Kitabı oku: «The Unlikely Wife»

Chapter One

Paradise Haven, Idaho Territory

1885

This has to be a nightmare.

Standing in front of Michael Bowen at Paradise Haven’s train station was the woman who claimed to be his wife. His eyes traveled up and down the length of her. Instead of a dress, she wore a red scarf draped around her neck, a black cowboy hat with a stampede string, black cowboy boots and brown loose-fitting trousers. In her hands she held a Long Tom black powder rifle.

A rifle? The woman was holding a rifle. No matter how hard he tried he couldn’t pull his gaze away from the weapon that was nearly as long as she was tall.

Michael bore down on his teeth until he thought his jaw would snap. Even with her heart-shaped face, stunning smile and beautiful brown eyes, the person standing before him looked more like a female outlaw on a wanted poster than the genteel lady he had been corresponding with for the past five months. The woman he had fallen deeply and passionately in love with. The woman he had legally married sight unseen.

This woman was nothing like what he’d expected. Nothing. There had to be some mistake. There just had to be.

Suddenly, she lunged toward him and threw her arms around his neck. He stiffened and struggled to draw in even the smallest amount of air because she squeezed him so tightly. Dear God, have mercy on me.

“Oh, Michael! It’s so nice to finally meet ya.” Selina Farleigh Bowen pulled back and stared into her new husband’s face. She knew Michael would be handsome—no one who wrote letters that sweet could not be. But even if he were uglier than a Kentucky toad, she’d still love him.

She took a second to study his face. Jaw, nice and square. Nose, straight. Eyes, breathtaking and smiling, the color of a sapphire necklace her ma once had when days were better. Lips, bow shaped. The man was so handsome. And he was all hers. “I just can’t believe I’m finally here.”

Michael stared down at her with wide eyes.

Her husband wasn’t smiling, and he looked like he’d just swallowed a giant cricket. Her joy evaporated.

She took a step back and dipped her head sideways, wondering if she’d done something wrong or if he was disappointed in her looks. Maybe she shouldn’t have grabbed him and hugged him like she had. After all, that was a mighty bold thing to do, but she couldn’t help herself. She’d waited five long months for this day.

Still, maybe her boldness had upset him. She reckoned she’d better apologize. “I’m sorry, Michael. I oughta not tossed my arms about you like that. Forgive me iffen that was outta line.”

He continued to stare, saying nothing.

“Bear got your tongue or somethin’?”

“You—you can’t be Selina.”

Whoa. She wasn’t expecting that. “What do ya mean I can’t be Selina? Of course I’m Selina.”

He tugged his gray cowboy hat off his head and ran the back of his hand over his sweaty forehead, then settled the hat back into place. “You can’t be. The Selina who wrote me was…” His eyelids lowered to the wood planks under his feet, but Selina still caught sight of the hurt in his eyes.

Quicksand plopped into her belly. “Michael.” She waited until he looked at her. His expression was blank. “You said the Selina who wrote you was… Was what, Michael?”

“She was…”

She was what?

The longer he stood there not saying anything the more skittish her insides got. “Tell me, Michael. She was… I mean, I was what?”

“Well, will you look at her? That’s repulsive.” Disgust oozed from a woman’s voice as she passed by them.

Selina swung her attention to two young women standing about five yards away with their fancy dresses and matching hats with long feathers sticking out of them.

“Are you sure it’s a she? Looks more like a man to me.”

Selina caught sight of their faces.

They looked her up and down with a snarl on their faces. Jumpin’ crickets. Did those women have their corsets in a twist or what?

“I can’t believe she would be seen in public like that.”

Selina had dealt with their type all her life. People who thought they were better than her just because they had money and could afford fancy clothes.

Selina narrowed her eyes, pursed her lips and gave them her meanest stare while patting her rifle.

Their eyes widened. They linked arms and scurried off like a herd of scared mice stuck in a shack filled with cats. Worked every time.

Selina turned back to Michael.

His eyes followed the women until they disappeared around the train depot building. She wondered what was going through his mind. “Michael, would you mind iffen we found someplace over yonder so we can talk? I need you to tell me what was in them letters.”

“What do you mean you need me to tell you what was in the letters? You wrote them.” A frown pulled at his face. “What’s going on here, Selina?” His voice was harsh and loud enough that people stopped what they were doing to stare at them.

“Whoa.” She held up her hand to ward off the roughness of his words. “Just back up your horses, cowboy, and I’ll explain everything. But not here. Come on.” She tugged on his shirt sleeve. He balked like a stubborn mule, and she had to practically drag him all the way to the edge of the trees out of the earshot of others.

She sat down on a log and hoped Michael would do the same, but he just stood there, towering over her.

“Won’t you please sit a spell? I’ll have a crick in my neck iffen I have to keep lookin’ up at you like this.”

He lowered his backside onto the log but as far to the other end as possible.

He removed his hat and worked the brim of it into a curl.

Such a waste of a mighty fine hat.

Why, Pa would skin her and her brothers alive if one of them ever treated a hat like that. But she wasn’t here to talk about that. “Michael, I don’t know what the problem is, but I want you to know that I told Aimee to tell you that I had no book learnin’ and that I couldn’t read nor write because I had to help my pa raise the youngins after my ma took sick and died.”

“What do you mean you can’t read or write?” His shocked face made her want to find a rock to crawl under. She dropped her head in shame. “And who’s Aimee?” he asked.

“You don’t know?”

“No. Why should I?”

“Aimee’s my friend who wrote them letters for me.”

“I’m confused.”

“I can see that. I’m a mite confused myself because Aimee was supposed to tell you that she was writin’ for me. Must have slipped her mind.” At least Selina hoped that was why Aimee hadn’t told him.

“Well, she didn’t.”

“What did she tell you then?”

“The letters said that your father was dying and that was why you answered my advertisement. When I mentioned that I didn’t want someone to marry me because they needed a place, you…Aimee…suggested we correspond a time in order to get to know each other. Then after a couple of months if neither one of us cared for the other, we would find someone else. But the more I wrote, the more I fell in love with…”

“Finish what you were fixin’ to say, Michael. You fell in love with who? Me or Aimee?”

“I—I don’t know. The woman in the letters?” He placed his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. “Only now I don’t know who that person is.”

“Me, neither.” She hated having to admit that. “There’s only one way to find out. You got them letters with you?”

“Yes.”

“Would you mind fetchin’ them?”

He stood. “They’re in the wagon. I’ll be right back.”

Selina had a sick feeling as he walked away. If her doubts were right, Aimee hadn’t told Michael everything Selina had asked her to. And if Aimee hadn’t, then her best friend had done not only Selina wrong, but also Michael.

But surely Aimee wouldn’t have done such a wicked thing. Her friend loved her and had always treated her kindly. Unlike those other rich folks she’d worked for who had treated her worse than an unwanted critter. Her friend had even rescued Selina when Aimee’s brothers had tried to drown Selina in the river. If Aimee hadn’t shown up when she had, she wasn’t at all certain she would be here today.

Still, she couldn’t help but wonder if Aimee had tricked them. If so, did that mean Selina had up and hitched herself to a man who loved someone else? Namely her beautiful friend Aimee?

Michael took his time walking to the wagon. He needed to get his thoughts together. He had a hard time believing the woman sitting on the log was his bride. The word bride stuck in his throat like a chicken bone.

For years, Michael had prayed for God to send him someone like Rainee, his first real crush, but Selina was nothing like Rainee. His sister-in-law was a woman he admired and respected. She was the epitome of femininity, a Southern belle who was educated and smart, beautiful inside and out, genteel yet strong, feisty but sweet, able to hold her own when need be and a real survivor. Everything he wanted in a wife.

Tired of living alone at the age of twenty-seven, with women still scarce in the Idaho Territory, he had decided to take out an advertisement. After all, it had worked for Rainee and Haydon.

If only it would have worked for him.

If only he would have taken the time to get on that train and head out to Kentucky to meet Selina before actually marrying her by proxy. But he couldn’t be spared.

The coming of the railroad had made getting feed and supplies much easier. Because of that, he and his family had purchased more property and livestock.

Even with the extra hired help, Michael was needed to tend the cattle and hogs, the apple, plum and pear orchards, the hay, wheat, oat and barley fields. His absence would have put too much burden on his family, and he had refused to let that happen.

He thought his heart had been in the right place at the time, but now he was stuck with the consequences of that decision and had no one to blame but himself. With a heavy sigh, he retrieved the letters from behind the seat of the wagon and headed back to Selina.

Her cowboy hat now rested against her back. Sunshine glistened down on her head, exposing rivers of copper and blond streaks flowing throughout her molasses-colored hair.

Her skin was flawless.

Her teeth were even and white and her striking, rich, coffee-colored eyes held a million questions. Questions he didn’t know the answers to.

No denying the woman was beautiful, but none of that mattered. She wasn’t what he had wanted or prayed for. Of that he was certain.

He lowered himself at the opposite end of the log from Selina. Without looking at her, he tugged at the string around the parcel and opened the first letter he’d received from her. He practically had it memorized. Neat penmanship and feminine curves looked back at him, mocking him with their precise, dainty script. Script filled with lies and deception.

“This is the first letter I got from you. ‘Dear Mr. Bowen. My name is Selina Farleigh. I’m twenty-five years old, five-foot-three inches tall with brown hair and brown eyes. I am responding to your advertisement because my father has taken ill. You see, the man my father works for provides our lodging. Once my father passes on, I will have to leave as I will no longer have a home.’”

“That’s not true,” Selina interrupted him.

He glanced at her.

“It’s true about my pa taking ill but not that other stuff. No wonder you said you didn’t want someone to marry you because they needed a home. Well, I didn’t need a home, and Aimee knew that. My pa owned a place in the hills. Wasn’t much, but my brothers own it now. I could’ve stayed there with my brother and his wife.”

“Why did you answer my advertisement?”

“I let Aimee talk me into it. My pa’s dying wish was to see me hitched to a good man. Pa said he could die in peace knowin’ I was happily married and far away from Bart.”

“Who’s Bart?”

“A fella back home who wanted me to marry him.” She scrunched her face. “No way would I have married Bart even iffen he was the last man on earth. Somethin’ about him gave me the willies. Pa didn’t much care for him none either. Said he drank too much moonshine. So when Pa found out about the ad and how Aimee was encouragin’ me to write to you and all, he agreed. Said he wanted me to have a better life.”

She looked away. “’Course, when he found out you were a pig farmer, he said it wouldn’t be much of a better life but at least I’d be far away from the likes of Bart and would always have food to eat. That made Pa feel a whole heap better. Plus, he knew I never wanted to marry a rich man.”

Michael’s attention snagged on that last comment. Why didn’t she want to marry someone rich? What was she going to say when she found out she already had? Did he even care?

“Then again, Aimee was supposed to tell you all a that.”

Well, she hadn’t. And Michael couldn’t help but wonder who the real villainess was here and if all of this was some elaborate scheme to snag a husband. He had no way of knowing the truth. What he did know was, he felt the deception through every inch of his body and the largest portion of that deception settled into his heart.

From the way she was looking at him, he knew she was waiting for his response, but instead of responding, he raised the letter and continued to read.

“‘Your advertisement states that you cannot travel as the work on your ranch needs your attention. I am willing to travel, but my father will not let me leave without first being married.’” Michael glanced over at her. “Is that true? Your father would not allow you to leave until you were married first?”

“Yes, sir. And neither would my brothers.”

He nodded, then continued to read. From the corner of his eye, he could see Selina pulling the bead up and down on her stampede string.

The more he read, the faster she raised and lowered the bead. And if he wasn’t mistaken, a shiny wet spot covered her cheek.

As he read one letter after another and Selina refuted one thing after another, anger replaced any love he felt toward the person who penned them.

“I’ve heard enough. Please stop.”

She’d heard enough? He’d heard plenty. Plenty enough to know he’d been lied to and tricked.

His gaze fell to the stack of letters in his lap that at one time had brought him more love and joy than he’d ever known before. He had loved the sense of humor in them, the wit, the charm, the way the person saw beauty in the smallest things, the feistiness and confidence the person in them possessed. Only that woman no longer existed.

Or did she?

He didn’t know anymore.

Didn’t know what to believe or who to believe.

This whole thing was making him crazy.

Who could do such a wicked thing? And why? What could their motive be? He folded the letter he’d been reading, stacked it on top of the rest and tied the string around them. What he really wanted to do was burn them and his marriage certificate.

“I’m so sorry, Michael.” Selina’s voice cracked. “Everything I told her to say, she twisted or made it bigger than it was. She even wrote things I never did say.” She shook her head, looking lost, alone, terrified even.

He couldn’t help but wonder if it was all an act. He hated thinking like that, but he didn’t know the truth or how to find it.

“Can’t believe Aimee did that. I don’t understand why she did this to me. To us.” Her gaze dropped, along with her voice. “I—I don’t rightly know what to say except…” Her chest rose and fell. “What do we do now?”

Her whisper, broken by tears, tugged at his heart. He hated seeing a woman cry, no matter how angry he was.

What did they do now?

Vows had been spoken, and the Bible made it clear about the wrongness of breaking vows. Like it or not, he and Selina were legally married. There was only one answer to that question. “I guess we head home.”

Her gaze flew up to his and the color in her face fled.

Michael understood exactly how she felt. But they had no other choice. He hoisted his body off the log and offered Selina a helping hand up. “We made our vows before God and we need to honor those vows. Let’s go home.”

Selina picked up her rifle and slung the sling around her neck.

They shuffled their way back toward the train depot.

“Where’s your luggage?” he asked without looking at her, his mind and body numb. Dead, even.

“I only have the one bag.” She headed toward a patched-up gunnysack, picked it up and faced him.

He stared at the bag, shocked by her obvious poverty. “Here, let me take that for you.” His focus trailed to her face.

She raised her head and jutted her chin before shifting her bag away from his reach. “Thank you kindly, but I can carry it myself.”

He didn’t mean to hurt her pride. He nodded, then pointed to his wagon, the only one left at the station now.

She slipped her hat back on, strode to the back of the buckboard, laid her rifle and sack down, then leaped onto the tail of the wagon, leaving her legs dangling.

That wasn’t what he had in mind when he pictured taking his bride home. And what if his family was around when he got back to the ranch? What would they think if they saw her sitting back there and not up front with him?

Indecision tugged him in several directions as he debated what to do. Embarrassed by her appearance, he preferred she stay back there. But then again, if she did, his family would wonder what was wrong and he certainly didn’t want to tell them he’d made the biggest mistake of his life. They already thought he was crazy because of some of the poor choices he’d made in the past.

Like the goats he’d bought on a whim.

The little brats had destroyed his mother’s garden, chewed up some of the laundry and had even wreaked havoc at some of their neighbors’ places. It had taken him a long time to make amends and to get rid of them. No one wanted the goats. He finally had to give them away. His family still gave him a hard time for that one. They’d have a field day with this one.

“Selina.” He scuffed at the dirt with his boot. “Would you mind sitting up front with me?”

She frowned. “Why?”

“Because… Whether we like it or not, we are man and wife, and I think it would be best if we acted like it.”

She tilted her head and studied him. “I see what you’re sayin’, and I won’t shame ya by not sittin’ next to you.” Before he had a chance to help her, she hopped down and seated herself up front, leaving the sweet scent of field flowers in her wake.

He stared, shaking his head. He wasn’t sure he would ever get used to a woman who acted and dressed like a man. And yet, what choice did he have? For better or worse, she was now his wife. And he had a bad feeling it was going to be for the worse.