Forced to Marry a Scarred Rancher (Preview)

Chapter One

Wyoming, 1876

“Watch out! You’ll be trampled, or worse!” Susannah cried, and not a moment too soon.

Eric, her little brother, barely had time to look up and scamper out of the way before a buggy rumbled through where he had been just a moment before.

“I told you to stay put. Why don’t you listen?” Susannah scolded.

“I was just trying to see what those other boys were doing,” her brother shot back. He folded his arms over his chest and glared at his older sister.

“Playing marbles, pay them no mind,” Susannah told him.

“You’re no fun.”

“Children, please.” Their mother sighed. “Your father will be back any moment, and we’ll be leaving. I know you’re tired, but try to behave just a while longer.”

“Your cheeks are turning red,” Eric told Susannah with a smirk.

“Maybe I wouldn’t be embarrassed if you’d just behave,” she retorted. He looked away, and Susannah seized his hand before he could move.

She disliked being scolded by their mother, especially when Ma referred to her as one of the children. At twenty years old, Susannah wasn’t a child. But her eight-year-old brother had a knack for drawing her into his antics and eliciting her a scolding as though she were his age once again.

“What’s taking your father so long?” Ma asked, though Susannah knew her mother was speaking her thoughts out loud rather than posing an actual question. The train was already pulling out of the station, which meant their father would have gotten their bags out of the carriage car.

He had to rent a wagon to carry them out to their new home, but neither Susannah nor her mother had expected it to take long.

“Pardon me, miss. New to these parts?”

A strange voice caught Susannah’s attention, and she turned to see who was talking to her. A young man stood with a smile on his face, but something about him made Susannah feel uncomfortable.

“We just arrived on the train, thank you,” she told him with a single nod before turning away.

“Well, you’re a mighty beautiful addition to this town,” he told her, clearly refusing to take the hint.

Susannah was no stranger to admirers. Though she was on the tall side for a young lady, her wavy copper hair and ocean-blue eyes contrasted sharply with her pale skin and earned her plenty of attention from men.

“There’s Pa!” Eric shouted, pointing to their father as he pulled up near the train station.

“Sorry that took so long,” her father called. “There’s quite a mess of people over there.”

“Oh!” the man who had been speaking to Susannah suddenly snorted. She looked at him with her eyebrows raised.

“Is something wrong, sir?” she asked.

“I didn’t realize you were… Irish.” He spat the word with visible disgust in his features. “You could fool anyone masking your accent. But there’s no mistaking what you are now.”

“I beg your pardon?” Susannah cried, her temper rising.

“Susannah, will you give me a hand with these?” Ma asked, pulling her away from the interaction. The man simply shook his head and turned, hurrying off.

“I thought things would be different out here,” Susannah said when she reached her mother.

“What do you mean, dear?”

“That man who was just talking to me. He heard Pa’s accent and turned up his nose before walking away.”

“That’s a shame,” Ma said with hardly a glance over her shoulder. “No matter. He’s just one man and we’re in a town full of new people.”

“Your mother’s right,” her father chimed in. “Don’t let one fellow soil your view of Emerald Springs. This is a place of promise and opportunity! We’ll do well here, Geraldine.”

Pa hopped down from the wagon and gave Ma a kiss on the cheek as he passed her, making his way to help load the baggage in the back.

“How did he know we’re Irish?” Eric asked.

“He could hear it in the way Ma and Pa talk,” Susannah explained.

“But I talk like them.”

“Like Pa said, it’s no matter,” Susannah told her brother.

She didn’t want the conversation to turn to the fact that she was intentionally trying to speak more like other Americans. Their grandparents had moved from Ireland to escape the famine, and both their mother and father had been born in America. Though their accents weren’t as strong as their grandparents’ had been, it was still quite present.

Susannah wasn’t ashamed of her heritage, but she hated the persecution she and her family were subjected to because they were Irish. So, she did her best to lose the Irish accent herself.

Eric, on the other hand, wished more to sound like their parents, so he did the opposite of what Susannah did. The bags were loaded quickly and the family climbed into the wagon.

“Do we have everything we need, Douglas?” her mother asked as she slid onto the seat next to her father.

“I don’t think it would be a bad idea for us to stop at the mercantile and grab a few things before heading out of town. From my understanding, there’s work to be done at the house, and it would be better if we didn’t have to make extra trips into town,” her father replied.

Susannah saw the tired look on her mother’s face, and her heart went out to her. It had been a dreadfully long day already. A dreadfully long week, actually. They’d been traveling all the way from Virginia, and the trip hadn’t been easy.

They were all tired and ready to be moved into the new house, but there was still so much work to be done.

“Don’t worry, Ma,” Susannah said. “I’ll go inside and get what we need.”

“Are you sure?” her mother asked with a grateful smile.

“Of course. I don’t mind at all.”

The mercantile was easy enough to find, though the streets were busy enough that her father had to let her out of the wagon without pulling to the side.

“I won’t be long,” she said over her shoulder.

“I’ll pull around a few times. If you don’t see us, just wait,” Pa replied before clicking to the horses to keep them moving. Susannah nodded before hurrying into the store.

The bell above the door rang cheerfully, announcing her presence.

A few of the other customers glanced her way, but no one acknowledged her as she walked further into the building.

“Hello!” the clerk called cheerfully when she approached the front counter. “Can I help you?”

“I just need a few things,” Susannah said. “Eggs, flour, butter, and a bit of molasses. Oh, and coffee, please.”

“Right away,” the clerk said, pulling out a paper sack and expertly filling it with the items she’d listed.

Susannah dug in her pocket to pull out the few coins that her mother had given her as the clerk tallied her total. But when he gave her the price, her heart sank.

“I… um…” She felt her cheeks flush red, and she wracked her brain for something to say. She didn’t have the money, and the only thing to do would be to leave some of the items off the list. However, there was a line forming behind her, and she didn’t know which things she ought to leave behind.

Not only that, but she could only imagine what her mother would say when she got back to the wagon and told them it wasn’t enough.

“Well, miss? the clerk prompted.

Suddenly, a hand came down on the counter next to hers and left a dollar bill.

“That should cover it,” a voice said. “Put the rest on my tab.”

Susannah whipped around to face the stranger.

Her immediate response was to turn him down. It would be embarrassing to have to take things off her list, but it was even worse accepting charity. However, as soon as she laid eyes on the stranger, her jaw dropped.

He was incredibly handsome, perhaps the most handsome man she’d ever seen. He was tall with a barrel chest, and arms that matched. His skin was sun-kissed, plainly telling her that he spent a lot of time out-of-doors.

He had blond hair, and though he only glanced at her before looking back to the clerk, she saw his eyes were a lovely shade of hazel. Susannah thought he looked a bit older than herself, perhaps in his mid-twenties. She couldn’t deny that she was very much attracted to him. Her voice caught in her throat, and she sputtered as she tried to shake her head.

“I… I can’t accept that,” she tried, but it came out in hardly more than a whisper. “I don’t need charity.”

“With all due respect,” he said, his voice just as deep as she’d expected, “this isn’t charity. I have things I need to do, and you’re holding up the line.”

“I’m—”

“Don’t think anything of it,” the handsome man said. He nodded to the clerk, who took the money and handed her the bag.

Susannah’s family was likely waiting for her, and she needed to get going. The transaction was done, so there was no way she could argue the gesture further. She didn’t think he was being rude, but she felt embarrassed all the same.

Why does he have to be so good looking? I wish the floor would swallow me up right now.

Susannah mumbled a thanks before gathering the bag in her arms and heading for the door. She was relieved to see that there wasn’t, in fact, a line forming behind her. What she’d thought had been people waiting was merely customers looking at the shelves of goods.

She hurried out the door refusing to look back and was grateful when she saw the wagon pulling up in front of the store.

“Did you have enough?” her mother asked as Susannah handed her the bag. “I should have thought ahead and told you what to leave off the list if you didn’t have the money.”

“Don’t you worry, Ma,” Susannah said with a bright smile. “God provides, just like you said.”

Her mother looked into the bag with glee, and her father slapped the reins on the backs of the horses. There was no need to tell her parents what had happened in the store, and she didn’t think what she’d told them was a lie, anyway.

Whoever that man was, God sent him at just that moment to help me. Like he said, it wasn’t really charity, because I didn’t ask him for anything, and I didn’t need to get all this anyway.

“Alright, Murphys!” her father called from the front of the wagon. “Here’s to new beginnings!”

Susannah heartily joined in with the cheering of the rest of her family, and she did her best to push the handsome stranger from her mind. Her father was right. They were finally starting a new life together, and it was a joyous day.

Like the everyone else in the wagon, she couldn’t wait to see what their new home was like.

Chapter Two

“Did the new family move in yet, Jasper?” Robert Reed asked when Jasper knocked on his door to let him know he’d gotten back from town.

“I don’t know,” Jasper said. “I didn’t go by the house.”

“Well, I’d like to know when they do,” Robert said before falling into a coughing fit.

“If you opened up the window and curtains to let in some air and light, it wouldn’t be as stuffy in here,” Jasper said as he looked around the dark room.

“Don’t tell me what to do,” Robert said through his coughs. “You know the sunlight hurts my eyes, and I don’t like letting the air in. It makes things cold.”

Jasper sighed. His father had long been a recluse, but it seemed recently that the man didn’t even like leaving his bedroom. It was next to impossible to get him to leave the house, and Jasper didn’t want to think of what would happen if his father was stuck in his room all the time.

It couldn’t be good for him.

“Did you hear anything interesting in town?” Robert asked.

“I just went to the mercantile. You know Jones doesn’t care to gossip,” Jasper told his father. His mind went back to the beautiful young woman he’d helped, but he pushed her quickly from his mind.

It was rare for any woman to catch his eye, and Jasper didn’t want to give it too much thought. He wasn’t interested in romance, and he hadn’t even spoken with the young woman. Not really, anyway. She’d tried to tell him she didn’t need charity, and that was fine.

He hoped she hadn’t seen the gesture as charity, or his explanation of what he was doing as rude. The fact of the matter was that he didn’t know why he’d helped her. It had simply seemed like the right thing to do at the time, and though he wasn’t one to get involved in things that weren’t his business, he’d acted.

In his mind, it was done and over with. There was no need to think about it further.

“Being a mercantile clerk and hating gossip is an odd combination,” Robert commented as Jasper turned to go. “That’s a job perfect for the talking man.”

“You know as well as I do the Good Book says to avoid a gossip, and a man who talks too much for that matter,” Jasper replied. “I’m sure at the end of the day, it’s a good thing he doesn’t talk about others.”

“Makes it difficult for those of us who don’t leave much to know what’s going on in town,” Robert replied, but Jasper didn’t answer.

Then perhaps it would do you good to leave the house. Then you’ll know what’s going on and not have to go against what the Good Book tells us.

“I’m going for a ride,” Jasper called to his father. “I already put away the things I got at the mercantile. If you get hungry, there’s bread and some salted pork.”

“Didn’t Louise make a pie yesterday?” his father called.

Jasper sighed as he looked at the half-eaten pastry on the counter. His father needed more than just pie to get by, but he didn’t know how to address such a thing with the older man. With how thin Robert had become, Jasper was glad any time he saw his father eating, even if it was only sweets.

“There’s some left, sure, but I think it would do you some good to eat more than that,” he said loud enough for his father to hear from the kitchen.

“She’s not cooking for us tonight?”

“You know she wanted to go over to greet the new family when they arrive,” Jasper reminded his father. “Maybe since she’s not here right now, that means they’ve moved in. Or, at the very least, are in the process of moving into the place. I don’t know, but I’ll ride over that way before I come back this afternoon.”

He heard his father reply, but he didn’t quite hear what he said. Jasper decided not to have him repeat himself. The two rarely got along, and he had long since learned it was better to keep their interactions brief.

Though they lived in the same house, Jasper felt like the two of them were strangers. It had been that way for years, and while he wasn’t very happy with the dynamic, he didn’t see any alternative.

Some things just were the way they were.

He headed out of the house and let the door close itself behind him. As he’d only needed to get a few things in town, he hadn’t bothered taking the wagon, and he’d left his horse tied to the gate in front of the house when he’d returned.

“Alright, Colt,” he said to his horse as he untied the tether from the post. “You ready to ride the perimeter?”

As if the horse could understand what was being said, it pawed the ground and snorted. Jasper patted the animal’s neck before climbing into the saddle. He nodded to two of the ranch hands as he turned the horse away from the house and headed out on the range.

He ought to ride the fence line over by the house where the new ranch hand was supposed to be living with his family, but he wasn’t sure he was ready to do that yet.

It wasn’t that he didn’t like working the ranch or having people on the ranch who worked for him and his father. The problem was that Jasper had become rather solitary himself. There was one man, Theo Kline, with whom Jasper had a close bond, but he was really the only person Jasper counted as a real friend.

The two had practically grown up together after Theo’s mother, Louise, had started working for Robert years ago. She was a widow and in desperate need of help for herself and her two young children. As Jasper’s mother was also gone, it had seemed like a good fit for everyone.

He didn’t know where Theo was and figured his friend was out working somewhere else on the ranch. Theo was one of the top hands working for Jasper and his father, so it wasn’t unusual for a whole day or more to pass without the two crossing paths.

Jasper pushed the thought of his friend out of his mind. The fence needed to be checked daily, and he had been happy to take that task on himself. It gave him more than a couple hours out of the house and away from other people. It was time for him to think and be alone in nature.

It was one of the few things that brought him joy anymore.

Still, his curiosity got the better of him, and as he turned to ride the fence line, he looked back over his shoulder into the distance where he could see the house standing.

It had been empty for some time, and it would be nice having people living there again. The house stood lonely on the horizon, but still, Jasper hoped to get a glimpse of the new family.

They were from Virginia, all the way back east. Surely they would be a lot different from the others living on the ranch who were all mainly from the area. Even if he enjoyed his solitude, Jasper couldn’t contain himself.

What changes would they bring with them?

Chapter Three

“There now, what did I tell you?” Pa beamed with pride as they stood on the family’s new front porch and looked over the small parcel of land they could now call their own.

“You were right, my love. Things really are starting to look up for us now,” Ma said as she wrapped her arms around her husband.

“I knew it was a good move. It was risky, but since when does one gain anything without a bit of risk involved?” Pa asked. “When I was told Robert Reed would not only give me a job but also this place to live, the answer was simple.”

“That it was,” Ma agreed.

Susannah smiled to herself. Her parents both worked hard, and that life seemed to be giving them a break warmed her heart. Her father had struggled to provide for the family working at that factory back in Virginia, but thanks to the new opportunity afforded them by the Reed family, things were turning around.

“I can’t believe I’ve finally got my own room!” Eric shouted as he came running to the front of the house. “I can’t wait to make it my own!”

“Well now, that’ll be a lot easier when things are unloaded from the wagon,” Pa reminded him. “Which is what you’re supposed to be doing.”

Eric grumbled and Pa laughed as the two headed back toward the wagon.

“What do you think, Susannah?” her mother asked as she turned around. “Now that you have your own room?”

“It’s a change, but I’m happy for it,” Susannah said with her usual bright smile. She was busy sweeping the floor while her brother helped Pa unload the wagon, and their mother pulled the sheets from the furniture in the house. “I’m excited to be here, Ma. I really hope things are better here.”

“They will be,” her mother promised, but Susannah could see the distant look in her eye. It was a look that told Susannah that her mother hoped what she said was true just as much as Susannah herself did.

“Say, look there,” Susannah said, nodding toward the door. “Do we have company?”

“Why, it looks like we do!” Ma said with surprise in her tone. “Douglas, come quick. We have company!”

Eric and their father were struggling with a heavy trunk, working together to get it through the narrow doorway and into the house. Both looked surprised at what Ma announced, and Eric nearly dropped his half of the burden.

“Pay attention! You don’t want to break anything.” Pa laughed, and Susannah hurried forward to help her brother with his side of the trunk. They worked together to place it in the corner of the room to unpack later just as the small group of people, two women and a man, reached the front door.

“Hello, hello!” the older woman in the group spoke. Susannah’s eyes swept over the party, seeing that one of the women was near her mother’s age, and the other woman looked to be near her own.

The way the younger woman kept looking to the young man next to her with a shy smile on her face told Susannah that the two must be a couple. When she saw the ring on the woman’s finger, she realized they were married.

“Hello and welcome!” Ma said as she motioned for the group to come inside.

“You must be the Murphy family,” the woman continued. “My name is Louise Kline, and this my son, Theo, and his wife, Lenore.”

“Douglas Murphy,” Pa said as he extended his hand. “My wife, Geraldine, and our children, Susannah and Eric.”

“Pleased to meet you all!” Louise said. “I figured you didn’t have the time to cook anything, and you must be famished after the trip, so I brought some sandwiches.”

“Oh, you are too kind!” Ma cried, taking the basket. “Susannah, pull out the dishes. I suppose it works out well that those were the first things I put away!”

Susannah hurried to do as she was told, and she was surprised when Lenore moved to help.

“Sure is nice to have another young lady on the ranch,” Lenore said with a welcoming smile. “I love my mother-in-law, but it’ll be good to have someone closer to my age. What with all these men folk around, conversations can be a bit one-sided.”

“Do you live on the ranch, too?” Susannah asked, and she hoped her tone wasn’t too excited.

“Well, sort of like you do,” Lenore explained. “Me and my husband live in a small house round the other corner of the property, not half a mile from this place. Theo used to live with his mother in the big house, but once he and I got married, we moved into a place of our own.”

“I would love to come visit you sometime,” Susannah told her. Briefly, she considered how going to visit would take her right by the large main house of the ranch. That would mean she’d be close to the Reeds themselves, and the thought send a nervous feeling down her spine.

What was the pair like? The older Mr. Reed must be very rich to live in such a large house on so much land. Not to mention, he had a lot of men working for him. That was intimidating to Susannah after the poverty she’d been raised in.

Then there was the thought of the young Mr. Reed. What was he like?Would he be handsome? Would he even pay her any mind?

Perhaps he would think of her as nothing more than the daughter of a man who worked for him. Would he even acknowledge her?

Of course, not only had the Reeds hired her father to work for them, but they had provided the house and land to her family as well. That said something about their characters, even if there was far more mystery present than what she knew.

“Oh, yes! That would be lovely,” Lenore cried.

The statement brought Susannah back to the present, and she smiled sheepishly. She hadn’t meant to let her mind wander, but she certainly had her questions about the Reeds.

“Where are you going?” Ma’s voice broke into the girls’ conversation, and they both looked up in surprise. It was then that Susannah realized her father was getting ready to leave the house, and it seemed Mr. Kline was as well. As the Klines had only just arrived, it seemed odd to Susannah that they were getting ready to leave so soon.

“Aren’t you going to eat some food?” Ma continued.

“I’ll have some when I get back, dear,” Pa replied. “Mr. Kline offered to show us around the property, and I would love the chance to finally see it in person.”

“And it can’t wait until after lunch?” Ma asked, raising an eyebrow. Susannah knew the look well. It was the sort of look her mother gave when she expected things to be done properly and they weren’t.

“There’s no hurry,” Mr. Kline started, but Susannah’s father was much too excited to wait.

“Geraldine, you know how long we’ve been dreaming of this. I think it’s only right that we see what really needs to be done around the place. This is our bread and butter now, and I’m not going to procrastinate my first day.”

Susannah wondered if her father was just as eager to meet the Reeds as she was. Perhaps that was part of the reason why he wanted to leave the house and head onto the ranch. Of course, she kept her thoughts to herself.

“If only all our ranch hands had the same work ethic as you do,” Theo said, and Susannah saw the look Lenore gave him. But it was clear that the men were leaving, and a part of Susannah was glad for it.

She wanted the chance to visit with Lenore, and if the men were around, they would likely only talk of work things at the table.

“May I go, too, Pa? Can I?” Eric piped up. “I want to work on the ranch, too! I do!”

“I suppose it’s not a bad idea,” Pa said.

“Well, you, at least, are going to take something with you to eat, young man,” Ma said as she pulled half a sandwich out of the basket and placed it in Eric’s hand. Though Eric didn’t look too pleased with the directive, he did take a large bite out of the sandwich on his way out the door.

“I’m sure Theo wants to get the other supplies we were bringing this way, too,” Louise explained when the men were gone. “And perhaps introduce Mr. Murphy to Mr. Reed, if he’s around.”

“You shouldn’t have gone to such trouble,” Ma said with a shake of her head. “So much work! We’re supposed to be here to lighten the load, not bring more work on anyone!”

“Oh, nonsense,” Louise said with a wave of her hand. “It’s the neighborly thing to do, isn’t it? And like Lenore and I have already said, it’ll be nice having women folk around!”

“I’m happy for that as well,” Ma told her. “I figured living on a working ranch meant we’d be surrounded largely by men. Although, I can’t say that’s a bad thing if they’re good looking.”

She gave a wink to Susannah, who groaned.

“Ma! Don’t!” she said, and the other women laughed.

“I’m a bit too old to decide how good looking any of them are, but I’m glad Lenore found my Theo handsome,” Louise said as she smiled at her daughter-in-law. Lenore blushed and looked down at her hands.

“There’s plenty of fine men in the group, I’ll say. If you’re looking, Susannah,” Lenore said in a quiet tone. Now it was Susannah’s turn to blush.

“I don’t know,” she said. “Never really found a man who caught my eye.”

As she said the words, her mind flashed on the handsome stranger from the mercantile, and her blush deepened. She had no way of knowing who he was, and she wasn’t going to bring him up to Lenore. How would she even begin to describe him?

She’d noticed he had blond hair and looked strong. His eyes were kind, and his very presence had caused a jolt to run through her, but just the thought of saying such a thing out loud made her feel silly. Foolish, even.

How would she sound describing a man she hadn’t even found the words to talk to?

I saw a handsome man who looked strong in the mercantile. He helped me with my purchases, but I didn’t get the chance to really talk to him. Do you know who he could be? She’d think I was sick with puppy love!

“Well,” Ma broke into Susannah’s thoughts, “at any rate, we didn’t come out here to find Susannah a husband, welcome as that would be. We’re here because we’re a working family, and there’s work to be done.”