Mail Order Bride and The Mix-up (A Western Romance Book)(COMPLETED)

Chapter 15

Belle opened her eyes and stared out at the sunset from the porch of the Angel Reach hotel she could not seem to get away from. She couldn't believe that just this morning she'd been in Mellow Pass, and now she was here. Home. She would never leave this place again. She should never have left it in the first place.

If you hadn't, you'd never have found Anthony.

She conceded that the tiny voice in her head had a point, but it did little to make her feel better. There was nothing for her outside the borders of Angel's Reach except cruelty. She would miss Anthony, but he had promised to visit her here often, and after a time, she would visit him there as well. She had to let her heart repair itself a little first. If she ran into Ira now, it would shatter all over again, and she didn't know how many times it could be mended.

Gertrude came by and sat beside her in one of the other rocking chairs. They rocked silently together, watching the colors of the sky change.

"I'm sorry," Gertrude said as deep purples and golds filled the sky, the last of the light.

Belle looked at her. "What for?"

"For my selfishness," she said, and even in this light Belle could see her cheeks coloring. "I wanted you here with me and I... I prayed that God might help bring you home. I never imagined... I never thought." She wiped at her eyes. "I didn't want you to suffer, I only missed my friend."

Belle leaned to her left and slipped an arm around Gertrude's shoulders, hugging her lightly. "It's not your fault that Ira turned out to be a liar," she said.

Gertrude nodded and grasped Belle's hand, giving it a light squeeze. Belle let her go and they resumed their rocking. "What did he lie to you about?" Gertrude asked a moment later. Belle turned her head in her direction. "When you showed up this afternoon, you only told us that things between you and Ira were finished, that he was a liar, but you never actually said what he did." She bit her lip. "Forgive me if I'm being too bold in asking."

Belle smiled. "You're not too bold, you're my friend. You may ask me anything." She paused and then said, "Ira's surname is not Barton, it is Sullivan. As in the Sullivan Hotel, where we were staying in town."

Gertrude's eyes widened. "You mean he's of the family that owns the place?"

"Not just of the family. He's the one in charge of it all. He owns it, and several other hotels besides. He's not a poor clerk at all, he's a rich hotel owner."

Gertrude's eyes glowed in the almost faded sunlight. "And?" she asked.

"And?" Belle said, confused. "And what?"

"And what else did he do?"

Belle looked at her friend. "Nothing. That's it."

Gertrude narrowed her eyes. "You mean Ira lied about his name and being rich... and that's it?"

Belle's irritation began to churn, but she was more flustered than anything else at the moment. "Is that not enough?" she demanded. "He lied."

"But why did he lie?"

"He claimed when he first met me he was afraid I'd be like other women and after him for his money, then later when he realized I wasn't, he didn't know how to extricate himself from the situation."

"There you have it then," said Gertrude as if his deception was a perfectly natural thing to do. "All men lie, women too. Mostly about little things but—"

"His name and what he does are not little things," snapped Belle.

"Yes, but of all the things to lie about, they're hardly the worst," Gertrude said. "He did not hurt you physically?"

"No," she said at once. "Ira would never touch me like that."

"He did not cross you for another woman?"

"Most definitely not. In fact... he proposed to me."

Gertrude's eyes widened. "Do you believe him to have been serious?"

Belle hesitated. "He had a ring."

"Then he was serious enough," Gertrude said with a sigh. "And although I admit having misgivings about him at first, those have long faded. He cannot be all bad if he's smart enough to love you."

"So, you think I'm in error?" Belle asked, frowning.

Gertrude opened her mouth to respond and Cadence came running towards them. She was out of breath. "Tabitha spotted a man riding towards us in the distance. To our stations!"

Gertrude and Belle hurried to their stations without a further word. Gertrude's gun was already strapped to her hip, but Belle had to return to her room to get hers. She kicked herself for not putting it on her holster the moment she'd arrived back in Angel's Reach.

All women here had to learn to shoot and carry a weapon so that they could defend themselves as well as the town. It was one of the many rules in Angel's Reach, along with "No Men Allowed." Though, as Cadence had pointed out to her more than once, that particular rule had room for exceptions, and some women wanted it changed altogether.

Belle crouched on the roof of the post office with Gertrude and Tabitha, who had was young and always quick to fire. "I see him!" Tabitha said and raised her gun.

Belle squinted into the darkness and made out just enough of the man's figure to realize who he was. "No!" she shouted and pushed Tabitha's arm up just as she pulled the trigger. The shot fired into the sky instead of into Ira's chest. He paused on his horse, looking around. Tabitha looked at her as though she were crazy.

"It's Ira," she told Tabitha and Gertrude. Cadence was looking at them from the roof of another building across the way, the town's sheriff, Estelle, at her side. They shouted to her as she ran down the stairs and out to meet Ira, but she ignored their questions. Gertrude could explain it all to them if she wished.

Ira was looking at her as though she were a giant cockroach. "You shot at me," he said. There was hurt in his voice as well as anger.

"I didn't shoot at you," she corrected him. "One of the other townswomen did. And she was only doing her job. You should not be riding up to our town at night, it makes you seem dangerous. Did you not see our sign?"

"What sign?" he asked.

"No men allowed. Turn back now or risk death."

"I thought that was a joke," he said.

"We don't joke about our town's safety," Belle told him, relieved he'd not been injured before remembering she was angry with him.

He got down off his horse, his well-formed muscles moving easily beneath his clothing. "I left Mellow Pass the moment I realized you were gone," he said.

She dug her toe into the ground. "What for?"

"Is it not obvious?" he said. "For you. I love you, and I won't let you go."

"You have no choice in the matter," she said but felt her anger begin to give as her conversation with Gertrude replayed in her mind. She turned her head and saw Tabitha watching them from the roof, her gun at the ready.

"Let's go into the saloon," she said, "before you're shot."

"Good idea. If I'm shot, I shall never be able to win back your heart."

Belle laughed. "You shall never win it either way."

"We'll see," he said. "It's amazing what a new day can bring."

Belle bit her bottom lip and, to herself at least, admitted that new days had a way of changing things... oftentimes, for the better.

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