Susannah Underhill has come from Detroit, Michigan to Fourth Siding in the Dakota Territory as a mail-order bride for Jesse Mason. Actually, he is her pastor's brother and without a wife in this desolate country. They exchanged a couple of letters, and now here she is, mixed thoughts running through her mind. The most looming thought is that he will not be pleased and want to send her back.
Jesse is a patient and God-fearing man. He's extremely outgoing and can talk a blue streak. Susannah is exceptionally shy and has a very low self-esteem. She earned that from parents who never praised her. She was not abused, but she was also never hugged, never told she was loved and never allowed to have much contact with others or make friends.
When Susannah messes up and fears Jesse will send her home, he doesn't get upset, doesn't yell or get angry. She doesn't understand. Jesse expresses faith in her abilities and encourages her constantly. Their marriage is not even consummated until weeks after her arrival. She fears being in close contact with him. Can she ever overcome all of her reservations?
Living in the Dakota Territory is hard work. Their claim is very remote and they have to be self-sufficient. Jesse is pleased to learn that Susannah acquired some very beneficial skills from her veterinary father. She saves his Ma Ox when she delivers twin calves. But when the grasshoppers destroy their entire wheat crop, Jesse has to leave to find work during the fall so they won't starve during the winter.
Susannah learns to be extremely resourceful while going it alone. Times aren't easy, but with God's divine intervention, she manages. However, when Jesse doesn't return by winter, and then winter begins to turn into spring, she begins to get offers of help from others, even offers of marriage when people learn that she is carrying Jesse's baby. Everyone feels that Jesse has met a dreadful fate and will not return. What will Susannah do? Will she go back home, or is this her home now? Will Jesse ever return?
Experience two fateful years on the prairie of the Dakota Territory with Jesse and Susannah in this charming inspirational story about a man's extreme faith, a woman's bravery, and God's amazing grace. Catherine Richmond has penned a treasure in her debut novel, SPRING for SUSANNAH. She gives realistic details of life in the 1870's, works in a good measure of inspiration, and just the right amount of romance. This is truly a must read!
When Susannah goes to Dakota territory as a mail-order bride
she finds something she never dreamed she would-true love.
With no prospects for marriage and her parents recently
deceased, Susannah Underhill agrees to go west to the Dakota
territory to marry her minister's homesteading brother,
Jesse. But Susannah is painfully shy, doesn't see herself as
worthy of love from either a husband or from God, and lives
in constant fear that Jesse is going to ship her back to
Detroit.
In spite of her petite size and the fact that Susannah
doesn't look like she could survive on the prairie, Jesse
quickly discovers that his new wife is a greater blessing
than he even hoped for. The years she spent as her father's
veterinary assistant allow her to save Jesse's ox and twin
calves and to help neighboring farmers with their animals.
But Susannah's feelings of unworthiness are deeply rooted,
and she can't believe that Jesse's praise-or the tenderness
and love he shows-could possibly last. The thawing of her
heart seems almost as distant as Spring in the midst of the
winter blanketing the Dakota prairie.
No excerpt available.
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