Page 7 of Conveniently Wed
It shouldn’t sting so badly, but it did. Then again, what experience did she have with men? Very little. And that had hardly been positive.
She stared at the back of his head, willing him to turn back around, to acknowledge her.
Which was silly and fanciful.
“Have you lived in Bear Creek long?” she asked Seb, purposefully turning toward him so as to ignore his older brother.
“Our pa’s ranch is out of town a bit, toward the west. Been here since before I can remember, so nearly my whole life. Where you two gals headed?”
“Here, I guess,” she murmured. She highly doubted the matron would agree to let them travel farther west with the other orphans. The best Fran could hope for was that this circuit judge and the sheriff would be sympathetic to her situation and that she could find work in this area.
If she couldn’t, she didn’t know what she and Emma would do. They couldn’t go back to Memphis. That wasn’t an option.
She looked around at the vast empty sky and grassy land. What job opportunities could there be for her here? She’d hoped to secure a position as a teacher or perhaps as a clerk.
But what would she and Emma do if Francouldn’tget work?
2
Edgar was tired to the bone.
After the physical efforts required to get all the passengers off the train, he was plumb worn out.
And a little displeased about having to walk back to town. Seb had told him someone had appropriated his horse for an injured passenger and he could pick it up at the train station back in town.
He didn’t mind that so much as he minded having to escort the Morris sisters to the sheriff’s office-cum-jail.
Listening to them prattle on with two of his brothers.
He felt old.
A lot older than his twenty-four years.
Stodgy even.
During his teen years, he’d been the prankster of the family. None of his brothers would’ve considered him dull. Ever.
And then Oscar and Maxwell, the two oldest, had gotten married. Jonas and Penny had started having more kids. And more and more of the burden of running the ranch had fallen to Edgar. He’d stopped having as much time for practical jokes. He hadn’t reallymeantto become more serious-natured, it had just happened as he’d taken on added responsibility.
He didn’t begrudge his older brothers their happiness—even if he did sometimes wonder if it could last. He didn’t hold it against his pa that Jonas wanted to spend time with the youngest kids instead of working, working, working on the ranch.
Edgar planned on staying unmarried, so it seemed a natural conclusion that he would pick up the slack on the growing ranch. He wasn’t lonely. Didn’t think he would be even if all of his younger brothers got themselves hitched. He would have plenty of nieces and nephews around to keep him busy.
He still wanted to strangle his brothers for charming Fran Morris.
Obviously, both had somehow sensed Edgar’s muddled feelings about the pretty liar and had immediately gravitated toward her.
Or else either—or both—were attracted to her themselves. She’d claimed to beof age, but if she was, she wasn’t much more than eighteen. Seb’s age. Matty was twenty.
And even liars could be pretty.
Edgar suddenly felt as if he’d swallowed a hot branding iron as fire mushroomed in his esophagus.
He sent a glare over his shoulder. Seb had the audacity to wink. That boy.
Face hot, Edgar turned away, stomping forward. They were getting close to Bear Creek, but to his estimation, they couldn’t get there fast enough.
Finally, they reached the outskirts of town. Then the sheriff’s office.
