Mail Order Bride: 9 Book Boxed set : 9 Brides for 9 Cowboys: CLEAN Western Historical Romance Series Bundle

by Faye Sonja

  “I know,” she whispered back, believing just a little bit of all the things her father had told her. “I have a lunch date with Lyca. See you later?” she asked before she could stop herself.

  He smiled hesitantly and she dashed up the stairs. The tears that swam in her eyes as she tried to make sense of what she just witnessed was a testament to the fact that she was not built for that life. She took a deep breath as a tear slipped down her cheek and she wiped it away before moving swiftly across the lobby. If Brian was indeed involved in anything horrific she was not going to leave him there. He was a good man, it showed in the way he showered her with love and spoke of his child and she would not give up on him.

  Minutes later as she kissed Lyca on the cheek and sat across from her, she felt the motherly hawk eye gaze taking in every inch of her face. She knew her friend would soon ask what had happened. She had never been able to hide anything from her since the day they had met, and she wasn’t sure she was going to start today, so she begged the universe to stop her from asking her that question.

  “What is wrong love?” Lyca asked before she had completely settled into her seat. She shook her head and smiled.

  “I can’t hide anything from you, huh?”

  Lyca cupped her face. “Would you want to? I am your friend remember?”

  Amy rested a palm over hers, and didn’t regret agreeing to lunch. “No, I wouldn’t want to.”

  “So tell me,” her friend urged her and Amy spilled the beans on what she had just seen, and watched as fear and anger, and then protectiveness took over Lyca’s gaze.

  “He is a good man. “ She searched Lyca’s eyes for some kind of understanding, and found just a hint of it. “I know he is.” As she said the words she felt more like she was trying to convince herself than anything else, and it was not a feeling she liked. She would see Brian a bit later she was sure, and from there she would definitely see where they stood and what she was dealing with.

  Her friend smiled at her but said nothing and Amy had the strongest feeling that Lyca wanted to tell her something important, but something was holding her back.

  “Lyca?” she asked.

  “Just be careful. There is a very thin line between good and evil. If he crosses over, your life could be the price you pay.”

  Amy stared at the glass of water in front of her wiling it to become a crystal ball that could tell the future. Lyca lifted her chin to her loving gaze and used a thumb to wipe the tears that flowed down her face.

  “You tell me everything as it happens and keep nothing from me. I won’t interfere but I must know you are okay. You have become like a sister to me and I do not want this town to break you.”

  Amy nodded appreciating her yet again for being the woman she was. As the conversation took a more jovial turn she couldn’t help but wonder what her life was to become. An hour later as they rushed back to work, her spirits were high and she was hopeful. She wasn’t particularly interested in seeing Brian for the rest of the day, but she would try to find him a bit later so they could talk. She walked to her station and the orchid sitting on her desk made her sigh. The note beside it was nothing but remorseful and the promise of what the night would bring made her forgive him instantly.

  “Brian?” Lyca asked.

  She nodded with a smile.

  Lyca sighed. “I have a good feeling about him, but just make sure he doesn’t do anything you will both regret. Just watch yourself.”

  Amy agreed that there needed to be more conversation. They had lots to talk about, but she knew that no matter what she would stand by him. Their relationship was still young and they had a lot to learn about each other, but she was hopeful. She had known he was the one from the moment she had first met him, it was just one of those things, and the butterflies in her stomach confirmed what she thought and felt.

  She was looking forward to what her future would be like.

  * * *

  7

  Chapter SEVEN

  -

  -

  -

  -

  -

  -

  -

  “ … I beg that we speak of things we

  have yet to address …Our marriage?”

  .

  When she left work that evening, it came as no surprise to her that Silas sat atop the carriage on the other side of the road and Brian stood outside waiting on her.

  “Let us go have dinner at one of my favorite restaurants,” he said with a smile.

  She agreed mostly because she knew life was not black and white. She had lived in many areas of grey over the last year and she could understand the need to visit such places occasionally.

  “I want to talk to you about what you saw today,” Brian was saying to her over dessert. He had been fairly silent the entire ride to the restaurant and throughout their two first courses. She put her fork down and picked up her glass of wine. “It is not what you think it was.”

  “Are you going to tell me what it was then?” she asked him, easing back into her chair.

  He looked at her, his grey eyes intensely searching her face for something he would not find. She would not show him fear, hesitation or uncertainty. She had had a long talk with herself hours before and she was steadfast in the resolve she now had. But yet he remained silent.

  “Well, don’t bring it up again until you are ready to tell me what it was about.” She picked up her fork and placed another slice of the delicious cheesecake into her mouth.

  “What do you mean?” he asked her confused and she knew he was again searching for something, but if he was going to play like a vault then she would do much of the same. She was no fool and she knew men like Brian had no use for women who were easily scared into playing dumb. She prided herself in not being one of those women.

  “I saw something today, and we both know how it looked, so don’t tell me it isn’t what I thought because I am not stupid.” She looked him dead in the eye before she said her other piece. “The minute you start taking me for a fool, is when this thing we have ends.”

  He stared at her in surprise and she could see he was looking for the right words to defend her subtle accusation, but at the end of it he settled on silence, so she continued.

  “I know how sometimes we can get drawn into doing certain things for a myriad of reasons, but I won’t allow you to.”

  What flashed across his face was shock and then with it came defiance. “You won’t allow me to?”

  She smiled, now they were getting somewhere. “No, if you want me, then I won’t allow you to. I know you are a good man, and I don’t plan to be your savior, but I plan to be the woman who will give you some other reason to want to live outside that lifestyle. Run your businesses, but don’t get your hands in the dirt. When we get married we will have a daughter to think about. How will we explain your actions to her?”

  Brian was about to answer her but she looked at him with nothing but certain absolution. Tonight was the night she was willing to meet him head on with any argument he came up with. She was not interested in being taken for a ride and she had no more tears to shed over his folly. She was sure he would be back to smashing faces in by morning, but one step at a time, she was going to show him there was more. And she would do that with love.

  He didn’t explain what she had seen that day and she didn’t need him to. She already knew what it was, and as they left the restaurant an hour or so later, she was surprised he was not taking her to her house.

  “Where are we going?” she asked him.

  He remained silent then kissed her into submission.

  “I am taking you home,” he said as they turned to a different part of the neighborhood.

  It was the upscale community on the west side that over looked the bay. She was nervous, because she knew this meant that he was taking their relationship to the next level.

  “This will soon be your home, and as of now I want you to stay here,” he said to her.

  “But work a
nd my things?”

  He rested a bony finger against her lips. “Silas will see to your things in the morning, and I will speak to your landlord. As for work, for the remainder of your days you will have a carriage of your choice to take you there. You are to be my wife, Amy,” he said with a smile. “I will see to it that you are treated that way.”

  It was late and she had no response. Whatever she might have come up with disappeared as the scene outside the window of the carriage changed. Silas turned up a winding driveway lined on both sides with pine trees lining the contours of the roadway. The fountain that marked the center of the driveway was shooting red and blue illuminated water into the night sky, and it entranced her. He pulled around it to the cobble stone steps that would take them up into the house, and she had to marvel at the detail with which the woodwork of the railing was made.

  “Beautiful,” she said and ran her fingers along it as behind them Silas cantered away.

  “You love art?” he asked her with surprise.

  “Love is an understatement.”

  He chuckled and shook his head. “Gertrude will love you.”

  “Who is that?” she asked surprise at the mention of someone else.

  “My caretaker who also looks after our daughter Susan,” he said to her kissing her temple as he led her up the stairs.

  She wrapped her hand in his as they entered the house and she resisted the urge to pull his face to her then and there. The foyer was just as spacious and extravagant as the outside and she could not help but admire the circular pool with a tiny bridge across it that had fish swimming all around. They had clearly spared no expenses on this house.

  Somewhere upstairs soft music played from a phonograph and she thought how fitting a mood. She kept the thought to herself as Brian took her through the dining room to the stairs and later to his bedroom. The rest of the house had been designed in a kind of Castilian way, but his room and the balcony behind it was nothing but western and contemporary. Even the paintings that hung from the walls screamed of his American heritage. She had to smile at the fact that he had somehow managed to maintain his individuality even then.

  It was a welcoming fact that spoke to the thought she had that maybe he could be made to walk away from all negative influences.

  “You like it?” he asked as he walked up behind her and placed a kiss on the top of her head.

  “I love it,” she whispered leaning back into him and feeling the strength of him. He gently tugged on her hand as he pulled her towards the opened French doors and as she stepped out onto the balcony, her breath was stolen from her.

  Before her the amazing lights of the city twinkled and she could make out the docked ferry in the bay. The moons mirage simmered across the surface of the water and it made her thing about mermaids... she wasn’t sure how her brain had gotten to thinking that but she went along with it. She leaned against the wall and looked out at the view he had and thought just how different their lives really were. The thought didn’t last much longer as he walked up behind her.

  “All of this as of now is yours,” he said and he sealed that with a kiss.

  * * *

  Brian woke before daylight as per usual and looked in on his wife to be whom he had respectfully left asleep in his bed. He would never give anyone any reason to question her as an upstanding woman for if they did, he might use his fist which would cause her great dismay. She was peacefully tucked under the covers with the balcony doors still open and the soft wind stirring her hair. She was angelic.

  “Susan is awake sir,” Gertrude smiled at him as she delivered the news. “Is that her?”

  He nodded. “See to it that a messenger is sent to her business place and have Karen from the barn house present herself at the salon to work in her place. I remember her being very good with those kinds of things and I want my wife to be home with me today.”

  Gertrude bowed her head in response and went about the task. He walked into his daughter’s room to see her bright eyes smiling up at home. He picked her up and silently made his way to the kitchen as she cooed and played with his hair that was in need of a trimming.

  “Today you meet your new mother,” he said to her softly as he placed her in her high chair and prepared a bottle of sheep’s milk from his farm for her. He then broke bits of bread and placed it before her. As she ate he prayed that their meeting would be one worth remembering. His daughter, though no more than a year, had not taken easily to most of the women she met. She would scream and fuss until he or Gertrude would pluck her from their arms and to safety. She had a mind of her own that he respected as she grew, but he hoped she would take to Amy on sight.

  They sat reading a book by candle light as the sun rose on the patio, and when the story of the princess who had found love was done, he took a deep breath and took her up the stairs to his bedroom while the rest of his house woke up. Amy did not stir.

  He sat slowly on the bed and rested Susan there. The baby went silent as she looked from him to the strange sleeping woman in the bed she had played in since she was born. Then without much ado, he watched in surprise as his baby girl smiled, crept across the bed and gently rested her cheek against Amy’s. He watched in awe as she cooed and Amy’s eyes slowly fluttered open with a smile.

  “What a beautiful way to be awakened,” she said softly and Susan rewarded her with a smile and a glob of saliva from her toothless mouth. “Good morning to you too, my love.”

  Amy sat upright in bed, seemingly oblivious to his presence and he watched as sleep left her and the excitement of having a child in her arms took her over. For Susan, it was heaven and when Gertrude came in with breakfast he was sad to have to send her off to be bathed and napped.

  “Susan loves this one,” Gertrude pointed out and he could not help but agree.

  “She is lovely,” Amy said as she watched as the tearful child was taken away for her morning wash.

  “She likes you,” he said kissing her forehead. It was only then that she noticed the time.

  “Oh no! I have to get to work or Lyca may very well lynch me.”

  “I have already taken care of that for you,” he pointed out to her. “I have sent Karen in your place and as we speak Silas should be busy having your belongings carted here.”

  She sat back in bed. “You didn’t even ask me,” she pointed out.

  “I wanted you to spend time at home today with your daughter, but if you would rather work, then I will see to it.”

  He hoped beyond words that she did not think him a tyrant for having suggested that. He had simply thought she might enjoy a day with him.

  “No, it is okay,” she told him. “I could use a day’s rest in any event. I believe this is the first one I have had since I left home almost a decade ago.”

  He pinched her cheeks. “I shall show you the place and maybe later we can take a ride to the other estates you now own.”

  She nodded and so commenced a day that he hoped she would remember for life.

  * * *

  8

  Chapter EIGHT

  -

  -

  -

  -

  -

  -

  -

  “ … I beg that we speak of things we

  have yet to address …Our marriage?”

  .

  For that day and the next two to follow leading up to the wedding, Amy was introduced to a world she had only known previously in her dreams. She had seen four large farms, ridden across dozens of acres of land, and spent time with a scrutinizing Kayla in the office while she was told about their book keeping practices.

  “You are a quick learner,” Kayla said to her as she served her tea that evening.

  “I have had almost a decade to learn on my feet,” she said with a smile that was not returned. Turning her gaze away to the office Brian was locked in for a meeting of sorts she hoped he would come out soon for Kayla was not the friendliest.

  “I am trying to decide whether to like
you or not,” the woman said.

  Amy sighed and again sipped from her tea cup. “You can decide whatever you want, but do you not think it is a little childish to do so based solely on just a few hours of being acquainted?”

  “Quite the contrary,” Kayla replied. “I find a woman’s character and intentions can be deciphered in mere minutes.”

  “And I pray tell, what are mine exactly?”

  Kayla smiled. “That is just it. I cannot seem to figure it out.”

  “Then,” Amy began slowly as if Kayla was dense in the head. “Maybe you are not as smart as you think you are.”

  A flash of anger in Kayla’s eyes told her she had struck a nerve, but she could not have cared in the least. The one thing she was happy for with her time on the road was that she had learned that people would often seek to intimidate you if they thought they could get away with it. She had made it her point of duty to not allow anyone that opportunity.

  “You dare speak to me in such a tone?” Kayla asked.

  Amy smiled at her and stood. “Let me make one thing very clear. I do not care much about why you think I am in his life. I am here and I have come to love him over the last few days we have been together. You can either accept that or become a problem I will silently and gracefully eliminate. Either way you are not much of a concern to me. I respect your position and importance in his life, but if you think for a moment that gives you authority over me, then you are sadly mistaken.”