The Independent Bride by Leigh Greenwood Read Free Book Online

back home before long.”
    “I don’t want her to go. I like her. Don’t you like her?”
    If he said he didn’t like Abby, Pamela would undoubtedly whisper it to at least five people before noon tomorrow. If he said he liked Abby, she’d announce that to even more listeners. There were times when it would be better if he didn’t say anything at all to his daughter.
    “I’m certain she and her sister are very nice women.”
    “Do you think she’s pretty?”
    Bryce could feel the quicksand under his feet. “It’s not suitable for a man in my position to go around saying he thinks women are pretty.”
    “Why? Will she think you want to make a baby with her?”
    “She might, but this isn’t something you should talk about with anyone except me.”
    “Okay, but do you think she’s pretty?”
    “Yes, I do, but if you breathe a word to a soul, I’ll trade you for a little Indian girl who’s been brought up not to make trouble for her father.” He pinched his daughter’s cheek, and she giggled.
    “I wish I had a sister.”
    “I wish you did, too.”
    “Do you think Miss Pierce—the Abby one—would like to be my momma?”
    Something akin to panic coursed through Bryce faster than a rifle bullet could hit its target. “Under no circumstances are you to mention that to anyone. It would be very improper and make Miss Pierce—the Abby one— very unhappy.”
    “Why? Wouldn’t she like to be my momma?”
    Bryce wondered why his life had suddenly become so complicated. “If she were your momma, she’d have to marry me. If people thought she wanted to do that, they’d say things that would make her so unhappy she would leave.”
    “But you said you wanted her to leave.”
    “I don’t think she’s suited to run the store, but I wouldn’t want her to leave because of anything you or I had done. That would be unfair.”
    “I don’t want to make her unhappy.”
    “I know that, so promise you won’t tell anybody what we’ve talked about tonight. It’ll be our secret.” Pamela liked having secrets because it made her feel grown-up.
    “I promise.”
    “Good, now go to sleep.”
    Bryce kissed his daughter and left her bedroom, feeling rather unsteady on his feet.
    Whatever could have made Pamela think about Abby being her mother? Abby was attractive, intelligent, and kind, but she seemed too independent to want to be a wife, and far too businesslike to want a perpetually curious seven-year-old as a daughter. He wanted a mother for his daughter, but he also wanted a wife who shared his background, was part of his social world, believed in the traditional values and goals of his family. That was why it was essential he be posted back East as soon as possible.
    “Colonel McGregor didn’t invite us to stay more than one night,” Moriah said to Abby as they walked back to the colonel’s house from the store. “I doubt he would have suggested even that if his daughter hadn’t offered for him.”
    “I’m well aware of that,” Abby replied, “but that room will be vacant if we don’t use it. I see no reason to give it up until our living quarters have been thoroughly cleaned, everything washed and aired.”
    It was a long distance between the store and the colonel’s house. The fort was arranged on four sides of a very large open square. Abby didn’t know why it had been built with so much open ground. It made everything far apart. She didn’t pretend to know anything about fighting, but she would have thought such a layout would make the fort hard to defend. It didn’t have a surrounding wall. The fort was set right down on the plain at the foot of the mountains with nothing to keep anyone who wanted to from walking in. The only fortifications were around the store. Abby had been informed that was more to protect her supplies from theft than from any danger to herself or her sister.
    The Rocky Mountains looked magnificent against the backdrop of the western sky. The peaks were snow covered, the