by Cassie Hayes
What he saw when he ran through the door didn’t make sense at first. Only after gawking for a full three seconds did his brain start working again. Catherine stood over Tully, her back stiff and her gaze full of fire, with a smoking gun in her hand.
“She shot me!” howled Tully, who lay writhing around on the floor in a pool of his own blood and holding his left leg. “She shot my knee out!”
Griff kneeled down to take a better look and smiled. “She sure did. Too bad you’ll live.” He gave Tully’s thigh a hard slap for good measure. The murderer’s scream of agony was music to his ears.
Only when Griff took a better look at Catherine — his perfect, beautiful, brave Catherine — did he notice the quaver in her hands. Were they…?
“Are you still tied up?”
Her animal-like gaze snapped over to him and for a moment, he wondered if she recognized him. Then it softened and her lip started to tremble.
“You’re alive? This isn’t a dream?”
He gently pulled the gun away and untied her hands. “Amazing. You not only somehow managed to wrestle a gun away from an outlaw and shoot him but you did it with your hands bound. No one will believe me when I tell them, my love.”
“She didn’t wrestle it away from me,” Tully screeched. “She kneed me in the—“
“Shut up or I’ll give you something to whine about!” That settled him down.
When he looked into her eyes again, they overflowed with tears. His heart wanted to burst right out of his chest. She was crying for him! That had to be a good sign. Right?
“You’re alive,” she whispered again. “But how?”
“Those two lunkheads thought they knocked me silly with that punch in the skull. Little do they know, I have the hardest head this side of the Mississippi.”
He tipped her a wink and she let out a sweet, hiccupping laugh. It was bells chiming and angels singing, and that he was the reason for it only made it sound that much sweeter.
“All I had to do was pretend to stumble into Rupert. The bump made him fire accidentally and that took them both off-guard. I snatched his pistol from his holster, shot that other one and then Rupert. All before he knew what had happened.”
“Idiot,” Tully grunted.
Griff took Catherine’s hands and pulled her closer to the door. Maybe the fresh air would help her understandably jittery nerves. Putting some space between them and Tully certainly would.
“Are you okay?”
He reached up to brush a stray wave of chestnut hair off her cheek when she gasped. Grabbing his hand, she inspected it closely.
“You’re bleeding! Are you hurt?”
“No, I’m fine, I must have cut myself trying to get the ropes off.” He brushed the back of his hand against his pant leg and showed her the scratch. “See? It’s nothing.”
Yet she wouldn’t stop staring at it. Hooking a finger under her chin, he tilted her face up until she had no choice but to meet his gaze. It was worth the wait. Her eyes shimmered like the sea, misty with tears and surging with emotion.
“Are you okay?” he asked again with entirely different meaning.
He couldn’t stop touching her. His fingers skimmed her jawline, his thumb caressed her cheekbone, her eyebrow. His other hand found her waist but he resisted pulling her to him, though every part of him longed for it. He might have put on a brave front earlier but deep down he’d believed they were doomed. Now they had a chance at something.
But only if she wanted it, too.
Catherine reached up and closed a cool, trembling hand over his. Sliding it to her lips, she kissed his palm, her gaze never wavering from his. Slipping her fingers into his, she said, “I am now.”
Griff had never felt this way before. He thought he knew what love was with Rebecca but that was nothing compared what he felt for Catherine. This was so much deeper, more profound. She was challenging and funny and stubborn and strong. He couldn’t imagine a better match for him.
Dipping his head, he let his lips graze across hers, their breath mingling as one, before pressing them softly to hers. She closed the gap between them and snaked her arms around his neck, holding him as if she’d never let go.
Fine by me!
“Hey! Knock that lovey dovey stuff off! Can’t you see I’m hurt?”
Catherine broke free of their kiss to glare at Tully. “You’re lucky I didn’t shoot you in the head, old man!”
Oh, how he loved this woman! He hugged her briefly before letting her stand on her own two feet. “I’m actually kind of surprised you didn’t.”
She gave him a sheepish grin and shrugged. “That’s where I was aiming.”
Griff burst out laughing. “You’re going to make a wonderful lawyer’s wife, my dear.” He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her close. He’d never let her go again.
She looked up at him, surprise and joy setting her face aglow. “Really?”
“Really what? ‘Really’ that I plan to make you my wife or ‘really’ that I’m going to be a lawyer?”
“Both!” she laughed.
Turning her in his arms, he dropped a light kiss on her nose. “You’re my lighthouse, Catherine. Without you, I’d be nothing but a lonely, dried up old prune like him.”
He jerked his head at Tully. She no longer shivered but the tears had returned. From the way she was smiling, though, he felt pretty sure they were tears of joy.
“Catherine, I know you wanted to strike out on your own, to become your own person, but I was sort of hoping you might want to do all that with me at your side.”
A tear trickled down her cheek as she gazed up at me, saying nothing. She was a woman who needed to think things through. If she needed time, he’d give it to her. Only…it seemed to be taking an awfully long time. Was she going to say no? He couldn’t take the suspense.
“Well, what do you say?”
“You didn’t ask her nothin’, ya ninny! And you’re a Marshal? Sheesh!”
“Oh!”
Tully was right. Griff hadn’t actually asked. Kissing her knuckles, he gave her his most winning smile.
“Catherine James, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”
At first he thought it was Catherine whimpering, but the coyote pup had somehow managed to follow them. Catherine cried out and cuddled the little thing to her bosom, laughing and crying at the same time.
“Oh, poor baby,” she cooed.
She’d make a wonderful mother. Griff only hoped she chose him to be the father. He didn’t want to pressure her but he couldn’t help feeling antsy that she hadn’t answered him yet.
“You’re so brave to come all this way alone,” she said. Shooting a quick glance up at Griff from under her lashes, she added, “Would you like to come live with us?”
His heart leaped into his throat. “Us? Is…is that a yes?”
“Lord a’mighty, you’re dense, boy,” Tully seethed. “Kiss her already and let’s get this show on the road. I need a doctor.”
“Yes, sir,” Griff said.
When their lips met, Griff felt his world compress into a burning ball of love. His chest hitched with emotion as he pulled Catherine tight to his body and she clung to him. How had it taken him so long to see the truth of her…of them? This courageous and confounding woman had turned his life upside down and inside out, and he was a better man for it.
Pulling back, Catherine looked up at him with an openness he’d never seen before. Her kiss-swollen lips parted to say something when the coyote pup leaned up and licked both their faces. Catherine giggled and Griff chuckled nervously, exasperated by the interminable delay in getting her answer. Finally, the pup calmed down and she caught his gaze again, grinning madly.
“Yes, Curtis Griffith. With all my heart, yes.”
Epilogue
The Dalton Ranch — Two Months Later
“And do you, Catherine Mary James, take this man, Curtis Bowers Griffith, to be your lawfully wedded husband…”
T
he Wiggieville preacher who agreed to marry Catherine and Curtis on the ranch sounded more like he was presiding over a funeral than a wedding but she didn’t care. All that mattered was finally — finally — becoming Mrs. Curtis Griffith.
Catherine knew the first time she met Curtis that he was special, but her rebellious brain insisted he was just another trail-hardened ruffian who couldn’t be trusted. Trail-hardened though he was, Curtis had been a master at hiding his true nature. It wouldn’t do for a federal Marshal to be perceived as soft, after all.
But she didn’t think he was soft in the slightest. It took a strong man to reveal the weakest parts of himself, and then to accept the love of a woman to help him heal. In the months since they captured Tully Owings — Curtis insisted that she captured the man, but she thought of it as a team effort — Curtis had changed his entire life. Not for her, but rather for them.
After depositing Owings at the doctor’s place in Wiggieville — manacled to the doctor’s bed — Curtis had escorted Catherine back to the ranch, embarrassing her by regaling everyone with the story of how she took down one of the most dangerous men west of the Mississippi. Every Dalton, every Blue and every ranch hand whooped and hollered at the final piece of news that she’d accepted his proposal. Then he tore off to collect Owings and deliver him to Dallas for the reward.
Any fear that he might abscond with her half of the reward vanished long before he proposed. She’d never trusted a man with her heart before but knowing she could also trust Curtis with her life filled her with a wholeness she never knew existed. It never once dawned on her that he wouldn’t return. And she was right.
Now they stood before their closest friends — family, really — exchanging their vows. Tears flowed freely down her cheeks, completely unheeded. She never thought this day would come. Never wanted it to come. Yet somehow this kind, gentle, tough, dedicated man broke down her defenses and convinced her to entrust her heart to him.
Catherine was so mesmerized by the love radiating from his hazel gaze that she tuned out the preacher. Only when he cleared his throat did she snap to attention.
“Oh! I do!”
The crowd snickered at her scatterbrained reaction. Heat rose in her cheeks but Curtis’ serene grin eased her nerves.
“Then it’s my great pleasure to pronounce you husband and wife!”
Applause erupted, with a few raucous whistles and hoots thrown in for good measure. “Kiss her!” someone shouted.
“You heard the man,” she murmured to Curtis, smiling up at him through her tears.
Catherine wouldn’t have believed that any kiss could beat that kiss in Tully Owings’ hideout, but the sincerity and emotion Curtis poured into this one nearly buckled her knees. Clinging to him, she accepted his promise to cherish her for the rest of his life with a desperation that surprised her.
“I love you so much, Curtis,” she whispered against his lips when they finally broke their kiss.
He grinned, pressing his forehead against hers and looking deep in her dewy eyes. “You better or I might have to arrest you.”
Bart Dalton laughed and slapped him on the back. “Since when can lawyers arrest people, Griff?”
“Lawyer’s apprentice,” Curtis corrected. “But I should have my own practice set up in Weatherford within the next year. Then my cunning little wife here can help me in the office.”
“If she doesn’t go into the Marshal Service herself,” said a tall, handsome man, his rich brown eyes twinkling merrily. Curtis’ cousin, Chase McQueen, had traveled all the way from the little town of Hope Springs, Idaho, to attend their wedding.
“She sure has the wits for it,” her new husband agreed, “but I’m not sure it would be fair to all the criminals out there.”
“Oh, stop!” Catherine had never had someone believe in her so fiercely. It was almost overwhelming but she would happily get used to it.
Maggie and Mary pushed their way to the front and engulfed her in a massive hug, and she held on tightly. She hated to leave her new sisters but she couldn’t wait to start a new life of her own. Curtis had been right that she could still learn who she was within the bonds of marriage. They would grow together.
All the ruckus sent the ranch dogs on a frenzy, barking and running through the gathered bodies, knocking a ranch hand to the ground. Leaping over him, their quickly growing coyote pump ran up to Catherine and yelped, demanding to be picked up. Under her care, the little critter had plumped up and filled out nicely.
“What’s his name,” Chase asked, scratching the pup’s fuzzy ears.
“Her name,” Catherine corrected. “And we haven’t picked one yet. With all the wedding preparations and Curtis spending so much time in Weatherford, we haven’t had time.”
“No time like the present,” Curtis said, stroking its thick fur. “What about Jacob Curtis Griffith, after my father?”
“I don’t think so,” she replied.
Catherine’s heart clenched at the disappointment that flashed in his eyes. She hated to disappoint him but she wouldn’t be swayed. Snuggling up close to him, she caught his gaze.
“I think we should save that for someone else.”
It took a moment for his words to sink in, but then he grinned so broadly she thought his cheeks might crack. “Yes, ma’am!”
Maggie nearly swooned. “Your babies will be so beautiful!” Everyone clapped in agreement.
“Well, then what do we call this little tyke?” he asked.
“I think we should call her Tully,” Catherine said with confidence.
“Tully?! Why would we name such a sweet, little thing after such a scoundrel?”
“If it wasn’t for Tully Owings, we might not be here right now, that’s why. I never want to forget that no matter how wicked the world seems or how hard life becomes, love is always with us.”
Curtis’ eyes roamed her face as if he was drinking in every line and curve. Stroking a finger across her eyebrow, he smiled.
“Beautiful.”
Did you enjoy The Marshal’s Rebellious Bride? I’d love it if you would spare a moment to leave a review on Amazon!
Acknowledgments
You asked for it, you got it. My readers wanted another Dalton Brides book, and I was only too happy to supply one!
A special thanks to Leona Melton for suggesting Griff’s name. What a lovely way to honor her father!
If you enjoy western historical romances by such authors as Debra Holland, Caroline Fyffe, Ruth Ann Nordin and Rose Gordon, join us all in the Pioneer Hearts Facebook group, a place where authors and readers discuss their favorite stories, recipes and photos. CLICK HERE to join!
The Dalton Brides Series
The Rancher’s Mail-Order Bride by Kirsten Osbourne
The Cowboy’s Mail-Order Bride by Kit Morgan
The Drifter’s Mail-Order Bride by Cassie Hayes
Hank’s Rescued Bride by Cassie Hayes
Benedict’s Bargain Bride by Kirsten Osbourne
Percy’s Unexpected Bride by Kit Morgan
Justin’s Runaway Bride by Kit Morgan
About the Author
Cassie Hayes grew up pretending she was Laura Ingalls (before that pesky Almonzo arrived on the scene) in the middle of Oregon farm country. She lives with her husband and cat on the Pacific Ocean and loves to hear from her readers.
Connect with her at:
CassieHayesBooks
www.CassieHayes.com
[email protected]
Copyright 2016 Cassie Hayes
www.CassieHayes.com
All rights reserved.
The characters and events portrayed in this book are a work of fiction or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
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