Seattle, Washington Territory
April 1874
Dottie Tyrrell sat in the Pastry Emporium wondering what her groom looked like.
Not that she found looks all that indicative of character. Certainly Frank had been handsome, and he’d turned out to be a despicable rat. But it did seem odd to have traveled all the way from Cincinnati to Washington Territory and not have any picture in her mind of the man she had come to marry.
She settled her blue-and-purple-striped skirts around her on the wooden chair, then pushed a blond curl back from her face. Oh, but she was fussing, and why not? It wasn’t every day you expected to see your husband come walking through the door.
His sister had tried to describe the fellow to Dottie in her letters, but Beth Wallin’s reference points had meant little.
“John isn’t as tall as Drew and Simon, our oldest brothers,” the young lady had written, “but he has a bit more muscle than Simon or James. His hair used to be red, but it’s darkened over the years to look more like madrone tree bark, and his eyes are a darker green than Ma’s were.”
So Dottie had no idea of his height or weight. She’d never seen a madrone tree, but she could only assume John’s hair was some shade of brown. Not particularly helpful!
She took a sip of the tea she had ordered earlier. The liquid trembled in the bone china cup. She was about to marry a stranger. Why, with everything she’d written to his sister, John Wallin knew more about Dottie than she knew about him!
Very likely he’d be able to pick her out the moment he walked in the door. The bakery was cozy, with a wide counter at the back next to a glass cabinet, where all manner of delicacies lay waiting for a hungry buyer. Six small wooden tables, all occupied, were clustered to one side so patrons could stop and enjoy their treats. The scents of cinnamon and vanilla hung in the air. With few women in the bakery, and all of them attended by a husband or children, the mail-order bride Mr. Wallin’s sister had arranged for him would be glaringly apparent.
Dottie drew in a breath as she set down the teacup. A part of her, the part that remembered a mother and father deeply in love and that had gloried in stories of courtly romance, urged her to jump up and flee. Marriage was a sacred institution, meant to unite those committed to making a life together in love.
Funny how she still believed that even after Frank had made a mockery of their vows.
She pushed away the memory and her troubled emotions. She had given her word and accepted Mr. Wallin’s money to travel to Seattle. She could sigh all she liked for what might have been, but she had to remember she had someone else depending on her now. For her son’s sake, she would marry a man of stability and property, even if that meant tucking her heart away in a trunk with her wedding veil.
Another gentleman entered the restaurant, the fifth in the past quarter hour, and Dottie sat straighter, made herself smile in greeting. The telegram she’d received in San Francisco on her way to Seattle had said to meet John Wallin in this bakery, on this day, at this very hour. Was that her man?
He seemed more heavy than muscular in his plaid suit; she was certain the floorboards squeaked in protest as he marched to the counter. The tweed cap hid his hair, but his bushy beard was reddish brown. The same young lady with dark brown hair who had served Dottie tea nodded in welcome, and he snapped out an order for cinnamon rolls before turning to survey the crowd with narrowed eyes, fingers clasped self-importantly around his paunch.
Please, Lord, not him.
Dottie dropped her gaze to her gloved hands. That was unkind. She had no reason to expect anything special in her husband. She’d come all this way hoping to find a compassionate man who could provide for and protect her and little Peter. Perhaps someone who enjoyed literature as much as she did, though she wasn’t even sure John Wallin could read or write, as his sister had corresponded for him.
Beth had explained that her brother was a very busy man and the lot of finding him a bride had fallen to her. Her writing had been so friendly and open that Dottie had dared to hope John Wallin would be equally so. If Dottie had been less than entirely open, it was only because she had learned the hard way to be more cautious. She’d said nothing to Beth about Peter and had arranged for him to stay back at the hotel with a lady they’d met on the boat. Time enough to introduce him once she’d had a chance to meet with John Wallin.
Now she made herself raise her head and return the gaze of the burly man at the counter. He lifted his brows, then grinned at her, and her stomach squirmed.
“Mrs. Tyrrell?”
Dottie blinked, then refocused on the young woman who had stepped up to her table. She had pale blond hair, fashionably done up like Dottie’s to fall behind her, and wide, dark blue eyes. Her gown of sky blue crepe trimmed in ecru lace was right out of Godey’s Lady’s Book.
“Yes,” Dottie said. “I’m Mrs. Tyrrell. Do I know you?”
The young lady’s smile broadened on her round face and brightened the rainy day. “You most certainly do. I’m Beth Wallin.”
Before Dottie could offer a greeting, John’s younger sister pulled out the chair across from hers and took a seat. “I’m so glad to meet you in person at last! I’ve been waiting for this moment for so long, but then so have you. You’re exactly as I pictured you. I just know John is going to love you.”
The tea bubbled up inside Dottie, threatening to choke her. She didn’t believe John Wallin would love her. She certainly had no expectation of falling in love with him. She would be a good partner—working beside him on his farm, keeping his house. Beyond that, she was not willing to promise.
“Are we expecting your brother soon?” she asked, almost afraid to look toward the fellow at the counter again.
She nearly slid from her chair in relief when Beth glanced at the door instead. “Any moment. He had other business in town. He’s very conscientious. And kind. And thoughtful. But I told you all that already.”
She had. Dottie hated to admit even to herself how she’d clung to the words in Beth’s effusive letters. “Kind” had been repeated many times. So had “sweet” and “good-natured.” Even the initial ad that had opened their correspondence had seemed thoughtful, hopeful. Small wonder she’d chosen that one to answer.
She’d been in a bad way then, desperate enough to riffle through the local paper that reprinted ads for men seeking brides. The moment she’d sent off the letter in response to the ad from “a gentleman from Seattle,” she’d regretted it. How could she, who had been lied to so cruelly, trust another man to tell her the truth? How could she take such a chance?
Because she needed to give Peter security, safety.
Beth Wallin’s letters had calmed her spirit, made her feel welcomed, valued. But still doubts persisted.