Chapter Two
February, Sterling, Colorado
Reverend Hubert Fitzgerald had just left the Sterling boarding house when he heard the shopkeeper call out to him.
“Hey, Rev! You’ve got a letter!” Joel Easton stood on the front step of his mercantile, frantically waving a white envelope in the air.
Hubert, who was walking on the opposite side of the street, caught sight of Joel’s gestures and quickly glanced both ways before crossing over to the Easton Mercantile.
Who would send him a letter? He didn’t get letters apart from the monthly letter his mother sent.
He’d already received hers for February.
With a sudden feeling of dread, he stepped onto the porch and reached for the envelope that Joel held out to him.
As Hubert traced his name written in his mother’s delicate script, it felt as though time stood still in the small town.
He leaned against the hitching post, watching the mail coach disappear as he opened the note. It couldn’t contain good news.
He took a deep breath and read her words. As he read her message on the linen paper, his eyes widened with shock. The words seemed to blur together at first, but after a few attempts, he could calm himself enough to fully comprehend what she had written.
Needed at home.
I received a telegram saying that your bride is arriving. Before I could write to you, she arrived.
You did not tell me you were getting married, Hubert Montgomery Fritzgerald!
x Mother
He folded up the missive and shoved it in his coat pocket before bowing his head.
“Lord? What have I done? I know that Your will shall be done, and I pray I haven’t made a mistake in this desire for a helpmate of my own. I pray for Your hand upon the future and will be content to wait upon Your will.”
As he prayed silently on the weathered wooden boardwalk, Hubert could hear the rhythmic thud of boots approaching.
He tried to focus on his prayers, but his mind kept straying to thoughts of temptation and doubt.
The Lord knew his struggles and would guide him, but Hubert couldn’t help but worry that his own desires might lead him astray.
“Well, you’ve done it now,” Silas Beausignor chuckled, stepping up beside him. Silas was one of Hubert’s friends from childhood and came with the original group to help settle in Sterling, Colorado.
Hubert opened his eyes and looked at his friend. “What do you mean by that?”
“You sent your letter off, didn’t you? Asking Mama Holstead’s friend to send you a bride?”
Hubert’s shoulders slumped as he let out a heavy sigh, his mind swirling with doubts and uncertainties.
Despite seeing his friends in fortunate marriages, he couldn’t shake off the weight of apprehension that settled in his chest at the thought of settling down.
After all, none of his married friends had planned to be in their current life situation either.
“C’mon, I’ll pour you a cup of coffee.” There was always a pot of hot coffee on the stove inside the mercantile.
Hubert shifted uncomfortably in his boots as Silas prattled on about marriage and relationships.
At thirty-one years old, Hubert was already feeling pressure to settle down and start a family.
But the thought of the type of woman who might be his wife filled Hubert with anxiety.
Not the marriage part, though. His parents had been married for nearly forty years, and he longed for that kind of companionship.
He glanced at Mrs. Easton, who had made her way outside, and he wished she would leave so he could talk freely.
“I’m just going to go back over to the boarding house.”
Silas let out a belly laugh before matching his steps as they crossed the narrow main street of Sterling.
What the seven friends who traveled from Nebraska to Colorado by wagon train had accomplished in the last two years was more than he thought possible.
The church—his church, stood proudly beside the boarding house.
Mrs. Easton and Charlie Holstead’s wife, Amanda, had even put up a little picket fence around the churchyard.
He’d thought they were fussing when they wanted to build the fence. Now that there were children who ran around like tiny whirlwinds, he could see that God had foreseen the need to keep the children contained while the adults worshiped.
Hubert slipped his hand into his jacket pocket and fingered the letter, thinking about the words his mother wrote. His parents were well, but there was a woman there expecting her husband, and he was still miles away.
Bride. His bride.
When he’d written the letter for Mama Holstead to send to her friend, he had poured his heart into it, asking for help from above to find a suitable match.
He had little hope, but he couldn’t ignore the desperate longing in his heart.
Now it was less than a month, and his bride was sitting at his parent’s house.
He hadn’t even corresponded with her!
Was that how matchmaking worked?
He was looking forward to some quiet reflection back at the boarding house, but there was no solace to be had. As Hubert entered the dining room, he saw Charlie and Will Jericho sitting at the table. Their chairs were pulled out, as if they were waiting for him to join them.
Hubert took a deep breath and forced himself to remain calm as he approached them. He had been wanting to talk to Charlie about something important anyway, so this was just the opportunity he needed.
“Friends.” Hubert acknowledged each with a nod of his head before pouring himself a cup of coffee and joining them at the table.
“Rev? Everything all right?” Will’s voice cut through his thoughts.
“It will be.” Hubert’s eyes narrowed on Charlie. “How fast can I get to Omaha?”
Charlie scratched his chin, looking at the ceiling. He was counting. They had all seen him do it a hundred times before. That was comforting.
Charlie Holstead was a wagon master who had led many settlers to the west, so he knew the country better than anyone.
He was also the one that everybody went to for advice.
The man even kept up with travelers coming through; said it helped him stay sharp.
Though he’d heard Charlie’s wife make jokes about restless boots from time to time.
Silas wheezed, his eyebrows climbing up his forehead by the second. Hubert wondered if they would disappear off his face altogether. Taking pity on the man, he clapped his friend’s shoulder.
“My mama is fine, Silas.”
The other man seemed to deflate a bit, and Hubert almost felt guilty for not starting with that.
Charlie stopped counting and leaned his elbows on the table.
“Stage is going to be your fastest method. They are coming through here tomorrow. That will take you about four days. Otherwise, if you’re taking a team and wagon, it will be about three weeks.
That will depend on how high the rivers are. ”
“If your mama is all right, then why are you rushing to Omaha?” Silas was never one to leave things alone.
“Apparently, my bride is at my parents’ house?” Hubert attempted to speak his statement in confidence, but the squeak at the end of his sentence betrayed his nervousness.
“Bride?” Mama Holstead entered the room with a plate of freshly baked biscuits, letting out a happy squeal. “That’s so exciting. I knew Ingrid would help you, but I did not know it would be this soon. I thought she went to visit her family in Boston.”
“The letter from Mama says arrived, but not much else. Isn’t there supposed to be a correspondence or something?” Hubert was a devout man, but he struggled to understand the complexities of relationships with women.
Chloe Masters trailed behind Mama Holstead, peering over her shoulder at Hubert.
She couldn’t contain her mirth and clapped a hand over her mouth to hide her barely suppressed laughter.
“Amanda stole away on your wagon train. Winnie’s father arranged her marriage, and I was running from men who most likely wanted me dead.
” Chloe married Jackson Masters, Sterling’s marshal, and newest resident, when they took her to him for safekeeping.
“These things seem to happen in their own time. Well, God’s timing. Don’t you think, Reverend?”
He could only nod. There was much in the Bible that talked about God’s timing. Many men, however, would not understand it was a blessing.
Charlie took a biscuit from the steaming plate and broke it apart, dropping it on a napkin. “Like I was saying, the stagecoach will come through around breakfast time. Joel can put the flag out for them to stop. Appears that haste is your best course of action.”
So, there was a course of action to be taken.
Tomorrow morning, he would board the stagecoach and leave town.
But first, he had to make it through tonight and the turmoil inside him.
Would his new bride still want to marry him after he arrived in Omaha?
He’d have at least four days to figure out what to do with her.
He remained lost deep in his own thoughts while people talked around him.
They built the church, but it wasn’t a rectory like his parents’ place back home.
Hubert was quite content here at the boarding house.
He had no way of warning his parents that a girl …
no, a woman… would be arriving. He didn’t even know she was arriving!
Although in his January letter, Hubert had been sure to tell Mama about the matchmaker.
He wondered what his parents thought about his new bride.
“Hubert.” Silas nudged him, and he found that at some point the women and children had disappeared from the table. He hadn’t heard them, which was unlike him.
“What?”
“You were so lost in thought.”
Hubert could feel the heat rising around his neck. Shaking his head, he looked at his friend. “Why do you think the matchmaker sent a bride without sending word about it? Would have taken her at least a week to get to Omaha.”
“Unless she’s someone in Omaha, we already knew,” Silas quipped.
“No. I think Mother would have mentioned her name if this woman was someone we knew.”
Hubert had courted no one, though he’d met several women who were soft on the eyes. The story of how something clicked into place when his father met his mother was ingrained deep within Hubert’s mind. That hadn’t happened to anyone he had met previously. What if it didn’t happen now?
“Hue, I know you have a lot of thinking to do, but we need you to focus for just a minute.” Charlie tapped the table. The others leaned forward to listen.
“What do you need, Charlie?” Hubert squeezed the bridge of his nose.
“Seems to me, it might be a good time to clean up and donate my parents’ house to the church for them to use. Especially if there’s a chance more brides are going to be coming through Omaha, and not straight to us.” He glanced at his ma, who nodded in agreement.
“At the very least, it’s a good place for you to stay for your wedding night.” Mama Holstead smiled. “I’ll write a note to your mother about it, but perhaps you can reassure her for us while you’re there.”
Hubert simply nodded; he didn’t know what else to do. Things were suddenly moving quickly. “But what about church on Sunday?” he quibbled meekly.
He shifted in his seat as the group of friends erupted into laughter. He couldn’t help but feel self-conscious, wondering if they were laughing at him or something else. Either way, it still stung.
Will spoke up, quieting the group. “We all have our Bibles. It’s not every day a man gets a wife. If it’ll make you feel better though, as the shepherd of this town, I’ll lead the worship on Sunday.”
Silas and Charlie groaned, and Hubert resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Will owned a large flock of sheep that grazed along the river.
“Charlie will be in charge when I’m gone, and we’ll have services after I get back.”
With his decision made, he stood up from the dining room table, pushing back his wooden chair. He leaned over to give Mama Holstead a peck on the cheek before excusing himself and heading towards the door.