You’ll Satisfy Us Both, The Mountain Men Whispered to the Terrified Virgin Mail Order Bride

Chapter 2

The trail climbed into the mountains with no mercy. Every step pulled at Eleanor’s calves, her boots slipping on loose stones hidden beneath a crust of old snow. The air grew thinner, colder, each breath feeling like she was drinking ice water. The pines pressed close on both sides, their branches heavy with snow that occasionally dropped in soft white crashes, startling birds into flight.

Ezra led the way without speaking. Silas followed behind Eleanor, close enough that she could hear his breathing, far enough that she didn’t feel crowded. They moved like men who had spent their whole lives in these mountains — reading the ground, listening to the wind, watching the shadows between trees.

The silence stretched for nearly an hour. Eleanor’s mind raced through everything she knew, which was painfully little. Nathaniel Porter had answered a newspaper advertisement she had placed in the Boston Herald — “Respectable woman, educated, seeks honest marriage and new life in the West.” His letters had been warm, careful, full of details about the cabin he was building, the silver mine he worked, the view of the mountains from his doorstep. She had imagined him a hundred times: taller than average, probably, with calloused hands and a gentle smile. She had imagined their first meeting, the awkwardness of strangers promising their lives to each other, the slow building of something real.