Maggie Shifts her Gent
A chance meeting shifts Maggie’s future with Peter.
Maggie Brenner, the oldest daughter in the Brides with Grit series book, Sarah Snares a Soldier, grew up on the vast Cross C Ranch north of Clear Creek. Maggie, and all her siblings were adopted by Sarah and Marcus Brenner when Maggie’s widowed mother died giving birth to her triplet brothers.
Now an adult, Maggie would have preferred to leave the area to work with young children, but she moves into Clear Creek instead when her younger sisters, Molly and Maisie, take over the town’s dress shop.
The Peashooter Society (the older women in church) decides Maggie needs a husband to complete her life, even if Maggie longs to work in an orphanage to help children find homes.
Peter Gehring, along with five friends, left New York City on an orphan train when Peter was four years old. He was adopted by a tailor and his wife, who already had three much older daughters. Now mustered out of the army, where Peter was a barber, the group of friends gets the chance to live and work together in a small community, thanks to the plan of the Peashooter Society.
Because of Peter’s tall, bulky stature, his benefactors think he’s built to run the blacksmith shop, even though he knows nothing about the craft. Luckily, he gets to take over the barbershop instead, enjoying cutting hair and visiting with anyone who stops by.
Peter and Maggie start a friendship which grows into love, but they aren’t sure they want the same thing when it comes to marriage and life in Clear Creek. Then a chance meeting of a group of orphans on a train cements their future.