Montana Bride (4 page)

“Oh, of course.” Hetty appeared flustered as she tore her gaze from Dennis’s face and focused it on her children. The girl jumped up immediately, then reached down and tugged on the boy’s elbow until he got to his feet. “Mr. Norwood, these are my children, Grace and Griffin.”

“Please, call me Karl,” he said to Hetty.

She dipped her chin to her chest, then glanced up at him from beneath lowered lashes. “Very well. Karl.”

He felt himself flushing. It was disconcerting to be so attracted to a woman he suspected had told a few whoppers in order to become his bride. He gritted his teeth in an effort to slow the thundering beat of his heart and turned to observe the children more closely.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Grace said, dipping a small curtsy. Her pale eyelashes fluttered nervously, and he could see she was trembling. She bumped her shoulder hard against the surly boy standing next to her, who kept his gaze on his feet as he muttered, “Yeah. Nice to meet you.”

It was not an auspicious beginning, but they had the rest of their lives to become a family. Assuming Mrs. Templeton agreed to marry him.

“Do you need some time to acquaint yourself with me before we’re wed?” Karl wasn’t sure why he’d asked the question, especially since, given time, she might change her mind about the whole thing.

She shook her head so vigorously her curls bounced. “I don’t want to wait. I want to be married today. I’m ready right now. I mean, if you are,” she added lamely. “All I have to do is change into my wedding dress.”

Karl smelled a rat and the cheese. What was her hurry? What else was she hiding?

“You can always call it off,” Dennis said in his ear.

He’d forgotten his friend was standing there. “It’s too late,” he whispered back.

“It’s never too late until you say ‘I do,’ ” Dennis countered.

But it was too late to go hunting for another bride before he left for the Bitterroot Valley. Hetty was young and beautiful. And the children looked healthy, if a bit anxious and surly, respectively.

Karl knew himself to be an intelligent and patient man. If there were problems, he was smart enough to work them out. How hard could it be? Especially with such a stunning wife.

“All right,” he said, crossing to his mail-order bride and holding out his arm for her to take. “I’ll escort you to your room. Once you’ve changed, we can be married.”

As they headed toward the hotel stairs, Karl thought he heard a deep, exhaled sigh of relief from the little girl trailing behind them.

Karl smelled a rat and the cheese and heard the trap snapping shut. Somehow he’d been had. But he glanced at the beautiful woman who held his arm and shoved all reservations aside. Today was his wedding day. Tomorrow would be soon enough to worry about the passel of lies Henrietta Templeton had told to become his mail-order bride.

Hetty was certain she would have been content with Karl Norwood as a husband, if only she’d seen him first. But her heart had leapt at the sight of his friend, Dennis Campbell, and then crashed to the ground when Dennis stepped aside to reveal the very ordinary man standing behind him. If it hadn’t been for Grace perched beside her, gazing up at Hetty with fearful eyes and chewing on a fingernail that had already been bitten to the quick, she might have backed out of the wedding.

Hetty had tried not to let her disappointment show. But she’d seen the light die in Karl’s brown eyes as the light had died in her own blue ones. She’d wanted to smile at him, but the muscles in her mouth wouldn’t obey. She thought maybe such a plain-looking groom was fate paying her back for the way she’d squandered her first chance at love.

To make matters worse, it appeared that the very handsome Dennis Campbell would be going with them to the Bitterroot Valley. Hetty would have to face her attraction to the other man—and deny it—every day from now on. Fortunately, she’d grown up a great deal over the past few months. She knew the consequences of duplicity and jealousy. Men fought. And men died.

Once they were married, Karl had a right to expect her fidelity. Hetty knew better than to tempt fate by even glancing in Dennis Campbell’s direction. Flirting with two men at the same time on the wagon train had resulted in the deaths of both men, including the one she loved.

Hetty fully intended to be faithful to her husband, but she wondered why God had played such an awful trick on her. If only she hadn’t seen Dennis first!

The two men were as different as roses and crabgrass. Hetty felt a spurt of guilt at comparing her future husband to something so universally undesired. Karl seemed like a very nice man, but his looks paled in comparison to his friend. Hetty was tall, and while she might have looked up at Dennis, she looked directly into Karl’s very plain brown eyes.

And that was another thing. From the first day she’d started playing bride with Hannah, Hetty had been determined to marry a man with blue eyes. Blue eyes were striking and compelling. Brown eyes were common and uninteresting.

Hetty realized now, standing at the altar in a small church with whitewashed wooden walls and a small stained-glass window, that Grace must have suspected she might balk. That was why the girl had insisted on coming downstairs with her when she met the groom for the first time. One glance at the worried look on Grace’s face and the sulking glare on Griffin’s, as they’d sat on the sofa beside her at the hotel, had been enough for Hetty to realize she couldn’t back out.

“Hetty?” Karl said.

Hetty realized she’d been daydreaming while the ceremony had been going on. “I do?”

“Do you?” Karl said.

His gaze was so solemn Hetty felt the knot in her stomach tighten. She realized she’d made her response a question, rather than a statement. Her nose burned and her throat ached. She blinked to keep the threatening tears from falling. One slid down her cheek anyway.

Karl gently brushed it away with the rough pad of his thumb. His eyes asked for her answer, but he said nothing.

Hetty lowered her lashes, unable to meet his gaze as she agreed to become the wife of a man she didn’t want to marry.

“I do,” she croaked.

The preacher moved on as though she’d said the words with delight. A short while later she heard the cleric say, “You may kiss your bride, Mr. Norwood.”

Hetty held herself steady, afraid she’d bolt if Karl Norwood came anywhere near her face with his lips. He must have sensed her reluctance, because he merely lifted her left hand, which he’d been holding, and gently kissed the simple gold ring he’d put there, as though he were some knight suing for the love of his lady fair.

Hetty did look at him then, surprised that she’d thought of Karl Norwood and a knight in shining armor in the same moment. Karl was no Lord Lochinvar, like the one in Sir Walter Scott’s poem. That daring knight had stolen the bride he wanted from a Scottish castle—on the day of her wedding to another man—and escaped with her on his charger.

Karl hadn’t even taken the trouble to come to Cheyenne to collect his bride. He’d sent Mr. Lin in his stead. Karl hadn’t asked for a father’s blessing and been denied, like Lochinvar. There had been no obstacle at all to wedding his mail-order bride, nothing at all to fight against. Not even a bride who had the guts and gumption to say, “I don’t.”

“My turn to kiss the bride,” Dennis said.

Before Hetty could say a word in protest, Dennis Campbell had taken her by the shoulders, turned her to face him, and planted his lips right on hers. Hetty was too surprised to do anything but stand there. Dennis pulled her body close for an instant, so she felt every hard muscle in his chest against her breasts, which peaked against her will.

When he let her go, Hetty drew back in shock and put a hand to her mouth, not quite sure what had just happened. She stared up, wide-eyed, at Dennis.

He winked at her with one of those unbelievably blue eyes and said, “My very best wishes for a long and happy life, Mrs. Norwood,” seeming blissfully unaware that he’d turned her world upside down, leaving her feeling upset and confused.

Hetty was afraid if she said anything at all she would babble. She wished Dennis hadn’t kissed her, especially since she’d been tempted to kiss him back.

Even that fleeting urge to respond to a man who wasn’t her husband made her feel sick to her stomach. And angry with Dennis. And even angrier at Karl, who should have been the first man to kiss her lips on her wedding day.

She glanced at her new husband, to see what he thought about what Dennis had done.

His brown eyes had darkened and looked stark, but he managed a smile. “I hope Dennis didn’t embarrass you. We’ve been friends all our lives.”

“Not at all,” Hetty said, aware that she was lying to her husband only moments after their marriage.

Hetty turned to Grace, who was standing beside her, and saw the girl scowling at Dennis. Hetty realized that she’d better do something quick, or Grace was liable to say something to make matters worse. She turned her gaze back to Karl and asked, “What comes next?”

Dennis laughed and slapped his friend on the back. “She wants to know what comes next, Karl.”

Hetty saw the embarrassed flush on Karl’s face at his friend’s teasing and said, “I meant, is there something we need to sign, now that the ceremony’s over?”

Karl cleared his throat. “The church register.”

The register showed Henrietta Wentworth Templeton had married Karl Frederick Norwood. Hetty refused to worry about whether the marriage was legal when she hadn’t used her real last name. The point was, they’d said the words before God. She was married all right.
Till death us do part.

“What happens now?” Griffin asked.

Dennis laughed and winked at Hetty again. “The honeymoon, of course.”

Griffin snorted, turned to Karl, and said, “I mean, what happens to us? Me and Grace? Are we your kids now, or what?”

“Yes, you are,” Karl replied as he settled a white woolen shawl, his wedding gift to Hetty, over her shoulders.

Hetty was wearing the white silk-and-lace wedding gown Mrs. Templeton had brought with her, which Mr. Lin, who’d turned out to be pretty good with a needle, had altered for her during their last week on the trail. Karl’s gift, the shawl, had been delivered to her hotel room after he’d escorted her there.

As Mr. Lin draped the shawl around Hetty’s shoulders before they left for the church, Grace had remarked that she really appreciated Hetty marrying Karl, especially when he wasn’t much to look at.

Mr. Lin had stepped in front of Hetty, looked up at her with his dark, inscrutable eyes, and said in a quiet voice, “Confucius say: ‘Everything have beauty. Not everyone see it.’ ”

Hetty had pondered that thought ever since. She glanced at her brand-new husband, looking for the beauty Mr. Lin had suggested was there somewhere. She didn’t see it.

“I’m hungry,” Griffin said. “When do we eat?”

“Right now,” Karl replied. “I’ve got dinner planned at the hotel.”

“I wish I could join you,” Dennis said, “but there’s some business that needs to get finished if we’re going to leave for the Bitterroot first thing tomorrow morning.” He grinned at Karl. “Or rather, whenever the two of you are up and ready to get moving.”

Hetty watched her husband flush again at such a blatant reference to the fact that Karl might want to linger in bed the morning after his wedding. She couldn’t believe Dennis was abandoning his best friend on his wedding day—for business. Worst of all, she couldn’t imagine sitting through a dinner at the hotel alone with Karl. Or rather, alone with Karl and Grace and Griffin.

“You married good now, Boss,” Mr. Lin said.

Hetty had forgotten about the Chinaman, who’d come to the church and sat in a back pew to watch the ceremony.

Mr. Lin focused on Hetty, then Karl, and said, “Confucius say: ‘Whatever you do, do with whole heart.’ ”

Easy for him to say, Hetty thought bleakly. He wasn’t the one who’d just given up any hope of ever having that fairy tale ending. On the other hand, she was entirely responsible for ruining her chance at finding love and happily ever after, so what did it matter who she married? She was getting exactly what she deserved.

Karl’s brown eyes crinkled at the corners as he smiled. “That seems like easy advice for a newly married man to take.” He put a hand on Bao’s shoulder and added, “Thank you again for bringing my bride safely here to me.”

Mr. Lin shared a surreptitious glance with Hetty, then bowed his head. “Just doing job, Boss.”

Hetty wasn’t ready to be alone with her husband. Maybe Mr. Lin could provide the buffer she needed this first evening between herself and Karl. After weeks on the trail, she knew the Chinaman far better than the stranger she’d wed. She blurted, “Will you join us for supper, Bao?”

Mr. Lin shook his head. “So sorry. Have work. You enjoy first supper with husband.”

Hetty watched with a sinking heart as he turned and marched back down the aisle.

“Are we gonna eat or what?” Griffin asked.

“Griffin,” Grace said in a soft voice. “Don’t be a brat.”

“I’m hungry, too,” Karl said. “Shall we all go?” He gestured down the center aisle toward the door to the church.

Griffin dashed for the door, with Grace yelling, “Don’t run in church!” as she sprinted after him.

Hetty saw Karl was smiling as he watched the two rambunctious children charge down the aisle. It was a beautiful smile, one that traveled from his mouth, with its slightly crooked front tooth, all the way to his brown eyes, which—Hetty would have sworn—shimmered with dazzling golden flecks in the light streaming through the stained-glass window.

A moment later Karl turned to her, the smile gone, the golden flecks gone, his face as ordinary as it had been when she’d promised to be his wife for as long as she lived.

“Shall we go, Mrs. Norwood?”

“I prefer Hetty.”

Another smile flickered on his lips but never appeared there. “I wanted to hear how it sounded. Mrs. Norwood, I mean.”

Mrs. Norwood. Married to plain Mr. Norwood.

Hetty felt sad. Bad. Frustrated. Irritated. Why, oh, why had she agreed to marry this stranger when she wasn’t the least bit attracted to him? How was she going to allow him the liberties of a husband? And why did he have to be so
nice
?

Most grown-ups would have yelled at the two kids for galloping down the aisle. Karl had
smiled
at them, accepting their exuberance as part of what made them Grace and Griffin. She couldn’t help liking him, even if she wasn’t attracted to him.

Hetty hoped mere liking was going to be enough to get her through the night to come. There was no going back now. She slipped her arm through Karl’s and said, “I’m starved. I was too nervous to eat before the ceremony.”

The smile appeared on his face again, and she found herself fascinated by that slightly overlapping front tooth. He pulled her close as he admitted, “I couldn’t eat anything, either. I was nervous, too.”

“You were?”

“It’s not every day a man is lucky enough to marry the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen.”