Bride School: Mary (The Brides of Diamond Springs Ranch 4) (11 page)
Read Bride School: Mary (The Brides of Diamond Springs Ranch 4) Online
Authors: Bella Bowen
Tags: #Mrs. Carnegie, #Bride School, #Ranchers, #Spirited Brides, #Diamond Springs, #Ranch, #Western, #Victorian, #Historical, #Forever Love, #Frontier, #Wyoming, #Western Territory, #Country, #Short Story, #Ball Dance, #Potential Bride, #Replacement, #Dancing, #Nightmare, #Rebel, #Identity, #Fairy Tale
They were married half an hour later. And just as
she’d dreamed a hundred times before, her gown was the perfect shade of pink.
After John finished kissing the daylights out of
her, the wedding party escorted the little carriage the full length of Sage
River to the new street on the hill. The warm light in the windows welcomed
them along with her pa who stood on the front porch with his hat in his hands.
He looked first at Mrs. Carnegie. “We square?”
The woman nodded. “We’re square.”
Her pa threw his hat in the air and did a jig with
fifty people looking on. It was the first time, since her mother died, that
she’d seen the man celebrate anything at all.
John made a little speech, thanking everyone for
keeping his secret about the house. Mary could only look on, grateful no one
expected her to say anything because, for the life of her, she couldn’t think
of a word—it took all her concentration to pretend she didn’t know what the men
were all joking about.
It was a good fifteen minutes before John begged
the mob to move their celebrating back to the assembly hall. They agreed to go
only if he kissed his bride one more time. Of course, there was a great deal of
cheering, and even more blushing. And after Mary was able to catch her breath,
she was too embarrassed to face the crowd again. So John held her head against
his chest until the street was empty.
Finally, he scooped her up into his arms and
carried her over the threshold in peace.
The house smelled of sawdust and paint. Though the
rooms were empty, there was a chair placed in front of each window, and upon
each chair was a lit candle or lantern. Together, they made their way around
the house and doused the lights. Eventually, there was just a single candle
left burning in the bedroom where John quickly tacked blankets over the
windows. A tray with a light supper sat on the only chair in the room, but Mary
was far too nervous for food.
John didn’t seem to notice anything but her. He
appeared calm, his smile patient. But when he pulled her close, she realized he
trembled just as steadily as she did. The moment was not unlike the first time
they’d kissed. Both of them trembling with excitement. And when he bent slowly
to press his lips to hers, she could almost taste that first chaste kiss. The
kiss that had been the end of a dreamy summer and the beginning of their
quest...to find each other again.
The warmth from his body soothed her after a
minute, and eventually, he stopped shivering too.
“Your house is sparse, Mrs. Hermann,” he said
quietly, “but I wanted you to choose your own things.”
She shook her head. “This house already has the
one thing I need.”
His eyes widened and he glanced at the bed.
She laughed. “No, silly. It already has
you.
”
THE END
If you enjoyed Mary and Rebel’s story, be a sport
and leave a review. Then hop over to my website at
www.bellabowen.weebly.com
and sign up for the newsletter so you’ll know when the next bride is due to
arrive at Diamond Springs.
Hope you enjoyed the ride! An excerpt from book five
follows.
If you missed Gen and Devlin’s story, you can pick
up Book 1
here.
Lizzy and Jake’s story is
here.
Molly and Samuel’s story is
here.
BRIDE SCHOOL: NADIA
(Book 5)
“Why not?” Mrs. Carnegie shrugged. “Let him come.”
The woman relaxed a little in her office chair and
Nadia could tell by the look in her eye she was plotting something…dangerous. Unfortunately,
it was Nadia’s job to keep danger far away from Sage River and the Bride School
at Diamond Springs Ranch.
“But Madam, I’ve just told you. He means to
destroy your work here, to prove you’re selling brides to the highest bidder,
that the ranch is nothing better than a brothel! Even if you can prove him
wrong, he’ll still succeed in ruining the ranch’s reputation. And yours.”
The woman didn’t seem to be listening. Her gaze
was distant while she rolled a pencil back and forth between her fingers. Nadia
had to keep trying, though.
“Ma’am? He’s a reporter. A famous one. If he so
much as points a finger in your direction…people will assume you’re guilty of
something.”
Mrs. Carnegie shook her head and smiled. “Don’t
worry, Nadia. If the worst happens—if I’m wrong—I’m willing to go down with the
ranch.”
Nadia sighed and excused herself. There was no use
arguing with the woman when she started planning. Problem was, Genevieve
Carnegie didn’t realize how completely Nadia and her other female employees
depended on the success of this bride business. If the ranch folded, there
wasn’t much of a future waiting for a gun-toting woman like her.
Her only hope lay in the fact that Carter Dixon,
the notorious reporter, planned to come to Sage River in disguise. He thought
he could sneak in and play the worthy bridegroom, under his brother-in-law’s
name, when his intentions were anything but honorable.
Luckily for her, when Dixon went undercover for
such stories, he told no one where he was going and only left an envelope for
his editor in case he didn’t return by a certain date. And envelopes could go
missing just as easily as foolish men…
Her boss didn’t understand how dangerous the reporter
could be. But Nadia did. She’s studied him long and hard. Knew every arm he’d
twisted to expose his victims to the world. And she’d be damned if she’d let
anything like that happen to the woman who had given a purpose to Nadia’s life
and saved so many young women from their own dangerous fates.
No matter what her boss was planning, Nadia needed
to have her own plan ready…
Just in case.
Meet all the brides of Diamond Springs Ranch at
bellabowen.weebly.com
.
the Author
Bella Bowen lives just outside Ketchum, Idaho and
shares her woods with her cowboy boot-wearing husband, two dogs, a mean cat
that deserves no mention, and the ghost of Earnest Hemmingway. Every now and
then, at ungodly hours of the morning, Hemmy whispers inspiration through the
dusty screen on her bedroom window.
Visit her website at
http://www.bellabowen.weebly.com
to learn more about Bella Bowen and the
Bride School
series.
