West For Love (A Mail Order Romance Novel)

West For Love

A Mail Order Romance Novel

Shamed
for not birthing a child with her wealthy husband, Anna Stewbren can no longer
face her family and the disappointment that they wear on their faces daily. 
After her husband forces her into divorce, Anna travels to town and reads a
heartbreaking letter from a wet nurse in Kansas, seeking a mail order bride for
the widower she works for. She instantly knows it is the answer to her
prayers...

*

Josephine
has a God given gift to nurture the infants of widowers and the wealthy who
would rather not feed their own children.  Never before has she met a man like
Thomas who so deserves a second chance at love.  When she pens a letter to a
newspaper in Massachusetts, she does so without permission...

*

Thomas
Calhor is a hardworking man, generous to those around him, and a loving
father.  However, he is broken and lost without his wife, who did not survive
childbirth.  His reaction to Josephine's letter even surprises himself and
begins a journey that will forever change many lives…

*

Arriving
in Kansas brings Anna more challenges than she ever expected to find, but
through love, honor, marriage, and a shocking secret that will forever keep her
with Thomas proves that in romance, anything can happen…

Chapter One

As the sun shined on the early
morning dew, Anna touched her stomach and leaned against the doorway to her
parents’ house. She felt an uncomfortable cramping pain that was all too common
for Anna, only it wasn’t the kind of pain she wanted to be having. It felt
strange wishing for pain, but according to Anna’s mental and internal clock,
she should have been holding a two month old baby, not her lower abdomen thanks
to her monthly reminder that perhaps her biggest commitment as a wife hadn’t
been fulfilled yet.

Yet.

It had been a year since Anna wed
William Stewbren and ever since their wedding day, everything had been
yet
.

Her parents were beyond thrilled
when the successful businessman sat at the dinner table, reached for Anna’s
slender, eighteen-year old hand, and said he planned on marrying her. It wasn’t
a request. It wasn’t a question. It wasn’t even an offer. It was a command and
one that Anna had to go along with. William had ties to the bank and with his help,
her parents’ house and land were saved from being taken away. Not to mention a
sudden influx of cash that allowed her father to grow more crops, turn a bigger
profit, and provide the family with many upgrades.

The money was just the beginning
for the life William promised Anna and her family. But to truly become
Mrs. Stewbren
, William
wanted one thing.

A
child.

That demand came with plenty of laughter
around a dinner table so long that Anna felt she was at a church gathering rather
than in the dining room of her new husband’s house. Then again, it was her
house too, in a way, but only if a child were born. Nobody thought having a
child would prove difficult, not even Anna. Going to bed with William had, at
first, been uncomfortable. He wasted no time in wanting to enjoy the fruits of marriage
and Anna really wanted to give William what he wanted.

After the first month passed, Anna
told herself it hadn’t happened yet because of nerves. The sudden change in her
life. A wife at eighteen with the implications of motherhood were a huge burden
to carry. After the third month and heading into an extra harsh winter for the
small Massachusetts town of Lowemills, everything became a blur for Anna. The
endless touching from William became a feeling of use. William didn’t look at
her and when she looked at him it almost disgusted her. There never existed a
real attraction to William. A desperate feeling constantly raced through her
body leaving Anna wanting to regret every decision in her life. But she
reminded herself it wasn’t her decision to get married, nor to try and birth a
child. The attraction came from what could be which was a family.

Her family blamed the winter and
how the extreme cold and above average snowfall had an effect on everyone in
town. How word came that over twenty locals were killed in the winter; the most
tragic being Margie Miller, whose roof literally caved in, collapsing on her
and freezing her to death.

When spring finally came and the
ground thawed and the first flower buds climbed from the ground, all hopes -
and eyes - were back on Anna. Each time her parents saw her, they didn’t look
at her face. They didn’t look in her eyes. They looked at her stomach. It
became too uncomfortable that she always kept a hand on her stomach, feeling
self conscious, and quite honestly, worthless.

The front door opened and Anna
hurried to stand tall and smile, not wanting to show any discomfort. This
happened once before - two months ago - and her family quickly began to
rejoice, thinking she was pregnant. Even William smiled that day, wanting to
hold her hand, touch her hair, showing affection that Anna certainly wasn’t
used to from her husband. When it was revealed she wasn’t pregnant, the smiles
and peaceful feeling faded in a hurry, like a late spring frost rolling across
their fields, wanting to steal the life of plants and crops alike.

Anna expected to see her mother,
but it was just her older sister, Abigail.

“Anna, are you trying to listen?”
Abigail asked, her big blue eyes shining.

Abigail was twenty years old and
had a sense of beauty that made Anna jealous. Abigail’s husband was killed in a
tragic accident while trying to cut down a tree, so for now she lived home,
still grieving. There were days when she seemed like she was going to be fine
and then others she looked like an empty shell of the beautiful woman she
really was. Thanks to Anna and her marriage to William, the pressure of
remarrying remained away from Abigail, for now.

“What are they talking about?” Anna
asked.

“Well, what do you think they’re
talking about?” Abigail offered as she took Anna’s hand and guided her towards
the end of the small porch.

The air smelled clean, crisp, and
had a rewarding freshness to it that anyone should have enjoyed. But for Anna,
the burning pain in her stomach only seemed to fuel the doubt in her mind.

Time
was up.

That’s what it was all about.

In passing Anna had heard William
suggest to a few friends that he would give the marriage a year. If there was
no child or even the intention of a child, the marriage would have to end.

“He’s going to leave me,” Anna
whispered.

“Anna... they’re talking...”

“About me. Why I can’t carry his
child.”

She touched her stomach again.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Abigail
said. “Our father is a great negotiator.”

“When he’s selling crops or buying
supplies, sure,” Anna said. “But not with William. William is so...
intimidating. He’s got this look...”

“He’s just a businessman,” Abigail
said.

Anna wasn’t sure whether to cry, or
scream, or maybe even smile. Sure, she wanted to do well by her family, make
her parents proud, and give them a life they wanted and rightfully deserved,
but at what expense? If someone dared to ask Anna about happiness it would take
all her might to force a smile and say she was truly happy.

Abigail touched her back in a
soothing sisterly way.

“I’m sorry you’re going through
this,” she said.

“Do you think maybe it’s not
happening because...” Anna looked over her shoulder. The front door was closed.
Nobody could hear them, but she leaned to Abigail to whisper, just in case. “Do
you think maybe it’s not happening because I’m not meant to be with William?”

Abigail stiffened and puckered her
lips.

The question teetered on being
blasphemous, but Anna needed to ask it. She had to get it off her chest and
Abigail was the only person in the world she could trust.

“I can’t speak to that, Anna,”
Abigail said. “A man who will marry you and care for you is a decent man. There
aren’t enough men around this area as it is, so to question the one who wed
you...”

“I know it sounds terrible,” Anna
said. “I know. It’s just, the way he looks at me...”

“I think that’s enough,” Abigail
said. “Let me go check and see if they’re done talking.”

Anna didn’t watch her sister go
back into the house. When she heard the door shut, tears filled her eyes. It
was the oddest feeling inside her. She felt horrible for letting her family
down and letting her husband down. But at the same time she felt as though she
were about to be set free.

Chapter Two

Anna stood at the table. She wore
her best dress after sneaking inside to get changed. It was a powder blue dress
and gave Anna the look of true innocence. William sat at the head of the table,
drinking a cup of tea, his clothes pressed and expensive. His eyes were distant
and the look on his face was that of a stern businessman. Nothing suggested
romance, marriage, or family.

This was strictly all business.

Anna’s parents - Dorothy and John -
were seated close to one another at the opposite end of the table. Abigail
lingered in the room too and Anna wasn’t sure if she was there for support or
to face the harsh truth waiting.

“Anna,” her mother said, “will you
sit with us?”

Anna swallowed and pulled out a
chair. She sat and folded her hands on her lap. She felt like she was in
trouble. It almost reminded her of how Abigail used to sit at the table, right
after her husband died. She had felt dead herself and that feeling started to
sink its teeth into Anna.

“Mr. Strewbren has been speaking
with us,” her father said.

Mr.
Stewbren?

That was definitely not a good
sign.

He wasn’t referred to as William or
as Anna’s husband. It had the sentiment of when William would come over for
dinner to talk business and banking, just before his demand to marry Anna.

“Okay,” Anna whispered.

“You are not with child, correct?”
her father asked.

His eyes were hurt. Anna looked at
her mother, but it wasn’t any easier to look at her.

Anna nodded. “Not this month.”

Her mother bit her lip and looked
away.

“Okay,” her father said. “As you
can imagine, Anna, it’s troubling right now.”

“I need a family,” William cut in,
his voice strong and commanding. “I cannot wait for the rest of my life. We
aren’t given unlimited time...” William looked at Abigail, on purpose of
course, for effect. “...something I’m sure we all can understand here.”

Abigail turned and left the room.

Anna felt her heart tear a little
more. Abigail would surely go to her room and weep for hours now. Part of Anna
wanted to slap William in the face for being so such a brute.

“We’ve been married for a year,
Anna,” William said. “A very fast year at that. Correct?”

“Yes,” Anna’s father said. “The
winter did drag though.”

“But the snow melted, the sun
warmed up, the frost went away,” William said. “The flowers began to bloom. The
dirt has that lively smell to it. The air is clean. The town it back to life,
back to normal... and I’m still without a family.”

William stopped talking and stood
from the table.

That’s when Anna’s mother finally
decided to join the conversation.

“Just a little more time,” she
pleaded. “I didn’t carry until summertime with both my girls. Ask John. Right
John?”

Anna’s father nodded. “Yes. The
colder months were unforgiving in our attempts to have a family.”

“So be it,” William said. “We had
last summer. And look where we are now.”

The contempt burned in William’s
eyes, so much so that Anna had to look away from her husband. A moment later
William reached into his pocket and produced folded up papers.

Anna’s mother let out a cry and
stood, rushing out of the room too.

“Now, John,” William said, “We’ve
had a great relationship and I hope that can continue.”

“Of course... William...”