Guardian Bride
Guardian Bride
by Lauri Robinson
The Wild Rose Press
www.thewildrosepress.com
Copyright ©
First published in 2010
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Guardian Bride
by Lauri Robinson
CONTENTS
* * * *
Guardian Bride
by Lauri Robinson
The jingle of harnesses and the creak and clatter of wagon
wheels interrupted the casual tweets of the prairie songbirds.
Frowning, Snake moved beyond the end of the long rows
of wheat. The small plume of dust had grown closer. He
squinted. With the force of a lightning bolt, his heart
plummeted into a dark, spooky place.
An old mule, wearing a hat that someone had cut long slits
in the brim so the animal's ears could stick out and full of
purple and pink flowers, trotted along the trail. Dust rose into
the air in the animal's wake. Two women sat on the seat of an
odd shaped, little wagon. He began to shake. They didn't
need to come closer for him to know who they were. The
driver wore a hat to match the mules, minus the ear slots,
and the woman beside her toted a well-used shotgun.
Fear like he'd never known raced over his body, and he
scanned the vast ground, erratically trying to figure out which
way to run.
Just as he hefted a leg, which felt like it weighed three
hundred pounds, a rough voice sliced the air. "Don't move! I
got you in my sights!"
"Aw, shit!" The two women—together—could only mean
one thing. Turning back to the wagon, he shouted, "Put the
gun away, Ma, you ain't gonna shoot me."
"You don't know that!" she reiterated.
On second thought, a good round of buckshot wouldn't be
as bad as the alternative—marrying the woman who sat
beside his mother, glowering at him like he'd just killed her
mule, hat and all.
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Guardian Bride
by Lauri Robinson
Summer Austin flinched as the gun in the woman's hands
clicked. Out of the corner of her eye, she checked if the
woman sitting beside her had cocked the trigger.
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Guardian Bride
by Lauri Robinson
Praise for the Author
KENDRA'S CHOICE
"Fast-paced and entertaining. I loved the book and highly
recommend it."
~
Brenda Talley, The Romance Studio
"Lauri Robinson, with remarkable timing [and] humor,
creates a love story of two strong characters that give off
sparks and vibes that keep the reader turning pages."
~
Camellia, The Long and Short of it Reviews
"Ah, Lauri Robinson sure knows how to make her
characters go through obstacles."
~Night Owl Reviews (Top Pick Award)
"
BADLAND BRIDE
is romance at its finest." ~
Romance
Junkie's Reviewer Audrey
.
"I really enjoyed everything about
BADLAND BRIDE
The
Quinter Brides, Book 2."
~
Chrissy, Love Western Romances
"Lauri Robinson has once again written a wonderful
engaging romance."
~
Mixed Book Bag
A SOLDIER FOR CHRISTMAS
"This beautifully written story makes one believe in
miracles. I loved the humor, the surprises, and, most of all,
the LOVE."
~
Camellia, The Long and Short of it Reviews
6
Guardian Bride
by Lauri Robinson
Guardian Bride
The Quinter Brides, Book Four
by
Lauri Robinson
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Guardian Bride
by Lauri Robinson
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and
incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or
are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons
living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is
entirely coincidental.
Guardian Bride: The Quinter Brides, Book Four
COPYRIGHT (C) 2010 by Lauri Robinson
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or
reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written
permission of the author or The Wild Rose Press except in the
case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or
reviews.
Contact Information: [email protected]
Cover Art by
Nicola Martinez
The Wild Rose Press
PO Box 708
Adams Basin, NY 14410-0706
Visit us at www.thewildrosepress.com
Publishing History
First Cactus Rose Edition, 2010
Print ISBN 1-60154-857-5
Published in the United States of America
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Guardian Bride
by Lauri Robinson
To Virginia Robinson, my mother-in-law.
Rest in Peace.
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Guardian Bride
by Lauri Robinson
Southwestern Kansas
1885
"What the hell?" Snake, otherwise known as Scott Andrew
Quinter, jerked against the eerie sensation rippling his spine.
He lifted his head, scanning the area with a good once over.
The rich, fertile soil of the plains making up western Kansas
lay out in all directions. It was like a mine, a gold mine, and
he was a miner claim-staking the mother lode.
A spectacular sky, profound blue and adorned with clouds
that looked like pillows of bleached cotton, housed the bright
sun that made sweat pour down his back. He let his gaze
make another circle, convinced it took more than a trickle of
perspiration to make his entire body quake.
Other than a small puff of dust far off on the horizon, there
was nothing to blame for the uneasiness that seared his
bones. He shrugged, but it was to no avail. Besides the
eeriness, a heavy gloom shrouded him lately. Forcing his
mind to ignore it all, he bent to examine the roots of the
winter wheat he'd sowed last fall. The hearty plant had
thrived in the rich soil and was well on its way to proving this
hybrid of wheat he'd created was the one—the seed that
would turn Kansas into the breadbasket of the nation.
The quiver came again, eating at his bones like a bug
devouring a leaf. He snapped upright and stomped toward the
end of the field, kicking clods of dirt out of the way as he
went. What the hell was wrong with him? Ever since that
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Guardian Bride
by Lauri Robinson
stupid poker game in Dodge, he'd had a dark cloud hanging
over his head and an irritating, nagging voice in the back of
his mind. It wasn't as if he'd cheated anyone, in all reality,
he'd folded—threw away a full house, Queens over Aces. In
his mind, it had been the only honorable thing to do. July
Austin—the man he'd played against—had thrown his
daughter into the pot.
Austin had said she was of age and more than willing to
comply with the deal, but Snake didn't think it was
appropriate. No, siree, gambling a daughter away wasn't
right, no matter how willing she was. Another shiver raced
over his shoulders, and sweat not caused from the sun,
dripped off his forehead.
In all actuality, the whole situation had been too close to
home for comfort. His mother had married off three of his
brothers—against their will for the most part. Not that it
hadn't worked out for Kid, Skeeter, and most recently, Hog,
but he, Snake, wasn't about to let it happen to him. His
brothers were all happier than peas in pods, but marriage
wasn't in his future. He had farming to do, between this
hybrid, and the new irrigation system he was structuring—he
flat out didn't have time for anything else—but more than
that, women made him nervous.
He was all male, and had visited the upper floors of
saloons before. What flesh and bone man didn't? Those visits
were needed, and those girls didn't make him uneasy—there
were a few he grew damn right excited to see again. It was
women like his sisters-in-law that made his throat swell up
like he'd rolled in a patch of poison ivy. They were sweet,
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Guardian Bride
by Lauri Robinson
kind, and could make a man run in circles faster than a cat
with two tails.
The jingle of harnesses and the creak and clatter of wagon
wheels interrupted the casual tweets of the prairie songbirds.
Frowning, Snake moved beyond the end of the long rows of
wheat. The small plume of dust had grown closer. He
squinted. With the force of a lightning bolt, his heart
plummeted into a dark, spooky place.
An old mule, wearing a hat that someone had cut long slits
in the brim so the animal's ears could stick out and full of
purple and pink flowers, trotted along the trail. Dust rose into
the air in the animal's wake. Two women sat on the seat of an
odd shaped, little wagon. He began to shake. They didn't
need to come closer for him to know who they were. The
driver wore a hat to match the mules, minus the ear slots,
and the woman beside her toted a well-used shotgun.
Fear like he'd never known raced over his body, and he
scanned the vast ground, erratically trying to figure out which
way to run.
Just as he hefted a leg, which felt like it weighed three
hundred pounds, a rough voice sliced the air. "Don't move! I
got you in my sights!"
"Aw, shit!" The two women—together—could only mean
one thing. Turning back to the wagon, he shouted, "Put the
gun away, Ma, you ain't gonna shoot me."
"You don't know that!" she reiterated.
On second thought, a good round of buckshot wouldn't be
as bad as the alternative—marrying the woman who sat
12
Guardian Bride
by Lauri Robinson
beside his mother, glowering at him like he'd just killed her
mule, hat and all.
Summer Austin flinched as the gun in the woman's hands
clicked. Out of the corner of her eye, she checked if the
woman sitting beside her had cocked the trigger.
Stephanie Quinter had. Moreover, one gnarled finger was
set to pull the lever back the rest of the way.
Summer swallowed, stirring up the bile that already
churned in her stomach. Marrying Snake Quinter wasn't
necessarily what she wanted, but he was her ticket out of
Dodge, and she had to take it. Another option wasn't likely to
come along, and time had run out.
He, the man she was about to marry, stood at the edge of
a fading-green field. Soon the stalks of wheat would turn
gold—that is if locusts or hail didn't wipe the crop out before
it ripened and diminish the entire lot. Summer had seen it
before, the way Mother Nature could destroy a crop in the
blink of an eye, and a piece of her hoped it wouldn't happen
to Snake.
For the most part, from what she knew anyway, he was a
good man, kind to strangers and children alike. Nor was he a