Adventure For A Bride: A clean historical mail order bride romance (Montana Passion Book 3) by Amelia Rose Page A

week were at mealtimes. No one spoke up, but Millie assumed she was to cook for the family and then wash up. She’d spied the children sitting unattended on the porch of the cabin while their father was at work on his land, and went outside to talk to them. No sooner had she stepped foot outside than Micah ushered his siblings back into the house and shut the door. It stung to be so ill-treated by ones so small, but Millie shrugged it off. It was an unpalatable situation that they all found themselves in, and children’s feelings could be skewered just as easily as adults’.
    She’d straightened herself up to her full height and marched across the yard, climbed the steps, and knocked loudly on the door. No one opened it. She knocked again and waited, but still no one opened the door. Hoping that the little boy didn’t know how to work the leather latch string, she tried giving the handle a quick pull, but it was fastened tight. She sighed, then was struck by inspiration.
    “Oh, no, the house is locked up tight,” she said in a loud stage voice. “And here I was coming to bake a cake today. Oh well. I guess I shall bake a cake in my own little cabin, and eat it all myself.”
    No sooner had she finished her sentence than the door opened just a crack. A wide blue eye looked out at her, trying to judge her countenance to see if she was teasing them. Millie smiled and held out her hands in surrender.
    “What’s it gonna be? Are you gonna let me in so I can get to baking, or should I go back to my cabin? You’re the man of the house when your pa isn’t home, so it’ll have to be your decision.”
    Micah stared at her for a long time, warring with himself. He didn’t want this woman in their home, or in their life, for that matter. And if it had just been up to him, he could have done without strangers and cake altogether. But he knew his brother and sister hadn’t had anything tasty in a long time. They’d lost just as much as he had, but he at least remembered their mother cooking and baking sweets for them before she took ill.
    He stepped back and opened the door without speaking.
    “Thank you, Micah. I’d be pleased to come in and have a look around,” she said in a soft voice, keeping her tone polite.
    “Gretchen calls me Master Flynn,” he said with a cross look on his face, twining his arms in front of his tiny chest.
    “That’s Mrs. O’Conner to you, young man, and I’ll call you ‘master’ when you’ve earned yourself a title. In the meantime, Micah , how about we get busy whipping up something tasty for when your pa comes home?”
    He paused, but nodded. Promises of cake were far more important than names anyway. He let her in and shut the door behind her, then stood to the side while she took in the chaos of the little cabin.
    To say that it lacked even basic home care was an understatement. While the house itself wasn’t actually hazardous, Millie was certain that no wife worth her salt would have ever let it fall into such disrepair. Dishes were stacked on a crate by the stove in two piles, presumably for clean ones and dirty ones. Cloths that she could only assume were to be used as diapers hung from various stretches of twine throughout the house, left to dry even over the beds. Clothes, such as they were, were heaped on a low stool near the children’s sleeping area, and from the looks of things, they hadn’t been folded in weeks.
    “Well! I know how we’ll pass the time while the oven heats!” Millie said cheerfully, looking down at Micah. He backed away a few steps, certain that her look meant trouble and chores for the lot of them. “First things first, we’ll need eggs for the cake. Can you fetch them for me?”
    “Yes’m,” he mumbled begrudgingly. Chores for the sake of doing what she told him to do weren’t in his plans, but eggs meant baking, which meant eventually eating cake.
    “Good! I’ll have to run out to my cabin to get a few supplies that I’ve brought with