Mail Order Mix Up (5 page)

Ellen looked back at Malinda.  “Should we switch places then?”

Malinda’s eyes were wide and confused.  She looked from Patrick to Wesley.  “We can
ride where we are.  We’ll figure it all out when we get there.”

Ellen nodded and sat back in her seat.  What did she have to say to a banker?  How
many people have you evicted from their homes today?

Patrick looked at Ellen just as surprised as she was.  He’d seen her and immediately
known she was the woman he’d been waiting for. 
There was something in her eyes that told him he needed to spend the rest of his life
with her.
  For whatever reason, she seemed to be wary of him now that she knew he was Patrick
and not Wesley.  Did that mean she hadn’t wanted to marry him for some reason and
had deliberately passed his letter onto her sister?
 
And if that was the case, was there some way to convince her that he was the man she’d
come out here to marry and not his brother?

“Well, Ellen, I didn’t get a chance to read your letters.  Tell me about yourself. 
What do you like to do with your spare time?”
  He began maneuvering the carriage through the busy streets of Denver listening carefully
for her response. 

Ellen shrugged.  “I’ve honestly never had a lot of spare time.  I like to read, and
go for walks.  I enjoy sewing.”

Patrick smiled.  “I love to read and go for long walks.  I’m not much on sewing, though.”
  He watched out of the corner of his eye to see how she’d react to his words.

Ellen laughed.  “Most men aren’t much on sewing.”  She paused, almost afraid to talk
to him knowing he was meant for her sister.  “I hate bankers,” she blurted out.
  As soon as she spoke, she raised her hand to cover her mouth.  How could she have
said something like that to him?

“Really?  Why?” 

“When our father died, just two months ago, he was in
debt and we never knew it.  After his death, a banker came and told us we had to
get out.  I was able to talk him into letting us stay for three days, but I could
never respect a man who kicked people out of their homes.”

Patrick smiled ruefully.  “Neither could I.  I’m the worst banker alive,” he confided
in a whisper.  “I always give people more and more time.  I have one family who hasn’t
paid a dime in a year, and they still live in their house.  In fact, I sent my housekeeper
over with a meal just last night because I heard the mother was sick.”
  He shook his head as if disgusted with himself.  “If I were a
good
banker, I would never do anything like that!”

“How can you make a living that way?”
  She stared at him in surprise. 

He shrugged.  “I do okay.  Most of my money came from my gold claim, and I just break
even on the bank.”

Ellen smiled at him.  “Seriously?”

He nodded.  “Seriously!”

She felt a lot more at ease with him, knowing that, and they passed the time chatting
happily about their favorite books.  He told her about the places he’d seen on their
trip from Missouri where he’d been born and raised.

By the time they’d arrived in Gammonville, Ellen felt as if she’d known him her entire
life.  She couldn’t hear what Malinda and Wesley were talking about, but every once
in a while she’d hear laughter coming from the back seat, and she knew they were getting
along every bit as well as she and Patrick were.

After they pulled up in front of Patrick’s house, Ellen went inside with Malinda while
the men brought the trunk inside.  Ellen spoke to Malinda in a low voice.  “I’m attracted
to Patrick.”

Malinda nodded.  “I could tell.  I’m attracted to Wesley.  It’s too bad you’re marrying
Wesley and I’m marrying Patrick.”

Ellen bit her lip.  “How would you feel about switching?  I could marry Patrick and
you could marry Wesley.   Patrick is someone I could love, but I don’t think I could
ever love Wesley.  Not as anything more than a brother.”

Malinda tilted her head to the side while she thought about it.  “But Wesley is poor. 
He’s just a sheriff.”

Ellen sighed.  “I know that.  But don’t you think you should be attracted to the man
you marry and not just his money?”
  Ellen said a quick prayer her sister would listen to her and finally understand
her words.  They’d had this discussion over and over, and Malinda hadn’t wavered.

Malinda frowned.  “I really like Wesley, but I’m afraid of being poor.”

“You know if Wesley ever has financial problems, his brother is a banker, right? 
I’m sure Patrick wouldn’t let his brother live on the streets!”

“You don’t even know him yet.  How can you say that with such certainty?”

Ellen wanted to scream. 
“Why don’t we do this?  We’
ll give it some time.  We’ll ask them to give us a month to see who we want to marry. 
I know that Wesley is attracted to you and Patrick is attracted to me.  I’m sure they’ll
agree to it.”

Malinda nodded somewhat reluctantly.  “That makes sense.  I need to know if I could
fall in love with Patrick before I marry him.”
 

She looked anxious about making the decision, but Ellen was relieved and didn’t give
her time to reconsider. 
“Do you think they’ll be
angry with
us?”

Malinda shrugged.  “Probably not.  I mean, they want to be happy in their marriages
too, right?”

When the men were finished carrying the trunk upstairs, the four of them sat down
in the parlor.  “We have something we’d like to ask you,” Ellen began.
 
What’s the best way to say this without hurting any feelings or making them angry?

Patrick smiled.  “Certainly.”
  Patrick’s smile reached his eyes, and Ellen found herself almost mesmerized by it.

“We’d like to have some time to get to know you.  I’m sure you noticed that we both
automatically paired off with the wrong person.  Would you be willing to put off the
weddings until we know each other better and can decide who we think we’d be better
matched with?”
 
Please say yes
, she prayed.

Patrick frowned slightly.  “How long are you asking for?”
  He didn’t look thrilled at the idea of waiting, but he didn’t look like he was going
to reject them outright either.

Ellen looked at Malinda who nodded slightly.  “A month.”

Patrick shook his head.  “No.  That’s too long.  How about two days?”

Ellen gasped in shock.  “That won’t work!  We’d have no time to get to know either
of you!  How about three weeks?”
  She’d always enjoyed bargaining, and by the look on Patrick’s face, she could see
he was enjoying the negotiations.

“Three
days
.”

Ellen folded her arms across her chest.  “That’s unreasonable.  Two weeks?”
  She wasn’t going to go lower than a week.  Anything less than that was absolutely
ridiculous.

“One week,” Wesley suggested.  “That gives us all time to get to know one another
a little better and to decide who
m
we want to marry, but it doesn’t make us feel like you’re trying to put off the marriage
forever.”
  Ellen really looked at Wesley for the first time then.  He wasn’t dressed quite
as properly as Patrick was, and seemed to have a much more laidback nature than his
brother.  He was handsome, but she didn’t find him nearly as attractive as Patrick.

Ellen leaned over toward Malinda.  “Are you okay with one week?”
  She felt the length of time was reasonable, but she couldn’t agree to anything without
her sister’s consent.

Malinda nodded.  “I don’t think we’re going to be able to talk them into anything
more than that.”

Ellen nodded slowly.  “One week.”

Patrick sighed.  “A week it is.  Not a day more.”  He stood up and pulled Ellen to
her feet and out a side door that led into a pretty little garden. 
The garden seemed to go all the way around the corner of the house to the back, and
she couldn’t help but wonder what else was back there.

“Why did you bring me out here?”
  She looked up at him and then, for the first time realized he was much taller than
she was.  What was she getting herself into?

“We made a bargain.  If you were a man, we’d shake hands on it.  You’re a lady, so
we’ll kiss on it.” 
His warm brown eyes were suddenly burning as they stared into her own. 

She stared up at him with wide eyes.  “Kiss on it?”  She’d never before kissed a man. 

He pulled her toward him by the hand he gripped leaning down to brush a kiss across
her lips.  He’d meant to keep it light, but as soon as their lips touched, he felt
a spark go through his body.

She wrapped her arms around his neck, and let his tongue part her lips. 
She’d never imagined she could feel something like this by kissing a man.  His hands
roamed down her back over her
green
dress and pulled her closer against him.  Her breasts were flattened against his
hard chest. 
He shouldn’t be holding me so close!

She tore her lips from his and stared up at him, her chest heaving.  “It’s not proper
for you to kiss me that way.  We’re not married.”
  She didn’t really know if there was a proper way for a man to kiss a woman before
they were married, but his kiss
felt
improper. 

“We will be,” he whispered, brushing a soft sweet kiss across her lips.  “I want to
marry you.”

She nodded.  “I want to marry you as well, but you’re engaged to my sister and I’m
engaged to your brother.  We need to wait and see how they feel about it.”
  If they had been the only people involved, she’d have happily gone before a preacher
that very moment, but she couldn’t risk other people’s happiness as well.

He took her hand and led her back into the house.  By the blush on Malinda’s face,
and the slight swelling of her lips, as well as the fact Wesley now sat beside her
on the couch, she could tell that he’d kissed her as well.  She only hoped she’d find
a way to convince her sister she belonged with Wesley.  Whatever she thought, there
was no way Malinda should marry Patrick. 

Patrick sat in an overstuffed chair across from the sofa and Malinda sat in the chair
Wesley had vacated.  “Okay, one week.  We have dinner together every evening?”
Patrick asked.

Ellen nodded.  “We need to spend as much time together as we can.”
  She couldn’t take her eyes off of him during the discussion.  What would it be like
to be married to him?  Worse, what would it be like to be married to his brother and
know he was married to her sister?  She had to convince Malinda to swap fiancés.

“Wesley lives a fifteen minute walk from here.  You girls stay here and we’ll stay
there.  Every evening at six, we’ll come over here and have dinner, and talk.  Tomorrow
night, I’ll spend time with Ellen and Wesley will spend time with Malinda.  The following
night, I’ll spend time with Malinda and Wesley with Ellen.  Every night we’ll
swap
, but on the seventh night, you need to be prepared to tell us who will marry whom
as soon as we arrive.”
  Patrick spoke softly in a reasonable tone as if he’d planned for this all along.

Ellen looked across the small coffee table to her sister.  “What do you think?”

Malinda nodded.  “That’s fair.”

Ellen noticed her sister couldn’t seem to take her eyes off Wesley.  To her, Wesley
seemed to be too young to marry.  She wondered how old Patrick was.  Wesley was six
years her senior.   She looked at Patrick.  “How old are you?”

“Twenty-nine.”

Ellen nodded.  It had been in his letter, but she had passed it on quickly after realizing
he was a banker. 
“I’m twenty.”
 

The four of them sat talking for a few minutes before Mrs. Smith came into the room. 
“Dinner’s ready.
”

Patrick stood and waited for Ellen to precede him from the room.  When they got into
the dining room, Ellen was in awe.  It was a large room with a huge oak table and
chairs.  The table was set with beautiful china.  “Wow.  Do you eat like this every
night?”

He laughed.  “Only when I have to give dinner parties, which is thankfully, not too
often.  I hate them.”
 

“I would, too.  I’m not the most social person in the world.”  She fumbled to sit
down when he held her chair for her.  She knew it was considered polite for a man
to hold a woman’s chair out, but she’d never had a man actually do it for her.
  Being a part of his life would have her experiencing a lot of things she’d never
thought about before.

She watched as Wesley held out Malinda’s chair and her sister sat down with perfect
grace as if she’d not only had her chair held all her life, but she’d expected him
to treat her that way.  Ellen felt a pang.  Malinda had the manners and the temperament
to be married to a man of Patrick’s status, but she didn’t.  She should marry Wesley
and be the dutiful sheriff’s wife, a job she knew she could master quickly.