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

Clete Wade waved the men outside with a smirk. “Downright chilly in here, ain’t it?”
    Lips pursed, Molly beckoned to Emily, then led her down the hall and into the parlor ahead of Bart Axel. Emily let out a relieved sigh. Luke was already there, down on one knee in front of the fireplace, adding another piece of wood to the fire. It was no accident he was in the parlor, she knew. However much she didn’t like him, she was grateful he was there. Bad as he was, he was on her side.
    “Emily McCarthy,” Molly said, “this is our neighbor, Mr. Bartholomew Axel, the man you came from Chicago to meet. He owns the X-Bar-L ranch.”
    A broad smile split Axel’s face. Both hands extended, he stepped forward. “Emily, my, my, my. I must say I’m pleased.” He sounded breathless. Though he was nearly sixty, he had the build of a younger man, thick and stocky with shoulders as big as hams and a face that was nearly all jaw. His iron gray hair was parted neatly down the middle and slicked back, like a Spaniard’s. “I had no idea you looked like this. Turn around, girl. Turn around. Let me see what I got to look forward to.” He pointed at the floor and stirred his finger in the air.
    A hot flush slid down her neck. He made her feel cheap.
    Humiliated, she stood still, making no move to do as he asked.
    “I said turn around, girl.”
    Luke straightened, a piece of firewood dangling in his hand.
    “You think you’re buying a heifer, Axel?” he said, a dangerous glitter in the back of his eyes.
    Axel glanced at the wood in Luke’s hand and bobbed his head to Emily. “No offense intended. Get your coat, girl, and let’s go. I’m taking you home.” There was authority in his voice, a kind of harnessed control that said he was used to being obeyed.
    Disappointment swam through her. At Aldersgate they’d told her he was elegant looking. Why, he wasn’t at all. His pants bagged in the seat, he was bowlegged, and he reeked of whiskey. Worse, there was a meanness in his voice that set off her alarm signals.
    And he’d called her “girl.”
    Her mind reeled with thoughts shooting out in all directions. Not right. Her first meeting with her new husband-to-be, and he ordered her around like a servant. She wavered only an instant.
    “Mr. Axel, I’m not going with you today. I think it’s best if I stay at New Hope with Miss Molly for a while.”
    “What do you mean ‘for a while’?” The tone of his voice dropped.
    “Coming here, I got to thinking and decided it would be better for both of us if we . . . if we got to know each other first.” Behind her, Luke let out a quiet hiss of relief. The heated flush in her cheeks slid down her neck. She felt foolish and embarrassed and eighteen years old.
    “Nonsense. After the wedding you’ll get to know me. Very well, I expect.” Axel moved to stand in front of her, taking her hands in both of his. “Let me remind you, my dear, you are bought and paid for. Aldersgate has three hundred dollars of my money – ”
    “The cost of two horses,” Luke cut in.
    Bart’s lip curled in a sneer. “For you, maybe. Not the kind I buy. And where do you fit into this, Sullivan?” Axel fingered his mustache and scowled at Emily. “Or maybe I should ask you that. How did you manage to take up with him, anyway?”
    She pulled her hands from his and darted a glance at Luke, but his face was granite hard, his mouth unsmiling. “After the stage was robbed, Mr. Sullivan brought me here,” she said.
    “And I’m thinking real hard about that,” Bart said. “I’m also thinking I paid for a wife, and what I pay for, I get. Suppose you go put your coat on and come along. The preacher’s waiting.”
    Emily swallowed and tried to speak, but words wouldn’t come. Deep down, a piece of her had wanted so desperately to believe Sullivan was wrong, that Bart Axel was really a gentleman, a man who would make her a fine husband. He’d just crushed that hope himself.
    “You hear me,