The Unexpected Wife (Harlequin Historical) Read online

  “I thought caring for the boys was going to be my job.”

  He swung his gaze to meet hers. He was certain that he’d heard wrong. “Ma’am?”

  She held his gaze, though he sensed she was nervous. Still she pulled back her shoulders. “I mean, since I am going to be your wife, it only seems right that the children stay with us.”

  For a moment his head swam as if a prizefighter had landed a knockout punch. “My what?”

  Mrs. Clements stepped forward, wearing a broad grin that hinted at trouble. “Miss Smyth is the bit of news I was referring to.”

  Matthias’s head started to throb. The last thing he needed was a riddle. “What the devil are you talking about, Mrs. Clements?”

  The older woman smoothed her hands over her white apron and cleared her throat. “We ordered you a wife. Miss Smyth is your fiancée.”

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  “Mary Burton presents an intricate theme that questions if security rather than attraction defines the basis of love.”

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  I was spellbound.”

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  For Mike and Nancy,

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  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Epilogue

  Prologue

  Crickhollow, Montana

  May, 1879

  Hilda Marie Clements held open the door to her mercantile, as two men with low crowned hats and upturned collars filed through. Each carried a lantern, but the meager lights did little to chase away the predawn shadows that stretched across the assortment of boxes, barrels and crates. A chill clung to the early morning air, a reminder that even though June was but weeks away, winter had not fully released its cruel grip.

  Mrs. Clements moved toward her counter as her visitors took seats on twin barrels nearby.

  Closest to her was Holden McGowan. His long lean body, draped in buckskin, was well muscled by years of driving a stagecoach team. Nearing his thirty-fifth year, Holden had been in the valley for seven years. A trapper first and later a miner, he’d moved into town three years ago to open the Starlight stage line.

  Next to Holden sat Frank Trotter. He’d moved to the valley eighteen months ago to help his daughter, Elise, and his son-in-law Matthias when Elise had become ill during her third pregnancy. Elise and her stillborn child had died six days after Frank had arrived. Trotter’s graying beard and hollow eyes testified to the sorrow he’d endured since he’d buried his wife and then his only child. He’d aged fifteen years in the last two years.

  Mrs. Clements was impatient to get the meeting started. Her husband, Seth, would wake soon and she wasn’t interested in a lecture on meddling. “I know Frank ain’t got much time. He’s got to get on the trail at first light so he can get back to the ranch in time for lunch. So let’s get to business.”

  Frank nodded, silent and grim. Of the three, he looked the most uneasy, the most worried.

  Holden swung his gaze to Mrs. Clements. The plump Virginian had agreed to handle all their correspondence. “You said she wrote us another letter.”

  Mrs. Clements pushed back a stray wisp of hair before she dug pudgy fingers into the deep pockets of her apron and pulled out a wrinkled envelope. “She sure did.”

  Holden leaned forward a fraction, nervously tapping his long fingers on his thigh. “So did she accept our marriage proposal?”

  Mrs. Clements grinned. “She’s ready and willing to travel to Crickhollow on our instruction.” She shifted in her seat with excitement. “And she has sent along a tintype for us to look at. Now she’s warned us that it’s a couple of years old, but she says it’s still very accurate.”

  Holden’s gaze brightened as he held out his hand to Mrs. Clements. “A woman who thinks about the details. I like that.”

  Mrs. Clements hesitated before she handed Holden the picture. “She’s not a real beauty,” she said, passing the picture to the coachman as he moved closer. “But she looks sturdy—good hearty peasant stock as my mother used to say. Looks like she’d weather many a winter here.”

  Holden tilted the picture closer to the lantern light as he studied it. Frank stayed seated, nervously tapping his knee with his hand.

  The coachman’s eyebrows knotted as he studied the tintype. A small oval face, slightly pointed chin, and peaches-and-cream complexion. A simple hat obscured most of her hair, but her unsmiling lips were full and her pale eyes filled with a softness that made her approachable. She wore a dark gray dress with a high collar. No hint of lace adorned the simple dress. “She looks a bit severe.”

  Mrs. Clements waved away his concern. “I never put too much stock in pictures. Those big city photographers make you sit still for so long your muscles cramp. No one’s interested in smiling by the time the flash explodes.”

  “I’ve never had my picture taken, so I’ll take your word for it. How old did you say she was again?” Holden handed the picture to Frank.

  Frank shifted on his barrel, uncomfortable. He glanced at the image. “Sure hope she ain’t as rigid as she looks.”

  “She’s not rigid,” Mrs. Clements said, defending her choice of the original six applicants to their mail-order bride ad in the San Francisco Morning Chronicle. Abigail Smyth had the neatest handwriting and her letters had been full of rich details. She spoke of dreams, new beginnings and making a home for them. “We’ve all read her letters. They’re lovely, full of wonderful ideas and plans. I can tell she has a fine heart.”

  Frank scrutinized the picture, and then released a sigh. “Looking at her face makes this all so real. I never thought it would get this far.”

  Impatient, Mrs. Clements rubbed her thigh. “Frank, you’re the one that came to us with the idea of finding your son-in-law a wife in the first
place.”

  Frank nodded wearily. “I know. I promised Elise I’d find someone to care for Matthias and the boys.”

  “So what’s your problem?” Mrs. Clements said.

  Frank rubbed his bloodshot eyes. “Talking about finding a wife for Matthias and actually getting a wife is worlds apart. He’s not a man to cross.”

  Holden stretched out his long legs as if to get comfortable. “I got to admit, I’m a little nervous about this myself. I don’t want to be around when he finds out what we’ve been up to.”

  Mrs. Clements bit back her growing impatience with Frank. Men. They didn’t have the stomach for the hard work. “Holden, now you aren’t waffling on me, are you?”

  He sat straighter. “Nope. I am committed to this. What’s her name again?”

  “Abigail Smyth,” Mrs. Clements supplied.

  “Matthias is going to be furious,” Frank said.

  “There’s no way Matthias can handle his homestead and take care of the young ones,” Mrs. Clements added. “They need a mother. He needs a wife.”

  “And we need Matthias to stay in the valley,” Holden said. “He’s a damn good man who loves this land. He’s also a crack shot who’s not afraid to deal with renegades and outlaws, both of which we don’t need especially now that the railroad is scouting a rail line this way.”

  Mrs. Clements nodded. “This community is just starting to thrive and we can’t afford to lose ground now.”

  Frank rose and walked to the window. The morning sun’s orange-and-red lights simmered below the horizon. “I ain’t so sure if he’ll ever love another woman.”

  “This ain’t about love, Frank,” Mrs. Clements said. “It’s about marriage. The two don’t have much to do with each other in Montana.”

  Frank nervously tugged at the cuffs of his jacket. “And what are we gonna do if Matthias digs his heels in? What if he tells this Abigail to go on back to San Francisco?”

  “We won’t allow it,” Mrs. Clements said. Steel coated each word.

  Frank tightened his long fingers around the rim of his weathered felt hat. “All this lying just don’t set well with me.”

  Mrs. Clements waved away his concern. “I have faith that the two of them will work this out.”

  Despite her words, she said a silent prayer that they had done the right thing. Matthias was a man of few words, and he was friendly enough. Sure, his ice-blue eyes burned like Satan’s when he was angry, but he never threw the first punch or stirred up trouble. A soldier, bounty hunter and most recently a rancher, there wasn’t a better man to call if you were in trouble. When Matthias Barrington gave his word, he moved heaven and earth to keep it.

  Still, crossing Matthias Barrington was about as smart as tangling with a rattler or a grizzly. “Matthias will be glad in the end.”

  Holden rolled his eyes heavenward. “If he don’t kill us all first.”

  Chapter One

  “Abby, quick, grab the muffins!” Cora O’Neil shouted from across the basement kitchen. The heavyset Irish woman punched her meaty fist into a mound of leavened bread dough. “By the smell of them they’re about to burn.”

  Abby set down the bag of flour on the wide kitchen table and, wiping her hands on her apron, hurried to the large cast-iron stove. Using her apron as a mitt, she opened the heavy door and pulled out the tin. The heat of the hot metal quickly burned through the thin cotton fabric and scorched her fingers. She dropped the pan on top of the stove with a loud whack.

  “Hurry up, now,” Cora said. “Fill that basket on the tray with the muffins while they’re still hot. You know how your Uncle Stewart gets when ’is muffins is cold.”

  Abby pushed a sweaty strand of hair off her face. She’d been anxious to get her chores done early today so that she could intercept the postman before he dropped off the morning mail and Uncle Stewart read it. She checked the heart-shaped watch pinned to her blouse. Nine-fifteen. She’d have to hurry.

  She dropped the hot muffins into the basket lined with linen. She’d been corresponding with a man in Montana for months now. In his last letter, he’d asked for her hand in marriage. In her last letter, she’d accepted. Now all that remained was the final travel details. Her hands trembled with excitement as she tried to picture her new life, her fresh start.

  Since her parents’ deaths and her move to her uncle’s house in California ten years ago, she’d been an unwanted annoyance to her relatives. Because they’d been unwilling to sponsor her in society, she’d soon found herself trapped between the world of the people who lived upstairs and those who lived downstairs.

  Eight years ago, she’d fallen in love with a young lawyer she’d met through her uncle. His name had been Douglas Edmondson. Blessed with blond hair and blue eyes, he had a poet’s heart and a gift for words that made her knees go week. She’d fallen in love almost immediately.

  Words of love tripped easily from Douglas’s tongue, but love had not been what he was after. A night’s romp in the gardens had been his only desire. Abby learned of his shallow heart too late and in the end he’d made a fool out of her.

  Her uncle had been furious about the scandal, but he’d not thrown her out. As an unspoken payment, she’d retreated to her kitchens and taken her place with the servants.

  In January, when her cousin Joanne announced her engagement, Abby suddenly realized life was passing her by. Her years of hiding ended. She wanted a fresh start, a new beginning.

  So, she’d taken action. She’d answered the ad in the San Francisco Morning Chronicle for a mail-order bride and taken her life into her own hands.

  Abby shoved aside the memory and hurried up the stairs. Several deep, even breaths erased the tightness in her chest.

  A year from now she’d be married, living a new fresh life filled with possibilities. In Montana she’d not be trapped between social circles, and perhaps, God willing, she’d be cradling her own babe in her arms.

  “Stop your daydreaming!” Cora shouted.

  Abby straightened. “Sorry, Cora.”

  Her dreams were within her grasp, but she’d have to move carefully. Uncle Stewart would stop her f he knew her intentions. His society friends would frown upon him if word got out his ward, who’d already disgraced him once, had become a mail-order bride.

  So far she’d managed to keep the letters a secret. Normally, Uncle Stewart read the mail in the evening, so it had been easy for her to sift through the letters unnoticed. However, today her uncle had taken a day off from work in preparation for her cousin’s engagement party, which was to be held in two days. He’d chosen to sleep late and was having his breakfast an hour later. The entire household, which worked around his schedule, was in a tizzy over the change.

  As she reached the top step, she nudged open the door that led to the dining room with her foot.

  Her Aunt Gertrude, Uncle Stewart and cousin Joanne sat at the large finely polished dining table. Her uncle, as he did each day, was reading the Chronicle, while her aunt and cousin chatted about her cousin’s upcoming wedding. None turned to greet her as she entered the room.

  Abby set her tray on the side table. She glanced nervously through the double doors of the dining room toward the front door. The post always arrived at nine twenty. If she hurried, she’d make it.

  Managing a smile, she placed the coffee cups in front of her uncle first, then her aunt and her cousin last. As she filled each cup and placed the muffins on the table, Stewart reached for the strawberry jam on the table and started to spread it on his muffin.

  Wiping her hands on her brown skirt, she moved toward the door that led to the foyer, grateful for the first time that they’d not acknowledged her.

  As she reached the threshold, her uncle set down his knife on his white porcelain plate. “Abigail, a letter arrived for you yesterday.”

  The nerves in her body tightened and she could feel the blood draining from her face. Slowly she faced her uncle. “I got the post yesterday. There was no letter for me.”

&nbs
p; “The postman held it back. He thought it odd that you’ve been receiving so much mail lately.” He bit into the muffin and carefully set it back on the plate.

  “If it’s my letter, then I’d like to have it,” she said, careful to keep her voice calm.

  “Who is Matthias Barrington?” he said.

  Abby felt the color drain from her face.

  Aunt Gertrude’s eyes darkened with suspicion. “I don’t know any Barringtons in San Francisco.”

  “He’s not from San Francisco,” Stewart said. “He’s from Montana.”

  Gertrude poured cream in her tea. “Good Lord, Montana? I wasn’t sure if anyone really lived there, let alone anyone who could write.”

  Abby crushed back the welling panic. “You opened my letter.”

  “I did,” said her uncle. “And why shouldn’t I? This is my house and everything that happens in it is my business. “Now answer my question. Who is Matthias Barrington?”

  She’d known this day would come. She’d rehearsed what she would say to her aunt and uncle a thousand times, but the words suddenly caught in her throat.

  Joanne lifted her gaze from several trousseau sketches she was examining. Golden curls framed a heart-shaped face and emphasized pale skin and lavender eyes. The blue watered silk morning wrapper hugged her delicate figure to perfection. “Cat got your tongue?” she purred.