The Bride Price

by Ginna Gray

  The door to the ICU opened and a nurse stepped outside and announced visiting time. Without so much as a look at the two flustered women, Wyatt ushered Maggie inside.

  Terror seized her the instant she saw Asa. Horrible, cold terror that clawed at her like icy talons.

  His eyes were closed and they appeared to be sunken in his head, the crepey lids wrinkled and so thin they were almost translucent. His skin had a gray tinge and his once magnificent shock of silver hair lay limp and lifeless against the pillow. It seemed to Maggie that he had shrunk. The grandfather she knew was big and robust, but the man lying in the bed was shriveled and gaunt and terribly frail.

  A frightening tangle of tubes and wires appeared to be hooked up to every part of his body. Above the bed, a wall of monitors beeped and flashed incessantly. The air in the small glass cubicle reeked of medication and disinfection, making Maggie’s stomach churn.

  Hesitantly, she laid her hand on her grandfather’s arm and murmured, “Asa, are you awake?”

  His crepey eyelids fluttered, then lifted. “Maggie?” He blinked several times. “Well it’s about time,” he grumbled, but the statement did not carry the sting it had when her sister had made it.

  Slowly his hand turned over and grasped hers. Maggie squeezed the gnarled old hand tight. “How are you feeling?”

  “I’ve been better,” he murmured. He looked from Maggie to Wyatt, and his eyes narrowed. “So...you’ve had your way with my granddaughter, I see.”

  “Asa!” Maggie’s face flamed.

  “We’re lovers, yes,” Wyatt replied without a twitch of embarrassment or apology. “But it was a mutual decision.”

  “Humph! A likely story.” Scowling, Asa raised a bony finger and shook it at Wyatt. “You do realize you’ll have to marry her now. If I have to, I’ll get out my shotgun,” he threatened weakly. “Soon as I get out of this cursed place.” He closed his eyes, breathing as though he’d just run a mile, and Maggie’s terror escalated. She squeezed his hand tighter.

  “Asa, you old bear, don’t be silly—”

  “I’ve already asked her to marry me.”

  “Wy-att!” Maggie shot him a horrified look of censure. It bounced right off him without the least effect.

  “Have you now? Well, good. Good. At least you’re an honorable man. When’s the wedding?”

  “She refused me.”

  The old man’s eyes flashed to his granddaughter. “You did what?”

  “Now, Asa, you mustn’t upset yourself.”

  “Upset myself! You’re the one upsetting me. You listen to me, girl. I’ve been patient with you, but it’s time—”

  A coughing spasm stopped him. The wheezy sounds terrified Maggie. As he struggled to overcome the strangling coughs his face turned red, then pasty, and the monitors over the bed went wild. Maggie sent Wyatt a desperate look. “Call the nurse! Do something!”

  “No...don’t. I’m...all right,” Asa gasped as Wyatt turned to leave, but a nurse came bustling in, anyway.

  “Here, now, what’s this?” She shooed Wyatt aside and lifted Asa’s head, at the same time checking the monitors’ fluctuations. When he had the coughing fit under control she gave him a sip of water, checked his color and his pupils, then bustled out again.

  Asa drew several labored breaths, relaxed against the pillow and closed his eyes. The monitors settled back down to their monotonous rhythmic beeping.

  After several tense moments he opened his eyes and looked at Maggie. “As I was saying, up until now I was willing to wait and let you come to grips with whatever problem it is you have with marriage and commitment, but I don’t have time for that anymore. This little episode with my ticker has made me realize that I’ve got to get my affairs in order. When I go, I want to know that my business is left in good hands and that my heirs’ interests are protected.”

  “Asa, don’t talk that way,” Maggie insisted with a nervous chuckle. “You’re going to pull through this just fine. Why, you’ll be around for decades yet.”

  “Maybe. Maybe not. But I won’t rest easy until I get everything settled. That’s why I’m leaving control of BargainMart to you.”

  “What?” Maggie gaped at him, flabbergasted. “Me? Asa, you have to be kidding.” She struggled to keep her voice light and amused so as not to upset him again, but panic was rising inside her like gorge. “I don’t know anything about running a business. I wouldn’t know where to start.”

  “Humph. You could learn if you wanted to. You’re the smart one, Maggie. You can do anything you set your mind to.” He sighed heavily. “But I know how much you like your freedom. That’s why I think you should marry Wyatt.”

  Maggie’s heart skipped a beat. She experienced the most peculiar sensation—like a tiny explosion in her chest. Strangely, it was made up of equal parts terror and joy.

  “He’s the perfect man for you. He’ll not only love you, he’ll look after the business for you. I can’t think of anyone I’d rather have at the helm.”

  “Thank you. Coming from you, that’s a tremendous compliment,” Wyatt said, but Asa’s suggestion produced a startled laugh from Maggie.

  “I don’t believe this. You expect me to marry Wyatt so he can run your company?”

  “Why not? It’s not as though you don’t love the man,” Asa shot back with a touch of his old irascibility.

  The last thing Maggie wanted was to antagonize him or upset him in any way, but amazingly, the prospect of doing battle seemed to fire him with energy. Color touched his cheeks and his eyes glinted.

  “And don’t try to tell me you don’t love him. You can lie to yourself but not to me. You wouldn’t have slept with him otherwise. I know you, Maggie girl. Better than you think.” Asa paused, and for an instant his eyes went dreamy and a tender smile curved his lips. His voice dropped to a husky pitch. “You’re just like your grandmother. I had to win my Jessie’s heart before she would let me touch her.”

  “But, Asa—”

  “I have friends down at City Hall,” Wyatt interjected. “With their help we could cut through the red tape and get a license in a matter of hours. We could rustle up a minister and have the ceremony right here before the day is over.”

  “Wyatt, you stay out of this.”

  “Nonsense. The lad has a stake in this, too.” Asa beamed approval at the younger man. “You know, that’s not a bad idea, my boy. Not bad at all.”

  “I thought you’d like it.” Wyatt looked smug as a cat lapping cream. Maggie could have cheerfully throttled him.

  “Now just a darn minute, you two. There is not going to be a wedding. And for your information, Asa Hightower, I am not in love with anyone. I refuse to fall in that trap. So you can just forget this crazy scheme.”

  Asa shook his head and gave her a pitying look. “Maggie, girl, you’re my only hope. I’m depending on you.”

  “But why me?”

  “Because you’re the one with backbone and brains. Daphne is a good girl, but when it comes to business or handling money she’s got the common sense of a flea. All Tyson thinks about is slopping paint around and calling it art. Left to those two, the company would go under in a year, tops. Financially, your sister would be totally dependent on Eric, assuming he still wanted to marry her, and Tyson would starve to death in a damned garret somewhere.”

  “Then leave the company to Daph and let Eric oversee it.”

  “I’ve considered that, but to be honest, I don’t think the boy’s got what it takes for the job. No offense intended,” he added in an aside to Wyatt.

  “None taken. I agree with you. Eric means well, but he’s too much like our father to keep his nose to the grindstone for long. The social whirl is more to his liking.”

  Asa’s grip on Maggie’s hand tightened. “All I’m asking is that you marry a man you obviously care about. It that so terrible?”

  Marry. The very word sent a cold chill through her. A vision of her mother flashed through her mind—a slender, flamed-haired woman with tragic
eyes, day after day, year after year, waiting—always waiting—for John Hightower, her talent going to waste, her beauty fading. A hundred or more times each day Colleen Muldoon had gone to the window and pulled back the lace curtain to check the road for some sign of him. While working in the garden she had glanced over her shoulder constantly, the desperate hope in her eyes always fading to disappointment.

  Of course, her mother had not married John, but her deep love had bound her to him just as surely as holy vows, imprisoning her in that lonely cottage with no life, no hope for a future.

  Maggie wanted to be with Wyatt. She couldn’t deny that. What they had together was too wonderful to give up. Not just yet at any rate. But marriage?

  Her chest became so tight she could barely breathe. She felt trapped, as though the glass walls of the tiny cubicle were closing in on her. Slowly she shook her head, her eyes frantic. “No...I...I can’t do it. I can’t...I...I won’t—”

  “Maggie, you know I’m right about your sister and brother. Before you make your decision, ask yourself one question. Could you live with yourself if Daphne and Tyson ended up with nothing?”

  “That’s not fair,” Maggie gasped. She no longer even tried to disguise the panic in her voice. “That’s...that’s emotional blackmail.” She backed away from the bed, still shaking her head. “It’s not fair!” she wailed and spun on her heel and fled like a wild thing.

  “Maggie, come back!” Wyatt took a step after her, but Asa put a restraining hand on his arm.

  “No. Let her go, boy. She needs some time alone. And you and I need to talk.”

  “But she’s upset and not thinking rationally. In that state anything could happen to her.”

  “True. But you’ve got to let Maggie be Maggie, and that means giving her space.”

  Wyatt’s hands clenched at his sides. Planting his fists on his hips, he threw his head back and cursed roundly at the ceiling.

  “I know exactly how you feel, son. Believe me. I went through the same kind of hell when I was courting her grandmother. As one who’s been there, let me give you a word of advice, don’t try to hold on to Maggie too tightly. You’ll only drive her away.”

  “What the hell am I suppose to do? Just let her slip away from me? Dammit, I love her. I want to marry her and spend the rest of my life with her. I want to shower her with love and give her the world on a plate and protect her from harm. The way she acts, you’d think I wanted to throw her in prison.”

  “What you have to remember is, Maggie is a free spirit. My Jessie was, too. When we first met, in my need to claim her as my own, I almost drove her away. Luckily for me I learned in time that it is possible to keep a wild bird in a gilded cage, but only if the door is always open.

  “That’s why, when I proposed to Jessie, I gifted her with a warehouse—so she would always have the means to live independently if she chose to leave me. That warehouse was Jessie’s open door. She left it to Maggie because she recognized her own restless spirit in the girl.”

  Wyatt stared at the old man. “You gave the woman you loved the means to leave you?”

  Asa nodded. “The only way to keep a wild creature is to set it free and hope it comes back to you on its own. That warehouse was the most valuable piece of property I owned at the time and I had struggled like hell to get it.” Asa’s mouth twitched. “I called it the bride price.

  “You and I, we’re a lot alike, my boy. We like to own things, to hold on to them. Possess them. But with Jessie I had to make myself let go. It was scary, I’ll admit. Especially in the beginning. But it worked. She never left. Not once in forty-two years. I think just knowing that she could was all the freedom she needed.”

  Wyatt ground his teeth. He raked a hand through his hair and brought it down the back of his neck to knead the tight muscles there. The advice was hard to swallow. Intellectually he knew that Asa was right, but every instinct he possessed demanded that he bind Maggie to him so tight she could never get away.

  “Take my advice. Give Maggie your own bride price. It’ll go a long way toward easing her fear of being trapped. Besides, she’s going to need it now that her warehouse is gone.”

  Wyatt’s head snapped up. “Gone? What’re you talking about?”

  “Didn’t she tell you? It burned to the ground three nights ago.”

  “Good Lord. No, she didn’t say a word.”

  “The building was insured, but not for enough to rebuild. Of course, she still has the land, but property in that neighborhood is hard to unload.”

  Wyatt barely heard him. His face set, he headed for the door. “I’d better go find her, talk to her.”

  “Oh, and Wyatt.” Wyatt turned and waited, an impatient look on his face. “In case you’re interested, my offer of fifteen percent of BargainMart stock is still good. I’ll give it to you as soon as the marriage certificate is signed.”

  “Keep your damned stock,” he snapped. “That’s not why I want to marry Maggie.”

  He stormed out of the cubicle. Through the glass wall, Asa watched him stride through the ICU and disappear through the outer door. He closed his eyes, and a slow smile lifted the corners of his mouth.

  Wyatt found Maggie in the park not far from the hospital. He had the keys to the RV in his pocket, so he’d figured she had to be around somewhere, and with Maggie an open space was the always the best bet.

  She sat on the grass, absolutely still, her arms wrapped around her updrawn legs, staring straight ahead at nothing. Except to glance at him out of the corner of her eye when he sat down beside her, she didn’t move a muscle or acknowledge his presence in any way.

  “Are you okay?” he asked gently.

  Maggie dipped her chin in a nod so slight he might have missed it had he not been watching her. She stared straight ahead at the manmade lake a few yards away, but he doubted that she saw the ducks swimming or the people in peddle boats gliding across the water.

  Bracing himself on one hand, Wyatt draped his other arm over his updrawn knee and waited. A child’s laughter floated to them across the water. In a nearby patch of clover, a bee buzzed. The mingled smells of hotdogs and popcorn wafted to them from the vendor’s stand at the end of the lake. Overhead, pine boughs swayed and whispered in the light breeze, dropping a gentle shower of needles over them. Maggie paid them no mind.

  “I thought I had done a pretty good job of keeping my distance,” she murmured finally. “I thought I wasn’t deeply attached to any of them—not Daph nor Tyson nor Corinne. Not even Asa. I thought I could go my own way and not be particularly affected by what happened to them. But I was wrong,” Maggie murmured dully. “I don’t want to care, but I don’t seem to have a choice.”

  “Yeah, I know what you mean,” Wyatt agreed quietly. “Family is family, and you love them no matter what.”

  Another silence stretched out. Finally, in the same wooden voice, she continued. “Asa is right about Daphne and Tyson, you know. They would never make it on their own.” She sighed heavily. “He was right about me, too. No matter how much I may want to, I can’t turn my back on them.”

  She turned her head and looked at Wyatt, and her heart gave a little bump. He was so beautiful, with his silvery eyes and that wonderful masculine face. Just looking at him, feeling his nearness, made her body hum. Thinking of the closeness they had shared these past weeks, the beauty and soul-shattering pleasure of their lovemaking, filled her with choking emotions. The thought of losing him made her physically ill. How was it possible to want someone so much and yet be terrified of having him?

  Wyatt plucked a pine needle out of her curly mane and absently twirled it between his thumb and forefinger. “Why didn’t you tell me about your warehouse burning?”

  “So you heard about that.”

  “Asa told me. I’m sorry, Maggie. I know it meant a lot to you, especially since it was a gift from your grandmother.”

  Maggie looked back at the lake and shrugged. “After what happened to Asa, it just didn’t seem important.”
The warehouse was more than just a gift from her grandmother; it was her independence. Her children’s books were earning fairly well, but her royalties were not enough for her to live on—not yet, anyway. The money the warehouse brought in supplemented her income and allowed her to live free as a bird and roam the country as she pleased—dependent on no one, obligated to no one.

  On a remote level she knew that later she would grieve the loss of her home and practically all she owned, but right now she had too much else to deal with.

  “What you said before about not being able to turn your back on your family...does that mean you will marry me?”

  Closing her eyes, Maggie hugged her legs tighter and pressed her lips together. She was so confused. A part of her wanted to marry him. There was no point in denying it. It gave her a warm feeling to think of waking up beside Wyatt every morning, of growing old with him. But she was so afraid—afraid of losing her freedom, afraid of losing herself.

  Still, she could not live with herself if she deserted Daphne and Tyson. Neither of them had a clue what it meant to work for a living. So what choice did she have? Learn to run the BargainMart chain?

  She cringed at the thought. Asa had always loved the thrust and parry of big business, had seemed to be energized by the long hours, the constant decision making, the responsibilities. To Maggie it sounded like a life sentence in hell.

  Steeling herself, she turned her head and looked at Wyatt again. “It would appear that I have little choice.”

  Wyatt snorted. “That wasn’t exactly the most enthusiastic response to a proposal of marriage that I’ve ever heard.” He reached out and cupped her face in his hand and smiled ruefully. “But...I love you too much and want you in my life too much to let a little thing like a bruised ego get in the way. Where you’re concerned I don’t seem to have any pride, because I’ll take you any way I can get you.”

  His eyes looked deep into hers, and the love and warmth she saw in those silvery depths sent a confusing welter of emotion rushing up into her chest. “You won’t be sorry, Maggie. I swear I’ll do my damnedest to give you the freedom you need. I can’t promise I’ll always be happy or comfortable with the things you do, but I’ll try accept them. I adore you, Maggie, and I want you to be happy.”