“I want to get these shingles fixed by today. And put that rifle down, it might go off.”
“I don’t aim to shoot you, even though you deserve it.”
“Listen, boy. Who are you?”
“I’m not a boy.”
“Yeah? Well, you sure aren’t a man, too pretty looking.”
“You low down skunk.”
“I beg your pardon.” Shock darkened his eyes and his mouth tightened.
“You ought to be ashamed of yourself, writing all those lies. I should sue you for breach of promise.”
“What! Are you crazy? Who are you?”
“Briony Ashton.” She whipped off her hat.
His jaw dropped and he rocked back on his heels. “You’re….”
“Yes, I am. How dare you bring me here under false pretenses?”
“I changed my mind.”
“You didn’t even have the decency to let me know.”
“I wrote to you.” He scowled.
“When? After I had left?”
“Well, if you’d had the decency to let me know.” He echoed her words. “You were coming.”
“I wrote to tell you what time I was arriving.”
“That was never part of the deal. We were to exchange a few more letters and….”
“My situation, um, deteriorated.”
“I’m sorry, it’s not my problem.”
“It is, because I am here expecting to be married.”
“Not to me, lady. You know why I got cold feet? Because reading between the lines of your letter made me suspicious.”
“Suspicious! What of? I was honest and told you I needed to get out of Hurstbridge in a hurry. Anyway, you weren’t particularly forthcoming, yourself. Like, why couldn’t you get yourself a wife in the usual way?”
“I didn’t want a wife. I need a live-in housekeeper and a marriage of convenience was the only way to do it.”
“And why was your need so urgent all of a sudden?” She stared him down.
“I told you. My sister wanted to get married and….”
“Oh, you poor, pathetic man. You couldn’t look after yourself?”
“Listen,” he ground the word out. “I’m a busy rancher who doesn’t have time for household chores. That’s a woman’s work.”
It was the derisive curl of his lips that did it. “You, you, yellow bellied coward,” she yelled. “You didn’t even have….”
His face became bloodless. He looked ready to collapse as he ran a trembling hand across his temple.
“Do you need to sit down?” she asked, feeling utterly ashamed of her loss of control.
“No, my nerves are shot to pieces from the war and it doesn’t take much for me to fall apart.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t come here to upset you. Well, I did, but not in this way.” She linked arms with him. “We’ll go to the house and I’ll make you a coffee, tea or whatever you drink.”
“Thanks, but the shingles need fixing.”
“You’re in no fit state to climb back on that roof.”
He was shaking now. “Loud noises and crowds play havoc with my nerves.”
“My screaming abuse at you certainly wouldn’t help.”
Once they got to the back porch, he unlinked their arms. “I’m okay now, but a cup of coffee would be good, thanks.”
Inside the kitchen, he went over and slumped in a chair while she got the coffee going.
“My sister will be back in a couple of hours. You can see why I can’t cope on my own.”
“Do you get many of these turns?”
“A few, particularly if a strange woman who’s dressed like a man hurls abuse at me.” He gave a slight smile.
Heat rushed into her cheeks. “I’m really sorry. I was so angry, thinking you purposely got me here with no intentions of marrying me. I let my temper get the better of me, after jumping to erroneous conclusions. I’ll stay here until your sister returns, then I’ll leave and not bother you again.”
He gave a wry grin. “I drink my coffee black. It wasn’t much of a first meeting, was it?”
“No, it wasn’t. I’ve been under a lot of strain these last few weeks.”
“What happened?” He nodded his thanks for the coffee and shook his head when she offered him sugar.
“My father died.”
“I’m sorry.”
“He had been sick for a while. We spent most of the time at the ranch. It was only a few thousand acres, but we enjoyed the peace and quiet. I spent most of my last five years there.”
She took a deep breath. “My mother and I didn’t get along. Anyway, pa loved the ranch and so did I. My mother and younger sister hated it, so they stayed in Denver. My father was a doctor and he was devoted to his patients, but any spare time he had he spent at the ranch with me. As his health started failing, he spent more time at the ranch.”
“Your mother wasn’t happy with the arrangements?”
“No. Anyway, after my father died, I discovered he had never updated his will. My mother got everything. She sold the ranch as quickly as she could, leaving me homeless. I went to stay with friends.” Briony forced herself not to cry.
“Not content with getting everything, meaning she was a wealthy widow, she said all these awful things about me. Lies, but I couldn’t do anything to stop her. In the end, I was a social pariah in town.”
She fiddled with the edge of the tablecloth. “It started to affect my friends as well. They owned the livery stable and had been planning on selling it as a going concern. Anyway, the scurrilous stories could have ruined it for them. That’s why I was desperate to leave.” Now that she had bared her soul, should she tell him about being illegitimate?
“I’m sorry, Briony. How could a mother do that to her own child?”
“Um, this is not the worst part of it. She’s not my mother.”
“But…”
“I inadvertently discovered that I was the product of my father’s, um, mistress.”
“Oh?”
“I’m illegitimate.”
“Ah, I see. Your mother told everyone.”
Briony wrung her hands. “Yes, she did it publicly at my father’s funeral, of all places.” She cringed in remembrance of the shocking scene. “Of course, she embellished it – I was the offspring of a whore. You can imagine what happened.”
“I can indeed. Do you know who your real mother was?”
“No, but whoever it was, I think my father loved her, but he was already married. She died not long after my birth and my father took me in. He was such a kind, loving man, and Lucille, his wife, was cold and nasty. The older she got the more horrible she became. So, that’s it, all my skeletons are out of the closet.”
“How could a woman be so cruel?” he asked.
She refilled his cup. “I don’t know, maybe she was jealous of how close pa and I were. My sister, Hannah, used to love the ranch when she was small, but the older she got the more like Lucille she became, until she hated me, too. What about your deep, dark secrets?”
He was starting to look better now and the feeling of shame over how she attacked him almost overwhelmed her.
“Not much to tell. We originally hail from Colorado, lived on a ranch my father worked on, but never owned. I bought this place off an army friend of mine. He had inherited it from some long-lost uncle and didn’t want it. He wants to marry my sister and take her to Colorado, but she won’t leave me to fend for myself. That’s why I needed a woman.”
He took a sip of coffee and his brow puckered. “That’s why I needed a woman. For the sake of propriety, I couldn’t have her living under my roof with no chaperone, so a marriage of convenience was all I could think of.”
“What about the war?”
A shudder went through his body. “I spent time as a prisoner of war in Andersonville.”
“A terrible place by all accounts. I’m sorry, you were lucky to survive.”
“That’s one way of putting it.”
“I understand some of what you went through. My father was a surgeon with the Union army and I used to help out at some of the field hospitals where he worked. I’ll never forget the suffering of the wounded and dying. Always too many casualties and not enough help for them, shortages of supplies, yet women like Lucille whined about not being able to buy luxuries. It was sickening.”
“Yeah, I know. Do you have any other clothes?” he suddenly asked.
“Yes, I left my trunk at the stage depot and hired a horse to ride out here. Easier and safer to dress in male attire.”
“And the Winchester, just for looks?”
“No, I can use it.”
“Was it to frighten me?” His sudden grin lit up his eyes and chased away the somber shadows.
“No, it was for safety. Luckily, I had it because there was a confrontation with some men, but I was able to disperse them.”
“They attacked you?”
“No, not me. The school.”
He turned white and started trembling again.
“Hey.” She grabbed his hand. “No one got hurt. The teacher made the kids hide under the table and she confronted those men on her own, which I thought was brave, considering they were armed, and she wasn’t.”
“Phyllis always had plenty of courage.”
“You know her well?”
“She’s my sister.”
“Oh, no.” Briony dropped his hand “I didn’t know she was your sister. I said a few awful things about you, what I thought about your actions.”
“What did she say?”
“Well, she didn’t jump to your defense.”
They both laughed.
“She encouraged me to vent my anger. Now that I think about it, she was giving me some very strange looks. I gave her my name, so she knew who I was.”
“And she didn’t let on.”
His laughter did funny things to her insides.
“The reason I got cold feet and wanted to call the whole thing off, was we picked up that you had some kind of secret and we didn’t want to risk you being some desperate, crazy hag of a woman.”
She laughed. “Well, I thought you were a despicable fraudster.”
He grinned and her heart rate escalated, speeding like a runaway train rushing down a hill. He sure was a handsome man. No wonder his nerves were in a bad state, having survived Andersonville. What a terrible thing war was, not only while the battle raged but for years afterward.
“If you’re feeling better, I should return to town.”
Chapter Eight
Martin stared at Briony across the table. Auburn hair, green eyes, creamy, white complexion and soft voiced when she stopped attacking him. On reflection, his behavior had been bad. He had acted like a low-down skunk. Not that he had been afraid to face her, he was no coward, but if she had caused a scene he might have gone to pieces.
Why couldn’t they go through with the marriage as planned? Briony was obviously not the demented old maid he had feared she might be. Pretty, obviously competent around the kitchen. She had raked up the stove, made the coffee with the easy confidence of one used to doing such chores.
He had no worries about her fulfilling his requirements, except the wife of convenience stipulation. Even on such short acquaintance she had aroused long dead feelings in him. With the help of a woman like her, he could heal. With his help, she would be able to shrug off the stigma of being illegitimate. He would see to it she was always treated with respect and she would have a comfortable home in which to live. They both stood to gain from the union. Also, with a wife like Briony around, Phyllis would be free to marry Jarrod.
He took a couple of steadying breaths. “Briony, don’t go.”
Her eyes widened.
“I want you to stay here with me. Marry me like we planned.”
“I…I….”
“Unless you find me repulsive.” His hand rasped against the bristles on his chin. He hadn’t thought she might refuse him.
“I don’t find you repulsive, Martin.”
“Well?”
Still she hesitated, and his elation at having her for a bride started to fade. “I’m sorry, my behavior was reprehensible. Please stay, Briony. We can get married like we planned.”
“What about the scandal of my birth?” she asked.
“There is no scandal as far as I’m concerned. Once you carry my name it will be irrelevant, anyway. You will be under my protection and I’m still enough of a man to protect my wife.”
She hesitated for a few moments. “All right, I accept your proposal.”
“Thank you, Briony, you won’t be sorry. We can make this marriage work. I know we can.”
“What will your sister think when she realizes you’re set to marry me?”
“She will be shocked, but glad. You know.” He grinned. “I wonder whether we should put on an act for her. Let her think you’re going to sue me for breach of promise, or is that too mean?”
“It’s too mean.” She laughed. “I liked your sister, even though she never let on you were her brother and stood there while I raved on like a demented woman.”
He chuckled. “It would have been fun, though. We used to play games like this on each other all the time, once.”
“Did you have a happy childhood?” She picked up the cups and refilled them.
“It was okay, not much money to spare. Pa ran the ranch for a wealthy banker from Boston. The ranch was profitable, so the owner gave him a free hand. What about you?”
“It was happy. I spent most of my time on the ranch with a housekeeper in residence until I was old enough to take over. Pa was a good man, a gifted surgeon. He didn’t deserve to be treated so badly by Lucille. He paid dearly for his mistake, although he always said I was the best thing to have ever happened to him.”
“Your mother. Your real one? What about her?”
“I know nothing about her. Pa never mentioned it. I was always under the impression he loved her dearly, but he was tied to Lucille. A man in his position could never get a divorce. It would have finished his career, ruined him. And a woman like Lucille would never go quietly. Maybe my mother was tied to another man. I don’t know.”
“Was this Lucille always mean to you?”
“I didn’t notice it as a child as she had little to do with me, even though people thought we were mother and daughter. Pa hired a nursemaid for a few years, then when I was older, I spent most of my time at the ranch.”
“Your sister?”
“I was about six years older than her, but we were close. She used to come to the ranch regularly for years. As she got older, she drifted away, eventually refusing to visit the ranch at all. Unbeknownst to us, Lucille was turning her against me. Pa, too. I never realized this until I got older, then the war came and, well, you know life could not return to what it was.”
She suddenly stood. “I still need to go back into Fir Ridge.”
“Why?”
“I’ve only got the clothes on my back.”
“Stay the night here, there are three bedrooms. Phyllis can loan you anything you need. I’ll drive you into town tomorrow to get your luggage.”
“It’s only one trunk and a carpet bag. I didn’t have much to bring. I would like to send a telegram to my friends in Hurstbridge where I was staying, to let them know I arrived safely and all is well. They were kind and having me there made things awkward for them, to say the least, with all the gossip and innuendo spreading through town.”
“We can do all that tomorrow. See the preacher, too.”
“All right.”
Now that she was going to live here, Briony wanted to know a little more about the place. “How big is the ranch?”
“I’ve got twenty thousand acres and run mainly beef cattle. I grow hay, also, have horses and chickens. Fairly ordinary.”
“I noticed a well outside.”
“It was here when Jarrod sold me the ranch. Prior to that I guess they drew water from the creek. It’s only a hundred
yards down the back. It’s almost cut into the side of the hill.”
“I guess Laramie would be the closest large town?”
“Yes. I go there maybe once a year, but it’s too crowded, and it means we would have to stay overnight.”
Briony nodded. “I’m not a social person, either, that’s why the ranch suited me. I like peace and serenity.”
“We seem to have a few things in common. Phyllis should be here soon. Why don’t we go to the sitting room and wait there? I’ll have to light the fire.”
He stood.
“Don’t light it for my sake.”
“I usually light it about now. It’s cold here at night. After supper we spend a couple of hours relaxing before we go to bed. We lead a simple life here.”
“Sounds nice.” Briony was liking the place more and more, not to mention the owner.
“If you want to take a look around the place, feel free, or maybe wait for my sister, she can explain things better than me. The front bedroom is mine. It’s larger than the other two, although they are a good size.”
He waved his arm around. “The house has been extended. It started life as a one room cabin.”
“It looks comfortable.”
“I think it is.” He stepped away from the table. “I’ll just light the fire, it’s laid out ready. We open all the doors after a while and some of the warmth drifts out to take the chill from the bedrooms.”
“Does it snow here?”
“Sometimes. The hills seem to shelter us. We do get cold winds that chill you to the bone, if you don’t wear adequate clothing.”
After he headed off for the sitting room, she took a good look around the kitchen. A cook stove sat on a stone hearth. The large dresser had diamond shaped lead light glass in the upper doors but wooden ones at the bottom.
Pots and pans hung from a rail over the stove. Not much different to the one at her father’s ranch. Had Lucille been a fair and decent woman, it would have been hers. If she had inherited the ranch, she would never have met Martin.
The longer she was with him, the more she liked him. It was surprising how her opinion had changed after their disastrous first few minutes together. The names she had called him, the accusations, made her cringe. At least his opinion about her had been wrong, also. A demented, crazed hag of a woman was most unflattering. They could laugh about this in years to come, if they stayed together. A young man in his prime, like Martin, would surely not want to endure a marriage in name only forever. A rancher like him would eventually want heirs.
An Unwanted Bride for Christmas Page 5