The Secret Admirer Romance Collection

by Barratt, Amanda; Beatty, Lorraine; Bull, Molly Noble

  Zeke joined Eli. “She’s not just in the house. We put her in Mama’s parlor, right and proper.”

  “We ain’t heathens,” Mark added from his place on the porch.

  “Aren’t heathens,” Matthew corrected.

  “I think that gal in there might disagree,” Ben said. “She did take particular offense to being tied up in that feed bag. I’m just glad we were smart enough not to talk in front of her so she don’t know who’s got her.”

  “Doesn’t know,” Matthew said as he dodged a blow from his twin.

  Words he’d never say in front of a woman or a preacher rose in his throat, but Deke squelched them. “Where is she?” Deke managed as he calmed his temper just enough not to take a swing at the nearest brother.

  “Like Zeke said, she’s in Mama’s parlor,” Eli said to Deke’s retreating back. “But the real question might be: Who is she?”

  Deke stalled and grabbed for the porch post. Before he could respond, Eli jumped in front of him and opened the door.

  “Trust me on this,” Eli said, his voice a low whisper. “You won’t believe it until you see. But a word of warning.” He paused. “Don’t get too close. Even with that blindfold, she’s got pretty good aim.”

  Ben nodded as he rubbed his shin. Deke shook his head and pushed past Eli to step inside. One of the geniuses had closed all the curtains and moved the furniture up against the walls. He took two steps forward and slammed into Mama’s breakfront.

  “What the…” he said under his breath as pain radiated up from his knee and right elbow. With a shove, he moved the furniture back against the wall.

  As Deke’s eyes adjusted to the dim light, he turned on his brother. “Which of you idiots thought rearranging the furniture was a good way to pass time until I got back from town?”

  “Ben thought a little preparation was in order in case someone tried to bust down the door and save her. Me, I couldn’t see the logic in it, but it kept the others busy while we waited so I went along with it to keep the peace.”

  “That is the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard yet,” he said as he made his way around three chairs that ought to have been in the dining room and a washstand that was missing its bowl and pitcher. “The same idiots who thought of this are going to put everything back where it goes. If someone comes for the woman, we’ll greet them civilly. I’m sure you’ve all considered what you’ll say to this person’s family, haven’t you?”

  “Quiet now,” Eli reminded him. “You don’t want her to hear you coming. I wasn’t joking about her aim. That girl is lethal. And, yes, we have thought of what we’d say, but there wasn’t any kind of agreement. We just figured you’d handle it, what with you being all educated and a lawyer and such. Grandpa probably taught you just what to do when there’s trouble, didn’t he?”

  The reference to the man who had made it possible for him to leave this place and seek his purpose in a bigger world than Polecat Creek Ranch was too much. Deke moved in close and grabbed Eli’s throat.

  “I’m not going to tighten my grip any more, but my fingers just might twitch if I don’t get a straight answer. Nod if you understand.”

  He nodded. “I’d be obliged if that didn’t happen, Deke. You’re a might stronger than you know, what with you being all citified and everything.”

  “And you talk too much. Just tell me who’s in our mother’s parlor and I’ll let you go. No embellishing or offering opinion. Just a name. Understand?”

  “Yeah, I do. See, I was going to tell you, but the others, they were against it. Said you’d be mad, but me, I thought you’d be mad anyway, what with Matthew and Mark and their harebrained bet to see whether a train would stop if—”

  Deke tightened his grip only slightly, but it was enough to halt his brother’s jabbering. “Just. A. Name.”

  “Princess.”

  Deke let go. “You threw a princess into a feed sack and brought her here? That doesn’t make a bit of sense.” Realization dawned. “Oh, I get it. This is all a big joke.”

  “I wish it was,” Eli said. “See, we was all minding our own business and there she was trying to steal our wagon.”

  “A princess was trying to steal your wagon.” Deke shook his head. “Just come clean and admit you’re pulling my leg and I might not hurt any of you.”

  Eli took a step backward and collided with the same breakfront that had stopped Deke’s progress. “Truly, I would love to tell you that, Deke, but it ain’t so. She’s in there right and proper.”

  “A princess,” he said as he curled his fingers into fists.

  “Well, of a sort,” Eli said. “It’s that Barrett girl you used to call Princess. Name of Pearl. Remember her? ’Cause she sure grew up pretty.”

  “Pearl Barrett tried to steal the wagon so you put her in a feed sack and brought her here?”

  “That’s the short version, yeah. But don’t forget it was them twins that caused it, what with they stopping the train like they did.”

  “You’re sticking with that answer?” Deke ground out through clenched jaws.

  Eli stood a little taller, but fear now showed in his eyes. “I got to because it’s the truth.”

  “This is not funny,” he managed.

  “No, Deke, it ain’t.”

  Deke’s temper sent him out the door and back into the yard. It was either leave or hit his brother square between the eyes.

  His boot heels rang out on the stone path he and the other Wyatt boys had put down when they were just kids. He hadn’t wanted to come back here after conducting the remainder of his business in town, but obligation sent him back on the trail home.

  Thanks to these clowns and their ridiculous behavior, his obligation was over. They could pull their pranks on someone else because he wouldn’t be darkening this doorstep for a long while. Maybe ever, if he could manage it.

  Indeed, he could go back to Washington, DC, and the life he preferred with a clear conscience and the happy knowledge that his brothers were doing just fine without him.

  Grandpa was right. He was meant for more than Polecat Creek Ranch.

  Anger propelled him the rest of the way across the yard and onto his horse. He was about to ride away when a woman carrying a feed sack appeared on the porch.

  “Not so fast, Deke Wyatt. I believe you and I have some unfinished business.”

  All the anger escaped along with his voice. All Deke could do was stare until finally he managed one word. “Princess?”

  Deke hadn’t seen Pearl Barrett since she was a gangly girl who liked to follow him around with stars in her eyes, but he’d know her anywhere. Despite whatever mistreatment his idiot brothers had dealt her, Pearl looked like she’d just stepped out of one of his mother’s ladies’ magazines.

  Thanks to her upbringing, she’d always been fashionable. Her mama and daddy had raised her to find a man who would bring money where it was sorely needed. This much he’d learned from Mama, who’d had a letter from a mutual friend of the Barretts warning her that Pearl’s family was looking to marry her off.

  At the time, Deke had only given the news a passing thought. Now as he stood in close proximity to God’s handiwork in crafting a gorgeous woman out of an awkward and bookish child, he tried to recall whether that search for a groom had concluded or was still ongoing.

  “Princess?” He said it again, though he had no idea why, beyond the fact it used to make her smile. And the pretty lady on the porch was in dire need of a smile.

  Not that he cared now, he reminded himself. She was probably in on the joke.

  “Don’t you ‘Princess’ me, Deke Wyatt. Get off that horse and get back here right now. You and your brothers have some explaining to do, and I’ll not have a one of you running for help.”

  “I tried to tell you,” Eli said as the rest of the Wyatt clan gathered behind him.

  Oh, yes, Deke decided. She was definitely in on the joke.

  Pearl paused to allow a sweeping and disdainful glance across the entire Wyatt cla
n. “Inside with the lot of you,” she continued. “Your mother would be horrified to find that you’ve treated her home so poorly, so you’ll be putting everything back where it goes, and I want all windows raised and the rooms aired out.”

  When no one moved, she clapped her hands. “This instant, if you please.”

  Though not a one of his brothers looked like they were pleased, they did exactly what she said, leaving him sitting on his horse in the midst of a dilemma. He could easily set off toward town and leave this whole mess to the ones who created it.

  It didn’t take a Harvard-educated lawyer to figure that out. And yet here he sat powerless to do anything but stare at the woman who wielded command over the men of Polecat Creek Ranch with an ease he hadn’t seen since his mama fled to her family in Boston a decade ago.

  The object of his thoughts returned her attention to him. “Are you daft?” she demanded.

  The challenge in her voice was unmistakable.

  “Or do you plan to ride away without looking back again? Again,” she continued.

  Deke had long ago learned to stop trying to guess what a woman was thinking, although the lawyer in him occasionally made the attempt. He dared a look and found her staring, hands on her hips and a light breeze lifting the ends of her hair. Her chin jutted up just so, as if daring him to answer.

  “Good afternoon, Miss Barrett,” he said in that tone he reserved for the most reluctant of witnesses. “I see my brothers have been up to no good. Or is their story of abducting you in a feed sack just another of their elaborate jokes? They’re quite good at joking but not so good at anticipating the results.”

  “Nor apparently are you,” she snapped. “Else you would have already removed yourself from that horse and would be standing right here on the porch.”

  She gave that order as if she expected him to carry it out. Oh, she had grown into a lively one. The girl he knew would never be so bold as to instruct him where and when to place his person.

  “Well, now,” he said slowly as he sorted through several responses. “I believe I’ll sit right here until I figure whether you’re in on this joke or not.”

  Well, that did it. He only thought her feathers were ruffled before. Now she looked positively livid as she threw down that feed sack.

  “Joke? Do I look like I am amused?” Her hands crossed over that tiny waist of hers, and her toe went to tapping. Oh, but she was a beauty when she was angry.

  Who was he kidding? Pearl Barrett was a beauty. Period.

  And, no, she did not look amused.

  Once again he thought of the marriage hunt that had so worried his mother. Whoever ended up with this spitfire was to be pitied.

  She tilted her head slightly and a ray of afternoon sunshine slanted across her face. Perhaps pitied wasn’t exactly the right word, for no matter what sort of orders her groom would be receiving, he would still be putting his boots under the same bed where that woman slept.

  Deke shook off the thought and aimed his gaze at the blue sky overhead. Patience had never been one of the virtues the Lord bestowed on him, but it didn’t hurt to ask for an extra dose of it right now.

  So he asked. And he waited, but only long enough to hear his name being called yet again. And not in a particularly fond manner.

  He shifted his attention in time to see Eli once again walk behind Pearl, this time carrying the washstand. He paused as if watching the interaction between them.

  Half of his family tree might have originated on the best side of Boston, but the other half’s roots were dug deep in Texas soil, Polecat Creek Ranch soil to be exact. That little woman might think she could order him around, but she was sadly mistaken if she thought he’d sit on this horse and ignore her shrewish behavior.

  “If you’re telling the truth about not playing any part in this situation—”

  “Other than being the person stuffed into the feed sack, you mean? That, I will claim a part in, though I did not go willingly.”

  “That’s the truth,” Eli called. “She bit Ben on the hand, though she didn’t draw blood.”

  She turned and said something to Eli that Deke couldn’t hear. A moment later, Eli disappeared. Pearl returned her attention to him. “You were saying?”

  “I was saying that if you’re telling the truth, then we’ve got a situation that needs dealing with.”

  “Oh, I am, and you know it. And, yes, we do.”

  Deke took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “All right, then. Given those facts, which I suppose I can agree with you on, there’s something else you need to know before we commence dealing with the situation.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “And what is that?”

  “I’ll go where I want when I want, Miss Barrett. I am a grown man, and you are neither my wife nor my mother. This is my home, and you will not be ordering me around while your shoes are standing on Wyatt property. Do you understand?”

  Her brows rose, and the prettiest pink color flooded her cheeks. For a second, Deke allowed himself the thought that perhaps he’d gotten away with his statement. That just maybe he’d silenced Pearl Barrett’s rant.

  “I understand you have been called to the porch where a serious discussion regarding our current situation needs to take place. However, you are still sitting on your horse. Apparently you’ve chosen to respond like a child when given instructions rather than as a grown man would.”

  That did it. He threw the reins aside and climbed off the horse, his decision made. Stalking toward the porch and the frustrating female, he spied his brother had returned and was once again watching.

  “Move along,” Deke demanded, causing Eli to at least move to a place where he couldn’t be seen from the porch.

  Deke stopped just a hair closer to Pearl than he ought to have. He could smell her lavender perfume and could just about count the few freckles that dared to dance across her pretty nose.

  With one last wave of supreme irritation, he pushed away any thought of her feminine attributes. Or at least tried to.

  “All right, Miss Barrett. I am on the porch. Now what?”

  Chapter 3

  Now what, indeed. Pearl hadn’t thought that far ahead.

  Yet here he stood, the man she’d been hopelessly in love with as long as she could remember. He was taller than she expected, and broader at the shoulder. In her dreams he was much more slender, likely owing to her faulty memory of their last meeting.

  Sadly, she’d fallen in love with a boy but found a man had taken his place. This was not how things were supposed to happen.

  She allowed her gaze to travel up the front of his shirt to meet his stare. Now she had done it. There was no mistaking Deke Wyatt was angry.

  Furious even.

  And rightfully so. She’d behaved horribly. Even as she said those awful things to her future husband, she’d known she sounded like an awful shrew.

  Pearl shifted positions and moved slightly away from Deke. Surely the Lord didn’t provide a way for her to escape that train only to have her end up here on a porch with a man who obviously did not know he was supposed to save her. She gathered up her wits and thought hard on how to fix this.

  Or tried.

  But he was standing so close. So very close.

  So she looked to the hills. Where was her help?

  “Miss Barrett,” he snapped as he reached down to pick up the feed sack.

  She straightened her backbone and looked him in the eyes. Beautiful blue eyes she’d long ago committed to memory. And she knew in that moment that she couldn’t possibly let Deke Wyatt know that he was indeed saving her, though exactly how he would do that remained uncertain.

  So she decided to ask.

  “Mr. Wyatt,” she responded in a similar tone. “This morning I was a passenger on a train, and now I am here. My father and mother have surely begun to worry. As the elder brother, what is your plan to remedy this situation?”

  Of all the reactions she anticipated, a smile was not among them. Deke shoute
d for his brothers, and they piled out on the porch far too quickly to have come from anywhere but nearby.

  “Eli, you hitch up the wagon, and the rest of you climb in the back. We’re taking Miss Barrett back.”

  Pearl allowed Deke to lead her to the wagon, but with every step she searched her mind for a reason to stay at Polecat Creek Ranch a little longer. “Wait,” she said when an idea occurred to her. “I can’t be seen in the company of all of you looking like this.”

  Deke’s gaze swept the length of her, and then their eyes met. “I fail to see a problem.”

  “Look at my dress. It’s wrinkled and smells like the inside of that feed sack. And my hair? What the trip here didn’t ruin, the ridiculous blindfold they put on me did. I simply cannot be seen like this, not after having been gone for hours.”

  “I think she’s right,” Eli said. “What with her being a young lady and all.”

  “I don’t want to hear another word from you,” Deke told him. “Or the rest of you.”

  He lifted Pearl up onto the wagon’s seat and then walked around to the back of the wagon. “All right,” he said to his brothers. “Just so I’m clear, the twins started a ruckus about being able to stop a train with a stick, and you all went down to the tracks to see if they could do what they claimed.”

  “Wasn’t me who claimed that,” the younger twin said. “See, I heard it, and—”

  “Hush,” Deke said. “Then you came back to the wagon and found Miss Barrett.”

  “She was stealing the wagon,” Ben said. “So we figured we couldn’t let her do that.”

  “I wasn’t stealing it,” Pearl said. “I just needed a way to escape from the train. And besides, I never got the rope untied.”

  “I’m pretty good with knots, aren’t I?” Eli asked.

  “You are,” Pearl said. “Do you think you could teach me how to—”

  “Stop talking,” Deke said. “Am I wrong in saying that you tossed Miss Barrett in a feed sack and hauled her home with you?” The brothers nodded in agreement. “All right. Miss Barrett, is there anything you would like to add?”