Mail Order Bride: Westward Dance (12 page)

Seth smiled down at her. “I like your
way thinking.”

“You can do the same thing. Even if
your leg is never one hundred percent again, you still have
options. Maybe you won’t be able to go on long cattle drives again,
but that doesn’t mean that you still can’t work the ranch with your
brothers,” Maddie said.

Seth knew she was trying to help and
didn’t want to hurt her feelings. “I know. It’s just that it’s been
my whole life. I’ll think about what you said.”

“I’m not going to be pushed around in a
wheelchair, Geoff,” Seth said as they got off the train. He hated
having to be helped at all, but had no choice.

“So you’re going to be able to get into
the carriage by yourself and off again? Not to mention walk on
those crutches all the way from the back of our property to the
mansion? I don’t think so,” Geoff answered. “I don’t think that’s
feasible.”

“Fine. I’ll use the damn thing, but
I’ll push myself. I’ve still got two good arms,” Seth
said.

“As you wish,” Geoff said.

Seth just grunted as he began hopping
up into the waiting carriage to join Maddie.

Maureen settled in one of the chairs in
the parlor across from where Seth sat in the wheelchair and Maddie
sat on the sofa near him. Geoff came in and closed the door. A tea
set had been placed on a table and Maureen began to serve as
Geoffrey sat down.

Seth watched Maddie’s mother and saw
where Maddie got her beauty. He realized that if he were a distance
away it would be hard to tell the difference in the two women. Like
Maddie, Maureen was curvy and graceful with blue eyes and
silvery-blonde hair. She was impeccably dressed in a silver gown
that showed off her pretty shoulders and fine figure.

He glanced at Geoff and saw the man
watching his wife with rapt attention. It was obvious that the
couple was still very much in love and Seth liked seeing that they
were happy. Maddie had changed and wore a deep red gown that gave
her appearance a very dramatic flair. As beautiful as she was,
though, Seth found that he preferred her in the simpler dresses the
women in Montana wore.

“Seth, how do you take your tea?”
Maureen asked.

Seth squirmed a little. He hated tea
but didn’t know how to refuse politely until he remembered
something his mother had told him. “Thank you, Mrs. O’Connor, but I
do not care for tea.”

Maddie looked at Seth with surprise and
could have laughed outright. She’d never heard Seth utter such a
polite phrase since meeting him and realized how much he wanted to
impress her mother. She reigned in her mirth somehow. Her father,
however, seemed to feel no such need and what started out as a
chuckle soon became loud laughter.

Seth gave him an angry look and
Maureen’s face held confusion. Maddie couldn’t contain herself
anymore and joined Geoffrey.

“I’m afraid I don’t understand what’s
so funny,” Maureen said with a disapproving look at her husband and
daughter. “I apologize for their bad behavior, Seth. Please ignore
them.”

Maureen couldn’t have known that this
would set off more laughter. Geoffrey tried to stop laughing but
was helpless. Maureen looked from him to Maddie who was in much the
same state. She felt bad for Seth and looked back at him only to
find him trying to hide a smile.

“Geoff, you’re lucky I’m in this
wheelchair or I’d give you a good wallop,” he said as he began
laughing with them.

Maddie was finally able to pull herself
together. “Oh, Mama, you don’t understand. I’m so sorry. Please
don’t be cross with us. It’s just that Seth isn’t usually so
socially correct and to hear him say such a thing is hilarious.”
She turned to Seth. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Seth said. “Your pa started
it. Ma taught me manners, but I don’t have a chance to use them
much out on the trail.”

Maureen smiled. “No, I guess not. I
imagine that manners are lost on steer and horses.”

“And the other drivers, too,” Seth
said. “Mrs. O’Connor, thank you for letting me stay here while I
recuperate.”

“Think nothing of it. You’re most
welcome. After all, we are practically family,” Maureen said. “And
it will give me a chance to hear more about my other daughter and
your brother, as well as our grandchildren.”

“So in other words, you wanna pick my
brain and hear some embarrassing stories,” Seth said.

Maureen chuckled. “Am I that
obvious?”

“No, I’m just good at reading through
the lines, especially because that sounded like something Tessa
would say.”

The parlor door opened and a young
woman entered hurriedly. She was flustered and her golden brown
hair was slightly disheveled. She looked at Geoff and said, “Papa
is the cowboy here?”

Geoffrey gave his youngest daughter a
bemused expression and said, “Why yes, daughter he is. Allow me to
introduce you. Seth Samuels, this is our daughter Claire O’Connor.
Claire, Seth,” he said with a gesture in Seth’s
direction.

Claire clapped a hand over her mouth as
she realized her gaff. Her cinnamon brown eyes were huge with
embarrassment. Claire lowered her hand to reveal flushed
cheeks.

“I’m so very sorry, Mr. Samuels. Please
accept my apologies,” she said. “You weren’t dressed like a-I mean,
you look very nice.”

“I would hand you a shovel, Claire, but
you seem to be doing a good job of digging yourself a deeper hole,”
Maddie said.

Seth had stuck his foot in his mouth
plenty of times and decided to come to the poor girl’s rescue.
“Don’t worry about it, Claire. It’s nice to meet you and I take
being called a cowboy a compliment. Plus, I hate wearing
suits.”

Claire beamed at him in relief. “You’re
very kind, Mr. Samuels, but I really am quite sorry.”

“I don’t blame you for being curious.
I’ve been curious about your family, too. I mean, I know your pa,
and your sisters, but I wondered about you and your ma,” he
said.

“Claire, are you going to stand there
all day or would you like to sit down?” Maddie said.

Maureen didn’t miss the annoyed look
that Seth gave Maddie and bit her lip to keep from
smiling.

“I expect she’ll sit when she’s ready,
Madelyn,” he said.

Maddie was shocked to be disciplined by
Seth. Her eyes flashed fire at him but he just smiled.

Claire rushed to a chair and gave Seth
a look of near hero worship, which gave Geoffrey pause. He’d never
seen this dynamic between Seth and Maddie and wondered about it.
He’d only ever seen Seth defend Sadie to Dean like that and then he
understood that Seth felt protective towards Claire. He sipped his
tea and sat back thinking that this was going to be an interesting
adventure for all of them.

By the time tea was over, Seth was
exhausted although he’d been fairly successful at hiding it.
Geoffrey had helped Seth get settled in his room, knowing that Seth
didn’t want to be coddled by servants right away. They’d put him in
one of the few bedrooms on the first floor out of necessity.
Normally they put guests upstairs in one of the more elegant rooms,
but Seth thought his room was too fancy as it was. He settled back
against the headboard and looked at Geoff.

“So what’s the deal with Maddie and
Claire?” he asked. He’d noticed that Maddie had been a little catty
with the girl a couple of times.

Geoff smiled. “Claire is a little
different than her sisters. As you know, Tessa has excellent
manners and speech, but doesn’t particularly care for this way of
life.”

“Right.”

“Before the…”

Seth watched Geoff’s hands clench as he
trailed off and understood what Geoff was running through his mind.
“That jackass hurt Maddie,” he supplied.

“Yes, before that, Maddie was literally
the belle of the ball and had all of Tessa’s grace and poise and
enjoyed every minute of the parties and such. Claire has more
brains than the two of her older sisters put together and I don’t
mean that in a negative way concerning them. I’m merely stating
fact. Claire has surpassed my understanding of many things and
she’s just eighteen. If it involves business, science, or anything
else scholarly, she’s formidable, but when it comes to the social
graces, I’m afraid she’s lacking.”

“Aw, poor kid,” Seth said. “I know what
that’s like. Ok, not the smart part, obviously, but the whole
social thing. I can get by when I have to, but most of the time I
don’t think before I say something. Dean gave up on me a long time
ago with that and Marcus constantly teases me about it.”

Geoff nodded. “Yes, I’ve spent enough
time with all of you to notice that. Both sisters have purposely
embarrassed each other at different public events. At dances and
balls Maddie points out Claire’s flaws in dancing and popular
culture topics and at business dinners Claire makes it obvious that
Maddie can’t hold a candle to her when it comes to discussing
politics or new business methods.”

Seth understood such competitiveness
and had come to blows with Dean on occasion over it. Apparently
sisters were the same way only without the punching.

“That said, don’t let Claire fool you.
She’ll get her revenge on Maddie one way or another, so don’t feel
the need to get between them,” Geoff said.

“I noticed that you didn’t step in. I
wondered why that was,” Seth replied.

“I don’t need to and neither do you.”
Geoff smiled. “You’ll see. You see the surgeon in the morning. Get
some rest.”

Seth mulled over Geoff’s words as he
left.

Seth got a taste of Claire’s intellect
at breakfast the next morning. He pushed his wheelchair into the
dining room and Claire pounced on him.

“Good morning, Mr. Samuels,” she
said.

Seth smiled at her, “Good morning,
Claire. You can call me ‘Seth’.”

Claire pushed a tendril of long hair
from her face. “All right, Seth. Come sit next to me.”

“Sure. Good morning, Geoff, Maureen,”
Seth said and pushed up to the empty place at the table where a
chair should have been.

“Good morning, Seth. Did you sleep
well?” Maureen asked as she buttered some toast.

“Nope. I usually don’t,” he answered
honestly. “This damn leg doesn’t give me much chance to
sleep.”

Claire covered her mouth and giggled.
“You sound like Papa.”

Seth looked at Maureen and apologized
for swearing. Maureen smiled and looked at Geoffrey. “She’s right,
dearest, he does sound like you.”

Seth couldn’t tell if she was amused or
displeased. He didn’t have much time to think about it because
Claire placed a piece of buttered toast on his place and asked,
“Are you worried about how the westward expansion of the railroad
is going to affect cattle prices?”

He gave the girl a surprised look.
“What do you know about that?”

“Preserves?” Claire asked.

“What? Oh, sure,” he said as he
realized she meant the toast.

Claire continued as she smeared the
strawberry preserves on the toast. “Well, in my economics class,
we’ve been studying about how the cattle ranching industry is
changing because of modernization. I’d be interested in your
thoughts on the subject.”

“Jesus, you sound like Marcus,” Seth
said with a laugh.

“I do? Who’s Marcus? Oh, yes, your
younger brother,” Claire said. “Bacon?”

Seth frowned as she put it on his plate
without waiting for a response. He wasn’t angry; he just realized
how annoying it must be for other people when he had two
conversations going on at one time.

Geoff pretended to be reading the
paper, but watched the whole exchange with amusement.

Seth picked up the bacon and started
eating it. It was very good bacon. He looked over at Claire and saw
that she was waiting for his answer. “Let me think about that for a
minute.”

Maureen said, “Claire, let the man eat
his breakfast. I’m sure he doesn’t want to talk about this right
now.”

Seth said, “No, it’s all right. She
brings up something we’ve been thinking about,
actually.”

“You’re very kind, Seth, but it’s not
necessary,” Maureen said.

That protective streak rose within him
again and he straightened a little and turned to Claire, ignoring
Maureen. “Here’s the thing. The railroad is gettin’ closer, that’s
true, but it’s not yet, so the cattle still have to get from one
place to another, right? And as far as I know, they haven’t
sprouted wings and learned to fly, so how else are they going to
get to market?”

“Of course they haven’t,” Claire said
with a laugh.

“And there are different markets for
different types of livestock. See, Claire, we don’t just drive them
to Chicago or North Dakota; we go to California sometimes or Texas,
too. So while the railroad will make it easier getting them
eastward, we’re still going to have to keep driving them west and
south,” Seth said. “You gonna pass me that plate of flapjacks?” he
said to Claire.