Maddie's Quest (Valentine Mail Order Bride 2) Read online

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Other Books by Trinity Bellingham

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  About the Author

  The Sweet Clean Book Club

  Other Books by Trinity Bellingham

  Please Leave a Review for Maddie's Quest

  Contact Me

  Bonus Chapter

  MADDIE'S QUEST

  A Sweet and Clean Book Club

  Mail Order Bride Romance

  Valentine Mail Order Bride Series

  SWEET and CLEAN BOOK CLUB

  MAIL ORDER BRIDES

  ~ BOOK 2 ~

  TRINITY BELLINGHAM

  This is a work of fiction and all characters are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons or organizations, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2016, Maddie's Quest, A Sweet and Clean Book Club Mail Order Bride Romance, the Valentine Mail Order Bride Series, Trinity Bellingham. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any way or by any means - for example, electronic, photocopy, recording - without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

  This story is dedicated as always to my loyal and faithful readers, who I sincerely thank for their interest in my work. I also dedicate my stories to the women who had the courage to pioneer new lives in the West, often against unimaginable odds.

  Other Books by Trinity Bellingham

  Mail Order Brides of Hope Springs (Series)

  Tillie: A Clean Historical Mail Order Bride Romance ~Book 1~

  Millie: A Clean Historical Mail Order Bride Romance ~Book 2~

  Abigail: A Clean Mail Order Bride Romance - ~Book 3~

  Mail Order Bride for Christmas: A Clean Historical Mail Order Bride Romance ~Book 4~

  Or pick up the boxed set for best value...

  Wyoming Mail Order Brides (Series)

  Second Chance: A Clean Historical Mail Order Bride Romance ~Book 1~

  Love Him Love His Mother: A Clean Historical Mail Order Bride Romance ~Book 2~

  The Widow and the Widower: A Clean Mail Order Bride Romance - ~Book 3~

  Two Miracles for Christmas: A Clean Historical Mail Order Bride Romance ~Book 4~

  Or pick up the boxed set for best value...

  Bonus chapter...Be sure to check out the entire first chapter of 'Jewel's Dream' by Annie Boon at the end of this book....

  Prologue: YMCA Bible Study, New York, 1898

  Maddie Burns brushed crumbs from the serving table while her friends straightened up the room and collected tea cups from the departing Bible study group members. She bit back a sigh.

  Jewel joined her, setting down the half-dozen cups she'd managed to carry without spilling a drop of tea on the church's threadbare carpet. "Don't be sad, Maddie. It's just a silly holiday."

  Sarah joined them, while Caroline and Eva lined the meeting chairs up against the walls and Mae divided leftover tea cakes into six piles and wrapped them in napkins.

  "It doesn't mean anything," Sarah agreed.

  "But we never get flowers or cards." Maddie blinked back tears as the realization hurt. "How are we going to find husbands if we're already old maids?"

  Normally, Maddie found the study group inspiring. But somehow, the peace she usually found in reading God's word eluded her today. Seeing the other girl's Valentine's Day gifts had saddened her. Cards, flowers, candy--two of the older girls even sported engagement rings. Would anyone ever love her enough to want to be her Valentine?

  "You're too pretty to be an old maid." Sarah patted Maddie's shoulder. "Your time will come."

  "I'm not sure it's about being pretty," Mae pointed out as she handed Jewel a napkin full of cakes. "Most of those girls have families to help them out. Dowries. Connections."

  "We need to make our own connections." Caroline wiped her hands on her skirts and approached the table.

  "And pray on it," added Jewel.

  "I've been praying," said Eva as she, too, joined her friends. "I don't think we're going to find husbands here in New York City. There are too many other women in better circumstances than ourselves. We need to look somewhere else."

  Caroline's eyebrows went up. "Where else would we go?"

  "I don't want any old husband," Mae chimed in. "I want a man I can love. A man who will love and respect me in return."

  Maddie laughed. "That rules out all the young men around here. I can no more see myself marrying one of the boys from the factory than I would jump off the roof of this building."

  "Wait." Caroline held up one finger as if she'd just had an idea. "A few months ago, I was at the library and I overheard two of the librarians talking about the Matrimonial Times."

  "Marry a stranger? Move out west?" Jewel pursed her lips. "I can't believe you're suggesting it."

  "It's not going to hurt to buy a copy." Caroline looked at Jewel, who hadn't yet offered an opinion on the idea.

  "I suppose there's no harm in reading it," Jewel admitted.

  "The worst that could happen is that we'd get a letter we wouldn't want to answer." Mae passed the last of the napkin-wrapped cakes to Eva.

  Eva tucked the neat package into her reticule. "No one's going to make us write back."

  A moment of silence fell upon the group, as each girl contemplated the possibilities.

  "If we do this, we might never see each other again," Jewel said quietly. "We need to pray on it. What if God has another plan for us?"

  "God put the idea in Caroline's head," Maddie said.

  "And if it's not a good idea, God will send us a sign that we should stop," Sarah added.

  "But, the frontier? It's going to be so much different." Eva bit her lip. "What if we hate it there?"

  "Everything worth doing is a risk." Mae held her hands out to her friends. "A risk and an opportunity. We don't know what life will be like on the frontier, but it will be a fresh start. And no matter what, we'll remain friends. We'll write. We'll visit. We'll keep each other in our hearts, no matter what."

  Eva swallowed hard, then nodded. "It's agreed then?"

  "Agreed," the other girls said as one.

  Maddie's quest had begun.

  ~#~#~#~

  Chapter One

  "Could I take a copy of the Matrimonial Times?" Maddie asked the news seller behind the stand at the junction of four streets in downtown Queens.

  "Sure can, Ma'am. You thinkin' of headin' out West to marry a cowboy then?"

  "I don't rightly know yet... just want to take a look and see what it's all about." She handed over a couple of coins, hoping the purchase would yield results.

  "Plenty of young ladies are buying up this paper so there must be somethin' out there worth looking for."

  Maddie put her change in the reticule hanging from her wrist. "Thank you, I really hope so."

  She folded the paper and pushed it into her carry all, not wanting anyone to see her purchase, before heading home to the room she occupied in a dreary tenement. She'd lived in this room since leaving the orphanage she'd grown up in, a year or so ago and though it wasn't much, it was home. At every opportunity, she made little improvements to make it more attractive, like the lace curtains she'd crotched and hung over the only window.

&n
bsp; Her room was one of several on the ground floor at the front of the building, and she liked it that way because she could sit at the table under the window and sew the bundles of pieces Mr. Friedman from the factory regularly dropped off for her. Maddie was a skilled seamstress and sewed decorative designs onto the collars, cuffs and bodices that were mass produced by other women in Mr. Friedman's factory.

  It was a situation that suited her well because she couldn't bear to be confined in the gloomy sewing room at the factory. The women there spilled sweat as they slaved over sewing machines, the mindless monotony eating away at them day after day. They needed the pittance they earned and so endured the cramped, gloomy conditions. A pittance was better than nothing. Maddie knew she was lucky because at least she had a choice.

  She'd learned fancy needlework at the orphanage from a woman who'd volunteered her time to teach the inmates a skill. Maddie excelled at it and was rewarded by additional lessons that resulted in her acquiring a salable skill.

  When she left the orphanage, it meant she could take on fancy piecework which paid more than regular sewing jobs in a factory. It meant she could work at home and keep her own hours. It meant she had a little control over life, mostly free of the depression that hung like a cloud over the women as they slumped over their machines in the factory. It meant she had a little money to make her room more homelike, with small purchases such as a couple of pretty lamps and an old armchair which she decorated with hand crotched antimacassars for the arms and back.

  Maddie liked her room and was pleased at having created a comfortable nest she was happy to call home. She liked Queens too, because there were still some farms about and on weekends, she would walk there to buy fresh milk and eggs. The open fields and farmhouses with chickens pecking in the dooryard brought back memories of her mother and father, as well as the life they had shared together as a family up near Saratoga. It was only a small farm and they'd been dirt poor, but they managed on the little they had and it was a happy time.

  Then, when she was ten, her parents died from cholera. Alone in the world. Maddie was heartbroken when she was taken to an orphanage in New York. Still, she had the sense to make the most of her situation, just like her mother taught her. "Be happy with what you've got, Maddie," she'd said, "and always trust that God knows what is best you. You mightn't always like it, but you must have faith that God has put us on the path He wants. He has His reasons, even though we might not know them."

  The advice from her mother had always helped Maddie to be content with her life and it was no different now. Or was it?

  ~#~#~#~

  Last night at their Bible study group, Maddie and her friends had agreed to try and find a husband by way of the Matrimonial Times, even though it meant leaving New York and heading West. At the time it had seemed like a good idea because none of the women had husbands and Valentine's Day had been a miserable time for them.

  Though she'd spent precious coins this morning buying a copy of the Matrimonial Times, she found herself wondering now if it was such a good idea after all. She thought of the advice her mother gave her all those years ago and wondered if she wasn't accepting her lot in life and making the most of what she already had. After all, she was in a better position than most of the women in her neighborhood.

  As she approached the tenement where she lived, her thoughts were interrupted when two men ran from the front door of the building, followed closely by a Policeman brandishing a cudgel. "Get out of the way Miss!" the Policeman yelled, but it was too late.

  The men were intent on escaping and didn't see Maddie until they careened into her, leaving her shaking her head in the dirt of the street. It was enough to slow them down, allowing the Policeman to deliver a few well aimed blows which brought them down, closer to Maddie than she liked.

  "If you're not hurt, move out of the way Miss." She moved, frightened now and slowly stood up, brushing off her clothes as she did so.

  The Policeman cuffed one of the men and hit the other one again to immobilize him. Another Policeman exited the building, hurrying to cuff the second man. "Let's get these two down to the station. We can send someone else to take statements, but one thing is sure, these two are being charged with murder."

  "Has someone been murdered?" Maddie asked incredulously. "This neighborhood has always been safer than most." She couldn't believe what had happened.

  "Not any more Miss. The loan sharks moved in and it looks like someone in your building defaulted. Go inside and lock your door until some more officers get down here."

  Maddie immediately did as she was bid, although not before seeing Mrs. O'Brien down the other end of the hall doubled over in grief, keening and wailing out her pleas to God. "Oh Blessed Lord, what am I going to do now."

  As she unlocked her door and went inside, the usual feeling of entering a safe haven didn't fall over her. And was living at the front of the building a good idea now? She liked to sit by the window and sew, not just because of the better light, but because seeing and hearing the mothers and children out in the street allowed her to feel like part of a community. On sunny days, she could open the window and talk to people as they passed by.

  Now though, the benefits of the window were dubious, unless the landlord would agree to secure it with bars to deter intruders. "Pigs might fly before that happened," she thought, but would ask nevertheless. He came around every Friday to collect the rent. She would ask him then, but feared he would tell her to pay for it herself if she wanted it that much.

  Like most tenement landlords, he was out to make a profit and spending money on his property sent his balance sheet in the wrong direction. He was happy for tenants to spend their own money if they chose to do so. It made the room more attractive to the next one.

  "No, I'll have to pay for it myself," she thought, "even though it makes no sense to spend money on a place I don't own." Such were her thoughts as she lit a small fire in the fireplace to boil some water for a pot of tea, to be enjoyed in one of the two pretty cup and saucer sets she had bought for herself.

  She had sewing to do for Mr. Friedman, but first she needed to think about the problems that had arisen in the last twenty four hours, in terms of her mother's advice, which to be truthful, had helped her every step of the way since she was ten years old. And she had made an agreement with her friends after their regular Bible Study meeting last night. Could she honor it?

  ~#~#~#~

  Maddie settled in her armchair beside the dying embers of the fire, reluctant to waste her meager supply of wood. She received a regular delivery each Saturday from the farmer that also sold eggs and milk to her. Not one to be wasteful, she was frugal in her use of it and used it only for cooking, often choosing to make do with a cold supper when it wasn't bitterly cold outside.

  By rationing her supply of wood, she had managed to stockpile enough to enjoy a warming fire when the winter was at its worst and it was a habit she would not break anytime soon. Maddie was thrifty with everything because she'd always been so. She remade clothes from the charity bin at the church, always amazed at how much wear was left in them and as a result, always looked well dressed. With her dark hair swept up into a chignon, she simply looked elegant, with her pale complexion and dark eyes completing the picture.

  She was alone but happy to have a conversation with the Lord so as to give voice to what was on her mind.

  "So what am I to do? I am content with my life here and have all I need, except for a husband. Marriage and children would provide fulfillment, but perhaps you don't want me to marry. If that is what you want, then that's fine with me. On the other hand, this is perhaps not a safe place for me to live anymore and Mr. O'Brien's murder is a sign that you want me to go somewhere else. I'm not afraid to move West and truth to tell, I'd love to live on a farm again. I'd need a husband to do that though, and rely on you to provide me with someone suitable. You know I need little to live on, so I don't need a rich husband, just someone who will be kind to me and of course a
Godly man who will go to church with me on Sundays... and live by your Word for the rest of the week as well."

  Maddie sipped her tea while she had this conversation in her head, then closed her eyes while she waited for God to send her an answer. She didn't have long to wait. A young woman out in the street started screaming as a ruffian attacked her, ripping her reticule from her and leaving her sobbing in the street.

  "Thank you Lord," she said out loud, reaching for her carry all to retrieve the Matrimonial Times. "Now show me which one to send a reply to."

  Maddie opened up the paper to the third page of advertisements to find one with a penciled cross beside it. "Tell me you didn't do that, but I'm guessing you made it happen somehow. So I'll take a look at this one." She read the advertisement with unfeigned interest.

  "Wanted: a good Christian woman, thrifty of habit, to take up the position of my wife. I am a telegraph operator, 22 years old, with a small cabin and farm just out of Tipton, Wyoming. The wife I am looking for will need to undertake the usual farm duties while I am at work, as well as help me with building up the farm into a going concern in my free time. The woman I take to wife should also be acquainted with all aspects of home duties, including cleaning, cooking and sewing. I am an easy going man and would prefer a to marry a woman of like temperament, with a view to developing genuine respect for each other and in God's good time, a loving marriage. Please reply to Mr. Hank Shelby, The Telegraph Office, Tipton, Wyoming. Women who are not prepared to work hard or are unable to understand farm duties need not apply."

  Maddie was so overwhelmed she almost cried. "Thank you Lord. I'll answer this one right away."

  ~#~#~#~

  Chapter Two

  Hank Shelby hauled himself out of bed, pleased the weather was finally warming a little. He was tired of freezing wind weaving its icy tendrils around him the minute he left the warmth of his bed. He looked forward to the time when he could figure out how to caulk the gaps between the logs which formed the walls of the cabin. Technically he knew what to do, but the mechanics of actually doing it was another thing altogether.