Romance: Detective Romance: A Vicious Affair (Victorian Regency Intrigue 19th England Romance) (Historical Mystery Detective Romance) (112 page)

“You,” he shouted.

“You yourself!” she shouted back.

The two of them marched toward one another, livid at the notion.

“You lied to me!” Joshua called as he neared.

“You aren’t exactly a prize yourself,” Cora sneered.

Then, only a breath away, Joshua Dansby and Cora Sutton met, for the first time to each other, and the second time that day.

*****

“A deal is a deal,” Joshua Dansby paced outside, in front of the small house of the town minister.

“Exactly. A word is a word,” Cora folded her arms, her foot tapping in the grass nearby.

Joshua let out a snort. “And exactly how much is a word worth from a
Cora LeBlanc
?”

“Why does it matter? You live in the
rugged
wilderness,” Cora’s hands flew into the air. “Why do you need a fancy, French aristocrat in the middle of this dust heap?”

Joshua wiped at his jaw, a hand on his hip, sending a darting look to Cora.

“A girl like you would never understand.”

“Girl?” Cora was taken aback.

Joshua pointed his finger at her. “Yes, girl. You thought you’d take advantage of an opportunity, come here, get rich, live some hokey fairytale, did you?”

Cora rolled her eyes. “Believe me, this is anything
but
a fairytale.”

“You don’t understand,” Joshua sighed, and locked eyes with Cora. For the first moment since they had met, Cora thought she noticed real desperation and sadness in his eyes, and not the gleaming playfulness he first showed off before they knew. She looked away.

“My name is Joshua Dansby,” he said.

“I know that already,” Cora sighed.

“--I know, but you don’t understand what that means.” Joshua held his hand to his chest. “I’m
the
Joshua Dansby. Now, I know that doesn’t mean much to you, coming from the shady streets of New York City--”

Cora opened her mouth in protest, but Joshua stopped her.

“Here,” he said, “that means that I’m the heir of the Dansby fortune. I’m the only son of Michael Wetherby Dansby, who’s the grandson of Jacob Thomas Dansby, who was the founder of this town. He cultivated the land, practically built the town himself. Responsible for the wellbeing of the people, of the cattle ranches, of ensuring the best for this whole region--he’s the one who brought the rail to us, and made jobs open for so many people moving out here..”

For a moment, Cora felt her heart beating a little faster. Joshua Dansby began to be more animated as he spoke, and she almost forgot their earlier stint.

“All of that is supposed to go to me, or at least, I thought it would. Turns out that a man named Walter Howell, my father’s cousin, has rights to the inheritance. And my stubborn, stubborn old fool of a grandfather, when he made his will to grant me the land, he had one stipulation. You know what that was? I had to be married. Married!”

Joshua took of his hat and ran his hand through his hair, and Cora’s heart beat once again at the sight, though she reprimanded herself inwardly for it.

“It’s the 1870s for crying out loud,” he continued. “If a man wants to make a living, he ought to be able to do it all without a wife. But the old man was just so old-fashioned.” Joshua sighed. “That’s why I needed a wife. And a well-bred one at that. There’s a board of directors I have to go up against, and Walter’s got his lawyers watching my every move. There’s no way you’d last one day in high society. New York or not, I can tell you’re just a regular miss off the street.”

He turned his back away, but not without avoiding Cora who spun her way around to face him.

“A regular miss off the street?” she exclaimed. “I may not have a family, or much money, or be your definition of high-class, but I’m
not
just some rat on the street. You’re an insufferable, vain, degrading man, and I will not continue to be insulted by you constantly.”

She backed down, and folded her arms. “And I’m sorry I lied to you.”

Joshua noticed the change in her tone, and watched as she looked off, almost sadly, toward the ground. The breeze picked up as the clouds continued to gather, still holding off the rain. Strands of her brown hair flitted loose from her braid and across her face.

He was taken aback. She looked almost...pretty.

Her voice brought him back to the moment.

“For a long time, I’ve been wanting to start over. Life has never been…” she glanced at him. “Easy for someone like me. I admit that lying about who I was...was wrong. But believe me when I say that...at the time, I felt like I had no other choice. And this sounded too good to be true…”

Cora’s big brown eyes gazed up at him, glistening. Joshua nearly choked on his own words. As stubborn and immature as she seemed, apologizing must have been difficult, and her eyes said everything.

“Okay,” he said, and he began walking up the steps to knock on the minister’s door.

“Wait, what are you doing?” Cora called out from the grass.

“What does it look like?” he gestured for her to come follow. “A deal is a deal. And, maybe, if you help me...if, when the time comes, you find yourself back on your feet and choose to leave...I won’t stop you.”

And they walked toward a new life together. For the time being.

The rain didn’t take long to unleash. Just moments before arriving at Joshua Dansby’s, the newlyweds, Cora and Joshua, were caught in the rain.

“Richest guy in town and you can’t have a covered buggy?” Cora shouted. Joshua helped to get her off of Kan, and they made their way to the barn.

“Help me dry him off.” Joshua began to gather rags and towels nearby to drape across the great horse, his own clothes drenched. He removed his suit, and the damp white button down pressed against his broad chest.

We’re married now
, Cora reminded herself. But she couldn’t help but still be embarrassed and looked away.

Her dress hung heavily with water as she grabbed for a towel.

“We’re drying the horse when we’re the ones who are soaking wet?” she retorted.

“He’s been with me through a lot,” Joshua said. “I don’t want him to get sick after all this.”

Cora slogged toward the horse, but grunted with the weight of her dress.

“You simply don’t understand how incredibly difficult this is,” she exclaimed. She reached for the outer layer of her dress.

“What--what in the--” Joshua looked away as he continued to see to Kan. “What are you doing?”

“You’ve already seen it before,” Cora muttered. “I’m just taking off the outer layer. I’m still covered, Mister.”

She muttered under her breath, what Joshua could barely make out as something along the lines of “disgusting” or “pervert.”

Joshua’s face glowed red. He had begun to think he hadn’t really thought this through.

Oh, sure, Joshy, get a mail-order bride,
he chided himself,
what could possibly go wrong with that?

After several minutes, the rain continued to pour outside, and Cora leaned against a post near the door, listening to the rain pounding on the roof, watching the water fall down, splattering against the muddy ground.

Even a muddy rain is more beautiful out here
, she thought. And her mind began to drift to stories and imaginations once again.

“Cora,” Joshua’s voice came from behind, startling her.

She turned around and peered to see Joshua among the hay and stalls of the few animals harboring from the weather, but he was nowhere to be seen.

“Up here,” he called, and Cora looked up.

She made her way up a narrow winding of stairs that made their way to a loft in the barn.

A bed, and a small seating area were settled, as if for a makeshift bedroom. The extra hay bales and milk tins added an extra flair to the scene.

“This is quite lovely,” she said.

Joshua gave a mock curtsy.“Anything for you,
dear
.”

Cora rolled her eyes. “Please don’t patronize me, Dansby.”

“That hurts. Not even going to call me by my name?”

Cora sighed and sent him a darting look. His blue eyes glistened with playfulness, as when they first met. Ever cool and mischievous.

“It’s an old trick I learned working for a butcher,” she smirked. “Never give them a name, or it makes it more complicated when you have to--”

Joshua laughed.“Please,” he held up his hand. “I think I know where you’re going with that, and I hope you don’t succeed.”

The two stood in the loft in silence, Cora’s eyes flitting around, taking in the atmosphere. Joshua was still very aware of her outfit, and the entirety of the situation seemed odd. They joked around, but it seemed to be, for both of them, a way to cope with the unwarranted and awkward situation they found themselves in.

“It’s raining heavily out there, and it’s dark, so I don’t think we should make a run for the main house,” Joshua said. “There’s a bed--”
Cora’s eyes grew wide. “You mean--”

Joshua stopped, his hands going up in defense. “Oh, no, no, no! I wasn’t saying--” He rubbed his hand uncomfortably at the back of his neck. “I wasn’t insinuating anything--” he sighed. “I was going to say that you should make yourself as comfortable up here as you can, and I’ll just be fine on the main floor.”

“Oh--oh--” Cora’s face blushed red as she realized how embarrassing of an assumption she had made. “Right, of course.”

Joshua coughed.

“Anyway, I should--I should--”

He gestured and Cora realized that she stood between him and the way below. Flustered, she stepped out of the way and swiped at her soppy hair.

“Right, sorry...I didn’t mean to…”

Joshua began heading down, calling behind. “Feel free to dry yourself with some towels I have up there...and, ah...I promise I won’t look if you need to---ah…” his voice trailed off without quite finishing, and he cleared his throat.

In that moment, Cora couldn’t help but laugh. This wasn’t at all how she ever pictured the first night of her married life to start. But then, anything she ever read in stories was proving to be completely unuseful in her current situation.

This is real
, Cora told herself.
This is my life.

*****

The sun peeked in through the barn early that morning. A loud cock-a-doodle-doo sounded from the barn, and Cora woke up with a start.

Didn’t that only happen in books?

For a brief moment, Cora had almost forgotten where she was. The bed, though certainly just a barn extra for field hands, was far more comfortable than the lumpy wretch that Cora had grown accustomed to at the hostel, and even better than what Mrs. MacDonough had to offer.

After she was sure that Joshua had settled in, and there was no chance of mischief, she had strung out the outer layers of her clothes to hang over the loft railing to dry in the night. Carefully working enough layers on to be somewhat decent, and after tightening the laces of her boots, Cora made her way down to the main floor.

“Hello?” she called. A few moments passed and nothing. Cora wandered out the big open doors of the barn, and looked around. The land looked different in the light, and without the cover of heavy rain and mist. The ground was still wet, but water droplets and dew illuminated the green all around. She followed the fenced area, where some pigs were sloppily rolling in the mud, eating at a basin with fresh feed.

Past the small farming area, with the animals, and a small plot of vegetables, the sandy road mark began to wind its way under and through great trees sprinkled in rows for as far as Cora could see. The sun bounced through the branches, and kaleidoscopes with the leaves sporting rain drops. Little red orbs also glistened in contrasting pockets against the green-leaf backdrop.

“Joshua?” she called out again.

As she continued to walk, she caught glimpse of a white farmhouse, smoke tufting out from the red brick chimney in the distance.

“Joshua?”Cora wandered from the wide wrap-around porch and into the house, where she immediately felt the smell of food coming from the room beside the entranceway.

“You’re finally up,” Joshua let down a plate of food on the table. Potato hash, eggs, and some meat--Cora’s eyes widened.

“Did you do all this?” she said.

“It’s more lukewarm now,” he said. “But I figured I’d go ahead and have you eat something at least.”

“How long have you been up?” Cora sat down on the wooden chair at the table.

It smelled good.

Joshua laughed. “A lot longer than you have,” he said. “A
lot
.”

He pulled up the suspenders that were limp at the side of his trousers through his arms and snapped them to his shoulder. Cora couldn’t help but still blush.

“I’m sure by now you noticed the cherry trees on your way in,” he said.