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This woman was alone and while quite rich, she was at the mercy of Thomkins’ machinations. She needed our help.
“She was to arrive in Jasper today but I don’t know if anyone will meet her with Melvin gone. Clearly, Thomkins doesn’t know or he’d be running down the mountain.”
“Today?” Knox asked, glancing at me. “How convenient. Perhaps I’ll collect something besides supplies.”
“You? Maybe I’ll find her worth keeping,” I countered, then nodded at Rob and the man behind us before we took our leave. We were headed to Jasper for more than just flour and nails. Knox was interested in her. So was I. Let the best man win.
***
Knox
The door to the shop burst open. “She’s here.”
I turned around at Jed’s words. I was fishing in my pocket for the coins needed to pay the lady for the dainty ribbons I’d just bought for baby Lil. They were a pale pink and blue. My niece was only a few months old and had a few wisps of red hair, so she wouldn’t be using them anytime soon. Even longer still would be when Jed and I taught her how to shoot—we’d have to do it in secret so her two fathers, Spur and Lane, didn’t know—but in the meantime, we’d spoil her rotten.
“Here?”
My brother had his head and shoulder through the doorway and angled his thumb over his shoulder. “Mr. Denby just found me and said Thomkins’ bride is sitting in front of the mercantile.”
I placed the coins on the counter, grabbed up the ribbons and tipped my hat to the woman.
“How the hell does he know that?” I asked, stalking out the door. He closed it behind me and we walked side by side. We were of similar height and both had long legs. We’d be in front of the mercantile within a minute.
“The woman’s new to town, has a bag at her feet. Who else can it be?” he asked.
That was true. Jasper was a small town and the stage only came up once a week.
“But she’s not due for an hour,” I countered, stating what Jed already knew. We’d learned of the stage’s arrival time when we came to town, then went fill our supply orders while we waited. After what Rob at the bank had said, we couldn’t leave this woman clueless and alone in Jasper, or worse, at the mercy of Thomkins. The
bastard.
Jed glanced at me as we stepped into the street to skirt around two ladies walking by. “Well, it came early. She’s here.”
What kind of woman became a mail order bride? I knew Celia, Luke and Walker Tate’s wife, had been a mail order bride. She’d been a widow and escaping her dead husband’s lunatic brother. That was a good reason for leaving her old town and becoming a bride to two protective husbands. Then there was our sister. She’d become a mail order bride by taking a dead woman’s place. She’d run away from home, from me, Jed and our three other brothers because we’d been overprotective. I frowned and rolled my eyes as I thought about it. What kind of brothers would we be if we weren’t protective? Well, she thought annoying ones, so she’d left home and ended up in Slate Springs with Lane and Spur. She was happy with her men—a good thing too—but she was our sister and not the best example for mail order brides.
So what of the new Mrs. Thomkins? What was her reason for leaving home and traveling to Slate Springs, Colorado for a husband? Even though the town’s law said otherwise, she only married Melvin; he’d had no intention of sharing her with a second husband.
What did she look like? Tall, short, a waif or a woman with some meat on her bones to grab onto? Fair or dark?
Up until now, I’d only thought of whether a groom would like her. Whether I would. I never considered she might not like her groom. I had to wonder what she would think of me. I was passably good looking, at least my sister, Piper, and a few other women of Slate Springs had said so. I had red hair though. Very red, like carrots. And a beard, I had a beard. I was also brawny. Big hands, big feet. Big everything.
What if we approached and she ran away screaming? Jed was just as big as me. I’d never been one to lack in self-confidence, but now… now I was like an untried lad trying to kiss a girl for the first time. Well, I wasn’t kissing this woman since she was Melvin’s widow, so—
There she was. I saw her and stopped in my tracks. I put a hand to Jed’s chest and he stopped as well, followed my gaze. Yes, I was going to kiss this woman and hopefully I wouldn’t be a bumbling fool when I did.
She was about fifty feet away and hadn’t seen our approach. She didn’t see anyone approach because she had her nose in a book. She was a tiny thing. Well, tiny compared to Jed and me. Her back was as stiff and straight as if she had an iron spike for a spine. On her head was a little straw hat that did nothing to shield her face from the intense mountain sun. Nor did it do anything to hide the wild hair that was attempting to escape from the bun at her nape. It seemed she either didn’t use enough pins on her dark hair or she’d stuck her head out the window of the stage all the way from Denver. Based on how prim and proper the rest of her was, her simple coat, serviceable boots, I doubted that to be the case.
Her profile was lovely. Upturned nose, high cheekbones. I wasn’t good with fancy descriptions, but I just knew that from the side she was quite pretty. I hadn’t even noticed she wore glasses until she absently pushed them back up her nose.
“She’s a bluestocking,” Jed murmured. “I bet she doesn’t even know which way to hold a gun.”
I wasn’t sure if the idea appealed or horrified my brother since our sister liked to shoot people with surprising regularity. Fortunately, Lane and Spur were able to temper her frustrations. I just wasn’t going to think about how they did so.
This woman, it seemed she intrigued us both. I saw the tilt of Jed’s mouth and knew he was not displeased. Seeing her with a book was a sign she found escape through reading. A flighty woman would not last in Slate Springs, especially with the winter that lasted for half the year. The only way to escape the town when it was cut off for most of that time by a pass that was completely buried in snow was through a book.
“I want her,” I murmured, which made Jed look my way.
“Really? Maybe I want her.”
