“Rose?”
I nod, unable to speak around the lump in my throat. It takes every ounce of my strength to walk towards him on legs that feelas sturdy as jelly. I didn’t expect a good-looking man. I expected someone comely, perhaps a man missing a few teeth. Not the man whose shoulder muscles flex against his shirt, the fabric doing nothing to hide his physical mass.
“I’m Grady McKinnon. Anna has told me so much about you,” he says with a bright smile missing no teeth.
I don’t like how this handsome man says my cousin’s name. Anna. In the city she always went by her full name, Anna-Marie, and yet this man shares a familiarity with her that not even I, her blood relative, do. It’s enough to make me frown, the skin of my scar pulling tight.
“How odd,” I say in a droll tone. “Back home she was always too busy to gossip with her nose stuck in a book.”
His smile doesn’t slip. If anything, it grows wider as he takes my hand in his. His grip is firm, but the skin is soft, and I realize I’ve left my gloves off. It’s not like me to forget them, but Grady doesn’t seem to mind. Considering his familiarity using my given name rather than addressing me properly perhaps his manners are not as polished as his appearance.
“She didn’t do your beauty justice,” he tells me. His eyes don’t avoid my scar. I feel their appraisal like a light-fingered touch. Neither does he stare like the children always do.
“Will my cousin be joining us at the church?”
“Yes,” he replies. “I only asked them to give us space for our first meeting. I knew you’d want your family at our wedding.”
The reminder of my mother’s absence doesn’t sting like it should. She wrote to Anna-Marie first, requesting the mail order bride agency’s details so that she could send me away. It’s my good fortune that my cousin didn’t just send the information as requested.
She didn’t want to send me to a different state or even a different town. She looked for eligible bachelors close to herhome first. I owe my cousin a debt of gratitude and there’s no other family I could wish or want to join us as we are wed.
“Father Adams will be expecting us, unless you’d rather wait until tomorrow. I know long periods of travel can be taxing.”
“We’ll get married today.”
If my tone is a little too firm to be polite Grady shows no sign of bother. He takes my bags, offers me his arm, and we set out for the church straight away. As we walk along the boardwalk I fight to tamp down my response to the man beside me.
I’ve been courted. I’ve been escorted around town by a man before and yet there’s something in the way Grady touches me. The way he steers me closer to the buildings and away from the horses and wagons that seems proprietary. I should rebuff his advances until after we’re married, but as we approach a small white chapel, I find myself unable to do anything more than settle at his side like a nesting bird.
Grady
Anna did nothing to prepare me for her cousin’s beauty. Absolutely nothing. Rose is tall enough to look me in the eye, with long dark brown curls. She wears a pale blue veil that matches her dress in an attempt to mask her scars.
Scars I didn’t notice at first. Her large brown eyes met mine, and everything else in the world ceased to exist. I didn’t greet anyone else getting off the stagecoach. My first impression with potential future customers laid to the wayside and I can’t be bothered to care.
My angel speaks softly with all the mannerisms of the elite upper crust of society, but there is heat in her gaze when she looks at me.
Our marriage will not be the polite partnership I envisioned.
She takes my arm, her bosom pressing against my forearm with every step. I know from the way her breath catches that she notices the slight touch. And yet, she doesn’t move away.
I make polite conversation on the way to the church. I know I do. It’s a large part of my business, talking to people. For the lifeof me, I can’t remember a word I’ve said the second it leaves my mouth.
“Rose!” Anna shouts when we come into view. Her smile is bright and warm, at odds with the stern frown her husband sports.
My companion waits until we’re closer before she replies, too prim and proper to shout. She’s a reserved woman and that will serve her well as the wife of a merchant.
Even if I’ve already skipped the wedding in my mind and taken her back to our bed. I have every intention of stripping her of her tightly laced dress and her reserved manner.
The cousins embrace, Rose’s polite demeanor slips for just a moment as a single tear slides down her cheek.
She greets Sheriff Benson with a polite nod, but her face brightens when her eyes land on Keegan. The baby sleeping in his father’s arms has the same effect on all the townsfolk. He’s the youngest of the local children, and a perfect angel according to his mother.
Henry tells me that the little lad is a born troublemaker. He keeps his parents up at night, but sleeps peacefully during the day. Anna and Henry both have the dark shadows underneath their eyes that all new parents wear like medals.
“You don’t have to marry him.”
The three of us swing our gazes to Sheriff Henry Benson, the man I thought was my friend.
