A Fall From Grace. Mail Order Bride Western Page 16

  “Well,” she said. “That was quick.”

  He wrapped his arms around her narrow waist.

  “I think that is going to happen a lot for the next for weeks,” he said nuzzling her.

  “Yeah?” she asked.

  “Yes, we are newlyweds. They want to give us our privacy,” he said.

  “I see,” she nodded and smiled.

  Just the suggestion of their having sex warmed her. She had never had sex before the night before and she wasn’t sure if she ever yearned for it. Now she was having sex regularly and she needed it again as though she hadn’t had it ever.

  Clearing the table was an interesting prospect. Every time that Merla leaned to legitimately do the chore, Mac leaned behind her and pressed against her suggestively. She was filled with a comforting warmth and contentment.

  “We will never clear this table at this rate,” she smiled as Mac licked her ear.

  That was fast her favorite move on her.

  “How about we quickly clear and wash the dishes,” she murmured, “And you show me the rest of the house, starting with your bedroom.”

  “You Mrs. McElroy, have a deal,” he said, kissing her constantly.

  Seriousness over took her.

  “Do you think that Rafe was serious about finding my sister?” whispered Merla.

  Mac regarded her.

  “Do you want him to?” he asked her seriously.

  Merla knew right then and there that her new husband loved her. She saw it in his face that if she asked for something he would do his best to give it to her.

  “Yes,” she said shyly.

  “Okay,” he said solemnly. “We will.”

  They finished the dishes quickly after all and Mac took her to his room, now their room and made love to her for the rest of the day.

  The End

  Love Can’t Wait

  A Mail Order Bride Historical Romance

  Introduction:

  Living in with a rich family does not mean living the life of a rich person. Young sweet Gretchen Mollie is half-starved and overworked as the nanny to the Finaker family, one of the wealthiest in Wichita. Little did she know that help was on its way. Rafe and Donovan McElroy just happen to be in the right place at the right time, when Gretchen makes her escape. Hoping to get lucky in love, Rafe travels from Dodge to Wichita looking for the long sister of someone they know. The person they’ve come looking for just might be Gretchen after all. And Rafe claims her for his own. But it’s Donny she wants and who wants her. They find a connection and a passion that comes before the bond of brothers, and becomes one of man and wife. Will the McElroy’s respect that true love can’t wait even when it comes so fast? And will Gretchen find out who she really is?

  Chapter One

  Being an au pair on the inside of a rich family’s house was nothing like what it appeared it might be from the outside. At the moment, Gretchen Mollie thought she would pass out from lack of water, only having meal and kitchen privileges on a limited basis.

  She thought for sure living in the sprawling mansion of a rich upper class family had to be better than living in her ‘uncle’s’ home; he was no uncle. Gretchen had a sister once. But that was so long ago. . .

  It was tough to form alliances with the staff since she didn’t speak their language. Gretchen’s kin were born and bred in Kansas but the servants in the Finaker household spoke in weird foreign tongues. She didn’t understand a lick of it.

  It didn’t help much that the three children she was hired to look after were spoilt to the hilt. Her shins were marbled with the bruises from their kicks and punches. As for now, Little Rose would not let up with her whining. Gretchen felt her belly to see if it was tight. To see if that was it. She was about to load them up for a walk when Rose said the magic words.

  “I’m thirsty,” she announced.

  Gretchen was never so glad to hear her say that. She took the little one firmly by the hand, leading the other two straight to the kitchen. She fetched the children water and snuck gulps for herself. She downed two big tins before she was interrupted by the throat-clearing of a much bigger adult behind her.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” demanded Sewell Finaker.

  He was a man with way too much money who never seemed to do much of anything to earn it.

  “I am making sure we all have plenty of water before we go out to get some fresh air,” she replied.

  But Gretchen was in peril of losing that much needed water, from both ends. Sewell Finaker made her way too nervous. He was always leering. She could feel him watching when he wasn’t even there.

  She heard monstrous tales of his caning the help -- and worse. Sewell Jr. was said to be the product of a tryst he had with a kitchen maid. That was also the reason Gretchen believed access to the kitchen was so restricted. The kitchen maid’s quarters were right off the buttery. Sewell Finaker wanted no one to hear him when he had his way with whomever.

  Now he was standing way too close to her pressing his portliness into her heaving bosom. She tried to get hold of herself but her breath did as it pleased. It rose and fell taking her curvaceous chest with it. Finaker’s eyes were fixed on it at the moment.

  “Take the children for their constitution,” he snapped. “But know this is not the end of it. We shall resume this matter on your return. Think on that while you’re gone.”

  Sewell Finaker smiled a sickly smile. Gretchen’s stomach clutched as his eyelids fluttered. He was perverse. She would go to Mrs. Finaker after she took the children for a walk and plead her situation.

  And that was Gretchen’s mistake.

  Lois Finaker’s face gathered in amusement as Gretchen informed of the water drinking. Little did Gretchen know that Sewell was behind her, listening all the while.

  “You heard?” asked Lois with wicked glee.

  “I did,” replied Sewell, licking his lips.

  “I’ll make myself scarce,” she said, fanning her fingertips beneath the rolls of his chin.

  Sewell shoved Gretchen forward over Lois’s desk and walloped her with a riding crop. He threw her skirts over backside and beat her until her knees buckled. When he was finished she practically crawled to her room.

  A brave maid snuck into her room and helped her some. She placed a torn piece of newspaper into Gretchen’s palm and folded her fingers around it while she held Gretchen’s hand in both of hers.

  Once the maid left her room, Gretchen opened her hand and read the paper. It was from the Matrimonial News. Mail Order Brides. The maid couldn’t understand her and she couldn’t understand the maid but Gretchen understood this. The maid was suggesting Gretchen find herself a husband and leave.

  But how? Gretchen worked in exchange for room and board. She had nothing to her name except one change of clothes and a single box of treasures. She studied and studied the torn newsprint. She would steal away to the newspaper office to place an ad. She had no idea how much it would cost. Or really how to start. But that would be the first thing she would do.

  Gretchen locked her door and gathered up her special box simply for comfort, and she climb out of her bedroom window. She ran like anything to the business sector to set things in motion. She was so terrified of what would happen to her if she were caught, not that it was against any contract that she be allowed to leave. There would be consequences nonetheless. She was so frightened someone would see her.

  Gretchen just about reached the door of the newspaper office when two men, both tall with sandy colored hair that wisped about their faces and cowboy hats emerged from the post office.

  “You there,” called one.

  This was it. Gretchen would be taken back to the Finakers and dealt with again. She pretended she didn’t hear him.

  “Hey now,” he insisted as he caught her by the elbow.

  Gretchen’s face was wet with tears. She must have looked utterly desperate when she regarded him.

  “You alright miss? You look to be in some kind of trouble,�
� he said.

  He tipped his hat.

  “Rafe McElroy. This here is my brother Donovan. Donny,” he said.

  Donny tipped his hat.

  “Please do call me Donny, miss,” said Donny. “Donovan sounds a little too suit and tie for me.”

  They were just about two of the prettiest human beings Gretchen had ever saw. They were a sight for sore eyes but she was in a hurry.

  “Pleased to meet you,” she said rapidly with a half-hearted curtsy. “Gretchen Mollie.”

  “Oh,” slumped Rafe. “You ain’t her.”

  “Ain’t her who?” she asked in total frustration.

  “We come to Wichita to find the sister of our sister-in-law. From these parts. Her ma and pa died. Lived with an uncle before they were shipped to an orphanage or some such. Do you know anyone who fits that description?” he gave a little laugh as though it were a lost cause.

  “What do you need her for?” Gretchen asked half crazed. “She done something wrong?”

  “Well no, I was hoping to marry her,” said Rafe. “Take her back home. We’re from Dodge.”

  Dodge. Gretchen heard one or two things about Dodge. None of it good. But she didn’t want to stay where she was. She wasn’t about to get beaten again and she wasn’t about to become the mistress of the disgusting Sewell Finaker.

  “Mister. I don’t know her but I am looking to leave Wichita as fast as I can. If I could hitch a ride with you I would be much obliged,” she pleaded.

  She clutched her treasure box and searched the ground. She could hardly look at either of them. One of them helped her out. Donny lifted her chin with his rough finger tips gently.

  “Miss we took the stage out here. We didn’t ride. I’ll take you where you want to go. I’ll front you the ticket and --”

  Filled with incredibly relief and disbelief that her fortune would be so good, Gretchen became animated.

  “I’ll find work as soon as I get there and pay you back!” she promised, all smiles.

  “Shall we go and get your things from wherever you’re living at now?” he asked, becoming excited himself.

  “No I am ready to go now,” she said.

  In addition to her treasure box Gretchen still gripped the paper in her palm. Donny pulled back her fingers easily to investigate what it was.

  “Mail order bride,” he said. “Are you one of them?”

  “I was aiming to be,” she said suddenly feeling like she had lied to him.

  “That’s fine Gretchen Mollie,” he said. “I just so happened to be in the market for a wife.”

  “Donovan McElroy,” scolded Rafe.

  “Well why not? You and Mac the only McElroy’s who can tie the knot?” he asked.

  “Well it’s a little on the fly,” he remarked.

  “How well did Mac know Merla before he got hitched?” asked Donny.

  She took a second to process fully what he said.

  “Wait. What name did you use?” she asked.

  She began shaking. It plain could not be.

  “I think I need to sit,” she said.

  “You know someone by the name of Merla?” Donny asked like she had seen a ghost.

  “Might have,” she replied, holding herself.

  Gretchen told herself she was not going to cry.

  Gretchen explained. “I am a nanny for children for a family by the name of Finaker. Been there since before those kids were born. I am not really too much older though you would never know it by the way I feel. Anyway, I had a little sister. Don’t know anything more than that. ‘Kept her name was Merla.”

  “Aw, sorry miss,” said Rafe. “I am going to have to challenge you on this. This would be too small a world for that to happen.”

  “I don’t know for sure if who I am, mister,” said Gretchen on the verge of raising her voice. “I do know my employer beat me today for taking a drink of water. I figure this was my chance to get away, you know. Leave.”

  “You got no other kin here?” Rafe asked.

  “None. Your sister in law, whether she’s kin to me or not, and I do have something in common in that I was once the ward of an uncle of sorts before he sold me out to this family. I don’t think I can face another day living there. I am not being funny. I mean it for true,” she said.

  “Well I believe you,” said Donny. “Rafe?”

  “Well if this is Merla’s sister, said Rafe, “she’s mine.”

  Chapter Two

  “So much for my idea to going to find a preacher and marry this woman,” said Donny

  “I don’t want to start nothing between the two of you but I do have to leave town,” she said. “I can’t prove one way or the other who I am to you. But I do have to get going. If you don’t want to marry me, I’ll be about my business.”

  “She does kind of favor Merla some,” Donny said.

  He kicked the ground.

  “And I liked her too,” he said.

  “I reckon we can take her home,” said Rafe. “Sort it out. If she’s not Merla’s kin, we can always come back.”

  “I am only going one way,” said Gretchen. “I am afraid if my employer sees me in town he’ll want me to come home. I have to make scarce.”

  “No ma’am. Your employer’s not going to bother you ever again. He will have to deal with the McElroy brothers,” said Donny.

  The brothers bought a ticket for Gretchen for the next stage to Dodge. They were packed and ready and the three of them departed within hours. After they fed Gretchen. She was so hungry she had to ask them to buy her something to eat. They carried it in the stage. Gretchen gobbled greedily.

  “Well so much for making that last the trip. You poor thing,” said Donny. “I have a mind to go back find the folks who kept you. Beat them myself.”

  “Yes sir,” said Rafe.

  There were worse things in life than to be escorted from the dungeon-like existence that Gretchen had just

  It was very easy to see that the two men were related. They both had the same twinkling dimples. They had a tendency to raise their eyebrows when they were surprised or found what they heard amusing.

  But Gretchen found Donny just a little bit more something. She was more than a little glad that she had gotten a ride from them. She couldn’t have asked for a safer escort. But if she had to choose, it would be Donny.

  When Gretchen walked into front door of the home on McElroy Bend she was met with a tiny but fierce little bit of a woman named Fiona. The faintest brogue touched her words. Gretchen could not tell if she was the friendly sort or not. The brothers clearly loved her but she didn’t crack the least little bit of a smile.

  “Who have you got here,” she said, eyeing her up and down.

  “Well we ain’t exactly sure,” said Rafe.

  “What do you mean you aren’t sure?” asked Fiona with a start.

  “Ma,” said Rafe. “This here is Gretchen.”

  Donny was silent. He wasn’t paying attention to the exchange between his mother or brother. Gretchen could feel him. He was looking at her. At the back of her head. She glanced over her shoulder slowly at him. He lifted the end of her heavy braid and winked at her. Rafe and Fiona were oblivious.

  But Gretchen sure wasn’t. She was faint. She was thirsty again and she could enough another meal like the one she had on the coach. But something clear or revived in her and her insides were alive with heat. It was one of the best feelings she had experienced in a while. It was one of the best feelings she had experienced ever. Being really attracted to a handsome man.

  “Why don’t you fetch Merla and let her figure it out for herself? They can both see whether they’re each other’s siblings,” said Fiona.

  “That’s a fine idea,” said Rafe.

  Rafe pushed passed Donny and Gretchen, out to one of the side buildings on the property. Fiona noted the connected between her other son and Gretchen.

  “You not going with him?” she asked, like she was diagnosing something.

  “Would you like
for me to?” asked Donny. “I’ll go.”

  “No why do you and Gretchen set her at the table. I have something on the stove I can feed you.”

  She brought out a wheel of bread sliced like in eighths and through the middle. It was dry as tumbleweed but buttered where it had been sliced and just about the best tasting thing Gretchen could imagine. Fiona poured her a tin of tea. It wasn’t hot and it wasn’t cold but it sure was tasty.

  “That will revive you some,” she said.

  But she wasn’t done. She ladled out bowls of stew for each of them. Donny crumbled his bread in his stew and ate it that way. When Rafe returned with yet another McElroy and Merla, Gretchen had her mouth full.

  It was tough to swallow the delicacy because it was that good. She wanted so badly to savor it. But she stood and waited to be introduced.

  “You’re saying you’re Merla’s sister?” asked Mac McElroy.

  “I am not sure if I am. I know the name Merla from when I was a young-in,” she said. “I am a little confused as to why.”

  “Forgive me for saying,” said Fiona. “That sounds a might peculiar.”

  Merla was stunned. She stared at the woman. She walked around her like a slow moving planet. Gretchen watched the expression on her face as though something was slowly dawning on her.

  “I think it’s you,” said Merla. “I don’t know why I am having such a hard time knowing why it’s you for sure.”

  A wall of pain erupted from deep within Gretchen’s belly. She put one hand to her mouth and extended the other outward, as if to invited Merla to come to. The two women embraced.

  “Now wait a minute,” Donny protested. “We don’t know this is for sure. I say we do some more investigating.”

  Rafe smiled a slow easy smile.

  “Well yeah,” he said. “Because she’s mine if she’s the real deal.”

  “I say she has a say in it,” said Donny.