From the Mists of Love

By Doreen Milstead

The Western Country Wife: God’s News For Mercy, is an emotional and lovely and deeply Christian story about a married woman with two children who wakes up one day in her small Western town in 1875, and finds out that her whole world has caved in on her and that the mayor and his cronies are now her sworn enemies.

Garret And Meredith In Montana’s Bitterroot Foothills, is the story of a horse rancher who desires a life full of love and marriage, but he is at a loss as to where to find a potential bride.

Message In A Bottle - A poor and lonely Victorian woman eking out her living in Brighton by making seashell jewelry, finds a message in a bottle on the beach and vows to find the man who wrote it.

Sabotaging Her Own Marriage - A woman rebels against her father’s wishes for marriage to a suitor of his choice, then manages to compromise after all.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Nov 26, 2016
• ISBN: 9781365563386

Book preview

From the Mists of Love

From the Mists of Love

By

Doreen Milstead

Copyright 2016 Susan Hart

The Western Country Wife: God’s News For Mercy

Synopsis: The Western Country Wife: God’s News For Mercy, is an emotional and lovely and deeply Christian story about a married woman with two children who wakes up one day in her small Western town in 1875, and finds out that her whole world has caved in on her and that the mayor and his cronies are now her sworn enemies. Her husband runs the only newspaper in town and their family has done their best to live good and honest lives. Now, that fateful morning, everything changes in a heartbeat. Will her strong faith lead her down a path that will not only enable their family to grow and be healthy but also, bring a very lost and forgotten soul back into the light?

IT WAS A cold March day in 1875, and the early morning hours showed no signs of it becoming one of the most traumatic days of Mercy Porter’s life. She was looking forward to the spring, letting her windows open wide as she would clean, sort clothes and mop the floors in her spacious home.

As she moved about that morning, picking at this and picking at that, she let out a soft holler to her husband, who seemed to be taking quite a while to come down to breakfast. Normally, on such a fine day; he would be the first at the table; but it didn’t seem so today.

Little Lilly had already beat her father to his chair. She did that quite often, would go and jump up on his chair so that when he sat down, he would pretend he did not see her and would lightly sit right on top of her.

Then she would holler out with an Ouch, daddy! He then would rise up quickly, as if he never saw her there. It was a favorite of hers and daddy always seemed to play along with giggles and tickles afterwards, which was more than likely the part she looked forward to most.

But, what alerted Mercy the most was when her fourteen-year-old son came down even before his father. Now that was something new and something to be noticed. Her son, Elija was never down before his father and it was usually his father who would have to get him downstairs that early.

So, as Mercy plopped a small bowl or porridge in front of her small daughter, she took off up the stairs to see what could be slowing down her husband. She could not imagine that he would crawl back into bed, especially on this fine day. He had a very busy day ahead of him, with the reports to run today on the new Brigham Young Academy opening.

She knew her husband wouldn’t want to be running behind on that one. The Mormons were in the news and she wanted to make sure that her husband would be the top of the line reporting this news.

Arriving at the top of the stairs, she realized she did not hear his usual whistling as he shaved his face, nor did she hear him tapping his razor on the side of the tub and wondered if he had crawled back into bed.

But, as she swung open the bathroom door, he was nowhere in sight. This then seemed to irritate her as she realized that he must have lain down, and this she wouldn’t have. Shutting the door a little hard, she then raced for the bedroom, swung the door open wide and she saw her husband lying sprawled across the bed, with his undergarments on and his trousers twisted around his ankles.

His face was turned towards the window, and his arms were underneath his chest. By the time she got to him, she was in tears crying

Franklyn! Franklyn! Are you alright? as she ran up to him and got in his face. As she did this, it was more than clear that he was not alive and there was blood seeping from his nose. As she screamed out to her son, she then thought of baby Lilly who would come running up the stairs with her brother and she ran to the doorway, and instead she told her son to go get Doc Gus quickly and to take his sister with him. She added that he should drop her off with Aunt Rebecca. With no other questions asked, her son Elija was off with sister in tow and out the door.

Then, Mercy went back to her husband, taking his vitals and praying that it was not too late. But, she already knew that it was too late and her whole world came crashing down on her, as she sat there alone in tears, sobbing and pulling at his shirt collar.

That was the start of what should have been a very blessed day with the freshness of spring ringing through the air and such important news coverage to get to working on.

MERCY PORTER had met Franklyn at a gala event that was a sort of get together of all the local newspapers and people had come from miles around to tell each newspaper their interests and what they’d like to read and what their interests were.

Mercy’s own father had been working for a newspaper company all his life as a traveling reporter. His job was to travel and bring back to local communities everything new and fresh he could find, from women’s styles of hair and clothes, to the latest inventions.

She had grown up with words and whispers of news clips, local town gossips and the coming attractions to small but growing towns. Her mother had been a small town photographer, so from both sides reporting news her life.

Mercy fell in love with Franklyn the minute she saw him standing on stage as he introduced his News Press to a crowd of what must have been three thousand people, locals and travelers from afar. He impressed her most with his casualness to his attire and the calmness he carried in talking to large crowds.

He was a tall and skinny man, with powered grey hair and he looked to be about ten years or so older than her, but she didn’t mind. He wore thick dark-colored glasses and they fell down upon his nose, as he would look over them and she always thought it made him look so intelligent. He always told her it was because they were just too big and not that he was too smart.

But now, as she sat beside him, holding his hand in her tiny white palm, she knew that life with him was over and she was sobbing and leaving a trail of tears all over the new, white satin sheets he had just given her as their anniversary gift.

As the sadness came rolling in, her thoughts now directed towards her tiny daughter and she burst out in uncontrollable tears and agony, thinking how in the world would she ever tell her Lilly of such news and how would young Elija be able to carry on without his strong and gentle father to lead him into manhood.

The agony was so unbearable and how she was wishing that Franklyn was there to console her at such a time, but of course it was because of Franklyn that she was now inconsolable.

Doc Gus was back with Elija in no time and as she heard them bust through the door, she ran down to meet them and she grabbed hold of Elija and she told him that he must be strong, if not for his sake, then for her own sake, and as Elija listened to his mother and looked into her pain stricken eyes, he realized that his father was gone.

All he could do was burst into tears, and then he and his mother went into the bedroom and they collapsed on the bed sofa that sat alongside the wall of their bedroom. As Elija watched Doc go over to his father, Elija asked the Doc if there was anything that he could do and seeing that the boy’s father was already gone, he just slowly shook his head and turned his head to cry.

He had known Franklyn ever since he had rode into the town of Provo. In fact, Franklyn Porter was the first person to greet the Doc and to invite him home for a good cooked meal, enjoying the evening way into the midnight hours.

They had become the best of friends, and it was now clear to the Doc that his best friend would be laid to rest very soon. Doc Gus gently reached down and pulled the soft linens up over Franklyn’s head and he quietly stood and sobbed again. The room stood still as you could hear three people cry over their loss of a father, a husband and a longtime friend.

Mercy found herself very grateful that little Lilly would be spared of these moments and that she would be able to remember her father, just as he was with her; bouncing her upon his knee and tickling her the ways he did.

Franklyn had been a kind, good husband who loved his children almost as much as he loved his wife. He had a fine upbringing of his own and his father taught him how to be a man, and his mother taught him how to be a good husband.

He had grown up with five sisters, so he was made aware of what women needed most, whether he wanted to know or not. Now it would be up to Elija to fill the shoes of his daddy with his baby sister and at least Mercy could depend on that, for Elija loved his sister and he would make a wonderful big brother, with a little mix of a father, as well.

After removing Franklyn from the home as little Lilly was at Aunt Rebecca’s, Mercy Porter and her teen son gathered in her husband’s office, where three employees sat waiting to find out what they had reported to work early for.

As Mercy informed the employees that Franklyn was gone to be with the Lord, his office rang out with gasps, tears and outbursts of sobs. Franklyn was loved by anyone he ever met and had treated his employees just like family, taking them in any time they may have needed a place, giving them advances if they needed some extra help, and always treating them with fairness and equality.

The day was filled with tears and shared love and affection between family and employees alike. Mercy and Elija now had business matters to attend to and the first would be heading to the bank to handle Franklyn’s burial and they first stopped in to see little Lilly, as she was playing quietly with her twin cousins Marsha and Minnie on the front room floor at Mercy’s sister’s home.

With tear-filled eyes, Mercy kissed her little daughter on her blossoming cheeks and told her that she would return for her in a couple of days and to enjoy playing with her cousins. She walked out the door and laid her head upon Elija’s shoulder and sunk back into tears.

MERCY AND ELIJA had the task of burying Elija’s father with all the respect he well deserved. He had been an upstanding citizen of the community, as well as many surrounding counties, and he had done so much for so many in his short time in the town.

He was always the first to lend a helping hand, a helping dollar or words of prayer to anyone that knew him. Now, it was time to show respect to him and Mercy was not going to