Thread: Desperate Bride (Saul & Chanti)

Rose had experienced a lot of new things in the past several months. She certainly had no previous experience in running and hiding in fear for her life. She had no experience in sewing, no experience in scrounging for a penny to buy an apple for her morning breakfast. No experience in cooking or cleaning houses, or any number of things. But one thing she did have experience with one thing she did feel perfectly at home doing was dealing with a man on a social level. Rose had been attending society parties from the time she was 13 years old, graduating to balls at the age of fifteen. She could handle everything from an awe struck fifteen year old to a sweaty-palmed eager twenty year old to a handsy fifty year old with a leering grin - and she could handle them with grace and dignity. She took in her rancher in one sweeping gaze. From his rough voice that came dangerously close to cracking like a nervous teenage boys, to the nervous fingers folding in his belt the male equivalent of the fluttering fingers of a terrified schoolgirl meeting her first beau, Rose was on comfortable ground. The man would be putty in her hands. Except for the guns. My God, the man fairly bristled with guns. It was alarming, to say the least. Was he wearing them because he thought he needed them? It wouldnt do to anger a man carrying so many guns. No, honesty was definitely not the best policy right now. Maybe when he was thoroughly disarmed. She flashed him her best smile just as the two heavy steamer trunks she had brought dropped down onto the ground beside her with a thud and a grunt of exertion from the stagecoach driver on top. The smile lit up her entire face, made the tired paleness vanish as her teeth flashed whitely and her gentle blue eyes lit up. Mr. Garrett! It is such a pleasure to meet you! She managed effortlessly to sound genuinely pleased without a single desperate note. Good lord, lady! Did you bring all of Boston with you? How many damned dresses and doo dads do you need? The stagecoach driver fumed as he dropped to the ground beside the trunks, his face red from handling her heavy trunks. Rose didnt bat an eye at the rough language, her reply crisp and polite. I need two trunks and a carpetbag worth of dresses and doo dads, Mr. Cotton. Cotton snorted, looking over at Virgil and shaking his head in sympathetic bemusement. Yer gonna have to handle them on your own. I have had enough loading and unloading them once. Damned nuisance. He wandered off to unhitch the team without explaining whether he thought Rose, her luggage, or both were the damned nuisance mentioned. Roses smile never once faltered. You are very kind, and most considerate, Mr. Garrett. But it was a wonderfully relaxing ride out here. The prairies were beautifully empty, but this. She waved one elegant slender hand out to the dusty little tattered town and the rugged mountains not far off. This is absolutely stunning. And while I can assure you I can seat a horse quite well, I am nonetheless grateful you brought the carriage. It would be difficult for horses to transport my trunks. But will it be proper for me to go to your home an unmarried woman? WHY had she asked that? And why had she assured him she could ride a horse when she had truthfully never sat one in her life? She could have slapped herself silly once she realized what she had said. It would be horribly improper for her to go home with him of course. She would be ruined not that she wasnt already after being so long on her own. But everything in her raising spoke out against being alone in a home with a man without a chaperone. She struggled to cover her error no reason to rush the man into marriage when SHE certainly wasnt sure she wanted to go through with it. A little quivering line formed between her arched black eyebrows as she frowned. I suppose the children will be chaperones enough. It WAS a legitimate concern though. If it did not work out with Mr. Garrett and she were forced to try to make her own way here in this squalid littlewelllittle more than a permanent campsiteshe would need every ounce of respectability she could manage. If she spent a night in Mr. Garretts home with no chaperone, every man in this little village would see her as prey. There was no help for it though. She had already made her decisions. Her bridges were most definitely burned. There was no return for her. She could only forge ahead. Where is your wagon? Did you leave the children behind? I simply cannot wait to see your ranch. Ok, NOW there was a bit of desperation. Her smile faltering only slightly, enough for the paleness to creep back into her cheeks. She had lied about the ride out here. It had been the most exhausting journey she had ever taken, partly due to her increasing tension regarding her decision. She could sleep for a week, given the chance. You must tell me more about the children, Mr. Garrett. Do they know I am coming? He was a man. It was likely the silly fool hadnt even mention her to the children. Just show up unexpectedly with a new potential bride in tow Here kids, call her mama if she lasts out the week. But if she could keep him talking, perhaps he wouldnt notice how young she was to be a widow. Perhaps he wouldnt notice that her hands were soft and lily-white despite the hard work over the past month certainly not the hands of a girl who had grown up on a farm. She needed to keep him too busy or too off balance to start noticing things and wandering. Though the only way he would find out she truly had lied was whenIFhe bedded her. Then he would know for certain she was no widow. By then though, they would be married and it would be too late for him to send her back. They would simply have to deal. Could she do it? Could she live her entire life out here, away from Boston, away from balls and silk dresses and the noisy thrill of the port? Away from oysters and the green commons the constant busy thrill of a city at work? She would have too. She couldnt go back. To go back was to die. She had to start a new life out here, and Mr. Garrett seemed like a fine man, a man she could easily control. Except for the guns. The guns were definitely worrisome.