His Bewildering Bride (The Brides of Paradise Ranch - Spicy Version Book 3)

by Merry Farmer

  “I never would have believed it, but now I know that’s true. And again, thank you from the bottom of my heart.” She rested a hand on Howard’s arm.

  Howard blushed as if the queen herself had granted him a boon. “See, Elizabeth?” He turned to his wife, who stood smiling by his side. “Competitions are a good thing, not a frivolous waste of time.”

  Travis’s lips twitched as Elizabeth Haskell rolled her eyes at her husband. He could only imagine what kind of arguments had gone on in the Haskell home over this and half a dozen of Howard’s other wild ideas.

  “This one was a good thing,” Wendy insisted. “No matter what the outcome, not only have I proven my skill to the town, I’ve made wonderful new friends.” She turned to smile back at Estelle, Lucy, and Katie.

  More than that, her gaze traveled on across the room to where Honoria Bonneville was watching their conversation. It could have been Travis’s imagination, but he swore that Honoria would have rather been standing with them than with her catty sisters. He shifted his weight, rubbing his chin and studying Honoria. There had to be some way to separate her from her family enough so that she could have friends outside—

  “You!”

  Rex Bonneville's booming accusation hushed half the conversations in the room. Travis blinked and stood straighter, only to find Bonneville marching across the room to him.

  “Finally come out of hiding, have you?” Bonneville boomed. He went so far as to poke a finger into Travis’s chest when they stood toe-to-toe.

  Travis ignored the gesture rather than punch Bonneville in the face, which was what he wanted to do. “I haven’t been hiding,” he said. “In fact, everyone in town knows where I’ve been.”

  “You’ve been hiding from me, you weasely little traitor.”

  Elizabeth and the other women gasped and clucked over Bonneville’s slight, but Travis brushed it off.

  “I don’t see how I could be a traitor when my loyalties were never with you in the first place, Bonneville.”

  “I should say not,” Bonneville growled.

  “The only loyalties I owe are to my wife.”

  “Her?” Bonneville snorted. “Well, I hope she makes you very happy, because she’s cost you the best job you’ll ever be offered.”

  “So I’ve heard.” Travis stood tall, arms crossed, staring straight into Bonneville’s eyes without blinking. “Frankly, after the events of this week, I was less and less inclined to accept it anyhow.” Bonneville started to speak, but Travis went on with, “I took a look at that contract of yours. Does Billy know that your terms imply he could never buy land anywhere in Wyoming and set up a ranch of his own at any point for fifty years after leaving your employ?”

  “Why…I’m sure…he does.” Bonneville’s face went red and he darted an anxious glance around the room, no doubt looking for Billy.

  “What kind of dastardly contract are you shoving at your employees?” Howard demanded. Before Bonneville answered, he turned to Travis. “You’re not going to work as Bonneville’s manager?”

  “No,” Travis said.

  At the same time, Bonneville snapped, “My employment contracts are none of your business.”

  Without further comment, he turned and marched back across the room to his daughters.

  “There’s no end to that man’s underhandedness,” Elizabeth hummed under her breath.

  “I wouldn’t work for him if he was the last person in Wyoming who was hiring,” Travis said. “Of course, that also means I don’t have a job at all now.” He did his utmost not to look at Howard, not to seem like he was asking or begging for his job back. He had more pride than that.

  Sensing his problem, Wendy took his arm, smiling up at him. “Any man worth his salt would be proud to have my husband working for them.”

  “You can say that again,” Howard proclaimed, just like Travis knew he would. “You’re welcome to come back to Paradise Ranch whenever you’re ready.” His jubilant expression dropped. “Although it would be difficult for me to demote Luke Chance after he’s shown such a knack for your job.”

  “I’m not sure it would be right for me to come back,” Travis reassured him.

  “No?”

  Travis turned to Wendy, smiling back at the confidence and hope in her eyes. She was far more optimistic than he ever would be. All the more reason to give his whole heart to her.

  “You see, sir.” He turned back to Howard. “Wendy tells me it’s important for her to live in town if she’s going to start her dressmaking business.”

  “Which I would like to do, whether I win this competition or not,” Wendy explained.

  “So living out at the ranch, or even in The Village, wouldn’t work for us. I’m sure we can find a boarding house that will accept a married couple somewhere in town. And as for work…” He trailed off, still without a clue of how to solve that problem. If worst came to worst, he supposed he could do odd jobs for people here and there.

  “Living in town you say?” Howard rubbed his jaw and hummed. “Boarding house…town work…hmm.” He raised his head out of his thoughts and searched the room. A moment later, he waved to Herb Waters. “Herb! Come over here at once, I have an idea.”

  Elizabeth rolled her eyes. “Here we go again.”

  Howard ignored her and waved for Herb to move faster. An expectant buzz began to build at the base of Travis’s spine, working its way up to his throat. He glanced to Wendy, who looked back at him in question. Travis shook his head and shrugged slightly.

  “Herb.” Howard thumped the man on the back as he joined their circle. “How’s your sister in Denver doing?”

  “Not too well,” Herb sighed, twisting his hat in his hands, eyes downcast. “The doctors say it’s her heart. She’s a widow, you know, and has no one to run that business of hers. I’ll probably have to leave Haskell to take things in hand, just like we were talking about the other day.”

  In spite of the sadness of the story, Howard beamed from ear to ear. “There you go.” He nodded to Travis.

  Travis blinked and frowned. He exchanged a confused look with Wendy before turning back to Howard. “I don’t understand.”

  “It’s as simple as Sunday.” Howard rocked on his heels and tucked his thumbs into his vest. “Travis here is in need of a job,” he told Herb. “He’s got loads of experience working with cattle and horses. Herb will leave behind a thriving livery when he leaves. Have you got someone to replace you?” he asked Herb to be sure.

  Herb rubbed the back of his neck, his troubled expression brightening to relief as he studied Travis. “No, I don’t. At least, I didn’t.” His smile grew. “You want to take over the livery from me, son?”

  An elephant could have charged through the room and Travis wouldn’t have been more stunned. “The livery?”

  “Sure.” Howard laughed. “It’s all horses and wagons, mostly. Nothing you couldn’t manage. And it’s right here in the heart of town.”

  Beside him, Travis felt Wendy draw in a breath. “You would hire Travis to take over your livery? Just like that?”

  “Hire?” Herb chuckled. “Mrs. Montrose, if I do need to go to my sister and her family, I would give it to him. Or at least become a silent partner, collecting a share of the profits while Travis here was part-owner and ran the place.” He studied Travis again. “In fact, I like the idea more and more.”

  Wendy pressed a hand to her chest. “I’ve never known people who could be so generous.”

  “That’s what we do in Haskell,” Howard said with a broad grin. “That’s the whole point of the town, the whole reason I established it. I want this place to be all about neighbors helping neighbors.”

  Wendy laughed, her eyes sparkling. “All right. Do you think you could find a neighbor willing to let a room to a newly married couple?”

  It was Howard’s turn to laugh. “What do you mean, let a room?”

  “We’ll need someplace to live until I’ve earned enough money to build a house,” Travis said.

>   “Nonsense.” Howard waved away his protest. “I have it on good authority that you’re about to win this dressmaking competition, Mrs. Montrose.”

  Travis frowned in confusion, and so did Wendy.

  “I…I wouldn’t presume, Mr. Haskell, but even if I do…”

  “Part of a prize is one of the empty stores on Main Street, is it not?” Howard went on.

  Again, Wendy and Travis exchanged puzzled glances.

  “That’s all well and good for Wendy’s shop,” Travis started.

  “The stores have living quarters on the second floor, above the shop itself,” Howard interrupted to reveal his final surprise. His grin grew to almost comic proportions.

  Travis’s jaw dropped. “The store is a house too?”

  “Yes, it is.” Howard thumped him on the arm. “Clever, eh?”

  It was more than clever, it was the best surprise Travis ever could have thought of.

  “See,” Wendy said beside him, laughing. “I told you that everything would be all right.”

  “Well…I…” Travis stuttered.

  “Listen to your wife,” Howard said, nodding to Travis, then turning to Elizabeth. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned in this life, it’s always listen to your wife.”

  Before Travis could make any sort of a reply beyond dropping his shoulders and laughing with the wonder of it all, Theophilus Gunn moved to the center of the room and clapped his hands.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, if I could have your attention. The results of the dressmaking competition are in.”

  Wendy caught her breath at Mr. Gunn’s announcement. Her head whirled with the unexpected turn of events surrounding Travis’s job. It spun even more at the thought that they could live above her shop, but she didn’t want to let happiness get the better of her until she was completely certain the shop was hers. Judging by the show of support she’d had from the ladies she’d constructed dresses for and the way Melinda’s clients were standing on the other side of the school auditorium from her as Mr. Gunn held up a small card to read, the results seemed obvious.

  “It appears we have a clear winner,” Mr. Gunn went on to confirm her suspicions. “And that winner is Mrs. Wendy Montrose.”

  The ladies standing around Wendy burst into cheers and hugged her. The rest of the room applauded. At least, the rest of the room except for the Bonneville sisters.

  “What?” Melinda exclaimed, indignant. She picked up her skirts and advanced on Mr. Gunn in the center of the room like a general leading a charge. “There must have been some mistake. You read the card wrong.”

  Vivian and Bebe followed her, Honoria reluctantly tagging along. As Melinda reached Mr. Gunn, she snatched the card out of his hand. She scanned it, then let out an indignant yelp.

  “Forty-three? I only scored forty-three out of one hundred?”

  “I didn’t think it would be appropriate to read the scores aloud.” Mr. Gunn spoke softly and tried to retrieve the card from Melinda, but Vivian pushed him out of the way.

  “Ninety-two?” she bellowed. “That…that…” Her face twisted as she failed to find a polite word to call Wendy. “She scored ninety-two?”

  In spite of the venom of Vivian’s words and three of the Bonneville sisters’ looks, Wendy smiled. “It was nice of her to advertise that to the room,” she said quietly.

  Beside her, Travis laughed and reached for her hand. “Yes, it was.”

  “Honoria, this is all your fault,” Melinda continued to rage. She spun around to seek out her sister and swung at her with and open hand.

  Honoria ducked back and avoided being slapped. “I did my very best,” she said, her voice raised only slightly louder than normal.

  “Did your best to make a fool of me,” Melinda huffed. She was completely unaware of the gasps and shock from everyone who had just witnessed her attempting to hit her sister. “You should have tried harder. You shouldn’t have stopped me from getting those Mexican women down by the station to help.”

  “She didn’t stop you from getting them to help,” Bebe said, a little too loud. “They did half of your work.”

  “Bebe, I didn’t ask you,” Melinda snapped. It was too late. She gasped and snapped straight, suddenly seeing dozens of sets of eyes staring at her and her blatant admission of cheating. “I mean, I didn’t…I didn’t ask anyone to do any of the work.” Her face flushed bright red as she twisted to meet disapproving stares and shaking heads with uneasy laughter and a desperate smile. “I did all the work. All the work except what Honoria did. If there were any mistakes, they were Honoria’s fault. I didn’t…”

  All at once, she gave up in a huff. Her pretend smiled twisted to a sneer and she made a grunting noise of disgust.

  “Oh, who cares,” she growled, throwing up her hands. “I didn’t really want to slave away making dresses for the likes of you all day anyhow. I was meant for better things.”

  She tilted her nose into the air with a sniff, grabbed Vivian’s arm for support, and marched through the crowd of amused and horrified townsfolk—who parted to let the two of them, Bebe, and Honoria pass.

  Honoria paused when she reached Wendy. “I’m sorry about the cheating,” she said, darting an anxious glance at her sister’s departing backs. “I would have told you, but I figured you have so much talent and drive that you would win even with Melinda’s dirty tricks. But I’m still sorry.”

  “It’s all right.” Wendy reached for Honoria’s hands and squeezed them, heart bleeding for the woman. “We can still be friends.”

  Honoria’s face lit, and tears swam in her eyes. “Really? Even though Melinda was so horrible? Even though I helped her?”

  “Of course. And if you ever want to help out or just join me for sewing and conversation, my door will always be open to you.”

  “Oh.” Honoria raised her hands to hide her face. “I would like that so much. I would—”

  “Honoria!” Vivian bellowed from the doorway. “Get away from that creature and come here!”

  Honoria swallowed and sent Wendy one final look before picking up her skirts and fleeing toward her sisters. A lump formed in Wendy’s throat, and she wished there was a way for Honoria to flee from her sisters instead. Sadly, it didn’t seem as though that would happen any time soon as Rex Bonneville stomped across the room and exited the auditorium right behind Honoria, muttering something to her that Wendy couldn’t hear.

  “Isn’t there something we could do for her?” Wendy reached for Travis’s arm.

  “I don’t know,” he sighed. “But someday there might be something.” She glanced up at him, and he added. “It will be all right. Good things eventually happen to good people, no matter what gets in their way. You taught me that.”

  Wendy smiled and blinked away the tears that she wanted to shed for poor Honoria. “I guess all we can do is hope and pray and keep our eyes out for her.”

  “It’s what we’ve all been trying to do for years,” Elizabeth added in a conspiratorial whisper.

  “Enough of this drippy nonsense.” Howard clapped his hands together and beamed as though he was the one who had won the prize. “The competition is over, we have a winner, and Haskell has a new dress shop about to open. It’s time to celebrate.”

  He took Elizabeth’s arm and crossed to Mr. Gunn. The rest of the room went back to their conversations and eating. Wendy’s new friends closed ranks around her to wish her well, and to take her around the room, introducing her to a few of the citizens of Haskell that she hadn’t met before. Travis veered off to fix them plates of food from the long tables at the side of the room, laden with dishes provided by all of Haskell.

  “I still feel as though I’m in a dream being here,” Wendy said when, at last, she and Travis had a few moments to themselves to eat.

  “Howard is serious when he says he wants to build a town where neighbors help out neighbors, no matter who they are.”

  “Or what they look like,” she added in a near whisper.

  Travis set his
plate aside and brushed his hand across Wendy’s cheek, cradling her jaw. “All I see is a beautiful woman, a strong and brave and talented woman, a woman I love. My wife.”

  She set her plate beside his and rested her hand over his. “And all I see is a courageous, supportive husband…who happens to be handy with a needle.”

  They both laughed. It felt so good that Wendy thought her heart might lift right out of her body. It felt even better when Travis snuck a kiss, in spite of most of the town of Haskell watching them.

  “Remind me to thank my no-good brother for letting you go,” he said. “I’m beginning to think it’s the best thing he’s ever done.”

  “Yes,” she giggled. “But you were the one who caught me when I fell.”

  “And I will always catch you, Mrs. Montrose, just like I’m sure you’ll always catch me. In more than one way, you just did.” He snuck another kiss.

  “I love you,” she whispered, more certain of anything than she’d ever been in her life.

  Epilogue

  Every time the bell jingled over the door of Wendy’s dress shop as someone entered, a giddy thrill filled her heart. She thought the moment when Howard Haskell announced that she would have her shop and living quarters above it for her and Travis would be the happiest moment of her life, but that was eclipsed by the moment when he handed her and Travis the keys to the building directly across the street from the mercantile. That moment paled in comparison to the first night that she and Travis spent in their new apartment above her shop. And that moment paled even more compared to the everyday joy of hearing someone come through her doors.

  Particularly when that person was her husband.

  “Whew, it’s cold out there.” Travis kicked the snow off his boots as he fastened the shop door behind him. He removed his hat and brushed off a dusting of snow.

  Wendy set down the hem she’d been attaching a ruffle to for Olivia Garrett’s latest dress and skipped across the room to fold Travis in her arms.

  “Oh, you are cold.” She snuggled up to him, intent on warming him.