Ruby (Orlan Orphans Book 2) Read online

  The Matron

  Book Two in Orlan Orphans

  By Kirsten Osbourne

  Copyright 2015 Kirsten Osbourne

  Kindle Edition, License Notes

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  Eighteen year old Ruby has known for years that she would eventually marry her childhood sweetheart. When she's forced to move to Texas, it throws a kink in her plans, but she still knows that David will send for her, and they'll marry. After a year of living in Texas she receives a letter changing her whole world.

  Lewis moves to Nowhere, Texas, to start a new life with his sons after his wife leaves him for another man. When he's introduced to Ruby, he feels strongly that she would be the perfect wife and new mother for his boys. The only problem is she's engaged to someone else. When he finds out Ruby is no longer engaged, he takes the opportunity to make his move, asking her to marry him immediately. Will Ruby ever get over her feelings for her former fiancé and fall for Lewis? Or will they spend their lives trapped in a loveless marriage?

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  I rarely remember to dedicate books, so when I do, it's something special for me. I dedicate this book to my grandmother, Ruby Hart. My life has been so much more special and meaningful with her in it. Thank you for always being there for me, Grandma! (Now *I* get to be your favorite for a day!)

  Chapter One

  Ruby sat in the corner of the mercantile in Nowhere, Texas, sewing a shirt for one of the cowboys in town. She'd made a deal with the previous owner of the store a year before when she'd first come to town, and the new owner was abiding by their arrangement.

  She had a small corner of the store to sew her shirts and sell them only giving the owner a ten percent commission, because she used the fabric from his store, and she brought in customers. She didn't enjoy sewing a great deal, but she was good at it, and she was willing to do what she needed to do to contribute to her and David's future.

  From her vantage point behind her sewing machine, where she was hand sewing a button hole, she watched a couple arguing. The man had his hands on his hips. "I'm not going to have flowered curtains in the windows! They look girly. Why not good ole red and white checked?"

  "Those are boring," his wife responded. "I want the flowers. They'll seem so cheerful in the winter."

  "There's barely even a winter here! Did you forget we're in Texas now and not in Vermont?"

  "Of course, I didn't forget. I just know what I like and what I want, and those flowered curtains are it." She folded her arms across her chest.

  Watching them, Ruby wished her love, David, was close enough to argue with. He was still back in Orlan, New York, working hard to make enough money to send for her. She was expecting a train ticket any day, and then she would go home to him. She was ready to settle down and be a good wife to him.

  Watching the couple again, it made her wonder why people who loved one another enough to marry, couldn't remember that love as they grew discontent with each other. Why couldn't they see past it and simply give in?

  The store owner, Lewis Darcy, caught her eye, holding up a letter. Ruby's eyes locked onto it, and she hurried across the store to snatch the letter from his hand. Mr. Darcy had dark hair that had been allowed to grow too long, and piercing brown eyes. He was attractive in a very rugged way, but she had a heart only for her love, David.

  "I'm going to leave a few minutes early today, Mr. Darcy," she said, eyeing the letter in her hand. She wondered if it had her train ticket home.

  Mr. Darcy nodded. "That's fine, Ruby. Is that from your sweetheart?"

  She nodded. "It is." She hurried to her work area, tidying up quickly. She would walk home through the woods and find her favorite spot to sit and read the letter. Letter days made her happier than anything else ever could. She hugged it to her as she rushed from the store, her lunch pail in her hand.

  She found her favorite log in the wooded area between town and the house she lived in to use as a bench. She shared the house with her sister and the kind but batty old lady who had adopted them, along with thirteen other orphans the previous year. She quickly opened the letter and stifled her disappointment when a train ticket didn't fall out. No matter, though. He'd send for her soon.

  Her eyes fell to his familiar handwriting, the smile fading from her face almost immediately.

  Dear Ruby,

  I need to tell you something that's hard for me, so I'm just going to get it over with. I'm marrying Maggie Barnes. You remember her from school, I'm sure. I'm not sure how it happened, but we started spending more and more time together, and I realized that I love her. We're going to be very happy together.

  I'm sure you'll find someone much better than me in Texas. I wish you all the best.

  David

  She read the letter once more, praying for the words on the page to magically change. He'd promised to love her forever. Did he think forever only lasted for a year? She crumpled up the letter and tucked it into her pocket, dashing away a tear as she strode toward home.

  When she got to the house, she ran up the stairs to the room she shared with her sister, Opal. She threw herself face down on her bed, thankful the other girls weren't home from work yet.

  Minutes later there was a knock on her door. "Ruby? Are you all right?"

  Ruby sighed. It was Edna Petunia, and while she was a good, loving woman, she wasn't Mrs. Hayes, and Cassie Hayes was the woman she really wanted to talk to. Mrs. Hayes had been the matron of the orphanage when she arrived there at the age of five with her twin, and had been as close to a mother as anyone Ruby had ever known. Just because she'd married, didn't mean she meant less to Ruby.

  Edna Petunia walked into the room and sat on the bed beside Ruby. She patted her back. "Do you want to talk about it?" When Ruby shook her head, Edna pulled a peppermint stick from her cleavage. "Peppermint stick?"

  Ruby rolled her eyes. The crazy old woman thought peppermint sticks covered in the sweat from her bosom fixed everything. "No."

  "Cough tonic?" Edna offered.

  Ruby turned and looked at her adoptive mother for the first time since she'd entered the room. Mrs. Hayes suspected that the cough tonic was nothing more than whiskey that Edna Petunia was trying to find a way to make socially acceptable. Was Edna Petunia really offering alcohol to a young innocent girl under her care? Mrs. Hayes would have a fit if she found out, but Ruby knew she'd never tell. She didn't want there to be enmity between the two women.

  Ruby shook her head. "No, thank you." She sighed. "I think I'm going to wander over to Mrs. Hayes's house and talk to her for a bit."

  Edna nodded. "You do that. I know she's the closest thing to a mother you've ever had."

  "It's not that I don't like you, Edna Petunia...I just need someone who really understands me."

  Edna waved her hand at Ruby. "Don't worry about this crazy old woman. Go!"

  Ruby hurried out of her room, wishing Mrs. Hayes lived a little closer. She was a thirty minute walk, and Ruby didn't want to have too much time to think. She couldn't help but dwell on David. Why would he give up on their love so quickly?

  On her way, she saw Lewis Darcy walking along with his two boys. They were both in school, but just barely. When he saw her, he waved and walked over to her. "So whe
n am I going to lose you? Next week? Next month? Tomorrow?" He'd made it clear that he didn't want her rushing off to New York to marry David. He wanted to keep her.

  Ruby all but cringed at his words. She didn't want to have to admit she'd been jilted to anyone, but especially him. "I'll be staying in Nowhere for the foreseeable future."

  He looked at her for a moment, surprise filling his eyes. "Wait here, boys." He took her arm and guided her away from the road and out of earshot of his sons. "What happened?"

  She shrugged, knowing she couldn't avoid answering forever. Soon the whole town would know. "David's marrying someone else."

  "That's what was in the letter today?" Lewis asked, his face full of sympathy.

  "Don't pity me. I'll live." Her voice came out harsher than she'd planned; it wasn't his fault David had moved on.

  "I'm not pitying you. I'm thinking." He looked over at his boys who had picked up sticks and were sword fighting with them. "When I moved here, I told everyone I was a widower. My wife left me for another man. She just had their first baby. She doesn't even want anything to do with my boys." His mind raced as he tried to come up with the best way to word the proposition he had for her.

  Ruby frowned. His story was awful, but why was he telling her this? "I'm sorry."

  "I don't need your sympathy." He looked at her for a moment, struggling to find the right words. "I need a mother for the boys. And a wife for me. Marry me. Then everyone will think it was your idea to break things off." He knew he was muddling things with his offer, but he didn't care. As long as he convinced her to accept his proposal, nothing else really mattered. He'd taken one look at her and known he wanted her in his bed. Marrying her was the only way to make that happen.

  "What would you get out of it?" she asked, shocked at what he was offering.

  "I'd get someone to cook and keep house, a mother for my boys, and a woman to warm my bed." He watched her face carefully as he said the last part, not wanting there to be any misunderstandings. The marriage may not be for love, but it would be a real marriage in every sense of the word.

  Ruby blushed. "You would expect me to share your bed? Right away?" She wasn't sure she could do that. She barely knew him.

  "I would. A big part of the reason I want to marry again is because I miss having marital relations." Whether or not he was supposed to admit it to a young lady, he didn't know. He knew she'd been in a serious relationship, though, so he assumed she would know what he was talking about.

  "I couldn't do that, Mr. Darcy. I don't really know you." The idea of letting any man but David touch her that way was appalling. If she was honest with herself, even the idea of letting David touch her was awful. She would have done it, because it would have been her duty as his wife, but she was certain she could never enjoy it.

  "Get to know me then. Go for a drive with me tonight. We'll have to take the boys, of course, but..." He sighed. "No, I need to find someone who will watch the boys." He wanted to kiss her, and he wouldn't be able to do that with the boys looking on, complaining about it.

  Ruby bit her lip. She didn't want to marry him, because she didn't know him. Maybe getting to know him better would change her mind. She did like the idea of no one knowing she'd been jilted though.

  "My sister, Opal, will watch them," she offered before she could stop herself. Of course, she'd have to ask Opal, but if she wouldn't do it, one of the other girls would. If there were any advantages to growing up surrounded by fourteen other girls, that was it.

  He grinned, thrilled she was willing to at least listen to his proposition. She'd talked about her fiancé, David, a lot, so he'd been unwilling to approach her with the idea of courtship. He couldn't let this opportunity pass, though.

  "Sounds good. Should I drop them off with her when I come to get you in my buggy?" he asked. He wished he had an automobile to take her out in, but they just weren't practical in Nowhere. The roads were too rough.

  "That's fine. Edna Petunia will enjoy them as well."

  He started to ask about Edna Petunia, but decided to wait until later. They had to have something to talk about during their buggy ride. "I'll see you at seven then. Does that work?"

  Ruby checked the watch pinned to her dress. It was just after five. "Yes, that will be fine." She would have to hurry to talk to Mrs. Hayes before going home, but she could do it.

  She all but ran the rest of the way to the house Mrs. Hayes shared with her husband, knocking on the door as soon as she arrived.

  She almost laughed when she saw the older woman, so round with her first child she looked as if she was about to explode. Mrs. Hayes took one look at Ruby and opened her arms wide.

  Ruby stepped into them and hugged her. "Do you have a few minutes to talk?" She saw that Mrs. Hayes was making supper. "I'll help cook."

  "I'll let you help cook." Mrs. Hayes moved back to the stove where she was flipping the chicken she was frying. "You mash the potatoes and talk."

  Ruby explained quickly about the letter she'd received, and surprised even herself when she talked about the offer she'd received from Lewis. She didn't mention that he'd insisted they would share a bed immediately, because she didn't feel like that was any of Mrs. Hayes's business. Let her assume what she would. "I'm tempted, which is crazy!" she finished. "I don't want everyone to know I've been jilted."

  Mrs. Hayes frowned. "How well do you know him? I don't like the idea of you marrying someone you barely know."

  "Honestly, I don't like that idea either. We're going to go for a drive tonight while Opal watches his two boys. I want to get to know him better before I make a decision either way."

  "You're young, Ruby," Mrs. Hayes told her. "You don't have to get married tomorrow."

  Ruby shrugged. "I feel like I'm a burden. Edna Petunia is wonderful, but she took on fifteen of us." She did feel like she was in the way, but there was more to it than that. She needed to be on her own. Living with the older couple had been a blessing, but it was time for her to move on.

  Mrs. Hayes shook her head. "Don't think that way. Edna Petunia and Cletus would keep all fifteen of you forever if they thought they could keep you tied down that way."

  "All right. I won't let that color my decision then."

  "Good. I don't want you rushing into anything you're not certain of."

  "I won't." Even as she said the words, she knew they weren't true. If she decided that Mr. Darcy could possibly be a match for her, she'd jump at the chance to get out of the house.

  *****

  Lewis was there promptly at seven, and Ruby opened the door to him and his boys. Opal was behind her, ready to take the boys off for some quiet time. Cletus had found some of his toys from when he was a boy in the attic for the two lads to play with, mumbling under his breath about being too young to be a grandfather.

  Ruby smiled at the two of them. "I don't even know your names," she told them.

  The older boy, around nine, pointed to his chest with his thumb. "I'm Robert. That's James." Both boys had dark hair and green eyes, giving them unusual looks.

  "Nice to meet you both." Ruby felt like she should make an effort with the boys, in case she became their mother.

  "Are you going to marry our pa?" James asked.

  Ruby shrugged. "I really don't know. Would you like it if I did?"

  James studied her. "I don't know. Would you be a nice ma?"

  "I don't know. I would try to be. I've never been a ma before."

  "We'll help you learn to do it right," Robert informed her.

  Opal moved around Ruby to the boys. "You're spending the evening with me. I baked cookies!"

  When the boys squealed and ran off, Ruby looked at Lewis with laughter in her eyes. "I guess we see where the idea of a new ma ranks when compared with cookies."

  Lewis grinned, taking her hand and pulling it through his arm. "Let's go." He cared nothing about his boys' cookie habits in comparison to being alone with Ruby.

  He helped her into the buggy and once he was in be
side her, he carefully tucked a lap robe over both of them, forcing them to sit close together on the seat. Ruby was surprised at how quickly her heart was beating as he picked up the reins and drove away from town.

  "We're not going to drive into town?" she asked. She'd expected him to head into town to the new ice cream parlor there. It was where most of the courting couples in the area went when they were out together.

  "I didn't want to take you into town where we'd be surrounded by people. I want a chance to get to know you better." He glanced at her, trying to gauge her reaction. "Does that bother you?"

  She shook her head. "No. I'm just not used to being without a chaperone. David and I were followed everywhere we went." They'd been sweethearts from the time they were fifteen until she move when they were seventeen.

  Lewis nodded. He'd wondered if she was still a virgin, and he was pleased to hear she was. Women should only give themselves to their husbands. "So, how did Mrs. Sanders end up with fifteen girls?" he asked. The woman was odd, but kind, and he had wondered for a while where she'd collected the girls from. It was odd that someone of her age would even want that number of girls around.

  Ruby briefly explained about the orphanage where she'd grown up and how it had been turned into a boys' home. "I lived in Orlan my entire life until we were told we had to leave. I'm glad Mrs. Hayes came with us, but she fell in love with the driver of the bus that brought us here." She was fond of Mr. Hayes, because he had fought for them to stay at the orphanage without even knowing any of them.

  "I think I've met her and her husband, Tino."

  "I'm sure you have. They come into the store pretty often. Anyway, when we got here there was no house waiting as we'd been promised. It was a lie. We had nowhere to go. When Edna Petunia saw us, she immediately started asking if we were bastards, because she always had a fondness for bastard children."

  Lewis laughed. "I can just picture her saying that."