The Clerk's Bride: A Golden Valley Story (The Brides of Birch Creek Book 2) by Laura D. Bastian

Author:Laura D. Bastian [Bastian, Laura D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mail Order Bride, marriage of convenience, second chance love, clean and wholesome, cowboy, western historical
Publisher: Lange House Press
Published: 2019-08-20T04:00:00+00:00

***

Annabelle walked briskly back to the store and after slipping inside the door to find it empty of customers, she worked her way into the back room to find her mother-in-law.

“Oh good, you’re back. What did he say?” Mrs. Howard asked.

“He had a plan to take me for a drive to the creek and show me some of the town. Thought we should take a picnic lunch with us.” Annabelle studied the woman, hoping the different plans wouldn’t bother her.

“What an excellent idea. Let me put the note in the window to tell people we’re at the house. Then I’ll help you gather some food for lunch. Is he coming back here? I suppose he’ll have to if he’s going to take the wagon. Unless he means for you to ride horseback. Can you ride a horse, Annabelle?”

“No. I haven’t ever been on a horse. Not sure if I would dare.”

“It’s not that bad. Especially if you have a good mount. But no rush there. There will be plenty of time to learn if you’d like. And most of your traveling can be by wagon or on foot. Come on.” Mrs. Howard waved Annabelle toward the door leading to the house while she went in the store to put the sign in the window.

Inside the kitchen, Mrs. Howard chatted happily as she gathered the things for the meal. There was some bread and cheese and some dried apples. She put in a bottle of cider and a small crock of preserves. The wicker basket she pulled from a shelf was quickly packed and a blanket was placed on the top.

“I’m not sure if he’ll have you eat it in the wagon or on the ground. So the blanket will come in handy. Now that that’s ready, we can just leave it here until Colten comes back. So now, let’s return to the store. We can look through those catalogs again and get more ideas on some of the dresses. I’ll need to know what kinds of fabric you’ll want so you can get started.”

Annabelle followed the woman into the storage room that connected the house to the store and wondered if she was actually going to need to respond. It didn’t seem so as Mrs. Howard continued.

“Susan told me she wanted some quilts made for the boarding house. I’ve got a few bolts I put aside for her since she didn’t have the money to get it all right away. But she told me about your arrangement to trade your sewing skills for use of her machine. And since we’re family now, and we need to make sure you have the materials you need, I figured it would be good to get started on the blankets now.”

She pulled a step ladder over to a wall where some brown paper packages were tucked away near the top shelf. “You do know how to make quilts, don’t you?” Mrs. Howard asked. “Most of the time we’ve done it all by hand, but if you can put all the pieces together with that machine, it could be finished so much sooner.

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