The Mail-Order Bride’s Christmas Miracle (Preview)

Chapter One

“We’re moving! We’re moving!” Joseph gushed, pressing his face up against the train window as their car started chugging along in a flush of steam. 

“We certainly are. Watch you don’t hurt your head if we go over a bump,” Clemmie warned, putting a protective hand on his shoulder before shooting an excited look in her sister’s direction. 

Susannah Cutler grinned, finding herself just as thrilled as her nephew.

If I was four years old like him, I’d have my face pressed up against the window, too. It’s hard not to be delighted by the metal tube hurtling us toward our new home. But I’m twenty, so it would probably be deemed unseemly. 

“Who are we going to live with again?” Joseph asked, finally pulling his forehead away from the glass, though his eyes were still fixated on the landscape whipping by. In only a few minutes, Chicago, the only home any of them had ever known, would be nothing more than a dot in the distance. 

“You know who we’re going to live with,” Clemmie replied, clearly tired of telling the boy over and over again. 

Susannah jumped in, not yet tired of repeating herself. “We’re going to live with a man named Cody Wyatt on his cattle ranch, in a far-off place called the Colorado Territory.” 

“Why?” The smile on Joseph’s face gave away the fact that he already knew. He simply wanted to hear it again, and again, and again. 

“Because your mother is going to marry him!” Susannah explained. “And then we’re all going to live happily ever after, and you’re going to get to learn how to ride a horse.”

“Yes! I love horses!” the boy exclaimed, jumping up and down in his seat. Only minutes later, he was asleep, lulled into dreamland by the motion of the train. 

“It’s good that he’s looking forward to it all. Any other child might have ended up dreading the whole thing, you know,” Susannah said to her older sister. 

Clemmie nodded. “I know. This is the change we all need. Still, it’s strange to think we’re leaving Chicago forever.”

What neither of them had to say out loud was that it felt as though they were leaving their parents behind, even if it wasn’t strictly true. A year earlier, their mother and father had left on a sailboat bound for England, the home they had left twenty-five years earlier. Of course, given how dangerous the journey across the Atlantic was, it had occurred to Susannah that she might not see them again. 

But when she actually got the letter announcing that the ship had gone down a hundred miles west of the Newfoundland coast and that not a single survivor had been recovered, it had come as an earth-shattering shock. 

Shortly after, Susannah had moved in with Joseph, Clemmie, and her husband, a kindly leather worker who was employed at the same factory as their father. Only a month after that, a machinery accident at the factory ended his life, leaving Clemmie, four-year-old Joseph, and Susannah all alone. 

For a while, they’d done their best to make it work. Clemmie stayed home with the child while Susannah got work as a seamstress, but she simply couldn’t make enough money to keep them going on her salary alone. Though it was dangerous, men’s work paid better, and without a father or husband to keep them going, life in Chicago got harder and harder by the day. 

“Do you think we shouldn’t have given up so quickly?” Susannah said aloud, giving voice to her regrets far too late.

There goes Chicago, disappearing into the distance. My stomach turns with fear, replacing the momentary excitement, but I tell myself it’s only natural. Nothing risked, nothing gained, after all. 

“No. We’re leaving at the perfect time,” Clemmie pointed out. “Before it’s too late. I know we made some money with the sale of our parents’ house, but it wasn’t going to last. Better to start a new life now than wait until we’re thrown out onto the streets with nothing but the clothes on our backs.”

“Right, right.” 

“Besides, they say there are many handsome cowboys in the West in need of wives. I’ll bet you’ll be getting married yourself before the year’s out!” Clemmie teased, tapping Susannah’s boot. 

Susannah pressed her lips together, finding it hard to imagine such a prospect. Clemmie was taking a big risk for the family, agreeing to marry a man she’d never met based on a few letters and a posting in the newspaper. At least if Susannah did find herself a husband in Colorado, she would at least be able to say she’d met him in person before walking down the aisle. 

Maybe I am the slightest bit intrigued about meeting a rugged cowboy or rancher—

—And then a gunshot rang out down the hall, and the train started coming to a screeching halt. Someone screamed, and the sounds of yelling in the next car over finally woke Joseph up. Clemmie clutched him in her arms.

“Robbers. Train robbers,” Susannah whispered. She’d heard stories about such thieves, but it hadn’t fully occurred to her that it might happen to them. 

“What do we do?” Clemmie asked, still holding Joseph close. 

Susannah looked around, realizing she had no idea. Everyone talked about the terror, but she’d never actually heard about what to do in case of a train robbery. 

The brakes continued to screech, and the commotion got closer and closer. 

I look around, finally finding the nearest door and trying to figure out how all the wheels and levers might open. As complicated as it looks, it’s worth a try. 

“I’m going for the door. Grab the bags!”

She made a dash for it, doing her best to wrench open the rusted levers. Finally, she was able to push it open, and the wind gusted in—just as the train robbers exploded into their car. 

“Go! Jump! We’re right behind you!” Clemmie exclaimed

Screwing up her courage, Susannah made the jump down to the rocky ground below. The impact crashed through her body, sending her to her knees, but there was no time to feel the pain. She scrambled to her feet and turned around to catch Joseph. He leaped into her arms. 

Clemmie started to throw down the carpet bags, but before she could jump herself, one of the masked robbers grabbed her arm. “Not so fast, pretty lady. Hand over that purse there, and we’ll let you go,” he snarled through the bandanna on his face.

Clemmie looked down at the green, hand-sewn purse in her hands, the one that held most of the money they’d brought. 

“Just give it to him!” Susannah shouted in a panic. It’s worth nothing compared to our lives! The thief was pulling back the hammer on his pistol. 

Luckily, Clemmie did as she was told and handed over the purse. The robber tossed her aside, sending her toppling down almost on top of Joseph. 

Clemmie gasped as she hit the ground, and Susannah kneeled to help her up, pulling all three of them out of view of the door. She kept them moving, carrying Joseph and the bags all herself until she was sure they were out of harm’s way and hidden by an outcropping of trees. 

Then she collapsed onto the ground, trying to catch her breath enough to assure Joseph that everything was going to be all right. 

It was only then that she realized how far behind Clemmie was. She was hobbling along, stopping frequently, and doubled over in pain. 

Then, Susannah saw the blood pouring down Clemmie’s leg. “What happened?” she called out, rushing over to help. It could only take one thing going wrong to bring our journey to an abrupt halt, and wounds can be deceiving. 

“Nothing. It’s fine. I just…something cut me open when I was thrown from the train. Something metal. Let’s keep going! I think I see the station not far from here, so there must be a town nearby,” Clemmie insisted bravely.

Just like Clemmie to act the hero. Susannah knew better than to listen. “No, we’re sitting down and bandaging you up before we go anywhere. Is that understood?” she insisted. She might be the younger sister, but she knew how to put her foot down when necessary.

Clemmie nodded and sat down while Joseph sat beside her, shocked into silence. Susannah pulled out one of the bandages that she’d packed away and pulled up Clemmie’s skirt to get a better look. 

The cut didn’t look too deep, thankfully, though it was jagged. Susannah did her best to clean it for the moment and then wrapped it up nice and tight. “We’ll have to take you to a doctor when we get into town.”

“Oh, there’s no need for that. It’s just a scrape,” Clemmie replied. She’s putting on a brave face, but I can see the pain underneath. 

“Nonsense. We can—”

“Susannah. We can’t afford to see the doctor now. We still have a long journey ahead of us. I’ll be fine,” Clemmie argued, keeping her voice low, though Joseph could hear everything. 

“We still have the money we sewed into our skirts! And once we get to Colorado, what we lost won’t matter,” Susannah shot back. 

“Fine. If I feel worse when we find a town, then we can go to the doctor. If I feel fine, then we’ll carry on.”

I don’t like it, but Clemmie is the older sister, after all. If she says she feels fine, I have to trust her. 

Sure enough, about a half hour later, they wandered into a nameless town, now overrun with passengers stranded from the stalled train that had finally lumbered in. 

Clemmie seemed to keep up reasonably well. By the time they had gotten word that the train would be delayed until the next morning and were lying in the hotel bed they’d secured for the evening, Susannah forced herself to see the good in their situation as best she could. “What an adventure! To think we narrowly escaped the clutches of train robbers,” she whispered to Clemmie as Joseph slept peacefully between them.

“Yes, very adventurous of us,” Clemmie replied, her voice muffled with exhaustion. Susannah stopped talking, knowing how much her sister needed to rest. 

It took a while to fall asleep, her head full of the events of the day. Even when she did fall asleep, she kept seeing the mean eyes of the train robber in her nightmares, underscored by Joseph’s screams. 

***

When the screams started sounding like they were coming out of her own mouth, Susannah’s eyes flew open in terror. The hotel room was dark, but it was far from peaceful. Clemmie was shouting and muttering, her eyes still closed and her arms thrashing about. Somehow, Joseph hadn’t woken up yet, but it wouldn’t be long before he did. 

“Clemmie! What’s wrong?” Susannah shook her sister to wake her up, but nothing seemed to work. Eventually, she had no choice but to stumble out of bed and light a candle before someone else in the hotel complained about all the noise. 

What she saw when the flame lit up her sister’s face chilled Susannah to the bone. 

Clemmie was drenched in sweat, clearly in the throes of a fever. Suddenly, she opened her eyes, and they looked bloodshot and glassy. Susannah didn’t have to see her sister’s leg wound to know what was wrong.

It’s infected. How can that have happened so fast? It’s only been a few hours since the accident, but I know the look of a dirty wound when I see one. 

“Mama! What’s wrong?” Joseph asked, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. 

“Mama’s sick,” Susannah explained urgently. “Can you be a brave boy and see if there’s anyone downstairs who can help?” She didn’t want to send him away, but staying in that room and witnessing his mother in such a state would make for some terrible memories. From the looks of it, they really did need help. 

Joseph nodded, a look of pure fear on his face. Susannah knew that he’d never seen his mother like that…and neither had she. He did as he was told and slipped off the side of the bed, though he lingered in the doorway nervously, staring on as Susannah tried to calm her sister. 

“Here, sit up and have some water,” she urged. “Go on, Joseph! Go get help!” 

“It’s too late,” Clemmie replied, her voice raspy. My stomach jumps. Clemmie isn’t usually the dramatic type. I want to laugh it off, but my heart’s in my throat. 

“Of course, it’s not too late. But I should have made you go to the doctor sooner. Don’t worry, everything will be just—”

Clemmie clutched at Susannah’s wrist so hard she stopped speaking, her nails digging into her skin. 

“It’s too late. Take care of him for me, Susannah. Go on ahead, marry Cody, and raise Joseph on the ranch. I’m going to see Mother and Father now.” She groaned. 

“Don’t be so dramatic,” Susannah managed, but her mouth was dry with terror. Clemmie wasn’t usually given to exaggeration. Clearly, a doctor was needed imminently. 

Susannah turned away from her sister for a moment, only to see that Joseph was still lingering by the doorway, watching in shock. “What are you still doing here?” she asked, forcing herself to smile. Am I smiling normally? Or do I look like how I feel: a crazed woman on the verge of collapse? Either way, it’s probably not going to help Joseph feel any better. 

She quickly crossed the room and picked him up, moving out into the hallway as she placed him on her hip. 

“Someone call for the doctor! Now!” she shouted over the balcony. Someone from downstairs muttered something, and Clemmie called out for her again. 

By the time Susannah got back to the bedside, her sister had gone silent. 

Chapter Two

“Oh, that train’s not getting in until tomorrow. Or the afternoon,” the bored clerk told Cody. 

“Tomorrow? Or the afternoon? Or tomorrow afternoon? And why is it delayed? What happened?” Cody asked, unable to stop the flow of questions. He wasn’t usually a nervous man. Even faced with a raging bull, he knew how to keep calm, but meeting the woman he was going to marry for the first time inspired a new kind of anxiety he’d never experienced before. 

“On account of a train robbery back in Illinois. They made up most of the lost time. It’ll come in this afternoon. Happens more than you know.”

Cody swallowed, immediately assuming the worst. “Was anyone hurt? Or killed?” His voice cracked as he spoke, and his neck grew hot. 

Will I ever get to meet the woman I proposed to in a letter, or has she been killed over a silver necklace by some violent bandits who didn’t care who got in their way?

The clerk shrugged. “No way of knowing. Can you move to the side? There are people who want to buy tickets behind you.”

Stunned, Cody moved over. The couple behind him shuffled up to the counter, seeming utterly unperturbed by the news that the next train coming in had been held up by thieves. 

Of course, Cody was no stranger to peril. Life on the ranch was full of risk, as was the town he was standing in. Dodge City was a notorious place, full of cowboys letting loose after weeks of rough cattle drives. Not only that, but the three-day ride back to the ranch was going to be dangerous as well, thanks to the elements and hungry outlaws hovering around every hill. 

Cody knew exactly what bandits were capable of, and he was also painfully aware that if anything happened to Clemmie, or her sister or young child, then it would be entirely his fault. They were coming to meet him in Dodge City because he had asked them to, and for no other reason. 

Should I have gone to Chicago to escort them myself? Taking that much time away from the ranch is virtually impossible, but given what’s at stake, maybe I ought to have. 

“I’m sure they’re fine,” called a gruff voice, and Cody turned to see a grizzled cowboy leaning on a hitching post beside the station. He was puffing on a pipe as he went on, “Whoever you’re waiting for. They would have said if anyone had been killed.”

Cody looked over at him, stunned. 

“You’re waiting for someone on that train, aren’t you?” the cowboy asked.

“Y-yes. I am.”

“You look like a frightened deer. Don’t worry yourself. Like the man said, it happens all the time.” 

“Right. Thanks,” Cody replied. 

“Who are you waiting for, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“A woman. We’re meant to get married. She’s coming all the way from Chicago.” I’m waiting for the man to laugh, but he doesn’t.

The cowboy nodded as if he understood far more than was being said out loud. “No wonder you’re in a bad way. Well, you should worry more about what will happen once she arrives. I’ve heard stories about what can happen when you marry a woman from the newspaper. You have no idea what you’ll be getting. She might have three eyes.”

Cody chuckled, grateful for the distraction. “I doubt she has three eyes, but it would be mighty remarkable if she did.” 

“Happened to a friend of my nephew’s sweetheart’s cousin. He wrote away for a good woman. Wasn’t looking for anything much, just someone who could be a good mother and bake a decent loaf of bread, you know. This woman bragged about being a great beauty from Europe, but when she showed up, she was no taller than a foal and about as long-faced as a mare. But worst of all, there was an extra eye on the back of her head.”

“That’s unfortunate indeed.” Cody knew better than to believe such a tale, and he doubted the cowboy believed what he was saying either, but it was admittedly a very entertaining story. 

“All I’m saying is I hope you sent away for a photograph. Well worth the twenty-five cents. Well, whatever she looks like, it’s better than being on your own, I suppose. It can get awful lonely out there on the range,” the cowboy said, a forlorn look on his face as he gazed off into the distance. 

“You can say that again,” Cody agreed. At thirty-one, he’d spent the better part of his adult life building up his ranch, working day in and day out to provide a life for himself as well as those he employed. Through droughts and floods, good times, and the bad, he’d managed to create one of the most successful cattle ranches in the Colorado Territory. 

Now, he’d achieved something akin to stability—although, admittedly, ranch life would always have its ups and down. And he’d thought it was time to consider starting a family. He had years of memories and no one to share them with. One by one, he’d watched his ranch hands and friends get married, and yet there never seemed to be anyone who caught his eye. 

It doesn’t help that there aren’t many women who live within a hundred miles of the ranch. The frontier is no place for most ladies, but if I was going to start a family, then I have to start somewhere. So, he turned to the newspaper. 

“What made you pick the one you’re waiting on?” the cowboy asked. 

“Oh, well, I just…she seemed sane enough.” Sane and excited by the idea of frontier living, even though she’s from the city. “She’s a widow with a son, and she’s bringing her younger sister as well. I suppose I liked the idea of a full house.” 

It’s an honest response, if not terribly romantic. It would be disingenuous to say I’ve fallen in love with Clemmie through the few letters we’ve sent back and forth, but at the very least, it seems like we’ll get along. What more can I ask for?

He’d always believed that love could blossom from friendship, and if they were lucky, that’s what would happen between himself and Clemmie.

“Well, if you don’t like the one sister, I suppose you could always go for the other.”

Cody chuckled. Ridiculous. It’s not an either-or situation. Clemmie is the one who wrote back to me, so that’s the sister I’ll be marrying. 

“Sounds like you’ve got quite the adventure ahead of you, young man. Don’t worry too much about the train robbers. They’re after money, not lives. Good luck to you.” 

The cowboy tipped his hat to Cody and went on his way, disappearing into the hordes of ranchers and revelers flooding the main street. 

As soon as he was alone again, he went back to clenching his jaw, anxiously aware of every passing minute. 

After hours of pacing, he heard the telltale sound of a train coming down the track and the conductor’s whistle. The massive machine pulled into the station, screeching and steaming, holding who he could only hope and pray was the mother of his future children.