A Secretive Mail Order Widow For The Humorous Rancher (The Love of Low Valley Series) Read online

  A Secretive Mail Order Widow For The Humorous Rancher

  The Love of Low Valley Series

  Elliee Atkinson

  Contents

  Copyright

  Dedication

  A Secretive Mail Order Widow For The Quiet Rancher

  PROLOGUE

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  21

  22

  23

  24

  25

  26

  27

  28

  29

  30

  31

  32

  33

  34

  35

  36

  37

  38

  39

  40

  EPILOGUE

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  Also By Elliee Atkinson

  About The Author

  Acknowledgement

  If You Have Enjoyed This Book…

  Publisher’s Notes

  Copyright © 2016,2017,2018, 2019 by ELLIEE ATKINSON

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. It contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any similarities to real or dead people, places, or events are not intentional and are the result of coincidence. The characters, places, and events are the product of the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the author/publisher. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

  Cover designed by Ms Melody Simmons. Author has the copyrights to this cover.

  DEDICATION

  “I have learned not to worry about love; but to honor its coming with all my heart.”

  Alice Walker

  This Story Is Specially Dedicated To You, My Dearest Reader!

  It is with gratefulness and gratitude that I am writing to you this personal dedication.

  Thank you once again for giving me this opportunity to share with you my creative side of me.

  I hope you will enjoy reading this story as much I have enjoyed writing it!

  It is with such great support from you that keep us authors writing and writing, presenting to you with great and interesting stories.

  Have you checked out my other western historical romance books series?

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  A SECRETIVE MAIL ORDER WIDOW FOR

  THE HUMOROUS RANCHER

  A WESTERN ROMANCE STORY

  by

  ELLIEE ATKINSON

  PROLOGUE

  Nancy Simpson dropped her eyes to her hands, suppressing her tears. It seemed her life had come to an early end, not literally, but figuratively, when her husband, Johnny, was killed in a robbery. He wasn’t the robber though. He was the bank teller. Even though he was the victim of the crime, she still felt a burden of guilt, that somehow everyone in town was looking down on her, berating her because she was a widow so quickly after getting married.

  Three months they’d been married. Three months of marital bliss for both her and Johnny. She knew he was happy. She was just as ecstatic. She was in love, so in love. She thought it would be forever. Cruel fate. Taking her happiness away so soon. It wasn’t fair.

  Nan felt a hand on her back and looked up. It was her best friend, Helen, a classy young woman who came from a wealthy family. They were the family that had sponsored Nan, an orphan, when she was married to Johnny. If it wasn’t for them, Johnny’s family wouldn’t have approved of her at all.

  Now that he was gone, she felt the heavy weight of their scrutiny on her every time they were in her presence. She may have been delusional, just feeling guilty for being alive when her beloved husband was dead. However, she felt like his family blamed her for it. They might not have, but she felt like they did.

  “How are you feeling, Nan?” Helen asked, taking the seat next to her, speaking in a low voice so no one else in the room could hear. “I know you’re feeling defeated right now. But God will pull you through, dear, you have to believe that.”

  “I’m all right, Helen,” Nan said, sniffing back her tears. “I just don’t want to be here right now, that’s all. I don’t know what I’m going to do. You know Johnny’s parents won’t let me stay in the house. They’ve given me a month to find a new home. They don’t want anything to do with me anymore.”

  Helen shook her head. “I think they are just still in shock. They will change their minds.”

  Nan was skeptical. They certainly sounded sure when they told her in no uncertain terms to get out of the house, as it belonged to their son, not her.

  “They blame me for Johnny’s death.”

  Once again, Helen shook her head. It did nothing to comfort Nan’s hurting heart. She had tried hard to get close to the Simpson family. Johnny had a younger sister about Nan’s age – 20 – and three brothers. They were a loving, close family. She adored the way they were together. It was the kind of family she’d always wanted. Now it had been denied to her. She wondered what she had done in her short time on earth to deserve such a fate, such a terrible heartbreak. Her world shattered when Johnny was gunned down in the bank.

  “Oh, Nan,” Helen said in a comforting, soft voice. She rubbed Nan’s back with one hand. “Even if they do, you know full well it isn’t your fault what happened. It could happen to any bank teller and the Simpsons all know that. You can’t stop them from being unreasonable. It’s impossible to change someone else.”

  “I know,” Nan murmured. “And perhaps I could handle it if I wasn’t being kicked out of my home. It’s not like I can go back to the orphanage.”

  Helen tilted her head to the side. “Nan, you had your own room in the boarding house before you married Johnny. Why don’t you go back there?”

  Nan shook her head. “There are no rooms available right now. I don’t know what I’m going to do. I can’t stay with anyone. No one has room for me. It’s… it’s so heartbreaking to think that the family I married into won’t do anything to help me through this. Not even a shoulder to cry on.” Nan felt sad, more sad than anything else. She wasn’t really angry with the Simpsons. She was just sad that they didn’t realize how much she’d really lost. Perhaps they just didn’t care.

  Either way, they offered her no support. She would have no home in a month, no income when her employer found out she had no home, and no family to fall back on. She was lost to society.

  Her heart ached
in her chest. She pressed her fingers against it, clutching a handkerchief to wipe her eyes when the tears came.

  “I’m so sorry, honey,” Helen said softly, resting her head on Nan’s shoulder. “I wish I could make you feel better. I wouldn’t treat you that way if I were them and you know if I had a place for you, you could stay with me.”

  Nan nodded, glancing at her friend with a tearful smile. “I know you would, Helen. You’ve been such a good friend to me. I’ll figure something out. God will provide.”

  Helen looked up at her, squeezing her shoulders. “He will, Nan. He really will. He’ll bless you in ways you never expected, I’m sure of it. Johnny wouldn’t approve of what’s happened here. He loved you so much. He would be very angry with his family if he knew what they were doing to you.”

  Nan dabbed at her eyes, nodding. “I know he would. I guess they really didn’t think we were in love.”

  “Well, you know you were,” Helen replied, firmly. “And so did all your friends. Don’t you worry, Nan. Something will happen for you. Something good.”

  CHAPTER 1

  Lonely Ben

  Ben leaned over and picked up the shovel, which was laying on its side in the dust after he clumsily dropped it.

  “What you doin’, Ben?” Dean Carter, the foreman of the Mason ranch and a good friend to Ben, barked at him. He jumped slightly, looking up at the big Irish man.

  “Sorry, Dean. Not thinking straight today.”

  “I can see that,” Dean replied, shaking his head. “You realize that’s the third time you’ve dropped that shovel? And that’s just counting the times you dropped that. You’ve dropped all kinds of other things today, too, including a hammer that almost hit someone. What’s going on with you?”

  Ben couldn’t explain how he was feeling to Dean for several reasons, not the least of which being he was not the kind of man who shared his feelings with other people. Dean was his boss. He might not be the owner of the ranch, but he was just as important. Logan Mason treated him that way, too.

  “I’m not really sure,” Ben said, stabbing the blade of the shovel down into the loose dirt below and leaning on the handle. He, Dean and several other ranch hands on the Mason ranch were building an addition to the barn, expanding so they could bring in more cattle or horses. Ben wasn’t really sure. It wasn’t his job to know. He just took care of them once they were there.

  “Well, straighten up.” Dean wasn’t speaking in a condescending tone. He sounded concerned. Ben gave him a half-hearted grin.

  “Don’t worry about me, Dean. I can tell you are. You’re worried about me.”

  Dean narrowed his eyes. “Don’t you start with me, Ben Connelly. I’ll send ya back to Ireland where ya belong.”

  Ben laughed out loud, his depression lifting from his mind briefly. He and Dean were from the same tiny village in Ireland, which was so shocking to both of them, they had to be friends, whether they wanted to be or not. Once they settled on that thought, they found out they got along really well.

  “I’m not aimin’ to go back to Ireland anytime soon, Dean Carter,” Ben replied. “But thanks for the offer.”

  Both men chuckled. Ben pulled the shovel out of the dirt and stabbed it back in to form a line in the ground to indicate where the foundation would be laid. Dean sorted through a large box of nails, pulling out useless, broken, or bent nails and tossing them into a garbage pile.

  “Seriously, buddy,” Dean said. “You’ve been off for a couple days, not your normal self. You got somethin’ on your mind?”

  Ben licked his lips, staring down at the shovel as he made a groove in the ground. “I… I don’t know…”

  “Look,” Dean’s voice thundered over to him, sounding louder than it actually was. He was sure Dean didn’t intend to be so loud. “You can talk to me. We’re friends. You know I’m not gonna give your secrets away. You know I’ll do what I can for ya, if I can help.”

  Ben looked at him. There was nothing Dean could do to help him. He was lonely, that was the long and short of it. He was plain lonely. He was 24 years old and had never been involved with a woman. There simply weren’t a lot of women on the west coast. The available women usually had street walking or brothel jobs or they were married. Both of those were strict no-nos for Ben.

  “There’s nothin’ you can do for me, Dean. But thanks for askin’.”

  “You’re gonna tell me what’s wrong, Ben. You might as well give it up now because I’m gonna get it out of you.”

  Ben drew his eyebrows together. “Why you so concerned? It’s not like I’m ready to take off and find a new job or somethin’.”

  Dean shrugged. “How am I supposed to know that? Maybe you’re frustrated working here and I’ll wake up to you being gone one morning.”

  Ben grinned wide at him. “You sound like a husband scolding a wife.”

  Dean snorted. “You ain’t my wife. But I’ll be durned if I’m gonna have one of my best friends and ranch hands walk off the job without warnin’.”

  Ben shook his head. “I ain’t goin’ anywhere, I told ya. I’m just… well, to be real honest with ya, I’m lonely. I’m just plain, tree in the desert lonely.”

  Dean whipped his hat off his head and scratched it with his middle fingers, pushing his red hair to the side. “Lonely, huh?”

  “Did I hear you say you’re lonely?” A voice behind Ben made him turn to look. It was Lou, one of the other ranch hands, riding toward them swinging a lasso to one side. He brought the swinging rope to a stop and slid out of the saddle after halting his horse. He landed on the dusty ground, shooting clouds of dust up around his boots.

  Ben was irritated. That was why he never expressed his feelings. There was always a chance someone would hear that he didn’t want hearing.

  “Yeah, Ben’s lonely. Like a lot of men on the West Coast.”

  “Especially in Nevada,” Lou said. “You’ll actually find more women in California these days.”

  Ben searched Lou’s face for the sarcasm and cynicism. He saw nothing but kindness and friendliness there. Lou picked his hat off his head and flapped it toward his face to create a breeze.

  “I don’t blame ya, friend,” Lou continued. “I get lonely all the time. You ain’t know lonely till you had a family then lost them.”

  Ben nodded. Lou was an older man who had lost his entire family to a house fire when he was younger. His wife and three children perished that day. Lou was never the same man after, Ben was told, and was never again seen in the accompaniment of a woman.

  “I’m real sure of that, Lou,” he said, sympathetically. Lou shook his head.

  “Nah, don’t you be worried about me, Ben. I had it and I’m glad I did. But you haven’t even had that chance yet. I understand the desire. I felt the same way at your age.”

  Ben continued digging the trench line in the ground, trying to distract himself with his work. He stopped working and looked at the older man when he continued talking. He would have been concerned about breaking in the middle of his work when his boss was right there. However, Dean was looking at Lou with the same direct look, seemingly not paying attention to Ben at all.

  “There’s nothing more satisfying in a man’s life than finding a good woman to love, givin’ her that love and gettin’ it back in return. You aren’t a man till you’ve made a woman smile like that. You know? It’s just an amazing feeling to see a big smile on the face of the woman you love.”

  His voice was wistful. Ben felt a pull on his heart strings. “Yeah, I imagine it is,” he said, dropping his eyes to the ground.

  “You’ll find it, Ben!” Lou said, confidently. “I have no doubt of it. You’re a smart man, fairly good looking, I guess…”

  Dean snorted, grinning wide at Ben. “Don’t know about that.”

  Ben rolled his eyes, shaking his head at his friend.

  “You’ll be fine, buddy,” Lou said, giving Dean a mocking disdainful look. “Don’t you pay attention to what this dunderhead has to say.”<
br />
  “Hey! I’m his friend!” Dean replied in a hurt voice. “I can say that about him if I want. Besides, I ain’t a dandy. Can’t tell if he’s good looking or not.”

  Lou shook his head. “You don’t gotta be a dandy to see when a man is good lookin’, Dean. And this boy’s got what it takes. You just ain’t found her yet. Give it a little more time. If you don’t find your woman, travel east. You’re bound to run across her that way.”

  Ben shook his head. “I don’t want to travel. Don’t want to leave this place. It’s my home. I wouldn’t even know where to go.”

  “Ireland?”

  Both Dean and Ben looked at Lou through narrow eyes. He widened his and took a step back. “I didn’t mean no harm in that,” he said hurriedly. “I don’t know if you got family out there or not.”

  Ben shook his head. “No. I’m an orphan. Haven’t been back to Ireland since my family came over. I was just a baby. My parents were killed on route.”

  “I didn’t know that about you, Ben,” Lou said, his eyebrows drawing together as he shook his head. “I guess you do know what it’s like to lose the people you love the most.”