A Quirky Bride to Treasure: The Bridal Train, #2

By Emberly Hart

When Mina Fischer boards what is dubbed the Bridal Train to Kansas, she is well aware of her duties to her soon-to-be husband. Though being a quiet girl raised in the country, she knows better how to talk to sheep and horses than men. Still, she must try to be engaging and helpful to her new husband—whoever he may be. Her only hope is that the Espousal Alliance Office will find her a match who does not mind her simple ways. And if he enjoys animals as much as she does, all the better.

 

 

George Lawrence is not entirely prepared to be married, but who ever is? His fellow directors of the  railroad he's invested in are encouraging him to take a wife, so as to appear more stable, helping them receive the government land grant they need. Somehow he finds himself with a shy little bride, wondering how to get on with her when he is so social and she seems to have come from another world.

 

 

While Mina flounders with her new duties, which are nothing like farm chores back in Virginia, George is taken for a wild ride with his lovely wife who is so full of strange and amusing ideas, including the number of animals that should be allowed to sleep in their bed. She worries over whether or not she pleases George, but unfolding events reveal how resourceful she is—but will she help or hinder him?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Emberly Hart
• Release date: Jan 9, 2023
• ISBN: 9798201880484

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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.

All Rights Reserved

A Quirky Bride to Treasure

The Bridal Train Series

Book 2

Copyright Emberly Hart 2019

Ebook Edition

Electronic book publication 2019

All rights reserved. Any violation of this will be prosecuted by the law.

Also by Emberly Hart

The Bridal Train Series

A Runaway Bride to Cherish

A Quirky Bride to Treasure

An Unexpected Bride to Adore

A Second Chance Bride to Embrace

A Strong-Minded Bride to Prize

When Mina Fischer boards what is dubbed the Bridal Train to Kansas, she is well aware of her duties to her soon-to-be husband. Though being a quiet girl raised in the country, she knows better how to talk to sheep and horses than men. Still, she must try to be engaging and helpful to her new husband—whoever he may be. Her only hope is that the Espousal Alliance Office will find her a match who does not mind her simple ways. And if he enjoys animals as much as she does, all the better.

George Lawrence is not entirely prepared to be married, but who ever is? His fellow directors of the  railroad he’s invested in are encouraging him to take a wife, so as to appear more stable, helping them receive the government land grant they need. Somehow he finds himself with a shy little bride, wondering how to get on with her when he is so social and she seems to have come from another world.

While Mina flounders with her new duties, which are nothing like farm chores back in Virginia, George is taken for a wild ride with his lovely wife who is so full of strange and amusing ideas, including the number of animals that should be allowed to sleep in their bed. She worries over whether or not she pleases George, but unfolding events reveal how resourceful she is—but will she help or hinder him?

Table of Contents

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

SNEAK PEEK OF AN UNEXPECTED BRIDE TO ADORE

A Quirky Bride to Treasure

by

Chapter One

She could just run away.

That would prove to her parents how strongly Mina felt about their decision to send her on that godforsaken Bridal Train to the West and marry her off to a stranger.

Mina scattered the corn to the chickens and didn’t even take comfort in her beloved pets flocking at her feet. Through tear-blurred eyes, she watched them peck at the kernels.

How could her parents believe it was a good idea to send her away? Did she not help them with all the physical labor on the farm? Not only did she tend to the animals—chickens, goats, pigs, horses and a milk cow—but she spent most of her days in the fields helping her father. Walking miles behind the horse and plow, bent over planting, weeding, watering during the droughts.

The Virginia fields weren’t going to plow themselves, and her father was getting along in years. He needed her help.

Except he had made the choice to send her away to be married.

I am not long in the tooth, she muttered to the chickens, who flitted about, gathering bits of corn.

Sure, many of the girls around her age from the parish had husbands and a few children by now. Mina could have had that too, she told herself, if she had wanted it. When boys had asked to drive her home in their wagons after Sunday services, she had politely turned them all down.

Stuck up, she was called in town.

But her parents called her shy.

Now, they were sending their shy spinster daughter off with a train ticket and a letter from this horrible Ms. Godwin, owner and operator of the Espousal Alliance Office. Her letter had put on airs that a woman like Mina did not appreciate, tossing out big, flowery words about how becoming a wife was the most honorable thing a woman could ever do in her entire life.

Mina did not believe that nonsense for a minute. Honorable was helping her parents live a comfortable life after raising five children.

Since her parents had told her the plans over the evening meal of ham and collard greens the previous night, she had given a lot of thought to how, just perhaps, they wanted to spend the rest of their years alone. They had expected all five of their children to marry, and Mina had let them down in that notion.

She had heard stories from town girls about becoming burdens to their families once they hit unmarriageable ages, and Mina was reaching the finish line. At twenty-six, if she was not soon snatched up by some eligible bachelor, she would become that burden too. Except she did not know how, when she was out here doing all the work so her parents could rest their arthritic bones.

Pushing a breath out through her nostrils, she dumped the rest of the chicken feed in the dirt and hurried away as the animals flocked to get the last of their meals. She set down her bucket and brushed her hands on the apron covering her skirt.

The Virginia sun was high, the sky cloudless and as blue as the ocean, which she had had the good fortune to see twice in her life, both times to visit her sister Mary and assist her after troublesome births. Travel had been long and difficult, but being on the water, feeling the ocean breeze through her long curls, had been the highlight of her days.

Momma always said that life was a series of hills and valleys. Well, now Mina was deep in a valley, unable to see much more than the shadows stretching before her.

Kansas was so far away. Could her father not make a marriage match for her right here in Virginia?

But no, the precious money had been scraped up for not only the horrible Ms. Godwin’s fee but also train passage. Mina could not expect her parents to take that loss when money was always tight.

Inside the small, cramped farmhouse, hopelessness seemed to live in every shadowed corner of the place where she had grown up. Would she ever see her beloved home again?

Leaving behind her parents and some of her brothers and their families who lived nearby was enough pain. But must she also part from her pets, each animal she loved so dearly?

Her cat had just recently had a litter of little marmalade kittens, and the pigs favored her. When her father attempted to feed them, they head-butted his shins and bruised them.

Mina, there you are, you silly girl! Her mother emerged from her bedroom carrying a pile of freshly ironed laundry, the clothes Mina had failed—purposely—to pack in the single bag she would be taking along with her to Kansas.

To her new husband.

A man she did not know scared her almost as much as never again seeing the farm where she had grown up.

Her mother took one look at her face and set down the laundry on the scrubbed kitchen table. Rushing forward, her mother cupped Mina’s face. My sweet Mina, I know you are frightened.

Did she show it so readily on her face? Of course she did. As a child, she could never get away with a thing because her family all knew the truth spelled over her freckled cheeks and in her brown eyes.

Her mother leaned in, pressing a kiss to her forehead. You have no need to fear, Mina. Sure, it is a new place, and for a shy person like you, it will come with challenges.

Her last day on the farm and she did not want to leave her parents with the memory of her in tears. Though they threatened, she fought them back.

I am ready, Momma. She was far from it, but one little lie to spare her mother’s feelings would not damage her soul, would it?

Good girl. She smiled and turned to gather the bundle of laundry into her work-worn hands. Now, fetch the carpet bag please, Mina.

She did, shuffling to her parents’ bed and getting on her hands and knees to locate the old bag from beneath. It was slightly dusty, and she smacked it a bit to remove the film before carrying it back to her mother.

Set it on the table.

She did, and her mother neatly placed the clothes inside. Everything Mina owned was in that stack, besides the garments she wore, a tan everyday dress she wore for chores, and her apron, now dirt-smeared when it had been pristine white this morning.

Your father is hitching the wagon now.

Mina’s heart fell. So soon?

Yes. No time for dinner, so I have fixed you a cheese sandwich that you must take in your pocket for the train. For the first time, her mother pursed her lips. "I do wish we had more money to purchase some finer foods for your journey. But all we could afford was one meal