Madeline: Bride of Nebraska (American Mail-Order Bride 37) by Mia Blackwood

Author:Mia Blackwood [Blackwood, Mia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical, Romance, Fiction, Forever Love, Victorian Era, Western, Thirty-Seven In Series, Saga, Fifty-Books, Forty-Five Authors, Newspaper Ad, Short Story, American Mail-Order Bride, Bachelor, Single Woman, Marriage Of Convenience, Christian, Religious, Faith, Inspirational, Factory Burned, Pioneer, Nebraska, Deceased Husband, Past Issues, Second Marriage, Disaster, Family Ranch, Profitable, Past Ghosts, Fifteen Years
Goodreads: 27861916
Publisher: Virtual Bookpublishing, LLC.
Published: 2015-12-25T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 5

It took Madeline a full week to clean the house from top to bottom, but when she had finished, it looked like a new home. There were still projects for her to do, like making new curtains for the windows, but the actual cleaning was now on a maintenance level.

Caleb was still sleeping in the extra bedroom with George, which was fine with Madeline. After spending the day cooking and cleaning, having to deal with the marriage bed was beyond her. She fell asleep the moment her head hit the pillow each night and did not wake until the rooster crowed in the morning.

Madeline slowly began to think of this house as her home. She supposed cleaning every inch of it might have something to do with it, though the armed guard while hanging out the wash or using the outhouse was a bit much for her. She knew Caleb was concerned for her safety, but surely if his brother’s murderer were still around the sheriff would have found him by now.

Caleb was proving to be a thoughtful husband, though he was still a husband in name only. He had resumed his duties on the ranch, but he made certain one of the ranch hands was always close to the house to guard his wife and little George. He knew he would not rest easy until the murderer had been caught and had told Madeline so.

George himself had good days and bad days. His moods varied by the hour at times, but Madeline had been told that he had seen his parents get killed so she was extra patient with him. It took twice as long for her to accomplish most of her chores with him around, especially when he was extra clingy and needy, but Madeline knew the chores were not nearly as important as George feeling safe and loved.

Attending church on Sunday had been an eye-opening experience for Madeline. She knew that women on the frontier were in short supply, but seeing it for herself really drove the point home. No wonder Caleb had sent for a mail order bride! Most of the women in church were either married already, elderly, or still children. And there were very few children.

One day while she and George were making bread, she had what she thought was a brilliant idea. Two of them, in fact. The first would benefit the ranch, as it would free up all ranch hands to perform their jobs on the ranch as they had before the murders. The other would benefit the community as a whole. She could not wait to share her ideas with Caleb at lunch.

Caleb returned home for lunch and was greeted by George, who ran to the door for his usual bear hug. After squeezing his nephew, Caleb took a deep breath and sniffed appreciatively. “Mmmm, that smells delicious!”

Madeline smiled. “Thank you. George and I spent the morning baking. He’s a good helper.” She gave George a wink as she spoke.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.