Chapter One

With a contented sigh, Katie Matthews gazed up into the bright azure of summer’s sky. Grateful for the shade provided by the pine tree beneath which she lay, Katie watched the billowy clouds drift slowly across the canvas of perfect blue. The only sound was the whisper of the breeze, caressing the pines and prairie grasses. Mingled with an occasional cicada chorus, it soothed the warm summer air like a mother’s soft lullaby.

Closing her book and laying it on her chest, Katie considered the shapes of the clouds above. A vaporous ship seemed to be floating overhead, white and soft and dreamy. Katie smiled, thinking of the book she’d only just finished again. It was her very favorite. At least, the final one third or so of it was her favorite. In truth, the first part of the book was gloomy and long and Katie found it difficult to enjoy. Yet, the last chapters were wonderful, and she liked to think again and again on the brooding, heartbroken hero and the small, plain heroine who gifted him happiness. 

 

What readers are saying about this title: "Oh my heck! The antics of the triplets had me in stitches. The Prairie Prince is one of Marcia's best. It was well worth the wait. And everyone in the story had a happy ending, which made the e-book that much better." - Darla D.

She remembered how terrified she’d been the first time she’d read the book and come upon scenes of maniacal laughter wafting through the dark hallways of the ominous manor house at night. How she’d nearly jumped out of her skin when the hero’s estranged, insane, attic-bound wife appeared, attempting to murder the hero. Oh, it had been a deliciously frightening experience and Katie still shivered each time she read the passages. It was all so romantic, so wistful, and she sometimes wished she were a governess living in a dark manor abroad, rather than a farmer’s daughter living in a small cabin on the prairie. Still, the clouds overhead were beautiful, the sky resplendent and Katie knew she would never prefer a dark and rainy country, even if it did provide handsome, brooding champions of female hearts.

There certainly seemed no hope of finding any handsome young men in the small town of Custer’s Creek. Katie sighed again, somewhat disappointed at the reality of life. Life wasn’t anything like fairytales or romantic novels. Life was filled with hard labor and marriage to a man, neither unusually handsome, nor capable of truly loving a woman. Men didn’t have time to dote on and spoil women. At least, so Katie’s father told her. 

“Men are meant to work and women are meant to work alongside ‘em,” her father always said. “Ain’t no time for courtin’, sparkin’ and other silliness the like.”

But for all her father’s bleak complaining, Katie was amazed at her mother’s kindness toward him. It always seemed completely unfair to Katie, the way her mother smiled at her father, fixed his favorite meals, mended his clothes and spoke only kind words to him. Her father hardly ever smiled at her mother or anyone else for that matter, and Katie couldn’t remember a time when he’d thanked her mother for anything or treated her any better than he did their dog, Rusty. Fact was, Katie’s father treated Rusty better than he did any human being, family member or otherwise. 

Yet Katie held fast to the dream that, perhaps, there were men in the world who appreciated good women, men capable of loving a woman enough to die for her. Something had to inspire the heroes in fairytales and books. Her Aunt Augusta always said woman-kind’s eternal wish for better men inspired such stories, but Katie liked to believe real, alive…or once alive men inspired them. 

There certainly weren’t any such men living in Custer’s Creek. Still, Katie admired the good men who did live and work there. Maybe Custer’s Creek hadn’t produced any handsome, princely-type men, but it was home to some very hard-working and kind ones all the same. Katie thought she might find happiness with someone…as long as he didn’t treat her as poorly as her father treated her mother.

Katie closed her lovely blue eyes, listening to the breeze in the grass. So many of the scents she loved were upon the air…cedar, soil, sagebrush, wildflowers. As the cicadas began another soft chorus, Katie drifted off to sleep, embraced by visions of heroes and heroines and happy endings.

“One of these days yer gonna wake up dead,” Jared said, nudging his sleeping sister’s leg with one foot. Katie had heard Jared coming, but had chosen to pretend she hadn’t. She opened her eyes, irritated by his insensitive way of waking her.

“It’s perfectly safe out here, Jared. And ya know it,” she told him, standing and brushing the dust and pine needles from the seat of her skirt.

“There’s coyotes, snakes…not to mention any drifters that might happen by,” Jared said frowning. “Yer plum ignorant sometimes, Katie.” 

“Oh, I’m fine,” Katie argued. “I heard you comin’, didn’t I?”

“I wasn’t tryin’ to sneak up on ya,” Jared grumbled. “Anyhow, Ma wants ya home. It’s time to start dinner.”

Katie sighed and smiled at her older brother. Dark-haired, blue-eyed and handsome, Jared was an old grouch most of the time. Not in the way their father was, but grumpy all the same. Often she wondered if her father wasn’t the reason for her brother’s lack of cheerfulness. She’d seen Jared happy and joyful quite often, but never in the presence of their father. 

“That frown’s gonna stick if ya don’t smile once in a while, Jared,” she told him. 

Jared shook his head and said, “Ya show me somethin’ to smile about and I’ll smile. Meanwhile, Ma wants ya home...now! And put yer shoes on, ya fool girl. Ya’ll get goatheads ‘til ya bleed.”

Jared glared at his sister, even though he had no reason to. In truth, Katie was his one source of joy. He studied her dark hair as she laced her shoes, wondered if it would remain the color of night as she aged. Would his sweet, kind-hearted sister end up like their mother had…silver-haired too early, the result of hard work and lack of appreciation? He secretly hoped for some new cowboy, rancher or farmer to move into the county, gather Katie into his arms and carry her off to a life of happiness and joy. It caused him great heart-ache to think of her enduring life as unloved, unappreciated and unhappy. But Custer’s Creek was a small town and even the outlying farms and ranches didn’t offer much in the way of good young men. It seemed to Jared men had the better gender to choose from and he often wondered why God had made it so. Why were there so many good women and seemingly so few good men?

“Yer lucky the ants didn’t find ya,” Jared said, taking his sister’s hand and leading her away from the solitude of the prairie toward home. Katie smiled at him and shook her head.

“Always see the black about everythin’, don’t ya, Jared?” she giggled.

“Not necessarily,” Jared said, smiling. “It’s them red ants I was worried about.”

Katie smiled. Jared wore a tough exterior, but she knew deep, down inside, he was as soft as she was. She wished there was a sweet, lovely girl in Custer’s Creek to make her brother happy. A young woman to love him the way he deserved to be love and give him the strength to break from their father and start his own way. Mary Arnold was nearly seventeen. A sweet, kind and pretty girl, maybe she would catch Jared’s eye in a month or two. Still, Katie doubted even Mary Arnold could love Jared the way he needed to be loved. Yet, there was always hope. Katie Matthews was never one to give up on hope. Taking Jared’s hand Katie started for home.

“Roast beef and potatoes tonight,” she told him. Jared smiled and nodded.

“Yep. My favorite meal,” he said as brother and sister walked hand in hand across the open, freedom of the prairie.

“I done sold the south one twenty to that new feller in town,” Bart Matthews told his wife as he shoved a slice of roast into his mouth. “He done give me a good deal on it, too.”

“Pa!” Katie exclaimed. “Not the south acreage! It’s got the best pines of any land round these parts!”

“Trees don’t make a man no money, girl,” Katie’s father told her. “Not a farmin’ man, anyhow.”

“But, Bart,” Evelyn Matthews, Katie’s mother, said. “It’s such a purty piece out there.”

“What’s done is done,” Bart said, shoveling a spoonful of potatoes into his mouth. “And I don’t recall needin’ a woman’s opinion on any sort of man’s business. It’s sold. That’s that and I don’t want to hear no more ‘bout it.”

Katie looked to Jared, pained by the angry frown puckering his brow. She knew Jared had been planning to buy the south one hundred and twenty acres from his father as soon as he’d saved up enough money from cowboying summers. She was angry at her father for brushing his son’s dreams aside…more angry about seeing Jared’s dreams destroyed than the fact the land had been sold at all.

“Pa…ya told Jared he could…” Katie began. She stopped when she felt Jared’s hand on her knee.

“I don’t have to explain myself to nobody,” her father said, glaring at her. “That new feller had the money in hand. I woulda been a fool not to take it.”

“That the new feller I seen in town today?” Jared asked. “He’s a cantankerous lookin’ ol’ boy.”

“You’d be cantankerous, too…if’n you had three silly little girls and a spinster sister to look after,” Bart said.

“Has he lost his wife then?” Evelyn asked. Bart shook his head.

“Nope. They’s all his sisters,” he answered. “Seems he got saddled with one sure sister and three half sisters when his Pa passed last winter. And if they ain’t the silliest bunch I ever seen…then I don’t know what is! Them little ones…they’s all the same age and lookin’ exactly alike…don’t know how a body would begin to tell ‘em apart. And that older one…ain’t a wonder he ain’t been able to get her out of his hair. She’s ugly as a mud fence.” 

“Please don’t speak so cruely, Bart” Evelyn scolded.

“What’s so cruel ‘bout the truth?” Bart grumbled.

“And do ya mean to tell us that the three little ones are triplets?” Evelyn said, making certain Bart had no more opportunity to speak cruelly about the elder sister.

“I already done told ya they look alike! I’m a guessin’ they’re round seven or eight…rat nests for hair, as dirty a mugs as any boys in town.” Bart shook his head again. “Don’t know what kinda sinnin’ a man had to do to get saddled with a bunch a females the like of them four.”

Katie closed her eyes for a moment, attempting to calm her temper. She thoroughly disliked her father sometimes. How could he speak so cruelly, belittling women the way he did, especially in front of his wife and daughter?

“Well, what’s the ol’ boy’s name?” Jared asked.

“Steele. Stover Steele,” his father answered.

Katie set her fork down on the table. She’d lost her appetite. She loved the south acreage! It was a magical place for her…solitary, quiet and beautiful. Yet, her father had other land, which was nice enough. She resented Stover Steele and his handy money. Still, seeing triplets might be interesting however. Katie had only read of the miracle of identical triplets and she was sure seeing a set would be fascinating. And what of the homely, unmarried sister? She wondered if the woman was really as homely as her father implied. 

Well, new owner or not, Katie would visit the south acreage one last time. Yep! The very next day she’d sneak out to the old pine she loved to linger beneath and say goodbye. No matter what her father said.

“I know what yer athinkin’ there, Kate Matthews,” he father growled.

“What do ya mean, Pa?” Katie asked, feigning innocence.

“You stay off that acreage! I done sold it and if ya go wanderin’ around over there…you’ll be tresspassin’. That Stover Steele…he’s a hard feller. I don’t doubt he’d just as soon shoot ya as look at ya.”

“Oh, Pa,” Katie argued. “I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if I just…”

“I said, stay away, girl!” her father shouted. Katie sighed, defeated.

“All right, Pa. All right,” she agreed. Still, her determination was undaunted. She would visit her favorite spot on the acreage. Stover Steele or not!