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  The Peashooter Society’s Plan

  Mismatch Mail-order Bride Series, Book 1

  Copyright © 2019 by Linda K. Hubalek

  Published by Butterfield Books Inc.

  Kindle Edition, License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to the retailer and buy your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This book is a work of fiction. Except for the history of Kansas mentioned in the book, the names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  A sweet historical romance set in 1892.

  It’s 1892, almost twenty years after the first mail-order brides found love in Clear Creek, Kansas in the Brides with Grit Series.

  The older members of the Clear Creek church women’s group, informally known as the Peashooter Society, decide to help the unattached women in town obtain husbands.

  The group’s solution, with the backing of a wealthy financier in town, is to advertise that they will offer jobs and housing to the prospective grooms they pick for the unsuspecting women.

  The young women are appalled at the idea when they catch wind of the women’s plan—until they see the handsome male finalists. Maybe this will work out after all…until the couples matched, clash.

  Now what?

  This introduction story starts the Mismatched Mail-order Brides Series. The couples change who they are courting, and fun and mayhem abound in this Kansas cowtown.

  Note to the Reader

  The older women in the Clear Creek Community Church, informally known as the Peashooter Society by the younger generation, came up with the idea to bring men into town for the unattached women in town. The group meets today in the parsonage dining room to work on their plan.

  Listed here is the Peashooter Society’s member’s name and in which story they were the main character in one of Linda Hubalek’s previous books.

  Kaitlyn Reagan. Kaitlyn came directly from Ireland, as a mail-order bride, to be the widowed pastor’s wife. Kaitlyn and Patrick’s six boys, a mixture of his, theirs, and adopted, are Angus, Fergus, Seth, Mack, Cullen, and Tully. (Besides being a secondary character in the Brides with Grit series, her sons were featured in the Grooms with Grit series.)

  Millie Wilerson. Mille was supposed to be the mail-order bride for Sam Larson, but he died before she arrived in Clear Creek. She brought her sister Darcie’s toddler, Tate, along with her to get the boy away from his abusive father. Millie becomes Marshal Adam Wilerson’s housekeeper and marries him. Millie and Adam have two children, Ben and Beth. (Millie Marries a Marshal)

  Darcie Shepard. Darcie followed her sister, Millie, to Clear Creek with her baby, Amelia, to unite with her toddler and sister. Darcie marries Reuben Shepard, father of Gabe and Mary, and the family runs the Shepard and Sons Saddlery in town. (Darcie Desires a Drover)

  Lorna Elison. Lorna came to town as a mail-order bride, but after the wedding night, the groom disappears—with her money. Penniless, pregnant, and working as a waitress in the Clancy Café, Lorna is befriended by her next-door neighbor, lawyer Lyle Elison. After her missing groom is found, Lorna and Lyle marry and have three girls, Elise, Blanche, and Mamie. (Lorna Loves a Lawyer)

  Helen Paulson. Helen, with her four girls in tow, Ida Mae, Maridell, Avalee, and Luella, came to town as a mail-order bride, to marry the same groom Lorna married. The scheme was unveiled right after Helen’s wedding ceremony when Lorna recognized the man. Helen and her girls move in with Ethan Paulson to help manage his hotel, and the two marry, having four girls together, Nadine, Daphne, Cecilia, and Phoebe. (Helen Heals a Hotelier)

  Cate Connely. The widow Cate Wilerson moved into the Cross C Ranch house when her daughter, Sarah, and her husband, Marcus, adopted eight children, three of them newborn triplets. Cate married Marcus’ uncle, Isaac Connely, who she’d grown up with in Illinois. Cate’s adult children are Adam, Jacob, Noah, and Sarah. She is the grandmother to Sarah’s children, Maggie, Molly, Maisie, Marty, Moses, Matthew, Mark, and Micah. (Sarah Snares a Soldier, and Cate Corrals a Cattleman)

  *

  The unsuspecting grooms in the Peashooter Society project have a past that connects them. All six men were once young orphans in New York City, transported to a small eastern Kansas town on an orphan train in 1872. They lived in separate homes and farms but stayed in touch through school and church. They still use their nicknames from their youth.

  Wanting to stay together, they enlisted and served five years at Fort Riley and were recently mustered out.

  Background on the men:

  Barton (Badger) Miller. The oldest brother of three and has felt responsible for this group since they were put on the orphan train in 1872.

  Gordon (Gopher) Miller. The middle brother of the Millers.

  Squires (Squirrel) Miller. The youngest brother of the Millers.

  Peter (Possum) Gehring. Remembers nothing of his past, until he was adopted at age four.

  Tobin (Toad) Billings. The only boy to have a photograph of his birth parents, but their names weren’t written on the back of the photo.

  Wesley (Weasel) Preston. He barely remembers his family’s immigration from Sweden to America, but he recognizes Swedish words when he hears them.

  Chapter 1

  Fall 1892

  Parsonage Dining Room, Clear Creek, Kansas

  “When the town was first established, there were more men than women. But now, it’s the opposite,” Kaitlyn opened the meeting as she walked around the table, pouring coffee in the china cups in front of her friends.

  “I never thought the opposite would be true today,” Millie replied as she sliced her burnt sugar cake and placed generous slices on plates to pass around the table.

  “That’s why Cate and I called this meeting today,” Kaitlyn informed the group. “The Peashooter Society, as the young folks call us, is going to do something about this situation.”

  “Kaitlyn, I thought Pastor made you take your peashooter out of your reticule year ago when you shot my assailant in the arm,” Lorna bemoaned.

  Kaitlyn bit her lip before replying. “Well, I did for a while, but I don’t feel safe without the weight of the thing in my bag.”

  “At least you can still aim the thing. Holly Clancy was just telling me the other day she had to hide Grandma Edna’s pistol in a new spot because she was afraid the old woman would shoot someone,” Lorna informed the group.

  “Edna may be in her eighties, but I still count her as one of this group. She helped capture Darcie’s murderous husband years ago,” Kaitlyn nodded at Lorna.

  “Oh, my word! I hadn’t thought of that day in years,” Millie sighed. “Cate, I can still see you jumping up during Pastor's sermon, wildly waving your arms above your head shouting, ‘There’s a wasp in here!’ when Tate saw his father slink in the back of the church and told us. Every woman in the church immediately jumped up, screaming similar things about wasps, while pushing out of the pews and literally swarming to the back of the church.”

  “The men and children were ducking down—as was the preacher—looking for a swarm of wasps in the air while we women ran down the center and side aisles to the back,” Cate reminisced. “We had the man surrounded, our hands in our reticules, ready to shoot if he bolted.”

  “Marsh
al Adam was shocked and upset we didn’t tell him our plans, but we had our own safeguard plan in effect if harm came to little Tate,” Kaitlyn said as she sat down in her chair at the end of the table.

  “This plan isn’t for the safety of one of our citizens, as past ones have been, but it still needs to be kept a secret until the plan is implemented. Does everyone agree?” Kaitlyn asked as she looked around the table at her friends.

  Everyone’s murmur of agreement pleased Kaitlyn.

  “How many grooms are we looking for?” Lorna asked, acting as the group’s secretary, ready to write down the details.

  “We thought we’d start with five or six men first, mainly for the jobs that are available in town,” Kaitlyn started the conversation.

  “Kiowa Jones wants to sell or rent his blacksmith shop, now that he and Mary are living in their new home and he’s keeping busy with his silversmithing. And he owns the barbershop, which needs a barber now that the Tolberts left town.”

  “Thank goodness,” Lorna muttered. “He was a bigoted man, and Lyle said he didn’t give the best haircuts anyway.”

  “Plus, the fact Tolbert’s son started two fires in town,” Darcie reminded them of the near tragedies.

  “It’s not official yet, but widower Lucas Boyle wants to retire from his livery business. His daughter wants him to live with them in Kansas City,” Kaitlyn added, and Lorna wrote it down.

  “That’s three jobs. What else do we have in town for employment opportunities?” Darcie asked.

  “The Taylors want to divide their mercantile, move the housewares to the empty building downtown and have someone take over the grocery segment of the business. They’re close to retirement age and want to move into a smaller space,” Kaitlyn touched her ring finger to indicate the fourth job.

  “My son Mack would also like to hire a full-time carpenter to help him,” Kaitlyn continued.

  “That would be five positions in town. Maybe the bank could use another teller?” Lorna mused.

  “I’ll ask Ethan if we could hire someone. Our night manager is of the age he’s ready to retire if we’d find a replacement,” Helen added, “especially since I have Avalee to marry off.”

  “Since Avalee works as Dr. Pansy Reagan’s assistant, do you think she wants to eventually go into medicine herself?” Darcie asked.

  “No, I don’t think so. She likes working alongside Dr. Pansy. She’s a homebody, and I can’t see her leaving home to start a practice elsewhere after attending medical school.”

  “Let’s talk about the girls we want to match, at least this first round. We have Avalee Paulson, and maybe your Nadine too, Helen?” Lorna asked as she jotted down names.

  “Nadine might be interested. She’s eighteen and in charge of housekeeping in the hotel,” Helen mused. Her oldest daughter Iva Mae married Gabe Shepard, Darcie’s adopted son. Her second daughter, Maridell, married Frank Dolecek and ran a boarding house in nearby Wilson.

  “Well, I’m looking for my granddaughters, Maggie, Molly, and Maisie,” Cate piped up. “They are leaving the ranch to take over Mary Jones’ dress shop. Right now, they will live upstairs, but eventually, that apartment would be the living quarters for one couple.”

  “Yes, the blacksmith shop, barbershop, and mercantile would all provide housing for the new couples. And Lucas Boyle’s house would be for sale when he leaves,” Kaitlyn observed. “Although I bet that house could use some repair first.”

  “Any other young women in town or outlying areas to consider finding a mate for?” Lorna asked, looking down at her notes.

  “How about Amelia, Darcie? She works alongside her father and brothers in the saddlery. You think she’d like a husband and family? She’s the same age as the others, and I don’t want her to feel left out on our matching.” Cate asked.

  Darcie sighed. “It’s so hard to tell with that girl. She’s all tomboy, but I think she’s a tad jealous about her brother Tate, and Luella’s upcoming marriage.”

  “My daughter, Luella, has been planning her wedding since…her sister Iva Mae’s marriage five years ago. Luella and Tate will marry when they’re ready.”

  Lorna looked down at her paper.

  “We have Avalee, and possibly Nadine Paulson, Maggie, Molly, and Maisie Brenner and Amelia Shepard. And five for sure employments in town for men, and possibly more,” Lorna confirmed her notes to the group.

  “Now, how do we find these men?” Lorna asked. As the lawyer’s wife, she was always thinking of the legal procedures to their projects.

  “We replied to advertisements in the Matrimonial News, Lorna,” Helen grinned.

  “And we know how that turned out, both marrying the same man,” Lorna chortled back.

  “You have a point though,” Kaitlyn said. “We have to advertise that the town has employment and brides, maybe as a package deal? Otherwise married men could buy the businesses, and that wouldn’t serve the purpose of our project.”

  “Put together an advertisement in something like the Matrimonial News, stating employment and housing comes with a bride?” Darcie asked.

  “I think my daughters might be offended being part of a ‘package.’ How are we going to match our girls without them knowing it?” Helen asked.

  “Growing up on an isolated ranch, my granddaughters are approaching their old maid status, at least Maggie and Molly anyway at twenty-five and twenty-four. I think they’d like the help to find husbands,” Cate concluded.

  “Darcie, how about Amelia?”

  “I think she’d prefer to skip the husband and take over the blacksmith shop herself. Amelia is fascinated with working with metals.”

  “I propose we post an advertisement in one newspaper first, to see what reaction we get,” Cate suggested. “Have the possible candidates write back to us with their employment skills, at least two letters of references, and any other background information they want us to know to be considered. We can choose the best men to come to tour the town and go from there.”

  “Which newspaper would you suggest we send it to? Large or small newspaper?” Lorna asked.

  “We don’t know if we’d get two or two hundred responses,” Darcie mused.

  “Free wife, job, and house? Too many bums and freeloaders will answer our advertisement, “Millie warned the group, thinking like her lawman husband. “We need to add something that only the best and most serious candidates will respond to.”

  The group sat silent, trying to think about what they should add to the wording.

  “Also, add ‘must be single men, between the ages of twenty to thirty,’” Darcie thought out loud.

  “One letter of reference must be from their clergy and Patrick can follow up if he thinks the letter is forged,” Kaitlyn added.

  “How will we know if reference letters are forged?” Helen asked.

  “We won’t. Are we taking a risk by bringing men into town like this?” Lorna asked since she’d been scammed with her groom.

  The women sipped their coffee and ate their cake thinking about Lorna’s important question.

  “If we have any questions on the letters we receive we could ask Pastor and Isaac to look them over,” Lorna suggested.

  Kaitlyn caught Cate’s glance and raised an eyebrow to question her. Cate shook her head.

  “We’d prefer our husbands don’t know about our project. Please keep all this planning between the six of us only.

  “Kiowa is the only man who knows, and he’s doing it to help us, besides filling his businesses. We all know the man can keep a secret.”

  Turns out Kiowa Jones was a wealthy jewelry maker, using his blacksmith business as a front to keep his profession, and jewels, safe. Oh, and he was also married to Mary, Darcie’s daughter, without Mary’s parents knowing it.

  “I suggest we send one advertisement to the Kansas City Star newspaper. Kansas City is only a day’s ride from here and would have a pool of prospects from its population,” Kaitlyn suggested. “All who agree, raise your hands.”
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  Kaitlyn looked around the room noting everyone had raised a hand.

  “Good. Let’s draft the advertisement and get our mail-order bride project started. Kiowa would like his businesses filled, and we have young women needing men.”

  Chapter 2

  Fall 1892

  Along the railroad tracks in the Flint Hills of Kansas

  Thank goodness it wasn’t pouring rain…yet.

  Barton Miller couldn’t believe their bad luck. They were just mustered out of the army today and taking the train home to their childhood homes north of Topeka. Only a seventy-mile trip and they’d have been visiting their folks.

  “I don’t believe it!” Wesley yelled as the train chugged away, leaving the passengers standing along the railroad track. They were stranded in the middle of the Flint Hills.

  “Wait and let the others turn back to town first,” Barton, the oldest and leader of the group told the rest.

  They stood there, watching the train picking up speed down the tracks and the irate passengers trudging the opposite direction back to Junction City.

  “We’re soldiers! We shouldn’t have let them get away with it!” Wesley started in again.

  “Former soldiers. But they had guns aimed at those cute little girls!” Tobin argued as he plopped his large rear-end on the ground.

  “Luckily, no one got hurt,” Barton let out a breath of relief even though he would have liked to have taken down the robbers too.

  Barton watched as the forty-some passengers marched on down the track. The robbers had surprised everyone by the explosion in the mail car to open the money safe. The train kept going a quarter mile down the road until it stopped. Barton guessed someone was telling the train engineer what to do, or by now, someone else was driving the train. After the robbers went through the railcars collecting money and jewelry from the passengers, including themselves—they were told to get off the train. The robbers took their wallets and their pistols but didn’t bother reaching for their small carpet bags stashed in the overhead shelf. Unfortunately, they couldn’t retrieve their bags before they there ushered off the train. Hopefully they could catch up with their belongings tomorrow.