The Reluctant Bride (4 page)

“I don’t take kindly to being given orders,” Russ said, firing up. He’d let her have her way about the doctor, but now was a good time to make it clear he was going to be the one making the decisions in his household. “I won’t keep you in the dark about matters I think concern you, but don’t think you’re going to pry things out of me just because you’re curious.”

“I have no doubt you’ll talk to me about what
you think
concerns me, but that’s where I expect we’ll have a problem. It never occurs to men that what you do for a living, who you fight, whether we have any money, affects women and children. We’re just supposed to be content to let the men make all the decisions. I’ve seen the results of that, and you might as well know from the start, I’ll not have it. If you can’t respect me enough to tell me what’s going on, you don’t respect me enough for me to be your wife.”

Oh, hell! He was in for it now. How did you tell a prickly woman you weren’t trying to keep things from her but you weren’t going to let her run roughshod over you? Was it even worth the trouble? Damn Welt. If it hadn’t been for his interference, things wouldn’t be so complicated.

Tanzy considered her situation while she waited to go downstairs to meet Russ for dinner. He seemed more like a despot than she would have liked, but he compensated to some degree by being exceptionally attractive. She kept telling herself she shouldn’t be so impressed with his looks.

His parting words made her feel uneasy. She’d spent most of her life surrounded by men—stubborn, bull-headed, opinionated—who believed women were useful only for having babies and taking care of a man’s house and his physical needs. She hoped Russ wasn’t like that. She pulled out his five letters and read them through again. They spoke of a man’s need for companionship, of a woman’s need for security. He promised to provide her with all the creature comforts within his means in exchange for a well-managed household. He said he hoped they’d come to respect and value each other as the years went by, to find solace in their children and contentment with each other. Did he want a wife he could love, who could love him? It didn’t seem important to him. For herself, she’d be content as long as they could respect each other.

Her father had treated his wife and daughter as chattel, with no rights or need for consideration. The only time Tanzy’s mother had shown any spunk was when she insisted Tanzy be allowed to go to school. Then one day it seemed her mother grew tired of life, and she just died. Her father buried her, told Tanzy to make sure supper was ready on time, and went on as if nothing had happened.

One of the girls at school talked about wanting to fall in love, but the other girls laughed at her, said all falling in love ever did was to swell a girl’s belly with no husband in sight. Besides, by the time you eliminated everybody related to you, those with some physical defect, of those you simply disliked too much to marry under any circumstances, there weren’t many men in the Kentucky hills to choose from. Strangers weren’t welcome. Men were more likely to leave than come to settle.

Nearly all marriages were arranged. After her father and brothers died—all killed in a feud more important to them than life—her uncle had intended to marry her to his son. Aside from looking enough like an opossum to be one, the man had different colored eyes, a blue one that stared straight ahead and a brown one that sometimes wandered off to the side. Tanzy had fled during the night.

St. Louis, where she’d been able to find work only in a gambling hall, had been just as bad. One night a respected banker nearly raped her. She realized it would happen again, and no one would care. One friend, Angela, had tried to talk her into being a mail-order bride as she was planning to do. When Tanzy balked, Angela wrote the letters for her. After Tanzy had been in St. Louis four months, her friend left to marry her husband. It was the letters she wrote back, saying she was blissfully happy, that the West was full of honest men longing for wives, that convinced Tanzy to write the final letter saying she was willing to travel to Boulder Gap.

Considering what lay behind her, she didn’t understand why she wasn’t anxious to marry Russ as soon as she could get him in front of a preacher. The man had his own ranch, was as handsome as any she’d ever seen, had promised to keep her safe and secure, and looked strong enough to do it.

She got up from the small bureau where she’d spent thirty frustrating minutes trying to arrange her hair. A Kentucy woman rolled her hair into a bun and pinned it tight so it wouldn’t come down. In St. Louis, women arranged their hair so it was attractive. She had tried to do the same, but no number of pins had ever been able to contain her rioting curls.

It wasn’t that she thought she was unattractive, but Dorrie Spaugh’s stylish dress had made Tanzy acutely aware of her shabby clothes. She told herself no rancher would expect his wife to be a fashion plate. Besides, she knew all about cows. Except for pigs, they were just about the dirtiest animals on any farm.

She stood, impatient to leave the room. She whisked herself down the stairs and into the hotel lobby. She would wait there for Russ.

A man she didn’t recognize was behind the hotel desk. “Are you Miss Gallant?” he asked.

“Yes.” She wondered if Russ had been delayed or wasn’t coming.

“Sorry I wasn’t here when you came in this afternoon. Sick as a dog,” he said, pointing to his stomach.

That’s okay,” Tanzy said, hoping to forestall a graphic description.

The man beckoned her closer. “I promised Russ I’d see to you if he wasn’t here,” he said in a whisper.

“Why are you whispering?” Tanzy asked.

“Mr. Pullet don’t like Russ. If he knew I’d as much as talked to him, I wouldn’t have a job.”

“Then why not stay away from him?”

“Russ has helped me out a time or two. That’s more than anybody else has done.”

Archie had a bulbous nose, a florid complexion with discolored splotches, and no hair atop his head but plenty coming out of his ears and in his shaggy eyebrows.

“I told him not to come here,” the man whispered.

“Why shouldn’t he come here?” Tanzy asked. She was curious to know why Stocker disliked Russ and why it mattered so much to the rest of the town.

“He shouldn’t be in town at all.” He turned away when a man entered the hotel and went directly to the restaurant. “You can sit over in that corner,” he said, pointing to a sofa behind a potted plant. “People won’t be able to see you, but you’ll be able to see when Russ comes in.”

“Why should I hide behind a plant?”

“You’ll find out.” That’s all he said before disappearing again.

Tanzy was confused and irritated. She didn’t know what people had against Russ, but she hadn’t done anything wrong and she had no intention of hiding. She sat down on a sofa where she could easily be seen by anyone entering the lobby. Russ arrived before anyone else came in.

If he had been handsome before, he was breathtaking now. He wore a plain black suit with a white shirt and a string tie. He’d shaved and combed his dark brown hair straight back. With his strong nose, full lips, and prominent jaw, he looked like a proud warrior. When he smiled, his teeth seemed especially white against his tanned face. His eyes didn’t smile, but they generated a disturbing intensity he focused entirely on her. She felt heat stir within her.

“Are you feeling more rested?” he asked.

“Much better,” she said as she stood. “I even had time for a short nap.”

An unsmiling waiter led them to a table at the back of the restaurant. Tanzy got the feeling he was hiding them.

“Let’s order,” Russ said. “You must be starving.”

Once they had ordered their food, Russ asked her about her trip.

“It’s lucky you were out riding,” Tanzy said when she’d reached the point of the attempted robbery.

“There have been some robberies lately. I thought it might be a good idea to meet you.”

“That was very thoughtful. I don’t know anybody who’d go so far out of his way on the chance there might be trouble.”

Tanzy thought Russ looked slightly uncomfortable, but she figured he felt awkward at being thanked. Most men did. He seemed relieved when their food arrived. While they ate, Russ told her about his ranch and his plans for the future. By the time the waiter removed the dishes and left them to enjoy their coffee, they had pretty much caught up on each other.

“Why did you decide to be a mail-order bride?” Russ asked.

She hadn’t expected that question. “When I was in St. Louis, it was made very clear to me that having taken a job in a gambling hall, I was no longer respectable. I’m telling you this because I don’t want to keep any secrets from you, but I don’t want it to be the first thing people in Boulder Gap learn about me. I don’t want to be pigeonholed as I was in St. Louis.”

“Why did you go to St. Louis?”

“I had to leave home if I wanted to find a husband.”

“You’re a pretty woman. I’m sure you could have had your pick of the men in Kentucky.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. My uncle was going to force me to marry his son. Otis looks like an opossum and has a wandering eye.”

“I promise I’ll be faithful to you.”

“I mean his eyes don’t look in the same direction. They aren’t the same color, either. And lest you think I’m totally vain, I almost hated him.”

“Surely there were other men who’d fight for the chance to marry you.”

“My family was feuding, which meant we lived in a closely knit clan, the women allowed to marry only when and whom the men permitted. That was the way to cement alliances. Now it’s your turn to explain why you’re not married. You own a ranch and are very attractive. Surely you could find someone to marry you.”

“There are very few women in the Territory, and none of them around here are going to marry me. At least, not any that are respectable.”

“That’s important; that she be respectable, I mean.”

His eyes turned hard. “I don’t want anything to do with a loose woman. I’m not the easiest man to live with, but I’ll take care of my wife and make sure she comes to no harm. In return I demand complete fidelity.”

Tanzy had no problem with fidelity, but she wondered what was behind the angry words.

“You’ve got no business being here, Tibbolt,” interrupted a man who came up to the table.

“Last time I checked it was a free country, Henry.”

Then feel free to go someplace else. We don’t want you here.”

“If you’re so unhappy with having me about, why don’t you
feel free
to go someplace else?”

Henry turned to Tanzy. “You look like a respectable young woman. If you value that reputation, you’ll have nothing to do with this man.” He turned back to Russ. “Don’t hang around town after dinner.”

“I thought I’d treat myself to a few days at the boardinghouse,” Russ said with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.

Henry’s expression grew apoplectic. “We don’t want your kind around. You’ve got no business here. Get back to your mountains and stealing cows.”

Russ’s eyes seemed to grow dark and hard. “You’ll regret those words one of these days.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“You’re a fool to let Stocker tell you what to do and how to think. My old man wasn’t worth much, but he used to think you were one of the few men in Boulder Gap with some backbone. Now catch up with your wife before she starts thinking you’re hanging around me so you can ogle Miss Gallant.”

Henry swelled up like a blow toad, turned on his heel, and stalked off.

Tanzy noticed several other people in the restaurant had been listening intently to this exchange. “I hope you’re going to explain why everybody hates you so much. I’m not a woman who hankers after company all the time, but I’ll have to think twice about marrying a man who seems to inspire virtually universal dislike.”

“It’s Stocker Pullet’s doing. I can’t blame him for hating me for killing his brother, even though it was a fair fight, but it was ten years ago. It’s time to forget it. But he feels I’ve dragged the Pullet pride through the dirt—it’s the only time anybody ever stood up to his family and made them pay for what they’d done—and he won’t be able to forget it until he runs me out of Colorado.”

Tanzy felt some of her bright hopes begin to fade. Russ had killed a man. It didn’t matter that it was a fair fight. The only thing that allowed her to continue to hope was that the killing had happened ten years ago. That was plenty of time for a man to change, plenty of time for feelings to cool.

“Will you leave?” she asked.

“No. This is my home as much as it is his. But it’s not something you have to worry about. I haven’t caused any trouble since then.” He smiled reassuringly. “I’ve become a model citizen.”

Tanzy had an uneasy feeling despite his assurances. Maybe Russ had put the past behind him, but it didn’t sound like Stocker had. Back home no one forgot a killing. Ever. It carried over from father to son, spilled over to include uncles and cousins. Anyone who married into the family was expected to take up the feud. It could last for generations and destroy dozens of lives. It was just about the worst thing she could think of.

But it took two people to feud. As long as Russ refused to fight, she didn’t see what Stocker could do. “I’m glad to know you’re such an upstanding citizen,” Tanzy said, “but I have a condition to make.”