Jodi Thomas by The Texans Wager Read Free Book Online Page A

they’d dodged a bullet after they’d been dumb enough to stand in front of the gun. Like one living body they all shifted and migrated away from the sheriff’s office, as though the air had suddenly chilled and it was time for the herd to move. Most headed toward the saloons. For them the evening’s excitement had ended.
    The woman the sheriff called Miss Bailee searched the crowd for a moment, her eyes full of question. Her gaze rested on Carter almost as casually as it had before she’d pulled a name from the hat. She knew he was the one, he had to be. He was the only man standing in the rain, not leaving.
    To her credit, she didn’t flinch. She just stared at him with those deep green eyes.
    He stepped onto the porch, all muddy, hairy, six feet of him, almost expecting her to scream and run inside.
    But she didn’t. She just squared her shoulders and said, “I’m the last one.” Her voice shook slightly. She bit her bottom lip before continuing. “I was kicked off a wagon train last month for being unfit to travel with good folks. I think I killed a man, but they are having trouble finding his body.”
    Her fingers trembled as she pressed them against her lips and forced herself to finish her list of shortcomings. “I’m twenty-five, so I guess that makes me an old maid. I’ve no money and only a few things in my wagon to bring to a marriage. But if you’re willing, I’m willing to do what you wrote.”
    She lifted the paper sack where Carter had scribbled simply, “Be my wife, all my life.”
    He hadn’t been able to think of anything else to write. Looking at her now, he decided she should have had a poem or something grand like Keats or Shelley would have written, not one line scratched on a paper sack.
    “I’ve nowhere else to go,” she stated more than begged.
    She’d told him how little others valued her, and with her last words she’d made it plain that he was her last choice, her bottom of the barrel.
    “Time’s a-wasting.” Riley hurried them into his office. “If you’re both agreeable, I’ll marry you and take the fine money. I’d like to get some sleep while this rain keeps trouble away.”
    Carter opened his hand, palm up to the woman. Her long slender fingers brushed across the calluses. He had the hands of a hardworking rancher. Hers were those of a lady.
    Thunder shook the building suddenly, as though a stampede were just beyond the door. But all he would have felt if a hundred buffalo flattened the building was her fingers resting in his hand. She was a lady, the finest he’d probably ever see, yet she planned to give herself to him forever.
    He closed his fingers in a gentle grip as Riley quickly read the necessary words. The sheriff looked as if he hadn’t slept in a week. He didn’t bother with anything except the pronouncing. The time for questions or proclamations had ended.
    Carter didn’t turn loose of Bailee’s hand when he paid the fine.
    The rain pounded on the roof so hard the sheriff had to shout, ordering them where to sign. “I’ll check on you two in a week. If you’re not treating her right, Carter, I’ll see there’s hell to pay. I’ll come ever’ week thereafter with the same question in mind. Has she changed her mind? The third time, if she elects to stay, I’m sending in the paperwork to Austin, and there’ll be no turning back. So you better be good to her.”
    Carter raised an eyebrow. He’d known the sheriff for most of his life, and the old man had never accused him of a crime. The woman was a confessed murderer. Yet the sheriff warned him.
    “You will be good to her?” The sheriff put his hand on Carter’s shoulder.
    Carter nodded, unsure what that would be.
    The old lawman turned to complete the paperwork as he ordered Wheeler to carry the lady’s two bags to Carter’s wagon.
    The lazy deputy groaned, but lifted the two small bags. He didn’t seem at all surprised when Miss Bailee told him to carry them carefully.
    When Deputy