Mary's Heart

A sweet historical romance. Mary Edwards is a demure bride. As the train pulls into the station in Silver, Colorado, Mary steps onto the platform and into her new life. Mary has prepared herself to look her best, expecting to be greeted by her husband-to-be, a man she has never met, but the platform is empty. Mary's heart falls. She has suffered so much rejection in her young life and the thought that this man, this Cal Zook might be rejecting her too, is hard to bear. She waits for the men to unload her trunk and when they do, she sits on it and waits.

As the sun sets, a woman arrives on a buckboard to collect her and take her home. Her name is Eileen Abernathy, Cal's next door neighbor. She greets Mary and takes her home, telling her that the house is ready and the preacher is on his way. Mary is shocked! She had hoped to have some time to prepare before actually marrying Cal, but Eileen assures her Cal is handsome and after some thought, Mary agrees to go to the ranch.

Before she left Pennsylvania, Mary's mother, Clara, had told her she didn't love her. Mary looks into Eileen’s eyes. The sun has gone down, and the twilight sky left little light, but she could still see the kindness radiating from those eyes. Mary wondered, after hearing Clara’s confession, if your own mother doesn't love you, how can anyone else?

She’d thought about this as she lay on the train, and had come to a conclusion of her own. She didn’t care so much if Cal loved her – she only cared that he wanted her and that he’d accepted her presence in his house and respect her.

“Does he want me?” she asked Eileen.

Eileen thought about how hard Cal had protested against having a wife, and how angry he was over his father’s arrangement with Mary's father, James Edwards. They had made a deal years before that James' daughter would marry his son. Cal didn't want a wife, nor did he feel he needed one, but he was an honorable man. Eileen looked Mary dead in the eye, put one hand behind her back, and crossed her fingers.

“More than anything else in the world,” she said.

After the wedding, Mary sleeps alone in the spare room Eileen had prepared for her, her virtue intact. Cal keeps a respectful distance and over time, grows fond of her. But as the details of his past begin to come to light, Mary begins to understand why it so hard for her new husband to give himself to her completely, even though their growing attraction is making it harder for both of them to keep their distance any longer. Can they overcome their pasts and become one as man and wife?

This ebook contains an excerpt from Lenore Butler's book, Hannah's Dream.