Mail Order Bride Leah: A Sweet Western Historical Romance (Montana Mail Order Brides Series Book 1) by Rose Jenster Read Free Book Online Page A

their entrance. Leah winced, stepping back to the door when one stallion stomped its great hooves and tossed its majestic head in greeting. Henry patted the horse’s muzzle and grinned confidently. This fearsome creature had to be his pet, Dionysius. Henry must be an incredibly strong horseman, she thought with awe.
    He stopped to give a bit of carrot to each of the horses and pet their long faces solemnly. One of the three stable hands asked him a question, and he paused to discuss the matter with the boy as seriously as if another tradesman were speaking to him, an equal instead of a subordinate. She noted the quiet way he listened, the respectful nod of understanding, as well as the way the stable boy looked up at him with awe and almost hero-worship.
    Leah stood back, a bit uneasy around horses, but she admired the tidy and efficient set-up of the stable and remarked on the number of wagons and coaches he rented out to others as part of his business. A high-wheeled buggy, painted glossy black, stood in back of the other conveyances, and she walked over to it admiringly, touching its red wheels.
    “Want to see the church?” he asked. She nodded.
    As they made their way down the next street, she heard a stir of whispers as they passed by. She caught a comment about her dress and how she was “some uppity piece from back East”. Looking down at the new jacket and dress she’d been so proud of, the neat embroidery she’d worked on by the light of the oil lamp the night before, she felt conspicuous, blowsy, and too colorful. She blushed and made no comment.
    The church was a whitewashed building with a steeple and an empty bell tower. She was reluctant to mount the steps, feeling as if all eyes were on her.
    “We’re raising money for a bell maybe sometime next year,” he said by way of explanation.
    “It’s nice.”
    “I’ll be by to escort you to church tomorrow. Services are at eight.”
    “Thank you.”
    Leah vowed to sponge her black traveling dress and wear it to church. It was a plain stout woolen unlikely to cause a stir. She had thought her walking dress so smart, and now she wished she’d never seen it. They parted at the door to the boarding house and she withdrew to her room to read and reflect…and ready her dress for the morrow.
    She wore her plain dress without any ornament save her mother’s locket, which she always wore, and arranged her hair in a neat bun. Leah looked sober enough to be a widow instead of a bride, but she hoped she’d be above reproach in her appearance. Henry wore a brown suit, the soft scent of starch in his shirt mingling with the bay rum. He was even handsomer in a suit, and it was hard not to stare at him.
    They took a seat on the aisle about halfway up and she busied herself by leafing through the hymnal after she marked the week’s text in her Bible with a ribbon. All around them, she heard the flutter, the bustle of gossip.
    “…Rogers finally going to take a wife. Thought sure he was done for after Baker’s daughter left town.”
    “This one looks like she puts on airs, dressing like that with the stand-up collar done up with all that braid.”
    “Never seen anything like it even in the fashion plates down at the mercantile.”
    “…think he’ll marry her, or send her back because she’s so plain?”
    At the last whisper, Henry Rogers turned around slowly and fixed a glare on the matron behind them who’d uttered the offending phrase.
    “Madam,” he whispered. “As we are all children of the Lord it might be better not to gossip in church.”
    There was a gasp of shock and renewed babbling, this time condemning his ill manners.
    “Were they under the impression that I can’t hear?” Leah whispered to him
    Henry suppressed a laugh of delight. Instead, he covered her hand with his and pressed it. She felt, for the moment at least, that they were in this together. Her heart soared with the memory of his defense of her, the way he had delivered a