Mail Order Josephine - A Historical Mail Order Bride Novel (Western Mail Order Brides) (6 page)

Andrew shook his head and smiled. “You really are a lady born, aren’t you?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she snapped.

He laughed in her face. “Why does that word make you so mad? Why are you so sensitive to being called a lady? Most women would give their right arm to be called that. It’s supposed to be a compliment, you know.”

“Being a lady isn’t all it’s made out to be,” she muttered. “You should try it sometime.”

“Oh, no!” he chuckled. “Not me! I’m too happy riding horses and getting dirty and shooting coyotes.”

“Well, there you go,” she pointed out. “Why shouldn’t I enjoy doing those things, too? Did it ever cross your mind that I might like to do something other than sit in the parlor and drink tea all day? Why can’t I ride horses and get dirty and shoot coyotes now and then? It isn’t fair!”

He stared at her. “Maybe no one knows you want to do those things. If you really want to do them, then by all means, go ahead. No one’s going to stop you. Have you told anyone you want to do them?”

“Of course, I have!” she wailed. “I’ve told my father and Aunt Agatha and everybody else who would listen. They all say a lady doesn’t do those things, and since I’m a lady born, as you so astutely pointed out, I’m not going to do them in this lifetime. Maybe I’ll get lucky and come back again as a poor boy in a Western town where I can earn my living herding cattle and shooting rabbits, but not this time, I’m afraid. Did you know that one of my tutors, whose job it was to teach me to play the spinet and to sing hymns, actually gave me a whipping for saying that I wanted to go outside and climb trees rather than sing and play music?”

“No, I didn’t know that,” Andrew murmured.

“And my father!” she railed. “That’s the reason he made such a production out of finding me a husband at the ripe old age of twenty-two years old. He got worried that I was too wild and headstrong, and I wouldn’t have anything to do with the blue-blooded princes of New York City, and every time I got close to making a match with one of them I spoiled it by telling him some nonsense about how I wanted to get out of New York and see some other parts of the world and learn how people lived. My father got frightened because none of the wealthy families in New York would have anything to do with me anymore. They all knew me too well, and they knew I was wild and headstrong. That’s why he got the idea to pack me off to the frontier
West, where I could marry someone who didn’t know me at all, and maybe the change in environment would sober me up a little. Now all of that is gone by the wayside, and I’m going home again, and he will probably give up on finding me a husband, and I will be an old maid like Aunt Agatha and never marry.”

Andrew listened to her tirade with his head on one side, only occasionally glancing away to manage his horse. “Well, maybe something will turn up before the train leaves, and you will find a solution to your problem before you go.”

“I can only hope so,” she sighed.

“Look, here we are,” he nodded up the road to where the driveway to his parents’ house turned off. “Follow me. We’ll go through the pasture to the back gate, so we don’t get waylaid in the house talking and eating and sipping tea.”

She shot him a mischievous glance, and Billy followed agreeably as Andrew opened a gate, held it aside until they passed through it, and then refastened it. They trotted over hillocks and turf, around a series of grassy rises that cut off all visibility from the house, and soon entered a wide plane of open land stretching toward the distant horizon. After Andrew chained the last gate closed behind them, they urged their horses into an easy canter across the range until they left the homestead far behind them and reached a sweeping meadow of wild flowers rolling away under their horses’ hooves. Josephine admired the grandeur of the landscape and the sheer magnificence of the sky stretching vast and clear and blue into infinity above her. Nothing she had witnessed before in her life prepared her for the stupendous majesty of the surroundings she encountered. The very air sparkled with energy, almost crackling with excitement. Or was it only she crackling with the excitement? Was it the glorious pleasure of shedding the shackles of her life and embracing the untamed West in all its raw brutal beauty. And not only the landscape and the environment made her tingle all over with unanticipated exhilaration, but the daring company of Andrew Stockton drove her to defy her constraints and brave new frontiers within herself.

Josephine exulted in the flow of the wind over her face and the heaving body of the horse underneath her. She laughed delightedly as the two horses ran faster and faster, racing one another over the hard earth. She leaned forward, holding her reins out over Billy’s neck, and urging him onward with her legs to overtake Andrew’s mount. The horses enjoyed the game as much as the riders, until at length they skidded to a stop of their own accord where the meadow dropped away into a deep chasm. Far below them, Josephine saw a shining silver thread of river glinting in the sunshine between the trees. The two horses and the two riders panted exuberantly.

“Is all this your father’s land?” Josephine gasped at the magnificent vista.

Andrew nodded. “Everything down to the
river, and as far as you can see on either side. And look over there!” He indicated the far western pinnacle of the ridge to their left. “You can see Tim and Ben Hancock mending the fence.”

Josephine laughed delightedly. “Won’t they be angry at you for taking the day off to go riding with a lady?” she teased.

“Not at all,” Andrew shot back. “I told my father this morning at the breakfast table that I was taking the day off work. I told him Tim and Ben could keep working on the fence, and we are three days ahead of schedule on the repairs anyway. He told me to go ahead and go. He said I deserved a day off after all my hard work since Paul died. He said the only reason we were ahead of schedule was because of my work. If Paul had been running that job, we would barely be on schedule, and more likely several days behind.”

She examined him. “Is that true? You’re not just boasting, are you?”

“I wouldn’t boast about something like that,” he rejoined. “I take my work very seriously. I’m not trying to put down Paul, either. Not by any means. I’m just saying he wasn’t the greatest ranch manager in the world. He didn’t really understand the business, and he sure didn’t enjoy the work. He would do everything he could to avoid it. He only got the management duties because he was the oldest son. Now that he’s gone and I’m taking over, I can correct a lot of the mistakes he made and turn this ranch into a thriving concern. Don’t tell my parents this, but Ben Hancock couldn’t stand Paul. He threatened to quit several times, and he only stayed on because I begged him to. I told him we couldn’t run the ranch without him, which is true. He planned to quit for good when Paul took over completely. He’s much happier now that Paul is gone.”

“Are you happy now that Paul is gone?” she ventured.

“No, of course not!” he exclaimed. “I loved my brother. I wouldn’t want him gone for all the money in the world. But it does seem like things have come up trumps since he died. Take you, for example.”

“What about me?” she stiffened.

“I’m just saying that I could never have had anything to do with you if Paul was alive,” he explained. “We wouldn’t be out riding together now if he was here. And I’m glad to be out riding with you.”

She grinned. “I’m glad to be out riding with you, too.”

“Come on,” he kneed his horse. “Let’s ride over to those trees. We can sit in the shade and have something to eat while we talk.”

Josephine dismounted in the shade of a bunch of trees at the crest of the hill. Andrew tied both horses some distance away where they grazed on the plentiful green grass and untied a bag from his saddle. They sat down on the cool turf under the trees and he opened his bag. He brought out a lump of bread, a block of cheese, and a length of sausage, which he cut up with a knife from his pocket. He handed her hunks of food, and they both wolfed them down greedily. He smiled approvingly at her gusto. She blushed at his impish expression.

“It’s a good thing Aunt Agatha isn’t here to see me,” she remarked. “She would have a fit.”

“Why? What’s wrong with you?” he knit his brows.

“Just this,” she waved her hand at the scene in which she found herself. “Me, sitting here on the grass, eating this coarse food with my fingers, in the company of a strange man, without the presence of a chaperone.”

“But you said she didn’t care what you did,” he reminded her.

“That’s what she said just before she fell asleep,” she confirmed. “But if she saw me like this, she would probably want to lock me up until we got home. She already thinks I’m dangerous.”

“Well, it could have been worse,” he considered. “You could have been wearing trousers and riding astride. At least you’re properly dressed and riding side-saddle, which is about the most lady-like thing you can do.”

“I wish I could wear trousers and ride astride,” she groaned. “I wish I could ride a horse properly, just once in my life, just to see what it feels like. I don’t like riding side-saddle. It doesn’t feel natural. It feels like I’m about to fall off at any minute.”

He cocked his head on one side. “Why don’t you come out riding with me again tomorrow? You can try it and see if you like it. Then you can go home and know that you’ve at least tried it once. Even if you never do it again, you’ll have the experience.”

“Do you mean it?” she gasped, then she stopped. “But how will we do it? How will we stop anyone from seeing me?”

“That’s easy,” he declared. “I’ll come and collect you from the hotel, just like I did today. We’ll ride out here, just like we did today. Then, when we get out here, you’ll change. I’ll put a regular saddle out here under the trees, along with some extra clothes from the house. When we get here, I’ll put the saddle on Billy and you can change into the trousers. Then we’ll go for a ride around the valley, and then we’ll come back here, change back, and ride back to the hotel.
Easy. No one will ever know.”

Devilish mischief
peaked her soul. “Okay! Let’s do it!”

He laughed at her. “Your Aunt Agatha is right. You really are dangerous. I knew you’d go for it. You’ve got an appetite for destruction, haven’t you?”

“No,” she argued, “not destruction. Just…I don’t know…something different. I have an insatiable appetite for something different. And like you say, it’s only one time. No one will ever know, and I can go back to my old life knowing that I at least tried it.”

“And I think,” he stood up and brushed the dried grass from the cuffs of his pants, “I think I won’t bother with this get-up, either.” He sneered down at his own fine clothes. “If you’re going to wear trousers, then I’ll wear my own comfortable clothes, too. It’s only fair.”

“Oh,” she snickered. “Don’t you like this get-up?”

“No,” he growled. “I can’t stand it. I feel like a circus clown.”

“But you look so elegant!” she needled him. “I think you should wear it every day.”

“No, thank you,” he snapped. “
Beside, if I did, these clothes would soon be ruined. I couldn’t wear them to work for more than an hour before they’d be ripped to shreds by thorns and barbed wire.”

“Don’t tell me you trotted out that outfit just for my benefit,” she taunted.

“Of course, I did!” he assured her. “You don’t think I’d get it out just to cut an appearance in town, do you? Don’t you remember what I looked like at the forge? That’s the outfit I usually wear when I make a trip to town. Why do you think I tied up the horses behind the hotel, instead of in front of it? I wouldn’t want anyone I know to see me dressed like this. I sure wouldn’t want Johnny the blacksmith or any of his boys to see me like this. They would never let me forget it as long as I lived.”

“But weren’t you worried they would see you behind the hotel?” she pointed out.

“No, I made sure they wouldn’t,” he responded. “I made sure I stayed between the hotel and the barn, out of sight of the forge.”

“You really didn’t want anyone to see you like this?” she marveled.
“But what about me? Weren’t you concerned about what I would think, seeing you dressed like this? Weren’t you worried I would tease you about it?”

“No,” he answered. “I knew you wouldn’t. Besides, I wouldn’t feel right asking you to ride out with me if I was dressed any other way. You’re a lady, and if I was to ask you to go riding with me, I had to look as much like a gentleman as possible. It just wouldn’t work any other way. It wouldn’t work for a range rat like me, in my chaps and gun belt, to ask a lady out. No,
sir, that would never do.”

“Oh, will you
please
stop calling me a lady!” she cried. “I can’t stand it!”

He guffawed loudly. “If I see you wearing trousers and riding a horse, I just might have to stop. After all, what sort of lady would you be if you dressed in men’s clothing and rode astride?
None at all!”

Josephine hesitated. “Maybe this isn’t such a good idea after all. If anyone found out about it, I could get in trouble with the law. If Aunt Agatha found out about it, she’d never forgive me.”

“Well, then,” Andrew declared, untying their horses and depositing Billy’s reins in Josephine’s hands, “we’ll just have to make sure no one finds out about it.”

“How will we do that?” she questioned. “Okay, so we’ll be out here away from everyone, but what if your brother or Ben Hancock sees me? Word could get out.”