Page 111 of Conveniently Wed
“Do you really think you can? Do you even know what she’s been through? What it’s been like for her, a city-raised girl thrown onto the prairie with a bunch of cowboys?”
“Fran’s tougher than you think,” was his immediate response.
Daniel did not look pleased with the comment. His expression grew even more perturbed.
“I’d like to know where you were when the girls needed you,” Edgar went on quickly. “Fran wrote to you more than once.” He hated that he sounded so confrontational, but was not sure he appreciated someone who hadn’t been there for Fran taking him to task.
“I don’t have to explain myself to you,” the other man said.
Edgar gave him a long look. He was Fran’s husband. He didn’t have to explain himself to her brother.
“I’ve had a bad bout of tuberculosis,” Daniel finally said. “It came on quickly, and I suppose the truth is I almost died.”
Seb stepped back from the other man.
Daniel smiled ruefully. “My doctors have assured me that I am no longer contagious.” He looked back at Edgar. “As soon as I learned of our parents’ deaths, I came looking for the girls. I found that they’d left the finishing school, been to the orphanage and sent west. The woman who ran the orphanage told me of their troubles with the unfortunate Mr. Underhill?—”
“He got what he deserved,” Seb interrupted.
Daniel shook his head. “I believe it’s up to the courts to mete out punishment.”
“He was trying to shoot her,” Edgar put in.
Daniel shrugged, eyes hard. “We’re getting off track here. I want to know whether you intend to do right by my sister or not.”
Davy finally broke in. “I’d like to know that, too.”
Edgar looked at all of them watching him expectantly. “Yes. I want her around….” It was such an understatement that he choked on it. “I…I love her.”
Daniel didn’t look totally appeased, but Seb’s face had lit and Davy was smiling.
A wagon rolled up the drive, distracting all of them.
“Looks like the neighbor.”
“Wonder what he wants.”
It didn’t take long to find out.
Fran had been so relieved to see Edgar the night before that she’d begun crying again, so she’d rushed inside with the excuse of warming some supper for the cowboys. But it was really to hide.
And this morning she was still hiding, inside the Whites’ warm kitchen, with its overlong plank table. When she should’ve been outside locating her husband, she was slinking around indoors.
She was afraid he was going to send her away.
With Daniel there and available to take care of her and Emma, the stark fear for their survival was gone.
Especially with Underhill out of the picture. Although Emma still had some healing to do from the whole encounter.
No, Fran’s fear had to do with loving the incorrigible cowboy and knowing there was a chance he couldn’t return her love because she hadn’t been upfront with him about Underhill’s accusations.
The kitchen door opened, and he was there, filling the frame with his height and wide shoulders.
“Morning.” He took off his hat and hung it on a peg near the door.
When he turned back to the kitchen, she caught sight of his face and sucked in a surprised breath.
“You shaved,” she said.
