Read Online Freedom For A Bride: A clean historical mail order bride romance (Montana Passion Book 2) by Amelia Rose - Free Book Online

here you’ve taken your time away from the shop to keep her company.”
    “You don’t suppose something happened to him?” Gretchen asked, brightening slightly. Not that she wished him harm, but it would at least offer an explanation. “If he hasn’t come by the cabin to call on her, and you haven’t spoken to him either, then he could be hurt!”
    “I’ve a mind to ride out to Nathaniel’s place right now!” Pryor stormed. “If he isn’t lying in his floor dead, he will be!”
    Pryor grabbed his coat and flew out the door. The ladies knew his anger was real, but also knew his speed was fueled by fear for his friend. Pryor was right, this wasn’t the behavior of the man who’d been sick to his stomach with nerves over meeting his bride. They both could only pray that he was all right.
     

Chapter Ten
     
    “What’s gotten into you, man…” Pryor began when Nathaniel opened the door. Instead of finishing his interrogation, his words caught in his throat at the sight of the yellow and green bruises on his dear friend’s face. “Nathaniel! What in the world? Were you kicked by your horse?”
    “No, but I wish I had been. Come on in,” he said sadly, stepping back and letting Pryor enter the still-dark cabin. There was no fire in the hearth and no pots simmering on the stove. Pryor looked to the table and saw a pathetic looking loaf of bread that had been picked over, providing probably the only meal Nathaniel had been eating lately.
    “What’s wrong with you?” he began.
    “In my heart, or in my face? Where should I start?” Nathaniel answered bitterly, falling into a ladder-back chair at the table and flicking a crumb to the floor.
    “If I didn’t know you better, I’d say you’ve taken up the drink. What is all this? Have you at least fed your animals, if you haven’t fed yourself?” Pryor’s worry grew into anger at the thought that a farmer would let his livestock go uncared for.
    “I fed ‘em yesterday. I just haven’t gotten around to it today.” Nathaniel looked out the window as he spoke, else he’d have seen Pryor’s shoulders visibly relax at knowing at least the horses were safe.
    “Talk to me, Nathaniel. This isn’t like you. Tell me what’s brought this on, and I don’t want to hear that it’s just cabin sickness from the cold. Why haven’t you been by to see Katia? The girl’s beside herself, crying all the time—”
    “She’s crying? Ha! That’s funny stuff, right there.”
    Pryor’s fists reflexively clenched under the table. “You watch how you talk about her, Nathaniel Russell. I’m not one to get involved in other people’s affairs unless I have to, but you’ll not scorn her that way in front of me. Do you hear me?” he roared. Nathaniel sat up straighter, blinking in surprise at his friend’s outburst.
    “Yes, I’m sorry. I’m just… I don’t know what to do. I tried to call on her a few days ago, and she refused to see me. Me! The whole reason she came to Montana was to meet me. And now she won’t even sit on the porch for a visit with me!”
    “Is that why you decided to hit your face against something firm?”
    “No. Well, actually, kind of. After she had refused to come out, I didn’t know what else to do and I didn’t want to go home. I went into town—”
    “You went into town at night?!” Pryor demanded incredulously. “Don’t you know what that place has turned into? What were you thinking?”
    “Well, for one, I thought that my bride just closed the door in my face if you must know!” he shot back indignantly. “But truth be told, I was thinking, okay? I was just… lonely. That’s the whole reason I got myself into this mess in the first place, so I didn’t have to sit here on my sad little farm and feel sorry for myself.”
    “Nathaniel,” Pryor began, his voice softening into a more brotherly tone. “You’ve got to go see her. She’s devastated that you haven’t come by. Gretchen’s come to tell us she can’t