Mail Order Bride: A Bride's Unexpected Love: A Western Romance Book

by Annabel Alden

  “You say that, Mr. Cunningham, but I believe that I can change your mind if you give me the chance,” she said. Chase was going to argue and tell her that she couldn’t—and in addition he would never give her the chance to try, but at that moment, Annabelle took a step forward and stood on the tips of her toes and kissed him. She put her hand around the back of his head so he couldn’t pull back quickly, and pressed her lips firmly against his. Chase was so surprised by the act he didn’t know how to react at first, but as soon as he could, he pulled back from her.

  He put his hands out to the side to show that he had done nothing to kiss her or encourage her to kiss him, but the way Annabelle looked up at the window in satisfaction, and this time, he couldn’t help but feel uneasy. Annabelle was certainly the kind of person to have another motive for the things that she did, and he had no doubt in his mind that she had something going on now. Perhaps she had seen something that he didn’t want to see. He looked quickly up at the window hoping he wasn’t going to see what he thought he would.

  Right at the moment, he saw the flash of her skirt as she turned and walked away from the window, though he couldn’t tell how long she had been there watching. He wanted to believe that she hadn’t seen the kiss, but at the same time, with the way Annabelle had looked up at the window, he had to believe that she had a reason for doing it.

  Chase turned quickly back to Annabelle. “How dare you do that to me! I want nothing to do with you, and I thought that I have made that quite clear!”

  He clenched and unclenched his fists, doing his best to calm down. She laughed as she took a step back from him, looking at him with the same coy look she always had when she looked at him.

  “Come on, Chase, I thought you really liked kissing me. You certainly did it enough when we were courting.”

  “That was then, and this is now. I want nothing more to do with you, and that’s final!”

  “Oh, Chase, are you sure?” she asked with the little pout of her lip. He wanted to pick her up and put her in the wagon, telling her never to come back again, but he was too much of a gentleman to lay a finger on her in any way. Turning back to her, he pointed at the road.

  “You get out of here!” he said fiercely. Annabelle laughed, but she didn’t move. He took a step forward, and though he could see that she was feeling intimidated, he could see that she was also angry, and he wanted to shout at her. But, he took a deep breath and pointed to the road once again.

  “You get out of here, Annabelle Jackson, and you never come back to this house again. If I see you here, I am going to have the sheriff remove you personally! I will have two of my men deliver you the horses that are yours, and this is the last time you and I ever conduct business. Good day!” Chase didn’t stop to wait for her reply. He didn’t care what she had to say, and he rather hoped that she would be wise enough to not say anything at all. He took three long steps up the stairs, wanting to get in the house and away from the girl as quickly as possible.

  He was tired of the trouble that Annabelle so often caused him, and he knew that she was once again doing what she could to ruin the things that he had that were good in his life. If she couldn’t get to him herself, and if she couldn’t get her claws into his family’s estate, then she was going to do the one thing she knew how to do that would hurt him—and it worked.

  She had known Charity was standing in the window, and he had little doubt in his mind she had kissed him just to hurt the girl. He closed the door behind him with a loud bang, and hurried up the steps as quickly as he could. He needed to talk to Charity—he had to make sure everything was alright between them.

  He had pulled back from the kiss. He had done nothing wrong. And Chase silently prayed that she had seen that with her own eyes.

  Or, at the very least, that she would find it in her heart to believe him.

  Chapter 29

  Charity’s heart was pounding in her chest as she tore herself away from the window. She had such tightness in her chest, she felt that she couldn’t breathe. She wanted to scream and shout, but was as though all the air had been sucked out of her lungs, and no matter what she tried to do, all that would happen was a little gasp. Charity put her hand to her chest as she fell back from the window, and she took a deep breath, trying to forget what she had just seen, and telling herself that it wasn’t really true.

  She hadn’t wanted to spy on Chase as he told Annabelle that he didn’t want to continue the contract with her, but at the same time, she wasn’t going to let such an opportunity slip past her. She had wanted nothing more than to see him tell Annabelle to leave since the moment she had met the girl, but she had though that he was going to do that on his own time. Charity had passed him in the hall as he was heading down to the floor, and she had wondered why he was so dressed up.

  It was unlike Chase to ever get dressed up for anything, and she especially wondered why he would do such a thing with Annabelle on the way. He usually tried to make the interaction he had with her as brief as possible, and that is what she thought he would do this time, too. Curious, she had to look out the window to see what he was going to do—and when she saw Annabelle, she couldn’t help but wait for a few more moments.

  She watched as Chase walked down the stairs and stopped right when he reached the ground. Annabelle had gotten out of the carriage and she hurried over, looking just as flirtatious as she always tried to be, and Charity couldn’t help but roll her eyes. She wished she could hear what was being said between them. All she could hear was the sound of Annabelle’s flirtatious laughter every now and then.

  It appeared to her that Annabelle was trying her best to get Chase to join in with the flirtation, but from what Charity could see, Chase was doing his best to be reserved and held himself at a distance. Charity heard a sound behind her, and she quickly turned, half expecting to see Mrs. Cunningham standing there. Though no one in the house had told her that she couldn’t come up to the upper level of the house, she knew that it was better for her not to.

  Charity was surprised to see that she was alone in the room, and she turned her attention back to the scene downstairs, but he could see that they were still arguing down below. She wished she could hear once again, and part of her wished that she could be down there as well. She would be happy to tell Annabelle that she needed to leave—that she was no longer welcome on the estate—but she knew she was going to have to once again let Chase handle it himself while she stood off to the side and watched.

  Charity leaned closer to the window, wanting to see once more what was going on, but they had both moved a little closer to the house, and it was more difficult for her to see what was going on. She leaned so close to the window, she began to fear that she was going to press out the glass panes when suddenly, she heard the creaking sound from behind her once more. Turning quickly, Charity once again expected to see Mrs. Cunningham standing there.

  Once again, she was surprised to see that there was no one, and she began to feel a little tense—but also frustrated. She wanted to keep her eye on what was going on downstairs—she wanted to see the moment when Chase told Annabelle that they were no longer going to have a contract, and she wanted to see Annabelle get in her carriage and drive away—hopefully very angry with the situation.

  But, when Charity looked back to the window, her heart sank to the pit of her stomach. Down below, she saw Annabelle in Chase’s arms, her lips pressed firmly to his. She could only bring herself to watch for but a split second before she felt so sick to her stomach she had to pull back. She couldn’t watch them as they kissed, and she could hardly think straight.

  Logically, she couldn’t believe that she had seen what she had just seen, but at the same time, she couldn’t forget about it, either. She knew what she had seen, and she had seen the two of them kissing. There was no way for her to know what Annabelle had said or what Chase had said to her. All she could do was see that the two of them were down there in each other’s arms, and their lips were pressed tightly to
gether.

  She wanted to scream, but all the air had been sucked out of her lungs, and Charity felt as though she was going to faint dead away. She couldn’t stay at the window another moment. She didn’t care what happened downstairs. She didn’t care what Chase did, or what Annabelle did. She was so hurt and angry, all that filled her mind was pure confusion.

  Charity hurried from the room and closed the door behind her, then she quickly and quietly slipped past Mr. Cunningham’s room. She knew both Mr. and Mrs. Cunningham were in the room, and she wished they could see what had just happened down below. She wondered what Mr. Cunningham would say if he knew what his son had just done, but she knew that it was also pointless to say anything about it. Chase was a grown man, and he was free to do as he pleased, no matter how terrible it was.

  Though Charity didn’t want to admit it to herself, all she could imagine was that Chase had to be putting on a show for her. It had to go back to the wager that the two of them had had, and he had to be doing what he had done in order to make her think that he wasn’t going to turn out to be like all the other wealthy men she had known.

  But, in the end, she saw that he was just like what she thought. At least, that is all she could imagine happened—though she didn’t really want to believe it herself.

  At the same time, she tried to tell herself that it didn’t matter to her—that she was going to be leaving and he was free to do as he wanted—just as she was free to do as she wanted as well. If she wanted to get out of there and go find her own love, she could do it, and she didn’t need Chase to be there for it. Charity didn’t know what to think, and she certainly didn’t know how to feel about all that she had just seen.

  She hurried down the stairs as soon as she was free from the room, and she took a deep breath as she reached the second story. She heard the door open down below, and the hurried steps of Chase as he ran up the step, and she picked up her own pace. No doubt he was coming up the stairs to tell her or his father something about the contract, but she didn’t want to talk to him about it. She didn’t want to talk to him at all, in fact. All she wanted was to get to her room and be alone.

  There was little doubt in her mind that Chase thought he had gotten away with what he had done, and she didn’t want to bring it up to him. She reached her door first, however, and yanked it closed behind her. It was only a couple of seconds before Chase started pounding on her door, calling for her and asking her if she would open it for him.

  “Charity! I don’t know what you saw, but I can tell you that it’s not what it seemed. If you think that there was anything that happened—”

  Charity interrupted him.

  “I don’t know what you are talking about, Mr. Cunningham. I don’t feel well, and I am going to take a few minutes to rest,” Charity said. She still felt dizzy and weak.

  “Come on, Charity, I know that you had to have seen what just happened, and I want to talk to you about it. I would rather not have to do it through a closed door! Charity, don’t be unreasonable, open the door and talk to me, then you can rest!” Chase called. It was clear he was trying not to attract the attention of others in the house, Charity, however, didn’t want to hear another word from him—she wanted nothing more than for him to merely go away and let her be.

  Thinking quickly, Charity suddenly had an idea of what she could tell him to get rid of him. “I have a headache, but I’ll be down for dinner later. Please, let me have some time to rest, and I’ll see you when I’m feeling better.”

  Charity could hear him breathing on the other side of the door, and she knew that he didn’t like the idea of having to wait, but she wasn’t going to budge on what she was doing. She was hurt and angry, and she didn’t care what he was thinking about it. He could wait for her to be ready to speak with him—if she ever thought that she was ready to do so.

  “Alright, but understand that this is not over. We are going to discuss this over dinner, and we are going to straighten out what happened. I don’ know what you are angry about, but I can tell you that it’s not what you think.” His voice was low and concerned, but Charity only shook her head though she knew that he couldn’t see her. She wiped the tears out of her eyes, and covered her mouth to hide the sobs that wracked her body when she heard his steps retreat. She didn’t know what to think or who to believe, all she knew is what she saw—and it hurt her more than she wanted to admit.

  Charity took a deep breath and walked over to her bed, sitting down on the end of it and continuing to try to get a hold of herself. Her head did hurt, and she felt a tight lump in both her throat and her chest. Her stomach was still twisted in a knot, and she thought as though she could vomit if she allowed herself to. But, she didn’t want to talk about it. She didn’t want to hear what Chase had to say.

  Charity took a deep breath. The way Chase was acting, she knew that he had to have seen her—or perhaps Annabelle had said something about seeing her up there. Either way, he had to have known that she saw something. She knew that he would tell her that it was an accident, or that he didn’t mean to do it. Or, perhaps he was going to thoroughly break her heart and tell her that he was going to get back together with Annabelle. There were so many thoughts that were running through her mind, and she found it impossible to stick with a single one.

  She would do anything to get as far away from the house as possible, and she didn’t want to ever see Chase again. The only good thing she could see about what had happened was that she now knew her answer. She didn’t want to stay with this man or on this estate another day. She wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.

  With the decision in her mind, Charity knew what she had to do. She wasn’t going to go to dinner, she was going to go to the train station. She had a few dollars saved up, and she knew that she could get at least a few towns away with that amount of money. She would write him a letter, and she would tell him that she had seen what happened, and she had made her decision.

  It no longer mattered to her what she wanted or how she thought about him. She grabbed her paper and a pen, then sat down at the desk to write. She thought for a moment, then she started to write.

  Dear Mr. Cunningham,

  Thank you for your hospitality you have shown me for the past several months, and thank you for allowing me to freely use your horses and your property for my pleasure.

  As for our wager, a bet is nothing more than a silly bet, and I believe that we have both shown each other that we are different than what we thought the other was going to be. But, that doesn’t change the fact that we may not still be able to live together or be married after all.

  I have made the decision to move on, and I have chosen to go through with my plan immediately. Please, send my regards to your parents, and tell them that I have appreciated the hospitality that they have shown me over the past few months as well.

  Thank you once again for the money that you sent to my own family, and I assure you, when I am able to, I am going to pay you back every single penny that you paid them on my behalf—whether a gift or not, it is what I feel that I need to do for my sake if not anything else.

  I wish you all the best in life, and all the greatest happiness and blessings—no matter who you choose to be your wife.

  Thank you once again, and you will be in my thoughts and my prayers always.

  Yours,

  Charity Stevens

  Charity read through the letter she had penned several times, doing her best to say what she wanted to say to the man, but at the same time, leaving out so many things she also wanted him to know. It was a time when she could tell him her feelings, but then, after what she had seen, she didn’t want him to know how much she cared for him.

  She didn’t want him to know how much she loved him—and she certainly didn’t want him to know that she had thought about staying at one time. All that mattered between them now was that she was going to pay him back for what he had given her family, and she was going to be on her way to another town as soon as
possible.

  With tears in her eyes, she folded the letter and put it on her pillow, hoping by the time he found it, she would be as far away from the estate as possible.

  At least, that was her hope.

  Chapter 30

  Chase paced back and forth in his room, his hands clasped behind his back. His mind was spinning, and his heart was pounding in his chest. He was furious with Annabelle for what had happened, and he wished he had been able to show Charity what had really happened between them. He was certain she had seen the kiss, but he also had a feeling she hadn’t seen what had really happened between them.

  He had pulled away immediately, and he had told her to get off his property. Of course, Annabelle had been shocked when she first heard him telling her to get out of there, but she had quickly become angry herself and left in the usual huff she had left in when the two of them were courting. He had left so quickly, he didn’t get to stand and watch her leave with the satisfaction he thought he was going to feel when she left.

  Instead, he had hurried in to find Charity, only to find that she was locked in her room and didn’t want to see him—she didn’t even want to talk to him about what happened, which only made him even more convinced that she had seen what had happened—and that she hadn’t seen the whole story.

  But, she had told him that she was going to come out of the room for dinner, and he would be able to talk to her about it then. It was difficult for him to walk away and wait to talk to her, but he knew that if he tried to force the matter, things were only going to get worse between them. The last thing he wanted was for there to be more trouble—he wanted nothing more than to tell her that he was sorry, and that he loved her.

  If there was one thing he had learned from his parents over the years, it was that when another person needed space, then it was something that should be given. He would wait until she was ready to see her, then he would tell her the truth about what happened.