An Uncivilized Romance (Family of Love Series) (A Western Romance Story) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Copyright

  Join My VIP Readers’ Club List

  A Personal Note From Ellie Atkinson

  Dedication

  About The Author

  An Uncivilized Romance

  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

  EPILOGUE

  Also By Elliee Atkinson

  Acknowledgement

  If You Have Enjoyed This Book…

  Publisher’s Notes

  An Uncivilized Romance

  Family of Love Series

  Elliee Atkinson

  GREENHOUSE PUBLISHING CO.

  Contents

  Copyright

  Join My VIP Readers’ Club List

  A Personal Note From Ellie Atkinson

  Dedication

  About The Author

  An Uncivilized Romance

  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

  *

  EPILOGUE

  *

  Join My VIP Readers’ Club List

  Also By Elliee Atkinson

  Acknowledgement

  If You Have Enjoyed This Book…

  Publisher’s Notes

  Copyright © 2017 by ELLIEE ATKINSON & GREEN HOUSE PUBLISHING CO.

  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.

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  A PERSONAL NOTE

  FROM ELLIEE ATKINSON

  To My Dearest Lovely Readers,

  Those female characters within my stories are women who displayed strong faith of love, knowing what they want to pursue in the Wild West.

  They are constantly seeking and believe the true love really exists as they are often being looked upon as an inferior gender. Because of these social stigma, it motivates them to overcome challenges they may face while waiting for the man of their dreams to appear.

  Will these insecurities and stigma encourages them in believing true love despite the differences and challenges in social standing that they will face during this Wild West period?

  Read on to find out the answers!

  Thank you very much for your strong support to my writing journey!

  With Hugs, Kisses and Love…

  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?

  Click the link below to get started

  *** AMAZON USA ***

  Do you like what you have read?

  I would want to hear from you!

  Please do get in touch with me:

  https://www.facebook.com/EllieeAtkinsonBooks/

  [email protected]

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Elliee Atkinson is the author of many mail order brides stories and her alternate name is Rosie Attwood. Using Elliee Atkinson as her new pen-name, she spins out American historical western romance stories for readers that appreciate the romance that happened in the Old Wild West.

  Elliee loves writing and reading romance. Her first western romance “Wild Montana Sky” by Debra Holland was inspired by the story perseverance and determination of the women from the wild west and how they overcome adversaries, fight for the love they deserved and desired.

  Many of her stories are based on her knowledge of the old west, although all the names, events, and places that may resemble or are similar to living people are only coincidental and fiction, of course.

  Elliee credits her wonderfully supportive partner and friend, Steven and her advance review reviewers for helping her to fine-tune her writing skills and allowing her creativity to explode.

  AN UNCIVILIZED ROMANCE

  A WESTERN ROMANCE STORY

  by

  ELLIEE ATKINSON

  and

&n
bsp; Green House Publishing Co.

  PROLOGUE

  PROLOGUE

  “I’ll take another, Sam,” Adam lifted one hand to get the bartender’s attention. Sam raised his head in a single nod and moved to pour the beer into a glass. Adam looked across the table to Mark and continued what he had been saying. “I didn’t know you were unaware of Michael. Yeah, I haven’t seen him in several years.”

  “How can you live here for all these years and not tell me about him?” Mark joked. “I thought I knew everything about you.”

  “Oh, I’m sure there is plenty you don’t know,” Adam smiled.

  Mark grunted, amused by his friend’s sarcasm. “You probably snore, too, don’t ya?”

  Both men laughed.

  “You’d have to ask Alice. She’s never complained, so there’s a good chance I don’t.”

  “So, you’re saying Alice complains a lot?” Mark raised his eyebrows.

  “No, no,” Adam replied quickly, shaking his head vigorously. “And you’ll never tell her I said something like that either.”

  Again, they laughed and Adam thanked Sam for the beer when he brought it to him. He took a long drink before going on. “Yeah, Michael really made himself into a hermit after his wife died. They had always had that cabin out there in the woods. It’s a log cabin and my brother built it with his bare hands. No help from anybody.”

  “That’s an accomplishment,” Mark nodded. “Does he correspond with you at all? Doesn’t come to Wickenburg to see you and your kids? Doesn’t know about Holly?”

  Adam cringed slightly at the mention of his deceased wife. He was since remarried to her sister, Alice, but a part of his heart would always belong to his first wife. “No, I don’t even know if he knows he’s got a niece and nephew.”

  “That’s pretty rough, Adam, I’m sorry to hear it. He has been gone that long, has he?”

  “Him wanting to be alone started after the death of my youngest brother, but he didn’t pull away completely until his wife, Rachel, died. He blamed himself, I think, because she died after a bad snake bite and with him insisting they live out in the woods like that… well… it kind of really brought him down.”

  “About how far out into the woods does he live?”

  Adam thought about it for a moment, taking another long swig from his glass. “Oh, I don’t know… maybe 30 miles up the mountain?”

  Mark’s eyes widened. “That far?”

  Adam shrugged. “It’s hard for me to remember. It’s been so long since I’ve been there. I was only there once or twice. He just didn’t want visitors. He barely wanted me there and I’m his brother.”

  Mark shook his head. “That sounds real sad, brother. Real sad.”

  Adam nodded. “Yeah, I miss him. Sometimes I think about him and I want to go find him, but I’ll tell you, I probably wouldn’t be able to find his cabin. And if I did, it’s been so long since I’ve seen him, he might get out his rifle and shoot me, not knowing who I am.”

  “You really think he’d do that?”

  “I don’t know. Not sure I want to take the chance.”

  “You might not recognize him either. He could be wandering around Wickenburg and you wouldn’t even know it.”

  Adam looked doubtful, shaking his head. “If Mike was to come to Wickenburg, he’d find me. We didn’t part on bad terms. He’s just a sad soul that wants to be alone. He likes it that way. That’s the impression I got. I wish he would come to Wickenburg. He knows where my house is. At least he did the last time I saw him. When he was married, he came to the house with Rachel and would spend time with me and Holly. That’s when I was first with her.”

  “He wasn’t around when you had the kids?”

  “No, Rachel died while Holly was pregnant with Max. He stopped coming around after that and I never saw him again. I got caught up in raising my family and it was so long before I realized he hadn’t been around that I didn’t know how to find him.”

  “You didn’t go looking for his cabin?”

  “I did, actually,” Adam responded, thoughtfully, looking toward the saloon doors without actually seeing them. He ran through his memory, remembering the times he had gone out into the woods in search of his brother’s cabin. “Not only did I not find his cabin, I didn’t even know if I was going in the right direction. There’s a trail wide enough for a wagon that goes up the mountain but I don’t know how far to take the wagon before I have to abandon it and walk through the woods. And I don’t know how far I’d have to walk before I got to the cabin.”

  “That sounds like a great deal of trouble.” Mark admitted. “But I gotta say it might be worth it if you want to see your brother again.”

  “I hope someday he will come back to Wickenburg. Until the kids are old enough, I don’t want to risk my life searching for him. He’s a grown man and he knows what he’s doing. I’m sure he will come back someday.”

  Mark raised his eyebrows. “You don’t even know if he’s still alive.”

  Adam snorted. “Thanks for the encouraging words. No, I don’t. But I suspect he is. He was always good at surviving on his own. I have no doubt he’s doing just fine.”

  Mark shook his head, crossing his arms over his chest and surveying his friend. “Well, listen, if ya ever want to go in search of him, I’ll come along. Ya never know. It might be a good thing to find him again. He’s your brother.”

  “I’m aware he’s my brother, Mark. And you really want to risk getting shot? He doesn’t even know you.”

  “Was he the kind of man that would shoot a stranger?”

  Adam hesitated before answering. “No, I suppose he wasn’t. He’d want to know what you wanted first. Then he’d shoot ya.”

  Mark chuckled. “Just let me know, Adam. I’ll go with ya sometime, if ya want me to.”

  Adam nodded.

  CHAPTER ONE

  MIKE TAKES CARE OF BUSINESS

  MIKE TAKES CARE OF BUSINESS

  Mike Collins shifted in his bed, sticking one foot out from under the thin sheet he used to cover himself, and wiggling his toes to see what the temperature felt like. It was still warm, which surprised him. Winter was approaching and he wanted to make the cabin safe and warm before then. He’d spent the last week chopping down nearby trees and cutting them up for firewood. He’d pulled out the thicker blankets from the trunks he stored under the front porch and made sure they were not rotting from being outside all summer long. A few were looking a bit worse for wear, but he didn’t know whether he wanted to go into town to purchase more. When Rachel was alive, she had done all the shopping and visiting town. If he went, he knew he would have to see his brother. He was ashamed of how much of a recluse he had become and didn’t want his brother to see him the way he was. His beard had grown out thick and long because he never bothered to shave. He had his straight razor sharpened and ready to go but he figured what was the point? No one was going to see him anyway.

  He slid out of bed.

  “Time to get some things done, Mike,” he murmured to himself. He sat on the edge of the bed for a moment, gripping the side with his large hands and breathing steadily. He’d slept hard the night before and still felt groggy from it. Finally, he pushed himself out of the bed and crossed the room to the open door, going through to the main room. The cabin was quite large and spacious. Several pieces of furniture were placed strategically around the room, giving it an even larger look. The area near the front door was reserved for kitchen duties, with a cast iron stove, a long counter, and cabinets for storing. He had built many boxes out of wood and placed them around the cabin, filling them with memories of Rachel and their life together. He had all of her clothes, her personal grooming items, the decorations she had made that he couldn’t bear to look at anymore, and drawings she had made of the animals in the woods around them.

  At times, he would pull out the drawings and look at them, remembering how vibrant and happy she had been. He’d made sure to keep her happy, never made her feel unsafe or insecure ab
out their home or his love for her.

  That love would never fade, he was sure of it.

  He dressed slowly, as he had nothing to be in a hurry for. He secured his colt revolver to his side. He tied up his boots and, when he stood up, stretched his long arms over his head and scratched his beard as he walked to the icebox. He pulled out a circular container filled with water from the stream that he had boiled and cooled down. He poured some of the water into his canteen and replaced the container.

  He stepped out onto the porch and watched the sun rising in the distance, through the tops of the trees. It was a brisk morning. He breathed in deeply, feeling suddenly refreshed. He smiled.

  “It’s going to be a productive day, Rachel,” he said aloud, scanning the land around him. To his right, a stream bubbled and ran swiftly down the side of the mountain, though where he had built the cabin was mostly flat. His equipment was scattered around in front of the cabin. Before he had completely isolated himself from the outside world, which continued to grow in population without his presence just fine, he had purchased many items to keep him and his wife happy. He had an apple crusher, which made delicious cider, a carving bench on the porch, a plow for his field and garden, and many more useful pieces of equipment. He wondered what new products he might be able to find, should he go into Wickenburg.