Historical Cowboy Romance Two Book Box Set - Mail Order Brides

by Linda Bridey

They tiptoed up the steps to the porch, and Violet opened the door. The interior yawned black and empty, and she took the first step into the front room. Chuck followed. Violet heard his breathing behind her. The house hung still and silent all around them, blocking out the light of the stars and moon. She took a few more steps and put out her hand to feel for the table.

  When she felt it, she groped her way further into the house to the shelf next to the wood stove. She let her fingers walk along it until she found the box of matches that always stayed by the stove. She took out a match and struck it. Just next to the matches, a candle stood in a pewter candleholder. She touched the delicate flame to the wick, and a fragile halo of light spread through the room.

  Violet took the candle back to the table. The light cast ghostly shadows around Chuck’s eye sockets and cheekbones. He breathed again in the dark. “It sure is quiet,” he whispered.

  Violet snickered. “You wanted to be alone. Now we are.” They listened to the heavy silence. A square of white shone onto the floor through the open door. Other than that, only the candle lighted the room. Violet took Chuck’s hand. “Come sit down. I’ll light another candle or two so we can see better. But I don’t think there’s any chance of Mick or Jake coming back here, not for a while, anyway.”

  She led him into the room and showed him to the settee by the stairs. Then she shut the door and went back to the kitchen. She came back with two more candles and set them on the shelf next to the settee. At last, she settled herself next to Chuck.

  She took his hand again. “So,” she breathed. “Here we are.”

  “Here we are,” he replied.

  Another long silence filled the room. They both breathed heavily, and their breath mingled between their two faces. Did her own face look as vacuous and hollow as his did? The surreal light lent a magical mystery to the moment.

  Everything she knew or ever learned about the way men and women acted together when they found themselves alone vanished from her memory. The house, her family, and all the laws and conventions of propriety meant nothing now. Nothing separated her from this man. Nothing prevented her from giving herself to him, from belonging to him.

  A slight pressure reminded her they were still holding hands. What happened next? “So what do you want to do, now that we’re alone together?”

  He didn’t answer. He shifted her hand to his other free hand, and placed the other one on her shoulder. Then he slid his arm around her shoulder and drew her to him. She smelled the meat on his breath from the supper table. Other smells of him filled her nostrils with the bloom of the range. The smells of horse, and leather, and dust hung around him like a perfume. She knew those smells. She knew the man who carried those smells. He could be no other.

  The candle light shone in his eyes. He leaned forward, and his lips grazed against hers. The warmth of his mouth melted the chill of the night from her face and rippled down her neck. She never tasted any wine as strong as his kiss.

  He pulled back to look at her in the candlelight, and their breath joined in the still air between them. His lips landed on her mouth again, lingering, feeling the soft welcome she gave them. Then he pulled back again. “It’s going to be a long wait until Friday.”

  “But worth it,” she pointed out.

  “So, so worth it.” Again, his butterfly kiss breathed its warmth into her lips. Her lips flamed with excitement, and her heart raced in her chest.

  “I didn’t think it would be like this,” she told him.

  “What did you think it would be like?” he asked.

  “We got you men to run the ranch,” she reminded him. “I didn’t think I would feel this way about you. I didn’t really think about it at all. But when I did, I didn’t think I would feel anything much for you. I thought it would be more of a business arrangement between us.”

  His eyes bored into her in the dark. “I guess I thought the same sort of thing. I didn’t think it would be like this, either. I thought we would probably keep our distance, at least right at the start. I didn’t think we’d just fall into place together, like we were made for each other.”

  “I know!” Violet breathed. “I feel like I’m coming home after being away for a long time, or that I’m finding out who I am for the first time. I don’t know how to explain it.”

  “I know what you mean,” Chuck replied. “All that silly nonsense about the prince and princess falling in love at first sight and living happily ever after really is true after all. I never would have believed it if it hadn’t happened to me.”

  So he felt it, too. “Do you think the others feel this way?”

  Chuck nodded. “From what I’ve seen of the way they’re acting, I’d say they are. All of us are walking around with our heads in the clouds. I saw the way Mick and Jake acted on the train. Believe me, they feel this way, too. I guess you’ve seen it in your sisters.”

  “I have,” Violet confirmed. “Rose was always in the clouds, but I’ve never seen her act toward anyone the way she’s acting with Jake. The two of them just sit there and stare into each other’s eyes for hours. I don’t think they took their eyes off each other once on the trip back from Butte.”

  “I noticed that,” Chuck replied. “And Mick and Iris both go all shy and smiling when they look at each other. I’m telling you, I don’t think Mick smiled once from Santa Fe all the way to Butte. I rode with him pretty much all the way, and talked to him, so I know. And he sure wasn’t shy.”

  Chapter 26