Appreciating
Conveniences
In our modern lives, the tasks of feeding and clothing a family
and keeping a home consume a great deal of a woman’s time, and women today
often receive help with cooking and housework from their husbands (if they are
married.) But historically women labored from dawn until dark to grow or gather
food for their families, take care of livestock such as chickens, can and preserve
fruits and vegetables, cook on a wood burning stove or a fireplace, make
clothes by hand, wash the family’s laundry using a tub and scrub board, and
press clothes with heavy irons heated on the stove. For all but the rich, life
was an unending round of chores.
In Mail-Order Brides
of the West: Prudence, my heroine Prudence Crawford is an unlikable woman
from a well-to-do family fallen upon hard times. With her parents dead, and a
reputation for being difficult, Prudence knows her only choice for survival is
to become a mail-order bride and marry a man who doesn’t know her. The only
problem is that Prudence doesn’t want just any man. She wants a husband with
money and status.
At the Mail-Order Brides of the West Agency, the potential
brides must be skilled in cooking and housekeeping before they are matched with
suitors. The women who lack this knowledge must undergo cooking and
housekeeping lessons. Prudence hates her lessons, dislikes the other brides,
and generally makes everyone around her miserable. Even though she learns to
cook and bake, her efforts can never match her rivals, and one day the failure
of her best attempt results in a temper tantrum where she throws a tray of
biscuits across the kitchen.
When Prudence accepts a match from Michael Morgan, the owner
of a mine near Sweetwater Springs, she believes her groom fits her
requirements. But Michael hasn’t been entirely honest about himself, and when
Prudence discovers the truth about her new husband, the fighting begins. Both
of them will need to change to make their marriage work, and Prudence’s skill
in baking will turn out to be important.
Old-Fashioned
Biscuits
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon soda
2 tablespoons shortening
1/4 cup sour milk
Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, and soda. Blend in
shortening. Add sour mild and work lightly. Toss on floured board and roll lightly to 1" thickness. Shape with biscuit cutters. Bake at 425 degrees on well greased pan 12-15 minutes or until
golden.
Mail-Order Brides of the West: Prudence: A Montana Sky
Novel
Shrewish Prudence
Crawford is the last woman left at the Mail-Order Brides of the West Agency
because she’s rejected every match offered to her as not good enough.
One-by-one, she’s watched her fellow brides leave for their new lives and has
heard tales of their happiness, and she wants that for herself—but not just any
man. She will only take a husband who offers wealth and status.
Michael Morgan
struck it rich in mining, or at least richer than anyone else in the tiny town
of Morgan’s Crossing, Montana. He’s built himself the nicest house in town,
which isn’t saying much when there are only ten homes in the whole place. He’s
elected himself mayor of the population of 61 inhabitants and keeps his kingdom
under tight control. When he hears stories of the mail-order brides arriving in
nearby Sweetwater Springs, he decided to send for a wife, even if he has to
exaggerate a mite to attract one.
A wealthy mine
owner who’s the mayor of a town named after him and has a mansion sounds
perfect to Prudence, even if the place is too close to the other mail-order
brides whom she dislikes. But when Michael and his circumstances are not what
Prudence dreamed, tempers flare and the fighting begins.
Can Michael tame
the shrew, or are they destined to have a miserable marriage?
2 comments:
Those biscuits remind me of my grandmother (which is a good memory) and winter. During the winter, whenever my grandmother made soup, she served the bowl with a plate of hot biscuits! Thanks for the post!!
You're welcome, Angela. I have lovely memories of my grandmother, too. We were lucky to have special grandmothers. :)
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