Three Butterflies

Three brides set out for the frontier. Only courage will carry them the last five hundred miles. When Molly Bergstrom steps off the train in Franklin, Idaho Territory, she believes the hardest part of her journey is behind her. But the railroad has taken her only so far. Ahead lies five hundred miles by supply wagon through wild country, river crossings, frontier towns, and endless uncertainty—all to marry Captain William Strong, a man she has never met. Molly is not traveling alone. Lydia Smith and Abigail Wright, two young women from Chicago, are also bound for Fort Lapwai to marry soldiers they know only through letters. Before long, the three brides become more than traveling companions. Beneath the canvas cover of a wagon, through long days on the trail and cold nights beside guarded campfires, they become friends as close as sisters. But the frontier has a way of revealing every fear a woman tries to hide. Lydia is haunted by the danger of childbirth. Abigail trembles at the sight of guns after a violent loss in her past. And Molly, widowed once already, fears that loving again may only give fate another chance to take someone from her. As accidents, river crossings, and the harsh realities of western life test their resolve, each bride must decide whether to turn back toward the safety she knows—or keep moving toward the uncertain promise of marriage, home, and a new beginning. By the time Fort Lapwai comes into view, Molly, Lydia, and Abigail will no longer be the same frightened women who left the train behind. They will have learned what it means to become brave. Three Butterflies is Book 1 in the Sawyerville Mail Order Brides series, a clean and heartfelt historical western romance about friendship, frontier courage, and three women discovering that sometimes the life waiting ahead is worth every risk of the journey.