Three Times a Bride by Loretta Chase Read Free Book Online Page B

courting her these last three years. “Tell him, Lawson! Tell him it doesn’t matter, that you love me and won’t hesitate to marry me anyway!”
    Looking as though his necktie was choking him, Lawson sprang up from his seat, swallowed spasmodically, and then just stood there looking bug-eyed.
    “Well?” Rachel implored him. “Speak now, Lawson, or forever hold your peace!”
    To her dismay, Lawson said nothing. She sent him a scathing glare, barely resisting the urge to call him a bad egg, plug ugly, and a bootlicker, just for starters. She settled for whispering the insults under her breath.
    “I guess that proves my case,” her father said, gesturing toward Lawson. “Not even your own beau will step forward.”
    Feeling a little less certain of herself, Rachel let her arms fall to her sides. “That still doesn’t mean you’ll shoot Mr. Rafferty. You’re only trying to frighten me into minding what you say.”
    “Oh, I’ll shoot him,” her father assured her. “Before I let him walk off scot-free, I’ll blow his brains clear into next week.”
    She winced at the picture his threat brought to mind. “You don’t mean it, Daddy. What about being marshal? You’d have to give up your badge if you shot somebody.”
    “That’s why. Don’t you see? An upstandin’ man don’t let another man ruin his daughter and not do something about it. If you won’t marry him, Rachel Marie, I have to shoot the poor fellow. It’s just that simple.”
    Preacher Wells chimed in with, “Do you, Clint Rafferty, take this woman, Rachel Marie Constantine, to be your lawfully wedded wife?”
    Beads of sweat had sprung up on Clint’s dark face. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he tried to swallow. “I do,” he said without a second’s hesitation. Then, to Rachel, “If it’s all the same to you, argue with your father later. He’s got a gun held to my head, in case you haven’t noticed.”
    “Don’t worry. He won’t really shoot you,” Rachel assured him.
    “Wanna bet?” Big Jim grinned broadly and curled his finger over the trigger.
    Clint squeezed his eyes closed. “Jesus Christ! Do what he tells you, Rachel!”
    Rachel’s stomach plummeted. “Daddy, this has ceased to be entertaining. What do you think you’re doing, threatening an innocent man’s life like this?”
    “Innocent,” Clint inserted, “there’s the key word.”
    The preacher cut in once more. “And, do you, Rachel Marie Constantine, take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband, to love, honor and obey until death do you part?”
    Rachel rolled her eyes and smiled sweetly at the minister. “Mr. Rafferty may be quaking in his boots, but I certainly am not. Blizzards will fly in August before any of you hear me say ‘I do.’”
    Big Jim smiled at the preacher. “You heard her. She just said ‘I do,’ clear as you please.”
    “I did not!” Rachel said with a scandalized gasp.
    “You did so!” Big Jim argued.
    Glancing apologetically at Rachel, the preacher said, “I heard her, Big Jim, but I’m not entirely certain she meant—”
    “Keep your opinions to yourself and just finish the ceremony,” Big Jim instructed.
    “By the authority vested in me…” the preacher began.
    Clint overrode him in a louder voice. “Marshal, would you mind pointing that gun somewhere else besides at my head?”
    “Such tactics will never hold up in a court of law,” Rachel cried. “These are the nineties, I’ll have you know. You men can’t marry us women off against our wills anymore. We have legal recourse!”
    As though to punctuate that pronouncement, the preacher said, “I now pronounce you man and wife!” and slapped his prayer book closed.
    A sudden silence descended over the church. A silence sothick that Rachel felt as if she were drowning in it. She stared at her father, scarcely able to believe he’d betrayed her like this. Her father, who had always loved her so well. Ever since the death of her mother, he had been the only