Mail-Order Cousins 3: Lindy

By Joyce Armor

Mail-order bride Lindy O’Hara and her Texas Ranger/rancher husband Cal Bronson are immediately attracted to each other and form a passionate bond, but he doesn’t trust her enough to tell her about the case he’s supposedly working on. When she finds a diagram of the inside of a bank in his study and spies him in a clandestine meeting with an unsavory character, she hopes for the best but fears the worst. Is her brave and kind husband actually a bank robber, or is he an honorable lawman working undercover? One way or the other, Lindy is determined to keep him safe by showing up at the allotted time to foil the robbery. What could possibly go wrong?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Joyce Armor
• Release date: Jun 26, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463850015

Joyce Armor

I knew from the age of 8 I wanted to be a writer. I was 15 when I wrote a scintillating short story targeted to the confession magazines, my first attempt at getting published. Alas, “Drunkenness Cost Me My Womanhood” was rejected. In the next decade, I fed my need to write by penning long letters (a dying art), Christmas card notes, English essays and term papers.Armed with a degree in English, I was tending bar in a Las Vegas casino (long story) when I had an epiphany: I would do everything in my power to become a TV writer. Two weeks later I was living in L.A., and a few months after that, I landed a job as a production assistant at MTM, where I learned from the inside how to write and rewrite scripts. In partnership with another P.A., Judie Neer, I started writing spec scripts. Finally one was accepted by “The Tony Randall Show.” Over the next several years we were freelance TV writers, with credits including “The Love Boat,” “WKRP in Cincinnati” and “Remington Steele.” Then we both got married and started birthing babies. My little family left the L.A. smog for a small town in northern California.Over the next two decades, I wrote a parenting column that won a national award, several books (Letters from a Pregnant Coward, The Dictionary According to Mommy, What You Don’t Know About Having Babies), children’s poetry (in Kids Pick the Funniest Poems and other anthologies) and plays produced in community theaters.I also got divorced and moved my two sons across the country to Myrtle Beach, SC. There I wrote hundreds of magazine and newspaper articles and columns and co-owned a regional business/lifestyle magazine.Several years ago I moved back to Ohio from whence I began, where I enjoying hanging out with family and old friends, including the same group I ate lunch with in the cafeteria in 7th grade. Since returning to my roots, I’ve read more than 1,000 romance novels and novellas. Many I loved, some I felt “enh” after reading and others I wanted to reach into the book and hit at least one of the protagonists with a brick.That’s when I decided to write my own romance novels and novellas, the kind I wanted to read, with smart, funny protagonists; and interesting (to me, anyway), not overly complicated plots with conflicts not so contrived they make me want to gnash my teeth. You might disagree, and all I have to say about that is different strokes for different folks. My youngest son once told me he absolutely hated English classes because with math, 2+2 is always going to be 4, but judging writing is so subjective. In my younger years I might have turned myself into a pretzel trying to fit my writing into some publisher’s niche. Not happening anymore. Now I’m writing for me, in my own unique voice.I’ve always been a much better writer than a salesperson, hence the e-publishing route. And I’m basking in the control. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Book preview

Mail-Order Cousins 3:

Lindy

Joyce Armor

Copyright 2018 Joyce Armor

Smashwords Edition

Cover: Vila Design

Trusty Reader: Chris Gale

Expert Formatting: Jesse Gordon

Mail-Order Cousins: Lindy

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written consent of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

All characters in this publication are purely fictitious, and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Epilogue

About the Author

Prologue

Near Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, 1875

In the three months Melinda Cait O’Hara had spent reading the matrimonial ads in The Philadelphia Inquirer, she had responded to three. One was a banker in Colorado. She was relieved when he didn’t write back because she realized shortly after posting her letter to Denver that she had responded to him because he was the kind of husband she should want, wealthy, successful and solid. After rereading his advertisement a dozen times, she could see he also seemed stiff and unyielding. Her father was Irish, and while she was more cautious than her cousins Per and Sophie, who had become mail-order brides fearlessly, Lindy did have a wee bit of humor to her. She would not do well with unyielding. Like any good half Irishwoman, she also possessed a healthy dose of fatalism. Maybe she couldn’t do any better.

One of seven children, Lindy helped the O’Hara family on their 60-acre farm in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where they grew corn, tomatoes, cabbage and sugar peas for market. In addition, they raised dairy cows, which they sold and also used to produce and sell eggs, milk and cheese. Although the O’Haras were not rich, they were almost completely self-sufficient and doing well enough to clothe and feed the large family and set aside a little money for unforeseen circumstances. And every farmer—particular Irish farmers—knew there were nearly always unforeseen circumstances. The real wealth in the O’Hara clan, Lindy had long since recognized, was the love they felt for each other. She adored each and every member of her family, even her annoying teenage twin brothers. They were all educated at home by their mam, a former schoolteacher.

In her panic after realizing she shouldn’t have written to the banker, Lindy went too far in the other direction and responded to a blacksmith in Arizona. On the surface, there was nothing wrong with that. Blacksmithing was certainly an honorable profession. The man, however, lacked a grasp of good grammar, which she had tried to overlook, but he also was too crass in what he wanted in a wife, right down to listing height and weight requirements. He failed to respond to her, too, much to her relief.

Then a matrimonial ad seemed to speak to her, and for the life of her, she could not figure out why. It was from Texas, of all places, a state she had never thought of moving to. She pulled out Cal Bronson’s original letter and studied it, word by word.

Wanted: A fit, healthy wife

with cooking skills who is

comfortable with horses. Ability

to shoot accurately would also

be helpful. I am 27 and a

Texas lawman, with a ranch near

San Angelo. Reply to Cal Bronson at:

Rancho Guarida, San Angelo, Texas.

The letter was curt and devoid of romance or kindness, and it was annoying that he wanted a fit wife (which she translated to not fat) but didn’t mention his own physical description. So what was it about this gruff man that attracted her? Attracted might be too forceful a word. She couldn’t blame him for wanting a healthy wife or a decent cook. Maybe it was the fact that he hoped she could shoot accurately, which she could, yet that didn’t make much sense either. Was it that he was a lawman? That was probably it. She had heard about the Texas Rangers and would be proud to be married to one, although loving a lawman would be stressful, never knowing if he would come home safely. And more than likely, he was a deputy sheriff or railroad officer or stagecoach guard and not a Texas Ranger.

In any case, since the banker and the blacksmith didn’t write back and the man from Texas still might, she could end up married to an officer of the law. Her response to Cal Bronson was both informative and evasive as well as brief. She had no intention of describing her fitness or lack thereof.

Dear Mr. Bronson:

I am responding to your ad in The Philadelphia Inquirer. My name is Melinda Cait O’Hara, but most everyone calls me Lindy. I am 21 years old and live on a farm outside of Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania with my parents and six siblings.

I am a good shot with a pistol and a rifle and a good cook. I’m also familiar with horses and can ride well. I am 5 foot 5 and have reddish-brown hair and green eyes, which I am told twinkle with humor at times.

I would like to know where your interests lie and learn more about your ranch. I look forward to hearing from you. If you are inclined, please respond to me in care of the Elizabethtown post office.

Sincerely,

Lindy O’Hara

Marrying a lawman. Maybe even a Texas Ranger. She let that thought roll around in her head for a while before opening Cal Bronson’s letter about six weeks later. It was a little friendlier than his ad. He told her he was pleased she could cook and shoot well and did not mention that she had not described her body shape, which was, in fact, slim. And she was fit as well, although she felt absolutely obstinate about not telling him that. He said he was a sharpshooter himself and described the ranch as medium in size, with two dozen horses and 600 head of cattle. He mentioned that between his ranch and his law-enforcement duties, he had no time at present for many other interests, although he did enjoy working with wood. He added that the ranch house included several bedrooms and a nice parlor. Then, near the end of the letter, he wrote: At the risk of sounding too forward, would you consider becoming my wife?

She dropped the letter as if it was on fire.

Holy mother of God.

Chapter 1

Until the moment Cal Bronson proposed, the correspondence to become a mail-order bride hadn’t seemed real; it was kind of a lark. Lindy O’Hara thought of it as just sticking her toe in the water. Once he took that rash step, she had a monumental decision to make. Her first inclination was to give in to the panic and decline him outright. How could he possibly think he knew her well enough to propose after one letter? Her second impulse was to put him off for several months. If he didn’t know her, she certainly didn’t know him.

Does any mail-order bride know her intended, though?

And how many marriages were miserable when the couple had courted in the traditional fashion? She had witnessed several, including her Uncle Ephraim and Aunt Portia Armstrong’s union. Sophie’s guardians barely spoke to each other, although they always had been united in their contempt of Sophie. Then something Per had said came to mind. You cannot gain anything if you don’t take a risk. Her cousin also had mentioned something about never getting new results if you continue the same behavior. If she didn’t do something soon, she would end up on this farm forever. As much as she loved the farm and her family, she wanted a home and a life of her own. It wasn’t farming she wanted to escape; it was the feeling she was living her parents’ lives. She wanted to live her own life. It was the natural way of things.

Could she do it? Could she travel all the way to Texas alone to marry a lawman she had never met? At that point she noticed a lump in the envelope and discovered her fiancé—she was just trying the label on to see how it fit—had sent a train ticket and $100 for meals and any other expenses along the way. He also had told her in the letter, which she finally picked up and reread, that she would need to pay the stagecoach fare from Dallas to San Angelo, which should be no more than $10. The train ticket was for the following Monday. That gave her five days to make a life-altering decision. Realistically, though, she would have to make up her mind in time to make any necessary clothing alterations, pack and tell her folks, so maybe three or four days. Yes, she was cautious. Yes, she was borderline terrified. Yet Sophie had done it and was very happy, despite some initial problems. Per sounded so confident before she left that Lindy had no doubt her marriage would

Reviews for Mail-Order Cousins 3

[benn9314 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The life in the early west was always exciting and different in every area