Bonds of Matrimony (28 page)

CHAPTER 14

“Chase, it’s time to wake
up.
 
Chase?”

The soft voice and a gentle
touch on her arm dragged her out of a deep sleep.

“Gracious!
 
What time did you come to bed last
night?
 
I’ve been trying to get you
to open your eyes for nearly ten minutes!” Reese exclaimed, sitting on her
knees beside her sister on the bed they shared.

“I couldn’t sleep,” Chase
answered drowsily.
 
For a moment, she
remembered her meeting by moonlight with Colton Webb.
 
In the early morning sunlight, it seemed only a dream.
 
Were it not for the soreness between her
legs, she might have not believed it had happened.

“I was going to let you
sleep this morning, but Marcus needs your help in the stables.
 
And you’re supposed to go with him to
Midland later this morning.
 
He
told me to drag your carcass out of bed, if necessary.
 
It seems that Marcus is in quite a sour
mood this morning,” she warned.

It didn’t matter.
 
Nothing could sour her mood.
 
She stretched lazily and smiled at the
memory of the evening before.

“Are
you okay?” he had asked quietly as he lay down beside her.

“Hmm,”
she had answered groggily.
 

“Did
I hurt you?”

“Not
terribly,” she had smiled to ease his mind.

“I’m
told that it doesn’t hurt after the first time.
 
It can actually be quite pleasurable.”
 

She
had laughed at the apologetic look in his velvet eyes.
 
“I imagine that it
can
be.
 
But ‘after the first time?’
 
Wasn’t this just a matter of relieving some tension?
 
Getting it out of our systems?” she
reminded.

He’d
grinned and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
 
“It may take a few more times to fully purge ourselves.”

“Pity,”
Chase grinned in return.

He
leaned over her and kissed her slowly.
 
When he pulled back, he reached for her nightgown.
 
“You should probably get back before
someone misses you,” he suggested.

“I
wish we could stay here all night.”

“Oh
yes,” he agreed.
 
“To wake up with
Marcus looking down the barrel of his gun at me?
 
That would be lovely.”

She
giggled and cut off the girlish sound shortly.
 
“Okay.
 
I’ll leave.”
 
She took the nightgown and stood up,
pulling the thin fabric over her head.
 
“When shall we…?” She didn’t finish the question, suddenly worried about
sounding too needy or too eager.

He
lay on his back at her feet, grinning smugly up at her.
 

“You’re
looking very satisfied with yourself,” she observed wryly.

He
moved abruptly, sitting up and wrapping his hands around her waist.
 
He pulled her down on top of him so
that she straddled his still naked body.
 
“Satisfied?
 
Not nearly,” he
growled, capturing her mouth in another kiss.
 
“I don’t think I could ever get enough of you,” he breathed
between kisses.
 

And
then Chase’s nightgown was over her head, and he was lifting her body and
lowering her again, impaling her.
 
She
shuddered in anticipation and allowed him to show her how to bring them both
closer to satisfaction.

“Do you think you’ll be
getting out of bed some time this morning?
 
Or do we need to call the doctor?” Reese asked, snapping her
out of her reverie.

The doctor was the last
person she wanted to see.
 
Chase
climbed out of bed and reached for her working trousers and shirt.
 
As she slipped out of her nightgown,
Reese gasped.
 

“What happened to your hip?”
she asked.
 

Chase looked down at her
left hip and saw four neat purple bruises.
 
Finger prints.
 
As Colton neared climax, he had squeezed her hips painfully and then
quickly lifted her off of him.
 
He
had explained that he could not climax inside of her without risk of getting her
with child.
 
She was both
disappointed and grateful.
 
“I
probably bumped it in the stables,” Chase lied.
 
“Don’t mention it to Marcus, or he’ll put me back in the
house with the rest of the women.
 
As it is, he thinks I’m too soft to help with the ranch.”

“It looks sore,” she
observed sympathetically.

She pulled her pants on
quickly so that her sister wouldn’t see the matching marks on the other side of
her hip.
 
“It doesn’t hurt at all,”
Chase assured her.
 
“Now, not
another word about it.”

Reese nodded without showing
any signs of disbelief.
 
Chase
doubted that her brother or grandmother would be so naïve.
 

Throughout the morning, the
soreness from her night with Webb disappeared as she began taxing other muscles
in her body.
 
She was saddling up
Artemis and Goliath, Marcus’s horse, shortly before lunch when Marcus
approached her.

“Are you sure you’re feeling
well today?” he asked her.
 
“I am
capable of taking the train to Midland by myself.
 
Perhaps you should stay home and rest for a bit.”

“I’m feeling fine,
Marcus.
 
Why are you so concerned?”

“You have dark circles under
your eyes.
 
And you have been in
your own world all morning.
 
Distracted.”

Chase laughed, knowing full
well that she had replayed the night’s events at least two dozen times in her
mind while she had worked.
 
Distracted indeed.
 
“I
didn’t sleep well last night.
 
That’s all.
 
I’ll sleep like
a baby tonight.
 
And tomorrow will
be a new day.”

“What are you worrying about
that has got you up all night?” he asked suspiciously.
 

Chase wondered if he wasn’t
as oblivious as Elisa had thought.
 
Perhaps he
had
noticed the
looks his sister had been trading with Colton Webb.
 
Perhaps he suspected that she was lying awake all night
thinking of him.
 
He wouldn’t be
entirely wrong.
 
“It’s
nothing.
 
But I’ve been looking
forward to riding into the city with you since you invited me yesterday.
 
Please don’t make me stay behind.”

He studied her eyes and
nodded reluctantly.
 
“Okay.
 
But if you aren’t feeling better
tomorrow, I think we should consider calling Dr. Burns.”

“I’m fine, Marcus,” she
laughed.
 
She finished saddling up
Artemis and patted the side of her head fondly.
 
Chase looked into her eyes and knew that they shared a
beautiful secret.
 
Chase kissed her
nose and led her out of the stall.
 

During their ride to the
train station, she ignored Marcus’s repeated glances in her direction.
 
She imagined he half-expected her to
fall asleep in her saddle and fall under Artemis’ feet.
 
Chase smiled to herself, but hurriedly
wiped the expression away when she noticed Marcus looking her way again.
 
If she hadn’t been in such a pleasant
mood, it probably would have been bloody irritating.

They arrived at the train
station to find that it was quite crowded.
 
A number of people waited on the platform for the
train.
 
In the distance, the sound
of the train’s whistle announced its arrival.
 
In the station window, Chase caught sight of her dusty
reflection.
 
Her hair was tied back
in a band; but her curls were nevertheless sticking to her neck.
 
She lifted the hat she had permanently
borrowed from Marcus and wiped the sweat off of her brow, smearing the dust and
dirt of the ranch across her forehead.
 
           
“What
are you staring at?” Marcus asked with evident irritation.

Chase turned and grinned at
him.
 
“A free woman,” she answered
happily.

He scowled at her, but the
corners of his mouth turned up.
 
No
matter how frustrated Marcus got with his sister for being strong-willed and
bent on independence, he had once been forced to flee London in order to pursue
the life he wanted with the woman he loved.
 
In more ways than one, Chase believed that he understood
completely her desire for freedom and her fascination with this new country they
lived in.

The train drowned out all
sounds on the platform as it screeched to a halt.
 
Steam bellowed out of her smokestack, leaving a black cloud
hovering above us.
 
She stood
waiting while passengers stepped off of her steps, making room for others to
come aboard.

Further down the platform,
the sound of men’s voices speaking without the slow Texas drawl of nearly every
other person on the platform captured Chase’s attention.
 
They were from England.
 
There were between five and ten men,
all dressed in work clothes, but free of the dust and grime that coated the
bodies of her and Marcus.
 
And from
the center of the group, one man emerged, dressed in the clothes of a
gentleman.
 
His slick black hair
and mustache were instantly familiar to her, though unfamiliar on this platform
in this town.
 
Because she hadn’t
expected him, and because she was seeing him in this new setting, she almost
didn’t recognize Jett Stockton.

Fewer than twelve hours
after her liaison with Colton Webb, her heart was now racing for different
reasons.
 
She was frozen on the
platform, unable to board the train or to turn away from them.
 
All he had to do was turn his head
slightly to his right and he would see her.
 
Whether or not he would recognize Chase Fairfax was not a
gamble she was interested in taking.

Marcus was about to board
the train when she lunged forward and grabbed his arm.

“Wha—?”

“Ssh!” she hissed angrily,
scowling at him before pulling her hat down over her eyes.
 

When he realized his sister
was pulling him away from the train, he raised his voice over the sound of the
train.
 
“What are you doing?
 
We’ve got to get to the city!” he
hollered.
 
He resisted, pulling his
arm out of her grip.

She put her face within
inches of his own, minus a bit of height, and threatened, “If you don’t shut
your mouth and follow me immediately, one or both of us could get killed.”
 
She didn’t dare raise her voice.
 
Not only did she prefer to keep the
other Slaughter residents from hearing her threat, Chase also didn’t want
Stockton or his men to hear her voice and recognize her.

Her brother’s mouth opened
slightly in surprise and anger, but to his credit, he followed her off of the platform
and across the street into the printing press.
 

“Howdy!” George Wainwright
greeted as they walked through his front door.

“Good morning, Mr.
Wainwright,” Chase greeted with a forced smile.
 
She heard the tremor in her own voice and felt it quaking her
knees.
 
Her stomach was turning
sickeningly.
 
If Jett Stockton was
in town, there could only be one reason.
 
But how he had found her and why he had gone to such great lengths to
come after her had her baffled.

“What’s the matter with
you?
 
Have you lost your
mind?!
 
We’re running across that
street and boarding that train right this minute.
 
And our first stop in Midland is going to be the office of
Dr. Burns,” Marcus announced.

Chase stood back from the
window but watched intently as Stockton and his men marched across the street
and disappeared.
 
She could only
assume that he had entered Chantal’s saloon, looking for a place to stay.
 
She was beginning to fight for breath,
feeling constricted.
 
She was torn
between hatred and terror.
 
And she
didn’t know how to explain to her brother.
 
They hadn’t told him about the betrothals she and Reese had
fled from.
 
It had been an
unnecessary detail, and one that neither was particularly eager to share with
him.
 
Chase wasn’t concerned that
Marcus would honor such an outrageous arrangement.
 
She was more concerned about him murdering the man and
wanting to murder their father for trying to marry her off to him.