Mail Order Marion (Chapman Mail Order Brides: Book 1)

Mail Order Marion

Chapman Mail Order Brides: Book 1

Kate Whitsby

~~~

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2014 by Kate Whitsby

All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced in any format, by any means, electronic or otherwise, without prior consent from the copyright owner and publisher of this book.

This is a work of fiction. All characters, names, places and events are the product of the author's imagination or used fictitiously.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Dedication

To YOU, The reader.

Thank you for your support.

Thank you for your emails.

Thank you for your reviews.

Thank you for reading and joining me on this road.

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

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

Other Books by Kate Whitsby

Connect with Kate Whitsby

Chapter One

Snake River, Idaho

Marion Johnson gazed out of the coach window at the river below. The sparkling serpent of water slithered through the mountains and plains of wild country. The hiss and gurgle of the water over the gravel beds called to Marion. Twin Falls, Idaho, awaited her somewhere along the road ahead.

Maggie Clement dozed in the seat across from Marion. Melody Hansen stared out the other window. Neither seemed to anticipate the imminent meeting with their mail-order grooms as acutely as Marion did. Then again, she could hardly guess what transpired in the minds of her fellow mail-order brides. Maggie consistently dismissed any mention of anxiety or discomfort with a flippant rebuff, and Melody never spoke at all. During their whole trip from Chicago up to now, Melody kept absolutely silent, even when the coach driver asked her direct questions.

Marion didn’t care if Maggie or Melody saw her fidgeting or wringing her hands in expectation of their arrival in Twin Falls. Only a callous lout would feel nothing at meeting her groom for the first time.

And the prospect of meeting Paul Chapman, her intended husband, paled before the sheer enormity of the life awaiting her. All she knew about the Chapman brothers from the Mail Order Matrimony Service was the harsh isolation of their life in the wilderness. The three brothers lived in a cabin on the river, miles from the nearest road and days travel from the nearest road.

Marion had no idea where or how she and her fellow mail-order brides would marry these men. She didn’t know if they would go to a church in Twin Falls when they got off the coach. If the brothers planned to do that, then today would be Marion’s wedding day.

Most disconcerting of all, she had no idea how far from Twin Falls they were. From the moment he slapped the horses on the back with the reins to set the coach rolling each morning until he pulled them to a stop each evening, the driver didn’t stop driving. He didn’t speak to the passengers. He didn’t care if they perished from hunger or thirst. He didn’t even care if they soiled themselves in their rolling prison. His job was to drive, and he drove from sunrise to sunset without stopping for anything.

The endless jarring and rattling lulled all the passengers into a dreamy haze without time or place. She could be anyone, travelling anywhere in a coach. She could be on her way home to her father’s farm in rural Ohio. She could be a schoolteacher on her way to a new posting in Appalachian Kentucky.

She had to continually remind herself she was on her way to Snake River, Idaho, to be a mail-order bride to one Paul Chapman. When she roused herself from her reverie, the river outside her window remaindered her. It wound through wild canyons and hissed over waterfalls into mirrored pools. It sang a bewitching siren song through the window and filled the long hours of travel with strange thoughts and images. In these half-awake daydreams, her past and future merged into a hallucinatory mixture of possibilities and wishes.

A shout arose from the driver’s seat of the coach. The wheels creaked and croaked, and all three mail-order brides inside bolted upright, suddenly awake and alert, as the coach lurched off the side of the road and stopped. Marion put her head out the window. She saw nothing outside but endless vistas of hills, canyons, and the river.

What’s happening? she called up to the driver.

Twin Falls, Ma’am, he called back.

Through her window, Marion saw Chester, the fat guard, jump down from the driver’s seat with his shotgun in both hands. He pulled her door open and dropped the step for her to dismount. On the other side of the coach, Barney, the driver, did the same for Melody. All in a minute, the three brides tumbled out of the coach and blinked in the sunshine.

Only after she exited the coach did Marion see the little town on the other side of the coach. She’d been so absorbed in her own thoughts and her captivation with the river that she didn’t see the town through Melody’s window until they stopped.

Even so, Marion hardly saw the town when she looked right at it. A scrabbly little collection of shacks and sheds weathered by incessant sun, snow, and rain she never saw before in her life. She thanked Heaven the Chapman brothers didn’t live in this town. She would go insane if she had to live here for any length of time.

Chester and Barney threw three trunks and three carpetbags down from the back of the coach and stacked them one on top of the other. In a trice, without a word of farewell, they leapt up to the driver’s seat and tore away again up the road, leaving Marion, Maggie, and Melody in a cloud of dust next to their stack of trunks.

After the coach disappeared and the dust settled, Marion noticed, for the first time, the wagon standing by the road. Two horses relaxed between the front shafts, and three men stood around it in varying attitudes of attention to the newly alighted brides.

Two of the men stood at the side of the road ready to greet them. One wore an immaculately tailored suit, bowler hat, and polished leather shoes. His freshly shaved face gleamed with the faintest sheen of sweat. The other wore a clean white shirt and clean but aging tweed pants above his dusty boots. He wore no hat at all, and his features remained obscured behind a heavy beard.

The third man leaned against the front wheel of the wagon with one leg crossed over the other. He wore dusty patched work clothes, a battered cowboy hat, and his thumbs hooked into the gun belt slung around his angular hips. Spurs hung from the ankles of his boots, and three days’ growth of whiskers bristled on his face. He stared down at the ground when the other two approached the three brides.

Hi, there, the one in the white shirt and beard greeted them, thrusting out his hand toward Marion. I’m Parker Chapman.

I’m Marion Johnson, she answered, shaking his hand.

And I’m Prescott Chapman, his brother stuck out his hand. Pleasure to meet you.

Pleasure to meet you, Marion replied, shaking Prescott by the hand. This is Maggie Clement, and this is Melody Hanson.

The two brothers shook hands with the other two brides, exchanging greetings. Marion’s heart sank when the man in the dusty work clothes sauntered over and Parker introduced him. This is our brother, Paul. I believe he’s assigned to you, Marion.

And I’m assigned to Maggie. Parker moved over to stand in front of Maggie.

And I’m getting Melody. Prescott changed his position so he faced Melody.

The three brothers stood in a line in front of the three brides, and all six of them evaluated one another critically. Marion cringed inwardly at Paul’s appearance. Was she really expected to marry this rough, dirty character? She turned her attention to the other two Chapman brothers instead.

In spite of his bushy appearance, Parker’s beard showed clear signs of a recent trim, and his fingers bore no dirt under their nails. His eyes twinkled when she caught him looking her over. A smile played on his lips under his beard when he spoke to any of the three brides.

Marion cast an appraising eye over Prescott’s suit. Her first glance told her it wasn’t new, but she guessed from the stitching and the brush marks on the fabric it had almost never been worn. His soles of his shoes also showed no wear at all. Marion appreciated the effort that both these men made to clean up their appearances to meet their brides.

Paul, on the hand, made no such effort, nor did he make any effort to present an agreeable personality to his prospective wife. He chewed something nameless between his jaws and did not remove his thumbs from his gun belt during his brother’s introductions to the three women.

During the preliminary pleasantries, Marion gradually resigned herself to the reality that marriage to Paul would be an unpleasant and hostile affair. Before leaving home, her mother admonished her not to attempt to change anything about her groom she found disagreeable. She would have to recall her mother’s instructions on a daily basis if she married Paul. She would have to restrain herself from working to improve his grooming as well as his demeanor.

The men appraised the three brides with equal candor. Parker scanned their clothing, as well as the shapes underneath the clothing. Then he moved on to direct eye contact with each one. Paul observed the interchange between his brothers and Marion and Maggie. All three noticed of Melody’s silence.

What’s the matter? Prescott asked Melody. Cat got your tongue?

Marion intervened. Melody doesn’t talk. She hasn’t said a word since I met her at the station in Cleveland.

What’s wrong with her? Prescott demanded. Is she deaf?

No, she can hear just fine, Marion replied. "And she understands English perfectly well. She understands everything everybody says to her. And believe me, she overhears every