August (Prairie Grooms, #1) Read online

  August

  (Prairie Grooms, Book One)

  By

  Kit Morgan

  ANGEL CREEK PRESS

  August

  (Prairie Grooms, Book One)

  by Kit Morgan

  © 2014 Kit Morgan

  Find other titles by Kit Morgan including:

  The Prairie Bride Series:

  His Prairie Princess (Prairie Brides, Book One)

  Her Prairie Knight (Prairie Brides, Book Two)

  His Prairie Duchess (Prairie Brides, Book Three)

  Her Prairie Viking (Prairie Brides, Book Four)

  His Prairie Sweetheart (Prairie Brides Book Five)

  Her Prairie Outlaw (Prairie Brides Book Six)

  Christmas in Clear Creek (Prairie Brides, Book Seven)

  The Holiday Mail-Order Bride Series:

  The Christmas Mail-Order Bride (Book One)

  The New Year's Bride (Book Two)

  His Forever Valentine (Book Three)

  Her Irish Surrender (Book Four)

  The Springtime Mail-Order Bride (Book Five)

  Coming June 2014:

  Love in Independence (Book Six)

  Prairie Grooms:

  Ryder (Prairie Grooms, Book Two)

  Coming late June:

  Seth (Prairie Grooms, Book Three)

  Coming in July:

  Chase (Prairie Grooms, Book Four)

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  All characters are fictional. Any resemblances to actual people are purely coincidental.

  Cover design by Angel Creek Press, The Killion Group and Hotdamndesigns.com

  License Notes

  This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  For Carly, who will understand fully these words (especially since they are coming from Kitty Morgan herself): “Don’t worry, one day your prince will come. It’s all the shopping between now and then that a girl has to worry about! I hear the shopping in New York is fantastic ... shall we?”

  Table of Contents

  The Players

  Introduction

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  About

  Prairie Grooms, Book One; August

  The Narrator: Tom Turner

  His Audience: The Weaver Clan

  The Players:

  Our Hero ................................................................ August Bennett

  Our Heroine ............................................................. Penelope Sayer

  Also starring:

  The Cooke Brothers and Their Wives

  The English Cousins

  The Townsfolk of Clear Creek

  And Introducing:

  Clyde, the Chicken

  No harm came to Clyde during the telling of this story, though the same can’t be said for anyone who had encounters with him ...

  Introduction

  The Weaver farm, a day’s ride out of Nowhere, Washington Territory, March 1871.

  Deputy Tom Turner was a natural-born storyteller. He sat, hands folded on the kitchen table, and waited for his audience – in this case, the Weaver family – to sit and ready themselves for what he was about to tell them.

  He’d been sent out to their farm on account of a ruckus he’d caught wind of at the Gundersons’ stage stop a half-day’s ride away, and had come to investigate. There was a nasty outlaw roaming the area, and once he reached his destination, sure enough, the low-down varmint had been terrorizing the Weaver clan. Or was it the other way around? Tom couldn’t be sure, but he made his arrests (turned out there was more than one varmint), had the bad guys locked up for a spell, and figured he had time for a tale before hauling his catch off to jail in Nowhere.

  “Is there gonna be blood an' guts?” Calvin, one of the identical twins, asked, his voice tinged with eagerness.

  “Land sakes, boy!” his mother chastised. “Haven’t we had enough excitement for one day? Darn outlaw comes here givin’ us all this trouble on our own farm, and you want to hear about blood and guts?”

  “Well, gee, Ma, it’s a right logical question,” said Benjamin, the other twin.

  Tom smiled. The twins were a few years younger than himself and hadn’t quite settled down yet – unlike their older brother Arlan, who’d just got married. He sat with his pretty wife Samijo at his side, waiting for him to start.

  Tom cleared his throat. “Now, this here tale is about when a bunch o’ English ladies traveled all the way from the other side of the world so they could find husbands.”

  “Were they mail-order brides like me?” Samijo asked.

  Tom thought on that a moment before he nodded. “You could say that. It was a rather unusual situation. Duncan Cooke, the oldest of the three Cooke brothers back in my hometown of Clear Creek? Well, he up and found out he was a duke – inherited a title and all that went with it. In this case, that meant havin’ to go to England to live and do whatever it is a duke does.”

  “What’s a duke?” asked Daniel. At nineteen, he was the youngest of the Weaver clan.

  Tom scratched his head. “A duke is a fella that lives in a big fancy house, has servants runnin’ around keepin’ the place clean, and’s got himself a heap o’ responsibilities to take care of.”

  “What kind o’ responsibilities?” Arlan asked.

  “All kinds,” said Tom. “But the one we’re concerned with is the marryin’ kind. Seems Duncan got stuck with a passel o’ female relations no one wanted to have anythin’ to do with.”

  “Was they ugly?” asked Calvin with a grimace.

  “Calvin, mind your manners!” his mother hissed.

  “No,” Tom answered. “They were all right pretty.”

  “Then how come no one wanted to marry ‘em?” asked Benjamin.

  Tom bit his lower lip as he looked at each one of them in turn. “On account any man that started courtin’ one of ‘em met with ...” He leaned forward for effect. “... a horrible accident.”

  “What?” the men asked as the women gasped.

  “What do you mean, they met with an accident?” Samijo added, her hand to her chest.

  Tom shrugged. “All I know is, some other fella wanted to be the new duke and have all that went with it. As I recall, his name was Thackeray Holmes. He didn’t want some other relation to get it. But that’s another story – let’s stick to this one. First, let me tell you a little about the Cooke family. It was a sad day when Duncan and his wife Cozette left Clear Creek for England. The whole town turned out to see ‘em off, and there was weepin’ and wailin’ like you’d never seen or heard before.”

  “Forget about that,” said Calvin. “Let’s get to the blood an’ guts!”

  Calvin’s mother rolled her eyes and groaned.

  Tom chuckled and continued. “Duncan, Cozette, and a few others left for England, which o’course takes a long time to get to. A year passed, and Duncan sent word to his two brothers, Colin and Harrison, that he had a problem – about six to be exact, and all female. Well, S
adie—she’s Harrison’s wife—she comes up with the idea o’ tellin’ Duncan to send them to Clear Creek to be married, on account mail-order brides from back east didn’t want to come to some tiny speck of a town. They wanted to choose husbands from more settled areas.”

  “How did that work?” Samijo asked.

  “Well, ya see, Sadie’s real smart. She rounded up some o’ the men in town, and had ‘em write letters tellin’ about themselves and what they were lookin’ for in a wife. And she didn’t have them write just one letter, she made ‘em write several. She then sent them to Duncan in England, and he and Cozette matched up the menfolk – based on their letters – with each one o’ Duncan’s cousins.”

  “Wow, talk about your mail-order bride!” Arlan exclaimed.

  “And I thought New Orleans was a long way to travel from,” added Samijo.

  “Yep, these gals came all the way from England. But when Sadie Cooke told the men in Clear Creek she could get ‘em mail-order brides, she left out the part about them comin’ from so far away.”

  “Don’t seem fair, not lettin’ those men know,” said Ma. “What happened when they found out?”

  Tom laughed. “Well, ya gotta hand it to Sadie – that woman had a system, let me tell you! And it worked. The women arrived in sets of three, the first comin’ along in June. Let’s see ... there was Penelope, Constance, and Eloise in the first batch.”

  “Who got hitched first?” asked Calvin.

  “Well, now, that’s what I’m gonna tell ya. Sadie, she came up with the idea that only one should get married at a time, ‘cause she and Belle – Colin’s wife – couldn’t keep track and chaperone three women at once, so they spaced the courtin’ apart to make sure things were done right. But ...”

  “But what?” Arlan asked, a hint of a smile on his face.

  “Well, there were a few things that didn’t go quite as planned ...” Tom paused for effect and watched his audience as they looked at one another.

  “Well?” Arlan asked. “Aren’t you goin’ to tell us?”

  Tom smiled. “You ready?”

  “Of course we’re ready! Now tell the dang-blasted story!” Ma said as she slapped the table with a hand.

  Tom straightened in his chair. “All right. I’ll start with Duncan’s departure, ‘cause that’s really when Sadie came up with the idea ...”

  Clear Creek, Oregon, April 2, 1859

  Duncan Cooke watched the townsfolk as they filed out of Mulligan’s Saloon and gathered around the stagecoach. The people of Clear Creek had held a special breakfast for him and his fellow passengers, and were about to send them off.

  Harrison, the youngest of the Cooke brothers, slapped him on the back. “I say, old chap, it’s not going to be the same around here without you bossing everyone about.”

  Duncan smiled. “I’m sure Jefferson will be happy to bark orders in my stead. He’s done a fine job so far, what with organizing all of this.” He waved his hand to indicate the crowd. Jefferson Cooke, their stepfather, was nowhere in sight. “He’s probably busy ordering everyone around in the saloon right now.”

  Harrison nodded in agreement and patted his stomach. “Mrs. Dunnigan did herself proud with that breakfast!” He eyed his brother and smirked. “Admit it, you’re going to miss her cooking ... and her badgering.”

  “I have my wife’s cooking to look forward to,” Duncan reminded him. Cozette was an exceptional cook, and everyone in town knew it. “As to the badgering, I think I’m safe.”

  Harrison sighed. “Well, you can’t blame me for trying. I was hoping to find something with which to tempt you into staying ...”

  “You know this has to be done. We have to go, there’s no help for it. If the estate is in good order, I estimate a visit within the next few years. Don’t worry about me, worry about your wife and child.”

  Harrison glanced to his wife Sadie, who rubbed her growing belly with both hands. She was due in a few months, and Harrison had been beside himself ever since he found out she was pregnant. He turned back to Duncan with a smile. “If it’s a girl, we’re going to name her Honoria, after mother.”

  “What if it’s a boy?” Duncan asked.

  “Sadie is convinced it’s a girl, and hasn’t thought on a boy’s name yet.”

  “She’d better hurry, just in case.”

  “What are you two gabbling about?” Colin, the middle brother asked as he strolled up. “Giving orders before you leave, Duncan?”

  “Hardly,” Duncan said. “Other than watch out for this one,” he added with a toss of his head at Harrison. “He’s going to be so excited when Sadie gives birth, he’ll be worthless on the ranch.”

  “As opposed to now?” Colin laughed. “We’ll make do.”

  “It’s going to be a girl,” Harrison insisted. “You’ll see.”

  “More females – just what we need.” Colin said. “Though there’s certainly not enough to go around, that’s for sure.”

  “You can say that again,” Harrison mumbled as Sadie walked over to them. “Hullo, wife!” he greeted.

  She smiled at her husband, then looked at Duncan. “I wish ... I wish you could stay on a little longer. I’m going to miss you all so much.”

  Duncan’s eyes softened. “We’re going to miss you too, and I’m going to also miss seeing my niece born.” He looked right at Harrison. “Or nephew, whichever the case may be.”

  Harrison rolled his eyes as Cozette joined them, along with two other couples. The Bergs and Dupries were traveling to London with Duncan and Cozette for reasons of their own. “I think Willie the driver is ready to go,” she told her husband.

  Mr. Berg, a tall bear of a man who looked like he’d been carved out of marble, stepped forward. “We’d best be on our way, Duncan. Willie still has other stops to make.” He put his arm around his wife Maddie who began to softly weep. Mr. Berg swallowed hard. “We’ve said all our goodbyes in the saloon. Let’s not hold the stage up any longer.” He let his wife hug Sadie, then helped her into the coach.

  The Dupries were next to board, followed by a weeping Cozette, which left the three brothers, Sadie, and now Belle, Colin’s wife who just joined them. “Duncan,” she said as she peered past him into the stage. “Please take care of yourself and the others.”

  Duncan glanced over his shoulder. “I don’t think I need to take care of Mr. Berg.”

  Everyone laughed at that. Colin was about to comment when Mrs. Dunnigan and her husband Wilfred pushed their way through the crowd. “Wait!” Wilfred cried. “We’ve got something for ya!”

  The crowd parted and let them through. Mrs. Dunnigan huffed and puffed her way to the stage. “I ordered this special, just for you!” she said as she held up a wrapped object.

  Duncan smiled. It was obviously a ladle. He took it from her and was surprised at the weight of it.

  “Finest cast iron there is!” she said proudly. “I trust you’ll use it when you need it.”

  “Mrs. Dunnigan ...” Duncan said and almost choked up. “I thank you, not only for this, but for the fine breakfast you made for the town this morning. I really am going to miss your cooking.”

  The plump woman blushed and, though she was known for being crotchety most of the time, stood on tiptoe and kissed Duncan on the cheek, tears in her eyes. “Take care of your business and hurry back to us. Besides, the ladies’ sewing circle is losing members with all of you leaving! You ... you have to come back!”

  She let loose a sob and turned to Wilfred who took her in his arms. “You heard her,” he told Duncan, fighting his own tears. “Come back as soon as you can. The sewing circle depends on it.”

  Duncan smiled as Sadie stepped forward. “If we had more women in town, it might not be so dire, but there aren’t any,” she said softly.

  “Maybe you ought to send away for some, then the sewing circle wouldn’t suffer so,” Duncan teased.

  Sadie stared at him, her mouth half-open, and puckered her brow.

  “I know that look,” Ha
rrison said. “It always means trouble. Whatever it is you have in your head, wife, get it out now!”

  She looked at him, her mouth curving up into a smile. “Don’t mind if I do.”

  Belle clapped her hands together. “What is it?”

  Sadie’s smile broadened. “A wonderful idea ... yes, it’s just what this town needs. I know how we can bring more women to Clear Creek!”

  The three brothers stared at her. Duncan broke the silence. “Harrison, Colin, have fun with whatever it is she’s scheming. I dare say, considering the look in her eye, I’m glad I’m leaving!” He made to get into the stagecoach, but his brothers pulled him back and hugged him with such fierceness it brought fresh tears to everyone’s eyes. Mrs. Mulligan, the saloon owner’s wife, let out a wail and buried her face in her apron.

  An elderly woman made her way through the crowd and reached the brothers just as they let go of Duncan. “You can’t start off without this!” she called into the stage and held up a basket with both hands. Mr. Duprie reached out and took it from her. “That basket is for everyone, but especially for Mr. Berg,” the old woman said.

  Mr. Berg took the basket, peeked inside and groaned. “Grandma!”

  “Six pies, as is your usual,” she told him with a smile. The townsfolk gathered near them burst into laughter. Grandma Waller had been baking pies for Mr. Berg as a joke ever since he’d courted Maddie his wife. “I’m gonna miss giving pie-baking lessons to your bride, Mr. Berg,” she said with sadness.

  “You’ll be able to give pie lessons to a lot of women, Grandma, if my idea works!” Sadie interjected.

  “What are you talking about?” Duncan demanded. “Just what is this idea of yours?”

  She stood proudly. “Mail-order brides.”

  “Mail-order what?” Harrison asked.

  “Mail-order brides,” she repeated. “August Bennett told me they were doing it in Oregon City. Women from back east answer gentlemen’s advertisements for brides and come out west to marry them.”

  “That’s a wonderful idea!” Belle said with excitement. “I have friends in Boston I can write to – I’m sure they would post a notice for us asking for brides!”