Historical Cowboy Romance Two Book Box Set - Mail Order Brides (21 page)

“I won’t accept it,” Cornell told her. “And I
still have a few arrows left in my quiver to convince you.”

Violet froze. “Like what?”

“I’m still your guardian and your trustee,”
Cornell reminded her. “I still hold the purse strings of your
fortune, and I still have the power to consent to these marriages.
I can use the power vested in me by your late parents to stop you
from marrying these men.”

Violet shuddered. He didn’t really mean to
make this situation as unpleasant as all that, did he? “What are
you saying, Cornell? You don’t mean that…” Violet trailed off.

Cornell pointed his finger into Violet’s
face. “I’m holding you personally responsible for this fiasco,
Violet. Your sisters would never go through with a plan like this
without your encouragement. If anyone takes the consequences for
this, it should be you.”

“What consequences do you mean?” Violet could
barely form the words to ask.

“I’m still sole trustee of your estate,”
Cornell reminded her. “I still have the power to decide which, if
any of you, inherits your parent’s fortune. If you prove yourself
unworthy of it, perhaps you shouldn’t.”

“You wouldn’t dare!” Violet gasped. “You
wouldn’t disinherit me on the very eve of my wedding day!”

“Wouldn’t I?” Cornell sneered. “I can and I
would, if you persist in this disastrous scheme of yours. I don’t
see why the fortune your father worked so hard for should be
squandered on some dirty cattle puncher.”

“You haven’t even met Chuck,” Violet
retorted. “How do you know he’s dirty? Why don’t you come to supper
now and meet him. I think your fears would be assuaged if you did.
You’ll see he’s a good man who will do the ranch a lot of good. And
I’m quite certain I’ll be very happy married to him. Come and see
for yourself.”

“I wouldn’t stoop so low,” Cornell shot back.
“I don’t have to meet him or see him or the other two to know what
they are. You said you were marrying cowboys, and that’s all I need
to know. They aren’t worthy of the Kilburn family fortune, and I’ll
make sure they never see a penny of it. And neither will any of
you, if you go through with these marriages.”

“You can’t disinherit all of us,” Violet
pointed out. “What are you going to do? Take the money for
yourself?” She meant the question as a joke, but the minute the
words passed her lips, a terrible chill froze Violet’s heart. He
couldn’t, could he? He wouldn’t! Wasn’t he supposed to be their
guardian, the executor of their trust? How could he even suggest
such a thing?

“I can, and I will.” Cornell squared his
shoulders and his spiny eyebrows met in the middle of his forehead.
“I suggest you go to supper and tell these men that the wedding is
off, and that you and your sisters have decided to marry different
men. That’s what you’ll tell them, if you don’t want to wind up on
the street.” He compressed his lips on the last word.

Violet pulled herself up and hardened her
heart to him. For the first time in her life, he didn’t frighten
her. “And I suggest, Cornell, that you think twice about opposing
these marriages. Do you know what Iris and Rose talked about on the
way down to Butte today, and what she and the men talked about on
the way home? They talked about packing you off, out of the Bird
House, out of Rocking Horse Ranch, and out of our lives, after we
get married.”

Cornell’s eyebrows flew up, but he kept his
composure enough not to show his shock any other way. “Is that
so?”

“Yes, it is,” Violet told him. “I spent both
trips doing everything in my power to defend you and keep a place
for you here. But I see no reason to do that if you threaten me or
make life unpleasant for our husbands.”

“They aren’t your husband’s yet, Violet,”
Cornell growled.

“No, but they will be,” Violet declared. “You
may be absolutely certain of that. We will marry these men on
Friday, whether you like it or not, and even if you do plan to take
our money for yourself, all of our fortune will pass to our
husbands the day we marry them, no matter what you say or do.”

Cornell didn’t reply. He only pressed his
lips together more firmly than ever. Was that a hint of concern in
his eye? Oh, please let it be so! Please let her words strike
home!

Violet’s words came out of her mouth like
molten iron. She’d never heard her own voice so hard and piercing
before. Was she really saying these things? And to Cornell’s face,
too! She never thought she’d live so long.

“If I was in your position, Cornell,” she
said. “I’d make an effort to be very polite and generous, not only
to these three men, but to me and my sisters, too. Your future
rests in our hands, and it wouldn’t take much to tip the balance of
power away from you. If that happens, there’s nothing I can do to
protect you, and it’s you who’ll be out on the street.”

Violet fixed him with one last withering
glare before she turned on her heel and stalked out of the room.
She slammed the door behind her, but immediately ran away, down the
passage, and up the stairs to her own room, where she slammed her
own door and locked herself in.

She threw herself down on her bed, buried her
face in her pillow, and screamed as she’d never screamed before in
her life. She screamed out all her vile thoughts about Cornell. She
screamed all her worry about the future of the ranch and for the
well-being of her sisters. Last of all, she screamed in excitement
and exhilaration at the thought of Chuck. The thrill of pleasure
scorched up her arm from the fingers he’d touched and spread
through her whole body.

Was this what it felt like? Was this what a
man could do to a woman’s body? Could a thought throw her into a
ferment of anticipation at seeing him again, talking to him,
touching him. Heavens above! How much more incredible would it be
to live with him, to hold him, to lie next to him every night of
her life!

Oh, she couldn’t stop screaming from thinking
about it! Did her sisters know? Is this the way Iris felt when she
left the barn with Mick? What had they talked about and done in
there? Had he touched her hand and spoken soft words to her and
smiled into her eyes the way Chuck did to her? And Jake must have
done the same thing to Rose in the Fort House. That’s why they all
smiled so foolishly and couldn’t stop smiling?

Did every woman in the world feel this way
when she got close to a man? So this was what all the fuss was
about! Violet always thought all that romantic fairy-tale nonsense
about finding your prince and living happily ever after was just a
childish story. But here it was, coming true for her and her
sisters.

Please, God, don’t let anyone hear her
screaming like this. But she couldn’t stop. Tears of excitement and
raw emotion wet her pillow. She only stopped screaming when the
pain in her throat overcame her agitation and she couldn’t scream
any more. Maybe she’d destroyed her voice, and everyone would know
she’d screamed her head off because she couldn’t talk anymore.

She sat up and sniffed. Then she got a drink
of water from the wash stand pitcher. She must pull herself
together before going down to supper. The men would arrive soon,
and she wanted to look her best.

The events of the day flooded back, and she
suppressed a giggle at the sizzle of eagerness at seeing Chuck
again downstairs. Why did Cornell have to be such an insufferable
tyrant? Why couldn’t he at least try to understand the sisters’
reasons for marrying these men? Why did he have to make the whole
experience so unpleasant for everyone?

What a joy these marriages would be for all
of them if Cornell hadn’t blighted the experience with his petty
spite! A wedding should be the happiest day of a woman’s life. And
here were three sisters, all getting married on the same day.

If Violet judged rightly, all three were
marrying their fairy-tale princes, their hearts’ true and destined
sweethearts. What happier occasion could anyone imagine?

Curse that Cornell, anyway! Violet would find
a way to deal with him. She resolved to discuss with her sisters
his latest threat to disinherit them. She crossed the room to tidy
up her hair in the looking glass, but she gasped in horror when she
saw herself. She wouldn’t let a living soul—not even her
sisters—see her puffy red eyes or swollen lips.

She wet a handkerchief in the washbasin and
laid it over her eyes. She splashed more water over her whole face
and then went to open the window. The cool night air would cool her
down. She pushed back the lace curtains and threw up the sash. As
she expected, the breeze gusted into the room and bathed her wet
face in a luscious chill.

But Violet caught her breath again when her
eye fell on a solitary figure on the ground below her window. In
the last twilight before full dark, Chuck glanced up at the house
and saw her. Their eyes met, and he smiled.

Violet laughed out loud in pure joy at seeing
him again. His face broke into a grin, and he blew her a kiss.

All Violet’s efforts to fix up her face
failed, and her eyes brimmed with tears. She laughed at the same
time, and she blew him a kiss of her own.

His smile turned to a laugh, and he cast his
eyes down to the ground with his cheeks on fire. When he peeked up
at her again, he pointed into the house, and Violet nodded.

Violet never flew so fast as she raced away
from that window. She forgot all about her face, her hair, Cornell,
the ranch, and everything else. She only knew one thing: she was
going downstairs to see him. Nothing else mattered in the
world.

She ran down the stairs and nearly collided
with Chuck in the entry hall near the front door. She collapsed
into another laughing fit, unsure whether to run away or throw
herself into his arms.

He held her at arm’s length. “Hang on there.
Where’s the fire?”

“I was just coming downstairs to meet you,”
she stammered. “I guess I got a little ahead of myself.”

“I’ll say.” Chuck examined her face a little
more closely. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” She tried to cover her mouth with
her hand, but laughed hysterically instead. “It’s just been such an
emotional day. I guess I’m a little overwrought from it all.”

Chuck cocked his head. “Emotional? How?”

“Oh, I just mean meeting you for the first
time,” Violet explained. “And I had it out with Cornell this
morning, and now I just had it out with him again when we came in
after dropping you off. But I’m fine. I guess I’m just tired. I’ll
be just fine as soon as I’ve had a chance to calm down.”

Chuck heard more than she intended. Even at a
distance from him, Violet felt him stiffen. “You had it out with
him? In what way?”

“I went to the library to find out if he was
still working in there, and he was,” Violet told him. “You know
he’s not happy about us marrying you men. Well, he’s more unhappy
about it now that you’re here. He got quite nasty about it, in
fact.” She glanced in the direction of the library, although she
knew Cornell wouldn’t be there anymore. He’d be back at the Bird
House, having his own supper by now.

Chuck’s sharp eyes pierced her. “What did he
say? What did he say to you this time?”

Violet quailed. Why did Cornell have to spoil
her happiness even now? She’d been so excited to come downstairs to
Chuck, and here they were, alone, just inches away from each other,
and what did they do? They talked about Cornell. She’d had enough
of Cornell to sink the Spanish Armada!

She waved her hands as if to shoo Cornell out
of her life, but the tears mounted in her eyes despite her efforts
to blink them away. “I don’t want to talk about him anymore. We’re
here together, and we’re alone together. I don’t want to spend the
time we have together talking about Cornell. Let’s go in to supper,
and afterward, we’ll go out for our walk, and we won’t talk about
Cornell, or the ranch, or anything else. We’ll just enjoy each
other’s company”

Chuck frowned at her, and she almost lost her
nerve entirely. Then he reached for her hand and gave it a squeeze.
“All right. We won’t talk about Cornell anymore.”

“I hope you understand,” Violet exclaimed.
“It’s just that I was so happy to come down here to meet you…..”
She burst into tears. “And here we are talking about Cornell! I
could choke on Cornell! And we just met! It isn’t fair!” She
covered her face with her hands and sobbed.

Something soft and warm was happening to her,
but she couldn’t see through her fingers or stem the flow of her
tears to figure out what it was. Then she felt a warm breath on the
outside edge of her ear and she realized Chuck was holding her in
his arms. If only she could stop crying and enjoy it! What was
wrong with her?

A slight inclination of her head brought her
forehead into contact with his chest. An overpowering surge of raw
emotion swept over her. Was it passion, or grief, or anger, or
elation? She’d never experienced emotions so strong before, and
they took every scrap of feeling in her whole body and heart and
soul just to experience them without exploding into a million
shards of glass.

She laid her head down on his chest and wept
for all she was worth. It was the only response she could muster in
the face of this overwhelming upheaval. Maybe she
was
exploding into a million shards of glass. Maybe this is what it
felt like to explode and come back together as a completely
different person—a person in love.

What must Chuck think of her strange
behavior? Would he think she was upset about meeting him or
unwilling to go through with their marriage? Heaven forbid!

But he patted her on the back and breathed
his intoxicating breath into her ear. Every breath of his on her
ear and neck only blew the pieces of her up into the atmosphere
again. Every breath of his burned her skin and fanned the flames of
her torment. Why did she have to wait until Friday to rest her head
on his chest forever, to let the breath of his mouth blow her away,
never to return?