A Secretive Mail Order Widow For The Humorous Rancher (The Love of Low Valley Series)

by Elliee Atkinson

  Ben’s reaction to her words made her so nervous she began to shake. He stared at her in silence, his eyes running a marathon over her face. His mouth opened slightly and it took him another minute before he could process what she’d said.

  “You love me?” he asked finally.

  Nan nodded. “I do. I love you. I want to stay with you. Please, please don’t send me back to Georgia.”

  Ben shook his head. “I’m not sending you anywhere. You’re going to stay right here with me and be my wife. I’m going to help you raise that little baby of yours, and he or she will know they had a good daddy, but that it wasn’t me.”

  “You’ll be a good Pa to my little one, Ben. I know you will.”

  He smiled at her. “I’ll do my best. Did you really think I would make you leave because of this? It certainly wasn’t your fault your husband was killed. And I’m so sorry that happened to you, Nan. It is a terrible tragedy. I don’t know that I’d make it through as strong as you did.”

  Nan shook her head. “I wasn’t strong. I almost immediately came here and let you distract me from my pain.”

  “I hope I did a good job of that.” His voice had dropped deep and low so Nan had to lean forward a little to hear him.

  “You did,” she said, in an equally low voice.

  They stared into each other’s eyes for a moment before Ben leaned forward and pressed his lips against hers.

  She tilted her head to the side and joined him, letting her passion wash over her. She lifted her arms and put them around his shoulders. He rested one hand on her shoulder and they continued kissing until they had to pull away.

  He wrapped his hand around the back of her neck and pulled her to him so their foreheads were resting together. He kissed hers and rested it back again.

  “I’m going to take care of you for the rest of your life. I’ll make sure your baby is healthy and taken care of and raised proper. You never have to worry about that. You never do.”

  “I love you, Ben,” Nan said, her heart filling with love for him. She closed her eyes and pictured herself on the porch of the cottage, her husband standing behind her, a baby in her arms. It was the life she’d dreamed of, all she’d ever wanted. It was finally about to come true.

  CHAPTER 37

  Bee Blows Her Stack

  Ben froze when he heard the click of a gun being cocked. He turned his head slowly and looked at the falling water. Someone was standing in front of it, soaking wet.

  He narrowed his eyes at Bee. She was standing with one arm stretched out, a gun aimed at the two of them, shaking like a leaf.

  “Bee?” he said cautiously. “What are you doing?”

  Nan glanced up at him and then over at Bee. Her eyes widened and she threw one hand onto his arm, squeezing him in fear.

  “Ben?” she said in a frightened soft voice.

  “I’ll take care of this, Nan.” He stood up, peeling Nan’s frightened hands off him. He kept one of her hands and helped her lift to her feet. He moved so that he was in front of her, holding her behind him.

  “Bee, what are you doing?” he asked again in a low, calm voice. He didn’t dare drop his eyes to the barrel of her gun. That might prompt her to pull the trigger. He kept his eyes directly on her. He lifted both hands in the air in a surrender motion.

  “B…”

  “Don’t ask me that again!” Bee snapped.

  “Sorry, sorry,” Ben said in an apologetic voice. He took a step closer to Bee.

  “Stop! Don’t come any closer!”

  “You… what… what do you want me to do? You have the gun. You must want something. I don’t think you want to just stand there holding it on us, getting wetter and wetter from the water spray…”

  “I don’t care about the spray!” Bee cried out. He could hear tears in her voice. He couldn’t bring himself to feel sorry for her. He thought how best to get the gun away from her. “I can’t believe you can do this to me, Ben. How could you? How could you stop loving me just like that?”

  Ben pushed away his confusion. He glanced at Nan, shaking his head. She wasn’t looking at him, though, which was a relief. To him, that meant she knew this woman was off her rocker and she believed and trusted what he’d told her.

  He looked back at Bee. “Now, Bee, you know there’s never been anything between us. If I had loved you, I’m sure I would never have just stopped. I would have continued loving you. But I never did. There was never a relationship between us. Please. Put the gun down and let us go. We won’t get you in trouble. We’ll act like this never happened.”

  Bee let out a cackling laugh. “I don’t believe you, Ben Connelly. Move out of the way so I can get rid of the real problem. Then we can be together like we’re supposed to be.”

  Ben paused to give the woman a little time to calm down. He didn’t want to go too fast. It might scare Bee and make her do something rash, like kill both of them.

  “I’ve never lied to you before, Bee. Have I? Have I ever lied to you before?”

  Bee looked troubled and then said, “I don’t know. I guess maybe you have and I just don’t know it.”

  Ben shook his head. “No, Bee. I haven’t lied to you ever before, and I’m not lying to you now. You and I have never been together. We’ve never been in love. I don’t love you. I… I love Nan. I’m going to marry her. Please, you have to accept that.”

  Bee looked like she was about to explode. The hand holding the gun was shaking so hard, Ben was sure she would accidentally pull the trigger. He crouched a little and lifted his hands again.

  “Calm down, Bee. Calm down. Now just give me that gun and we’ll all go back to the house and talk to Carrie, okay? Or we can not talk to Carrie. We can do that, too. We can not talk to Carrie and all go our separate ways.”

  “No!” Bee shrieked. Ben knew he’d said the wrong thing as soon as it came out of his mouth. Bee wasn’t going anywhere without him. She was completely obsessed with him.

  “I’m sorry, that’s not what I meant,” Ben said quickly. “I meant we can go back and we won’t talk to Carrie about what’s happened here. We can all go somewhere and talk this out peacefully. Just not with you holding a gun on us. How does that sound?”

  “Why would I want to do that?” Bee asked, snarling at him.

  “What do you want?” Ben asked slowly, remaining calm.

  Bee sighed heavily, rolling her eyes. She flipped the hand with the gun in it over to the side and then back up again. “I want you to get out of the way so I can get rid of the real problem! I already told you that!”

  “I can’t do it, Bee,” Ben replied, shaking his head. He had one hand poised behind him and could feel the fabric of Nan’s clothes as she pressed against him, hiding. He didn’t want any part of her exposed to Bee. He had no doubt the crazy woman would take a shot.

  “You have to get out of the way, Ben!” Bee yelled, lifting the gun and stiffening her arm, as if she was about to shoot.

  “Wait!” Ben yelled back, motioning toward her with flat palms. “Wait! Don’t shoot me! You don’t really want to shoot me, do you?”

  Tears slipped out of Bee’s eyes and ran down her cheeks, mixing in with the moisture she was covered in. “I don’t want to shoot you at all, Ben. That’s why I just want you to get out of the way. Don’t make me shoot you.”

  “Don’t shoot me, Bee. If you do, you’ll never know how I really feel about you. I’ll never get a chance to tell you.”

  His ruse worked as he hoped it would. Bee’s face took on a shocked look and her body seemed to relax for a moment. She blinked at him, staring directly into his eyes.

  “What do you mean?” she asked. “Tell me how you feel about me. You love me, don’t you? I always felt like you did.”

  Ben raised his eyebrows, shaking his head. “You’ll never know, Bee. You’re about to shoot me. You’ll never know.”

  “Tell me!” Bee demanded. “Tell me!”

  “I can’t tell you out loud,” Ben said, giving her a hard
stare. “I will only tell you if you let me whisper it in your ear.”

  Bee inhaled sharply, her eyes widening. “You want to whisper it in my ear?” she asked softly.

  Ben nodded. He couldn’t believe the plan was working so well. Surely she wasn’t as insane as she seemed.

  She took a step toward him. He was wrong. She was as insane as she seemed.

  “Okay, I want to hear you tell me,” she said, lowering the gun slightly, but still holding it up enough that if Nan came into sight, Ben felt Bee would shoot her.

  He flicked the fingers of the hand behind his back and was deeply satisfied when Nan automatically placed her hand in his. He folded his hand around hers and took a step toward Bee. Nan came with him, pressed up against his back.

  “I’m only going to tell you if you put the gun down,” Ben said, dragging out his words, feeling that if he spoke or moved too quickly, Bee might snap out of whatever fog she was in.

  She was gazing at him with a love struck look, the corners of her lips lifted slightly.

  He took another step toward her and could feel the mist in the air from the waterfall. He glanced down at the gun but only briefly, lifting his eyes back to meet Bee’s before she could focus. Nan came with him for that step and then the next.

  He was close enough to be able to lift one hand and rest it on top of the gun in Bee’s hand. He moved as slowly as he could, never taking his eyes from Bee’s.

  When he touched the gun with his hand, Bee allowed him to lower it. He felt the tension in his gut lessening.

  Just as it got to his waist, he saw a change in Bee’s expression. Her eyes focused and narrowed. He knew he’d been caught. He grabbed her arm and pushed it down so the gun was aiming at the ground.

  She took a step back away from him and lifted it again, this time holding it with both hands.

  “You thought you could trick me, didn’t you!” she yelled. “I’m not as stupid as you think I am!”

  Ben spun around, grabbed Nan’s waist and jumped to the side just as Bee pulled the trigger and a bullet shot from the barrel.

  CHAPTER 38

  An Accident Waiting to Happen

  Ben landed on his side with a grunt, a rock under him piercing his side. He slid to the side and pushed himself to his feet, spinning around to look at Bee. She was standing in the same spot, her eyes furious. It looked like she was about to shoot again.

  He jumped toward her, tackling her and knocking her back. He grabbed her arm and slammed it against the ground until the gun slipped from her fingers and slid across the floor.

  “Nan!” Ben called out. “Get the gun! Get the gun!”

  He’d hoped Bee would stop struggling once she lost the gun, but she became like a wild animal. She writhed and squirmed all around, making it almost impossible for him to keep control of her. She was so small. He’d never realized before how hard it was to control someone smaller than he was.

  Her arms shot out from under his hands and she jabbed both of them into his gut. He felt the air leaving his lungs and he fell back a little. He recovered quickly, glancing over toward Nan. She hadn’t moved. She was laying on her side with her back to him.

  Fear ran through him. She wasn’t moving. He didn’t have time to stare at her to see if she was breathing. Bee was running toward her. He shot to his feet and overtook Bee, circling his arms around her shoulders and jerked her backward. She lifted up off her feet and kicked her legs out in front of her, knocking him off balance. He felt himself toppling backward and relaxed so his fall wouldn’t hurt so much or break anything.

  Bee wasn’t heavy. When she landed on top of him, it didn’t hurt. However, she lifted her right arm and jammed her elbow into his side, sending a piercing pain through him. His reaction was to let go of his grip on her and she shot off him like an arrow.

  She spun around and just in time, he saw her boot coming for his face. He spun away from her and pushed himself to his feet, turning to square off with her again. Her brown hair had exploded around her head and her wide eyes looked wild. She reminded Ben of the old village witches he’d read about in fairy tales.

  She was in between him and Nan now. He moved to the side, but she followed him, glaring at him with daggers in her eyes. She was waiting for him to move.

  She took a step backwards toward Nan.

  “Leave Nan alone,” he said firmly. “You don’t want to hurt her any more than you already have.”

  “I want to make sure she’s dead,” Bee said in a snarling voice. She reached around to the back of her dress and pulled a small knife from a hidden pocket. She flicked it open and grinned at him. “What do you want to bet I can get this in her before you can stop me?”

  Anger split through Ben. He clenched his teeth together and tried not to react too quickly. “Don’t you do it, Bee. Leave her alone. She’s done nothing to you. You have to know I’ll get to you before you can do any damage.”

  She took another step toward Nan, sending rage through Ben.

  Bee spun around and closed the distance between her and Nan, practically jumping toward the unconscious woman. Ben wasted no time overtaking her, reaching out and grabbing her by the back of her wild brown hair.

  He jerked her back off her feet and her body slammed on the ground. She cried out, her hands wrapped around his at the back of her head.

  He knelt down and brought his face in front of hers, their noses practically touching. “I told you to leave her alone. Now you’re going back to the ranch and you’re gonna pack your stuff and get out. You’re not welcome here anymore.”

  “You can’t tell me to leave!” Bee cried out. “I don’t work for you!”

  “No one is going to believe your lies anymore, Bee. Logan knows all about you. He came to me and told me to watch out for you. I bet you didn’t know that, did you? You aren’t fooling anyone. You’ve never fooled anyone. You’re leaving.”

  He snatched the knife from her hand as he spoke and tossed it over the waterfall. Bee made a grunting sound of aggravation and then cried out when he pulled her to her feet by the back of her hair.

  “That hurts!”

  “You hurt Nan. So, we’re even. Now get out of here and don’t come back!” He shoved her toward the falling water. She stumbled a few feet and then spun around to glare at him.

  “You can’t do this to me! You are supposed to love me! That’s the way it’s supposed to be!”

  “I don’t love you!” Ben yelled. “I never have! You are crazy! Get out of here. I don’t want to see you when we get back. I’m going straight to Carrie and Logan. Don’t try anything or you’ll be in even more trouble. Do you understand me?”

  Bee narrowed her eyes at him. “I understand you. I’m not stupid.”

  “I don’t know about that. Go on, get! Get out of here!”

  Bee took a few reluctant steps backward and then turned to hurry out of the cave.

  Ben turned back to Nan. He was beside her in moments, reaching out to touch her shoulder and turn her onto her side. He was terrified to see a pool of blood forming under her. His eyes fell to her shoulder, the one she was laying on. It was covered in blood.

  He pushed the fabric of her shirt aside. There was a tiny hole just under her shoulder bone.

  “Nan?” he said softly, tapping her on the cheek. “Nan? Honey, wake up. You’ll be okay. Wake up.”

  It took a few more moments and a few more pats before Nan’s eyelids fluttered. She looked up at him, her eyes unfocused for a moment and then sharpening as she looked at him.

  “Ben…” she said quietly. “My shoulder hurts. She shot me.”

  “Yeah, I saw that. I’m sorry, honey. I need to get you back to the ranch house so they can take care of you. Come on, can you stand?”

  He helped her sit up first and then lifted her to her feet. “I can walk. It’s just my… my shoulder. God, it hurts.”

  “It went in and out, Nan. We can clean it up and you’ll have a story to tell our children. You were brave. You should be
proud of yourself.”

  Nan snorted, looking up at him, making his heart pound with desire. “I wasn’t brave. I was hiding behind you and then I was unconscious. That’s not brave.”

  Ben chuckled. “You were protecting your little one.” He grinned softly. “And I was protecting mine.”

  Her gaze softened and she tilted her head to one side. “That’s sweet, Ben. I love you.”

  “I love you, too, Nan.”

  He wanted to pull her into a tight hug, but was fully aware that it would cause her great pain. He squeezed her other shoulder and bent at the waist to place a soft kiss on her lips. She responded with such passion, he didn’t want to stop.

  When he finally pulled away, he held out his hand to her. “Let’s get back, Nan. We have a lot of explaining to do.”

  Nan grinned at him, taking his hand and stepping up next to him. She would follow behind him as they made their way back down the mountain.

  They stepped carefully toward the edge of the waterfall, placing their feet in specific spots that weren’t as wet as others.

  Halfway between the cave and the hillside, Ben stopped abruptly, hearing a branch cracking above him. He looked up to see Bee dropping down from the tree. He jerked Nan out from under the jumping woman, forgetting the injury to her shoulder. He wrapped both arms around her and turned her away from the scene.

  Bee crashed to the ground where Nan had been and her body bounced as if it was a water droplet. She turned her head just in time to cast a glaring, furious glance at Ben before tipping over the edge and plummeting down into the depths of the waterfall and the rocks below.

  CHAPTER 39

  Ben Consoles A Shaken Nan

  Ben released Nan as soon as Bee was out of sight, fully aware he’d been squeezing her injured shoulder without much regard to it. Her shoulder was throbbing, but she wasn’t paying much attention to it. She was too surprised by what had happened.