Mail Order Bride: The Disfigured Stranger: Redeemed Western Historical Mail Order Brides, #21

By Kenneth Markson

Mail Order Bride: The Disfigured Stranger: A Sweet Clean Historical Mail Order Bride Western Victorian Romance (Redeemed Western Historical Mail Order Brides Book 21) is a sweet, clean, inspirational western romance novelette.

When a terrible disaster strikes the lumber town of Peshtigo, Wisconsin, lovely Millie's life there comes to an end. In desperation she accepts a business arrangement with a much older man, and heads to San Francisco as a mail order bride. Is Millie's bleak future inevitable? Does she still have a chance to find love?

If you enjoyed this story, you may also enjoy the other books in Kenneth's mail order brides Redeemed series, or Kenneth's mail order brides Rescued series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kenneth Markson
• Release date: May 4, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386281009

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

It was a typical loud and raucous Saturday night in Peshtigo, Wisconsin.  Lumber was king in the north woods.  A boatload of two hundred new workers for the burgeoning industry had arrived in town that very afternoon, and the potential for growth in that location seemed limitless.

Millie Tanner walked along the town's noisy main street, heading back to her home.  Her arduous shift as a waitress, which had begun in the morning at one of the town's numerous eateries, had finally ended.  Millie was a tall, pretty young woman of nineteen, with long brown hair and eyes.

She maintained a healthy distance that evening from the town's saloons and brothels which were filled to the brim with burly lumberjacks letting off steam.  Millie could hear the sound of tinny music from pianos, loud shouting, and screams from barroom brawls as she maneuvered her way through the dark streets.  It is going to be a wild evening in town, she thought to herself.

Even at night, Millie reflected, the air seemed dirty and smoky.  Her eyes glanced over the horizon.  Her nostrils took in the thick and acrid smell of smoke.

Off to the north, she noted a spot which glowed crimson and orange in the dark.  Small fires burning in the distance, were common sights to the residents of Peshtigo.  The previous winter had almost been completely devoid of snow.

Instead of the usual four or five feet, the area had received barely a trace.  The same was true for the spring rains, which for all practical purposes, never arrived.  This lack of precipitation continued through the summer and fall. 

Peshtigo and its surrounding areas, were bone dry.  Small flames which normally went out on their own, or were extinguished by a bit of rain, smoldered and remained dormant on a slow burn throughout the woods.  The lengthy drought was not on Millie's mind, however, as she approached the small wooden dwelling place which she presently occupied with her stepfather. 

Her stepfather was a coldhearted, brutal man who worked as a lumberjack, when he was sober.  Millie's relationship with her stepfather had always been fairly acrimonious, but since the untimely death of her mother during the past spring, it had deteriorated to a new low.  Although her mother had succumbed to a fever, Millie felt that her mother's shabby treatment at the hands of her husband, was a strong contributing factor.

Bill Svenson was a physically powerful and mean spirited man, who often was disposed to use his strength on his deceased wife and others to get his way.  This was