The Secret Admirer Romance Collection

by Barratt, Amanda; Beatty, Lorraine; Bull, Molly Noble

  And he would be shackled to Pearl Barrett for the rest of his life.

  Chapter 4

  That was possibly the fastest wedding I’ve ever attended. I can’t wait to write Frank about it. Frank’s my college friend. Frank is just a nickname, but, well, anyway, we’ve daydreamed about our wedding days, but never did I imagine mine would be like that.”

  Pearl slid a sideways glance at her new husband in hopes that he might respond with a nod or a smile. Or even a grunt.

  Instead, he continued to stare straight ahead, his fingers gripping the reins so tight that his knuckles had long ago turned white.

  “You know it’s the funniest thing,” she said. “I was just remembering how when I was just a girl you told me that someday you’d come back and marry me. And look at this. You did.”

  Silence.

  “You called me Princess back then, and I always loved that. Of course, I was just a girl.” She paused. “But then even a grown woman likes to think she’s special. Not that I expect you to think that of me now. But maybe someday, when we’ve been married awhile.”

  No reaction.

  Pearl sighed and looked away to watch the familiar landscape roll past. This was not what she envisioned when she and Frank daydreamed about their wedding days. She certainly hoped Frank would fare better. Considering Frank’s situation, there was a good chance her fairy-tale wedding would actually happen.

  She stewed on that fact just long enough to realize that no matter how it had come to be, she was indeed married to Deke Wyatt. If a big beautiful wedding with all the trimmings was her goal, then she shouldn’t have been so upset about the arrangements Papa made with Mr. Simpson. That certainly would have been quite the social event.

  Oh, but the marriage that followed any wedding was much more important. She hadn’t been able to imagine a life with Mr. Simpson, but Deke? Yes, indeed, they would have a fine life together.

  Just as soon as he stopped being so grumpy about marrying her.

  She decided right then to be a good wife and cheer him up. “I will need to know all your favorite meals so I can learn to cook them.”

  Silence.

  “And I must know whether you like your coffee black or with something more like sugar or milk.”

  Nothing.

  All right. She would try another topic. “Your brothers certainly looked surprised when you told them they had to walk back to the ranch tomorrow after they stay the night in jail. I don’t think they expected that.”

  “Nor did I expect a few things that happened today,” he muttered.

  Success. He spoke!

  “Nor did I,” she said. “I was sitting in the railcar heading for Denver and…” Pearl let the words hang between them, unwilling to talk about her near miss with marriage to another man. “Well, anyway, I had one plan this morning, and the Lord changed that right quick, didn’t He?”

  Deke snorted and shifted positions but never spared her a glance. “You think the Lord did this?”

  Her heart lurched. Surely Deke still believed in God and the power of prayer. “I know He did. I asked Him to.” She hesitated. “You do still believe in God, don’t you?”

  “Yes, I do, which is why all of this makes no sense.” Deke pulled back on the reins to slow the wagon and then looked her direction. “You mean to tell me you set off this morning to marry me? That certainly explains the way I was railroaded into this.”

  In any other situation, Deke’s pun, however unintentional, might have been funny. At this moment, it was not.

  “You were railroaded into this? Did you not notice that I was also given no choice?”

  His expression remained stony. “What I noticed was that you didn’t seem too unhappy to be taking my name when the sheriff fetched the preacher. I also noticed it was me you picked out of the lot of us. Any one of my brothers would have been proud to marry up with you and call you his wife.”

  “But not you,” she said, her feelings a jumble of anger and hurt.

  Rather than respond, Deke slapped at the reins and set the wagon in motion again. His lack of answer was all the answer Pearl needed.

  “Look,” he finally said, “I have no desire to hurt you, but I am a busy man. My Washington practice is just getting started and I have no time for a wife. I really had no time to come back here and handle my father’s affairs, but my grandfather insisted, so he sent someone from his firm to cover my work until I return.”

  “I see.”

  “No,” Deke said, “I don’t think you do. I’m losing more of what I worked so hard for with every day that I am not there to see to the firm. This marriage is just one more complication.”

  “So I am a complication,” she said, anger rising slightly over the pain she felt at Deke’s attitude. “Then I shall prove you wrong.”

  Deke’s laugh held no humor. “Go ahead and try, Princess, but I do not hold out much hope for success. I was forced to marry you, but I am not forced to bring you with me when I leave.”

  He turned the wagon down the road leading to the Polecat Creek Ranch. Off in the distance she could see the home and lands she had married into.

  “Wherever you go, I will go, too, like it says in the Bible.”

  “That verse wasn’t meant to refer to a husband and a wife,” he said.

  “All right,” she said. “What about this one: ‘And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, let not the wife depart from her husband.’”

  When he ignored her, Pearl tried again. “‘Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.’ Or this one: ‘Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church.’”

  “All right,” he said as he held his hand up to silence her. “I get the idea. In my absence you’ve become a Bible scholar.”

  “Hardly,” she said as she smoothed her skirts. “But I did attend university. You might recall I sent an invitation for you to visit Wells College on one of their open houses?”

  “I do not,” Deke said. “To what address did you send this invitation?”

  “To your grandfather’s law office,” she said. “I assumed it would reach you.”

  “It did not,” he said as he urged the horses on. “Tell me about this education of yours.”

  She smiled. “The usual classics, of course. And the Bible.”

  “As I guessed.”

  Pearl nodded. “Along with mathematics and sciences. I especially enjoyed my courses in astronomy and languages.”

  For a moment, Deke looked surprised. Then his expression returned to something akin to neutral. “That is impressive,” he finally said, almost grudgingly.

  “Father wasn’t pleased that I had chosen to study so far away, but since Mama was an alumnus, she was quite supportive.”

  “Well, of course.” His steely tone had returned.

  “What does that mean, Deke?”

  He shrugged. “Probably not a discussion best held on our wedding day, my dear.”

  Had he not used such a sarcastic tone when he called her that endearment, Pearl might have been slightly encouraged. Instead, she sank lower on the bench.

  “Considering the situation, I don’t see how any discussion will make the day any worse.”

  “Point taken,” he said as he nodded toward the ranch house. “But we no longer have to carry on any sort of conversation, because we’ve arrived. Welcome home, Mrs. Wyatt.”

  The piles of legal documents on the corner of his father’s desk kept Deke busy for more than an hour after their return to Polecat Creek Ranch. With his grandfather’s political aspirations, it was more important than ever for the firm to make a good impression should they manage an introduction to the new president once he took office.

  He was halfway through the text of a Supreme Court decision on Hollister v. Benedict & Burnham Manufacturing Company when he felt someone watching him.

  Pearl stepped inside the door and then made her way toward him. Deke
couldn’t help but notice she walked with a confident shyness that was both appealing and intriguing.

  “What are you reading?” she asked as she settled onto the chair on the other side of the desk.

  “A Supreme Court decision regarding a bill in equity to enjoin the alleged infringement of letters patent,” he said as he leaned back in his father’s chair to await her purpose in interrupting him.

  “Was it reversed or affirmed?” At his surprised look, she smiled. “What? I know a thing or two about the law.”

  “So you do,” he said. “It was reversed.”

  She nodded. “And do you agree with the reversal?”

  “I haven’t read the case thoroughly, so I am withholding judgment.” He paused. “I have a lot of work to catch up on and a short time to get it done. My grandfather has an important meeting in a few weeks, and I’ve been charged with accomplishing a few critical things beforehand on his behalf. Is there something you wanted?”

  “Actually, I was hoping I might divert your attention and have you accompany me on a short ride. I would go alone, but I don’t have my riding boots with me and I hesitate to go far alone and without being properly attired for riding.”

  “Yes, I can see the problem with that.” He glanced down at the paperwork and back at Pearl. “I shouldn’t.”

  “Probably not.” She cast her gaze downward and then slowly lifted her attention to him once more. “I’m sure I can manage, then.”

  “You could wait for one of my brothers.”

  “I could,” she said, “but you made sure they wouldn’t be home until tomorrow.”

  “Yes, I did.” He let out a long breath. The two of them would be alone the rest of the evening.

  And tonight.

  What was he thinking?

  “All right, then,” Deke said as he rose and stretched out his back. “I don’t suppose it would hurt to leave this work briefly, but we will take the buggy.”

  “But you know how I love to ride the ranch horses,” she protested.

  “When you’ve assembled the proper clothes to ride, then you’ll ride. Until then, it’s either the buggy or I go back to my work.”

  A slow smile began, and as it blossomed Pearl looked even more beautiful. He almost forgot how irritated he was that she’d chosen him of all the Wyatt brothers. Worse, he was actually happy for the interruption from his work.

  The feeling terrified him.

  Rising abruptly, he made his way around the desk and out into the hall. “I’ll harness the horse.”

  A short while later, they were seated in the buggy and headed toward the ridge. “I look to the hills,” Pearl said. “It is where my help comes from.”

  Deke nodded. “You like the Bible references, don’t you?”

  “Don’t you?” she countered.

  “Sure, I do,” he said, “although I haven’t found as much need to use them in conversation as you have.”

  “Then perhaps you’re talking to the wrong people.” She shrugged. “Or just having the wrong conversations. Do head toward the hills, please.”

  “It’s a good long distance, Pearl. We’ll be lucky to get there and back before dark.”

  His companion grinned. “I’m willing to try if you are.”

  “You always were a daredevil,” he commented as he flicked the reins and urged the buggy forward. Pearl’s laughter trailed behind them and curled up in his heart. He remembered that laugh, but that had been so long ago.

  After a few minutes, Pearl nudged him. “Let me take the reins, please.”

  Though he argued with her, his opposition was halfhearted at best. He knew Pearl could handle a buggy. He was the one who’d taught her.

  “Just don’t get us killed,” he said as he handed the reins over to her.

  It had been years since Pearl felt the wind blowing in her face and the feel of a buggy racing across the open prairie. For too long she’d been so occupied being prim and proper to gain her parents’ approval, so busy learning her lessons at college and at the hands of her deportment tutor, that she had forgotten how to have fun.

  And this was fun.

  She let out a whoop that stunned her new husband. “What?” she demanded.

  “Oh, nothing,” he said with a grin. “I just didn’t expect you to…” He shook his head. “Well, you just seem like you’ve grown up to be a lady who doesn’t…”

  “Doesn’t whoop?” She laughed and urged the buggy around a tight curve between two rocks with an expertise that had never left her. “That would be a sad lady.”

  “I see,” he said, his fingers gripping the edge of the seat so tightly that his knuckles were white. “May I suggest you slow down a little, or you will be a sad lady when you turn the buggy over and land us down there in Polecat Creek. I’ve been baptized once in that creek, and I am not of a mind to do that again today.”

  “Don’t be silly,” she said as she cleared the curve and set the horses moving faster once again. “It’s just a little hill and we’re almost to the top.”

  “And it’s just a big creek and we’re pretty close to landing in it.”

  Once they reached the thick trees at the top of the hill, Pearl slowed the buggy down to a more reasonable pace. “See,” she said. “We’ve arrived and all in one piece with no creek water anywhere on us.”

  Deke pulled out his handkerchief to dab at his forehead. “Just a little perspiration from worrying whether I would live to see another day.”

  She nudged his arm with her elbow and then handed the reins back to him. “It’s beautiful up here. I’d forgotten how much I like the view.”

  Before Deke could help her, Pearl climbed out of the buggy and walked toward the precipice that looked down over the valley on the other side of Polecat Creek Ranch. The sun was already trailing deep orange colors toward the horizon, but Pearl felt no need to hurry back to the ranch house.

  Not when the rest of the evening would likely pale in comparison to this moment.

  She glanced back at Deke, who appeared to be watching her closely. Or would it?

  Surely her husband wouldn’t want to, well…Heat rose in her cheeks as Pearl contemplated the fact she was, indeed, well and truly married to Deke.

  She was officially Mrs. Deke Wyatt, with all the responsibilities that went along with that new name. Though she’d had a cursory education in what to expect on her wedding night, she and Frank hadn’t discussed that part of their wedding plans in much detail.

  It was all too embarrassing.

  She sighed. She did so want little Dekes and Pearls running around. And truly the fuss Deke was making about their forced marriage would end soon enough and he would assume his full role as husband.

  Thus, she needed to be prepared.

  “Something wrong?” Deke called. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

  The only way to learn anything was to practice. She’d proven adept at horsemanship because she’d ridden horses.

  She marched toward the buggy. Without offering a word of warning, she kissed her husband on the lips. Though she had no idea what she was doing, she felt she pulled off the maneuver quite well.

  Until she ended the kiss and saw the look on Deke’s face.

  “What?” she said.

  Deke seemed incapable of response. Slowly he released his grip on the reins and scooted to the other side of the bench then climbed down.

  With the entirety of the buggy’s seat between them, Pearl let out a long breath and closed her eyes. Searching her mind for what she knew of kissing, she replayed the event in her head. Perhaps she’d done something wrong.

  Something to cause Deke to dislike her even more.

  “Pearl,” Deke said, causing her to open her eyes, “I’m going to help you into the buggy now.”

  She nodded as he made his way around the back of the buggy, still trying to figure out where her kiss went wrong. “So was it my technique or perhaps the length of the kiss that was at issue?” she asked him.

 
Deke placed his hands at her waist and lifted her into the buggy without comment. A moment later, he took his seat and reached for the reins.

  “Just as it was when you were teaching me to ride a horse, I need to know what I am doing wrong before I can learn to do it right.”

  She watched for a response and thought perhaps Deke might speak. Instead, he turned the buggy around and headed down the hill.

  It didn’t take long for the hills to fall behind them. With nothing but flat prairie between the buggy and the ranch house, Deke allowed the horses to find a brisk pace.

  “Now who is the daredevil?” Pearl demanded when the buggy hit a rock and she almost tumbled out.

  He halted the buggy and turned toward her. “Are you hurt?”

  “I’m fine,” she managed. “But I, too, have been baptized in that creek. Unlike you, I think it might be great fun to go swimming there again, though perhaps not in the only dress I have with me.”

  “I’m sorry. I should have been concentrating on the trail and my mind was elsewhere.”

  “On Hollister v. Benedict & Burnham Manufacturing Company?” she asked with a grin.

  “No.”

  “Then perhaps you were thinking about our kiss?”

  “Perhaps,” he said tersely.

  “About that.” Pearl touched his sleeve. “I apologize for my lack of wifely knowledge, but I will improve.” She paused. “With the proper instruction.”

  She thought she heard Deke groan as he resumed their travel toward the ranch, this time at a slower pace. He stared straight ahead as if his neck no longer turned. Once again, his knuckles were white.

  When Deke stopped in front of the ranch house, Pearl shook her head. “Go on to the barn and I will help you with the horse like I used to.”

  Deke seemed to consider this a moment then nodded, and off they went. After taking care of the horse together, they walked back up to the ranch house. Just as Pearl stepped onto the porch she turned to look up at the stars.

  “I forget how pretty the stars are out here,” she said. “With all the gas lamps Papa insists on burning at our home, I can hardly see them.”