Train Station Bride by Holly Bush Read Free Book Online Page B

marrying someone I know nothing about.” Julia turned and stared out the window. “Although that is exactly what I’ve done.” Flossie picked up her hand and squeezed.
    “You have to understand Jake to understand why he was willing to marry this way. When our parents died, he was just sixteen-years-old, I was nine and Gloria was three. Mother and Father had bought this land sight unseen. They had some money to build a house and hire some men to get the lands cleared, but they died within the first year. The hands Father had hired ran off, and no one would work for us. Three kids really. I begged Jake to sell the land and move to town. But he’d have none of it. And now I’m glad he held his ground.”
    Flossie paused and stared, obviously remembering those first hard years. “But I’m off the subject. You see, Jake spent his life raising us, working the farm, worrying about money and crops. He never went to a dance or a social. He made sure we went and had a new dress too, but he never went himself. I don’t think he has any idea what love or marriage is about. Jake gets an idea in his head figures out how to do it and just does it. This time the idea was a bride.”
    “That’s Jake all right,” Gloria said. “I told him he couldn’t get a bride like he buys a new mare or haggles over another piece of land. He just wouldn’t listen.”
    “I think I understand,” Julia said.
    “You won’t understand for awhile. Till you get to know Jake.” Flossie said. “He told me right after Gloria got married it was time for him to marry. Time for a son to pass his land to and a helpmate. And he certainly won’t admit it, but he’s lonely.”
    “And just about anyone willing would do,” Julia added.
    Gloria laughed. “There were lots willing. Trust me. Plenty of women were interested in Jake, but they grew tired of waiting and most married. ‘Cept Clara. Cripes, Flossie, wait till Clara hears about this.”
    “Jake wasn’t interested in Clara even when Jake decided to marry,” Flossie said.
    “Who’s Clara?” Julia asked.
    “Clara Fawcett. Her father owns the bank in town. She wears clothes ordered from back east. Her hair’s always just so. She never leaves her house without gloves.” Gloria flitted both hands. “Jake knew right off she wasn’t the kind of woman to help run a farm. Too fancy and fussy.”
    Clara sounded like everything Julia was accustomed to. “And she wanted to marry Jake?”
    “Clara just wasn’t suited for Jake. She was the only one that couldn’t see it,” Flossie said.
    Julia stared at her hands and lifted her head slowly to look at her new family. “So what you’re saying is Jake decided one day to marry, anyone, even someone he never met and a respectable woman from his own town would have married him, and he didn’t want her because she wasn’t meant for life on a farm. And she’s someone just like me.”
    Gloria covered her hand with her mouth. “You’re right.”
    “Gloria,” Flossie said sharply. “We don’t know anything about Julia. How could we think she’s the same as Clara?”
    “Well, look at her clothes and hat and such, Flossie. Jake’s going to have a fit when he realizes,” Gloria said.
    “Does everything that comes into your head have to come flying out of your mouth?” Flossie asked.
    “From the sounds of it I’m exactly what your brother did not want in a wife,” Julia said.
    Flossie stood and faced the women still seated on the bed. “Now you two listen to me. I didn’t agree with Jake’s plan. Marrying isn’t like picking a prize sow. But what’s done is done. Julia, if you’re going to stick this out, you better make the best of it. Gloria and I will help. Is this what you want, Julia?”
    Julia knew the woman was right. If she had any intention of beginning a new life, then she’d best do all she could. She didn’t know where to start but Jake’s sister’s said they’d help. “I don’t want a divorce. What’s done is