A Real Man for Ruth: a mail order bride romance by Susan Thomas

Author:Susan Thomas [Thomas, Susan]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: LSF Publications
Published: 2016-08-01T04:00:00+00:00

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Not soon after, and late into the day, a man appeared at our farm. He was young, well dressed and clearly from a city somewhere. In addition to his horse he was leading a mule laden up with equipment of some sort. Amos greeted him and asked me to prepare our guest a room. Martha and I rushed around and soon all was ready. He joined us for our meal and evening prayers. His name was Mr Habicht and he was a surveyor whose speciality was seeking out mineral bearing soils. Amos had persuaded his neighbours to contribute to the fees and had organised it all. Mr Habicht was aware that he had to work somewhat secretly. McBride had been commissioned to get the land so it wasn't important to him whether there was coal here or not; if he discovered that Mr Habicht was surveying it might occur to him to stop that activity.

Amos was closeted with Mr Habicht all evening and in the morning the man was gone. Amos told me he was going to survey the whole valley, compare the geology with other areas, and give his opinion as to how likely coal bearing seams would be. He wasn't optimistic that there would be none, for Colorado is rich in minerals. I was excited and rather proud that my simple question had led to this result. I hoped that Mr Habicht would say there was precious little chance of coal. That would cool the coal company's ardour and send McBride off to be evil elsewhere.

I had many tasks to get done that day but was finding it hard to concentrate because of our visitor. I had my fingers crossed Mr Habicht would find no sign of coal or any other mineral, which would mean the valley could be left in peace. Had I known just what would happen as a result of the survey I would have been less excited.

No sooner was Mr Habicht gone than I had two visitors appear in a buggy. They were none other than Mrs Thornton, a prim, thin, tall woman who appeared to have a permanently bad smell under her nose; and Mrs Kelly, rather sour faced but short and plump. They were the women who really ran the Ladies' Guild. I know they did good works but I have to confess I didn't like them. They were patronising about my age, my nationality and what they referred to as my inexperience. I comforted myself with imagining them both stark naked on their beds with their husbands on top thrusting away into them. It made them seem more human. However, in spite of my inexperience they needed me. They had a list of the respectable poor and needy and wanted me to supply these people with bread, pies and stews. Not excessively of course, but enough to keep the wolf from the door.

I told them that, provided Amos agreed, I would be happy to do so. In some ways it would

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