Amelia rode in the stagecoach as it neared Paradise. She shared it with two other women, both young and beautiful. They'd gotten on at Virginia City while she'd been returning from Salt Lake City where she'd been living for a month on a cattle ranch. She'd stopped there because it reminded her of the one back home...back in Australia.
The one she'd left behind forever to come to America for what her parents hoped would be a better life. She'd been restless back in the family ranch which bordered the Outback, a godly mass of land that stretched beyond what the eye could see. No end to it at all, she knew from riding a good stretch of it on horseback with the ranch hands.
One of them Hank had nearly died from a snake bite on the last trip…whisking Amelia out of danger when she'd nearly stepped on its nest. Australia crawled with snakes of different colors, different lifestyle most of them able to kill a grown man in less than a couple of minutes.
Some of the snakes were of the two footed kind. She had learned that too when she'd been kidnapped one too many time by bandits hoping to extort money out of her parents. They'd arrived dirt poor from Ireland looking for a better life in the promised land…proving that there was more for the continent to do than provide housing and hard labor for outlaws who'd been sent there to live and work off their sentences.
So it'd been time to ship her off to America to stay with some distant cousins who had an estate in San Francisco. But far from being educated and reared in much wealthier circumstances, she'd found herself working from sunrise to sunset cooking and cleaning for the family who lived there.
But that was the distant past…not to think about right now, she had to concentrate on getting back to Paradise and to the man she'd left there with a broken heart.
"I can't wait to get there," one of them, a redhead named Edwina said, "There's a lot of miners moving back there now that they've hit a new vein in the side of some mountain."
Amelia hadn't known that once again there'd been a lucky strike in Paradise…just the bits and pieces from listening to the women next to her for the past day. It was obvious that she was looking for a good time and maybe to snag herself a man to take care of her and share all his newfound wealth. It'd hardly be the first time that happened…it'd become a profession in itself. She was a businesswoman herself, some might have called her no nonsense and obsessed with it before getting to know her better. But she couldn't bring that part of her into a relationship.
Not that she'd ever wanted to fall in love again after her husband Pierce had dodged some angry men he'd swindled leaving her in the lurch with their bank.
Her bank…and she'd ran it well up to the moment she sold it and she'd fallen in love along the way. This time a man who couldn't have been more different than Pierce even though she'd nearly written him off at first.
But she'd hurt him, she knew that now that she'd put her own feelings aside. The fear, the sadness, the certainty that both would rule her life the moment that Ethan Cord's chosen profession got him killed. It was bound to happen; it almost did more than once. How many times had she shed tears thinking he was lying dead with a bullet in him somewhere, how many times had she held onto him so tightly when he'd been near death?
Too many times she'd decided, too many interrupted weddings, an engagement which split them apart more than ever.
So she'd done like Pierce had done and just bolted…only in her case she'd at least said goodbye. She'd run into her ex not too long ago and he'd seemed gleeful that she and Ethan hadn't worked out but she sent him packing soon enough, telling him their ship had sailed. Seeing Pierce again just made her miss Ethan all the more.
She'd had some adventures, had her fun and then decided to go back home…the only home on this earth for her.
The other woman, Stella smiled at Edwina. She had her own plans for what she'd do when she got there. She had been sent there to get herself a husband…as some sort of mail order bride. She'd waxed about how handsome the man had looked in his photo. Amelia had him pegged as a miner or maybe a storekeeper…who knows maybe Axelrod himself had decided he'd been a bachelor long enough.
But then Stella started getting more specific.
"He's the town marshal you know," she said, "Isn't that wonderful?"
Amelia's brows shot up. What the…what had Ethan decided to do?
"Excuse me…you mentioned the town marshal," she said, "You mean Ethan Cord?"
Stella looked over at her.
"Why yes…who else I would mean," she said, "I mean he doesn't exactly know I'm coming…I was sent by someone else to make him happy."
Amelia thought, of all the crazy things. Who would have done such a thing she thought…and then it came to her in a flash.
"Pierce…"
Ethan knew he had to get the children dressed and ready to go into town after they'd done their chores on the ranch. They had enough time to meet the stagecoach where he would meet the woman that had been sent to marry him. He didn't know much about her just that she'd looked pretty enough in her photo and had been looking for a husband.
He had talked to the circuit judge who had traveled from Stockton to inform him that he needed to get married if he wished to keep his sister's children with him.
"I don't know why you have to get married," Claire said, "Isn't there another way?"
They were riding on the wagon to town and Claire had never been happy about having to suddenly get a stepmother she'd never known just to stay together with the only family they had left after their mama died and their daddy abandoned them.
"I don't know Claire," Ethan sighed, "The judge was very insistent on it when he heard the case. "
It had started when it turned out that Lucy had left a will after all. She'd shipped the children to Paradise and him before her death and it was assumed that as the only known living relative that he'd be raising them…even on his own if necessary.
But a codicil had surfaced in the will that he'd only get the children if he could provide them with a mother. Lucy had known that they'd need a mother just as much as a father and she'd assumed that Ethan would have found himself a wife by then.
So since there were few single women in Paradise, he'd put an advertisement in a newspaper and face it, he'd been desperate. This was not how he liked to find women let alone finding one to marry and help him raise the children.
There'd been only one woman on God's green earth as Claire might call it that he wanted to marry. But he hadn't seen her since she got on the stagecoach and left Paradise. It'd been the longest six months of his life since she left. John Taylor had said she'd come back but so far no sign of her not even a letter or telegram.
George piped up.
"What does she look like," he said, "Is she pretty?"
Ethan couldn't answer that question yet. He hadn't seen her except for the faded photo but he didn't know how long ago that had been taken. At this point it didn't matter much because all he wanted to do was find someone to marry before the judge ruled that he wasn't fit to raise the children on his own.
He'd do anything for his niece and nephews, his own flesh and blood…he just didn't think he'd ever be marrying under the gun. Somehow he'd find a way to make it work.
"I don't know George…I would think so based on the photo."
Claire shook her head.
"I can't believe you're doing this Uncle Ethan…this isn't the way it's supposed to happen."
He sighed.
"Claire…I told you if I don't get married…you're not going to be able to stay with me. You'll be sent to an orphanage or on one of those orphan trains…remember that?"
She fell silent because she did remember the orphan trains when they came to Paradise.
"I can't let that happen to you or the boys…no matter what."
George frowned.
"We're going on the train?"
He glanced over at his youngest nephew with his eyes widening.
"No George…we're meeting the stagecoach, I told you that."
George just nodded and went to go sit down with Ben as Ethan turned the wagon off the road into town onto the main strip. People were milling about as they often did when the stagecoach was due to arrive. He got off the wagon near the wire office and tied the horses to the post. Dakota stood outside the Marshal's office.
"Took you long enough to get here."
Ethan just looked at his deputy.
"Any trouble during the night…?"
Dakota shook his head and sighed.
"Circuit preacher's due in by the end of the week," he said, "in case anyone needs to get baptized, buried or…married."
Ethan flexed his jaw.
"I might take him up on the last one," he said, "Judge didn't tell me how much time I have to get the children a mother…"
Dakota smirked.
"Your wife is on the stage isn't she?"
Ethan scratched the back of his neck.
"There might be more than one," he said, "I got several responses to my ad and they're coming to Paradise."
Dakota studied his friend.
"You don't look too thrilled to be heading to the altar."
Ethan sighed.
"I'm not much into whirlwind courtships and shot gun weddings…"
Dakota narrowed his eyes.
"Shotgun weddings…she hasn't been here long enough to get her into trouble…"
Ethan frowned.
"You know what I mean," he said, "I'm only doing this so I can keep the children…I don't want them being raised by strangers…or winding up on one of those orphan trains."
Dakota nodded.
"I get that…a man's got to do what a man's got to do but getting married?"
"The children aren't orphans and I won't have them treated that way," Ethan said, "If that means getting married to keep them with the only family they got, then that's what I got to do."
Dakota smiled.
"Okay…what about Amelia?"
A sore subject with Ethan and most everyone in town knew that but some like Dakota just didn't care enough to shut up about it.
"What about her? She left me remember," Ethan said, "I haven't heard from her in six months. She didn't want a man who could get killed and leave her raising his children."
Dakota arched his brows.
"Who can blame her," he said, "I think you're a great marshal and a good man but you put that woman through hell always having to worry about you, take care of you…but then that's Amelia's problem…hooking up with men who need a strong woman to take care of them."
Ethan didn't like that one bit.
"What do you mean…I need a strong woman to take care of me? I don't need anyone to take care of me…I've done just fine without a wife."
Dakota chortled.
"Yeah…right Ethan…how many times has Amelia had to drop everything and sit by your bedside and wonder whether you'd live or die…compared to that a husband running off on her might seem like nothing."
Ethan bristled and looked again for the stage coach.
"Where is it? Stan's running late this morning."
Dakota shrugged.
"I heard that it popped a wheel and had to stop in Silver Ridge…it'll be along when it gets fixed."
Ethan sighed, wondering if this day would get any less pleasant. But as he looked out to see Claire chiding Ben and George for running too close to Axelrod's produce stand he knew he wouldn't have it any other way.
No one was taking away the children from him…no one.
Amelia sat in a restaurant while the stagecoach's wheel was being replaced. Good for them it'd popped off when they'd been about to stop to do mail service in Silver Ridge. Better than being stranded for several hours out in the wilderness.
Edwina sat down and ordered from the menu. She hadn't been as talkative as Stella who was still freshening up before joining them.
"So you answered the ad too?"
Amelia just looked at the other woman.
"The what…?"
Edwina smiled.
"The one in the paper to marry the marshal in Paradise," she said, "He's got four kids and they need a mother to raise them."
Amelia thought that odd. Ethan had been raising them on his own for over a year as a single parent.
"Really…so he wanted a mail order bride?"
Edwina shrugged.
"Guess so…I answered it," she said, "Bought myself some new clothes…I've always wanted to get married to a nice man. What about you? I know Stella thinks she's going to get him but she's wrong."
Amelia frowned.
"What is this, some kind of contest?"
Edwina smiled.
"It'll have to be if there's more than one of us wouldn't you think? He's going to have to choose from among us…can't marry more than one woman."
"I would imagine so…but no I'm not going to Paradise to marry the marshal," Amelia said, "I'm there on business."
That was true…she had made a promise to someone…and it had gotten so complicated…too much so. She didn't know if she was ready to see him again.
Not that it mattered since he had gone out ordering himself mail order brides…so whatever they had shared was in the past.
Most likely where it belonged….she just wished she didn't wonder otherwise. It wouldn't do her any good. When she had left him she hadn't expected to return.
Life had a way of bringing two people together whether they were ready for it or not.
