Darling Clementine: Western Prairie Brides, #6

By Bobby Hutchinson

GROOMS GALORE—BUT WHERE ARE THE BRIDES??

Rose's mail-order brides and grooms matchmaking business is attracting more men than women. The gentlemen know what they want--homemakers, motherly beauties who play the pianoforte and sing, gals who love to cook. So what's Rose to do with a formidable female whose specialty is shoeing horses and shooting a gun?

CLEMENTINE IS NOT A WOMANLY WOMAN.

But Rose has one unlikely gentleman who just might be right for her. Will the Colonel and Clementine be happy ever after?

Bullets fly, and surprises abound in this funny, sweet historical romance.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sunflower Publishing
• Release date: Jul 20, 2015
• ISBN: 9781516380619

Bobby Hutchinson

Bobby Hutchinson spends her time reading, writing, riding a three-wheel bike all over the place and towing Calamity Jane, her refurbished old travel trailer, to camping spots all over B.C. Getting old is fantastic; she can do whatever the heck she pleases and write what fascinates her. She loves hearing from readers and appreciates any ideas they have for interesting situations. 

Book preview

1

It was just past noon, and the moment she came in the door Rose Hopkins eagerly snatched up the three letters her Aunt Harriet had left on the side table in the hall, praying that they were responses from women wanting to be wed.

It had been two weeks since the announcement for Object Matrimony, her new matchmaking business, was distributed, and so far she’d had eleven eager responses. The problem was, all eleven letters had been from men. Rose knew that men far outnumbered women on the western frontier, but surely there were lonely women out there desiring companionship?

Of course there were, she assured herself, ripping open the first envelope. Everyone knew it took time to get a new business up and running, and she’d been more than fortunate because so far her new business hadn’t cost her a dime, thanks to her dear Aunt Harriet.

The editor of the Medicine Hat News, Andrew Braden, was a friend of Aunt Harriet’s—she’d nursed his wife through a bout of pneumonia—and he’d kindly allowed Rose to include her single-page announcement in with the News, distributing it free with copies of his newspaper.

Which almost immediately brought letters from the eleven gentlemen.

Rose just knew that soon there would be so many lonely responses from both sexes that she’d be publishing a small magazine instead of a single page.

Or even a large magazine. After all, hers was the only business of its kind in western Canada—maybe even in the whole of North America. It was unique and original and smart if she did say so herself.

She could recite from memory every single word she’d written:

OBJECT, MATRIMONY

A JOURNAL DEVOTED TO NEW BEGINNINGS FOR MEN AND WOMEN SEEKING CONJUGAL FELICITY.

Can we be useful to you, fair and gentle reader?

Are you lonely and desirous of a partner or searching for agreeable company that may end in matrimony?

Send us a detailed letter making known your desires. Include a recent photograph.

Accompany your correspondence with five cents for every seven words. Your letter will be published under an alias, and ladies and gentlemen aspiring to marriage will be honourably brought into communication, and thoroughly checked for veracity.

We aim to help men and women attain wedded bliss.

Fee--$20.00, only if marriage ensues

Mail inquiries to Object Matrimony, c/o Miss Rose Hopkins, 43 Second Street, Medicine Hat, Alberta, North West Territories, Canada.

And here were three more customers. The first was from a man. She set it aside and opened the second and her heart sank when she saw it, too, was from a gentleman.

Her hands shook as she ripped open the third and last letter, scanning it.

"I am an active, unencumbered lady, age 32, weight 135, height 5 feet 6 inches. I have brown eyes, brown hair, fair