Jane- A Christmas Day Bride Read online

  Jane: A Christmas Day Bride

  Brides of Noelle, Book 10

  Danica Favorite

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Epilogue

  More in the series

  Reader Letter

  Dedication and Thank You

  About the Author

  Copyright © 2018 by Danica Favorite

  All rights reserved.

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  Cover design by EDHGraphics

  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 permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Visit my website at www.danicafavorite.com

  Printed in the United States of America

  Created with Vellum

  Chapter 1

  October 1877

  “Whore!”

  Jane Creary pulled her shawl tighter against her as she tried ignoring the taunt from the man on the street. The words were nothing she hadn’t heard before, but she also hadn’t gotten used to hearing them. Her family had always encouraged modesty and decorum as a way of life, but it seemed like, ever since coming to Noelle, Colorado, it was hard to maintain the level of composure she’d been raised to.

  Her father had brought them here as part of his work with the railroad, but he had been murdered in July to cover up the explosion of the original railroad bridge. Many people blamed him for the trouble with the railroad, even though any fool could tell that her father had nothing to do with it. But, she supposed, that was the trouble. Despite the many good people in Noelle, this town also had its share of those who believed retribution was necessary. Someone had to pay, and since her father was already dead, the rest of the family seemed to bear the burden.

  Which meant being constantly tormented by men like these.

  She walked a little faster, hurrying toward Nacho’s Tacos, where she and her sister worked from time to time. She knew the job had only been given to them out of pity, or perhaps kindness, because Nacho and Fina, the proprietors, had plenty of help from their extended family. So she supposed not everyone in Noelle had it in for the Creary family. They had made several very good friends here. But just once, it would be nice to walk down the street without being accosted by ruffians.

  “Excuse me, miss?”

  Jane picked up her pace. She usually didn’t go out without her sister, Rosalind, but Rosalind was working on solving their father’s murder, and she was always disappearing at the most unfortunate times. Besides, watching how bravely her sister endured everything, Jane hoped that she, too, could be as brave. If Rosalind could walk unescorted from the assayer’s office, where they were staying in an apartment in the back, to Main Street, where Nacho’s Tacos was located, then so could Jane.

  “Miss?”

  The man’s voice was more insistent, and Jane would have crossed the street, except for the fact that traffic was unusually heavy, and the many wagons cluttering up the street would make it difficult to cross. A crowd of ladies stood at the entrance to the newspaper office, blocking Jane’s path and forcing her to slow her pace.

  “Miss!”

  Jane stopped and turned. At least now, with people nearby, whoever this man was and whatever he wanted, he wouldn’t be able to harm her. Not with so many people present.

  He held a book out to her. “You dropped this,” he said, giving her a charming smile.

  As she took the book, she got a closer look at his face. Romeo Johnson. She recognized him from having seen him in the restaurant. He’d come in with his loudmouth cousin, Sol Sheridan, and Sol had been causing trouble as usual.

  Not only did Sol believe her father guilty, but he was one of the agitators, blaming the family for the town’s troubles and calling for the resignation of Charlie Hardt, the town’s mayor.

  Obviously, Romeo didn’t recognize her. Otherwise, he’d have probably thrown her book into the nearest fire.

  “Thank you,” she said, taking the book. “Your kindness is much appreciated.”

  She turned to leave, but he stopped her. “I heard those men. I wasn’t among them, in case that’s why you were afraid of me. I was going to go after them, but you dropped your book, and I wanted to get it back to you.”

  Now it was very clear he didn’t recognize her. Otherwise, he’d probably have joined in on the merriment.

  “Thank you for your concern on my behalf. I appreciate your sentiment, but any heroism, at least in this situation, is likely misguided.”

  She gave him a small smile, hoping it was enough to dismiss him without being rude. If she simply left, particularly in front of so many witnesses, talk would likely spread, worsening her family’s already bad reputation. Anymore, it wasn’t just their reputation Jane worried about. She didn’t want it reflecting on the friends who had been so kind to them. Bad enough to take up with the town pariahs, but worse if the town pariahs were rude, arrogant women. At least, despite all the mistreatment Jane and her sisters had received, no one could accuse them of acting poorly toward others.

  “Misguided? Surely not.” Romeo looked indignant at the idea. “You’re clearly a lady, and it’s completely unacceptable for anyone to be so disrespectful to a lady. And, I would argue, if you were not, what would you have done to deserve such treatment? The problem in our society is the lack of civility with which we treat one another. I find it abhorrent that we judge people based on social station.”

  It was a shame they were on opposite ends of the political debate in Noelle. Hugh Montgomery, the town assayer, who had been kind enough to give her family a place to stay while their boarding house was being built, was an English Lord who’d given up his place in his family to follow his dreams and live in America.

  But Hugh was good friends with Charlie. Which meant, even if Hugh and Romeo were introduced, it would be difficult for them to be friends. Not because Hugh would have anything against the other man, but because Sol had already made it very clear that he would not do business, let alone socialize, with anyone who supported Charlie.

  “It’s very modern of you to say so,” Jane said. “But I believe your cousin would disagree. And you obviously don’t know who I am, because if you did, you wouldn’t risk his displeasure by being seen here, speaking with me.”

  Romeo looked at her like he couldn’t comprehend her words. But Romeo had been with him, in the restaurant, when he’d refused to patronize them because of her and Rosalind’s presence. Romeo must not remember what had been a very humiliating moment for her.

  “I’m Jane Creary,” she said, speaking slowly and enunciating.

  “I know,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t do you a good turn. And it doesn’t mean I can’t attempt to right a wrong. What is this world, if we can’t treat each other with kindness and decency?”

  Had she been wrong for so quickly judging him?

  “I agree,” she said. “But I heard your cousin say on more than one occasion that he will
not associate with those who associate with us or Charlie Hardt. Surely you can understand my hesitation.”

  Romeo nodded slowly. “He does have a rather passionate dislike for both parties. But I keep thinking that if both sides would take the time to get to know one another, and understand where the other side is coming from, surely we can all find a way to get along.”

  God bless Romeo and his misguided optimism. She’d have liked to think that it worked that way also, but everyone she knew had been nothing but kind to Sol, and he did nothing but stir up trouble against them.

  “I have nothing against your cousin,” she said. “No reason to hate him, except for the fact that he inexplicably hates us. I understand he blames my father for the destruction of the bridge. But my father is innocent. And even if he were guilty, should a man’s daughters suffer for his actions?”

  Romeo shook his head. “Of course not. And I don’t believe he truly means it. He’s an angry man who’s suffered greatly in this life. I don’t know everything in his past, and it’s not my place to share, only that he has suffered a great number of injustices over his lifetime, and for a man so young, it seems almost impossible. I hope, though, you will find a way to have kindness in your heart toward him, knowing that his anger comes from a place of deep wounding.”

  His words almost gave her more sympathy for Sol, except that he acted so horribly toward them.

  “Sol is not the only person on this earth to have suffered injustice. You don’t think I’m not suffering injustice? And yet, I still do my best to treat others with kindness and compassion. I’m sorry for what he has suffered. I will include him in my prayers, as I always do. But an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind, and we’d all do well to remember that.”

  As she made her speech, she wished she could print it in a newspaper and post it on people’s doors, the way Martin Luther had, telling people that hurting others because they were hurting didn’t stop the hurt. Maybe it wasn’t a new idea, but it made a whole lot of good sense, and it was frustrating to see how many people didn’t use the sense God gave them.

  “I agree,” Romeo said. “And maybe, rather than being angry at those who don’t understand, we can find a place in our hearts to love them.”

  Jane shook her head slowly. “I am not the one doing or saying hateful things. I just told you I already pray for him. Perhaps you should be having this discussion with Sol.”

  The crowd had thinned considerably, and Jane needed to get in to work. “Thank you, for being a beacon of kindness in this cruel world. But I must be getting on with my day, and while the two of us may be considerably more open-minded about such things, I just don’t believe others would agree.”

  She gave him another smile. Were circumstances different between them, she would have enjoyed continuing the conversation. Although she enjoyed the company of her sisters as well as Minnie, Hugh’s wife, and the ladies she worked with at Nacho’s Tacos, it had been a while since she’d had such a stirring discussion. Mostly, they all agreed that it was a shame that so many people allowed pettiness to get in the way of human decency.

  But with Romeo, it seemed different. He spoke with her on a deeper level, and seemed like the sort of person with whom she could have hours of enjoyable conversations without being thought of as too intellectual for a woman.

  Even though she’d already told all the other ladies in her acquaintance that she had no desire for a beau, she’d admit that she thought Romeo quite handsome. If a man were to come courting, she would find a man like Romeo very interesting indeed.

  She looked down at the book she’d dropped. Romeo and Juliet. Such a sad twist of fate that the book he’d returned to her had been her mother’s favorite—except for the ending—and her mother had always wished to find a way to give the fictional couple a happy ending in real life. But such was not possible for this Romeo, at least not with her.

  Perhaps it was a trick of the name—being on opposing sides of the situation without hope of happiness.

  For a moment, Romeo looked as though he was going to try to find a way to continue the discussion, but then he shook his head at her. “It has been a pleasure speaking with you, Miss Creary. And I hope that someday, our paths will cross again, and we can further our acquaintance.”

  If only The Bard had had something useful to say about wishes that would give her encouragement about such an ending. Her father used to say that one could live one’s life by heeding the wisdom of Shakespeare. Jane wasn’t entirely sure what wisdom to apply here. But, she supposed, as far as cautionary tales went, “do not get involved with a rival family” was good advice indeed.

  Jane Creary was even lovelier than she’d been the first time he’d met her at Nacho’s Tacos. Yes, he was well aware that his cousin had very firmly told him to avoid members of the Creary family as well and anyone associated with Charlie Hardt. Who could miss the daily rants against both families?

  If they still lived during the time when people would issue plagues against one another’s houses, or whatever it was that his mother said happened in the books, that was definitely how Sol saw both families. But Romeo did not share his mother’s love for spending all day with her nose in a book, so he didn’t know the stories as well.

  That was what he was doing here in Noelle, residing with the cousin who was a good enough man, except for his vendettas. He’d failed out of college, and his parents had sent him here as punishment, hoping to teach him a lesson about what it meant to have a privileged life. They wanted him to be grateful for all they’d given him, which, to their line of thinking, meant living in a wild mining town with his cousin, devoid of the many comforts and privileges he had back home in New York.

  But more than that, they wanted him to give up his foolish hobby of stained-glass work to focus more on his studies so that he, too, could become a world-renowned professor.

  Of what, was what Romeo wanted to know. He had no passion similar to his parents, at least not when it came to the books. Now, give him some bits of glass, and he could be lost for hours.

  To some extent, his parents’ plan was working. Though he didn’t need to live in a mansion, he quite missed the comfort of his parents’ home, where he didn’t have to go outside every morning to pump his own water, fill a bucket, then prepare his own breakfast. In his parents’ home, he’d never cooked, not just because they had a staff to do it for them, but also because their cook was so persnickety about anyone else being in the kitchen. Even though Sol liked to go on and on about how spoiled and privileged Romeo was, the pain of his exile wasn’t just about the lack of material comforts.

  It was also the lack of being at home with his family. His parents’ rejection stung, not just because they were making him live a more difficult life, but because they were his family, and he genuinely loved and missed them.

  The Johnson family didn’t understand what it was like to do or be anything other than academics, and they could not understand that Romeo, for all his family’s good intentions, had not gained their intellectual prowess. Sure, he could engage in lively academic discussions with the best of them. But once he was forced to sit down and study, write a paper, and to be expected to be graded on the results of those efforts, he couldn’t make it work.

  Which was why it was disappointing to see Jane walk away. Theirs had been the first interesting conversation he’d had since arriving in Noelle. Not that there weren’t interesting people. He enjoyed the miners, workers, and other townspeople who frequented Sheridan’s Hardware. But he hadn’t had the same sort of soul-stirring conversation that he’d become accustomed to at his parents’ home.

  They’d even had Frederick Douglass as a guest in their home once. The rousing conversation with the former slave turned reformer had been a highlight of Romeo’s life. However, when Romeo had been asked to write a paper on some of Douglass’s writings, he’d gotten a poor grade, and even though the things Romeo wrote about had been what he’d discussed with the man, his instructor had given
him a failing grade because his essay wasn’t about the articles he’d been told to read.

  His parents had been very angry, saying that Romeo had wasted the opportunity of a lifetime.

  It didn’t help that, after his failing grade, Romeo had retreated to his workshop, where he had buried his sorrows in the comfort of his stained-glass projects. Originally, his parents had called it a harmless hobby. But the more time he spent in his workshop, the more they disapproved.

  According to his mother, his family hadn’t worked so hard for him to want to go into trade. If he wanted to go into trade so badly, he could spend time with his cousin Sol, and see what it was like to actually live the life of the tradesmen.

  So far, it wasn’t bad. The work was hard, but he didn’t mind. It lacked the stirring conversations of his former life, and he did not have the time to work on his stained-glass projects the way he would have liked. However, Sol had taken a liking to his last project and even put it on display in the store. For sale, of course, but at least he saw value in what Romeo did.

  It was mostly the companionship he missed. And as he watched Jane walk away, it was hard to realize that the one bright spot in his time here had to be with the woman his cousin had forbidden him to spend time with.

  It would have been easy to defy that simple request, but Sol knew that his parents disapproved of his glass work. The fact that he allowed him to do it, providing him with what little comfort he could get in this place, made Romeo willing to accept Sol’s edicts.