Regency Romance: A Duchess in Disguise (Historical 19th Century Victorian Romance) (Duke Fantasy Billionaire Romance) (9 page)

“I do.” Margaret smiled up at him, pleased that he could tell without her saying it.

“It’s a good thing to have a relationship with your father like that. Respect is very important.”

“I agree.”

“Did your father approve of your decision to answer my ad?”

“Yes, he did. He was encouraging from the beginning.”

“I’m glad to hear it.” Mark was very happy to hear it. He knew that a woman who had respect for her father would have respect for her husband, too. When he’d placed the ad, he’d only done so because he had been through all the women in the city and he hadn’t found a decent one in the bunch. He decided to roll the dice on a stranger, at the behest of one of his buddies at the stables. It had been all somebody else’s idea and he’d lucked out. He’d won that bet. He smiled. “So if you don’t mind, I’m just gonna take you on to the courthouse and get the papers signed.”

Margaret nodded. She didn’t know how it was supposed to go anyway. If he wanted it quick and immediate, she didn’t have an objection.

“I am fine with that.”

“Then after it’s done, you can come with me to the stables where I keep my horses. Some of them are for breeding. I also race.”

She looked up at him with wide eyes. “You ride a horse in a race?”

He laughed and shook his head. “I used to be a jockey, yeah, but it was a while ago. Now I just watch the races and train the jockeys and horses and breed. I’d like it if you would be there, meet everybody, maybe help out sometimes.”

Margaret jostled in the seat when the tires bumped over rocks and debris. She grabbed Mark’s arm instinctively and he smiled at her.

“You’ll have to get used to that. These roads can be pretty rough. You can’t really even call most of them roads. They’re just paths. The tires have made them in the ground where people keep going.”

“How long have you been here?” Margaret asked, looking at the dismal scene as it passed her by. There was not much of anything there. The people didn’t look very happy and the dust was constantly being kicked up by one horse or another.

“I was born and raised in the area but I’ve been here in this part of Nevada for four years. That’s when it got the postmaster, back in ’84. I arrived just days before they made it part of this state instead of Arizona.”

“That’s very interesting.” Margaret nodded, politely. She had no knowledge of either Arizona or Nevada and hadn’t been interested in reading the news when she and her father had a business to run. She scanned the landscape again, looking at the heavily male occupied area that seemed like a blight in the middle of plush green all around them. There was almost a line differentiating between where man dominated and land dominated. “I must say it seems quite amazing that you would race horses here. I didn’t know such a thing existed in these small places out here in the West.”

“Well, we have to do something to entertain ourselves, don’t we? Especially us men who don’t frequent the saloon until all hours of the morning. I don’t care for the taste of that beer they serve, and liquor gives me a blasting headache. So no worries in that department. Saves me a pretty penny, I’d say, not drinking like my buddies do.”

They pulled up in front of a small official looking building and she knew it was the local courthouse.

“They got what we need in here. Let’s go on in, sign the papers and be done with that, how does that sound? Oh, and if you want to wait a short time to get in to the marital bed, should I say, that sits fine with me, too. I’d like to get to know what kind of woman you are, if that’s okay with you.”

“That’s a good idea, Mark. I appreciate that.” She did feel a sense of relief. She had been a bit worried about it.

Margaret followed Mark into the building and went through the motions of getting married. The clerks in the courthouse were not congratulatory, nor were they interested in the event whatsoever. They signed as witnesses to the union and the two of them were walking out of the courthouse less than an hour later.

“So you are Mrs. Mark Brooks now,” He said as he gave her his hand to help her up onto the wagon. “How’s it feel?”

She gave him a small smile. “Not much different than when I wasn’t Mrs. Mark Brooks.”

“It’ll hit ya later.”

Margaret let out a small laugh. It felt good so she did it again. Mark gave her a nice smile in response.

“So we are going to your stables now?”

He nodded. “Yeah there’s some people there I want you to meet. I work with them all the time and they need to… they want to see you.”

She thought it was a strange way to put things until she rolled his words over in her mind a few times. If he was the owner of the stables then all the people were probably his employees. That made her their boss, too, she supposed. It made her smile. She wasn’t about to take over her husband’s business.

Thinking of him as her husband made her feel even more strange inside. In fact, her heart began to thump fairly hard and she felt a cold chill. She was married. It was almost too unbelievable. A year ago, she would have never believed her path would lead in this direction. Her future as the bride of a stranger.

She wouldn’t allow nervousness to take her over. She shook it off and straightened her spine. It made the hard bench feel even harder. He glanced down at her, noticing her discomfort.

“Sorry about having to pick you up in the wagon.” He said. “Friend of mine has my carriage.”

You couldn’t get it for the day?
She thought but kept silent. She nodded at him and turned to look out in front of them. They were on a main path that looked well-traveled but quickly turned off onto a small path that looked to be no more than wheel paths in tall grass. She could almost reach down and touch the top of the grass and weeds as they went by. She didn’t and pulled back from it a little, wondering what types of creatures and insects might lurk in there.

Mark didn’t say anything when he felt her press gently against him, drawing away from the foliage. She was wise to, he thought. There were often prickers and flying insects that left nasty welts on their bodies if they weren’t careful. He got through the area as quickly as he could.

Margaret was flooded with relief when the wagon moved out from the tall grass and into a vast clearing. She was staring at a cleared road, dug out from the ground so that the path was obvious and the dirt they rode through was soft but not too soft. On either side, grass had been mowed down to the smallest blade and she wondered how they had ever managed to do that. It looked as though someone had taken a pair of scissors and precisely cut each blade to perfection.

She drew in a deep breath, looking further. In front of her stood a tall building that stretched out at least 90 feet in length. It was two stories. As they got closer, she could see it was one of the most beautiful stables she had ever seen.

If she was this amazed by the building, how awed would she be by the horses? She turned wide blue eyes up to Mark. “I am stunned by this building, Mark. How majestic!”

He smiled, running his eyes over the tall brown building. He kept it in excellent shape, giving everything he had to make it look like the best there was.

“I love my horses. Thank you for the compliment. We’ll stop here and go around the building so you can see what’s on the other side.”

“I think I see part of it.” She could see the rings running around in a half circle and then going back in the same direction. “You have a racetrack here.”

“Yes.”

“Well, that’s very interesting.” She nodded, appreciatively. She knew nothing about horse racing, only how to breed, train and care for them. When she looked at him, she noticed something strange. It looked like he wanted to weep. His face had turned a bit red and he took a moment to place his hand firmly in front of his mouth and gaze at her. “Are you all right?” She asked.

When he responded, she could tell he only had it there to keep in a laugh. “I’m just glad you aren’t shocked by any of this. You seem like a real decent woman. How is it you haven’t been married before?”

Margaret shook her head. “I never found the right one. The men were just…”

She made a disgusted face, and he let out his laughter. “Well, their loss, I’d say, is my gain. Come and meet the men.”

Chapter Three

Margaret’s introduction to the men had gone swiftly. She made friends with most of them right away. They seemed impressed with her knowledge about horses and the entire industry. She learned about racing just as fast but kept herself mostly to the care of the animals, instead of what they did on the track.

Before she knew it, three months had passed. She had written as many letters and received two back from her father. Their business in Virginia continued to thrive, leaving her with feelings of homesickness. She wanted to see her father but knew that it wasn’t possible.

She had made friends with the wife of one of the men at the stables. In fact, they had become close almost the minute they met. She called her “Ellie”, which was short for Eleanor, a name her friend couldn’t stand to be called.

She saw Ellie standing in front of the market stand, looking through apples and approached from behind. “Ellie! Good morning!”

Her friend turned and looked at her with a large smile on her face. “Margie, how good to see you this morning! I didn’t know you were coming to the market today!”

“I have to see Doctor Joe.” Margaret hooked her elbow around Ellie’s and walked with her. “I haven’t been feeling well and Mark wants to make sure I am not ill.”

Ellie’s face turned to a look of concern and she stopped walking. She scanned Margaret’s face. “You don’t look ill to me.” She said. “You look fit as can be!”

Margaret nodded. “I feel fine most of the time. But I feel terrible in the mornings, almost every day for a month now. And I feel heavier. My dresses are a little tighter. I’m no child but I’m pretty sure I’m going to have one.” She smiled at Ellie, whose face immediately lit up.

“You are! Oh, I just know it! That’s wonderful news, Ellie! Can I go with you to find out?”

“Of course!”

It was a few hours before they stepped back out into the light from the doctor’s office. He had confirmed Margaret’s suspicions and had even given her a round-about date when she should expect the child to arrive.

“Oh, Margie, there are so many things to ponder now, so many decisions to make! I can’t believe it…no, of course I can believe it, you and Mark…Oh, Margie, I’m so excited for you!”

“You better help me out, Ellie.” Margaret directed her friend in a serious tone. “You’ve had a baby so you know what’s coming!”

Ellie nodded. “Yes, I will help you, of course, my dear. You will need all kinds of things for your baby, like a crib and you’ll have to clean out one of those rooms in the back where Mark’s been keeping all of his junk.”

“It’s amazing how much junk he has.” Margaret said. “I don’t know where he collects all those things.”

“Probably from his track. Sometimes people don’t have the money to pay him. I’m kind of surprised that he even has anything left from the money he’s lost.”

Margaret stopped walking and looked at her friend. “What do you mean?”

“You don’t know?” Ellie’s eyes opened wide. “Margie! Mark has been gambling on every race ever run at that track since it opened up. Didn’t you know that?”

Margaret felt a chill run through her. He had been gambling? Questions jumped to her mind and she felt the words tumbling from her mouth. “What money is he using to gamble? He’s been doing it for all this time and I didn’t know?”

“He hasn’t mentioned it at all?” Ellie sounded shocked. “I thought you two were so close. You looked like you fell in love with him right away. He looked the same. Why wouldn’t he tell you?”

Ellie frowned and then her face turned to one of anger. “So you don’t know that he has that stables mortgaged all the way, and that the bank is not wanting to give him any more money to cover it? He’s been running two or three races a week, haven’t you noticed? That’s way more than usual.”

Margaret felt ashamed. She hadn’t been paying attention to the racetrack side of the business at all. She had fully engrossed herself in the care of the horses, from their health to their grooming. She never thought about the money. It had been her father’s job in Virginia to run the finances.

Ellie noticed her friend’s change of mood and put her arm around her shoulders. “Margie, I don’t want to be the one to scare you this way. But you will have to do something about what’s going on if you plan to have a family with Mark.”

“How recently did he lose a lot of money?”

“Well, like I said, he keeps running races and betting on the horses so he can get the money to pay the bank loan. And some of the races he’s winning but some he’s losing. I know he’s good at finances but he’s not the best at picking horses.”

“Oh no, this is so terrible.” A wave of sadness swept over her and she felt tears come to her eyes.

Ellie shook her head and took Margaret’s small face in her hands. She looked directly at her and spoke in a firm tone. “Margie! This is no time to start acting like a little girl. I thought you knew about all of this and I actually admired how you were handling it. Now you have to show me how you really handle something like this. And you have your baby to think about, too. You have to pull yourself up and be the strong woman I’ve come to know over the past couple months!”