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By Faith Blum
Coming in August 2016!
(Note: Some details in this sneak peek are subject to change)
“Miss Adelaide, will you marry me?” a man slurred.
Adelaide cringed. Did she really look that desperate? “No, I will not.”
The man’s face crumpled. “Why?”
Adelaide closed her eyes and counted slowly to ten. “You are drunk, poorer than I am, and filthy. I’ve never seen you at church and I won’t marry a man who isn’t a Christian.”
Orrin Jefferson sighed and stumbled away from her. Once he was gone, Adelaide Brown breathed deeply. “Thank You, Lord, for protecting me from him again.”
She hurried home, newspaper in hand. Maybe today there would be an advertisement for a job or someone looking for a mail order bride.
Once inside the house her parents had built before she was born, she sat in her father’s chair. Had it really been over a year since he had last sat there? She shook the dismal thought from her head and opened the paper, starting with the advertisements.
Young farmer in need of wife. Must be able to cook. Young widow with children fine. Must be 18-26. Kit Tyler, Abilene, Kansas
Sheriff’s assistant, 22, seeks wife. Write Benjamin Paul Cheyenne Wyoming
Adelaide felt a lump forming in her throat. “God,” she choked, “can I really do this? Marriage is such a sacred thing. How can I do it so lightly just so I can survive?”
A peace that could only come from God washed over her and she let the tears flow down her cheeks. “Pa, Ma, I miss you so much. I don’t want to leave this place, but I don’t have a choice. No one will hire me except at the saloons, and I can’t farm this place by myself.”
Adelaide roughly wiped the tears off her face, stood up, and hurried to her mother’s desk. She pulled out a piece of paper and dipped the pen into an inkwell to start her letter to Kit Tyler and then one to Benjamin Paul. Once they responded, she prayed she would be able to discern between the two.
