High Country Bride (35 page)
Read High Country Bride Online
Authors: Linda Lael Miller
Tags: #Westerns, #Fiction, #Romance, #Western, #Historical, #General
He kissed her lightly, in the expected brotherly fashion, and then glanced over at Rafe. Holt looked on solemnly as the bridegroom enjoyed another round of congratulations, but he winked at Emmeline when she met his gaze. She laughed, and blushed a little.
“I’ll be riding out soon,” Kade said, gaining her full attention. “Look after my brother, will you? And Pa, too, though I think Concepcion does a pretty good job of that.”
“You’re leaving?” Emmeline whispered.“Why?”
Kade sighed. “It isn’t like Jeb to hold a grudge this long,” he said. “I’m going looking for him.” He scowled, a McKettrick through and through. “And when I find him, I’m going to take a strip out of his hide, first thing.”
Emmeline bit her lower lip. “We’ll miss you,” she said in all sincerity, but she knew Kade was doing the right thing. Angus was showing the strain, and the rest of them were feeling it, too. Something was very wrong where Jeb was concerned. “Do you have any idea where to start looking?”
“I thought I’d check out that rumor about him and the widow woman first,” he allowed. “If that doesn’t pay off, I reckon I’ll make my way over to San Francisco. It would be just like my little brother to go over there and get himself shanghaied to China or some damn fool thing like that.”
“Would you follow him that far?” Emmeline asked, with a little shudder, her eyes wide.“Even to China?”
“Yes,” Kade answered without hesitation. “He’s my brother.” He smiled and kissed her forehead. “I’ve already congratulated Rafe on being the luckiest man in the world,” he said,“so I’ll be going now.”
Emmeline embraced her brother-in-law. “Be careful,” she said, “and don’t stay away too long, no matter what. Angus doesn’t need to be fretting himself about
both
you and Jeb.”
Kade squeezed her hand. “Pa knows I’m leaving,” he said.“Unlike Jeb, I’ll be sending a letter whenever I get the chance.”
“Goodbye,” Emmeline said.
He merely smiled again, sadly this time, and walked away, disappearing through the doorway into the dining room. The kitchen was beyond, and the back door.
Rafe came over to Emmeline and slipped an arm around her waist. He was frowning, and she knew he’d watched the exchange with Kade.“Wher’s he off to?” he asked.
Emmeline was almost afraid to answer, lest Rafe take it into his head to join the search for Jeb and ride out after Kade. Alas, she and Rafe had agreed to keep no secrets from each other, and it was a bargain she meant to keep.
“He means to find Jeb and bring him home,” she said.
Rafe nodded thoughtfully, watching Kade out of sight. Holt, standing nearby, with a cup of punch in his hand, did the same.
“I hope he finds him,” Rafe mused, “and soon. Pa’s fit to be tied, he’s so worried.”
Emmeline nodded, looking after Kade, and Rafe took her hand. “Come along, Mrs. McKettrick,” he said. “I believe Concepcion is about to set out our wedding supper in the dining room, and I’m starved.” He wriggled hiseyebrows and spoke low and close to her ear.“I’ll be needing my strength,” he added. Then, taking her hand, he pulled her into the center of the celebration.
It was after nightfall, and the stars were almost within reach, it seemed to Emmeline, when she and Rafe got into a buckboard and crossed the stream, headed for their first night in the new house.
Outside the door, Rafe brought the team to a stop, lifted Emmeline down from the wagon seat, and carried her over the threshold. He set her on her feet in front of the large stone fireplace, where a nice blaze was crackling, and kissed her. Then, beaming, he reached into his coat pocket.
“I’ve got something for you,” he said. He handed her a photographic likeness, taken that afternoon, in Angus’s parlor, of her and Rafe in their wedding clothes. Although the photographer had instructed them to present a sober countenance, they were both smiling, Rafe seated in a chair, Emmeline standing beside him, with one hand resting on his shoulder.
She felt tears sting her eyes. “Oh, Rafe,” she whispered, caressing the image with the tip of one finger, touching first his face, and then her own.
He reached up to the mantel, and took down the album he’d given her long since. “I reckon that’s just the picture to start it off with,” he said.
She took the album, with
OUR FAMILY
inscribed on the front cover in gold, and opened it, placing the picture carefully inside, with the flower he’d picked up at the other house, on the mountaintop, in what was to be their bedroom.
Indeed, they were a family now, she and Rafe.
He reclaimed the album gently, and set it aside, back in its place on the mantel. Then he held out his arms to Emmeline, and she went into them without hesitation.
This was home, not the fine new house rising around them, not the ranch reaching for miles in every direction, but Rafe’s embrace. This was where she belonged, where she rejoiced in being, where she was most truly herself.
Two weeks later
E
MMELINE STOOD IN FRONT
of the Arizona Hotel with Sister Mandy at her side. Both of them watched, with a hand shading their eyes from the late afternoon sun, as two women got off the stagecoach. Even from that distance, Emmeline could tell they were at odds with each other, and she felt a funny little quiver of anticipation in the pit of her stomach.
“Who do you suppose they are?” asked Sister Mandy, who was wary of strangers. “Their clothes are pretty fancy.”
Indeed, both the new arrivals were well and fashionably dressed, if a mite dusty from the trip.
“I think we’re about to find out,” Emmeline said as the women started toward the hotel, walking carefully apart. In the middle of the street, they stopped and fussed at each other, but they were still too far away for her to hear them clearly. “Looks like they mean to take rooms right here at the hotel.”
Sister Mandy let out a low and very un-nunlike whistle through the small gap between her front teeth. “Loaded for bear,” she said. “I hope they don’t carry guns.”
Emmeline spared her friend a brief, curious look, then turned her attention back to the approaching customers.
“How do you do, ladies?” she said, smiling, as the women drew near. One snapped open a fan and fluttered it fussily beneath her chin. Both were quite pretty, though their temperaments were less appealing.
“How do you do?” replied the taller one in an unfriendly tone. “Can you please tell me where to find Mr. Kade McKettrick?” she asked. “I’ve come all the way from Philadelphia. He and I are to be married.”
A joyous giggle bubbled up into Emmeline’s throat and she swallowed it, though just in time.
“That,” said the other woman, rummaging in the depths of her reticule, “is what
you
think, Sue Ellen Carruthers! I have letters to prove that
I
am Mr. McKettrick’s bride!”
Emmeline and Sister Mandy exchanged glances, Emmeline’s amused, Sister Mandy’s—well—
not
amused. In fact, Emmeline would have sworn she saw a glimmer of tears in the young woman’s eyes.
Sue Ellen Carruthers looked as though she would swing her handbag at her traveling companion’s head. “Nonsense!” she cried. “Kade McKettrick is
marrying
me!”
“Oh, my,” Emmeline said, smiling. She could hardly wait to tell Rafe about this, and she’d have her chance soon enough. He’d be driving in from the ranch to collect her at any minute.“Brides to spare.”