Bride School: Mary (The Brides of Diamond Springs Ranch 4)
Page 11
The music ended and after the cheering faded, Alexandra stood and cleared her throat dramatically. “Bring me the swords!”
The sheriff came forward with a bundle of plaid. Two decorative handles stuck out one end while two thin, nasty-looking blades stuck out the other. He offered the safe ends to the bride with a slight bow. Before he straightened, he sent Mary a knowing wink. She blushed when she remembered the last time she’d seen the man—in the hot springs with Mrs. Carnegie.
Alexandra crossed the swords above her head and hit them together twice. With toes pointed, she stepped forward with the grace and drama of a ballerina in a music box. When she reached the center of the dance floor, she placed the crossed swords on the ground.
“The Dance of the Swords,” she announced. And then, just as dramatically, she stepped back away from the weapons until she was again on the edge of the dance floor.
John stood and drew Mary to her feet. He pulled her close to his side while they watched and waited for something to happen.
A great cry and squawk brought Mary’s hands to her ears and a bagpiper separated himself from the musicians. He tucked his plaid bag beneath one elbow and the noise tripled. In the confines of the assembly hall, there was simply not enough room in the air for amount of clamor coming from his bagpipes. And it seemed the bride and groom were just about the only ones who were willing to risk their hearing.
Instead of Alexandra dancing, however, it was her bridegroom who stepped up to the swords. With one hand held high over his shoulder and the other on one hip, he started hopping and pointing his toes to the painful tune. A few minutes later, Mary was able to let her hands drop away from her ears and John immediately scooped one up and held it.
They exchanged a smile before watching the remainder of the dance. By the time Connell McDonald was finished and the last of the air had leaked from the bagpipes, the big Scot was finally out of wind. The rest of the company sighed in relief and someone stepped up to the gallantly dressed man to offer him a tall drink.
“If there was ever a contest of stamina,” a man said to John, “I’d say the Scot would win.”
John laughed, but quickly brought his attention back to Mary. “They look terribly happy.”
Mary nodded. “I’m afraid that kind of happiness would take more than a couple of days to kindle.” She looked around the room at all the men and women pairing up for the next dance. Some of them would be married in a few days. How many of them would be happy with each other?
“Mary…”
“Yes?”
He turned her to face him, then he studied her cheeks, her nose. “I would very much like to know how this story of ours ends.”
She swallowed hard. “I just hate to be greedy.”
His eyes lit. “Be greedy, Mary. I beg you.”
“All right. Yes. Yes, I’ll marry you. And I don’t need to wait until Saturday.”
John scooped her up and swung her in a circle twice before setting her back on her feet, but she would have felt dizzy and faint even if he hadn’t. It was simply too wonderful to be true! Alexandra and Connell weren’t the only couple to have found their true love again.
“Fontaine!” John shouted. “Is it here?” He grinned down into Mary’s face. “Wait until you see the gift I brought you from Boston.”
“Gift?” She laughed. “I’m afraid we’ve got the same problem we had seven years ago.”
He sobered. “Problem? What’s that?”
“I have nothing to give you in return.”
They smiled in unison.
“Ah, that’s all right, Mary. I’m sure a kiss will do just fine.” It was the same response he’d given her on the mountain. “But this time, I don’t think Fritz will mind.”
Her brother’s attention was trained on Fontaine who had come back inside to give John a nod. The other couples flooded out ahead of them, then her bridegroom led her outside. The sun was down but it was still light. A fancy white carriage with a matched pair of pale horses stood in Street. But what made it truly beautiful were the dozens of tiny pink roses fixed along the back.
“There are more at our house,” he said. “They’re all started from that poor little rose bush in the ruins. When I went back up the mountain the following summer, it was still hanging on. My mother cared for them in her hot house. And when winter hits, you can put them inside.”
“Our house?”
He smiled into her eyes. “Maybe you’ve seen it. The yellow house on the hill?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
They were married half an hour later. And just as she’d dreamed a hundred times before, her gown was the perfect shade of pink.
After John finished kissing the daylights out of her, the wedding party escorted the little carriage the full length of Sage River to the new street on the hill. The warm light in the windows welcomed them along with her pa who stood on the front porch with his hat in his hands.
He looked first at Mrs. Carnegie. “We square?”
The woman nodded. “We’re square.”
Her pa threw his hat in the air and did a jig with fifty people looking on. It was the first time, since her mother died, that she’d seen the man celebrate anything at all.
John made a little speech, thanking everyone for keeping his secret about the house. Mary could only look on, grateful no one expected her to say anything because, for the life of her, she couldn’t think of a word—it took all her concentration to pretend she didn’t know what the men were all joking about.
It was a good fifteen minutes before John begged the mob to move their celebrating back to the assembly hall. They agreed to go only if he kissed his bride one more time. Of course, there was a great deal of cheering, and even more blushing. And after Mary was able to catch her breath, she was too embarrassed to face the crowd again. So John held her head against his chest until the street was empty.
Finally, he scooped her up into his arms and carried her over the threshold in peace.
The house smelled of sawdust and paint. Though the rooms were empty, there was a chair placed in front of each window, and upon each chair was a lit candle or lantern. Together, they made their way around the house and doused the lights. Eventually, there was just a single candle left burning in the bedroom where John quickly tacked blankets over the windows. A tray with a light supper sat on the only chair in the room, but Mary was far too nervous for food.
John didn’t seem to notice anything but her. He appeared calm, his smile patient. But when he pulled her close, she realized he trembled just as steadily as she did. The moment was not unlike the first time they’d kissed. Both of them trembling with excitement. And when he bent slowly to press his lips to hers, she could almost taste that first chaste kiss. The kiss that had been the end of a dreamy summer and the beginning of their quest...to find each other again.
The warmth from his body soothed her after a minute, and eventually, he stopped shivering too.
“Your house is sparse, Mrs. Hermann,” he said quietly, “but I wanted you to choose your own things.”
She shook her head. “This house already has the one thing I need.”
His eyes widened and he glanced at the bed.
She laughed. “No, silly. It already has you.”
THE END
If you enjoyed Mary and Rebel’s story, be a sport and leave a review. Then hop over to my website at www.bellabowen.weebly.com and sign up for the newsletter so you’ll know when the next bride is due to arrive at Diamond Springs.
Hope you enjoyed the ride! An excerpt from book five follows.
If you missed Gen and Devlin’s story, you can pick up Book 1 here.
Lizzy and Jake’s story is here.
Molly and Samuel’s story is here.
Excerpt from BRIDE SCHOOL: NADIA (Book 5)
“Why not?” Mrs. Carnegie shrugged. “Let him come.”
The woman relaxed a little in her office chair and Nadia could tell by the look in her eye she was plotting some
thing…dangerous. Unfortunately, it was Nadia’s job to keep danger far away from Sage River and the Bride School at Diamond Springs Ranch.
“But Madam, I’ve just told you. He means to destroy your work here, to prove you’re selling brides to the highest bidder, that the ranch is nothing better than a brothel! Even if you can prove him wrong, he’ll still succeed in ruining the ranch’s reputation. And yours.”
The woman didn’t seem to be listening. Her gaze was distant while she rolled a pencil back and forth between her fingers. Nadia had to keep trying, though.
“Ma’am? He’s a reporter. A famous one. If he so much as points a finger in your direction…people will assume you’re guilty of something.”
Mrs. Carnegie shook her head and smiled. “Don’t worry, Nadia. If the worst happens—if I’m wrong—I’m willing to go down with the ranch.”
Nadia sighed and excused herself. There was no use arguing with the woman when she started planning. Problem was, Genevieve Carnegie didn’t realize how completely Nadia and her other female employees depended on the success of this bride business. If the ranch folded, there wasn’t much of a future waiting for a gun-toting woman like her.
Her only hope lay in the fact that Carter Dixon, the notorious reporter, planned to come to Sage River in disguise. He thought he could sneak in and play the worthy bridegroom, under his brother-in-law’s name, when his intentions were anything but honorable.
Luckily for her, when Dixon went undercover for such stories, he told no one where he was going and only left an envelope for his editor in case he didn’t return by a certain date. And envelopes could go missing just as easily as foolish men…
Her boss didn’t understand how dangerous the reporter could be. But Nadia did. She’s studied him long and hard. Knew every arm he’d twisted to expose his victims to the world. And she’d be damned if she’d let anything like that happen to the woman who had given a purpose to Nadia’s life and saved so many young women from their own dangerous fates.
No matter what her boss was planning, Nadia needed to have her own plan ready…
Just in case.
Meet all the brides of Diamond Springs Ranch at bellabowen.weebly.com.
Other BRIDE SCHOOL books by Bella Bowen
BOOK ONE: GEN
BOOK TWO: LIZZY
BOOK THREE: MOLLY
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DEDICATION
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Excerpt from BRIDE SCHOOL: NADIA (Book 5)
Other BRIDE SCHOOL books by Bella Bowen
TABLE OF CONTENTS
About the Author
About the Author
Bella Bowen lives just outside Ketchum, Idaho and shares her woods with her cowboy boot-wearing husband, two dogs, a mean cat that deserves no mention, and the ghost of Earnest Hemmingway. Every now and then, at ungodly hours of the morning, Hemmy whispers inspiration through the dusty screen on her bedroom window.
Visit her website at http://www.bellabowen.weebly.com to learn more about Bella Bowen and the Bride School series.