Mail Order Bride – Charlotte's Summer: Clean Sweet Western Cowboy Romance (Seasons Mail Order Brides Book 1) Read Online Free

started. “Excuse me , Sir, but are you insinuating neither of us are attractive enough to find suitors for ourselves?”
    “Why, no Miss … uh, I’d never be so impolite, quite the contrary.” Bert now had a thin sheen of sweat break out across his top lip as he spluttered to cover his gaffe. He was rethinking his opinion of the girls with every dagger Beth shot his way. “A man would be a dang fool not to ask you for your hand in marriage. I was simply considering the fact that neither of you would ever be so desperate. What must one be thinking and all, marrying a complete stranger? I’d say it’s a crazy act for anyone, let alone the like of you fine ladies.”
    Charlotte and Beth froze. Desperate? Why of course. Why hadn’t either of them thought of it sooner? That’s exactly what Charlotte needed to get out of the proposed marriage to Mr. Graynger. A different husband would surely do the trick. It seemed fate had stepped in right when they’d needed it to, and in that instant both girls knew what had to be done.
    “Desperate, you say?” said Charlotte, more to herself than to anyone else.
    “Oh no, I uh … wasn’t implying you were…”
    “Your insults are the least of our worries right now, Bert.” Beth watched as his face lit up as bright as a camp fire. “Sometimes desperate times call for desperate measures. Come now Charlotte, we have places to go and people to see.”
    Beth purposefully stuck her nose in the air as she spun on her heels and walked right back out the door they’d just come through. Mrs. Fredrick’s mail was still tucked up tightly under her arm. Charlotte grabbed the pile to the left of the counter marked ORPHANAGE and followed closely behind her, informing Bert that apparently they would be making a stop by the Fredrick’s place on the way back.
    As it was, Bert who was glad for their leaving his post office without causing too much of a scene, simply waved them off and then returned to his business.

Chapter 6
    “ G oodness me !”
    Mrs. Fredrick shrieked, taken aback by the sudden pounding at her front door. She stepped outside onto the porch, wearing on her head one of the most fanciful bonnets a bright Tuesday morning had ever been so privileged to see.
    She was met with two breathless, panting bodies, hunched over at the waist. Both girls gasped for air. They had raced to the end of the street, rounded the corner and then hurried across the busy road without giving the mercantile a second thought. In fact, Beth had barged through the front gate with such force that it near broke straight off its hinges, before it swung back again and hit Charlotte square in the shins.
    “We’re sorry Mrs. Frederick, it’s just that…” began Charlotte, rubbing her leg.
    But Beth soon grew impatient and – once she’d caught her breath again – proceeded to explain in explicit detail everything about the sad predicament Charlotte had found herself in. She was in such a hurry to get everything out all at once that she threw her arms up in the air for dramatic effect and the letters slipped from her hands and ended up spread out across the wide, wooden veranda they were all standing on.
    Mrs. Fredrick quickly collected up the mess and escorted the girls into the sitting room at the front of the house, realizing that something terrible could happen if she didn’t get to the bottom of it immediately. She disappeared into the kitchen for a moment and then returned with three glasses of grape cider. She took a quick sip while she gathered her thoughts. If it was the way she believed it to be, then time was running out and they would have to move quickly. “Why Charlotte, Mr. Graynger must be twice your age?”
    “No Ma’am, closer to three times if I’m not mistaken.”
    Her face filled with nothing but sympathy and she shook her head. “I never did trust that shifty old fool, he’s as crooked as a ram’s horn if you ask my opinion.”
    “Can you help us, Mrs. Fredrick?”