“Would you take that chance, if you were in my place?” she asked Beth earnestly.
Beth’s brown eyes looked pensive, and then she nodded. “Yes, I would. Particularly if it were almost certain the man was a good, Christian fellow. We might not fall in love, but at least I could depend upon him. Which is more than I can say for most men around these parts.” She paused. “And Catherine, you deserve a child.”
“I’ve had my chances,” Catherine replied, barely keeping the tremor from her voice. “At this point, I believe it simply isn’t meant to be.”
“You never know,” Beth said with a hopeful smile. “It may happen just yet.”
Catherine shook her head. “Would you come with me? To see Pastor Jeffreys?”
“Of course. Do you want to go now? I’m not expected home for at least an hour.”
It was now or never. And so Catherine gathered her hat and gloves and followed her friend out the door.
All that was left was to keep faith that Pastor Jeffreys had her best interests at heart.
Chapter Two
GROVER’S GULCH, COLORADOTerritory, Fall 1870
The train was late.
It happened from time to time, particularly when it began snowing in the mountains. And this morning, the small mining town of Grover’s Gulch had awoken to a blanket of white up high on the topmost peaks. The train had to cut through a pass in order to arrive in town, and snow often meant it had to stop while railroad workers shoveled the white powder off the tracks.
It was hard to imagine snow right now, standing here in the bustling little town as the sun shone down and made wearing a coat just a bit uncomfortable. Jonathan Clark shrugged his coat off and draped it over one arm as he looked down at the suit he wore. It was the only one he had, and it had seen better days. He’d only worn it to church services since arriving in Grover’s Gulch that summer. Building and running a boarding house had offered little other opportunity to dress nicely.
Except now.
What would she be like?he mused for possibly the hundredth time. He’d pressed Pastor Simpson for information about this girl he was to wed, but the minister had very little information other that she’d come upon recommendation from a minister friend in Tennessee, that she was recently widowed and needed a home immediately, and that she was of an appropriate age to become Jonathan’s wife.
Oh, and her name—Catherine Lee. It was a lovely, simple name, and he liked the way it would sound once she took his last name.Catherine Clark. It was almost poetic.
Jonathan shook his head as he looked down the empty tracks. He was hardly a man given to flights of fancy, preferring instead to concern himself with matters of business. Numbers and the like were dependable, unlike emotions. But ever since agreeing to marry this woman from Tennessee, he’d found himself drifting off into thoughts that were quite unlike him. Would she have brown hair or blonde? Was she fair-skinned or did she have more of an olive complexion, like himself? Was she boisterous and friendly or more reserved and demure? Considering she’d been married before, as that meant she wasn’t likely to be painfully shy. He needed a wife who could make conversation with his guests, even if it was brief and simple.
Being married once before also probably meant she wasn’t a homely creature, although he felt guilty about thinking such a thing. Given that he was relying upon his pastor to find him a wife, Jonathan thought he shouldn’t be so choosy. He needed the help of a wife, and he would marry her no matter how she looked.
There were so many things he didn’t know about Mrs. Lee, and if he had to wait one more second to find out, he thought he might burst from the anticipation. And the worry.
