Mail Order Bride: Redeemed Mail Order Brides Box Set - Books 19-21: Redeemed Western Historical Mail Order Bride Victorian Romance Collection, #7

By Kenneth Markson

Now available as a Box Set, books 19 - 21 in the Redeemed Mail Order Brides Collection. 
** A Western Historical Mail Order Bride Victorian Romance Novelette Collection**

Mail Order Bride: The Disfigured Brother
When one of the worst natural disasters descends upon Johnstown, Pennsylvania, lovely Betsy's life there ends forever. Betsy comes to Butte, Montana as a mail order bride to start anew with Bob, a handsome businessman. But appearances can be deceiving. What is her intended's connection with a horribly disfigured miner? Who will save her from the terrible predicament she finds herself in?

Mail Order Bride: The Summer Bride
When Sacramento is engulfed by a terrible flood, pretty Donna heads to Idaho City to become a mail order bride during the Idaho gold rush. But all that glitters is not gold, and evil men want land that isn't theirs. Who will help Donna in her plight? Will she find the love that she yearns for? 

Mail Order Bride: The Disfigured Stranger
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 these stories, you may also enjoy Kenneth's other Box Sets in the Redeemed Mail Order Brides Collection, or in the Rescued Mail Order Brides Collection, or the Mail Order Bride And Western Romance Box Set.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kenneth Markson
• Release date: Jan 7, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386793861

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

Chapter 1

Betsy Warner glanced apprehensively outside the window of the old home which she shared with her father.  The heaviest rainfall which she had ever seen, had pounded the town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania continually for several days.  She listened to the sound of the rain beating against the worn roof, which had already sprung several leaks during the storm.

Betsy was a pretty young woman of eighteen, with long blonde hair and soft blue eyes.  At that moment, her face held a worried expression as she waited for her father to return home from the factory.  Like so many other inhabitants of the town, Thomas Warner was a steel worker.

Betsy's father worked at the factory at the northern edge of town.  Johnstown was known for the fine quality of its steel.  Steel was the product which kept the growing area prosperous, and gave most of its residents work.

Won't this incessant rain ever stop, Betsy thought to herself.  In her young life, she had never experienced a storm quite like it.  Folks were already saying, she reflected, that this was the most rainfall on record.

But Betsy was concerned primarily about her father.  It was already dark, and he still hadn't returned home from the factory.  The howling winds were getting worse, and the streets were filling with water.

She breathed a sigh of relief, when she heard a loud rapping on the front door.  Betsy felt a strong gust, as she quickly let her father in and slammed the door shut. 

I'm so glad you're back here safe, pa, she smiled.  The weather outside is terrible.

Betsy, he said wearily, as he took off his soaked woolen coat, I'm drenched to the bone.

Betsy helped her father take his jacket off, and he slumped exhausted into a chair.  She handed him a cup of hot soup, which she had prepared.

Quick pa, she said, have some of this, so you won't catch a death of cold.

Thomas Warner smiled at his daughter, as he drank the hot broth.  His tired brown eyes glanced at her affectionately.

This hits the spot, Betsy, he said, as she filled his cup again. 

Betsy had never known her mother.  She had died shortly after her birth.  Her father was all she had, and the bond between them was strong.

When her father had been sufficiently warmed by the broth, they both sat down at their small wooden table, and ate the dinner which Betsy had cooked.

How was your day, pa? she asked.

Same as usual, her father replied.  But this constant rain, is putting everyone on edge.

Betsy patted her father comfortingly on the shoulder.

I've got a bad feeling, pa, Betsy said, as she looked at her father.  Perhaps you should stay out of work tomorrow, until the storm lets up a bit.

Her father shook his head, as he finished the last bit of her baked chicken.

I'd like to Betsy, he said sadly, but we need the money.  Besides, he continued, with a tinge of regret, the bosses wouldn't take it kindly.  They need to get their steel out.

Early the next morning, Betsy saw her father off.  It had poured throughout the night, and the weather was even worse when her father was about to leave.

Please pa, she implored once again, stay at home today.  We'll tell them you're sick.

Her father smiled, and gave her a warm embrace.  Then he went outside into the pouring rain, and walked to the factory which was a mile away.  Betsy would remember that embrace for the rest of her life. 

Chapter 2

By early afternoon , the incessant rain had caused Betsy to worry about her father's safe return from the factory.  The conditions outside had become much more severe.  Many of the streets were now completely filled with water, and travel was becoming increasingly difficult.  Betsy was told that some of her neighbors had begun moving furnishings and supplies to the upper stories of their buildings.

The town of Johnstown was located in a valley in central Pennsylvania on the Appalachian plateau.  It was in the location where the Little Conemaugh and the Stony Creek Rivers joined to form the Conemaugh River valley.  This was a growing area for families, and Johnstown had become known as a modestly prosperous steel town.  But all that was about to change on this last day of May in 1889. 

I hope pa leaves work early and comes back soon, Betsy thought to herself.  There had been some minor flooding in the past, she reflected, when the heavy snows melted too quickly in the spring and the nearby rivers overflowed.  She and her neighbors had prepared for that in the past by moving their belongings to the higher parts of their dwellings, and waiting the worst out.

She could hardly have known at that moment that the situation was beyond desperate at the South Fork dam, fourteen miles to the north.  Pounded by the heavy rain, the walls of this poorly maintained structure were rapidly deteriorating.  They were holding back the water of Lake Conemaugh.

At 3:10 pm, the walls gave way, and twenty million gallons of water were  hurled down the valley towards Johnstown below.  The first inkling that Betsy had of the terrible danger that was about to envelop her was the sound of a thunderous rumble, as a wave of water thirty feet high and half a mile wide smashed into the town.  This tidal wave of accumulated debris, which included homes, barns, trees, and rocks, had already leveled several smaller towns in its path.

Before Betsy even had time to think, she found herself immersed in a swirl of ravaging water which swept through the town.  Her home, like so many others, was completely submerged and destroyed.  Betsy immediately found herself struggling in the raging torrent, desperately trying to reach the surface, and gasping for breath.

She heard the wails and cries of people nearby, striving to survive.  Betsy saw numerous bodies floating around her in the violent swirl, some alive and others already drowned.  Her savior was an old bed mattress which popped up in front of her.

She grabbed on to this gift from God, and hung on for dear life, as the merciless water flowed through the town.  Ahead of her, several terrified people clutched desperately to the remnant of a roof, as they were all taken by the merciless flood for a ride through Johnstown.  Nothing was spared the ravages of the terrible water that day.

Homes, barns, furniture, stones, trees, and railroad cars were all caught up in that giant maelstrom.  Hundreds of people were wounded or killed, when they were struck by the massive debris.  Still clutching to the mattress, Betsy ended up several miles downstream. 

Bruised and shaken, she emerged alive.  Her poor father was not as fortunate.  The tidal wave hit the steel factory at the northern end of town first, with ferocious force. 

Thomas Warner was working in the boiler room, at the tragic moment when the surging flood struck.  The boiler room exploded, and all the workers inside were killed.  The rest of the factory was severely damaged as well, and numerous other steel workers lost their lives, or were badly injured. 

Betsy's life changed forever that day.  She would later learn that