The Independent Bride

by Leigh Greenwood

  “Why would you do something like this after all I’ve told you?”

  Abby massaged her wrists, glaring defiantly at him. “When will you understand this is my livelihood. I have nowhere to go if I fail. I’ve got to succeed.”

  He did understand. What she didn’t understand was that her efforts to succeed were almost guaranteed to cause trouble. He could take away her license to run the store at the fort, but she was just stubborn enough to move to Boulder Gap and concentrate on the beef contract. It was her ownership of that contract that posed the real danger. It looked as if his best option was to make sure she was able to deliver on the contract.

  “How did you know where to find the herd?” That wasn’t what he’d expected to ask when he set out after her, but the sooner he got it through his Philadelphia society-conditioned brain that there was nothing ordinary about Abby, that she wouldn’t behave the way his mother or any other society woman behaved, the better chance he’d have of keeping her alive. She looked surprised, not sure how to answer him.

  “From what you and Zeb told me, I figured the trail was to the west. Going east would be too far out of their way.”

  “Unless they were trying to avoid the rustlers. But Lavater is too stubborn to do anything sensible like try to avoid trouble. He’s a lot like some other people I know.”

  “You don’t have to pretend you’re not talking about me. I know what you’re thinking, but I didn’t have any choice. If I don’t pay my bills on time, I’ll lose everything.”

  It had to be hard for a woman who’d never had any real responsibility to suddenly find herself in such a mess. Nevertheless, he had to find some way to make her understand that there were certain dangers she couldn’t take lightly.

  “You should have asked me to help, instead of taking off on your own.”

  “This is my problem, not yours.”

  “I’ve already explained that anything that happens out here is ultimately my problem.”

  Abby gave him a steely look. “Do you have authority over civilians?”

  “No.”

  “Then what authority do you have to order the back to me fort?”

  He didn’t have any, and he suspected she knew it. “When there’s danger to people or property, I can exercise absolute authority.”

  “Since there’s no danger, I can go where I want.”

  “There’s always danger to a woman alone. Do you realize if you’d ridden much farther, you wouldn’t have been able to return to the fort tonight?” Of course she hadn’t. She had no concept of the distances in the West.

  “Aren’t there ranches, farms, people who live out here?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then I could ask for lodging with one of them for the night.”

  “That’s not always possible.”

  “Then I’d have slept on the ground like your men.”

  “If my superiors in Washington found out about that, I could lose my command.”

  “I wouldn’t want you to jeopardize your career.”

  Sarcasm again, but he resisted the temptation to answer in kind. Then don’t leave the fort without talking to me first.”

  Abby had always found it difficult to endure lectures. The fact that she was in the wrong made it that much harder. But to have Bryce chide her for deficiencies he’d already taken care of was the last straw. For several moments she was unable to speak without saying something that would later cover her with shame.

  “I appreciate your attempts to help me learn and understand how to survive out here,” she said when she’d recovered her temper somewhat. “I’m very much aware of my ignorance, but you don’t have to rub my nose in it.”

  “I just want you to understand how dangerous it can be to do anything without thinking.”

  “I did think. I just didn’t know all the things to think about. I would have let Zeb take me back to the fort if I’d realized the extent of the trouble I could cause.”

  Bryce looked surprised. “I thought I’d have to hog-tie you to keep you from going after that herd.”

  “I don’t make a practice of ignoring danger.”

  “You have since you’ve been out here. You haven’t taken a single piece of my advice.”

  “That’s because you’ve just been telling me what I can’t do. Advise me how to get done what I need to do and I’ll listen to you plenty.”

  He knew he shouldn’t be agreeing to help her, but he couldn’t be the one to cause her to fail. She had too much courage; she tried too hard. Maybe if he helped her, she’d soon learn enough to stay alive. There’d be no one to watch her after he was gone.

  “Look, Dorrie told me you have to keep the peace to get your post back East, but if the beef doesn’t arrive, you’ll have a hard time doing that. I have to deliver the beef to have the money to resupply the store. So if you help me, you’re helping yourself as well.”

  “Working together will help both of us,” Bryce said, “but if we agree to work together, it will really have to be together. You can’t rush off after rustlers without talking to me first.”

  “Okay. We’ve lost half the herd. What do you suggest I do?”

  “Give the patrol a chance to find the cattle. If my men can’t, you could see if you can find replacements.”

  “And if I can’t?”

  “Put all your effort into getting a full shipment the next month.”

  “I can’t restock the trading post if I can’t pay off my creditors.”

  “Don’t try to solve everything at once.”

  “You can say that because you’ve got the government behind you. I have no one.”

  “You’ve got me. Doesn’t that count for something?”

  Abby was certain Bryce meant to offer his help in an official way, but the way he said it, the way he looked when he said it, invested his offer with a personal meaning.

  “It counts for a great deal,” Abby said, “but in the end, I must learn to stand on my own two feet.”

  Bryce wasn’t used to a woman who acted and thought like Abby Pierce. He knew exactly what he thought of her as a person. She was honest, forthright, industrious— he could go on enumerating her good qualities, but it added up to her being a person he could admire. He wasn’t sure but what he would have preferred a woman he could admire less and who depended on him more.

  What did he think of her as a woman? Maybe more to the point, why couldn’t he stop thinking of her?

  There was something about Abby that had gotten its claws into his gut, yet she was as different as night and day from the kind of woman who usually attracted him, from the kind he’d married, from the kind he wanted for his future wife. While he never doubted she was a lady to the core, she was much too forward, too aggressive and energetic, ever to accept, or be accepted into, the society he’d been part of since birth. She would never submit to its restrictions. She’d be ready to scream with frustration inside of a month. He could imagine her running his home efficiently and being a good mother to his children, but she’d most certainly scandalize the very women she needed to impress to help him with his career.

  He didn’t know why he was thinking like this. Abby didn’t like him and he wasn’t interested in her in that way. It had to be that she had upset him so badly he wasn’t thinking straight. He wasn’t used to having a woman at the fort who didn’t do what was expected of her. He wasn’t used to one whose actions could destroy all his plans for the future. And he wasn’t used to having one who was pretty and single staying in his house. He had to get his thoughts under control. Then he had to think of a way to convince Abby to consult him before she did something crazy.

  “I agree you’ve got to learn to stand on your own,” Bryce said, “but it will take you a long time to learn everything you need to know. Until then, you shouldn’t feel reluctant to ask for help and advice.”

  Abby smiled at him. It was nothing personal, just amusement. “I have no problem asking for help or advice. The problem is that you and I don’t
agree on when I need to ask.”

  That was the crux of the situation neatly stated. “Let’s try a compromise. If it concerns the store, talk it out with Moriah. If it involves the fort, the soldiers, anything or anybody off the fort, talk to me.”

  “That doesn’t leave room for me to make any decisions on my own.”

  As far as he was concerned, she shouldn’t be making decisions on her own, but he knew she wouldn’t like it if he said so. “You don’t have to take advice or accept help just because it’s offered. Use it to help you know what to expect.”

  He hoped he’d spoken diplomatically enough to keep her from becoming angry with him. He had no illusions that she would do everything he advised, but at least he would be forewarned. He’d nearly lost control of his temper today when the stableman gave him Zeb’s message. His commands, all delivered at a shout, had people moving at a run.

  “That sounds reasonable,” Abby said. “But,” she added before he could breathe a sigh of relief, “it won’t work if you insist upon interfering when I don’t want you to.”

  “I won’t interfere unless it affects the army’s work here.”

  “But that could be anything.”

  “You’ll have to trust me to know when I can give you your freedom and when I can’t.”

  “That’s something else we don’t agree on.”

  “Was it fun chasing rustlers?” Pamela asked. “Are they all dirty and mean-looking? Did they try to shoot you dead? Did they threaten to tie you up and do terrible things to you?”

  Supper had proceeded much as it had every other night, but tension lurked beneath the surface.

  “Where did you get ideas like that?” Bryce asked his daughter.

  “I’m not stupid, Daddy,” his daughter said. “Everybody knows being chased by people with guns makes you frown a lot. You always tell me I don’t look pretty when I frown. They can’t be clean if they never come to the fort to wash. They wouldn’t be bad men if they didn’t shoot people and take things that didn’t belong to them. And you wouldn’t have forbidden the women to leave the fort alone if nobody wanted to do terrible things to them.”

  Abby did her best to keep from smiling, but it was obvious Pamela’s common sense approach stunned her father. He apparently still believed his daughter was an innocent child.

  “They were very much as you described them,” Abby told Pamela, “but they didn’t get a chance to do terrible things to me. Your father drove them away.”

  “Did you shoot any of them?”

  “No. We caught them in a crossfire and they ran away.”

  “They’re not very good bad men if they ran away,” Pamela said, disgusted.

  “You should be glad we were able to scare them off,” Abby said. “That way none of the soldiers got hurt.”

  Pamela looked torn between wanting to keep the soldiers safe and her desire for a more exciting adventure.

  “This way the Indians will get their beef,” Bryce said.

  “And I will get the money to pay my debts,” Abby added.

  It was clear from Pamela’s expression that as admirable and necessary as those two objectives might be, they ranked very low compared to bad men who put up a heroic resistance. For a young girt who’d spent the entire day indoors studying her lessons, excitement was greatly to be desired, even if a few soldiers had to get shot to provide it.

  “How did it go in the store today?” Bryce asked Moriah.

  “Well enough,” Moriah responded with her usual tendency to say less than people wanted to hear.

  “Did anyone give you any trouble?” Bryce asked.

  “No.”

  “Daddy said he bet at least fifty men proposed to you,” Pamela said.

  “I wouldn’t consider keeping count of something like that,” Moriah said. From her expression one might believe she thought being proposed to was a fault for which she would be blamed.

  “Dorrie said she had to drive them off with a stick,” Abby said.

  “It’s all because Zeb told everybody I’m a good cook,” Moriah said. “Is any man foolish enough to think a woman would marry him just for the privilege of cooking for him?”

  “A lot of men believe that,” Bryce said. “There’s not a single woman who’s come to the fort or Boulder Gap who hasn’t married almost as soon as she got off the stage. Very few women are able to make a living for themselves.”

  “I’ve been brought up to expect to earn my own living,” Moriah said.

  Abby was beginning to realize she and Moriah were very fortunate to have been brought up with the knowledge that a woman could survive without a man to provide for her. Their father had always sent money for their support, but Moriah had helped Aunt Emma in her dress shop, and Abby had had her own job. They were used to depending on themselves, making their own decisions.

  “I think he considers this habit his soldiers have of proposing to the first woman they meet as something of a joke,” Abby said.

  “I wouldn’t have any less respect for you if you accepted one of them,” Bryce said. “There are some very fine men here, but your sister is right.”

  “I don’t consider it at all humorous that these men propose marriage to any unattached female they meet,” Moriah said. “I consider it quite tragic.”

  Abby would have to remember to tell Bryce that Moriah had no sense of humor.

  “I’ll have the officers speak to the men,” Bryce said, “but I’m afraid it won’t do much good.”

  “I expect the best thing to do is to politely refuse and act as though it’s of no importance,” Abby said.

  “Maybe you can act as if it’s unimportant, but you don’t want to get married,” Moriah said to her sister. “These men must feel desperate.”

  “I don’t think they’re quite desperate,” Bryce said, “but they do see marriage as a way to improve their quality of life.”

  “Why don’t you want to get married?” Pamela asked Abby.

  Chapter Ten

  The question caught Abby by surprise. She hadn’t cataloged her reasons. She knew she’d never trust a man again after what had happened in St. Louis. She wouldn’t go so far as to say Albert’s perfidy broke her heart. So much was happening at the time—her father’s death, the scandal about the theft, the loss of her job, the decision to come West—it was difficult to know just how she felt about any one thing. Marriage seemed to hurt everyone. Her father felt rootless when his wife died. Abby felt abandoned when her father wouldn’t take her with him. Even her Aunt Emma had warned her to think carefully before marrying. All she could say for certain was that she didn’t want to have to depend on a man for her support. No, not just that. She didn’t want her happiness, her emotional well-being, to be dependent on anyone else. She didn’t want a man’s reputation to determine her own. She wanted to be valued for her own achievements, to be seen as a person in her own right, not a reflection of someone else.

  “I like my independence,” she said to Pamela.

  “Don’t you want to have babies?”

  “That’s not a suitable question to ask a guest,” Bryce said. “Apologize to Miss Pierce.”

  “I’m sorry it’s not a suitable question,” Pamela said, “but I still want to know why you don’t want to have babies.”

  “It’s not an apology when you repeat your question,” her father said.

  “I like children,” Abby said to Pamela, “but I’d have to have a husband.”

  “You can have Daddy. He’s not married.”

  That remark nearly unsettled Abby, but Bryce looked so stricken she immediately felt better. His reaction made her wonder if he might not like her a little more than he wanted to. That thought kindled an unwelcome response in her. Bryce was almost exactly the kind of man she would have wanted for a husband if she hadn’t decided she didn’t want a husband at all.

  “If you can’t stop asking personal questions, you’ll have to leave the table,” Bryce said to Pamela.

  “But that wasn’t a qu
estion, Daddy.”

  “She’s right,” Abby said. “But you can’t go around offering to give your father to any woman who wants him.”

  “I don’t,” Pamela said. “I only want to give him to you.”

  “I’m afraid you can’t do that,” Abby said. “Getting married is a complicated thing.”

  “Why?”

  “Lots of reasons,” Abby said. “After all, you’re talking about living with a man for the rest of your life. He’s responsible for taking care of you and supporting your children. Two people have to have a special kind of liking for each other to get married.”

  “What special kind of liking?” Pamela asked, her brow creased.

  “They have to love each other.”

  Pamela’s frown disappeared, to be replaced by a brilliant smile. “Daddy told Zeb he’d love to see you married to a man who’d keep you locked up until you learned how to keep from killing yourself. Is that the kind of love you’re talking about?”

  “Not at all,” Abby said, shooting Bryce a baleful glance. “That is the kind of love that will keep me single.”

  “I don’t understand,” Pamela said.

  “You will when you get older.”

  “That’s what Daddy says all the time.” Her disgust was plain to see.

  “One tiling you have to learn is not to repeat everything you hear,” Bryce said. “It seldom sounds the way it was intended.”

  “But you told it to Zeb. Why can’t I tell it to Miss Abby?”

  “You’ll understand when you’re older,” Abby and Bryce said in unison.

  “Did your momma say that to you when you were a little girl?” Pamela asked Moriah.

  “My mother died when I was five, but I wasn’t a very curious child.”

  “Is it bad to be curious?”

  “No, but curiosity can often lead you to ask things that are difficult to answer. Everything is more complicated for adults. If I’d had a choice, I’d never have grown up. I was much happier as a child.”

  “Daddy says he can’t wait for me to grow up. Does that mean he doesn’t want me to be happy?”