Mail Order Bride (Wilspur)

Nineteen-year-old Lou Ann Hawkins is on her way to Ogden, Utah, to meet her groom. But just as she prepares to get off the train to begin her new life, a man stops her. "Don't go out there," he warns her. "There's a gun battle going on." Trapped in the doorway of the train car, Lou Ann witnesses the horror of seeing a man gunned down in the middle of the street. But her horror grows when the townspeople and the passengers getting off the train flock around the killer, raise him onto their shoulders, and parade him through the town as a hero. When Lou Ann tries to report the murder to the sheriff, she gets another shock. The sheriff doesn't care about the dead man and also proclaims the young killer a hero. He tells her the dead man was a notorious outlaw who terrorized the town for forty years. The people of the area have been praying for someone to kill him and deliver them from his predations. Lou Ann begins to understand, but her world turns upside down once again when she arrives at the altar to marry her groom, only to discover that the man she has arranged to marry is the young gun fighter from the day before. At every turn, Lou Ann's hopes and dreams for a new life out West fall apart, until she is forced to make the ultimate choice to claim her destiny.

Mail Order Bride Ellen Mortimer receives a shock when she meets her groom, Elliot Wilkins, at the railway station. Elliot wants to take Ellen to the church immediately before driving her to his homestead to start their life together. Ellen braces herself and they complete the ceremony. Outside the church, Ellen gets another shock when she sees an enormous wolf in the wagon box standing astride her trunk. She screams in horror, but Elliot only laughs at her. The wolf is his dog, Laird. Half wolf, half St. Bernard, Laird soon becomes a bone of contention between Ellen and her new husband. Elliot tells her of the numerous times Laird saved his life from wild animals. But when Elliot tries to get close to Ellen on their wedding night, Laird's presence distracts Ellen until she spurns Elliot's advances. When she insists he put the dog out of the house for the night, Elliot loses his temper and turns away from her. Ellen's conflict with the strange dog comes to a head when Elliot leaves her alone with Laird to go hunting for a few days. Ellen must find a comfortable place for herself in her new home while coming to grips with Laird's presence. After the first day of Elliot's absence, she thinks she's come to an amiable understanding with the dog. But Laird has other ideas, and his sinister behavior challenges all Ellen's faculties to clear the way for her new life.

Mary Allen lost her husband at the tender age of twenty-two, and she doesn't want to spend the rest of her life as a widow. But her aging father protests when she has the idea to get a mail-order husband. He wants Mary's attention for himself. If she must remarry, he wants to arrange the marriage himself, with one of the sons of his friends, the way he did Mary's first marriage. But Mary insists on marrying a man of her own choosing, a man new to the Frontier with the energy and enthusiasm to build a new life in the West. She and her father keep having the same argument about it, and they'll probably keep arguing about it when he walks her down the aisle.Mary only has a few days left before her groom comes to town and they meet at the altar. But Fate has other plans for Mary and her family. Mary finds herself facing a shattering reversal of her fortunes. At the same time, new and mysterious forces align to bring her the future of hope and promise she always dreamed of. When she does finally come to the altar, the life waiting for her on the other side opens up infinite horizons and unlimited potential.