Mail Order Brides – Amish Love (A Western Romance Book)

By Faye Sonja

Three inspirational stories of women who risked everything for love and traveled thousands of miles to the western frontier.

Part 1: AMISH LOVE - The Brave and Shunned Amish Bride

When Clara realized that things in the Nevada desert were getting a bit too hard for her small AMISH family, she knew something had to be done.

There is ONLY ONE problem surfaced . . . That the solution to their problem was she would be shunned by her Amish community.

When she heard of a friend who had found a husband in the papers by becoming a mail order bride, she decided to try her luck, but would she be able to follow through with it?

Part 2: AMISH LOVE - The Plain & Runaway Amish Bride

For Minna, staying in the AMISH community she had grown up in was no longer an option. She felt like the walls were closing in on her and she just had to go!

When she ran off in the middle of the night she had no idea that she would travel to the west where love would be waiting on her.

But did true love await her?

Part 3: AMISH LOVE - The Pursuit of the Half-Blind Amish Bride

Jessica loves being AMISH and she could never dream of being anything but she feels incomplete. Dating Saheim for four years was just not what she had expected it to be.

She knows she can't spend the rest of her life with him.

And… there lies another problem. If she ever defies her father's orders, she will be shunned and so she keeps quiet about her misery, until she finds a mail order bride ad from an Amish man…

3 parts of heartwarming mail order brides tales of love, romance, and triumph over adversity in one book.

Love on the western frontier was a rare treasure. Follow these inspirational women who risked everything to travel to the untamed West in the hopes of finding love and starting a new family.

If you're a fan of clean western romance, you will love this book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Faye Sonja
• Release date: Feb 20, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393450283

Faye Sonja

Faye Sonja is a multi-voiced writer who aspires to use different voices in telling her stories, seeing characters coming alive through the multi-faceted writing styles give her great satisfaction. As a young girl, Faye Sonja has been fascinated with stories of the Old West, especially the theme of Mail Order Bride where a woman will find the courage to leave her homeland, take the plunge to seek out the love of her life out there in the unknown land. Such an act requires bravery, such an act requires faith. It takes a woman with strong Christian faith to step out on such a pursuit for her love. It is Faye's desire that readers will once again have the courage to believe in love again from reading her books, to be inspired through the characters in her story who through perseverance, in the face of obstacles, overcame the hurdles using that simple faith and belief of theirs. 

Book preview

PART 1

AMISH LOVE - The Brave and Shunned Amish Bride

Prologue

*   *   *

Nevada Desert,

Arizona 1911

Clara stared out the window, ignoring the knocking sound of the pots and pans as her mother prepared food for the bonfire they would enjoy a little later.

What was she staring at?

Nothing but the dry and acrid lands outside. It was as if the good Lords rain had all but forgotten the desert landscape. She was beginning to think maybe they were actually suffering under the curse all those Mexican settlers always spoke about, because not a drop had fallen in almost three months. The crops had all died off and with it any hope she had for salvation.

For the third time in recent weeks she thought about the fact that they just had to get out of this town. Since her father had died things had gotten so much harder, and the truth was that things had been hard before too. He had relentlessly plowed the dry lands carrying water from the community well several times a day to water the small patch where he had dared try growing anything at all. It had worked for the most part and they had never been without food and bartered for anything else they needed. But now, since Clara’s father had passed on and had no son to continue tilling the land, they were truly in dire straits. For a few weeks after his death, Clara had tried but it had not worked out very well. Now all they had to depend on was her mother’s baking.

With a sigh she turned to see her mother staring worriedly at her. Doctah, come away from there and give me a hand. Are you expecting a visitor?

She smiled not wanting to worry the frail woman with the thoughts that ran rampant in her head. Jah Maem, dreaming of a gentleman caller to whisk me away in the arms of romance.

Her mother’s subsequent laugh was music to her ears. Ahhh, for that to happen, you have to take up the invite of one of the many who have sought after you.

Not just yet Maem, she said kissing her mother on her cheek. Daed always said that when I find the right one, my heart will skip a beat and my stomach will learn how to fly like his did when he met you.

The older woman paused to look at her daughter and although a smile crossed her lips, Clara could see the unshed tears in her eyes. He always was the one to believe is such fickle stories of fate.

Clara didn’t want to erase the bitter-sweet smile laced with memories, which her mother wore and so she said nothing. Instead she looked at her frail form as she helped with the chores in the kitchen.

Her mother had once been a strong woman, bouncing about the community with a smile to fall in love with and a heart full of love in the grey frock the older women wore with her bonnet perched perfectly atop her head. She had been revered by many and still was, but in the three years since her father’s death, her mother barely left the house and had lost more weight than she thought healthy. These days all she did was bake and tend to her little sister who gave Clara great cause for worry, as if she didn’t already worry enough.

She wondered if this was what true romance was fated to become- one dying to leave the other with the burden of living. She hoped that would not be the end of her love story should she ever find one, but despite all that she needed to leave this town. She had never once left her orthodox Amish community, and as the rules went, if she ever did she would be shunned, but she hated to think that this was all there was to life.

For the rest of the day, she worked the kitchen with her mother and thought of better. She knew one thing was certain, if she ever found a husband things would be easier for her. The trick however was that any man she married from this community was bound to have the same problems she was already facing. She refused to move from one hardship to the next and so her options would have to come from the outside. The only problem was she could neither go outside of her community and into the English world, nor could she return once she had.

Quite a dilemma it was.

Clara! her sister Sara hollered to her hours later as she walked to the bonfire with two heavy baskets of pastry to be sold. I have been waiting for you all day.

She looked down at the rosy face of her twelve year old sister. The only person she loved more than life itself. I have been at home where you should have been to help mother.

Oh Clara, her sister giggled, taking one of the baskets. I spent the day in the infirmary. You know I want to work there someday.

And she had no doubt that her sister would. She had healing hands, as their father used to say, and she most certainly wanted more for her than what they had now.

Oh did you hear about Mary-Beth? Sara piped up.

No. Has something happened to her?

Sara smiled. Something has, but be it good or bad is dependent on how you see life Clara.

Out with it, she demanded of her sister who paused to fuss over the bonnet on her head that the wind tried to carry away.

She left.

Clara stared at her in shock. What?!

Yes. She met some man through a letter and upped and left to marry him. Her mother is devastated.

What? she asked again, this time in confusion.

Mmhhmm, Sara said as they headed towards the crowd. She responded to some ad an Englishman placed in the papers looking for a religious wife and her mother says that a letter came extending an invitation to her.

What?!! she asked again her voice rising in pitch.

Sara turned to look at her. Your vocabulary has suddenly become very limited.

Did she really though? she asked, now intrigued and trying to find the words to form a sensible sentence. Oh, I wish her the best. Any place but here must be good.

That is what her brother said. I think he is thinking of leaving the community, too. He says things are too hard here.

Clara didn’t comment on the fact that she had been having similar thoughts. The last thing she wanted to do was to frighten her sister, but she did make a note of how Mary-Beth had found an escape and vowed to look for a similar way out. If she married an Amish man from some place more fertile, she could send money home for her ailing mother and her sister to buy what they needed. She knew it would break her mother’s heart but the truth was that it was beginning to look like a sacrifice she was going to have to make.

Let’s go, she said smiling at her sister. Let’s sell these off as soon as possible and go enjoy the music.

Nothing ever happened in her little Amish town. Nothing but these bonfires once or twice a month. It was the time for Rumspringa, a time when the young would come out to play and court each other. Soon Sara would be of age to be courted and that scared her. The thought of her baby sister growing up and settling down worried her. As for her, she was twenty-three and still unmarried, unlike so many of her peers. She had too much on her plate to be thinking of that, and again, she refused to marry into hardship. There was more to life. There just had to be, and she had an inkling to find it.

*   *   *

1

*   *   *

Tucson, Arizona

John stared at his brother across the way. He was sitting in the shade of the lone acorn tree with his pregnant wife’s head resting in his lap. From where he sat they looked like the kind of couple he wanted to be once he found his own true love. The late evening Arizona sun brought with it dry but cool air, and it was about the only time the place was remotely comfortable. Well, that was not exactly true. In their small Amish community, things were relaxed and easy. This was a new community established just three years prior by nomadic Amish elders who had grown weary of the road. As far as john was concerned there must have been a great deal of weariness for them to pick this place. His father, being one of the elders tried to explain to him that they chose this place to set down roots because it was one of the few places in Arizona with promise, and one of the fewer not caught in some blood feud between Indian and Mexican settlers.

He had found the fact the least bit comforting, since they had been here they had been having a rough time growing anything at all, and an even harder time of making ends meet. The one thing that was certainly looking up was the fact that his brother and a few other young men had found themselves suitable English, but deeply religious wives who converted to the Amish faith and accepted that should they leave they could never come back.

He was not so sure why the idea of being Amish had appealed to these strange women so much but he had hadn’t questioned it. He loved everything about their way of life, but he knew if the late summer harvest they had been toiling over did not bring them what they hoped, he would go mad.

Someday that will be you there, his mother said to him.

He turned with surprise to see his mother smiling down at him. You mean me lazing about instead of tending the fields?  Don’t think so, Maem.

She laughed and handed him a glass of lemonade she had brought him. He is in love. Leave him be.

I wish he would be in love with a little manual labor, John lamented much to his mother’s amusement.

They sat and chatted for a few minutes before she brought up a conversation he knew she would. It is time you sought a wife, my son.

It was not a question nor a statement of some desire she had for her youngest son. It was simply a fact accompanied by a subliminal demand. She had been getting more adamant about this for a couple months now. He was more focused on ensuring their produce came to fruition than populating their rapidly growing community, but his mother would always be his mother and for her, procreation was important.

I would like to see you settled down with children before I die, she confirmed his thought.

He smiled and got up, but she was not about to allow him to escape. I will be heading into town with your Daed to pick up some grains a bit later, and I intend to see to it that a request for a wife is placed for you in the papers there.

Maem! he cried out in shock.

Enough, she said. This is your chance to start anew. For years we have traveled from one place to the next and nothing this promising had ever presented itself before. Now we are settled and the time for taking a wife is ideal.

He had never quite understood his parents’ obsession with marriage, but he left them to it, as it was the Amish way, and what the parents decided could not be objected. They spoke a bit about the particulars of the ad that would be placed and he made it clear he wanted an Amish wife. He had seen these English women with their strange ways and he wanted no part of it.

An Amish wife, Maem, he warned his mother as she walked away. Or I will refuse to marry her once she has arrived.

His mother laughed, jubilant that he had finally submitted to her demands. He was glad to make her happy, but again he knew that if the rain did not bless them with its presence there would be no food to feed his new wife if she ever did arrive.

Wife...

The idea of him having one caused him to panic just a bit, but he kept himself together. He was after all now a man of twenty-seven years. He would most certainly need a woman’s touch and the warmth of her love in his life. And his parents would have no need to stress him much after he had complied. But an arranged marriage to some woman he did not know was just as scary as the thought of marriage itself. He kept that bit of information to himself and went back to work.

With nightfall he made his way home to his father at the dinner table they had built from the timber they had cut down.

Daed, he said to the older man hunched at the table. Is everything okay?

His father smiled at him but there was sadness in his eyes. Yes. Your mother left you dinner.

But even then in the light of the lantern he could see that all was not well. His father’s shoulders were bent with worry.

What is wrong? he asked again and this time he refused to leave his side without an answer.

You know we have little money, his father began and he nodded. Well, I had to borrow a hefty sum from the other elders to make ends meet once we had decided to settle here and it is more than I can pay back without that harvest.

John sighed. I know Daed. We will be fine and so will the harvest.

It was the main reason he could not fathom how his mother could think another mouth to feed could be so important. They didn’t need much money, for the people of community supported each other, but they needed some money to get by and he had seen the toll that had taken on his father’s already burdened pockets. They depended on the harvest each year, but this was not a healthy way to live. For this reason he worked long hard days in the fields.

He sat in silence eating the meal his mother had left him, and when he was done he squeezed his father’s shoulder in support and made his way to his room in the furthest corner of the house. It was a night he wished he had the comfort of a woman’s arms to keep him warm, but he settled on a bath and went to sleep.

He hoped tomorrow would be a better day.

* * *

Three days later Clara sat watching the sun set form her porch. Her mother had gone to bed early and her sister had just come home from her work in the infirmary. The place was silent save for the lone buggy that came trotting up the lane towards their little cottage.

You asked for the papers from my stops, Clara, the man driving the buggy said. He hopped down tying his horse to the hitching post outside her house as she hopped excitedly down the wooden stairs to him.

Thank you! she said with joy taking the stack of papers.

Is there some special reason why you are so interested in the outside world, the nosy man asked her.

She side-eyed him but did not respond. Akkon was his name and he was famous in her community for knowing everybody’s business and telling everybody’s business to others. She was sure it would soon be known that she had asked him for a collection of papers from town. Truth was, she didn’t particularly care nor was she able to go and get them herself. People could talk if they wanted to. All that could be said really was that she had a thirst for reading.

And that she did do after he finally got the point and turned his horse back down the road, a few cents richer. She read through all the papers and found a bounty of men looking for wives. Mail Order Brides they were called and she found the name distasteful. Made it sound like they were buying a woman. But if she were honest with herself she could say they were doing exactly that, for what the men advertised was wealth. There was much to be said about a woman who would run to a man for his money.

When she stopped to think about it for a while, she was not interested in being rich, but she did need a man who could provide for her and in so doing help with her mother. Another truth was that she was not so different after all.

Then she saw it when she was about to give up all together. The ad she was hoping to find in a small four page publication- written in old German for a specific viewer.

Hi there,

If you are reading this advertisement, then maybe you are the woman I am looking for.

I am a twenty-seven year old man named John, from Tucson, Arizona.

I am part of a strict, religious and closed Amish community here and I am looking for a wife.

I do not promise riches, for us Amish do not believe in such things.

What I promise is the opportunity to be part of a growing community, with a husband who will work twice as hard to make sure you are provided for.

If you are so inclined, please respond to the address below.

God’s richest blessings.

She read it three times and smiled. This she could work with. This meant hope, and maybe she would not be shunned if she moved to another Amish community.

What are you doing? Sara’s voice intruded on her solitude as the last