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CHAPTER 13
White Wedding
“Pick up the pace,Mrs. Bryant,” my new husband spat through his teeth as my mare Patty lagged further behind through the forest. “I’d like to reach the cabin sometime duringthiscentury, if you please.”
I narrowed my eyes at his buckskin covered back. I kept explaining that nothing between us would change. Then in another three months, he could claim that I had left him to go back east, having been dissatisfied with western pioneer life.
Dang it. It was a simple, practical solutionfor his benefitthat I proposed this marriage farse in the first place, the big baby.
Talk about being ungrateful.
The whole thing now seemed surreal. I glanced down at my left ring finger, seeing the thick gold ring with unique markings and lettering surrounding a square cut emerald. I had been shocked when the minister asked Bryant for a wedding band, and he grumbled something in Gaelic, then reached into his side pouch and produced the thing that he shoved onto my finger a little too hard.
I was about to ask him if he wanted it back, until he made the next crack.
“My new wife had better learn to cook decently, too,” he threw back over his shoulder. “That slop you’ve been brewing up is likely to make a widow of you before you’ve traveled back to your own time.”
Oh, so we were going for Round Two, were we?
Or was it six?
I glared daggers at him, answering, “No worries, hubby dearest. I just learned a new recipe using poisonous toadstools. Maybe I could try it on you tonight.”
“You do, and you’ll be sleeping with your pets in the stable.”
“Better company, no doubt.”
“At least I’d get to sleep in my own bed again. Of course, now that we’re officially married...”
“Try it, and you’ll find yourself missing a very important appendage tomorrow morning,” I warned.
Ah, wedded bliss. I had always dreamed of having a pleasant honeymoon like this someday. This, and a luxurious weekend retreat at Alcatraz Prison.
“And I don’t know what you mean by wanting to eat a Big Mac from this man McDonald...” he called back.
“Ooo, something dark and deviant, of course.”
“Either way, you’ll conduct yourself as a proper wife while you’re in town now,” he said. “Including minding my orders for a nice change.”
“Yes, master.”
Maybe this marriage of social convenience hadn’t been such a great idea after all.
At least I had the satisfaction that I had thwarted one of Wilkens’ weapons to ruin me and run me out of his private kingdom on my broomstick. I was officially a respectable married woman now.
Eat that burger, Big Mac.
We finally reached the cabin just as the sun was setting over the mountain rise. Bryant unloaded and tended the horses, while I carried and stored everything inside. Alice had packed a few eatables for the road, and I tossed bits of fruit, cheese and biscuits into one of the plate tins and set it on table just as Bryant walked in.
“Very nice. Starving me now, are you?” he remarked, noting the single plate.
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” I said. “This is for you, husband.Bon appetite.”
“What about yourself?”
“Not.Hungry. Now, if you’re quite through cutting me down to size and making me grossly regret helping you out by becoming your temporary contract wife, I’d like to go to the creek and wash, then turn in for the night. Alone.”
Bryant grabbed my hand as I stalked passed him, turning me around to face him.
