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

take the crying anymore! If you don’t go see her, and be quick about it, we’re gonna have a whole bunch of angry females coming down on us!”
    “I can’t go see her like this, Pryor,” Nathaniel explained, pointing to his face. “You’ll just have to make some excuse. Tell Gretchen I’ll come by in a few days when I don’t look like I was on the losing end of a wrestling match in the tavern!”
    “Not in a million years! You think I’m afraid of my wife, wait ‘til you see how skittish I am around that red-headed friend of hers! Besides, this is the only way to make Katia understand that you didn’t just abandon her on the frontier, but that there were… other circumstances… that kept you from visiting. She’s got to see you, messy as you are, to understand that you’d have come to see her if you could have.”
    Nathaniel seemed to think it over, shaking his head once in a while. Finally, he sighed and stood up, wincing and grabbing his ribs as he did. He looked at Pryor and nodded.
    “You’re right. If she won’t have me, then I haven’t lost anything that I didn’t lose a few days ago. But can we keep the tavern story just between us? I mean, I really did fall… well, after someone punched me in the nose… but it’s not like it’d be lying to tell the ladies I just took a bad spill.”
    “Well, I’ll give you this one little white lie, but no more. You straighten up and be a man. Be the man I count as my friend and fellow homesteader. Now wash up and change your shirt, make yourself look presentable. We’ve got to ride out to see your bride right away.”
    Nathaniel did as he was bid, and, together, he and Pryor rode out, stopping along the way to let Nathaniel make his apologies to Moira and Gretchen for inconveniencing them. They were horrified by his appearance, and immediately set about fawning over him, especially when they learned of his accident. Pryor fought not to roll his eyes with contempt at the way Nathaniel let them make a fuss over him.
    It was decided that Nathaniel would ride over to cabin to make his apologies, but, first, Pryor would take Moira and Gretchen in the wagon so Katia wasn’t bombarded by a bruised and repentant husband-to-be who couldn’t explain the matter. While Moira was relieved that the discord would soon be patched up, she had a far more pressing concern of her own to see to. She followed Pryor to the barn when he went to hitch the team, then turned on Pryor with a fierce look in her eye.
    “Mr. MacAteer! I know a barroom fight when I see one, and that sorry tale about falling in his barn had better be the last untruthful thing you ever say to me!” she cried angrily. Pryor was too surprised to argue, and simply nodded mutely for a few seconds before recovering.
    “And just how do you know what a barroom fight looks like?” he teased. “I thought you were a fine lady, much too genteel to associate with the likes of ruffians!”
    “Aye, that I am. But that doesn’t mean our stable boys had the same standards! I’ve seen plenty o’ bruises and broken noses to know how a man comes about to get one!” She smiled wickedly and turned away, leaving Pryor to wonder for the hundredth time about this mysterious creature he’d married. He wasn’t sure if it was her foreign upbringing or her uncanny ability to root out the truth that had him more frightened.
     

Chapter Eleven
     
    The next morning, Gretchen woke early and began to prepare breakfast. Moira and Matthew had ridden home the day before with Mr. Russell, once he finally managed to take their thinly veiled hints that it was past time for him to go. The four of them, Moira, Gretchen, Katia, and Nathaniel, had sat in the warm, brightly lit cabin until long past the time any of them would have ordinarily eaten their noonday meal, chatting politely and making quiet conversation while Katia looked on. They knew that Nathaniel was too excited to leave now that he’d finally met his future bride