Page 121 of Conveniently Wed
Owen was trying to do right by Rachel. Maybe it wasn’t entirely his fault that her brother was a no-account thief who didn’t mind bullying his pregnant sister when he got drunk. But he’d been a part of what had happened.
Marrying Rachel meant she’d have the protection of his name until they reached Oregon. That was enough to settle the debt between them.
It didn’t matter whether Leo liked it or not. Owen had lived his entire life, until the past nine months, believing he was the older brother. He’d been raised to do the right thing. Take responsibility. He took care of his own. He was a man.
And he was man enough to make this decision.
Rachel felt blood boiling in her face as she stood at Owen's side in front of Hollis.
The wagon master’s brown-skinned face held a solemn expression. He was clean shaven and his dark brown eyes assessed her coolly from beneath his hat.
Prickles of awareness skittered over her skin, as if too many eyes were watching her. Owen had chosen a spot out of the way of foot traffic, blocked from the view of most of the company by a couple of parked wagons. So maybe the itch between her shoulder blades was her imagination. Or a result of her misgivings.
Owen's brother August was the only person she considered a friend on the wagon train. He stood slightly behind the two of them with his slender, beautiful wife Felicity at his side. The two witnesses she and Owen needed for their marriage to be valid.
It was telling that Leo Spencer hadn't reappeared when Owen had returned with Hollis.
She'd seen the way Leo had looked at her when he'd trotted off with Owen. She recognized the way he’d spoken to his brother. Arguing, that’s what he’d done.
He didn't approve of her.
It seemed no one in this company did.
Hollis and Owen exchanged a wordless glance and her stomach dipped for a moment.
"You find me one person who will speak up for him," the wagon master had pointed to Daniel. "One person, and we'll take the two of you to the fort like my captains promised."
She blinked away the memory of the hard light in the wagon master’s eyes, but the echo of that threat still burned like icy fire in her bones. Owen was one of the captains. Marrying him meant she would be a captain’s wife. She couldn’t be abandoned out here in the wild if she was a captain’s wife.
Hollis moved his intense stare to Rachel. "You sure this is what you want?"
She couldn't forget her precarious position on the wagon train. Her voice caught as she replied, "I'm certain."
Owen didn't so much as twitch beside her. She couldn't help an awareness of the man anytime he was near. He was several inches taller than Evan had been. Her Evan had preferred a clean shave, while Owen sported several days' worth of dark stubble, as if he was too busy for neat grooming. Not unkempt. Just scruffy.
Hollis didn't ask them to face each other, just started reading from the prayer book he held in his hands.
"We're gathered here in the sight of God and these witnesses..."
She couldn't help thinking how different this was from her wedding to Evan, only two years ago.
The morning sun was beating down on her head and a breeze tugged strands of her hair into her eyes. The camp was noisy, with oxen bawling and children shouting. A dog barked.
When she'd married Evan, there'd been a reverent hush in the small church that she'd attended faithfully with her parents since she'd been a small girl. Her father had given her away. Her mother had sniffled back tears from the first pew.
Evan had faced her, his hands trembling slightly when he clasped hers.
Owen didn't so much as look at her.
"...considering the causes for which matrimony was ordained. First, for the procreation of children..."
She ignored the sudden smarting of tears behind her nose.
Evan would never know his child, the one she'd carried for eight months. He'd died violently, suddenly, a mere two weeks ago.
"...a remedy against sin and to avoid fornication..."
Hollis's words barely registered as she stared straight ahead. And when they did, she couldn't help the sniff. Owen could barely stand her. Surely she was the last person he'd want in that way.
