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Michaela let an unattractive screech rip through her, a noise she would normally never be caught making. Her eyes were blown wide—she was absolutely aghast that Joel had dared to say that he wanted the two of them. What did Raya have to offer that she didn’t? Raya wasn’t even a proper lady, running around on farms and wearing men’s pants. Maybe she wore them well, but they still looked horribly out-of-fashion. Her skin was burnt and tanned to a near brown, with dark eyes and bushy eyebrows. Michaela on the other hand, felt she was the incarnation of beauty. She wore the best dresses that she could buy, her hair was long and full and gorgeous, and she had inherited beautiful caramel colored eyes from their mother.
“Michaela, what in the world was that?” their father growled. “Don’t be rude in front of our guest.”
“I’m sorry,” Michaela said, though it wasn’t an apology at all. She hadn’t even come close to an apologetic tone of voice. “Did you say that you wanted both of us?” she asked. She could feel the color drain from her face at the casual look on Joel’s face.
“That’s exactly what I said,” he agreed. “Is that really so strange to you?”
Michaela’s instant reaction was to say that yes, it really was, but she kept her mouth shut, formulating a better way of saying what she wanted to say. She didn’t know how to phrase it, without shoving Raya under the bus, although maybe that might have been for the best.
“Someone needs to stay and take care of our father,” she said, settling for a diplomatic answer. It had always been a skill of hers, finding the middle ground between two extremes. She had studied Aristotle at the school, and despite having a hard time understanding all of his texts, she understood the gist of it. “You can’t take the both of us, it has to be one or the other.”
She glanced up at Raya, who seemed happy enough with the answer. Michaela knew that she would have preferred to stay and work on the ranches anyways, taking care of their father to the best of her ability.
“That’s right,” Raya said. “He’s ill, and he needs someone to be there for him.”
Michaela was almost amazed that she had agreed, raising an eyebrow at Raya. She was expecting her sister to have made a fuss about being brushed aside, but she didn’t seem to mind.
“I’m sure Raya wouldn’t mind staying,” she said, with a pointed look at her sister.
Raya had no complaints. She nodded her head, and leaned her weight on one foot. “That’s right, too. I would rather stay here and take care of him,” she said. “Besides, Michaela would make a better bride.”
Joel looked between the two girls, as if weighing his options. His eyes lingered on Michaela, who fluttered her lashes and made herself as attractive as could be. She had porcelain skin, and delicate hands meant to dote upon men. She wasn’t at all like Michaela, who seemed to be the wild child of the two. Joel smiled, and leaned back in the chair.
“If money is what you’re concerned about, I don’t think you’ll have to worry for too much longer,” he said. “I have enough money that I could cover your father’s medical bills for years to come.”
“Well that’s very generous, but what about somebody to take care of him?” Michaela pressed. She could practically tell that Joel was avoiding the topic, as if he was trying to make it more of a surprise that he planned on having the two of them.
“I think that’s what hospitals are for,” he replied. “Honestly, Michaela, I don’t think there’s a problem here. I think maybe you’re just a little jealous of your sister.”
“Why would I be jealous of her?” she asked, narrowing her eyes at Joel. Just moments ago she had been enraptured by him, but then he had shattered the image beyond belief. She found that her anger boiled close to the surface, and it was getting ready to boil over. “I’ve got all the good looks, I can get any man that I want, and I’ve got a job that keeps me from getting sunburned and injured.”
“Michaela,” their father scolded, “this isn’t a competition. You’re only enforcing his opinion that you’re jealous of Raya. Just keep your mouth shut and let the men do the talking.”
Michaela shot a glare at her father that had gone amiss by him, but not by Joel or Raya. They both watched as her face transformed from doll-like to horrible, screwed and twisted. Raya raised her eyebrows, but the cruel expression only further interested Joel.
“What you’re trying to say, Joel,” their father began, his voice drawling, “is that you’re offering money for my daughters. My only two daughters, the last two women in my family until they have children of their own.”
Michaela had regained her usual, composed self, and she looked between Joel and her father. She found it fascinating that Joel was so interested in two small-town girls, polar opposites of each other, that he was willing to spirit them away to wherever he came from.
“I am,” he agreed in his drawl. “And it’ll be a compensation most generous, I assure you. Your daughters will be well cared for, and will want for nothing.”
“I’ll have you know,” the old man said, interrupted by a fit of violent coughs that wracked his entire body. Michaela stayed where she was, in a sort of spite of the old man. Raya rushed to his side, helping him to sit up. His coughing soon cleared, and he batted away Raya’s concerned hands. “That polygamy is illegal in these here United States.”
“My intention was never polygamy,” Joel said, the words easily rolling off his tongue. “I’ll choose one girl or another eventually, but right now I like the both of them. I would like to get to know the two of them, a courting of sorts, if you will.”
“A courting?” their father mused. He stroked his long beard, staring Joel down. “Why can’t you do that here? Why must you take them away to where you came from?”
“I’m afraid that I cannot shower them in gifts whenever they would please if I’m so far away from them,” Joel replied. It was as though he had each of his answers easily formulated and planed out. “If I were to bestow Michaela with the most beautiful of dresses, and Raya with the fastest riding horse in all of the lands, it will have to be at my home. I can assure you, sir, that nothing inappropriate will happen.”
Michaela blushed and turned her head aside. Her hair fell to cover the redness tinting her cheeks without the slightest tint of rouge. “Joel, you really shouldn’t talk that way in front of ladies,” she chided.
Joel grinned at the response he had been given by the older girl. He was fascinated by her outer appearance of an angel. He wanted to tear her mask off and crush it beneath his foot. He wanted to see what the girl was truly like.
“Begging your pardon, miss,” he said with a little tip of his head, as though he were wearing a hat he might dip in greeting. “I hadn’t considered your delicate sensibilities.”
The girls’ father harrumphed in disdain. “Sir, if you cannot consider my gentle lilies’ feelings, then I don’t believe that you are the man for them.”
“I believe I could be the man for them, if you only gave me a chance to prove my worth,” Joel said. “I’ll give you two hundred dollars right now, in cold, hard cash, in exchange for the two of them. They’ll leave with me in the morning—I’ll have a coach purchased for them, and we will depart. They will write to you any chance they get, and if they are unhappy, they can leave.”
