Pearl: Sweet Western Historical Romance (Walker Creek Brides Book 4) Read online

  Pearl

  Walker Creek Brides, Book 4

  Miriam Minger

  Copyright © 2019 by Miriam Minger

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  ISBN: 978-1-943644-35-3

  Published by Walker Publishing

  Series Bibliography

  WALKER CREEK BRIDES

  Kari

  Ingrid

  Lily

  Pearl

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  SAGE

  Also by Miriam Minger

  About the Author

  Chapter 1

  December, 1887

  Walker Creek, Texas

  “Peg-leg Pearl, Peg-leg Pearl! A shame her pretty face is wasted on a one-legged girl!”

  Pearl McMaster blinked against the sudden blur of tears in her eyes, but she kept right on walking with the support of her cane in spite of the two adolescent boys following close behind her.

  The words stung, she couldn’t deny it. She’d heard such things before, and worse, though she could never understand why people she didn’t know, young or older, would taunt her so cruelly. Perhaps it was just that simple, considering she was a stranger to most folks in Walker Creek, Texas.

  If not for her only living grandparents, Margaret and Michael McMaster, who’d welcomed her with open arms a week ago, and a handful of customers who frequented her grandmother’s seamstress shop, she wouldn’t know anyone at all. As the boys moved closer, one of them mimicked her awkward gait while they repeated their callous chant.

  They knew her name, so clearly news traveled fast whenever anyone new arrived in town. Pearl was tempted to turn around and introduce herself, which might make them stop once she wasn’t a stranger to them anymore, but she was already late.

  The Frederick Hotel was just ahead, past the bank on the same side of the street. Kari Davis, Ingrid Logan, and Anita Hagen had invited her to join them for lunch at noon, a gesture so kind and unexpected from the most beautiful young women she had ever seen that Pearl’s eyes welled again.

  They had come into her grandmother’s shop yesterday for a fitting for Kari, who was six months along and needed roomier dresses for the remainder of her pregnancy. Ingrid and Anita had hovered around their older sister as might any protective aunties-to-be, their love and affection for each other so evident on their faces.

  Yet as soon as Margaret introduced Pearl as her granddaughter, the young women had rushed to embrace her as warmly as if she were a relative and invited her to dine with them so they might become better acquainted.

  “Almost there,” Pearl murmured to herself, gritting her teeth against the pain shooting through what remained of her right leg. It always happened when she hurried, no matter the layer of padding lining the stiff leather holder attached to her wooden peg leg. Indeed, she walked as fast as she could, more to escape her tormenters as they jostled each other so roughly that one of them bumped into her.

  Pearl cried out as her cane went flying. She teetered on her good leg for a breath-stopping instant before she fell forward—only to be swept into the air by strong arms before she could hit the plank sidewalk.

  “Easy, ma’am, easy. I’ve got you.”

  Her heart in her throat, Pearl could but stare up into the dark-bearded face of a stranger, but then again, virtually everyone in this town was still a stranger to her. The bright midday sun blinded her, too, which made her blink and raise her gloved hand to shield her eyes as she felt herself gently set down.

  “Are you all right, ma’am? Do you feel composed enough to continue on your way?”

  His voice, gruff and deep, held such concern that she quickly nodded, not realizing until that moment that her rescuer stood a full head taller than her—and she was considered above average height for a woman.

  He held her still by her forearm, not tightly, but just enough that if she wobbled he would have easily steadied her. She wasn’t surprised she felt such strength in his grasp. He looked almost too muscled for his clothing, a working man’s heavy coat, denim trousers, and dusty boots, which pointed to the strenuous life of a laborer.

  The railroad? A neighboring ranch? A farm? She guessed him to be in his mid-twenties, but she couldn’t say for certain from his thick beard.

  “I’ll need my cane first…if you don’t mind. I haven’t yet mastered walking without it.”

  He looked doubtful as if he didn’t want to leave her, but then he moved away for what seemed only an instant to retrieve her cane. She blinked in surprise that a man so big and broad-shouldered could move so quickly even though he had appeared as if out of nowhere to save her from falling.

  He never took his gaze from her, which touched Pearl that he would be so solicitous of a total stranger. He held out her cane and she noted the color of his eyes, a deep brown much like the color of his hair, which held glints of gold.

  She didn’t think she had ever seen so handsome a man, despite his beard…

  “You’ve been so kind,” she murmured, blushing with embarrassment that she stared at him as much that his fingers grazed hers when she took the cane. He wore no gloves though the cloudless day was chilly, the first Saturday of December. “I’m Pearl McMaster…I-I mean, Miss Pearl McMaster. I’m on my way to lunch at the Frederick Hotel, but may I have your name first so I might thank you properly—sir?”

  He’d left her side so abruptly to stride away without another word that Pearl could only stare after him, imagining he must have thought her no longer in need of assistance since she held her cane.

  Only then did she look around her to see that passersby had stopped on both sides of the main street, the men tipping their hats to her and ladies kindly nodding as everyone resumed what they had been doing.

  Pearl felt warmed that other townsfolk might have come to her aid, though her tormenters must have taken off running because they were nowhere to be seen. Sighing, she straightened her forest green bonnet and matching woolen cape, and set off again toward the grand-looking hotel.

  “Pearl, oh my goodness, are you all right?”

  In a chorus of concern, Ingrid and Anita rushed down the steps to meet her. Kari stood just outside the double doors, a look of alarm on her lovely face.

  “We were waiting for you in the foyer when several guests came inside talking about what just happened!” blurted Anita, a budding actress at only eighteen, Pearl’s grandmother had told her. Anita’s hair a striking white-blond in the sunlight, she looked as a picture in a ruby-toned ensemble, her cheeks flushed pink with indignation. “How wretchedly awful! Surely someone recognized those boys!”

  “I can’t imagine who they might be,” added Ingrid, her hair nearly as blond as Anita’s and her flashing blue eyes set off by her dark blue dress, cape, and bonnet. “It’s disgraceful! None of the students in my school would
ever act so unkindly, I’m certain of it. Here, let us help you!”

  The two young women flanked Pearl as she carefully ascended the steps. Kari hurried to meet them in a soft whoosh of emerald green velvet, the ruffles in her bonnet atop her honey-colored hair fluttering at a sudden gust of wind.

  “Oh, Pearl, I’m so sorry about what happened—but so glad, too, that someone came to your rescue! Did you get the gentleman’s name? I want my husband, Seth, to find him and thank him for all of us, oh, dear, and here you’re a visitor in town! It’s disgraceful!”

  “My husband, Joshua, will get to the bottom of this outrage as soon as he returns from San Antonio,” Ingrid proclaimed as Pearl was shepherded through the foyer and into an elegant dining room, where hotel staff stood waiting to help them with their wraps. “He’s the mayor of Walker Creek—”

  “Yes, and he used to be the sheriff until a few months ago!” interjected Anita, her voice rising dramatically. “Villains! I know he’ll find them straightaway and have them locked up in jail, yes, and then throw away the key!”

  Pearl shook her head, laughing, as she was ushered to a splendidly set table and helped into a seat, her newfound friends only then leaving her side. “It wasn’t as bad as that, truly, just some unruly boys that need a lesson in good manners, nothing more.”

  Settling into their chairs, Kari, Ingrid, and Anita didn’t appear wholly convinced, though they smiled now, too, much of their outrage easing. At once waiters came forward to serve them, their attentiveness not surprising Pearl given that she’d learned Kari was the daughter of Caleb Walker, who owned the hotel and other businesses in Walker Creek as well as a massive ranch to the north of town.

  Her grandmother, Margaret, had filled her in on all sorts of details about how Kari had come alone to Walker Creek not knowing Caleb was her true father, their reunion changing her life forever. Twenty-year-old Ingrid, Anita, and Anita’s twin brother, Andreas, had followed shortly thereafter from Minnesota and all of them were now happily settled in Texas: Kari married to Seth Davis, the foreman at Walker Creek Ranch, and with a baby on the way, Ingrid married to Joshua Logan a month later and a loving stepmother to his two young children, Anita busy with acting and singing lessons at the local playhouse, and Andreas no longer an apprentice but with his own blacksmith shop.

  Even the patriarch of their family, Caleb, who had become like a father to Kari’s half-siblings, had taken a bride in Lily Talbot, the renowned actress who’d come to town to find the son she’d left behind years ago—Seth, Kari’s husband! One could not but be amazed by such a happy story—so many weddings within only a few months!—yet Pearl felt a sudden pang of sadness as the boys’ taunt echoed in her mind.

  Peg-leg Pearl, Peg-leg Pearl! A shame her pretty face is wasted on a one-legged girl!

  She doubted she would ever know such happiness of a husband and children, how could she? She didn’t feel sorry for herself, far from it, each day since she’d survived that terrible tornado a blessing, a miracle! Yet it only stood to reason that no man would want a woman for his wife who wasn’t whole and who needed a peg leg and a cane for the rest of her life.

  “You’re so lovely, Pearl, truly!” Anita’s voice broke into her thoughts, drawing her back to their little party. “Your long red hair and striking green eyes—why, you look like an Irish princess sitting at this table with us!”

  Pearl gave a small laugh and shook her head, blushing, while Kari leaned across the table to squeeze her hand.

  “We’re so glad to have you with us, Pearl, and so happy, too, to celebrate your birthday next week a little early. Mrs. McMaster whispered it to me yesterday right before we left her shop. Twenty-two, is it? You and I are nearly the same age!”

  As if by magic, three brightly wrapped presents suddenly appeared from beneath the table, her hostesses smiling with such merriment that Pearl felt her throat tighten from their generosity. To go from what had happened only a short while ago to a birthday celebration was beyond what she could have imagined when she’d set out from her grandmother’s shop for the hotel.

  “You’re all so kind, thank you,” she murmured, embarrassed by all the fuss. Her birthdays had never been celebrated much in the past, her parents always too busy trying to scrape out a living in a small town north of Dallas.

  She didn’t fault them for the oversight, it was just the way things always had been. Struggle, hardship, though they hadn’t shared their difficulties with anyone, including her grandparents. Their son, John McMaster, Pearl’s jack-of-all-trades father, had been too proud to ever ask for help. Even after the tornado destroyed their home a year and a half ago, her parents had never let on how bad things had gotten…that is, until Pearl had revealed the truth to Margaret and Michael last week when she’d arrived in Walker Creek.

  Not as a visitor, but to stay.

  “Shall I open the presents now?” she asked as a waiter approached the table bearing a tray of delicate china bowls.

  “I love the hotel’s chicken soup, let’s eat first!” piped up Anita, no fancy airs about her at all as she plopped a white napkin across her lap. “We have a lovely yellow cake with chocolate buttercream frosting for you, too, Pearl—”

  “Anita, it’s up to our guest when she opens her presents!” Kari interrupted her youngest sister, though from her indulgent smile Pearl guessed she wasn’t too upset.

  “First lunch, then cake and birthday presents, that’s how it should go, right?” Pearl said, smiling, too, as the steaming bowls of fragrant soup were placed before them. Yet no one touched a polished spoon, all three sisters bowing their heads for a prayer first, Pearl joining them.

  It warmed her heart to give thanks before a meal, which was how she was raised, no matter the meagerness of her parents’ table. Only when the simple prayer was done did conversation resume, Ingrid leaning toward her.

  “We’re all seamstresses, too, just like you and your grandmother. Well, at least we were when we lived in Faribault, Minnesota—though none of us can match her skill with the needle.”

  “I’m afraid it’s the same with me,” Pearl replied after savoring a spoonful of soup. “I’m sure I’ll learn a lot from her now that I’ll be staying in Walker Creek.”

  “Staying? Oh, that’s wonderful!” Kari enthused. “We thought you were only here for a visit. At least that’s what your grandmother told us some time ago.”

  “Yes, she didn’t know, either, but my parents decided to move west to California.”

  “Oh, my, you didn’t want to accompany them?” queried Ingrid.

  Pearl shook her head. “I would have only slowed them down. Life was very hard after the tornado destroyed half the town. They would have left sooner to make a fresh start if not for me having to heal after…” She fell silent, glancing around the table as Kari, Ingrid, and Anita stared at her with such sympathy. “Please, I’m quite well. I don’t know what all my grandmother told you, but you don’t have to feel sorry for me—in fact, I’d rather you didn’t. I’m grateful every day to have survived and I’m fine, really.”

  As Ingrid reached over to squeeze Pearl’s hand, Anita glanced from Kari back to Pearl and seemed to suddenly be sitting at the edge of her seat.

  “Mrs. McMaster said she believed a guardian angel saved your life—”

  “Anita, please, now is not the time,” Kari broke in again, but Anita’s expression grew all the more earnest.

  “Pearl, we have a guardian angel, too, right here in Walker Creek! Our Tante Kari, that means ‘aunt’ in Norwegian, well, she’s a great-aunt of our late mother. She’s the one that helped to bring Seth and Kari together, and Ingrid and Joshua, and one day she even appeared to me, though the minute I turned away and then looked back for her—poof! She was gone.”

  “Anita, stop!” Kari demanded in a hiss as she glanced around their table at other guests that might be listening. “Did you ever think that perhaps this might be distressing Pearl to talk of such things?”

  “I’m not distresse
d,” Pearl said quietly, though in truth, she had rarely talked about that day. “I was in town at the seamstress shop where I worked when the tornado struck. The ceiling came down and my right leg was crushed. Two other women there died instantly. I thought I would die, too, the wind was roaring so fiercely, but then a young woman knelt beside me. I’d never seen her before, but she had hair the color of gold and soft brown eyes and she wore a dress of the palest blue. She said her name was Mariah and she smiled so kindly at me that I wasn’t afraid anymore. I no longer felt any pain or heard the wind, only her voice like a whisper telling me that everything would be all right. I must have lost consciousness, but when I awoke to people digging me out of the rubble, she was gone.”

  Pearl fell silent, certain that if a pin dropped, everyone in the dining room would have heard it.

  Her three hostesses, who stared at her transfixed.

  Other guests in the dining room with forks halfway to their mouths.

  Even two waiters who had stopped in their tracks near their table.

  No one spoke. No one moved…until the sudden slamming of the double front doors of the hotel made everyone jump.

  “No, I won’t stop! A young woman named Pearl McMaster said she was on her way to this hotel and by God, I will see her! I’ve already dragged these boys halfway across town and we’re not leaving until they apologize to the lady, do you hear me? Apologize!”

  Chapter 2

  Pearl stared open-mouthed as the strapping stranger who had come to her rescue stormed into the dining room and seemed to fill the space along with his two bedraggled captives.

  Indeed, captives was the first word that came to her mind from the appearance of the two teenaged boys who had tormented her only a short while ago. They couldn’t be older than fourteen years, she judged, now that she got a better look at them, and both were gripped fiercely by the collar.