Bonds of Matrimony (15 page)

           
“We
have to leave within the hour, Chastity.
 
We have a train to catch,” she greeted with a warm smile.

           
Chase
sat up in bed and stared groggily around the room.
 
Her eyes settled on the beautiful brunette standing over the
bed.
 
She was already dressed and
ready to leave.
 

           
“Am
I running late?” she asked, swinging her legs out from under the warm covers
and pushing herself to her feet.

           
“Perhaps
a bit,” she answered.
 
“You didn’t
sleep well last night.
 
I told your
grandmother you should be allowed to sleep a bit late.”
 
She had a knowing grin on her face,
almost as though she suspected the thoughts that had haunted Chase the night
before.
 
She felt a guilty flush
creep up her cheeks and lowered her head to avoid her scrutiny.

           
“Thank
you,” she muttered softly.

           
Elisabeth
handed her the lavender skirt she had picked out the evening before.
 
She scowled at the garment but reached
for it just the same.
 
The thought
of riding for days on a train wearing constricting skirts was not appealing to her.
 
She wished she could throw on a pair of
trousers so that she could travel in comfort.

           
“Where
did you disappear to last night?” Elisabeth asked innocently as she handed her
the white shirtwaist.

           
“I
went for a walk around the hotel.”

           
“Did
you happen to see Colton on your walk?” she asked with a small smile.
 
She turned her back to Chastity, unable
to conceal her knowing grin.

           
“I
did.
 
I apologized for treating him
so awfully.
 
It was good to clear
the air,” she assured her as calmly as possible.
 

“I imagine it was.”
 
Her response was curt and
sarcastic.
 
Was it possible that
she knew what had happened?

In her head, Chase replayed
the scene from the hotel room, again feeling the warmth of excitement course
through her body.
 
One thing was
certain, they had definitely not cleared the air last night.
 
The thought of being in the same room
as Colton Webb tore her in two.
 
On
one hand, the attraction was undeniable and was enough to stop her breath.
 
On the other hand, her head was still
swimming in humiliation of his reminder and rejection from the night before.

           
A
knock on the door encouraged her to tuck all thoughts of Colton Webb in the
back of her mind.
 
Elisabeth opened
the door and invited Reese to join them.

           
“I
thought I would come help you with your hair,” she greeted.
 
She stopped and studied her sister’s
face.
 
“Why are you scowling so
sourly this morning?” she asked.

           
“I
think it has something to do with my cousin,” Elisabeth volunteered.

           
“Don’t
be ridiculous,” Chase scolded.
 
“It
has nothing to do with Webb.
 
I’m
just thinking about how eager I am to settle into our new home.
 
I don’t want to bother with this train
ride to Texas.
 
I just want to be
home, where I can wear trousers again,” she muttered.

           
Elisabeth
gasped and then laughed and shook her head.

           
Reese
looked at Elisabeth as though she were searching for sympathy.
 
“You and your fascination with men’s
fashion.
 
I will never understand
it.
 
As for the train ride, it will
pass quickly.
 
In a mere four days,
we will pull into the station in Slaughter, Texas.”

           
“There’s
a train station in Slaughter?” Chase asked.
 
“I got the impression that it was a small cattle ranching
community.”

           
“It
is,” Reese assured her.
 
“But it is
growing.
 
And the ranchers use the
railroads all the time.
 
Colton
says that he takes the train to Midland nearly once a week to get supplies and
things.
 
They even ship their
cattle north by train.”

           
Chase
paused in the middle of tying her hair back in a white ribbon.
 
“Colton says?” she asked.
 
When had she been conversing with
Colton?

           
She
shrugged nonchalantly.
 
“I asked
him about Slaughter over breakfast.”

           
“Why
didn’t you just ask Marcus?” she asked.
 
Chase couldn’t deny the signs.
 
A knot was forming in her throat while its twin settled in the pit of her
stomach.
 
Her entire body seemed to
grow tense and heated all of a sudden.
 
She didn’t need an objective observer to tell her what she was
experiencing.
 
She was jealous of her
sister.
 
And why wouldn’t she
be?
 
After all, Reese was the stunning
fair blond who stopped the man in his boots on the street outside of a saloon
full of half-naked women.
 

           
“He
wasn’t there,” Reese answered simply.

           
Chase
wanted to change the subject.
 
She
also wanted to interrogate her sister about her conversation with Webb.
 
She wanted to know if he had mentioned her.
 
She wanted to know if Reese was
attracted to him.
 
How could she
not be?
 
After all, she was a
female and she was breathing.

           
“Is
that all you’re going to do with your hair?” Reese asked, nodding at the simple
style that her sister had been favoring since they’d left Liverpool.

           
Chase
scowled at her in response.
 
“Yes,”
she spat.
 
It wasn’t fair to take
out her jealousy on Reese.
 
She was
the most loyal person she knew.
 
And if Chase sat down with her and told her about her feelings, her
sister would comfort her and assure her that she had nothing to worry
about.
 
And Reese would go to great
lengths to make sure that Chase never had any reason to feel jealous of her
again.
 
If she knew that her sister
had developed feelings for Webb, she would be nothing more than polite toward
him, encouraging no future intimate breakfast conversations.

           
“We’d
better be on our way if we’re going to make that train,” Elisabeth warned
brightly.
 
“I wonder if Colton and
Marcus will be by for our bags.”

           
“Marcus
said he would send a bellhop for them.
 
Colton is waiting for us with Grandmother in the lobby.
 
Shall we join them?” Reese invited.
   

           
Chase
thought of their kiss from the night before.
 
She thought of his rejection.
 
And she focused on his instructions to behave like a
lady.
 
She straightened her
shoulders and licked her lips.
 
She
could be a lady.
 
She had been
taught to be nothing but a lady since the day she was born.
 
And if Colton Webb wanted to see me
acting like Lady Chastity Fairfax, then a lady he would see.
 
“Let’s,” she answered properly.

           
As
they descended the staircase, men watched from the lobby below.
 
The only man who didn’t seem to be
enthralled with the women’s entrance was Webb.
 
He was sitting beside their grandmother on a bench,
listening to her attentively.
 
She
was lively and animated in whichever story she was telling, and he laughed at
all the right places.
 
Chase had
not seen her looking so happy in years.
 
She paused on the staircase and watched her, her head tilted to one
side.
 
On second thought, she
couldn’t think of a single moment when her grandmother had looked happier.
 
She had always considered herself to
take after her grandmother more than any other family member.
 
She imagined her life married to a
stuffy man like her grandfather had been.
 
Or worse, Jett Stockton.
 
She
imagined a lifetime of oppression, watching the men around her make every
minute decision for her.
 
And she
imagined how she would feel making this dramatic change this late in her life.
 
Chase felt an overwhelming sense of
exhilaration on her grandmother’s behalf.
 
Nearing seventy, she was starting life over.
 
No wonder she looked so beautiful.

           
“What
are you smiling about?” Reese asked, pausing to give me a nudge.

           
“Isn’t
she beautiful?” she asked.

           
She
followed her sister’s gaze and smiled at the scene.
 
“She has her entire life ahead of her,” Reese
commented.
 
With seventy years
behind her, it seemed such a strange thing to say.
 
But for the first time, the life ahead of her was hers to
create.
 
And it occurred to Chase
in that same moment, that she had her entire life ahead of her, as well.
 
And her sister, too.

           
Chase
grinned into her sister’s sapphire eyes and took her hand.
 
“What a road we have ahead of us,
Reese.
 
Decisions decisions
decisions.”

           
Reese
smiled in response, though the look of fear flitted behind her eyes for a
moment.
 
It was natural to be
afraid of the changes ahead.
 
But
the knowledge that these changes were within our control was empowering.

           
“Ladies,
are you ready for Slaughter, Texas?” Webb greeted.
 
He made a deliberate effort to avoid meeting Chastity’s
gaze.

           
She
demanded his attention when she responded, “Positively, Mr. Webb.
 
Tell us, what can we expect from your
little ranching town?”

           
Instead
of turning to her, he looked at Elisabeth and Reese when he answered, even casting
an occasional glance at Lady Colchester.
 
“It’s quiet and friendly.
 
There’s a bit of competition between the ranchers in the area, but
nothing too dangerous.
 
When it
comes down to it, each of us would be quick to help out a competitor in
need.
 
Ranching keeps us all
busy.
 
The town itself consists of
a couple of quiet streets.
 
There’s
a small general store and a post office.
 
Bobby runs the barbershop in town.
 
Chantal owns the saloon in town.
 
There’s just enough to keep the people of Slaughter in supply.
 
Midland is a short train ride
away.
 
Most of us buy our major
purchases there.”

           
“It
sounds perfect,” Chase commented to herself.
 
If Jett Stockton was to ever decide to look for her, or if
Elisabeth’s family ever came to find her, Slaughter would be the last place
they’d search.

           
Webb
turned and finally looked Chase in the eye.
 
“It’s not perfect,” he corrected.
 
“But it’s home,” he finished with a modest shrug.

           
His
eyes had met hers for a mere moment, but it was enough to make her insides
tremble.
 
She stared at the back of
his head for a moment, still able to relish the memory of the softness of his
thick, blond curls sifting between her fingers.
 
She wasn’t aware that she had pulled her lower lip between her
teeth until her grandmother took her arm, and she bit down abruptly.
 
She touched the tip of her tongue to her
smarting lip and tasted blood.

           
“Damn,”
she muttered.

           
Lady
Colchester patted her granddaughter’s shoulder and nudged her along to follow
Colton and her sister.
 
Reese was
laughing musically in response to something he’d said.
 
Elisabeth walked a step ahead of
them.
 
Chase increased her pace to
bring herself closer to the trio in order to better hear their discussion.
 
Her grandmother neither complained nor
held her back.
 
She silently
matched her pace.