Mail Order Bride: Rescued By A Rake: Rescued Western Historical Mail Order Brides, #2

By Kenneth Markson

Mail Order Bride: Rescued By A Rake: A Historical Mail Order Bride Western Victorian Romance (Rescued Western Historical Mail Order Brides Book 2) is an action packed clean inspirational western romance. A pretty young woman uncovers corruption and thievery at an orphanage, and becomes a mail order bride to escape the wrath of a New Orleans crime boss. She heads west to San Antonio, hoping to find a better life. Will a handsome rake help her escape the terrible Logan gang? Can she resist his advances, and find love with her future husband? 

If you enjoyed this story, you may also enjoy Kenneth's Redeemed series or the other books in the Rescued series; "Mail Order Bride: Rescued By A Rogue," "Mail Order Bride: Rescued By A Rascal," "Mail Order Bride: Rescued By A Rover," "Mail Order Bride: Rescued By A Romantic," "Mail Order Bride: Rescued By Resolve," and "Mail Order Bride: Rescued By Hope."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kenneth Markson
• Release date: Feb 26, 2016
• ISBN: 9780985914295

Kenneth Markson

While an English major at college, I wrote a column which was published weekly. I have been writing ever since. The old West and Los Angeles in the forties are eras which lend themselves to tales of romance, courage, and fast paced adventure. I particularly enjoy writing stories about the mail order brides who fearlessly took a chance and traveled West, hoping to find love and a better future. Many of the locales that I write about are places that I have either traveled through or actually lived in. I try to make my works richly accurate. My desire is to provide you with an entertaining and fun read. When I'm not writing, I enjoy spending time with my wife and two children.

Book preview

To my wife and children, always.

Chapter 1

Laura Dupree was walking down the front hallway of the Winters Orphan Asylum of New Orleans.  She was angrily proceeding to the office of the headmistress, Miss Carrion, to complain about her recent beating of a young girl, at the orphanage.  The poor girl, new to the orphanage and no more than nine, made the unconscionable error of playing in the hall just as Miss Carrion was passing by.

That just set the headmistress off.  Not that it took much to get her going.  Miss Carrion was at the heart of her cruel nature, a brutal sadist who enjoyed administering beatings to the orphan girls, with her wooden rod.

Laura Dupree was an assistant at the orphanage.  She was a pretty young woman in her early twenties, with long brown hair, and kind, honey brown eyes.  Laura was an orphan herself, and saw her avocation as helping others who found themselves in the same situation.  She stayed on at the orphanage to help the girls there.  Without her presence, the cruelties perpetrated by Miss Carrion would have been far greater.

As she approached the headmistress's office, she observed the vicious face of a large, heavyset man, with a black moustache, and dark, savage eyes.  Just a quick glance at the man from the side, as he entered Miss Carrion's office, made Laura shudder.  To avoid his detection, she quickly slipped around the corner.

Laura knew instantly who the man was.  She recalled the vivid description of this horrid person, given to her by Katherine Glynn, a former orphan girl.  It was none other than the notorious flesh peddler, Frank Moran, who owned among several criminal enterprises, a dance hall saloon down on Gallatin Street.  In fact, Laura had helped Katherine escape from this very man's clutches!

The entertainment at Moran's dance hall saloon was just a shoddy front.  His real business was making a handsome profit filling his customers with cheap, rotgut whiskey.  Then, his dancing girls would take them up to the second floor of his saloon, where they would ply their wares.  Often the men would end up drugged, robbed of all their money, and thrown out on the street.

Moran had a string of whores and local toughs under his control.  He also owned some of the city's run-downed cribs.  That's where his women ended up, when they were worn out and sick.

From her perch around the corner, Laura listened to the loud voices and shouts emanating from Miss Carrion's office.  Moran's voice resembled that of a wild animal.  Miss Carrion, on the other hand, sounded strangely compliant.

You've taken my money, and you didn't deliver! Moran growled.  That Glynn bitch got away!  My men scoured the wharves and the docks!  She just vanished into thin air!

Miss Carrion replied in a pleading tone.

Please, Frank, she begged, you've got to believe me!  I don't know how Katherine Glynn escaped!

I don't got to do anything! he yelled back.

Laura winced as she heard the sound of a backhand across Miss Carrion's face and the subsequent shriek from the pain.  She had no sympathy for the headmistress.  Miss Carrion was a cruel and vile person, who had no qualms about steering a poor, unwary girl just out of the orphanage into the clutches of that hideous vulture, for money.

Give me one good reason, Moran barked, why I shouldn't have you dumped into the Mississippi right now!

Laura heard the headmistress plead again.

Please Frank, she cried, I'll make it up to you.  There's another girl that's going to be discharged from the orphanage upon reaching eighteen, at the end of this year.  I'll steer her your way, without taking anything from you.

The sound of another hard slap reverberated from the room.

You think I'm some kind of a damn credit house, Moran snapped.  You're offering me the chance of breaking even, after waiting six months.  You'd better come up with something more, fast, or you'll be food for the gators tonight!

Laura listened intently from where she hid.  She heard some muffled sobs, and then finally Miss Carrion spoke again.

The society people hold an annual charity ball, next month, she said.  The money that they raise is used for the orphanage's annual expenses.  I could divert several thousand dollars of that money to you.

Moran let out a horrid laugh.

Now, you're getting somewhere, he chuckled.  We could make this a yearly thing. For now, you bring me several thousand and a new girl for free, and we're back on the old footing.

His voice became ominous.

Remember, he growled, you'd better come through, this time.  One more failure, and there will be no more chances for you!

Moran walked out of her office, and slammed the door shut.  He paused for a moment, and lit up a cigar.  Laura hid against the wall, her heart beating fast from fright.

The smell from his foul cigar reached her.  She desperately tried to stop herself from sneezing.  Please God she thought, don't let him walk this way, and see me hiding here.

For a frightening moment, it seemed like he was heading up the hallway towards her.  Then mercifully, he turned, and headed the other way.  She listened to the heavy sound of his boots striking the floor, as they slowly faded away into the distance. 

Laura stood frozen in her spot, for several minutes.  No sound emerged from Miss Carrion's office.  When she was certain that Moran had left the area, she slipped quietly down the hallway and was gone.

The complaint about the young girl's beating by the headmistress earlier in the morning, would have to wait for another time.  Laura was deeply troubled by what she had just overheard.  When she reached her room, she sat down and collected her thoughts.

Up to this time, she silently helped the young girls at the orphanage.  That was her reason for staying on there, despite her intense dislike for the brutal headmistress.  When the need arose, she helped Katherine Glynn escape the greedy machinations of Miss Carrion.

Now, she could no longer remain silent.  Miss Carrion had not only agreed to provide the flesh peddler with another desperately poor young woman for his enterprise, she also promised to rob the orphanage's operating funds for him.  All the young girls at the orphanage would suffer as a result.

Laura resolved at that moment to inform the police, in order to stop them.  She was under no illusion about the type of people she was up against.  The cruel headmistress was certainly capable of murder in order to save her own hide.  Moran had no compunction about eliminating anyone who tried to thwart his aims.