Read Online Bride School: Mary (The Brides of Diamond Springs Ranch 4) by Bella Bowen - Free Book Online

something no one had ever been able to do, at least since she'd arrived at
Diamond Springs. No wedding vows had done it, not matter how touching. No
heartsick brides who failed time and again to be invited to tea. Not even the
death of a particularly adorable puppy with one bad eye…
    None of it had ever affected Fontaine…until then.
    Mary swallowed whatever explanation she'd been
forming in her head and hurried into the room. Millie’s green dress was draped
over a chair. She’d been huddled beneath a heavy blanket but popped to her feet
the moment Mary closed the door. Millie spun her around and started unbuttoning
her pink dress before she had a chance to speak. Twice, she tried to turn, but
Millie prevented it.
    “Mercy, Mary. You've kept me waiting long enough.
If I don't get under those covers in the next ten seconds, the sheets will cool
and the shivering will start all over again.”
    “Sorry,” Mary muttered and stood as still as
possible while all hope of finding John fell into a ruffled pile around her
legs. By the time her corset came to a rest on the floor, Millie was shooting
across the bed and grasping the edges of the blankets.
    A small pile of embers glowed in the fireplace,
the remnants of what must have been a mighty small fire. But if it had been
set, originally, for a gentleman that had been dancing all night, they were
lucky there had been a fire at all.
    Millie must have been too cold to notice the
bedpan propped in the corner and Mary recognized the chance to make up for her
behavior—to one friend, at least. She shoveled the meager coals into the pan
and blew lightly across them, bringing a fiery edge to the black, egg-sized
chunks. The warm air that came back at her reminded her how frozen she was
herself. The long night ahead loomed like a dark cold cavern and she was glad
she'd be sharing a bed. It was many a wintery night in her mountain home when
she was grateful for Jens and Max, her two little brothers who clung to her in
their sleep. She only hoped she wouldn't be the one shuddering at Millie's back
come morning.
    Her friend poked her nose out from behind the
sheet to see what was keeping her and squealed when she noticed the bedpan.
    “Oh, Mary! Oh, thank Heavens!” She scooted up to
the head of the bed and pulled her legs beneath her.
    Mary moved the pan steadily beneath the covers to
take as much chill away as possible, then she dumped the coals back onto the
grate and slipped her under the covers. By the time the cold was gone from her
skin, most of the warmth was gone from the sheets. But at least Millie had
stopped her shivering and lay still beside her.
    And in the quiet darkness, as happened hundreds of
nights before, the face of Rebel came to mind. Only this time, he wasn't any
fifteen year old boy from her memory. He was full grown, alive and well.
    And he was out there somewhere, in Sage River.
Maybe still awake. And just maybe, instead of thinking about the girl in his
story, he was sparing a happy thought or two for the gal he'd told the story
to.
    She shook her head against the pillow beneath her
head and refused to allow her thoughts to wander further. It wasn’t right to
borrow trouble, so she wouldn’t get herself worked up about what some man may
or may not be thinking, even if he was the brown-handed boy. He wasn’t going to
leave town until Friday, so if she had to sit on Fontaine to get her to listen
to her story—a very brief version of her story—then she'd do it. Then she’d
have the whole day to hunt him down and tell him the truth, that she was Mary
Radley from Snowy Range. And if he didn't believe her, she'd find some way to
prove it.
    A nice deep breath took the rest of her worries away
and she pulled the blankets up to cover the cold tip of her nose before she fell
into a content sleep.

CHAPTER TEN
     
    How a sunny morning could be colder than the dead
of night, Mary didn’t know, but she wrapped herself tighter in her blankets and
hoped the