When Pearl Lawson sees an ad for a mail-order bride, she leaps at the opportunity to find a husband for her best friend. But the town’s most dashing bachelor has caught the eye of several aspiring brides-to-be…and even Pearl is drawn to him. Though the schoolteacher has no intentions of marrying, her instant connection with Roland Decker cannot be denied.
Roland doesn’t know how an ad seeking a wife for his brother found its way into print. But now he has to handle the hopeful applicants—women who think he’s the future groom. Not to mention the feisty, matchmaking schoolteacher who is just as determined not to marry as he is. Will this mix-up push Roland and Pearl to forget their plans of staying single and allow love into their lives?
INTERVIEW:
How exciting to have with us today Pearl Lawson, the heroine
from Mail Order Mix-Up written by
Christine Johnson, an April 2016 release from Love Inspired Romance .
1. Pearl, tell me the
most interesting thing about you.
I’ve made a
future for myself as a teacher. For a girl from an orphanage who was never
selected by a family, that’s a real accomplishment.
2. What do you do for
fun?
Excitement
can be found all around us. I love to experience new things and to see new
places. That didn’t happen often when I was growing up, because there were
usually too many of us at the orphanage to take anywhere. I treasure every new
experience. Traveling by train and ship to reach my new teaching post in
Singapore, Michigan was quite the experience. One day I plan to travel all the
way to San Francisco.
3. What do you put
off doing because you dread it?
Procrastination
only gives something undue credit. I insist on tackling everything, even the
uncomfortable things, as it comes up. Then nothing grows to the point of
dreading it.
4. What are you
afraid of most in life?
My parents
left me at the orphanage. I used to be scared of being alone, but we’re never
completely alone as long as we know the Lord. He’s always there with us.
5. What do you want
out of life?
I would
love a real family, with children and husband and cousins and aunts and uncles
and all the generations, but that’s just a dream. No one wanted me enough to
take me from the orphanage. I’ve come to accept that it won’t happen. The
children in the classroom and my friends will be my family.
6. What is the most
important thing to you?
To stick by
friends and those who depend on me no matter what happens.
7. If you could
change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
Sometimes I
wish I’d been pretty so a family would have wanted me.
8. Do you have a pet?
If so, what is it and why that pet?
We couldn’t
have pets at the orphanage. There were alley cats that we’d feed scraps
whenever we could sneak them out of the kitchen. One, Tomcat, would wait for me
and wouldn’t take food from anyone else. I liked to think he was mine, but he
didn’t return one day. I knew he was gone, like my parents.
9. Can you tell us a little interesting tidbit about the
time period you live in?
Since I
grew up in New York City, I had no idea what the wilderness was like. My,
there’s a lot of it…even in 1870. When I heard about the teaching position in Singapore,
I had to go there. It sounded exotic, like the Orient, and was advertised as an
up-and-coming Chicago. My, that was an overstatement! It’s actually a small
lumber town. The lumberjacks go through an area cutting down every tree and
leaving all the branches on the ground. People scavenge those for firewood, but
there’s still an ugly mess left behind. There aren’t many roads here, and the
ones that do exist are more like rutted paths. I haven’t seen a buggy since I
got here. What a difference from New
York!
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