A Second Chance Bride to Embrace: The Bridal Train, #4

By Emberly Hart

Maisie thinks of herself as a tough, resourceful woman, and that's about to be put to the test. After leaving her abusive husband and making off with all the cash she can carry, her only goal is to stay out of sight and survive. Then she learns her husband is six feet under. She should be able to relax, only she fears she will be blamed for his murder. So she hops a train and finds herself as a Bridal Train Bride.

 

Henry Cartwright loves tending the land, growing crops and raising animals for market, though it's a lonely life. When his family urges him to take a wife, he can't think of anything he has to offer a woman besides hard work, but he settles on a Bridal Train Bride. Maisie is soft-spoken and reserved, leaving Henry thinking of her as a frightened animal, and he longs to set her at ease.

 

With newfound freedom and peace in her heart at long last, Maisie wonders if she was wrong about all men being the same. Maybe this one deserves a chance—and a bit of the kindness he doles out to her so easily. When problems arise on the farm, they're forced to work together and fight for the life they share. It just might be time for Maisie to dig up that satchel full of money she buried out back.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Emberly Hart
• Release date: Jan 9, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215175514

Book preview

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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 Second Chance Bride to Embrace

The Bridal Train book 4

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

Maisie thinks of herself as a tough, resourceful woman, and that’s about to be put to the test. After leaving her abusive husband and making off with all the cash she can carry, her only goal is to stay out of sight and survive. Then she learns her husband is six feet under. She should be able to relax, only she fears she will be blamed for his murder. So she hops a train and finds herself as a Bridal Train Bride.

Henry Cartwright loves tending the land, growing crops and raising animals for market, though it’s a lonely life. When his family urges him to take a wife, he can’t think of anything he has to offer a woman besides hard work, but he settles on a Bridal Train Bride. Maisie is soft-spoken and reserved, leaving Henry thinking of her as a frightened animal, and he longs to set her at ease.

With newfound freedom and peace in her heart at long last, Maisie wonders if she was wrong about all men being the same. Maybe this one deserves a chance—and a bit of the kindness he doles out to her so easily. When problems arise on the farm, they’re forced to work together and fight for the life they share. It just might be time for Maisie to dig up that satchel full of money she buried out back.

Table of Contents

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

SNEAK PEEK OF A STRONG-MINDED BRIDE TO PRIZE

A Second Chance Bride

to Embrace

by

Chapter One

Maisie had done this far too many times—hidden inside their tiny loft over the saloon after her husband would lumber up the stairs, deep in his cups and reeking of rotgut moonshine, and begin to rage at her.

Usually, she slipped into a big cupboard—she was small and he too stupid to wonder why the door was cracked. Other times, she would hide under the bed. Eventually, he would collapse on the lumpy feather mattress facedown, and she would nearly be squashed beneath the support ropes before wiggling out.

Tonight, Ollie had caught her off guard, bursting through the door and stomping to the hutch holding their few remaining plates he had not yet broken.

She quickly skittered around the big fireplace and pressed herself close to the side, fighting to temper her breathing so her husband did not hear her.

When she realized the ruffled hem of her dress could be seen, she clutched the calico in her fist and tugged it back. Hardly drawing a breath, she listened as he yanked open drawers and slammed them. She chanced a peek around the mantel.

With his hat sitting cockeyed on his head and a cut just below his eye, she knew exactly what this man she’d been tricked into marrying had gotten up to tonight.

He’d been thievin’ again.

How many times did the sheriff have to come calling before he stopped stealing—or worse, getting in too deep at the gaming tables and having bad men show up at their home in the wee hours of the night to drag him out and teach him a lesson?

For the thousandth time, Maisie wondered why her father had seen fit to saddle her with such a man as Ollie Young. Her late father had been duped into believing Ollie was well-bred, would give her a loftier station than the daughter of a stableman. But it turned out the business prospects Ollie had boasted of to her father were not on the moral end of dealings.

His clunky boot hit the floorboards, making her twitch. A tremble taking over, she waited for him to discover her. Perhaps she should just step out and get the beating over with, then she could encourage him to go downstairs and have a nightcap, which would end in him passing out stone-cold drunk.

Another boot thud sounded closer. And another. Her heart rate picked up to a gallop, but not of a pretty little filly that carried a woman’s carriage from her father’s stable. No, it was a wild stallion, black and with wide terrified eyes rolling as it streaked across a dark prairie.

Her husband stepped closer to the fireplace and then shuffled around to the front of it. Her ears strained, though he was so near that she could have lunged out and grabbed him by the scruff of the shirt.

A second later, she heard the thunk of wood sticks on the floor. A peek out earned her the knowledge that he was unstacking the wood piled next to the fireplace. Then she saw him reach inside his shirt and pull out a fistful of money.

Dear Lord—where had he gotten such an amount? Her heart tripped faster as he hauled more out of his shirt...

And then the pockets of his breeches.

The number of bills he was stuffing underneath the wood stack must total hundreds. Maybe more.

Who has he killed to get that amount? she wondered. Then an uneasy feeling took hold of her.

What if he really had murdered someone?

She bit her lips to keep any sound from bursting from her. Ollie stacked the wood again, or rather tossed it back into a heap.

Holding her breath, she waited for him to glance her direction, but to her bone-melting relief, he turned and went into the kitchen area.

As swift as she could, she rushed out of her hiding spot, in search of a better one. She was just tiptoeing through the space when a crash sounded, followed by the shattering of the last few plates they owned.

Woman! Come clean up this mess! And why isn’t there any food for me? Get cookin’!

Plastering herself against the wall, she considered her options. Either she went into the kitchen and fried him a slab of ham she was pretty certain he’d stolen on his way past the butcher’s, or she found a good hiding place and prayed he left soon.

Maisie! You worthless woman. I never should have taken you as wife. Can’t even cook an egg when a man’s hungry. Disappears all the time!

Swallowing down the bile that was a mixture of part fear and part fury, she didn’t move from her spot. A minute later, she heard the front door slam and then his feet thumping on the stairs leading down to the saloon.

In a flash, she was across the room to the woodpile and fell to her knees. Tossing aside sticks of wood, she collected all the bills. When she had them all, she gaped at how big the pile was. Easily, there must be a thousand dollars.

A fortune.

Somebody would not take kindly to this large sum being stolen and would surely come after Ollie.

She stuffed the money back as haphazardly as he had and then stacked the wood again. When he entered, she was sitting in her chair by the window, needle and thread in hand and his holey stocking waiting to be mended on her lap.

Too late to hide. She could only hope he’d drunk enough to fall over before raising a hand to her.

What are you doing? he slurred, lips slack from inebriation.

I am mending your stocking, Husband. The word tasted sour in her mouth.

Where were you when I was home for supper? You’re more worthless than I thought. He came forward, staggering a bit.

I was here the entire day.

He eyed her, the whites of his eyes bloodshot and bleary. You were hidin’ from me again, weren’t ya?

Her heart began to skip. He knew? How did he know?

He can’t. If he did, he’d come after me.

Sensing he was about to blow like dynamite down a hole, she got to her feet and kept the needle, her only weapon, pinched between her fingers. If he came for her, she would go for his eye.

Oh, yes, I know you hide from me. You sneak around like a snake with your belly low to the ground, slithering through this loft and laughing behind my back when you think I don’t see you.

He wobbled forward. And oh, he had that look in his eyes that terrified her.

She backed up a step. He was in no condition to make chase, and she was quick and light on her feet. With all luck, the alcohol would make him forget everything that was about to happen.

He lunged for her.

She dodged to the side. One huge hand swiped the air inches away from her, so she felt the breeze on her dress from his palm. If he connected with her, she would be sporting a bruise at the very least.

When he leaped at her again, she danced from side to side, hopping like a chickadee. In the past, his eyes would cross before rolling back in his head and