Historical Cowboy Romance Two Book Box Set - Mail Order Brides

by Linda Bridey

Violet heard the clock chime in the back parlor. She turned to Chuck. “We should go out for our walk before it gets too late.”

  Chuck nodded, and the other two couples passed communications silently to each other through their eyes. Without agreeing on it, all three couples rose from the table and drifted apart.

  Chuck and Violet meandered out of the dining room and back to the front door. Just outside the dining room, Chuck took her hand again, and her heart soared at the thought of walking out alone with him into the night world.

  They turned the corner into the front hall and ran face first into Cornell.

  “Oh, Cornell!” Violet exclaimed. “I didn’t know you were here.”

  “Where are you going at this hour, Violet?” Cornell rumbled.

  “We were just going out for a walk in the moonlight,” Violet explained. “By the way, I don’t think you’ve had the pleasure of meeting my fiancé. This is Chuck Ahern. And this is Cornell Pollard, my guardian.”

  Chuck put his hand out. “How do you do?”

  Cornell glared at the hand and at Chuck. “I don’t care to make your acquaintance, Mr. Ahern. I suppose Violet told you that already that I disapprove of your presence here.”

  “Yeah,” Chuck replied. “She told me.”

  “Violet,” Cornell continued. “As your uncle and guardian, I’m ordering you to go back upstairs to your room. Mr. Ahern, if you can’t leave Rocking Horse Ranch immediately, I’ll thank you to go back to the Fort House and stay there until you can leave. You aren’t welcome here.”

  “You’re in no position to order anyone to do anything,” Violet snapped. “You’ve had your way with me and my sisters all these years, and you’ll never order me to do anything again. Do you hear me? You are the one who should go back to the Bird House until you learn to speak civilly to us. This is our house, not yours.”

  “I think you misunderstand the situation, Violet,” Cornell replied. “I will be the one who decides who comes and who goes in this house, and I will also be the one who ultimately decides who you three young women marry. That is my right and my responsibility as your guardian. You may not value me as such, but that is my role and I intend to fulfill it.”

  Violet drew herself up to her full height. “It may surprise you to learn, Cornell, that Jake Hamilton, Rose’s fiancé, is a lawyer. He says you have no right to use our estate to control our lives. Once we marry these men, the estate will pass to them no matter what you say. You would do better to accustom yourself to that fact.”

  Cornell raised an eyebrow. “A lawyer, huh? Well, I have a lawyer, too, and I’m sure he’s a much better one than Jake Hamilton of God-knows-where.”

  “San Antonio,” Chuck put in.

  “Of San Antonio,” Cornell corrected himself. “Now go upstairs, Violet, before I take you there myself.”

  “You’ll do no such thing,” Violet shot back.

  “You don’t think so?” Cornell stepped forward and reached out to grab her arm.

  Chuck matched him by taking a step of his own forward, and he thrust his arm between Cornell and Violet to block the older man’s move. “Don’t even think of laying a hand on the lady, Mister. I don’t know you from Adam, but by God, as sure as I’m standing here, you won’t lay a finger on her or I’ll make you pay for it.”

  Cornell fumed and raged. “Pay for it, will I? I’ll show you!”

  Violet never saw Cornell move so fast. She never knew a man of his age could move so fast in the heat of anger. Cornell flailed his arms to one side, knocking Chuck out of the way. Chuck staggered backward and tripped over.

  Violet screamed, “Chuck!” but it was too late. Chuck pitched over and cracked his head against the corner of the wall where it turned toward the dining room. He grunted once and slumped into a pile on the floor. He didn’t move again.

  With Chuck out of the way, Cornell made another grab for Violet. His fingers locked around her arm, and he yanked her toward the stairs at the end of the hall. She shrieked as loud as she could in the hopes of rousing someone in another part of the house. She didn’t know if any of her sisters or their fiancés were still in the house, but even Rita would do. Let anyone come who could help her fend off Cornell.

  She tugged and wrenched at her arm, but he held her as tight as a vice. Pulling at it hurt worse than his iron grip, but her desperation to get free only made her fight harder. He hauled her down the hall to the foot of the stairs, fighting all the way. By the time they got there, cries of panic prevented her from making any louder appeal for help.

  Cornell put his foot on the first step to drag her upstairs, but the finality of the move jolted Violet out of her helplessness. She lashed out with her free arm and struck Cornell as hard as she could across the side of the head.

  He flinched in pain, but not enough to let go of her arm. Seeing some effect from her efforts, she reared back and struck again. Cornell roared in rage and brought his own arms up to protect his head, but he was too late.

  With one deafening bellow, he swung his arm with the hand at the end balled into a fist and clubbed Violet to the floor. The force sent her sprawling across the hall, and her shoulder knocked against a plant stand near the dining room door.

  Chapter 23