Linda Ford - The Cowboy's Surprise Bride

A New Life...In a New World

Traveling to Canada’s Northwest Territories is a thrilling opportunity for Linette Edwards—and her chance to escape a dreaded marriage in England. She’s more than eager to accept Eddie Gardiner’s written invitation. How could she know that Eddie thinks he’s marrying not Linette, but her friend, Margaret?

Eddie planned for a well-bred bride who’d help prove his worth to his father. Instead he’s saddled with a ragamuffin stranger and the little boy in her care. He’ll shelter them until springtime and no longer. But before the snow clears, his heart is thawing too…and hoping this makeshift family can find a permanent home together.

“While you are here, I expect you to conduct yourself wisely and in a ladylike fashion,” Eddie said.

Linette’s nostrils flared. “You mean play the lady of the manor.”

He had his doubts as to whether she even knew how a lady conducted herself. Like his father said, the Edwards family didn’t fit in. Softly he asked, “How do you see your role here?”

She ducked her head so he was unable to see her expression. “I suppose I thought you meant to marry me.” She lifted her head and faced him with her eyes flashing courage and challenge. “I will make a good pioneer wife.”

“I never got your letter, or I could have warned you I’m not desperate for a wife. Besides, you can’t simply substitute one woman for another as if they are nothing more than horses.”

“Why not? Are you madly in love with Margaret?”

Love? There was no such thing as love in an arrangement like theirs. “We suited each other.”

“She doesn’t seem to share your view of suitability.”

LINDA FORD

lives on a ranch in Alberta, Canada. Growing up on the prairie and learning to notice the small details it hides gave her an appreciation for watching God at work in His creation. Her upbringing also included being taught to trust God in everything and through everything—a theme that resonates in her stories. Threads of another part of her life are found in her stories—her concern for children and their future. She and her husband raised fourteen children—four homemade, ten adopted. She currently shares her home and life with her husband, a grown son, a live-in paraplegic client and a continual (and welcome) stream of kids, kids-in-law, grandkids and assorted friends and relatives.

The Cowboy’s Surprise Bride

Linda Ford

www.millsandboon.co.uk

I have set before thee an open door,

and no man can shut it.

—Revelation 3:8

Without cowboys our part of the world would be a much different place. This story is dedicated to the cowboys of the West and those who love them.

To both past and present cowboys and to those who entertain at the greatest outdoor show in the world:

the Calgary Stampede, which celebrated its

100th anniversary in 2012. Thank you.

Contents

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

Epilogue

Dear Reader

Questions for Discussion

Excerpt

Chapter One

Northwest Territories, Canada

October 1881

For the first time she was about to meet Eddie Gardiner. The man she intended to marry. The answer to her prayers.

Linette Edwards parted the curtains on the stagecoach—meant to keep out the dust and cold. The first few days of their trip, dust had filtered through them, and now cold with the bite of a wild beast filled every inch of the tiny coach. Four adults and a child huddled against the elements.

“You’re letting in the cold,” her traveling companion complained.

“I fear we are in for an early snowstorm,” one of the male passengers said.

Linette murmured an apology but she managed to see the rolling hills and the majestic mountains before she dropped the curtain back in place. Since they’d left Fort Benton, headed for the ranch lands of the Northwest Territories of Canada, she’d peered out as much as she could. The mountains, jagged and bold, grew larger and larger. A song filled her heart and soul each time she saw them. This was a new country. She could start over. Be a different person than she’d been forced to be in England. Here she would be allowed to prove she had value as a person. She ignored the ache at how her parents viewed her—as a commodity to be traded for business favors.

She shifted her thoughts to the letter of invitation hidden safely in the cavernous pocket of the coat she’d acquired in Fort Benton. She longed to pull it out and read it again though she had memorized every word. Come before winter.

“I expect more than a shack,” her friend Margaret had fumed when she’d read an earlier letter from the same writer. “After all, he comes from a very respectable family.” With bitterness edging each word, Margaret read the letters describing the cabin Eddie assured her was only temporary quarters. “Temporary? I’m sure he doesn’t know the meaning of the word. A year and a half he’s been there and he still lives in this hovel.”

“It sounds like an adventure.” Linette could imagine a woman working side by side with her man, being a necessary asset to establishing a home in the new world. It sounded a lot more appealing to her than sitting and smiling vacantly as a female spectator. She’d been raised to be the lady of the manor but she wanted more. So much more.

Margaret had sniffed with such disdain that Linette giggled.

“I have made up my mind,” Margaret said. “I cannot marry him and join him in the wilds of the Canadian West. I expected far more when he asked for my hand before he left to start a Gardiner ranch out in that—” she fluttered her hand weakly “—in that savage land.” Her shudder was delicate and likely deliberate.

“Oh, Margaret, surely you don’t mean it.”

“Indeed I do. I’ve written this letter.”

Seated in the overstuffed parlor of Margaret’s family home in London, Linette had read each word kindly but firmly informing Eddie that Margaret had changed her mind and would not be joining him now or anytime in the future. I expect it makes me sound small and selfish, but I can’t imagine living in a tiny house, nor being a woman of the West.

“But what about your feelings for him? His for you?”

Margaret had given her a smile smacking of pity. “I enjoyed his company. He was a suitable candidate for marriage. There are plenty other suitable men.”

How often she’d envied Margaret the opportunity to head to a new world with so much possibility simply for the eager taking of it. “But he’s counting on you. Why would you want to stay here when the whole world beckons?” Wouldn’t he be dreadfully hurt by Margaret’s rejection?

“You should marry him. You’re the one who thinks it would be a lark.” Margaret was clearly annoyed with Linette’s enthusiasm. “In fact, write him and I’ll enclose your letter with mine.”

“Write him? And say what?”

“That you’re willing to be his wife.”

“I don’t know him.” A trickle of something that felt suspiciously like excitement hurried up her limbs to her heart. But it couldn’t be. It wasn’t possible. “My father would never allow it.”

Margaret laughed. “I think the Gardiner name would make even your father consider it a good idea. And would it not provide an escape from the marriage your father has planned?”

Linette shuddered. “I will not marry that old—” Her father had chosen a man in his fifties with a jangling purse of money and a drooling leer. His look made Linette feel soiled. She would do anything to avoid such a fate. She’d been praying for a reprieve. Perhaps this was an answer to her heartfelt petition.