Ryder's Wife

by Sharon Sala

  Never one to let a good silence extend itself, Eudora tucked her handkerchief into her cleavage and rang a small bell near her chair.

  Moments later a tall, dark-skinned man dressed in virgin whites entered the room. Still straight and handsome at sixty, the only evidence of Joshua Bass’s age was the liberal dusting of gray in his hair.

  “Yes, ma’am?”

  Eudora pointed toward a nearby table. “Joshua, we’re all out of tea.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  He picked up the tray and started out of the room when Eudora remembered.

  “Oh, Joshua!”

  He paused. “Yes, ma’am?”

  “Have Tilly put some lemon in the tea this time. I do believe lemon helps cut the miasma of July.”

  Casey entered on the tail of Eudora’s order, countermanding it with one of her own. She took the tray out of Joshua’s hands and set it down, then to the continuing dismay of her family, gave him a huge, breathless hug, which he gladly returned.

  Casey smiled up at Joshua, taking comfort in the love she saw there in his eyes. “Forget the tea, Joshie. Bring a bottle of Delaney’s best champagne instead. We’re going to toast my marriage.”

  Joshua looked startled, and his first thought was what his Tilly was going to say. Casey was as close to their hearts as if she’d been born of their blood and here she was about to drink to a marriage they knew she didn’t want.

  Miles’s face turned an angry red. Erica choked on a piece of ice, and Eudora clasped her hands to her throat and started to cry.

  As for Lash, he went weak with relief. Not only was Casey back, but she seemed willing to celebrate their upcoming union with no remorse. He went toward her with outstretched hands.

  “Casey, darling, I’m so glad you…”

  And that was the moment they realized Casey had not come alone. The unexpected face of a stranger at Casey’s back, never mind his trail-weary appearance, startled them all into sudden silence.

  “Everyone…this is Ryder Justice.” She glanced at Ryder. To her surprise, he seemed calm, almost disinterested. “Ryder—my family.” She pointed them out, one by one, starting with Eudora. “This is my Gran.” She glanced at Miles and Erica and the expressions on their faces said it all. She sighed. Some things never change. “The two beautiful blondes with the fabulous scowls are my brother and sister, Miles and Erica.”

  As she smiled at Joshua, her voice softened. “And this is Joshua Bass. He and his wife, Tilly, helped raise me.”

  Ryder nodded. “It’s a pleasure, sir,” he said quietly. “And, I’d say you and your wife have done a fine job. Casey is quite a woman.”

  She gave Ryder a quick look of surprise. The praise was unexpected.

  Joshua grinned, pleased to have been recognized as part of the family.

  “Casey, really! He’s one of the help,” Eudora said, and then flushed, embarrassed that she’d been put in the position of having to remark upon the differences in their stations in life.

  Casey’s chin jutted. “Unlike the majority of this family, Joshua has a job. I have a job as well. I fail to see the difference.” Then she softened her rebuke by winking at Joshua. “Joshie, hurry and bring that champagne. We have some celebrating to do.”

  Lash had more on his mind than sipping champagne and social niceties. He glanced at his watch. There were a million things to do and so little time.

  “Casey, dearest, we’ve been so worried. When you didn’t come home last night I even called the state police. We all realize the will came as a terrible shock to you, but if you’d just waited a bit, I could have saved you from all this turmoil. You know how I feel about you. It was only a matter of time before you came to your senses and did what was best for everyone.”

  When he reached for her hand, Casey took an instinctive step back, right into Ryder’s arms.

  “Easy,” Ryder said softly, and Casey shivered. That was what he’d said earlier, right before he’d kissed her.

  “I don’t need saving,” she told Lash. “And I’ve already come to my senses. I saved myself.”

  A nerve jerked at the side of Lash’s eye, causing it to twitch. “What do you mean?”

  Although Ryder was no longer touching Casey, she knew he was still behind her, and, oddly enough, it was his solid presence that gave her the courage to say what had to be said. She pulled the copy of their marriage license from her purse and handed it to Lash without batting an eye.

  “Ryder and I were married this morning. I suppose you’ll need this to confirm the legalities and finalize the edicts of the will.”

  “Married?”

  The shriek came from across the room. Casey wasn’t sure whether it was Miles or Erica who’d come undone, and she didn’t much care.

  The paper fell from Lash’s fingers and onto the floor as shock spread across his face. Speech was impossible. All he could do was stare at the woman who’d dashed his last hopes. She seemed calm, even smug about what she’d done, and as he looked, he began to hate.

  At this point, Joshua came back into the room with an uncorked bottle of champagne and a tray full of glasses. Casey took it from his hands.

  “I’ll pour while you go get Tilly. This won’t be official until you two are in on my news. Also, will you please tell Bea to get the apartment over the garage ready. When it’s cleaned, have someone move my things out there, okay?”

  Joshua left with an anxious glance.

  “Why on earth would you be doing such a thing?” Eudora asked.

  Before Casey could respond, Ryder stepped to her side. For a moment, Casey had the sensation of what it would be like to never stand alone against this family again.

  His voice was cool, his manner calm and assured. “Because a wife lives with her husband, and as of yesterday, I’m your new chauffeur, that’s why.”

  Miles’s snort of disbelief was echoed by his sister. “My God, Casey, marrying some ne’er-do-well is bad enough, but a chauffeur? Have you no shame?”

  Ryder’s expression underwent a remarkable change, from calm to quiet fury. He never took his eyes from Miles. “I don’t care if he is your brother—do not expect me to like that little pig.”

  Casey almost laughed. The look of shock on her brothers’s face was priceless.

  “You don’t have to,” she said, and then felt obligated to add, “but you can’t hurt him.”

  Ryder gave Miles another cool stare, then took the champagne Casey handed him. “There’s more than one way to skin a cat,” he drawled, and gave Miles a cool, studied look. Then he lifted the glass toward her in a silent toast, pinning Casey with a stormy gaze that left her stunned.

  “To justice,” he said, letting them decide for themselves what he’d meant.

  CHAPTER 3

  After the family accepted the shock of Casey’s news, there was one more person Casey needed to see. While Ryder was prowling through the garage and the cars that were to be under his control, she slipped into the kitchen in search of Matilda Bass. The need to lay her head on Tilly’s shoulder was overwhelming. She hoped when she did, that she would manage not to cry.

  And Tilly wasn’t all that hard to find.

  “Come here to me, girl,” Tilly said, and opened her arms. Casey walked into them without hesitation. “You didn’t come drink champagne with me.”

  Tilly ignored the rebuke. She had her own idea of her place in this world and in spite of the money the Rubans had, she wouldn’t have traded places with them for any of it. She had more self-esteem than to socialize with people who chose to look down on her because she cooked the food that they ate.

  “Well now, what have you gone and done?” Tilly asked. Her sympathy was almost Casey’s undoing. “Saved us all, I hope,” Casey replied.

  Tilly frowned. She’d already heard through the family grapevine what a burden the old man Ruban had heaped on her baby’s head.

  “If you ask me, that old man needed his head examined,” Tilly mumbled, stroking her hand gently up and dow
n the middle of Casey’s back.

  Casey sighed. “Well, it’s over and done with,” she said.

  Tilly stepped back, her dark eyes boring into Casey’s gaze. “Nothing is ever over and done with, girl. Not while people draw breath. You be careful. I don’t know why, but I don’t like the feel of all this.”

  Casey managed a laugh. “Don’t go all witchy on me, now. You know what Joshie says about you messin’ with that kind of stuff.”

  Tilly sniffed. The reference to her mother’s and grandmother’s predilection for voodoo did not apply to her. “I do not indulge myself in the black arts and you know it,” Tilly huffed.

  Casey grinned and then gave Tilly a last, quick hug. “I know. I was only teasing.” Then her laughter faded. “Say a prayer for me, Mammo.”

  Casey hadn’t used that childhood name in years. It brought quick tears to Tilly’s eyes, and because it was an emotion in which she rarely indulged, she was all the more brusque with her answer. “Knowing you, I’d better say two,” she said, and gave Casey a swift swat on the rear. “Now you run on along. I’ve got dinner to fix before Joshua and I go on home.”

  Casey paused on her way out the door. “Tilly?”

  “What, baby girl?”

  “Have you ever regretted staying on here as cook? You and Joshua are so smart, you could have done a lot of other things besides wait on a small, selfish family.”

  Tilly turned, and the serious tone of her voice was proof of her sincerity. “Maybe I could have, but not my Josh. You’ve got to remember, he only hears good in one ear. That handicap lost him a whole lot of jobs early on in our marriage. By the time we landed here with your grandfather, he was glad to have the work. And Mr. Ruban was more than fair. Our pay is good. We have health insurance, something a lot of our friends do not. And, because your grandfather did not like change in his household, the incentive he gave us to stay on was to set up trusts for our retirement. Actually, we’re better off than some other members of our family who have college degrees.” And then she smiled. “Besides, I like to cook, and who else would have raised my baby if Josh and I hadn’t been here?”

  This time, Casey didn’t bother to hide her tears. She wrapped her arms around Tilly’s neck. “I love you, Mammo.”

  “I love you, too, girl. Now run on home. You’ve got yourself a man to tend.”

  Startled, Casey did as she was told, and after that, the day went surprisingly well.

  Although Miles and Erica no longer had any hopes of attaining control of the Ruban fortune, their circumstances were still the same. Before, they had come and gone as they pleased, spent and slept at Delaney Ruban’s expense. For them, nothing had changed.

  As for Eudora, she’d sacrificed much for her dead daughter’s children. Years ago she’d given up a suitor who could have made her golden years something to remember. She’d left her home on Long Island and came to Mississippi with the best of intentions. She refused to consider that she’d contributed to the ruination of her eldest grandchildren by coercing Delaney to leave their upbringing in her care when he’d begun to focus his attention on Casey.

  She hadn’t meant to make them so dependent on others, but it had happened anyway. And now that their life-styles were pretty much set in stone, she felt it her moral obligation to see that their comfort level stayed the same.

  Yet when it came to sacrifices, it was Casey who’d sacrificed the most. Whatever dreams she might have harbored with regard to her personal life were gone. She was married to a stranger, and for the next twelve months, had resigned herself to the fact.

  At her demand, Ryder had been sent into Ruban Crossing with a handful of money and orders as to what to buy, while she went in to the office. There was a merger pending and an entire factory of workers in Jackson, Mississippi who were waiting to learn if they still had their jobs. She didn’t want another day to pass without assuring them. In fact, everything was running so smoothly it should have been the warning Casey needed, because when the sun went down, tempers began to rise.

  * * *

  Casey climbed the stairs leading to the garage apartment and tried not to think of her spacious bedroom across the courtyard; of her sunken bathtub and the cool, marble floor, or of her queen-size bed and the down-filled pillows of which she was so fond. Her stomach growled and she wondered what feast Tilly was concocting across the way for the evening meal. At this point, she began to consider the benefits she was losing by having to live under Ryder Justice’s roof. Who would cook? Where did she put her dirty clothes?

  Caution forbade her to use any of the services available across the way. From the expression on Lash Marlow’s face when he’d left the house this morning, she knew his anger would not easily disappear. It would be just like him to try and catch her cheating on the terms of the will.

  Oh, well, she thought. I can always order takeout and take my clothes to the cleaners.

  She took out her key to open the door then found it already unlocked. Her pulse skipped a beat. That meant he was home. Quietly, so as not to alert the “tiger” who lurked within, she shut the door behind her and then stood, absorbing the sight of what was to be her home for the next twelve months.

  The entire apartment consisted of three small rooms, the accumulation of which were still not the size of her bedroom inside the mansion. But it was clean, and blessedly quiet. For today, it was enough.

  Just when she was beginning to relax, she noticed a man’s shirt draped over an easy chair and a pair of dusty, black boots on the floor nearby. Reality set in.

  Never one to put off what had to be done, she reminded herself that the sooner the confrontation began, the sooner it would be over. She sat her briefcase by the door and looked toward the bedroom. Since he wasn’t in here, he had to be in there.

  She walked inside. Several pairs of blue jeans lay on the bed, along with a half dozen white long-sleeved shirts, a new sport coat and a broad-brimmed black Stetson. A pile of her best lingerie was on the floor next to the dresser. She frowned, wondering why her things were on the floor.

  She stared at the clothes. Where were the uniforms she’d told him to get? She’d given him the address of the place where they’d rented them before. Ruban Crossing was a fair-size city, but he’d had all afternoon to find one simple address.

  She opened the closet. It was full of her clothing and nothing else. She looked back at the bed. That explained why he hadn’t hung his up. Obviously, there was no place left for them to hang.

  She turned around, eyeing the small room with distaste, then shrugged. Tomorrow, she’d go through her things and have Bea take part of them back to the main house. It was the least she could do.

  A door creaked behind her. She spun and then froze. Ryder had obviously just had a bath. Steam enveloped him as he stepped out of the doorway and into the room with her, giving him the appearance of emerging from a cloud. His hair was spiky and still dripping water as he began to towel it dry.

  Her thoughts tangled. Most men would appear smaller without benefit of clothing. But not him. He enveloped the space in which he moved, almost as if he took it with him as he went.

  Casey frowned again, biting at the inside of her lip and wondering why she hadn’t had the foresight to wait outside. How would she ever get past the memory of this much man covered with such a small, insignificant towel?

  “Sorry,” Ryder said, and gave his hair a last, halfhearted rub before tossing the wet towel back into the bathroom floor. “Didn’t know you were here.”

  Casey tilted her chin, determined he not know how shaken she was.

  “Obviously,” she said shortly, and then pointed toward the clothes on the bed. “I gave you money to get uniforms, not all this.”

  Ryder’s eyes narrowed, and Casey knew the moment the words were out of her mouth that she’d ticked him off. He walked to a bedside table and withdrew a handful of money, then stuffed it in her hand.

  “What’s this?” Casey asked.

  “Your money.”
>
  “But how did you pay for all this?”

  He didn’t answer, and she glared. But when he spun and started toward her, she took an instinctive step backward. When he bypassed her for the dresser beyond, she caught herself breathing a small sigh of relief. Determined to get to the bottom of his behavior, she struck again, only this time with more venom.

  “I asked you a question,” she snapped.

  Her relief was short-lived. When he turned, the anger on his face almost stopped her heart.

  “Don’t go there,” he said quietly..

  “Go where? I don’t know what you mean.”

  “There’s one thing we’d better get straight right now. I don’t take orders from you, and I don’t take your money. I pay my own way.”

  She couldn’t imagine how he’d obtained the clothes. For all she knew he might have stolen the stuff. She would have been shocked to know he had a gold credit card with an unlimited line. And, if she’d known, would have been even more surprised to learn he hadn’t used it in months.

  “But the uniforms… why didn’t you do as you were told?”

  As far as Ryder was concerned, what was in his past was none of her business. Suddenly-he was right in front of her. His breath was hot, his words angry.

  “Because you’re not my boss, you’re my wife. I gave you my name, and I’ll drive you and yours anywhere they please for the next twelve months, but I’m not wearing a damned monkey suit to do it.”

  Casey’s mouth dropped. Never in her entire life had anyone had the gall to defy her in such a manner. Before she could think of a comeback, he turned away, opened the top drawer of the dresser, withdrew a brand-new pair of white cotton briefs and dropped his towel.

  She bolted, taking with her the image of a long-limbed body that was hard and fit and brown all over.

  A few minutes later he emerged from the bedroom in his bare feet, wearing an old and faded pair of jeans and no shirt. The casual are-you-still-here glance he gave her made her furious.

  Disgusted with herself for not standing her ground, she watched from across the room as he sauntered into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. When he bent down to look inside, the urge to hit him was so strong it startled her. She was not the type of woman to resort to violence. Then she rescinded her own opinion of herself. At least she hadn’t been. But that was before she’d driven into the flatlands and brought out a husband.