But once she finished her own story, Kathleen began hers. “Your sister took advantage of the commotion caused by your disappearance to sneak off with Spencer without anyone’s noticing.”
“Sneak off with him? For how long?”
“She’s still gone.”
Marian’s eyes widened. “Overnight? Where would they have gone?”
“To town to get hitched is my guess. I thought at first she might have talked him into bringing her home here, for whatever reason, but the carriage tracks point to town. I’ll ride in tomorrow with some of the boys to let her know she’s got my blessing.”
Marian decided to join her aunt for the trip to town. She still wanted to buy some painting supplies, and she supposed it would be appropriate to congratulate her sister on her marriage. She wasn’t all that surprised that Amanda had dumped Chad for Spencer. She had preferred Spencer from the start, his being the more debonair and citified of the two. She could have just said so, though, instead of eloping.
They were in for another surprise, though, when they got to town the next day. Gossip was already running rampant that Amanda had spent the night in the saloon—without benefit of marriage. Marian couldn’t imagine what her sister was thinking of, but she was too sore after the ride to find out immediately and elected to rest at the hotel while Kathleen got to the bottom of what was going on.
Chad caught up to Red before she reached the saloon. He’d come to town himself just to make sure he was off the hook. After hearing that Amanda had eloped with Spencer, he wanted to verify it, so he could relax again. He’d been crushed, though, to find out they hadn’t married after all. Apparently, they’d intended to but had postponed the ceremony because of an argument, and they hadn’t made up yet. But Amanda had spent the night in the saloon, whether in Spencer’s bed or not didn’t make much difference.
Red got angry, hearing this, and went off to gather some forces. It was quite a little crowd that headed to Not Here. The sheriff did his part and cleared the lower floor of all customers and employees alike. His deputies stationed themselves out front, to keep anyone from trying to see what was happening inside—as if anyone couldn’t guess. And a good number of Red’s crew were on hand to gather the rest of the participants.
Chad sat back and watched the show. It was as much a surprise to him as it would soon be to Spencer that Red was going to invite Spencer to his own wedding. He’d thought she’d at least talk to him first, try to persuade him to do what was “right” for a change. But she’d obviously concluded that that would be a wasted effort—and that her shotgun would speak louder than any words.
It did. Spencer didn’t need to ask why his saloon had been taken over. When he was ushered downstairs, pushed and shoved to be exact, he started laughing when he saw Red standing next to the preacher waiting on him.
“You have got to be kidding.”
“ ‘Fraid not,” was all Red replied.
Amanda appeared at the top of the stairs next. At least she was fully dressed for a change, though in a pink-and-black edged getup too fancy for midday, more in line with what Spencer’s female employees wore day and night, semi-evening gowns. She had apparently been willing to fit right in with the atmosphere of a fancy saloon.
She didn’t laugh like he did, however. When she saw Red standing next to a man with a Bible in hand, she immediately tried to head back down the hallway to Spencer’s rooms. That avenue was blocked, however, with Red’s cowboys shaking their heads at her. So with an indignant huff, she marched stiffly down the stairs and straight over to Red.
“I thought I told you that you have no say over what I do,” Amanda said haughtily to her aunt. “I remember saying it. Others heard me say it. So just what do you think you’re going to do here—aside from making a fool of yourself?”
That brought a few gasps. If anyone had been feeling sorry for Amanda by that point, they no longer did. Red didn’t take the bait, though, didn’t even blush. She didn’t get angry again either. It might have been a hard decision to make, but having made it, she had the backbone to stick with it.
Her tone was quite placid when she answered Amanda. “I’m correcting a wrong, sweetie.”
“There’s been no wrong done,” Amanda tried to insist, but Red wasn’t finished.
“Correcting a misconception as well,” she said. “When your father made me your guardian, he put the decision of whom you could marry on my shoulders. In no way conceivable did he intend for the decision to be left up to you. Now we could have accomplished this in one of two ways. You could have taken some time and reviewed your possible choices of a husband, and we would have eventually agreed on a man suitable for you, or I could have gone through all possibilities willing and able and made the decision for you. Either way, the decision was still mine in the end, and circumstances have forced me to make it without any further consideration. But at least I have taken your preference into account.”
“You haven’t!” Amanda cried. “Did you ask me? No, you didn’t! Or I would have told you that no one around here meets my standards. So go home, Aunt Kathleen. You will accomplish nothing here.”
Red still didn’t get angry. Chad was feeling some inklings of disgust himself. Spencer was gritting his teeth over being included in the reference to Amanda’s standards. But Red wasn’t going to be goaded into backing down.
“You can say it as long as you like, as loud as you like, or until someone puts a gag in your mouth,” she told her niece. “You did state your preference when you came to town with Spencer Evans and moved right into his bed. No ifs or buts about it. Not a single person here, myself included, doubts that you made a choice. Now we’ll make it legal.”
“Speaking of legal, you know this won’t work unless one of us agrees to it, Red,” Spencer pointed out. “She obviously won’t, and I sure as hell won’t now. It’s been amusing, but you might as well take her home with you. She’s more trouble than she’s worth.”
“How dare you!” Amanda glared at Spencer.
“Someone have that gag? I’ll be happy to do the honors,” Spencer said.
Amanda blushed furiously. Spencer had obviously taken serious offense over her “no one ...meets my standards” remark. There were a few snickers and coughs over Spencer’s rejoinder, but most eyes turned back to Red for her answer to the legal issue that he’d raised.
Were it the girl’s father standing there with a gun in hand, there’d be no doubts, but “guardian” was an Eastern term most of those present couldn’t relate to because most of them had grown up in Texas, where things were much simpler. A gal either had her folks or other relatives to look after her or she was on her own.
Red was a relative, but a female one, and no one had ever heard of a female leading a shotgun wedding before. When it amounted to “say yes or the,” it usually took a man to enforce such a threat. And Red wasn’t even angry! If she was at least angry, then maybe ...
“I’ll be speaking for my niece, Spencer.”
“I’ll speak for myself, thank you,” Amanda huffed.
“You already did,” Red replied. “No further response is required of you.”
“Well, then, thank God he isn’t going to agree to this farce,” Amanda said, nodding toward Spencer.
“Oh, but he will,” Red returned with a firm degree of confidence as the shotgun she’d been pointing at the floor now rose toward Spencer’s chest. “He’ll either say his ‘I do’ normally, or he’ll say it between screams, but he’ll get around to saying it.”
Spencer didn’t take her seriously, even chuckled. “You aren’t going to shoot me, Red, and you know it.”
“Well, yes, I would,” she disagreed. “I’d try not to kill you though. You have my word on that. But a few holes in your hide won’t bother me too much. Let’s hope this buckshot doesn’t shatter any bone beyond repair.
She said it too casually. Spencer actually didn’t know her well enough to determine if she was bluffing or not. That she wasn’t bluffing at al
l was moot. It was whether or not he believed her that would determine his answer.
But in Spencer’s case, there was one other determining factor. He was much too fond of his hide to want any holes in it. No matter how remote the possibility, any possibility was enough, especially when a marriage to his way of thinking could be easily ended.
But he kept them all waiting for nearly five minutes before he snarled, “Get this over with. And the lot of you can find a new saloon to frequent, because Not Here will have much more meaning for you after today.”
Chapter 43
IT SEEMED TO MARIAN that she ached from head to toe. Kathleen had warned her that she’d probably be sore after the long ride to town, but Marian had scoffed to herself. After all, she’d just ridden long distances in the last couple days with no muscles complaining about it. But it just wasn’t the same, sitting sideways in someone’s lap, as it was straddling a horse and trying to keep her balance on it.
She would have spent the rest of the day in that hotel room if she hadn’t gotten hungry. And Ella Mae wasn’t there to fetch her anything to eat. The maid had elected to stay at the ranch, since they weren’t taking the wagon to town, and she’d never learned to ride a horse either.
She was also curious about what had happened today. Kathleen hadn’t returned to the hotel yet to tell her, or at least, she hadn’t come up to their room. Considering the hour, she was probably having dinner in the hotel and thinking Marian was going to sleep through it.
The hotel maid who had brought her water for her bath had also taken the two dresses she’d brought along and returned them pressed. She donned one now, a dull gray color with just a sprinkling of embroidered white flowers along the sleeve and skirt edges. Her hair was a lost cause, though, without Ella Mae’s assistance. The only style Marian had ever mastered without help was her tight bun, which wasn’t so severe with the altered cut of her bangs. She wasn’t out to impress anyone anyway; she just wanted to get something to eat.
By the time she negotiated the stairs, her movements were a little quicker, but still pretty stiff. She was hoping to find her aunt in the dining room, but if not, it wouldn’t hurt her to eat alone. Her curiosity was getting the better of her, though, was right up there on a par with her hunger.
She was in luck on both counts, well, not really. Kathleen was in the hotel dining room, but she wasn’t alone. Chad was with her. Marian hadn’t counted on that and almost didn’t join them. If she had to watch Chad nursing a broken heart over losing Amanda, she’d probably clobber him.
She lowered herself into the chair as gracefully as her sore muscles would allow. She avoided glancing at Chad, though she certainly felt his eyes on her.
She tried to ignore him for the moment, and asked her aunt, “Did you find her?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“They’re married now,” Kathleen said.
“Really? She didn’t object?”
“ ‘Course she did. He did, too. But bullets help change a person’s mind.”
“You shot them!”
Kathleen chuckled over her conclusion. Chad did, too, for that matter, which brought her eyes straight to him. All she saw was his humor, which didn’t add up. Shouldn’t he be devastated over losing Amanda to another man? He certainly didn’t look devastated, not even a little. Then again, he could just be very good at hiding his feelings.
One thing was obvious though. He still didn’t know it had been her in the stable with him that day, rather than Amanda. That wasn’t something Amanda would clear up either, whether she got a chance to or not, because she’d still want that tie to him and to be able to gloat over it just in case Marian had been lying to her about not wanting him anymore.
She’d allowed herself to be distracted from the main point. Amanda was married. Whether by choice or not, she’d be living somewhere other than with Marian, so Marian was finally, truly free to be herself. She’d certainly thought it would be a day for rejoicing. It was, really. It was just too bad she had so many other emotions cluttering up her joy.
“I’m sorry I missed the wedding,” she said, turning her attention back to Kathleen.
“You didn’t miss much. It wasn’t exactly a typical wedding.”
“Still, I suppose I should have been there instead of pampering a few sore muscles,” Marian insisted. “She is my sister, after all.”
“I really doubt she would have appreciated your presence, sweetie.”
That was true. She was forgetting Amanda had been forced to marry, so she would have resented Marian’s witnessing the ceremony.
Fortunately, the waitress arrived to let her know what was available to eat that night, so she didn’t need to make any further comments about the wedding. Unfortunately, the unhappily wedded couple arrived as well.
“Mind if we join you?” Spencer asked as he sat down next to Chad and pulled a chair over from the next table to accommodate Amanda.
“Yes, we mind,” Chad answered baldly.
“Too bad,” Spencer replied with a tight smile.
Chad sat back and speculated, “Shouldn’t you be celebrating a wedding night? In private?”
“We did that last night, remember? Or did I miss the so-called point of the travesty that was enacted today?”
The words were really bitter, but the tone wasn’t. Marian had a feeling Spencer wasn’t all that displeased with his new married state. If he’d had to be forced into it, it was probably because Amanda had gotten him angry. That was certainly easy enough for her to do.
“You reap what you—”
“Spare me your corny homilies, thanks,” Spencer cut Chad off. “But I’ve got a question for Red. Would you really have shot me, splattered blood all over yourself and everyone else, watched me scream, then do it all over again when I still refused to cooperate?”
“You don’t run a ranch like I do and get squeamish when something needs shooting, Spencer. Yes, I would have. Now let me ask you, did you really think you could go on indefinitely, ruining decent young women, without paying up? Clare Johnson’s father might not have had the gumption to bring you to account, but I did.”
“I hate to remind you, Red, I really do, but your niece was already ruined.”
“That’s okay, we all know that. And she was all set to visit the altar before you interfered.”
“Touché.” He chuckled, then turned his attention on Marian. As if he hadn’t noticed her until now, he said, “Well, well, the caterpillar finally broke out of her cocoon.”
Marian couldn’t help giving him the blush he expected. Marian really hated being the center of attention. Amanda hated it when she was, too, so her rejoinder didn’t come as a complete surprise.
“She was afraid to compete with me,” Amanda explained. “She knew she didn’t stand a chance. But now that the field is open, she thinks she can tiptoe in my footsteps.”
“You sound jealous, darlin’,” Spencer surprised everyone by saying. “There’s no need to be. You’re still prettier.”
“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” Chad put in, then added tongue-in-cheek, “It’s a good thing Spencer is half-blind.”
Amanda sputtered indignantly. Red tried to hide her laugh. Spencer didn’t even try, he burst out laughing. Marian just stared, not sure why Chad had come to her rescue, unless it was no more than an excuse to take a dig at Spencer, who’d stolen Amanda from him. That sounded more likely, since she’d sensed their dislike of each other from the start.
Amanda didn’t appreciate being the butt of a joke though, and turned angrily to Chad. “If anyone is blind it’s—”
But Spencer cut her off, told her, “Why don’t you remember our little talk, darlin’, and watch your tongue.”
Amanda actually closed her mouth and sat back with a glower. Marian was incredulous. Spencer had managed to gain some sort of control over her sister.
With threats? Or by promising her what she wanted? Either way, it was amazing to witness. Even their fa
ther had never had that kind of influence over Amanda.
But Marian couldn’t have asked for better timing. She knew exactly what Amanda had been about to reveal—out of spite. Now that she was married, she’d resent seeing Marian enjoying the bevy of suitors who should have been hers, and she had the means to force a marriage on her. Of course, no one would believe it at this point, including Chad.
Chapter 44
THERE WAS SIMPLY NO way that Marian would consider riding a horse back to the Twisting Barb until all of her saddle sores went away. Neither a wagon, nor a carriage, if Spencer was so inclined to lend his again, would do either. Both were just too bumpy on dirt roads. So she wasn’t ready to return the next day when Kathleen was planning to head home.
Her aunt agreed and arranged for her to stay with the preacher and his family. There was no question about staying with her newly married sister, even if Amanda hadn’t been living over a saloon.
Marian had a lot of shopping to do in Trenton, as well as several appointments with a seamstress, for a complete new wardrobe. She still had enough of her travel money to pay for most of what she needed, though her aunt suggested that she wait before actually spending any of it until they heard from the lawyer.
Kathleen had sent off a telegram to Albert Bridges, telling him that more funds were needed for necessities for Marian, as well as informing him of Amanda’s marriage. Marian couldn’t obtain the bulk of her inheritance yet, but it was available to fund normal living expenses for her. Kathleen wasn’t expected to pay for all of her needs.
She actually had fun shopping and picking out designs and pretty materials for clothes. It had been too long since she’d ordered anything other than mundane and ugly garments, and every time she’d done so, she’d felt deprived, resentful, and especially dispirited. It had all been her own doing, necessary in her mind, but certainly no fun. Finally, those days were over.
Kathleen was going to return to collect her the following weekend. The lawyer’s reply, when it came in, was to be delivered to Marian first, so she would know when the funds had been transferred to the bank in Trenton. Until then, she had to be frugal, so she merely made her choices, telling the seamstress to hold off on starting anything until the money arrived to pay for it.