The Vigilante's Bride by Yvonne Harris Read Free Book Online Page A

felt Stetson studded with a row of silver stars around the brim and turned to Clete. “Get some of the men together,” he said, putting on the hat that cost more than some men’s horses. “And bring the buggy around. We’re going over to New Hope and get me my bride back.”

CHAPTER
4
    CHRISTMAS DAY, 1884
    Four o’clock. Dark in half an hour. Emily reached for another oil lamp on the sideboard and lit it, trying to do something to be helpful, anything to keep her mind off what had happened with Luke in the library. Her face burned. She was fuming inside, and from the way he’d slammed the door, so was he.
    She lit the wick, let the glass chimney clink down onto the base, then set the lamp on one of the long tables in the dining room. A little amazed, she stared at it. In Chicago, they had gaslights, not these old things.
    As she reached for another kerosene lamp, her gaze held on the large painting hanging alongside the dish cupboard: The Good Shepherd . Jesus carrying a baby lamb. Molly Ebenezer must have chosen it. It was a perfect choice for children, much better than the one at Aldersgate.
    There, a large painting of da Vinci’s The Last Supper dominated the end of the dining room. Jesus and the apostles at their final meal together might be beautiful, but it was too adult for children and a little scary for some. Besides Jesus, she never could figure out who was who in the painting.
    “Hi, Miss McCarthy.” Wearing a Christmas red blouse and a swishy green skirt, a girl in her early teens carried a tray in from the kitchen and began collecting salt and pepper shakers from the four tables in the dining room.
    Emily smiled. “You fit right in with Christmas,” she said, and walked the length of her table, scooping up the shakers as she went. Setting them on the tray, she looked at the girl’s green skirt again. If this were the dining room at Alders-gate, both of them would be wearing loose gray and white uniforms.
    But at New Hope, not a uniform in sight. She’d hated those ugly gray things and didn’t miss them a bit.
    Everything here was different. Aldersgate had ninety-six residents, all girls; New Hope, only two dozen, boys and girls combined. And Molly knew every one of their names. She’d lined them up and introduced them to Miss McCarthy.
    As Emily set the last shaker on the tray, the hard clatter of hooves and the rattle of wheels on brick sounded in the courtyard.
    She hurried to the window and brushed the curtain aside. A man in a big black hat with stars on it climbed down from a big-wheeled green buggy. Five cowboys accompanying him swung off their horses. As a group they followed the barrel-chested buggy driver up the walk. Her stomach clenched and she struggled to suck in air. Without being told, she knew who he was: Mr. Axel. He’d come after her. She hurried to the dining room doorway and peeped into the hall.
    Axel threw the front door open. “Molly! Miss Molly!”
    Drying her hands on her apron, Molly appeared in the kitchen doorway at the far end of the long hall. “Evening, Bart. Guess I didn’t hear the bell,” she said, her voice crisp with sarcasm.
    Emily shrank back, listening to the voices in the hall.
    “You know why I’m here,” Axel said, stripping off his hat and slapping it impatiently against his thigh. “I won’t waste your time or mine. I’ve come for the girl. Where’s Miss McCarthy?”
    “In the back with the children, I believe. I’ll go get her.” Molly looked pointedly at a spot above Clete Wade’s eyes. “Is your head cold, Mr. Wade?”
    With a sheepish look, Clete swept his hat off.
    Molly gestured to the assortment of roughly dressed men, every one of them with a gun on his hip. “There’s no call for this, Bart. You tell these cowhands of yours to wait on the porch. And tell them the next time they come inside this house to knock first and to wipe their boots.” With that, she turned and marched down the hall toward the dining room.
    Behind her,