The Reluctant Bride (3 page)

“You have to sign the book,” he said. He took her money and turned the ledger toward her. She signed her name and turned it back.

Tanzy Gallant. But we already have a room reserved for you.”

“Where?”

“It’s right here in the book. It’s reserved for a whole week.”

Tanzy had said she wanted a week to get to know Russ before agreeing to marry him. It was only logical that he would have arranged for her to have a place to stay.

“I should have thought to check first,” Tanzy said.

“Where’s your luggage?” he asked, a crease appearing between his eyes.

Tardy Benton is watching it for me.”

“I’ll get someone to help you. He’s probably wandered off by now.”

“He’s already agreed to help. I’ll be back shortly.”

She’d nearly reached her luggage when a rider appeared down the street coming toward her at a gallop. Russ Tibbolt. His arm was wrapped with a bloody handkerchief. He was wounded. He slowed his horse as he approached her, came to a stop in front of her luggage.

Tanzy had been prepared to find he was handsome. She was prepared to find he was big and strong. She wasn’t prepared for the immediate tug of attraction. It wasn’t possible for this to happen so quickly, was it?

She should be worried about his wound. Instead she couldn’t take her eyes off his mouth. She should be thinking about his integrity, the quality of his mind. Instead she noticed the width of his shoulders, the muscled power in his forearms. By the time she reached her luggage, she’d given up the struggle. Whatever magic this man practiced, it was too powerful for her to resist.

“Are you Tanzy Gallant?” Russ asked.

“Yes. What happened to your arm?”

“Somebody probably tried to kill him,” Tardy observed laconically. “One of these days they’re going to succeed.”

“One of the bandits got off a lucky shot before I could catch up with him,” Russ said.

“What were you doing chasing bandits?” Tardy asked, excitement shining in his eyes.

“Trying to make the world safe for useless boys like you. Now go about your business.”

Tardy drew himself up, the perfect picture of an outraged teenager. “I’m not a boy, I’m not useless, and I
am
about my business. This lady has hired me to take her luggage to the hotel.”

“Well, get going. It won’t walk over by itself.”

Tardy grabbed up a box tied with ropes and a portmanteau and stalked off.

Up close, Russ was even more handsome. Tanzy felt her pulses jump. This was the man who would be her husband. Mountain people were very frank about their bodies, about what went on between men and women. What she hadn’t learned from her brothers, she’d learned from countless female cousins. The thought of being held in his arms, of him making love to her, gave her goose bumps.

He was tall, with shoulders wide enough to fill a doorway. And muscled. No skinny arms and chest showing ribs like her brothers. He looked powerful enough to pick two of them up and toss them into a wagon without taking a deep breath. It was hard to see much of his hair under that hat, but it was impossible not to be drawn to his gaze. His eyes were as dark blue as the sky before a storm. They glowed with an intensity that made her think of a panther stalking the forest by night. Whatever this man held to be his, he would keep safe with a passion whose heat she felt several feet distant from him.

She was jumping into the unknown again. She had such a strong sense of Russ Tibbolt from his letters that this jump didn’t seem as scary as it might otherwise be. She felt a pang of guilt, wondering if the letters he had received could possibly have communicated so much about her. In any case, whether Angela proved right or not about the benefits of being a mail-order bride, there was no turning back. She had to keep going.

“Sorry you had to wait so long,” he said as he dismounted. “It took me a while to catch those bandits.”

“That’s all right. I feel better knowing those men are in jail.”

“Why didn’t you go straight to the hotel?” he asked.

“I didn’t know you’d booked me a room.”

He frowned. “Archie didn’t tell you?”

“I don’t know who Archie is, but nobody told me.”

“He’s the old codger behind the desk.”

“There’s a younger man there now. Have you seen a doctor about your arm?”

“I haven’t had time.”

Tardy had come back. “Here’s your money,” Tanzy said, handing him two nickels.

“Thanks, ma’am,” he said, giving Russ a dirty look. He picked up the last piece of luggage, a small trunk, and headed to the hotel.

“You go on over to the hotel,” Russ said. “I have to stable my horse.”

“How long will that take?”

“Why?”

“I want a doctor to look at your arm.”

“I’ve already been, and he closed the door in my face.”

It took Tanzy a moment to understand the significance of what Russ had said. “Do you mean he
refused
to treat you?”

“What did you think I meant?”

She could hardly believe her ears. Even feuding families didn’t deny medical help to one another. It angered Tanzy that a western doctor wouldn’t show equal honor. “Come on. We’re going to the doctor’s house.”

“I told you what he said. I’m not going back.”

“Do you want ours to be a successful marriage?” Tanzy asked.

Russ looked too startled to answer.

“If you do, now is a good time to learn there will be times when you don’t ask why. You just do as I say.”

Chapter Two

Tanzy’s indignation hadn’t died down by the time she reached the doctor’s house. After Russ knocked three times without getting a response, it flared higher. The door was unlocked, so she opened it and walked in.

A woman came into the hallway. “Who are you?”

“Where’s the doctor? This man has been shot.”

“He’s about to sit down to dinner.”

“We won’t keep him long.”

“You won’t keep me at all.”

Tanzy turned to see a man of medium height, more than adequate girth, and a bald head come from what must be the dining room. He had a napkin tucked into his collar. “I’ve already told him not to come here again.”

“You are a doctor, aren’t you,” Tanzy asked, “not some quack who stuck up a shingle and calls himself a doctor?”

The man drew himself up. “My qualifications are beyond question.”

“Then get out your medical bag and see what you can do for this man.”

“No.”

Tanzy had expected him to refuse, but she hadn’t spent most of her life dealing with some of the most obstinate, pigheaded men God ever created to give up easily. On one side of the hallway she saw a parlor. Without hesitation she walked in. “This is a nice room,” she said. “You’ve put a lot of effort into decorating it.”

“This is my wife’s room,” the doctor said. “She’s responsible for everything you see.”

Then I imagine she wouldn’t want to see anything broken.”

“Of course not,” the doctor’s wife said.

“This is very pretty,” Tanzy said, picking up a piece of porcelain.

“It’s very expensive,” the doctor’s wife said proudly.

“Ask your husband to take care of Mr. Tibbolt’s arm.”

“I can’t do that. He’s not the kind of man—”

The porcelain figurine slipped from Tanzy’s fingers to the floor and shattered into tiny pieces. The doctor’s wife screamed.

Tanzy picked up another figurine. “Treat Russ’s arm.”

“I’ve already told you—”

The second figurine hit the floor. The doctor’s wife collapsed into a chair.

“She’s crazy,” the doctor said to Russ. “She’s destroying my wife’s figurines.”

“I’m sure the rest will be safe if you look at my arm.”

Tanzy picked up a third figurine, tossed it carelessly from one hand to the other. The doctor’s wife moaned in distress. “Do what they want, Arthur. Anything to get them out of this house.”

“You know I can’t, Endora. If I do—”

His wife sat bolt upright, her eyes wide with anger. “If she breaks one more piece of my china, I’ll make your life twice as miserable as Stocker Pullet ever could.”

Tanzy picked up a fourth figurine, looked from one to the other to decide which to sacrifice first.

“Arthur!” his wife screamed.

“Come with me,” the doctor said, “but you’re not to tell anyone you were here.”

“I’m coming, too,” Tanzy said. “I know a lot about gunshot wounds, so don’t think you’re going to do anything funny without my knowing.”

Russ had been in something of a daze from the moment he’d set eyes on Tanzy. He had been dead set against ordering a bride through the mail even though, after a lifetime of being ostracized by nearly everyone in Boulder Gap, he knew it was the only way he could find a respectable woman to marry him. He could hardly believe such a pretty woman would need to be a mail-order bride. What was wrong with the fools in St. Louis? Of course, there could be all kinds of things wrong with her that he couldn’t tell without getting to know her better, but his body didn’t seem to feel it needed to consider the matter further. Not even the pain in his arm had kept him from getting uncomfortably stiff.

Some men liked strong-willed women. He didn’t. Still, he admired Tanzy’s tactics. He’d have sworn nothing short of physical violence could have induced Dr. Arthur Lindstrom to treat his wound. Tanzy had managed it by breaking two small pieces of china.

“Let me see what you did to yourself,” the doctor said.

“He didn’t do it to himself,” Tanzy said.

The doctor didn’t reply. He removed the bloody bandanna. “This is hardly more than a flesh wound.”

“Don’t you treat flesh wounds?” Tanzy asked. “Or do you wait until someone gets a bullet in the chest before you bother? Where did you go to school?”

“In Scotland, but I doubt you know where that is.”

“It’s part of England,” Tanzy said. “Make sure you put some basilicum powder on that wound. I don’t want it to get infected.”

“Would you rather do this yourself?” the doctor demanded, irate.

“I just want to be sure you do it right. If he gets gangrene in that arm, there won’t be a piece of china left in this house.”

The doctor’s wife groaned. “Please, Arthur, get these people out of my home.”

“I’m doing my best, Endora.”

“If you just hadn’t turned him away this afternoon—”

“That’s water over the dam.”

Russ had never been able to force anyone in Boulder Gap to treat him with even common courtesy, yet Tanzy had the doctor doing his best to make sure his arm would heal quickly. He grinned. Tanzy Gallant was quite a woman.

“What are you grinning about?” the doctor growled.

“It’s a grimace, not a grin,” Russ said.

The doctor harrumphed. “I doubt you know the meaning of pain.”

“I know it, all right,” Russ said. “It’s just I usually don’t have time to pay attention to it.”

“Well, pay attention to this arm. I don’t want this madwoman in my house again.”

“You have a lovely house,” Tanzy said. “I might want to consult your wife when it comes time to decorate my own.”

“Who’d marry
you?”
the doctor’s wife asked.

“Don’t be a fool,” the doctor said. “All she’d have to do is stand in the street and they’d line up to propose.”

Until today Russ had only known Tanzy through her letters, but now she struck him as a woman full of principles she was aching to hold on to, and he wasn’t sure he wanted that kind of woman for a wife. What did he want in a wife? Someone to offer female companionship, bear his children, take care of his house He didn’t need a woman of courage and strong ideals. He had more than enough for both of them. He certainly hadn’t asked for beauty. If his mother and sister were anything to go by, that was a recipe for disaster.

“There,” the doctor said, stepping back. “I’ve done all I can for you. Keep it elevated and keep it clean.”

“How much do I owe you?” Russ asked. “I’m not paying for the china,” he said when the doctor turned to his wife.

“Nothing, if you promise never to let that woman set foot in my house again.”

“I can’t promise that, so how much do I owe you?”

“Two dollars.”

Russ paid and they left quickly. He couldn’t repress a smile when he heard the deadbolt click behind him. “Do you always go a little crazy when you don’t get your way?”

Tanzy looked up, surprise and humor showing in the set of her mouth and her shining eyes. “I was just put out he closed the door on you. What’s he got against you?”

“Why don’t you go back to your room? You’ve got time to rest up before dinner.”

Tanzy stopped in the street and squared up to him. “I won’t be kept in the dark about things that concern me. My father and brothers tried to do that. They soon discovered I didn’t take it kindly.”