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  Valentine Mail Order Bride Eva’s Vision HERE

  Please enjoy your Bonus Chapter of Book 7 in the Valentine Mail Order Bride Series, Angie’s Hope by Lorena Dove below.

  With Love and Appreciation from my heart to yours,

  Jackie Marie Stephens

  Bonus First Chapter - Angie’s Hope by Lorena Dove, Valentine Mail Order Bride Series, Book 7

  BONUS CHAPTER OF

  Angie’s Hope

  Valentines Mail Order Brides

  Book Seven

  By Lorena Dove

  Copyright © 2016 by Lorena Dove

  Chapter One

  “Take care, now, Angie, to look after God’s little ones. He has given them to your care for the time you have with them.”

  “I will, Father. I love them as my own,” Angie said, watching as he shuffled more stiffly then usual past the altar to his tiny office in the side of the church. The church empty, Angie finished hanging her father’s vestments in the closet behind the altar. She paused to look up at the soaring stained-glass windows as her hand trailed along the finely carved wooden altar rail.

  As my own—but not my own. She turned to round up her class of 6- and 7-year-olds from the foyer. A thought—not quite a prayer—came to her mind as she looked out the window at the young couples strolling away, the mothers kissing their children as they admonished them to wait for Angie. She loved serving the church and wouldn’t dream of not helping her father in his ministry, especially as the years seemed to wear on him. But as the time passed since her own school days, it seemed her chance of marriage, a home of her own, and children grew further away.

  She and her friends who met for Bible study talked often of their lives. Despite their fears, poor connections and lack of suitors, her friends had their work—and hopes and dreams. Angie really had none. She had always served in the church, and it seemed as if she would play the organ and teach the children and live alone with her parents for the rest of her life. “If it is God’s will,” she breathed out loud.

  After the children’s Sunday school class, Angie crossed the short sidewalk leading from the church to the parsonage to help her younger sister, Nancy, prepare a cold lunch for her father and mother.

  “Make sure to slice the meat thin, dear,” Mrs. Simmons called from the sofa in the parlor. “You know my stomach pains me dreadfully.”

  “Yes, Mother, of course I will,” Angie said.

  “Will you tell the girls tomorrow I’m sorry to miss them?” Nancy asked. She was already regretting having to stay home from the Bible study group to care for her mother.

  “Yes, I’m sorry it’s your turn to stay home this week,” Angie said. “If you want to go, I don’t mind.”

  “Really? Well—no, that wouldn’t be fair.” Nancy loved the company of the young ladies, especially because they were a few years older. She was preparing for a nursing course, and loved to talk about her plans with the group of friends.

  The girls brought the small table in the parlor to the center of the room and the family gathered around.

  June Simmons seemed to struggle to sit up, but proceeded to attack the sandwich placed before her with abandon. The matron of the family had long refrained from household work or even helping her husband in the church, as she flirted with one ailment after another searching for the right combination of horrible diagnosis, untreatable symptoms, and continued indulgence of her appetite.

  “Make sure to clean up straight away, girls,” Mrs. Simmons admonished between mouthfuls. “It’s at New Year’s that young gentlemen come calling, you know. I wouldn’t be surprised if several eligible bachelors from wider circles than this little parish will be knocking on our door.”

  “Really, Mother? Who? Do you know them?” Nancy asked excitedly, her maturity not yet blossomed enough to see through her mother’s unjustified airs.

  “Mother, it’s almost February, the New Year’s calling is over,” Angie said directly. Seeing Nancy’s hopeful face cloud over, she added, “But for you, dear sister, gentlemen will always call. You’re the prettiest and sweetest young woman of courting age I know.”

  “In my day, I had scads of callers from New Year’s straight through February. Each one I encouraged with the slightest grace would improve his offer by Valentine’s Day. Oh the cards, flowers and sweets were divine. What I wouldn’t give to be young again!”

  Rector Simmons took no notice of his wife’s insult as he quietly enjoyed the meal. “It was an honor to court you, June,” he said quietly.

  Angie smiled at her father and closed her hand over his in a warm squeeze. Mrs. Simmons and Nancy continued on about the possible young men that might call. And yet, it was always the same—never a knock on the door.

  Angie sighed. Her mother had never gotten over her fallen place in society after a series of botched courtships left her standing against her will at the altar with her present husband. They never spoke of her final, unspecified social transgression that ended her most promising engagement to a society beau. But Mrs. Simmons refused to imagine that her own daughters would not marry up.

  As much as she loved them, the combination of her mother’s blatant pushiness and her father’s indifference to money and affairs of the world had left the girls without many prospects.

  “And I have heard,” Mrs. Simmons’ voice broke through Angie’s thoughts, “That Elmer Farley has finished his studies. Finally! That man has been away at school for five years! My dear cousin Esther and I have been hoping for a union of Angie and Elmer since they were just babies! I’m sure you are excited to see him again, aren’t you, Angie? Remember, you must be certain to refuse his advances at first. It’s the only way to capture a man’s imagination!”

  She had seen to it that her Angie was properly promised to her distant cousin’s son right when they were still children. It was June’s greatest wish that Angie would fulfill her rightful place in New York society—the place that June had lost. She had certainly made a respectable match, marrying the vicar who was to have officiated at her wedding. But even after Harold had been made Rector of the parish in time, June never relinquished her desire for social acceptance and trappings.

  June Simmons loved to advise her daughters on courting practices that to Angie bordered on subterfuge and deception. Plain-spoken like her father, the thought of simpering and pretending not to like a suitor horrified Angie.

  “Mother, I’m sure I will know what to do if the occasion arises.” Angie stood up to flee from the conversation. Once the dishes were done, she could escape her mother’s plans and endless admonishment in her room reading for the rest of the day.

  Only an hour later, her sister’s running feet pounded down the hall before she broke breathlessly through the door of Angie’s room.

  “You’ll never guess who is here! It’s Elmer Farley, and he’s brought a gentleman from school with him! Angie, come quickly, they’re in the parlor with Father! Oh, look at your dress; can’t you put on something brighter?”

  Nancy ran out towards the voice of her mother calling from her room. “Nancy, the blue one—no, the green! It shows off your eyes much better! Quickly, child, pink up your cheeks…. .”

  Angie closed the door on the voices and leaned against it breathing hard. The strange feeling of her heart beating in her chest disrupted her t
houghts. Elmer! Here? Today? Her mother had spoken of him so often, she felt like she should know him. But aside from walking her the short distance home and pulling her braids from the pew behind her, Angie didn’t know what the man named Elmer Farley would be like.

  He would be 22 now, and had studied accounting and done so well he went on to an advanced degree in finance. She knew of his accomplishments and prospects; her mother never failed to detail them. But what sort of man was he now? They had played together as young children, but Angie had never thought of him as more than a friend. Could she love someone she didn’t know?

  More importantly—could he love her?

  ~END OF BONUS CHAPTER~

  To continue reading Angie’s Hope and find it on Lorena Dove’s Amazon page.