RNWMP: Bride for Elijah (Mail Order Mounties Book 2)

by Kay P. Dawson

  Seeing his wife and grandmother together, he realized how much they had in common. Well, except that his grandma was the best cook in the world, but he was sure in time Rose might be able to improve in that area.

  They were both strong women, who had a kindness that sometimes people mistook for weakness. And they were both fiercely protective of him at the moment.

  They slowly made their way to the other room, and just when he thought he would make it to the rocking chair without incident, Rose bumped into the side of the stove, jerking her hip into him. They stumbled slightly, and he had to reach out to grab the side of the counter to stop himself from falling.

  Wincing in pain, he sharply took a breath in, hissing through his teeth.

  "Oh, Elijah, I'm so sorry! I told you this wasn't a good idea."

  He stood for a moment with his eyes closed, waiting for the pain in his ribs to subside a bit.

  How could he tell her that he'd expected at least one incident to happen before they made it to the chair? He loved this woman, but she had a tendency to be less than graceful most of the time. Although he had to admit to finding it somewhat endearing most of the time, right now he wasn't appreciating it as much.

  "It's fine. Maybe we should walk out more toward the middle of the room where there's less chance of you running into anything."

  He was almost sure he saw her eyes flash with a hint of anger at his insinuation, but she quickly hid it as they started to walk again. He smiled to himself knowing how much she likely was biting her tongue to not say anything to him at the moment.

  When he was sitting in the chair, she went to get back up but he held onto her hand so she couldn't stand. Staring into the big, dark eyes looking back at him, he smiled. "Thank you for getting me here in one piece."

  "Next time you might not be so lucky." She gave him the biggest, sweetest smile she could, letting him know she didn't appreciate his attempt at humor.

  Walking away, she turned to his grandmother. "Now that he's up, I'm going to run to the store to get some of the supplies we need." She looked back at him and tilted her head slightly. "I hope you won't grumble too much for your grandmother."

  He leaned back and grinned. He knew maybe he hadn't been the best patient, but he was sure he wasn't as bad as she made it out to be.

  "I promise to be on my best behavior, until you get back."

  He waited until she caught what he'd said, then grinned as she shook her head and walked out the door.

  Knowing how easy Rose was to rile up, he realized he was going to thoroughly enjoy spending his life with this woman.

  She walked outside, holding her basket that she'd filled with everything they needed. Pearl had been showing her some of her favorite recipes, especially ones she'd said Elijah loved.

  Tonight, she was going to show her how to make his favorite stew, so Rose had grabbed all the ingredients they would need.

  It was a beautiful day, with a hint of a breeze blowing through the trees around the town. She smiled and said hello to the residents who approached her asking about Elijah. She never would have dreamed living in a small town like Squirrel Ridge Junction could make her feel so happy.

  Seeing her father and Robert walk toward her from the hotel across the street, she took a deep breath and waited to speak to them. She'd almost been able to forget that they were still here—and had told them firmly that while she was caring for her sick husband, she didn’t have time to visit with them. But she wished she could have spent some more time with her mother, although since she seemed unable to see how wrong they were being in trying to force her to go back home, Rose had avoided her too.

  "Hello, Father. Robert"

  She knew he probably wasn't marching over to her to make small talk, so she braced herself for whatever he planned to say to her.

  "Rose, I've been patient long enough. You're coming home with us on that train tomorrow."

  Sighing loudly, she shook her head. "I don't know how many times I need to tell you—I'm not going home with you. This is my home now."

  He shoved a paper in her hands. "You might want to read this. I'm certain your Mountie husband wouldn't like to have something like this leaked to the world. That's if he even knows himself. Can you imagine how he would feel to find this out?"

  She noticed Robert standing with a smug smile on his face, which sent a chill down her spine. Scared to read what was on the page in front of her, she slowly put her eyes down to the paper.

  As she read, her stomach knotted and her hands started to shake.

  Raising her eyes to meet her father's she struggled to see him through the wetness blurring her vision. "You just can't give up until you get your way, can you?

  "I expect you to be at the train station when that train arrives in the morning. I'm sure your Mountie will be more than happy to let you out of your marriage after you've run back home." He turned to walk away. "And if you decide not to show up, you can be sure that everyone will find out the truth that you're holding in your hand."

  Crumpling the paper into her fist, she watched them leave. Robert grinned back at her, sure he was finally going to succeed in having her.

  She had no other choice. She couldn't let Elijah find out the truth. And if it got out to the world, his reputation and that of his family would be ruined.

  Chapter 22

  Sleep wouldn't come, and as she lay next to Elijah listening to his even breathing, her heart ached knowing how hurt he was going to be. He'd never come out and said it, but she’d started to believe he might care for her.

  And as much as she wanted to tell him how she felt, she knew it wouldn't be fair now. Slowly crawling out from her side of the bed, she tiptoed to the other room. She let her eyes look around, letting herself see everything she'd come to love about this place.

  It was nothing compared to what she'd had growing up, but the memories she'd already made in this small cabin were much happier than any she'd had in her large house back in Ottawa.

  This place felt more like home than anywhere she'd ever known.

  Swallowing hard, she moved over to the door, opening it and to walk out onto the front step. She didn't want to wake Elijah, and she knew her nervous pacing inside would be too loud. Hugging her arms in front of her, she looked up at the stars in the sky. The mountains stretched as far as she could see, and it seemed like the peaks were reaching up to touch the moon.

  Suddenly, someone grabbed her arm, pulling her to them while covering her mouth so she couldn't scream. Not that she thought Elijah would be much help at the moment, but one of the other Mounties might have heard her.

  She was dragged across the road and into the bushes on the other side, as she tried to kick and hit at whoever it was who had her.

  "Stop it, Rose. It's just me."

  Robert!

  "If I take my hand away, you have to promise not to scream."

  She glared at him in the darkness, not even sure if he could see her face. So, she tried to bite his hand to let him know how she felt about being dragged into the bushes.

  "Ouch!" He pulled his hand back and shook it.

  "What are you doing? It's not enough that you've already managed to destroy my husband's name if I don't go home with you, so you decide you need to kidnap me too?" She was shaking with rage.

  "Well, Rose, I know you enough to know you’ll likely try to pull something to get out of coming home with me. So I decided to make sure your husband wouldn't want a woman who’d sneak off into the bushes with her old boyfriend. A soiled woman isn't a good choice for a Mountie."

  Her heart raced as she looked around for an escape. She could scream now, but she knew she was too far for anyone to hear her. Robert was strong, and he was holding her arms tight in front of her.

  "I've missed you, Rose. I can't wait to start our lives together." He brought his head down and tried to kiss her, but she turned her head.

  Pushing her to the ground, he hissed, "You've always thought you were better than me. Y
ou didn't know how good you had it, to be marrying Robert Harvey. Do you know how humiliating it was for me to hear that you ran off to marry someone else?"

  As he started to crawl on top of her, she tried to bring her knee up, but he pushed it down with his hands.

  Suddenly, she heard loud snorting coming from the bushes beside them.

  "What was that?" Robert quickly turned his head, distracted for a moment. She pushed at him and managed to throw him off. He reached out and grabbed her arm as she tried to get away.

  But before he could pull her back down, Monty ambled out from the bush, snorting directly into Robert's face. She almost laughed out loud at the terror she could see in the man’s eyes.

  Monty didn't move, standing nose to nose with him as Robert slowly stood up. The giant moose stomped his front foot on the ground, and that was all Robert needed to turn and run. He raced out of the bushes, never even looking back to see if Rose was all right.

  She backed away, remembering Elijah saying just because he might be cute, Monty could still be dangerous. As she looked at him now, though, she didn't believe it. If she could, she would have hugged the animal for being her savior.

  However, before she could even contemplate the safety of that idea, Monty looked at her, then turned and went back into the bushes.

  She decided she wasn't going to stand there and wait to see if Robert would return. Although the last she'd seen of him, he was flying up the street toward the hotel with his feet barely touching the ground.

  Running back to her house, she got inside and closed the door quietly behind her. She only had a few hours to decide what she was going to do, so she moved to sit in the chair to calm her nerves while she came up with her plan.

  She just hoped Elijah could forgive her someday.

  Chapter 23

  He stretched, wincing slightly still as the pain from his ribs reminded him of his injuries. He had to admit he enjoyed waking up with his wife beside him, feeling the softness of the fabric of her long nightgown keeping her covered as she snuggled up beside him.

  But something was different this morning, and his eyes whipped open as he realized she wasn't beside him.

  He was surprised he hadn't felt her get up. He slowly set his legs over the edge of the bed, sitting there for a moment until his head stopped spinning. He was still struggling to move as quickly as he'd like, but at least he could manage on his own a bit now.

  Rose must be out trying to make him breakfast. He could hear the sound of pots scraping on the stove, and the smell of coffee reached his nose. She'd come a long way since arriving, and at least now he was able to swallow most of the food she made.

  When he walked into the other room, he saw his grandmother standing at the stove, with no sign of Rose anywhere.

  "Elijah, here, come sit down at the table." His grandma raced over as fast as her short legs would take her to pull the chair out for him.

  "Thanks, Grandma. Where's Rose gone off to already this morning?"

  His grandma patted his hand, and clucked her tongue like she always did when she was trying to soothe him. "Oh, I'm sure she'll be back in no time."

  But something in the way she said it didn't seem right to him. "Grandma, you didn't tell me where she went?"

  She was back at the stove, stirring the eggs she'd cracked into the pan.

  Why was she avoiding his question?

  "Grandma?" He slowly stood up from the chair and walked over to her, taking her shoulders and making her face him.

  "Elijah, I don't want you worrying. I've gotten to know Rose very well since I came to town, and I know she'll do the right thing. She'll be back."

  "What's going on, Grandma? Either you tell me, or I'm going to head out that door and find out myself."

  His poor grandmother scowled at him, then moved past him to the chair she sat in to do her knitting. Bending down to reach into her knitting bag, she pulled out a crumpled piece of paper that was singed around the edges.

  "I found this caught in the lid of the oven when I went to stoke the fire this morning. It's a telegram addressed to Rose's father."

  Elijah read the words with dread. He should have known Andrew Lambert would keep digging until he found something he thought could hurt him.

  "But what does this have to do with Rose? Even if she read it, why would she care so much?"

  His grandma patted his hand. "Well, I suspect her father is trying to make her go back with them on the train that will be arriving today. I found this note on the table this morning."

  She reached into the pocket of her apron and pulled out a small piece of paper. He recognized Rose's handwriting.

  Dear Elijah,

  I'm so sorry for the pain my family has caused. I hope someday you can forgive me.

  Love always,

  Rose

  His heart stopped beating as soon as he heard the whistle of the approaching train. His eyes turned to his grandma's and she gave him a sad smile.

  Rose was just going to leave, like that, without even saying goodbye? He'd honestly started to believe she cared about him. How could she think that anything her father could do would ever matter to him?

  He wasn't letting her go—not like this.

  Spinning as fast as his wounded body would let him, he ran outside. Every breath he took felt like his chest was on fire, but he moved as fast as he could toward the train station at the end of the street.

  He knew he didn't have much time. The train didn't sit long in Squirrel Ridge Junction before moving on to the next town on its stop. Why wouldn't his legs move faster?

  He could hear voices arguing at the station as he came around the corner, and the conductor yelling about a moose standing on the tracks.

  Somehow, Elijah just knew it was Monty.

  "Get this train moving. Just hit the moose if you have to. I'm not waiting another minute."

  Her father's voice rang out as he yelled from his special car that had been hooked back up to the train for the ride home. Rose stood near the open door of the Pullman car, ready to tell her family her decision.

  Everyone had already assumed she was going home since she'd shown up and was standing in the car. But what they didn't know was that she was getting off the car as soon as the train started to move.

  She wasn't going home with them. However, she also knew the only way to get them to go was to pretend she was.

  "Rose!"

  Her heart jumped into her throat as she heard Elijah's voice. She turned and looked out, seeing him struggling to run and get to the train. She tried to step out, but her father grabbed her by the arm, holding her.

  "Get this blasted thing moving now!" He yelled at the conductor from the doorway.

  But thanks to Monty, the train wasn't moving anywhere.

  Pulling her arm from her father's grip, she jumped down to the platform and ran to Elijah.

  "What are you doing here? You're in no shape to be running outside like this!"

  He looked at her incredulously.

  "I find out my wife is about to hop on a train and ride back to Ottawa, and you think I'm just going to sit down next to my grandmother knitting in her rocking chair and spend the day chatting?"

  She pulled her eyebrows together and shook her head. "Elijah, I wasn't going anywhere. I was coming to say goodbye to my parents."

  "No you're not, young lady. You know what will happen if you're not on this train." Her father had stepped down behind her.

  Elijah looked over her head at her father. "Sir, I've tried to be patient with you while you did everything you could to make Rose go back home with you. But you've gone too far this time. Rose is a grown woman who can make her own decisions, and nothing you say or do can change any of that."

  "Elijah, he found out some stuff about your father." Rose didn't want to have to tell him, but he deserved to know the truth.

  He looked down at her and smiled. "Like what? That he accidentally killed an innocent man during the shoot-out he was in? And when
he thought that’s what he’d done, there was speculation he'd taken his own life?"

  He already knew everything.

  "Rose, something your father neglected to mention to you was that while my father did kill a innocent man who'd gotten caught in the cross-fire, the truth came out that he hadn’t taken his own life. Yes, he’d been shot with his own gun, but he hadn't pulled the trigger. And, even if he had, it doesn't change anything. Keeping all of that secret from the world wouldn't matter if it meant I lost you."

  He brought his hand up and gently touched her cheek.

  "Nothing matters except how I feel about you. You’ve somehow managed to charge in and crash into my world. I'm not good at saying how I feel, but I know I love you, Rose. And if you get on that train, you may as well take a knife and stab me in the heart."

  She reached up and put her hands on his shoulders, blinking against the tears that were falling.

  "I love you too, Elijah. I would never have got on that train. You have my whole heart, and leaving you isn't something I could ever do."

  He wrinkled his brows as he watched her in confusion. "But, you said you were sorry and you hoped I could forgive you someday."

  She gave a little laugh. "I meant because I planned to tell my father I didn't care what he found out about you or your family, I wasn't going to let you go. I was being selfish because I knew I couldn't leave, even if it meant having your father's good name smeared."

  Elijah's smile spread across his face as he brought his head down to hers. Pulling her close, he whispered, "Nothing in the world would matter if I didn't have you."

  His lips touched hers, and as she kissed him with all the passion in her heart, the train’s whistle shrilled.

  They could hear her father cursing as her mother called for him to get back on the train. As he muttered and climbed onto the train that was getting ready to go, he made sure to leave her with some parting words.