The Rancher's Courtship
Though Caroline Wallace can’t have a family, she can still have a purpose.Becoming Simpson Creek’s new schoolmarm helps heal the heartache of losing Pete, her fiancé, to influenza. Then Pete’s brother arrives, trailing a herd of cattle and twin six-year-old girls. Jack Collier expected Pete and his bride to care for his daughters until he was settled in Montana.But bad weather and worse news strand Jack in Texas until spring. It’s little wonder Caroline grows fond of Abby and Amelia. But could such a refined, warmhearted woman fall for a gruff rancher…before the time comes for him to leave again?
Читать The Rancher's Courtship онлайн беплатно
Small-town Texas spinsters find love with mail-order grooms!
Though Caroline Wallace canât have a family, she can still have a purpose. Becoming Simpson Creekâs new schoolmarm helps heal the heartache of losing Pete, her fiancé, to influenza. Then Peteâs brother arrives, trailing a herd of cattle and twin six-year-old girls.
Jack Collier expected Pete and his bride to care for his daughters until he was settled in Montana. But bad weather and worse news strand Jack in Texas until spring. Itâs little wonder Caroline grows fond of Abby and Amelia. But could such a refined, warmhearted woman fall for a gruff rancherâ¦before the time comes for him to leave again?
âWhereâs my brother?â Jack Collier demanded again. âWhy are you wearing black?â
Lord, help me to tell him with compassion, Caroline prayed.
âIâm sorry to tell you this, Mr. Collier, but your brother Peter passed away this last winterââ she paused when she heard his sharp intake of breath ââduring an influenza epidemic.â
âPeteâsâ¦dead?â he murmured. âWhy didnât you let me know?â
The last question was flung at her like a fist, but she heard the piercing loss contained in it.
âI did try. But I wasnât able to get your address from Pete beforeâ¦before he d-died.â
She grabbed her black-edged handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes.
âWhat am I going to do now?â Jack Collier wondered aloud.
âIâm sorry youâve come all this way, only to hear such awful newsâ¦. Iâm sure Mama and Papa would be glad to put you up until you feel able to return home.â
âYou donât understand,â Jack Collier told her. âI canât go back.â
Laurie Kingery
makes her home in central Ohio, where she is a âTexan-in-exile.â Formerly writing as Laurie Grant for the Harlequin Historical line and other publishers, she is the author of eighteen previous books and the 1994 winner of a Readersâ Choice Award in the Short Historical category. She has also been nominated for Best First Medieval and Career Achievement in Western Historical Romance by RT Book Reviews. When not writing her historicals, she loves to travel, read, participate on Facebook and Shoutlife and write her blog on www.lauriekingery.com.
And they said, let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for this good work.
âNehemiah 2:18
To Stephanie, the teacher in our family, in honor of the teachers who only had one-room schoolhouses to teach in.
To Susan Alverson, who helped me through the rough patches and was always there to listen.
And always, to Tom.
Contents
Chapter One
Simpson Creek, Texas
October 1868
Jack Collier looked up and down the main street of the little town of Simpson Creek, but try as he might, he didnât see a druggistâs store. A hotel, a mercantile, a post office, a combined barbershop-bathhouse, a jail, a bank, a doctorâs office and a church, yes, but no druggistâs shop. A search of the side streets and Travis Street, which ran parallel to Main Street, netted the same lack of results.
Heâd been the recipient of several second looks by the townspeople, as he rode down the streets, his own horse flanked by the dependable old cow pony that didnât mind his twin daughters riding double on it. People tended to stare at twins, and yet it seemed to be his own face they focused on, not Abigailâs and Ameliaâs.
Well, heâd always been told he looked a lot like Pete, so that must be the reason for the stares. He started to ask one or two of them if they knew where to find his brother, but he had wanted his arrival to be a surprise for Pete. He didnât want anyone running ahead of him with the news.
But where was Pete? Had he gone into some other line of work since heâd last written Jack? It was possible, Jack supposed, but it wasnât like Pete to change his mind on such a matter. Pete had always set a course, then held to it. Heâd traveled up to the Hill Country town in San Saba County last year with the announced goals of meeting the lady heâd been corresponding with and opening up his own druggistâs shop. Around Christmas, Pete had written that he and Miss Caroline Wallace were in love and would be married in early spring. He wanted Jack to be there.
That was the last time heâd heard from Peteâno letter, no wedding invite had followed.
Mail went astray all the time, though. He and his daughters had probably missed the wedding, but Jack had assumed heâd find Collierâs Drugs and Patent Medicines prospering, with his happily married brother as the proprietor. Pete and his bride would have a little house on one of these side streets, no doubt with a picket fence around it and the smell of freshly baked bread wafting from the kitchen.
