A Betting Bride

by Rebecca de Medeiros

  "Prepare to suffer the consequences then," he warned as he began to tickle her unmercifully.

  "Stop... oh stop!" She cried breathlessly.

  "Promise me that you won't cause any more trouble Sugarplum, and I will let you go," Alec offered.

  "All right! All right! I promise," Serena said in between gulps of breath. The darn brute always knew how to get her to agree. One day, she promised herself, she would get revenge on him.

  "Good girl." Alec kissed the tip of her nose. He ignored the indignant scowl that marred her adorable face.

  "You are such a tyrant Alec," Serena playfully pouted.

  Shifting her in his arms, Alec brushed an errant curl from her cheek with a smile. His thumb ran a path from her cheekbone to plump lips, and she shivered.

  "What am I going to do with you?" He shook his head at her in frustration.

  "Kiss me?" Serena asked hopefully. She knew nothing could come from their kisses, but she found them delightful and wanted more of them.

  Alec sighed. He had no willpower against her. "Serena, we can't. We need to..."

  Alec was cut off by the rapping on the shop's door. Springing apart, Serena and Alec both shot an alarmed gaze to the front of the building.

  "Stay here," Serena ordered Alec before making her way to the door. Unlocking the door and opening it a crack, she smiled at her visitor.

  "Tex! Please come in." Serena stepped back and allowed the large man inside.

  "Miss Serena," he inclined his head politely, doffing his hat to her. "Mayor," he said in acknowledgment to Alec who was now leaning elegantly against her work table.

  "What brings you to our shop Tex?" Serena asked him. Tex was not one to have his clothing altered, nor was he of a fashionable mindset, so she had to wonder.

  "I ran into Miss Bertie, she said that you were having a rat problem. I figured I could come over and help you with it, seeing as how our shops are so close. I did not want the problem to spread," Tex informed her.

  "Oh. Well, you see..." Serena was at a loss for words. She could not very well tell Tex that she had lied to Bertie, and she did not want to lie to man that she may actually end up marrying.

  "I already handled it for Serena," Alec broke in interrupting Serena, thankfully.

  "That is good," Tex mumbled.

  Shifting uncomfortably, Tex eyed the younger man warily. He liked the mayor well enough, but he had a feeling more was going on than the pair wanted him to know. That was fine with him. He knew that Miss Serena had bid on his ledger. Which, he was glad about at the time, but standing in this room watching the pair, he knew he was out of the running for her heart. Since he had a hankering for another lady, it sort of worked out perfectly.

  "I also came to speak with you Miss Serena. If you have the moment, that is," Tex smiled tentatively.

  "Of course I do Tex," Serena shot Alec a look that plainly said, leave.

  "Well, I will be on my way. Serena, we will talk later," Alec nodded to them both and made a hasty retreat.

  "Oh, by the way, mayor... Bertie said she was going to be making her way down to your house. She said something about checking on your sore head. You may want to sneak around the back if you are still aiming to avoid her," Tex called out to Alec's departing back. Both he and Serena grinned at Alec's loud groan of irritation before the door slammed behind him.

  "Miss Serena, I was wondering if I could escort you to the O'Malley's barn dance this week. I am willing to consider it your penny's worth. That way you won't have to cook for me. Plus, your brother will be there so we will be properly chaperoned." Tex shuffled his big feet awkwardly.

  He had planned on asking another lady, but her mother had informed him that Miss Etta would not be going to the dance, especially on the arms of the likes of Tex Brody. He was used to that, he would survive her scorn. He just thought Miss Etta was different...

  "I would love to go with you Tex," Serena agreed.

  This was exactly what she needed to put her life into perspective. She needed to remember that her goal was to gain a husband and Tex was on the list of candidates.

  "Miss Serena, it is not my business... but your buttons are undone. You might want to be correcting that." Tex motioned at her half buttoned top as he sauntered from the door he called out. "That mayor is one lucky hombre."

  "Many a man has cut his nose off to spite his face."

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  The morning had started off blissfully silent for Alec. Yesterday, after leaving Serena's shop, Alec had made his way home. He had hoped to evade Bertie, but unfortunately the woman was sitting upon the settee in his front parlor when he had arrived home. Mrs. Wyatt had taken one look at his scowl and made herself scarce. She knew that he was not happy with her for admitting the woman into his home.

  After a few moments of allowing the woman to fuss over him, Alec had sat Bertie back down and been honest with her. It was hard to see the look of hurt on the woman's face, but he could not bear anymore of her singing. Breaking it as gently as he could, Alec had informed her that although she had the voice of an angel, he would appreciate it if she stopped following him. Luckily, Bertie had informed him that she had some courting days with Ludwig Klassun coming up. Alec wished her luck in obtaining the hand of the older dairy farmer and they had parted as friends.

  "One down, eight to go." Alec congratulated himself, and whistled as he walked jauntily down the street.

  He had no particular destination in mind when he had set off on his walk, and was mildly surprised when he found himself in front of the Sinclair's door. He figured while he was in the area, he might as well knock. He really should check on George and apprise him of a few of the matters that would be coming before the council that required voting.

  "Alec Wentworth! This is a surprise." Charlotte Sinclair smiled as she opened the door.

  "Mrs. Sinclair." Alec doffed his hat and inclined his head, greeting the haggard woman with a smile. "Did I come at a bad time?"

  "Come in, come in... it's never a bad time for you to come and see me. You are just in time for a bit of lunch."

  "I didn't come to beg for food," Alec denied.

  Ushering him inside, Charlotte Sinclair nodded toward the kitchen. "Go on and get something to eat, son. I worry that you are not getting an adequate meal, what with Evelyn Wyatt cooking for you." Charlotte wrinkled her nose in disgust and said, "That woman's cooking is as sour as her disposition."

  "She's not so bad Mrs. Sinclair. You just have to get to know her," Alec assured the woman.

  "I will take your word on it," Charlotte smiled and patted him on the cheek.

  "It smells wonderful in here." Alec appreciated the aromas that filled the house. He had always loved coming to the Sinclair's home. This was what he had always imagined a real family home would be like. When he had been a child, cowering in the linen closet in fear, he had dreamt of having this one day.

  "Serena has been baking bread since before dawn. Now, she is working on pies. Why don't you go on into the kitchen? I have to run upstairs and see to Mr. Sinclair."

  "Yes Ma'am," Alec thanked her before heading toward the kitchen at the back of the house.

  The horrendous off key singing assaulted Alec's ears before he had even come close to the doorway. He winced as a high note was reached. Peering around the corner, Alec watched as Serena danced about a bit. Her hips were swaying to the love song or what he assumed was a love ballad, as much as he could understand through the pain that it caused his ear drums.

  It was no wonder that yesterday Serena had defended Bertie Brown's singing. She was worse...much, much worse. It explained away all of those times at church socials, barn dances and holiday gatherings that ladies had gathered to sing, Serena had always gone into hiding.

  "So, Bertie is not the only soprano around these parts," Alec commented.

  "Sweet merciful heavens!" Serena gasped. Startled, she dropped the apple that she was paring and cut into the pad of her thumb.

  At her ye
lp of pain, Alec moved forward and grabbed her hand. Blood flowed freely for her injured flesh. Guiding Serena's hand to the water reservoir by her sink stand, he poured cold water over her hand to stop the bleeding.

  "You need to be more careful. You cut yourself pretty deep there," he chastised her as he wrapped her injured digit in a towel.

  "If you would not sneak up on me all of the time, I would not have cut myself," she shot back.

  After a few minutes of trying to out glower each other, Alec spoke. "Sorry," he apologized, "but I came to ask you a favor."

  "What favor would that be?" Serena asked as she handed him a piece of sliced apple to chew on.

  "Thanks," he took a bite out of the crisp fruit before continuing, "I have a plan to get out of this mess that the council has created for me, and I could use your help."

  "Really?" Serena resumed her work once again. She tossed the apple core into the bucket next to her feet and reached for another. She figured she needed to peel and core another dozen or so if she were going to have enough to make the quantity of pies necessary for the barn dance that the O'Malley's were to hold in their newly constructed barn on Friday evening.

  "You really think the council will let you get out of marrying one of those ladies that were crazy enough to have bid on you?" One eyebrow cocked in disbelief, Serena looked up and met Alec's gaze.

  "I have a plan you know. I just need your help to pull it off."

  "That is rich. You want me to help you stay single?" Scoffing at his petulant face, Serena refused him. "Besides, I am too busy with my own courtship to help you."

  "I am not asking you to put your plans on hold, just help me out here."

  "Alec, I hate to tell you, but the council boys will have you married off faster than you can say I do. I can guarantee you that if you do not pick your bride Fergus and the boys will pick for you."

  "Want to bet on it?" Arms folded across his muscled chest, eyes narrowed, Alec taunted her.

  "Bet on what exactly?"

  "Bet me, that I cannot outwit the council and stay out of the parson's trap?"

  "Alec, I think that you will find yourself a married man by Christmas," Serena walked past him into her pantry and grabbed the container that held her supply of sugar with one hand and reached higher for her spice jar on the shelf above.

  "Here," Alec coming up behind her grabbed the jar down and handed to her.

  "Thank you," Serena mumbled.

  "Look, just let me escort you to the barn dance," Alec begged with a roguish smile. He leaned against the counter top where Serena was now mixing the filling for her pies. "We can talk about my plan there."

  "You want to escort me to the O'Malley's barn dance?"

  "Yes, you can help keep those crazy women off of me, and I can keep you company. I know how bored you get at those types of things," picking up a leftover apple, Alec tossed it from hand to hand while he awaited her answer.

  "Sorry Alec, I already have an escort to the party. Maybe you can make the same pact with Trudy? I am sure she would love to be your partner for the evening," Serena responded. Pouring a bit of the filling into the pie crust she had waiting, she refused his kind offer.

  "Who are you going with?" Alec straightened to his full height and focused intently on her.

  "Tex Brody," she stated proudly.

  "Well, that is okay then. Tex is an all right fella. I thought for a minute you were going to say that you were going with David Harris."

  "No, I do have dinner plans with David the following week though," Serena informed him as she crimped the crust on the pie and cut a slit in the top for it to vent.

  "Serena, you need to stay away from him. He is a no good louse."

  "I could say the same about Miss Bixby to you too, but like you, it is none of my concern whom you chose to consort with," Serena sniffed angrily.

  "What is it with you and Trudy, anyway?" Alec narrowed his eyes at Serena in contemplation.

  "She is a troll," Serena griped.

  "Trudy is not so bad. She is actually quite funny," he argued. "I think if you tried to get to know her a bit, you might like her."

  "No, thank you." Opening the oven, Serena placed the pie on the hot shelf and turned to him. "By the way, I have thought of a way for you to repay me for my kind assistance with Bertie."

  "How is that?" Alec asked. He wiped a smudge of flour off of the side of her chin with a smile at her mulishness.

  "I have decided that those things that we talked about that day at the lake... I want to do them all. I want to experience what is like to live with the freedom that you as a man possess before I am married."

  "And I help you do this... how?" Alec gave her one of his looks. It was the kind of look that suggested that she may have lost her mind and was still unaware of the fact.

  "Well, as a man you have much more freedom than I do. You can arrange to help me do them."

  "Like hell," Alec shook a finger at her. "There is no way on this earth that I am going to sneak you into the Rot Gut Saloon. Not going to happen..."

  "What if I wore some of Mathias's old clothes? We still have some things that mama can't bear to part with. I am sure they will fit me."

  "You honestly think that you could pass yourself off as a man? Sugarplum, you better get yourself outta this heat, it is doing things to your mind," Alec chuckled and picked up a loaf of bread. Placing it upon the table, he clearly went in search of a knife.

  "In the bottom cupboard," she pointed him in the direction of his quest.

  His familiarity with her home brought forth memories of the many years that he had spent in this kitchen eating with her family. Some of them happy, some of them infuriating, but all of them held dear within her heart.

  "I could do it. I could pass for a boy if I wanted to," Serena insisted.

  She made a grab for one of her precious loaves of bread. She did not spend all morning baking so that he could butcher the darn thing. Removing a crock of butter from the shelf near the stove, Serena began putting together a makeshift meal for the hardheaded man. Her mama always said the way to a man's heart was through his stomach, Serena just wish she knew what it took to get inside the man's head. On second thought, she told herself that she really did not want to know what he had running amok up in that skull of his.

  "If you can figure out a way to get around the fact that you are a female, I promise that I will teach you how to play poker," he agreed before taking a large bite out of the bread.

  "Deal!"

  "I can't promise you much more than that though," he warned her.

  "Oh Alec, do not worry, I wrote out a whole list of things that I want to try. I will be happy if we only manage to do a few of the things on it."

  "I have a bad feeling about this," Alec grumbled.

  "This has got to be the worst idea you have ever come up with." Alec ground out.

  "Just deal the cards. You promised not to complain," Serena snapped back, tapping a finger against the plain backed deck of playing cards that sprawled across the wooden surface of his desk.

  "Proper young ladies do not sneak out and play poker with men. Even men they have known most of their lives," folding his arms over his chest, Alec protested as he reclined lazily in his seat. Kicking his heels up onto his desktop, Alec waited for Serena to see reason.

  He could not believe that this woman had snuck out of her house, in the middle of the night, and come to him with her crazy plan. She had about given him a heart attack when she had climbed head first into the open window of his study. Having got her dress stuck on the way in, she was lucky that he had passed his study on his way up to bed. Her muffled curses coming out from under the skirt of the dress that had been covering her head had him laughing aloud. As he had helped untangle her, Alec could not resist the urge to pinch her lightly on her bottom.

  He had no idea how she had gotten the bottom half of her dress over her head, but the sight of her garters was surprisingly delightful. While her choice in dresses was
horrid, she had worn some sexy underclothing.

  Good lord, the woman was lucky Mrs. Wyatt had already gone to bed and surely snoring her head off. The old lady would have taken her broom to Serena's bottom for sure. Mrs. Wyatt had taken it as her personal responsibility to run off any unmarried lady that she did not approve of. She would view a sneaking Serena as a threat to her odds on the bet. As his cranky housekeeper had not yet shared the name of her pick, Alec was in the dark on which lady it might be.

  Any moment Alec was sure that Serena would get up and flee from the room as if her brown, shapeless dress were on fire. Instead, she sat primly in the light green upholstered chair facing him. She fiddled with the white lace on the cuffs of her sleeves as if she were at a ladies social, instead of closeted in a room with a confirmed bachelor such as himself.

  "You said that if I helped you escape Bertie Brown, you would do anything," Serena reminded him.

  "I did not mean this!" Alec waved a hand conveying the impropriety of their being secluded together in the very office of his bachelor's residence.

  "Well, this is what I want from you." Serena shot to her feet, ready to scoop up her papa's playing cards and head home, she was visibly disappointed.

  "Sit," Alec groaned out. He knew that if he did not help her get her "adventure list" fulfilled, Serena would just find someone else to help her... and who knew what kind of trouble could be stirred up then?

  "I hate to ask, but what is the next item you have on this so called "list" of yours?"

  "Don't worry it's nothing too scandalous. I swear," Serena gingerly sat back down and avoided his gaze.

  "Serena, if your brother finds out I'm helping you, we won't have to worry about the scandal. He will kill us both on the spot," Alec warned her.

  "Mathias is too busy running his precious ranch to bother with my behavior. Now, are you going to deal those cards, or am I going to have to go tell Bertie that you enjoyed her soprano so much, that you dream nightly of her voice?"