The Bride's Matchmaking Triplets Read online

  Marriage by Necessity

  When mail-order bride Elizabeth Dumont’s intended weds another, her only option is to take a job as nanny to abandoned triplet babies. Though she longs to provide a real home for her three precious charges, as a single woman she can’t adopt. Until her onetime sweetheart, minister Brandon Stillwater, offers a match of convenience...

  It’s only for the triplets’ sake—that’s what Brandon tells himself. Insecurities once drove him and Elizabeth apart, and now small-town rumors have made them man and wife. And though Brandon doesn’t want to risk his heart this time, he’s not sure he can resist the feelings that are once again starting to bloom for Elizabeth. But can he convince her that this sweet surprise family is more than just convenient?

  “You’re worried for your reputation.”

  Brandon colored. “My reputation will survive. I’m more concerned about yours.”

  Elizabeth put her hands on her hips. “Oh, so now you agree that I’m some kind of fortune hunter?”

  “No.” He puffed out a breath. “Elizabeth, please. Consider my offer. I will make no demands of you. You and the boys would have a secure home, a place in the community. I can protect you. But if marrying me is unthinkable, even under those terms, I’ll understand.”

  “Frankly,” she told him, “I don’t know what to think. I’m willing to believe we’ve both grown since our days together in Cambridge. But a marriage of convenience? I had once hoped for more.”

  He nodded. “So had I. But we are different people now. I promise you all my support, all my respect. I hope more will grow with time.”

  Time. Might as well say chance. He was asking her to risk her future on him. How could she?

  “All I can say,” she told him, “is that I’ll give the matter due consideration. Good day, Pastor.”

  * * *

  Lone Star Cowboy League: Multiple Blessings

  The Rancher’s Surprise Triplets—

  Linda Ford, April 2017

  The Nanny’s Temporary Triplets—

  Noelle Marchand, May 2017

  The Bride’s Matchmaking Triplets—

  Regina Scott, June 2017

  Regina Scott has always wanted to be a writer. Since her first book was published in 1998, her stories have traveled the globe, with translations in many languages. Fascinated by history, she learned to fence and sail a tall ship. She and her husband reside in Washington state with their overactive Irish terrier. You can find her online blogging at nineteenteen.com. Learn more about her at reginascott.com or connect with her on Facebook at Facebook.com/authorreginascott.

  Books by Regina Scott

  Love Inspired Historical

  Lone Star Cowboy League: Multiple Blessings

  The Bride’s Matchmaking Triplets

  Frontier Bachelors

  The Bride Ship

  Would-Be Wilderness Wife

  Frontier Engagement

  Instant Frontier Family

  A Convenient Christmas Wedding

  Lone Star Cowboy League: The Founding Years

  A Rancher of Convenience

  The Master Matchmakers

  The Courting Campaign

  The Wife Campaign

  The Husband Campaign

  The Everard Legacy

  The Rogue’s Reform

  The Captain’s Courtship

  The Rake’s Redemption

  The Heiress’s Homecoming

  Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com.

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  REGINA SCOTT

  The Bride’s Matchmaking Triplets

  Yet to all who received Him,

  to those who believed in His name,

  He gave the right to become children of God.

  —John 1:12

  To Meryl, Lola Jo and all those who open their hearts to children who need them; and to the Lord, who adopts us all into His family.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Dear Reader

  Excerpt from A Tailor-Made Husband by Winnie Griggs

  Chapter One

  Little Horn, Texas, August 1896

  “And which of our fine gentlemen have you chosen to be your husband?”

  Elizabeth Dumont tried not to cringe at Mrs. Arundel’s question. Instead, she picked up one of her three precious charges and handed a triplet to the lady. One look at little Theo, and Mrs. Arundel’s stern face melted like snow in the sun.

  “I’ve actually advertised for a position,” Elizabeth said, bending to pick up the second baby as another woman—Mrs. Tyson, if she remembered correctly—pressed closer, the scent of her lavender cologne like a cloud surrounding them.

  The snug boardinghouse room felt even more cramped with her three visitors this morning. How much nicer it would have been to receive the ladies in her own home, as her aunt had done as Cambridge’s most famous hostess. Elizabeth could picture the babies playing on a rug at her feet, tea and cakes waiting on a side table. But right now, this room, with its flowered wallpaper, chintz-covered iron bedstead, porcelain washstand and sturdy walnut dresser, was the best she could do. She was just thankful David and Caroline McKay had given her the three high chairs and large crib they had used when caring for the boys.

  “You don’t need a position,” insisted blond-haired Stella Fuller, wife of the local sheriff, as she came forward to take the last baby. “There are plenty of men in this town worth marrying. You just have to pick one. I did.”

  Elizabeth had heard Stella had been a mail-order bride, just as Elizabeth had planned to be.

  As Stella laughed, little Jasper grinned in her arms. Eli was looking up at Mrs. Tyson, brown eyes wide, as if trying to memorize her kind face. Theo wasn’t nearly so sure about Mrs. Arundel, for his lower lip trembled. He glanced at Elizabeth as if afraid the woman was about to make off with him.

  Elizabeth knew the feeling. Ever since she’d been given charge of the boys three days ago, she’d wanted to gather them close, smooth their dark hair, whisper comfort in their ears. Maybe it was because they were so little and helpless, maybe it was because they were orphans like her, but Jasper, Theo and Eli touched her heart more than any of her other charges in her four years of being a governess.

  “I hear Clyde Parker is looking for a wife,” Mrs. Arundel offered. “He has a fine ranch not too far from town. He might not object to red hair.” She bounced Theo on her hip, and he frowned at her.

  Elizabeth tried not to frown as well. She’d never had anyone complain about her long red hair, now carefully bound up in a bun at the top of her head. Until the time her un
cle had been sent to prison for swindling others, she’d received nothing but compliments on her looks. After that, people tended not to want to look at her at all, as if she’d somehow been tainted by the scandal.

  “James Forrester needs a wife too,” Mrs. Tyson put in. “His two boys have settled down nicely since they joined the Young Ranchers program.”

  “His boys are nearly grown,” Stella pointed out. “I’d think you’d want someone younger to be father to the triplets.” She bent and rubbed her nose against Jasper’s, and he squealed in delight, winning a smile from all the ladies.

  Mrs. Tyson looked to Eli and sighed. “I simply cannot understand a mother giving away a child. Has no relative come forward since Bo Stillwater found the boys abandoned at the fair?”

  “Not one,” Elizabeth told her, feeling a little guilty for the relief that statement brought. “The Lone Star Cowboy League advertised in newspapers all over the state, even offered a reward for information about the mother, but the one couple who had asked about the situation later sent word they weren’t related after all.”

  Theo started fussing then, and Mrs. Arundel hurriedly handed him back to Elizabeth. He leaned his head against her shoulder, thumb going to his mouth. Elizabeth drank in the soft weight in her arms, the scent of fresh soap.

  Please, Lord, couldn’t I be their mother?

  She stifled a sigh. She’d just asked for the impossible. While she believed God could do anything, He had never moved mountains in her life. He didn’t heal her aunt of the stroke that had left her bedridden or send Elizabeth a new position or husband to support her when her last position ended. Instead, she found herself in Little Horn, a governess-turned-mail-order-bride, whose groom had changed his mind and married another. Any day she’d receive an answer to the advertisements she’d posted seeking a position, and then she would have to give Jasper, Theo and Eli to someone else to raise.

  She hugged Theo closer.

  “What about Pastor Stillwater?” Stella asked, perking up and causing Jasper to raise his head in expectation. “He’s young enough to be a father.”

  Elizabeth’s stomach dipped, and she started shaking her head.

  Mrs. Tyson must not have noticed, for she nodded eagerly. “He’s such a nice man. Everyone respects him.” She tickled Eli under his chin, and he squirmed with a bright giggle that made Elizabeth want to hug him close as well.

  “We are very fortunate to have a gentleman of Mr. Stillwater’s character as our minister,” Mrs. Arundel agreed, her face becoming all prim and proper. “He comes from near Boston, you know. He is very well connected.”

  Oh, but Elizabeth could tell them stories about Brandon Stillwater’s supposedly excellent character. She clamped her mouth shut. Watching her, Theo did the same.

  “Compassionate to the less fortunate,” Mrs. Arundel continued.

  Focused on himself.

  “Kind.”

  Selfish.

  “Humble.”

  Arrogant!

  The other ladies were smiling their agreement. Elizabeth dropped her gaze to Theo, whose brows were once more furrowed, as if he was concerned about what he saw in her blue-green eyes. She was concerned about her feelings as well. She’d thought she’d put aside the disappointment and hurt she’d felt when Brandon had abandoned her four years ago.

  Then three days ago she’d arrived in Little Horn and encountered the minister as he was marrying her groom to someone else. She still wasn’t sure which had shocked her more: finding David McKay about to wed or seeing Brandon again for the first time in years.

  Now Eli started fussing as well, and Mrs. Tyson rocked him, making cooing noises that seemed to calm him. By the way his little mouth pursed, he was trying to mimic her.

  “It’s getting close to their next feeding,” Elizabeth explained, going to set Theo in one of the high chairs. It was crammed next to the wheeled handcart the babies’ mother had left them in. Just looking at the care that had gone into the construction of the conveyance told her Jasper, Theo and Eli’s parents had loved them. So did the note that had been found with the babies. When she’d agreed to be their nanny, David McKay had given it to her to read.

  To the Lone Star Cowboy League: Please take care of my triplets. I’m widowed and penniless. The ranch is dried out. I can’t stay there and provide for my babies. I’m also very sick and am going to where I was born to meet my Maker. One day, if you could make sure the boys knew I loved them, I’d be obliged. They were born September 30. Was the happiest day of my life.

  The league had been seeing to their care ever since. First Louisa Clark, daughter of the town doctor, had taken a turn, but an illness had required the babies to be moved elsewhere. Caroline Murray, the woman who had married David McKay, had been hired to serve as nanny for the babies and David’s daughter, Maggie, but Caroline and the widowed father had fallen in love. When she’d injured her arm saving Maggie from a flash flood, it had been clear a new nanny was needed to care for the orphaned triplets. And Elizabeth, abandoned by yet another man she’d thought she’d marry, had been available and ready to help while she looked for something permanent.

  A shame she’d fallen in love as well, with three little boys she had no hope of keeping. Even if she could have persuaded the ranchers of the Lone Star Cowboy League to allow her to adopt the triplets, she had no way to support them. With her skills, she might have applied to be a cook, seamstress or some kind of teacher. But Little Horn had a teacher and seamstress; no one seemed to need a nanny or governess; and the only cooking jobs available would require her to go on cattle drives, spending weeks on the trail, where women were rare and babies could not go.

  No, she would have to give up her charges unless God intervened.

  A knock sounded on the door, and, with a look to Elizabeth, Mrs. Arundel went to answer. Brandon Stillwater stepped into the room with a compassionate, kind, humble smile Elizabeth was certain must be false. His sandy-brown hair was as thick as she remembered, combed carefully back from the high forehead her friend Florence had called noble. He stood tall, confident and reserved in his brown frock coat: the perfect minister. The look in his quicksilver eyes said he had come to help.

  But how could she accept help from a man she could not depend on?

  * * *

  Brandon smiled at the ladies in his congregation who had come to visit the triplets that morning. Mrs. Arundel puffed up as she usually did in his presence; the feather in the hat resting on her graying curls stood at attention as if even it was determined to have him know its wearer was a proper Christian lady. The brown-haired Mrs. Tyson was beaming at him in such a motherly manner that he was reminded of the sixteen jars of peaches she had provided him recently. Mrs. Fuller, however, had a speculative gleam in her golden-brown eyes that made him wonder what the women had been discussing before he entered.

  And then there was Elizabeth. Miss Dumont, some part of him chided. She had made it clear four years ago that she was no longer interested in having him court her, so he would have forfeited the right to use her first name as well. At least, in public. His heart, he feared, still defaulted to Elizabeth.

  She was regarding him now, her eyes the exact shade of the Charles River on a sunny day. The fine silk gowns she used to wear had been replaced by a practical dun-colored twill skirt and brown-and-green-striped blouse with the puffy sleeves that were all in fashion, if the ladies of his congregation were any indication. She’d covered her clothes with a cotton apron already decorated by working with the triplets. And she held herself as if she were royalty and everyone else was merely here on her sufferance.

  “Come to see the babies too, Pastor?” Mrs. Fuller asked with a grin. “Or someone else?”

  He ignored the implication, bending to put his head closer to the baby who was squirming in her arms. This had to be Jasper. He was the most rambunctious, always la
ughing or playing. Theo, on the other hand, was shy, hugging his nanny close more often than not. And Eli was the watchful one, taking his cue from his brothers. Now Jasper flashed a grin that showed two white teeth before reaching for Brandon.

  “And how are our little men today?” he asked, opening his arms to offer to take the baby.

  Elizabeth stepped between him and Mrs. Fuller. “Quite energetic, as you can see.” She intercepted Jasper before the baby reached Brandon. Jasper pouted as he peered over her shoulder at him.

  Brandon knew the feeling of frustration. It came over him every time he was in Elizabeth’s company.

  She set Jasper in the chair next to Theo’s. Mrs. Tyson brought her Eli, who reached out a hand to grasp Theo’s as he sat in the third chair.

  “As I was saying, it’s just about feeding time,” Elizabeth told her company, “so it might be best if you leave me to it.” She smiled at the women. “We all know the damage a baby can do to a nice dress.”

  The women all chorused agreement, patting down their cotton skirts as they took their leave and headed for the door. Mrs. Arundel paused to eye Brandon.

  “A baby can damage a fine suit as well, Pastor,” she informed him, as if he hadn’t already been christened by each of the triplets since his brother had found them at the county fair six weeks ago.

  “Then I’ll just have to rely on the Lord’s mercy and the skill of the kind ladies who do my washing,” he replied with a smile.

  The older woman glanced at Elizabeth, brows narrowing. “But you can’t stay. It isn’t proper.”

  Not proper for him to care about three babies left alone in the world? Even if the little fellows hadn’t tugged at his heart, as the minister of the only church in Little Horn, it was surely his duty to see to their well-being. He was called in to comfort and mediate in most areas, from praying over sick children to finding homes for orphans like Jo and Gil Satler to stopping the feud between Dorothy Hill and Tug Coleman and their families.

  “Not proper at all,” Elizabeth agreed, arms crossed over her chest. “And I know Reverend Stillwater is very careful about his reputation.”