Page 13 of Conveniently Wed
He ground his back teeth and shook his head slowly. “But don’t get your hopes up.”
She crooked her brows at him.
“I’ll give you my name and I’ll get you settled somewhere, but that’s all this is.”
Moments after Edgar White’s emphatic statement, the others had rejoined them and Fran stood across from her bridegroom. Close enough to see the muscle ticking in his cheek.
Neither one of them wanted this marriage. But she certainly didn’t want to become a saloon girl.
And perhaps the men chasing Emma would be deterred by this cowboy and his brothers. They made a formidable crew indeed. Was it enough to escape Mr. Underhill and his senseless crusade to have Emma?
She didn’t know. But she was willing to try anything to save her sister.
“Are you even old enough to get married?” the cowboy before her grumbled.
Her chin hitched before she’d even realized it. “I’m nineteen.”
The circuit judge cleared his throat. “Shall I begin?”
The next moments passed so quickly, Fran didn’t register all the words that were spoken. She did notice the emotion that darkened Edgar’s face when the circuit judge asked if he wouldloveher,honorher andcomforther. She didn’t know what it meant, but she remembered his intense statement on top of that overturned train, that he kept his promises. Would he really?
And then it was over. She didn’t know what she had expected, but it certainly wasn’t for her new husband to clasp her hand loosely in his great, warm paw, or to lean forward and buss her cheek with a kiss—a warm brush of his beard with only a hint of his smooth lips.
They were married.
The afternoon passed in a whirlwind. They obtained a wagon from the livery in town, then visited two ranches on their way to the property her new husband shared with his family.
At each place, when she was introduced as Edgar’s wife, there were shocked gasps, quickly hidden behind upraised hands. And cowboys with wiggling eyebrows.
It seemed common knowledge among all the residents that her new husband had never intended to marry at all.
And wasn’t that a fine start to a new marriage, real or not?
It wasn’t as if he was making the stops to show her off, either. It was more as if he was too afraid to let her out of his sight.
What did he think, that she intended to rob him blind? They hadn’t met under the best of circumstances, but she didn’t think her one untruth deserved this level of distrust. It stung, but she determined to smile until her teeth ached if she had to, and be as quiet and pliant as she could be. She wouldn’t cause trouble for her husband, not when he’d done everything he could to prevent her from being sent to that saloon.
He seemed single-minded in his determination to get his cattle to a place called Tuck’s Station. But that didn’t stop him from making arrangements with his neighbors, who also had cattle to ship. These partnerships would ultimately net him a larger profit, she learned just by being silent and listening.
Her paper husband seemed to have a head for business.
Finally, they’d loaded up in the wagon and he’d informed her they were returning to his home. She was drooping on the bench seat next to him, thankful for his looming presence, even though he maintained a respectable distance between them.
“Why did you want to marry me?”
His sudden gruff question caught her off guard and she spoke without thinking. “It isn’t as if I was given much choice.”
He considered that for a moment.
“You know anything about being a rancher’s wife?”
“No.”
Her quick answer must have surprised him, as his chin quirked downward.
“What?” she asked.
“Figured you’d say yes. No matter if you knew anything or not.”
