A Bride for the Scarred Rancher (Preview)

Chapter One

May 1880

Redwood Creek, New Mexico

The train had come to a stop in the station in the small town of Redwood Creek a couple of minutes earlier. Still, Lily Carrington sat in the women’s sleeping car, holding the handle of her suitcase in white-knuckled hands.

This is it. There’s no going back now. I’m going to get up and leave this compartment. I’m going to step onto the platform, meet my husband-to-be, and all will be well. I know it will. So… why won’t my legs move?

“Come on, Lily! You can do this. Stand up!”

Her voice sounded odd in the empty compartment, surrounded by all of that velvet and plush that seemed to soak up her words. Still, Lily’s frozen limbs managed to finally obey her mind’s commands, and she stood.

“Now, walk to the door,” she said firmly, as though instructing someone else.

She did.

Her fingers hovered over the handle, not wanting to grasp it just yet. When she opened that door, all pretense that this wasn’t what her life had become would fall away, and she would have to embrace her future. She wished it hadn’t come to this.

The handle depressed as though of its own accord and the door slid open.

A woman stood in the doorway, her mouth making an “O.”

“Pardon me,” Lily said politely as she stepped back to allow the woman entrance.

“Oh, no, it’s all me. Thank you, though,” the woman said, moving into the compartment with her bag in hand. She looked around, taking the space in. “It’s lovely.”

“It’s comfortable,” Lily confirmed. “Have a safe journey.”

She didn’t wait for a reply, afraid that any more dallying would result in her never getting off this train. Her life would be spent going from coast to coast, always in motion and never finding where she belonged.

Feeling as she imagined a spawning salmon might feel swimming upstream, Lily fought her way through the people entering the train to embark on their own journeys. There were quite a few of them, and as the corridor was quite narrow, it was difficult to squeeze past with bags in hand. Still, she struggled on and eventually found a door that led to the platform.

It was a large wooden construction but oddly open to the elements. There was a bit of a slanted roof above her head, a small ticket office near the far end of the platform, and nothing but wood and people between. There weren’t even any walls. This station wasn’t so much a station as a stopping point on the tracks.

The heat hit her.

Dry and already so much more than even a blistering summer’s day in Missouri could generate, Lily began to wonder if she was perhaps in a cauldron being cooked. It certainly seemed that way from how the air felt as she breathed it in.

Ramming her straw hat on her head, Lily made her way across the creaking and squeaking wooden platform to a set of stairs at the far end. They led down to a little patch of open ground and then to the street.

It was wide and there were several carts, horses, and people passing by. On the other side of the street, she spotted what looked like a tobacconist’s store. The sign above the door swung in the hot breeze that only pushed the baking air around.

Not sure what she was meant to do, Lily withdrew an envelope from her handbag and opened the letter within.

“Wait for me by the steps of the station. I’ll be along to collect you.”

It was somewhat concerning. The words “be along to collect you” don’t really imply any kind of urgency in reaching me.

She looked around. Her husband-to-be was quite precise in his instructions, which was oddly incongruent with the rest of his letters’ contents. Caleb had come across as a kind, thoughtful person with a flair for poetry. He’d written quite a few verses of poems he’d clearly felt she would enjoy.

And Lily had enjoyed them. She was looking forward to reading some poetry together in the evenings, perhaps. Picturing them sitting by the fire in a well-appointed parlor, she had a few ideas of what life on the farm would be like.

After the last few months, moving from place to place, never staying still for a moment, this might be a good thing. Perhaps, settling down out here, where no one was likely to find her, would change her fortune.

As things stood, her fortune needed a lot of change.

Feeling restless in the oppressive sunshine, she cast her gaze around again. Across the street, beside the tobacconist’s store, was a store that had a deep front porch. The shade looked very inviting.

Turning, she looked back up at the station. She could perhaps wait up the stairs, under the roof, but then she was bound to be in the way. The store across the street didn’t seem busy. Perhaps she could simply wait there for a few minutes.

Caleb was bound to arrive at any moment and take her to his ranch. Their ranch. Would it be their ranch? Would he include her in the ownership of it? Probably not at first, and she didn’t expect him to. She was merely curious.

There were a lot of people on the street and hanging around the station. Looking up and down the road, Lily wondered what they were waiting for. The others who were going about their business didn’t seem to notice them. They walked about, talking to each other.

Redwood Creek was a lot busier than she had thought it would be, though the traffic seemed to be less than what she was used to in St. Louis. Would she miss the traffic? The shouts and neighs and thudding of hooves? Only time would tell.

Where is he? I’m roasting alive out here.

Something across the street caught her eye. A little girl and a woman who was most likely her mother emerged from a store. The little girl held something in her hand. It looked like some sort of sticky pastry as the syrup had already begun to run down her hand and up her arm.

With her little pink tongue, she began to lick at the stuff while her mother hurried her to the curb. Her mother had her by the other non-sticky hand and was dragging her along. At the curb, the mother halted.

She exchanged several words with the child, who didn’t seem to be too invested in the conversation. Then, without warning, she tugged on the little girl’s arm, dragging her into the street.

Lily had a terrible feeling. The little girl was too engrossed in her treat. She wasn’t watching where she put her feet.

“Oh no!” Lily gasped as the tip of the little girl’s boot snagged on a stone jutting from the ground.

Looking up the street, Lily saw the cart coming as the little girl fell. Her hand slipped from her mother’s and she landed on her knees, still trying to save the sticky pastry.

Without thinking further, Lily left her bags and stepped into the street. She held up a hand for the cart driver, yelling for him to stop.

Clearly surprised at finding a woman in his way, the driver hauled on the reins and, with a whinny of protest, his horse came to a halt.

Behind her, Lily heard the mother, the high pitch of her voice betraying her shock as she spoke to her daughter. “Get up, Trudy! Hurry!”

Lily looked over her shoulder as the mother hurried her child to the sidewalk. Then she stepped out of the driver’s way. He nodded to her.

“Thanks, I didn’t see the little girl,” he admitted.

Lily nodded. “At least she’s okay.”

The driver drove on, and Lily turned to find the sticky child smiling up at her.

“Thank you, miss,” Trudy said.

“Thank you,” her mother echoed.

“It was nothing,” Lily said. “Just watch out when crossing the road, okay?” This she said to Trudy, who nodded.

“Oh, I will,” she promised.

A few of the folks on the sidewalk nodded their approval to Lily and then she settled back to wait. It seemed to be ages. She wondered if she had written the right date and time on the letter she’d sent Caleb once she’d bought her ticket. Perhaps she had gotten something wrong?

Looking down the line of men, and nothing it had grown by a few new faces, she wondered if she should walk over and ask them. Maybe one of them was Caleb and he was wondering if she was herself.

That would be quite ridiculous, the two of them on the same side of the street, waiting for the other to make a move. Utterly ridiculous.

Perhaps he was the one wearing the broad-brimmed hat pulled down low over his face. Or the one with his shirt sleeves rolled up, fetching his horse some water from the trough outside the station. He could be the man digging through his pockets as though looking for his keys or money purse. It was possible that Caleb was any one of half a dozen others or none of them at all.

Lily sighed and pursed her lips. That shady porch was starting to look mighty fine. She’d go there. Then, when Caleb arrived, she would at least not be burned to a crisp.

If this is May here, what is August like?

Suitcase in hand, she walked to the street and peered out into the traffic, which seemed to come in fits and starts. A cart trundled by, followed by three men on horseback. They smiled at her, but she ignored them. All she had eyes for was the shade.

Up the slight rise in the street, some sort of kerfuffle was on the go. A couple of men shouted something, but Lily ignored that, too. It had nothing to do with her.

Okay, the coast looked clear. Lily took a step into the street.

A shout rang out again from up the street. It sounded urgent, but she couldn’t make out the words over the general noise around her. For a small town, Redwood Creek was loud with voices and horses neighing and whinnying.

A hand grabbed her arm.

Lily stiffened. Her heart jumped into her throat and thudded there, shocked and fearful. Something like a rush of air swung by her left-hand side and Lily turned her head to find that the side of a cart was less than an inch from her face. She should take heed of her own words.

The hand on her arm was strong, it gave a jerk, and the cart receded from her view. It no longer took up everything she could see.

Turning her head, to look at her rescuer, Lily found herself face to face with the man with the hat pulled down low.

“You almost got yourself killed there, ma’am,” he said. “Don’t folks check that there’s no traffic before crossing the street where you’re from?”

Lily was too shocked to be offended. She blinked and looked around, bewildered. “I… but I did… I looked…”

“Not properly. Didn’t you hear those men calling?” the man demanded, glaring at her, his eyes seeming to bore into her. “That was a runaway cart, no way to stop it until it reached the bottom of the hill. By then you’d’ve been a squashed tomato on the ground.”

Indignation coupled with a hefty dose of embarrassment filled Lily. She pointedly glared at the hand holding her arm and froze.

There was something wrong with the hand. It had all of its fingers, from what she could see, but the skin… it wasn’t right. It looked melted, as though it was made of wax and left out in this terrible sun too long.

Instantly, she recoiled, looking up into the man’s face with fear and revulsion running through her. The melted skin was also on his chin and ran up the side of his face, disappearing just by his right ear. Even his dark hair couldn’t hide the scarring on his neck that continued into his collar. Was his whole body covered in them?

The man released his grip on her and stood back, looking more chastised than if she had slapped his face.

“I… I’m sorry,” Lily said, taking a step closer to him and speaking in a low, measured voice. “I didn’t mean—”

“It’s not a problem, ma’am,” he said, lowering his head so that his hat once again turned his face to shadow.

“I’m not a ma’am,” Lily said, losing her temper with the whole situation. “I’m a miss. Miss Lily Carrington, and—”

The man raised his chin. “Lily Carrington?”

A strange silence followed in which Lily’s fears rose to just below the surface.

“And you are?” she asked when he said nothing else.

After a moment’s hesitation, the man spoke his name. “Caleb… I’m Caleb Lawson.”

“You’re Caleb?” Lily asked, surprised and horrified at the same time. Of course he is. It would seem that fate is not without a sense of irony. Here I am running from one horror into the clutches of another.

It was rude to stare and yet Lily didn’t seem able to stop. Her eyes kept roaming over the scars, the melted skin on both of Caleb’s hands and up his arms to where his shirt sleeves thankfully covered them.

Of all the surprises that could have lain in wait here for her, she had never expected this. Not a man, broken and disfigured, who now expected her to marry him.

Her gaze rose to his eyes and there she saw a deep, profound sadness in their hazel depths. The weight of her reaction to him settled on her shoulders. She had been unforgivably rude and thoughtless. Her mother would chastise her for this. The point to coming from good stock was to always behave with compassion and understanding. To always be aware that her reaction could make a massive difference in people’s lives. She had let this poor man down, terribly, and she would have to make it right.

“It’s like Beauty and the Beast,” she said softly, speaking more to herself than anyone else.

“Pardon?” he asked, frowning.

Oh, please let him not have heard that.

“Nothing,” Lily said, forcing herself to smile. “Well, now that we’ve been introduced, we should shake hands.” She held out hers and waited for him to respond.

Caleb’s gaze met and held hers for a long moment. He frowned as though in the midst of a personal battle with himself. Eventually, he extended his hand and took hers. She tried not to flinch at his touch.

To be disfigured like that… something horrific must have happened to him. Lily knew she should have compassion for him. Perhaps it would come in time.

“Okay, then,” he said, letting her hand go. “We should head over to the chapel. The pastor said he would perform the wedding ceremony for us right away.”

“Oh. Is that so?” Lily asked.

“Is that a problem?” Caleb asked.

“We only just met,” she said quietly.

“I know, but this is just to avoid difficult situations later,” Caleb said. “There are no chaperones at the farm. I wouldn’t be able to guarantee that your reputation would remain—”

Lily smiled. “Fine. Let’s go.”

What do I have to lose? I came out here to marry him. It was all laid out in the letters we sent.

Caleb led her down the street a little way to where he had a cart waiting. Another man sat in the driver’s seat. Sandy hair poked out from under his hat, and he wore a broad grin. There were no scars on him.

Funny how that was the first thing that Lily noticed about him.

“Lily… you don’t mind if I call you by your first name?” Caleb asked.

She shook her head.

“This is my ranch hand, Jed Norton,” Caleb said.

“Pleasure to meet you,” Jed said, shaking Lily’s hand.

He helped her up into the cart and Caleb followed. Soon they were off, heading up the street. They took a turn or two and then arrived outside a quaint little chapel. It was made of stone and had a tall bell tower in the front.

Lily’s hands were sweating. She had hoped to have a couple of days before being taken to the chapel and turned into Mrs. Lawson. What if she and Caleb couldn’t get along? What if, now that they had to share the same space, they found it was impossible for them to do?

Caleb and Jed ushered her into the cool, dim interior of the chapel. At least she was out of the excessive heat. Lily breathed a sigh of relief. Perhaps it was her attire that was causing her such discomfort. Her jacket and shirt were possibly too warm for this climate and this time of the year. It was something to consider.

Striding down the aisle, they came to the front of the church and found the pastor, a tall, thin man, sitting in the one of the pews. His head was bowed but he looked up when they reached him.

“You’re tardy, Caleb,” he said.

“Yes, I’m sorry, Pastor Eaton,” Caleb said.

The pastor stood, waving the apology away. “Let’s not waste more time. I take it this is the young lady in question?”

Lily nodded.

“And you’re ready to marry Caleb?” he asked.

Lily hesitated. Was she ready?

Well, she had to be. There was no going back. With a steel resolve that didn’t quite make it all the way through her, she nodded. “Yes, Pastor. I’m ready.”

“Wonderful. Come on, Jane,” he said turning to a woman that Lily hadn’t noticed sitting beside him. She was demure, with the lightest hair that Lily had ever seen. Even her eyes were light, a pale green like new leaves on a tree.

They took their places and the ceremony began.

Lily had always imagined that her wedding would be held in some grand church. There would be hundreds of guests, and her reception would be held in an expensive hotel restaurant. There would be romance, love, and spectacle. The groom would be handsome, and she would be radiant in a flowing white gown.

This couldn’t be further from reality. And now, she was stuck in it.

A little piece of the person that Lily used to be shattered and died when she said those two words: “I do.”

Chapter Two

May 1880

Caleb Lawon stood rigidly as he promised so many things before two witnesses and God. Love and honor and so on and so on. He had every intension of keeping his vows, but he wasn’t so sure that his bride felt the same.

She was beautiful with her expressive green eyes and her dark blonde hair that looked so magnificently soft. Lily was a lady of breeding, the kind of woman who could have had any man she wanted, and yet here she stood with him. Perhaps it was just a trick of fate that had landed them in this situation, a humble ranch owner marrying a rich society lady.

“You may now kiss your bride,” Pastor Eaton intoned.

Caleb looked at Lily and saw the fear in her eyes. They hadn’t known each other in the flesh for more than an hour or so, it was only natural that she wasn’t comfortable with him touching her. Still, it hurt a little that her eyes darted to his scars and then back to his eyes.

Leaning in while being careful not to crowd her, Caleb chastely pressed his lips to her cheek.

Lily let out a little gasp of surprise. Perhaps she had expected him to kiss her lips. But he wouldn’t do that unless she asked him to.

“Well, you’re done,” Pastor Eaton said with sigh. “The next happy couple is due to arrive any moment. You might want to leave before they arrive.” He turned and headed out of the chapel through a door to the side.

It really didn’t feel even vaguely special when the pastor treated the whole thing as something he had to get through to finally arrive at dinner that evening.

“Congratulations,” said Jane, the pastor’s daughter. She was very pale but exceptionally sweet. She had never treated Caleb any differently after the accident that left him with the scars he carried.

“Thank you,” Caleb said. “Oh—Jane Eaton, this is Lily Carrington.”

“Don’t you mean Lawson?” Jane asked with a smile.

“Oh, yes. I do,” Caleb said, feeling foolish.

Lily held out her hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. Do you stand as a witness to a lot of weddings?”

“Only lately,” Jane said, her smile dropping. “It seems folks aren’t interested in the big weddings with friends and family in attendance anymore. They want it to be quick and legal.” Her gaze lifted and she seemed to brighten from the inside out.

Jed had sauntered over. He grinned foolishly. “Hi, Jane.”

“Hi Jed.”

A moment of silence passed while the two of them smiled at each other, looking very pleased but also unsure of what to say next.

Lily’s expression grew animated. She looked from Jane to Jed and back again. “Since you’re the only other woman I’ve met in this place, I’ll have to invite you around to the ranch for tea.”

Jane froze and her smile fell from her lips. She shook her head. “I’m afraid that Papa needs me here most of the time. I’m not really allowed to go out much.”

“Oh?” Lily asked. “Even to give a lady the lay of the land?”

“Um… well…” Jane’s eyes flitted nervously in the direction her father had gone in. “Perhaps it would be easier if you could come here. If it’s not too much bother. We could talk and have tea.”

Caleb sadly knew the problem and it had nothing to do with the ranch, or with Jane’s papa needing her. It had everything to do with Jed Norton and his unabashed love for Jane. She seemed to love him too, and that made it all the worse for the pastor.

What it was about Jed that the man of God didn’t like was a complete mystery to Caleb. Jed was hardworking, bright in an unschooled kind of way, and honest as summer days were long. It might be Jed’s lack of book learning that offended the pastor so. There was no other reason that Caleb could think of.

“I will have to take you up on that offer,” Lily said brightly. “I think it will take some work getting used to all of this.” She gestured to the building around them, but Caleb knew she meant the town.

“We should go,” he said softly.

Lily turned to him, this time pointedly not looking at his scars, and nodded. “Of course. Is it far to the ranch?”

“About an hour,” he said.

She nodded, turning back to Jane. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, and I’m looking forward to our tea.”

Jane grinned. “Me too.” They shook hands. Then Jane looked at Jed. “It was lovely seeing you again, Jed.”

“And you, Jane,” he said meekly. “You look really pretty today.”

“Thank you.”

“I’ll see you again soon…”

“Don’t you need to get going?” Pastor Eaton asked, poking his head through the doorway he had disappeared through earlier. “You’re losing daylight.”

With that not-so-subtle hint, Caleb ushered Lily and Jed out of the chapel. Jed lingered just a moment and Caleb heard Pastor Eaton’s voice rising in protest.

Jed appeared a moment later and climbed onto the cart’s driver’s seat.

***

On the drive out to his home, Caleb and Jed slipped into their customary long silences only broken by occasional comments about things here and there. Lily said nothing. Sandwiched between the men, she sat staring at the New Mexico landscape as though looking at a plain of Hell.

“Is it always this hot and dry?” she asked as they passed a clump of cacti growing beside the track.

Caleb considered her question. “It’s always a lot warmer than Missouri if that’s what you mean. It does rain here, although we seem to be having a bit of a dry spell.”

“Don’t worry, the rain will come in a month or two and then it will be humid for a bit,” Jed said with a nod. “Yes sirree, it will.”

She nodded. “Oh, good. Something to look forward to.”

Her comment was probably not meant to hurt his feelings, but it did. Just like her refusal to look at him for more than a second at a time.

He should have mentioned his scars in the letters they had exchanged. That would have been the best way to handle this. However, when he was writing them, trying to put his best foot forward and all of that, Caleb hadn’t known how to broach the subject. He could hardly have written, “There was this fire that burned our old house to the ground, and I was unlucky enough to be caught in it. It burned me badly.”

Actually, maybe that would have been the right way to do it. But it was too late now. There was no going back, and he was just going to have to find a way to deal with her disappointment in him.

“Here we are,” Jed said happily. “The Lawson Ranch. We have sheep and cattle.”

“Oh? Really?” Lily asked. “I think Caleb only mentioned the cattle in his letters.” She turned her gaze on him for a moment and then looked away.

“I might have forgotten to mention the sheep,” he admitted. “I didn’t think you would care much for them.”

Lily looked at her boots. “I suppose that’s fair. I didn’t mention a lot of things in my letters to you, either.”

They drove in through the gate and up the drive to the house. It stood on the exact spot where the old house had stood—a copy of the original that Caleb’s grandfather had built with his own hands. Perhaps that was fitting since Caleb had built this one with his hands.

“This isn’t the original house—” Jed began.

Caleb cut him off. He didn’t want to scare Lily away with stories of loss and trauma. “Yes, we redid a lot of it.”

Jed glared at him and then shrugged. “Point is, Caleb here is very good with his hands. He built everything himself.”

“Oh?” Lily asked. “You didn’t mention that.”

“No,” Caleb said. “I didn’t think it was important.”

“Well, I think we’re going to find that a lot of things we didn’t think were important are.”

Caleb didn’t answer her as Jed brought the cart to a halt outside the house. The horse snorted and stamped the ground.

“Poppy wants to go roll in the grass,” Jed said as he slid from the driver’s seat. “I’ll untie her.”

Caleb nodded. There were chores waiting to be done. The chickens had been fed, but considering how they were flocking to Jed, swarming around his ankles as though they had been left alone to fend for themselves for days, one would never think they had been.

The cattle and sheep, which had spent the day in the smaller top field near the house where they were safest, would need to be given fresh water in the trough and some more hay to eat. The top field didn’t have much in the way of food for them. It had been grazed heavily lately.

That was the thing about a ranch. There was always something that needed to be done. Caleb liked that. He liked that he had few idle moments in which the past could ambush him.

“So, this is it,” Lily said as she climbed down from the driver’s seat and looked around, wide-eyed. “It looks lovely. You’ve taken excellent care of the place from what I can see.”

Was she judging him? Caleb turned to her and found nothing malicious in her expression, only something that might be awe.

“Um… thanks,” he said. “Let me show you around.”

Heading to the house, Caleb stopped at the back of the cart and took Lily’s luggage out of the back. He led her in through the back door into the kitchen. Luckily, he’d thought to wash up after breakfast or the place would be a mess.

Lily took a cursory look around. Perhaps she wasn’t used to being in the kitchen. Caleb knew many ladies of means had never set foot in their own kitchens, having cooks who did it all for them.

“Do you know how to cook?” he asked.

Lily chuckled. “You’re in luck, I do. I spent the last six months working in a tavern in Louisiana.”

“Right,” Caleb said. Since meeting Lily, he had trouble reconciling the woman of means in front of him with the one he’d thought he was meeting on paper. The Lily in her letters was a down-to-earth woman who cooked and cleaned in a tavern. This Lily couldn’t possibly be that person.

Yet it seemed she was. He was terribly confused by the whole thing but didn’t want to press her for information. There was definitely something that she was hiding from him, but when would be the right time to ask her about it?

Maybe when he was ready to tell her his own deep, dark secret. He sighed. “And right through here is the passage that leads to the dining room, the parlor, and the stairs to the bedrooms.” He gestured for her to go first.