A Bride in the Bargain (44 page)

Authors: Deeanne Gist

BOOK: A Bride in the Bargain

13.03Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

I found accounts of men who climbed trees the way Joe did—with no more than an ax and a springboard. They also thought nothing of jumping from ridiculous heights to get down from their work or to escape a falling tree.

One thing I left conspicuously out was the spiked (caulked) boots that lumberjacks are famous for wearing. I looked and looked but could never find reference as to when spiked boots were first used. In all the research I did, they were never mentioned in any of the early records I found. So I left them out. If I am in error, please accept my heartfelt apologies.

I couldn’t convince my sister that they really did have redwoods in Washington. They weren’t like the ones in California or Oregon, but they definitely had them. So I promised I’d put a disclaimer in for the rest of the doubting Thomases out there.

One of the things I found peculiar was the complete lack of information about what happened between Mercer and the fellows who paid three hundred dollars for brides that never showed. Nothing is recorded—at least not that I could find. So I guess we’ll just have to use our imaginations.

Last, I had to bend the timeline a little to suit my story. The real Mercer girls started arriving in Seattle in May 1866. But if I’d done that, then Joe and Anna would’ve had to go to town for a Fourth of July celebration and I just did a Fourth of July thing in my last two books. I didn’t want to do another one. Nor could I afford to have Anna go to town and find out about Bertha.

So I made Anna’s boat land in Seattle on July 8. Not at all accurate, but necessary for my story. The rest of the Mercer-girl timeline was as close as I could get to being accurate.

All in all, I fell in love with Seattle. If you ever have a chance to go, please do. The bluest skies and greenest hills you’ll ever see really are in Seattle.

Blessings, Deeanne

Don’t Miss These Other Delightful Reads From

Deeanne Gist!

Do You Believe in Love at First Fight?

When Drew O’Connor wins the headstrong Lady Constance Morrow as his bride, he soon finds this marriage of convenience has become a most inconvenient thing indeed.

A Bride Most Begrudging

What Is The Measure of a Lady?

Shocked at the unrefined way of life in Gold Rush San Francisco, prim-and-proper Rachel van Buren is about to learn an eloquent but humorous lesson on what
truly
makes a lady.

The Measure of a Lady

She Has One Mission: Find a Husband

After deciding the Lord has left her to find a husband on her own, Essie Spreckelmeyer writes down the names of all the bachelors in town, closes her eyes and picks one. But convincing the lucky “husband-to-be” is going to be a
bit
more of a problem.

Courting Trouble