Authors: Sandra Chastain

The Outlaw Bride (31 page)

The minister responded with his own smile and said, “I now pronounce you man and wife. Man and wife. Man and wife. You may kiss your brides.”

Will and Ellie’s kiss was serious. Ben and Rachel’s was gentle. Callahan lifted Josie off the ground, kissed her soundly, and whispered, “Can we get out of here now? I want to take you back to the hotel and ravish you.”

Josie caught her breath and shook her head. “
Sine qua non
.”

“I’m afraid to ask what that means.”

“It means you have to get through the reception before you get to the bed.”

As it turned out, after making a quick appearance with their guests and sampling Lubina’s wedding cake, all three couples decided the reception would proceed very well without the brides and grooms.

Later that night, a wide-awake guest pounded on his
hotel room wall and threatened to call the sheriff if the occupants didn’t quiet down.

Will Spencer yelled out, “I
am
the sheriff.”

Ben Callahan said, “We’ve got God on our side.”

And Sims Callahan roared, “So sue us!” and kissed Josie again.

E
PILOGUE

Cheyenne, Wyoming—July 1890

Callahan followed Josie down the aisle of the elaborate Cheyenne Opera House, where the Wyoming statehood celebration was taking place. His hand rested possessively on her back. She still stirred him, this woman he’d married eight years ago. Tonight her hair was carefully styled in a mess of curls on the back of her head. The chandelier overhead caught the diamonds Lubina had threaded through them and turned them into a crown of starlight. She was wearing a silk dress with some kind of flowing cape that concealed her advanced state of pregnancy—the latest creation by the designer simply known as
Ellie.

Ellie was extremely satisfied that she’d finished the gown with so little time on her hands. After all, little Will was only three weeks old.

Nodding at the dignitaries and politicians, Josie took her seat at the end of a long row reserved for the Millers.
Now silver-haired, Dan had earned that distinction due to his ongoing negotiations with the Indians and later his efforts to have Wyoming declared a state. He’d been offered a distinguished job in Washington, but he wouldn’t leave Dr. Annie, and Wyoming needed her.

Ben and Rachel had come from their ranch in Oregon. They’d brought Eli, the boy they adopted when his parents were killed by a flood, and their daughter, a dark-haired little beauty who had come as a surprise to a woman who’d thought she was barren. They’d also brought a gift to Josie—a young black-and-white filly who was a descendant of the black-and-white stallion who appeared whenever something special occurred in the lives of the Callahan women.

Josie and Callahan had left six-year-old Ted, named for his Papa Teddy, and four-year-old Clair, more formally known as Sinclair, at the hotel with Lubina. Exposing two impressionable boys to the grandfathers was a risk that Josie limited. She wasn’t ready for Clair to adopt the first half of his name or for Ted to learn to play poker. Josie was already suspicious of her sister Laura’s relationship with the two old rascals. Laura had been with the grandfathers for almost a year while she attended finishing school, and she was up to something, Josie could tell.

“Too bad it’s not Lily Langtry or Buffalo Bill Cody we’ve come to see,” Callahan said under his breath.

“Stop scowling, outlaw,” she whispered lovingly.

“I’m not scowling. I’m practicing my husband-of-the-most-famous-judge-in-the-new-state-of-Wyoming look.”

“Oh, I thought it was your President-of-the-Wyoming-Cattleman’s-Association look.”

Callahan grinned, then turned serious. “How long is this ceremony going to last? You know Annie said this
baby could come any time. We’re too far from the ranch to suit me.”

“With Mama here, you don’t have to worry. But I’ve had two children. I’m an old hand at this. Believe me, she won’t arrive before next week,” Josie said confidently.

Callahan didn’t argue. He’d stopped arguing with his take-charge wife long ago. If she said the baby would arrive next week, she would. Then he realized exactly what Josie had said and smiled. “She? After two sons, we’re going to have a girl? How do you know?”

“Lubina said so, and you know I never contradict Lubina.”

“You always contradict Lubina. You just don’t let her hear you do it.” He put his arm across the back of Josie’s seat. He was never comfortable unless he was touching her. When his fingertips cupped her shoulder, she glanced at him with the stormy look he’d come to love.

“When does this shindig get started? I want to get you back to our room and … Ah, hell! When can we—?”

“Any minute now the celebration will begin,” she said, deliberately ignoring his question. She remembered the first time he’d “loved” her, and she shivered. That had never changed. “There’ll be speeches. Governor Warren will raise the state flag. But first Laura is going to sing that patriotic song Francis Scott Key wrote.”

Callahan grinned. “I know. I know. We have to wait. Look,” he said, giving her a pained smile. “They’ve raised the curtain. There’s Laura.”

“I told you the dress would be perfect, Sinclair,” Teddy Miller said in his normal P.T. Barnum voice.

Sinclair shook his head in disagreement. “I still think all those stars and stripes are gaudy. Statehood for Wyoming is a serious affair. She should be wearing something
more … more stately. Next time we’ll hire the best fashion consultants in New York for our Laura.”

“Hush,” Dr. Annie said. “I knew better than to turn her over to the two of you. Now she wants to study opera. That is not what I have in mind for my youngest daughter.”

Teddy cleared his throat. “But she’s not—”

“Quiet, Miller,” Roylston Sinclair said with a scowl. “They’ll find out soon enough she’s going on the stage.”

“Ladies and gentlemen,” the elderly Judge McSparren said. “Please rise as we hear our national anthem being sung by our very own Laura Miller.”

Annie caught her husband’s hand and squeezed it. “How are we going to stop her, Dan? A performer? I wanted so much more for her.”

“She’s our daughter, Annie. She’ll be the kind of woman she chooses to be.”

On the stage, Laura Miller looked at the grandfathers, gave them a big wink, and started to sing.

At the end of the row, Josie felt a stirring, almost as if the child inside her was impatient, knowing she was about to become another independent woman of Wyoming. “Callahan,” Josie whispered, “maybe I was wrong about coming here tonight.”

“Judge Josie Callahan, wrong? That must be a first. Darlin’, you want to skip all this and get back to the hotel? We don’t need to see Wyoming celebrate becoming a state; we’ve lived it.”

Josie laid her head on her husband’s shoulder and touched her stomach with her hand. “Yes, we have.”

T
HIS BOOK IS FOR
E
LLEN
T
ABOR

AND THE
S
ISTERS OF
C
ATHEDRAL
S
CHOOL

OF
S
AVANNAH
, G
EORGIA
,

WHOSE DIVINE INSPIRATION HELPED

MAKE THIS BOOK POSSIBLE.

A
ND FOR
A
NNE
B
OHNER AND
K
ARA
C
ESARE
,

E
DITORS EXTRAORDINAIRE

The Editor’s Corner

Welcome to Loveswept!

April might bring showers, but over at Loveswept, we’re more than happy to fill your days with sunshine and romance with this month’s irresistible original stories.

If you’re looking for a new small-town contemporary romance, look no further than
Plain Jayne
, a funny, heartfelt story about best friends who reunite—only to realize that being “just friends” isn’t good enough anymore. Juliet Rosetti keeps readers swooning—and laughing—with Mazie Maguire and her hot boy toy, Ben Labeck, in the delightfully fun
Tangled Thing Called Love.
And Bronwen Evans delivers another scorching story in
A Promise of More
, the second Disgraced Lords book where a marriage rooted in convenience and revenge turns into something so much more.

And sure to brighten any gloomy days are classic romances like Sandra Chastain’s richly sensuous tales from the Wild West:
The Outlaw Bride, The Mail Order Groom
and
Shotgun Groom.
Also deeply satisfying is Iris Johansen’s unforgettable story
Man From Half Moon Bay
and Karen Leabo’s sexy and thrilling
The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea.
Linda Cajio’s
Me and Mrs. Jones
is another wonderful tale of passion you can’t miss. And you can never go wrong with Andrienne Staff and Sally Goldenbaum: check out the beautifully rendered
Banjo Man
by these two superstar writers.