The Stagecoach Bride

by Stephannie Beman

  “You mean everyone knows and no one will tell him? Why not?”

  Mic hugged her tighter to him, kissing the top of her head. “How do you tell a man that his wife is sleeping with nearly everyone in town except him until she finds out she’s pregnant?” From the corner of his eye, he saw movement on the rocks. “As sweet as that revenge would be, there would be eight children who’d suffer for their mother’s mistake.”

  “A mistake is something done unintentionally. What she’s doing is wrong. Do the children know?”

  “It is wrong, Uzizitka, but would you tell him? Would you tell the children? Would you paint shame upon the innocent for the sins of their mother and father?”

  She sighed. “No, I wouldn’t, but I’d be tempted to give the mother a piece of my mind.”

  “Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies,” Jeremiah said in his preacher voice, probably quoting scripture.

  “A virtuous woman isn’t going to like being snuck up on for a kiss. All you’ll do is scare her away,” she pointed out.

  “Then I’ll know she’s virtuous.”

  “Then you’ll know… I just don’t understand you at all.”

  Mic chuckled. Lillian was relentless and he loved that about her. However, her attempts to fix Jeremiah would be wasted. Jeremiah was too set in his ways.

  “Supper’s ready,” Noah announced.

  Lillian groaned and rolled her eyes. “There’s no getting through to him, Mic. ”

  Mic hugged her tightly. “I know. I stopped trying years ago. ”

  “What did I miss?” Abby asked from the rock.

  Mic glanced at his sister, drawing Lillian closer to his body, and opened his mouth to answer.

  “He killed food for her,” Wade said, sidling up to the fire to cut a strip of meat off the grouse. “Slept with her and let her take advantage of his person.”

  “He let her ride his horse to his house,” Noah added. “And wrestled with her beside the stream.”

  “Beat me senseless for touching her,” Jeremiah said from his bedroll with a yawn.

  Mic rolled his eyes. “Lillian and I got married.”

  Abby grinned and leapt off the rock. “The first time didn’t work for you so you had to try three more?”

  “Does everyone have to know our business?” Lillian asked. Then she sat up, frowning down at him. “What was that about three more times?”

  Mic groaned. They were trying to get him into trouble and he’d better explain before they succeeded.

  Abby drew her knife, advancing on him. “Did you take advantage of her innocence, Michaiah?”

  “No!”

  “No, he didn’t,” Lillian spoke up. “He was a perfect gentleman.”

  Abby nodded her head sharply. “Good. I’d hate to thrash him for being a lusty husband to a woman who didn’t understand that in the Sioux world she was married to him that first day. ”

  “What?”

  Mic sighed. “She was talking about you with that comment about the three times. It’s called stealing a bride. ”

  “Oh, that’s silly. You don’t just take someone out of a stagecoach and are suddenly married to them. If that was the case, then women wouldn’t accept a man’s hand if he wanted to help her out of one.”

  “If I was Lakota and if I wanted to steal my bride, I could kidnap her and bring her to my home.” He glared at his sister. “Which wasn’t what happened and you know it.”

  Abby grinned. “I know but teasing you is so much fun.” She crouched down beside the fire and cut a piece of meat from the bird with one of her knives.

  “Where’s Caleb?” Wade asked.

  Abby waved behind her. “Bringing the horse. I wanted to see if I could sneak up on Mic.”

  “Stop wearing the boots.” He holstered his gun. “They make too much noise on the rocks.”

  “Does it?” Lillian asked. ”I didn’t hear her.”

  Abby laughed, slapping her hand on her thigh. “You have to be part wolf or part Mic. How far back?”

  Mic shrugged. “Foot scrapped on a rock about ten feet back. Jeremiah was talking about the reason he broke the mayor’s jaw. There were a few other sounds along the way. ”

  “You heard her that far back?” A smile crossed Lillian’s face and she kissed him. “You never cease to amaze me with everything you can do.”

  “Are they always this way?” Abby asked the others, chewing her food.

  “Worse,” Wade answered.

  “If you don’t like what you see, turn the other way.”

  “Well darlin’, a thunderstorm only masks so much and I’m not getting a cold by going out in it.”

  “It serves you right, Wade, after everything you did.”

  Abby chortled. “I like her.”

  “Me too,” Jeremiah and Noah said.

  “I reserve judgment,” Caleb said, bringing the two horses into camp. “Though anyone who can put up with Mic, Wade, Noah, and Jeremiah definitely has my respect.”

  Lillian smirked at Wade.

  He groaned. “Thanks. It’s good to know my family is there to stab me in the back.”

  “So what have my idiot brothers been teaching you?” Abby glanced at Mic with a raised brow. “Besides the obvious marriage stuff from Mic.”

  “They taught me things I can do to protect myself if I ever need it, like hiding, using a knife, paying attention when I’m at a stream, being careful what I do when someone might be watching or listening, and how to use my feminine wiles.”

  Abby burst out laughing. “Feminine wiles? What do these thugs know about feminine wiles?”

  “I’ll have you know that Jane told me all about feminine wiles,” Wade said irritably.

  Jeremiah shrugged. “I don’t get women.”

  “That’s obvious,” she spat at Jeremiah. “Let me guess, their ideas of feminine wiles is batting eyelashes, puckering lips, and Cleopatra? Idiots!” Abby stood and stalked over to Lillian. “Come on. We have to talk.”

  Lillian glanced at Mic who nodded then rose to her feet. “Alright.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Lillian reluctantly followed Abby away from the men. The woman was intimidating. She had to be nearly Mic’s height, though more slender. The hilts from several knives flashed from the top of her boots and beneath her duster.

  She glanced over her shoulder at Mic, uneasy to be straying so far from him with this unknown threat. He flashed a grin at Noah as he accepted a tin cup from him. He didn’t seem the least bit worried about her with Abby, and that put her at ease. However, she kept them within sight.

  “Watch your step,” Abby said.

  Quickly turning her gaze forward, she looked at the ground but didn’t see anything she should avoid stepping on. She looked back at Abby who had stopped and was studying her from head to toe.

  Her eyes narrowed. “Do you love my brother?”

  Lillian rolled her eyes and sat on a fallen log. “I just love how everyone in this family keeps asking me that, as if I’m on trial or something. If you want to tell me I’m not good enough for him, then just come out and say it.”

  Abby frowned down at her. “On trial?” Then her face cleared. “Wade? He’s giving you grief?”

  “Just about everyone has insinuated something bad about me since you all decided to force me out of the stagecoach. I’m tired of having to prove myself. You’ll just have to watch what I do and decide my motives from there.” Maybe she came off sounding meaner than she intended. She released her breath and kicked at a rock. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be impolite. I don’t even know you. It’s just that everyone keeps asking me if I’m sincere when it comes to Mic. I wouldn’t have married him if I wasn’t.”

  Abby touched her arm. “We’re all protective of Mic. He knows a lot about the world, but he’s quite blind when it comes to people. However, that isn’t why I asked if you loved him. I can see by looking at Mic that you are good for him, that he loves you more than his life. But unlike my
brothers, I also know the rules that govern women are different. I wanted to make sure you are in love with Mic and not forced to marry him because propriety would demand that you do so.”

  Lillian relaxed. “No, I wasn’t forced to marry him. I don’t think anyone wanted me to marry him, least of all Wade. But I’m not going to let anyone tell me what I can or can’t do anymore.”

  “I can see why Jeremiah likes you. Be assured that Jeremiah wouldn’t have married you two if he protested your union. Although I would have liked to have been there. Jeremiah has an interesting sense of humor. And if Wade didn’t protest the marriage, then he’s fine with it now.” She sighed. “The trick with them is not to let them bother you. The more you fuss, the more colorful they get. Especially Jeremiah. However, once you earn their respect, they’ll do just about anything for you.”

  Lillian stared at Abby’s face, trying to understand what Abby wanted from her. Brushing back a piece of errant hair from her face, Lillian ventured, “Did you want to tell me how to handle Mic’s brothers?”

  Abby smiled. “I can see why Mic was attracted to you. You have strength and passion, even if they’ve been suppressed. Although I imagine there is more to it than that. As for handling the boys? It’s rather easy once you get used to them. And I think you’ll be a good sister once they get used to you.”

  Unsure of what to say, she cleared her throat and smiled. “Thank you.”

  Abby returned her smile. “Now let’s teach you about the feminine wiles that my brothers know so little about.”

  Recalling the way Abby had insinuated her brothers didn’t understand feminine wiles as well as they thought they did, she turned to her in interest. “What can you teach me about them?”

  “First, you have to understand men,” Abby said, taking a seat beside her on the log. “Even my brothers, to a certain degree, believe a woman is weaker than a man. It gives one an advantage over them.”

  “But we are weaker. At least, I am. Wade had his arm wrapped around my throat, and I couldn’t figure a way to get out of it. I wasn’t strong enough and tears didn’t work.”

  “You have to outsmart him. Which means you might have to bide your time. It means you might have to observe him, see what works and what doesn’t. Tears don’t work well on Wade after I used them once and kneed him in his man parts. I’ll claim to my dying day that it was an accident. Now tears would work on Mic every time.”

  “How can you tell if tears work or not?”

  “If you cry and a man’s eyes soften or there is disgust there, then it worked. If he stops watching you quite so closely or his grip loosens, then it worked.”

  “I understand the softening part, but I don’t see why disgust works.”

  “If he’s disgusted by your display of weakness, then he isn’t going to take advantage of you in a more personal way. His attention won’t be as focused. Because you’ve just affirmed his estimation of a woman as weak and stupid. It means he’ll forget to watch you as closely and there will be that moment when you can escape.”

  That made sense. Lillian nodded. “I understand. And if I need to kick him there? Then what?” Lillian still couldn’t imagine kicking a man in such a sensitive region, but Mic seemed pretty insistent about it and if it meant doing that or being in danger, she’d just have to do it.

  Abby stood. “Stand up.”

  She took a deep breath and rose to her feet. “I’m still learning what to do, so I ask that you take it easy on me.”

  Abby stepped closer to her, put her hands on her shoulders, and raised her knee. It came up between Lillian’s legs but never connected.

  Even so, Lillian jerked, surprised by how quick the motion was. And undoubtedly, it would hurt if she did that to a man. If she’d learned nothing else from her time with Mic, she now understood how sensitive that part of a man’s body was.

  She released her. “Like that. Or if you are in his embrace and can’t use your arms for leverage, just lift your knee. But it’s not something I suggest for you.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because it’s not in you. You’d probably hesitate and he’d block it.” Abby lifted her hand to the back of her neck and pulled out what looked to be a very long hairpin, only thicker. “This is what I would suggest. It takes less strength. The best way to use it is to look into your attacker’s eyes and picture Mic. Think of him when you flirt with your enemy. The easiest way to get under a man’s guard is to be pleasant. A smile that says you are his for the taking. Then stab it deep into that tender part. He’ll let you go and you have your chance to run.”

  Lillian flinched, not knowing which part of that scenario sounded worse. She couldn’t imagine trying to flirt with anyone else but Mic, and the thought of sticking a pin in that part of a man’s body made her wince. Releasing her breath, she reminded herself that she would have to do it in a hopeless situation. She hadn’t stopped to consider how lucky she’d been that Mic and his brothers hadn’t been the type of men who would have made her resort to such measures. She cleared her throat then asked, “When I run, where do I run to?”

  “Anywhere you can. You’d better have an escape route ready. If you can hide, do so. But don’t let the man get his hands on you again. And remember, whatever happens to you, whatever you are forced to do or is forced upon you, Mic will come for you and he will make them pay dearly.” She squeezed Lillian’s arm. “He won’t stop loving you, ever. And you will always have family with us. We may be crass and hard to understand, but we take care of our own.”

  Despite the fact that Abby added the encouragement, Lillian didn’t feel any better. If anything, the bad feeling she’d had since that morning only grew stronger. “Abby, if I have to run, shouldn’t there be a place where Mic will know where to find me?”

  Her blue eyes were sad as she spoke, “If you were at your home, I would say a place special to you both. But what if you aren’t home? Then where could I tell you to go?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Abby removed the sheath around her neck and placed the hairpin into it, handing it to Lillian. “Mic will never be far from you and he’s the best tracker I know. He will find you wherever you are.”

  Lillian stared at the thin leather sheath and turned it over in her hands. “So if I put something that is uniquely mine in here and dropped it, then it will help Mic find me?”

  “What do you know of tracking?”

  “Not much, if anything. I know how to hide in places like a bramble bush.”

  “Good place.” Abby smiled. “Quick lesson. If Mic knows where to look, he can find you with a foot imprint, a strand of hair, a broken branch, or bent blade of grass. You leave him a trail of beads from a necklace or something similar and he’ll follow it.”

  “If you two are done gossiping,” Wade shouted, “it’s time to go.”

  Abby turned and shouted back. “Go jump in a sandpit!”

  “Snakes aren’t in sandpits, are they?” Lillian asked Abby.

  Abby shrugged. “Sometimes.”

  With a wicked grin, she called out, “Jump into a large sandpit with lots of snakes.”

  Abby laughed and threw her arm around Lillian’s shoulder. “And that’s how you deal with Wade.”

  “It’s too bad we can’t get rid of him, but I suppose everyone has their burden to bear.”

  “Wade’s not bad. He’s just going through a tough time and taking it out on everyone around him. The loss of Jane and Lloyd hit him hard. She died a few months ago and we didn’t even know that Lloyd was alive until a few weeks ago. The thought of his child in Charles’ hands...” Abby cleared her throat. “I should say that Wade’s child in Charles’ hands is very bad. The man is a monster.”

  “I suspected as much when I heard what Charles was like.” And she had noticed the way Mic hesitated when she asked about how safe Lloyd was under Charles’ care. “Do you think tonight is going to go well, that we’ll get Lloyd back?”

  “Between us, I’m more afraid one of them
will get hurt. But that boy will be taken from that house, even if they have to tear it apart.”

  It was the same kind of reassurance Mic had given her, but she didn’t really expect the same answer. Mic had wanted to protect her, to make her think it’d all work out, and despite her desire to believe him, deep down, she just couldn’t. All Abby did was voice her fears. “Thanks for telling me the truth.” She paused and forced a smile, knowing that even as she did so, it was a weak attempt to keep the mood light. “I suppose we should go.”

  With a nod, Abby led her back to the camp.

  ***

  Around midnight, Lillian’s fingers dug into the bark of the tree. Her nerves were on edge as she watched the two-story yellow house a few hundred feet away from her hiding place. Mic and Wade had just gone into the house. Not too far off, Jeremiah was waiting in the shadows outside in case he needed to intervene.

  Lillian took a deep breath and swallowed the lump in her throat. Abby, Noah, and Caleb were hiding behind other trees on the property, also looking for any signs that Charles or someone else had spotted Mic or Wade. She wished she felt as confident as they seemed to be. She couldn’t help but think something was going to go wrong. It was the same feeling she had the day Albert asked to speak with her and she later found out he had arranged for her to marry Robert.

  Pushing aside the memory, she scanned the house and land surrounding it. So far, everything was calm. A coyote howled in the distance and she shivered. She didn’t know if she’d ever get used to the animals that lurked out there, but right now an animal seemed like a better bet than being in that house.

  A few tense seconds of silence hovered over the land before a gunshot rang from the house. Lillian started, her heartbeat coming to a temporary stop. It took her a moment to notice a handful of men pouring from the bunkhouse in various stages of dress. Snapping to action, she bolted over to Abby who had grabbed the horses’ reins.

  Lillian wiped the sweat off of her hands, glancing back at the house as she ran. She didn’t see Mic, Wade or Jeremiah anywhere. She nearly tripped so she turned her attention forward.