Linda Ford - The Cowboy's Surprise Bride

Linette realized she hadn’t introduced her companion and did so. “Cassie Godfrey.” Then she indicated the boy half-buried in her skirts. “This is Grady Farris. He’s four years old.” He shivered enough to make her leg vibrate.

The men nodded then jammed their hats back on and took the trunks into the house.

Eddie spoke privately to the driver who then swung up to his seat and drove from the yard. Linette stared after the coach, knowing she now had no escape. She was at Eddie’s mercy. Her resolve hardened. Only so far as she chose to be. She’d be no man’s slave. Nor his chattel. Any arrangement between them would be based on mutual benefit. No emotions involved to turn her weak.

The stagecoach no longer blocked her view and she saw, on the hill overlooking the ranch, a big two-story house, gleaming in its newness. It had the unfinished look of raw lumber and naked windows. They must be expecting neighbors. People who put more value in their abode than Eddie. When would these people finish the house and move in?

“I suppose you would like to see your quarters.” Eddie indicated they should step toward the low dwelling.

She turned from studying the house on the hill to closer inspection of the cabin. It looked even smaller than she expected. But she didn’t care. She’d escaped her father’s plans and the future beckoned.

* * *

Eddie resisted the urge to squeeze his neck. It was tight enough to withstand a hanging. He’d expected the mail would contain a message to meet Margaret. He’d planned to marry her at the fort before bringing her to his home. He’d thought of her every day as he worked on the new house. He’d counted the days until she joined him.

Margaret was the ideal young lady for him. He remembered many a pleasant afternoon sharing her company in her family home in London before he’d left for the British Territories. He’d grown quite fond of her and she of him. Or so he thought. In time their affection would grow. He anticipated the day she would arrive and marry him. Margaret would grace the big house he would have completed by now except for the necessity of making sure the breeding stock he’d had shipped from Chicago was herded safely from Fort Benton to the nearby pens.

Instead, a ragamuffin of a woman stood before him in a black woolen coat that practically swallowed her. As it flapped open he saw a crude dress much like those he’d seen worn by wives on hopeful dirt farms and the half-breed women in the forts. She looked ready to live in a tepee or log hut, which was likely a good thing because the latter was all he had to offer her.

The cold wind reminded him he’d hurried outside without a coat. “We might as well go indoors.”

How Linette managed to make her way to the house with the boy clinging to her side like a giant burr amazed him.

She was an Edwards daughter if he believed what she said. He wasn’t prepared to believe anything about her at the moment. How had he ended up in such an awkward position? And with an Edwards woman! His father had had some business dealings with Mr. Edwards years ago and had expressed distaste for the other man. “A churlish man,” he’d said. “Thinks because he inherited money through his wife it makes him an aristocrat, but he lacks any sense of decorum or decency. I vow I will never have business dealings with him again and I intend to avoid any social contact.” Eddie couldn’t think the Edwards daughter would warrant any better opinion from his father.

Slim and Roper hurried out and jogged back to work. Not, he noted, without a backward glance at the women. They’d be filled with curiosity for sure and spend the rest of the day speculating about this turn of events.

Eddie had always done his best to live up to his father’s expectations. After all, he owed the man so much. Coming West and starting a ranch to add to the Gardiner holdings, establishing a home that would make his father proud provided him an opportunity to repay his father for giving him the Gardiner name. Randolph Gardiner had married Eddie’s mother when Eddie was an infant. If not for that, Eddie would have been an outcast bastard child and his mother would have lived in shame and disgrace.

He held the door for the ladies and Linette stepped inside first. The sigh that whistled from her lips drove back the gall in his throat and made him grin. Had she been expecting something fancy? No doubt this crude cabin shocked her. It was only temporary and then would serve as quarters for a foreman. If the man was married and had a family, Eddie would add on to it but had not seen any need for that now. It had solid walls. It was warm and dry. It served as a place to put his feet up and have a cup of coffee and somewhere to catch a comfortable night’s sleep. Not much else.

The letter clutched in his fist crackled. Margaret had changed her mind. As if he didn’t measure up. His insides twisted in a familiar, unwelcome way.

He studied the woman he was stuck with. Linette was almost plain. Her eyes too direct. Her lips too narrow and stubborn, almost challenging. Her hair was light in color. Neither brown nor blond and coiled in a braid about her face. Her eyes were so pale they didn’t deserve to be called brown. She was too small. Built like a struggling sapling out on the prairie. In fact, everything about her was wrong. Quite the opposite of Margaret. No way would she fit into his plans. His father’s instructions were clear. “Find suitable land and build a house. A replica of our home and life back here in England.” Eddie had been surprised his father had entrusted him with the task and vowed he would make his father proud.

Linette Edwards could not be allowed to ruin his plans.

But he couldn’t send her away with the weather threatening to turn nasty. He’d shelter her until it moderated...which likely meant for the winter. Then, under armed escort if necessary, he would see her returned to England or wherever she might have a mind to go...just so long as it wasn’t here.

Trouble was, she wasn’t alone. Not that she should be. But the woman she’d brought along looked as if she’d been rescued from the gutter. Her clothes barely missed being called rags. Her untidy black hair and scowling face indicated she was not happy to be here. He snorted silently. At least they shared that. He wasn’t happy to have any of them here.

Then there was the boy with a flash of blue eyes and a mat of blond hair sticking out from under his cap. He often thought of children to fill the rooms in the big house, but children bred with a woman like Margaret. Not waifs.

Cassie hesitated at the doorway. The noise that escaped her mouth was full of anger and discontent. “I had more room back in Montreal.”

Linette laughed softly—a merry sound full of pleasure. She didn’t seem the least bit distressed about the conditions.

“You slept in the train station after your husband died and left you stranded in a strange city,” she said to Cassie. “Of course it was bigger. But it wasn’t home. This will be home.” The word was full of promise and warmth.

He figured he better make sure she remembered it was temporary. “Until better weather.” Silently, he again acknowledged that might not be before spring and the thought made his neck muscles spasm. “Then you’re headed back to your father.”

“There’s many a slip between the cup and the lip.”

Her disregard of his warning made him chomp on his back teeth. It took an effort to release the tension so he could speak. “There’ll be no slips here.”

Cassie edged forward into the room and stood with her arms crossed. He figured her eyes would be crossed, too, and full of displeasure. Good. If both women found the situation intolerable... But it was a long time until spring. A crowded house with two women dripping discontent would be miserable for everyone.