Historical Cowboy Romance Two Book Box Set - Mail Order Brides by Linda Bridey

Author:Linda Bridey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: mail order husband, free cowboy romance, mail order groom, mail order western romance, mail order bride boxed set
Publisher: Gold Crown Publishers

Chapter 3

Violet leaned her back against the wall in the passage just outside the library, her heart racing and her breath coming out in gasps. She’d never stood up to Cornell before or spoken to him in such an insolent manner.

She could only pray he’d be too shocked by her defiance to retaliate. No one could hold a grudge or repay it with more vindictive cruelty than Cornell Pollard. He acted defeated now, but he held all the purse strings on the sisters’ lives.

He had the legal power and the financial interest, not to mention the vengeful spite, to disinherit all three of them for marrying without his permission. Violet certainly saw him do as bad, or worse, enough times in the past.

But she didn’t have time to wait until she recovered. She hurried along the passage to the foot of the stairs to fetch her youngest sister, Rose. But she spotted Iris coming the other direction from the kitchen, still wearing her work clothes.

“I’m just on my way up to change,” Iris told her.

Violet laughed. “What’s the matter? Don’t you want your fiancé to see you in your work clothes?”

Iris threw her hair back out of her eyes. “If he can’t handle this, he won’t be able to handle anything else about me. But he doesn’t need to find out the sordid details when he lays eyes on me for the first time at the train station, does he?”

“Are you going to save that for your wedding night?” Violet asked.

Iris tilted her head to one side. “I don’t know how I’ll break it to him, but I’ll have to do it gently and gradually. I don’t think any man could understand the work I’ve done around here.”

“I agree with you,” Violet replied. “Cornell especially would probably lose his mind if he ever found out you were running the ranch behind his back. He knows you ride out with Pete and Wade, but he doesn’t know you’ve been overriding all his instructions and making your own instead.”

“We would all be out on the street, including Cornell, if I hadn’t,” Iris shot back.

“I understand that,” Violet assured her. “But I think you’ve done the right thing keeping your activities a secret. You would probably do well to keep it a secret from your new husband, too.”

Iris sighed. “I know you’re right. Anyway, once the men get here and we all get married, they’ll probably start running the ranch their own way. Then it won’t matter what I did before they came. I might stop riding out with the cowboys altogether.”

Violet smiled. “Somehow I doubt that. I don’t see you giving up the reins so easily.”

“I might have to,” Iris pointed out. “If my new husband thinks I should stay home and mind the house, I’ll have to do what he says, won’t I?”

“Let’s just hope that doesn’t happen,” Violet replied. “Let’s hope all three of these men understand why you had to take over the ranch and are as grateful to you for what you’ve done as Rose and I are.

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