Violet: Bride of North Dakota (American Mail-Order Bride 39) Read Free

Johnson smiled and patted her hand. “It’s just something the conductors say because right now the train tracks end here in Minot. Next year they’ll be extended to Williston, and then Casper will surely frighten young women in Williston, and Minot will simply be another stop to doom. Don’t worry, honey.”
    As the train slowed and approached the platform, Violet craned her neck to catch sight of her groom. Then the train blew its whistle and came to a stop with a metallic screech.
    Mrs. Johnson looked out the window. “Oh, there’s my Horace. I must go now. Good luck with your marriage, my dear, and I am sure we will see you again when we come into town next.”
    “Oh, I do hope so.”
    “I will see you outside.”
    Violet watched her new friend climb down and hug a man standing on the platform.
    Then she slowly stood and went to meet her doom—or rather, her groom.
     

     
    Dear Miss Keating,
    I was delighted to receive your correspondence. I believe in true love but—though I have received many responses to my advertisement—I had not felt the stirrings of it until I read your sweet letter. And when I know what I want, I go after it with all I have, and will not be denied. I am enclosing a train ticket for your passage from Massachusetts to North Dakota. It will be a trip of four days, if the weather remains good (if it snows and the train should be delayed, I will meet every train until you arrive) so I am also sending some extra money for conveniences and food along the way. I am a generous man and wish to share all I have with you. Since I have been told by the ladies in Minot that I am pleasing to the eye, and you have been told the same, I think our children will be beautiful, which also pleases me. I very much look forward to making your acquaintance. I know you are traveling far from home and will have concerns, so rest assured that I will meet you at the train station on October 15th in my fine new carriage and then I will drive around town to show off your beauty before proceeding to the preacher’s home, where he has agreed to marry us. I cannot wait to look upon your loveliness and know that you are mine. And, though my given name is Nathaniel James Evans, I prefer to go by James as Nathaniel is my father’s name. It is also more to the point, which is also more me than my father. So you will become Mrs. James Evans.
    Yours faithfully and forever, James Evans
    (Letter mailed October 8, 1890 in Minot, North Dakota )
     
    Minot, North Dakota
    October 15, 1890
     
    When she got outside, Mrs. Johnson introduced Violet to Horace, and then said, “I am so excited for you, my dear. We would wait to meet your James, but my Horace has a business meeting to attend to, so we must go. Good luck, my dear.” She hugged Violet and wished her the best—and then was gone.
    While Violet waited alongside the train for her brightly colored traveling case to be handed down to her, she scanned the platform.
    A young mother with three children greeted her husband. Two dapper men in suits walked briskly away from the station and climbed into a wagon. A threesome of what might have even been painted ladies—but she wasn’t sure, as she’d never seen any before—fluttered about, flirting with the passing men. And those who weren’t flirting back hurried along on their business.
    But no James.
    She clutched her reticule as her stomach churned.
    In the other direction, she saw four men. One stood beside a woman and four children, so that wasn’t James. One was likely in his eighties, stooped and gray. The third was a man she sincerely hoped was not her husband-to-be—he looked distinctly unprosperous—and even unclean—and she’d gotten the distinct feeling from his letter that James was prosperous. And clean. The fact that he owned a fine carriage was another indicator, and this man looked back at a horse tied up close by, as if to check on it.
    No, these three could not be her future husband.
    The fourth man,