And Then Came Spring by Margaret Brownley Page A

Sneezing when a loose feather from her hat tickled her nose, she swiped it out of the way and continued to scan the men milling about.
    Where was he?
    Two months ago Ellie had only dreamed of a different life. One with a husband and children to call her own—her unattainable happily-ever-after. But dreams were all she’d had. No man in Fort Worth with half a mind wanted to be stuck with a wife known as Murderin’ Melvina. Then Aunt Millicent had slapped a copy of the Hitching Post Mail-Order Bride Catalogue in front of her and given Ellie an hour to pick a husband or she would pick one for her.
    Looking down in shock at that catalogue, Ellie had no idea that the book would change her life. Hesitantly, she’d opened it to a random page and, as if beckoning her gaze to fall upon it, there was Mathew McConnell’s ad. The short, sweet words spoke to her heart.
    Lonely, widowed rancher looking for love and a godly mother for his sweet, two-year-old baby girl who needs gentle arms to hold her.
    Ellie had connected instantly—not even knowing what Mathew McConnell looked like. She’d looked her future in the face and decided right then and there to change the course of her life.
    The very daring of the idea had energized her like nothing else ever had, like being freed from shackles!
    And the most ironic thing of all: it had been Aunt Millicent’s desire to be rid of her that had turned Ellie’s life in this exciting new direction.
    It just went to show a person that God, in His timing, could take a bad situation and turn it for good . . . just as the Good Book promised.
    Mathew McConnell was the hope of her life.
    The answer to her prayers. Her very own knight in shining armor.
    Mathew offered her a way out of the life she’d been doomed to live and for that she would forever be grateful.
    And baby Sophie . . . oh, the sweet angel, just like Ellie, had lost her mother at birth. Ellie had so much love just bursting to be showered on Sophie. The sweet, innocent child would never, ever carry the burden of her mother’s death as Ellie had for her own.
    Searching the passing people, Ellie’s eyes jerked to a halt as they latched onto the dark, penetrating eyes of a tall, lean cowboy with a very unbecoming scowl on his ruggedly handsome face. “Goodness,” she gasped, her fingers tightening on her Bible.
    Dressed in dark britches, a gray, long-sleeved shirt tucked in at his narrow hips, a holster hung low on his right thigh. His thumb was looped beneath the leather belt just in front of the pearl handle of the holstered gun. Tall, lean, and dangerous.
    And he was watching her.
    Ellie wondered if he knew that he looked like he’d just eaten a very sour pickle. And how sad because it didn’t become him in the least.
    And why, she wanted to know, was he looking at her with that pickle-faced expression?
    Hiking her chin, Ellie met the cowboy’s insolent stare. How dare he! Of all the rude—He took a step in her direction! Ellie gasped and despite the road separating them, she took a step back on the platform. When he stomped from the plank sidewalk and strode toward her across that rutted road, Ellie’s heart dropped straight to her toes. What was he doing?
    Sidestepping horses and buggies, he crossed the busy street, taking purposeful strides toward her. Tightening her grip on the Bible she clutched to her chest, she denied the dreaded thought sliding over her—surely to goodness this man was not Mathew McConnell!
    Why else would a perfect stranger be approaching me?
    Her head was full of imaginations of the way she believed her betrothed would look. And while, at the moment, she couldn’t disregard this man’s dark good looks, the scowl that hadn’t left his expression left much, much to be desired. Ellie was looking for a lonely widower looking for love . . . He should be looking happily at her.
    This rugged cowboy looked