Refuge in Sweet Water — Mildred Colvin

Adam is hardworking, honest, and kind, but is tired of being lonely. He’s longed for a wife since his next-door neighbor married a mail-order bride. The only woman who’d caught Adam’s interest turned up her nose at his farm, which caused him to doubt his ability to ever be loved for himself. Sometimes he feels like the only single man left in a land of couples. He’d like nothing better than to fill his house with a wife and their children. When he takes a leap of faith and sends for a mail-order bride, he spends every moment either excited or scared out of his wits. Expecting to receive letters from potential brides, he’s shocked when he gets a telegram saying his bride is on her way, and he has less than a week to decide what to do with her.Emily is quiet, unassuming, and peace-loving, but stronger than she looks or knows. She isn’t ready for marriage, but has no choice since her stepfather learned of an inheritance she’s set to receive when she marries or on her twenty-fifth birthday. Greedy for a share of the wealth, he’s forcing her to marry his boss, a man she detests and fears. Praying for an escape during her wedding, she is shocked when Pinkerton agents take over, and her life changes in a way she could never have imagined. But is being a mail-order bride God’s answer to her prayers? All she can do is trust His leading, and really, what can be better than that?