A Life Created With Love

By Doreen Milstead

Life Lessons Taught To The Widow By The Colorado Cowboy - A widow leaves Boston with zero skills at doing anything for herself, such as cooking, cleaning and making her own clothes. She has even lost most of her love for God and the ability, she thinks, to love another man. When she meets the Colorado cowboy rancher who will be her husband, she is unprepared for their life from that point forward.

Two Sisters From England Travel To Twin Cowboy Brothers With A Big Secret In Colorado - Two sisters from England travel to Colorado to become mail order brides to twin brothers. All goes well to start with, however, mysterious happenings around their home make them believe the brothers are hiding a huge secret, and it’s one they appear unable to talk about.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Susan Hart
• Release date: Nov 9, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370375974

Book preview

A Life Created With Love

By

Doreen Milstead

Copyright 2016 Quietly Blessed & Loved Press

Life Lessons Taught To The Widow By The Colorado Cowboy

Two Sisters From England Travel To Twin Cowboy Brothers With A Big Secret In Colorado

Life Lessons Taught To The Widow By The Colorado Cowboy

Synopsis: Life Lessons Taught To The Widow By The Colorado Cowboy - A widow leaves Boston with zero skills at doing anything for herself, such as cooking, cleaning and making her own clothes. She has even lost most of her love for God and the ability, she thinks, to love another man. When she meets the Colorado cowboy rancher who will be her husband, she is unprepared for their life from that point forward.

Julie took a shuddering breath in and expelled it in a sob. If she had a bedroom to run to, to flop down on a feather mattress and sob into a silken comforter, she would’ve gladly done it. She could’ve trotted to the kitchen and asked the cook to make her some tea, or rang the bell for one of the servants to make that long journey for her.

If Julie thought that nature could help relieve some of her angst, she would’ve had a long trundle through the expansive gardens on her property, lingering by the benches dotting the banks of the lake where she could feed the swans, if she so chose.

But that was the problem.

Julie didn’t have any of that anymore — no luxurious bedroom, no plush bed, no cooks or servants or gardens or swans.

Now, there was just this: A studio apartment in an area of town her father had forbade her from ever setting foot in, dingy with the lives of previous tenants, as surprised to host her as she was to live there. She could cry all day about it, if she could only muster the tears necessary to do so.

Julie was well past the point of crying, to be honest. It just took energy she didn’t have. There had been so much heartache, so much horror and helplessness that there wasn’t any room anymore for tears. She’d run out, she was afraid. What was a woman supposed to do to show the world how sad she was if she ran out of tears? Julie suspected that the rest of her would just dry and shrivel up, lacking that saltwater that usually kept her eyes and soul lubricated.

Whenever Julie felt like crying now, she just sat on the narrow bed that dominated the majority of her feeble room and stared at the opposite wall. It sometimes felt so oppressively close that she was sure she could stretch her arms out and touch both walls. There were some days that felt like the walls were just getting closer and closer. She didn’t know if it would be a tragedy or a blessing if they just suddenly crashed together and crushed her.

How had her life gotten to be such a misery? It hadn’t always been like this.

But the garden, the mansion, the comfortable lifestyle seemed like a different life entirely. She had recently started having trouble remembering what Dirk’s laughter sounded like. He’d been her husband, for heaven’s sake. How could she forget something as essential as the sound of his mirth?

There came a time, too, when she forgot the sound of her own laughter. There just wasn’t anything joyful anymore.

They had laughed and laughed on their wedding day. It was the most fun Julie had ever had in her entire life. She adored Dirk, loved how handsome and charming he was, how secure their future was, how certain he’d been at the success of his company. He worked hard — and long hours — but he lavished the spoils of his labor upon her. The wedding day was the first of many times Dirk indulged on the finer things in life just for Julie, just to show her how much he loved her.

The wedding had taken place on a white tent, populated by a flock of white doves. It was breathtaking to see the birds take wing — even if it had been painful for them to impart their droppings upon whatever surface they deemed fit — and everyone had a marvelous time.

All of Julie’s friends and families assured her that she’d made an excellent match in Dirk. She’d be set for life, they told her and she was beginning to understand just how important that idea was. To be set for life meant never having to worry about a single thing beyond what to serve her guests for dinner or what to wear for a social engagement. Being set for life was ideal.

Dirk was a good man. And she loved him well enough — or, at the very least, loved the life he gave her well enough — to be positively inconsolable when he simply dropped dead at the office of his company headquarters one day. It was a freakish occurrence. Dirk had been young, fit, healthy as a horse, and yet the stress of running his company had defeated his heart. It didn’t seem real to Julie until Timothy, their neighbor and mutual good friend, started visiting her at home.

I don’t like to see you suffer, girl, he said, always affectionate, always interested in the wellbeing of those around him. But you have to know the truth?

The truth? Julie echoed faintly, stirring her cup of tea far too many times, stirring and stirring just to have something to do with her hands. She felt like she went many days without moving a single part of her body, paralyzed with grief, with crying, with unbelievable loss. How could Dirk have been taken from her?

The truth, girl, the truth, Timothy said, nodding to himself more than to her. You must know that not everything was right at the company. That it wasn’t nearly as successful as Dirk was letting on to everyone.

Julie shook her head, confused. I’m not understanding you, she said. Dirk said that we’d be set for life just from the profits alone. That once the company was off and running, we’d just sit back and enjoy the ride. There weren’t any problems with it.

That might’ve been the truth your husband wanted you to know, but that wasn’t the whole story, Timothy told her. He loved you very much. You should always remember that. He knew you enjoyed a certain type of lifestyle and it was important to him that you always enjoyed the finer things without worrying what was happening with the company.

How would you know such a thing? Julie demanded, realizing with a rush of heat to her face that she was angry. It was almost a welcome feeling — certainly different from the despair that had been her constant companion since the funeral.

It gives me no pleasure to say it, but I ran into Dirk in the streets one evening, on my way home and he was unsteady on his feet. Timothy lapsed into silence, studying his hands.

It shocked Julie,