Read Yankee Mail Order Bride Online
Authors: Susan Leigh Carlton
Yankee Mail Order Bride
This is the story of two young people searching for happiness.
Josiah Moore is a twenty two year old man, whose wife died of diphtheria, leaving him with a two year old daughter, devastated and not knowing where to turn. Perfection is not good enough for him. He lashes out at everyone, swearing at them and belittling them. Several men leave their jobs as ranch hands. He even takes a swing at his foreman who has been on the ranch as long as anyone can remember. When the housekeeper who had helped his mother raise him chides him for his behavior and for ignoring his daughter, he angrily heads for town and a bottle. A cowboy prods him into a fight. Before Josiah can take a swing, he is in the sawdust on the floor, bleeding from his broken nose.
The doctor, an old family gives him a hard time, telling him his late wife would be ashamed of him. He returned home, his nose stuffed with cotton and both eyes black, then sets out to make amends to all of those he has insulted or neglected. When Beaulah told him he needed a wife, he decided to place an ad for a bride. He was given the address of Mrs Barnhurst and he began a dialog with her.
* * *
Anna Taylor is the eighteen year old daughter of a wealthy Plymouth, Massachusetts clothing merchant. Her father is seeking to expand his holdings and has negotiated a merger between his corporation and that of a middle aged mill owner. He has agreed to have his daughter marry the mill owner, a conniving, lecherous old man. Anna is adamant she will not marry the old man while her father is equally adamant she will do as he wishes and that is to marry the man. Anna slipped out of the house and ultimately found herself in front of a newspaper office. On the public board outside the office she read about mail order brides and ventured into the office to inquire about them. Mrs Barnhurst has brokered the ads and met with Anna and decided to help her.
The book then takes them down their paths and bringing them together and finally marriage.
Susan Leigh Carlton 2014
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
This book contains Material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book May be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author / publisher.
tAble of Contents
Chapter 1: Plymouth, Massachusetts
Chapter 2: She’s Gone. Now all have To Do Is Survive
Chapter 3: The Diablo Ranch, Cheyenne, Wyoming
Chapter 5: Josiah Makes A Decision
Chapter 6: An Agreement To Meet
Chapter 12: Tell Me About The Indians
Chapter 16: A Hospital Stay And then Home
Caleb Taylor Home, Plymouth, Massachusetts…
Caleb Taylor sat with his wife in the musty, high ceilinged drawing room of the large white house on Court Street. A log was ablaze in the large fireplace, taking some of the chill from the air. “I tell you, Margaret, it’s the opportunity of a lifetime. Just think, if we can merge with the Throckmortons, we will control the clothing business throughout the entire Cape Cod area. With their mill and our stores, we can set our own prices. I tell you we will dominate the industry.” The very idea
of a coup left his face flushed with excitement.
“Caleb, I think the price is too high,” his wife Margaret said.
“High? What price? It doesn’t cost anything,” he said.
“You are talking about having our only daughter marry someone much older than she is, and has never met. That is the price, and I think it is too high. Any price would be too high.” Margaret spoke from experience. Her marriage with Caleb had been arranged when she was just seventeen. While she had endured the twenty years of marriage to Caleb, she had never known real happiness. Her husband had been fifteen years her senior, an overweight, gruff man that had no time for niceties. His business was all he thought of, not the needs of his wife nor his daughter. No, it was a price she would not pay if she could avoid it.
“Nonsense,” said Caleb. “She will be marrying into one of the oldest families of Boston. She will live in comfort and move in the higher elements of society.”
“But what of love?” Margaret asked. “What about her feelings? Shouldn’t she have the chance to marry someone she loves? Someone that can make her happy? Surely she deserves that opportunity.”
“Love? Love doesn’t put food on the table and fine clothes on your back. Love doesn’t put a roof over your head. Once this marriage takes place, she will understand more about the finer things. She will be Mrs Luther Throckmorton. Now, I will hear no more of it. Throckmorton is coming to call on Wednesday, next. After he finds her satisfactory, we will set a wedding date and following the wedding, the merger will take place.”
“Now, have the maid fetch her. I want to tell her the good news,” he said with finality.
Anna Taylor had inherited all of the features of her mother. Her long blonde hair reached nearly to her waist, her eyes were the deepest blue imaginable. She had small hands and delicate features. She was a very beautiful girl, intelligent, and thanks to her mother, she was well educated. The traits she had inherited from her father were a strong will and a stubbornness that knew no bounds.
She was the epitome of grace as she walked into the room. “You wanted to see me father?” she asked in the cultured voice of the Boston area,
“Yes, Anna, I did. I have arranged for you to be married. Mr Luther Throckmorton will call on Wednesday, and if he finds you suitable, you will be married.”
“If he finds me suitable? If he finds me suitable? What if I don’t find him suitable? Am I to have no say in this matter?” she raged.
“You have no say. It is your big opportunity. He is from one of the finest families in all of Massachusetts. You are fortunate he is showing an interest in taking you as his wife. On Wednesday, you will dress yourself appropriately and you will meet with your fiance. You will conduct yourself in the proper manner. The matter is settled. You will do as I tell you.”
“I am not livestock to be bartered about. Nor am I a piece of clothing in in of your stores to be sold to the highest bidder. I won’t have it and you cannot force me to do it.” Finished, she turned to leave the room.
Margaret was shocked when he grabbed Anna’s arm with one hand, and the fire shovel from the hearth with the other. He hit her twice across her backside with the flat of the shovel. “You will not speak to me in this manner. Now, confine yourself to your room.”
Anna spun on her heels and left. Margaret had remained silent during the exchange, but.she could restrain herself no longer. “How could you?” she fumed. “You struck my daughter. You will never do that again. You hear me? You will never do that again.”
“Yes, well, she needs to learn to speak to me with the proper respect. For that matter, so do you,” he said in an ominous voice.
“Caleb, you cannot command respect. It must be earned,” Margaret said and went after her daughter.
* * *
“Mother, I won’t do it. I am not going to marry some old fat man just so father can add to his power. I don’t care what he says or does, it just isn’t going to happen,” Anna said.
“Now, dear, try not to be upset. I don’t want this any more than you. We have to put our heads together and come up with a plan,” Margaret said.
“He can’t actually force me to marry
, can he?” Anna asked.
“No,” her mother said. “What he can and probably will do is to force you to leave this house, and remove you as his heir. He is just cruel enough to do that.”
“Mother, why have you stayed with him all of these years?” Anna asked.
“Where would I go? What would I do? How would I support myself? I don’t have your will power and determination. You got that from him. I’m glad you have that. It will stand you in good stead in the days to come,” Margaret answered.
“Mother, I love you with all of my heart. Having said that, if he tries to go through with this, I will leave. Where to go? I don’t know. I guess a remote possibility might be one of your sisters.”
“Oh honey, I don’t know that any of them can take you in. I will help all I can. I have a little money I have saved back from my household funds and you can have that. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”
The Moore family cemetery,
Diablo Ranch…
The services were over. The other mourners had left, leaving the young man, holding the hand of his daughter standing beside the grave into which the coffin had been lowered. The dark clouds overhead were leaden with rain. Occasional flashes of lightning split the sky. The wind whipped through the trees. Rebecca held her father’s hand tightly. Josiah knelt down and looked into her tear streaked face.
“It’s just you and me Rebecca. Mama’s gone to heaven now and we’re all alone. I want you to know I will always be here to take care of you.” His voice broke as he thought of the finality of what the preacher had said, “Ashes to ashes and dust to dust…” His beloved Caroline had been taken just days after contracting diphtheria.
The doctor had ordered all of her clothes burned, the windows throughout the house were to be left open, curtains pulled aside to let the sunshine in and kill any remaining organisms that might spread the disease.
From off to the side came the sound of someone clearing their throat. Josiah turned his head. He saw the two men employed to fill the grave. He picked his daughter up and held her in his arms. A loud clap of thunder startled Rebecca and she began crying. Josiah ran down the hill and into the main house. Once inside, he placed Rebecca on the floor. She refused to let go, clinging to his leg. He picked her up again and started out of the room with no intended destination.
“Let me take her, Mr Josiah,” said
Beulah, the large, black housekeeper. Beulah had been with the Taylor family since she was a young girl. She had taken care of the young Josiah since his birth. After his parents had been tragically killed by a tornado, she had taken care of running the Taylor household, relinquishing some of the control to the beautiful Caroline Felton after she had married Josiah. Only a little, though.
Beulah had taken care of Caroline after she was diagnosed with diphtheria, a disease Beulah had survived as a young girl but the ravages of the disease had left her soft brown skin scarred as a reminder. Caroline died four days after the first symptoms appeared. Beulah had refused to allow Josiah or Rebecca to touch Caroline as she lay dying.
She gathered the forlorn little girl into her arms, talking to her softly as they disappeared into the recesses of the large now empty feeling ranch house.