The Officer and the Southerner (Historical Western Romance) (Fort Gibson Officers Series, Book 2) (3 page)

Sincerely,

Jack

Jack scowled down at the paper. What had gotten into him? He couldn’t send
that
. She’d think him too...too...well, he couldn’t place it, but surely she’d change her mind. Instead, he slipped that ill-begotten missive into his pocket and tried again.

Dear Ella,

I am most pleased with your decision and I hope that you will be, too, upon your arrival here. I’ve made arrangements for you to travel to Ft. Smith, where I have arranged for a private escort to accompany you the rest of the way.

Godspeed,

Jack

P.S. I do believe we shall get along well, indeed. My love for all things soft and furry both begins and ends with a dog.

Ella bit her lip to contain the little scream of excitement that threatened to escape her lips.

This was it. She was
finally
going to be married and to someone who wanted her. Never mind the fact that he’d been forced by circumstances to place such an ad and she’d had a horrible string of insincere suitors that had prompted her to reply. From what he’d written in his letters, she had every reason to believe they’d be a perfect match.

How many times had her father told her that there was a good man out there waiting for her—she just hadn’t found him yet? One who’d love and protect her as a husband ought. One who wouldn’t care that she wasn’t the most graceful dancer or more beautiful than the frost-covered trees in winter. One who’d see her for who she was and love her because of it. She sat on the edge of her bed with a wistful sigh.
Jack.
He didn’t seem a dishonest schemer to her. He seemed protective and, most of all, genuine. Just what she needed.

She grabbed her pillow, held it loosely over her face, and tumbled back against her bed for what might very well be the last time ever as excitement passed through her. Of course everything would work out just fine, she told herself. She was just nervous. That was it. These feelings of uneasiness and delight were normal for a girl who, in less than a day, would be on a hired stage, heading to lands unknown.

Of course, her father and sister thought she would be on her way to northern Virginia to spend some time with her widowed aunt—which might be a good portion of her anxiety. She tossed the pillow to the side and sat back up. She’d write to her father and Michaela and tell them the truth after she was safely married to Jack, she reminded herself. They’d be happy for her then.

Pushing away any final hint of doubt or fear and not letting it cloud her happiness and excitement, she finished packing all of the things she’d need for the rest of her life.

~Chapter Three~

May 1846

Jack tossed down his hat and shrugged out of his coatee. He slipped the button at the top of his shirt free and proceeded to unbutton each of his cuffs. It was too hot in here as it was, and he could hardly sit still long enough to finish his report about what he and his men had found when they’d ridden out to the Creek land last week. He scribbled down a few more words so the report looked lengthier and Colonel Lewis didn’t ask for more details Jack couldn’t remember. The men and women he’d visited seemed just fine. They had enough food and water and didn’t seem to give any indication that they had thoughts of attacking the fort and lynching those who lived here.

To his mind, all was fine.

At least where the Creeks lived. For him, personally, all was the furthest thing from fine. Not that it was bad, however. He was just...er...nervous.

Not necessarily a good nervous, but not a bad nervous, either. It was more like a mix of the two, but mainly good.

“
Are you feeling well, Jack?”

Jack started. “Yes. Why?”

His friend Wes shrugged and idly scratched the brown hair just above his temple. “You just seem anxious.”

Of course he was anxious. After the better part of a year and a plethora of letters passing between them, Jack had finally convinced one Miss Elinor “Ella” Davis to come here as his mail order bride, and if he’d done his calculations correctly, today was the day she was set to arrive. Of course, nobody else knew of this yet, lest she reach Fort Smith, change her mind and not come. His gut tightened at the thought. “Everything’s fine,” he said as smoothly as he could.

“Hmmm,” Wes said before turning his attention back to the paper in front of him.

“
Hmmm, what?” Jack asked, scowling.

“
Nothing. I just find it odd that you keep glancing out the window every thirty seconds.”

Jack swallowed. He hadn’t meant to be so obvious. “I asked McCorkle to march my men this afternoon so I could finish this report. I want to make sure, by the time they come back, they still know how to march properly.”

Wes chuckled and Jack relaxed. All of the other officers here knew McCorkle couldn’t think more than half a step ahead of himself. To be quite honest and incredibly blunt, it was a miracle the man was able to dress himself in the morning. It seemed he needed direct orders to do just about
anything
, and heaven only knew what his men often talked him into letting them do because he was so easy to persuade. “If you wanted to ensure they stayed on task and actually learned something, you should have sent them with Gray, then.”

“
I would have, but Gray said no.”

“
Do you blame him?”

“
If he wanted to eat that pastry, then he shouldn’t have left it unattended,” Jack said in his own defense.

Wes shook his head. “And
that
is why I am so glad I have a wife who can bake me pies and pastries whenever I ask, and not once every six months.”

A hint of a smile touched Jack’s lips. Ella could cook, too. “Allison wasn’t always so eager if I remember right.”

“No, she wasn’t,” Wes agreed. “She just had to learn. And thank heaven she did or else she’d surely have perished within a month if Mrs. Ridgely hadn’t helped her.”

Jack signed his name to his report and walked it over to Colonel Lewis’ desk so the man could find it easy enough and not come pestering Jack for it later. Because frankly, later, he’d be busy. Tonight would be his wedding night, after all... He cleared his throat and his thoughts simultaneously before he found himself in an awkward situation that he’d have to think of some way to explain his way out of.

“Surely, it wasn’t so bad for Allison when she first came. I seem to remember her being very cheerful.”

Wes snorted. “That’s because you only saw her in brief snatches when she first arrived. Fort Gibson is nothing like where she came from in Boston. She struggled at first.”

“But she did learn,” Jack hedged.

A wide grin split Wes’ face. “Of course she did. It just took some time.”

Jack expected the same from Ella. Although to tell the truth, from Ella’s letters, she seemed to have a better understanding of what was expected of her as a wife. If Jack remembered correctly, not only could Allison not cook, but she couldn’t even sew either, and Wes had to use his clothing allowance to buy her a shirt to wear with the unusual skirt she’d sewn.

“
Jack?”

Jack started again. “Yes?”

“You’re not thinking to do something foolish, are you?”

“
Foolish?”

“
Yes.” Wes’ blue eyes searched Jack’s heated face. “You haven’t taken it into your mind to send off for a mail order bride again, have you?”

“
No.” That wasn’t a lie. He’d already sent off for one; he had no need to send off for another. “Why do you ask?”

Wes’ eyes narrowed. “Because every time you start talking about Allison, you get this distant look in your eyes—the very one you had last year right after Allison came and you suggested you could use a wife and were thinking about sending off for a mail order bride.”

“I still don’t see what’s wrong with my logic. A wife out here could make a man’s life far easier.”

“
And hers miserable,” Wes countered. He raked a hand through his brown hair. “Jack, please don’t do anything foolish. Besides the fact that she’d be utterly miserable married to you in the first place, the journey here might kill her.”

Silence filled the air. Last year, days after Allison had arrived, Jack, Wes and Gray had found a ransacked carriage and the bodies of Allison’s traveling companions. “Not to worry about that. If I were to seek a wife and have her travel here to meet me, I’d have her come across from Fort Smith. It’s far safer that way than down the Texas Trail.”

“You speak as if you’ve already made plans to do this,” Wes said, steepling his hands in front of his face.

Jack shrugged. “After what happened last year, a man couldn’t be too careful making travel plans for his future wife.”

“You do know that Allison’s arrival here wasn’t planned.”

“
I know,” he said thickly. This was a fact he was unaware of when he’d originally placed his ad. When Allison had arrived, Wes had led them all to believe she was a mail order bride. It wasn’t until a man who claimed to be her intended appeared that the truth was exposed. “Because it was just a random occurrence and not your own arrangements for her to be on the Texas Trail, I don’t place any blame on you.”

“
Thank you,” Wes said dryly.

Jack frowned at his friend’s sarcasm. “I’m sure that had you actually sent off for a mail order bride, you’d have done whatever necessary to keep her safe.”

“Including arranging an Army escort,” Captain Grayson “Gray” Montgomery said, poking his head in the door of the large room all the officers shared to do their work.

Jack’s heart thudded in his chest. Did that mean... “I should think that would be prudent,” Jack said slowly.

Gray scoffed. “You know darn well that’s exactly what you’d do because that’s what you
did
do.” He stepped inside the office and closed the door. “I didn’t think you’d truly have the nerve or the stupidity to actually send off for a wife. Nor did I think one would be desperate enough to respond, but I suppose that makes me the biggest fool of all because there’s a beautiful woman who just arrived and is claiming she’s looking for a man named Jack Walker—her intended.”

~Chapter Four~

Ella could hardly breathe in anticipation of meeting Jack for the first time.

She’d met with a man named General Bridges when she arrived at Fort Smith. He immediately recognized what he was to do and promised she’d be delivered to Jack at Fort Gibson before the day’s end.

Thank goodness because she was tired of riding in the small, stuffy confines of a carriage. She’d never really given much thought to the size of Jack’s home before she left, but as the days had dragged on and on and the box of the carriage had seemed to grow smaller and smaller, she was looking forward to an open space where she could actually move and stretch...and
scratch
. During the final part of her journey the coach driver had become quite put out with her asking for him to unload her trunks each night so she’d resorted to having to wear the same stockings for the past three days and to be frank, they were becoming terribly uncomfortable. Just thinking about them made her legs itch, particularly her right one which seemed to itch worse than her left. If she didn’t think Jack or one of his friends might walk up on her at any moment, she’d be more tempted to bend down and scratch it just to relieve the itch, but that was
not
a good way to make a positive first impression. Even she knew—

“
Ella?”

Ella started and an excited shiver ran down her spine at the sound of her whispered name behind her. Slowly, she turned to face the man who’d spoken. “Jack?” she asked breathlessly, then blushed. Of course it was Jack; nobody else here knew her name or would address her so informally. Not that that was the only clue as to who he was. All she had to do was see him to recognize him. He was far more handsome in person than he’d described in his letters. At least six feet tall and wearing navy trousers and a white shirt with his sleeves rolled up to his elbows and the top two buttons undone, offering her a generous glimpse of his bronze skin. His face looked as if it had been chiseled from marble, with high cheekbones and a distinguished jaw, coal black hair that curled at his neck and such dark brown eyes to match. He was breathtakingly handsome by anyone’s standards.

As were the two men who’d come running up behind him.

One had eyes that were either blue or green, it was hard to tell from this distance, coal black hair and a wide grin that must be hard for any lady to resist. He must be who Jack had referred to as Gray. Beside him, was the man who she presumed was Captain Tucker, or Wes as she’d come to think of him. He was an inch or so taller than Jack with a broad build, brown hair and blue eyes. He was also a very attractive man. But neither of them was nearly as handsome as Jack. At least not to her mind and she might be biased, but then again, Wes’ wife, Allison, might be biased, too.

Behind Jack, one of his friends cleared his throat.

Jack jerked as if ripped from a trance. “Ella, I’d like you to meet two of my friends. This fellow with wide eyes and his mouth hanging agape is Captain Grayson Montgomery and this—” he jerked his thumb in the direction of a man who wore an expression of amusement— “is Captain Wes Tucker.”

“Captains Montgomery and Tucker, it’s nice to finally meet you. I’ve heard so much about you from Jack’s letters that I feel as though I practically know you both already.”

“
You do, do you?” Gray said with an overdone frown. “Interesting; he’s never mentioned anything about you.”

Stung, Ella blanched.

“But then again, why would he have made mention?” Gray continued as if realizing his earlier words hadn’t been as flattering as he might have intended them to be. “Had he announced your impending arrival, dozens of men—myself included—would have been there to greet your stage and fight for your hand.”

She flushed at his compliment and was thankful for it, all the same, as it seemed to evaporate the tension that had begun to choke them all. “Thank you, Captain.”

“Gray,” he corrected. “And now that you know what I prefer to be called, I must take it upon myself to ask who you are since Jack here lacks the manners to complete a proper introduction.”

“
Ella. Ella Walk—Davis.” She blushed. She’d been telling everyone she encountered on her trip that she was already married and on her way to meet up with her husband. It didn’t seem as dangerous that way.

“
And to what do we owe the pleasure of making your acquaintance, Miss Walk-Davis?” Wes asked, garnering him a jab in the ribs by one of Jack’s elbows.

Ella smiled and tried not to laugh at the exchange. Just as his letter had said, they were like brothers. In the letter, Jack had painted Wes in the most favorable light of anyone of Jack’s acquaintance. Jack had claimed Wes was always grinning and rarely serious. Clearly, he was only teasing her, but for some reason Jack must not find that appropriate for their first meeting. That’s all right, she didn’t mind a sense of humor as long as it wasn’t cruel, and his words certainly held no cruel intent. “That’s just the thing, Captain. I’ve come here to drop the Davis and add an ‘er’ on the Walk.”

Jack grinned at her in a way that would have robbed her of her breath if she wasn’t near breathless with excitement already. “Well, if you all will excuse us, now that you two have made the acquaintance of my future wife, I think it’s time Ella and I have some time alone.”

Wes shot him a glance Ella couldn’t read. “Perhaps she doesn’t wish to be alone with you.”

“Since she still hasn’t added that ‘er’ to her name, yet, she still has time to change her mind,” Gray said helpfully, eliciting a giggle from her.

Jack shook his head. “Sorry Gray, she’s all mine.”

Ella flushed at his possessiveness, then shot his friends a sympathetic smile. Though she knew Wes was already married, she assumed he was just trying to flatter her with his words. Gray, on the other hand, Jack had once termed a shameless flirt. Not that it mattered to her. He could flirt with her from now until snow covered the ground, but it wouldn’t change the feelings she’d developed for Jack from his letters and the excitement that had grown tenfold on her journey here.

“
Perhaps they’d like to act as witnesses to our wedding,” she suggested a moment later when neither man had seen fit to part company with them.

“
I’d be honored to be a witness,” Wes said quickly.

Jack scowled at him. “We don’t require any witnesses—especially either of you.”

Wes mumbled something about someone who might need a witness after something was discovered. She knit her brow and looked to him to elaborate, but before he could, Jack extended his arm to her. “If you’re ready, I’m sure the chaplain would be happy to make this official.”

Heat crawled up her face, though she didn’t know exactly why. “Of course.” She gestured to her luggage. “Will it be all right to leave those here until we return?”

All eyes went to the four large trunks and three travel bags that had made the journey with her.

“
Gray and I can find some men to move those for you,” Wes offered, the corners of his lips twitching.

Ella turned her eyes to Jack, whose face had taken on a light red hue and who seemed to have a slight cough. “That would be very nice, thank you,” she said.

“It’s our pleasure,” Gray said at the same time Jack’s little coughing fit worsened.

“
Are you all right?” Ella asked him. She fisted her hands into the fabric of her pale green skirt to keep from patting him on the back and embarrassing them both with such a display.

Jack nodded. “Fine,” he said on a cough, “just a bit of dust.”

Wes chuckled and Gray guffawed.

“
Don’t worry, Miss Walk-Davis, the men we find will be sure to exercise great care bringing your things inside,” Gray said with a wink.

Jack scowled at his friend and Ella cleared her throat. “Oh, there’s no need to bring them inside, is there, Jack? The men can just take them to Jack’s wagon.”

“Jack’s wagon?” Gray’s voice wavered on the words as if he were on the verge of laughter. “Do you plan to take her on a ride around the barracks before taking her to see your room?”

Instead of the laughter she presumed Gray’s words were intended to provoke, uncomfortable silence enveloped them all as blood thundered in her ears and every muscle in her body went lax. Take a ride around the barracks? Their
room
? Did that mean he was an officer, too? Her heart sank. He hadn’t ever mentioned it. She glanced at the uniforms the other men wore. The trousers and shirts looked the same. But both of them had on hats and coatees that denoted their rank. Jack didn’t. There was one way to know for sure. As discreetly as she could, she looked to the side of his trousers. They had stripes. He was an officer.

All of the ramifications of marrying an army officer ran through her mind: harsh living conditions, constant moving, a husband driven to vice and barking orders. Shame and embarrassment washed over her, burning her face like a branding iron as understanding seeped in. She’d been fooled again. The only difference this time was that she couldn’t hie off to hide in a secluded room—she had to face the man who’d done her wrong and in front of his friends at that.

“Actually, I do believe I would enjoy a ride around the barracks first,” Ella said as evenly as she could around the nausea that was swirling in her stomach.