A Hard Tack Life: Four Historical Romance Novellas

By Doreen Milstead

A Widow & Her Rival – Widowed and pregnant, a woman answers an ad for a housekeeper to a man and his children. She heads west, content to be able to look after both someone else’s children, and her own baby when it is born. Things do not turn out as planned PLUS Sabotaging Her Own Marriage – An independent young woman doesn’t want to marry the man her father has chosen, so she does her best to make herself seem unattractive and ill-tempered. However, her opinion of the young man begins to change PLUS Pregnant & Widowed & With A New Family Waiting For Her - This is a beautiful love story about a woman who is pregnant, then finds herself widowed, and with the only means for her survival open to her, becomes a mail order bride to rancher in Colorado PLUS The Pregnant Woman From Manchester - A woman from Manchester manages to escape her abusive husband, just as she learns she’s pregnant; and trying to get as far away as she can, becomes a mail order bride to a farmer in California.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Nov 22, 2017
• ISBN: 9781387388943

Book preview

A Hard Tack Life: Four Historical Romance Novellas

A Hard Tack Life: Four Historical Romance Novellas

By

Doreen Milstead

Copyright 2017 Susan Hart

A Widow & Her Rival

Synopsis: A Widow & Her Rival – Widowed and pregnant, a woman answers an ad for a housekeeper to a man and his children.  She heads west, content to be able to look after both someone else’s children, and her own baby when it is born.  Things do not turn out as planned.

Springtime flowers, fresh with their attractive aroma had lit up the countryside all around Johnson City, Tennessee. A bright and quiet spirited young lady had allowed herself to fall in love with young Donald Berkins, in spite of the fact that he had dedicated his life to the war.

Abby Plunkett was in love with life.

In addition, because of this; she at times would judge Donald harshly for volunteering in such violence. Although she had no way of understanding his deep desires, she stayed by his side through thick and thin. Trying to stay in touch with him as much as possible through letters she would seal with a kiss and forward with tear stains.

Unaware, one day she would receive a letter that would not be coming from her darling Donald. The day most dreaded fell upon her.

Abby Plunkett met Donald Berkins at a casual dress dinner and dance. Originally, it was scheduled to be another one of the annual Sadie Hawkins dances. However, with women being sparse in the year of 1863, they changed the dance to open invite. Abby was grateful for the change because she wasn’t fond of being the one to ask anyone to dance.

She felt that it wasn’t lady like in any way. Therefore, this was one dance she wasn’t going to miss. She chose to dress as if it was the most elaborate dance of the year, wearing a gallant gown, edged with lace and pearls. The color was a very light rose and made of satin. Her Aunt Clara had taken it upon herself to delight her niece with such a fine stretch of material, that she had purchased in Nashville on one of her many trips for business.

As Aunt Clara tucked the material inside her smallest piece of luggage, she smiled as she envisioned her young niece wearing the dress that she would sew for her. Without saying a word about it, she would bring it home with her, meet up with her niece and find ways to get her perfect measurements without stirring up her niece’s curiosity. Then she would spend long hours, way into the night, designing a most precious gown.

Aunt Clara had never been married and she took it upon herself to live through her special niece. She had decided that her place in life would be to dedicate her life to her nieces and nephews, and her heart would never know the pain of losing a husband, like so many around her had.

The year was 1863, and war had broken out, and Aunt Clara relieved herself by spending her time tied up in knots of string and material, instead of keeping up with how many young men had died in the hateful war. Abby was influenced by the opinions of Aunt Clara regarding the slaughter, as her Aunt Clara called it. And there was nothing anyone could do to change either of their minds.

Another dance was approaching and Aunt Clara was willing to do her part in aiding her young niece in finding a young mate. She had no interest in marriage herself, but her dreams for her niece were quite different. She knew too well the hardships that came with remaining single and she’d rather her niece not experience those hardships. Therefore, she began at once to sew a portrait of her adorable niece. When she had finished, she presented it to Abby and the beauty of the dress and the way it fit her tiny frame enticed her enough to go to the dance.

On April 14th, 1863, her aging father escorted a most stunning young lady to Johnson City, and as he released his daughter from his arm, he knew that night would bring a love to his daughter. Never had he seen such beauty since he laid eyes on his own wife, Abby’s mother more than twenty-five years earlier.

Abby’s father wasn’t one to fall in love easily. He had been brought up in money and knew that socializing at dances and parties could bring trouble. He was approached by many young women who had nothing in mind except landing in the middle of a gold mine. Therefore, when he met Abby’s mother, he was caught off guard. If you looked at Abby, you had seen her mother.

They looked like sisters from a fairy tale. Both had streaming curls flowing down their backs of auburn. Their faces shone as bright as the morning sun, and when they walked into a room, they were noticed. Abby’s father did not intend to fall so much in love when he arrived at a local dance for charity, but when Abby’s mother walked in, all bets were off.

He went from a stiff and stubborn man and turned himself into a slobbering and stuttering fool when his eyes lay upon her. And, as he walked Abby into the waiting circle of men, lined against a far wall, he knew this was the same feeling he had many years ago.

As he watched her take her place among the other ladies, his eyes followed the young men’s and each one of them became blubbering fools. He just shook his head and walked right back out the door. It would be a night to remember for him and his beautiful young daughter Abby.

Donald Berkins did not intend to fall in love either that night. He had plans and nothing would stand in his way. His country was calling him to stand and to fight, and no woman would ask him to sit or lie down. The war to him was duty, and inside him was a strong desire to serve.

Therefore, when Abby Plunkett made her appearance and seemed to glide across the floor, his eyes weren’t ready for such delight.

As he watched other young men, many being soldiers, walk toward Abby, he studied her intently, and the pleasure was all his. With each soldier approaching the young Miss, she would kindly refuse his hand to take hers and kiss it.

She wasn’t the type of woman that believed in such empty kisses. She felt that when a man kissed her hand, it best be implying love. Therefore, she would gently remove her hand from their hungry lips and let her arms fall to her sides.

The gentlemen didn’t know how to take it, but Donald Berkins did. He recognized a true lady when he saw one, and he just waited in the shadows, watching each man fail with their approach. Then as the young men began to taper off, he made his way over to Abby, and without even bothering to ask for her hand, he simply said, Would you care to dance once?

This took Abby by complete surprise and for a moment, she nearly took his absence of kissing her hand as an insult, but it was his eyes that told her that wasn’t so. With a gentle bend of her head, lowering it shyly, she then let her eyes meet back up with his, and with a nod, followed him to the dance floor.

That is where it began and where it ended was Donald proposing two months later. Abby and Donald found themselves in love, whether their brains agreed or not. It was a rollercoaster ride even before the wedding.

Abby tried her best to persuade Donald to leave the war, and he fought back to an unusual extent. He stood his ground as if he was dealing with an enemy soldier. In the end, he won because her heart had already found its home, and her beaming father led her down the aisle.

Donald Berkins and Abby Plunkett had a steamy romance, and it wasn’t all about attraction. The steam seemed to spew from their indifferences regarding the war. As he put it firmly to Abby that she knew what his intent was, she sometimes didn’t gracefully accept it.

They fought like a hen house overflowing with its chicks. They would be madly in love one day, and madder than a wet hen on other days. However, in the end, the proposal came to a stay, and the beautiful August day came and went.

Donald had managed to get a week’s leave so that he could get married, connect with his new bride and then she was to see him off with a smile on her face. The wedding took place outside of Johnson City and everyone invited made his or her appearance by buggy or horse.

Men came from all around just to make sure that the wedding went through as planned, hoping of course that it would come to a snag. However, love won; and the two were joined in marriage. Abby’s father had arranged that the young and in love couple would have a quiet and private week, all wrapped up in a cozy bungalow that he had kept spotless where him and Abby’s mother had spent their own honeymoon years before.

Out back behind the small cottage was a grave that held her sweet mother as she rested, waiting to be taken up by Jesus. It was a hard reminder for Abby as she fell in love repeatedly with her brilliant and brave husband.

At the end of their most precious moment they would share, Abby; along with her father, saw Donald off and as she watched him roll away by stagecoach, she felt a bitter and painful stabbing in her heart. Later in time, when she would look back to that solemn day, she would realize that even then on that hot August day, she somehow knew that she would be left behind, widowed with a child.

Abby never did get used to the idea of Donald fighting a war that she claimed should never have been fought. In addition, she didn’t get much of a chance to prove her dedication to her young and vigorous husband. However, she did get to share with him some most wonderful news. The time they had been given to spend as if the world was outside the doors of that small and sweet cottage, they were able to conceive a child.

Within a month of Donald’s departure, Abby knew that she had fallen with child, and her letter soared through the air, mile after mile. As it finally landed in the hands of the expectant father, tears streamed down his eager face.

He was going to be a father, and he was going to be a mighty soldier, going home soon to a waiting child. His heart beamed with joy from the news and he at once began writing letters even more often than he had before.

Christmas of 1865

As the child grew inside of Abby’s body, she began to glow with a new brightness, and a new outlook on life. She had decided that she must be supportive to her husband, and then soon he would be delivered back into her arms. She began to make plans, rearranging their home, getting it prepared not only for the coming child, but for the coming father as well.

Her father had given the small cottage to them and later, when Donald returned from war, they would then begin to build themselves a new home.

However, one month along, Abby ran to the messenger on the horse and didn’t even notice that the messenger this time was dressed in uniform. As he sat straight up in his saddle, he saw this young beautiful woman running toward him, and his body began to sink into the saddle.

His shoulders slumped, and he once again found himself wishing that he wasn’t the one for this job. As Abby came closer and closer, the desperateness of his words grew stronger and by the time she reached him, nearly out of breath, he was at a loss for words.

Abby’s father had been watching from a distance and as he watched the soldier sitting on the horse begin to melt, he knew too well that he had not come this time to deliver to Abby, love from Donald. The man who had been aging suddenly got new energy and he took off into a run that the soldier recognized.

As the soldier waited for the father of the young woman to get to his daughters side, the soldier then got down off his horse. Standing there in the midst of a most beautiful Christmas day, tiny flakes fell around Abby as if they were circling in to land softly upon her cheeks. Then in the quiet surroundings, nothing was heard but an agonizing scream.

Clutching her abdomen with one hand, and holding her head up with the other, Abby sunk down into the snow-covered ground under her. It was another of those moments that gave that young soldier the most horrible ride back to Nashville.

Turning to take one last look, the young soldier made a vow to himself that he would never marry and put any young girl through what he just saw. The young soldier had kept that vow all the remaining days of his life. Only months later, he would be one of many of the fallen, and inside his pocket was a letter that he addressed: "To my darling who never was…"I am sorry to never have met you, but it was because I want to spare you the heartbreak of losing me…love and devotion…yours truly, Rodney".

The young man had delivered too many letters of heartache, and he spared the love of his life any such letter falling in her hands.

Christmas that year went nearly unnoticed. After three days, the young Abby would rise to the occasion with a bitterness that had taken seat in her heart. Before the end of December, the strands of pearls and beads that had been strewn all over her little cottage were all torn from their places.

Crying in disbelief, she began taking down everything that even hinted of the holiday. Noises and cries could be heard all the way into the main house where her father would hold his ears. His heart was failing him and his daughter. He couldn’t find a way to enter that cozy cottage and give his daughter any hope.

All the energy he could find led him straight to his own lonely bedroom, and he shut the door so as not to hear the cries. December grew bitter cold, and even colder grew the insides of two homes that sat outside of Johnson City.

What once was a sharing and loving family was growing into strangers in a darkness they knew nothing about. As time went on and Abby’s father had allowed her to mourn, he knew too well that a time must come to try to carry on.

As he picked his aging body up from his chair, he walked out his door and knocked lightly on the outside of the cottage. For minutes, there would be no answer, and this drew Abby’s father to help himself in. As he walked over to the bedroom where she had been keeping her sadness, he reached down, took his young daughter into his arms, and held her, rocking back and forth.

The day passed and the night slipped away into quietness, worthy of no conversation.

The following morning, he looked down at his daughter and kindly reminded her that inside of her were life and a part of her love. Through sweet encouragement, he was able to help her raise her body to living. Abby stood on her two feet and it was the beginning of a new independence.

With this kind of drive, come stubbornness and a hardness of heart that will be left behind to run its course.

Days passed and in a sense, the young expected mother and widow of her love began crawling from her mourning place, once again going through the motions of life. Throwing herself into the realization that she was with child, she at once began planning and preparing for the baby’s arrival.

If the child were a girl, she would name her Clara Louise, after her favorite Aunt, and if a boy, he would be named Donald James Berkins, after her late love and her father. She received a lot of attention from relatives and friends and in no time, it seemed that she was recovering well. Her Aunt Clara took the job of helping Abby prepare her baby’s nursery and before long; the room was filled with colorful and bright colored toys, cradles and soft blankets.

Abby’s father made a new rocking chair especially for the coming child that they would be able to sit by the fire, listening to tales and to the Word of God. He also made his daughter her first personal rocking chair from beautiful oak and he set it right next