Today is release day for
Bargain Bessie
by Zina Abbott
About
Bargain Bessie:
After years of caring for her
parents, Bessie Carlson considers herself well past marriageable age. After she
is left alone and destitute, she moves in with her aunt and uncle, the owners
of Brinks Mercantile in Jubilee Springs. To some of the single men in town who
are looking for wives, she is more than eligible. She quickly gains the moniker
of “Bargain Bessie” because she is already in town. They won’t have to pay the
bridal agency fee, travel money or railroad tickets to get her there.
Zeb Jacobson lives on a remote
ranch in nearby Monarch Bend. He takes advantage of the relatively mild weather
of the region to run his cattle on government land in the mountains. After his
foreman badgers him to start looking for a wife, Zeb considers the possibility
of marriage. However, since he is in his late thirties, he has no desire to
meet young women just out of the schoolroom.
On a trip to Jubilee Springs
for supplies, Zeb meets Bessie. He’s confused by her claim she is not free to marry.
When he hears about the Bargain Bessie moniker, he knows he must come up with a
plan to convince Bessie she isn’t a bargain of last resort, but a priceless
treasure.
Excerpt from Bargain Bessie:
Bessie quelled the emotion
rising within her as she finished the letter. She hadn’t been able to see much
of her aunt and uncle in recent years. Unfortunately, not only had the
Carlson’s finances suffered reverses which had prevented them within the
previous decade from traveling to visit family, the mercantile her uncle and
aunt had owned and run in Indianapolis in what originally had been an up-and-coming
neighborhood when they first built the store had ended up being in an area that
had declined as property values dropped. Bessie knew from previous letters her
uncle’s mercantile had been losing money for years. Without there being enough
money for him to justify drawing a wage, Aaron and his siblings had each gone
their own ways, Moses to work with a competitor across the city, Miriam to
marriage, and the twins, David and Jonathan, had gone to work for a large ice
house in the city.
It was Aaron who, after
getting on with the Prosperity Mine in Jubilee Springs, had convinced his
parents to sell the property, pack up their stock and bring it to Jubilee
Springs. They operated out of a tent until Aaron could help them build a store
with living quarters above. Only now Aaron was married and had moved to company
housing owned by the mine. Her aunt had said he still helped out at the store.
Actually, it sounded to Bessie like Andrea did more of the helping out now. Her
aunt and uncle were alone, but they still had Aaron and his wife nearby.
Bessie folded the pages and
returned them to the envelope. She sat with the letter in her lap as she let
the words of the letter settle within her.
When mother is gone, I’ll have no family
nearby
Emeline’s words brought Bessie out of her reverie. “Elisabeth,
did you record Aaron’s marriage in the family Bible? I believe your Aunt Desi
gave enough information in her letters so you should have all you need.”
“I’ll do that right now, Ma.” Bessie stood and took the
letter back to its place on top of the chest of drawers. She opened the Bible
and pulled the ink and pen from the bottom drawer.
“It won’t be long and you’ll be putting my final
information in there. I need you to take care of that Bible so it can get
passed along.”
Bessie once again opened the letter to be sure she spelled
Andrea’s maiden name correctly. At least with them getting married on the
fourth of July, it was easy to remember the date. “I will, Ma. After your time
comes, I’ll see Martha gets it so it can go down through her children.”
“No, you keep it. If that husband of hers gets ahold of it
in one of his drunken rages, who knows what he might do with it, especially
with it being a King James Version instead of whatever the Catholics use. I’ll
not tolerate him having the opportunity to destroy that Bible with the record
of our family. Besides, I bought Martha her own Bible when she married. I
didn’t want her to get caught up in the Catholic religion and forget what she
had learned at home. Hopefully she’ll take care of that one.”
“All right, Ma, I promise I won’t give it to her, at least
not while Patrick’s still alive. But, I can’t keep it forever. I’m not married,
Ma. I have no one to pass it down to except to a niece or nephew.”
“The family Bible goes with the youngest daughter, Bessie,
you know that. And you will get married.”
Bessie shook her head in frustration. She and her mother
had been through this conversation before. “Ma, at my age, there is little
chance I will marry.”
Emeline kept her voice soft, but confident. “You will
marry, Bessie. I can feel it.”
“I don’t see it, Ma. It certainly hasn’t happened yet.”
“You don’t see it because you have been busy taking care of
your father and I after our reversal of fortune and decline of health. Once you
are free of me, your time will come.”
“No man wants a twenty-nine year-old spinster, Ma.”
“You may find your husband has children by a first wife who
has passed, but I feel confident you will marry and have a family of your own
someday. I need you to promise me something, Elisabeth.”
Sometimes Bessie hated it when her mother called her
Elisabeth. It either meant she had done something to displease her mother, or
her mother was dead set on something and would not take no for an answer. “What
is it, Ma?”
“If your Uncle Simon offers to let you come to Colorado to
live with him and your Aunt Desdemona, you go.”
“Why would he do that?”
“Because I’m going to ask him to. You and Aaron were as
close as twins can be without being born to the same parents at the same time.
You will have family there. I want you to go. And now that Aaron’s married…”
Bessie turned to stare at her mother. “Just because Aaron
married doesn’t mean I’d marry if I go there.”
“Desdemona said in her letters there is a shortage of women
up that way. You’ll find your age won’t matter to a lot of those men,
especially since a lot of them will still be older than you are.”
Bessie inhaled and looked off in the distance as she
considered her mother’s words. “I don’t know, Ma. I’m not sure I’m cut out to
be a miner’s wife. Aunt Desi and Uncle Simon love it up there, but it sounds
pretty rustic to me.”
“It sounds exciting to me. Simon was my baby brother, born
when I was almost of an age to begin courting. But, if I were younger, closer
in age to him and Desdemona, and in better health, I’d go. I have loved living
in Terre Haute, but the time for the Carlson’s to call this city home has
passed.”
Bessie studied her mother, puzzling over the look of
longing on her face. It was a side of her mother she had not seen before.
“Elisabeth, promise me this. You will
go if you can.”
Bargain Bessie is
available at the preorder sale price of 99 cents through release day, August 1st.
To
purchase Bargain Bessie,
please CLICK HERE.
~o0o~
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Can't wait to read it!
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