The Vow Read Online Free Page B

they weren’t interrupted.

    Ezra stared at his wife’s stiff back turned toward him in the bed they shared.
    Naomi was going to make him pay for not taking Nate’s side tonight.
    Whenever he displeased his wife, she turned her back to him and slept as near to the opposite edge of the bed as she could without falling out. The space between them was as cold as the Connecticut River in January.
    Ezra sighed as he watched the white curtains billow ever so slightly in the faint night breeze. While he wouldn’t admit this to Naomi, he believed Hannah’s story. He didn’t share his wife’s illusions about her three boys. Privately, he agreed with Hannah. Nate, Zeb, and Zeke were stupid and uncouth, Nate worst of all.
    Ezra had watched Nate ever since Hannah came to live with them. He had caught him leering at the girl often enough. He suspected Nate put his hands on her under the table at dinner and thought no one noticed. Ezra noticed, all right.
    Hannah…
    Ezra shook his head in the darkness. What was he going to do about this niece? She may have been a burden to him and a temptation for his stepsons, but she was still his late sister’s only child, and he felt responsible for her. But she was a disruptive force in his household, and it was only a matter of time before Nate or one of the other boys lost his head and had his way with her.
    Ezra had to do something about Hannah, and fast.
    An idea came to him just before he fell asleep.

    www.samhainpublishing.com
    25

    Lindsay Chase
    Reiver Shaw sipped his sweet cider beneath the cool shade of Bickford’s oak tree and wondered what the old skinflint wanted. He still couldn’t believe that Bickford had actually sent one of his stepsons to Reiver’s house with a note inviting him to stop by the tobacco farm to discuss a matter of mutual concern.
    The Racebrook land, Reiver thought. He’s going to sell me the land.
    He took another sip and forced himself to relax. He mustn’t let the old skinflint get the upper hand. So he nonchalantly discussed the sweltering weather and asked about Ezra’s tobacco crop.
    When the tankards were half-empty, Ezra drew his sleeve across his mouth.
    “Bet you’re wondering why I asked you to come calling today, Shaw.”
    “The thought had crossed my mind.”
    “Want to make a deal.”
    “What kind of deal?”
    “For the Racebrook land.”
    Reiver set down his tankard and leaned back in his chair. “You ready to sell?” Finally.
    “Yup.”
    “Well, name your price, and I’ll see if I want to meet it.”
    “Prime land. Hate to part with it.”
    “Then why are you offering it to me?” he asked with a nonchalant shrug.
    “’Cause you can do something for me.”
    Reiver felt a shiver of suspicion crawl up his spine. “And what might that be?”
    “Niece needs a husband.”
    Reiver stared speechlessly at Bickford. When he regained his voice, he said,
    “Me? You want me to marry Hannah?”
    26
    www.samhainpublishing.com

    The Vow
    “Yup. For the Racebrook land. Can’t give it to you. Sell it for fifty dollars an acre. And Hannah. Take it or leave it.”
    Reiver rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Fifty dollars an acre isn’t any bargain.
    That’s how much you’d expect to get for it without Hannah.” He smiled. “I need an incentive to marry her, Bickford. A powerful incentive.”
    “Forty an acre, then.”
    “Ten.”
    Bickford turned purple and his small, dark eyes bulged from their sockets.
    “ Ten! ” he sputtered. “You’re crazy, Shaw! That’s giving it away.”
    Reiver shrugged. “If you want me to marry a woman I don’t want, you have to make it worth my while.”
    “Twenty, then.”
    “Fifteen.”
    “Twenty. Take it or leave it.”
    “Seventeen. And that’s my last offer.”
    Bickford glared at him, his jaw working. Finally he said, “Deal. Seventeen an acre, and Hannah.”
    Reiver wanted that land so badly he felt light-headed. But was it worth marrying a woman he didn’t know to get it?
    “What