Melody's Next Christmas (Timeless Love Book 6) Read online

  Copyright © 2018 by George H. McVey All rights reserved.

  Cover design by JB Publishing

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental or used fictitiously.

  A special thank you to Peggy L. Henderson for allowing me to borrow Reverend Johnson from her Second Chances Time Travel Romances. While they are not Christian fiction, they sparked the idea for this novel.

  Also thank you to Joan Smith Kley, Becky Alexander Kinkade, Leona Melton, and Christine Baker for helping me name Tallis Colton Ryder. He turned out to be a great hero but he’s a Ryder, I don’t know why I was surprised.

  Table of Contents

  Introduction

  Chapter 1

  Chapter2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Other Books By George

  About the Author

  Introduction

  Melody Hughes is not having a good year. Having her father die on Christmas Eve was bad enough; knowing he couldn’t leave his ranch to her, he left it to his foreman. The foreman was to marry Melody and allow her to continue raising and training horses like always. Instead, he informs her she will have to become a proper ranch wife, overseeing the home and having children, or leave the ranch. When a traveling Reverend tells her of a man wanting to learn how to ranch like her father, she takes the job, not realizing its 147 years in the future.

  Tallis Colton Ryder, a descendant of Nugget Nate and Nathan Ryder, is enamored with ranching like it was done in the 1800s and thinks tourist will be too. His only problem: he needed someone to be sure he was being historically accurate. When a mysterious reverend tells him he has such an expert; Tallis agrees to interview them. When the young woman arrives, Tallis knows she was created to be his wife. However, there's a complication; the Reverend informs him that Melody Hughes can only stay for six months, after which she has another unbreakable contract.

  Can Tallis convince Melody to take a chance on love? Can they find a way to break Melody’s unbreakable contract? Will Melody’s Next Christmas be filled with sadness in 1871, or will she find her Happily Ever After as the wife of a Ryder in the present?

  Chapter 1

  December 28, 1847

  M elody Hughes sat looking at the gifts in her lap. Christmas was only three days past and she’d just buried her father. He’d died on Christmas Eve when his horse had slipped on a patch of ice, tossed her father over the horse’s head, and cracked his head open on a rocky outcrop. She’d not been able to bring herself to open the gifts he’d given her. She knew what they’d be, it was what he gave her every year: a new dress and a new pair of men’s dungarees for training the horses. Only now the second gift was useless.

  She could still hear the words that Mr. Granger, the lawyer her father used, had said to her. “I’m so sorry for your loss, Miss Hughes, but as you know it’s not lawful for a woman to inherit property. Your father left instructions that if you were unwed at the time of his passing, his entire estate would be left to his foreman, Brent Cooke. It was his wish that you and Brent would marry and continue to run the ranch together.”

  Melody would never marry Brent Cooke, the man refused to see how valuable she was as a horse breeder or trainer. He insisted that her father had spoiled her and that the real breeding, breaking and training was done by Liam, not Melody. He often expressed his belief that Melody should be in dresses tending to the house and looking for a husband. The fact that Melody couldn’t cook, sew or had no desire to be in any way what he determined proper female attire seemed to escape his notice.

  As she sat staring at the gifts her father had left for her she heard Brent’s heavy foot falls come onto the front porch, and he had the nerve to enter the house without knocking as if he already owned it. Which, of course, he did.

  “Melody, we need to talk.”

  She glared at the man who ran the cattle side of her father’s operation, her blue eyes ablaze with anger at the man’s audacity. “By all means, Mr. Cooke, make yourself at home in my house. But I guess it’s your home now, isn’t it?”

  The dark-haired cowboy sighed. “There’s no need to be rude, Melody. I have no intention of taking your home away from you. Your dad wanted us to marry and for me to keep running the ranch. We can go see the preacher tomorrow and nothing will change except your last name.”

  Melody looked at him with suspicion in her eyes. “Nothing will change? So as your wife I’ll still be able to run the horse breeding and training side of the ranch like I’ve done since I was old enough to sit on a horse?”

  Brent shook his head. “You know that isn’t proper work for a lady, Melody. Once you’re my wife then you’ll act like a proper wife and take care of our home and eventually our children. I still don’t understand why your Pa allowed you to act like a harridan all those years. He should have tanned your hide the first time you came outside in those britches and started playing at doing men’s work.”

  Melody stood up and faced him. “Then I will not marry you, Brent Cooke. I am a horse breeder and trainer, not a proper housewife. I don’t know how to do the things a wife would do and I have no desire to learn to be one. If you don’t want me as I am, then no, I won’t marry you.”

  Brent glared down into her face. “You’ll marry me and make a proper wife or you’ll get your rebellious body off my ranch by the first of the year. Those are your options, marry me and become a proper wife and woman, keeping your ranch, or refuse and lose everything. You have three days to decide. Until then don’t even think about setting foot in the barn or the horse paddock. If I see you there I’ll take a willow switch to your hide just like Mr. Hughes should have done all those years ago.”

  Melody shoved him away from her. “I don’t need three days. I don’t need one. I’ll never marry you and I’ll be out of your house and off your ranch tomorrow. I will, however, be taking Sunset since no one else can ride her anyway. You can consider her my pay for the work I’ve done the past twelve years.”

  Brent shook his head. “Go on, take your horse and leave and when you realize that you don’t have any other choice you come on back and I’ll make a proper ranch wife of you. I give you till sundown tomorrow to come crawling back begging me to marry you.”

  With that the bear of a foreman stuffed his hat back on his head and stomped out the door slamming it behind him. Melody refused to waste one more minute crying over what couldn’t be. She’d set out in the morning to her friend Clara’s bed and breakfast in town. She and Clyde would help her find a situation that allowed her to use her skills, but one thing was certain: it would be a cold day in the devil’s playground before she came crawling back to Brent Cooke asking to be his wife.

  Present Day

  Tallis Ryder stood beside his vintage Velocette Viper motorcycle looking down from the overlook that sat at the top of the Valley containing his new ranch. Finally his dream might possibly become a reality. From the time of being a young boy g
rowing up on the Dueling N’s ranch in Redemption New Mexico, Tallis had been fascinated by the family tales of Nugget Nate and the Preacher, Nathan Ryder, and how they helped shape the future of the old west. That fascination had grown as he’d grown until he decided that he wanted to open up an old west ranching experience for people in this modern age.

  His parents had been supportive when he’d told them he wasn’t taking the expected Agricultural track in college but instead took Hotel and Hospitality Management. He had graduated with honors and had worked at several historical hotels and tourist experiences throughout his college career. Now, with degree in hand, he’d taken the trust every Ryder received after they turned twenty-five and had purchased a forty-thousand acre ranch in Montana. The ranch was one of the only ones he’d seen that still had buildings in good shape from the 1800s. The homestead had been his biggest fear. It had looked weathered on the outside and so modern on the inside. Tallis had asked his brother, who was a historical house buff, to come take a look at the buildings on the property. They’d been surprised to find that the original structures for the house, bunkhouse and foreman’s cabin had been solid. The barn had obviously been replaced a few years ago and would need to be torn down and a time appropriate structure erected. Tallis was even more surprised when his brother Nate had told him that he was pretty sure that the original floors and walls were behind the sheetrock and carpeting. It wouldn’t take much to have everything returned to its original condition, and then all he would have to do is find an antique, or have crafted, a wood burning cook stove and sink as well.

  While thinking that over, Tallis decided that while he wouldn’t mind a wood burning stove to cook on and fireplaces to heat with, he would like to keep running water and a modern, or somewhat modern, bathroom. He also realized he’d have to keep at least some electricity in the house. Enough for an office and computer, as well as internet, to book reservations and tours. Those were the only allowances he’d make for modern life.

  Even though there would be bathrooms and running water, he would pattern them after the old copper tub and shower combo in the Dueling N’s bathrooms that supposedly Nugget Nate had installed for his bride, Penelope Ryder, when the house was raised. If that was true then it was an expensive luxury in those days but one that, based on family history and lore, would have been just like Nugget Nate. And if not him, then Nathan would have done the same for Grace. If anything could be said it was that Ryder men, when they fell in love, fell hard and gave their spouses every little thing their hearts desired.

  Today he’d be meeting with the ranch foreman and explain how things would change. The previous owners hadn’t told the workers anything except that they were selling and the new owner would take possession on the first of July; that was today. Tallis figured there would be some kickback but he also knew that for the most part ranching hadn’t changed. Sure, all the cars and trucks would be removed except for one four wheel drive vehicle that would be used for medical emergencies. It was the non-cattle jobs, and the necessity of time-appropriate ranching gear, that would be the biggest change the men would have to get used too. He’d leave the bunkhouse and foreman’s cabin alone on the inside, allowing them to keep their modern interiors, but he’d have to have several smaller cabins and a bunkhouse or two built to be period specific, as well as a cookhouse and dining hall.

  Tallis hopped on his Viper, kickstarted it and then rode down into the valley ready to get started on his dream of offering a real old west ranching experience.

  Chapter2

  A week had passed and with it a new year had dawned. Melody sat in the room her friend Clara had given her. Not any rancher she contacted would give her a position as a horse trainer or breeder. She’d ended up taking a job helping Clara and Clyde by cleaning the rooms in the Bed and Breakfast. She was learning to cook some too by helping in the kitchen each day.

  Melody had even gone to the judge to see if there was anything she could do to force Brent to let her work the ranch she’d grown up on and had been told that, as the owner, he had the right to choose his workers. The infuriating man had suggested she be a good little woman and bring Brent to town, marry him, and let him keep her as was fitting her gender. He’d laughed as she stormed out of the courtroom, making a comment about how her fire would keep some fella warm on a cold night.

  When Melody got back to Clara’s she entered to find Brent sitting in the parlor talking with her friend and employer. She glared at him. “What are you doing here?”

  Brent stood and faced her. “I heard this was where you were and I thought I’d come see if you have realized that being my wife is your best option?”

  Melody’s hands went to her hips. “Have you realized that letting me continue to work raising and training the horses is your best option?”

  Brent shook his head. “That’s not an option at all, Melody. You can’t do a man’s work without your Pa to help you and I don’t have the time or a ranch hand I’d trust to take his place. Why must you be so stubborn about this?”

  “Me! Why must I be stubborn about this? Why must you be stubborn about this, Brent? My horses are raised better and trained better than any horses in the state, but you can’t accept that I’m the one who raised them or trained them. Just like every other idiot rancher who buys them from us, you are so sure Pa did the work and I just played pretend. But that wasn’t so, you go look at Pa’s records and you’ll see that after I started working the horses things changed. If you think the cattle is what kept our ranch a success, you’ll see soon enough when those who want horses trained my way stop buying horses from you.”

  Brent shook his head. “Why do you insist on taking credit for what your Pa worked so hard to build? He should have listened to me and sent you back east to school so you’d have learned how to be a proper lady. Instead, look at you, refusing your natural place in life. I’ve half a mind to drag you to the judge and marry you anyway. Then I could at least teach you to act properly.”

  Anger flashed behind Melody’s eyes at the thought of this man laying one finger one her. “Just you try it! If you do you’ll regret ever laying a single finger on me, Brent Cooke, I promise you that!”

  Brent turned and headed for the front door. “You’ll come crawling back, Miss Hughes, if you want to keep your precious ranch you’ll have to. But don’t wait too long, I’m in need of a wife and if it won’t be you, I’ll find one elsewhere.”

  The door slammed as he left and Melody collapsed onto the divan. As much as she hated to admit it, in a way Brent was right. No man would hire her to train horses, and unless she wanted to remain working for Clara and Clyde and be a spinster for the rest of her life, her only chance at owning the ranch was by marrying him. She said a prayer through her tears asking God for another option, any other option, to have the life she always dreamed of. She just wondered if He even heard her prayers because she was losing everything that mattered to her and it seemed God didn’t even care.

  Tallis sat behind his desk and let his head fall into his hands. Almost nothing was going the way he wanted it to. His ranch hands had no clue how to cowboy without modern conveniences. That he refused to allow them to wear t-shirts and carry cellphones had caused several to quit the ranch, leaving him shorthanded. His foreman was threatening to quit because of having to use old fashioned lassos, not the modern synthetic ones that slid easier through the hands. That all ranch work had to be done from horseback or horse and wagon was another point of contention. On top of that he had no clue how, not only cattle ranching, but life itself was conducted on a ranch in the nineteenth century. Less than two hundred years and already the skills were being lost.

  He’d had to send back east to an Amish community to find anyone who made a old fashioned wood burning cook stove and oven. Now he had one being shipped to him but he couldn’t find a cook who wanted to use the thing. What he needed were some cowboys who were willing to work old school and he’d been having trouble finding them. Modern cowboys wanted to us
e modern methods.

  If that wasn’t enough of a hassle, finding a contractor willing to take things back to the original condition and remove most, if not all, the modern conveniences was more difficult than finding cowboys and ranch hands willing to work the old ways. He sat there nursing a head full of problems and starting to ache when there came a knock on the door. Tallis frowned, he wasn’t expecting anyone and if it was any of his family come to check on him they would have just walked in. He left the office and headed to the front door.

  Tallis was surprised when that special feeling he got when something important was about to happen kicked in as he saw the shadow of a man standing in front of his door. The men in his family had always had some sort of special gift they called the Calling. For some it told them of danger they needed to stop, for his brother he just seemed to know when extra help was needed and showed up out of the blue right as someone need that help. Legend had it that Nugget Nate and Nathan Ryder both had it stronger than any one before or since. And they knew not only when they were needed but where they were needed, often arriving in time to save a life or a town from outlaws or worse. All Tallis got was a feeling when something was going to become important and right now his whole body vibrated with that feeling: whoever was on the other side of the door, they had important news.

  Tallis opened the door to see a tall salt and pepper haired gentleman in an expensive gray suit with the lightest blue eyes he’d ever seen. “Good afternoon, Mr. Ryder. My name is Reverend Johnson. I have heard that you might be looking for an expert on life and ranching in the 1800s, is this true?”

  His feeling had been right, this was important. Tallis stepped back and motioned for the Reverend to come inside. “Yes Reverend, I am looking for an expert on ranching life in the 1800s, someone who can be a kind of historical expert and teacher. Show me and my ranch hands how it was done back then and maybe, if they want, stick around and do some demonstrations once we get up and running for the guests. Before that, I need them to make sure what we are doing is authentic, or as close to it as we can get in this time.”