Bartered Bride Romance Collection (51 page)

Like all the rest of the men in the area, Gideon had made a trip to the Rough Cs to meet the Craig sisters. Jim Collingswood had snatched up friendly Matty right off. Then Luke married that sweet Corrie. Bertie was too young to interest Gideon.

But, Bess … well, he still remembered the sight of her getting off the train. He’d considered getting in line to ask to court her but changed his mind right fast. A lady deserved better than a saloon owner for a husband. And it was as certain as sagebrush in Wyoming that pious, proper Bess would agree. Besides, her face looked too stern to entertain a smile. And the way she dressed—severe, dark clothes like that gray outfit she wore today, her dark brown hair pulled back tight in a bun. Dressed more like a widow in mourning than a lady looking for a husband. No, sir, he didn’t cotton much to being hitched for life to a woman as sober and proper as Elizabeth Craig.

Gideon yawned. He wasn’t accustomed to seeing the light of day at this time of morning. He rubbed the palm of his hand over his face then grinned. He was the only man in town, besides Doc, who hadn’t shaved this morning.

He heard a man clear his throat and realized Parson Harris stood beside him, Bible and hat in hand. “Thank you for allowing us to use your business establishment for the services, Mr. Riker. I hope we didn’t cause you too much trouble.”

“No trouble at all.” Seemed more like entertainment to him, in fact. “Welcome to use it again any Sunday morning.” He saw no harm in making the offer. It didn’t rain often enough in Lickwind to expect Parson Harris to need the saloon again. Besides, once Bess and Bertie Craig married, church attendance would dwindle back to the normal handful of sincere faithful.

That was, assuming any man dared take Bess Craig on as a wife. Gideon chuckled, remembering the way she’d all but demanded the use of his saloon. He had to admit, he admired her gumption.

Gideon yawned again and pushed his way through the batwing doors. He should probably keep the saloon open with all those men in town. Some were sure to stop in for a drink. But all he wanted to do was get some shut-eye.

He stopped short. Bertie Craig stood behind the bar, her back to him. Beside her, Harry proudly listed off the different types of alcohol available, pointing at the appropriate bottles.

“Harry, what are you …?”

Harry and Bertie turned to stare at Gideon as he stormed across the room, boots thunking against the wooden floor. “Get out from behind that bar, the both of you.”

Bertie hurried out, fear on her freckled, tomboyish face. “For true, I didn’t hurt a thing, sir. And I didn’t even look at the picture.”

“I should hope not.” Gideon grabbed her arm just above the elbow. He started to escort her toward the door. She almost stumbled in her attempt to keep up with him. Her free hand pressed the brim of the hat to her strawberry blond hair to keep the hat from falling off.

A growl, accompanied by something yanking at his trousers, stopped him. The strangest-looking dog he’d ever seen glared up at him. He tried to shake it off.

“Don’t hurt Ramon,” the girl pleaded. “He’s just being protective of me.”

Gideon started toward the door again, his fingers still around the girl’s arm and the dog dragging along.

Harry hurried alongside them. “Nothing happened, Gideon. I watched out for her.”

“That’s a comfort,” Gideon said dryly.

“I know how to treat a lady.” Harry’s voice rose in indignation.

“Then you know a lady has no place in a saloon.” He deserved this for being softhearted and taking Harry on as a barkeep. What he needed was someone with the brawn of Amos the blacksmith, who could squelch fights in the saloon. But he’d felt sorry for Harry. He was only a kid with no family to look out for him.

Bertie’s smile beamed. “Bess says I’m not a lady yet, but almost.”

Gideon groaned.
Miss Bess Craig must have her hands full with this one
.

“Besides, all us Craig sisters were here for church,” Bertie protested. “We were here for Ellis Stack’s trial, too, but I couldn’t see much then.”

“Unless we have another rainstorm on a Sabbath morning before your sister is hitched, you’ll not see the inside of this saloon again.”

“For true, that’s why I took advantage of the opportunity.”

Gideon stopped, his hand still gripping her arm, and stared at her. “Opportunity?”

Her face shone bright with innocence. “Yes, sir. The opportunity to see a den of iniquity up close.” She squinted at him. “You don’t look depraved.”

He muttered under his breath and pushed open a batwing door, almost hitting Miss Bess Craig, who’d just stepped onto the saloon’s boardwalk from the rain-soaked street. “There you are, Bertie. I was beginning to believe you’d headed back to the ranch on foot.”

Gideon released his hold on Bertie.

“You can let go now, Ramon,” the girl urged the dog.

To Gideon’s amazement, the dog did as she said, though it continued growling.

Gideon nodded toward Bertie. “You’d best keep a close watch on this one, Miss Craig. If ever there was a girl named Trouble, this one is it.”

Anger flashed from Bess’s brown eyes. She reached for Bertie, drawing the girl into her embrace. “I’ll thank you not to insult my sister, Mr. Riker.”

Gideon felt his face heat from her reproof. His embarrassment fueled his anger. He’d been fifteen the last time a woman used that tone with him. He bit back the reply dangling on the tip of his tongue. “Sorry, miss.”

Bess looked as though she’d like to refuse his apology, but she didn’t. Instead, she said in a hard voice, “The Collingswoods, Bertie and I, and Parson Harris are planning to picnic in the jailhouse. We’d be pleasured if you’d join us, since you allowed us the use of your … premises for the service.”

Pleasured? He’d bet his new house she wasn’t a bit pleasured at the prospect of his company. “I’d be most honored, Miss Craig. Thank you kindly.”

She nodded at him—a short, clipped sort of nod led by her pointed chin. “Come, Bertie.”

He grinned, rubbing the palm of his hand across the stubble on his chin, as he watched them head next door to the jailhouse.

When Gideon started for the jailhouse twenty minutes later, he sported a clean-shaven face and smelled as good as the cheap aftershave from Jones’s General Store allowed—just like all the other bachelors in the Lickwind vicinity. He even wore his best shirt. He chuckled as he walked along, amused that of all the bachelors at church that morning, he’d been the worst dressed and the only one not there voluntarily—but he was the one invited to picnic with Miss Bess Craig. Obviously not for romantic reasons, but that fact only added to the humor of the situation.

The sight that greeted him when he stepped inside the jailhouse knocked his pride down a peg. He evidently wasn’t the only bachelor invited. He stood in the doorway and surveyed the men. If he’d prepared a list of the most eligible men in the area, these were the men whose names would be on that list: Jones, the owner of the general store; Squires, the feedstore owner; short and portly Oscar Hatch, the barber, with his cookie-duster mustache, and his lanky cousin Linus, the telegraph operator; Amos Freeling, the blacksmith; Mr. Llewellyn; the lawyer Donald Potter; and ranchers Josiah Temple and Clyde Kincaid.

Well, maybe Kincaid wouldn’t make Gideon’s list. Gideon hated to see the man enter the saloon. He cheated at cards as sure as wind whipped Wyoming.

“We’re so glad you could join us, Mr. Riker.” Mrs. Jim Collingswood smiled up at him. “The food is set out in the area that will be a cell once the bars arrive and are set in.”

“Sure there’s enough food, ma’am? You’ve quite a crowd here.”

“Yes, isn’t it nice? They all just showed up. This is such a friendly town.”

“Yes, ma’am.”
Friendly like a coyote after a chicken, and Bess Craig is the prey
. But Matty’s comments restored his assurance that he was the only unmarried man here by invitation.

He made his way across the room, greeting people along the way, until he reached the barless cell. It was a mite crowded. Bess stood beside the mattressless wooden cot attached to the wall, where the food was set out. The banker, Llewellyn, and the lawyer, Potter, flanked her. Others stood about with silly grins on their faces, hoping for a handout of Miss Craig’s attention.

Gideon smirked. Nice of Jim’s wife to let it slip that none of the other men were invited. This could be fun. Gideon softened his voice to courting tones. “So nice of you to invite me, Miss Craig.”

Unpleasant surprise flickered across the banker’s and lawyer’s faces—just the reaction Gideon hoped to see. With a sense of reluctance, the lawyer stepped back to allow Gideon beside Bess. The faint floral scent she wore nudged away the scent of Gideon’s aftershave and set his heart to quick-stepping.

Bess Craig lifted her chin and gave him a cool glance. “You made it, Mr. Riker. Would you like some fried chicken and dried apple pie?”

“I surely would, miss.”

She filled a plate and handed it to him.

“Thank you kindly.” He winked at her.

She blinked, looking astonished, then blushed.

Llewellyn and Potter exchanged glances.

This is the most fun I’ve had since the Union Pacific gang moved on
. Gideon took a bite of the drumstick.

Llewellyn hooked his thumbs on his vest pockets. “That house you’re building is coming along well, Riker.”

“That it is. Walls up, windows in, and roof on. Almost ready to move into.” Gideon was right proud of that house. Doc Mitchel and Llewellyn owned the only other houses in town. Sleeping in the back room at the tavern was growing old. There was always someone coming around wanting to buy a drink when he was trying to get a little shut-eye. “I’m only waiting on the stove to arrive to move in.”

Potter nudged Llewellyn. “Guess if we want to make a fortune, we should sell liquor.”

Gideon thought the lawyer’s grin held more spite-filled envy than amusement, but Gideon pretended not to notice and smiled amiably. “Business has been good for most in town since the Craig sisters arrived last June.”

Oscar Hatch’s cheeks jiggled as he chuckled. “That’s the truth. Men in my place night and day wanting baths and their hair and whiskers trimmed.”

“Can’t keep shirts and Bay Rum Aftershave in stock at my place,” Jones agreed.

“A businessman needs to take advantage of such things while he can,” Gideon declared. “Once Miss Craig here and her little sister are married off, bachelors round here won’t have any call to stay clean and smell passable good. Business will probably fall off so fierce you’ll all be poor as church mice.”

The men guffawed.

Gideon nudged Bess lightly and winked again, strangling his laugh at the lightning in her eyes.

“I’m so glad my and my sisters’ presence has benefited you all.” Her lips tightened into a thin line.

Gideon nodded. “Just like the parson said in the service this morning: ‘It’s good to be a blessing to others.’ Right, Miss Craig?”

He almost choked on the furious look she darted his way.

Bess turned her back to him. “Mr. Llewellyn, who would I need to speak with concerning the possibility of renting this jailhouse?”

Llewellyn rocked back on the heels of his black boots—their shine showing even through the dust from Lickwind’s only street. “Whatever would a little lady like you need with a jailhouse?”

“To live in it. There are no houses to rent in town. Not even a room.”

“The Collingswood brothers aren’t kicking you off the Rough Cs, are they?” Gideon asked. The Collingswood brothers weren’t the kind of men to turn good women out on their own resources.

“Of course not. They haven’t once intimated Bertie and I are an inconvenience, yet we most certainly are. Would any of you wish to support four women and two—or more—babies?”

Gideon followed her glance to Matty.

No one answered, but several of the men cringed. A few of them took a step back.

“I thought not,” Bess continued. “In good weather, the ranch is still a long ride from Lickwind. How can Bertie and I support ourselves there? Even if we had goods to sell, the men haven’t time to be driving us to town and back with any frequency. My brothers-in-law say they’ll be starting roundup this week, so the men will have less time than ever to wait on us.”

Llewellyn hooked his thumbs on his vest pockets again and gave Bess a downright fatherly look. “Even saying that’s true, how would living in town make a difference?”

“We’d start a bakery.”

Llewellyn rocked back on his heels again. “Tempting as that sounds, I doubt you’d make enough to support yourselves on it.”

“You might at least give us a chance. At best, the town benefits from our rent and our services. If we don’t make it, what has the town lost?”

“I don’t see how we can allow you to live here, Miss Craig,” Potter intervened. “What if we need to lock up some criminal?”

Bess cast a withering look his way. “Not one man has been arrested since my sisters and I stepped off the train. Besides, there aren’t even bars on the cells or windows.”

“There will be soon.” Potter exchanged a scowling glance with Llewellyn. Both shook their heads.

“I’m afraid our answer must remain no,” Llewellyn said. “It wouldn’t be seemly, two unmarried women living in the town jail.”

“What else would you have us do?” Bess’s voice did nothing to disguise her disgust. “Trek to South Pass to search for gold? Or support ourselves in the manner of Lickwind’s other women?”

Gideon noted with satisfaction that the men had the grace to look embarrassed at her suggestion. Bess Craig wasn’t his idea of perfect femininity, but he admired her grit. The sudden desire to fight for her cause rose up within him. He squelched it. He didn’t mind letting the men believe she’d invited him to this makeshift picnic, but he didn’t want her thinking he was interested in her. Besides, if ever a female didn’t need a man defending her, it was Bess Craig—which is why it made no sense at all when he heard himself say, “You’re welcome to rent my new house, Miss Craig.”

Chapter 4