Rebecca Hagan Lee - [Borrowed Brides 02] (33 page)

Lee got down beside him, crawling around Main Street, combing the mud, looking for a sapphire ring the size of a bird’s egg.

“David!” someone screamed.

* * *

Tessa ignored the noise coming from the street as she crammed the last dress into the suitcase and snapped it shut. She grabbed her hatbox, then lugged the suitcase off the bed and into the office. Steam poured from the spout of the teakettle. Mary was nowhere in sight. Tessa set the suitcase down and lifted the kettle off the stove. Where was everybody?

“David!” Tessa heard the scream echoing from the street. She plunked the kettle down in the dry sink, crossed the room, and opened the front door. She made her way down the street, but she couldn’t see over the crowd of people standing in a large circle in the middle of the road.

“David!” Tessa heard the scream again. It sounded like Mary. Had something happened to him? Following the sound of Mary’s voice, Tessa looked up.

“Why are you stopping?” Mary demanded of the men crawling around in the street. “What are you doing, David? Get up. Hit him again!”

“Shut up, Mary!” Lee yelled back.

It
was
Mary. She and Coalie were hanging halfway out of an open second-story window in the hotel.

Her heart pounded at the sight. “Coalie!” Tessa shouted. “Get down from there!”

“Aw, Tessa!” Coalie wailed.

“Don’t ‘Aw, Tessa’ me, young man,” she shouted. “Get down and come over here. We’re leaving!”

“Where we goin’?” Coalie yelled back.

“Anywhere away from Peaceable, Wyoming,” Tessa answered. She went back down the street and inside the office to get her suitcase and hatbox.

“Christ!” Lee moved faster, scrambling to locate the missing ring.

“I found it!” David grabbed the ring, stood up, and held it out for Lee to see.

Upstairs in the window of the hotel, Coalie looked to Mary. “What do I do? I promised I’d come when she called.”

“Coalie!” Tessa shouted.

“Go on,” Mary told him. “But take your time. Slow her down before she gets to the depot.”

“I’m comin’!” Coalie yelled to Tessa.

“Hurry!” Tessa urged. “We don’t want to miss the train.”

Coalie ducked out of the window, left the room, and inched his way slowly down the stairs.

Tessa stepped off the sidewalk to cross the street. Her progress was hampered by townspeople. “Excuse me.” She bumped into someone’s back. “Excuse me.”

“We sure hate to lose you, Miss Roarke.”

“Congratulations, Miss Roarke.”

“Glad to see you got off, Miss Roarke.”

“Hope you’ll consider staying here in town, Miss Roarke.”

All around her, citizens of Peaceable turned and spoke, offering their best wishes.

“That goes for me, too, Miss Tessa.”

Tessa glanced up as Sheriff Bradley tipped his hat.

“Let me help you with your bag.” He reached for the handle of her suitcase before she could protest. He picked it up and stepped forward.

The circle of people opened as if by magic.

“David! You’d better make your move before he does!” Mary shouted.

“I don’t need your help,” David yelled to her. “Or any more of yours.” He glared at Lee.

“How about mine?” the sheriff asked as he carried Tessa’s suitcase to the center of the street and dropped it at David’s feet.

David turned around and saw Tessa standing next to the sheriff. He eyed the suitcase at his feet. “Yours, I assume.”

“David!” Tessa ran forward and threw herself into his arms. “What happened to your face?”

Lee stepped up. “
I
happened to his face.” His face was as battered as David’s.

Tessa pulled away from David and rounded on Liam. “What did you think you were doing?”

“I thought I was marrying you,” Lee said, smiling in spite of his split lip.

“I don’t want to marry you,” Tessa told him. “I don’t want a rogue of an Irishman for a husband. I’ve spent my life with them. And you didn’t mean that silly proposal. You only did it out of duty to my brother.”

“Nope,” Lee told her. “I did it for David.”

“David?” Tessa didn’t understand. “David doesn’t need you to propose for him.”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell everyone.” David turned to the crowd. “I can ask her to marry me without anybody’s help. I plan to ask her to marry me, and I’m going to ask her to marry me.” He moved closer to Tessa and took her hand. “Tessa, will you marry me and let me take care of you?”

‘Take care of me?” Tessa threw the words back at him. “You want to
take care of me?
”

“Yes.”

“Well, forget it!” Tessa shouted. Yanking her hand out of his grasp, she whirled around to reach for her suitcase.

David caught her arm and turned her back to face him. “Forget it?” he shouted back. “What do you mean forget it?”

“I mean forget it! I’m not interested in letting you take care of me! I can take care of myself!”

“But I thought you cared about me!”

“I don’t care about you,” Tessa yelled. “I love you!”

Frustrated beyond belief, David glared down at the woman. “It means the same thing!”

“Not to me, it doesn’t,” she informed him. “If you can’t say you love me, then I don’t want you taking care of me!” She stamped her foot in the street for emphasis.

“Fine. Take care of yourself. Take care of Coalie. Take care of me.” David knelt at her feet and took her hand once again. “Take care of all the children we’ll have together, but marry me. Please.”

Tessa glanced around at the crush of smiling people, at the artists sketching and the reporters filling their notebooks with words. “David, you’re making a fool of yourself in front of the whole town.”

“It’s time I did.”

“But you’re causing a scandal!” She tugged on his hand, trying to pull him off his knees.

“I’ve caused them before.” David grinned. One eye was swollen shut. His jaw was bruised. His injured shoulder throbbed with pain once again. He had a cut on his lip, and his stomach hurt like hell. But he’d never felt better. “So have you. I doubt this will be the last one.”

“David…”

“I love you, Tessa Mary Catherine Roarke,” he said finally, offering her the sapphire ring. “I love you with all my heart.”

“Oh, David…” She bent down to hug him, but he lost his balance and sprawled in the dirt. “I love you, too!” Tessa knelt to kiss him.

David groaned. This wasn’t the way he’d planned to deliver his proposal.

Tessa broke off the kiss. “I’ve loved you for the longest time. Ever since we—”

David kissed her again to keep her from incriminating herself. And him. He kissed her until they both needed to come up for air. “You
are
going to marry me,” David said. “Aren’t you?”

“Of course.” Tessa flung her arms around his neck. “I may need a good lawyer again someday.”

David wiped the sapphire and diamond ring against the fabric of his trousers, then slipped it onto her hand.

Tessa looked down at her finger, admiring it. “It’s beautiful!”

“It matches your eyes,” David said. “That’s why I bought it.”

Then she whispered, “Was it awfully expensive?” She winced as she asked the question, afraid of his answer. At the rate he spent money, they’d never have a house.

“Awfully,” he answered.

“Oh.” She frowned, sounding disappointed.

“What’s wrong?” He pressed a kiss against the worry lines on her brow. “Don’t you like it?”

“I love it.” She managed to smile at him. “But after we get married, I plan to save money for a house with a yard and some flowers”—she broke off when David hugged her to him—“and a small flock of sheep.”

“No sheep,” David said. He got to his feet and pulled Tessa up with him.

“Why not?” Tessa asked. “I like sheep. I thought maybe merinos.”

“No sheep,” David repeated. “They won’t go too well with five hundred head of beef cattle.” He draped an arm over her shoulder and picked up her suitcase with his other hand. She placed one arm around his waist. “Tessa, do you remember Coalie telling you about the ranch?”

Tessa raised a hand to her mouth. “Coalie.” She glanced around. “Where is he?” She looked up at the hotel window. Mary was alone.

Sensing Tessa’s concern, David glanced up at his sister. “Where’s Coalie?” he shouted.

“There.” Mary pointed to Coalie, who was dragging his feet down the street, following her instructions, taking his time. “Coalie,” she yelled from the window. “You can run now. David asked her to marry him!”

“What did Tessa say?” Coalie looked up at Mary, cupping his hand around his mouth to make himself heard.

“She said yes!” David and Tessa shouted in unison. “Yes!”

“Yippee!” Coalie’s whoop of joy echoed through Peaceable.

David dropped the suitcase, knelt, and opened his free arm. Tessa went with him, opening her free arm, too. “Come on, son!” David encouraged as Coalie caught sight of them and raced forward. “Let’s go home!”

Coalie ran into their arms.

Tessa pulled Coalie against her heart. David pulled Tessa to his.

Coalie hugged them both. The two people he loved most in all the world, David and Tessa. His family.

The people of Peaceable roared their approval.

“I told you something was going on between those two.” Margaret Jeffers whispered to her employee as they stood in front of the mercantile watching the family scene.

Lorna Taylor sniffed into her handkerchief and wiped her eyes before she delivered a vicious elbow to Margaret’s rib cage. “Shut up, Margaret. Stop being such a prig! Then maybe one day somebody will love you like that.”

Peaceable, Wyoming Territory

Three days later

“I hope Coalie’s all right,” Tessa said. “I hated to leave him.”

“He’s fine,” David told her. “He was having a great time when we left the ranch.” They’d been married that morning in the church in Cheyenne, then gone to the Trail T ranch to celebrate with David’s family. “I thought you said you wanted to honeymoon here in Peaceable.”

“I do,” Tessa replied. “I was just thinking about the wedding. It’s a shame Lee couldn’t stay a little longer after the ceremony.” She snuggled into her husband’s arms in the big bed where they’d spent the last few hours exploring the joys of marriage.

“Not for me.” David kissed the corner of Tessa’s mouth. He wasn’t sure he was ready to forgive his friend.

“It was a nice wedding, wasn’t it?” Tessa asked.

“The best,” David agreed, “the absolute best I’ve ever attended.”

Her white satin wedding dress was draped across a chair. On top of it perched an enormous white satin hat decorated with artificial roses, orange blossoms, and a stuffed white dove, all of it covered with an Irish lace veil. The hat had been a wedding gift from David, who had shuddered every time he looked at it. But Tessa loved it, and that was what mattered. He kissed Tessa’s shiny red hair, preferring it to any hat ever created.

Tessa raised herself on her elbow and leaned over him, bracing her hand against David’s wide chest for balance. A thin gold band had joined the sapphire and diamond ring on the third finger of her left hand. Tessa never tired of looking at it. “I think Mary likes him.”

“Who? Lee?” David laughed. “You’ve got to be kidding. She’s the one who told me to break his nose.”

“I’m glad you didn’t.”

“I tried.” David smiled, planting a kiss on her nose. He lifted his swollen right hand for her to see.

Tessa wiggled against him, moving to kiss it. “Better?” she asked.

“Much better.”

“I’ll bet Mary’s glad you didn’t really break Lee’s nose.” Tessa continued her train of thought.

“Where’d he go in such a hurry?” David asked, humoring Tessa. She wouldn’t drop the subject of Lee and Mary until she was ready, anyway.

“He had a train to catch,” she told him. “To Chicago and then to Washington and Baltimore.”

“How do you know that?” David wondered aloud. “Did Mary tell you?”

Tessa smiled at her lawyer husband. Now she had his interest. “No, Lee did. He read me a copy of his”—she searched for the word Lee had used—“itinerary.”

David moved her aside, sat up, and looked at her. They’d been married almost five hours, and he wondered just what she was up to. “Why would he do that?”

“I asked him to keep me informed of his progress,” Tessa answered.

“Progress? On what?”

“On finding my wedding gift to you.”

“Which is…?” David prompted. “I thought I got my gift when I got you and Coalie.”

“I thought you might like a daughter to round out the family. A very special daughter.”

David was almost afraid to ask. “Lily Catherine?”

Tessa nodded. “I’ve always wanted a big family, and I think it would be nice to have a head start with a boy and a girl before the others come along. Don’t you?”

“I think it’s a splendid idea.” David hugged her close against his heart. For an articulate man, he found it difficult to speak. He couldn’t find enough words to tell her how much he loved her. All he could do was show her. For the rest of his life.

“Sweetheart,” he whispered, “do you remember when I talked about making a baby?”

“I’ll never forget it.” She wrapped her arms around his neck, pressing her body against him. She kissed him. “Do you remember?”

“As a matter of fact,” David teased, “it’s been so long, I think I may have forgotten how.”

Tessa pushed him back against the pillows and climbed on top of him. “Then we need to refresh your memory.”

Outside on the front door of the office of David Alexander, attorney-at-law, hung a freshly painted sign:
Closed for Honeymoon. Will Reopen…Sometime.

The End

* * *

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Chapter One
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Something Borrowed

Book 3 in the
Borrowed Brides
Series

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