The Bride Series (Omnibus Edition)

by Bittner, Rosanne

  They continued to whirl around the dance floor, Rachael’s blue dress sweeping away pieces of straw.

  “Just say you’ll forgive me for the other day,” Jason asked her. “Do that much for me, will you, Rachael?”

  She decided that above all things she must keep Jason’s black temper from coming to the surface again. “All right,” she answered. “I accept your apology. I’ll even dance with you for the rest of the night so that everyone thinks things are just fine between us. You’re itching to run for some kind of office, so I won’t embarrass you in public.”

  He grinned. “Well, then, this will be more enjoyable than I thought. Give me another chance, will you, Rachael?”

  “Jason, give me a few days. You won’t—you won’t be riding out after this Brand Selby right away, will you?”

  His eyes brightened with hope. “Not if it means I can see more of you.”

  “Only as a friend,” she told him. “It can never be anything more than that, Jason; unless through a lot of talking we can come to terms on some things.”

  “I’ll do whatever you ask.”

  She found it ironic that this man could be so handsome and well liked by others, but that she could feel so repulsed by his touch. All she could think of was the little girl, and the vicious whip. But if she could buy Brand some time by making Jason stay in Austin, she would do whatever she had to do.

  “Give me tomorrow to be alone,” she told him. “You can come and see me Monday, after I’ve thought over some of the things we said to each other. I suppose I should apologize myself.”

  “You just don’t know me well enough, Rachael. You’ll find out I’m not so bad.”

  They continued dancing, and Rachael breathed easier. She could go to Brand tonight and they could leave together. Jason wouldn’t know the difference until he came to see her on Monday. Even then he wouldn’t know. She would have Lacy tell him she went back to Joshua’s. By the time Jason rode out there and found out the truth, she and Brand would be long gone.

  “The rest of the night you’ll dance only with me,” Jason told her. “Promise me?”

  She started to answer when their conversation was interrupted by gasps, and the orchestra quieted as people parted to let someone enter.

  “Jason! I need to see Jason Brown,” came a man’s weak voice.

  Rachael felt as though someone were draining the blood from her body. It sounded like Joshua’s voice, but she couldn’t be sure until the man, whose torn and bloody shirt was wrapped around his middle, stumbled into the center of the crowd, holding his side. His body was covered with scabbing scrapes and cuts. His face was so bruised and cut that at first no one recognized him, no one but the person closest to him.

  “Joshua!” Rachel gasped.

  “You!” Joshua hissed through gritted teeth. “This is partly your fault, Rachael!”

  Her eyes widened and she stepped away from Jason, who looked at both of them in shock. Jason’s first shock came from seeing Joshua alive. Lobo and his men were supposed to have killed him. But to have Joshua come to Austin and blame what had happened on Rachael left him totally confused.

  “Joshua, don’t,” Rachael was saying, begging him with her eyes not to say anything about Brand. Her eyes moved over his sorry condition in worry and concern, as well as dread. “Joshua, what happened to you?”

  He stumbled closer, moving his eyes to Jason Brown. “I came here for your help,” he said to Jason, his voice growing weaker.

  Rachael walked toward him. “Joshua—”

  “Get away from me!”

  “Josh, you’re hurt.”

  His brown eyes drilled into her. “Thanks to your Brand Selby!”

  A ripple of mumbles moved through the quieted crowd of people, and Rachael’s face reddened.

  “Josh, what are you talking about?” Rachael asked in a near whisper.

  Joshua moved his eyes back to Jason’s. “My ranch was attacked yesterday by Comanche,” he said. His whole body shook, and he put a hand to his side. “Matthew is dead—all chopped up.”

  “Oh, my God,” Rachael gasped, covering her mouth. Her eyes teared. “Where is Luke?” she whimpered.

  Joshua kept his eyes on Jason. “They took him away with them,” he almost growled.

  Rachael choked back a sob, but Joshua showed no emotion. “I came to you for help, Jason. We have to get Luke back.”

  Jason blinked in temporary confusion. He had not expected this turn of events and he struggled to think quickly. “You’re hurt, Josh. You go see a doctor and get yourself healed up. Leave this to me and my men.”

  Jules Webber stood in the background, trying not to grin. He realized Lobo must have decided young Luke would be worth something in Mexico. He watched Jason. The Comancheros had failed to kill Joshua Rivers.

  “I have to go with you,” Joshua was saying.

  “No. You’re wounded. We can take care of it.” Jason looked from Joshua to Rachael and back to Joshua. “What did you mean—that this was thanks to Rachael and Brand Selby?”

  Joshua moved his eyes back to Rachael, seeing the pleading in her own eyes. But he had been through too much to feel sorry for her. He looked back at Jason.

  “My sister has been seeing Brand Selby. They came to my place Wednesday to get my approval to get married.”

  More gasps moved through the crowd, and Rachael could feel all eyes on her; but she saw no one but Joshua, standing there and exposing her love as though it were a public disgrace. Tears ran down her cheeks as he continued to talk, while Jason Brown’s dark eyes widened with rage. Jason began to visibly tremble, turning his hate-filled eyes to Rachael as Joshua continued.

  “I didn’t go along with it, for obvious reasons,” Joshua told them. He winced with pain, beginning to break out in a sweat. “And I think Brand Selby told them to raid our place, to get me out of the way.”

  “Brand wouldn’t have done that!” Rachael cried out. “How can you think he—” She hesitated, feeling Jason’s eyes on her. She faced him, forcing back the terror his look brought to her blood. Lacy Reed moved through the crowd to stand closer to Rachael.

  “I say it was Brand,” Joshua insisted.

  The mumbles among the crowd grew louder. “Let’s go get the bastard,” someone grumbled.

  “He ought to hang,” came another voice.

  “Goddamn half-breed scum!”

  “He must have raped her,” Rachael heard a woman behind her. “She agreed to marry him out of shame. It’s the only logical reason I can think of that she would be with a half-breed.”

  Rachael sucked in a sob, turning to face the woman. “I love him!” she said boldly. “I love Brand Selby!” She turned to face Jason while Mrs. Miller fanned herself frantically, sure she was going to faint. “Brand didn’t do this,” Rachael said pleadingly to Jason. “He hasn’t done one thing to warrant all the things people are saying about him. He’s settled and trying to make a good life for himself. He…he came to me and asked me to teach him how to write and read better. He has never caused any trouble since he came to Austin. Joshua just wants to believe it because he’s angry over my wanting to marry Brand.”

  Jason’s hands balled into fists, and his face was a deep red with rage. “You dare to stand there and say you’re in love with a goddamn half-breed?” he hissed. “You rode to your brother’s place with him? Spent your nights on the trail with him?”

  “Oh, dear, oh, dear,” Harriet Miller fussed.

  Jules Webber watched with great amusement, his mind already racing with what this could mean. Maybe now Jason would see Rachael Rivers for what she was. Maybe now he would finally sell her to the Comancheros. Jules looked forward to seeing her suffer at the hands of Lobo and his men.

  “Poor Jason,” someone whispered.

  “The little slut,” came a man’s voice.

  “And to think I wanted to marry you,” Jason sneered in front of them all. “You acting so pious and good—as though you were too good for the likes of me! I
patiently wait for you, while all the time you’re laying under that half-breed bastard like a filthy white squaw!”

  Rachael jerked back as though she had been hit. Lacy was immediately at her side, grasping her arm.

  “That’s enough of that talk!” Lacy barked. “Rachael has done nothing wrong! It’s all you peoples’ prejudices that’s wrong! Brand Selby is a good man. What other kind of man would a lady like Rachael Rivers fall in love with?” Her eyes drilled into Joshua. “How can you stand there, the brother she was counting on to help her and protect her—and let Jason call your sister names in front of the whole town? You know her better than that, Joshua Rivers!”

  “All I know is that after she and Brand Selby left my place I got raided. I’ve lost everything! Everything! All my cattle, my horses—the house and barn are burned down.” He looked at Rachael. “Nothing is left, Rachael. Everything Ma and Pa worked for is gone! And it’s all because of that half-breed you claim is such a good man!”

  “It isn’t so! It isn’t so!” Rachael wept.

  Jason’s mind reeled with the reality of what he was hearing. Rachael and Brand Selby! Never had he known such hatred as he felt now! Brand Selby seemed to always outdo him; now the man had stolen Rachael right from under his nose! The irony of it made him feel as though he might explode any minute. He struggled to keep his senses. Joshua had conveniently blamed Brand, which only made his job easier.

  “Joshua, please,” Rachael weeped. “Why are you doing this?”

  “Because I know I’m right,” he growled.

  “You don’t know what you’re doing.” Rachael stepped closer. “Please come back to Lacy’s with me. We’ll help clean your wounds. We’ll talk about this.”

  Joshua turned his head away. “Get away from me, Rachael.”

  “Josh—”

  “You didn’t have to pick up Matthew in pieces with a shovel!” he shouted, turning back to face her. “You didn’t have to watch everything you’ve worked for burn to the ground! You didn’t have to watch those bastards riding off with Luke! You come here from St. Louis with all your education and refinement, and you forget what it’s like here in Texas, Rachael! You talk about trying to understand—having some compassion for the Comanche! I’ve got no compassion or understanding for a people who destroy my family and my possessions! And I’ve got no use for a half-breed bastard who tricks my sister into laying with him! I never dreamed you could be that stupid…that gullible!”

  “Oh, Josh, I can’t believe you’re saying these things,” Rachael wept.

  “Yeah? Well, I couldn’t believe it when you came to me wanting to marry that half-breed, either!”

  “Come on, Rachael, let’s get out of here,” Lacy told her quietly. “There’s no reasoning with him right now.”

  “That’s right. Get her out of here,” someone in the crowd spoke up.

  That set the rest of them off, and Lacy led Rachael out amid shouted dirty names, mingled with outcries of revenge against Brand Selby.

  “Go get him, Jason! Hang him high!” the men began to shout.

  Jason watched Rachael leave, his eyes red-rimmed with rage. Rachael Rivers had made a total fool of him, had publicly chosen a half-breed over Jason Brown, the very man Jason hated most on top of it! And surely, from the way she and Joshua talked, she had already slept with the man! Never in his life had he had to struggle this hard to stay in control of his vicious temper.

  “I’ll get Selby,” he promised Joshua. He looked over at some men standing nearby. “Take Joshua to a doctor and get him some help.”

  Joshua started to protest, but he was too weak to pull away from the men who took his arms and led him out the door. Jason moved his eyes around the crowd. “Any of you men who want to go with me, be ready in two hours,” he told them. “We’re going after Brand Selby. His neck will be stretched by morning!”

  Fists went up and men shouted their approval while women whispered and gossiped and fanned themselves.

  “I don’t think we need anymore proof than this,” Jason added. “All of you know how I felt about Rachael Rivers, so my need for vengeance is doubled. But Brand Selby is a hard man to bring down, so I need all the help I can get.”

  Jules Webber watched, grinning.

  “We’re with you, Jason,” men shouted.

  “Go on home now and get ready. Meet me in front of the Ranger office in two hours. We’ll go tonight, attack his place while he’s sleeping,” Jason told them. “Tomorrow’s sun will rise on the body of Brand Selby hanging from a nice high branch of the big elm tree near the schoolhouse. He wanted an education! The schoolhouse is a fitting place for him to breathe his last breath!”

  More shouts went up and Jason stormed over to Jules Webber, signaling Webber to follow him out. People slapped both men on the back as they went outside, and Jason quickly led Jules away from the barn and the crowd, then stopped and turned.

  “Get over to Lacy’s place. If my guess is right that little slut I almost married will try to get to Brand Selby to warn him. The minute she leaves and is far enough away, grab her.”

  Jules grinned. “What do I do with her then?”

  Jules could feel Jason’s rage through the dark night air. “Take her to Lobo and the Comancheros. Wait for me there. This other thing will take until tomorrow. Then I’ll be out.”

  Jules snickered. “You finally going to sell that bitch?”

  “I’ll sell her, all right,” Jason hissed. “You just make sure neither you nor Lobo or any of his men touch her. You save that little whore for me! I’ll teach her to act so innocent and pious around me! And I’ll show Brand Selby what happens to a man who takes what belongs to Jason Brown! Now get over to Lacy’s and stay out of sight! She could leave anytime!”

  Jules spit out some tobacco juice. “My pleasure.”

  Jules walked away and Jason stood in the darkness shivering with hatred. He couldn’t think of enough things to do to Rachael to pay her back for this horrible disgrace! He would do everything he could to shame her, humiliate her, hurt her. There would be no holding back now. He would show Rachael Rivers the grave mistake she had made turning him away! Fire ripped through him at the thought of it—Rachael Rivers lying naked and begging beneath him, helpless to stop him. He would enjoy every move, every curve of her body, every protest, every tear!

  Shouting men began exiting the barn now, and Jason headed for his office. He would be sure to tell Brand Selby in private what he had planned for Rachael Rivers before he put a noose around his neck. Brand Selby’s last thoughts would be of what Jason would be doing with his pretty white squaw once Selby was dead.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Rachael hurried to her room, breathless from running practically all the way back to Lacy’s. Lacy came up the stairs behind her, panting even harder, putting a hand to her chest.

  “Rachael, don’t go!” she pleaded.

  Rachael was already taking off her fancy dress. Lacy came inside her room and closed the door.

  “I have to! I’ll be lucky to get to him first as it is, Lacy!”

  “It’s suicide! You already know that someone is out there raiding, either the Comanche or outlaws; and even if you reach Brand, the man is going to have to run for his life. Having you along would only slow him down. If he leaves you behind, you’ll be caught all alone out there with Jason and those men. God only knows what they would do in their anger. If you go with Brand, you’ll be in danger from the confrontation that is bound to take place when Jason and his men catch up with him. And they will, if Jason thinks you’re with Brand. He’ll never stop looking for you, Rachael.”

  Rachael already had on her heavier riding dress. She pulled on a fitted jacket. Nights in open Texas land were cold. She sat down to remove her dress shoes and began pulling on boots.

  “I don’t care what happens to me, Lacy. I have to warn Brand. Jason will ride in there and kill poor Brand in his sleep!” She hesitated a moment, staring at one of the boots. “Oh, Lacy, Matthew is dea
d! What a horrible way to die!” She could not stop the sudden sob that welled up from deep in her soul. “I can’t believe…this is happening! I can’t believe Josh would really think…Brand would deliberately let that happen. I’m so mixed up, Lacy. I don’t know who to cry over the most—losing Joshua’s love and respect—or what happened to poor Matthew and Luke—or what’s going to happen to Brand if I don’t warn him. Oh, God, Lacy, I’ll lose him now. I’ll lose Brand. He’ll have to go away and never come back!”

  Lacy’s eyes teared and she stroked the girl’s hair. “I feel like part of this is my fault. Maybe I should have tried harder to discourage you from seeing Brand Selby in the first place.”

  “You tried your best, Lacy.” Rachael wiped her eyes and pulled on the boots, which were just a blur at the moment. “It wouldn’t have mattered. I would have found a way to go to him. I love him, Lacy. I know he didn’t have anything to do with these raids. I just know it!”

  “Of course he didn’t. But now you’re up against ruthless men, Rachael. You can’t go out there alone. Brand is an experienced, capable man. You have to trust in his instincts to save himself.”

  “No. I have to try to warn him, Lacy. I won’t be in that much danger. Jason will be riding out there with men from town. He’d never harm me in front of them, no matter what I’ve done. I’m white. And Jason wants to look good in front of all of them. He might insult me, but he won’t harm me physically. I can take all the insults all of them want to hand out as long as I know Brand is safe.”

  She rose from the bed, taking a handkerchief from a dresser drawer and blowing her nose. “I need to borrow a horse and saddle, Lacy.”

  “No. I won’t let you. I want you to stay right here.”

  Rachael faced her. “Lacy, don’t make me a horse thief on top of everything else.”

  Lacy faced her squarely, and sighed deeply. “Why do I always have trouble setting my foot down with you, girl?”

  Rachael wiped more tears away. “Because you know I’m right; and you know my mother would have done the same thing for my father. I’m so glad Mother isn’t here to know what happened to Matthew—and to the Double ‘R.’ Father, too. Thank God they’re both gone.”