His Yuletide Bride

by Merry Farmer

  Hubert snorted. “What, you think you’re a shogun or something?”

  Price blinked. “A what?”

  “In feudal Japan, a shogun was—” Hubert stopped and shook his head. Why was he attempting to explain Japanese culture to a moron who was threatening him? He should have been investigating the weasel’s complaints instead. In fact…. “Go on,” he said. “You go run to your family and tell them to do all those things to me. But stop wasting my time.”

  He marched past Price, leaving the man sputtering and glaring. Hubert didn’t really believe the Penworthy family was as important and threatening as Price claimed they were, but the entire confrontation left him with a pile of questions. Just what was this money that Price claimed he had coming to him when he married? And what was really going on with the Bonneville ranch? There were a lot of questions about the whole business he’d pushed to the back of his mind, and now was the time to answer them, and he had a pretty good idea where to start.

  “And now, ladies, raise your glasses to the bride.”

  “To the bride!”

  A chorus of whistles and catcalls from the women who had gathered at The Silver Dollar Saloon made Bebe blush and crack a smile, but she was going to need a few more glasses of Julia’s special punch before she was ready to laugh along with the rest of them. Then again, her stomach had been so unsettled since her conversation with Price and Vivian the other day that she’d barely been able to look at food or drink without turning green.

  “Drink up, sweetie,” Pearl, the current operator of Bonnie’s Place—which was just as much a shelter for women as it was a whorehouse these days—threw her arm around Bebe’s shoulders. “You’re marrying Price Penworthy, so you’re going to need to learn how to hold your liquor.”

  Julia and a few of the young women from Bonnie’s Place who were in attendance laughed. Erin, one of Bonnie’s girls, tipped her head back and gulped down the entire large glass of punch she’d just poured for herself.

  “Whew, this stuff is good,” she laughed, raising her empty glass to Julia.

  “Unlike Price,” another girl, Katiebelle, seconded, then laughed so hard she nearly fell off her chair.

  Bebe managed to crack a smile over the antics of Bonnie’s girls, but it didn’t penetrate her heart. She was too weighted down by worries to truly enjoy the party Julia had thrown for her.

  “Don’t listen to that lot,” Cleo Kline said, shaking her head. “They’re just pulling your leg.”

  “Yeah,” Ruby Palmer agreed. “I’m sure it will be wonderful being married to a man like Price. He’s been so helpful, hasn’t he?”

  Ruby looked expectantly at Bebe, as did the rest of her friends. She hadn’t realized she’d had so many friends, but Julia had somehow convinced most of the women their age to attend her wild hen party. Even if half of them were whores from Bonnie’s Place. Bebe didn’t mind Bonnie’s girls. They didn’t have the same debauched feel or the same hard edge as the girls Vivian employed at the Château d’Amour. And she hadn’t realized Cleo and Ruby and the other girls she’d gone to school with still cared a fig about her. It was too much.

  “I can’t,” she confessed as Erin filled her glass from the punchbowl one more time. “I just can’t.”

  “You can’t what, sweetie?” Pearl asked. She was the oldest of the guests and some might argue the wisest. She inched her chair closer to Bebe’s and rubbed her back. The scent of flowery perfume that wafted off of her reminded Bebe of her mother.

  “I can’t go on with his party. I can’t keep lying,” she said.

  The rest of the women gasped or hummed in sympathy and scooted closer. Some of them swayed dangerously as they did.

  “You’re not lying to us,” Julia said, sitting in the chair on Bebe’s other side and taking her hand. “We all know you’re not really in love with Price.”

  A chorus of agreement rose from the others.

  Bebe shook her head. “It’s not that. It’s much worse.” She sucked in a breath, sat a little straighter, and said, “No, it’s much better.”

  All around the table, her friends blinked and looked confused.

  “Don’t tell me he’s got an enormous—” Erin burped, blessedly not finishing her sentence.

  “No,” Bebe groaned, pinching her eyes shut. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to laugh or cry. “I’m not going to marry Price.”

  Her friends cooed and sighed and tried to comfort what they must have thought was last-minute jitters, but Bebe shook her head.

  “I’m not going to marry Price because I’m going to marry Hubert instead.”

  As she spoke, her friends erupted into excitement and joy. Bebe wanted to join them in rejoicing, but the burr of doubt had taken hold deep within her. What should have been the happiest thing in her life filled her with fear.

  “I knew it,” Julia declared, raising her glass in salute and sloshing punch over the edges. “I knew the two of you would get together in the end.” Everyone agreed with her.

  “When did this happen?” Ruby asked.

  “A few days ago,” Bebe confessed, her heart squeezing at the memory. “I…I was so confused. Vivian and Melinda were making me miserable.”

  “So what else is new,” Katiebelle muttered.

  Bebe sent her a look of agreement, then went on. “I had to get away. And I found myself here in town, at Vernon Strong’s house.”

  “Vernon Strong,” Erin said the man’s name as though it were incredibly naughty.

  A few of the others laughed. Bebe ignored her and went on. “Hubert and I talked. It turns out that half the things that happened between us were misunderstandings.”

  “Isn’t that the way it usually is?” Cleo said with a sigh.

  The others agreed with her.

  “And in the end,” Bebe said, skipping the delicious part in the middle, although she blushed scarlet as she did, “he asked me to marry him. And I said yes.”

  “But that’s wonderful,” Pearl said.

  “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” Julia asked, looking a little hurt.

  Bebe squeezed her hand, suddenly feeling miserable for even more reasons. “I was confused. I needed to think things through. But I still feel like I haven’t solved anything in my head.”

  “What is there to solve?” Ruby asked. “You and Hubert have been in love since school.” She glanced to Cleo, who nodded.

  “That was a long time ago,” Bebe sighed. “A lot has happened between us since then.”

  “Not all of it was Hubert’s fault,” Julia reminded her, a light of understanding in her eyes. At least one of them understood the situation.

  “And now you’re not sure if you know who he is now,” Ruby said, nodding as though she’d figured out the answer to a riddle.

  “Hubert will always be Hubert,” Cleo argued. “He’s was a total sweetheart in school, and so devoted to Bebe, and I’m sure he’ll be that way this time.”

  “Yes, but you can’t always trust what a man says,” Katiebelle argued. “Trust me on that one.”

  “You’re just saying that because men have treated you poorly.” Cleo shook her head.

  “I suppose that doesn’t mean all men are bad,” Ruby said.

  Bebe blinked and watched her friends carry the argument away. If she let them run away with it, maybe they’d solve things for her.

  But all too soon, Julie dragged the whole thing back around to her. “I know you can trust Hubert,” she said. “I know that he loves you. And I know that when he went away to seek his fortune, it was for the best. Also, your father was as much of a problem back then as anything else. I was there. I saw how he was.”

  The other girls hummed and nodded in agreement.

  “But she’s got to be worried,” Katiebelle went on. “Anything a man does once, he could do again. Even leaving.”

  “Not Hubert.” Ruby crossed her arms with absolute certainty.

  “And he’s a damn sight better than marrying Price,” Erin agreed, gesturi
ng with her glass and spilling half of the punch she’d poured. “Even if Price does have a huge….” She spread her hands wider, then burst into a peel of giggles.

  Of all things, Erin made Bebe want to laugh. The rest of the conversation was growing far too serious and hitting far too close to home.

  “I want to believe everything Hubert says,” Bebe confessed. She’d already revealed some of her thoughts, and while she was at it, she might as well confide everything in her friends. “I want to run off with him and live the rest of my life as his wife, never worrying about a thing. But so much has happened since he left.”

  “Don’t tell me you’re having second thoughts about your second thoughts,” Cleo said.

  “You can’t possibly not marry Hubert now that he’s asked you,” Ruby agreed.

  “But my family,” Bebe sighed.

  “They’re a bunch of sour old biddies,” Erin blurted out what everyone in the State of Wyoming must have thought. “What do you owe them?”

  What did she owe them indeed? Vivian would argue that Bebe owed her everything, but that was just what Vivian did. Bebe was beginning to wonder if setting out on her own and letting the ranch fail would really be so bad.

  “But you love Hubert,” Julia said, exactly as Bebe’s thoughts brought her back to that place. “So why is this even an issue? Why are we discussing it?”

  “Because Hubert left her,” Katiebelle said. “And he might do it again.”

  Bebe winced. More than that, she reached for the glass of punch on the table in front of her. She hated to admit that Katiebelle was right, but the facts were the facts. She took a long drink of the fiery punch to try to settle her doubts.

  “Hubert won’t leave,” Julia said, as though declaring the sky were blue. “He loves Bebe, and he’s here to stay.”

  No sooner had she finished her pronouncement, then the doors of the saloon opened.

  “We’re having a private party tonight,” Julia started to say, rising from her seat.

  She stopped and gasped, and as soon as the rest of the women turned to the door, they gasped too. There was Hubert, looking as dashing and determined as ever.

  “Ladies.” He nodded to the group, approaching the table. “Bebe. I need to talk to you.”

  Bebe whirled up out of her chair, nearly losing her balance as she did. Apparently she’d had more punch than she’d thought. “Hubert.” She rushed to him, grateful on several levels when he took her arms and held her steady.

  “Is everything all right?” he asked, studying her face with concern.

  “I….” Bebe’s mouth stayed open, but nothing more came out. There didn’t seem to be words to tell him how anxious she’d been, how much she loved him, but how he still didn’t have her complete trust. There wasn’t a way to tell him how guilty she felt for not believing in him in every way possible. “I’m just so glad you’re here,” she said at last, surging forward and hugging him. She didn’t care who was watching or how many of them sighed longingly at the scene playing out in front of them.

  “I’m glad I’m here too,” Hubert said, holding her close. “But I’ve come to tell you that need to go to Denver for a—”

  “What?” Bebe’s heart stopped. The world stopped spinning. She pushed back, gripping Hubert’s upper arms like a vise.

  He watched her intently. “I have to go to Denver. I’ve been suspicious for a while, but Price said something—”

  She didn’t let him go any further. “You’re leaving me? Again?”

  Chapter 9

  It struck Hubert in an instant that maybe he should have taken another approach when it came to telling Bebe about his plan to investigate Price. And that was putting it mildly. He felt like he’d just stepped in a gigantic cow patty in his bare feet.

  “It’s not like that, Bebe,” he said, trying to make his voice as soothing as possible.

  Bebe wasn’t having it.

  “Not like what? Are you or are you not going to get on a train and leave Haskell?”

  “It’ll just be a short trip,” he tried to explain. “To investigate.”

  He was suddenly aware of the mass of Bebe’s friends, watching from the table. Not one of them looked the least bit sympathetic to him. In fact, if he wasn’t careful, he’d likely be pecked to death by the hen party.

  He cleared his throat and took Bebe’s elbow, walking her to the farthest corner of the room. Bebe shook out of his grip with a grunt, but kept walking with him.

  “Are you or are you not planning to leave me again?” she hissed once they were in the corner where the piano stood.

  Hubert took a breath, wincing on the inside. “Price stopped me in the street yesterday. He threatened me with bodily harm if I didn’t leave you alone.”

  Bebe flinched and blinked. “That’s not like Price at all. He isn’t exactly the bodily harm sort. He’s always so fussy with those glasses of his.”

  Hubert shook his head. “That wasn’t what he was talking about. He said he had family. Family who could cause a lot of trouble if they had a mind to.”

  “The Penworthys are an influential family in Denver,” Bebe said, crossing her arms.

  “Yeah, and Price threatened to sick them on me, like a rabid dog.”

  A flash of indignation lit Bebe’s eyes. All too quickly, it turned into anger. Anger directed at him. “All that is beside the point. Price is twiddling his thumbs back at the ranch right now. You’re the one who’s just barged into my party to tell me you’re leaving.” Before he could get a word in, Bebe’s face crumpled, and she wailed, “How could you?”

  Hubert was completely unprepared for the burst of emotion. “I smell a rat,” he said. “A big, Penworthy-shaped rat.”

  “And because of that you’re going to turn tail and run? Again?” Bebe’s eyes were glassy with misery and rage.

  “No, no, it’s not like that at all.” Hubert fumbled to defend himself. “I need to get to the bottom of this. You told me to use my investigative journalism skills to figure out—”

  “So this is my fault, is it?” she cut him off. “You’re going to abandon me mere days before I’m supposed to marry Price because that’s what I said to do?”

  Hubert blew out a hard breath through his nose, planting his hands on his hips. The Bebe standing in front of him definitely sounded like the spoiled girl she’d had a tendency to be from time to time when they were young. Well, no one was perfect. And the problem was, he had to admit, now that he thought about it, she had a right to be upset. And judging from the way some of her friends swayed or watched them with blurry eyes and pink cheeks, she might have had a few drinks.

  “Let’s start this conversation over,” he said, letting his shoulders drop. He raised his hands to appeal to her. “Price threatened me. He said some things that were mighty suspicious.”

  “Price was right,” Bebe said with devastating confidence. “He told me I was brave to keep loving a man who had abandoned me. He told me that you’d do it again.”

  “Bebe, I’m not abandoning you.” Hubert scrambled to keep the conversation from flying off track again.

  “Well, can’t remember right now what his exact words were.” She raised a hand to her temple and shook her head. “But he was right about a lot of things.” She lifted her head and glared right at him. “Price has been by my family’s side for years, since before things started to go bad.”

  Hubert frowned. “Wait, so things started to go bad when Price got involved with the ranch?”

  “Price has never left us. He’s the only one who seems to care or who seems to be doing anything about our difficult situation,” Bebe blew on. “When Father was dying, he handled all the business so that we didn’t have to.”

  “Price took over your finances before Rex died?”

  “He wants to marry me,” Bebe shouted. “Even though he doesn’t love me and I don’t love him. Love doesn’t seem to count for much when it comes to loyalty and sticking with people.”

  She’d grown so
loud that Hubert slipped a glance to the side to find all of her friends still watching the two of them as though they were putting on a play. He managed a weak smile and a wave for the other ladies, then turned his focus back to Bebe, gripping her upper arms.

  “Don’t you find it just a little bit suspicious that a man shows up out of who knows where, makes himself invaluable to your family, then takes over as soon as your father dies?” he asked her.

  “He didn’t come out of nowhere, he came highly recommended by the Wyoming Stock Growers Association.”

  Hubert’s eyes narrowed to an even deeper scowl. He knew Rex had been an early member of the WSGA. He also knew that the WSGA was behind every crooked deal and range war in Wyoming just then. It was widely known that WSGA members were the ones who pulled the strings of the state government. Price’s association with the group only deepened Hubert’s misgivings about the man and his motives.

  “I don’t think you can trust him,” Hubert said, as plain and simple as he could be.

  Bebe scoffed. “What do you know about trust? You promised to love me, to marry me, then you disappeared for seven years.”

  “Three years,” he corrected, not sure if he was helping or hurting his argument. “We wrote for four years, remember?”

  She shook her head and crossed her arms. “I don’t care if it was three days, Hubert. You left me when I needed you most, and here you are, telling me that you’re going to do the same thing again.”

  “I’m not abandoning you, Bebe,” he said, frustration leaking into his voice. “I just need to—”

  “Leave town days before I’m supposed to marry a man I don’t love to save a ranch that is full of bad memories for me, and sisters and a nephew who I love but don’t particularly like?” She arched an eyebrow.

  Hubert let out a breath. “I’m doing this for you.”

  “Just like you were doing it for me last time.” She shook her head. Then she did something worse than shouting or stomping her feet and making a fuss. She walked away.

  “Bebe, wait.”