Page 1 of A Groom for Millie
Chapter One
Late November 1878, Last Chance Nebraska
Millie Reed had just placed her head on her arms and closed her eyes when she heard the door creak open. She tilted her head slightly and opened one eye. The schoolhouse was one room with a small closet to the side. The front door of the school was behind a wall that was built in the middle of the outer walls. It blocked the entrance, but it kept the wind from entering the school.
Millie could hear the wind outside. It was picking up. Fortunately, it didn’t howl the way it did two months ago. She would never forget the sound of the storm outside. A blizzard blew over the town from the East, dumping several feet of snow and making travel impossible. Millie was locked in the schoolhouse with Heather, Altar, and several students.
They managed to stay alive for three days until the sheriff and livery owner could dig them out. The aftermath was intense. Melting snow unearthed bodies that littered the street for days. Livestock was scattered in the fields. It took nearly two weeks to get everyone buried and salvage as much meat as possible from the cows, chickens, and goats.
She was exhausted.
And now this…
Millie, and most of the women in the town, had lost their husbands when Jackson Barnes led a hunting expedition to find food for winter. They were caught in the blizzard and perished. Now the town was without their men to provide for them, to protect them, and to love them.
Pastor Collins, the preacher determined that the women needed to find husbands as quickly as possible. An advertisement was placed seeking husbands. The event had been picked up by the newspapers and reporters came through to interview some of the women.
Finally, after several weeks, letters were starting to arrive. The six letters Millie had in her desk drawer were burning a hole through the wood. It was like she could see them laying there. Mocking her.
The town tried to return to some semblance of normalcy. Unfortunately, most didn’t feel that fresh optimism that Pastor Collins displayed.
Millie wanted to grieve.
But she needed to be strong for the children.
There were so many orphans, it took days to find families to take them all in. Millie continued school, just so the children had a place they could go during the day. There weren’t many lessons going on now, as the children, and Millie too had difficulty concentrating.
She closed her eyes once more, willing whoever was at the door to go away. If she could sleep for just a few minutes, maybe she’d feel better. When she closed her eyes at night, she would see her husband’s face. His handsome features twisted from being frozen. She willed the images away and stared into the dark oblivion.
She could hear the footsteps come around the partition and up the aisle towards the desk.
“Missus Reed?” a childlike voice asked.
Millie forced her eyes open and she sat straight up in the chair. Eight-year-old Cecily Pool stood in front of the desk. “Cecily, what are you doing here?”
“I was on my way to find Momma Heather when I realized I forgot my doll.”
Cecily was referring to Millie’s best friend, Heather Barnes. The young girl and her little brother were now living with Heather until either a relative came to claim them or they were adopted. Their mother and three other siblings perished in the park under the heavy snow.
“Where is Miss Poppet?” Millie asked, standing. She felt lightheaded, reaching out to grasp the side of the table for support.
“Are you alright, Missus Reed?”
Millie nodded. “I think I just got up too fast. Let’s find Miss Poppet.”
Cecily found Miss Poppet right where she left the rag doll. With a little wave, Cecily skipped out of the schoolhouse. Millie followed her to the schoolyard and watched as Cecily grabbed her brother’s hand and ran toward Heather’s shop at the edge of town.
Heather Barnes was Millie’s best friend. They met on the train when they traveled west as mail-order brides. They had been friends ever since. Heather was the closest person Millie had to a sister. Since Doctor Woods was killed in the same blizzard, Heather was also the closest thing Last Chance had to a doctor. As the town midwife, Heather was helping the town until a new doctor could be found.
Millie was glad the school day was over. She needed to go to the store to purchase a few things and get home to check on the horses. George Reed raised workhorses for the farms in the area. He was known for having quality stock and a fair price. Many of the cowboys in the state of Nebraska purchased their horses from George.
Most of the horses were sheltered in the barn when the blizzard hit. Apart from some windburn, the horses survived unscathed. Millie knew a bit about horses. She could feed them and turn the horses out to the pasture to run. Everything else was foreign to her. She didn’t know the first thing about shoeing horses or what to do when a horse gets colicky. As a teacher, she loved to learn. But she always thought that George would be there to take care of them.
It was getting late. She needed to get Mary Rose home and figure out what to prepare for supper. An oven omelet might be the easiest thing to prepare. Millie grabbed her coat and quickly shrugged it over her shoulders. Mary Rose was coloring at her desk.
“Come on, sweetie,” she said holding out Mary Rose’s coat.
“I want to finish my picture,” Mary Rose said, scribbling on the slate.
