Martin nodded rapidly several times. His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down. “Yes, sir. I promise to.”
“I know you will, son. Wouldn’t have let you take her off my hands, otherwise.” He leaned over to place a kiss on Anna’s cheek. “Be happy, daughter.”
“I will, Papa.” Anna’s eyes grew misty.
Seeing her sister’s emotion made Trudy’s tears well up, and she placed a hand on her chest to cover a sudden burst of pain. With Anna headed to Africa, and her own plans to journey out west, the two sisters probably would never see each other again. Even letters would be rare.
Their middle sister, Lora, and her wealthy banker husband stepped forward for their own congratulations. Lora and Emmett had traveled from New York for a short visit to attend this wedding, the first time in three years the family had gathered together. With a sense of shock, Trudy realized her father and sisters wouldn’t be present at her wedding. As a mail-order bride, she’d be married among strangers—live among strangers. Her lungs constricted at the thought.
Can I do it? But Trudy didn’t see any other way to travel west, see the grandeur she’d only read about, have the new experiences and adventures she’d dreamed of for so long.
The reception sped by only too quickly, as the family and their guests ate and drank, talked, laughed, and toasted the bride and groom. Before the newlyweds left the house to begin their new life together, Anna took one rose out of her bouquet to keep for herself and pressed the rest of the flowers into Trudy’s hands. “Now you can follow your dreams, sister. Thank you for staying to help Papa raise me. I’ll pray for you every night.”
Tears welled in Trudy’s eyes. “And I you, sister. May your marriage bring you everything you’ve dreamed of.”
Anna glanced at Martin, waiting patiently, and gave him a glowing smile. With one last hug and cheek-to-cheek touch, she was gone.
In a daze, Trudy said good-bye to the rest of the guests. When all but Minerva had taken their leave, Lora and Emmett retired to their bedroom.
Trudy’s father dropped a good-bye kiss on Minerva’s cheek. As the woman left, she gave Trudy a sympathetic look. Minerva was close enough to the sisters to know Trudy’s struggle with sending Anna off to the wilds of Africa. She’d raised her sister for the last five years, and Anna had never shown any sense of adventure...until she fell head over heels for a seminary student—and not just an ordinary seminary student, but one who had a passion for mission work.
Trudy moved to the window and gazed after the woman as she walked to her carriage. Plump and dark-haired, Minerva didn’t resemble Trudy’s tall blonde mother in the least. But she had a kind heart and made her widowed father happy.
He joined her at the window. “It’s your turn now, daughter. You’ve helped me raise your sisters as your mother asked you. Now it’s time for you to live your own life and for me to marry Minerva.”
“I’m ready. I know it’s been hard on you, Papa, not having a wife.”
He chucked her under her chin as if she was still a girl. “Wasn’t just me. With caring for her ailing mother, Minerva couldn’t also take on a passel of almost-grown daughters.”
“Three is not a passel.”
“Sometimes felt like it!”
They laughed.
“Papa, I’ve decided… I’m going to be a mail-order bride.”
With a shake of his head, he let out a sigh.
Trudy glanced up at him and saw the sadness in his eyes, slate blue like Anna’s.
“I suspected something of the sort, Birdie.”
The sound of her childhood nickname made her lean into him, inhaling the familiar scent of tobacco and man.
“You’re sure you won’t take Harold Wheeler?”
She wrinkled her nose at him. Their next-door neighbor—good, boring Harold—had long pined after her. “You know I won’t. Harold will make someone a fine husband, just not me.”
He put his arm around her shoulders. “You’re like your mother, wanting to fly free and have adventures. Settling down with a lawyer in St. Louis clipped her wings.”
“She loved you, Papa,” Trudy said loyally, patting a hand on his chest.
“I know. We were happy. And I want my girls to be happy too. I just wish you all had chosen to stay here.” He dropped a kiss on her forehead. “Twenty-four years ago, you made me a father. You’ve been lighting up my life ever since.” His voice thickened. “I’m going to miss having your cheerful spirit around me every day.”
“Will you come visit me?”
He held up a hand. “Only if you pick a husband who lives in a town along the railroad route. At my age, I’m not traveling by stagecoach, nor would I subject Minerva to that mode of transportation.”
“Is that all? Trudy teased. “No more requirements?”
“Only that he’s a good man who will provide for you.”
“I’ll do my best to pick one, Papa. I’m using Mail-Order Brides of the West. They’re a reputable agency. I checked them out.” But even as she said the words, with a shiver of dread, Trudy knew she’d have no way of evaluating her husband’s character beforehand. She would be taking a risk that would impact the rest of her life.
Mail-Order Brides of the West: Trudy
Contents
Title page
Chapter One
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
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