The Bride Series (Omnibus Edition)

by Bittner, Rosanne

  “It’s all right,” he told her softly. “I had a pretty good idea how he’d react. He’s your brother, Rachael. I don’t blame him. Let’s just go inside and get this over with.”

  Rachael shook her head. “Don’t hate him, Brand. Josh is a good man. Once he gets used to the idea, I know you can be good friends.”

  “Let’s just take one thing at a time.” He looked over at Luke, who was walking back to the corral. “At least I have one person on my side.” He looked back at Rachael, giving her a smile. “Of course, he doesn’t know I want to marry his sister.”

  She took his hand and squeezed it. “Luke would understand. He’s a very open, loving boy.” She turned and led Brand onto the porch and through the front door of the modest frame house. Inside Joshua was hurriedly picking up dishes from the table and setting them on the counter next to a bucket of water and a wash pan.

  Brand looked around the Rivers home, with lace curtains at the windows and braided rugs on the hardwood floor. There was one main room, with a cast-iron cooking stove that he was sure also served as a heating stove. At the back of the room two doors led to two bedrooms. He noticed penciled drawings hanging on one wall, and he was startled at how much the woman resembled Rachael. The man had long hair and was quite handsome.

  “Your parents?” he asked Rachael.

  “Yes. A Cherokee friend of my father’s drew those for them when they were first married, just before they came to Texas. Josh and I were very small then. We don’t remember when my folks lived in Tennessee.”

  “I’m afraid we’ve been too busy to keep up the house again, Rachael,” Joshua muttered. He stood with his back to them as he stacked the dishes.

  “It’s all right,” she answered. “I’ll clean up a little for you before I leave. Are you keeping your clothes washed?”

  “Luke does that.” The young man turned, his face alive with animosity. Brand seemed to fill the room with his size, his long hair and Indian features making him look even bigger and more fierce.

  Brand faced him squarely, deciding the handsome young Joshua Rivers must be a grand mixture of his mother and father. He didn’t really look like either one of them in particular, and yet he held many of their features—his father’s brown eyes, his hair a very light brown with almost a blond cast to it from being in the sun. He had his father’s firm, squared jawline, and he appeared to be a strong, hard man, not quite six feet in height but with strong arms and shoulders.

  “All right,” Josh said. “What the hell is going on?”

  “Brand and I are—”

  Rachael’s words were cut off when Brand gently but firmly grasped her arm. “I’ll say it myself, Rachael.” He kept his eyes on Josh. “Rachael and I are in love, Joshua. We intend to be married. But Rachael loves you very much and was hoping to get your approval first. She’s not likely to get approval from anybody else, but no one else matters to her the way you do.”

  Joshua stood there blinking, staring at them with near shock in his eyes. “Married!” he muttered. He stepped closer, fists clenched. “Have you gone clean crazy!” he all but growled at Rachael.

  “I’m in love with him, Josh. I met Brand in town, and then he came to the school and asked me if I would teach him to read and write better. You know the promise I made to Mother and you know how she would feel about my refusing to teach someone because of his race. So I said I would do it, and we started meeting at his ranch. Before long we knew we were in love.”

  Joshua put up his hand, motioning for her to slow down. “Just a minute.” He looked at her with anger and disgust. “A stranger comes to you—a half-breed, no less, and asks you to teach him. And you go running off to meet him alone at his ranch? What the hell is the matter with you?” he hissed. “How did you know he wouldn’t rape you—or hand you over to his Comanche friends? What in God’s name were you thinking!”

  She held his eyes challengingly. “I trusted him, the same as you know how to trust a man by watching his eyes, Joshua Rivers. I did what I know Mother would have wanted me to do, and what I knew no one else in town would do. Brand wants to settle, Josh, like any man. He has a ranch, which he bought with money he earned working for another rancher over on the Brazos. He’s trying very hard to lead the life of a white man, and he knows that to do that well he needs to be able to read and write. His mother was white, and she taught him some writing, but he needs to know more. I admired his courage in coming to ask for help; and his determination to make a better life for himself. He’s a good man, Joshua, as good as you or any other honest settler.”

  He stared at her, then snickered nervously, turning away and walking back to the counter where he had set the dishes. “You’re really serious!”

  “Yes, I am,” Rachael answered. “Brand and I are in love and I want to be his wife.”

  Joshua’s eyes burned with hatred as they moved to look at Brand. He scanned the man quickly, realizing that to get to the ranch at this time of day they would have had to leave the day before. That meant they had spent a night alone on the plains. The thought of the big half-breed before him touching his sister made his blood boil. He turned fiery eyes back to Rachael.

  “I sent you to Austin to protect you from the Comanche,” he said. “And now you come prancing in here telling me you want to marry one! What in God’s name is wrong with you, Rachael! Do you know what people will call you when they find out? They’ll call my sister a whore—a dirty white squaw! The list is a mile long of names people have for white women who marry Indians!” Rachael covered her face and turned away. “People don’t even want anything to do with white women who have been captives against their will, let alone one who would willingly let an Indian—”

  “That’s enough!” Brand shouted. “She is your sister, and she is a good woman, a woman with a kind heart that is full of love for everyone—a woman who does not judge a man by his race. Rachael cared enough about you to come here and tell you first. This will be hard for her. You could make it much easier by accepting it and letting her know that at least one person besides myself is on her side. She needs your support, Joshua, not your insults.”

  “They aren’t my insults, Selby. They’re the brand others will put on her, and you know it. I’m sorry to put it so bluntly, but you ought to know better than anybody what they’ll say about her! How dare you put your heathen hands on my sister!”

  “Stop it!” Rachael shouted. “Brand has even helped keep you out of danger, telling his Comanche friends to leave this ranch alone.”

  “I’d rather be attacked by Indians than to see my sister marry one!”

  “He might be half Indian, but he’s also half white,” Rachael answered, tears on her cheeks. “What about that side of him? You don’t even know him, Josh! Talk to him. He’s a wonderful man, and he wants peace, not strife.” Rachael stepped closer to her brother. “Look at me, Josh. You know me. You know I would never fall in love with a man who wasn’t honorable and kind and hardworking and honest. He’s so much like Father, Josh.”

  “Like Pa? He’s nothing like Pa. Pa was a white man!”

  Rachael jerked back as though someone had struck her. Terrible disappointment filled her eyes, making Joshua feel a shame that he refused to show. “Oh, Joshua,” Rachael said, the hurt evident in her voice. “I’m glad our mother and father aren’t alive to hear you say that.”

  She turned away. And Brand, standing there, felt torn, his heart aching for Rachael, and his fists clenching in a strong desire to hit Joshua Rivers.

  Joshua kept his eyes on Rachael. “It’s different here in Texas than it was in Tennessee, Rachael, and you know it. The Comanche are nothing like the Cherokee. You know what they’ve done to some settlers, what they do to women and little babies.”

  Rachael whirled. “And I suppose no white man has ever committed such acts against the Indians and even against their own kind! Men are men, Josh. Some are good and some are evil. There are white men I wouldn’t dream of being caught alone with. You judge e
ach man by his personal worth and accomplishments, Josh. That’s what Father always taught you. When did you become so prejudiced? We’ve never had any real trouble from the Comanche.”

  “I don’t need personal trouble with them to know. Everybody knows what happened to the Parkers.”

  “And from then on every Comanche has been judged the same, even the peaceful ones. When do we reach the point of forgive and forget, Josh? It has to end somewhere. We can start by at least accepting the ones who are peaceful and trying to make a better life like Brand.”

  Joshua’s eyes moved back to Brand, and he stepped away from Rachael and closer to Brand. “What did you do to her? You two came all the way out here alone, spent last night alone. What have you done to my sister, you bastard?”

  “Joshua!” Rachael grasped the back of a chair while the two men glared at each other challengingly.

  “I love your sister more than my own life,” Brand answered calmly. “I would gladly kill any man who would call her a bad name for doing nothing but loving someone. I have done nothing bad to her. I have only loved her. And she is already my wife—the Indian way.”

  Joshua’s eyes widened in rage, and he lunged at Brand, cursing him. As Rachael watched in horror he shoved Brand up against a wall and began to land his fist hard into Brand’s belly. Brand grabbed Joshua’s wrists, shoving hard. Joshua flew backward across the table. Then Joshua leapt up and came at him again, ready for a fight that would surely be close to an equal match. But Rachael screamed his name and moved up to grab him. Joshua shoved her, and she fell. Startled, he backed away, looking at her apologetically, going to her to help her up.

  “I’m sorry, Rachael.”

  She broke into tears and walked over to Brand. Joshua looked at her helplessly, then turned hate-filled eyes to Brand. “Damn you! Look what you’ve made me do!”

  “If you would stay calm and not resort to fists right away, it wouldn’t happen,” Brand answered, standing in a defensive pose. “If you want to fight, then we will fight, but to do so would only hurt Rachael more. Don’t make me fight you, Joshua.”

  “Why? Would you stick a knife in me? I’ve always heard the Comanche are good at that!”

  Brand straightened, watching him sadly. “No. I would not stick a knife in you. If you were truly my enemy, I would cut you from head to belly. But you are not my enemy. You are Rachael’s brother and you can call me your enemy, but I will not call you mine.”

  Joshua breathed deeply for control as Brand put his arm around Rachael. “I am just a man,” Brand said calmly. “I love your sister very much. We have come to you hoping you would understand and give your sister your blessing. Soon Rachael and I will go away to find a white preacher who will marry us your way, so we’ll have that damned piece of paper you whites insist on having signed when two people marry. But we are just as married right now as we would be with a piece of paper! Rachael is everything to me—everything!”

  Joshua turned away. “Don’t you love your sister, Joshua?” Brand continued. “Do you think she would fall in love with just any man? She has a gentle heart, and much more capacity to love apparently than her brother! She is educated and intelligent. Does that not say something for my worth? And what about the fact that I came here willingly, hoping to gain your friendship and acceptance? We did not have to do this, Joshua. We could have run off together and told you about it later. But it meant very much to Rachael that you know about it and accept it. You have hurt her deeply today. I do not care for myself. I have heard the kind of words you speak many times over. I can stand the insults and the words of those who are ignorant of the Comanche people and their ways. But I cannot stand to hear you insult your sister! Surely you know the kind of person she is.”

  Rachael sank down in a chair next to her. She put her face in her hands and wept. Brand walked over to her and put his hands on her shoulders. Joshua watched Rachael with an aching heart, torn between absolute shock and disappointment and the great love he had for his sister. She was so much like their mother. Because their own parents had gone through hell back in Tennessee when Emma Rivers married a man called the “white Indian,” Joshua and Rachael had been taught tolerance of all races. But he had never been faced with this kind of challenge, and his love for his sister made him feel sick at the thought of what others would think of her—the labels that would be put on her if she married this half-breed.

  He walked to a window and breathed deeply to gather his thoughts before saying another word. He watched Luke at his chores. Joshua would have liked nothing better than to shoot Brand Selby, but then his sister would hate him for the rest of his life, and he didn’t want that, either. Joshua turned back in time to see Rachael wiping her eyes with a handkerchief. She reached up and grasped one of Brand’s hands at her shoulder, and Brand squeezed her hand lovingly.

  “How long has this been going on?” he asked Rachael. “Is this why you were late that day I came to see you? Does Lacy know about it?”

  Rachael turned watery eyes to her brother. “Yes, she knows about it. She understood it right away, perhaps because she’s been in love herself. Maybe if you were in love, you’d understand it, too, Josh.” She sniffed. “Yes, the day I was late I had been with Brand.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me then?”

  She swallowed, wiping at her eyes again. “Because I wanted to be sure myself first. I struggled with it for a long time, not because Brand is a half-breed. I loved him almost from the moment I set eyes on him. It was only that I knew how you would probably feel, how others would react.”

  “What about Jason? He loves you, too.”

  She rose, still clinging to Brand’s hand. “Jason Brown doesn’t know the first thing about love. He only wants to own me. Brand knows Jason well—scouted for him in the Rangers. Anything Jason has told you about Brand Selby is because he hates Brand. He hates Brand because Brand knows the kind of man Jason really is.”

  Joshua folded his arms. “How do you know you can believe anything this man says about Jason? He probably hates Jason in return.”

  Rachael let go of Brand’s hand and stepped closer. “I know because I know how I feel when I’m near Jason—afraid. This man is bigger and stronger and half Indian, yet I have never once felt the fear in his presence that I have felt when I’m around Jason. And once Brand caught Jason and two of his men raping a young Indian girl no more than twelve. Jason whipped her with that bullwhip of his. Brand has scars still on his own back from trying to protect her. And that old man Jason told us about when he came here after that last patrol—Brand was there, all right. He stopped Jason. But it was too late. After Jason left them, the old man died. Jason Brown killed him!”

  Rachael saw a hint of understanding begin to move into Joshua’s eyes. “I know most people have plenty of reason to hate the Comanche, Joshua. But it’s no excuse to rape and whip a little girl or to whip an old man to death. It doesn’t take a very brave man to do that. That’s the kind of man your Jason Brown is. The things he does only perpetuate the raids and the killings and the hatred. And Brand suspects Jason has dealings with Comancheros!”

  Joshua’s surprised eyes darted to Brand. “That’s impossible. Jason Brown would never—”

  “Oh, Joshua, use your head!” Rachael interrupted. “It would be easy for him, riding out there with a Ranger badge on. Why fight them when you can make money off of them?”

  “But Jason’s done a lot of good things. He almost never comes back without a horse thief or outlaws or somebody along with him. And he always takes time to come out here and check on me and Luke and Matt.”

  “He only does that to get on your good side because of me,” Rachael answered.

  He waved her off. “You’ve got me all confused.” He paced for a moment, then turned to face Rachael. “What am I supposed to do now? Give you my blessing?”

  She breathed deeply to soothe her aching heart. “It would be nice.”

  He looked darkly at Brand again, then back at Rachael. �
��Well, I can’t.” He watched the hope in her eyes dwindle, and he looked over at Brand. “And if you really loved my sister, you wouldn’t have let this happen. You of all people should know what it will mean for her, even if she leaves Austin. She wouldn’t be able to settle with you any place in Texas.”

  “Then we will go somewhere else.”

  Joshua let out a long, disgusted sigh and turned away again.

  “I knew what it would mean for her,” Brand told him. “That is why both of us fought our feelings at first, denied them. But when two people are truly in love, those feelings cannot long be controlled. I have not shamed your sister, Joshua. I have not used her, and I have no intentions of deserting her now. I love her as my own life. I am not even sure I would want to go on living if it means living without Rachael. She came here hoping against hope that at least her brother would be on her side, to help give her the strength she needs to get through this. She has never known abusive words and hateful stares and evil gossip. And as her brother, you should be outraged at what people would say about her, rather than saying those things to her yourself.”

  Joshua ran a hand through his hair, turning to face them. “I didn’t say them myself.”

  “But you thought them.” Brand held the young man’s eyes challengingly. Joshua turned his gaze to Rachael. “I didn’t think them myself, Rachael, I swear. I was just…so surprised.” He moved his eyes over her, realizing with full clarity that she was a grown woman. “I always think of you as a little girl, I guess, even though you’re only a year younger. You were always so small, and you always came to me with everything. Now you’ve gone and done this without saying a word about it. I’d have been upset even if it was just some other man in town that I didn’t know—a white man. But you bring home a half-breed and tell me you’ve already slept with him and you want to marry him, and I’m just supposed to say it’s wonderful and good luck.” He shook his head. “I can’t do that. I need some time to think about this.”