His Mail Order Bride Was the Prettiest Woman He Ever Laid His Eyes On
Chapter 4
For three days, Eleanor stayed.
Not because she had forgiven Thomas.
Because the mail coach back to town did not arrive until the fourth.
Thomas gave her space.
He worked the ranch.
She worked the kitchen.
They spoke only when necessary.
But silence did something letters never could.
It revealed habits.
Thomas woke before sunrise.
He checked every fence himself.
He fed the horses.
He inspected the cattle.
He repaired broken tools instead of buying new ones.
Eleanor noticed that he always left the best piece of bread for whoever else was at the table.
On the fourth morning, she found him giving half his breakfast to an old ranch hand named Samuel.
“You’re going to starve.”
Thomas shrugged.
“Samuel needs it.”
“You can’t feed everyone.”
“No.”
He looked at her.
“But I can feed one man.”
Eleanor smiled despite herself.
Later that day, she found Thomas repairing the roof.
“You’re going to fall.”
“I won’t.”
“You say that about everything.”
Thomas glanced down.
“You’re worried.”
“I am not.”
“You are.”
She looked away.
He smiled.
That evening, they sat on the porch.
The sunset covered the hills in gold.
Eleanor held a letter in her hand.
Thomas recognized it.
“Which one?”
“The first.”
“You kept it?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you wrote that you wanted a woman who could make a home.”
Thomas nodded.
“I still do.”
“And?”
“And I think I chose the wrong way to ask.”
Eleanor looked at him.
“You didn’t choose me because you were desperate.”
“No.”
“Then why?”
Thomas was quiet.
“Because when I read your letters, I felt like I had known you longer than I had.”
She looked down.
“That is a dangerous thing to say.”
“I know.”
“Why?”
“Because I mean it.”
Eleanor’s eyes softened.
Then Thomas noticed something on the road.
A rider.
He stood.
“Stay inside.”
She frowned.
“Why?”
“That rider isn’t from the village.”
The man stopped at the gate.
He held a sealed letter.
“For Miss Hart.”
Eleanor took it.
The seal was broken.
Inside was one sentence.
Your aunt is dead.
And beneath it:
You are the last heir to the Hart estate.
