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

by Faye Sonja

  “I beg to differ,” his father said pointing the gun at Alex where she stood on the landing, frozen in fear.

  Nathan knew better than to provoke the man and so he calmly spoke. “If it is money you seek then I can provide you with that on account that you do not hurt anyone else in this house.”

  “I will take a payment,” his father said, “but I will expect one to come to me every month from here on out or I will make regular and bloody visits.”

  Nathan sighed, knowing that he would never pay this man for a life time and he had to put an end to his reign of terror once and for all. For that he could not stay here now, for behind him, his father’s two henchmen, looking equally as menacing, waited on him to make a single mistake.

  “Wait here while I put some clothes on,” he told the man with a voice of steel. It was no longer a voice filled with fear and his father recognized the threat of impatience there. He could see his eyes grow a bit wider with shock, but he hid it well.

  “What is all this about Nathan?” Alex asked him as she rested a hand on his bare shoulder. Before then he had not even realized he had run from his room without a shirt on, and his intricate network of scars were on full display.

  Amazingly he didn’t flinch at her touch and she ran a finger along one old scar. “This is an unwelcomed memory from my past.”

  She looked him in the eye and he could see she was fighting to hold back her tears. “What are you going to do?”

  He sighed. “Handle it. I will face my demons at last.”

  “Maybe you should call for the sheriff,” she begged him.

  He lifted a soft palm to her face and kissed her forehead. “The law will only make them scatter for a while and then they will be back for more. This requires more than just a stern word or a stint in the county jail.

  She cupped his face. “I understand, but whatever you do, please be careful.”

  These were words that restored his fate in the possibility of love and as he dashed to his room for a shirt he knew that whatever he decided to do, he had to ensure that no one else got hurt.

  “Make sure Aunt May is okay for me?” he asked her.

  “I will,” she whispered back just before he placed a kiss on her lips, and just like that he was gone.

  * * *

  4

  Chapter FOUR

  -

  -

  -

  -

  -

  -

  -

  “… something she did not quite

  understand. His ad was not the usual ad

  a man would place when seeking a bride.”

  .

  Alex sat quietly doing what she had been doing for the months since Nathan had been gone. It was a ritual, she would finish the chores she had assigned herself despite the maids’ protests, and eat dinner with Kate and aunt May, who watched after her like she was losing her mind. After dinner she would do the dishes, much to the dismay of the kitchen staff, with a slow purposefulness that would have anyone thinking she was crazy, and then she would take a long bath. It was not until after all this was done that she would do the one thing that made them worry most.

  She would climb to her window ledge and stare out into the darkness for hours. For the first three weeks after he had left, she had not slept even the slightest. The hope that he would return and the desire to be the first to see his face when he did, kept her wide awake. By the third week she realized that he may never come back.

  "Will you please get some sleep tonight," Kate said. She had spent so many nights sleeping on the cot in the corner of her room, but then Alex had managed to convince her she was alright and so she had gone back to the comfort of her own quarters. Sometimes, she even felt as though Kate was drawing her strength from her. Nathan was her best friend and now he was gone. Alex had refused to get out of bed for the first week. When she had finally emerged, looking like she lost all reason to live, their joy at her poking her head out was soon replaced by a distant vacant version of herself.

  The worst part was that they didn’t know whether Nathan was dead or alive. No letter or telegraph ever came. Here she was, mistress of a ranch in a place she barely knew with a husband who had all but disappeared off of the face of the earth. She was mortified.

  The family she had inherited had proven that they were always a supportive one, but when the rest of the town had heard of what had happened it had not been easy for her. The talk wasn’t demeaning and people meant no harm in what they said, but they had questions they would likely never get answers to, so they came up with interesting answers for themselves. Some even managed to blame it all on her arrival while trying to be nice about it.

  "I will go to bed in a few," she finally responded to Kate.

  Alex complied some time later, not wanting to have Kate worry more than necessary, and the woman was relentless. She came checking on her every hour or so. In a final surrender to the sleep she desperately needed, she faced the window and stared out at the stars that winked at her from the distance. Her hand rested on her Bible and she whispered words of prayer, asking for guidance and protection for Nathan. The words slipped effortlessly from her mouth and so had a few tears from her troubled, tired eyes. She wasn't sure when she had fallen asleep, but the next thing she felt was the sun creeping through the window and she could hear Kate downstairs, singing while she prepared breakfast.

  Preparing breakfast was something no one did quite like Kate and Aunt May. Even the kitchen staff watched them with joy. Something she had come to learn soon after Nathan had disappeared. But how anybody could be singing in this house was beyond her. Had the occasion been different and her mood not one of cold and quiet desperation, she would have been happy to join Kate, but not today. She gingerly peeled herself out of bed, and it was nearly an hour later when she made her way to the breakfast table- without an appetite.

  Kate just sat there and stared at her, and Alex could feel herself disappearing before her eyes and she felt hopeless. They had all tried to get her interested in the things that usually made her happy, but none of it worked. Not even conversation was the same anymore.

  "You should come out to the stables today," Kate told her, trying to intrigue her with her known love of horses. "We are having a small group meeting to plan the end of harvest party, and I am sure you would love it."

  “Harvest without Nathan?” she asked in shock.

  Kate sighed. “The harvest must go on or we will lose months of hard work and when he does come back he would be coming back to nothing,” Kate pointed out with a bit of impatience. Alex could almost hear herself thinking, reminding her that they had all known Nathan long before her, yet they were functioning and she was nothing but a moping bride.

  “When he comes back?” she asked not so certain he ever would.

  “Yes, Alex,” Aunt May interjected. “We have to have faith that he will be back.”

  Alex smiled at her and nodded. Kate had grown accustomed to that smile. It was one that said she would try but she was making no promises. It was hard, and even more so after recognizing the evil that had been his past and the effects it had on his present. The good Lord only knew what was being done to him while he was away. That was assuming he was still alive.

  "We must hold onto the hope that he will be back," Kate said sadly, before heading out to manage the ranch.

  "How is she?" Alex heard little John ask Kate as soon as she stepped out of the house. He had been doing that a lot as of late.

  "She is just about the same. There has been no change."

  Little john sighed beside her and fixed his hat with furrowed brows. From behind the screened door she instantly knew what that look meant.

  "Alex Shearer-Matthews!" he hollered, glaring at her looking at him from behind the screen door.

  "Little John?" Aunt May came rushing around a corner to stare at him in horror. Alex could feel the walls vibrating in shock; this must have been the first time anyone had ever heard him speak so l
oudly in that house, and most definitely not to one of his superiors.

  "I am sorry," Little John said taking off his hat. "But I need to speak to Alex."

  “You do not shout like that around here, young man!” she chided him.

  Alex watched his gaze lower in shame. “I know, but she is wasting away in there. We cannot let her. When Nate comes back he will be mad at all of us for letting her sink into despair.”

  Sink into despair? Alex nearly laughed. That was an interesting way of putting it.

  Aunt May looked at him sternly and Alex thought that surely she might have tossed him out on his tiny rump, but to her surprise she let him pass.

  He timidly stepped into the house and through the screen door.

  "Alex,” he began in a voice much softer, “You can't let Nate’s leaving destroy you. What is he going to come back to when you just stay inside getting paler than my grandmother’s ghost?"

  He paused and Kate silently urged him to go on, he had never talked to Alex like this before but it was probably what she needed most. Alex knew she needed the raw truth and the other two women had been treating her like a porcelain doll.

  Little John took two more steps towards her and looked at Alex with nothing but compassion. "It is a beautiful day, and I for one miss your company in the stables.”

  “But Little john,” she spoke with a smile, “you never had much of my company before he left.”

  “Yes, but that was something to continue to look forward to,” he lamented. “I just cannot stand by and watch you wither away as the days pass you by. Nate said he would be back, so I believe you owe it to his sacrifice to be content until he does."

  She sighed more out of sadness that she had forced them to have to handle her while she was breaking. She just didn’t know how else to be. She had only known Nathan for a short time compared to everyone else on the ranch, but he had brought such light to her life.

  "Come on," Little John urged her, stepping to the door and opening it wide for her to pass. "Let's go take a walk in the orchard for a while. The children from town have a field trip out there today, remember? We can sneak some of their muffins from them."

  Kate jabbed him in the side and he looked at the frown Aunt May wore and instantly corrected himself.

  "I mean we can play games with them," he said.

  She couldn’t help but laugh at his suggestion. She had watched him sneak their muffins before. Alex watched Kate smile as Little John extended his hand to Alex who smiled back at him.

  "What did I miss while I was feeling so sorry for myself?" Alex asked as she took Kate's hand and walked out of the house.

  "Not much," Little John piped up" A couple of horses had to be put down, and Kate here has found herself courting Leo, who works for the governor. I like him. He is not the snob that most of his friends are.”

  Alex stopped short and turned to Kate. "You didn’t tell me that! I need details!"

  “I didn’t because you seemed a tad bit preoccupied and I…" Kate’s words trailed off.

  "You what?" Alex asked.

  “We just thought that it might have made you a little sadder, and so we didn't say anything."

  “Nonsense!” she exclaimed and though it was indeed bitter-sweet knowledge, she was happy for Kate, and so was Aunt May who had been harping on Kate to meet someone and settle down. “I am so happy for you. So do you think he is the one?”

  “I am almost certain he is,” Kate whispered back, blushing as she did so. For the rest of the day she tried her best to forget what had transpired, and when they made their way back from the fields that ran behind the house, her basket of fresh picked berries fell from her hands.

  There seated at the table eating hungrily from a plate placed before him was Nathan. He had lost so much weight and his eyes were almost feral in nature, but she registered only his presence and rushed to him.

  “You are back!” she said and wrapped him in a hug allowing the tears she had fought so hard to flow freely. He clung to her as if his life depended on it and it was then she really noted how fragile he had become.

  “I came back to you,” he whispered in her hair. The food was forgotten and all that existed was the fact that he was back home and in her arms. Her soul sighed in sweet release and she silently vowed never to let him go. In his absence, her heart had truly grown fonder and the anger that bubbled inside her for the men who had done this to him was more than she could bear. She ignored it for the moment to focus on him.

  “I won’t ever let you go again.”

  * * *

  5

  Chapter FIVE

  -

  -

  -

  -

  -

  -

  -

  “… something she did not quite

  understand. His ad was not the usual ad

  a man would place when seeking a bride.”

  .

  The first night he was home was the first night they shared a bed together, and he clung to her like his life depended on it. He fought against all the memories of the last six months that he had gone through and he knew she had questions that needed answered.

  “You can ask,” he whispered in her hair that night. He could feel her shudder in relief against him with almost every breath.

  “When you are ready you can tell me,” she whispered back and he fell in love with her a little bit more for her patience. Not many women would have waited so long for a man who might not have returned. Thinking then, he knew he had made the right choice, even though he was still just getting to know her.

  “My father never loved me as a child,” he began and he shimmied down the bed so his head rested on her stomach. She instantly ran her fingers through his hair and he felt her gentle coaxing for him to let it all out. “After my mother died, he considered me a burden and he treated me as such every day.”

  He felt her run her fingers over the scars on his back.

  “Yes,” he confirmed her silent question. “He made me pay with the whip. I ran away when I was about fifteen, and I met Aunt May, who was running a small shop in town. She took me in and it is because of her that I was able to amass my fortune over the years. Kate was the first person I met in this town and she has been my loyal friend ever since.”

  She placed a kiss on the top of his head, staying silent for he knew that she had no words that could take the pain away.

  “The last six months was a remake of my younger years, and I stayed because he threatened he would come here and do away with all of you. I would never allow that and I knew he was not just making some empty threat. Believe me that I am sorry.”

  “Shhhh,” she finally spoke. “You are here now.”

  “I am a broken man, Alex,” he confirmed. “A broken man with many demons. I hope they don’t scare you away.”

  She chuckled. “I stayed didn’t I?”

  He smiled against the soft cloth of her night gown and closed his eyes as she ran her fingers through his hair, gently massaging his scalp. “Yes you did.”

  With that they allowed the silence of the room, the sounds of the night and their hearts beating in unison to put them to sleep, and then with a prayer for better tomorrows they drifted off to a peaceful oblivion where nothing mattered but the fact that they were together again at last.

  Nathan walked slowly beside Alex, her hand in his as they strolled through the garden the following morning. He had truly missed her.

  “How is she?” Kate came up to him asking a few minutes later as they watched Alex pick flowers for the foyer.

  “I think she is doing okay,” he responded.

  “And you?”

  “If you are asking how I am doing so you can figure out whether or not it is a good time to admit me to the mad house, don’t bother. I can assure you it is always a good time to sign me up there.”

  “I know,” she laughed as they looked to Alex, walking back towards them.

  “What about you?” Alex tugged on her
hand to bring her back to him. “Fell in love while I was away I heard.”

  “Oh Little John’s mouth isn’t so little after all,” she moaned.

  “No it is not, but it is well intentioned. I think he just wanted me to feel better that you all weren’t withering away when I disappeared.”

  “He is indeed well intentioned,” Kate replied as she smiled at Alex. “He was the one who got Alex out of the house the day you came back.”

  Nathan felt a tinge of guilt but then decided not to dwell on the past. He was grateful he was back here now with the people he cared about.

  “We were thinking,” he began and Kate smiled so he knew he had the go ahead, “maybe we could all go out for dinner this weekend. I would get a chance to meet your mister, and Alex would get a chance at normalcy again.”

  He waited patiently for her to respond and when she finally did he smiled.

  “Tomorrow we all go,” she said squeezing both of their hands. “Tomorrow! We have waited long enough to have things back to normal and I would love for you to meet my mister.”

  Kate smiled at him and he knew it was not just a smile to say that she was happy Alex was up and about; it was also a smile to say that she was overjoyed he was back. He had missed her too. A strong dose of happiness washed over him and he moved on to what his next set of plans would include. As Alex approached, Kate spoke again.

  “Don’t scare her off,” she said. “That woman is the best thing that has happened to this place in a very long time.”

  “I will try not to,” he said smiling at Alex.