Free Mail Order Bride: Captured Hearts: a Clean Western Historical Romance (Mail Order Brides of Gold Creek Book 6) by Emily Woods Page B

become for him and a heavy weight descended on his soul. He knew it was time for a change, but was becoming less convinced that the ad in the Matrimonial News that Curtis and Abe had suggested was a good idea. In truth, he felt a call deep within him to leave Gold Creek altogether and start a new life elsewhere, though he had no idea of where that would be.
    A vague notion of opening a school for the poor, just like the one he had attended as a child, hovered in the back of his mind, though it was almost too wild for him to permit himself to acknowledge it. Perhaps it wasn’t wise for him to leave his ranch to pursue charitable endeavors that promised no money at all, but the idea followed him around like a shadow.
    All he could do was to live out his normal life, herding, trading, protecting, and waiting for his destiny to unfold before him. This was immensely frustrating for a pro-active, go-getting man like Ira who loved nothing more than to jump on an idea right away and turn it into a reality. There was only one thing he could do to take him closer to that destiny.
    “Writing tonight, Abe?” he asked.
    “It’s the middle of the night!” Abe said.
    “No time like the present,” Ira said, though the truth was he felt he might boil up with frustration if he didn’t do something to get him closer to his elusive dreams.
    Learning to read and write was a tangible step he could take toward their realization. As a child, he had not stayed at the school long enough to learn to read and write because his mother removed him from the school when he was six and they came out to the West to seek their fortune in Gold Creek, Wyoming.
    “I’m ready to learn when you’re ready to teach,” he said to Abe.
    “If it’s what you want I’ll do it tonight,” said Abe, then grinned. “I don’t want to get on the wrong side of my boss, do I?”
    “Darn right,” Ira joked, shaping his hand like a gun and pointing it at Abe’s head. “Or you’ll be on your way to heaven before you can say Colt Browning.”
    “You think this madman’s going to heaven?” Curtis joked, mischief in his eyes. “He’ll be dancing with the devil before the night’s out.”
    “Hey!” Abe said, dead serious and so loudly that it startled the cows. “ Don’t make jokes like that.”
    Abe was the most religious, and most learned, of the three despite the fact he had been born a slave. He had been taught to read and write, in secret, by a preacher who had been imprisoned for his efforts.
    “Don’t put me and the devil in the same sentence, you got it?” he said to Curtis.
    “Yeah, yeah,” Curtis said, grinning all the while.
    Once the cattle were safely secured in the barn, they headed back to Ira’s ranch.
    “Well I’m sure not staying up for a reading lesson with you crazies,” said Curtis. “I’m hitting the hay.”
    “Thank goodness for that,” Ira said, smiling. “Or we’d be stuck til sunrise before you could read a word.”
    “Ha ha,” said Curtis, mirthlessly. “What time should I come to the ranch tomorrow, Ira?”
    “Come at six,” Ira replied. “I want to get our barn straightened out and reinforced before the bandits target us next.”

Chapter 3
     
    It had finally arrived!
    Mollie swooped down, her heart beating with excitement, and she scooped the envelope from where it had fallen upon the bare boards. She threw the stable-style door open and let the afternoon sun stream into the wooden house, her soul leaping with the joy of knowing that perhaps she would be able to save her mother’s life.
    Their correspondence had been going so well that she dared to hope it might be possible. It turned out that Ira, though his handwriting was rather wobbly, was a very amenable man and an excellent marriage prospect. Not only was he wealthy, telling her he owned a large ranch as well as shares in a goldmine, but he was clearly not one of the unfeeling Western men she had previously imagined, strutting around the plains