Historical Cowboy Romance Two Book Box Set - Mail Order Brides (20 page)

The gun belt made him look different to
Violet. It made him look….what? What was different about him, with
a gun at his waist? Yet the minor addition to his wardrobe changed
him in Violet’s eyes. She couldn’t understand it, but her
estimation of him shifted. Her first impression of him at the hotel
saloon had been grossly incorrect. He wasn’t small or weak or
inexperienced or soft. Jake Hamilton was not a man to be trifled
with. Violet was never more certain of anything.

Neither Rose nor Iris nor Chuck showed any
sign of disturbance at the men getting out their guns. Was Violet
exaggerating the significance of it? After all, they’d wanted
cowboys and cowboys was what they got. Still, something told Violet
these were no ordinary cowboys handling the tools of their trade.
Mick looked more like an outlaw getting ready to rob a bank.

And Jake? She didn’t know what Jake looked
like. He didn’t look like any cowboy she ever saw. He looked like a
coyote or a mountain lion stalking its prey. Violet knew nothing
about him, but she was quite certain he could wield those guns with
deadly accuracy.

“I don’t suppose you ladies know what sort of
good huntin’ there is around here,” Mick asked.

“I’m sure I don’t,” Violet replied.

“I do,” Iris cut in. “There’s deer and elk
and moose down here on the range all the time, especially in the
fall. You know how it is. If you go up into the mountains, it’s
even better. There’s bears, cougars, and wolves. And, of course,
there’s birds. You go down to the river, you’ll have no end of
birds of all kinds.”

Mick squinted at her. “You don’t go huntin’,
do ya?”

Iris blushed. “No. I don’t have time. But
Pete and Wade go when they have a day or two off.”

“Hmm.” Mick turned back to unpacking his
cases. He took out bandoliers of small caliber bullets and boxes of
rifle cartridges. He sorted them all and laid them out by size.
“Maybe you and me can go for a ride up there, Chuck.” He nodded
toward the mountains behind the ranch.

“You go ahead. I want to have a look at
things around the ranch.” He caught Violet’s eye and glanced
away.

“How ‘bout you, Jake?” Mick asked. “You fancy
a little bit a’ huntin’ before you get stuck into work?”

Jake strolled across the porch and leaned
against a post. “I could be tempted to go out, if you’re goin’. No
sense bustin’ ourselves with work right away, especially if we’re
gettin’ married on Friday. Might do to take a day or two to settle
in first.”

“If the ranch is anywhere near as behind as
you say it is,” Chuck added. “Then we don’t have any time to waste
goin’ off huntin’. But I tell you what, I mean to have a look for
myself and decide just what’s what. I won’t take anyone’s word on
the state of things around here. I’ll look and see for myself.”

“No one’s stoppin’ you,” Mick replied. “But
there’ll be plenty of time for work after we get married. I’ve been
traveling for three weeks to get here. I’m gonna take at least a
day or two off before I start crackin’ heads.”

Violet caught her breath at his words, but no
one else seemed to notice.

“We should get down to the house,” Iris
remarked. “It’ll be suppertime soon. We can talk about things then.
You men’ll want to get settled in, and we’ve had a long day on the
road.”

“That’s all right,” Mick replied. “You go
ahead. We’ll be down to supper directly.”

“Before we go,” Violet interrupted. “I should
show you around the house a little bit. There are some extra
supplies in there to make your stay more comfortable.”

“Oh, right,” Iris replied. “I forgot. Violet
arranged the house for your coming.”

“If you follow me….” Inside, she showed them
to the wood stove in the corner of the main room downstairs.
“There’s firewood here, and we always keep a box of matches and
candles here on the shelf. I don’t know if you’ll need to light the
fire. It’s been pretty warm here the last few weeks, and I’ve
arranged with Rita for you three to take your meals down at the
main house.”

“If it’s warm and we don’t need to cook,”
Chuck replied. “Then I don’t see us needing to light the fire.”

“That’s what I thought,” Violet agreed. “But
you never know. Just keep it in mind. And there’s a box of tinder
here for getting it going.” She crossed the room to a wooden trunk
built into the wall of the room. “In here, I’ve put some food
stores, just in case you get hungry. You never know when you might
want something between meals. There’s a side of bacon, a couple
rounds of cheese, a loaf of bread, and a basket of apples from the
cellar. That should keep you going. If you eat all that and you
want some more, you let me know and I’ll fix you up.”

Chuck smiled at her. “Very practical. Thank
you.”

Violet smiled back. “They say the way to a
man’s heart is through his stomach, so I figured we’d keep the way
well cleared.”

The three men chuckled. “Of course.”

“Now then.” Violet stopped at the foot of the
ladder leading up to the loft. “The beds are upstairs. I suppose
Rose showed you, Jake. I won’t go up. You can find your way by
yourselves. But you’ll find a supply of extra blankets in the bench
at the foot of the beds. You shouldn’t need them, what with the
mild weather we’re having, but like I said, you never know. If you
need something else, you can tell me.”

“No one’s told you yet, Chuck,” Iris
interrupted. “Violet runs this ranch. Cornell thinks he’s the one
who makes all the decisions around here, but it’s actually Violet
who decides who does what and when and where. She even keeps the
books.”

“I’m glad to hear it.” Chuck nodded to her.
“It’s good to know my future wife knows how to manage a place. I
wouldn’t want it any other way.”

Violet flushed with pride. “I’m only doing
what I have to do. I feel the same way Iris does. This ranch is our
inheritance, and I want to make sure we have it in good working
order to hand down to the next generation. Cornell can only do so
much. He can’t run the ranch with a woman’s eye for the small
details. He can’t know how to run the kitchen for maximum
efficiency. He can’t know all the things we could be doing for
ourselves instead of paying for them in town.”

“Violet tells Rita what to cook for our meals
and what ingredients to use,” Iris told them. “She even tells her
how much soap to use in the laundry and how to make the soap. She
mends all our clothes, and she does it so well that Cornell doesn’t
even notice they’ve been mended. If he did notice, he would tell us
to throw the clothes away and buy new ones.”

“It’s a waste of money,” Violet insisted.
“Take a look at this dress.” She held up the skirts of her own
dress. “Look at that seam. You would never know that dress had been
mended.”

The three men examined the seam, and nodded
their heads in mute agreement.

“This is a perfectly good dress,” Violet
declared. “Why should I throw it away when it could be mended as
good as new? And the laundry soap. If Cornell knew we used homemade
soap for the laundry, he would tell us to use store bought soap
instead. It’s just wasteful, and it’s our own money he’s wasting,
too. He doesn’t care about spending our money the same way he would
care if it was his own.”

“I agree with you absolutely,” Chuck replied.
“A woman should do everything possible to safeguard the family
economy. My mother made all our clothes, all our soap, mended all
our clothes, and cooked all our food from homegrown ingredients.
It’s the mark of a sensible, practical woman. And it’s everything I
hoped my wife would be, too.”

Violet blushed to the roots of her hair.
“It’s the least a woman can do to run her own household. We’re not
royalty, although Cornell certainly would like to think we
are.”

“And do you know,” Iris continued. “Violet
sneaks Cornell’s clothes and mends them on the sly. That’s how
practical she is. He doesn’t even know his clothes have been
mended. That’s how far Violet goes to keep him happy. He thinks
she’s his strongest supporter around here. He doesn’t even know she
disagrees with him.”

The three men stared at Violet with new
appreciation. “It’s amazing,” Chuck murmured. “That’s certainly
going above and beyond the call of duty.”

Violet shook her head. “It
is
the call
of duty. I wouldn’t get anywhere arguing with him about it. I’ve
found that out too many times. If he doesn’t have the eyes to see
that his socks are darned and his shirts mended, why should he get
new ones? My word, he doesn’t even notice when they have holes that
need mending!”

“Then I guess he can’t really express his
appreciation for your efforts,” Mick pointed out.

“Oh, I don’t want him expressing his
appreciation,” Violet exclaimed. “I’m very happy for him to remain
in the dark. As I say, if he doesn’t notice, he doesn’t deserve new
clothes. He doesn’t deserve new clothes, anyway, not at our
expense. If I’m the one paying for his clothes, then by golly,
he’ll get them mended when they wear out.”

“I’ll say!” Chuck agreed.

Violet looked at Chuck and found him studying
her. When their eyes met, they both smiled and blushed and looked
away.

Violet didn’t hear what the others said. She
didn’t hear what Chuck said or what she herself said. They managed
to separate somehow, maybe without speaking at all. Violet and her
sisters strolled down the hill to the main house. Only about
halfway down the hill Violet heard the door of the Fort House shut
behind them. The men had watched them go.

Violet didn’t bother to try to talk to her
sisters on the way back to the house. She didn’t even look at them.
Her mind wandered away over the range under the pendulous moon.
Chuck strolled at her side, his delicate fingers tickling the palm
of her hand.

And then, when they came to the creek bottom
under the poplar trees, he stopped and moved just a little closer
to her. And all the while, her heart thudded in her chest until her
legs wobbled underneath her. She saw his eyes, his face, his mouth,
and his fingers caressed her hands.

The three sisters sailed into the house, each
floating in her own separate dream and smiling the same secret
smile. Iris and Rose disappeared before Violet knew what became of
them, and she knew better than to follow them. She ought to go to
her own room and lie down for a while before the men came up for
supper.

But some nameless misgiving induced her to
seek out Cornell one more time before they parted for the evening.
Maybe Iris had a point and she felt guilty about flouting his
wishes. She just couldn’t let him go with their quarrel hanging
over her head.

She tiptoed along the passage leading to the
library. None of the usual hum of human presence emanated from the
walls the way they usually did when Cornell held office in there.
Maybe he’d already gone home to the Bird House for the night. Maybe
he’d given instructions to Rita to bring his supper up there so he
wouldn’t have to deal with any of the Kilburn girls at all. Maybe
he just wanted some peace and quiet.

Violet stuck her head into the library,
expecting to find it empty. But she cried out when she saw Cornell
putting the last of his papers away. “Are you still up, Cornell? I
thought you’d be sitting on the porch smoking your pipe by now.
It’s late, you know. You’re not burning the midnight oil, are you?”
Violet crossed the carpet to his desk.

“I’m still working, Violet,” Cornell replied.
“Have you and your sisters just come back from town with those men
of yours?”

“Yes.” Violet blushed in spite of herself.
“They’ll be staying in the Fort House until Friday, but I guess I
already told you that.”

“You told me,” Cornell replied. “I just
didn’t want to believe you’d go through with it.”

His tone snapped her out of her dream and
brought her back to earth with a crash. “Of course we went through
with it. Did you really think, after we went to the trouble of
getting these men out here, that we would back out of our
plan?”

Cornell sighed. “I guess I only hoped.”

“You should know us better than that by now,
Cornell,” Violet told him. “You should know we aren’t given to
flights of fancy or idle threats. When we make up our minds to do
something, we do it, especially when we believe it will serve the
best interests of the ranch and our future.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Cornell admitted.
“I just hoped you wouldn’t. So, what are they like, these men? Are
they everything you hoped they would be?”

The blood rushed to Violet’s cheeks and her
eyes blazed at the memory of Chuck outside the Fort House. “They’re
everything we hoped they would be. I think they’re going to be
perfect for us. You’ll see, Cornell. The ranch will be so much
better off with them here. We all will be.”

“No, I don’t think so, Violet dear.” Cornell
put the last of his papers away, came around his desk, and
positioned himself in front of her. He crossed his hands in front
of himself and furrowed his brows at her. “I think you will live to
regret this decision, and I wouldn’t be doing my duty to your
family if I let it happen.”

Violet didn’t like his tone at all. She
wouldn’t let him see how much his manner frightened her, so she
straightened her spine and set her teeth for the next round of
their argument. “There’s nothing you can do to stop it now. They’re
right out there in the Fort House, and we’re all getting married on
Friday, come hell or high water.”

“I don’t think that will happen, Violet,”
Cornell insisted. “I think I can still make you see the light
before Friday.”

“I don’t want to see the light,” Violet
declared. “Not your light, anyway. And neither do Iris or Rose.
You’ll just have to accept it.”