Dating Two Dragons (69 page)

After a little while, a father knocked on her bedroom door. “Pumpkin,” he said. “You cannot seriously be planning to leave us… A marriage between you and Mister Hughes would help all of us.”

She opened the door so she could talk with him, though she immediately looked away. She did not like being upset with her daddy, but he had put her in this unfortunate situation in the first place. “I am going away to marry someone that I have chosen,” she said. “There are plenty of worthwhile husbands in the west. Perhaps he will send money along for you and Mother after we are married, so that you can stop your worrying. I cannot marry Mister Hughes. I just won’t.”

Sniffling, she brought a handkerchief to her face.

“All right,” her father said. “There’s no need for you to cry… But will this man take good care of you?”

Annabel smiled at her father then, and nodded. “I believe so,” she said. “After all, he is rich.”

Her father gave her a hug. He did not like the idea of her leaving their house to go all the way to Colorado, but he was not going to hold her back if she thought it was the best thing for her. He wanted her to be happy, above all else. And, if this Mr. Daniels was rich, all of their worries would be over…

Once she had packed up the majority of her things, Annabel took out a pen and paper to write a quick reply to Mr. Daniels and let him know that she was planning to come to him as soon as possible.

For good measure this time, she included a flattering photograph of herself inside the envelope. She wanted Jasper Daniels to know that the bride he was getting was quality and worth his attention.

Dear Mr. Daniels,

Your letter – and your travel rations – brought me great joy. I would be delighted to join you in Colorado. Travel arrangements are being made now, and I hope to be with you in four weeks’ time!

Have a horse saddled up and ready for me.

Sincerely,

Annabel Revere

Jasper leaned back in his chair with his feet on the bar of the saloon, one of the dancing girls in his lap. “Do you reckon me for a husband?” he asked her. “Can you see me being tethered to a wife?”

The girl lowered her lids a little, used to the role of seductress in her place of work. “Is this a proposal?” she asked, jokingly.

Clayton and Billy were sitting nearby, enthralled by the act on the stage. When Jasper and the girl started kissing as though their lives depended on it, Clayton cleared his throat. “I hardly think your fancy fiancée would condone this.”

“Aw, come on,” Jasper said. “I have to be celibate forever now?”

Grinning, Clayton nodded. “Just until our deal has played out as I said. If she were to walk in here right now and see the way you are behaving, you think she would let you marry her?”

Jasper gently moved the girl off of his lap, smirking at her and silently cursing Clayton and his meddling. Just then, a mail currier came into the saloon to drop off letters at the bar. “Hey,” Jasper said, giving a high whistle to the get the boy’s attention. “Do you got anything for Jasper Daniels?”

The boy paused and looked through his bag. He pulled out a small envelope, yellowed by some kind of a stain. He handed it over to Jasper, who made a disgusted face. “Thank you. Glad to see our mail is in good hands.” He flipped a coin to the kid.

Miss Annabel Revere
, the envelope said. She had neat cursive handwriting that showed that she had received a good education. Although Jasper outwardly dismissed that as hoity-toity, he was actually impressed. He was not marrying some dumb rich girl from the city. He was marrying a rich girl with brains.

He hoped, for her sake, that she had the brains it would take to create a homestead with him and help him seal the deal of this bet of Clayton’s. Her excitement to join him was evident. No matter how much he hated to play the waiting game, he would be good and wait for her instead of chasing after every skirt he came across.

Eight hundred dollars was a lot of money, and the satisfaction of proving his friends wrong was worth even more than that.

After reading her note, Jasper attempted to push it back down into the envelope but something was in the way. He reached into it and pulled out the small daguerreotype of his intended.

He gazed down upon the portrait of the young, red-haired woman. She was dressed in a riding outfit, holding a crop at her side. “Very clever,” Jasper said under his breath, quite taken by her. He looked over at Clayton and waved the photograph at him. “I think she will fit in just fine here.”

Clayton and Billy looked at the photograph. “She is mighty beautiful,” Billy said, smiling at Jasper. “You’re a lucky man.”

It was apparent that Clayton did not have much faith in Jasper. “She is going to take one look at his ugly mug and return home.”

Jasper hooted. “The only danger in this bet is her not wanting me in her bed. You will see us married, boys. I can guarantee that!”

He continued to gaze at the portrait of Annabel, showing her off to anyone who was curious or happened to glance over his way. “This is my bride to be,” he would tell them proudly. “She’s on her way to marry me.”

As her carriage was fully loaded up, Annabel hugged each of her parents. The bitterness was still there between her and her mother, but at least her trip west had not been obstructed. “Are you quite sure that you don’t want to take Mary with you?” her mother asked.

The maid was their last domestic assistant and, although Annabel was fond of her, she did not like the idea of leaving them with no one to help them around the house. Besides, she did not know where Mary would fit in with Jasper’s lifestyle. She did not imagine that he was planning on another maid. A wealthy man like him probably had a staff of fifty household employees already.

“I don’t need a babysitter, Mother,” Annabel answered coolly, keeping her concerns to herself. “I will see to it, once I’ve arrived, that I get a personal maid. Don’t worry about that.”

Her mother kissed Annabel’s forehead. “Write to us, darling,” she said softly. “Take care of yourself.”

After promising to write and to send them money as soon as she was able to, Annabel got into her carriage and rode off to the train station. She turned down Mary as her travel companion but, as soon as she was situated in her compartment on the train, she longed for a friend to be there with her. This was going to be a rather long train ride…

Her mind was too excited, thinking about all of the new things that she would soon be enjoying and imagining the handsome young man that she would marry. She could not focus on reading the offered newspaper or writing a letter to anyone. All of her friends would be so jealous. They spent much of their time going to balls and parties in order to win the affections of young men, and here Annabel was, marrying a wealthy young man in a wonderful new place!

CHAPTER THREE

The Mister Missed Her

Jasper was feeling rather lackluster whenever he went to the bars and clubs that he so often frequented. Now that he was under the rules of the bet and the ever-watchful eye of Clayton, he found that he could not have fun. He still made wagers on things, and still delighted in winning, but it no longer held the satisfaction that it once had. Someday soon, Miss Annabel’s train would arrive and all of the things that he considered to be fun would be at an end. Sure, he might still be able to play cards with the boys and even take in a show or two, but at the end of the day he would have a wife to go home to, and a life that he was not so sure he was ready for.

Oh, but he could not have asked for a prettier wife to be shackled to. Miss Annabel Revere was a stunning looker. He amused himself by imagining going for rides with her. Maybe he could even teach her a thing or two about ranching, though nothing that would make her too skilled. He was happy that his wife would be bright, but he could not abide her thinking that she was smarter than him, particularly in matters of the land.

“You ought to go on home now and make sure your place is ready,” Billy advised. “Ladies like their places looking nice. From what I recall of yours, it’s going to take some work.”

He and Clayton laughed at that while Jasper frowned. “Oh, you boys are just jealous because I have a lady and you don’t. Come talk to me about how bad I am when you need my help later on with yours.”

With that, he trudged back home to his bachelor’s manse. There were clean blankets on the bed that Miss Annabel would be occupying; he did not see what else could matter. His furniture was organized, if a bit dusty. He did not spend a lot of time in his house, preferring to spend his time out and about with friends. If Miss Annabel was so particular, he figured that she would bring along a maid or some such to help her decorate her new home. Well, she could decorate her areas of the home anyway. He was not going to withstand the rearranging of his own spaces.

The next day, Jasper decided to forgo the bars and saloons for the first time in recent memory. Instead, he went to a local farm with the intention of purchasing a new horse for his new wife.

“My bride is familiar with riding,” he explained to the farmer. “She comes from a wealthy background, though, so it’s likely she isn’t used to riding the kind of horses that we ranchers ride… Do you have any more docile mares that I could see?”

Meanwhile, on the other side of town, Annabel’s train pulled into the station. She was asleep with her forehead lightly pressed against the window, but she awoke as the train jostled her.

“Evergreen!” the train conductor called out. “Evergreen, Colorado!”

Annabel leapt up, nearly hitting her head against the ceiling in her compartment. “That’s me!” she called to any attendants who were nearby and could help her. “I need to get off here!”

As soon as she had her bags and had calmed down some, she stood on the platform at the train station, looking around at all of the lush landscape that she could see. The land in Colorado had been built up nicely, though it was still much more wide open and unsettled than everything she was used to back home in Massachusetts. She took a deep breath and looked around for any sign of Mr. Daniels, her intended. It was then that she realized he most likely did not know about her arrival time. How could he? She had only been able to supply him with a vague estimate of when she would be there.

Fortunately, Annabel was a girl with enough gumption to ask for help. She calmly strode up to a man with a cart who was idling nearby. “Excuse me, sir. Do you know a Mr. Jasper Daniels?” she asked.

The man lifted his straw hat at her politely and seemed amused by the question. “I reckon I do,” he answered.

“Could you take me to him?” she asked, moving her suitcase to her other hand so she could pull her wallet from her purse. “I can pay you.”

He looked her over. It was apparent that she was a well-to-do girl from the city. She had not exactly known what to wear that would make her blend in better.

“Five dollars,” the man said.

Annabel nodded. “It’s a deal,” she replied. She handed him a five dollar bill and he gestured for her to get in the back of his small cart. It was pulled by a donkey, but it would do. The man drove her into town and she admired more of the buildings along the way. When they pulled up outside of a saloon, she gaped in her confusion.

“Here y’are,” the man said, sounding mighty proud of himself.

“I think there’s been a mix up,” Annabel said. “I thought you might bring me to Mr. Daniels’s house.”

The man laughed. “This might as well be his house,” was all he said.

In a huff, Annabel got out of the cart and watched as it slowly moved away. “Thanks for nothing,” she said under her breath. She decided that it was better to go inside the saloon and look for Jasper Daniels, just in case, rather than standing out on the dirt road with the sun in her eyes.

When she walked inside, she was greeted by smoke and loud music and talking. The place was packed with mostly men, though there were waitresses and dancing girls. Annabel coughed a little, unaccustomed to being around places like this, and she did her best to see if anyone fit the description of Jasper.

One of the cowboys lowered his legs from atop the bar, staring at her in an ungentlemanly manner. She noticed his stare and blushed, looking down at the floor which was covered in discarded cigarette butts. The fact that she lowered her gaze did nothing to dissuade the man and he came over to her, leering a little as he looked her over.

“You wouldn’t happen to be a girl by the name of Annabel, would you?” he asked. His breath smelled of whisky but she kept her mouth closed and did her best not to breathe it in.

Another man who was sitting at the bar turned at the name. She wondered who these men could be. They were not at all the way she had imagined Jasper, but she had a feeling that he knew them.  “Yes,” she said, doing her best to keep her chin held high when she spoke to them. She was very grateful that she had chosen a modest, long-sleeved, dark blue dress to travel in and not one of her more becoming gowns. She wanted to be appealing to the man who was to be her husband, not these dirty farmhands. “Do you know Mr. Jasper Daniels?”

The whisky-smelling man hooted out a throaty laugh, but the man from the bar stood up and came over beside him, looking at her. His eyes were kind, and he seemed to be less drunk than his friend. “Yes, we know Jasper,” he answered. “He didn’t come here today. We haven’t seen him. I’m pretty sure you ain’t supposed to come in here either.”