Renegade Ridge

by Arabella Steedly

  But surprisingly, I didn’t fall. Clyde had gripped my wrist tight and then hauled me up in one quick swish. Like it was no trouble to him in the least. Like he pulled up women like me on to his horse on a daily basis.

  I sat straddling the saddle, leaving a distance of a few inches between his back and me.

  “There’s no need to be shy, put your arms around my waist,” I heard him command me in that same deep voice. When I looked down at my hands, I realized that they were trembling a little. But, I forced myself to do as I was told and something like electricity went piercing down my spine. I could feel the rugged muscles under his shirt; he didn’t even feel human. I gulped again, as he snapped up the reins and started riding. I had never ridden a horse before.

  We galloped in the opposite direction, towards the house I supposed, and the breeze was in my hair. Clyde sat casually on his horse, while I sat with my heart dropped to the bottom of my belly. My muscles were stiffened, my legs dangled and I clung to him for dear life. As we rode, as my hair flew behind me, I bounced a little with every gallop, and I couldn’t believe what I had gotten myself into.

  This was nothing like what I had expected. Not even my betrothed was the man Michelle or I had pictured him to be. He seemed humorless and maybe even a little arrogant, but he wasn’t ugly or old or disgusting…in fact quite the opposite. I had no idea why he needed to arrange for a mail order bride to find a wife. I thought that all he would have to do was gallop on his horse, down the mountains, and into town and find himself the first woman he set his eyes on. Because there was very little chance that any girl would refuse him, not a man who looked like him.

  Or owned a ranch like this. The place was beautiful, and not the impoverished farm Michelle and I had grudgingly pictured. With sprawling space, the mountains in the background, fenced off cattle running free and wild…everywhere my eye could see was met with greenery, wilderness and untouched natural beauty. And by the looks of it, it all belonged to Clyde Pattinson.

  The house came into view after we had been riding for a few minutes. It was a three-storied wooden lodge, designed in a way which looked modern and had an old-fashioned charm at the same time. The sun shone brilliantly down on it as we rode closer to it, and made the glass windows shine to a glassy green. There were balconies bordering every floor and thick pine trees surrounding the house. I still couldn’t believe that I was going to live here, in this beautiful place…married to this handsome rude stranger.

  When Clyde and I stopped riding, and my hair fell back in place. It was ruffled and messy looking no doubt. He jumped off the horse without any warning and then, stretched his arms towards me. I hesitated, looking down at his icy cold eyes.

  “I won’t bite,” he said, in all seriousness, without a hint of a smile on his face.

  I reached for him and lifted myself and once again, Clyde caught me. I stumbled into his arms, my face knocked against his chest and his strong arms had tightened around me. Gently, with a tenderness that I wouldn’t have imagined existed in a man like him; Clyde set me down. I nearly fell backward because I’d lost my balance.

  “I trust you’ll find your way around the house. FedEx delivered your belongings yesterday. You’ll find them in the foyer,” he said. I stared at him in shock. What kind of a welcome was this for a new wife?

  “Where are you going?” I asked, my voice turning timid and meek.

  “I have to get back to work. You can pick whatever bedroom you want for the next two nights, till we get married,” he said and my lips parted, his words made me gulp. So, he was planning on going ahead with it. He hadn’t changed his mind after he saw me!

  “And…” I didn’t know how to begin. There were so many things I wanted to ask, to say…everything was new and seemed foreign to me.

  “Have dinner ready by eight. I’ll be back by then,” he said and mounted his horse again. I had no response for him. My mind was just not working. Clyde tipped his hat at me, which was something else I wasn’t used to seeing in everyday life and then he was gone. Galloping away again, he was riding his horse tall and strong, his body in silhouette against the sun. This was a complete mess. I needed to stop ogling at this man and start thinking about how I was going to tackle this situation.

  I was going to be married to him in less than two days. What did I know about him other than what met the eye? And there was another important point that Daddy hadn’t mentioned to me, which was also clearly the reason why he was so keen on getting into business with Clyde.

  Clyde Pattinson was rolling in money.

  CHAPTER THREE

  I took the bedroom closest to the living room. A large room, decorated tastefully in shades of pale yellow and gray. I couldn’t imagine Clyde actually decorating and designing the rooms of the house, so he had to have hired a professional to do it for him. But the house was cold and felt empty. I counted four bedrooms, two separate living rooms, a den, a study, a library and a kitchen. There was too much space in the house and not another living soul. I couldn’t imagine what he did all day, and now I was beginning to understand why he might have gone to such extreme measures to find someone to live with him.

  I floated around the house, trying to memorize the layout as best I could and then a little before seven; I started cooking dinner. The pantry was full of food and ingredients, including fresh vegetables and fruit. Either Clyde had recently stocked up the pantry for my arrival, or he actually spent hours cooking and utilizing all this stuff that was available to him.

  Either way, I prepared a meal which was one of the few that I knew how to cook. Roast chicken with sage and rosemary, mashed potatoes and some vegetables on the side. I laid it out on the fancy dining table, just a few minutes before eight and stared at the food in awe. This was not the kind of role I would have ever pictured for myself. A dutiful woman, preparing a meal for a man who was going to be my husband, and who I didn’t even know. What had Daddy got me into?

  I decided to leave all my anger with my father for a later time and concentrated on making sure that all the plates and cutlery were neatly placed. For the past three hours, I hadn’t spoken to anyone else, I hadn’t even heard my own voice, and I was beginning to anticipate seeing Clyde again. Wondering what this conversation was going to be like.

  The front door opened and then slammed shut. I heard the crunch of his boots in the hallway, then cross the living room and finally, he loomed at the entrance of the kitchen. I wiped my hands on the apron I had tied to my waist, while I watched him surveying the display on the dining table. He looked pleased, his blue eyes had softened, and I took a strange pleasure from his approval. Why did I want to please him? I wasn’t actually going to spend the rest of my life married to this man. It was just a fake marriage. And yet, it seemed like Clyde had this effect on people, and definitely on me. Strangely enough, I wanted him to like me.

  “Impressive,” he said, and slowly took his hat off of his head, and I tried to suppress a smile that was forming on my face. He stepped into the kitchen, and once again, I was reminded of how tall this man actually was.

  “I’ve been surviving on beans and toast for dinner for the past few months,” he said and pulled out the chair at the head of the table. I remained standing near the sink, watching him as he unfurled the napkin on his side and placed it on his lap.

  “And before that?” I had the courage to ask, and Clyde raised his eyebrows to look at me. Those same piercing blue eyes that made me shift on my feet.

  “Before that, I lived a very different life,” he said, and poured himself a glass of water from the jug that I had placed before him. I stepped forward and pulled out a chair of my own. I sat down quietly, noticing how seldom Clyde actually looked at me. He was concentrating on his food.

  “What kind of a life?” I asked, and he carved himself a slice of the chicken and pushed the fork into his mouth. He had turned his eyes on me and watched me silently as he chewed. He was difficult to read. I couldn’t tell exactly what he was thinking or
what he was about to say.

  “You are very curious, Jade,” he said my name like he was scolding a little child, which made me instantly straighten my back and jut my nose up in the air proudly.

  “We are going to be married in less than two days, don’t you think I have the right to be curious?” I asked him, and Clyde lazily looked away from me and back to the food. He was eating quickly, but seemed to be enjoying it.

  “You’re right,. We are going to be married in two days. Which means that we have a lot of other things to think about. You’ll have your whole life to ask me all these questions,” he said, and my cheeks flushed. My whole life! That was not going to happen. I couldn’t possibly live with this man for more than a few weeks.

  “What other things do we need to think about?” I asked, and our eyes met again. I was eating meekly, barely putting any food in my mouth because I didn’t feel hungry; not in his presence at least.

  “You need to get accustomed to this house, my lifestyle. I guess that all of this is very foreign to you,” he said and chewed on his food some more. I gulped and blushed again.

  “This is all new, yes. I’m from Chicago,” I offered, and Clyde didn’t even bother looking at me. As though he wasn’t interested in the least where I was from or what my life before had been like. I was slowly beginning to understand how this relationship…how this marriage…was going to look. Ask no questions and no questions will be asked to you. How was someone supposed to survive like this? Two people in such a big house with no other human being in sight. I suddenly felt claustrophobic, and the fork fell out of my hand and clinked down on the plate.

  “Sorry,” I said, and covered my mouth with the napkin, while I could sense that Clyde was staring at me.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked, in the same booming deep voice, which sent goosebumps running over my skin.

  “Nothing. Nothing is wrong…everything,” I was fumbling with my words, as I pressed the napkin to my mouth, trying to keep my eyes on my plate and not on him. It had only been a few hours, and already I felt trapped. So far away from home, with a cold, arrogant stranger who barely even looked at me. What had Daddy done! How was I supposed to live here for weeks, or maybe months?

  “Everything?” he repeated my word and eventually, I raised my face to look at him. He was holding the knife and fork up in his hands, his wrists were on the edge of the table and he was looking at me with narrowed eyes.

  “Nothing. I meant, nothing is wrong,” I said, and I recognized the shake in my voice, which he no doubt caught as well. Clyde placed the cutlery down on the table, and turned himself to look at me directly. The silence was killing me and my inability to read his body language was messing with my head. What was this man capable of?

  “Listen to me, Jade, are you here against your will? Did Mr. Neely force you into this?” he said, and I gulped and shook my head.

  “N…no, I wanted this,” I said, and expected him to ask why, but he didn’t. Instead, he glared at me some more.

  “You seem like this isn’t what you want to do. Why is that?” he said, and I shook my head again.

  “That isn’t true. I want to be here, I wanted this life,” I didn’t know why I was lying. I could have just told him the truth. He was giving me a chance to confess, to change my mind…but instead, I chose to protect Daddy’s secret and to continue with this charade.

  Clyde sat back in his chair and picked up his cutlery again, and cut himself some more chicken.

  “Whatever I am, Jade, I am not a brute, and I am not going to force you to do anything you don’t want to do,” he said, and I blinked at him. Clyde, with his perfect face, his steely brows, those strong hands, a body which even through his clothes I could tell was capable of making any woman scream with joy…

  “I just need to get used to this life, that’s all. It’s just all very overwhelming for me,” I said, and pushed some vegetables into my mouth. Clyde took a sip of water from his glass and looked over at me.

  “Well, you’ve hit the nail on the head with what I like to eat. This was good,” he said and ate the last chunk of chicken on his plate. Then he washed it down with some more water. I had barely even gone through half of the food on mine.

  “I’ve arranged for the Justice of the Peace to come over in the morning day after, and witness us signing our marriage license form,” he said, back to his business like firm tone again.

  “That’s it?” I asked, hurling back into shock again. Clyde scowled, as he studied my face some more.

  “Is there anything else necessary? This is a marriage of convenience. Mr. Neely informed me that you wouldn’t have any family or friends attending, and I won’t either,” he said, and I felt my breasts heaving, my heart pumping, my nostrils flaring…and I couldn’t even be sure of why I was feeling this way. A wedding didn’t matter. This wasn’t real. I didn’t even know if I liked this man.

  “No, yes, you’re right. That should be enough,” I said, and Clyde got up from his chair abruptly.

  “I hope you’re comfortable in your room,” he said, before turning away from me.

  “Very comfortable,” I said, a little curtly as I tried to keep myself together for long enough.

  “After we get married, you can choose if you want to move into my room or remain in yours. Please have my breakfast ready before eight tomorrow,” he said, and then turned and walked out of the kitchen.

  I clapped my hands to my mouth, to suppress a scream which I knew was rising up in my throat. What kind of a life was this going to be for me? He didn’t even have any intention of sharing a room with his new bride! What kind of a life did he want for himself? Michelle was right. He just wanted a housekeeper, someone to cook and clean for him. Someone whose bedroom he could occasionally visit on nights when he felt like it.

  I couldn’t eat anymore. I pushed my plate away and threw the napkin on the floor, which I knew I would eventually have to pick up later. I breathed in and out deeply, trying to remind myself of the real reason why I was here. I needed the money. This was the first and only thing Daddy had ever asked me to do, and after all the disappointments I had caused in his life…a few weeks worth of sacrifice in this house with Clyde would make up for it all.

  Daddy would give me the money I needed to set up a studio, enough to make rent for the next two years for my apartment in Chicago. By then I would work hard and make my business boom. I would never have to ask him for money again.

  I stood and started collecting all the dishes off the table. There was a dishwasher in the kitchen, which meant that I didn’t actually have to do any cleaning. Within half an hour, I was tired and sleepy and ready for bed. I’d had a long day, even though it was only nine. I usually didn’t go to sleep before midnight, but today, I couldn’t keep my eyes open a moment longer.