Blackwell's Bride

By John J. Law

What does a dedicated bachelor do when he promises his dying friend he would take care of his newly arrived Mail Order Bride?
This is the dilemma Deputy Rich Nelson is in when Sheriff Percy Blackwell suddenly is killed by a drunken drifter.
What will he do? Will he do as he promised or will he continue his life of solitude.

• Language: English
• Publisher: J.C. Hulsey Books
• Release date: Mar 29, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224846191

Book preview

One: The Long Ride to Everton.

Percy sat down on the makeshift wooden table. He took out his pen and a folded piece of paper. He tried to make sure that the paper was neat and crisp, but considering the current times, that could sometimes prove very challenging indeed. Today, he fretted and fussed as he began to write. That was Percy Blackwell for you. He always fritted and fretted about what to say in each of his letters to Edith, that it was a minor miracle that he actually managed to correspond with her, let alone finish a single letter. Perhaps it was that fine attention to detail that made him such a great sheriff. Such thoroughness made him a natural at enforcing even the finer details of the law, and a natural for his job.

Dear Edith,

Every single letter always began with the simplest of endearments. You could almost say that such a greeting was universal and generic, the initial greeting of any letter. With Percy Blackwell however, this was not the case, and there were so many emotions bubbling just below the surface of that initial greeting.

These letters were the only means he could correspond with his beloved Edith, who seemed a world away now. Neither had seen the other, but Percy knew in his heart that what they felt for each other was real. Despite their differences, it had to be.

Writing to your sweetheart from worlds away.

Percy looked up from the wooden desk and saw the smiling face of his deputy, Rich Nelson. Nelson was a lot younger than Percy. There were even stories about his less-than-lawful behavior several towns away, but that didn't really bother Percy. After all, the law was a strange thing in the days of the Wild West. It was common for a lot of outlaws to be wanted for something in one county, but to escape the law and become some kind of lawman in another state. That was just the way it was, and even a stickler for the law, like Percy Blackwell knew it. Despite Rich's questionable background, Percy hired and deputized him immediately. He saw that Nelson was good with a gun, and he needed help to police a new town like Everton, or at least he thought he did.

Everton was a newly-formed town by several homesteaders who had settled in the rough area. The town got its name from the first homesteader who claimed land in the place, William Everton. The town was very small and remote and consisted of around thirty people. The town's population was evenly divided between some white settlers, a few newly-freed slaves, and some oriental immigrants. It was a small, but diverse town that was quiet and pretty remote. You would have to really look hard to find Everton, and this combination of a small and peaceful populace along with the town's inaccessibility, made it a