Four Weddings and a Kiss

by Margaret Brownley

  “Pa!” Maizy stepped back, shocked. “You didn’t do a thing wrong. I wanted to help you. It’s no sin for a girl to work a ranch.”

  Shaking his head, Pa didn’t answer. “I think I know a way to fix things, for now. I ain’t sure Carstens’ll go along with it, but we’re gonna try.”

  “Try what, Pa?”

  “We’re gonna try having you act like a lady.”

  The notion almost sent Maizy stumbling backward. “How do I do that?”

  Pa looked straight at her. “I don’t rightly know, Maizy girl. But I’ve listened to Carstens over the last year. He comes from a fine family back in Texas. So we’re gonna let him tell us.”

  “What?”

  “First thing in the morning, you’re gonna go over to his house, apologize for trespassing and causing him all this trouble. And you’ll do it in proper female clothes and behave in the way a lady should.” There was a little smile on Pa’s face like he thought this was a great idea, an inspired idea. But there was something more. Something devious in Pa’s expression. Maizy was a little bit afraid of what it might be because Pa had gotten a few wild ideas in his day.

  She didn’t ask though because a whisper inside of her told her it was time to grow up. Time to put aside childish ways. And she did owe Rylan for saving her life. She’d brought this trouble on her own head.

  The thought twisted her gut, but she’d do it. She’d leave off her britches and wear a dress and try to remember some manners. And she’d apologize, though she had no knack for it.

  “I’ll do it, Pa. I’ll go over to Carstens’s ranch and apologize to him and do it proper.” She swallowed hard and went on, “Like a proper lady. I’ll let him have his say, yell at me all he wants, because I owe him that.”

  Pa studied her. “I know better than to believe you can change, Maizy, but I think asking for forgiveness is the exact right thing to do. And you might as well start tonight, by taking the time to clean up good for once. Take a bath and wash your hair. Tomorrow you’ll put it up like a grown woman.” He gave a pointed look to the two braids she always wore. “I’ll do the chores by myself.” He clamped his hat on, turned, and left the house.

  Maizy realized that Pa had more idea of how a woman should conduct herself than he’d ever let on.

  And a whole lot better idea than she had.

  CHAPTER THREE

  RYLAN’S LEG WAS IN HEAVY PLASTER. HIS HEAD THROBBED until it made him want to empty the contents of his belly.

  He’d been brought low at a time he needed to work with every ounce of his strength. Thanks to Maizy MacGregor, he had a very good chance of losing his ranch.

  Someone knocked on his front door, someone brave because Rylan knew he’d not been fit company for anyone.

  “Come in!” Whoever was knocking had better be Rawhide, his hired man, telling him there was progress made getting ready for the bull sale.

  Lying there, unable to do anything to make that sale go well, was driving him out of his mind.

  The door swung open. Rawhide and the doc had shoved some of the jumble aside and dragged his bed into this room so Rylan could look out the window and see his barn and corral. It gave him a nice view while he fretted.

  A pretty blonde woman stepped in the door. Her cheeks were flushed pink, and she had eyes the color of the Texas bluebonnets that had bloomed by his childhood home. She clutched her hands together in front of her. He studied the neat calico dress—it was faded blue and scattered with white flowers. She wore a straw bonnet and looked demure and ladylike to the bone. The doctor had talked of finding someone to come out and take care of him, but surely they hadn’t sent this innocent miss.

  And then Auggie MacGregor came in behind her.

  Rylan’s eyes widened as he realized who this proper little woman was. That little spitfire cleaned up good. Knowing just how good almost tumbled him off the bed. Yet he knew who she was under the calico.

  “You!” Rylan surged forward and the pain knocked him flat. Forcing his eyes open, even though every flicker of his lashes hurt, Rylan saw her rush toward him.

  “Rylan, I’m so sorry.”

  He was so busy fighting to hold the moans inside that he didn’t speak. He needed control of his mouth. He’d been ruined by this girl . . . no . . . not a girl. He saw the way that dress fit. She was a woman. He’d known that, of course. Known it all too well. It was one of the reasons he’d kept his distance for the last year. A man flirting with bankruptcy had no business thinking of a woman. Which of course hadn’t stopped him. And it was all the worse because, strange as it was to see her dressed up in manly clothes, there was no denying that the woman made a pair of britches look mighty fetching.

  He’d stayed away from her, and when he couldn’t, he’d hid his interest in cool words. But he couldn’t help the occasional long look when she wasn’t paying attention.

  Mostly, it’d been no hardship to keep his distance, considering he’d been doing the work of five men for the last year.

  Auggie stepped in front of Maizy as if he needed to protect her.

  “Maizy came to apologize. She ain’t pretending that this isn’t every bit her fault. She was trespassing and you ended up hurt. If you’re too upset to listen we’ll go, but my girl knows she done wrong. She’s rude, she’s reckless, she’s stubborn. She’s got a bad temper, and there ain’t much backup in her. It’s all because I raised her to have no notion of how to walk and talk and think and act like a decent lady.”

  Rylan looked past his neighbor to see Maizy’s shoulders slump lower with each word. She didn’t speak up, didn’t sass her pa or say a word of protest.

  She tugged on the sleeves of her dress as if they were too tight, then ran a finger along the high collar as if it strangled her, but she seemed to accept the discomfort. Her expression said that whatever insults her pa hurled at her, she deserved.

  Rylan felt a twinge of sympathy. Auggie MacGregor was not a bad man, just a man with no idea how to raise up a girl child.

  “I know this ain’t the first problem she’s caused you, but it’ll be the last.” Auggie said it in such a grim way that Rylan forgot his anger at the girl . . . woman.

  He snapped his attention back to the old man. “What does that mean?”

  “I have laid down the law, and Maizy is making some changes, aren’t you, girl?” Auggie glared over his shoulder at Maizy.

  “Yes, Pa.”

  Rylan could see that being polite really didn’t suit her.

  “She’s gonna give up her hoydenish ways and be a proper lady. Iffen she don’t change now, she will go on shaming me forever and never find a man that’d have her for a wife.”

  A protest rose to Rylan’s lips at the harsh words. He glanced past Auggie’s stooped shoulders and saw one tear trickle down Maizy’s cheek. She swiped it away with the cuff of her pretty dress. Her eyes had been fastened on the floor as she was heaped with criticism, but she glanced up and saw him watching. Her cheeks flushed pink with embarrassment, and for just a second, her eyes looked as if she was begging. As if she didn’t want him to mention the crying. Was that because her pa hated tears? Or that she did? Didn’t she want to gain one ounce of sympathy?

  She tugged on her sleeves again. He could tell the dress was bothering her something fierce. Well, he could understand that. He’d’ve been mighty uncomfortable in a dress himself, and she was probably no more used to a dress than he was.

  “Pa, can I say something, please?” Her voice was quiet and ladylike. A tone he’d never heard from the sassy little thing before.

  “Only if Carstens is willing. Do you want to talk to her?” Auggie asked. “Say the word and I’ll take her away and keep her out of your sight.”

  Maizy wrung her hands.

  “Yes, I’ll hear what she has to say.”

  Auggie stepped aside and gestured Maizy up to the bedside. “Speak your piece, Maizy. But don’t expect much. What you’ve done is near unforgivable.”

  A flash of anger at Auggie m
ade Rylan remember a few pranks he’d pulled in his life. To say something was unforgivable was a terrible thing. How much had they all been forgiven by God? Sure, the little pest had been on his land. Sure, she’d defied him the first moment she’d gotten a chance, when all he’d wanted was to keep her safe. Sure, he was lying here flat on his back, wondering how it would feel when the bank came to reclaim his land.

  But that didn’t mean what she’d done was unforgivable. He forgave her on the spot without her asking. And now that he had, he really wished she and her pretty blue dress would get out of his house. A man in his position had no business showing interest in a woman, and Rylan wasn’t sure how long he could keep his hidden.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  RYLAN WAS BATTERED ALMOST TO A PULP.

  Maizy studied the wounds that showed and wondered about the ones that didn’t. He had a goose egg on the right side of his forehead. The bruising started there and covered that side of his face down to his cheekbone, including an ugly black eye. He had a wary look, like he wished she wasn’t there. Or like maybe he was afraid that she’d break something else on him.

  His right leg was in a white cast up to his knee. He wore a nightshirt that was open enough that she could see the tight bandages wound around his chest.

  “Maizy here has a way to make this all up to you, Carstens,” Pa said.

  Maizy jerked her head up, surprised. All she could think to do was apologize, promise to never trespass again, and endure whatever anger Rylan planned to aim at her. What did Pa mean, make it up to him?

  “I’d do anything to make this right.” As she made that heartfelt offer, it occurred to Maizy that she might be going a bit too far. I’d do anything? She clamped her teeth together to keep from taking that back.

  “There’s no need to make anything up to me. It was a bad situation. Now, if you don’t mind, I need rest. Thank you for stopping in.” Rylan wasn’t up to throwing them out of his house bodily, but he sure enough wanted them gone.

  “You need help.” Pa wasn’t taking the hint. “And Maizy here caused you trouble.”

  “She shouldn’t have been trespassing”—Rylan gave her a quick, annoyed glance—“but who could guess a bear—”

  Pa cut him off. “She’s going to stay and feed you and clean this house. She’ll come early and stay late, and she’ll keep doing that until you’re well.”

  Maizy’s eyes locked on Pa, then shifted to Rylan.

  “Oh no. There’s no need for that.” Rylan definitely wanted them gone.

  Which was starting to irritate Maizy. The man just didn’t like her. It reminded her of how she’d sat by the river, crying like a little baby, her feelings hurt. His not liking her had led to this trouble to begin with.

  But beyond his desire to have them gone, she saw pure pain. Pain that was a result of his saving her life. No matter what her feelings were, Maizy owed Rylan more than she could repay. She did some growing up in that moment, or she sure hoped so. Whether Rylan wanted her here or not, he needed her.

  “I’ll do it.”

  “No, you won’t,” Rylan insisted.

  “I’ll cook for you and see to meals for Rawhide too. I’ll tend your wounds and clean your cabin.” She’d do the right thing, and if his dislike hurt, she was enough of an adult to do the right thing anyway.

  She glanced at the unholy mess and almost lost her determination, but she soldiered on. “And I’ll do anything else you’d like. I’ll be your feet until you’re able to care for yourself. And I will do it with a good spirit too.”

  The go-home look in Rylan’s eyes faded just a bit. Maizy suspected he was thinking of how badly he needed help. So badly he might even bring himself to put up with her.

  “And she will do all of this,” Pa added, “as a lady.”

  “What?” Maizy’s eyes flew to Pa, horrified to think she’d need to keep this strangling dress on.

  “I reckon I’ve ruined her by letting her be a female cowpoke. But if it’s not too late, maybe we can fix her.”

  “But, Pa, I can’t tend a house in this dress! The floors needed scrubbing. I need to see to the garden, haul water, wash clothes, and do the—”

  “Women do those things in dresses all the time, Maizy girl.”

  “Well, yes, of course they do, but they’re all fools.”

  A strange choking sound drew her attention to Rylan. She narrowed her eyes. Was he laughing at her?

  “Well, we can try it,” Rylan said with a straight face.

  Pa nodded, then turned to Maizy. “You do all the caring for him as a well-behaved young lady. I want your word on that, Margaret Catherine.” Pa never used her full name.

  Maizy swallowed hard, a motion that almost strangled her in this blasted dress, and she nodded. “You go on, Pa. I’ll get to work right now. I can walk home in time to get you a meal tonight and—”

  “Absolutely not!”

  Maizy turned to Rylan. “Why not?”

  “You’re trying to be a proper lady. A lady doesn’t walk the countryside alone.” Rylan said to Pa, “You come for her just before sunset. And you bring her back at sunrise.”

  “Pa doesn’t have time to—”

  “It’s dangerous,” Rylan insisted.

  “I do it all the time.”

  “A grizzly bear almost ate you last time you did it.”

  Drat, the man had a point.

  “I’ll be here to see her home,” Pa said with a single jerk of his chin, “and she won’t go about unescorted. Not now and not ever again. You’re right, Carstens.”

  Pa clamped his Stetson on his head and patted Maizy awkwardly on the shoulder, then wheeled toward the door and left.

  Maizy watched him go. Then slowly, because she was afraid of what she’d see, she turned back to Rylan. They looked at each other in dismay, and she knew just what he was thinking.

  He wanted her gone, but he needed her.

  She wanted to help, but she wanted to do it wearing britches.

  Neither of them had a hope of getting what they wanted.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  RYLAN WAS TRAPPED IN THE CABIN WITH THE WOMAN WHO had destroyed his future.

  And she was so pretty he couldn’t think straight when she was anywhere near him. “Your cheeks are a little flushed.” Maizy touched his forehead with a hand hard with calluses, but it was a gentle touch nonetheless. He had to get her away from him.

  “I don’t think it’s a fever. Let me get a cool cloth.” She ran one fingertip over the bump on his forehead and down his cheek. Her face held a frown of such sweet regret Rylan’s heart ached.

  He told himself she was just trying to doctor him, but it felt like more than that. It felt caring . . . intimate.

  “You must have a terrible headache.”

  Rylan had never seen her like this. All womanly and gentle. Every other time he’d seen her, she’d worn a six-gun strapped to her hip, for heaven’s sake. Who knew she could be so . . . so . . . so female?

  “Even without a fever, a cool cloth might reduce the pain.” Maizy left off touching him, thank heavens, and rushed to the basin of cool water by his dry sink, clomping across the floor like a field hand.

  There was the tomboy. Rylan felt a bit more in control by the time she hurried back to his side.

  Folding the wet cloth neatly, she laid it on his forehead. He winced at even that bit of touch, but the cool cloth really was soothing.

  She was a terror, but she worked hard. Since he’d moved in, Rylan had talked with Auggie many times, and he knew Maizy probably worked harder than her pa. That ranch wouldn’t survive without Maizy’s help unless that old skinflint Auggie hired some men. Which was what he should have done years ago. It wasn’t a big spread, so that outlay of cash for cowpokes might make a tight budget snap. Rylan knew that for a fact.

  “Does it hurt terribly?” Maizy’s voice surprised him. It was so kind, so concerned. Her blonde hair was in a neat bun, just a few wisps escaping to curl over her ears and touch her neck. Her
blue eyes shone with concern and kindness, not the thoughtless recklessness she’d displayed before.

  He closed his eyes so he couldn’t see her. But, like a man who had stared at the sun too long, she was burned into his brain. Her dress was too tight and worn so thin it hardly had any color anymore. It had been blue about one hundred washings ago.

  “The worst is my chest, the broken ribs. Seems like a man can’t move anywhere without causing his ribs to ache.”

  “I really am so sincerely sorry you got hurt. I haven’t even said thank you yet. You saved my life.” Her voice wobbled.

  Rylan’s eyes shot open to meet her blue ones and he saw them brimming.

  She blinked quickly and dashed away the tears with a swipe of her wrist. “Now, can you tell me what you’d like for an evening meal? If you’ve got beef or venison, I might need to get it on to roast right away. I’ll make plenty for Rawhide too. Then I can turn my attention to cleaning. It’s a fine cabin but . . . but . . .” She looked a bit lost as she studied all the clutter stacked through the cabin. “I need to knock a f-few cobwebs down.”

  Rylan saw about a hundred cobwebs without turning his head.

  “And the floor needs to be swept and scrubbed.”

  She had to find the floor first.

  “And you’ve got things stowed here and there. I can tidy those stacks up.”

  That was putting it nicely. The cabin was jammed with junk left by the previous owners, whoever they’d been. He’d barely even noticed it until Maizy started her fussing.

  “The house was here when I bought the ranch, and this clutter came with it. I’ve added my own things to the mess, and I haven’t spent a lick of time tending it. I reckon that’s pretty easy to see.”

  “I’ll tidy it up in my spare time. First, after I get a meal on, I’ll do the washing. I’ll get some water on to heat for that. It takes awhile. It’s a cool enough day that a fire in here will be welcome, thank heavens. Doing the washing in the heat of the summer gets tiresome.”