by Alix Labelle
She went to the nearest lumberjack and asked, “Do you know who that pour soul is?”
“Gunther Jansen,” the logger said. “It’s such a tragedy that he fell like that. We don’t even how it happened. He must have slipped in the mud.”
That had not only answered who, but how. She jotted down the blond lumberjack’s answers then thought of another question. “May I ask your name so I can quote you in the article?”
“Lars Olson.”
Lars Olson, Bridget thought. Why did that name sound familiar? She was sure she’d never met the man, yet his name rang a bell. She pushed the thought to the back of her mind for later consideration and continued with her inquiries.
“Do you think I should contact his family, Mr. Olson? I could have Moya send a telegram if necessary.”
“I’d wait to see how he’s doing. His family is back East, Pennsylvania, I think. We don’t want to worry them before we know what’s going to happen to poor Gunther.”
“You’re probably right.”
Bridget wrote on her piece of paper. Family lives in Pennsylvania?
“I’m assuming,” she said, “that his fall happened here. Is that correct?”
“Yep,” Lars answered. “I was leading the team, when I heard him scream. I turned around, and there he was, lying on the ground with his arm under the wagon wheel. I moved the team ahead far enough to get him out. That kid heard him scream and came running, so I sent the kid for the doc. Doc sent the kid for Mike, but you showed up instead.”
“Mike wasn’t in the office at the time the young man got there, so I came instead. Do you know when his accident occurred?”
Pulling out his pocket watch, Lars opened it. A moment later he snapped it shut and returned it to the small watch pocket on his denim dungarees.
“It’s been at least an hour, ma’am,” he replied. “I did what I could to stop the bleeding, but nothing helped.”
Only then, as she scanned Lars’ body, did Bridget notice the blood on his shirt and pants. There was quite a bit of it, so he obviously had helped Gunther. She wanted more information than from just one person, so she decided to go in search of someone else to interview.
“Thank you for talking to me, Mr. Olson,” she said as she started away from him.
“Wait,” he said. “Don’t you have any other questions for me?”
“Not at the moment. I want to get a better description of the scene here.”
Chapter 15
Baffled by what she’d learned, Bridget sat down at Mike’s desk to write the story. Mike said that, since she’d gotten all the information, he would let her write it. But now she stared at the blank piece of paper in front of her and wondered if it was a good idea.
According to her sources, the four other men at the scene to whom she’d spoken, only Lars and Gunther had been working to get the load of tree trunks that were on the wagon to the mill. Ninety-five percent of the time, the horses were easy to handle, so a two-man crew to drive them was plenty. The lead man walked to the right of the team and the man in back to the left.
This was where Bridget became confused. According to her notes, Lars had said I turned around, and there he was, lying on the ground with his arm under the wagon wheel. If Lars had been at the head of the team on the right, how had he turned around and seen Gunther? Those draft horses were massive. Lars would have had to look under the team or go around it. If he simply turned around, he couldn’t have been following company policy on that point.
After staring at the paper for several minutes, Bridget told Mike that she was leaving for Dr. Frey’s office to go see how Gunther Jansen was doing. First, though, she stopped at Jared’s office.
“Ah, it’s my beautiful wife,” he said cheerfully. “What can I do for you?”
Bridget stared up at him when he came to a stop in front of her. Her heart broke at the thought that she could lose this man at any moment. He could be taken by a heart problem or an accident or any number of ways. She couldn’t bear losing him. She loved him, and could …
She stopped mid-thought. She loved him! She didn’t know when it started, but it was true.
“When I came over here, Jared,” she admitted, “I didn’t know why I wanted to. I just knew that I did. Have you heard about Gunther Jansen?”
“Yes. It’s so sad to lose an arm like that.”
“I was there to report his accident. It was very bloody.”
Unable to restrain herself any longer, she hugged him tightly. His arms slid around her in response. Feeling him against her, having his arms wrapped protectively around her, gave her a sense of security that she hadn’t even realized she needed.
“It’s all right now, sweetheart,” Jared said in a near-whisper. “I’m here. I’ll help you wash all of those unpleasant thoughts and images away.”
“I love you more than life itself, Jared,” she sobbed, her emotions bursting forth in torrents of tears. “I never realized how much until just now.” She looked up at him. “But I do, Jared. I love you with all my heart.”
“Thank you, God!” he exclaimed to the ceiling. “You’ve answered my prayers.” Then he laid his chin on her head, saying, “I can’t tell you how happy I am that you finally love me. I’ve done everything I can to show you that it’s safe to love me, and it finally worked.”
“It did, darling. I don’t even know when I fell in love with you. I just know that I did.”
“I don’t think you fell in love with me, sweetheart. I think you grew to love me. That’s why you don’t know when it happened.”
“That’s very true. I did grow to love you. Jared, I wish we could be together right now, but …”
She stopped speaking when he pulled away from her. Without a word, he went to the office door, locked it, flipped over the sign indicating that he was now closed, and went to each window to shut the curtains.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“I’m going to show you the back room of my office,” he announced as he swept her into his arms. Opening the door that Bridget had always thought was a rear exit, he exposed a bedroom with a small bed, a nightstand with an oil lamp on it, and a washstand. “Your wish, my dear, is my command.”
When he set her on the edge of the bed, her gaze fell upon his trousers and the tell-tale lump at his groin. Timidly, she reached out and touched his covered erection. It moved, and she cupped it with her hand.
“Oh, God,” he sighed.
If it felt that good to him, she wanted to do more; she wanted to caress his naked maleness. Unbuttoning his trousers, she discovered he wore nothing underneath. She pushed them over his hips and stared at his dancing organ. Unable to resist, she leaned closer to him and kissed it. His penis jerked with excitement. Suddenly, she wanted to taste him. Taking his erection into her mouth she licked the head while he moaned above her.
Not really knowing what she was doing, she took her shaft in her hand and squeezed gently. The sounds he made as she did so convinced her that she was doing something that pleased him, and she dared to squeeze him again.
His hands slid to the back of her head, where he pulled out the pins holding the chignon in place. Soon her hair cascaded from its confinement. He dragged his fingers through her tresses, over and over, as though he were combing it.
Then he pulled her head away from his groin, and she stared up at his now-naked chest. He was the most beautifully built man she had ever seen, and she couldn’t take her gaze from his rippled stomach as she slipped her hands up it, through the hair on his bulging pectorals.
Jared took her wrists and pulled her to her feet. After quickly unbuttoning her bodice, he searched for the buttons to release her skirt. Finding them, he let her skirt drop to the floor at her feet and finished removing her blouse. Now only her petticoat and pantaloons separated them. Taking each from her, he exposed her body.
Bridget stood before him unashamed. He was her husband, and he deserved to see her body. Laying his hands on her hips, he drew t
hem up her sides until his thumbs touched under her moderately full breasts. He cupped them, bent over and kissed each nipple. Moving her out of the way by the shoulders, he dropped onto the bed, which was really only big enough for one person.
His hand went between her legs, and he caressed her excited womanhood. Languidly sliding across her opening, his finger dipped into her body. Then it hit the spot that increased her excitement every time he touched it. He taunted her clitoris gently for a second or two then slid his finger into her vagina again. Even she could tell that she was hot and wet with desire.
With his hand behind her knee, he draped it over him and brought her down onto his lap. He held his organ out so she could sit down on it.
She didn’t need verbal explanations as she had before when they’d had sex. She knew exactly what he wanted even though they’d never done it this way before. He wanted her to sit on his hard penis. And she did exactly that.
A heavy sigh escaped from her as she impaled herself on his manhood—slowly, quietly except for their moans of ecstasy, inching down on him until she encased him fully. At last, his lips caught her nipple, sucking gently and increasing her enjoyment.
When his hands grasped her buttocks, she wanted to cry out in joy, but without breaking their union, he stood with her and laid her on the bed. He came down on her, grinding against her pelvis as he never had before. The pitch of their mating grew. Her body ached and arched to meet his thrusts. She wanted to wait for him, but her excitement was so strong that she couldn’t hold it back. Then her body exploded into the throes of release so strong that she couldn’t help but grab his back and hold on while he bored into her with a lusty growl of fulfillment.
Finally, he collapsed against the wall against which the bed sat and pulled her into his arms. She laid her arms over his and let him toy with her nipple, which was still hard from her orgasm.
“I didn’t come here for that,” she admitted. “I didn’t even know I was going to tell you that I love you. But I do, Jared, with every ounce of myself.”
“And I love you just as much,” he proclaimed. “Don’t you ever leave me, or I don’t know how I’ll go on.”
“That reminds me. I want you to go with me to see Dr. Frey and find out what he thinks about Gunther’s injury. I need to know if he’ll survive, so I can have Moya notify his kin.”
Chapter 16
“Hi, Doc,” Jared said as he opened the doctor’s office door for Bridget.
The physician looked up from his desk and smiled. “You two look like newlyweds.”
Bridget’s face heated again. She could only hope that the doctor didn’t mean that he could tell that they’d had intercourse a while ago.
“What brings you two here?” Dr. Frey asked.
Bridget didn’t think she could open her mouth to explain because of her embarrassment, and thankfully, she didn’t have to. Jared took over for her.
“My wife and I need to know what happened to Gunther—her for the newspaper, but me out of concern. There have been too many accidents in the last few months for it to warrant being a coincidence. First, it was my good friend Moya who suffered a near-fatal injury. Then it was Rollie. Now Gunther has lost his arm.”
Dr. Frey frowned. “I don’t know if Gunther will make it. I gave him some of my blood, but …”
Startled by the statement, Bridget asked, “You gave him some of your blood? How can you do that?”
“It’s called a blood transfusion. I took a few syringes filled with my blood and put them into his arm. I’ve heard it will work, but I’ve never tried something like that before. And I’m certainly not sure I gave him enough blood. He lost an awful lot.”
“Has he regained consciousness?” Jared asked.
“I’m afraid not.”
“This man he was working with when the accident happened,” Bridget inserted, “this Lars Olson.”
“Lars Olson?” Jared repeated in shock. “He was working with Gunther?”
“Is that important?” Bridget asked.
“It’s absolutely important. He’s the one who found both Moya and Rollie. Now he was working with Gunther.”
“You have a point, Jared,” Dr. Frey said. “All of those incidents could be connected. And before Moya was injured, there was another accident—one involving a prostitute. Guess who found her beaten in an alley.”
Bridget and Jared looked at each other and chorused, “Lars Olson.”
“Who is this Lars Olson, anyway?” Bridget asked. “His name sounds familiar, but I don’t know why.”
“He courted Elise in Illinois,” Jared explained. “He’s the reason she came here. He asked her to because he wanted to marry her.”
“That’s how I know the name. She wrote of him in her letters.” She paused, hesitant to voice the next sentence. “He brought her here to marry him? But she fell in love with Moya and married him instead. Then Moya received an injury about which he can remember no details. And Dr. Frey, you found his injury to be something other than an accident.”
“I’ve been suspicious of that from the moment I cleaned the wound,” the physician admitted. “I even asked him who did it to him. To this day, he insists it was an accident, but I think he was attacked. I also think Rollie was attacked. Unfortunately, I’m not sure about Gunther.”
“I’m not, either,” Bridget agreed. “But I have my suspicions. Dr. Frey, Lars told me that he turned around and saw Gunther with his arm under the wheel. But another logger told me that one man guides the horse team from the right front while the other man does so from the left rear of the team. If that were the case, Lars couldn’t have turned around and seen him.”
“It’s time to go to the sheriff,” Dr. Frey declared. “That prostitute, Moya, Rollie and now Gunther. Something’s going on in this town, and I think he needs to be informed.”
Jared shook his head, saying, “I doubt it will do any good. The sheriff is on Harris’ payroll. He’s not going to investigate these things. I either know these people personally or know of their character. Any one of them wouldn’t hesitate to find somebody to tell the truth to, just as I wouldn’t. From everything Bridget and her brother have told me, this town has a real corruption problem. We need to bring in somebody we trust to handle what’s happening around here.”
“And I,” Bridget said emphatically, “think Lars Olson is behind everything, but I also think he’s working for Harris. And Harris is in town right now. He came with a new contract for William Wessel, which doubles Mr. Wessel’s profits. I believe that could be called hush money. We must get to the bottom of this.”
“You, my dear,” Jared announced, “will stay out of it. Mike and I can handle this.”
THE END
Stina and the Decision
A Mail Order Bride Western
Book 3
(Can be read as a standalone book)
By: D.D. Boone
Stina and the Decision
Prologue
“I know what you did, Lars,” Stina Bengtson told Lars Olson. “I heard Elise and Moya talking about it.”
“You know nothing,” he replied.
“I’m sorry if you don’t believe me, but if they ever decide to tell Sheriff Douglas, I can testify at trial.”
“Your English,” he said, “is awfully good when you want to bribe somebody.”
Stina smiled. She was proud of the fact that she knew a great deal of English. Swedish was her native language, but Elise Anderson Sten had taught her well in Bishop Hill. Granted, she still had an accent, but she pronounced most of the words properly. That didn’t concern her conversation with Lars, though, and he was just stalling.
“It’s not a bribe,” Stina said. “It’s blackmail. And I’m not doing either. I’m just warning you about what I know.”
“You would choose their side of the story over mine.”
“I don’t know your side, and it doesn’t matter. I only need to know what I heard.”
Lars stalked out of the washhouse
he’d helped other men in the town build for Stina so she wouldn’t have to go from one house to another for her job. The blond for whom she’d left Bishop Hill, Illinois, was furious with her, but she didn’t care. He would eventually come to realize that she’d only told him for his protection.
When Elise had received the letter from Lars to come to Forestville, Stina had basically invited herself to join Elise on the trip. She’d been interested in Lars for months before he left, but he’d been courting Elise. Maybe, she’d thought, Elise would find a different man, and she could have Lars. Then again, maybe she could find a better man of her own than the one who had been courting her in Bishop Hill.
That man, whose name she refused to even think, had ruined her faith in all men, except Lars. Lars had always treated Elise with respect, and Stina had loved watching them court.
With a sigh, Stina took some hot water from the stove and poured it into the washtub. She needed to get back to work. Actually, she didn’t mind the work nearly as much as she’d thought she would. If she was having a bad day or was angry about something, she could scrub the heck out of the denim material the men wore for work, and it was almost always men who used her services.
She’d met many nice men in town, but none of them came up to her expectations—only Lars. But then again, she’d wanted to be with him for a long time, she could be a biased because she had loved Lars from afar for so long.
Then a new man came to town.
Chapter 1
Exhaustion overwhelmed Stina as she opened the door to the home she shared with her sister Karin and Elise Johnson. Elise was getting married soon, though, and then it would be just the sisters.
She opened the door and strode into the house. Across the room, a redheaded woman glanced at Elise.