An Uninvited Bride on his Doorstep by Ava Winters
Chapter Seven
Winona lay in bed, taking slow measured breaths to combat the ache in her head. She probably should have stayed in bed when the boys left but her desire to tease Logan overpowered her better judgment. She watched them from the living room window while they talked, waving and beaming at Logan when he looked at her.
She remained there, fighting through waves of nausea and pain until the boys disappeared to the barn to continue their conversation with more privacy. Only then did she stagger back to bed.
She wondered what the boys would decide. She couldn’t make out their conversation from the living room and had no way of knowing who would end up taking her hand. She was confident one of them would marry her. If anything, she knew she could charm Jay easily enough.
He was barely a man, and she knew at his age a smile and a gentle touch would be enough to overwhelm any defense he might have against her charms. He wasn’t her first choice, but he would be a long way better than Jude.
She almost felt presumptuous for daring to hope her first choice would overcome his pride and agree to be the one to marry her. In the very short time she’d known Logan, he’d frustrated her beyond belief. Willful, stubborn, and irritable, she could only imagine how annoying he’d be if she had to endure his grumbling every day.
Underneath his gruffness lay strength, however. He’d managed to rescue her from certain death in the middle of a heavy thunderstorm. She owed him her life.
He had integrity, too. Despite his strong protestations that she would not marry any of the Foley brothers, he’d never even considered the obvious and easy solution of sending her away and cutting short her recuperation. Perhaps it wasn’t the most shining example of nobility to allow an injured girl to recuperate from life-threatening injuries, but compared to a man who would severely beat an elderly man in front of his wife, Logan was practically a saint.
And goodness but he was handsome! She colored as she recalled how his muscles seemed to strain underneath his shirt, as though threatening at any moment to tear through the fabric. Warmth spread through her as she thought of his stunning gray-blue eyes and chiseled jaw. She chuckled softly at herself. In her own way, she was just as shallow as Jay.
The door to the bedroom opened, startling her. Logan walked in and Winona’s flush deepened at the thoughts she’d just been having. She looked at Logan, desperate to know what had been decided but equally afraid to ask.
Logan didn’t say anything to her at first. He pulled the rough-hewn oak chair over to the side of the bed and sat down, staring at her. She stared back, refusing to speak first, though each second brought her more anxiety that her impression of him had been wrong, and he really was about to kick her out of his house.
When he spoke, it was neither to confirm nor to deny her worries. “Winona, why do you really want to marry me?”
Winona felt a thrill that Logan asked why she wanted to marry him and not simply any one of the three brothers. She wondered if he knew she preferred him? She felt another thrill as she realized he might actually want her.
Now was not the time to give in to those fantasies, however. She took a breath and answered Logan.
“My stepmother and father are obsessed with wealth and prestige. In my stepmother’s case, this obsession is all-consuming and in my father’s case, my stepmother is all-consuming.” She couldn’t help the anger in her voice as she said this and was grateful to see a flicker of sympathy cross Logan’s face. “I’m sure my father loves me, but my stepmother values the family’s status above all else and she’s warped his view until now he sees things the same way. They want me to marry someone to secure our family’s social standing. It’s not important that I love him.”
“I thought you agreed to marry Jude Koch, though. If that’s all this marriage was, why agree in the first place?”
“I couldn’t stay in that house with that woman,” Winona stated flatly. Tears formed in her eyes. “She’s got my father under her thumb. She won’t get me. Not anymore.”
“I don’t know. It seemed like your father was in charge when he sent her home with the doctor earlier.”
She chuckled bitterly. “Believe me, she’ll have him begging for forgiveness within a day for that. Anyway, I can’t do it anymore. I knew they only wanted me to marry Jude for the business connection with his father, but it was better than staying with her. And anyway, I didn’t love him, but I liked him and at times he could be very charming.”
“You don’t like him anymore?”
She shook her head firmly. “No. Not after what I saw. He hit that man so hard, Logan!”
The tears that threatened her eyes began to trickle slowly down her cheeks and she shut her eyes tightly against them. A moment later, she felt Logan’s hand on her shoulder. The gesture was awkward and uncertain, but he was trying to comfort her, and she smiled gratefully at him. She took a breath and continued. “I can’t marry a man as ruthless and heartless as Jude. Not for any reason.”
Logan nodded. “Sure. I understand. I just… Winona, look, I understand you don’t want to marry Jude Koch but why leap into marriage with someone you’ve barely met? I’m sure if you talk to your parents, you can work something out.”
Winona shook her head vehemently. “No, Logan. You don’t understand how important this is to my stepmother. She and my father will never agree to drop the marriage.”
“Well, put your foot down. They can’t drag you down the altar.”
“You don’t understand!” Winona’s voice rose, which made her head hurt more. Tears threatened her again and her lip quivered slightly as she spoke. She hated sounding so emotional. It made her feel weak and fragile, like some damsel in distress. She supposed she was a damsel in distress but that didn’t mean she had to act like one!
Her anger didn’t help her tears and despite her efforts, they began to trickle slowly down her cheek once more. She took a deep breath. “Status and wealth are everything to my stepmother. Everything. Not important, not very important, not the most important thing in the world, everything.
Ever since she married my father, all she talks about is how to make more money or gain influence or prestige in society. She’s obsessed with it. She married my father because he was the wealthiest man who would have her. She told him that to his face. I remember when the Watleys returned home from Europe and Georgina Watley wore that real pearl necklace.
Audrey wore a sterling silver necklace with a diamond brooch, but everyone wanted to see the pearls because no one had seen a real pearl necklace before. She didn’t speak for days. Not for days, Logan. She was so furious she was literally shaking on the ride home.
“I remember after she hadn’t spoken a word to either of us for a week, my father took her on a spur-of-the-moment trip to Galveston, leaving me with our neighbors, the Hurleys. They returned a week later, and Audrey was smiling and laughing like a newlywed. She was beaming. I ran to the front of Mrs. Hurley’s porch, waving and laughing. I was so excited for my Pa to come home! When they got close, I saw Pa had bought Audrey a new pearl necklace with bigger pearls than Georgina Watley’s. That’s why Audrey was so happy.”
She took another deep breath before continuing. “They didn’t even slow the wagon. I was waving and shouting for my Pa to pick me up and they rode on without even slowing. Audrey didn’t even look my direction. Pa did. He looked at me as he drove past. Didn’t say a word. Just looked at me.”
Her lip trembled again, and she bit it until it hurt. The pain lent her strength, and her voice was steadier when she continued. “I learned later they drove straight to the Watley’s estate five miles away. My stepmother wanted to go straight to Georgina Watley to brag that her pearl necklace was better than Georgina’s.” She looked Logan in the eye. “That’s how important this is to her. That’s how much status means. If she’d go to such lengths over a necklace, imagine what she’ll do if her stepdaughter refuses to concede to her arranged marriage.”
“Can’t your father say something?” Logan asked. “He sent her off earlier and she minded. If you convince your pa not to force you to marry, he’ll keep your stepmother out of it.”
Winona smiled bitterly. “She always gets what she wants in the end. She only listened to my father earlier because she’s confident she already won. If he meant to seriously oppose her, no force on earth would move her. She’ll have her way eventually. The only way out is to marry someone else. That’s the only way I escape. That’s why I need you, Logan.”
Logan looked away and sighed. “I understand Winona. I’m sorry for your situation, believe me, I am but you’re asking for more than you know.”
The hope she’d felt since Logan returned from talking to his brothers shattered. For a moment, she was shocked. Then she was devastated. Then, almost immediately, she was angry. How could he be so heartless? “That’s fine,” she said coldly. “If you don’t want to marry me, I’m sure one of your brothers will.”
“Now hold on,” Logan said. “I didn’t say I wasn’t going to marry you, I just …” he sighed. “Winona, you should know my family has history with yours.”
“Yes,” she replied tersely. “I remember you talking to my father about that. Something about extorting your father out of a business deal.”
“He cut my father out of a business deal that would have made them both rich. They were supposed to be partners in a deal to sell horses to the U.S. Army in San Antonio.”
“I remember that deal,” Winona said. “There were soldiers in uniforms in and out of the house at every hour. Father made a lot of money.”
“Half of that money should have gone to my father,” Logan said. “That was the deal they made. An even split. Instead, Heath convinced my father to give him his half of the horses the night before the deal to make things easier in the morning. Then he made the deal behind my father’s back and kept all the money for himself.”
Winona listened to Logan’s tale, shocked. Could her father really have done something like that? “I’m so sorry, Logan. I never knew.”
He shrugged. “Wouldn’t have made a difference. What could you have done? Anyway, I’m telling you this because you should know if we do this, there’s no going back. I’ll be marrying my enemy’s daughter. You’ll be marrying your father’s enemy. That anger your stepmother will feel if you don’t marry Jude? That’s exactly what your father will feel if you marry me. You won’t just be betraying her, you’ll be betraying him.”
She nodded. She understood now why Logan seemed so reluctant. It was one thing to marry a woman out of the blue. It was quite another thing when that woman was the daughter of the man who betrayed your father. Still, what choice did she have? Her head throbbed, and she remembered the sharp cracking sound of Jude’s fist against that elderly man’s head.
She looked Logan dead in the eye. “I still want to do this. I can’t marry Jude.”
Logan didn’t respond for a minute. Finally, he said. “Okay, let’s do it.”
“Really?” she said. Hope flooded back to her. “You mean it?”
He nodded. “Yes, let’s do it. Let’s get married.”
Before she realized what she was doing, she grabbed his face and kissed him hard, then threw her arms around his neck. He smelled outdoorsy, and his body felt lean and strong. She felt warmth creep up her spine and tightened her embrace, but a moment later he gently pushed her away.
“One more thing,” he said. “I’ll marry you, but I want to be clear I’m doing this so you can avoid marrying Jude Koch. You’re beautiful and I’m sure you’ll make a fine wife, but this is not a romantic arrangement. I can offer you a marriage of convenience. Nothing more.”
“That’s fine,” she said. “That’s all I’m looking for.” She meant those words but couldn’t deny she felt a sharp pang of disappointment when Logan told her he didn’t want romance. Well, that didn’t mean anything. She was in a vulnerable emotional state and Logan was rescuing her from her imprisonment. Those feelings would wear off eventually. Despite these thoughts, she couldn’t quite silence the small part of her that wished they wouldn’t ever wear off.
“We should do this quickly,” she said. “We should marry now, today.”
“Today?” Logan replied, incredulously. He shook his head. “No, you can’t even leave the bed for at least a week. We’ll marry when you’re well.”
“No,” Winona insisted. “Audrey’s already making plans to prevent this, I’m sure of it. We need to marry now before she can do something crazy like claiming you’ve kidnapped me, and I’m being held against my will.”
He lifted his hands and dropped them, chuckling. “Why not? Might as well build the nursery too, while we’re at it.”
“I’m serious, Logan!”
“I know, I know. I’ll send for the reverend.”
“The reverend?” a voice interrupted. They turned to see Gregory standing in the doorway. “Then my brother has delivered the bad news. I sincerely apologize, my lady. Know that I fought valiantly to save you from this end.”
“Will you quit acting the fool?” Logan said, exasperated. “Make yourself useful and fetch Reverend Patrick yourself.”
Gregory smiled and said, “Your wish is my command, your majesty.” He bowed with a flourish and left.
Winona giggled as Gregory walked off. She turned to see Logan staring fishily at her, which only made her laugh harder, which only made her head ache all the more.
Logan shook his head. “I better go tell the boys I’ll be busy all day. I’ll see you in a little while, Winona.” He stood and left for the corrals.
Winona watched him walk away and smiled. She could get used to living here.