Ride for a Bride in Wyoming (Rocky Mountain Romances Book 4)

by Charlene Raddon

  "Hezzie?"

  "Hezekiah. Birch's buffalo."

  Annora nodded. "Oh, yes. I’ll never forget the image of that poor animal being forced to run a race."

  "Hezzie doesn't have to be forced to race." Lissette grinned. "It is quite something to see, though, isn't it? Birch up there on that huge, wild animal. We should get a photographer out to the ranch to take photographs. I bet we could sell the image to newspapers back East. Perhaps even that new magazine, Outdoor Life. Wouldn't that be something?"

  "Something, yes." Cousin Lissette had her head in the clouds, poor girl. Someone should bring her down to reality. Not Annora, though. She'd learned the wisdom of minding her own business and keeping her mouth shut at a young age.

  The kitten crawled into her lap, curled up and went to sleep. She stroked the creature's soft fur and felt her love for animals ease away the pain of feeling deceived. Animals always did that to her. She believed she had a special bond with them.

  Her grandmother would have said Annora must have been an animal in a previous life. Grandma Tilly believed in reincarnation. Annora didn’t, but something did happen when she peered into an animal's eyes. It was as if a window opened on the creature's soul, allowing her to connect to what they felt; fear, love, hunger, contentment.

  When the buffalo had met her gaze earlier, she'd sensed loneliness. He wanted to be with his own kind. She'd felt terrible for him and wanted to set him free.

  "Here comes Chance now," Lissette said, interrupting Annora's thoughts. "Thank you, Annora, for agreeing to stay with us. It means so much to me."

  "I had looked forward to us having time together, Cousin." Annora lowered her gaze from fleecy white clouds to the muddy street. Sure enough, Chance Brownell hurried toward them. He exchanged comments and laughter with people along the way. A handsome man, though not as good to look at as Birch Struthers. She had to admit, they did breed attractive men here in the West. Not that she cared about that. She had no interest in men. All they did was lie, deceive, and leave a woman hurting.

  Attractive or not, she could go a long time without laying eyes on Mr. Struthers again. He may wear denims and muddy boots rather than silk, but her brief association with him labeled him a tiptopper—a man with nothing to brag about except his looks, one who expected women to swoon at the sight of him. He'd be left standing here after hell froze over if he waited to see her faint on his account.

  "Shall we be on our way, ladies?" Chance helped his wife up and took his seat on the other side of her.

  "Yes," Lissette answered, "I'm sure Annora is more than ready to freshen up and rest a bit."

  "Oh, yes. Thank you for being so perceptive, Cousin." Annora braced for the moment when the horses moved, and the wagon would react with a jarring lurch. It didn't come. Chance Brownell handled his rig with the skill of a professional carriage driver.

  Watching the stores ease past as they lumbered up the street, she thought over her argument with Lissette. The girl had always been fair and was forever trying to help people. And Eleanore Bostwick could be very convincing when she wanted something. What it boiled down to was a simple misunderstanding, nothing worth ruining a life-long friendship over.

  Somehow, she would find a way to forgive her cousin. Hoping to ease the tension between them with everyday chatter, she asked, "Do you live near town?"

  "About six miles out." Chance flicked the reins, urging the horses to speed up as they passed the last wagon and left town behind.

  "You'll love High Plains Ranch." Lissette patted Annora's hand. "The country is so green and pretty this time of year. And it's peaceful, compared to town."

  "I'm sure you're right. And I'm so looking forward to spending time with you. I will need to start work very soon, however, to prepare my office and living quarters. I hope to move in as soon as possible."

  Lissette made a face at that. "I'd hoped you'd stay with us at least a week or more."

  "I doubt I could get the place ready before then, but we'll see how matters go. I am eager to get my own branch of the ASPCA open and running. I need to spread the word that unwanted pets can be brought to me to find new homes." She heaved a happy sigh. "It was mighty gracious of Mama and Papa to buy the office for me, and for you to find it. You couldn't have done a better job. It's perfect."

  Lissette gave a small shake of her head. "Even so, I don't envy the responsibility you're assuming, Cousin."

  The rest of the ride went well enough. The three of them chatted about Wyoming weather, sights Lissette wanted Annora to see, and the summer dance scheduled to follow the ranch competition and the Ride for a Bride race.

  Excitement lit Lissette's face. "We'll have to see that you have something appropriate to wear, Annora. Everyone attends the summer dance."

  "Is it always held in conjunction with the competition?" she asked, hiding the mortification she felt at the prospect of attending a country social event. She would hate every moment of it, but couldn't refuse to go and thus break Lissette's heart.

  "Every year." Chance steered the team through a long mud hole full of rocks, judging by the bumpy ride.

  "I attend few dances," Annora said, flicking some dirt from her skirt. "I guess you could say I'm not the social type."

  "Oh, you have to go." Lissette wriggled in her seat with excitement. "It's the highlight of the year."

  "Except for the spring dance and harvest and Christmas celebrations," Chance said with a chuckle.

  Annora swallowed a groan. More dances?

  Lissette colored a little. "Well, yes, there are those too." She laughed. "I love them all."

  Leaning forward to see Chance on the other side of Lissette, Annora said, "May I ask why you wished me luck in establishing my branch of the ASPCA?"

  "Oh, you'll have no problem opening the office. But if you hope to change the way folks here take care of their critters, you might as well slam your head into a brick wall."

  "You're saying they're stubborn?" She tried not to feel discouraged. He didn't know her well enough if he thought she'd give up that easily.

  "You could say that, but there's more to it. Forgive me, but folks here aren’t going to pay much attention to someone who recently moved here from back East. We've been handling livestock all our lives, Miss Bostwick. I reckon most of us figure we're bound to know more about it than a green New Yorker."

  That made sense, and she could understand his concerns. But she wasn't done with this debate. "I do not claim to know more about animals than anyone else, Mr. Brownell. I don’t need to, to know they shouldn’t be abused."

  "What we see as the best way to deal with an ornery critter, you might call abuse. Most animals aren't too bright. You can't treat livestock the way you would a house cat."

  Annoyed and frustrated, she knotted her fists in her lap. The kitten mewled in protest. The man had chosen to mistrust her motives, and comparing livestock to cats was plain nonsense.

  She loved pets and wished she could have brought hers from home, but her mother loved Sassy as much as Annora did, and since she was leaving, she figured the kind thing to do would be to leave the cat behind. It was true she knew little about dealing with horses and cattle, but animals were animals. Most had four legs, but she was well aware some had only two. She hoped she wasn't looking at one of those now.

  Straightening her shoulders, she said, "Beating an animal, whether a cat or a cow is what I call abuse, Mr. Brownell, and anyone who can't see that needs to spend some time at the other end of the lash."

  Lissette giggled.

  Chance did not.

  ~~^~~

  Annora stretched until her toes curled and her fingers touched the wall through the rungs of the brass headboard. She inhaled the fresh air from the open window and knew at once she wasn't in New York. Opening her eyes, she took in the small room with its log walls, puncheon floor, and muslin curtains billowing inside the room.

  Sheridan, Wyoming.

  A whiff of manure drifted in, along with the lowing of
cattle. A rooster crowed in the distance.

  Yes. Sheridan, Wyoming.

  She threw back the blankets and swung her legs to the side, sitting up and yawning. Dishes clattered somewhere. Breakfast. Her stomach growled. With haste, she splashed her face with water from the basin on the washstand and pulled on a clean dress from her trunk. An odd-shaped object sat in the corner covered with a pink and blue quilt. Curious as to what it might be, she lifted a corner of the quilt to peek underneath. A cradle. A small gasp escaped her lips, and she rushed out the door.

  "Lissette?"

  "In the kitchen."

  The smell of fried ham, potatoes and onions scented the air. Annora followed her nose and found her cousin spooning batter into a hot frypan on the stove. She had gone out of her way to make Annora's first breakfast in Wyoming special.

  "Good morning. Ready for flapjacks?" Lissette asked, smiling.

  "Are you with child?" Annora blurted. "I saw the cradle in my room."

  The woman's face lit up, and she smiled. "Yes. Chance built it. Isn't it beautiful?"

  "Why hadn't you told me?"

  Lissette took hold of her hands. "To tell you the truth, I've been so wrought up over this issue of the race that everything else slipped under the table."

  Annora wasn't convinced. "Even the fact that you're with child?"

  "Yes, and I wanted to surprise you with my news."

  "Well, it was a definite surprise. I had no idea." Annora eyed her cousin's waistline and perceived a slight thickening since the last time she'd seen her eighteen months ago at Lissette and Chance's wedding in New York. He had been there visiting his parents and met Lissette at a garden party. Within a week, they became engaged.

  Annora had doubted the couple could fall in love in such a short amount of time and worried for Lissette's happiness. Looking at the girl now, she realized she'd had no need to fret. She gave her a hug. "I always heard expecting women glowed. It's true." She stepped back. "I'm so pleased for you."

  "I know. It's wonderful, isn't it? Chance is going to be a fabulous father." They parted, but Lissette clung to Annora's hand, her other hand splayed over the slight mound of her stomach. "I want you to be as happy as I am. That's why I entered your name in the contest."

  "Well, they're going to have to find another bride. Since I did not consent, they can't hold me to the agreement."

  Horror replaced the smile on Lissette's face. "Oh, Annora, you can't do that." The flapjacks began to burn, and she pushed the pan away from the flames.

  "Why not?"

  Lissette fisted her hands and held them in front of her, almost as if praying. Her eyes were closed. When she opened them, the desperation Annora saw there left her shocked and frightened. Going to her, she drew her cousin's hands down and looked her in the eye. "Lissette, what is it? Tell me. Something is wrong, and I want to know what."

  Dropping onto a chair at the table like a wet dishrag, Lissette said, in a faltering voice, "I didn't mean to tell you this, but the worry is eating me alive. Three years ago, Papa almost lost his textile factory. He'd defaulted on the loan, and the bank threatened to foreclose. Your parents saved us."

  Annora sat beside her. "How? What happened?"

  "They paid off the loan. But that gave them a forty percent interest in the factory. Papa promised to pay them back, but they wanted shares instead. Your father used his contacts and influence to improve the business, and this past year, it began to make a profit."

  "I don't understand what this has to do with you putting me down as the bride for that childish race."

  "I'm getting to it." Lissette took a deep breath, swallowed, and wiped away a tear teetering on her eyelid. "After you told your mother you were coming here, she called my mother on the telephone and insisted that I find you a husband, or..."

  "Or...?" Annora prompted. "What?"

  "Oh, Annora," Lissette grabbed her cousin's hands and clung to them. "I didn't want to do it, but Mama and Papa couldn't survive without the factory, and if your parents withdrew their help and demanded to be paid back, my parents would be ruined. I know what I did was wrong, but they're my parents. What could I do?"

  Annora sat back, pulling her hands free. She felt sick inside. And furious. "My Mother threatened to ruin your parents if they didn't do what she wanted and find me a husband?"

  Lissette nodded. "Chance and I didn't know what to do, so he came up with the idea for the Ride for a Bride Race and got Birch to agree to sign up."

  Surging to her feet, Annora paced the room. "How dare my parents do something so despicable? I knew Mother wanted me to marry, but I never dreamed she'd go to such lengths."

  "She has consumption. It doesn't excuse her, but it explains why she's in a hurry to get grandchildren."

  Consumption. Why hadn't her parents told her before she left? She should rush home.

  No, her anger was still too hot. Facing her mother could be a disaster. Annora's heart hid a great deal of resentment toward her mother for all the times she'd been shut out of family events because of her age. By the time she had hit her teens, she'd felt like she'd spent her life in isolation. There had never been any closeness between her and her parents. Lissette's parents had been more like she imagined parents should be, and she loved them dearly. That love outweighed the loyalty she felt toward her own parents.

  "I'm sorry to hear about Mother being ill, but you're right, it doesn't make up for what she's done to your family. What can I do to help?"

  Lifting a shoulder and letting it fall, Lissette looked as forlorn as Annora felt. "Don't back out of the bride agreement. Or, if you do, marry someone else."

  She swallowed hard but couldn't dislodge the feelings of anger, betrayal, and fear roiling inside her. Every encounter she'd ever had with a man had ended in heartache. Now she was to be coerced into marriage? Could she wed a man who forced animals to go against their own nature to do his bidding? Could she bear his children and spend the rest of her life with him?

  This couldn't be happening. She wanted to scream, rant, strike out, and cry all at the same time. Life at that instant couldn't seem worse.

  The back door opened and Chance entered, followed by Birch Struthers.

  She had been wrong—life could seem worse.

  CHAPTER THREE

  "Annora?" A woman's voice called.

  "Back here." Annora stepped out of the back room, a sort of combination storage and washroom, and waved the rag she'd rinsed out. Every window shone clean and clear now. "Let me put my supplies away, and I'll be right with you."

  "Can I help?" Beth Jenkens asked.

  She smiled at her visitor. Beth's husband owned the haberdashery next door. Newly married, the Jenkens had no children yet, but Beth loved animals as much as Annora did, and they had become instant friends once they’d met.

  "I don't have that much to do." She hung the rag on a hook to dry. "I need to acquire some furniture."

  Beth looked nice in a crisp cotton print dress and black knitted shawl. "There's a furniture store on Alger Street. It's closed now, but I can point it out on our way to the rodeo."

  "Rodeo?" Much as Annora loved her cousin, Lissette, she was glad to have a friend in town, since she was still angry with Lissette.

  "That's what folks are starting to call the competition." Beth wandered about the empty room.

  "Oh." An odd word. Annora wondered where and how it originated. She grabbed her shawl and closed the storage-room door, joining Beth in the main room. The two of them were attending the rodeo together. "Shall we go?"

  "Yes. I'm rather excited. George always attends these functions, but not many women go." Beth leaned closer as if to confide a secret. "I've heard the dust raised by the games is terrible, and the men swear a lot."

  "Men do that when there are no women around." Annora locked the door, and they made their way to Main Street, then east toward the edge of town.

  Along the way, Beth pointed out which stores were best to frequent, which had good prices, and
which had poor products to avoid. Like Lissette, she seemed to assume Annora would be seeking a husband, so she also pointed out a few unmarried men she considered good catches. She refused to allow herself to be annoyed. She intended to enjoy the outing. To that purpose, she changed the subject whenever marriage or men reared its hideous head.

  They could hear and smell the competition grounds long before they reached them. Someone had put up a large sign: Sheridan Rodeo Competition. The odors of dirt, manure, and animal fur, along with man-sweat assaulted them. Loud voices cheered. Hands clapped, and feet stomped. Hooves pounded the earth and animals snorted.

  "Gracious me," Annora said, "I can't wait to see what's going on in there."

  "Me too. George promised to save us seats. I hope we can find him easily. I told him we'd be staying an hour or so."

  From what Annora had seen, smelled and heard so far, she was sure she'd be ready to leave by then.

  They reached the edge of the crowd, almost all men, in time to hear a loud thud, grunts, and snorts. Men shouted and swore as they scattered, allowing the women to see a man go flying through the air from the back of a maddened bull.

  Annora decided five minutes might be long enough.

  ~~^~~

  "Holy Saints?" exclaimed the man in charge of timing the events. "That woman's crazy."

  "Woman?" Birch turned to see what he'd missed while he'd taken a swig of beer.

  In the center of the grounds, Texas Jim was trying his best to stay on the back of a bull called Pure Devil who bucked, gyrated, snorted, and flung snot everywhere in the attempt to rid himself of his rider. A typical bull ride. But the eyes of the spectators who surrounded the makeshift arena were trained not on Jim, but on a woman walking straight into the arena as if strolling through a park. A few more steps and the woman would find herself in grave trouble. The usual result of being kicked or gored by a bull was a visit to the graveyard, or, at the very least, a long stint in a sickbed.

  Cursing, Birch broke into a run. Just what he needed. First, a boy almost getting killed, now a woman. The city would forbid the ranchers from ever holding the competition again. And he would take the blame.