AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Mercy gave them a mischievous half grin, her eyes twinkling. “She’s with her father.”
Mrs. DuVere, Martha, and Nora all stared at her for a second and then jumped up to look out the window. Their collective “awww” once they had their faces pressed to the glass had Mercy laughing.
Their fierce sheriff was pacing the length of the walkway in front of the sheriff’s office, jostling his nearly two-year-old daughter in an apparent effort to get her to sleep. A pastime in which she seemed disinclined to participate, preferring to try to snag her father’s hat from his head.
The women giggled and went back to their lunch.
“What is it about men holding babies?” Martha said with a happy sigh.
Mercy laughed. “Watching those two together makes me start thinking about having another one all over again. And I’ve already got my hands full enough with Daisy.”
Nora nodded with an indulgent smile. Watching men cradling their babies was enough to get even her to briefly muse on babies of her own, even though she had never had a real desire to start a family. She had enough on her plate without adding another helpless being to look after.
“Now, Nora,” Mrs. DuVere said, pinning her with that look that said she meant to get to the bottom of something. “What’s going on with you and the newcomer?”
Nora’s cheeks instantly flushed, but she forced herself to hold Mrs. DuVere’s gaze. “Nothing is going on. I haven’t spoken with him much since the day he got here.”
Martha nibbled on a sandwich, her brow furrowed. “Are you all right after he…after the things he said? About the whole marriage thing?”
“I’m fine, Martha, I promise,” she reassured her, not for the first time.
“I was surprised to see you at the marriage gathering,” Mrs. DuVere said. “Marriage had never seemed like anything you were much interested in. A girl after my own heart,” she said, patting her hand again.
Nora gave her a weak smile and fiddled with the sandwich on her own plate. This was really not something she wanted to discuss, though she’d known it was going to come up. Besides, these women were her friends. There wouldn’t be any judgment here. So she took a deep breath and tried to explain.
“It’s not, trust me. The last thing I want is a husband. But,” she hurried on before the questions could start again, “I need one. Temporarily, at least. You all know the troubles I have with my father.”
They nodded in sympathy, and Nora pressed on. “I can manage most of the time, but his gambling is getting worse. Right now, it’s mostly the pocket money he can find. Truthfully, I leave a bit lying around here and there, enough to keep him busy without making us completely destitute. And I think you know that our property was actually Grandfather’s. My mother’s father. He’d always wanted the property to go to me. Spent my whole childhood walking me over every inch of it, helped me start my first garden. We had so many plans for it. And his will left the property to me in the event of my mother’s death.”
“Well, that’s good, isn’t it?” Mercy asked.
“Yes, it’s wonderful. The only problem is I can’t claim it until I turn thirty or upon my marriage, whichever happens first. My father legally has charge of everything until then. Ihadhoped to wait until my thirtieth birthday. But with things with my father getting so much worse, I’m not sure I can wait another five years. He’s already sold off a good portion of the land.”
The women around her nodded, each one looking at her with concern.
“So you decided to take advantage of the new marriage rule,” Mrs. DuVere said.
“I thought it could be a possible solution, at least,” Nora answered, though it hadn’t been a question. “But I didn’t want a man from town who would expect an actual marriage. Or one who knew me well enough to know my history and might claim my property as my husband. The stranger seemed like the best option.”
Martha frowned. “But don’t you have the same problem? Once you’re married, what’s yours belongs to your husband.”
“True,” Nora said. “But only if he knows about it, at least in my case. A stranger wouldn’t. He’d probably assume the property belongs to my father, at least while he’s alive. And I certainly wouldn’t offer up any information to the contrary. For the deed to transfer to me, I just need two witnesses to the marriage.”
“Which you have,” Martha said with a grin.
“Exactly. Though I do need the marriage to be legal. But once it is, the two witness signatures are all I need for the deed to transfer to me. And hopefully, once that is all squared away, I could make life unpleasant enough for my so-called husband that he’d be happy to quit me,” she said with a mischievous smile. “If he bothered to stick around in the first place,” she added with a shrug.
Mrs. DuVere laughed, grasping Nora’s chin in her hand and giving her an affectionate little shake. “You devious little beauty, you. So you wanted to marry this man just to get your deed and then make sure he was happy to go on his way, leaving you to live happily ever after with your property safe in your own name.”
Nora nodded, and Mrs. DuVere laughed again. “Brilliant.”
Mercy gave her a wry smile. “Yes, but even the most brilliant plan can backfire. Remember how my own marriage started out.”
The women laughed, chattering for a second about Mercy’s own fake marriage gone awry. She’d only meant to pretend that Gray was her fiancé until she got rid of a man who wanted her land at all costs. Of course, the townsfolk didn’t know that and threw them a wedding they couldn’t refuse. It all turned out all right, though, as Mercy and Gray were hopelessly in love before too long.
That wouldn’t happen with Nora and Adam. With Gray Woodson in town, Adam now had two people he desperately wanted to get away from. Her and the sheriff. It shouldn’t be too hard to run him off.
Then again, if he wanted to leave, he’d probably be gone already, not trying to find a job that would keep him there. She rolled her lips between her teeth, thoughtfully chewing on them for a second. Oh well. At least he wasn’t trying to get her to keep him.
