The Lassoed by Marriage Romance Collection

by Bell, Angela; Breidenbach, Angela; Carter, Lisa

  “Blast it for polishing the floors today,” she muttered as she stumbled to her feet.

  Only then did she realize the snoring had ceased. In its place was soft but audible laughter.

  “It’s not funny,” she called as she stalked back to bed.

  The laughter continued.

  “Turn off your lamp,” she demanded. A moment later, darkness descended on the room. “Thank you,” she snapped as she punched at her pillow until she feared feathers would fly.

  More laughter.

  “Oh stop it,” she demanded. “Just go back to sleep.”

  Finally the laughter ceased. “Good night, Mrs. McCoy,” her temporary husband said from the other side of the room.

  She ignored him.

  Chapter 5

  Denver, Colorado

  July 1878

  As spring turned to summer, their lives settled into a predictable rhythm. Though Mack hadn’t told Gloree the full reason, he intended to inquire about the status of their ranch while he was in Denver. He also planned to call at the post office to see if he’d received any letters from home.

  His inquiry told him that Wainwright had not yet turned in the papers needed to transfer the ranch from foreclosure to paid in full. This news would require a trip to Calleyville, which he would have to take on another day. His trip to the post office yielded two envelopes, both of which he stuffed into his pocket until he was safely on the trail back toward home.

  A few hours out of Denver, Mack stopped to water the horse. Pulling one of the letters out, he saw it contained his remittance, as expected. What he didn’t expect was a letter from his father asking him to come home and take up his place in the household.

  Though Colin has protested—and for good reason, I suppose—I have initiated a search for you. When my men find you, and they will, please allow them to bring you home to me. My health is not as it should be, and I wish to see my family united while I still can. To that end, the remittance contained here is your last.

  Mack crumpled the letter and tossed it into the creek, watching the ink blur as the rushing water whisked it away. He tore into the second letter and recognized Colin’s handwriting immediately.

  The letter was full of insights on life at their father’s house, chatty comments that his brother would never have made in person but that were likely designed to make any reader other than Mack think it was merely an innocent letter sent from one brother to the to the other. And then he read this:

  No doubt you’ve received the gift I sent. Know there are others of a similar nature still to come. I hope you continue to enjoy your prolonged visit to America. It is my wish that you travel extensively and only return home when you think it advisable.

  Mack disposed of this letter in the same way as the first and then climbed into the saddle and headed for home. As the miles fell behind him, he contemplated his dilemma. The money in his pocket was the last of what he would be receiving from his father. Thus, it was the last of what his mother would be receiving from him, at least until such a time as he could find another way to earn an income outside of the ranch. Every penny he’d saved before coming to Colorado had been spent on its salvation and upkeep.

  There was always cards. He’d certainly made a good living playing at the tables. Perhaps he could collect enough to send for his mother.

  Mack let out a long breath as he considered the idea. He thought of the life he was building with Gloree. He’d forgotten the satisfaction and sense of self-respect that came with earning an honest living. But what about his mother’s safety? It certainly held considerable appeal to have her here where she could be protected from Colin and the greed that came with being associated with that family.

  By the time he reached the fork in the road that would either take him home or to Calleyville, Mack had made up his mind. He turned the horse toward the little town where he hoped enough time had passed since the last time he’d sat at the card tables. Just a few rolls of the dice, a few rounds of cards, and he’d have the money to send for her. Then he’d go back to being a fine, upstanding citizen and model husband.

  He’d ridden a few miles down the road when he spied someone coming toward him. As the rider neared, he saw it was the pastor who married him and Gloree.

  “Afternoon,” Reverend Clanton called. “How’s married life?”

  “I married a good woman,” was the best and most true response Mack could manage.

  “You did at that,” the pastor said. “Say, do you have a minute?”

  “I do,” Mack said as he followed the reverend’s lead and climbed down from his horse. “Something bothering you?”

  “It is, actually.” The pastor nodded toward a rocky outcrop on the banks of the creek. “Join me?”

  Mack sat near him and waited for the man to speak. The rock, warmed by the sun, had almost lulled him to sleep, when Pastor Clanton cleared his throat.

  “So, I’ve got an unusual assignment. I was told to come and fetch you to this very spot, so it seems quite the coincidence that you’re here without any coercion on my part.”

  “There are no coincidences.” Mack smiled at Gloree’s words.

  “Something funny?”

  “No, sir. It’s just that my wife likes to remind me there are no coincidences. I wonder if you agree.”

  “Yes, I suppose I do.” He shrugged. “But whatever the reason, I’m here to answer your question. That’s the purpose of our meeting here.”

  “My question?”

  Reverend Clanton nodded. “I was told you had a question. Something about where to look?”

  “Where to look?” More pieces of the memory rose, of the conversation held with Gloree on the first day of their marriage.

  “Can’t you look at all of what’s transpired and say there is a God and I see Him everywhere I look? Well then, I’m going to challenge you to ask Him to show you He’s here.”

  Was that the question?

  “I see you know what I’m referring to now,” the reverend said.

  “Maybe so,” Mack agreed. “I’m thinking of a conversation I had with my wife. Seems silly now.”

  “I assure you there are no silly conversations to be had when it comes to the Lord.”

  “All right,” Mack said. “We were talking about coincidences and how God shows Himself through things we pass off as accidental. She challenged me to ask Him to show me He’s here. That He’s real, I suppose.”

  The preacher grinned. “Well, it looks like your question has already been answered.”

  “How so?”

  “Look where we are, and look at what we’ve said to each other since we arrived at this place. You said that Gloree believes there are no coincidences, am I correct?”

  Mack shrugged. “That’s the theory.”

  “When you decide it’s the truth, you let me know, because it is then that your question will have been answered.”

  “You’re talking in riddles, Pastor.”

  “If you agree there are no coincidences, then our meeting here today wasn’t an accident. It was God showing Himself just as you asked.” He paused. “Or perhaps before you even knew to ask it.”

  Mack allowed that idea to take hold. To sink deep inside.

  “Where were you going, son?” the pastor asked him.

  “Calleyville.” Suddenly he felt ashamed of his intentions. “Post office and bank,” he added.

  “Then I won’t keep you.” Pastor Clanton laid a hand on Mack’s shoulder. “I wonder how married life is going for you, son.”

  “Well,” Mack said as he looked away, “it’s going just fine, I guess.”

  Pastor Clanton gave him a look that told Mack he wasn’t sure he believed him.

  “I wonder about something,” he said slowly. “Did you marry that girl to help her out of her predicament, or did I get that wrong?”

  “You did not get that wrong,” he admitted.

  “And is this a marriage you two intend to honor?”

  “I d
on’t follow.”

  “You said vows, son,” Reverend Clanton said. “I’m asking if you’re going to keep those vows.” He waved his hands in the air as if clearing the question from the space between them. “Forget I asked. It’s enough to know that you know the answer to that. You don’t have to tell me what it is.”

  The pastor said his good-bye and turned back toward Calleyville. Mack watched him go and then headed for home. Along the way, he found plenty of time to wrestle with the Lord about Clanton’s timely interception of his backsliding intentions and about the questions the reverend had asked, especially the last one. By the time he arrived at the ranch, he knew the answer.

  He took a vow when he married Gloree, and he was honor bound to keep it. Now to convince her of that.

  He’d have to be honest with her, starting with who he really was—how his last name wasn’t really McCoy—and ending with a promise he’d be the man she needed. The husband God wanted him to be.

  Mack took the steps up to the porch two at a time, and when he stepped inside he could easily find Gloree by following the smell of supper. She’d made chicken again, and it waited on the sideboard along with heaping helpings of some of his favorite dishes. She was pulling corn bread out of the oven when he walked into the kitchen.

  “Welcome home,” Gloree said. “Did you get what you needed in Denver?”

  “I got more than what I needed,” he said with a grin as he waited until she set the corn bread down to cool and then pulled her into his arms.

  “What’s this?” Gloree said as she tried to wriggle from his grasp. Too late, from the expression on his face.

  “I could ask the same question, Gloree.” He held her at arm’s length and then placed his palm beneath her waist. “What’s this?”

  The last I have of Pitt Lowe, she wanted to say. The baby that I cannot lose, came to mind. Instead, she remained mute.

  He looked angry. She didn’t blame him. “When were you going to tell me you were with child?”

  “Eventually,” she managed.

  “Eventually?” He shook his head. “I suppose something like that would be difficult to hide after a while.”

  When she didn’t respond, he took a step back and leaned against the door frame. She realized once again how handsome he was. How tall and broad shouldered.

  Macks’s humorless laugh surprised her. “You know what’s funny, Gloree? I came home to tell you I didn’t want to hide anything from you anymore. I had decided I wanted to be your husband, and not in name only.” His gaze swept the length of her. “How far gone are you?”

  “Five months, near as I can tell,” she admitted.

  “So you and Pitt are having a baby.”

  Her head snapped up as she met his stare. “Yes, it appears so.”

  “When were you really going to tell me?” He paused. “The truth, Gloree.”

  The truth was she didn’t know the answer. “I hadn’t decided,” she finally said. “I just tried not to think about it. Because thinking about it was too…”

  Too much like admitting Pitt was gone.

  Like admitting he’d never see this baby.

  Things she thought but couldn’t say. Her eyes clouded and the image of her husband—this husband—swam before her. Hot tears rolled down her cheeks, and words became impossible.

  Rather than remain in the close quarters of the kitchen, Gloree pressed past Mack to step outside onto the front porch. The stars glittered overhead pinpoints of light in a sky of deepest purple and black.

  Back in Oyster Creek, she’d stood many a night on their porch looking out over the water and watching for what Pitt called shooting stars. There were always plenty, especially around her birthday in the middle of August.

  She hadn’t seen one yet in Colorado, but she always looked for them. Even now, with her angry husband standing behind her, she was looking up. At the stars.

  She heard the porch boards creak behind her and felt Mack drawing near. His arms wrapped around her and held her against him as he rested his chin on the top of her head. How long they stood that way without speaking, Gloree couldn’t say. Slowly, Mack turned her around to face him.

  Though she expected a scowl, she saw that he was looking at her with a tender expression. “Did you think I’d leave you alone to raise this child, Gloree? I know I’m just your temporary husband, but we said vows, and I mean to keep them.” Gloree buried her face in his chest and cried. When she’d spent all her tears, she looked up at her husband and saw that he was watching the sky. “Look there,” he said as he pointed upward. “It’s a shooting star.”

  If she blinked, she would have missed it. Instead, Gloree saw the flash of light streak across the sky and disappear behind the mountain. “Oh,” she said on an exhale of breath. “My first here.”

  “Mine, too,” Mack said.

  “What do you think it means?” she whispered.

  “Well,” he said softly, “I can tell you my opinion, for what it’s worth.”

  She leaned back against him. Allowed herself to feel comfortable in his arms, at least for this moment. “Yes, please do.”

  “If you read up on what a shooting star is, the mechanics behind them are pretty unspectacular. A meteor falls out of orbit and the dust it leaves behind causes streaks of light. So a shooting star isn’t a star at all.”

  “Hmm,” was all she said.

  “And yet, if you think about how rare it is to see this happen, well, I just think maybe the Lord allows certain people to see certain things that might be invisible to others.”

  “Do you now?” Gloree smiled. “And does that extend beyond shooting stars?” She paused. “To other invisible things?”

  “Enough digging for information,” he said. “I will admit you were right. I asked, and He answered.”

  Her smile broadened. “Well, good.”

  “Other people say when a shooting star falls from the sky it’s God lighting a candle and enlightening our darkness.”

  She thought of Pitt’s favorite verse from Psalms. “For thou wilt light my candle: the LORD my God will enlighten my darkness.”

  “Yes,” he said. “That’s probably where the saying comes from.” He turned her around again, and this time he held her at arm’s length. “I don’t think that you and I getting married was an accident, Gloree. I think it was part of a plan, just like I believe this child of yours…” He shook his head. “Of ours,” he corrected, “was not an accident. He’s going to do great things someday. I know it.”

  “Or she,” Gloree amended.

  “Or she,” he said with a chuckle. “And if the Lord is willing, I want to be here to see those things.”

  “I guess we’ll just have to see about that, then.”

  Later that night, when Gloree was supposed to be sleeping, she lay very still and felt the first fluttering movements of her little one. She wasn’t sure how she felt about knowing Mack was willing to stay and help raise this child, but the fact he’d offered was enough for her tonight.

  Shifting positions, she looked out the window and watched for another shooting star. “Maybe the Lord does allow certain people to see certain things that might be invisible to others,” she whispered.

  “Gloree,” Mack said from the other side of the wall of blankets. “Everything okay over there?”

  “I’m fine,” she said as she stared up at the ceiling. “I just can’t sleep.”

  “Want some warm milk?” he asked.

  “Does that work?” she asked with a giggle.

  She heard the bedsprings squeak and imagined him moving to sit up. “Never has for me, but I’m willing to test it on you if you’d like.”

  “Thank you, but it’s not necessary, really.” She closed her eyes and willed the sleep to come. Just as she was dozing off, she heard Mack call her name.

  She thought of not responding then changed her mind. “What is it?”

  “Something you said tonight has me thinking.”

  Silence stretched
between them until Gloree thought Mack might have fallen asleep. She closed her eyes only to hear his bedsprings squeak again.

  “Yes, you did owe me an apology for hiding that baby from me, but I owe you an apology, too, Gloree.”

  “Why?” She rolled to face the blanket wall and waited.

  “I’m not who I said I was, but I’ll be who I said I’ll be.” He paused. “Will you accept my apology?”

  “Of course,” she said as she waited for him to tell her more. When snores rose from his side of the room, she knew she’d have to wait until morning to find out the rest of his story.

  Feigning sleep was the coward’s way out of the conversation, but Mack knew he needed to be face-to-face with Gloree to tell her who he was. When he heard Gloree’s soft breathing even out, he knew she’d finally succumbed to sleep.

  He slipped on his pants and tucked his nightshirt into them then tiptoed out of the bedroom and down the stairs. The bottom stair creaked under his weight, reminding him he had not yet repaired it.

  Someday soon, he decided. After he finished the other things clamoring for his attention that were more important. He stuck his feet into his boots and walked outside onto the porch for some fresh air.

  It sure felt good holding Gloree in his arms. He’d been furious with her for hiding her pregnancy, mostly because she hadn’t trusted him enough to be honest. Then again, he’d done the same thing to her.

  Tomorrow he’d sit her down and tell her who he really was. About his father the Duke of Crenwright and his mother, the Scottish maid who gave the duke a son even when the duke would not give her his name. He would warn her about Colin, the half brother who could never believe Mack did not want the dukedom and all that went with it.

  He would tell her all the reasons he couldn’t go home and why he wanted to use the last money he’d received from his father to bring his mother here to Colorado so he could keep her safe.

  But most of all, he wanted to tell her the reason why he wanted to live up to the vows he had spoken and make a home with her.

  The chickens began to squawk, alerting Mack to a likely predator in the henhouse. He grabbed the Winchester and went in search of the source of the trouble.