Leanna Rosalie: Mail Order Brides Series, #1

By Beverly Kovatch

Leanna Rosalie was young and beautiful and her family, her life in Louisana was wonderful and exciting. The Mardi Gra, the music, the Cajun food, everthing was just perfect. Suddenly everything changed and she found herself alone and vulnerable. Her father made a deal with a very weathy and enfluential man named Caleb Calloway. Soon she realized that she was the pawn in this deal. Her father disappeared at sea and she witnessed her mother murdered at the hands of Caleb Calloway. He made it very clear that she was his posession. Callie one of the  local saloon girls watched as Caleb brutilized Leanna. She was determined to save Leanna. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Beverly Kovatch
• Release date: Jan 15, 2021
• ISBN: 9781393029137

Beverly Kovatch

This Author is about as unknown as one can become. She sometimes lives in the past, sometimes in the future, sometimes right in the middle of the present. Her mind wanders from what was to what is to what could be. That is the power of the written and spoken word. There are so many opportunities for so many people, and she wonders why no one seems to seek them out. She lives on a farm in what was once a vast farmland area. A few people still believe in farming, but each year, there seem to be fewer and fewer of them. This past year, it appears that the moral background of the world is rapidly disappearing. It takes hard work to be a farmer nowadays. It is a lot easier to sit back and watch others do it. People have taken this place we call home for granted. The pandemic threw us all for a loop, but it also made some realize that unless we fight for what we believe in, our country, the one we all grew up in, could be lost. It took hard work and determination for us to be where we are, and all of it started with a small dream. You see, everything in life begins with a dream. This Author once dreamt she could one day write a book that others might enjoy reading, and here she is. She has written not one book but more than twenty books. Some people dream of owning just a small piece of land, owning their own little business, raising their families in a free land, a place where we are allowed to say what we feel in our hearts, fight for what we believe in, worship at the church of our choice. These past few years have taught this Author that there is power in our words. Once our words are silenced, we have given up one of our most treasured rights. It is my hope, my dream, that the power that you, my readers, have within you will never be silenced. The dreams you hold inside will always be fulfilled, and that you will always and forever … Keep on Dreaming!

Book preview

Prelude

Caleb Calloway owned most of the small Louisiana town. He was very wealthy and influential, and Leanna had no idea at the time that he was expecting to marry her soon. It had been arranged by her father. It was for a debt that he somehow owed this man. When her father left for his last trip abroad he had informed Kate that Leanna would marry Caleb as soon as he returned. She has no choice in the matter he informed his wife. It was pre-arranged and it would happen. Caleb was much older than Leanna by at least ten years. He was arrogant and not very handsome, but he was the most sought after bachelor in the town. He had his choice of women. His former wife Alice had passed away suddenly by strange means so the town’s people whispered, but no one ever questioned him about it. It was a taboo subject never to be mentioned in polite public.

Well, money is no question here. I can take it from Portman Shipping.

What about his daughter, doesn’t she have a say in the matter? He asked.

That is no problem at all. Little Miss Portman will be no problem at all, my boy. Soon she will be my wife." He laughed as he patted the gentleman on the back.

You just go out there and make that saloon work, ya hear me boy?  He shouted in his drunken loud voice that was known far too well by everyone in town. "I wouldn’t do this deal for just anyone you know. Miss Callie says you’re dependable and I will take her at her word. Don’t mess with me boy, or you will see the bad side of me, ya hear?

Yes sir, No problem this Saloon will bring in a profit and I will pay you back as soon as I can. He replied with a major southern accent knowing that this deal he was making was not one of the best decisions he had made in his life, but he wanted that Saloon and the only way he was going to get it was to take out a loan. 

Callie warned him the night before not to make this deal, she had another plan she was sure would work, but he didn’t listen. The glamour of the Saloon and the thought of all the money he would bring in, well it blinded him.  He wanted Callie to go with him, he even stooped to begging her to leave, but she was considered Calloway’s property. He knew there had to be a way to get her away from him but now was not the right time. It would happen, but not until he was established on his own.

Let’s go have a drink on it then, Caleb replied.

"A little early in the day for that isn’t it? The stranger replied.

No my boy, it is never too early in the morning for that.  Besides that, I have a burial to attend this morning. You see my sweet little Alice, my dear sweet wife well she tried to oppose me, and she ended up dead. He laughed. Remember that my boy, no one ever opposes me. If they do well, for some reason one way or another they don’t oppose me for long.  He laughed as he escorted the stranger into the hotel. Was that a threat? He was sure that those words were intended for him.

Chapter One

It was almost time for the party of the century.

Mardi-Gra in Louisiana was more like Christmas to Leanna Rosalie.  It was the one time that she could allow herself to be open and alive. Her father was a very prominent figure in town. She was not poor by any means and tragically people expected something spectacular of the child of Jonathan Portman.  Her mother was quiet and almost mousey. She wasn’t one of those boisterous types of women that most would have expected her father to marry, but they were happy, at least Leanna thought that they were.

Her father opened up a little seamstress shop in town just for her mother. Leanna figured he did it to keep her busy while he was away. She was always worrying about one thing or another. Her father was in the shipping business and traveled to exotic places to purchase merchandise. This kept him away for the majority of the time. Leanna worked in both places. She did the accounting for her father, but it was felt that was not a women’s place so she worked alongside her mother to learn that trade just in case something was said. She loved working with numbers though and kept excellent records.

Kate Portman may have been quiet and introverted but she had a real talent for creating the most beautiful gowns imaginable. At this time of year, she was extremely busy. It was different this year though. There seemed to be sadness in her mother’s eyes. Everything she tried would not take that sadness away. The only thing that seemed to keep the sadness from overcoming her mother was her little shop.

People would come from all over just to have her mother make their evening gowns. Her expertise in this was talked about all over Louisiana. Leanna wasn’t sure why at the time, but it was now evident that her mother had been slowly preparing her for what was to come.

Her mother had been working on the most beautiful wedding gown Leanna had ever seen. It was satin covered in lace with embroidered beads all down the bodice and she had even embroidered flowers spread out down the skirt of the gown. She had asked Leanna to be the model for it as she created this masterpiece. Leanna thought it was an order that her mother had taken; however, as her mother safely packed it away she realized the truth. This dress was waiting for the day that her daughter would marry. Was this a premonition her mother was having or was this something predetermined? Leanna wasn’t sure. She wasn’t hoping, nor did she have any prospects of marrying anyone. Most of the eligible men in town were already taken. All but one she thought, and that scared her because that one eligible man was incorrigible.

THE NEWS CAME TO HER mother that the ship her father was on had encountered a huge storm just off of the Canary Islands. Pieces of the ship had been found floating in the ocean, so everyone on board was presumed dead. This meant that the business her father owned unless she took it over would soon be forfeited to Caleb Calloway for non-payment of the debts that her father owed him. He had planned to pay him off with this shipment. She was very good at managing her father’s accounts, and she knew exactly what her father owed.

She knew that something was wrong with this debt to Calloway, but her father kept telling her not to worry about it. IT was under control.

Without this shipment coming in, well it meant that she and her mother would now be in debt to Caleb Calloway. She now understood why her mother was in such a rush for the wedding gown order. She would have to marry Caleb Calloway just so she and her mother could survive.  Caleb owned everything in town and soon he would own her too.

Leanna Rosalie walked down the street and passed by the saloon. She peeked inside even though her father had forbidden her to do so. She always wondered what went on in a place like that. Her father frequented it quite regularly. A lot of business deals seemed to go down inside that forbidden building.  He would always say that no real lady would ever go into one of those places every time she asked.  It was never an honest answer.  One day she promised herself that she was going to boldly walk into a place like that and no one was going to stop her.

Callie Graceland was well known by most of the men in town.  She worked in Calloway’s saloon. Leanna wondered why someone as sweet as Callie would work in a place that was so forbidden to women. If she could go in and out of there then why it was forbidden for her?

Just then the doors swung open and there Callie was plain as day standing on the walkway. Callie smiled at Leanna thinking of how innocent this young girl was, and how like her she had been just a few short years ago. She was several years older than Leanna, maybe twenty-five at the most Leanna thought.

Hello, she said.

Not wanting to be discourteous Leanna replied.

Hello

Should you be down here in this part of town? Callie asked. You need to be more careful, or they will brand you if you know what I mean.

Brand me? she replied. What is that supposed to mean?

Have you never heard about ladies of the night, she replied laughingly.

I am not sure I understand what you mean by that.

Callie laughed. Someday soon you will she replied thinking of Leanna’s relationship with Calloway.

Leanna has always liked Callie.  She had what her father would call spunk. She was the closest to her age in town, and she had every right to befriend her. Leanna was not going to allow someone to brand her just because she wanted to be friends with someone. It just wasn’t right.

You’re Leanna Portman aren’t you?  Callie asked even though she knew exactly who she was.

Yes, I am. She replied.

Then you need not be here. The word going around town is that you are to be marrying Caleb Calloway soon. He would not like it if you were seen here, or with me.

He doesn’t own me, and who told you that I was marrying him? Leanna replied angrily. I will do whatever I want to do.

You need to be very careful Leanna, she warned. He can be an evil man when he wants to be. I know him very well.

What do you mean by that? she replied.

He frequents this saloon and when he gets inebriated he talks a lot. He talks about how he will soon take over your father's shipping company, and how your father made the deal for him to marry you. Tragically your father made some shady deals with Mr. Calloway and according to him, well you are the payment.

I am not the payment for anything, Leanna stated firmly. I am not going to marry him.

Well if that is how you feel then I suggest you run quickly away from Louisiana and hide extremely well so that he never finds you.

"I don’t know how to do that, and I could not leave my mother she would never survive