Renegade Bride Read Online Free Page A

sympathetically. "'Tis sure ye are that goin's the right thing, lass?"
    "What else can I do? But I can tell you, Seth will have a piece of my mind for this." Her anger faltered. "When he... when he gets well, that is."
    "And he will, Mari. Don't you be worryin' yerself sick over it. Yer man'll be fine. You'll see." She patted Mariah's arm. "Come along now. Jamie will find us a place close by where ye can change out of these things."
    Mariah cast one last, disparaging glance at the tall man aboard the Luella. She wondered exactly how long it would take to travel the almost two hundred miles between here and Virginia City. Four days? Five? How would she stand being near him for that long?
    One thing was certain: however long it took, she'd be counting the minutes until Creed Devereaux would be out of her life and she'd be safely back with Seth.
    * * *
    The hand-lettered wooden sign above the A.J. Oliver Stagecoach Depot swung in the rising breeze and nudged the still-green wood frame building with a steady, annoying thud. Creed leaned one shoulder against the storefront wall, keeping time with the toe of his boot against the wooden walkway.
    Tossing his cheroot down, he ground it to ashes beneath his heel and yanked his watch out of his pocket for a third time. Thirty minutes, he'd told her. It had been nearly forty and the driver was stowing the last of the luggage into the canvas-covered boot of the mud-coach. Creed's agitated gaze swept the crowded street. Where is she?
    "Pow, pow!"
    Two young boys careened by him in the muddy street, shooting imaginary guns at each other.
    "You're dead, Jeremy!" cried the older of the two, a boy whose worn britches were held up by a piece of twine.
    "Ain't neither!" retorted the smaller one, balling his fists on his hips. His small face clouded like a thunder-head.
    "Are so! I got ya 'tween the eyes, outlaw!"
    Turning to make good his escape, the younger boy raced up the steps and collided with Creed's knees with a whoof of breath.
    "Whoa, there," Creed said with a gruff smile as he caught the boy by the shoulders before he could fall to the planked flooring. He steadied him while the tow-headed child, wide-eyed and open-mouthed, scanned Creed's extraordinary height.
    "Sorry, mister," Jeremy mumbled. "I didn't mean to—"
    "It's all right, boy. You didn't do much damage," Creed answered with a grin, brushing a smear of dirt from the boy's shoulder.
    "Jeremy! Michael!" came a woman's shrill voice from the walkway behind Creed. Hot on the boys' heels, she gathered Jeremy up under her wings like a prairie hen, then cast a wary look up at Creed. It was a look he'd seen a hundred times before. He'd grown used to it, in fact.
    "Come along boys," the woman went on. "It's time to go home."
    "Oh, Ma..." the older boy complained. "We was just—"
    "Not now, Michael. I swan," she muttered, looking pointedly at Creed, "decent people aren't safe on this street anymore."
    Creed's body tensed as he watched the woman hurry her boys by him—the same way he'd seen mothers hurry their children by tattered beggars in the streets of St. Louis years ago with his father. Creed folded his arms tightly across his chest and tried to ignore the stares he'd drawn from the group of male stage passengers waiting nearby.
    "You buyin' a ticket for yourself, too, mister?" asked the balding clerk behind the barred window. He peered above his spectacles and pointed toward Creed's gelding. "The horse won't cost ya no extra to tow."
    "No," Creed snapped, imagining three days of close confinement with a woman who'd made it clear she despised him. "I'm not buying a ticket."
    With a knowing shrug, the clerk glanced up at the gathering clouds. "Looks like rain. Eh-yup."
    Creed's eyes flicked up toward the darkening sky, then back to the road that led to the fort. He wasn't in the mood for small talk or weather predictions. He wasn't in the mood for much of anything but a good, stiff drink.
    "You're him, ain't you?"
    Creed's glance