A Bride for Two Brothers

by D. W. Collins

  Chapter Two

  Inverness, Montana was tiny. It had a handful of unpaved streets and not a single traffic signal. Rusty signs rattled in the relentless wind. Like many other small hamlets, this place had nearly vanished when the new interstate highway had passed it by. No one came to Inverness unless they had business in Inverness.

  The bus had stopped at “Beth’s Kitchen”. The sing proclaimed “home cooking” and “bottomless cups of coffee.” It reminded her of her parent’s old place. She staggered into the tiny roadside diner on numb legs. Would her butt every feel normal again? The smell of strong coffee revived her a little. A few minutes later, she emerged from the ladies’ room both refreshed and relieved.

  She took a seat at a tiny table. The menu offered the usual greasy diner fare. She ordered a grilled fish sandwich and a tossed salad from a stout woman in a stained pink uniform whose name tag identified the server as “Beth.”

  Kelsey leaned back and surveyed the room’s occupants, and what she saw almost sent her bolting back to the bus. Less than twenty feet away, a deputy sheriff and a state patrolman were enjoying cheese burgers and French fries. How could she have overlooked them? Worse yet, the younger man of the duo, the deputy, was looking directly at her. She could not breathe! Was he going to arrest her? Was she about to be shipped back to Carl? The thought never crossed her mind that the young cop was just a single guy who was checking out a pretty girl.

  The policemen left just as Beth brought Kelsey’s order to her. “Can I get you anything else, hon?” the portly woman asked cheerfully.

  “I’m looking for a job as a cook.”

  “Oh hon, I don’t need any help. Sorry.”

  “I don’t want to work in town. I would like to work on a ranch.”

  “I might be able to help you out there. One of the local ranchers, Quinton Whittington, stopped in for coffee this morning. His cook quit, and he said that he needed a replacement quick. He put a note on the bulletin board. He and his brother Marcus run the Rocking W. Ranch. It’s a good sized spread, and I’ve heard that the Whittington brothers pay well. The only problem is that the place is pretty far out of town.”

  Kelsey thought that was no problem at all. She hurried to the board and took the note before walking to the pay phone and dialing the number.

  The connection was scratchy but adequate. “Rocking W., this is Marc. What the hell do you want?”

  She was surprised by his brusque manner, but she forged on anyway. “I’m here at Beth’s Kitchen. I saw that you wanted a cook. I have experience, and I’m available as soon as you want.”

  “Let me give you directions to my place.”

  “I came into town on the bus. I’ll have to find a ride.”

  “That’s no problem. My brother Quint is in town picking up some parts for one of our tractors. He’ll give you a ride. Let me have your cell phone number so he can hook up with you.”

  “I lost my phone last week.”

  Marcus laughed. “I can help with that too. Tell me what you look like, and I’ll send Quint to the diner for you.”

  Kelsey described her clothing and gave an unflattering description of herself. “I’ll watch for him.”

  She hurried to the bus, got her bag, and had the driver give her a voucher for the rest of the trip. She understood that there was no guarantee this would work out. He told her that there would be another bus almost every day. She hoped she could find a motel if the job did not pan out.

  She felt anxious as she watched the bus pull away. A few minutes later a huge double cab pickup truck roared up. One of the biggest men Kelsey had ever seen climbed out. Quinton Whittington was amazing. He was very tall, muscular, and had curly brown hair peeking under his dirty red baseball cap. His brown eyes captivated her immediately.

  “Are you the gal who’s looking for a job?” he asked. She nodded nervously. He grabbed her suitcase before she could react and tossed it onto the truck’s back seat. An instant later he picked her up and set her on the front seat as if she were light as a feather.

  He drove out of town to the north. The road was covered with gravel at first, but it slowly turned to rutted dirt. At one point along the way, they passed a pickup that had been badly battered. It windows were shattered, and its body was covered with dents. The cab’s roof was flattened.

  “What happened there?” Kelsey asked.

  “Our neighbor had a visitor from out east,” Quinton said as he wiped the back of his hand across his mouth. “She didn’t know how bad the weather can get around here.”

  “What kind of weather wrecks a car like that?”

  “Hail. If you see a really dark cloud in the northwest, get out of your car and hide under it. That girl would still be alive if she’d just done that.”

  “You mean she died because of hail?”

  “Some of the stones were as big as soft balls. She didn’t have a chance. Take cover right away if you see a bad storm blowing up. You will not get a second chance.”

  Kelsey shivered as she looked at the wreck and tried to imagine how terrible it would be to be bludgeoned to death by huge hail stones. “Thanks for warning me,” she whispered.

  The thirty five mile trip took well over an hour. During nearly all that time, Quinton remained almost completely silent. At first, Kelsey was worried that he was unhappy about something or other, but his happy smile belied that possibility. Later she grew to understand his laconic temperament. When the truck finally passed a weather beaten sign identifying the property ahead as “The Rocking W. Ranch”, Kelsey was relieved. The truck bounced for another eight miles before it finally reached the ranch house.

  The building was large, but very plain. Clearly the Whittington’s had no interest in decoration of any kind. Quinton retrieved Kelsey’s bag before she could hop down from the truck’s high seat. A moment later a shorter man stepped onto the porch. He introduced himself and Bonnie, the energetic ranch dog that panted beside him. Bonnie rubbed against Kelsey’s calf and seduced her immediately. Marcus Whittington was six inches shorter than his brother, but he was much more powerfully built. His hair was coal black, and his piercing eyes were hazel. He wore leather boots, jeans, a flannel shirt, and surprisingly, a flowered apron trimmed with ruffles.

  “I am glad to see you, missy. I hate cooking!” Quinton and Kelsey both laughed. “If you’re willing to get started now, you can have the damn job! We’ll show you your room, and then you can get to work.”

  She followed the men into the house and up the wide stairs. Her “room” was actually a comfortable small suite. She smiled. It needed a woman’s touch, but she would be very comfortable.

  Kelsey followed Marcus and Quinton back downstairs to the kitchen. It was large, well equipped, and very much in need of a good cleaning. The room would be a joy to work in once she got it into shape. Steaks and fried potatoes were sizzling on a huge grill. No salad, vegetable or desert was anywhere to be seen. A big coffee urn filled the room with its rich aroma.

  “The crew will be in from the field in less than an hour,” Marcus announced. “They’ll be starved. What can Quint and I do to help?” Kelsey asked how many men would be eating. Fortunately there would just be eight. Marcus had eighteen steaks on the grill. It was clear that these boys liked their meat. A quick inspection of the pantry revealed enough canned peaches to pass for a side dish. The few gallons of ice cream in the freezer would provide desert.

  “I’ll have to go to town tomorrow to get some more supplies,” Kelsey said.

  “That’s good. I have enough bacon and eggs for breakfast and stuff for sandwiches for lunch but not much else. I’ll drive you into Inverness tomorrow morning and introduce you at the mercantile.”

  Dinner passed Kelsey in a blur. The men seemed to be delighted to have a new cook. They lavished great praise on her for the meal that Marcus had actually prepared. She hoped to give them something the next day that would be much more worthy of their commendation.

  Kelsey stepped outside the
hot kitchen to catch a breath of cool air. She was enjoying the landscape when something rubbed against her calf. Bonnie looked up at her with an expression that stole Kelsey’s heart again. The energetic border collie was twenty seven pounds of pure irresistible energy. The girl squatted and allowed the dog to sniff her hand.

  “Hello, aren’t you a nice girl.” The dog wagged her tail and nuzzled the young cook. Kelsey had passed inspection.

  “Let me get you a snack,” Kelsey said. She walked into the kitchen and found a steak that had been deemed too small by the hungry ranch hands. It served the eager dog very well. “I have to get back to work, but come by tomorrow morning and I’ll get you some bacon for breakfast.” Bonnie looked up as if she understood every word.

  Kelsey cleaned the kitchen for several more hours, but fatigue finally got the best of her. She stumbled up the stairs to the room the brothers had showed her earlier and fell asleep in minutes.

  * * *

  Just before first light, she woke. Free from the relentless sounds of the city, her room was amazingly quiet. For the first time in years, she thought back to her childhood. Her bedroom had been quiet like this, and she had felt very safe. She switched on a light to assure herself that she had not been magically transported back in time. It was true; she was in living on the endless prairie of Montana.

  By the time the sun illuminated the big sky, she was up and hard at work preparing sandwiches for lunch and cooking breakfast. After the morning meal, Quinton led the men into the field. Her eyes were magnetically drawn to the seat of his tight jeans as she watched him walk away.

  She was busy hand feeding Bonnie when Marcus strolled up. “I see you are getting acquainted with our beggar in chief,” he said as he took the dog’s head in his big hands and ruffled her ears playfully. “She appeared on our doorstep ten years ago, and we’ve never gotten rid of her.”

  “Do you really want to?”

  “Not really, no ranch can function without a mooching canine.” He gave the rambunctious dog a final spirited petting and stood so close to Kelsey that his proximity made her feel crowded. “She eats more than some of the hands, but everybody loves her.”

  “Dogs are good judges of character. They see things that people miss.”

  Marcus drove Kelsey into town in the same truck that Quinton had used to bring her to the ranch. The two brothers were as different in temperament as they were in appearance. Marcus was scholarly and charming. He talked incessantly and noted every point of interest along the way. By the time they reached Inverness, she guessed that she knew the area as well as any local.

  He stopped the truck in front of “The Hill County Mercantile”. The building contained a more than adequate selection of meat, vegetables, and other basic food stuffs. The staff loaded a week’s supply of food into Marcus’s truck while Kelsey prepared an order for a two week supply that the mercantile’s truck would deliver in a few days. While she was busy selecting a few boxes of doggie treats for Bonnie, the company’s proprietress stepped beside Kelsey.

  “I want to welcome you to our little town,” the business woman said. “My name is Alice Cummings. Marcus tells me that you will be cooking for him.”

  “It’s nice to meet you. I feel fortunate to find such a good position in a town where I am unknown.”

  The woman patted her shoulder and smiled inscrutably. “I imagine that you took the job because you did not know anything about your new employers.”

  A cold chill ran through Kelsey’s body. “What do you mean? What have they done?”

  “I admit that I am not sure. You are new in town, and I wanted to give you a friendly warning. What I do know for certain is that I knew the woman who had your job before you. Maggie Bright lived here all her life. She came in here a few months ago and told me that she was engaged to marry Marcus Whittington. I was so happy for her. She is not as pretty as you, so the chance to marry into the Whittington family was a great opportunity.

  Kelsey was surprised to hear the merchant call her “pretty,” but she kept quiet so she could hear what else the woman had to say.

  “Anyway, a few days ago, Maggie came in here in tears. She said that she refused to live in the Whittington house for one more day. She left for Minneapolis that very afternoon, and I have not seen or heard from her since.”

  “Did she say what had happened?”

  “No. She was very excited about getting married, but she was very practical too. She would not have given up such an opportunity without having a very good reason.”

  “Have you heard anything bad about Mr. Whittington?”

  “Not really. They are part a group of ranchers who love to party with each other, but there are not alone in that. Boys will be boys, and most girls enjoy their company.”

  Marcus returned and the conversation came to an abrupt end.

  Kelsey was feeling nervous when the truck started back to the ranch. She tried her best to sound casual. “Tell me about my predecessor. Did the men like her cooking?”

  Marcus searched her face as he spoke. “We all enjoyed Maggie and her cooking. We especially loved her pies and roasts. They were always delicious. Why do you ask?”

  “Oh, I was just curious. I want everyone to be happy.”

  “I am sure we will all enjoy your company.”

  “Did Maggie enjoy living here?”

  Marcus Whittington’s jaw tightened. “I guess that you have gotten hold of some local gossip. Inverness is a small town. I want you to know that you can ask my brother and I anything. You do not need to beat around the bush. I freely admit that I was engaged to Maggie. She broke our engagement and left. That is why there is a position here for you. None of us mistreated her in any way. I want you to stay, but I will put you on the bus any day you like. Is that what you want?”

  “No. I need this job. I do not want to leave.”

  “Do you need to hear why Maggie left?”

  “That is none of my business. I am sorry if you felt I was prying.”

  “Curiosity is a part of every female’s character. I would expect a pretty woman like you to possess that trait in good measure.”

  Kelsey blushed. The rest of the trip passed in tense silence. She had just enough time to prepare a savory chuck roast and six pies for supper. All the food received rave reviews. The only thing that bothered her was the series of looks that passed between the Whittington brothers as they exchanged some private conversation. She was certain that the men were talking about her.

  Bonnie feasted on a bowl of beef scraps with a crunchy doggie treat for desert. The dog would have Kelsey fully trained soon enough. The kitchen still needed much more heavy cleaning, but the young cook decided to turn in early and tackle that task on the next day.

  As she walked to her room for the night, she noticed that Marcus’s bedroom door was standing open. She could not resist peeking inside. It looked ordinary enough except for one thing. The bed was the largest she had ever seen. The thing had to have been custom made. Why would any man want a bed so large? It could accommodate at least two couples with room to spare. Quinton’s door was open too. His room was much smaller than his brother’s and there was nothing unusual about any of its furniture. Kelsey could see that the men had very different tastes in their accommodations.

  Her room was the last one on the second floor. Her tiny closet held all her clothing with plenty of space to spare. The private bathroom had a shower. The main room was spacious enough. She had no doubt that she could be comfortable here.

  As she crawled into her bed, the soft covers felt wonderful. However, sleep was slow in coming. The veiled warning from the owner of the mercantile came back to her. Her warning had been so intense. Was she just a small town woman with too active an imagination, or was her anxiety actually well founded? The remote Rocking W. Ranch was isolated enough to allow any kind of behavior. The terrible possibilities sent a chill through her body. She knew full well that Marcus Whittington could do anything he wanted in such a setting.
What, if anything, had he really done? She wondered how Marcus would explain his broken engagement. Would she ever have the nerve to ever ask him? The mystery was tantalizing.

  The young chef’s thoughts drifted to her other employer. No one had warned her away from Quinton. She felt less danger dreaming about him. He had the looks and body that would make any girl dream, and his speech difficulty did not bother her. She wondered if he noticed her. Her pulse quickened as she imagined him stepping next to her and brazenly undressing her with his eyes. Finally, she dreamed about his hands taking the place of his eyes in the act of stripping her. It was a delicious fantasy.

  Slowly, another reality flooded into her mind. Carl was home. He would have arrived very early in the morning. She was both amused and terrified when she thought about his possible reactions.

  She sat up. At this very moment, Carl was no doubt on her trail. He may well have been after her before this morning. What had he learned so far? How long would it take for him to track her to this remote place? Would she be able to find anyone here to help? Would anyone believe her? She shook her head. If Carl caught her, no one would help. Quinton and Marcus would not be willing to face the imposing figure of the big city police captain. She would be utterly on her own.

  * * *

  The next morning, the men enjoyed their breakfast, especially the blueberry muffins. The ranch hands had a taste for sweets. They devoured everything she put before them. She smiled as they grabbed the sack lunches she had prepared and hurried out of the house. A girl could do worse than live with ten handsome young men. Their tight jeans and muscular behinds piqued her interest.