Romance: Luther's Property (4 page)

Ivy struggled to get herself out of the recliner and finally
with a loud exhale she managed to push herself off. She waddled across the
living room.

“Are you okay in there, honey?” Luther’s voice came from the
kitchen over the sounds of plates being laid out.

“Yeah, I just have to pee again!” Luther laughed.

“I’m going to move the toilet to the living room, it’d be
easier for both of us!” Ivy shook her head as she waddled past the kitchen
towards the bathroom.

“Don’t you dare. Besides, we only have a few weeks left
until your son is born and I don’t want to have a toilet in the living room
when all the people come over to see him.” Ivy disappeared in to the bathroom.

“Do you think your parents will come to see him?” Luther
shouted hopefully from the kitchen.

“I hope so.” Ivy paused, “I’m pretty sure they will.” She
shouted back from the bathroom.

“They didn’t seem too happy when we were over there the
other week.” Luther put the two dinner plates on trays and walked one through
to the living room. He set it on the table beside the recliner for Ivy.

“That,” Ivy came out of the bathroom, “is because they are
stubborn, and overprotective.” Luther helped her sit back down in the recliner
and when she was settled he put her tray on her lap.

“I have told you before, it’s a parent’s job to be
overprotective.” He reached down and rubbed the top of her belly bump. “Just
you wait until our son is born, then you’ll see.” Ivy shook her head.

“I will never be as overprotective as they are. Never!”
Luther went back in to the kitchen to fetch his own tray.

“We will see about that.” He came back in and sat down on
the sofa. “I guarantee you that there will never be a girl good enough to date
our boy.” Ivy laughed, she knew that it was true.

“Well, that’s not being overprotective, that’s just being a
parent.” Luther laughed.

“Oh…okay.” He stuck his fork in his potatoes and looked back
over to Ivy. “Well, the next time your folks call, why don’t you invite them
over? Tell them we’d like to see them and they can help to decorate the
nursery…” Ivy shoveled a forkful of mashed potatoes in to her mouth.

“Sure, they won’t come though, you know they won’t. They’re
still mad at you because you knocked up their daughter and they’re still mad at
me because apparently I lay there and asked you to knock me up.” She rolled her
eyes as she took a sip of ginger ale.

When they’d found out about Ivy being pregnant, her parents
had both sat in mortified silence for what felt like an eternity. When finally
her mother spoke, she asked who the father was and Ivy had told them it was
Luther. Her mom, having no idea who Luther was by name alone, asked if she had
ever had the pleasure of meeting the “young man.” That was where things started
to get a little complicated. When Ivy explained that yes, they had briefly met
Luther at the Soda Fountain, her mom turned just about every shade of red in
the book. She had been angrier than Ivy had ever seen her before, but she was
angry at Luther for taking advantage of her ‘innocent’ daughter. Ivy had spent
an hour trying to explain that she was a perfectly willing participant in the
activities that had led up to the event, but this had only seemed to make
things worse. Since then, Ivy had moved in with Luther permanently and her
parents had made it a point to protest everything Luther related.

“Maybe you should ask anyway? You never know, maybe they’ll
surprise us?” Ivy nodded.

“Sure. Maybe and maybe pigs will fly.” There was silence
again for a few minutes as Luther picked at his food.

“You know what? I think I might go over there tomorrow.
Maybe see if there’s anything I can do to help them out around the house or
something like that.” Ivy looked over at Luther with a smile. “What?!” She
shook her head slowly, a small tear escaping her eye.

“I love you Luther Gains.” He smirked.

“I love you too.”

By: Erin Walsh

The Cowboy Abducts
a Bride
A Western Historical Romance

© Erin Walsh, 2015 – All rights reserved

Published by Steamy Reads4U

No part of this book may be
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without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief
quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

This is a work of fiction.
 
Names, characters, businesses, places,
events, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or
used in a fictitious manner.
 
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The Madame clapped
her hands together to assemble the women into a line once again.
 
It happened every other day or so, when a new
man would come to their little town of Harrington looking for a wife.
 
Emma and Ellen always hated that part of the
day where they had to line up and show off their good looks to their possible
husband.
 

Emma hated it
because she didn’t have any good looks to show off.
 
She had been too adventurous as a child and
slipped off a fall cliff, scaring her face for life.
 
The rest of her was pretty enough though; she
was five foot four and had long chocolate locks that always lay braided on each
side of her face.
 
Her eyes were a bright
pale green with tiny blue flecks, her lips were luscious and pale pink, and her
skin was fair with the softest touch of sun.
 
Her chest wasn’t large, but enough for a man to get a handful, and her
body was slender with an hourglass shape.
 

Sadly no man had ever
been able to look past the large scar that ran from the corner of her right eye
down to her jaw.
 
That is why Emma’s
sister, Ellen, hated being in the line-up with all the other women, not because
her own looks, but the hopeless look it created on her sisters face when the
men would look at her with disgust, and not bother learning her other skills.

Ellen was what
everyone considered the perfect beauty.
 
She was the same height as Emma, had flawlessly tanned skin, dusty blond
curls that tangled themselves happily down to her tail bone.
 
Her eyes were a deep Topaz that complimented
her pale red lips perfectly.
 
Ellen’s
body was also a sight to be seen.
 
It
curved in every right place, gifting her with a luscious chest and the perfect
figure.

All of the women in
the house had more than just their beauty; the whole point of living in the
home instead of with their families was to learn the skills a man would desire
a wife to have.
 
Emma had learned so many
skills, and had also promised to put away her childish and adventurous nature,
in order to find a husband.
 

Ellen, on the other
hand, knew she didn’t need any of the skills the house mother taught them, her
looks alone guaranteed her any man she desired, but she was the only one that
had not given up on Emma finding a husband.
 
Even their parents had lost hope in anyone ever looking past Emma’s
scared face and seeing the girl beneath, which is why they condemned her to the
women’s house in the first place.
 
It was
Ellen’s choice to go against their parents’ wishes and join Emma at the house;
because she never wanted her sister to feel abandoned or betrayed by her, they
always put each other first.
 
At least
that is what Ellen had thought before she watched the unknown man walk into the
room where all the women were lined up.
 

He was six feet
tall, wore his light brown hair cut extremely short, almost shaved.
 
His clothes were tightly wrapped around his
muscles, showing off his incredible body, and when he walked passed Ellen she
could see the deep emerald color of his eyes.

“Hello there.”

The unknown man
greeted Ellen, causing her to blush and hide her face.
 
The stranger only grinned as he continued to
walk down along the line of women.
 
He
stopped in front of Emma and reached out his hand.
 
Emma was frozen still as his calloused had
caressed along her scar, and then along her jaw.

“Hello there.”

“Hello…”

Emma couldn’t
believe that the unknown man was talking to her, or touching her scar.
 
She had never even been acknowledged by a man
before, the new experience causing her heart to pound hard against her chest.

“I’m Isaac.”

“Emma.”

“Pleasure to meet
you Emma.”

Isaac nodded his
head towards Emma and continued his walk down to the end of the line of
women.
 
When he was finished seeing them
all, Isaac spun on his spurred heel and faced the house Madame.
 
He smiled and nodded towards her before
making his way back up the line, giving Ellen one more glance before heading
out the door into the waiting area.
 
Ellen licked her lips as she watched him go, wanting to follow him and
command that he chose her.

Emma watched in
shock as Isaac left the room, curious as to why he had caressed her scar with
such care, and wondered if there was even the smallest bit of hope that he
might chose her despite her face.

Back in their shared
rooms, all of the women gossiped and chatted about Isaac.
 
Emma and Ellen huddled together in their
private corner and talked amongst themselves, knowing that none of the women
stood a chance if Ellen was interested.

“I hope he chooses
soon and goes away.”

“Why do you say
that?
 
Don’t you like him Ellen?”

“He seems nice
enough, but you are still here.”

“Doesn’t matter, I’m
always going to be here.
 
You should be
happy.”

“I’m happy just
being here with my sister, I don’t need that cowboy.”

Emma and Ellen
giggled while they remembered the spurs on his boots, jingling across the floor
of the house.

“You should at least
talk with him.
 
Perhaps he is your
perfect husband Ellen.”

“Perhaps.
 
But it would take a very impressive man to
take me away from my sister.”

Ellen didn’t want
Emma to feel betrayed, but she had already planned on pursuing Isaac and
offering herself to him as his wife.
 
She
knew she didn’t have many skills, but he had spoken to her first, and that
meant everything when it came to men.

“If only I had been
like you when we were younger.
 
Sat with
mother and drank tea instead of…”

“Shhh, hush
Emma.
 
You are wonderful just the way you
are.”

“But I’m not
pretty.”

“You don’t have to
be, you are the smartest girl I know.”

Emma smiled and
hugged her sister.
 
She knew Ellen was
just trying to be nice, that everything she was saying wasn’t true.
 
Emma wasn’t very smart; she just picked up
useful skills a little quicker than most of the other women, but women were
never truly picked for their skills.
 
Emma sighed and squeezed her sister one more time before pulling away
and giving her a reassuring smile.

“Tomorrow he meets
whatever girls he wants, and then he’ll be gone.”

“Exactly, and then
we can carry on with our lives and work on finding a husband for my sister.”

Ellen smiled sweetly
and caressed her sister’s face as she spoke, wishing she could undo the tragedy
of her scar.

“I don’t think I’m
ever going to find a husband.
 
I’ll
probably just become an old spinster like the Madame.”

“Don’t talk like
that.
 
You’ll find someone, someone very
special.”

Ellen smiled at Emma
and patted her knee.
 
Ellen rose to her
feet and looked around the room at all the gossiping women, hearing their
little comments about how sexy and strong Isaac seemed.
 
Ellen agreed with all of them, and knew that
she could easily convince him to marry her, even if it meant giving up some of
her morality to do it.

“What are you
thinking?”

Emma was staring up
at her sister when she asked her question.

“Hmm, nothing.
 
Just wondering which girl it shall be this
time.”

“You are up to
something.”

“How can you tell?”

“You have that
naughty Ellen expression on your face.
 
You always bite your lip and grin when you are thinking of doing
something bad.”

“I do not!”

“You do too!
 
The last time you did it was right before you
convinced Lilly to put itching powder in the Madame’s bloomers.”

Ellen couldn’t stop
herself from snickering when she remembered that incident.
 
Lily had been punished for that while Ellen
stood back and enjoyed the Madame itching for weeks.

“I had no part in
that.”

“You can’t lie to
me, I’m your sister.
 
I know everything.”

Emma grinned up at
Ellen before rising to her own feet and bumping her shoulder against Ellen’s.

“So what are you
thinking?”

“Wondering if I can
help the girls out in anyway.”

“You mean turn one
into Isaac’s perfect wife?”

“Exactly.”

Emma giggled and
rested her head on her sister’s shoulder, sighing as she gazed at the women in
different areas of the room.

“I wonder if the
other rooms are filled with this much chatter.”

“Let’s find out.”

Ellen laced her
fingers within Emma’s and pulled her towards the door to their room.
 
Ellen stuck her head out to ensure their
coast was clear before dragging Emma out of their room and rushing down the
hall to one of the other rooms.
 
Ellen
and Emma stood right by the door inside the room next to theirs, and listened
to the women chattering away.
 
It seemed
that Isaac was the talk of the house, and every single girl wished to go home
with him, despite not knowing anything about him.

“Seems as if
everyone woman in the house wants him.”

Emma sighed as she
spoke, knowing that she was the only one in the entire house that didn’t stand
a chance, not with all the girls competing for his affections.

“Tomorrow we’ll see
who’s caught his eye, for now we should get back to our rooms as sleep.

Emma nodded to agree
with Ellen.
 
They linked hands back
together and glided through the hallway back to their own room.
 
All the women had crawled into their beds,
but still whispering to each other about Isaac and the possibilities of
tomorrow.

“What will you do
when he asks for you?”

“What do you mean
Emma?”

“We all know he’ll
ask for you, will you refuse or will you go meet with him privately?”

“I will meet him,
but only to turn him down.”

Ellen tried to fake
a reassuring smile for her sister; she didn’t want Emma to know she was lying
until she had succeeded in winning Isaac for herself.

“Get some sleep
Emma, man or no man in this house; we still have shores in the morning.”

Emma nodded and
curled up with her pillow and blanket, a small tear drop sliding down her cheek
as she tried to sleep.
 
She wished from
the deepest part of her heart for a chance to beloved and not be seen as only a
scared girl, and then fell into a soft sleep.