Annie And The Cowboy (Western Night Series 3) (74 page)

              Tears rolled down her cheeks at this, and Mary felt a great swell of pity for her best friend. What had happened while Mary was happily away with her new husband, doing all the things that new lovers do, glorying in the fact that they were together now, and nothing could tear them apart? How could things have gone this far?

              Mary was afraid to ask, but she did it anyway: “Have you made your decision?”

              Sniffling slightly, Lucy shook her head.

              “Why not?”

              “They are both so perfect!” Lucy hiccuped. “Jake is so close to my father, his life is all laid out before him. Chance...wants a little more adventure. But Chance...oh…”

              Her eyes grew misty in a different way, and Mary huffed at her.

              “You’ve made your mind up, I can see.”

              “But my parents…”

              “Your parents aren’t the ones getting married, now are they?” Mary put her hands on her hips.

              “It’s more than that, I’m afraid.”

              At this point, Mary laughed. “Lucy Granger, afraid? That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard in my life!”

              Lucy smiled through her tears as the clock in the center of town began to strike noon.

              “Oh my god,” Lucy cried. “I need to go.”

              “Correction,” Mary said excitedly. “We both need to go, let’s take my carriage. Come on!”

              Jake didn’t like to see the crowd that had gathered to watch the spectacle, but he couldn’t blame them either. It was certainly going to be a show, he supposed, although the idea of it all made him queasy. The fact of the matter was, Lucy would be perfect for his life; she was beautiful, sweet, and kind. The problem was he wasn’t fully sure that he would be willing to take another man’s life for her.

              Chance seemed willing to do that.

              They stood in the square as the clock struck noon, gripping borrowed revolvers in their hands, fully prepared to do whatever it took to win Lucy’s heart. Chance seemed just as nervous as him, but glossed over that was a look of steely determination.

              Out of respect for each other, neither of them had asked for a favor from Lucy. It seemed to be a pointless thing to do in any case, given the fact that she would have just given something to both of them, and the point here was to make a choice.

              “One, two, three, four…”

              They turned their backs to each other, marching several steps. Jake could feel the tension at his back, and he desperately wanted this to be over.

              “Five...six….seven…”

              “Wait!” a voice sounded distantly, or perhaps Jake dreamed it, given the fact that no one seemed to hear it.

              “Eight….nine...ten...SHOOT!”             

              “No!”

              They turned just as Lucy burst on the scene, breathless and with clear intent to stop it. Someone grabbed her by the shoulders to keep her from running into the middle of the duel, which was a smart thing to do given the fact that they had both turned and shot. There was a gasp, and for a moment Jake looked down at his body with a panicked expression on his face. After a moment he realized that he was fine, and felt a great feeling of relief.

              Only to look up and see Chance had slumped to the ground.

              “No!” he cried, running to Chance’s side. “I wanted to miss!”

              Chance was sitting up, gripping his arm and hissing in pain. “I don’t know if that makes you an amazing shot or a terrible one.”

              “CHANCE!” Lucy broke out of the grip of the stranger holding her back and threw herself into the crowd, pushing through with desperate hands until she reached his side. Jake watched with a sinking heart as she brushed his hair off his forehead and looked at his arm.

              “Does it hurt terribly?” she asked him.

              “It’s felt better,” Chance replied with a wince. Someone called for the doctor. “But you’re the winner, Jake. Treat her well.”

              Jake looked at the look in Lucy’s eyes. It wasn’t disappointment exactly, yet it was resignation. She was prepared to marry him because he had won, and as he saw this in her eyes he began to realize that he would have rather seen disappointment.

              “I can’t,” Jake said, standing up. “I can’t do that to you, Lucy.”

              “What do you mean?” she said quickly. “You...um you won!”

              “So? Chance said himself from the beginning that it’s not a game, and I shouldn’t have treated it like one. You two clearly love each other.”

              Lucy and Chance exchanged glances, before Chance finally smiled up at her. She smiled back. Jake was glad to see that there wasn’t relief in her eyes, just a truer sort of happiness.

              “You’re a good man, Jake.”

              “Thanks,” he said. “Take care of yourselves.”

              With that, he turned and walked away to a different destiny, and hopefully, a better one.

              “How come we always seem to be meeting here, Mrs. Delacour?” Chance asked his wife as he spun her around the dance floor of the barn where Mary and Jed had had their wedding only two months before.

              “Because you never take me anywhere nice,” she teased.

Lucy had nursed Chance’s arm back to health herself, allowing him to stay in her own home. It proved to be a great idea given the fact that his presence warmed her mother up to him, and in the matter of a few short weeks she had come to see Chance like a son.

              Now she stood in the back of the barn, by the food, dabbing at her eyes as she watched her only daughter happily dance with her new husband. Lucy’s father moved up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist.

              “We did alright, don’t you think?”

              “I just can’t believe that our little girl’s a married woman!”

              “Well, we knew it would happen sooner or later, it just needed to come on her own terms.”

              Lucy’s mother nodded, sighing deeply. “There is a bright side to this,” she said.

              “There’s more than one bright side, I would argue.”

              Lucy’s mother leaned her head against her husband’s chest. “No more classifieds all over the house.”

              He laughed, grabbed his wife’s hand, and spun her around. “That is a bright side, but now let’s dance!”

              The music played as Kyle Granger brought his wife Lilah out on the dance floor to dance near their daughter and son-in-law, and all four of them danced happily, completely sure in the knowledge that they would all live happily ever after.

THE END

BONUS BOOK 1

Left With A Cowboy

Mail Order Bride

By: Avril Adams

Left With A Cowboy

Chapter 1

I’
m a young and fit rancher looking for a nice, young woman who is interested in sharing my life. Must love horses and be open to having children. If you are interested, please contact me. I am willing to pay for your safe passage to Virginia City. Looking forward to meeting you. - Harlan Cooper

Lilah Montgomery gripped the last letter that Harlan had sent to her as she looked out the window over the vast prairie that now she would call home. She knew that she must be out of her mind to do this, but what other choice did she have? She could
n’
t stay back home in St. Louis, not after what had happened. Not after Michael had broken her heart.

It felt like only yesterday that she thought that she was going to spend the rest of her life with Michael. It had all seemed so simple, she thought that they were made for each other. Sure, they had never said it to each other before, but Lilah did
n’
t think it needed to be said, he need only look her in the eyes for him to know. There was absolutely no way that he could mistake their long strolls by the lake to be anything but romantic...right?

Wrong. Lilah had been devastated when he told her that he was going to propose to silly little Missy Sinclair. How could he prefer that ninny to her? It was
n’
t fair, and Lilah was absolutely devastated.

She had settled into her new life, fully prepared to pine away forever, when her father had sat down beside her and given her some sage advice.

“
Lilah
,”
he said in the same sombre tone she had heard him use for her entire life
,“
I know that your heart may be breaki
n’
right now, but if you do
n’
t get yourself out of this bed yo
u’
re going to end up breaki
n’
mine
.
”

She had turned to look at him, her eyes red and raw from crying
,“
But I do
n’
t know how I can live every day here knowing that h
e’
s with her
,”
she said, sniffling.

“
Then live somewhere else
,”
he said said very simply.

Tha
t’
s when she got the idea to go to California to seek her fortune. Armed with whatever money her lovely parents could spare, she set out on the next train...only to realise that it was expensive to go to California, and even harder when you have no friends to help you. Lilah had been bunked down in some small town in Montana when she had opened the paper to look for work, and found the classifieds section instead.

She was never the kind of person who would do such a thing, although she had heard about one or two girls from St. Louis finding a husband that way. For some reason she never thought that she would need it, and yet she had sat there with a pounding heart reading over the classifieds...until she had found Harla
n’
s.

Not one to be brazen, she sent him a timid letter, and he had written back. After a week or so of this, she agreed to his terms. She was going to be his bride and help him on his farm in Virginia City, Montana.

Was she in love with him? No, not particularly. How could she be? She had never met him, she had no idea what he actually looked like, and he also had no idea what she looked like. There was, however, something incredibly comforting in knowing that none of this mattered.

Now she was in Montana, coming into the train station, with the understanding that one of the ranc
h’
s workers was going to be picking her up to bring her on her last journey home. She was incredibly worried about this, what would this cowboy possibly think of her, this woman moving hundreds of miles away from her home in order to live with a man she had never met?

Perhaps it was normal in these parts. She sort of hoped it was.

Dark clouds gathered in the distance as Lilah stepped down onto the platform and waited for her luggage to be unloaded. Her eyes scanned the crowd of people who had gathered to pick up their loved ones, having a feeling of momentary panic at the thought that she had no idea what this man was going to look like. Instead she stood there, frozen, as the luggage was given to her.

Families arrived and embraced fellow passengers with happy cries of joy, little children ran around for a bit, and Lilah watched. The clouds grew closer, and she was convinced that she could hear a little rumble of thunder in the different. How long would it take to get to the ranch? Would they be unable to outrun the storm? Luckily she had changed into a simple pair of pants and a blouse in her car before she had gotten to the platform; she had a long life ahead of her working on a ranch, she could
n’
t afford to be prissy by insisting that she wear dresses all the time. Plus, she loved to wear trousers when given the chance, it felt so much better than to be buried under yards of cotton and lace, and it felt cooler too. No one seemed to pay her any mind either, she wondered if this part of the west saw many women in trousers. She liked the idea of that.

The crowd began to thin out, and Lilah began to grow nervous...at least until she finally saw him.

It had to be him, he stood there looking around with a serious look on his face, and for a moment her heart stuttered a nervous beat as she saw his face. He was incredibly handsome, with brown hair bleached by the western sun. He held a cowboy hat in his hands. He seemed broad and strong, but of course he would be.

Please let this be Harlan
, she thought wildly as she walked over to him.
Or Harla
n’
s identical twin brother
.

He looked up in surprise upon seeing her, and gave and unsure bow to his head.

“
Lilah Montgomery
?”
he asked, a slight southern drawl colouring his voice. She nodded.

“
And you ar
e…?”
Her heart soared with a nervous expectation. Would life be this easy? He smiled at her.

“
The nam
e’
s Kyle Granger, m
a’
am,
I’
m here to escort you to the ranch
.
”

Her heart fell at this, even though she knew that it was a long shot. Harlan had said that he was
n’
t going to be able to make it to pick her up due to it being calving season, but she had hoped nonetheless.

“
Nice to meet you
,”
she said. His eyes flickered down to her trunk and he nodded.

“
Let me take that for you
,”
he said obligingly, brushing his fingers against hers as he took the handle of her trunk
.“
I have a cart you can ride in with your trunk
.
”

“
I know how to ride
,”
she replied almost a little too hastily, as though she was afraid that he would
n’
t believe her. He smiled at her.

“
I should hope so, m
a’
am, but someone needs to keep the horse going
.
”

He looked up at the darkening sky and frowned.

“
Stor
m’
s coming
,”
Lilah said helpfully.

“
Yes, we better get a move on so we do
n’
t get caught in it. I
t’
s about a da
y’
s ride out, we should be there by sunset... but the plains get muddier than yo
u’
ve ever seen if it rains
.
”

She did
n’
t say anything back to him as she followed him off of the platform and over to the hitching post, where two gloomy looking horses awaited. He loaded the trunk onto a little cart stationed nearby, then turned to hitch one of the horses, a chestnut mare, to the cart.

“
You know how to drive a cart
?
”

She nodded, trying very hard to ignore the ripple of muscles under his shirt, the twinkling of his blue eyes as he placed his hat back on his head. It was early in the morning, still crisp, and yet she felt hot all over. Hopefully he was
n’
t a very talkative man, maybe getting to know him would end up being her undoing.

He smiled at her
.“
Good
.
”

She climbed into the cart and mounted the horse, a powerful looking black stallion, and a thrill went through her as he crie
d“
giddy-up
!”
and took off. With
a“
yah
!”
herself, she bid the horse to trot behind him.

This was going to be a very long and very tempting day, she could tell.

Chapter 2

Damn that Harlan
, Kyle thought bitterly.
Why did he have to order the most beautiful girl
I’
ve ever seen in order to be his bride?

When he first saw Lilah approach, he was hoping that she had the wrong guy. She was utterly beautiful, wearing a loose fitting blouse and riding trousers. Her hair was a long chestnut brown, woven into a braid that flopped over her shoulder. Her eyes were the colour of grass. He did
n’
t want to stop looking at her.

But this was the bos
s’
s bride to be, and would
n’
t he be pleased to see how beautiful she was? It was almost torture, Kyle had decided. What led a girl like that to answer an ad in the classifieds like that anyway? What was she running from?

On some level, Kyle knew that he should
n’
t be feeling this way, it was more than just respect for Harlan...what about Ellie? Would it be betraying her memory to want a woman such as this, or after all these years would she be happy for him? Did any of it matter now given the fact that she was gone? The sheer fact that he was having these sort of thoughts and feelings made him hesitate.

Lilah was silent for the first leg of their journey, and he took some measure of comfort in that. It was fine if she did
n’
t want to talk to him, mostly because he did
n’
t know if he wanted to talk to her. Right now she was this beautiful thing that could never belong to him, if they forged some kind of connection what if he gave himself away?

Instead he snuck glances at her, watching the wind blow through her hair, watching her bite her lip softly as she looked up at the great storm brewing. Luckily the storm was slow, although he did
n’
t like those flashes of lightning in the distance.

Were she anyone but Harlan Coope
r’
s future bride, he would have loved the opportunity of a storm, huddling close to her for warmth, hoping that her skin felt as soft as it looked. Instead he merely hoped that the weather would be able to hold off for just a little while longer.

Although he also had to admit...a small part of him hoped that the storm would come anyway.

#

Once they left town and hit the open plains, Lilah was fascinated by the wide open spaces, the mountains in the distance. She thought that Oklahoma felt huge, larger than St. Louis at least. Missouri had been big, but none of it held a candle to the sheer size of Montana. She felt free here, although she knew that technically she was
n’
t. She was riding off to be the wife of a complete stranger. She only hoped that he was kind.

              Then it occurred to her, and she turned to Kyle, who up until that point had been riding his stallion silently.

            
 “
Can you tell me about him
?”
she asked quietly. He turned to look at her, his expression unreadable.

            
 “
What do you want to know
?
”

Lilah was momentarily at a loss. What could she ask about? His kindness? What he looked like?

“
Why did he do this
?”
she heard herself asking
.“
Why did he have to find a wife this way
?
”

Kyle glanced at her, his expression still unreadable, and shrugged a little.

“
H
e’
s a busy man, a nice man, but bus
y…
lonely. He did
n’
t want to waste his life not being able to find someone, but also did
n’
t really know how to go about courting
.
”