Overwhelmed in Oklahoma Read online

  Overwhelmed

  In

  Oklahoma

  Yours Truly: The Lovelorn, Book 9

  By

  Elissa Strati

  Table of Contents

  DEDICATION

  OVERWHELMED IN OKLAHOMA

  COPYRIGHT

  EDITION LICENSE NOTES

  DESCRIPTION

  PROLOGUE

  CHAPTER 1 – The Coulter Family

  CHAPTER 2 – Going to Oklahoma

  CHAPTER 3 – Joe’s House

  CHAPTER 4 – Sweet Dreams

  CHAPTER 5 – Farewell, Uncle Jed

  CHAPTER 6 – Old Friends

  CHAPTER 7 – Building Site?

  CHAPTER 8 – Advice from The Lovelorn

  CHAPTER 9 – Paw’s Approval

  CHAPTER 10 – Uncle Jed’s Room

  CHAPTER 11 – Building a House

  CHAPTER 12 – Clinton's Memories

  CHAPTER 13 – Sundays

  CHAPTER 14 – Letters to The Lovelorn

  CHAPTER 15 – Flowers

  CHAPTER 16 – Marie

  CHAPTER 17 – Picnic

  CHAPTER 18 – Bobbie’s Beau

  CHAPTER 19 – Maid of Honor

  CHAPTER 20 – A Christening

  CHAPTER 21 – Permission to Court

  CHAPTER 22 – Proposal

  CHAPTER 23 – The Wedding

  EPILOGUE

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  ABOUT THIS SERIES

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  NOTES ON OVERWHELMED IN OKLAHOMA

  (Or, More Than You Ever Wanted To Know About Some Of My Upcoming Books)

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  AUTHOR’S HISTORICAL NOTES

  DEDICATION

  Dedicated to

  Margo Wollenberg

  An Amazon and a Wonder Woman

  In her own right,

  Who has made her way brilliantly

  In the world of men,

  And is a wonderful friend.

  Thank you!

  OVERWHELMED IN OKLAHOMA

  (Yours Truly: The Lovelorn, Book 9)

  By

  Elissa Strati

  COPYRIGHT

  Overwhelmed in Oklahoma ©2020 Elissa Strati

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author, Elissa Strati, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, or events, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  ~~~

  EDITION LICENSE NOTES

  This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-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 person you share it with. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

  ~~~

  Cover design by Black Widow Books, Virginia McKevitt, cover artist.

  Series concept by Marie Higgins.

  DESCRIPTION

  What to do about a thorny relationship issue? Write a letter to "The Lovelorn" for advice!

  It's 1880. Working in a man's world as a builder, Charlie Sue eschews gowns for men's trousers and work shirts. While the town understands she's helping her father, no one has come a-courtin' and she's firmly on the shelf as a spinster.

  All Clint Evans can see is a beautiful woman. How can he convince her he wants to be more than just friends?

  PROLOGUE

  Dear Lovelorn,

  I met a girl who is as big as a man, dresses like a man, and works like a man, but when I look at her my heart sees all woman. However, she does not even see me as more than just one of the boys. How can I get her to notice me and accept me as a suitor?

  Very truly yours,

  Overwhelmed in Oklahoma

  ~~~

  Dear Overwhelmed in Oklahoma:

  Treat her like a lady. Open doors for her, bow, speak politely, bring her flowers. If you want her to think of you as a suitor then act like one.

  Yours Truly: The Lovelorn

  CHAPTER 1 – The Coulter Family

  The Coulter boys came out of the mountains and headed west in the 1830s.

  Restless, Jedidiah had gone out Texas way and then returned home to tell his brother Isaac of the opportunities. So when their parents died of dysentery and fever, and their older brother Obediah took over running the family farm, they made up their minds to move on.

  Although much of the land west of the Mississippi was Indian Territory, large areas were sparsely populated and Jedidiah and Isaac settled on some promising land straddling a creek. Having fought the Mexicans in Texas, Jedidiah was aware of the feral longhorns roaming free; gathering up a herd and driving them north, they started ranching.

  ~~~

  Jed had fallen in love with a lovely Osage girl whom he convinced to come live with him. She presented him with three fine children, but with drought, disease, and accident, only the daughter survived to adulthood. That daughter was courted by and married an Osage warrior but, like far too many women, had died birthing her first child. Jedidiah’s granddaughter had only survived a few days.

  He’d brought a still with him out of the mountains 20-odd years earlier, and some of the corn crop had always been diverted into a fierce distillation. Jed put his sorrow into increasing the crop acreage and his product.

  ~~~

  Isaac had brought a wife, Sally Belle Jones, and several children with him from home; two of their children, a son and a daughter had survived.

  Zebadiah was the older; when he grew to manhood he married Mary Lee Evans, from the ranch next door. They had numerous children among whom three girls, Ruth, Roberta June (“Bobbie June”), and Josefina, and three boys, Joseph (“Joe”), John, and Jefferson (“Jeff”), grew to adulthood.

  Henry Monroe, who went by “Hank,” was an itinerant builder and cabinet-maker. He discovered Sarah, Zebadiah’s baby sister, in his travels and, when her parents refused to accept him as a qualified suitor, eloped with her. They went north to Kansas Territory and Hank quickly found work and made a life for the two of them.

  After the birth of Hank, Jr. who soon became known as “Little Hank,” Sarah wrote her father, asking forgiveness for running off when he’d refused to give consent, but telling what a good life she had and about the birth of his grandson. She invited him to visit and the family was reunited, the Monroe family making annual trips to Oklahoma for two-week visits.

  While individuals would occasionally trek north, the Coulter clan had become too big to be accommodated as a group, and leisure travel for ranchers is generally impractical because of the animals.

  CHAPTER 2 – Going to Oklahoma

  Charlie Sue twitched her skirts into place as she climbed down from the buggy. Her usual attire was the canvas jeans popular among the ranch hands and she didn't find feminine garb especially flattering nor comfortable. Not that she was terribly worried about her appearance. About the only time she saw herself was if she was sneaking out for a swim in the river, and then the reflection was rather distorted by the current.

  But she and her father and brother were here in Oklahoma to visit her mother's relatives and attend Great Uncle Jed's funeral.

  It had been a long time since she’d last ventured south from Kans
as on a visit. Looking up, she thought to herself, not long enough!

  “Howdy Josefina,” she greeted her cousin, noting the way Josie's lip wrinkled when she caught sight of her.

  “It is good to see you, Charlotte,” replied Josefina stiffly. “If you'll follow me, I'll show you to your room. You will be sharing with Roberta.”

  Curbing her impulse to grimace, Charlie Sue quickly followed her younger, and far more petite, cousin into the house. Her male cousins were greeting her father and brother and the whole crew followed behind. Eyeing the thoughtfully provided pitcher and bowl sitting on the washstand, she paused to refresh herself in the bedroom, washing off some of the grime of the trip from her face and hands and running the towel around the back of her neck.

  She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and said a quick prayer for the strength and patience to ignore and disregard the barbs she knew would be coming her way from her dainty and feminine cousins. Charlie Sue couldn't figure out how they were considered to be ladylike when they went out of their way to make her miserable. Her own mother had insisted that Charlie Sue treat others as she wished to be treated and that hospitality consisted of making others as comfortable as possible. She hadn't been comfortable in this house since she was about twelve and it became obvious she had inherited her father's Viking stature.

  And she hadn't been as good about putting up with the merciless teasing back then. Her father had quickly set her straight on how she was to behave, regardless of the boorishness of others.

  But then, suddenly, her mother was gone, along with her youngest sibling, a stillborn girl. And they stopped having to visit. She’d rather she still had her mother, she thought sadly.

  Life wasn't always easy for most folks, even in this year of Our Lord, 1880, but it was especially hard on women, whose bodies suffered the burden of bearing children. Stretching her back and loosening her shoulders, Charlie Sue strode from the room and joined the rest of the family in the kitchen.

  The men were talking loudly among themselves still, slapping each other on the back, and she could see the jug had already come out. The ladies held glasses of iced tea, which had become popular recently.

  Just wait for it, thought Charlie, gritting her teeth.

  “Oh, there you are Charlotte,” said Roberta coyly, with a sidelong glance at her sister. “Will you be taking beer or corn with the men or joining us in a glass of tea?”

  “It's sure-fire nice to see you again, too, Bobbie June,” replied Charlie with as false a smile as Roberta's. “Tea or water is all the same to me, thank you.”

  She looked over and caught her father watching her, and rolled her eyes slightly. He shrugged a little guiltily and went back to the conversation he was enjoying with her uncle Zebadiah.

  “I heard your sister Ruth had married. Will she be by later?” Charlie enquired.

  “She and her husband caught gold fever and headed out west toward Arizona Territory. A town by the name of Tombstone. We sent word but haven’t heard back. I wouldn’t expect them to make the trek back, anyway. Ruth wasn’t all that fond of Uncle Jeb.”

  “And he wasn’t all that fond of Ruthie, either,” drawled Joe.

  Cousins Jeff, John, and Joe had turned at the sound of Charlie’s voice and now came over to greet her with arms out.

  “Charlie Sue, it is so great to see you again!” they exclaimed, hugging her and patting her on the back. She gave them genuine grins and hugged back.

  With an arm looped around her back, Jeff started dragging her out the door.

  “You have to come see our new foals!”

  His brothers followed, with the rest of the men folk close behind.

  “You look right pretty in that dress, Charlie Sue,” laughed John. “Mind you don't get muck on it.”

  “I’ll watch where I step,” she replied. “Paw insisted I be a lady for this visit because of the occasion.”

  The fellas all bowed their heads for a moment in silence, then Joe piped up, “Yeah, he was a right ornery old, ummm,” he cleared his throat, “uhhh, bird, God bless his soul.”

  A few grins and winks passed among the boys, but the appropriate Amens were voiced.

  Raising her eyes, Charlie noticed a tall, well set up fellow who looked to be about her age standing off to the side of the yard. She had seen him staring at her as she got down from the buggy, and he was staring at her again.

  You look mighty fine, she thought to herself and then mentally shrugged. Good looking fellows weren't interested in the likes of her.

  Having admired the foals, two fillies and a colt, and a litter of kittens besides, she was then lead to an open area where some boards were laid out on the ground in a rough rectangle.

  “We could really use your advice on how to set up this cabin. Cynthia said yes when Joe asked her to marry him but insisted that he have his own house before the wedding,” Jeff confided.

  Charlie nodded her head.

  “Yep,” she said, “if I were the bride I would want my own house, too. Y'all are a little crowded in there to be bringing in more people. Congratulations, Joe!”

  She walked over to where the boards were laid and strode into the center of the area. Looking over at Jeff she commented, “It would be good if I had a pencil and a slate to draw on.”

  Jeff hustled back into the house and came out a moment later with the requisite items.

  “Okay, Joe, this is your house, so why don't you step inside of it with me. First off, why did you choose this particular spot?”

  “Well,” shrugged Joe, “it was already cleared.”

  “Then you're not really committed to this particular location?”

  “Well, no. But what area could we use besides this one?”

  “Somehow I don't think Cynthia would want to be so near to the stables.” She raised her head and sniffed lightly. “Or that smell will be in the kitchen with you. And,” she pulled Joe, close talking just to him, “do you really want to be this close to the house, where everybody will know your business? And I do mean all your business!”

  He got a startled look on his face and backed up a bit. “Oh,” he said, light dawning as a blush crept up his cheeks. “Oh!”

  “Boys, let's take a walk around and get an idea of where a pretty place for a house would be, close enough for convenience but far enough away for privacy, with good air and water and maybe a tree or two for shade and,” giving Joe a side glance, “even a swing for the young’uns.”

  At the mention of children, Joe turned even redder, but got a big grin on his face. “Oh!”

  Knowing her female cousins, Bobbie June and Josie, would never dream of inviting her into the kitchen to help with the cooking, Charlie Sue quite happily started off with her male cousins, her brother, Little Hank, tagging along. Big Hank had nodded approvingly and gone back into the house with Uncle Zeb so they could catch up on family news and sip a little corn.

  CHAPTER 3 – Joe’s House

  As they strolled away from the stock pens and barns, Charlie started questioning the boys.

  “So the plan is you will all stay on the homestead as you marry?”

  “Yes,” responded John. “Great Uncle Jed buried all his children and a granddaughter besides, so his share in the ranch comes back to our side of the family; and there's plenty enough work here for all of us.”

  “So I guess you will all be wanting houses one of these days. What about the girls?”

  “Well, Paw has put aside a bit of a dowry for each of them, but unless they do a darn sight better choosing a husband then they’ve been doing with selecting suitors, we're not going to want any one of them out here on the land with us.”

  “Hunh! I think Bobbie June is pretty sweet on that banker-feller,” commented Jeff.

  “And he's actually a good sort—well, mostly--but definitely a townie and not any part a rancher.

  “And I'll bet she would be a might happier living in town herself,” added Joe. “I just hope she can stay pleasant enough to keep
his interest. That gal has a tongue like a double-edged knife.”

  Charlie Sue shuddered. “Don't remind me! And what about Josefina?”

  “Would you believe she's got her eye on the pastor?”

  “Oh, yes, I would believe that,” Charlie laughed. “And I wish both of them all joy.”

  “Well, I love my sisters, but there's many a time I'm not so sure I like them too much!”

  Charlie clamped her lips tightly shut to prevent a snort from escaping, then put her fingers to her lips as if twisting a key as everyone laughed again.

  Hank commented, “I've caught the sharp side of their tongues once or twice myself.”

  “Oh, you mean like the time we were down at the creek and you accidentally-on-purpose managed to knock Josie into the water?” And more laughter ensued.

  They were now at least a half-mile from the main house and on a slight rise. Charlie stopped and turned around in a slow circle.

  “This is my favorite tree on your whole spread,” she declared. “It is the first one I ever climbed and where I used to hide when you fellows got too rambunctious and your sisters were being themselves.

  “John, what's your favorite spot?”

  “When we used to bring our blankets outside to sleep on hot nights, I always crept down by the creek so I could listen to the frogs,” he reminisced. “There's a small knoll down there just up from the creek. If I were building a house that's where I put it.”

  “How about you Jeff?”

  “Yeah, I've always liked the sound of the frogs too, but I love looking at the wide open spaces from the back of my horse. I think I'd want to go a little bit further out so I could build with a view.” His face took on a dreamy expression.

  “And now that brings us back to you, Joe. Since you're the first to marry, I would guess that means you get first choice of locations. You think your pa might go along with where you decide as long as it doesn't take away pasture land?”

  Joe nodded thoughtfully. “Yeah, I think so. And I see what you mean about this spot. I think I'd like to show it to Cindy before making up my mind, though. Maybe I'll sneak off with her here after the funeral tomorrow and show her what we're talkin’ about.”