Read Online The Cowboy's Tempestuous Irish Bride by Emma Ashwood - Free Book Online

CHAPTER ONE
Flaming red hair and tempers
    Siobhan O’Reilly ran her fingers through her flaming red hair and gave her father one of her infamous glares. Conner O’Reilly wisely chose to ignore it. It was safer that way; especially on a Sunday morning just moments before mass was due to begin at the Church of St Patrick and the Immaculate Conception. A scene in church was certainly something that he could do without, there had been enough of them in town as it was and he was a man with a position. Word was beginning to spread - O’Reilly had no control over his tempestuous daughter. Humiliation in front of the townsfolk wasn’t something that was going to sit well with him, but he prayed it wouldn’t come to that.   He knew he had taken a risk, but he decided that if there was anywhere that his daughter wouldn’t fly into a fit of rage it was here in the church that they had buried her mother.

      Besides, he was desperate.  

    “Top of the morning to you Miss Siobhan,” whispered Braden Butler leaning over towards her from where he had just shuffled into the pew next to her. The foul smell of his breath made Siobhan lean away closer to her father who was blocking her escape route next to the aisle.  

    “Mr Butler,” she managed to reply with a slight respectful nod of her head.  

    “Oh enough of that, I’ve told you, it’s Braden.”  

    Thinking of nothing further to add she simply repeated the nod of her head as a sign of her acknowledgement. She turned her head back towards her father, again glaring in contempt. But Conner was very busy polishing his spectacles and certainly couldn’t see the look his daughter was giving him. It was probably a good thing, it summed up their entire relationship for the last ten years. Contempt. Frustration. Anger. Hatred.  

    “It is a beautiful day outside is it not?” offered Braden in a desperate effort to engage her in conversation. Siobhan replied with a grunt and studied her prayer book in great depth. “I saw the first snowdrops on the way here. The daffodils won’t be far behind. I always think that once the daffodils arrive that spring is finally here. Don’t you agree Miss Siobhan?”  

    “Indeed,” she replied as she snapped her prayer book shut with a thud. Heads turned from the pews in front to see the source of the noise. And this time it was her father that gave her a warning glare. “Don’t look at me like that,” she hissed towards him under her breath. “I told you I wasn’t interested in him. But still you persist.”  

    “I need you out my hair,” he whispered back, ignoring his own advice of not rising to any provocation.  

    It was something that Siobhan knew well enough. It was one of the few thing that she actually agreed with her father upon. There would be nothing that she would enjoy more than getting out of her father’s hair. In fact, if she never saw her father again it would be too soon. But not with the stream of potential suitors that he seemed to be obsessed with putting in front of her. A series of deadbeats, no hopers and drunks. The worst the town had to offer. She had protested to her father, but he had responded with the fact that all the respectable men wouldn’t go near her if he paid them. Who would possibly want a wife that they couldn’t control? One that was so quick to anger? Her looks were irrelevant. Yes, she had inherited her mother’s stunning pale beauty. But the temper and insolence that came with them put off everyman that took a closer look.  

    “This one has prospects,” he lied in a low voice. He took a deep breath as he studied the depiction of the crucifixion in front of him, church was not a place to lie, but what else could he do? He decided he would continue his untruth. “He is the most promising young clerk in the bank. In two years he will be youngest bank manager in County Cork, mark my words.” Conner was the local bank manger. A position that immediately drew respect from