Free Once Upon a Mail Order Bride: Mail Order Brides: Book One by Hannah West

Chapter One
     
    New York State 1869
     
     
    It was raining for the third day in a row and it matched the grim mood that had set over the Stone household in upper state New York. The news that had put an end to all things happy for Carrow and her sister Emmy. Their parents had been murdered on their way home one night from a party held by their friends across town and now it was just Carrow and her twin sister.
                  Their parents had left a large sum of money and property to both sisters, but today five days after the funeral their father’s lawyer had paid them a visit in their home. He had seemed uneasy and after their visit they had seen why. Their father had left in his will that their great uncle, a foul and mean tempered man, would be appointed their guardian and be in charge of finances until they reached the age of twenty-one or were married before then.
                  Everything had gone to plan the first few weeks after he moved in and their lives went on, but one night he had come home drunk and had tried to assault the new maid. Emmy had seen it and tried to stop it, but Uncle Hugh had slapped her across the face, sending her tumbling down the stairs. Though nothing had been broken, Emmy was covered in bruises and was to terrified to come out of her room after that. Trembling with anger over what he had done Carrow had taken up the nearest heavy object and smashed it across his head.
                  He had stumbled off to his room after that and Carrow went to check on her sister.
                  “Emmy?” Carrow called softly from the other side of the door. “Please let me in, we need to talk.”
                  She threw the door open and flung herself into her sister’s arms. “Oh Cara! We need to get out of here; I can’t take any more of that horrid man!”
                  Carrow hugged her sister tight. “There isn’t much we can do. Uncle is our guardian and he controls all the money.”
                  Bright green eyes so much like Carrow’s own lit up as her sister looked into her face. “Papa put another condition in his will; remember what Mr. Smith told us? If we got married then that rotten old man wouldn’t have a choice in the matter. Why Papa thought he could trust him is beyond me!” She blew a tendril of chestnut colored hair from her face.
                  “I don’t believe Papa planned on leaving us like this. But Papa chose him as he is all the family we have left in this world. But marriage? Where could we find men and on such short notice?”
                  Emmy bit her lip and waved her sister into her room. “I’ve been thinking on that very thought since Mr. Smith talked to us. Uncle is a very controlling man and likes to have power. I know for a fact that he wouldn’t allow us to marry before our twenty first birthdays. I went into his study the other day looking for him, but found some letters on his desk. He is taking Papa’s money and gambling it away! We won’t have much left if we have to wait three more years. I for one don’t plan on being poor and living in the street.”
                  Carrow blinked and asked, “He’s been funnelling off Papa’s money?”
                  Emmy nodded. “He didn’t have much when he came here, he was almost broke.”
                  Anger burned through Carrow. How dare the man! Their parents haven’t even been dead a month and he was already stealing from them? Why her Mama and Papa were barely cold in the ground!
                  “So I was thinking we could get married quick like,” Emmy said quickly.
                  Carrow realized she had missed a very important part of her sister’s plan. “What was that again?”
                  Emmy rolled her eyes and sighed. “You never did listen well. Okay well I had sent out