Mail Order Bride: Not What He Expected (Mail Order Brides Book 1) (5 page)

Dear Reader,

Thank you so much for taking the time to read
Not What He Expected
. I hope it gave you an enjoyable interlude to slip into the past for just a while.

If you’d like to read more of my stories, you can find a list of them here:

http://annieboone.com/books

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Keep reading!

Annie

Book Six –
A Ready Made Family
– was just published. Here’s a sample:

A Ready Made Family

Barren.

It was an ugly word. A cruel word. And it described me. My body and my soul. I kept hearing the word boom over and over in my head.

I would never give birth to a child. Never feel life kicking inside me, or watch my belly swell with a tiny, beautiful miracle. Never see the look of wonder on my husband’s face as he held our newborn in his arms.

Phillip and I had tried for years to have a child of our own. Our marriage was perfect otherwise, but the absence of the pitter-patter of little feet made me feel like I failed as a woman. I had failed as a wife, in some respects. The complete devastation in my husband’s eyes made me feel downright useless.

He wouldn’t even look at me as we left the doctor’s office and headed down the stairs to the busy street below. We were lucky enough to live in New York, so we didn’t have to travel far to hear this terrible news. No, we only needed to stroll a few blocks to the well-respected doctor’s plush and comfortable office to have our hopes and dreams crushed into mush.

We walked together in silence and Phillip habitually offered his arm as we turned in the direction of our home. In my grief I took his arm absent-mindedly, never feeling the reassurance that I should have from the gesture. We strolled past the school where the children were playing out on the field, laughing and chasing each other in a blur of childhood bliss. I turned my head, refusing to look, but the sounds of their laughter carried down the block, and I instinctually clutched Phillip’s arm tighter.

I remembered that on our wedding night he had told me how eager he was to become a father. He always spoke about his future son taking over the family business as he had done from his father. The family business was started by his great-grandfather who had been a fine artisan. He crafted custom pieces of furniture, mostly for the wealthy, and his talents had been widely sought out. Their stores carried everything from cradles to dining tables. Our own home was filled with many of the ornate pieces.

Unfortunately, the crib I had my eye upon would never be needed.

The furniture business was flourishing, and it was something Phillip prided himself on, and I of course had encouraged him. Or at least relentlessly teased him.
“And what if it’s a girl? Can she take over the family business?”

Phillip would kiss me on top of the head and say, “Well, we shall have to have one of both then won’t we?”

But now there would be no boy and there would be no girl. There would be just the two of us. That was all we would have to care for in life. It wasn’t horrid. It was more than many people get in this world.

I still longed to cradle my infant in my arms, to draw it close to my breast, and watch as it surrenders to the magical realm of sleep. To breathe in that delicious scent that only a newborn has and to touch the wisps of soft curls atop a cherubic face. I knew now, some dreams, no matter how vivid, just weren’t meant to be.

When we arrived back in our home, I removed my bonnet and put it away out of habit. It felt like a normal thing to do when I feared nothing would be normal in my life again. I stood listening to the vast quiet echoing through our empty house. I asked Miranda, our housekeeper, to make us a pot of tea and to bring it out to the parlor. Phillip lit his pipe, and twitched his nose, causing his mustache to shift back and forth.

I looked over at my husband, the sadness of his loss lingering in his dark brown eyes. He leaned against the archway of the parlor entrance and puffed on his pipe, lost to his thoughts. I can only imagine that they were similar to my own. Discovering that you will never be able to bear children is equivalent to the unexpected passing of a loved one. It just happens to be a loved one you never met before.

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To read the rest of A Ready Made Family, you can get it here:

http://www.AnnieBoone.com/Family

Other Western Romance Authors I Recommend

I enjoy reading Western Romance books and I read often. I thought you might like to see some of my favorite authors so that you can check them out to see if they’re a fit for the kind of reading you love.

Jenny Creek Tanner – Jenny is a country girl who writes about cowboys and heroines who tame them. She’s one of my favorites. 

http://annieboone.com/JennyCreekTanner

Lorena Dove – Lorena is a relatively new author who is writing a different kind of Mail Order Bride story. Her heroines are immigrants in her
Sweet Land of Liberty
series.

http://annieboone.com/Lorena-Dove

Indiana Wake – Indiana is a prolific writer. She has published many books and most of them deal with difficulties faced by the heroines. Her main characters face and overcome the same issues many of us face every day. I love her honest approach.

http://annieboone.com/IndianaWake