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“You are trying to get her drunk? That’s a little low, even for you,” Knox countered. “And you want her for your wife? I don’t need to get a woman drunk for her to become my wife.”
“Stupid fucker,” I replied, my voice growing louder. “I’m not trying to coerce her into marrying me. She doesn’t know anyone. Trust anyone. She’s in a strange town. Alone. Maybe if the hard edges of her life were softened a bit it might be easier for her.”
The baby stirred, made a fretful sound.
“You wake the baby and Piper will kill you, no gun needed,” Spur vowed.
I shook my head, but heeded the man’s words. My sister would do it, too. “Not drunk,” I continued, my voice just above a whisper. “More comfortable.” I sliced my hand through the air. “You have to admit, she’s had a terrible blow. Getting enough courage to be a mail order bride, coming all the way to Slate Springs to find out her husband is dead. That only makes her even more prickly.”
“Yes, that would be hard enough, then she meets a woman who has two husbands, not something done anywhere else. Of course she’ll be struggling. Soon enough, Thomkins will be here to make things worse,” Spur said, then shrugged. “Perhaps a little liquid courage couldn’t hurt.”
“You use liquor for medicinal purposes on occasion,” I offered.
Spur nodded. “I do.”
“This is one of those occasions,” I replied. “As you said, Thomkins is coming. But he won’t get anywhere near her.” No fucking way.
“Damn straight,” Knox vowed.
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“I give him an hour,” Lane added.
“Fifteen minutes,” Knox countered.
“She’s a rich woman. He’ll want that money and the only way to keep it in the family is for her to marry Curtis,” I said. The idea didn’t sit well. No, the only man she was going to wed and bed was me.
“Where’s the whiskey?” Knox grumbled, probably wanting a shot of his own.
There was a knock at the front door and I looked to Spur and Lane. It was their house.
“Looks like I won the bet,” Knox told Lane.
Spur stood and went to the door, opened it. “Thomkins. Curtis. Good to see you.”
He didn’t step back to let the men enter and I was sure they noticed.
“I was told that Mrs. Thomkins is here.”
I recognized Thomkins’ annoying voice.
“Your wife, I assume, is at your house,” Spur replied.
I couldn’t help but grin, knowing he was riling the man intentionally.
“Not Agnes,” Thomkins replied, his tone a sharp bite. Clearly, he didn’t like Spur’s humor. “Melvin’s wife.”
“Yes, she’s here.”
“I want to see her. She’s family.”
There were four of us to protect Eve, so I wasn’t concerned Thomkins was going to drag her away. Curtis was like a lap dog, weak willed and did whatever his brother wanted. I just had to wonder if he’d actually marry a woman because his brother told him to.
Eve, though, wasn’t weak willed. No, she was too damn polite for her own good and I had to hope she wouldn’t succumb to any verbal pressure the man would put on her. I didn’t doubt he’d stoop to using guilt to get her to leave with him.
Lane had gone to the kitchen to fetch the ladies and they came down the hall behind him. At some point, Eve had removed her little hat and her hair, while still in the bun at her nape, had tendrils that stroked her cheek, the long line of her nape. I knew with one tug of my fingers in the pins, the entire wild mass would fall down over her back.
Shit. Now was not the time to think about her naked.
