Carrie's Montana Love: New Montana Brides (New Montana Bride Series) by Susan Leigh Carlton

 
    chapter one
    Growing Up Together
    Montana Territory 1873
    It was ten minutes before the start of services at the Christian Church in Helena. It was nearly time for Letty to take her seat at the piano, but first, she needed to get the details on a dinner invitation from Carrie Jamison.
    “Mama, CP is being mean at me,” Carrie Elizabeth O wens said, tugging at her mother’s dress.
    “Carrie, you mustn’t interrupt when I’m talking to som eone,” Letty said to her indignant daughter.
    “Make him stop, Mama.
    “CP, are you being mean to her?” she asked the towheaded boy sitting in the pew with her daughter.
    “No ma’am. She’s holding my hand, and it ‘barrasses me.”
    Her daughter was named for the woman with whom she was trying to talk. “What are we going to do with these two?” she asked.
    “You need to tell your daughter to quit ‘barrassing my li ttle man,” she laughed. “You go on to the piano, I’ll try to keep them separated.”
    Letty smiled. “Thanks,” she said. “I’ll get the details later.” She looked at her daughter, resplendent in her pink dress, with white ribbons. “You go sit with Aunt Carrie, and behave yourself.”
    “I am being haved, Mama, she said , “It’s CP that’s being mean.”
    Shaking her head, Carrie made her way to the piano. Seated, she turned and looked back to the congregation. Ca rrie had put CP between her and her husband. Her daughter was sitting on the other side of her namesake.
    Jack Owens entered the sanctuary , Bible in hand, from the rear of the church, and took his seat behind the altar. His wife began to play the opening hymn.
    Letty Owens had always been the sister Case Jamison did not have. After his parents were killed in a Sioux raid, she took him under her wing. She told him about the Matrimonial Bulletin and encouraged him to place an ad. Letty offered her the hospitality of her home, while waiting for the wedding. She and Carrie had been best friends since, and she had named her daughter after her and Doctor Palmer’s wife, Elizabeth.
    The following Friday…
    The Jamisons owned the Lazy J Ranch, the largest in Montana, located five miles outside Helena. It was to the ranch the Owens family was headed Friday afternoon. Carrie and Case had invited them for what Case called ‘the preacher’s weekend’, Friday night, because Jack would have to be in the pulpit come Sunday. It was CP’s birthday, and Doctor Palmer and Elizabeth, and their daughter, Lucy would be there also. Doctor had performed an emergency section to deliver CP, saving both of their lives.
    The three women were the best of friends, and as far as Case was concerned, Carson could have anything, anytime.
    Carrie Elizabeth and CP came into the living room, their faces flushed from chasing each other around the yard. Carrie Elizabeth pointed to a shadow box frame on the wall, and asked, “CP, what’s that?”
    “It’s a Sioux arrow. Uncle Carter dug it out of Papa. Look,” he said. “It’s got blood and stuff on it.”
    “Whose blood is it?” she asked.
    “Papa’s” he said, reveling in the telling of an incident that nearly cost Case his life.
    “Ewww,” she said. “Aunt Carrie, could we have some lemonade, please?”
    “Sure, darlings, CP do you and Lucy want lemonade too?”
    “Yes,” chorused the three and ran into the kitchen.
    Watching them, Case shook his head, “Carter, is there any way medically to capture some of that energy? If we could bottle it, it would fly off Silas’s shelves.”
    Jack said, “Carrie wears me out, just following her around. She’s never still.”
    After a late lunch, Carrie said, “Don’t you think we should put them down for a nap? I could use a respite from their energy.”
    The three mothers took their children into the Jamison’s large bedroom and put them on the large bed. Letty sang to them. Even though they fought to keep their eyes open, they soon fell asleep, as their batteries recharged for the rest of