Sagebrush Knights, page 1
INTRODUCTION
Knight and Day
Widow Evelyn Gerhard Stanford keeps the knowledge of her ten-year-old son a secret from her prospective groom. When she arrives in Sagebrush, she’s shocked to realize her groom forgot to mention his ten-year-old daughter. While Evelyn tries to teach Gareth’s daughter some manners, Gareth tries to teach Evelyn’s son what it means to be a man. And all the while, they are learning to be a family.
Lady-in-Waiting
Jane Gerhard, the invisible sister, longs to be special to someone. But the man she weds is a workaholic who spends all his time on the range. Harrison Garvey’s father made him a wager: double his ranch’s production within three years or move back East. Jane tries to win Harrison’s attention, but it isn’t until she works herself to exhaustion that Harrison learns what winning her love is really worth.
Shining Armor
Gwendolyn Gerhard is shocked to find out the man she intended to marry has died while she journeyed to meet him. His grandson, Matthew Parker determined to send the woman home, convinced that she is a gold digger. When he learns she has no family to return to, he has no choice but to marry her … but that doesn’t mean he’ll fall in love.
On a White Charger
Emmeline Gerhard has long dreamed of living on a ranch, so she’s thrilled to be heading to Sagebrush. Imagine her surprise when her cowboy turns out to have a ranch all right … a sheep ranch. With gentle persistence, Joseph Barrett shows Emmeline the reality of life in the West. And when area cattlemen threaten the flock, Emmeline and Joseph must band together to save their ranch.
© 2012 by Erica Vetsch
Print ISBN 978-1-61626-642-4
eBook Editions:
Adobe Digital Edition (.epub) 978-1-62029-630-1
Kindle and MobiPocket Edition (.prc) 978-1-62029-629-5
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted for commercial purposes, except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without written permission of the publisher.
All scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any similarity to actual people, organizations, and/or events is purely coincidental.
Cover image: Kirk DouPonce, DogEared Design
Published by Barbour Publishing, Inc., P.O. Box 719, Uhrichsville, Ohio 44683, www.barbourbooks.com
Our mission is to publish and distribute inspirational products offering exceptional value and biblical encouragement to the masses.
Printed in the United States of America.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Prologue
Knight and Day
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Lady-in-Waiting
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Shining Armor
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
On a White Charger
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Epilogue
About the Author
Dedication
For Peter, Heather, and James,
as always
Prologue
FOUR SISTERS, CHRISTIAN, 18–28, SEEK MATRIMONY WITH FOUR GOD-FEARING MEN AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. MUST LIVE IN CLOSE PROXIMITY. APPLY: MATRIMONIAL NEWS, #278.
The final eviction notice and the marriage proposals arrived in the same post. Though she couldn’t help but wince at the comedown in their circumstances to be driven to posting an advertisement for husbands, Evelyn Gerhard Stanford couldn’t cavil at the timing of the response.
She presented these missives to her sisters as matter-of-factly as possible, but inside, insecurities and doubts roiled. The advertisement had been her idea, after all, arrived at after many a sleepless, prayer-filled night.
With each of her three younger sisters looking to her for guidance and assurance that they were making the correct—the only—decision they could, she kept her fears to herself and put on a brave front. All through the packing, the leave-taking, and the jolting journey via hissing, sooty train and bone-jarring stagecoach, she maintained her calm, controlled demeanor.
She could do this. She could get her family across more than half this continent and see them safely ensconced in new homes with new husbands. She would meet every crisis and obstacle with determination, intelligence, and fortitude. And try to pretend she wasn’t scared out of her mind at the unknown racing toward them all.
Evelyn clutched her reticule, crackling the papers inside. Two letters, the only communication she’d had with her prospective groom, one Gareth Kittrick. Not much to build a marriage on, two single-sheet missives. The first was from the Matrimonial News, passing along the marriage proposals of four men from the town of Sagebrush in Wyoming Territory to advertisement #278. The second was from Mr. Kittrick himself and contained tickets for the journey and a few lines about himself and his ranch. A widower—that thought gave her some solace, being a widow herself—looking for a kind woman to grace his home.
With the eviction notice hanging over her head like the Sword of Damocles, Evelyn had expedited their departure from Seabury. They’d barely had time to think. But now, as mile after mile rolled under the train and stagecoach wheels, her doubts and fears ran rampant.
Glancing down, she touched the thin gold circle on her left ring finger. A lump formed in her throat as she slipped it off and moved it to her right hand. For more than ten years, she’d worn Jamison’s ring, though she’d been widowed nearly all that time. Still, it would be bad form to show up in Sagebrush to meet her new husband while still wearing her first wedding band.
Not that Mr. Kittrick would need that reminder of her previous marriage. No, the permanent reminder lay on the seat beside her with his head pillowed on her lap. She stroked his sable curls. Guilt chased anxiety and fear through a twisting maze in her head.
In her brief and hurried communication with her intended husband, she’d neglected to mention she had a son.
KNIGHT AND DAY
Chapter 1
Wyoming Territory, April 1874
They aren’t even here?” Evelyn dropped her valise onto the boardwalk in front of the general store. “We were supposed to meet them in Sagebrush.” What kind of a beginning was this?
The lean, gray-haired man in a ratty black suit shrugged and ran his hand through his hair, making it stand on end. “Things have changed.” His cantankerous scowl belied his claim to be a preacher.
Her hands went to her hips. “Just how have things changed?” Surely the men weren’t backing out now. Not after all the travel and travail the girls had encountered just getting to this desolate outpost. Dread spiked its way up her windpipe, shortening her breath and sharpening her temper. “We’ve had a long trip, and if I never see the inside of a stagecoach again, it will be far too soon. The stage was supposed to arrive here yesterday afternoon, and instead we’ve spent an entire night in that dreadful conveyance making up lost time. We’re tired, hungry, and in no mood to be trifled with. Kindly point us in the direction of the nearest hotel so we may refresh ourselves and await our intended husbands.”
He inserted one of his long, bony fingers between his collar and his turkey-red neck and swallowed, making his scraggly beard lurch. “You want a hotel, get back on board and head fifty miles back to Cheyenne. If you want to get married, get yourself and your gear into the wagon. I have to be over to Dellsville tonight. I’m doing this as a favor to Kittrick and the rest, and you being late has set me back. I’ll haul you out to the ranches and do the marryin’, but only if we can leave right now.” His eyes bulged a bit, with more than a hint of wildness to them.
“But I thought the men all lived close together, in Sagebrush.” First their husbands failed to meet their stage, and now they didn’t even live in the town?
“Naw, they don’t live in town.” He looked at her as if she had gravel for brains. “They’re ranchers. They do live close together … well, close as far as Wyoming distances go. It’ll be late afternoon before I get the last one of you dropped off.” His scowl could’ve curdled fresh milk. “That is, if we ever get going in the first place.”
Evelyn sized him up, wary that this John Brown look-alike might be trying to pull the wool over their eyes. “Are you really a preacher? I’ve never encountered such a cranky, caustic man of God before.” She tugged her cloak tighter around her shoulders to ward off the fresh breeze.
“Yeah, I’m a preacher. If you don’t believe me, head into the store and ask Jake. But don’t take all day.” He turned away, muttering. “Cranky, am I?”
Jane, Gwendolyn, and Emmeline all looked to her for a decision, just as they always had. Little Jamie held Emmeline’s hand, his face—so like his father’s—pale with exhaustion. He yawned, and Evelyn fought the need to yawn as well. Exhaustion after their night of travel tugged at her limbs and eyelids. She couldn’t remember her last decent night’s sleep, and every muscle ached from that butter churn of a stagecoach.
She bit her lip, her thoughts chasing one another until they all merged into one. They had no choice but to accept the situation. Just as they’d had to accept Papa’s death, the notice to vacate the teachers’ quarters at the academy, and the marriage proposals of four strangers two thousand miles from all that was dear and familiar. She wanted to press her fists to her temples and scream, but she confined herself to a silent prayer.
God, why do You keep doing this to us? Why do You take, take, take from us without giving us even a choice in the matter?
“Very well, Reverend …?”
“Cummings. Most folks just call me Preacher.”
“Reverend Cummings. If you will be so kind as to load our luggage, we’ll just step into the store for a few minutes.” Not giving him time to protest, she herded the girls and Jamie inside, casting a look back over her shoulder as she entered the mercantile. “We won’t be long.” She just needed a few minutes to adjust her thinking to the new situation and plan out what to do.
A rounded man with a jolly face and healthy side-whiskers wiped down a counter. “You must be the brides.” His face split in a grin. “Preacher’s been cooling his heels for half a week waiting for you. Worked himself into a froth, he has.”
A shaft of weak relief shot through Evelyn. The man outside really was the preacher, and he really would take them to their new homes. At least that hurdle had been taken without her having to ask.
“Is there anything I can get for you before you head out?” The shopkeeper—Jake, wasn’t it?—tossed his cloth aside and rubbed his hands together as if anticipating a big sale.
She shook her head. “No, there’s nothing we need.” Nor could afford to buy. The store appeared crammed with lots of items they might find useful, but their budget didn’t stretch to anything beyond the barest of necessities. Her reticule held exactly four silver dollars; the sum total of the family’s estate after all the bills had been discharged. If it hadn’t been for their prospective grooms’ generosity in arranging travel and lodging, they wouldn’t even have made it this far—especially as the money had needed to stretch for an extra ticket for Jamie.
“Emmeline, keep hold of Jamie’s hand. Gwendolyn, be careful with that china.” Her youngest sister trailed her fingers across a white teapot painted with a spray of roses and violets. Jane stood before a wall of shelving loaded with bolts of fabric. Sturdy calicos, twills, flannels, and muslins in a rainbow of hues. Her lace gloves just brushed a bolt of pale green cloth, a wistful expression in her hazel eyes.
Evelyn gathered her courage. “Let’s go.” She squared her shoulders and marched them all outside. Their trunks—one for each sister and a small one for Jamie—sat in a tidy row in the wagon bed along with their valises and satchels, and Reverend Cummings sat on the wagon seat with the reins in his hands.
Rattling away from the settlement, Evelyn couldn’t help but look back at the huddle of brown buildings. Sagebrush. Aptly named, for sagebrush seemed to be the only thing the area had in abundance. Unless you counted empty. There was a fair bit of empty, too.
Jamie stood up behind the wagon seat and stuck his head between Evelyn’s and the reverend’s. “Are we going to live in the mountains?” He pointed to the purple-blue hills rising in the far distance.
Evelyn gently lowered his hand. “It’s impolite to point, Jamie.” She straightened his straw hat. “Please sit down and be quiet.” She turned to the preacher, who sat, hunch-shouldered with his elbows on his knees. “How far are we going?”
He flicked a glance at the sky. “Two hours to Kittrick’s. Which of you is Gareth marrying, or is it first choice after he gets a gander at all of you?”
Evelyn tried to ignore how her heart hitched at hearing his name aloud. “I am.” And may he be as kind and chivalrous as his name implies. As the daughter of a medieval scholar, she knew intimately the legend of Sir Gareth of the Round Table.
“Good. I’m supposed to marry you and Gareth, then I’ll tote the rest of these gals to their husbands one at a time. If I push it, I can still make my appointment in Dellsville by nightfall.”
“Won’t all the gentlemen be at Gareth’s for the weddings?”
“Naw, can’t take the time off in the spring.”
Her racing heart sank. She would miss her sisters’ weddings.
Jane tapped the reverend on the shoulder. “Excuse me, but you know each of these men we’re to marry, right? Can you tell us what they’re like?”
Evelyn shot her sister a grateful look. Why hadn’t she thought of that? A little information ahead of time would help her control the situation better.
“Bit late to be wondering now, ain’t it?” He slapped the reins against the horses’ rumps. “Guess you’ll meet them soon enough.”
“But you must know something of the men we are to marry.” Emmeline shifted on the board laid across the wagon box.
“They’re ranchers.” He shrugged. “I haven’t heard anything against them.”
Hmm, not much to go on. “All their properties adjoin?” If they were going to have to leave Seabury and marry strangers, Evelyn at least wanted her sisters where she could keep an eye on them.
Again the shrug. “Not really. They each own the property their houses sit on, but most of the land out here is open range. The ranches are miles apart with lots of free range between. Take all day to get to all of them.”
Miles apart? All day? The bottom dropped out of Evelyn’s chest, and from the gasps and frowns of her sisters, she assumed they felt the same. They had counted on being able to support one another, to see one another frequently. They’d never been separated, not even by Evelyn’s marriage to Jamison. Because of the war and Jamison needing to return to his post, Evelyn had never left home. Delighted to find she was carrying his child, she had been devastated when her husband had been killed. Her family had held her together through that terrible time. She’d practically raised her sisters. What would she do without them in her everyday life?
Gwendolyn said, “I thought we’d live closer together, that we’d be neighbors.” Her blue eyes widened as if she’d just thought of the enormity of what they were doing. The youngest of the Gerhard sisters at just under nineteen, Gwendolyn had been accepting and easygoing about the entire enterprise. Evelyn had particularly hoped to live closest to Gwendolyn to help her all she could.
Her glance went to Emmeline, who could barely suppress her joy at finally getting to see the American West and to meet a real-live cowboy in person. Evelyn worried about Emmeline, who was so enamored of learning to ride a horse and perhaps encountering danger and desperadoes. Evelyn blamed those ridiculous dime novels and serialized stories Emmeline was addicted to for filling her head with such nonsense.
And Jane, dear, dependable Jane, who was a born home-maker and worked harder than all of them, who could sew and cook and bake and clean. The sister Evelyn leaned on the most to help her take care of everyone.
God, You’ve done it again. You’ve taken my expectations and ripped them away. How am I supposed to watch over my sisters if they’re a day’s ride away? How am I supposed to make sure their husbands are good men if I don’t get to even meet them before the weddings? Why did You take Jamison and Papa from me? If they were alive, we wouldn’t be in this mess.
Reverend Cummings broke into her prayer—if it could be called a prayer. “That boy yours?”
“Yes, Jamie is my son.”
“He legitimate?”
The preacher’s bluntness took her breath away.
“My husband was killed in the war a few months before Jamie was born.” She infused her voice with all the ice she could muster. Which was considerable every time she thought of the way God had taken Jamison from her. In a cruel twist, Jamison had been killed two weeks after Lee’s surrender. Ambushed by bandits on his way home from the war, he’d been murdered and robbed only a few miles from Seabury. But it was easier to say he’d died in the war than try to explain. Not that she could explain the way God seemed to delight in foiling her plans.
