Kari (Walker Creek Brides Book 1)

by Miriam Minger

  Dark blue eyes welled with tears, his handsome face wet when she’d reached up to touch his cheek…and then Seth had bent his head to kiss her—oh, how she had wanted him to kiss her!

  Kari sighed and touched her fingertips to her lips, wondering what his lips would have felt like pressed against hers.

  She’d never been kissed before, no, and never been courted, either. She had always been so busy, never looking up from earning a living for herself and her siblings.

  Seth was her first suitor, her heart beginning to race at the thought that he would be her last, too, if all went well and he soon became her husband…

  “Kari Hagen, what’s come over you?” she murmured in amazement, never having considered such a thing before.

  Yet why shouldn’t she? Courting usually led to marriage, didn’t it? Wasn’t that the way of things? If she’d had any fear that Seth might have been wooing her to spite his uncle, it had been dispelled altogether by how Seth had held her and how he had looked at her, the memory making her heart flutter all over again.

  Was this what it felt like to fall in love? And so quickly, too, but who could foresee these things?

  Kari closed her eyes, longing more desperately to see him. Even if it was only for a moment, just to feel him squeeze her hand again and to look at her as he had earlier that day…oh, Seth, where are you?

  “I’m going to kill him.”

  Kari gasped at the sight of Caleb standing in the doorway, no, swaying, and he caught himself on the doorjamb to steady himself. His speech slurred, he was clearly drunk, just as Seth had said he might be, which shocked her. Dear Lord, what had he meant he was going to kill someone?

  “I told Seth to drive you straight home from Mrs. McMaster’s, not squire you around visiting my sister and God-knows-where.”

  Realizing with an icy chill that Caleb had been talking about Seth, Kari watched wide-eyed as he staggered further into the room. “We didn’t go anywhere else, just to his parents’ house and then to the ranch. Please, Caleb, I’m fine. It looks worse than it is, just a sprained ankle and a few bruises—”

  “You might have broken your neck! I’d charged him to protect you! He should have seen that rattler before it spooked the horses. Blast it all, I’m going to string up that half-breed as soon as he comes back from inspecting the fences—or at least that’s where he told the hands he was going! I should have known I couldn’t trust him around you—”

  “Seth saved my life!” Kari cried, wincing as she sat bolt upright in bed. “Please leave my room, you’re frightening me!”

  Caleb reeled backward at her outburst as if she’d struck him, a look of remorse crossing his reddened face. “F-forgive me, Kari,” he stammered, his speech growing more slurred. “Forgive me, I should never have disturbed you. Good night…good night…”

  Caleb wasn’t the only one who had heard her outcry, Sarah appearing at the door as well as several menservants. Without a word, the housekeeper gestured for each man to take up a position on either side of Caleb and drape his arms over their shoulders, supporting his weight as they slowly wheeled him around.

  Kari had the distinct feeling that they had done this many times before, Caleb not protesting at all but allowing them to half-carry him from the room. Heaving a sigh, Sarah met her eyes.

  “We didn’t catch him in time, miss, I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize he’d come home. How the man rides in that condition and survives it, I’ll never know. I’ll be bringing you up a supper tray as soon as we get him to bed.”

  Kari had no time to reply as Sarah abruptly closed the door, leaving her alone and so stunned she fell back against the pillows, groaning at the pain it cost her.

  She stared blindly at the ceiling, Caleb’s drunken behavior truly shocking, she couldn’t deny it, but it was what he’d said about Seth that left her so dismayed.

  He wasn’t anywhere near the house at all, but out somewhere inspecting fences!

  Kari had no idea what such a job might entail, but Seth had told her that Walker Creek Ranch was one of the largest in the county so there must be miles of barbed wire. It might take days, maybe even longer…and he’d said nothing to her about it, not one word! How could he have left for so long without even a goodbye?

  Another thought struck Kari that made her feel even more disheartened.

  If Seth wasn’t here, then he wouldn’t be talking to Caleb in the morning about courting her, and his parents no doubt wouldn’t be driving out to the ranch, either.

  Surely Seth had told his father to share with Molly that he wouldn’t be around for days, postponing their plan. Or had he abandoned it altogether? It was all so confusing…and yet so clear, too. Why else hadn’t Seth come to see how she was faring? For some inexplicable reason, he must have changed his mind about wanting to court her.

  Kari fought against the tears threatening to fall, never having felt so foolish in all her life. Here she had been daydreaming about Seth kissing her and falling in love and marriage…oh, she didn’t want to think about him anymore!

  Instead she thought of Caleb, wondering if he’d truly meant what he said about wanting to harm Seth. Someone must have gone to the Red Dog Saloon and finally told him what had happened earlier that day.

  Dr. Davis? Molly, perhaps anticipating her brother’s drunken ire and giving Seth enough time to ride far away before Caleb returned to the ranch?

  Kari shook her head, Seth hardly the sort of man who would run from potential danger.

  No, it had to be what she’d already considered, he’d decided that their courtship was over—but why?

  Tormented by questions that for the time being had no answers, Kari knew one thing.

  Her attempting to get Seth Davis out of her mind was going to be next to impossible.

  Chapter 8

  “How wonderful for your father to throw a dinner party for you!” enthused Mrs. McMaster as she fussed with the back drapery of Kari’s skirt. “I’m so pleased you like the dress. Now that your ankle has healed, you might even be able to dance if someone brings a fiddle!”

  “That would be lovely,” Kari murmured more to herself, astonished by her reflection in the mirror. She’d never worn such an exquisite dress before, and certainly hadn’t ever sewn anything like it. The shell-pink satin shimmered in the late afternoon sunlight spilling in her bedroom window, while the bustle petticoat beneath it swished when she moved.

  From her upswept hair to her white patent slippers, she looked every inch a stylish young lady—but then, she supposed that’s how Caleb wished for her to appear when she met the guests he had invited to the party.

  Neighboring ranchers, he had told her, though really little else, other than that some of the more influential local citizens from Walker Creek would be attending, too, Mayor Ronald White and his wife, Hazel, Reverend and Mrs. James Thomas, and Dr. and Mrs. Charles Davis. Did that mean that Seth might join the party, too, if his parents were in attendance?

  She hadn’t seen him for two weeks, but she’d heard from Sarah that he had returned to the ranch several days ago. Caleb had made no mention of it during mealtimes, which left Kari grateful that his anger toward Seth must have cooled. Might she have a chance at last to ask him why he had disappeared without so much as a goodbye?

  A sudden breathlessness seized her, and it wasn’t from the corset cinching her at the waist.

  She had missed him so! She couldn’t deny it, no matter the war she had waged with herself while enduring a week of bed rest and then limited activity around the house—part of her convinced Seth must have ended their all-too-brief courtship while the rest of her wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt.

  Surely he had a good reason for his actions. Might he even be downstairs already, waiting for her?

  “Kari, your cheeks are so pink!” Mrs. McMaster said with some alarm. “Oh, no, I laced you up too tightly.”

  “No, no, I’m fine,” Kari insisted, trying to calm her emotions as she extended her hand to the seam
stress. “You’ve been so kind, bringing all the dresses out here since I couldn’t come into town for the fittings. Helping me dress for the party. You’ve outdone yourself, Margaret. I’ve never seen a more beautiful dress.”

  Mrs. McMaster gave her hand a fond squeeze. “It’s the woman wearing the dress that makes it beautiful, and you, Kari Walker, are truly lovely.”

  Kari smiled her thanks, growing so accustomed to people calling her by Caleb’s last name that it didn’t really bother her anymore.

  Well, in truth it bothered her a little, but what could she do? She couldn’t deny, either, that Caleb had gone to great lengths to make amends for his alarming drunken behavior, returning each afternoon from town as sober as a judge to check on her convalescence.

  He had sat beside her bed and read to her, taken his supper with her until she could once more join him in the dining room, offered to host today’s party for her, and even ceased his thunderous outbursts at the servants. How could she then quibble about her last name when he appeared to be trying so hard to show her a different side of himself?

  Caleb had even encouraged her to write a letter to her sisters and brother suggesting that they might wish to come for a visit soon so he could meet them…Lara’s other children. Not to rush them into any big decisions about moving to Texas, of course, but simply to see what they might think of Walker Creek.

  In truth, Kari had felt touched by his offer, certain that her mother would have been pleased. One of Lara’s last requests in her letter had been for Caleb to protect the rest of her family, after all, which he seemed to have every intention of honoring.

  “Oh, my, look at all the carriages!”

  Kari followed Mrs. McMaster’s gaze out the window, nervous excitement overwhelming her at the sight of Caleb’s guests arriving.

  “I’m sure it’s going to be a lovely dinner party,” the seamstress added. “Thank you again for inviting me to stay, but my husband is waiting for me at home. Are you ready to go downstairs and join your father?”

  Your father.

  As Kari nodded, Mrs. McMaster handing her a pair of long white gloves, she had to admit that she did feel closer to Caleb. Yet it still felt so strange to think of him as her father, and not Arne. Perhaps one day…

  “Are you accompanying us to an execution, Seth, or a dinner party? For goodness sake, son, stop scowling!”

  His mother’s whispered aside and his father’s gesture that Seth straighten his hastily donned black evening coat didn’t help to lighten his mood as he and his parents ascended the front steps to his uncle’s house.

  He still couldn’t believe that Uncle Caleb had come to find him not long after Seth had returned to the ranch to thank him for saving Kari’s life—thank him!—and also to invite him to the dinner party he was hosting in her honor.

  It hadn’t been at all the reception Seth had expected, no blustered, “Where the hell have you been?” or “It took you almost two weeks to ride the fence line?” or more likely, given what his mother had shared with him about his uncle’s livid reaction to the news Kari had been injured, “I told you to protect her and here you nearly got my daughter killed!”

  An astonishing welcome, actually, especially from what one of the menservants had disclosed to his friend Lucius about Uncle Caleb hollering drunkenly in Kari’s bedroom, “I’m going to string up that half-breed as soon as he comes back from inspecting the fences!”

  Half-breed.

  It was all Seth could do not to turn around at the front door and head back to the bunkhouse, and tear off the only three-piece suit he owned, Uncle Caleb’s personal invitation be hanged! Yet what would that burst of anger accomplish? He’d heard his uncle call him a half-breed over the years, but this news from Lucius had grated on him like never before.

  Seth knew why, too, waiting his turn as first his mother and then his father were greeted cordially by Uncle Caleb dressed in a formal tailcoat, white waistcoat, and black trousers straight from some fancy men’s clothier in New York City.

  The man had disparaged him in front of Kari, and most likely she thought less of him as well, though not a half-breed, it wasn’t her nature. Yet surely no longer a man she could put her faith in after he’d left so abruptly, his disgust at himself fueling his long ride to the furthest reaches of the ranch where she’d never once left his mind.

  “You cleaned up nice for the occasion, Seth,” his uncle’s voice jarred into his thoughts, accompanied by Caleb’s firm handshake. “I hope you enjoy the evening. My guest of honor should be down any moment.”

  Seth murmured a terse thank you, but he’d already scanned the foyer and adjoining rooms for any sight of Kari to know she wasn’t there. His heart had begun to beat so hard in his chest at the prospect of seeing her again that he had to tell himself firmly to settle down. While his parents went into the parlor to greet Reverend Thomas and his wife, Seth moved off to one side as more guests crowded into the foyer.

  “Champagne, Mr. Davis?” asked Manuel, the same manservant who had told Lucius about his uncle’s drunken outburst. Balancing a silver tray loaded with brimming glasses, Manuel offered one to Seth, but he shook his head.

  “Whiskey, Manny, and the sooner the better.”

  As Manuel nodded and moved away, Seth retreated to the mahogany-paneled wall and stood at an angle that gave him full view of the sweeping staircase.

  He wasn’t a drinking man, but right now he wanted some fortification. Especially when he heard a booming laugh at the front door, Big Bill Saunders pumping Caleb’s hand as his plump wife, Gilda, swept into the foyer in a flurry of lavender silk, accompanied by their insufferably arrogant son, George.

  If there was any man who’d been more a rival to Caleb Walker in just about everything, it was Big Bill, the two men vying for years to outdo each other in acreage, winning horses, and general accumulation of wealth. By latest measure, Big Bill held a slight edge, but that didn’t mean Caleb had surrendered to the fact, far from it.

  His latest acquisition, that high-strung stallion with Arabian blood, was proof enough.

  Seth knew his uncle was chafing at the bit to run the animal against Big Bill’s latest stock, and no doubt the two men would be putting their heads together tonight to pick a date for the next race. Meanwhile George, a year younger than Seth and recently returned from traveling abroad, would spend the evening doing his best to impress everyone within earshot of his European adventures, his sophistication—doggone it, including Kari!

  Seth’s instincts suddenly screaming that there was more afoot tonight than just a dinner party, he grabbed the glass of whiskey before Manuel could hand it to him and downed the drink in one swallow. Seth grimaced as a fiery path burned its way to his stomach. He thought to order another one when a stunned hush descended over the assembled guests and all eyes turned to the staircase.

  Seth did, too, cursing himself for a fool as Kari walked gracefully down the steps, a vision of such stunning beauty that his breath stopped.

  Did she see him? He stood so far off to the side that he doubted it, wondering if he imagined a flicker of disappointment on her face just before Uncle Caleb moved to the bottom of the stairs to greet her.

  “Everyone, please welcome my lovely daughter, Kari.”

  As applause burst out, guests rushing forward to greet her, Seth felt as if he was rooted to the floor—again, berating himself for a fool.

  Two weeks ago he had held her in his arms, rocked by the depth of his feelings for her, the emotion in her eyes telling him that she held feelings for him, too.

  Yet what had he done? Up and abandoned her, believing she would think the worst of him if he admitted the truth, that the prospect of spiting his uncle had crossed his mind when she’d agreed to their courtship. Now she most likely wanted nothing to do with him, and he had no one to blame but himself.

  “Seth, whatever is the matter with you?” came an exasperated whisper, his mother coming up as if out of nowhere to stand beside him. “Kari’s looking
for you, can’t you see that? At least go and say hello!”

  Seth shook his head, holding his ground no matter that his mother seemed to be right. Kari conversed politely with the people encircling her, though she kept glancing to her right and left.

  “I don’t understand you, son. You’ve never allowed whatever Caleb thinks to rile you so before—”

  “It’s not what he thinks, but what she thinks,” Seth broke in, only to have his mother gift him with a sharp glance as if he were six years old.

  “How will you know what she thinks or feels, Seth Davis, if you don’t stop this nonsense and go talk to her? Either Kari means something to you or she doesn’t, but you’d better decide quickly! I overheard that ridiculous George Saunders telling his father they could do worse than allying themselves with Caleb through marriage. How does that set with you?”

  Seth didn’t wait to hear more, his gut instincts confirmed that this dinner party was more an occasion to parade Kari in front of the Saunders family than to welcome her to Walker Creek. As he plowed through the guests, making his way straight for her, Caleb’s voice rose above the din of conversation.

  “I’ve been informed supper is ready, everyone! Kari, if you would allow George to escort you into the dining room.”

  Seth saw it then, Kari’s stunned look when she spied him at the same moment that pompous only son who’d never done a solid day’s work in his life looped his arm through hers.

  “Delighted, Miss Walker! I’m so eager to tell you about my travels. Have you ever been to England?”

  Seth heard her murmur shakily, “N-no, only Minnesota and Texas,” as she passed by him in a soft swoosh of satin, the scent of her lilac perfume enveloping his senses.

  Her lovely face tinged with pink as she glanced at him for the briefest instant and then looked away, but not before he saw a hint of sadness that cut him to the quick.

  He had made her unhappy, Seth knew it, and by God, somehow he would set things to rights between them before the evening was done—no matter what plans Uncle Caleb might have up his sleeve for Kari!