Mail Order Brides of Jasper Falls Ranch by Ann Laurel

Author:Ann Laurel [Laurel, Ann]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Perfectly Plotted Books
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

AJ’s Bride - Chapter One

Bella wheeled Theodore Magnus into the front room and adjusted his pillow behind him as she offered a smile as only a daughter could do. At twenty, she had no problem with being what others in the area referred to as an old maid. Her mother had died just as the war ended and her father had come home from the war wounded. Bella grew up mostly without her mother as her two older sisters took care of her and helped to keep house until they married and moved off. Leaving Bella behind to care for her father was something Theodore never wished. He smiled at his daughter and nodded.

“Did you get the magazines I asked for?” he asked.

Bella gave her father a confused smile for all the magazines he had requested had to do the Wild West. Living all the way in Georgia and being real Confederate survivors, the West was not a place where Papa had ever talked about seeing. Now, all of a sudden, he had a desire to read through all these travel magazines.

“Yes, Papa, I'll go fetch them,” Bella said as she excused herself and shuffled off into the other room where she kept the stack of magazines. After placing them on the table beside Papa’s chair, she watched as he picked up one and began thumbing through it.

“Is there a problem?” Theodore asked his daughter.

“No problem, Papa. But I am curious. Why did you request these magazines?” Bella asked.

“Isn't it okay for an old man who can't walk around to dream about traveling someday to places I've never seen? You know I'll never make it to this part of the country but I've always wanted to go see the Old West. I suppose this is just my way of dreaming. Now you run along and do what you need to do to start supper for later. I'll be okay in here,” Theodore said as he turned his attention back to the magazine.

Bella left him and worked on cutting up the turnips and the cabbages and snapping the beans for supper while the maids finished cleaning the home. They didn’t have a cook on staff since Bella’s sisters had left. Late spring brought in plenty of hot weather and with the breezeway open the house still felt stifling especially when they stoked the stove. But Bella didn't mind for it meant that Papa was happy and well fed and she would do whatever she had to do to keep him happy.

Bella couldn’t understand why when she walked into the room and saw that Papa had rolled up to the old desk writing a nice long letter he would hide it and just give her this look of annoyance.

“Just corresponding with some old friends of mine, honey. You run along and get with your housework leave me to my letters,” Papa said with an air of mystery.

Bella couldn't understand why her father felt the need to write all these letters and the next day he handed her the stack which was addressed to places all over the west.

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