A Wicked Woman (Mail Order Bride of Slate Springs 3)

Tara looked to Marina, who pursed her lips. I couldn’t miss the way her knuckles turned white clasped together.

Jed and Knox hadn’t said a word, or moved from my side. Others came out of the mercantile and I could see over Marina’s left shoulder that Mr. Beebe, the owner of the store, was watching closely from the doorway. Miners stood on the boardwalk on the other side of the street, no doubt wondering who the two new women were. They were a rare sight, and beautiful ones together were even more of an obscure treat.

“Mother fell off a horse and died a week after you left,” Marina said plainly. Pulling a handkerchief from her sleeve, she dabbed at her eyes. Tara, seeing the act, mimicked it.

I should have felt something

at the news of Victoria’s demise, but it was difficult to drum up any kind of grief. She was—had been—a mean woman who raised mean daughters. While I did miss my life in Clancy, I didn’t miss the three of them. Not one bit. Why did the worst part of my old life happen to show up in Slate Springs?

“I’m sorry to hear that,” I said politely. “That doesn’t answer why you are here.”

“Aren’t you going to introduce us to your… friends?” They ogled Jed and Knox as if they’d never seen men before.

With my left hand, I took Jed’s arm. “Marina and Tara Jamison, may I introduce Knox and Jed Dare?”

“Where is Mr. Thomkins?” Marina asked, eyeing the men as if they were dinner she wanted to gobble them up. “I assumed you’d be escorted by him.”

Jed and Knox tipped their hats in greeting, but remained silent.

“Like Victoria, Mr. Thomkins passed away.”

Tara stared at me wide-eyed, then laughed. “Really? You couldn’t even have a successful marriage.”

The contents of my stomach moved up into my throat and I swallowed hard. Sweat dotted my brow and the saliva in my mouth was oddly hot. I felt like I was going to be sick. I couldn’t let any weakness show, not with these two. If they noticed I was affected by their actions, they’d attack that weakness with a vengeance.

Marina stepped up to Jed and put her hand on his chest. It was a bold move and the coy look she gave him was filled with her feminine prowess. But when Jed gripped her wrist and pulled it off of him, the smile slipped.

“I don’t like to be touched by strange women,” he said.

“Mr. Dare is my husband, Marina.” I could’ve said that Knox was as well, but I wouldn’t share that information… yet. During one of our many visits, Piper had said there was a poker term about not showing all your cards. I didn’t understand what she really meant, until now.

The suggestive look fell away entirely as she studied Jed once again. “He is your husband?”

I nodded, wiping my hands on my dress, then wrapping them about my waist. There was no doubt they were stunned I could marry someone as handsome as Jed.

“I’m the lucky one,” Jed told her. “I believe my wife asked you a question.”

“Oh?” Tara asked.

“What are you doing in Slate Springs?” he repeated.

“Perhaps this is a conversation in private,” Marina said, leaning in and lowering her voice.

I shook my head. “No. We’ll have it here.”

Both women looked down their noses at me. “Very well,” Tara said primly. “Mother left quite a few debts. The bank sold the house and everything to pay them off. We… we have nowhere else to go.”

“The house is gone?”

They nodded in unison, Tara’s delicate, pale curls that peeked out from beneath her hat bobbing. My father’s house and all the memories of him that went with it were now owned by the Bank of Clancy.

“The carriage, the wagon, the furniture,” I mentioned.

“Gone.”

“You could have remained in Clancy, perhaps in the schoolteacher’s house you claimed?”

“Oh, no. The scandal,” Marina said.