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  A Bride for Benjamin

  The Proxy Brides Book #19

  Christine Sterling

  Table of Contents

  License Note

  Dedication

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  Acknowledgements

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

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  About Christine

  License Note

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  -- Christine Sterling

  Dedication

  To the authors that have been on this amazing journey with me to bring The Proxy Bride Series to life, I couldn’t have done this without you.

  Thank you to Marianne Spitzer, Barbara Goss, Cyndi Raye, Linda Ellen, Wendy May Andrews, Parker J. Cole, P. Creeden, Caroline Clemmons and Marisa Masterson. You are a remarkable group of writers to work with!

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  Acknowledgements

  Jesus first. Always.

  My husband, Dan, who loves me no matter how cranky, hangry or frustrated over words I can become. I love you, babe.

  My beautiful children, Rebecca, Nora and Elizabeth who are my blessing.

  #EditorsRock – Totally could not do this without my editor, Carolyn. You really do make me a better author!

  A huge thank you to my dear friends, George and Margaret Weitemeyer. George reads my drafts to his beloved and provides feedback on my stories so I give the best story to you, my readers.

  Chapter 1

  Early November 1897, Sulphur Springs, Montana

  Benjamin Remington heard the footsteps before he saw Helen Miller coming into his office that was situated next to the lobby of the hotel.

  Helen was the housekeeper for the hotel, as well as a surrogate grandmother to his two very active daughters. She popped her head inside the room and looked at him. “Still working?”

  Ben nodded. “It looks like we have rooms booked through the end of the month, but we aren’t full. After December first, there isn’t anyone else after that. I’m not sure what we are going to do.”

  Helen came in the room and dropped the blankets she was carrying into a chair in front of Ben’s desk. Helen was old enough to be Ben’s mother. She looked tired. Ben’s two daughters, Anna and Ella, must have run her ragged.

  “It is close to the holidays,” Helen mused. “It will probably pick up after the new year when folks are looking to get away from the winter doldrums. It isn’t just anywhere someone can go and spend a bit of time next to a hot spring.”

  Ben smirked. “Why do you think they’d want to come here? December and January are both months where we are completely snowed in. It takes days to clear the tracks to get to the town, and as soon as they do clear them, it snows again.”

  “Benjamin, you do worry about the silliest things,” Helen said, picking invisible lint off the blankets she set down. “Just say a prayer and everything will work out.”

  “Thank goodness we don’t have too many expenses,” Ben replied, looking back down at the papers in front of him. The hotel was built by his grandfather, so other than taxes and maintenance, there weren’t too many expenses associated with the property.

  That was one of the drawbacks of having a town where people didn’t stay, they only visited. They hadn’t received as many people recently and Ben was worried. No new visitors meant no money in the till. He knew as soon as the snow started to fall, getting in and out of Sulphur Springs would be near impossible, train or no train.

  He needed to maximize his business while he could. The Sulphur Springs Hotel sat just a short walk from the train station. Since the railroad had extended the tracks through town, it seemed that more travelers were coming by train to stay and experience what Sulphur Springs had to offer.

  The first few years the hotel was open had been rough. It wasn’t until a bad storm knocked over a tree near the hotel and steam started to escape from the ground that things turned around. Underneath that root system was a pool of hot water which soon settled and spread wide, forming a large crater in the ground.

  One of the hotel’s guests was a doctor and he realized what Ben had on his property. That doctor spoke of mineral springs from his travels to England and the cures the healing waters would bring.

  The folks in town were so excited because once word spread about the hot springs, people started coming to town from all over the nearby states. Someone even came from as far as northern California to bathe in the waters.

  These were people that spent money at the businesses, ate at the restaurants and stayed at his hotel and the hotel further in town. The towns folks were hoping some of these visitors might stay permanently and build a new life in Sulphur Springs.

  The doctor stayed for nearly three months, bathing in the springs almost daily. He insisted to anyone that would listen that the water had magic qualities, the ability to cure sickness and make wrinkles disappear.

  Ben was plenty sure that those were all figments of the doctor’s overactive imagination. Ben had been in the springs himself and hadn’t seen any magical healing abilities; but he didn’t say anything to deter the attention the small town was getting.

  Hard to believe that was nearly ten years ago.

  Ben rubbed his eyes, the start of a headache forming at the corners of his brow. He blinked a few times and looked at Helen once more.

  Ben lived in Sulphur Springs his whole life. His grandfather built the hotel when the only way to get to the town was by horseback or wagon. His grandmother chastised him, and Grandpa said if he couldn’t fill the hotel with guests, he would fill it with children.

  They never did have guests in the hotel and Grandma and Grandpa managed to fill almost all of the rooms with children. When they were grown, only his father stayed in town. Ben’s aunts and uncles, eight of them to be exact, had moved out of Sulphur Springs as soon as they could.

  Ben was raised as the only child with his parents and grandparents. He didn’t have any siblings and he never knew his cousins. Once his grandparents died and his parents moved to California where it was warmer, he and Emily converted the home back to a hotel.

  Ben and Emily lived on the top floor of the hotel. They rearranged the space to let them have one large living area with a smaller bedroom off to the side. When Anna was born right after they opened, they coupled two rooms together to make a nursery. Six years later Ella was born. That is when Emily fell ill.

  After Ella was born, Emily was stricken with a fever. She passed when Ella was just a few months old. Ben wished the hot water springs would have been able to do something for his wife.

  Ben and his two children still lived in those same rooms on the upper level. Helen stayed in a room right across the common area. There weren’t any guest rooms, so it truly was their living space.

  He wished Emily was still on the top floor with them.

  His thoughts were brought back to the present when Helen waved her hand in front of him. “Where did you go, Benjamin?” she asked. She only called him Benjamin when she was angry or concerned.

  Ben blinked a few times before rubbing his eyes. “Just lost in my thoughts for a moment.” He pointed to the blankets. “Are those for anyone in particular?” Ben asked. He’d make a notation in the room log if they were. It was a way to keep track of his limited inventory.

  “No one in particular. Since it’s getting cold, I thought I’d bring them up for the girls. Just in case they needed them,” she said with a soft smile. “I think the snow is going to come early this year. I know the girls will be excited about that.”

  Ben nodded, smiling in return. Helen was more than just an employee. She was family. Since his parents had moved away, and Emily’s parents hadn’t visited since the funeral, Helen became a surrogate grandmother to the girls. Anna and Ella absolutely adored her. In fact, Ella called her Nana after hearing a visiting child use the endearment for his grandmother.

  Helen was an older widow whose husband had died many years ago. She came to Sulphur Springs to start a new life and was hired to help once he and Emily open the hotel. Ben didn’t think she needed the money, as much as she needed something to do.

  After Emily had died, she was there to step in and help with the girls when it had become too overwhelming for him to handle. He was forever in her debt for keeping the family together after such a terrible event.

  She patted her pockets as if looking for something. “I nearly forgot about this,” she said, pulling an envelope from her apron pocket. “You got a letter
today.” She handed the letter to Ben. “Mrs. Parker asked me to bring it along.” Mrs. Parker ran the mercantile along with the gossip circle in town. “Looks like it is from Emily’s parents.”

  Ben took the letter and looked at the curvy penmanship on the envelope. “It is from Emily’s mother. I wonder what she wants?”

  “Are you going to read it?”

  Ben flinched. He really didn’t want to hear what his mother-in-law might have to say. The last time he saw her it didn’t go very well. It was at Emily’s funeral and she was very vocal about taking the children back to Boston to live.

  It was almost as if they didn’t still have a living parent.

  He understood that their granddaughters were the only link to their beloved daughter, but Ben wasn’t going to allow anyone to break up his family.

  “I’ll read it later,” he said placing the envelope in the front of his ledger before closing the book.

  Helen nodded. “I saw Margaret Aston at the mercantile today,” she said, changing the subject.

  Ben groaned. “Not you too,” he said, as he shoved his fingers through his hair. It was getting longer and starting to curl at the ends. He’d make a point of stopping at the barber in town next time he went for supplies.

  “What do you mean?” she asked, confusion clouding her face.

  “You aren’t pushing me to be with the young teacher too, are you?” he said, giving her a perplexed look.

  Helen shook her head, laughing. “No. What I meant was you should go talk to the lady since Ella might be going to school next year,” she said with a knowing look. “Miss Aston mentioned something about sending primers home so that Ella could get a jump on her schooling over the winter break.”

  Now it was Ben’s turn to laugh. “Oh, it had slipped my mind,” he said. “I guess I should pay the new schoolteacher a visit. But there is plenty of time to do that. It is a year away.”

  Helen appeared satisfied with that. He couldn’t believe she wasn’t playing matchmaker. It seemed everyone else in town was. He had folks suggesting he remarry immediately after Emily’s death, and he balked at that.

  Even though it was four years ago that Emily passed, it was still too soon for him to bring someone into their family. His girls were used to the idea of their mother being in heaven. How could he even think to bring someone else to replace her?

  He also didn’t want to admit that he himself didn’t think he could love anyone as much as he loved Emily. They buried his heart alongside her body that day. He didn’t want to bring someone else into their life just because the women of the town thought it was necessary.

  For the first six months they let him be, but after that they started to pressure him to consider getting married. When he balked, that is when they tried to send the women to him.

  He started to notice the slow trickle of eligible woman that would somehow make their way into his hotel. It was almost as if they were told to stop at the hotel to pay their respects to the town’s most eligible bachelor.

  Ben had never really thought of himself as a perceptive man. He met Emily when they were just school children. It had taken him years to realize that she had feelings for him. When her parents moved back East, he married her so she would stay. It was the best decision he had ever made in his life.

  But even if he was a little dense, he knew that this extra female attention at the hotel was not appropriate. He put a stop to that quickly and there were fewer visitors after that.

  It appeared the latest scheme was to match him to the newest single resident in town. And while there was no denying how attractive Miss Aston was, he just wasn’t interested in settling down with someone. Especially the pretty new teacher.

  Anna loved school. She started struggling after Mr. Higgins, the school master for many years finally retired. The town brought in a new teacher, but he left within six months. The winter was too much for him to bear.

  Then they hired Miss Aston, and Anna started to bloom. Anna loved coming home to tell Ben everything she learned that day. She liked practicing her penmanship and reading to Ben from her reading primer.

  She was doing so well, that he didn’t want to risk her progress by courting the new schoolteacher. He just wanted to concentrate on running the hotel and spend time with his girls. He didn’t need another woman in his life, no matter what anyone else thought.

  “I don’t think Miss Aston would be interested in you either,” Helen said, shrugging her shoulders, standing up and stretching her arms to the side.

  Ben gave her a side glance. So, perhaps she was trying to play matchmaker. He could play along for a moment. “And why would that be?” he questioned.

  “We had a nice little chat, she and I,” Helen said, smoothing her apron. “Apparently, she has a fiancé who is a preacher. I heard that he is going to be coming from some place called Oak Park, Illinois, to live here soon.”

  Ben sighed in relief. “Well, would you be able to tell some of the townspeople then? That way they don’t try to push me to her every time I go to town?”

  Helen laughed. “It’s getting that bad?”

  “Yes. I would say it’s getting worse. Any new girl that even so much as thinks about staying in Sulphur Springs becomes a prospective wife. And I’m just not interested. I wish the town would mind their own business.”

  Helen picked up the blanket from the chair and gave Ben one last look. “I think people are just worried about you. I’m worried about you sometimes. They see you struggling with the work and the girls. They just want you to have a helpmate.”

  “And while I appreciate the gesture, I just think they should let me make my own decisions about my family. We have done just fine these last few years on our own. I think we can manage.”

  “I know you have every best intention for your family. You’d do anything for your girls. But I can tell you struggle. Now while I’m not one to meddle,” she began, which got a small chuckle from Ben. “Well, I’m not one to meddle all the time. I just worry about the future. I don’t think it will get any easier for you. And while I love helping you with the hotel and with your girls, I’m not getting any younger. There will come a time when I won’t be here to help you.”

  Ben gave her a stern look. “Are you trying to tell me something?”

  Helen gave a little giggle. “No, of course not. This old lady has more years left in her. Death will be dragging me away kicking and screaming. But I’ve learned that nothing is promised. We could all be gone tomorrow. I just don’t want you to be wishing for a wife when it’s too late. Just, promise me you’ll consider it?”

  Ben thought carefully at her words. Maybe he was looking at this whole situation the wrong way. Maybe it would be good for him to consider it, even if only to alleviate the pressure he felt from everyone around him. “I guess it wouldn’t be too much trouble to think about it.”

  “There you go! Was that too much trouble?” she said with a smile. She clutched the blankets to her chest and headed up the stairs. “I’ll drop these off with the girls and then head to my room. Unless there is something else you need?”

  They were interrupted by the sound of scampering footsteps on the stairs.

  “I think they are still awake,” Ben said as two little girls came flying in the room. Helen lifted up the blankets and turned so they could move past her to where their Papa was sitting.

  Ella gave a squeal and jumped into her father’s arms, wrapping her chubby hands around his neck. “She’s going to tickle me, Papa!” Ella squealed, looking at her sister.

  “Like this?” Ben said as he tickled her side. “Or this?” he asked, grabbing Anna in for a closer hug? Ella laughed and leaned over to tickle her sister on the neck.

  “Stop that, Ella,” Anna called. It was hard to believe that Anna was ten years old.

  “Shouldn’t you be in bed?” Helen asked the girls.

  Ella laughed “I wanted a drink of water.”

  “How about some warm milk instead?” Helen said, reaching out for Anna’s hand.

  “And a cookie?” Anna asked hopefully.

  “I suppose you can have a cookie,” she grinned. “A snack for both of you; and then back to bed. Let’s let your father finish his work.”