Mail Order Bride Mariella: Silver River Brides, #3

By Karla Gracey

Mariella Montague has grown up surrounded by wealth and privilege, but she has a kind heart and a generous spirit. When she is not volunteering her services and her allowance to charitable events she often feels out of step with her world. When her world crumbles around her she takes the bold step of moving to Montana, where she unexpectedly finds a true home and the answers that were always out of reach.   

Will Shepton is new to Silver River, but as a hardworking blacksmith his talents are in great demand. But, though his good friend Harry lives nearby he begins to crave companionship and the love of his own family.
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Karla Gracey Books
• Release date: Sep 3, 2016
• ISBN: 9781536592054

Book preview

Mail Order Bride Mariella

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Silver River Brides: Book 3

Karla Gracey

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Epilogue

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Chapter One

The rail-slat thin model looked well enough in the blue silk gown, but Mariella simply could not understand how the sales clerk expected her to envision it on her own more pronounced curves. She pursed her lips as she watched the poor girl march up and down, wondered what went through a model’s mind as they paraded the kind of wares their salaries would never permit them to purchase for rich clients such as herself.  She couldn’t help but think that it must be the most disheartening and dull work in the world. Miss Montague, does the dress not please you? the simpering clerk asked her, an obsequious look on her pinched face.

I simply cannot picture myself in it. Your poor model looks like she needs a good, hearty meal and I am not sure you can be paying her enough to undertake such mind-numbing work. The clerk looked horrified, but Mariella caught a glimpse of the model’s face, trying desperately to hide her amusement. She doubted anyone had ever questioned the practices of this high end department store before, but Mariella was not a woman to let such things go unnoticed. Personally she would never have frequented such a place, but she found herself in a position of sudden need, and so she had taken the risk that she would find a new gown for the Law Society Ball the next evening.

But Miss Montague... the clerk stammered.

Miss Montague nothing, Mariella said dismissively. Do you actually have any of these gowns in my size?

No, we have them made to your measurements. The only examples we have are those that fit our models, the stunned woman exclaimed.

Then how do I know if the gown will suit me? Look at me, she said sternly. Do I look anything like this slip of a girl? No, I do not, she continued, not giving the harassed woman a chance to respond. I am a grown woman.

But, Madam, the gown would be cut to fit and we would make as many alterations as you may deem necessary until it is perfect for you alone, the clerk said, trying desperately to placate her. It is the woman who makes the gown. We simply like to show the newest fashions for you, as do all the major fashion houses in Paris and Milan.

But you are not a major fashion house in Europe. I have attended those, and though their models are often just as tiny, the modistes there design a gown especially for the wearer, taking into consideration their particular shape and height. You are a department store in New York, trying to be something you are not. I have come here to buy gowns I can wear immediately, without the need for numerous fittings to make it perfect. I can get my seamstress to make those for me, and my annual trip to Paris consists of little else. I need a gown for an event tomorrow, and I need to be sure that I will look perfect.

Mariella knew she sounded haughty and unkind, but she had been recommended this store by her dear friend, Caroline Menzies, following a last minute decision to attend the prestigious event she had intended to boycott. She was rapidly beginning to think that Caroline was a fool for doing so, as it would appear that it could take weeks for anything suitable to be made ready, but she needed to be able to put Carlisle Winterbottom firmly in his place. She had felt sick to her stomach when she heard that the conniving little snake had found a new fiancée to take her place, within mere days of him jilting her. She would not have her friends, and all of Society thinking she was cowed by such behavior. She had to make an appearance, to show the world that she was more beautiful than that pathetic excuse of a woman he intended on making his bride. Mariella was not vain, but she well knew that she could easily outshine the mousey and bookish Deborah Madden – and she fully intended to do so.

Mrs Crabbe, was it? she