretty pair before him was about to embark upon, Nora felt a buzz in the pit of her stomach creeping its way up her throat. This was so close to what Emily had always wanted.
Nora’s version would not fit the mold.
“I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss your bride.”
Joshua didn’t seem to need permission as he claimed Emily’s mouth. The room erupted into applause, and Emily smiled at her sister before her new husband took her by the arm and led her in the direction of the receiving line already starting to form. Their mother was off to bask in the glory as Albert touched his daughter’s shoulder.
“Don’t feel too bad, Nora,” he said in a gentle voice. “You have so many other things to look forward to.”
“By that you mean my students,” Nora said, and she saw her father nod. The children that she taught to read and write and add their numbers in a straight line were beyond precious to her. But it wasn’t enough. And if Nora couldn’t find the happiness she craved most in this world, there were wide open spaces ripe for the taking. Along with an invitation that she simply could not pass up.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
She had fled the reception and swapped out her gown for a sensible blouse and a long brown skirt meant for traveling on a train. Her bags were already packed without anyone being the wiser, everyone too consumed by the bride and her upcoming honeymoon to Europe to meet with Joshua’s people on the other side of the pond.
“I… I’m taking off,” Nora said as her mother tapped her nails against the doorframe. “Congratulations.”
“And what exactly is that supposed to mean?” Harriet asked.
If she was ever going to tell her mother the whole truth, this was the time.
“It means that you’re not going to have to put up with either one of us after today,” Nora continued. “Emily’s married. And I’m about to find my own happiness.”
Harriet’s brow furrowed in confusion, and Nora’s tongue tied as she searched for the right words.
“Mama, I’ve had my own proposal.”
Harriet cocked one eyebrow and barely suppressed a sneer.
“You, Nora? It isn’t wise to read too many romance novels. But I suppose you have to find some way to pass the--”
“This is not fiction, Mama.”
Struggling to keep her head up as she moved to the drawer, Nora pulled out the letter, the paper faded by the force of her fingers running over the page. Nora kept the letter in her palm as she waved it before Harriet’s eyes and let the words sink into her mother’s mind.
“What does this mean?” Harriet asked.
“Just what it says,” Nora shot back. “A man in Montana is looking for a wife. Someone strong and true to share his days. I think I want to be that woman, Mama. And so I’m taking a train out West to give him his heart’s desire.”
It had sounded right in her head as she pictured a rugged cowboy with hard hands and an ache in his heart. A man like that could have his share of Emilys with one glance. But he longed for something more. Nora wanted to be that to him,
for
him, and she hoped for a split second that her mother would bless the idea and stroke her hair as the bun fell out of place.
“Well this makes sense.”
Did her mother actually understand? Nora’s heart lifted at the idea, and she hoped for a few kind words as Harriet crumpled the letter in her hand and let it fall to her feet.
“It’s not as if you find someone of quality, looking like you do.”
And she was back to being a little girl singing out of tune during her music lessons until it was decided that Nora could never be anything special or desirable.
“Not here,” Nora said. “Not with you looking over my shoulder and judging me at every turn.”
“And you think that means that I want you to go and live among the savages?” Harriet asked. “I’d prefer that you’d never been born.”
There it was. Like the thorns on the roses at every turn. Pleasing to the eye and the nose. But there was brutality just under the petals and only punctuated by her mother’s foot kicking the letter into the farthest corner.
“But be that as it may, I will not see you bring this family down with a bad choice just because you have nothing else to cling to.”
Nora’s cheeks flushed crimson as she curled her fingers back around the words and smoothed the letter against the surface of the wall.
I am willing to offer the world to someone ready to rise to the challenge. Your most recent letter makes me believe that it’s you, Nora. I can’t wait to see and show you so many things.
With words like that, he was far from a bad call, and Nora eased the letter into the band of her skirt as she stared her mother down.
“You do not get to tell me what to do anymore,” Nora said. She reached for the handle of her meager suitcase and wanted nothing more than the night’s cool air on her face as Harriet seized her free wrist and spun her deeper into the room.
“Do you realize what you are setting yourself up for?” Harriet challenged. “The man is probably a maniac.”
“You would say that,” Nora said. “Because how could a sane man want me?”
“
That
is the question of the hour.”
Trembling at the thought that she would not make her way to the depot in time to meet the train, Nora gasped when Emily appeared.
“What’s going on?” she asked as her smile started to fade.
“I am glad that you asked!” Harriet spat. “Just take a look.”
The letter found its way under Emily’s eyes, and Nora shuffled from one foot to the other as Emily scanned the page.
“I see,” she muttered. “Mama?”
“Yes, my sweet girl. What do you need me to do?”
“Can you please see why the wine is getting warm?” Emily asked. “I’d do it myself but--”
“I would be happy to. But your sister is--”
“I’ll deal with Nora.”
Harriet seemed giddy at the prospect of a co-conspirator in her midst, and she gave Nora a glare full of warning as she started down the stairs to see that nothing would spoil the party.
“So this is why you’ve looked so happy all week,” Emily said.
Nora shrugged her shoulders and got the letter back under her fingers.
“It has nothing to do with you,” Nora assured her. “I just--”
“You still have to run away.”
Emily offered the observation without malice, and she neatly folded the letter into a triangle as she cupped her sister’s face in her hands.
“I just didn’t want to ruin the wedding,” Nora insisted.
“You didn’t,” Emily said. “And is this what you really need?”
“I… yes,” she started. “He’s a mystery. But I want to figure it out. Do you follow?”
“I seem to remember you telling me once that the wedding was one thing. You always wanted a marriage.”
Nora stated to nod her head when she feared that it must seem cruel when her sister was dressed like a princess on the verge of a happy ending.
“The ceremony
was
beautiful, Em,” she said. “I wasn’t trying to--”
“I know that,” Emily said. “And now it’s your turn to be happy.”
They made the move towards the back steps as the guests drank and danced. Once they were almost out the door, Nora came to a stop.
“How will you explain it?” she asked.
“I’ll tell Mama that you saw reason and went back to the city. They’re planning to stay on for a fortnight to recover from the festivities.”
“She shouldn’t keep making your day all about her,” Nora said. Emily kissed her cheek through a small smile.
“It
was
mine,” she insisted. “And so is Joshua. Now go and take your turn, Sis.”
Nora started to sputter at the prospect of the sweetest gift, but Emily folded her into her arms and brought her lips close to her ear.
“Have an adventure, Nora. No one deserves it more.”