Alicia's Misfortune (36 page)

Ivy struggled to get herself out of the recliner and finally
with a loud exhale she managed to push herself off. She waddled across the
living room.

“Are you okay in there, honey?” Luther’s voice came from the
kitchen over the sounds of plates being laid out.

“Yeah, I just have to pee again!” Luther laughed.

“I’m going to move the toilet to the living room, it’d be
easier for both of us!” Ivy shook her head as she waddled past the kitchen
towards the bathroom.

“Don’t you dare. Besides, we only have a few weeks left
until your son is born and I don’t want to have a toilet in the living room
when all the people come over to see him.” Ivy disappeared in to the bathroom.

“Do you think your parents will come to see him?” Luther
shouted hopefully from the kitchen.

“I hope so.” Ivy paused, “I’m pretty sure they will.” She
shouted back from the bathroom.

“They didn’t seem too happy when we were over there the
other week.” Luther put the two dinner plates on trays and walked one through
to the living room. He set it on the table beside the recliner for Ivy.

“That,” Ivy came out of the bathroom, “is because they are
stubborn, and overprotective.” Luther helped her sit back down in the recliner
and when she was settled he put her tray on her lap.

“I have told you before, it’s a parent’s job to be
overprotective.” He reached down and rubbed the top of her belly bump. “Just
you wait until our son is born, then you’ll see.” Ivy shook her head.

“I will never be as overprotective as they are. Never!”
Luther went back in to the kitchen to fetch his own tray.

“We will see about that.” He came back in and sat down on
the sofa. “I guarantee you that there will never be a girl good enough to date
our boy.” Ivy laughed, she knew that it was true.

“Well, that’s not being overprotective, that’s just being a
parent.” Luther laughed.

“Oh…okay.” He stuck his fork in his potatoes and looked back
over to Ivy. “Well, the next time your folks call, why don’t you invite them
over? Tell them we’d like to see them and they can help to decorate the
nursery…” Ivy shoveled a forkful of mashed potatoes in to her mouth.

“Sure, they won’t come though, you know they won’t. They’re
still mad at you because you knocked up their daughter and they’re still mad at
me because apparently I lay there and asked you to knock me up.” She rolled her
eyes as she took a sip of ginger ale.

When they’d found out about Ivy being pregnant, her parents
had both sat in mortified silence for what felt like an eternity. When finally
her mother spoke, she asked who the father was and Ivy had told them it was
Luther. Her mom, having no idea who Luther was by name alone, asked if she had
ever had the pleasure of meeting the “young man.” That was where things started
to get a little complicated. When Ivy explained that yes, they had briefly met
Luther at the Soda Fountain, her mom turned just about every shade of red in
the book. She had been angrier than Ivy had ever seen her before, but she was
angry at Luther for taking advantage of her ‘innocent’ daughter. Ivy had spent
an hour trying to explain that she was a perfectly willing participant in the
activities that had led up to the event, but this had only seemed to make
things worse. Since then, Ivy had moved in with Luther permanently and her
parents had made it a point to protest everything Luther related.

“Maybe you should ask anyway? You never know, maybe they’ll
surprise us?” Ivy nodded.

“Sure. Maybe and maybe pigs will fly.” There was silence
again for a few minutes as Luther picked at his food.

“You know what? I think I might go over there tomorrow.
Maybe see if there’s anything I can do to help them out around the house or
something like that.” Ivy looked over at Luther with a smile. “What?!” She
shook her head slowly, a small tear escaping her eye.

“I love you Luther Gains.” He smirked.

“I love you too.”

By: Erin Walsh

The
Shamed Montana Bride,
A Mail Order Bride Western Romance

© Erin Walsh, 2015 – All rights reserved

Published by Steamy Reads4U

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form, including electronic or mechanical, without written permission from the
publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles
or reviews.

This is a work of fiction.
 
Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either
the product of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner.
 
Any resemblance to actual persons, living or
dead, or actual events are purely coincidental.
 
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only.

This book may not be resold or given away to other
people.
 
If you would like to share this
book with another person, please purchase an additional copy.
 
If you are reading this book and did not
purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, please return it to the
seller and purchase a copy.
 
Thank you
for respecting the author’s work.

Warning

This book contains explicit content intended for readers 18+
years old.

If you are under 18 years old, or are not comfortable with
adult content, please close this book now.

The bumps and grinds of the coach chafed her. She was bruised
where no woman ought to be. Maybe it was because she was tense from harboring a
secret that made the knocks and bumps of the coach land that much harder. She
had carried the secret all the way out from Wichita. And she hoped and prayed
it would never catch up with her.

Cora was a mail order bride. Or rather her sister Hailey
was. After her beautiful sister was widowed and lost her only child, she had
answered an ad and began corresponding with a cowboy. He sent her a proposal, a
ticket and some cash to travel on. Then she died. She got a crush wound from a
horse. It was so sudden. It was so unfair.
 

Cora went through everything her sister had and discovered
the contract between her sister and the cowboy who lived near the wicked Dodge.
It was the one confidence that she and her sister had not shared. Cora wept as
she poured over the tender correspondence between them.

She was broken hearted. There was nothing more for her in
Wichita. Cora packed up her belongings, with ticket and cash in hand and brought
her sister back to life. From the moment she boarded the coach, she was Hailey
Blevins.

By the time the stage pulled into its station, Hailey knew
she had opened sores or blisters in spots where her clothing rubbed every time
the carriage rocked. She was never so glad for anything as to have the ride be
over. She began it with a sense of fresh start and excitement if not a healthy
dose of fear for what she was about to get into.
 
But now, as the carriage stopped and they
were in Dodge, she had a real sense that she just wanted it to be over with. To
hurry on with getting married to her cowboy.

She smoothed her hair out of reflex. There wasn't a whole
lot that running her hands over the length of what used to be fresh, wheat
colored curls was going to do to her appearance but it was worth the try. When
that carriage door opened and she crawled out, he would be there. The man who
would be her husband. Charles Anthony Halverson, a cowboy on the Dokes-Dalley
Ranch.

She swallowed, drawing up her road-dust parched throat and
summoned her courage. She took the hand of the driver, and extended her foot
forward. She ached. It hurt to move. To stretch. She could not remember how
many miles ago that she had done so. She found footing on the sidewalk and
remained with hand held with the driver until she was upright and able to
stand. She looked around. If Charles Anthony Halverson was meeting her at the
stage, he was late. She hoped he had not been killed by Indians. She heard of
such things.

She said, “Will you be so kind as to point him out to me?”

The driver stepped into the saloon and scanned the room.

“I don’t see him in there, directly,” he said.

“Well I’ll just sit in here until he comes for me,” she
said.

“Ma’am that is no place for a lady,” said the driver.

“If it’s good enough for my husband to be, it’s good enough
for me,” said Hailey.

Hailey pushed through the double doors and took a seat at an
empty table. The bartender approached her.
 

“Ma’am,” he nodded.

“Sarsaparilla, please,” she ordered.

“There’s a restaurant down the way,” he replied. “They also
serve sarsaparilla. I think you would be much better off if you take your
business there.”

Hailey trembled. Her intended husband had not met her at the
stage. He was not in the saloon where he was reputed to frequent and now she
was being shooed off to a restaurant. She was beginning to think she had been
jilted.

“I think I will just go find a room at a hotel,” she said
dejectedly. “If you would just point me in that direction, that will do.”

She rose, clutched at the handle of her bag, when two dirty,
drunken men cackled at her.

“Move out of the way, Lem,” they said to the bartender.
“She’s ours.”

“Leave her alone. She’s a lady can’t you see? Wandered in
here by mistake,” the bartender said.

One of the two dirty men backhanded the bartender and he
went down. Hailey trembled. Her body hurt from sitting in the stage and the
exhaustion of the long ride was now slamming her. She thought she might vomit.
It would serve the drunken fools right.

As she swayed she was struck with an idea. She would catch
them off guard and swing at them with her bag. It was the only plan she had.
She was pretty sure the one ally she had in town was now out cold. The two
filthy men salivated, snarling as they approached her like rabid dogs.
 

Hailey stepped back, winding up. She cocked her arm, was
ready to let fly when someone caught her wrist from behind her. She looked over
her shoulder to an extraordinarily handsome man. He was massive and almost too
pretty to be a man.
 
But he was indeed a
man. She could feel it. She looked up as he looked down. This was her intended.
It had to be Charles Anthony Halverson.

Hailey looked straight ahead, her wrist manacled in the
large hand of her intended husband. The two filthy men were now stepping back,
apologizing.

“Hey Charlie,” they said. “We was just playin’ with her.
She’s none the worse for wear.”

“Beat it,” ordered the tall handsome man behind her. He
still had hold of her.
 
She liked the way
he made her feel. Warm and strange.

Hailey sensed a lecture was upon her. Everyone around her
had scurried away.
 
She now had her first
private moment with the man she traveled all the way from Wichita to marry.

“Were you advised not to come into this place?” he asked
her.

“I have no idea to whom I’m speaking,” she said wrenching
her hand away from his grip. “You could at least introduce yourself.”

“I don’t need to,” he asked. “You know who I am. Your safety
is at issue.”

“It always is, is it not?” she replied smartly. “And so it
would have been a really good idea if the man who was going to marry me was at
my stage the moment I got off.”

“Are you saying you would not be in here if it were not for
me?” he asked.

“I am saying I am tired. I am hungry. I am sore. I want to
go home,” she said.

He was quiet. He leaned back and looked her up and down like
he was weighing his options. A slight snarled tugged his upper lip. He leaned
down and picked up her bag. He took hold of her elbow and guided her out to a
buggy.

Without asking or warning, his strong hands were at her
waist. He lifted her into the passenger seat. He took his place next to her,
snapping the reins to make the horses pull. There was a huge sense of relief
that Hailey was safe and where she belonged. It was a whole lot better than the
wandering feeling she had had before he showed up.

She was also secretly pleased that her husband to be was a
true sight for sore eyes. He was tall and handsome and his hair was the same
color as hers. It fell in a soft wave across his head and tousled in soft curls
that wrestled beneath his hat.

Hailey spied out of the corner of eyes that his legs were
long. He was long. He was a good bit taller than her. Warmth stirred in her
stomach when she thought of that.
 
But
not enough to keep her belly from growling.
 

She reached into her drawstring bag for some bread she had
wrapped up in a kerchief but the kerchief was empty. It didn’t matter. She was
sure she was too tired to eat. The buggy bumped and she teetered into his hard
body. He was so warm and comfortable, she leaned against him and closed her
eyes.