A Man With Many Secrets

By Vanessa Carvo

Left Out, Leftover & Overweight - An overweight woman, beautiful inside and out, believes she will never achieve happiness like her average weight sisters have. She decides to take the plunge and heads out to California and to a widower with two children.

The Joyful Wife, The Drunken Cowboy & His Bitter Sister - A woman travels west to join her fiancé, a cowboy with a cranky sister who appears to be permanently bitter. The woman and her cowboy are married immediately and they return to the ranch where she has to contend with his drunken ways and the sister who simply won’t go away. A cattle drive gives her time to think as well as to wonder who on earth it is arriving back at the ranch with his men, because it certainly doesn’t look like her husband in any way.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Nov 7, 2016
• ISBN: 9781365514753

Book preview

A Man With Many Secrets

A Man With Many Secrets

By

Vanessa Carvo

Copyright 2016 Quietly Blessed & Loved Press

Left Out, Leftover & Overweight

Synopsis: Left Out, Leftover & Overweight  - An overweight woman, beautiful inside and out, believes she will never achieve happiness like her average weight sisters have. She decides to take the plunge and heads out to California and to a widower with two children.

The single stone on the ring caught the morning sun and threw off a golden light across the ceiling. Minnie held up her hand for everyone to look at it for the hundredth time that morning. Emma felt sick of admiring the ring. It’s not that she wasn’t happy for her sister, because she was. It’s just that it was difficult to rejoice in your younger sister’s engagement, when you had no hope of ever getting married yourself.

What if Walter snores at night? Edna, their youngest sister at seventeen, asked with a giggle.

He doesn’t! Minnie said indignantly.

How do you know? Edna said.

Girls, will you stop it. Their mother said, a fond tone in her voice. I can’t concentrate on this list with you two bickering.

Emma knew their mother was over the moon over Minnie’s engagement to the son of a local doctor. The two were a good match, as their father was a lawyer. The way things were going, she knew it wouldn’t be long before it was Edna’s turn. Already she had many men interested in her, and during dances she never lacked a partner. Emma on the other hand was used to being the wallflower. She handled it by pretending that she didn’t care.

The truth was that she was dying to get married. It was so unfair! Minnie and Edna had the least desirable characteristics of a good wife. They were lazy; it was always her who did the bulk of the chores that their housekeeper did not attend to. The three girls each had a day when they were expected to cook dinner.

We’ll have to have all the cousins from Waterville, we haven’t had a wedding in years, and everybody will want to come for this one. Their mother said.

The talk continued about the wedding and the inevitable wedding dress. Knowing she might burst into tears at any moment, Emma excused herself from the breakfast table and fled upstairs to the bedroom she shared with her sisters. She closed the door behind her and walked slowly, almost as if she were scared of her own reflection, to the mirror.

Her eyes grew big at the woman who stared back at her. Somehow, the image of herself in her mind never matched the reality. Who was this fat woman staring back at her? You could hardly tell where her face ended and her neck begun. Emma pulled the extra skin away from her face and scrutinized her features. If she was not fat, she knew she would be pretty.

Her eyes were big and grey, but were swallowed by the fat around her face, ending up looking tiny and dull. Her lips too were a good shape and size, not thin like Minnie’s, yet she was the one who was on the verge of matrimony.

With the cry of a wounded animal, Emma turned away from the mirror and threw herself on her bed. Her body shuddered with sobs that she could no longer hold back. Much as she despised and fought against self-pity, it took over her being now. What was to become of her? Would she forever remain a spinster, a burden to her parents? She knew they would never tell her, but it seemed as if they had given up on her ever meeting a suitor. Her mother had even stopped nagging her to lose weight. And Emma had tried. But any time something went wrong, she seemed to reach for food for comfort.

She decided to give up on eating sweet things. She could do it, Emma told herself, her heart swelling with resolve. Emma sat up suddenly. What was she thinking feeling sorry for herself? She was not helpless and could do something about her situation.

I don’t understand how someone as incompetent as Burton became a prosecutor. This is preposterous!

Emma almost jumped from her seat at the vehemence in her father’s voice. She relaxed when she realized he was talking about a story in the newspaper, although why she should have thought it was about her was beyond her thinking. He rarely acknowledged her presence. She sat at the furthest chair away from her parents and sisters. Their seating arrangement in the dining table reflected the way they related to one another. Emma always held herself apart from the rest of the family.

She knew it was a defense mechanism. Most of the time, they pretended that Emma was not there; like now. She looked at her family speaking animatedly with each other. Her father had even put down the newspaper to discuss its contents with his wife and two daughters. Nobody bothered to ask for her opinion. But then, it had always been like that.

She was the odd one out. The overweight daughter. The ugly duckling. Feeling tears flooding her eyes, Emma cleared her throat and asked Edna to pass her the newspaper. She turned the pages, running her eyes over the contents, and stopped when an advert caught her attention.

Are you a woman of good reputation willing to correspond with lonely gentlemen from the East, looking for a wife? If so, The Discerning Agency is waiting to hear from you. Visit our office at the address below.

Emma read the advert and was intrigued. It was terribly romantic that there were gentlemen looking for wives on the newspaper. How simple it was, to simply place an advert, and avoid the hustle of courting and the awkwardness of meeting someone. Emma’s mind drifted and she imagined a gentleman waiting by the train station, his eyes frantically searching the passengers embarking from the train. And then he would see her, and his eyes would blaze with love and devotion.

Emma sighed.

Emma what is it? the sharp voice of her mother cut through her fantasy.

N-nothing. Emma said, flustered.

Her well-endowed chest was rising up and down, and she willed herself to be still. They were all looking at her suspiciously and Emma smiled what she hoped was a reassuring smile. It seemed to work, because they all returned to their discussion, probably glad that they didn’t have to look at her anymore.

Emma’s brain went into overdrive. The solution to all her problems was staring at her in the face. Frowning she looked at the advert again. It required interested women to visit the agency’s office. Emma shuddered as she imagined the horror on their faces as they looked her over. The tension as they found the polite words to explain that she was not quite what they were looking for.

No, that would not work for her.

What if she placed the advert herself? Her blood raced through her body—A hard working, pretty, woman seeking a gentleman to marry. What about children? Emma