The Borrowed Bride Read Online Free Page A

The Borrowed Bride
Book: The Borrowed Bride Read Online Free
Author: Susan Wiggs
Tags: Fiction, General, Romance
Pages:
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They had arrived on Dan’s Harley. She still had the grass stains on her hem from the bouncing cross-country ride. But there had to be a path to follow, maybe a logging track or the road the builders had used to haul materials to the lodge.
    Dan had explained that lodge guests would typically arrive by helicopter, landing on the helipad a short hike uphill. That had a lesser environmental impact than clearing the woods for a road.
    Muttering under her breath, she continued down thehill, thinking that if she just kept going down, eventually she would reach the dirt road and then the highway.
    Within half an hour, she had decided that bridal-shower clothes were not appropriate for treks through trackless wilderness.
    In another half hour, she paused to note that the sun was to her left. That was west. Seattle was to the northwest. But another hour after that, she realized the sun was setting, and if anything, she had wandered into even denser woods.
    Finally, to top off a really good day, it began to drizzle.
    The foul word that came out of Isabel surprised even her. The hem of her skirt trailed over a spray of thick fern fronds.
    That is the nokosa plant, said an almost forgotten voice in her mind. Our people use it to heal wounds.
    “Sure thing,” Isabel muttered. “So what do you use to keep from getting lost in the wilderness?”
    Not that she would heed any advice from that voice. It was the voice of the first man who had betrayed Isabel: her father.
    She clenched her teeth. This was outrageous. She saw the headlines now: Prominent Businessman’s Bride Found Dead. She just wasn’t herself that day, Connie would helpfully recall for the press.
    Isabel plodded on, keeping despair at bay with sheer stubbornness. The shadows grew longer, the forest floor wetter. With every step she took, she devised a new torture for Dan.
    The light rain misted her hair, then plastered strands of it to her forehead and neck. Her skirt and cottonjersey top were soaked through. Her espadrilles absorbed moisture like a pair of sponges.
    Miserable, wet, lost and furious, she shook her fist at the cloudy twilight sky. “Damn you, Dan Black Horse!” she shouted.
    A few minutes later, she spied a movement in the distance. Low branches of Sitka spruce nodded and bobbed as something huge and menacing stirred beneath them.
    Another choice headline popped into her mind: Bainbridge Bride-To-Be Butchered By Bear.
    Isabel screamed.
     
    When Dan came back from feeding the horses, he assumed Isabel had gone to look around the place.
    Good, he thought. He had worked hard to build the lodge. Harder than he had ever worked at anything. Making it in the music business had been a cakewalk compared to this—to wresting a working enterprise out of a virgin forest without disturbing the very essence of that wilderness. The property consisted of the lodge and outbuildings, a central yard with a spectacular view of Mount Adams, the stables, garage and helipad. It would have been quicker to bring in bulldozers and cement mixers, but he had done everything the hard way. By hand, with local labor. Native American labor.
    He hoped Isabel liked it, hoped she realized what it meant to him. Maybe she would open her mind to the past, and her heart to the tribe she’d been made to leave so long ago.
    He sat on the cedar porch swing, waiting for her to return and planning what he would say to her tonight.
    First, dinner. Grilled salmon from the river, some greens and herbs from Juanita’s garden and a nice Washington State wine. Then he’d tell her everything. Almost.
    He figured it was a little too soon to tell her he was on the verge of bankruptcy. And maybe too late to tell her that he loved her.
    After a while, he grew restless. He got up and paced the porch. He called to Isabel. He walked the length and breadth and circumference of the entire property.
    Finally, the sick realization sank into his brain.
    Isabel was gone.
     
    “Lady, you look like you seen a
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