Cheryl St.John - The Gunslinger's Bride

Abby sat at the kitchen table while Laine crushed herbs into a fine power and added tinctures from her bag. “You and I aren’t like most women this far West,” Abby told her. “We aren’t dependent on a man for our livelihood.”

“Your inheritance is not a secret, however.” Laine added a few drops of boiling water to her mixture. “My savings are. But my father did not force me into the marriage he wanted for me, and for that I am thankful. I work as hard as my brother, and unlike many fathers, mine sees my value.” She poured the mixture into a bottle and corked it. “Your father forced you to marry your husband?” she asked quietly.

Abby nodded.

“I cannot imagine how difficult that must have been for you.”

“Doing what I did, I didn’t give him much choice, I guess,” she replied with a shrug.

“You believe you lost your head with Mr. Brock because you were young and foolish?” her friend asked.

“Definitely young and foolish,” Abby agreed. “Stupid.”

“And if you could live it over, you would do it differently?”

“I would do it differently. But I’m not sorry about Jonathon. He’s the best thing that ever happened to me.”

“Is it not the same regarding Mr. Brock?”

Abby frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Was he not young and foolish, too?”

“I didn’t carry a gun and look for trouble,” she said.

“If he had it to live over, would he not do it differently?”

“He still flaunts those guns,” Abby declared. “He never learned anything!”

“Abby, most every man I see carries a gun. This land where we live requires them to do so for protection.”

“Using them against bears and cougars is one thing,” Abby protested. “Shooting people is different.”

“We need protection from people as well as animals.” Laine sighed. “I am talking about you and Mr. Brock, and you are avoiding the discussion by talking about guns.”

Abby stood and pulled out ingredients to bake bread. “I’m not going to agree with you, so stop trying to make me change my mind.”

Laine shrugged. “All right. Let me show you how to give this to Jonathon.”

They dropped the subject, and Laine stayed for another hour, helping Abby knead dough and entertaining Jonathon. Finally, she said her goodbyes and hurried out.

While the dough was rising, Abby heated water and washed her hair, then sat before the stove, drying the heavy length.

A light tap sounded on the outside door, startling her into dropping her brush with a clatter. She picked it up and hurried forward, expecting Laine to have returned. Instead, Brock stood in the cold, wearing a stern expression she had begun to recognize and resent. His handsomely carved features softened slightly as he took in her loose hair flowing over her shoulders and down her back.

“What do you want?” she asked.

“I came to see Jonathon. I heard he was sick.”

“How on earth could you have heard that?”

“Daisy told Will and Lizzie, and they told me when they got home from church.”

“Of course,” Abby said, throwing up the hand with the hairbrush.

Brock glanced at the brush and back at her hair, and her face grew warm, remembering. He’d loved her hair. All those years ago, he’d loosened her braid and run his fingers through the tresses, bringing them to his face, touching her skin through her hair.

He obviously remembered, too, the recognition changing his features and darkening the blue of his eyes.

Abby’s pulse beat faster. She became aware of her femininity as she hadn’t for a long time, feeling his gaze touch her hair and face and infuse her with sudden heat.

As she moved back and allowed him to shut out the cold, the rustle of her skirts seemed loud, the fit of her modest dress suddenly revealing a woman’s body.

And he noticed. Lord help her, he noticed.

Brock allowed the warmth of the room, the yeasty smell in the air and the seductive beauty of the woman to silence him for a full minute. Seven years had changed her. Her shape had blossomed; her breasts beneath the plain fabric dress had become more rounded and womanly than he recalled. Her face had lost its charming girlish roundness, and now delicately modeled bone structure and pearly skin characterized her haunting beauty.

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