Marked for Marriage

by Jackie Merritt

  “Thank you, Denise.” Maddie stayed with Fanny for a long time, petting her, stroking her soft nose and talking to her as though the mare could comprehend the promises she made to always care for her, to never let anything bad happen to her again.

  When she finally left, Maddie went directly to her truck. She needed to be alone, and she was certain that Denise would understand why she didn’t stop by the house. Driving away from the ranch, Maddie felt as burdened as she would have with a ton of bricks on her shoulders.

  Noah probably had talked to Dr. Herrera by now and knew that she would be just fine after approximately six weeks of physical therapy. But he didn’t know about Fanny, and to Maddie, Fanny’s forced retirement from competition was the end of an era. It was the end of her career in rodeo, which she’d truly loved, and while she had begun worrying about that very thing the second she’d realized something was wrong with Fanny’s legs, deep down she really hadn’t believed it would happen.

  Well, it had happened, and she was now floating in the wind like a piece of dandelion fuzz, or a solitary leaf struggling to cling to a limb that wasn’t offering even a tiny bit of help. What should she do? What should she do?

  The really terrible thing was that all of her promises to Fanny were completely groundless, because she couldn’t afford to board Fanny at the Braddock ranch indefinitely. She would have to find a job that paid enough to support herself and Fanny, but what kind of job? What did she know besides rodeo? Who would be stupid enough to hire her?

  Realizing that she was approaching the curve in the road that bordered the big field where she’d gotten her truck stuck during that record-breaking blizzard, Maddie wondered if she had lost her cell phone somewhere out there. She needed that phone, and the field was pretty with so many huge old trees. She could walk around and look for her phone while she did some more thinking, she decided. There was no oncoming traffic and she made a left turn onto the field.

  Just about the time that Maddie was caressing and talking to Fanny in the Braddock stable, Noah’s concern about Maddie became serious. She wasn’t answering the phone again, and he’d left numerous messages on Mark’s voice mail for her to call him at his office. He had anticipated a call from her all day, especially after he’d talked to Dr. Herrera and heard what Noah considered to be good news about her knee. Six weeks of physical therapy wasn’t a cakewalk, but it was a long way from a complicated diagnosis that could result in a wide variety of treatments, some of them not exactly pleasant.

  At 3:00 p.m., Noah packed it in and did something he never did. He told his nurse a lie about not feeling at all well and that he had to go home and get off his feet. Feeling guilty as hell about it, but too worried about Maddie to let anything—even a guilty conscience—stop him, he left Norma and the receptionist to deal with the patients still in the waiting room.

  By the time he reached his car he had devised a plan of action. He would drive by Mark’s house first, because that was the logical place to start looking for Maddie. But deep down he suspected that she’d again gone out to the Braddock ranch to see Fanny. He felt an urgency to talk to Maddie and wasn’t sure what was behind it, except for one niggling concern that she might not have completely grasped Dr. Herrera’s diagnosis and thought it was worse than it was.

  Then, too, he couldn’t deny the possibility of his feeling another form of guilt over being glad that she would be tied to Whitehorn for the next six weeks for her physical therapy. Not to say that she couldn’t receive the same treatment elsewhere, but it made sense to Noah that she would stay right where she was for the duration. That would be more than enough time for the two of them to figure out the true nature of their relationship and agree on an outcome.

  Whatever was behind the persistent ache in his gut that demanded he find Maddie and see for himself that she was all right with Herrera’s diagnosis, Noah couldn’t overcome or ignore it. Something was wrong and it involved Maddie; he knew it as surely as he knew his name, and so help him Hannah he was going to find out what it was and help her get past it.

  Maddie took the ruts and bumps in the field very slowly and still her truck rolled right and left as she drove toward the grove of trees where she’d gotten so stuck during that storm. Looking around, she realized how different the area looked without a two-foot blanket of snow on everything. For one thing there were huge patches of winter-bare brush that would be quite beautiful when leafed out, but made it impossible to see the entire field. In fact, one could have concealed a herd of elephants in all that tall brush, Maddie thought wryly, if a person was so inclined, of course.

  Thinking something so silly alleviated some of Maddie’s emotional pain, and she parked within the grove of trees and got out to look for her phone, feeling a little better.

  Walking around, Maddie breathed deeply of the clean, fresh air and listened to the songs of the hardy little birds that resided in Montana during the winter months. And suddenly, right before her own very next footstep, was her telephone!

  “Well, I’ll be darned,” she murmured, and bent down to pick it up. It was dirty and the battery was dead, but Maddie had hopes of reviving it. Carrying it with her, she found a pretty patch of grass next to a big tree and sat down. Putting her head back, she pondered the twists and turns of her life since that day in the arena in Austin when she had sat on Fanny and waited for Janie Weston to run her race. A person never knew when disaster was going to strike, and even Maddie hadn’t realized how truly disastrous that accident had been.

  Troubled again, Maddie tried to make sense of her relationship with Noah. She was in love with him and maybe he loved her, too, but were his feelings for her as deeply everlasting as hers were for him?

  “Aunt June,” Maddie whispered, “I know now what’s in my heart, but how does a woman know what’s in a man’s heart? We never talked about that, did we?”

  The sound of an angry, shrill voice shattered Maddie’s reverie, and she leaped to her feet with such speed that she hurt her bad knee. “Oh, damn,” she mumbled, then put her discomfort aside to listen again. The shouting was easily heard, but Maddie couldn’t see a soul.

  Finally, however, she pinpointed its direction. It was a woman’s voice, and she was clearly shrieking at someone who wasn’t fighting back, or if they were, they were speaking too quietly for Maddie to hear.

  Maddie’s heart began pounding, because there was something creepy about this. What in heaven’s name was going on over there behind that thick stand of brush? Who would come way out here to screech and yell?

  Maddie glanced back to her truck and realized that she could just barely see it. Just as the brushy terrain concealed that screeching woman, so did it almost completely camouflage her truck.

  The next burst of shrillness from beyond the thicket contained a perceptible phrase. “Wyatt North wants me, not that namby-pamby wife of his!”

  Maddie gaped with her mouth open. This was worse than creepy, it was downright scary. Some deranged woman believed and apparently was trying to make someone else believe that Melissa’s husband, Wyatt, wanted her instead of Melissa!

  Maddie looked helplessly at the phone in her hand and wished that it were working. She should call the police. Someone should call the police.

  But there was no one but her to do anything, and she couldn’t stay hidden—or creep away to her truck—if someone was in danger. Considering the fury in the woman’s voice, whomever she was shrieking at could very well be in grave danger.

  Maddie began walking toward the thicket. She told herself that she would just get close enough to see through the brush. Maybe using her eyes instead of her ears on the situation would eradicate her concern.

  The shouting went on…and on…and the closer Maddie got to its source, the clearer became the language. “He’s never loved Melissa. He’s always wanted me. Oh, why didn’t that poison I put in her drink at that boring wedding party kill her? Or why wasn’t she in her wretched little excuse for a restaurant when I burned it to the groun
d? She would have been toast, and Wyatt and I would be together by now!”

  “Oh, my God,” Maddie whispered. Her need to identify the terrible person who was doing all the yelling became more urgent, and when she reached the thicket, she crowded into its prickly little limbs and twiggy branches in an effort to gain a better view.

  There was a light-blue van parked in the field. Its wide side door had been left open, and an old man with long gray hair and beard sat in the opening with his feet on the ground. Before Maddie’s very eyes the tall, not unattractive blond woman ran over to him and slapped him alongside the head.

  “Ouch,” the old man said sadly, and he rubbed the sore spot.

  “You old fool. I’m so tired of looking at your ugly face. I’m so tired of playing nursemaid to an idiot, when I should be living with my true love. I’ll get Melissa yet, you just wait and see.”

  Maddie was unnerved enough to cry. For one thing, she recognized the old man. He was Homer Gilmore, and he’d been considered the town eccentric for as long as Maddie could remember. Obviously, someone had decided that he needed a caregiver, but he sure as hell didn’t need one that slapped and abused him!

  Maddie backed out of the thicket and shouted, “You leave Homer alone, you…you witch!” Rounding the heavy stand of brush, she came face-to-face with the woman, who looked angry enough to battle a grizzly.

  Maddie gulped—the woman was much bigger than she was, and she looked a whole lot healthier, besides—but she stood her ground.

  “I saw you slap Homer, and I’m going to report—” Maddie dodged the blow coming her way, turned around and began running for her truck.

  Screeching invectives and threats, the woman ran after her. Maddie could feel her only a few feet behind her. Her knee was hurting and her heart was beating like a jackhammer, but she kept on running because if that insane woman got her hands on her, she would kill her for sure!

  But in the next instant Maddie’s inborn sense of self-protection kicked in, and she ran around a tree, stopped and waited the few seconds for that horrible woman to catch up with her. When Maddie saw that twisted criminal face coming around the tree she swung the telephone as hard as she could and slammed it against the woman’s temple.

  She went down like a sack of potatoes. “Oh, no, I killed her,” Maddie cried. Kneeling beside the unconscious woman, Maddie felt for a pulse. To her horror the woman came to, grabbed her ankle and held on.

  “You interfering busybody,” the woman snarled. “I’m going to cut you up in little pieces and bury you in this field. No one will ever find you.”

  Noah had just spotted Maddie’s truck in almost the same place she’d gotten it stuck in the snow. He pulled off the road, drove to her truck and parked next to it. Getting out, he frowned, because there were voices coming from somewhere, angry voices! Maddie was here, but she wasn’t alone!

  Instantly alarmed, Noah took off running. In mere seconds he spotted two women fighting with each other and rolling around on the ground. One was Maddie and the other was— “Good Lord,” he muttered, “that’s Connie Adams. What in hell is going on? Maddie! Maddie!” he shouted.

  Both women heard him, but his voice thrilled Maddie and apparently scared the tar out of Connie. She jumped up and ran. Fearing that she would get away, Maddie got up and chased after her.

  “No, Maddie, leave her alone!” Noah shouted, but Maddie kept going.

  Connie went around the thicket screaming at Homer. “Get in the van, you old fool!”

  Before either of them could get in the van, Maddie came barreling around the thicket and without so much as a first thought, let alone a second, she wound up and threw the phone at that evil woman. It was a perfect hit, and again Connie sank to the ground.

  “You beaned ’er, you beaned ’er,” Homer chanted while happily clapping his hands.

  “Yes, I most certainly did,” Maddie said with immense self-satisfaction. “Are you all right, Homer?”

  “Aw, sure. Right as rain. Good as new.”

  Recalling that Homer Gilmore had never seemed to be quite right in the head, Maddie smiled at him. “I’m glad.”

  Noah ran up, saw Connie out cold on the ground and looked inquisitively at Maddie. “Did you do that?”

  “She beaned ’er,” Homer said.

  “I beaned her,” Maddie said solemnly. “With what?”

  “I found my cell phone.”

  “You beaned her with a cell phone?” Spotting the instrument on the ground, Noah went over, picked it up and took a look at it. “You didn’t find your cell phone, you found mine,” he said to Maddie.

  “I most certainly did not find your phone, I found mine! That’s my phone you’re holding!”

  “Nope, it’s mine.” Seeing Maddie bristling, he held up his hand. “Let’s not argue about it now. What happened here? Why did you bean Connie Adams?” He wanted to laugh over the word bean, but this all seemed a bit too serious to stand around and laugh at.

  “Do you actually know this…this witch?”

  “She’s a nurse. Mostly does private work. She’s been taking care of Homer here for quite some time.”

  “Well, she’s terrible to him, and she should be locked up! I saw her slap Homer with my own eyes, and she was screeching and yelling all kinds of terrible things about having poisoned Melissa North and burning down her café so she could have Wyatt, Melissa’s husband. She thinks Wyatt is in love with her. Did you ever hear anything so ridiculous? Well, I can tell you right now that Connie Adams is nuttier than a fruitcake.”

  Noah saw Connie starting to regain consciousness. “She needs to be restrained until this whole thing can be sorted out.” He peered into the blue van and came out with a length of rope. “This should do it.” Deftly he tied Connie’s hands together behind her back, and then hobbled her ankles.

  Maddie had been thinking about what he’d said. “Are you doubting my version of what took place here?” she asked him.

  Noah stood up, leaving Connie tied up on the ground. “Not at all. All I meant was that it will be up to the authorities to sort it out.”

  “She threatened to kill me,” Maddie said, realizing that both her courage and strength were deserting her and leaving her feeling weak and shaky. “I’m sorry, but…I have to sit down.”

  “She actually said she would kill you?” Noah put his arm around Maddie and led her to an ancient fallen tree. He sat on it with her and held her close to his heart. The whole thing was really sinking in now. Connie Adams had threatened Maddie’s life! It was bizarre and one of those things that people found hard to believe, but Maddie wasn’t making this up.

  Noah suddenly felt rather shaky himself. “Maddie, she’s so much bigger and stronger than you are.”

  “Size only counts in—” Maddie bit her tongue.

  “In what?”

  “Uh, in the clothes one buys.”

  Noah chuckled. “You weren’t thinking of clothes, sweetheart. Maddie, one of us has to get to a telephone to call the police, but Homer fell asleep, and if Connie comes to enough to start yelling again I’ll stuff my sock in her mouth. I’ve got a few things to say to you, and I don’t plan on waiting to say them.”

  “Oh, really?”

  “Yes, really. I talked to Dr. Herrera and I know you’ll be up to speed again with six weeks of physical therapy. Maddie, I told you this before, but maybe not in the right way. This time I’m going to say it all. I love you, I want you for my wife and I don’t want you even thinking about heading off for parts unknown to follow the rodeo circuit again.”

  Maddie backed away from him just enough to see his face. “Well, I guess this is as romantic a spot for a marriage proposal as any other.”

  Noah chuckled. “Anywhere you are is romantic to me, darlin’. In case you’re considering saying anything but a resounding yes to my proposal, let me entice you with a few bribes. First, there’s the ranch. I’ll make the trade for my house and we’ll live on that six hundred acres and raise horses and babies, or
cattle and babies, or even hootie owls and babies, whichever you prefer.”

  “Apparently babies aren’t an option?”

  “You want babies, don’t you?”

  Maddie’s heart was gradually filling with joy, but considering the way things had been going for her lately she was almost afraid to believe this was really happening.

  “Yes,” she said softly. “I want babies. Noah, there’s something you don’t know. I had already made up my mind to never compete again. Fanny…Fanny is disabled, and one can’t compete in barrel racing without a horse.”

  “Maddie, I’ll buy you a good horse, if that’s what you want to do. I didn’t mean to tread on your toes about your career when I said I didn’t want you even thinking about it. You have a right to do whatever you want. I hope with all my heart it’s the same as I want, but if it’s not, I’ll buy you any horse you choose.”

  Maddie’s eyes misted over. “I’ll never forget you said that,” she whispered emotionally. “But I’m through with rodeo. It’s probably difficult for you to understand this, but no other horse could ever replace Fanny.”

  “Honey, there must be plenty of good racing horses on the market.”

  “I’m sure there are, but none of them is Fanny.”

  “I’m sorry she was so badly hurt.”

  Maddie looked away. There was Connie, the demon nurse, still tied up, still silent, and poor old Homer, sound asleep with his head against the side of the van. Maddie saw it all but none of it really registered. Noah had asked her to marry him. He’d said he loved her. Why was she hesitating?

  “People will talk, you know,” she said. “They’ll say I married you for financial security because I couldn’t compete anymore.”

  Noah shrugged. “Let ’em talk. What you say and I say matters. Everyone else can talk themselves blue in the face and it wouldn’t matter. Maddie, I’ve told you that before, and you agreed. What’s bothering you now?”

  “I…I guess I didn’t know you were…wealthy,” she stammered.