Mail Order Josephine - A Historical Mail Order Bride Novel (Western Mail Order Brides) Read Online Free Page A

encrusted with dust, from harsh treatment on the range. A gun belt hung on his narrow hips. He broke off his conversation with the other men and stepped up to her. “Can I help you with somethin’, Miss?”
    She pried her eyes away from the blacksmith and appraised him for the first time. His eyes twinkled in amusement, and underneath his beard and moustache, a trace of a smile spread over his mouth. “I beg your pardon?” she stammered.
    “Can I help you with somethin’, Miss?” the man repeated. “Are you pickin’ somethin’ up, or droppin’ somethin’ off for Johnny to work on?”
    “Oh, no,” she hastened to explain herself, “I just wanted to…you know…see it.”
    “See…what?” he cocked his head the other way.
    “The forge,” she waved toward it. “I’ve never seen one before. I wanted to see it. To see how it works.”
    He snickered. “I don’t wonder you’ve never seen one before.” He swept his eyes over her attire. “A lady like you doesn’t belong back here.”
    “I just wanted to see it,” she insisted. “It seems important. I want to understand how it works.”
    “Don’t you have your men to take care of that?” he inquired. “You don’t need to understand how it works, so it can’t be important.”
    “And what happens if a woman doesn’t have any men to take care of that for her?” she pointed out. “There must be widows in this town who come here to get their horses shod and their wagons repaired. They have to understand how it works. So why not me? Anyway, I just wanted to watch. I want to learn as much as I can about how people live out here.”
    He chuckled. “Well, you got me there. I know a couple of widowed ladies in town. The richer ones send word to Johnny when they need something and he sends his boys around to fetch their horses and whatnot. Then they bring them here. But the poor ones—you’re right. They have to attend to all that business themselves, and they come right into the forge and try to instruct Johnny on his business. It’s about the funniest thing you ever did see. But a lady like you shouldn’t have any call to do that sort of thing.”
    Josephine scowled at him. “Maybe I won’t be a lady forever.”
    His expression turned suddenly serious. “From what I can see from here, you were born a lady, and you’ll be a lady forever.”
    “I hope not,” she snapped.
    “What do you mean?” he retorted. “Why wouldn’t you? A lady like you would be a prize worth winning.”
    “Then I wish you good luck in winning one,” she growled, “and I hope not to be the one you win. Good day!” She lifted her skirts above the dust and clods of mud and retreated to the streets of the town. Though she hadn’t watched the blacksmith as long as she wished, she had seen enough to satisfy her initial curiosity and gladly escaped the mocking questions of the man she met there.
    She took a quick tour of the saddlery, having viewed its merchandise through the window earlier in the morning. The man’s conversation at the forge dampened her enthusiasm. She no longer felt any motivation to confront the working people in their native habitat. Or maybe it was the shock of actually seeing the forge for herself that dampened it. She couldn’t work out which. Although she searched through multiple streets for the laundry, she couldn’t find it. She gave up the search, but just as she turned a corner on her way back to the hotel, she entered a covered alley between two other buildings and collided headlong with another woman. This woman wore a faded cotton dress and a smudged apron, and she carried a load of bundled linens in her arms. The load extended so far outside the woman’s comfortable reach that she could scarcely see over the top of it, and the woman sweated and puffed under her burden. When she and Josephine bounced off of one another, the enormous bundle fell out of her arms and landed on the ground. The woman struggled to retrieve it, but the