Kit Morgan here and today I want to talk about farm life in the Dakota territory. (Okay, and a little about modern-day Oregon.)
In the early 1870s the soil in the Dakota territory was wonderfully fertile. Wheat was the main crop on most Northern Plains farms and the early settlers totally expected said wheat to not only sustain their family but bring them wealth — so long as they worked hard and managed their farms well, that is. When wheat crops failed to meet that promise, women stepped into the areas of poultry and butter production to sustain the family and maintain their hold on the farm. Between the decreasing fertility of the land, wild weather patterns and unstable prices, wheat farming soon became an unreliable source of income. This made women’s productive activities on a farm central to their family’s survival and success.

Most women raised poultry and milked cows to provide food for the family and as surplus for sale or trade. Their work might have yielded only a small portion of the income derived from their farm, but it was steady and substantial enough to meet the basic needs of their family no matter the conditions of the crops or the state of nearby agricultural markets. We had it going on back then and knew how to bring home the bacon! Or in this case the chickens and the milk. Productive American farm women enjoyed the respect of their families and communities even though they didn’t gain additional political or economic rights as a result of their work.

Historians have studied Pioneer farm families and discovered that as families settled, they moved through similar stages. Sort of like your first house, and then you get a bigger one later or add on when you have a child or two. Well, for pioneer families, their first house was usually a crude shelter they built to live in while breaking grass bound sod and expanding crop acreage. After that, they usually acquired some draft stock, milk cows and poultry. They found markets for their crops next and relied on a combination of grain sales and the trade of surplus eggs, butter and garden produce to generate enough income to maintain the family and improve the farm.

If they managed to remain on their farm through the first few years they might even build a barn! Maybe they’d add onto their house, acquire more land or better equipment. But none of this did you much good if you were too far away from markets and trade centers. This was a problem for the earliest settlers. Later settlers didn’t have it so bad as by then towns had cropped up. Later still there were grain elevators and railroads. Whew! What a life they had!

In my latest book, Claire, (Widows of Wildcat Ridge book 12) my heroine takes in sewing and laundry to get by. Life was hard even with the support of a family in those days. A woman alone had a much harder time of it. We’ve all heard stories from our parents, grandparents or great grandparents of tough times back in the day. For a free copy of Claire (which will release on March 1) do you recall a story that a loved one has shared with you about the things women did to make ends meet and keep their family fed? I’ll pick a random winner from the comments.

My cousins are wheat farmers, and I remember going to their ranch in eastern Oregon in the summer during the wheat harvest. Labor was never a problem for my aunt and uncle as they had 12 children. As they got older, they could work the harvest. Good times, I remember, but lots of work. Myself, I worked at making mud-pies with my cousins still too young to help. But I do remember how tired everyone looked when they got back to the ranch house. And yes, the pictures are from their ranch!

 Hi, Kit Morgan here and as I’m at my daughter’s in New York, I was in a bit of a quandary as to what to write about. But then I remembered I have a few books here and thought I’d share with you some lovely fashion plates from one of them. After all, there’s always fashion going’s on around here. My daughter is a fashion photographer and music video director. Since my arrival, she’s shot for a major cosmetics company and done several fashion shoots as well. She even did a puppy shoot for a friend, then toddled off to San Francisco to shoot a music video. Currently, she’s in Scotland. Ah the life! At any rate, I have a book I bought at Strand’s Book Store in Manhattan last year with some lovely photos in it. My how fashion changes over the years. A lot of my stories take place on the Oregon prairie or the orchard covered rolling hills of what is now apple country in Washington state. My characters are dressed in simple attire, calico prairie dresses and aprons with simple white bonnets. But these, well, maybe I’ll write some stories in a different setting just so I can dress my characters in some of the fancier dresses of the day! Oh, by the way, that’s Rowena, the long-haired chihuahua in the above picture. Cute isn’t she? If she lived back in the 1800s, what would her owner be wearing? Well, it would depend on the decade …  

The 1850’s …                                                                                             1860’s …

1870’s … Oh, those sleeves!

1880’s …  I guess they got tired of said sleeves …

1890’s … And by now decided to draw attention to the front of one’s skirt instead of the bustle in the back!

My, my! How things changed! I could spend hours on sites like Pinterest making historical fashion boards, and have! It’s part of what makes writing historical westerns so much fun! But which is your favorite? They didn’t carry little dogs in their reticules back then, so Rowena the chihuahua is better off living in modern-day Brooklyn. But I think her owner, had she lived back in the day, would look lovely in the 1870’s evening gown with the rose-covered skirt! What’s your favorite pick? 

Hi, Kit Morgan here! As some of you know I grew up in a log cabin in the woods. My father, a homicide detective for nearly 30 years, moved us from a big old nifty Dutch colonial in what was then a middle-class neighborhood in the sixties (he bought the house for 13k, now those homes are close to a million bucks) to our cabin thinking that the country life was better for us kiddies.

All in all, it was. My brother, little sis and I were, of course, too young to miss city life. My older sister wasn’t. She missed her school friends and neighborhood buddies and wasn’t keen on being thrust into the middle of a deep, dark forest. But, like the rest of us, she adapted to our new surroundings and we all have fond childhood memories from our days growing up in such an enchanted place. Not to mention a few … uh … interesting ones. It was the deep dark woods, after all. Things happen in the woods and Christmas was no exception. No witnesses to Santa’s doings for one.

One year my brother heard sleigh bells on Christmas Eve and over the years my little sister and I heard our share of bumps and thumps in the living room after being sent off to bed. As children our first thought was always, it’s Santa! But stern warnings from our mother kept us from creeping into the living room to catch a peek of him.

Then came the year we got brave and went to investigate the odd thumping, bumping and, on this particular Christmas Eve, colorful language being spit out at odd intervals. 

“Daddy?” my little sis was the first to say when she spotted him. Daddy schmaddy ! My eyes were glued to the guy with the Santa hat bent over a HUGE box on the other side of the Christmas tree.
“What are you kids doing up?” our father snapped. “Get back to bed or you’ll get skunked by the fat guy for sure!”
“He doesn’t look fat to me,” I said, eyes still glued to the man in question.
“Me neither,” said my little sis, eyes big as platters now.
Dad, slick guy that he was, came back with, “Oh, yes, well, Santa’s been on a diet, lately. Mrs. Claus had to cut him off the cookies. Gets in the way of his golf game.”
When you’re six with a dad who plays golf, this was a plausible answer. I just wanted to get a look at Santa’s white beard and see if it was real. Never mind the fact that old St. Nick was wearing a brown windbreaker and a pair of black trousers instead of a red and white trimmed suit. At least from what I could see. Maybe he took his traditional suit off and put on his work clothes? I mean, that box was gigantic! In fact, Santa stayed bent over the box, still as a statue. He knew that if he stood and turned around, the jig would be up. He’d be recognized and our belief in the jolly old elf would be blown to smithereens.

You see everyone in town knew and loved Mr. Prokop. He owned the local TV sales and repair shop. Dad had bought our first color TV and Mr. Prokop was delivering it. He was also a neighbor so we were last on his delivery list that night. It’s not easy to hide a present like a console TV, so he took it upon himself to deliver folks’ televisions on Christmas Eve. But this was just the beginning of the story …

Early Christmas morning my little sis and I awoke to an interesting smell. Actually, it was awful. Oh, gads! Had something happened to the marvelous present Santa delivered? We got up and ran into the living room. To our horror, there were broken ornaments everywhere! Not only that, but some large animal (or animals) had, well, had lots of “accidents” on the floor, and not the kind you just spray some cleaner on and mop up. “All the EWS and ACKS woke our parents, big sis, and brother. And of course our rambunctious Great Dane, Muxel, who came happily upon the scene looking as innocent as a dove. But never mind about that, the most important thing was that the giant box was still there and wrapped no less!
“Great Scott, what happened in here?!” our mother cried – that’s the edited version.
Dad saunters in, looks at my sister and me and says, “Oh my, um … looks like Santa let some of his reindeer into the house. See what happens when you let reindeer into the house, girls?” He then tossed a murderous look at the dog.
My little sister and I glanced at each other, horrified once again. Who knew reindeer could do such a thing?
My older sister (nine years older) was less sensitive to our tender beliefs in Santa. “Muxel! You stupid dog!” She got a glare from our father. “Oh, I mean … ew! The reindeer did have an accident!”
My mother sighed. “Well Carol, if you hadn’t left so many cookies out for Santa and put them in the cookie jar like I told you, then maybe the reindeer wouldn’t have gotten into them, got a sick stomach and messed (edited again) all over the floor.” Glancing at the floor she added, “and knocked half my ornaments off the tree! Who was supposed to block the living room off?”
Silence from my sister. My dad shut up too.
After a moment of this, all of them looked at Muxel. Sans my brother, he was still a believer. To heck with the reindeer having indigestion, breaking ornaments and making messes on the floor. Our eyes had gravitated to the box in the corner. Dad had mentioned he asked Santa from something special for the family. Was I going to be the lucky one to get to unwrap it? Or was I going to have to fight my brother or little sis for the honor?
“All right, Carol, since you left the cookies out,” my mom said, “you get to help clean up the mess.”
“What? Me! Why me?”
“Stop arguing and help your mother,” our father said. “Besides, it could be a lot worse.”
Carol stared at the disaster. “How?”
“You could have left my slice of leftover carrot cake out. Just think what that would have done to the reindeer!”
This drew my younger sister’s and my attention again. Reindeer probably would have loved carrot cake. And we couldn’t deny the living room did resemble a mini war zone. But reindeer weren’t small. In our young minds, we could see how half the ornaments could be knocked off the tree as they gobbled cookies. Which, in turn, would result in any number of catastrophes, depending on how sensitive a reindeer’s stomach was.

There was a debate between my little sis and me later as to whether the reindeer hit the tree before, during or after they ate the cookies, but when you’re five and six, debates end quickly. Soon the messes were cleaned up, the glass shards swept away, (preventing future hazards) and Christmas began. And the TV? It was the best Christmas present ever! It didn’t matter that it was for the whole family. We now had a color television! Back in the sixties that was a big deal. It even overshadowed the fact that Reindeer had desecrated our living room the night before!

Years later we learned the truth of the story. We still have a polaroid photo dad took of Mr. Prokop that night. Muxel our Great Dane was never allowed to eat cookies again, (or get near another Christmas tree) and our new color TV lasted for many, many years. My little sis and I own the log cabin in the woods now, and my current television was purchased from, guess who? Santa! Who in his eighties still owns the TV and repair shop in town, and is still our neighbor up the road.

Do you have a funny Christmas or holiday story? Do share! I’ll pick one lucky winner from the comments to receive an e-copy of my newest book (releasing next weekend) Holidays with the Weavers! I’ll announce the winner on Thursday so be checking back!

To check out my other books you can find them on my Amazon page.

We have a winner! 

Colleen,

You’ve won a free E-book copy of Holidays with the Weavers!

Email me at authorkitmorgan@gmail.com and I’ll get your book to you! Congratulations!

Woohoo! The winner of a free e-book copy of Her Prairie Knight is
Stephani Jenkins Ortiz Cerrillo!
Contact me at authorkitmorgan@gmail.com Stephanie so I can get your book to you!
Congrats!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Back in the 19th century, women developed, (in epidemic numbers, mind) an entire syndrome even doctors sometimes interpreted as a power grab rather than a genuine illness. This new disease was called “Hysteria.”

For example, my character Mrs. Dunnigan of Clear Creek, a character from the Prairie Bride and Prairie Groom series, uses hysteria on several occasions to get her way. Many authors have had their characters “afflicted” with this malady, but fiction is one thing. Reality another. Back in the nineteenth century, this new disease epitomized the fact that a lot of women didn’t have proper emotional outlets. Interestingly enough, the “disease” affected upper and upper-middle-class women almost exclusively. The “working class” were far too busy working to catch it. Naturally, it had no discernible organic basis and it was totally resistant to medical treatment. For those reasons alone, it was worth considering in some detail.

Doctors, however, were baffled. Hysteria appeared, not only as fits and fainting, but in every other form: hysterical loss of voice, loss of appetite, hysterical coughing or sneezing, and, of course, hysterical screaming, laughing, and crying. The disease spread wildly, yet almost exclusively in a select clientele of urban middle and upper-class white women between the ages of 15 and 45. Doctors became obsessed with this most confusing, mysterious and rebellious of diseases.

In a lot of ways, it was the ideal disease for the doctors. After all, it was never fatal and it required an almost endless amount of medical attention. On the other hand, it was not an ideal disease from the point of view of the husband and family of the afflicted woman. This put most doctors on the spot. It was essential to their professional self-esteem either to find an organic basis for the disease and of course cure it or to expose it as a clever charade. Women weren’t too happy when the latter occurred.

Doctors began to observe that many “afflicted” never had fits when alone, and only when there was something soft to fall on. One doctor accused patients of pinning their hair in such a way that it would fall luxuriously when they fainted. The hysterical “type” began to be characterized as a “pretty tyrant” with a “taste for power” over her husband, servants, children and, if possible, her doctor.

But doctors’ accusations had some truth to them. The “hysterical fit” for many women was the only acceptable outburst they had for emotions like anger, despair, or simply to expel pent-up energy. However, it would be years before men recognized women as anything other than sickly, weak and fragile.

Perhaps this is why we are so attracted to strong female characters of Western romances and other stories. Sure, we don’t mind if a heroine faints. But it’s more fun to watch her fight for what she wants. It’s hard for a woman of the 21st-century to relate to the hysterical fainting woman of the 19th-century. Though we do like to have them in a story or two, don’t we? Sometimes as the antagonist, sometimes as a secondary character. They’re still fun. Not only that but historically accurate in a lot of cases. To sum it up, if you lived in the nineteenth century, one could probably make a good living making fainting couches. My character Mrs. Dunnigan doesn’t own a fainting couch, she preferred to fall on the ground for a much more convincing effect. I’ll choose a random winner from the comments below to win a free copy of Her Prairie Knight, in which Mrs. Dunnigan uses hysteria like a pro, as you can see in this excerpt from Her Prairie Knight (Prairie Brides Book Two):

Now Belle’s laughter caught everyone’s attention, as she and Colin were over halfway down the trail. Some turned and waved at the newcomers, others headed over to greet them.

Mrs. Dunnigan also turned to look, with a huge smile on her face. Then the smile vanished. Her eyes widened, closed tight, opened and widened again. She snorted like an about-to-charge bull, threw down the serving spoon she held in her hand and took a few steps forward, glowering at the couple as they reached the bottom of the trail.

Belle and Colin didn’t notice. But they were walking toward Harrison and Sadie, who most certainly did.

Mrs. Dunnigan took one last look at Belle with Colin, glanced around herself and let fly with a noise somewhere between a wail and a locomotive whistle. Belle turned just in time to see her aunt drop to the ground in a faint that had it been on the stage, would have brought applause and some gasps from the audience. As it was, it did elicit a gasp from Fanny Fig, who threw up her arms in shock before making her way to her fallen friend.

Harrison would have been running to her as well if he hadn’t noticed Mrs. Dunnigan looking for the best possible place to land beforehand. He turned to Sadie, who stood with her mouth open in shock. “Oh, dear.”

“Auntie!” Belle exclaimed as she pulled away from Colin and dashed toward her aunt, who now lay in the grass on her back. Fanny Fig knelt beside her, fanning the unconscious form with her reticule, its long thin strings of beads hitting Mrs. Dunnigan in the face.

Harrison rolled his eyes at the scene. “Do you think they rehearsed it?” he asked his wife dryly.

Sadie was about to object to his cynicism, then stopped and thought about it. “Most likely,” she replied before making her way to the gathering crowd.

Colin, meanwhile, watched in exasperation as he joined his brother. He grinned despite himself. “Did you see that? I didn’t know Mrs. Dunnigan had it in her.”

“And I didn’t know our little picnic would come with a show.” Harrison laughed and put his arm around Colin. “Come along, dear brother. Let’s go see what she does for an encore.”

Colin’s face took on a more serious look. “Frankly, I’m afraid to find out.”

* * *

Aunt Irene’s eyes fluttered open as Fanny Fig continued her furious fanning/beating. Belle reached out and grabbed Fanny’s wrist to stop her. At this point, she was convinced her aunt hadn’t really fainted. Who could possibly stay insensate when one’s face was being whipped by beaded fringe?

“Doc Waller!” Fanny cried.

Belle looked at the faces of the townsfolk who’d gathered. Doc Waller wasn’t among them, but Grandma was. The old woman pushed her way through and bent to look at the patient. “You all right, Irene?”

Belle watched Aunt Irene moan and her eyes roll back.

“Someone fetch me a cup of water!” Grandma yelled.

“I don’t think she’s in any shape to drink anything,” Harvey Brown commented.

“I’m not going to have her drink it! Nothing brings a person around quicker than a cupful of cold creek water thrown in their face.”

Aunt Irene’s eyes fluttered once more. Belle closed her own eyes and sighed. How far was her aunt going to take this?

“Here ya go, Grandma,” Mr. Dunnigan said, handing her a cup.

“Land sakes, Wilfred! How’d you get this so fast?”

“Went to the creek the minute I seen her go down.”

Belle looked at her uncle, who didn’t seem overly concerned. It seems I’m not the only “doubting Thomas.” Oh, Auntie, really?

“Belle …,” Aunt Irene moaned. She sounded like she was auditioning for the part of the ghost in Hamlet.

“You want this?” Grandma asked Belle, shoving the cup at her. Belle took it. “If she closes her eyes again, toss it at her. She’ll come around.” Obviously, she suspected Aunt Irene’s faint was nothing more than theatrics as well.

Not all of the other townsfolk were so astute. “I’ll help you take her back to town, Miss Belle,” Harvey Brown offered.

“That’s mighty neighborly of you, Harvey, but I’ll take Irene back to town,” Uncle Wilfred replied. “No sense you missing out on any of the festivities.”

“Oh, well … if Miss Belle is going to be staying, I’d be happy to keep an eye on her, Wilfred.”

Belle stood as Harvey looked her up and down and smiled. Maybe she ought to toss the cup of water in his face …

“No need, Harvey – the Cookes will look after her,” Uncle Wilfred told him.

Aunt Irene moaned again.

Doc Waller finally showed up, a fishing pole in one hand, a lovely trout in the other. “What’s all the commotion?”

“Irene’s done ‘fainted’.” Wilfred drawled. “We’d best get her back to town.”

“Belllllle ….” Aunt Irene wailed. “I need Belle!”

Doc Waller handed his pole and fish to Harvey. “Let’s have a look.” He knelt next to Aunt Irene and began to examine her. “Any headaches lately, Irene?”

She looked at Belle. “Yes,” she moaned. “I think Belle should take me home and take care of me.”

Grandma snorted. “A young gal from Boston taking care of a sick woman? What does she know about doctoring? I’ll take you home myself and give you a good dose of castor oil! Trust me; it’ll fix you right up!”

Aunt Irene moaned again. “Belle! Belle, where are you?”

Belle was now having trouble keeping a straight face. She felt sorry for her aunt, stooping to such childish antics – but not so sorry that she wasn’t willing to have just as much fun with it as her uncle and the Wallers. “I trust your judgment, Mrs. Waller. If castor oil is what she really needs, then you’d best get her home and give her some.”

Her aunt perked up at that. “Oh, Belle, just take me home, will you? I’ll feel much better after I lie down.”

“You’re already lying down,” Grandma quipped. “Seems to me you should be feeling better already.”

Aunt Irene scowled. “Don’t tell me how I should feel! You’re not the doctor!”

“I agree with Grandma on this one,” Uncle Wilfred said with a chuckle. “Now let’s get you up and take you home.”

“But … but what about Belle?” Aunt Irene screeched.

“What about her?”

“She’s going home with us!”

“Why should she? She isn’t feeling poorly. Harvey, give me a hand, will you?” Harvey helped Uncle Wilfred pull her aunt up from the grassy ground. She stood unsteadily and tried to grab Belle for support, but Uncle Wilfred, God bless him, was quicker and grabbed her instead. “Belle will be in good hands with the Cookes and the Figs. And Colin can bring her home,” he added.

Belle couldn’t believe her uncle had said it. She could believe how quickly Aunt Irene’s face reddened in fury. The townsfolk backed up en masse.

Woo Hoo! Susan Johnson, you’re the winner of my mail-order bride post! Oh, and it looks like Ernie is the gent most of you would pick as your future husband! Susan, you can contact me at authorkitmorgan@gmail.com and then tell me which books you’d like!

Hi, Kit Morgan here. As some of you may know, I have a lot of books out. 84 at present, most of which are, you guessed it, mail-order bride stories.
So why do I write so many? Because there are readers out there who can’t seem to get enough of them. They LOVE stories of two people thrown together and marrying that very day or within days (at times a couple of weeks depending on circumstances) and starting a new life. Scary, right? You betcha!
But I’m not the only author who’s delved into this realm. Many of the other fillies here at Petticoats and Pistols have too! And, like me, I’m sure while researching this fun and interesting topic, they’ve discovered that becoming a mail-order bride wasn’t all it was cracked up to be back in the day. In fact, it could be downright dangerous. 

Chris Enss, a wonderful author who writes about women in the old west, wrote a fantastic book on the subject entitled Hearts West. I remember buying my copy in the gift shop at Crater Lake in Oregon (we were camping nearby) taking it back to the campsite, starting it that night and finishing it the next day. I was fascinated by all the stories of love gone wrong, but also the many that went right. Still, the women braving such an endeavor were taking a huge risk. Often times their grooms never met them at the train station or stage stop. Worse, the man was horrible. One look and the poor bride wanted to tuck tail and run! The terrible truth was they had nowhere to go in a lot of cases. Of course, these historical facts make for some good storytelling as my fellow fillies can all agree. We love to take things that happened in the past and make them our own. My personal favorite is to have a mail-order bride show up and the poor groom had no idea she was coming! All of us at Petticoats and Pistols who’ve written mail-order bride stories have put our own twist on the subject with wonderful romantic results! Myself I have entire series devoted to mail-order brides and their ups and downs

But could any of us become a mail-order bride today? Yes, we have the internet now and contemporary romance authors have written about e-mail-order brides. With matchmaking sites all over the web, people are having those first-time face to face encounters all the time. Many resulting in marriage, though not on the first date! I’ll be writing a book next month involving a mail-order groom. I’ve always wanted to do one!

Okay, so for fun, picture yourself as a mail-order bride back in the old west. You’ve gone to the mail-order bride agency and you’re sitting across the desk from the matchmaker. She hands you a stack of applicants. What kind of man are you hoping to find among the pages? Back then I would imagine things would come down to some basic requirements. But here are your choices for a husband. Which would you choose? Pick from the ads posted here and below.

And yes, these are actual ads posted by men looking for mail-order brides back in the 1880’s.

I’ll pick one lucky winner from the comments to receive any THREE of my mail-order bride books! You can check out my books on my website at http://www.authorkitmorgan.com

**********************************************************************************************************************************

Congratulations Caryl Kane! You’re my winner! You get a free e-book copy of Dear Mr. Comforts! You can email me at authorkitmorgan@gmail.com and we’ll work out the details!

   Back in the old west (among other places) once a frontier/pioneer family started to settle and cleared a little land, they bought a cow. If they didn’t have one already, that is.

The useful cow provided milk to feed the family and any calves they might be blessed with could be sold, slaughtered for meat or, if male, trained to plow and pull a wagon. The milk could also be turned into cheese and butter to trade at the general store or used to fatten the pigs and hens. Believe it or not, very little of the milk was used for drinking. As a result, people didn’t get as much calcium as they needed back then and many lost their teeth by the time they were thirty. But cows had other uses as well.

If a Pioneer family ran out of candles they could melt butter and pour it into a small lamp called a “cruisie” or “betty lamp.” The melted butter fueled the linen wick and gave a small amount of light.

In winter when cows couldn’t graze on fresh grass, the butter made from their milk was almost white. Carrot scrapings were used to give the butter a more pleasing color. One of the first color additives!

Families on the move made butter by hanging a leather bag full of cream from the back of the wagon. The bumpy ride churned the butter as the family traveled. Don’t think to hang a bag of cream off your truck and go four wheeling. Unless of course, you’d really like to have that fresh butter!

I don’t have any cows in my latest release. My heroines hail from Boston, they didn’t need to worry about a cow. As they travel west by train and stagecoach, hanging a bag of cream off the back of the stagecoach might have been an option, but they were more interested in meeting their future husbands than making butter. Gee, I wonder if they bought a cow once they were settled? Have you ever had a cow? Had a neighbor that had one? Comment below and I’ll choose a random winner to receive an e-book copy of Dear Mr. Comforts.

Until next time, I’ll leave you with a little snippet! 

Rosie Callahan waved at her latest suitor as he ran down the porch steps. “Goodbye, Nicholas – I hope you call on me again!” She closed the door, groaned and let her head fall against it. “Rats. Lost another one.” She turned with a sigh and went into the parlor.

“Well?” her sister Georgie said. “Is he going to call on you tomorrow?”

Rosie shook her head, fell into the nearest chair and groaned again. “How does Aunt Henrietta expect us to get married when she chases off every potential groom?” She glanced around the room. “Where is Aunt Henrietta?”

“Upstairs in her room.” Her eyes flicked to the ceiling and back. “I hope she stays there.”

“Where’s Hunny?” Rosie asked. Their older sister, Phryne Hunnicutt Callahan, had gone by that nickname ever since she was ten, when she found out what historical figure her parents had accidentally named her after. Rosalind and Georgina were thankful that their Christian names lent themselves to comfortable shortening.

“She hasn’t returned from choir practice. Maybe that nice Mr. Edmonds will walk her home.”

“Mr. Edmonds the land agent? I thought he left town to go further west.”

Georgie shrugged. “Maybe he did. I can’t keep track anymore.”

Rosie beat her head against the back of the chair a few times. “At this rate we’ll never get married.”

“I’m worried you’re right,” Georgie agreed. “The way Aunt Henrietta acts, you’d think she doesn’t want us to marry, yet she’s always talking about it. I don’t understand her at all.”

“Nor I,” Rosie picked at a fingernail. “What if we never marry?”

Georgie’s eyes widened. “Don’t talk like that. Of course we’ll marry – it’s only a matter of time.”

“Only a matter of time before Aunt Henrietta chases off every viable suitor in the city. That woman is missing a wagon wheel.”

“Quiet, or she’ll hear you.”

Rosie folded her arms and sat back. “So what if she does? Tarnation, you know it’s true.”

Georgie gasped. “Rosie, watch your language!”

“What does it matter? I’m never going to be in a room with a man long enough for him to notice my manner of speech.”She got to her feet and paced. “Maybe I’ll bake some cookies. That always helps.”

“You can’t bake something every time this happens,” Georgie pointed out. “Even if it was you this time. My suitors never last past one visit. At least with Nathaniel Bridgewater you got two.”

“I know, but cookies make me feel better no matter who it happens to.” She turned and headed for the dining room.

Georgie jumped out of her chair. “Wait for me!”

Rosie crossed the dining room to the rear door that led to the kitchen downstairs. Aunt Henrietta had a large two-story townhome in Denver, complete with servant’s quarters, a summer kitchen and a lovely backyard with a gazebo. She didn’t actually keep servants – she was too cheap for that. Instead, she had three nieces to boss around and keep the house clean and the meals cooked.

Rosie – the cook – went into the larder to gather what she needed. “Sugar or molasses?” she asked Georgie.

“Molasses. We ate sugar cookies the last time Hunny got jilted.”

Rosie nodded. “True. Maybe we should make a different cookie when she gets jilted next time.”

Dear Mr. Comforts is available for pre-order on <a href=”http://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JDYRR1ZAmazon/a/p?tag=pettpist-20

Woo Hoo! And my winners are: Tonya Lucas, Kim Hansen, Stephanie Jenkins Ortiz Cerrillo and Yvonne Wohlfeil! Congratulations ladies, you each get one free e-copy of your choice of the books displayed in my blog post. Comment here to tell me which title you would like and we’ll go from there!