The Secret Admirer Romance Collection

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

  Standing on the step below her, Deke turned to look up into the sky. She followed his gaze in time to see a star fall.

  “Oh, Deke,” she said, her breath catching. “Did you see that?”

  He turned back around and nodded but said nothing.

  “It’s just like the night so long ago when you told me you’d come back to marry me.” She paused. “And now you have.”

  Rather than respond, he walked past and took his pride and those awful growing feelings of caring for Pearl Barrett with him. He couldn’t speak about either.

  No, he wouldn’t.

  Chapter 5

  Deke almost felt bad ignoring his new wife on their wedding night. She’d been petulant since their conversation under the stars, not that he blamed her. He hadn’t wanted to marry her, and he wasn’t a man given to false pretense.

  Then there was that kiss. He groaned once again at the thought of her lips pressing against his. Of the way her amateurish attempt had put a fire in his blood despite her lack of practice.

  And worse, of the fact all he could think of was taking her up on her request to teach her the wifely skills in which she felt she was lacking. Deke’s greatest fear, however, was that Pearl wasn’t lacking at all in that department.

  Concentrate, he admonished himself.

  Grandfather’s last letter indicated he had a good shot at a meeting with the newly elected president. He’d demanded Deke put in extra hours of work on the firm’s cases in order to show the president just what an impressive job they could do.

  Unfortunately, he’d been too busy to do anything else. And now he was too distracted to give the papers in front of him more than a cursory glance.

  He gave up on Hollister v. Benedict & Burnham Manufacturing Company and set it aside in favor of the next assignment on the long list he needed to address.

  “I’ll have my dinner in here tonight,” he called to her as he returned his attention to the mountain of legal papers he’d brought with him from Washington, DC. He’d been so involved working out all the details of his father’s estate that he’d only just cracked open the valise that contained them.

  After a while, Deke’s stomach growled, and he realized Pearl had not yet brought his dinner. He called her name and waited then called her again.

  When she did not respond, he went looking for her. The kitchen was dark, as were all the public rooms. He thought about calling her name and then decided against it when he spied a light coming from beneath a door at the end of the hall.

  How had she known, of all the rooms in the ranch house, which one was his?

  Deke halted in front of the door, which was open slightly. Pearl was curled up in a chair in the corner, a pen and paper in hand and a quilt wrapped around her. Her hair was undone and tumbled around her shoulders in the lamplight as she scribbled on the paper.

  His heart jumped to his throat as he took in the sight of this beautiful woman. His wife.

  John Barrett’s daughter.

  The thought was enough to sober him. Deke turned around and walked away, grabbing a blanket and pillow from the room next to his. In a few days he would leave her quietly and go back to his life in Washington, DC. The only fair thing to do was spend tonight and every night until he left out in the bunkhouse.

  But as he tried to get comfortable on the straw mattress, all he could think of was how he realized he had missed Pearl Barrett. True, he’d teased her and called her Princess, but he had also enjoyed matching wits with her and teaching her to ride and rope.

  Deke smiled. She’d been better at roping than he had. He wondered if she’d kept that practice up and then quickly discarded the idea. An educated and cultured woman like Pearl Barrett hadn’t the inclination to rope cattle when she could sip tea in a parlor instead.

  Though he awoke the next morning hungry, sore, and picking straw out of his hair, at least he’d done the right thing. Pearl was his wife in name only, and that’s how it would remain.

  Having gone to bed without supper, he was starved this morning. By the time he got the stove lit and the eggs cooked, Pearl wandered in. “It appears I have married a man who can cook.”

  Though she was beautiful in the lamplight, Pearl Barrett was stunning in the morning sunshine. She padded across the kitchen in her bare feet with that same quilt from last night draped around her shoulders. Her hair was a tangled mess, and yet his fingers itched to reach out and touch the glossy curls.

  “I never learned to cook,” she said as she reached for the plate of eggs and scraped a third of them onto a smaller plate. “I look forward to learning from you. Will you teach me?”

  Her pleading look almost melted the heart he’d decided would remain cold. Deke turned away to grab two forks and then handed her one. “I’m sure that won’t be necessary.”

  She shrugged and the quilt fell away from her left shoulder. Her skin was pale, a luminous ivory that made him take a step back for want of running his hand over it.

  While he stabbed his fork into the eggs and attempted a bite, Pearl took her plate and wandered out, oblivious to the state she’d left him in. When Deke heard the front door open and then slam shut, he followed her in spite of all good sense.

  She’d found the rocker and settled herself onto it. Deke walked past her to sit on the steps. They ate in silence until Deke pushed his empty plate away and swiveled to face her.

  “Legally this is your home now,” he told her. “So you’re welcome to stay once I’ve gone.”

  “Thank you,” she said.

  Thank you? That was all? Had she come to her senses after a night under his roof? Deke could only hope.

  “All right, then,” he said instead of questioning her any further. Better not to ask what had caused her to stop arguing about accompanying him north.

  Something caught his attention on the horizon, and he rose to get a better look. “Seems like the boys have hitched a ride with someone,” he told her. “Best get some decent clothes on.”

  “My decent clothes are in trunks down at the train station,” she said. “Remember you told my father you’d have them sent.”

  He had said that, then in his anger and hurry to leave town, he’d elected not to fetch them. “Do your best with what you have, then,” he told her. “I don’t know but there might be something left over from when my mother lived here. Her trunks are in the room next to the one where you slept last night.”

  “Yes, that’s where I found this nightgown. It’s lovely, don’t you think?”

  “I try not to think when it comes to nightgowns,” he said, though the quip sounded much less witty out loud than when he’d just thought it.

  She rose slowly and set her plate on the porch rail. He couldn’t help but notice that she’d barely touched her food.

  “Don’t like my cooking?” he asked.

  Pearl shook her head. “It’s not that. I’m sure the eggs were delicious, but I just don’t have much of an appetite this morning.”

  He couldn’t speak to that fact, but he could urge her to hurry. “Whatever wagon’s bringing those idiots is moving fast. I’d suggest you do the same, or you’re going to get caught in your nightclothes.”

  She collected her plate then walked toward him; he assumed to gather up his plate. Though surely this woman wasn’t a practiced flirt, she certainly had his attention as her elbow brushed his arm. Once again the quilt fell just enough to bare her shoulder.

  As she reached for the plate, she seemed to think better of it and looked up at him instead. Using the corner of the quilt, she reached up on tiptoe to swipe at the corner of his mouth.

  Then, with one hand gripping his biceps, she smiled as she let go of the quilt. “Thank you for cooking breakfast. I slept quite well in your bed.”

  She turned to grab his plate before disappearing inside with the quilt trailing behind her like a regal queen. Or a princess.

  The princess of Polecat Creek came to mind, but Deke was powerless to do anything but nod, even though Pearl
was long gone before he managed it.

  Shaking off whatever it was that had him acting like a fool, Deke turned to face the brothers who would be arriving back on his doorstep any minute. Their doorstep, he corrected, because he would be gone soon.

  As the wagon neared, he spied a familiar figure seated beside Eli. “Grandfather?” he called as he stepped out to greet the wagon. “What are you doing here?”

  “I had business in New Orleans and thought to take the train out here to join up with you for the trip back to Washington, DC. My railcar is waiting at the siding in town, and I’ve been told a train will be coming through in a few hours. The car will leave with that train, and you will leave with me.” He paused. “Unless you’ve got something keeping you here.”

  “What? No, the estate has been settled, and I was planning to leave in a few days. I suppose a few hours works just fine.”

  He watched his grandfather climb down from the wagon and marveled at how a man of his age whose livelihood kept him indoors never seemed to age. True, his hair had grayed, but he was still fit and strong, and his senses were just as finely tuned as when Deke was a child.

  Several of his brothers piled out of the back while the rest of them waited their turn. Eli nodded a greeting and then headed off in the empty wagon toward the barn. Meanwhile, the rest of his brothers let their grandfather take the lead as they all headed toward the house.

  Rather than shake hands, as was their custom in the law office, Grandfather enveloped Deke in a hug as the other Wyatts hurried past them in silence. “It’s good to see you, boy. The firm misses you, and so do I.”

  “And I have missed the firm.” Deke paused to smile. “And you.”

  Deke opened the door to invite his grandfather into the ranch house, and a thought occurred. For a man whose five grandsons spent the night in jail and the sixth one spent the night—theoretically—with his new bride, he was acting awfully calm.

  “Grandfather,” he said slowly once the older man had settled himself on a settee near the front windows. “Did you and the boys happen to have any sort of discussion on the way out here?”

  “Oh, about their great train adventure and their night in jail? Yes, of course, we did,” he said as he rested his palms on his knees. “Didn’t bother me much. I figure to leave boys to their youthful folly, don’t you think?”

  “Youthful folly?” Deke shrugged. “Yes, well, I see your point. My guess is they won’t be stopping trains again anytime soon.”

  “Yes, that’s true,” Grandfather said. “And I reinforced that fact with a promise that should they determine another train needed stopping, they should be more afraid of me than any small-town sheriff.” He paused. “Now, as for you, Eli said you had some news for me.”

  Eli appeared at the window behind their grandfather, his grin easily seen even from this distance.

  “So they didn’t tell you what that news was?” Deke asked, ignoring his brother.

  “Well, the twins tried, but the rest of them decided it was better if I heard from you. Or at least that was the consensus.” He shrugged. “So shall we talk here or in your father’s study where we might be afforded a bit more privacy?”

  Given the fact three other faces had joined Eli’s at the window, Deke’s choice was simple. “The study,” he said as he ushered his grandfather down the hall to the room that had become his office in his father’s absence.

  Without asking, Grandfather settled into the chair behind the desk as if he owned the place. “All right, Deke. What have you done?”

  “Well,” he said as he contemplated just how to break the news. “I saved the boys from the penitentiary, for one thing. And possibly myself as well, or so the sheriff said. But then you probably heard that part already.”

  “As we’ve already discussed, I have heard their versions but want to hear yours as well.”

  He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. What was it about his mother’s father that made him feel like a child again every time he was forced to carry on a difficult conversation with him?

  “You see,” he began, “the railroad company was likely to press charges, and there seemed only one simple solution to it all, I mean, given the fact that…”

  Deke’s words stalled. “Oh, this is ridiculous. I am a grown man. I don’t have to justify the decisions I make.”

  “No, generally you do not. However, I wonder if what you are about to tell me might be the exception to this?”

  “It might,” he admitted, “but what’s done is done. I got married yesterday.” He paused. “To Pearl Barrett.”

  “Barrett!” It came out like an explosion as Grandfather slammed his fist on the desktop and sent a stack of paperwork flying. “What on earth possessed you to marry the daughter of that man? You and I both know how your mother will react.”

  “How will she react, sir?” a feminine voice asked.

  Deke whirled around and found Pearl standing in the doorway. She’d somehow managed to don a gown of pale pink sprigged with tiny roses, and she’d tamed her hair into a braid that she’d coiled at her neck. Once again, he found himself speechless.

  “Well, hello, Miss Barrett,” Grandfather said tersely.

  “Mrs. Wyatt,” she corrected, albeit with more gentleness than his grandfather deserved. “It’s good to see you again, sir. I believe I was just a child the last time you visited the ranch.”

  Grandfather’s eyes traveled the length of Pearl and then settled on her face. “Indeed, that must have been some time ago, for you definitely are no longer a child. That being said, you are a woman and this conversation is for men only.”

  Pearl’s expression told him she did not take kindly to the remark. Heading off an argument he had no patience to hear, Deke stepped between Pearl and his grandfather to escort his wife out into the hallway.

  “Go,” he said quietly as he blocked the doorway.

  When she opened her mouth to protest, Deke shook his head. “Yesterday you quoted several Bible verses to me regarding marriage. I’ve just got one for you right now.”

  She looked up at him, eyes narrowed. “What would that be?”

  “‘Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife,’” he quoted from the book of Ephesians. “Now go, please.”

  Without waiting for Pearl’s response, Deke stepped back into the study and closed the door. When he turned around, his grandfather was watching him with an expression he couldn’t quite identify.

  “At least you know how to handle her,” Grandfather said. “Your father never could manage that feat with your mother.” At Deke’s stunned look, he continued. “He let my daughter go off and leave him here by himself. He ought to have come after her, but he didn’t, and we both know why.”

  “He told me that they agreed he wasn’t cut out for city life and she never adjusted to life on the ranch.” Deke paused. “But I recognize things must have been difficult after John Barrett’s dirty business dealings came to light.”

  “Difficult is a kind word for the situation Barrett put them both in. Had your mother not been in possession of a sizable bank account of her own, this ranch would have gone to the taxman years ago.”

  “And I am very glad it has not,” Deke said. “Keeping the ranch in the family is precisely why I accepted the sheriff’s offer. I doubt my mother would bail it out a second time.”

  “Yes, doubtful indeed. But your father should never have left you boys in this situation, although I must admit Eli and the others have done an excellent job of making the business profitable again.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “As head of this family, I still see the banking reports, Deke. Still, I cannot stress enough that making the wrong match, as I have always maintained your mother did, never ends well.”

  Grandfather continued to complain about Father while Deke crossed the room to take a seat across from the desk. Though he was relieved at the temporary change of topic, Deke
knew it wouldn’t take long for Grandfather to get back to discussing the current situation.

  “Enough of that. The child should not have to listen to a recitation of the sins of his parents, yes?” He swung his gaze back to Deke. “I believe you were explaining your reasoning behind this disastrous situation we now face.”

  “We, sir?” Deke asked. “Because although I mean no disrespect, I fail to see how my marriage affects you beyond having to listen to my mother complain about it.”

  “Oh, that’s rich. You’re the one I’ve groomed to take over my firm. I cannot have you ruin what I have worked so hard for by marrying the wrong person. We are this close to getting a meeting with the new president. Do you think he will want to consider me for a cabinet appointment given the reputation of your new wife’s family?”

  Deke shifted positions. “I don’t disagree that there was very little thought put into this marriage beyond saving my brothers, the ranch, and my position at your firm, but it’s done now. What comes next is to assess how to deal with the situation. As to the president, I’m sure he has more important things to do than listen to gossip and worry about one man’s poor business decisions.”

  “Facts, not gossip, Deke,” he said. “And, yes, I believe the president is kept informed on all the details of those he is considering for office. The man who made those poor business decisions, as you call them, not only bankrupted your father, but he also may be covering up serious financial misconduct of a criminal nature.”

  This much Deke had already considered. More than one of the documents on the desk involved Barrett transactions and items related to Barrett Industries. Little did he know when he set out to clear his father’s name in the business world that he would end up married to the prime culprit’s daughter.

  “So, I’ll tell you how we deal with it,” Grandfather continued. “We get this atrocious joke of a marriage annulled immediately.” He paused. “You and she didn’t…that is, there was no…”

  “I slept in the bunkhouse last night, if that’s what you’re asking.”