His Brother's Wife (34 page)

Jesse pushed the eggs in
his plate around and glanced over at Rafe. Grace had been gone
close to a week now and Rafe hadn't said one word to him. Nothing.
Hell, he barely looked at him or even acknowledged he was in the
house.

As much as he hated being
told what to do, having someone in the same room with him and have
them ignore him was as close to torture as he could
think.

He shoved another bite
into his mouth, chewed it slowly and washed it down. He wiped his
mouth with the sleeve of his shirt. "I saw Grace go into the
mercantile when I was leaving school yesterday."

Rafe didn't even flinch.
He didn't look up either.

"She looked real pretty.
Had that green and pink striped dress on. The one with the fancy
hat with the bird nest."

His brother finally looked
over at him but the scorn in his eyes caused Jesse to look away.
Rafe stood then, his food barely touched, and tossed the plate into
the sink, along with his coffee cup and grabbed his coat and hat,
slipped them back on and walked out of the house.

Jesse sighed.

As much as he hated Rafe
most days, and wished he'd never come back, having him act as if he
wasn't there hurt. He didn't realize until the house grew quiet
with Grace's absence how much he enjoyed having her
around.

The house seemed cold now.
As if the life had been snuffed right out of it. He missed the
smell of roses that lingered in a room when she was there, too. And
the taste of flapjacks and syrup in the morning. He missed clean
clothes and having his room made up for him everyday.

He missed having someone
talk to him.

Standing, Jesse cleared
the table, scraping the plates into the bucket under the sink. He
looked out the window and saw Rafe going toward the barn. He didn't
walk as tall as he used to, he noticed. He didn't come inside much
anymore either. He was always in the barn doing something, or out
on the range alone, and it was dark before he came in at
night.

He supposed Rafe missed
Grace as much as he did.

The thought caused his
pulse to race.

Walking in and seeing them
kissing had burned like acid in his gut. He'd spent days at the
marshal's house, trying to imagine how Grace was getting along and
something told him Rafe was taking advantage of the situation. He'd
been right too.

He'd rode hell-bent to get
home that night and his suspicions were confirmed. Seeing them two
kissing like that….

He shook his
head.

The anger resurfaced. He
didn't care who Grace married now as long as if wasn't Rafe. His pa
had claimed Rafe was a good man, just a bit lost, but Jesse never
believed it. His brother was selfish for leaving the way he did.
His pa died waiting on him to come back and he didn't deserve a
minute of happiness as far as he was concerned. He should be alone,
miserable, and scared, just like he was when his pa up and died on
him.

Seeing Rafe exit the barn
with his horse saddled, Jesse narrowed his eyes at him. Rafe
probably did miss Grace and Jesse hoped it hurt like hell. It would
do his brother good to have to live with the pain he had to endure
for a change and if keeping him away from Grace was what it took,
then so be it.

Grabbing his coat and hat,
he slipped them on, leaving through the backdoor. The school bell
would ring soon and he still had chores to do. Rafe never asked him
to do them anymore and most times, they were already done when he
got around to them. He felt bad about it on occasion, but not
today.

He passed Rafe in the yard
and glanced up at him. That stony expression was still on his face,
his shoulders hunched as if the weight of the world was sitting on
them. He looked up, met Jesse's gaze and walked away without a
word.

Jesse watched him and
wondered, if he truly cared for Grace like he said he did, then why
hadn't he tried to go see her yet.

* * * *

Rafe loaded the wagon with
spare timber and wire and his box of tools and nails before walking
back around to make sure the mule was good and cinched. He'd ridden
nearly every inch of fence line around his property over the last
week and noted a few places that needed shoring up. It would take
him days to fix them alone but he didn't mind. It took his mind off
the things that plagued him when he closed his eyes at
night.

Grace's image appeared in
his mind's eye moments before he heard Jesse yelling his name. Rafe
looked up, startled, his brother riding hell bent into the yard.
Rafe's heart leaped into his throat. He wasn't sure what was wrong,
but something was. The look on Jesse's face told him that
much.

Rounding the mule, he
hurried to the back of the wagon as Jesse slowed his horse and
jumped to the ground, breathless.

"Get your horse saddled.
We gotta stop her."

Rafe tilted his head to
one side. "Stop who?"

"Grace," Jesse yelled,
jerking his hat off his head and slinging it to the ground. "She's
marrying Ben Crowley this afternoon. How the hell could she do
that?"

Jesse looked horrified at
the prospect and to tell the truth, so was Rafe. It took him long
seconds to get his heart out of his throat enough to speak. "I
reckon because you told her to."

He turned, giving Jesse
his back, his heart thumping against his ribcage, blood pounding
against his eardrums hard enough he thought he'd go deaf as a
result. His hands started shaking the moment Grace's image entered
his mind. He grabbed onto the edge of the wagon, steadying himself
before climbing up into the seat, taking the mules reins into both
hands.

"I never told her to
marry, Ben," Jesse said, his voice squeaking as he
yelled.

"Maybe not in so many
words." Rafe met his brother's gaze. "But if I'm not mistaken, you
told her to, 'marry someone else in Willow Creek or go back to
Boston.'" Jesse's face turned a funny shade of pink before he
looked away. Rafe's hold on the reins tightened. "Seems to me she
did what you told her to. She found someone to marry." He snorted a
laugh. "Someone not me."

With that, he flicked the
reins, urged the mule into moving, and pushed him faster than he
should have in an attempt to get as far from Jesse, the ranch
house, and thoughts of Grace, as he could.

No matter how far away he
got, Grace's image chased him while that voice in the back of his
head screamed and raged, asking how she could do such a thing. How
she could agree to marry Ben Crowley of all people. She knew the
animosity between them. Knew what a bastard he was, so how could
she? Why would she?

Because you let a fourteen
year old boy manipulate you into letting her go without a
fight.

Because you were too
scared to risk your heart again and ask her to marry you when you
had the chance, damn the consequences.

Rafe pulled on the reins,
yelled "whoa," and got the mule to stop. He stared out across the
valley, watching the sun glint off the creek in the distance, his
heart racing while the words, "Grace was marrying Ben," whispered
inside his mind on repeat.

Just the thought sickened
him but it angered him more. How did this happen? Why would she
ever agree to a marriage proposal from that man?

The questions keep coming,
layers upon layers of them until the sound inside his head was so
loud he couldn't think past it. He yelled, kicked the footboard of
the wagon until it cracked and screamed out his frustration until
the mule danced, startled by his outburst.

When his lungs ached, his
eyes burning, he clenched his fists, stared at his whitened
knuckles until he thought his bones would burst from his skin.
Anger welled hot in his veins, burned in his gut until he couldn't
breath as her image kept flashing before his eyes.

"Grace. How could you?" he
muttered.

Because you didn't give
her another option.

Flicking the reins, he
yelled, got the wagon turned and was headed back to the house at a
fast clip. Jesse was still pacing the yard and stared at him in
wide-eyed dismay when he raced back to the barn. The moment the
wagon rolled to a stop, Rafe jumped to the ground, unhooked the
animal and led him inside. Jesse followed him in without a
word.

When the mule was seen to,
Rafe saddled his gelding, then grabbed the bridle. He turned his
head to Jesse as he got the animal ready to ride. "I'm only going
to say this once, Jesse, so listen carefully." He lead the horse
outside and climbed into the saddle when he was sure the gear was
on right. "I'm going to get Grace and stop this wedding." Jesse
smiled and Rafe looked him hard in the eyes. "Don't look too happy,
yet, little brother." He grabbed the horses reins and shifted in
the saddle. "I'm going to marry her whether you like it or not,
Jesse, and don't you dare try to pitch some hellish fit over it
because I'll bend you over my knee and blister your hide regardless
of who is looking. Is that clear?"

Jesse clenched his jaw,
glared at him for long moments before nodding his head once. Rafe
considered that answer enough.

* * * *

Grace sighed while looking
out her hotel window. Her attention hadn't strayed from the
schoolhouse in the past half hour. Preparations were underway and
had been all morning.

Flowers and ribbons were
carried into the small school now that the children had headed
home, tables and chairs were being set up in the stagecoach station
for a party afterwards, and all the festivities were being seen to
by Ben himself. Grace sighed again when she looked at him as he
shouted some direction and pointed toward the other end of
town.

"What have I done?" The
answer didn't come even though she'd asked herself that very thing
for the last three days.

She turned from the window
and caught sight of her reflection in the mirror above the dresser.
She stared at herself, the dress she'd picked for the occasion, and
wondered if anyone would think anything about her dark, royal blue
dress. She's already sold the black one. The blue was all she had
left to reflect her mood.

Her wedding was nothing
like she thought it would be. She'd always imagined a church
wedding, in spring maybe, with fresh flowers woven into her hair. A
dress of pure white, just like the one Queen Victoria had worn at
her own wedding and her groom would be handsome in his best suit,
his eyes filled with love as he watched her.

In all those perfect
dreams, she'd never imagined she'd feel so miserable, so
heartbroken.

So alone.

Her eyes burned and she
blinked to chase away tears. She'd been fighting them all morning.
Every time she thought of walking down the aisle to marry, her mind
conjured images of Rafe standing there waiting for her. Knowing it
would be Ben instead nauseated her.

The letter Harland Samuels
had written, giving Ben control of the ranch, sat on her dresser.
It hadn't taken much to get it from him. An offhand comment about
needing a husband had been all it took. When Ben offered to marry
her, she'd only said yes if he promised to leave Rafe and Jesse
alone. To forget about the letter Harland had written.

Ben laughed at her for
even suggesting it. When she stood and walked away, he chased her
down, his bloodshot eyes wide and full of anticipation. His gaze
had traveled every inch of her, his thick tongue slipping between
his lips to moisten them and Grace knew, sickening as it was to
think, he was picturing her wearing nothing but skin.

He'd nodded his head,
agreed to letting her have the letter as a gift, and handed it over
that very instant. She was sure he thought to get it back and throw
Rafe and Jesse off their property, but she'd never let that
happen.

She stared at the letter,
knowing every word by heart. She'd read it front to back trying to
find anything that would prove it was fake. She'd not found a
thing.

There was a series of loud
clangs from the street and Grace turned back to the window. There
was commotion near the stagecoach station, Ben bellowing out orders
as his men ran to do his bidding. Watching him caused that
nauseating fear to swamp her again.

She turned her head, her
gaze landing on the livery stable. A few horses lingered in the
coral by the large, two-story barn, but one of them was saddled.
Grace watched it, imagined herself climbing into that saddle and
riding away. Leaving Ben and Willow Creek as far behind her as she
could get. She'd forever miss Rafe, but at least she wouldn't have
to be here, seeing him in town, watching him eventually marry
someone that wasn't her while she was hitched to a man like Ben
Crowley.

She watched that saddled
horse until Ben's shouting once again caught her attention. He
turned his head, looked up at her window and smiled at her. She
turned away, counting down the minutes until her life was
over.

* * * *

It looked as if every
person who lived in town was on the street. Rafe stared at them all
as he and Jesse rode into town.