Mail Order Bride: Sarah's Damaged Cowboy

By Vanessa Carvo

Mail Order Bride: Sarah’s Damaged Cowboy, is the story of a rancher in Texas, Hawk, who decides to write away for a big city bride from New York. Instead, he gets a relationship which starts out with untruths and a strange lack of empathy, let alone love, between the couple. Added to the mix is Sarah’s sister Susan, and a young ranch hand who works for Hawk, Johnny.

It’s a long novella of over 36,000 words, and full of love between people, and their God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Susan Hart
• Release date: Mar 22, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310427640

Book preview

Mail Order Bride: Sarah’s Damaged Cowboy

By

Vanessa Carvo

Copyright 2014 Vanessa Carvo

Smashwords Edition

Chapter One

(An Ad for My Bride)

1871, a small town in Texas…

I wanted a bride, and I didn’t want to settle for just any bride. I wanted to bring a young lady from upscale New York City. I guess you would ask me why I wanted to torture myself with a city lady who would know nothing about the West and the many challenges it could bring.

It was because I wanted to share my life and my ranch with a lady of grace, one who would move upon my land and add a touch of class to the rolling hills and the open blue skies. I hoped for a lady with fine education so that she would be able to pass down her intelligence to our future children. She was already in my mind, and I couldn’t get the vision out of my head.

There were women around my area of course, but options are not many in these parts and I longed for a vibrant and colorful woman who could offer to my home and our children variety. It would be a search that I would be on for some time, because a woman of greed and vanity wasn’t what I wanted.

I prepared myself for many disappointments as the ad was placed, knowing I would have to apply my skills at weeding through those types, but I started my search at twenty-five years old. I figured if it took me ten years to find her, it would be a young enough age at thirty-five to love her.

My own father had found my mother, his bride, the same way; but he had to wait ten years and by the time he found my mother, they were well into their forties. My father placed an ad in the church bulletin when he was thirty years old, and after many disappointments, he found my mother Bessie Hawk, when he was forty-three.

His preacher had advised him to begin before he was twenty, but he put it off as he was building up his ranch and business. When he found his bride, she turned out to be everything he dreamed of.

They had five children and I was their youngest. I have four sisters and you can only imagine what it was like for me to grow up with four girls. I learned fast what type of a wife I would not want.

My sisters contributed to the reason I chose to follow Pa and find a mail order bride. Young ladies in our area had grown so used to living on the frontier that they had no appreciation left in their souls.

They hated the long winters and they grew tired of the sun’s blazing rays. It seemed the girls I had grown up with were all yearning to be out of my small town and not not on it. So, I began my search to find me a bride that would not be happy living in the city and would find a goof home on my ranch in Texas.

Even my own sisters all moved away to cities, claiming that they had enough of the challenging lands. I, like Ma and Pa, was here to stay.

I followed my Pa in his search and paid a visit to Pastor Russell, and he led me to the back of his little corner of an office right behind the choir box, then pulled out a piece of paper and sat me down. He had a secretive smirk on his face and laughed, as he watched me take the pen in my hand, shaking like a leaf. He leaned over me as I tried to put words to paper and he said, Son, it is not like you are filling out a job application. Just be yourself and make a note of your requirements for what you’re seeking.

I just was not that comfortable going about finding a wife that way and imagined it seemed like buying a horse or something; however, once I sat down, I saw the vision of my lady. It was not so much a vision of her physical appearance, but rather what I imagined was in her heart.

I felt a certain warmth envelope me. It was like I was seeing straight through to her God-loving soul. This was my longing, to find a woman with a heart for God. My mama had lived as a Proverbs 31 woman, straight from the scriptures themselves.

She was loving and kind, strong in faith and a blessing to her husband; that was Mama. It did not take me long to write that ad and when I was finished, I sealed it with hope.

Pastor Russell promised to send it off through the church bulletin and it would be placed in New York City’s finest news. He said that the good Lord would lead that ad straight to the hand of the one I loved in my heart. It made me believe him and he reminded me to have patience in the Lord.

I left the church and rode my mare all the way back home with a new hope and a polished idea of how she would be when I laid my eyes on her. Some changes needed to be made in my cabin as well as the barn and the fenced arena. I just knew that my lady would have a love for horses, whether she had ever been on one or not. The first change I made was to design our home as beautiful and efficient as possible for a young lady. My first major project would be to build two new, necessary buildings and I would have them close enough to the house as possible.

I decided that two outhouses would be more convenient for us both. My soon to be bride’s had a few special touches, so that she’d be comfortable and feel safe at the same time. It has been known that a few little critters would find a way into your business.

Therefore, the new buildings would stand no chance at letting critters get. There was not too much you could do to pretty up a building of that sort and function, but I did what I could to make it as clean as possible.

When I’d finished with them both, I stood back and realized that they were some mighty fine buildings and thought they my own would please my new bride. Then, I moved along to the next chore on my list and that was to find a new bathing tub that she would be able to soak her body in at the end of a tiring day.

I recalled that I had seen some new designs in town at Howard’s hardware store and I at once took the wagon to find myself a brand new tub, big enough for two.

When I’d found the perfect bathtub for my darling, I then decided to replace the floor underneath it, added a very soft bearskin rug that my Pa had won from an old Indian he met in a game of poker.

Pa was that way with the Indians around us. There were not the many left from a certain tribe that settled about ten miles east of us. He wanted to be sure that they would see him as a friend and not an enemy and he rode straight into their camp one day, introduced himself, and them to a game of cards.

Mama was not very happy that Pa taught them to gamble and she threw a few fits until she finally realized that it was harmless. He had kept the rug and it had been hanging on the back porch wall and I knew that it would be perfect to place under the tub, and it would be warm to place her feet on in the winter.

I wanted to redo the inside of the washroom too, so I headed into town again and went to see Rosie at her diner.

She was an older woman, but she knew what a pretty lady would like.

We sat and discussed it and she decided that it would do a world of good if she would visit and look for herself. After she left, her oldest son in charge of the diner, she took a ride with me to my home, talking up a storm all the way.

She loved to talk to hear herself talk, I think. She was being nosey about my projects and I went ahead and shared with her my plan, asking her to keep a lid on it if she could. She teased me and promised to keep it hush-hush and we rode along talking about all my plans.

When we arrived back home, she walked on in and I tied up the team and soon joined her. She looked the washroom over and at once began to come up with little ideas to make it more womanly.

She told me that she even had some attractive things that we could hang on the wall and gave me ideas for a buffet, a vanity and a clothes rack that I could build and put in the room as well. She had good ideas that would keep me busy until my bride would arrive. She also told me to add a window in the bathroom, because all women appreciate a window to look out as they soak in the tub.

When she was finished with her plans and the long list she made, I then took Rosie back into town, thanked her, and was on my way back to Howard’s for anything I might need.

I knew that it would be quite a while before I even heard back from any lady due to how long it took to get a letter, but it gave me plenty of time to work on things. It took me a good month of work to get the tub fancied up and the window put in and then I began building the buffet dresser, the vanity and the clothes rack.

I found some beautiful wood from trees that had fallen down in some earlier storms, and they were perfect. The more I made the changes, the more excited I became so I rode into town and hit the streets, putting the word out that I would be needing a ranch hand, and I was seeking a younger lad that would be willing to apply himself for a good summer’s pay.

Announcements were left with Howard, Rosie and Pastor Russell as well, because of their reputation and good judgment.

It was not long until a young man rode into my ranch on a mare with a bedroll on his saddle, a