Read Online The Brides of Chance Collection by Cathy Marie Hake, Kelly Eileen Hake, Tracey V. Bateman - Free Book Online Page A

fact that help was necessary.”
    He folded his arms on the tabletop and leaned forward. His tone went hot. “Well get this, and get it good, Miss Miriam: We live on a ranch. It’s not fancy, and we’re not rich. We can’t afford servants, and every last one of us sweats hard for what we have. Your sister made Daniel a happy man, and he did right by her each and every day. This is a harsh land. If it was too brutal for your sister, it’s going to be just as miserable for you. You’d best go now.”
    “No.”
    His jaw jutted forward, and his eyes lit with temper. “Women don’t belong here.”
    “Fancy that. In case you haven’t reasoned it through yet, my nieces will become women.”
    “By then, things’ll change.”
    Miriam barely leashed her anger. She punched the bread dough and turned her back just long enough to grab the loaf pans. She’d already greased them, so she dumped a loaf into each one and silently recited the books of the Bible to help her keep her temper. She set the loaf pans beside the stove, emphatically shook out a dishcloth to rest over them, and finally turned back toward Gideon. “I’ll stay. I’ll help things change.”
    “Now hang on here.”
    “That is precisely what I intend to do,” she cut in with an icy smile.
    “It’s not fitting—”
    “Oh, I agree. It’s not fitting for my nieces to be reared in a pigsty. They’ve not been taught to say grace, their hair is uncombed, and they’ll certainly learn no table manners if left to your brothers’ care.”
    “Now you just hold it right there!”
    Miriam stared at him. “Your younger brothers were imbibing devil’s brew within the tainted walls of a house of ill repute when I arrived. Don’t for one minute expect me to entrust the impressionable hearts and souls of my sister’s daughters to men who have no morals or manners. I won’t. I can’t.”
    “No one asked your opinion.”
    “Mr. Chance, I’m afraid you simply don’t understand.” She looked at him and shook her head. “Girls need tutelage and tenderness. They need social graces and spiritual guidance.”
    “Every last one of us can read and cipher just fine. Those girls won’t lack book learning. As for tenderness, every last one of us loves both of them to distraction, so you needn’t fret over that.”
    “But their manners and morals?”
    The muscles in his cheek started to twitch. “Lady, you’ve got a heap of gall, barging in here and judging us.”
    “I didn’t barge. I was invited.”
    “Yeah, but Hannah did the inviting, and she isn’t—” His voice came to an abrupt halt.
    Miriam sucked in a sharp breath and let it out very slowly. “Here anymore,” she finished. Her voice carried a taste of the woe she felt. She paused for a moment, then said, “And that is precisely why I must stay. In honor of her memory and as a tribute to the very principles she held inviolate, it falls upon me to make sure her daughters are reared in an appropriate and decent manner.”
    “You can’t stay.”
    “You’ve already said as much, but I’m afraid you’ll simply have to reconsider.”
    “Daniel—”
    “Is grieving. I understand that. I’ve already promised not to wear any of my sister’s clothing.”
    “It’s not just the clothing.”
    She nodded. “I know Hannah and I look—” She caught herself, gulped a big breath, then forged ahead. “Looked quite similar. Seeing me must have been a terrible shock for him. I’ll wear my hair differently, and that should help.”
    “Only a woman would come up with a silly plan like that.” He waved his hand in a gesture of disgust. “Applying that boneheaded logic, as if slapping a different saddle on my mare would make her—”
    “You’re not,” she interrupted, “comparing me to a horse, are you, Mr. Chance?”
    “Now don’t go pitching a hissy fit.”
    “I’m not given to having fits, sir. You’re addressing that comment to the wrong person. Daniel is the one who has let his