Mail Order Bride: The Scullery Maid & The Farmer In Kansas

By Beth Overton

An orphaned scullery maid from England decides to take a chance on becoming a mail order bride so she makes the arduous journey by boat, then by wagon train, to Kansas, where she is to be the mail order bride of a farmer with a substantial acreage. Things are going well when suddenly, a large and dangerous hazard tests their ability to survive.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Beth Overton
• Release date: Feb 8, 2016
• ISBN: 9781310445828

Beth Overton

Beth Overton lives in Northern California with her husband and three cats. Besides writing romances, she loves to read everything she can get her hands on, as well as cooking up gourmet delights for her entire family.

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Mail Order Bride: The Scullery Maid & The Farmer In Kansas

By

Beth Overton

Copyright 2016 Quietly Blessed & Loved Press

Synopsis: An orphaned scullery maid from England decides to take a chance on becoming a mail order bride so she makes the arduous journey by boat, then by wagon train, to Kansas, where she is to be the mail order bride of a farmer with a substantial acreage. Things are going well when suddenly, a large and dangerous hazard tests their ability to survive.

Alexandria picked up the pail of water that she had been using to scrub the floors with. She was a tall, thin girl of nineteen, and she worked in the SoHo district of London for Lord James Elroy. The job was filled with backbreaking cleaning from daylight until dark, and for her effort she received a few shillings each month and a bed in the attic, plus two meals a day.

She was tired and she desperately wanted to find another way of life. She did not want to be a maid all of her life. Alexandra was headstrong and wanted to live somewhere that was not cramped, dirty, and where the air was not foul smelling.

Her friend Cicely had given her a copy of the Matrimonial Times a few weeks back. Alexandria had read the advertisements that men from the frontier west in the United States had written. All of the advertisements were from men who wanted to find suitable wives. Alexandria had thought this to be a silly thing at first, but the more she thought about it, the more she thought that the idea might just work.

She knew that after the cholera outbreak in 1854 she wanted to get away from London. She had no living family left in London to keep her tied to the city and the past year had been lonely and miserable for her. She did not want to live in quarters so close that people died from dirty water. She dreamed of open expanses of land where one could stand in front of your house and not be able to see another house.

The previous Tuesday, on her afternoon off, she had taken some of her savings and sent a wire to the Matrimonial Times. She sent her own advertisement. It read single white lady, 5’10 weighing eight stone, nineteen years old, is seeking suitable gentleman for matrimonial purposes. Would prefer gentleman younger than forty years. I am hard working, of average looks, and mild temperament."

Alexandria had been surprised at how much it had cost her to send the telegram and then surprised again that she had to pay to publish her advertisement in the Matrimonial Times. She went each day to her friend’s house to check for responses, even though she knew it would take several weeks before she heard anything.

After about three months had passed Alexandria was delighted to see that someone had answered her advertisement. Cicely was so excited the day that Alexandria received the response that she could barely contain herself. When Alexandria arrived at the little flat that Cicely shared with her parents, the girl was holding the letter in her hand.

Look what came Allie, look what came! Cicely was waving the envelope in the air and trying to hug Alexandria at the same time.

Alexandria took the envelope and carefully opened it. Inside, she found a note from Matrimonial Times and a letter that the magazine had forwarded to her.