Mail Order Bride: Ready For Love (Brides Of The West Book 2)

By Leah Wyett

A historical western cowboy romance story about a mail order bride.
Hazel is planning her first Christmas with Heath and their wedding. She’s also plotting to help John, Heath’s best friend and partner find a love of his own. The problem is, John is already in love...With Hazel. It will take John a wild ride across Texas and a gunfight alongside desperate men to realize that what he needed wasn’t necessarily what he thought he wanted. But is it too late?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gold Crown
• Release date: Jul 12, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310303197

Book preview

LEAH WYETT

Mail Order Bride: Ready For Love

Brides of the West: Book Two

~~~

Smashwords Edition

Copyright

© 2014 by Leah Wyett

All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced in any format, by any means, electronic or otherwise, without prior consent from the copyright owner and publisher of this book.

This is a work of fiction. All characters, names, places and events are the product of the author's imagination or used fictitiously.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

First Printing, 2014

Dedication

To YOU, The reader.

Thank you for your support.

Thank you for your emails.

Thank you for your reviews.

Thank you for reading and joining me on this road.

Contents

Copyright

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Recommended Reads

Chapter One

DECEMBER 16TH 1870

Dear Miss Dodd. John said as he wrote.

My dearest Becky. Hazel corrected him with a grin.

She is not my dearest. he protested. I don’t even know her.

Yet. Hazel said again with another grin. Come on, John. Dear Miss Dodd sounds so formal.

Okay then, Dear Becky." he said, changing it on the paper.

Fine, that’s better…I suppose. Hazel and John sat in the sitting room. Hazel had goaded John into writing back to the woman who had responded to his add in the Matrimonial News. She was insisting that this girl could be the one, and she said the first letter had to be interesting enough to draw her attention.

Dear Becky. he said, again. I was happy to get your letter and cabinet card. You are a….

Lovely. Hazel said.

John gave her a slant eyed look and went on, You are a lovely young woman. Yes, to answer your question, I am a cowboy. I was happy to hear that interested you. I work for the largest cattle ranch in Texas. I am twenty eight years of age and I have never been married, but I am in mind to if I can find the right woman.

Good. Hazel told him. That’s a great start.

What do you mean, start? he asked her. It’s already as long as her whole letter was.

Oh John. Hazel said. You are so lucky to have me. John knew what Hazel meant, but his heart wanted to imagine that she meant he had her in the sense that Heath had her. He knew that his thoughts were wrong, and he was sure that God would somehow punish him for having them. What he didn’t know was how to get rid of them. How do you make yourself fall out of love? Let me see the pen, Hazel was saying now.

John held the pen to his breast pocket and said, What are you going to write?

I’m going to start her falling in love with you. You’ll thank me later. she said. John made a face. He hoped she was right, but just now, he doubted it.

I get to read and approve it before it gets sealed….right? he said. Hazel just looked up at him with those pretty green eyes and smiled again.

Don’t you have some work to get to? she asked, slyly not answering his question.

I mean it, Hazel. Don’t go writing no gushy love letters to some girl I ain’t never met. Hazel giggled.

You are way too serious, John. she told him, not for the first time since they met. He stood up and narrowed his eyes again at her playfully.

I’m serious about approving that letter, young lady. he said.

Fine. she said. Go on now and let me work. John put on his hat and left through the front door. He stood out on the wide porch of the main house and took a deep breath of the morning Texas air. He loved it here, and he loved his friend, Heath. Heath was finally happy after years of loneliness that sometimes bordered on despair. He’d been ridiculed and shunned his whole life because of the way he looked until finally he met someone who was willing to look with her heart. Although John was a decent looking fellow, and he didn’t feel the need to hide from anyone, his heart ached to find someone like that. He knew that many people married for convenience, or for a partner to help them on their farm, but John didn’t want that. He wanted what Heath had. Maybe Hazel was right and this Becky was the one. As he headed for the tack house for the tools he would need to fix the fence, he promised himself that he was at least going to keep an open mind about it.

**********

Hazel liked John a lot. At first, when he had shown up in Ohio, she hadn’t been too sure about him. She was hurt and angry that he and Heath had used his photo to try and trick her. But as John talked to her about Heath, she could actually see the love and respect for his friend in his eyes. He was one hundred percent loyal to her husband to be, and for that reason alone he had earned her respect and admiration.

Hazel thought carefully about what she wanted to write, then she put her pen underneath where John had written his little blurb and she wrote:

Hi Becky!

My name is Hazel, and I am engaged to John’s best friend and employer. I have come to know John over the past several weeks. I know that sometimes it’s hard to tell by what someone writes about themselves if they are speaking the truth or not, so I wanted to give you my opinion of John. I have seen him as a hard worker, my fiancé’s right hand man and most trusted employee. I have seen him take a bullet in the back, fired from the gun of a lowly coward because he was defending my husband. He is loyal and devoted, handsome and kind and intelligent and well-read. John is a cowboy, yes…But he is so much more, and any woman could count herself amongst the blessed to be loved by him I’m sure. He won’t sing his own praises in these letters to you, I’m sure. Just telling you about himself is hard. He’s a simple man.

Thank you for reading this Becky and I hope that someday I may get to meet you in person.

Sincerely,

Hazel Lynn Morgan (Soon to be Hazel Lynn Key)

Hazel smiled when she wrote the last part. Sometimes she practices writing her new name. She couldn’t wait to marry Heath. She used the seal that John had left behind to seal the envelope. She knew he would be aggravated with her for sending it and not letting him read it first, but Mr. Lee was headed to town and she wanted to be sure the letter got out today.

**********

John spent the day working hard and

Reviews for Mail Order Bride

[benn9314 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A great story about love adventure and excitement all in one story