LSF Publications: spanking fiction ebooks

Morris County, Kansas, 1870

"There you are. I've been looking all over for you. What are you doing hiding in the barn? Ma's on the warpath 'cos there's a pile of potatoes that need peeling for supper."

Eden Meyer's green eyes never once left the page of the letter she was studying. "It's your turn to help Ma with supper," she told her twin sister. "I did it last night. And I made breakfast this morning too."

Sierra Meyer pulled a weary face. "Yeah I know, but you're so much better at cooking than I am. Can't you do it?" Still Eden didn't look up and Sierra's pretty face took on an exasperated pout. "What are you reading anyway, Sis?"

Eden finally glanced up into an identical pair of cat-like green eyes. Appearance wise they were so similar that no one, except their parents, could tell them apart. Both were blessed with beautiful long black hair, inherited from their Mexican mother, along with her dazzling smile. The jade green eyes were a gift from their father, a German immigrant who had settled in Kansas some twenty-five years previously.

"It's another letter from Beau Rivers."

Sierra's pout became a teasing grin. "That's the second letter you've had from him this month. He must be really smitten with you."

Eden sighed. "He is. Look, he sent me the money for the journey out there. He wants me to go join him in Montana as soon as possible."

Sierra plonked herself down on the bale of hay, beside her twin and whipped the letter from her hand. "Oh my Lord," she declared, half in envy and half in disgust. "He really wants to marry you! Even though you ain't never even met? What a sap head."

Eden reclaimed her letter. "It's called taking a mail order bride and a lot of men are getting wives that way nowadays. Advertising for a wife does not make him a sap head. On the contrary, he seems like a fine, upstanding man to me. He's handsome too."

"How do you know?"

Eden dimpled a little smile and fished into her skirt pocket. "He sent me a likeness," she said, pulling out a small photograph and passing it to Sierra.

Sierra studied the grainy black and white print. Something in her tummy gave a tiny flutter just looking at the chisel-faced stranger staring back at her with serious eyes. To mask her response she shrugged. "I guess he ain't all that ugly."

"He's gorgeous," Eden insisted.

"So how come you're not happy?"

Eden's eyes didn't quite meet Sierra's intuitive gaze. "What do you mean?"

"You know exactly what I mean, Eden Meyer. All you ever wanted was for some good lookin' guy to come sweep you off your feet. Yet here you are, moping in the barn instead of dancing round for joy. Something ain't right."