Cole's Montana Bride (Sweet,clean Western Historical Romance)(Montana Ranchers and Brides Series Book 7) Read online

  "If you must know, it isn't only yourself who is being considered as a match for Lucy," Victoria said.

  "Considered?" Cole ejaculated. "So, I'm being considered am I?" His voice was tight and there was a tone of incredulity in it.

  "Marriage to the Carter family appears to have been in the air in this town for quite a while," Victoria said, recalling some conversations she'd overheard at the wedding. "There is another man in the picture," Victoria continued. "Paul Edwards."

  "The banker's son?"

  "The same," Victoria agreed.

  Cole shook his head in disbelief. "This is just ridiculous. So, I am to be some chattel in a bidding war between suitors for Carter's daughter?"

  Victoria drew herself up erect and fixed Cole with a firm look. "Marriage to the Carter family would be advantageous."

  "The Carter family don't own this town. And Lucius Carter doesn't own me," Cole stated firmly.

  "So, you have no interest in Lucy Carter?" Victoria asked. She suddenly realized she was holding her breath, awaiting his reply. Would he declare a long standing relationship with Lucy that Victoria had previously been unaware of?

  Cole looked at Victoria and there was the shadow of a smile at the corners of his mouth. In his eyes there was a glint of the old mischievous nature that Victoria had known so well. It was the first sign that there were parts of Cole which hadn't changed.

  Cole's eyes moved from side to side for a few moments. She could see he was deliberating, calculating what the right response should be to this surprise proposal. Finally his eyes locked on Victoria's.

  "You say you've promised Lucy Carter to help her choose between me and Paul Edwards?"

  Victoria nodded and watched him, realizing that her breathing had slowed to a shallow, tense rhythm.

  "Despite the fact that I find the proposal ridiculous, I'm willing to let you do your job. You claim to be a skilled matchmaker. And I have no doubt you are. I tell you what," he said, his gaze burrowing deep into her. She felt something quiver inside herself at the intensity of that gaze. "I'll let you do what you need to do to keep your promise to Lucy. She's a sweet girl and I don't want her feelings getting hurt. She doesn't deserve that. But she's put me in an awkward situation."

  Victoria squinted at Cole. He nodded and looked at Victoria. "Lord knows I don't want to make an enemy of Lucius Carter," he went on. "I know if you do your job you'll be able to convince Lucy that I'm not the man for her. She'll be much better off with Edwards. He's a dependable sort. Nothing like me," he said with a quirk of his brow.

  Victoria shifted in her seat. "You have no intention of marrying Lucy?"

  "Of course not. But it'll be your job to convince her that I'm not the right man for her. You know what it's like to convince a woman that a man isn't right for her. Don't you?"

  Cole's words stung Victoria and felt the color drain from her face.

  "I'll let you do what you need to do. The only condition is that you must visit my ranch, spend as much time there as I decide is necessary. After you've assessed me and evaluated my lack of suitability as Lucy's suitor then we can both go our separate ways. You get what you want by convincing Edwards to become her husband. I avoid an unpleasant situation. And I get to carry on doing what I do best. Being an unmarried rancher."

  He'd spoken with a quiet authority, all the while gazing into her eyes. She'd felt the earth shift beneath her as his low voice had murmured his long speech of assent. Victoria was at a loss for words. Was this what it would take for her to honor a commitment? How hard would it be to spend time with a man who'd once been so sweet on her that she'd thought they truly belonged together? But all that was in the past. Wasn't it?

  Victoria gazed across the table and saw a man who was resolute in his determination to seize an opportunity which had literally landed in his lap. But for him it was a chance to do what?

  After a moment she nodded. "I'll visit you at your ranch. I'll appraise you, as you so delicately put it." She scowled at him and saw the satisfied glint in his eyes. "And then I shall report to Lucy. But ultimately it will be her decision who she marries."

  Cole shook his head, his eyes narrowing in disbelief. "I think Ill have something to say in the matter, too," he said.

  Victoria nodded. "Of course. But I'm sure Lucius Carter is a persuasive man," she said.

  Cole cocked his head. "Now that just might be the first accurate statement you've made since I arrived," he told her.

  And, as Victoria lifted her teacup to her lips, she wondered just what she'd gotten herself into by agreeing to spend any time at all at the ranch of Cole MacAllan.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  "I don't know what to do, mother," Victoria said to her mother, Lucinda Carr.

  The two women sat in the parlor of Victoria's mother's home, a modest two story building on the outskirts of town. Victoria leaned back on the sofa and sighed. Lucinda was seated in her favorite chair, next to the fireplace. It was late afternoon and the fatigue that Victoria knew would inevitably overcome her after the meeting with Cole had finally drained every last bit of energy from her.

  The tea her mother had made for her hadn't made much difference. But it still felt good to be home, even if it was only for the next few days, while she carried out what had now become a troubling and onerous duty.

  The elegantly attired, grey haired woman smiled warmly at her daughter, eyes filled with patient concern. "I'm sure you'll do the best you can dear," her mother said in that familiar, comforting voice. "You've become very skilled at finding wives and husbands. I'm sure you'll make everyone very happy."

  Her mother had always been such a storehouse of wisdom and comfort. Ever since Victoria's father had died ten years before, she had relied on her mother so much for the strength she needed to face life's difficulties. And it had been her mother who'd given her the support Victoria had needed to establish her matchmaking business. Without her mother's help Victoria wouldn't have been able to do what she'd done these past few years.

  But that didn't make things any easier now.

  After the meeting with Cole, Victoria had left the restaurant and made her way back to her mother's house. She felt she needed the reassurance that would inevitably come with a long talk with her mother. The discussion with Cole had ended almost immediately she'd agreed to come and visit him at his ranch. They had chatted politely and then Cole had gone on his way.

  But, Victoria realized she needed to know much more about Paul Edwards. Her mother had been long term friends with Paul's father the banker Josiah Edwards. Victoria figured a good place to start to find out more about Paul would be to ask Lucinda.

  Her mother had furnished Victoria with a sketchy idea of just what kind of person Paul was. It seemed that he was indeed a dependable sort, not given to much wayward activity. In fact Victoria thought that Paul sounded downright boring. Especially when compared to Cole. The thought of Cole made Victoria sink into a long silence. Victoria knew she'd have to pay Paul Edwards a visit within the next day or two. But for now the only thing that filled her mind was the meeting she'd just had with Cole. After a while she realized Lucinda was watching her with a calm, focused gaze.

  "You're thinking about him again, aren't you?" Lucinda asked.

  Victoria stiffened and sat upright. "Of course not," she said.

  Lucinda sighed and smiled."You can't fool your mother, Victoria. I can tell you still have feelings for Cole."

  "I do not," she objected.

  Lucinda blinked patiently. "Of course you do dear. It's the most natural thing in the world. Especially after what the two of you passed through."

  "What do you mean?"

  Lucinda glanced at the fireplace as if peering into the past. "You were both very close. Almost inseparable for a while."

  Victoria waved a dismissive hand. "We were just sweet on each other for a while. It was nothing more than that, mother."

  Lucinda shook her head. "You can't fool your mother, Victoria."

  "I'm
not trying to fool you at all. It was a long time ago. I've changed. So has Cole."

  "Some things never change, my dear. Love is one of those things."

  Victoria felt her face change color. Her mother noticed the change and continued. "When I think of your father and I." Lucinda sighed quietly. "Once we'd found each other, I thought we would never spend a moment apart. We'd be together forever. But it just wasn't to be."

  Lucinda's face softened at the memory of Abe. His sudden death had cast a shadow over the lives of his wife and daughter for many years. Victoria leaned toward her mother, feeling a desperate need to console her, to reach out and hold her mother, make any of the long standing pain vanish.

  "Mama. I know you still miss him. I think of him every day."

  "So do I, dear. And that's what makes what you've done so hard to bear," she said.

  Victoria frowned. "What do you mean?"

  "You gave up the best chance you'll ever have at love."

  Victoria felt the breath catch in her throat. "With Cole?"

  Lucinda nodded. "You might never get another chance. Life sometimes only gives you the one chance. Then it never gives you it again," she said.

  Victoria sighed. "But I don't know if I ever loved Cole," she said.

  "Of course you did dear. I could see it in your eyes every time you were with him."

  "But that was a long time ago, mama. Things are different now."

  "Are they? Really?"

  "Yes. They are. Cole has changed. And I have my business in Helena."

  "Your business," Lucinda said with a dry tone. "Ah, yes. You make marriages for others."

  "And I'm good at that, mama."

  "Of course you are dear. I can see that. And I'm happy for you. But there comes a time when you have to think of yourself. What you want in your own life."

  Victoria rested her elbows on her knees, leaning toward her mother. "I'm happy, mama. I make other people happy and that gives me joy and satisfaction."

  "Really, Victoria. Does it truly?"

  Victoria nodded and paused before continuing. "I think it does."

  Lucinda paused and Victoria could see that her mother was deliberating.

  "How was Cole today?" her mother asked after a few moments. "Did he seem happy to see you?"

  Victoria frowned. "I don't know that he was exactly pleased to see me."

  "You've been gone a long time, Victoria. And you don't come back to town that often."

  "I know I'm away too much, mama. And I'm sorry. But I just get so busy. I only came back this time because Ruby and Marcus asked me to come."

  "Was Cole happy to see you?" her mother insisted. It seemed like a strange question, as if her mother was trying to lead Victoria down a path where she might find an answer that would bring her daughter to some new, fresh sense of understanding.

  "Cole? It was the first time I'd seen him since we made the decision not to be together." Victoria paused "He was different, though. Tougher. More distant than I remember him being."

  "But was he pleased to see you, Victoria?" her mother pressed once again. Victoria suddenly recalled that when her mother wanted an answer to a question there was no power on earth that would stop her from getting it.

  "I think he was," Victoria said hesitantly. "But I couldn't be completely sure. If anything he seemed a little abrupt with me."

  "That's to be expected, Victoria."

  "Why do you say that, mama?"

  Lucinda brows furrowed. "When you left him, he was very badly affected by it. He became a very disappointed and frustrated man."

  "I can't imagine Cole being anything except a good, fine person," Victoria said.

  "I heard that he was so badly affected by your leaving that he was quite inconsolable," Lucinda said her voice measured and serious. "He got his frustration out of himself by getting a reputation."

  Victoria stared at her mother. "What kind of reputation?"

  Lucinda's eyes softened. "The kind a man gets when the woman he loves just ups and leaves him."

  The thought of Cole reacting like that to Victoria's leaving seemed impossible to fathom. What exactly had he done to console himself? Victoria knew her mother wouldn't give more details, even if she was pushed. Victoria could only imagine what Cole might have done to acquire a "reputation", as her mother called it.

  "How do you know all this, mama?"

  "I hear things. The ladies society knows everything that goes on in this town. Not much passes us by unnoticed."

  The thought of the Billings Ladies Society gossiping about Cole and her made Victoria's heart sink.

  Lucinda's eyes glinted. "We make it our business to be well informed. You know that the society is made up of the most trusted and influential ladies in the town. Ladies like that don't let anything pass them by," Lucinda said with an emphatic nod of the head.

  Victoria paused and gazed around the parlor. The old grandfather clock in the corner ticked noisily but steadily. It was a sound she'd grown up listening to on those quiet afternoons spent in the parlor reading. This was the place where she had dreamed the fanciful visions of her future life. This was the room where the books she'd read had transported her to faraway countries and to distant cities where life had seemed so much more exciting than the dull country life this part of Montana offered.

  Had she made a fundamental error of judgment in turning her back on the promise of a life in this part of Montana? Was that why she'd ran from Cole and his promise of a life on a ranch? Was that why the excitements of living in Helena and dealing with townsfolk, being in charge of her own life, had appealed to her so much?

  She was sitting here in this parlor with her beloved mother, listening to wise words and feeling an uneasy sense that all her rejection of ranch life with Cole had been born in this little parlor, with it's comfortable ease and the overactive imagination of a young, inexperienced woman. Had those ideas been so wrong, so badly thought out? Had she been running away from more than just Cole? Had she been running away from the promise of Montana itself?

  Victoria became aware that Lucinda was watching her carefully.

  "It's nice to see you haven't lost your ability to see things for what they really are, Victoria," her mother said softly.

  Victoria's brows tightened. She paused a moment and then fixed her eyes on Lucinda. "Are you telling me that Cole still loves me?"

  A warm smile stretched across her mother's face, a smile filled with patient understanding and acceptance.

  "Only you can answer that, Victoria," she said.

  "But, our lives are so different. It's been so long. And Lucy Carter wants me to persuade Cole to marry her."

  Lucinda rose and came to the sofa, sitting down beside Victoria. Her mother reached over and clasped Victoria's hand in her own. "You'll have to decide whether to follow your head or your heart, my dear."

  Victoria felt her eyes moisten and her throat tighten. She swallowed and tried to hide the emotion she was feeling. Her mother's eyes were fixed earnestly on her daughter. Victoria knew her mother could see things more clearly than she could. That had always been the case. It always would be.

  "Go to him, Victoria. Search his heart. Find out for yourself if what I'm saying is true."

  "But he's so different now, mama. I'm not sure I can search his heart."

  "Use everything you've learned these past years. You know how to see people for what they are. Surely you've met people who were less than genuine, who had secrets to hide. People who were lying about who they were," Lucinda said.

  Victoria nodded. "Of course I have. I've met some real bad people who merely wanted matrimony for all the wrong reasons. But Cole's not like them. I'm sure he isn't."

  "Then go and confirm that for yourself. Maybe he needs saving. From himself."

  Victoria's eyes widened at those words. The idea that she could be the one to rescue Cole from the pit of misery he'd been living in these past years seemed almost improbable. Could she be the means of his salvation? H
adn't she been the one to drive him to that misery in the first place?

  And more importantly, could she trust herself to spend any amount of time with Cole MacAllan? Especially if it meant finding out the truth about whether he still loved her or not?

  The doorbell rang and Lucinda glanced at the clock. "That will be her, I expect," she said standing up.

  Victoria glanced out the window. "Who?"

  "Mrs. Edwards said she'd come to call."

  "Paul's mother?"

  "The same. She's a lovely person. I like her very much. But I must warn you. She has a mind of her own. She has very high expectations for her son."

  Lucinda went to the window and tugged the curtain to one side. "Good. She's come on her own."

  "Why is that good?" Victoria asked feeling a slight unease.

  Lucinda lowered her voice. "I think she wants to speak to you about Paul and Lucy," she said.

  Victoria nodded. "I can understand that she wants to know what are his prospects."

  Lucinda leaned a hand on the side of the divan. "I think there's more to it than that. Just be a little careful what you say about Lucius Carter."

  "Why?"

  Lucinda's lips tightened and she shook her head. She left the parlor and Victoria heard the door opening.

  "Rose! How nice of you to come," Victoria heard her mother say.

  A few moments later the extraordinary figure of Rose Edwards glided into the room, taking Victoria by surprise at the theatrical elegance on display for what was to all intent and purpose a social call to a close neighbor.

  Rose Edwards was dressed in a superbly elegant and very formal looking gown, the bottom of which swished noisily across the wooden floor as she swept into the room, passing a parasol idly from one hand to the other. Rose was a similar age to Lucinda but in contrast to Victoria's mother's grey tied back locks, Rose's hair was dark and hung neatly at shoulder length. Rose had strong feature, wide cheekbones and rather heavy brows that contrasted with a thin, petite nose. She was a plump woman who nevertheless carried herself with supreme poise, shoulders back and chin eternally lifted up high and proud.