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

***

Knox

“Feeling better?” I asked, my hand on the bed so I could lean over Eve.

She looked better. I swear she’d turned as white as a ghost right before she emptied the contents of her stomach onto that bitch’s dress. It wasn’t like Piper who’d have punched the woman or pulled a gun on her, but Eve’s action was quite effective.

She nodded.

“That stepsister of yours, when she screeches, she sounds just like a scalded cat.”

Eve’s lips turned up, just as I’d hoped. “You’ve heard lots of scalded cats?”

“No, and I’ve never heard a woman make that sound before.”

After she’d ruined Marina Jamison’s dress, I scooped Eve up and carried her home, not stopping until we were in my bedroom. The miners could tend to the affected women.

“Neither have I,” Jed said, coming into the room carrying a mug of steaming tea. He put it on the table beside the bed, then sat down, his hip pressing against my thigh.

“I’m surprised you didn’t just run away from home like Piper did,” Knox commented. “You had more reason than she ever did.”

Eve offered a small shrug of her bare shoulder. I’d stripped off her dress before tucking her into bed, a porcelain basin beside her just in case. “I’m not as adventurous as she is.”

Jed humphed at that and I couldn’t have agreed more. “You stood up to those women’s lies, took a train to meet a man you were married to, found out he died, then were quickly married to us. I’d say you’re very adventurous.”

“Do you feel sick?” I put my hand to her forehead, but it was cool.

She shook her head. “I feel much better now. Fine, actually.”

“That was odd then. Do you usually vomit on your family?” Jed asked.

“This is the first time for that, however… I did vomit yesterday as well.”

I pushed off the bed and stalked toward the door. “I’ll get Spur.”

“No, don’t,” she called. “I don’t need a doctor. I’m not sick.”

I spun about. I wasn’t going to hear reasons why she shouldn’t see the doctor. I knew people who refused to go and then were dead a week later. She knew Spur and shouldn’t be afraid of him.

“Then what else could it be?” I asked. When I shifted my gaze to Jed, I saw he was grinning widely. In fact, he looked slightly ridiculous. “What the hell’s wrong with you?”

“Looks like I’m the Dare brother with the brains,” he said.

Eve looked to Jed and smiled, too. Tears slid down her cheeks. I clenched my hands into fists, steam ready to come out my ears like a hissing train. “What is going on?” I shouted.

“I’m pregnant.”

“She’s pregnant.”

Both Eve and Jed spoke at the same time.

All blood must have drained from my head because I thought I was going to keel over

. I’d been shocked when our parents died. I’d been shocked when we discovered Piper had run away, not gone to a friend’s house as we’d thought. I’d been shocked when I saw Eve for the first time sitting on that bench in Jasper with her nose in a book. But this…

“A baby?”

Eve nodded.