Free The Mail Order Midwife's Secret (Wanted: Wives In The West 2) by Trinity Ford

community, filled with laughter and camaraderie. She saw a saloon owner talking and laughing with Pastor Littlejohn, trail drivers nodding hello to local shopkeepers, and the children of both sides of town running and playing with each other—all labels removed for a single night of celebration.
    Everyone greeted Millie and John with respect and admiration. They had no enemies here, and because of their jobs, they were known and well-liked by all. Two little boys ran up to John and tugged at his trousers. “Can we have a badge?” they said in unison. John always kept extra badges that he’d made out of tin to hand out to kids, so he reached into his vest and pulled two of them out.
    “Now, I can only give you this is if you promise to go catch the bad guys,” he said with a serious smile. The two nodded, took the badges in hand and ran off looking for their parents to show them what they’d gotten.
    Millie stood smiling at John, but her heart broke inside thinking of what a wonderful father he would have made if he’d gotten to see Grace and Anna grow up. She still hadn’t told him she couldn’t have a child.
    They walked up to the sack races and everyone urged John to grab a sack. He laughed and shook his head no. “Oh, please, John,” Millie teased. “Do it for me!”
    John smiled and grabbed a sack as the crowd of onlookers cheered him on. The announcer asked for others to compete against the sheriff, so Samuel Radcliff and a few others walked up and jumped in line, too. Millie stood beside Samuel’s wife, Hannah, whose premature baby she had helped deliver not long ago. “He’s like a big kid,” Hannah laughed, turning to greet Millie at the event.
    “Oh, she’s beautiful,” Millie said, peeking at Hannah’s baby, swaddled in the blanket. “May I?” she gestured, wanting to hold the little bundle of joy.
    “Of course!” Hannah said. “She wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you.” Hannah handed over the baby to Millie.
    “What’d you name her?” Millie asked.
    “Elisabeth,” she replied. “After my ma.”
    Millie stood there looking into the eyes of the sleepy newborn. For the first time ever, she ached to have a child. Before, when it was just Henry in her life, she couldn’t imagine being a mother. But now, it was going to hurt knowing she could have the family she’d always wanted with John, if only her body would allow it.
    “And we’re off!” the announcer said, shooting his gun into the air. The baby startled and began crying, so Millie handed her back to Hannah, so that she could be soothed back to sleep. John and Samuel were neck and neck toward the finish line, when a small piglet that had gotten loose ran out into the street in front of the men. Both Samuel and John stopped suddenly to avoid it, causing a big-pile up of all the sack racers, crumpled in the middle of Main Street. The whole crowd, along with the participants, laughed loudly, and the announcer called the winner. “Ham Hock wins by a snout!” Everyone cheered for the piglet, and the kids ran around trying to catch it.
    “Well, I tried,” John said, dusting off his clothes as he walked back to Millie with a smile on his face.
    “You planned that, didn’t you?” Samuel teased John as he walked up to Hannah and kissed the baby’s forehead, and then his wife.
    “I’ll never tell!” John laughed.
    “We need to find Jenny, who’s running around here somewhere, and get this baby home,” Samuel said. “We’ll see y’all Sunday at church!” Everyone waved goodbye as Samuel and Hannah walked back toward their carriage with baby Elisabeth.
    “Man, it sure is good to see him on the right path,” John said to Millie.
    “Was he not on it before?” she asked.
    “He went through a real tough time when his fiancée married someone else,” John explained. “Found him drunker than a skunk in the Acre night after night, until Pastor Littlejohn stepped in and placed the Hearts and Hands ad. He was just