Read Mail Order Bride: Bitter & Pregnant, An English Widow Heads Off to Her Cowboy Rancher In California (A Clean & Wholesome Historical Romance) for Free Online Page B

into it,"
explained Joseph. "I want to be darn sure you're a woman worth
marrying before we do it."
    "Mister Clauson, I am with child! I don't
want him coming into this world without a father," said Jeanne.
"Let the love come later. For now, I need stability. Besides, I
just helped save you from that Jack person."
    "I never liked that part of stories," said
Joseph. "What kind of person offers himself or herself up as a
reward for being saved? No, Missus Harrow, we're going to do this
the old fashioned way. Just as soon as we're out of this cave and
I'm able to walk again."
    "As you wish it," said Jeanne angrily, but
with a hint of a smile.
     
     
    An hour later, Francine and Horace had loaded
Jack onto the back of the wagon and seen to the wounds of Joseph
and the other man, named Henry. Joseph was able to sit up and Henry
was well enough to have run over to the horse and hug it when he
came out of the dank cavern. Jeanne and the injured crowded onto
the wagon, while Horace and Francine walked along behind it.
    Horace still had the club and Francine had
found the rifle. They had all decided that there was no way Jack
was going to escape his fate and so precautions were taken. Henry
was driving the cart, treating the horse with a gentle tenderness
that pleased Jeanne, leaving her and Joseph Clauson some privacy.
He was a handsome man in a way and Jeanne was pleasantly surprised
by his attitude.
    "We have some time to waste," said Jeanne.
"We may as well get to know each other."
    "What do you want to know? I'm a rancher by
trade, I've been told I'm kind and have a good humor about me,"
said Joseph. "I can't have any children of my own. I had an
accident, years ago."
    "I see," said Jeanne.
    "All the damage is internal," explained
Joseph. "No one can fix it, but I'm still fully functional."
    "All right," said Jeanne. "I was an actress
from a young age and my deceased husband whisked me away from that
life. To be perfectly honest, I was trying to use you as an excuse
to start a new life in America with just my child. I planned to
escape my two companions and live on the east coast for the
remainder of my life. Your country is very boring between the city
bits, by the way."
    Joseph laughed. "I know. I took a train to
Pennsylvania a few years ago and slept all the way back because
there was nothing to see. I like the theater."
    "I don't," said Jeanne. "It made me something
I no longer enjoy being. The only sin those two had committed was
trying to be kind to me and I was going to abandon them. What kind
of person does such a thing?"
    Joseph thought about it. "A confused one, I
reckon -- sad and alone and confused. It happens."
    "I suppose it does," said Jeanne. "Why did
you have to resort to mailing away for a bride?"
    "The damage, mainly," said Joseph. "Women
around here want a man who can produce a child, at least the kind
of women I'm interested in. I figured someone out there might just
want a man in their life and since I got your telegraph, I figured
you had as good a chance of any."
    "Then why are you so hesitant to marry
me?"
    "I don't just want to be the man who became
your husband and your child's father because it was convenient,"
said Joseph. "I want there to be some actual emotion there. Do you
understand?"
    Jeanne kissed him. It felt like the right
thing to do and when it was done, she said, "I do."
    "Well then," said Joseph. "Well."
    "You seem like a good man," said Jeanne. "I'm
still hurting, to be honest. I'll always have some pain inside of
me. Helping you escape Jack helped ease that pain and I think
helping you through life in whatever way I can will help ease that
pain."
    "This is hardly the old-fashioned way," said
Joseph.
    "What, pray tell, would the old-fashioned way
be?"
    "I always saw it as a young man taking his
young lady for a stroll and falling in love by the light of the
full moon," said Joseph.
    "Then we shall do that," said Jeanne.
     
     
    The next few weeks were a whirlwind of
activity. Jeanne