Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    And Then Came Spring: A Bride for All Seasons Novella
    And Then Came Spring: A Bride for All Seasons Novella
    And Then Came Spring: A Bride for All Seasons Novella
    Ebook109 pages1 hour

    And Then Came Spring: A Bride for All Seasons Novella

    By Margaret Brownley

    3/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    It all started with an ad in a mail-order bride catalogue . . .

    Mary-Jo has traveled halfway across the country to meet her match, arriving just in time . . . for his funeral. Returning home seems like her only option. Then her would-be brother-in-law proposes a more daring idea.

    “An enchanting tale about a superstitious woman who is down on her luck, a needy boy whose luck has run out, and a lonely man. Readers will delight in this story, where faith proves more powerful than luck, and marriage, the third time, really is a charm." —Vickie McDonough, award-winning author of 27 books, including the Pioneer Promises series

    “A delightfully, romantic tale of a mail-order bride who discovers only love and trust in God can erase the label of "unlucky in love” from her superstitious heart.” —Maggie Brendan, author of The Jewel of His Heart

    Margaret Brownley is a New York Times best-selling author and has penned more than twenty-five historical and contemporary novels. A Lady Like Sarah was a Romance Writers of America RITA finalist.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThomas Nelson
    Release dateAug 20, 2013
    ISBN9781401690212
    And Then Came Spring: A Bride for All Seasons Novella
    Author

    Margaret Brownley

    New York Times best-selling author Margaret Brownley has penned more than twenty-five historical and contemporary novels. Her books have won numerous awards, including Reader’s Choice.Though successful, Margaret decided to leave behind the secular publishing world to follow God’s will for her: to write inspirational fiction. Since then she has published the Rocky Creek series and A Lady Like Sarah was a Romance Writers of America RITA finalist.Happily married to her real life hero, Margaret and her husband have three grown children and live in Southern California.

    Read more from Margaret Brownley

    Related to And Then Came Spring

    Related ebooks

    Historical Romance For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Mysterious Ways

      Sep 26, 2022

      “We’ve got a problem here, folks,” our mechanic said over the phone. “What is it?” I asked. My husband, Matthew, and I had dropped off our truck for an oil change a couple hours earlier. We’d made an appointment with our usual mechanic, Randy, and de

      1 min read

    • Article

      TWO DECADES OF HELL EVIL STEPDAD made me HIS WIFE

      Jul 2, 2020

      Acute little girl with bright red hair and a cheeky smile, Rosalynn McGinnis had big dreams. The 10-year-old wanted to grow up and be a veterinarian and teach violin. Rosalynn’s father wasn’t in the picture. But one day, handing out flyers with the n

      3 min read

    • Article

      Without Tammy

      Jan 26, 2023

      Without Tammy
      6 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Lauren Francis-Sharma

      Dec 16, 2021

      These are stories and essay collections written by and about people who are interested in examining the world. This is what I needed in books this year, so I offer them to you, as a healing balm for all our 2021 wounds. The post A Year in Reading: La

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Black Spider

      Nov 28, 2019

      The Black Spider
      22 min read

    • Article

      Getting Out Alive

      Apr 6, 2017

      Getting Out Alive
      4 min read

    • Article

      Winning Letter

      Sep 30, 2022

      I’m a single mother who struggles financially to get through each month. When my washing machine broke I had no funds to repair it, so I asked my neighbours if I could do my washing at their place. On a Wednesday afternoon my bell rang. At the door w

      5 min read

    • Article

      Cycles

      Nov 10, 2022

      His online profile was promising: good hair, straight teeth, college degree. And he was nice-looking too, in his photo anyway, standing on a clifftop with the sun rising over his welldefined, muscular shoulder. He was attractive enough, the kind of u

      18 min read

    • Article

      Australia Reads At Home

      May 18, 2020

      Australia Reads At Home
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Courage To Be Happy

      Feb 1, 2023

      MARRIAGE and columns have this in common: you tend to repeat yourself. More than once in these pages, I have quoted the New Yorker’s legendary film critic Pauline Kael. After President Nixon’s landslide victory in 1972 she wrote: ‘I live in a rather

      3 min read

    • Article

      Cross My Heart

      Sep 1, 2022

      Cross My Heart
      6 min read

    • Article

      In Search Of An Ending

      May 14, 2019

      In Search Of An Ending
      6 min read

    • Article

      I'll Be Seeing You

      Mar 1, 2023

      I'll Be Seeing You
      25 min read

    • Article

      Epithalamium

      Jun 1, 2023

      Epithalamium
      16 min read

    • Article

      Mrs. Robinson

      Dec 10, 2022

      “Do you think she will like me?” The question slipped from between my lips and hung suspended in the air. My gloved hands were in my lap, and I was wringing them. As the carriage conveyed us and we neared my new husband’s ancestral home, Ashby Hall,

      20 min read

    • Article

      Book Club

      Jul 16, 2020

      Book Club
      4 min read

    • Article

      Book Club

      May 25, 2022

      Book Club
      5 min read

    • Article

      Behind The Scenes

      Oct 18, 2021

      Behind The Scenes
      8 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Feb 19, 2021

      At a local newspaper in South East London in 1957, journalist Jean Swinney receives a curious letter written to the editor. Gretchen Tilbury – abeautiful, well-to-do woman – claims her 10-year-old daughter is the product of a virgin birth. Gretchen h

      5 min read

    • Article

      Letterbocks

      Apr 14, 2022

      letters@viz.co.uk □ “OUR HOUSE, in the middle of the street,” sang popular North London ska band Madness in the eighties. But I can’t imagine they were particularly popular with local residents if they had a house blocking the middle of the road. If

      9 min read

    • Article

      Four Of A Kind

      May 3, 2023

      Four Of A Kind
      4 min read

    • Article

      Winning Letter

      Mar 3, 2023

      WE’RE barely into the year and already it feels like it’s a lot. The effects of loadshedding aren’t just about not having electricity – it affects our emotional state too. Having to figure out when to shop, do laundry, cook, care for kids, do hair, w

      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for And Then Came Spring

    3/5

    2 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      And Then Came Spring - Margaret Brownley

      © 2013 by Margaret Brownley

      All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

      Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.

      Thomas Nelson, Inc., titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail SpecialMarkets@ThomasNelson.com.

      Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Bible. THE NEW KING JAMES VERSION. © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The Holy Bible, New Living Translation. © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. The Holy Bible, New International Version®, niv®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com.

      Publisher’s Note: This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. All characters are fictional, and any similarity to people living or dead is purely coincidental.

      ISBN 978-1-4016-9021-2 (ebook)

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      [Novellas. Selections]

      A bride for all seasons : a mail order bride collection / by Margaret Brownley, Debra Clopton, Robin Lee Hatcher, and Mary Connealy.

      pages cm

      ISBN 978-1-4016-8853-0 (alk. paper)

      1. Mail order brides—Fiction. 2. Christian fiction, American. 3. Love stories, American. I. Brownley, Margaret. And Then Came Spring. II. Clopton, Debra. An Ever After Summer. III. Hatcher, Robin Lee. Autumn’s Angel. IV. Connealy, Mary. Winter Wedding Bells.

      PS648.L6B753 2013

      813’.08508—dc23 2013000168

      To Natasha Kern, literary agent extraordinaire!

      Natasha is my guardian angel. I’ll always be grateful to her for believing in me—and leading the way.

      Contents

      Glossary

      Prologue

      Chapter One

      Chapter Two

      Chapter Three

      Chapter Four

      Chapter Five

      Chapter Six

      Chapter Seven

      Chapter Eight

      Chapter Nine

      Chapter Ten

      Chapter Eleven

      Reading Group Guide

      An Excerpt from An Ever After Summer

      Other Books by Margaret Brownley

      About the Author

      Glossary of Mail-Order Bride Advertising Terms

      (And What They Really Mean)

      Eager to learn—can’t cook; can’t sew; can’t clean

      Accomplished—can ride, shoot, and spit like a man

      Modest dowry—poor as a church mouse

      Independent means—mean face and mean disposition

      Loving nature—keep her away from the ranch hands

      Traditionally built—you may wish to reinforce the floors

      Matrimonially inclined—working on husband number three

      Maternal—has six children and one on the way

      Possesses natural beauty—don’t let the false hair, cosmetic paints, or bolstered bosom scare you

      Industrious—give her a dollar and she’ll figure out how to spend ten

      Young looking—doesn’t look a day over sixty

      And they lived happily ever after—AND THEY LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER.

      The lot is cast into the lap, But its every decision is from the Lord.

      Proverbs 16:33

      nkjv

      Prologue

      The Hitching Post

      A mail-order bride catalogue for the discerning, lonely, or desperate . . .

      What in the name of Betsy was she thinking?

      Melvin Hitchcock reread the letter from one Miss Mary-Jo Parker and shook his grizzled head. Not only was her spelling atrocious but she also expressed interest in a fine Christian man, then carelessly described herself as a gambler’s daughter!

      No, no, no, that would never do. As owner and editor of the Hitching Post Mail-Order Bride Catalogue it was Melvin’s duty to present clients in the best possible light. To that end, he had no qualms about rewriting clients’ ads or editing letters exchanged between couples wishing matrimony. In his not-so-humble opinion, his clients were fortunate to have him looking out for them.

      Men often described themselves in glowing, even mythical, terms. The more a man lacked in height, hair, or bank account, the more exaggerated his pen. If Melvin didn’t know better, he would think the Wild West was populated by rich, tall, and handsome men with an abundance of head fur and charm.

      And the women . . . ah, they were a different story. The fair sex tended to be so disarmingly honest that he wondered if they really wanted husbands at all. Or perhaps worried or overbearing mothers were pushing their daughters into the realm of holy wedlock. That would certainly explain Miss Parker’s disregard for propriety.

      No matter. Melvin had a reputation to uphold. Following the War Between the States, mail-order bride catalogues had sprung up like mushrooms, though none could claim as many successful marriages as the Hitching Post. That was because Melvin, with a swipe of his pen, turned a chunky figure into charming, homely to comely, and un­domesticated into a willingness to learn. Melvin would have no trouble making the gambler’s daughter sound like a pillar of virtue and innocence.

      He wasn’t dishonest—heavens no. He was simply looking out for his clients’ best interests. If that charitable action benefited him and his company, what possible harm could it do to the soon-to-be happily wed?

      Chapter One

      Colton, Kansas

      1870

      Sure as God made little green apples, Mr. Daniel Garrett would rue this day. Mary-Jo Parker would make it her business to see that he did. For two solid hours he’d kept her waiting at the train station. He didn’t even have the courtesy to leave a message or arrange for someone to pick her up.

      Well, Mr. Garrett, I’ve got news for you. You’d better have a good explanation for keeping me waiting or the wedding is off! Now she was talking to herself, but that was the least of her problems. She was cold and tired and hungry and . . .

      She hated admitting it, but she was also scared. What if she’d traveled all the way from Georgia for nothing? Her aunt thought her crazy to marry a man she’d never met, but his kind letters convinced Mary-Jo that she was doing the right thing. Don’t let me be wrong about that, God.

      She dug in her purse for her watch. Two hours and twenty-two minutes she’d been waiting! If her errant fiancé bothered showing up at all, it better be on hands and knees.

      She slipped the watch back into her drawstring bag and reread the dog-eared telegram. All correspondence was screened by the proprietor of the Hitching Post Mail-Order Bride Catalogue, so the telegram was signed by Mr. Hitchcock. It clearly stated that her fiancé would meet her train. They would then drive to the church to be married posthaste by a preacher.

      She stuffed the telegram into her bag and marched back into the telegraph and baggage office for perhaps the eleventh or twelfth time. Her high-button boots pounded the wooden plank floor like two angry woodpeckers. Nearly tripping over the threshold, she froze.

      The last time her foot had caught in a doorway, a tornado blew the roof off her aunt’s house. Mary-Jo gave the wood panel wall three quiet knocks. Warding off bad luck was a full-time job, but no matter how hard she tried not to tempt fate, misfortune seemed to follow her wherever she went.

      Careful not to step on any cracks, she paced the length of the counter, waiting for the youthful operator to finish tapping the gilded telegraph key.

      After a while, he swung around

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1