Page 35 of Short-Straw Bride

Meredith Hayes was a fine specimen of a woman. And sometime later today, she was going to be his.

A rogue with a devilish grin stared back at him from the mirror. Travis winked at his reflection, settled his hat into place, and fought the urge to whistle as he headed outside to tend to his chores.

Roughly two hours later, before the sun hung fully overhead, the expected sound of gunfire ricocheted through the pines. Travis looked up from the pile of scorched tack he’d been sorting through, his gut suddenly knotting. This is it.

The banging over by the shed where the boys were reinforcing the lean-to halted. Neill and Jim emerged from the west side, hammers moving from right hand to left as they reached for their gun belts. Even knowing who their guest would be, they were ready for any trouble that might be riding shotgun. Travis straightened, pride infusing his stance. His brothers were competent men—Archers through and through. Whatever came through that gate, they’d handle together.

And it was a good thing, for when Crockett finally rode into view leading their guests, Travis noted that the wagon Everett Hayes drove carried a passenger who bore little resemblance to a preacher. Jim’s indrawn breath echoed loudly in Travis’s ear, and one glance at the dazed look on his brother’s usually stoic face confirmed that trouble had indeed ridden shotgun—and their normal defense tactics would be useless.

16

The minute Everett Hayes reined in his team and set the wagon brake, the young gal at his side shot to her feet and grabbed a handful of pink skirt as if she meant to leap to the ground then and there. Travis had never seen Jim move so fast. Usually the deliberate one of the bunch, Jim’s movements blurred as he holstered his weapon and dropped his hammer to the dirt, all while hustling toward the wagon before the pretty little blonde could alight on her own.

“Why, thank you,” she said as she rested her hands on Jim’s shoulders and allowed him to lift her to the ground. She beamed a smile at him that must have blinded the poor fellow, for all Jim could do was blink at her after he set her down. “Are you Travis?”

Jim’s head wagged slowly in the negative, his eyes never leaving her face.

Travis’s eyes rolled in a sardonic arc at his brother’s absorption while he strode forward. Apparently an introduction was beyond Jim’s abilities at the moment. He lifted a finger to his hat brim when he reached Jim’s side and nodded to the petite lady with the china-doll face. “I’m Travis, ma’am. Travis Archer.”

She examined his face and glanced over the rest of him, yet her inspection held such innocence, he couldn’t exactly call her bold. Curious was probably a more apt description.

“A pleasure to meet you, sir. I’m Cassandra Hayes, Meredith’s cousin.” She turned one of those glaringly bright smiles loose on him, but his vision remained unaffected.

Oh, she was pretty all right, and there was something about the joy inherent in those smiles that made a man want to hang around and see how many he could draw out of her, but nothing significant stirred in Travis when she turned the full force of her sky-blue eyes on him. They were pale compared to the vibrancy of Meri’s and didn’t evidence the same depth of living.

“You are going to marry my cousin, aren’t you?”

The young lady was certainly direct. Travis grinned and scratched a spot on his jaw with the back of his thumb.

“Cassie, dear,” Everett Hayes murmured as he moved around the horses to position himself between his daughter and the Archer brothers. “We wouldn’t have brought the preacher with us if there wasn’t going to be a wedding.”

Travis glanced past the pair in front of him to see Crockett talking quite animatedly to an older man climbing down from the back of a mule.

“Yes, Papa, but you only said she was marrying an Archer. You didn’t specify which one.”

When Jim continued staring at Cassandra, Everett Hayes scowled a warning at him, then took his daughter’s arm and tugged her close to his side before smiling at her in a way that was so indulgent it bordered on condescending.

“It doesn’t matter which one, darling. All that matters is that she marry.”

Cassandra pulled her hand free and stared up at her father, tiny lines creasing her porcelain brow. “How can you say that, Papa? Of course it matters. Meredith has to marry Travis.”

Everett’s smile flattened. “Why?”

Travis tilted his head, eager to hear the answer himself. But before Cassandra could say anything, another voice rang out from the porch.

“Cassie?”

The distance did little to disguise the wonder on Meredith’s face—wonder that quickly transformed into happiness so radiant that Travis wished he’d been the one responsible for it. Then she let out a little squeal and charged down the steps as if she hadn’t just spent two days in bed after being kicked in the head by a mule.

Her cousin broke away from Everett and ran to meet Meredith, surprisingly unconcerned about the hem of her pretty pink dress dragging in the dirt. The two women embraced, and at once, Travis recognized the bond between them. Meredith loved her cousin the way he loved his brothers.

“How did you ever convince Aunt Noreen to let you come?” Meredith asked as she gently untangled herself from the embrace.

“I didn’t ask.” Cassandra waved away Meredith’s arched look. “She never would have agreed, so there was no point.”

“But she’ll be livid about you exposing yourself to the scandal of the situation.”

“I’m here with my father and a man of the cloth—surely that will protect me from any imagined taint. I couldn’t miss your wedding. Not after all we’ve shared. I would have rented a horse and ridden here unescorted if I’d had to.”