The Feisty Bride's Unexpected Match: A Western Historical Romance Book Read online

  The Feisty Bride’s Unexpected Match

  STAND-ALONE NOVEL

  A Western Historical Romance Novel

  by

  Lydia Olson

  Copyright© 2020 by Lydia Olson

  All Rights Reserved.

  This book may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of the publisher.

  In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher

  Table of Contents

  The Feisty Bride’s Unexpected Match

  Table of Contents

  Let’s connect!

  Letter from Lydia Olson

  Blurb

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Epilogue

  Ready to start your next Romance story?

  The Sheriff’s Daring Wife in the West

  Blurb

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Your Honest Review

  Let’s connect!

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  Letter from Lydia Olson

  “There is no better place to heal a broken heart than on the back of a horse”

  This is my moto; this is how I grew up.

  My name is Lydia and when I am not baking cookies with my daughter or riding the bike with my son, I am a Western Historical Romance writer. It is my passion, my hobby and my career.

  After I received my BA in Psychology I realized that this would help me create believable characters. Characters that are based on real people. I want my readers to feel as if they have lived themselves in the West.

  Growing up myself in a ranch I have a lot of tales to share. Stories that will help you not escape reality, but rather navigate you through reality. You will feel what it would feel to go through situations that make your heart pound and your palms sweat. You will access the depths of someone else’s mind; you will open yourselves to new experiences and different point of views.

  What do you say? Do you want to take a vacation with me?

  Lots of hugs,

  Blurb

  She is a mail-order bride, he’s a rancher meeting her halfway. How will they choose to protect their love, when staying together means accepting danger?

  Sarah Harris is a tender young woman who has recently lost her father. Having no other choice, she decided to reply to a mail-order bride and to move West. In the train, she meets a stoic rancher who shares the same destination with her. A sudden train attack leaves them alone with only a horse and no money to travel. Sarah struggles with the challenges of the wilderness. However, David’s strong presence is enough to make her fall in love with him. How can she dedicate her life to the man she has come to love when she has promised to marry someone else?

  David Bryant is a determined young rancher who travels West to inherit his uncle’s ranch. While travelling, he’s taken aback by Sarah’s fierce yet sad eyes. She’s so different from him but she feels so close. When they’re called to stick together so as to survive in the wilderness, David will help her overcome her fears and he will teach her survival skills. Her strong will and stubbornness are enough to make him fall madly in love with her. But her husband-to-be is a danger to both of them. How will he protect the woman that has showed him what it means to be loved and give love in return?

  Sarah and David should realize that only by staying together can they really overcome all difficulties. But when they learn that Sarah’s husband-to-be is not who he said he was, how will they trust each other with their hearts again?

  Prologue

  Beaufort, North Carolina

  August 4th, 1879

  Sarah Harris could not help but swell with pride as her student, Jacob, successfully completed the arithmetic problem she had written on the chalkboard. “Well done, Jacob,” she said as she beamed with delight and clasped her hands together. “Well done.”

  Jacob, all of ten years old, returned the smile as he placed his pencil down as his cheeks flushed a rosy red. “Thank you, Miss Harris,” he said. “I’m just glad I finally figured it out.”

  Sarah smoothed the wrinkles in her flaxen-colored daywear dress with a high-collar made of cotton fabric and gestured to the door. It was on the more expensive side, thanks largely in part to her father’s money that was never in short supply. “You are a hard worker, Jacob,” she said. “I’m certainly happy that you stayed behind the past two days to figure this all out. Knowing mathematics will help you in your life’s journey, though I understand how frustrating it has been for you to learn it.”

  Gathering his books, Jacob headed for the door, padding his way along the wooden floorboards of the classroom that was no bigger than a barn meant to house only a handful of horses or cattle. It may have been a quaint space with only a small chalkboard and six desks—but it was Sarah Harris’ home away from home, an environment she was well-accustomed to, having grown up with her professor father who taught her all that she knew, including tutoring students that were a little behind the others, like young Jacob, so that they could grow up with all the advantages available to them.

  “Thank you, Miss Harris!” Jacob bid her as he waved to her and clutched his belongings close to his chest. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  Sarah waved goodbye as she tucked a loose strand of her brunette hair behind her ear. She was a petite young woman, demure, her curly hair tied back and showing off her pale complexion. The light peppering of freckles on the bridge of her nose looked like a milky spreading of stars in the night sky, which made her look several years younger than the eighteen years she had been alive.
/>   Sarah smiled and began to relax after having taught most of the day. The golden rays of the sun were beginning to descend in the distance, winking at her across the emerald green hills that were just fifty short yards away from the schoolhouse.

  Father will want supper soon, she thought. I’ve already made him wait an hour over what I promised.

  Sarah felt the urge to close up the classroom and return home hastily—but there was something about the gray pregnant clouds off in the distance that compelled her to take just a few more minutes to herself. She walked out of the classroom, breathing in the ocean air and filling her lungs as she looked to the sky and felt a gust of wind breeze through her hair. She looked at her surroundings, the school behind her, nestled in a valley that looked down at the entirety of Beaufort. She smiled at the only place she ever called home, a place that held many memories that she would have never traded for anything else. Yet, she felt as though something was missing—a partner perhaps—and wondered how much more time would pass before she would be able to share little moments of victory like the one she just had with Jacob with someone other than her father, though living with him and sharing the unbreakable bond they had was something she relished every minute of every day. Regardless, Sarah was a happy woman, content, surrounded by the love of her father and the joys that came with imparting knowledge to the next generation of youth.

  Closing her eyes, she felt the winds increase as the clouds overhead expanded and a low rumble began to gather in the distance. In all of an instant, the setting sun was concealed by the clouds, and Sarah was forced to open her eyes as a droplet of rain splashed against her forehead and the low rumbling turned into an ominous groan.

  Looking up, Sarah saw that the clouds were turning from a shade of gray to black. No, she thought, it’s not going to rain again, is it?

  It seemed as though all of North Carolina had been plagued by storms in the past couple of years, more than it ever had before, with several homes in the area having been destroyed from the onslaught of nature’s fury and in turn, destroying the families that lived in those homes. The last rains that came through were rumored to be the last in the season, though the second droplet of water that struck her shoulder made her feel as if those rumors were now far from true.

  “Do not worry,” Sarah’s father told her on more than one occasion when she voiced her concerns about living near the shoreline. “Our house is strong and sturdy. It has survived countless rains before. No, my sweet daughter, believe me when I tell you that we are going to be just fine.”

  There was no reason for Sarah not to trust her father. She had confided and trusted him her entire life, with him being the sole parent who raised an only child after the untimely passing of her mother at her birth. He was not only an educated man but a strong man, tall and sinewy though thinner in bulk due to the fact that he ate only two meals a day. He was the model for which Sarah knew she would measure all possible suitors who would come into her life—as soon as she started finding them, naturally.

  Sarah crossed her arms to stave off the chill as the intensity of the thunder started to increase, which made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. It was impossible for her to deny that a storm was now brewing, and as a light rain started to shower over her, she retreated back to the school and gathered her belongings before a loud and spine-chilling crack of thunder clapped through the sky just a mile off in the distance.

  ***

  Sarah was just a hundred paces from the house she shared with her father, situated on an L-shaped patch of land with water on either side, when a torrential downpour began to soak her dress and turn the roads around her into muddy slop. Squinting through the rain, the skies above black as the night, Sarah saw that waves just eighty feet from their seaside dwelling were creeping closer to the shore like some sort of mythic beast from Greek lore.

  “Father!” Sarah shouted out, thunder once again cracking through the skies overhead, each of the seven of the nearby houses creaking and straining from the fury that nature was wreaking on them. Sarah’s cry could not cut through the noise of the storm or the roaring of the waves out in the sea, which were now a cacophonous roar akin to that of a primal animal.

  Sarah wasted no time, running as fast as she could and struggling to keep her footing as she felt a sickly feeling settle into her stomach. Something dire is about to happen. I must warn Father quickly!

  The white, two-story colonial close to the shore was shrouded by mist, the trees flanking the property swaying in the wind as limbs started to crack and leaves were strewn through the air and across the ground. Sarah, her feet sinking into the mud, stumbled as a bolt of lightning struck the road just two hundred feet ahead of her and a blinding flash of white light temporarily engulfed the surrounding area.

  Sarah gasped, a hand to her mouth as she fell to her knees, becoming drenched with rain and mud. Get up, Sarah! Go!

  She knew that lightning never struck twice in the same location, so if there was any comfort in her current predicament, it was the possession of that knowledge.

  “Father!” Sarah cried out again, now only a dozen paces from the front door that slammed against the house after being dislodged by the ferocious winds. She stood, then stumbled again, every step forcing her to muster every shred of energy she had in order to make it into the house.

  “Miss Harris!” a faint voice called out from the right, and Sarah blinked repeatedly as she wiped wet hair from her face and stared hard to make out the source of the noise. Finally, she made out the faint outline of a man she knew to be Mr. Kelly standing on the porch of his house, two doors down on the right.

  “Miss Harris!” Mr. Kelly called out again. “You must fetch your father!” he pointed to the shoreline, the waves now just feet away from consuming her home. “Quickly! I’ll assist you!”

  Sarah struggled to stand while Mr. Kelly pushed himself through the rain, approaching in a slow, sluggish manner from the struggle against the winds and the rain. Moving slowly, though she was pushing with all her might, Sarah approached the house and reached out toward the door handle that was now just inches away from her fingertips. As soon as her fingers grazed the handle another crack of lightning flashed through the sky and struck the roof.

  She cried out as she fell onto her back, the roof of the home caving in as the ungodly sounds of wood breaking as the structure began to collapse filled the surrounding air.

  “Father!” she screamed, her hand extended outward as her fingers curved into a claw-like state. “Father call out to me! Please!”

  One second passed.

  Two.

  “Sarah!” the weakened voice of her father called back. “Help me! I’m hurt!”

  Sarah, now on her hands and knees, pushed into the mud and tried to stand just as Mr. Kelly fell at her side.

  “Miss Harris!” he said. “Hurry! I’ll help you!”

  Mr. Kelly’s muddy hands gripped Sarah’s right arm. Both of them struggled to gain their footing as the howling winds began to drown out the cries of Sarah’s father, and visibility blurred to the point that Sarah could only see a few feet in front of her.

  “Hurry, Mr. Kelly!” Sarah pleaded. “My father is hurt, and the house is going to collapse at any moment.”

  “Jonathan!” Mr. Kelly called out to Sarah’s father. “Hold on!”

  “Please, Mr. Kelly!”

  “I’m trying, Miss Harris!” Mr. Kelly slipped in the mud and onto his side. “I’m trying!”

  It felt as though the house were now a mile away as the pressure from the rains overhead soaked the house, causing it to sink slower, and slower, and slower.

  “Sarah, please hurry,” her father groaned. “I’m stuck!”

  “I’m coming, Father,” she called back as loudly as she could. “I’m coming!”

  With Mr. Kelly’s assistance, the two of them inched their way to the porch, and just as Sarah secured a firm grip on the doorhandle, Kelly pulled her back with brute force and began draggi
ng her away.

  “No, no, no!” Sarah pleaded. “What are you doing?”

  Mr. Kelly pointed to the top of the house. “Look, Miss Harris,” he said. “Look! It is going to collapse!”

  “No, Mr. Kelly! Please, we need to—”

  Sarah said nothing more as the entirety of the house collapsed in on itself, a gut-wrenching blend of wood and glass, and every other noise imaginable gathering into a hellish roar as Sarah’s father cried out into the void, “Help me!”

  The tears began streaming down Sarah’s face as the house she was born and grew up in turned into a pile of rubble in all of an instant, as Mr. Kelly pulled her away to safety as she kicked and screamed, and the incoming tides lapped at the house and began pulling the refuse out into the shore.

  Sobbing uncontrollably, Sarah watched as the remnants of her life were washed clean away. She stared at the wreckage, not fully comprehending what she had just witnessed, as Mr. Kelly began pulling her away to safety.

  Chapter One

  Six months later…

  It had been six months since Sarah smiled, six months since she had heard the voice of her father, and six months since she had felt any shred of happiness. All of her emotions were seemingly replaced with untenable feelings of remorse, regret, and grief. She had lost her father. She lost the entire world as she knew it, and though six months had passed, it only felt like six minutes as she attempted to repair the damage done to her soul in just a shocking few minutes.