Love on the Plains Read online

  Love on the Plains

  Ciara Knight

  Love on the Plains

  Book III

  McKinnie Mail Order Brides Series

  Copyright ©2017 by Ciara Knight

  All rights reserved.

  First edition published 2017

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Also by Ciara Knight

  About the Author

  Prologue

  The barren remains of the McKinnie lands and Dinah’s broken heart had driven her to this hasty choice; the kind of choice that would forever alter her life. If for the better, she couldn’t say, but it was difficult to imagine anything worse than her current circumstances even facing the unknown groom of the mail-order proposal. Not with her food gone, parents gone, brothers gone...her life gone.

  Cora clasped Dinah’s arm. “I know you’ve been strained by the aftermath of the war. We all have been. But please don’t go. There’s still hope. If anyone can save us and keep us together, it’s Abigail. Don’t leave. Give her time to send for us.”

  Dinah winced, she couldn’t replace one horror for another. They’d only received one letter so far from Abigail that told of a dead cousin, an unreasonable man who had claimed their cousin’s land, and the danger of Indians. How could Dinah wait any longer?

  She’d already waited enough. Four long years for the war to end and life to be replaced with certainties instead of the unknown. For the sound of gaiety at a party in their home instead of the threat of approaching cannon fire. For the aroma of savory meat instead of the stench of soldiers who hadn’t bathed in months marching into their home. “Even if I wait, what kind of life will Abigail offer us in Kansas? She may be the eldest, but that doesn’t mean she’s right about keeping us all together. She lives far from society. Her life and home sound no better than where and how we live now.”

  “But we’ll be together,” Cora said, her tone entreating. “And we won’t starve.”

  “You can’t promise that. There is no guarantee. Abigail is working a homestead, and a struggling one, at best.” Dinah’s chest tightened at the thought of abandoning her remaining five sisters, but they needed to understand there had to be more to live for than broken homes and hearts. Dinah couldn’t bear another moment facing the possibility of starvation or worse.

  It was time. Her dear sisters, the only members left of her family, clung to a life that no longer existed. That’s why they all needed to find their own way in life and not rely on Abigail to save them.

  Dinah lifted the swatch of cloth that served as a door, tacked over the wide entryway after their home had been burned nearly to the ground by Sherman’s soldiers. Hooking the fabric on a nail, she gazed over the land that had once been a source of pride and joy. “This was once such a splendid place. We owned the most majestic plantation in all of Marietta, Georgia. Mother would host grand parties, and handsome men lined up for a chance to offer even a smile at one of the seven beautiful McKinnie sisters. Now, the plantation is destroyed, and the only men around are old or poor.”

  “You were always adored.” Cora stroked Dinah’s hair, the way their mother had done when they were children.

  Dinah thought she could almost smell her mother’s floral perfume and feel her gentle touch.

  Cora sighed. “The rest of us didn’t exist when you entered a room. It will be the same in Kansas. You are the one sister I never worry will find a wonderful husband. A love match.” Her fingers toyed with a stray piece of hair that had fallen around Dinah’s face. “You don’t need to accept a mail-order bride proposal. Give it time, wait—”

  Dinah whirled on her sister, their skirts colliding in a frenzy of faded and worn outdated fabric. “I’m done waiting. I love you, and I love Abigail and the rest of our sisters, but I can’t sit here and watch this…this death around me. I’m devastated every time I see the graves of our brothers, our parents, our friends littered across our land. We escaped the horrors of war, survived the burning of our home and fields. But what is survival if you don’t live?”

  She swore she could still smell the ash from their burning roof and the sickly odor of sweat from the soldiers. The sounds of Josephine’s screams when one of them attacked her in the barn and the whimpers that followed haunted her memories. She shuddered.

  “Dinah—"

  “I’m still going,” she said, dully. “I’m going after a future. If I can secure my life with a mail-order husband, then if Abigail isn’t able to take anyone into her home, I can send for all of you.”

  A bird swooped down and pecked at the scorched ground near the charred bottom verandah step. It quickly realized the earth had nothing to offer. No life left, not even a worm. The bird flew away, escaping into the ether. The way Dinah wanted to escape.

  Cora didn’t say anything, and Dinah didn’t want to turn and face her. Not yet. But their other sisters crested the hill in the distance and she knew her time was running short. She took a deep breath, the odor of burnt wood mixing with regret assailing her nostrils, and turned to face the disappointment she knew her sister had to feel.

  Cora fingered the shreds of once opulent flocked wallpaper hanging in a strip next to the door. “I see.”

  Dinah heard the pain in her voice and couldn’t stand it. She stayed Cora’s hand and held it to her heart. “Please, you must understand. I want a man who adores me and is proud to have me on his arm. I’ve only had time to receive one letter from him, but I know the man promised to me is an important businessman; he lives in a thriving town along the Missouri River in Iowa. Where Marietta is dying a slow death, Sioux City, is transforming into a big, boisterous, full-of-life town that is about to explode with the addition of the railroad.” Her pulse quickened at the thought of busy streets and lively conversations. Then she swallowed the excitement at the realization she sounded like a spoiled child.

  “You must think me superficial and selfish, but I want parties and friends and love. I want to live again.” She wanted to forget the war, forget the smells, forget the sounds, forget the death.

  Despite the words she spoke, Dinah knew Cora could never understand her needs. Her sister was too pure and honest and selfless. Dinah fought the urge to concede and stay in Marietta, to do what Cora believed was best. “I know you’re the eldest of us sisters who remain, and that you have taken on the role of mother and caregiver since Abigail left for Kansas. You’ve been nothing but wonderful.”

  “Not like Abigail.” Cora swiped her eyes with the back of her sleeve.

  Dinah choked. Another moment and she’d be all but begging Cora’s forgiveness and promising her sister anything she wanted. She set her shoulders. “You’ve been everything to us. Never doubt that you are the bravest of us all. You decided to stay here no matter what until you know each of us McKin
nie sisters is cared for. I know you’ve sacrificed your own happiness in hopes we’ll all be better in the end. You are the most loving person I’ve ever known.”

  “Oh, Dinah.”

  Dinah fought her own tears.

  The sound of Elizabeth, Francine, and Hannah’s chatter outside warned their time ran short. “There’s so much to say, but I can’t put my thoughts into words,” Dinah continued. “I might be leaving for selfish reasons, I don’t deny that, but I also leave hoping I may be able to bring some of us together. Sioux City sounds like a place with opportunities, and I hope that means there’ll be a place for the rest of you there. I’m sorry, but I can’t image Elizabeth living in Kansas with Abigail. You, yes, but Elizabeth? No. She’s more delicate than the rest of us, her asthma would prevent her from farming. At least Francine and Hannah will now have choices.”

  Cora cleared her throat, straightening her spine and pulling her shoulders back. “Go then, with my blessing.”

  Dinah took both of Cora’s hands in hers and willed her sister to know how much she wanted to stay, but how badly she needed to go. “Thank you. I love you. I’ll say my goodbyes, and then I have to leave. There’s a small group leaving in a few hours for the closest open train station. Once the damage to the railroad tracks in Marietta is repaired it’ll be easier for all of you to travel to me. And by that point, you’ll be able to take the train all the way to Sioux City. Or, if the station isn’t yet finished there, at least you’ll get close enough to take a ferry. That’s what I’ll be doing.”

  “How will you know how to get to your destination?”

  “The man I’m to marry, Colt Hardin, made all the arrangements.”

  “I hope this man is good and everything you need him to be.”

  Their other sisters, Elizabeth, Francine, and Hannah ran up the steps of the wide verandah. Cora pulled Dinah into a hug, held tight, and whispered, “Good luck. May God keep you safe and healthy.” She bolted outside through the front door and left Dinah to face her worst fear of all, telling Elizabeth.

  During the worst of times, Elizabeth had made Dinah promise that they would stay together no matter what, even if the rest scattered, but Dinah could no longer keep that promise. If only she could disappear like Josephine had. But she couldn’t do that to Elizabeth, so she took a deep breath and readied for a fight.

  Elizabeth’s gaze traveled to the overstuffed carpet bag at Dinah’s feet. Elizabeth dropped her basket with the few morsels of food they had to work and beg for in town. Her brows drew tight and tears welled in her eyes. She shook her head and backed away. “No. Not you.”

  “Beth.”

  Elizabeth shook her head, her dark red curls bouncing around her face. “You plan to abandon us, too. To break your promise.”

  The bitterness in her eyes said it all. Elizabeth would never forgive Dinah for what she was about to do. Her stomach clenched.

  She only hoped Colt Hardin was the savior she hoped he would be.

  Chapter One

  As the early morning sun glinted brightly, Colt swung his axe, splitting the round of river birch neatly in two. Ten more rounds to go until the downed tree was fully split. Only then he could stop and rest, before heading on to the multitude of chores that still waited. For the last two years, he’d done his best to keep this farm that was never supposed to be his, in working order. He was a hunter and trapper, not a farmer. After tomorrow, though, he and the children would have help; at least, with the household chores. He lifted the axe to swing again, lowering it when he realized he had an audience.

  “Colt Hardin, are you going to greet your new wife in those old clothes?” Mrs. Sue McDaniel called out from the trail leading to the farm. A gaggle of kids followed like ducks in a row behind her, six redheads and three blonds. Mrs. McDaniel’s children sure took after their mama, with the red hair and fiery temper to match. Much like how the quiet, blond children took after Margaret, their mother. Colt’s sister. An image of a wagon tumbling down over his brother-in-law, Bart, and throwing Margaret against a rock, while their son James watched from nearby made his gut wrench. Colt hadn’t been at the deadly accident, but he could never escape what his imagination made almost real.

  Mrs. McDaniel reached the edge of the white fence and huffed. “Go change. I’ll keep the little ones out of trouble. I’ve already cleaned the river mud off their shoes twice since yesterday.”

  The red-headed children ran like wild dogs tumbling over each other while Anna, James, and Emma remained still.

  “You weren’t supposed to bring them until tomorrow. I pay you to keep them when I can’t. When I’m hunting and trapping and working, Colt mumbled.

  “You mean drinking.” Mrs. McDaniel said with more condemnation than the town preacher.

  “We agreed on tomorrow. That’s when their new ma will arrive.”

  Three blond heads lowered. The youngest girl, Emma, was a whisper of a thing, with big blue eyes and ruby lips: Margaret’s features. The boy, James, was more akin to his pa, and Anna, the eldest, was a mixture of the two, at least, from what Colt could remember. He hadn’t seen his older sister since he was seventeen, before he’d left to be an Army soldier to fight the Indians in the west. A killer. Exhaustion hit his bones and Colt swayed.

  “Are you drunk again?” Mrs. McDaniel stomped her foot and headed inside, only to immediately return with his flask. She poured the dark liquid onto the ground, creating more mud, as if they didn’t have enough. It was a constant part of life along the Missouri River.

  He stifled a laugh that she missed the large jug of rotgut sitting in the center of the kitchen table. “I’m not drunk. And if I knew the kids were coming I wouldn’t drink at all.”

  “Then get to movin’ if ya want to make it to greet your bride at the ferry in time.”

  He thought for a moment, had he been so drunk that he slept through a day again? No, not this time. “She isn’t arriving until tomorrow, woman.”

  “No, got word she’s on today’s ferry, Andrew went to retrieve her since you aren’t there.” She scoffed.

  “You sent my wretch of a business partner? You gone mad?”

  “If you don’t like him retrieving her than you best get cleaned up. The way you look, ain’t gonna woo a woman. And trust me, you want to woo your bride before she sees your true nature.”

  “True nature?” Colt set the axe aside and wiped his brow.

  “A drunken beast of a man with no decent qualities to keep a woman around.”

  “Never wanted to keep one around.”

  Mrs. McDaniel placed a hand over her engorged belly. “Then why you send to marry one?”

  “Because you said with the new babe, you wouldn’t keep the kids any longer. How else am I gonna care for them? They need a ma.”

  “And you think this woman is going to live with the likes of you to play mother to another one’s kids?”

  The little one, Emma, sniffled, and her shoulders moved up and down with tiny cries.

  Colt didn’t like woman-folk crying, not even little ones. It did something to his insides that made him do things he normally wouldn’t. He took two strides forward and patted Emma on the head. “No, she won’t be living with me. She’ll be living with Anna, James, and Emma. I’m shacking up in the barn.”

  Mrs. McDaniel crossed her arms over her chest the way she did before she lectured the kids. “Let me tell you a thing or two. If you think you will drag some poor woman all the way out here to abandon her, you’re mistaken. I won’t let you do that.”

  He motioned for Emma to step back and then picked up a piece of birch, swung the axe, and splintered the wood in half. One piece toppled off the chopping block, the other tumbled a few times and came to rest by the barn. As James ran over and picked up the firewood and stacked them with the others, Cole said tersely, “I appreciate all you’ve done for the kids, what with putting them up at your place every time I’m off on a hunting trip, but they need a mother and a stable place to live. The woman coming out
here must be desperate to marry. Heard there are no menfolk left in the East since the war, so I figure I’m doing her a favor.”

  “Colt Hardin, you’re a fool. Why marry a stranger? What happens when you do meet the right girl?”

  He split another piece of wood, and James placed the split logs on the pile. That child had been a good son to a man who’d deserved his love. Colt would never deserve a child’s love, not after what he’d done. A dark memory of that horrible night slid into his consciousness and he angrily pushed it away. Gruffly, he said, “The only women I need I can pay for. Not safe for any other kind around me.”

  “Nonsense. You just need the right woman to help you get past your demons. Now you best go bathe in the creek. No woman’s gonna get near you on her wedding night with you smelling like a dead buffalo.”

  He did smell like a hard day’s work on the farm, but it didn’t matter. “No need. Not gonna be a wedding night. I’m not a monster. She won’t be expected to perform all her wifely duties. Just needs to care for the kids. I’ll pay for the living and stuff and she cares for the children. That’ll be our deal.”

  “Then don’t marry a woman. Hire someone to care for the kids.”

  “Tried that. You quit on me.”

  She placed a hand over her plump belly once more. “I’ve got another one on the way. There ain’t any more room in my life for someone else’s kids. There’re other families in town, though. I’m sure you can find someone suitable.”

  “For daytime maybe, but I don’t plan on stickin’ around.”