Roberta: Bride of Wisconsin (American Mail-Order Bride 30) Read online

  Roberta, Bride of Wisconsin

  By

  Kirsten Osbourne

  Roberta, Bride of Wisconsin

  Book 30 in the American Mail Order Brides Series

  By Kirsten Osbourne

  Copyright 2015 Kirsten Osbourne

  Kindle Edition, License Notes

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  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Epilogue

  After a fire which burned the factory where she was manager to the ground, Roberta McDaniel feels responsible for all the women who lost their jobs. She contacts a matchmaker and suggests all of them become mail-order brides—answering an advertisement for a widower in Wisconsin herself. Bobbie worries that her independence will cause problems in her new life.

  Jakob knows he will never love again after the death of his beloved wife and the mother of his two sons, but he needs someone to cook and clean for his family, as well as help him raise his two sons. When independent Bobbie arrives, he's unsure whether to throttle her or kiss her. Will this unlikely couple find a way past their differences? Or are they doomed to spend the rest of their lives in a loveless marriage?

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  Chapter One

  Roberta McDaniel sat on the edge of her bed, staring at the wall. She looked down at the letter in her hands, wondering if she could go through with her plan to marry a stranger. Yes, she'd convinced over forty other women to become mail-order brides, but she just wasn't sure she could do it herself. The very idea shook her to the core.

  As a child, Bobbie's family had money. Great wealth in truth, but when her father had decided to cast his family aside and marry another, she and her mother had been left with nothing. When she'd finished her schooling, she'd moved on, determined to make something of herself and never again have to rely on a man for her meals or a place to live. Now, she felt as if she was reverting—going back to what her life would have been. It wasn't an idea that appealed to her.

  Sarah, her best friend and roommate, walked into the room, putting her hand on Bobbie's shoulder. "Are you nervous?"

  Bobbie nodded. "It would be different if you were going with me, but that's not possible. Not this time." The two girls had been friends from their first day of school. Bobbie even considered Sarah's siblings her own, often forgetting they weren't hers when referring to them to others. Sarah hadn't come from a wealthy family, but Bobbie hadn't cared. Together they were unstoppable.

  "Where are you going again?" A good number of the women who had worked in the factory had decided to be mail order brides. Sarah knew that Bobbie's letter had come in that day's mail.

  "Wisconsin. I leave the day after tomorrow."

  Sarah pulled her letter from her pocket, the letter she hadn't told her friend about yet. "I'm leaving for Minnesota on the same day. What time does your train leave?"

  "Mine? Ten in the morning. You?"

  "Same." Sarah's eyes met Bobbie's. "We're going to be on the same train!"

  "We are?" Bobbie jumped to her feet and hugged her friend, looking at Sarah's ticket. "Oh, we are! How wonderful! At least we'll have a little more time together."

  The two compared tickets, and Sarah's face fell. "I was hoping we'd be close, but I'll be on the train a lot longer than you. I switch trains in Colby, Wisconsin, and arrive more than twelve hours later than you do. You'll be married first."

  Bobbie wrinkled her nose. "I just hope he's a man I can trust. What's your man's name?"

  "Karl. You?"

  "Jakob. With a K. I think that's the German spelling."

  "Sounds like it." Sarah looked around the room she'd shared with Bobbie for over four years. Their roommates, Gabrielle and Poppy, were getting ready to leave as well, but they were both going home to their parents, at least for a while.

  "Jakob has two sons, Konrad and Lukas. I guess I'll get to be a mother."

  Sarah sat down on the bed Bobbie had just vacated and patted the spot beside her. She waited until Bobbie sat down to speak. "You need to remember that God never gives us more than we can handle. If he's giving you boys, then you can handle them. It may be hard at first, but talk to your pastor if you have problems."

  Bobbie rested her head on Sarah's shoulder. "I know I can handle it, but I could handle it so much better if you were going to be there with me."

  Sarah laughed. "I'm not so sure about that. I would just be a distraction and someone to run to. We both need to handle our new marriages on our own, and learn to lean on God and our husbands, not each other."

  "I know you're right, but old habits die hard. I've been going to you with my problems for fifteen years—over two-thirds of my life. Learning not to do that is going to be one of the hardest things I've ever done."

  "I know." Sarah stared straight ahead. "It will be hard for me as well. We'll have to draw closer to God, and lean on Him."

  Bobbie nodded. "I can do that. I think." Even when she'd discovered she was about to lose her job before the fire, she'd gone straight to Sarah. She had been more worried about the other women who worked in the textile mill than herself, so she and Sarah had prayed for the women before she made a plan for how to tell them.

  There'd never been a need to tell the others, because shortly after, the man who owned the mill, Bob Brown, had started a fire and burned the building to the ground. Thankfully, they were able to get everyone out with only a few minor injuries. Bobbie felt responsible for the jobs lost, but she thanked God every day there hadn't been any deaths when there easily could have been.

  "I know you can. We'll be able to write long newsy letters to each other, and really, we won't be so far apart we can never visit. It won't be something we can do often, but every few years. We'll have something to look forward to."

  Bobbie looked at her friend and nodded. Sarah had always looked on the bright side of everything. Her personality was pure sunshine to everyone around her. Well, everyone she let see the real her. She was quite shy, and didn't often open up to others.

  Bobbie was the opposite. She was strong. No one ever had the opportunity to see weakness in her except for Sarah, and she only saw it because she knew Bobbie so well. Why, she was one of the few to use her nickname. Most people called her Roberta, because it sounded like a strong name, and people thought it fit her much better.

  "We have a lot of packing to do," Sarah said. "We should get started. We'll pack your things first and then mine. Many hands make the work lighter."

  Bobbie smiled at her friend, surprised she was able to keep so happy through this time of turmoil. She would have expected even Sarah to give in by then, but she hadn't quit smiling.

  Bobbie was thankful for Sarah's sunny disposition throughout it all, though. She wasn't sure if she could have been strong while her friend was sad. It just couldn't have happened that way. She got to her feet. "All right. Let's get started. We have to be on a train in less than forty-eig
ht hours, and I don't plan to leave a single thing behind."

  Sarah jumped up and pulled a carpet bag out from under the bed. "That's the spirit. We'll do it together!"

  *****

  Jakob Muller sat at the kitchen table in the house he shared with his two sons. "You boys need to get da house gutt and clean. My new vife vill be arriving in less dan a veek." Jakob spoke in a heavy German accent. He and his family had immigrated when he was sixteen, and try as he might, he'd never been able to lose the accent.

  Konrad made a face. "Cleaning is women's work. Why can't we wait until she gets here to do it, Vater?"

  "Because no one should have to come into this pigsty and clean up after us. No one has done any cleaning around here since your mutter died. I will not subject my new wife to this."

  Lukas folded his arms over his chest, already angry at the idea. "I think Konrad should have to do it. He's older. And meaner."

  Jakob shook his head. "You will both do it while I work today. You have the day off school, because your teacher is sick. You are both more than capable."

  "We want to go to work with you today, Vater! We want to help you make money for all of us." Konrad, the elder at aged ten, thought he knew how to do everything.

  "I don't need your help at work. I need your help at home. Cleaning for your new mutter. She will be here on Monday, and the house will be spick and span, or I'll tan your hides. Do you both understand me?" Jakob asked, his deep voice getting deeper as he exerted his authority. He could make twenty-five overgrown lumberjacks do whatever he said, but he couldn't seem to make his young sons obey him. What was the problem?

  His wife had died not even a year before. She'd fallen in Lake Superior and contracted pneumonia. It made him sick to realize she'd been there, checking on him when it happened. He would never stop loving his Erna—but his boys needed someone to take care of them. So he would marry again.

  "Yes, sir," Konrad said, his voice sad.

  "We'll do it," Lukas told him.

  "That means the entire house. I want upstairs clean. I want the spare room clean. I want the sheets washed."

  "We don't know how to wash sheets!"

  "Fine. We'll wait for your new mutter to wash the sheets." He could find someone to clean the house, but he knew it would be good for the boys to do something they didn't want to do.

  Jakob was a foreman, and with his brother who lived across the bay, he owned a large logging operation. They had two lumber camps, one on each side of St. Louis Bay. They had men who logged on each side of the bay, and they would transport the logs from Wisconsin to Minnesota by boat. They would then put them on a train and send them out West for the people trying to settle the vast prairies of the Dakotas with so few trees.

  "Are we all going to get her at the train station?" Konrad asked.

  "Yes, because we're going to go straight to the church, and the pastor is meeting us there to marry us. You do want to be at my wedding, don't you?"

  "Of course, we do. Do we have to tell her that I wrote the letters?"

  Jakob shook his head. "I don't want her to know that I can't read English. I don't want her to think I'm uneducated."

  "But you're not uneducated. You read German," Konrad protested.

  "In America, we all learn English. I should have learned to read before now, but I haven't done it."

  "You've been earning a living and supporting us, Vater. You haven't had time to learn to read English."

  Jakob would not accept that as an excuse. He had married within two years of reaching Superior. His neighbor had been a beautiful young German woman, and he'd married her as much because she reminded him of the old country as he had because he loved her. Their love had grown over the years, and when she'd died, he'd been devastated, wanting to crawl into the grave with her.

  He had his boys, though, and they were too important for him to do something stupid and give up his life for his dead wife. He would do everything he could to keep her memory alive, but he couldn't put off marriage another minute. His new wife would have her own bedroom, but she would be able to cook and clean and help him raise his boys. He knew he was doing the right thing, but he felt like he was betraying Erna with every fiber of his being.

  "Will we have to call her Mutter?" Lukas asked, his voice low. He'd had the shortest time with his mother, but he missed her the most. He still talked about her all the time.

  Jakob shook his head. "No. Call her by her name. She will understand that you already had a mutter." If she didn't, she would understand it by the time he was through talking to her about it. He got up and put his hat on, pulling his warm coat over his clothes. It was already cold in late October in Northern Wisconsin. "Clean this house."

  He turned the collar of his coat up as he walked through the frigid streets to the lumber camp. It was the time of year when his men would start getting sick more frequently, and he had to be prepared to chop down some trees himself. He hoped his new bride was a good seamstress and knitter. He needed to have a new scarf and gloves.

  He collapsed into his chair when he got to his office, picking up the small photograph he had of his beautiful bride. "I miss you more than I could ever say, Erna. My life was better with you in it, and you've left a huge hole where my heart used to be. The boys and I need someone to take care of us, though, so I'm marrying. Nothing will happen between us, though. I've turned the spare room into a bedroom for her. She will sleep there, and I will sleep in my room. I would never betray you that way." He touched his finger to his lips and then to his wife's face in the photo. How he had kept living without her, he would never know.

  *****

  Roberta and Sarah sat together at the train station. They'd said a tearful goodbye to their roommates, and all of their friends from the factory, and were waiting for their train to come. It was cold, and they were both wearing their heavy coats, thankful they had them.

  It had been hard saying goodbye to their special friends, Poppy, Gabrielle, and Victoria. It was odd to Bobbie—she'd never heard of Victoria until after the fire, but she had become someone she held dear. She knew they would continue their friendship through correspondence, but it would never be the same as being able to sit down and discuss things over a cup of tea.

  Poppy and Gabrielle had both shared a small apartment with Sarah and Bobbie for more than a year, and she would miss them with everything inside her. Of course, the person she was most heart-broken about losing was the girl beside her—Sarah.

  "I know nothing about geography," Bobbie said, thinking aloud. "I know Minnesota and Wisconsin border each other, but are our cities going to be close?"

  Sarah's eyes were wide with unshed tears as she looked at Bobbie. "I don't see how they could be when I'll be on a train almost a day longer than you. I can't imagine how my life is going to be without you in it. You're the sister of my heart."

  Bobbie felt tears prick her eyes at her friend's words. "Stop that right now, Sarah Dickens. I refuse to have this discussion today. We have five more days together. Our goodbyes will be said in Colby, Wisconsin. Not in Lawrence, Massachusetts."

  Sarah nodded, blinking back the tears. "You're right. We have five more days together, and we're going to make the most of them—even if they are all on a train."

  Each of the women had two carpet bags stuffed to the brim at their feet. Other than that, they had nothing to show for the years they'd worked at the factory. Sarah had spent her time at a sewing machine, making dress after dress. Roberta had started at the sewing machine beside Sarah's, but because of her father's connections to the owner of the factory, she'd gotten a promotion to manager.

  "I have a dress cut out and ready to sew. It's been a long time since I've hand sewn anything, but it will keep me busy on the train," Sarah said with a smile.

  "Oh, and I'll help you! We'll get that dress sewn in no time. I cut one out as well, so we'll have two to work on. First yours, though."

  "Oh, no! We have to do yours first. You get to your destination fi
rst, and I'll want something to do after you're off getting married and meeting your new family."

  Bobbie made a face. "I don't know that I feel ready to get married. Hopefully he's just looking for someone to clean and cook. I can do those things." Well, she wasn't the best cook as they both knew, but Sarah had taught her a great deal over the time they'd lived together. "Well, I can clean. And I can usually cook."

  "You're getting better. Why, I can't remember the last time the apartment was so filled with smoke we had to open all the windows to breathe!"

  Bobbie laughed. "Sure you can! It was just last week!"

  Sarah laughed. "It was not! It's been months and months."

  Bobbie knew there was no one who could make her laugh like her friend could, and she was growing more nostalgic by the second. "Are you sure you can't just come to Wisconsin with me? No one would notice!"

  "You don't think my future husband would notice if I wasn't on the train?"

  "Well, he might, but no one else would!"

  The conductor's call of "All aboard!" had the girls getting to their feet and clutching their carpet bags. "We can do this," Sarah said, straightening her shoulders.

  "Together we can do anything."

  *****

  By Sunday night, the novelty of the train ride was definitely over, and the girls had finished both dresses, complete with hemming them. Knowing their time apart was imminent, they clasped hands and clung to one another on the train, both of them dreading the moment of parting.

  "Next stop, Colby, Wisconsin!" called out the bored-sounding train conductor.

  "I'll never have another friend like you," Bobbie whispered to her friend. "I don't know who I'm going to tell all of my deepest darkest secrets to."

  Sarah laughed softly. "You'll be married. What secrets will you have?"

  "I don't know. Something, I'm sure! I'll write all my secrets in a letter and mail them to you. Why, I'll write you once a week, rain or shine."