Read Online Wild Texas Rose by Martha Hix - Free Book Online Page B

...”
    Mariah merely half listened. She kept trying to picture herself in Kimble’s place, all breathless with love and affection but no matter how hard she tried, the image didn’t fit. Nor could she superimpose Joseph’s image on Clutch’s face. She was quite often able to focus, however, her recalcitrant attention, however on the man who offered his niece in marriage.
    Why did he look as if he were ready to flee?
    â€œDo you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?”
    She watched the bride, her eyes glistening, smile up at her groom. Her breathy “I do” wrenched Mariah. Such a promise lasted a lifetime, and a lifetime lasted the rest of one’s life!
    â€œWill you love, honor, and obey him for as long as ye both shall live?”
    â€œI will. Oh, yes, I will!”
    Mariah grabbed her hankie. There was nothing unusual about crying at weddings, but the abject seriousness of marriage weighed like a hair shirt upon her shoulders.
    Marriage is forever . Forever! She could expect, if she lived to an old age, to be married at least forty years. Four decades. She gulped. No matter how much she respected and appreciated Joseph, she couldn’t imagine spending all those hours, days, years with him.
    â€œI now pronounce you man and wife. What God has joined together, let no man put asunder.”
    Her mind raced at the gravity of that pronouncement. The walls seemed to close in on Mariah. Breathing was difficult, for the air had left her lungs. Would it be fair, either to Joseph or to herself, if she promised these vows before God? She didn’t love her betrothed, had never loved him–not in the way a wife should adore her mate. It wasn’t in her heart to love him, ever. Her head had been turned by grief, not by devotion, understanding, and love.
    Her motives, she realized for the first time, were purely selfish. He had offered her a chance to escape from her father’s home, the freedom to be a teacher, and he would protect her good name ... but what could she give him in return? Nothing!
    She was vaguely aware of the bride and groom as they passed her, but she couldn’t bring herself either to stand or to follow the guests from the church.
    Mariah kept remembering ... Joseph’s kisses had elicited no response within her. From the beginning she had regarded him as a companion, a dependable friend.
    He deserved more than she could offer.
    She wouldn’t marry him–couldn’t! She had the uncontrollable urge to run, to get away, to get as far from Trick’em as possible. She rose to her feet, but it wasn’t to follow the path the wedding guests had taken up the aisle.

Chapter Four
    â€œI’ll be damned if she’s not running away,” Whit muttered as he stood on the lawn with the rest of the wedding party and watched Mariah McGuire, cloak on her arm, charge out of the church. She didn’t stop to greet the newlyweds, didn’t even turn their way. She was walking, fast and with her head down, toward the business section of town.
    Had Gail spilled the beans about Joe?
    Whit didn’t know Mariah’s behavior patterns, not to speak of anyway, but he read people’s actions well enough to understand something was wrong. Something bad.
    He whispered an excuse into Kimble’s ear and hot-footed toward Joe’s woman. Half a block from the church he caught up with her, falling in step beside the redhead, whose pinned-up hair was a veritable halo in the fading sunlight.
    â€œA lot of us are parched for a snort of Lois’s rum punch,” he said, making light and wishing to touch her splendid hair, “but there’s no need to rush. She’s made enough to drunk-up every cowpoke and cowgal in Texas.”
    Increasing her pace, Mariah directed her sight straight ahead. “I ... uh ... need to take care of something.”
    â€œWhoa now, Red.” Whit grabbed her elbow, threw back his head, and