Page 51 of Mail-Order Bride Substitute
She stiffened. He could almost hear her brain working. “If that turns out, Alfred would insist on a marriage.”
“Then I guess we need to make sure we get home before dark.”
She turned her face up to him, her eyes so close he could make out a ring of black around the pupil. “Tell me about the girl who hurt you so badly.”
The answer came readily, as if he’d been waiting for a chance to tell her. “Her name was Nina.” She already knew that much.
“How did you meet her? Was she a mail-order bride?”
Riley understood her confusion. She was aware of the shortage of marriageable young women in the West. “Pa had bought some breeding stock back in Ohio and sent me to bring the animals home. Rather than drive them, the seller took them to my uncle, where I was to care for them until they were comfortable with me, then load them on a rail car for the trip to the ranch.”
“So, you met her back east?”
“Yes. My plan was to spend a few weeks with my relatives. I hadn’t seen them since we’d moved west and looked forward to a visit. Ma had died two years before then and it seemed fitting to go for her memory.”
“And yours.”
“True. I was twenty-one but still, it was an honor to be sent on Pa’s behalf.”
“Indeed. And Nina?”
“She was a friend of one of my cousins. I’d known her when we were younger and always enjoyed her company and enjoyed it, even more, when we were both grown up.”
Olivia shifted so her hair trailed across his cheek. “And you fell in love.”
“Hopelessly.” Pain deepened his voice. “And she loved me. We didn’t want to be apart for any length of time, so we married before I began the trip home. I wanted to surprise my family so I didn’t tell them.”
She pressed her palm to his cheek. “Riley, it sounds lovely but I know things didn’t work out the way you hoped.”
He leaned into her soothing touch, letting warmth flow from her fingers to his ice-encased heart. “At first things were wonderful. Oh, she complained a little when I had to be away from her to tend the horses, but I felt the same tug so…” He shrugged. Had there been warning signs of her discontent that he’d overlooked? He continued, speaking slowly, pain with every word. “Then her complaints increased. It was so dusty. The journey so long. Cowboys were crude. I couldn’t deny that concern. One fellow approached her when I was away. If I hadn’t returned when I did…” There was no need to fill in the details.
“But you were there to protect her.” Her arms tightened around him, a hug of comfort.
“I was and I thought it was enough.” He grew quiet, not wanting to finish the story but he had to. He’d never told all the details about Nina to anyone. His family knew he’d married back east, and his bride had died. No details. Now he couldn’t wait to tell everything.
“Our train was delayed by a rockslide. It would take several days to clear the tracks. It meant I had to unload the horses, find feed for them, and quarters for us. A place for us was the hardest task. We ended up in a corner of a barn with the horses corralled beside the same barn.”
“At least you were safe.” Her reassuring tone eased only a fraction of the tension within him.
“It wasn’t what Nina was used to. She cried every night. I couldn’t console her. I believed she would feel better once we were on our way again.” He drew in a breath that shuddered all the way down until it lodged, like an ice-shrouded rock, in the depths of his being. Cold shivered up his spine and squeezed his neck making it impossible to talk.
Olivia didn’t speak. Did she sense the depths of pain he was about to reveal?
He cleared his throat. Forced back the tightness and continued. “The tracks were cleared. As soon as I got the horses loaded again, we’d be on our way. She followed me to the train station. I thought it was because she was anxious for the journey to resume.”
“But it wasn’t.” Her voice rattled. Or perhaps it was only the echo of the thunder. Or the way his heart stammered out short, inadequate, bursts of blood.
“She said—” His breathing grew ragged. Olivia pressed a palm to his chest, and he covered her hand with his, keeping it there, feeling its warmth and comfort. “She said she didn’t like the frontier as she called it. It was too wild. Too uncivilized. Too dusty. She begged my forgiveness but said she was going back to Ohio.
“I pleaded with her to give us a chance. Said she’d change her mind once we got home…meaning the ranch.”
He sucked in air that did nothing to ease his starving lungs. “She said she was sorry but it wasn’t the sort of life she wanted. She was crying as she turned away.” Every detail of what happened next was as vivid as the day it happened. Every color too bright. Every sound too intrusive. Every thought still carrying sharp, jagged edges. “She lifted her skirt. I remember it was buckskin in color. She held her other hand to her face. I knew she was wiping away a tear.”
Olivia’s fingers caressed his cheek.
He curved his fingers around hers and pulled their hands to his chest, hanging on like a man clinging to a log to keep from drowning. Every breath carried shards up and down his throat.
“She didn’t look before she ran across the street.” He closed his eyes trying desperately and unsuccessfully to drive the pictures from his mind. “I bolted over the fence and raced after her calling for her to stop. She didn’t hear and I couldn’t reach her in time.” There. He’d said it. Almost all of it. His chest caved in around their clasped hands.
