Drina’s Choice Read online

  “I’m not sure that’s where she’s from. After my uncle went through all the replies he got from the ads he put in different papers, he said this one was the best. I didn’t argue with him, because I figured one was as good as another. I don’t plan on a long, happy marriage anyway.”

  “You might better rethink that, Boss.”

  “Why so?”

  “It’d be just like Walter Wilcox to put some kind of stipulation on the deed saying if you dissolve the marriage, the ranch goes back to him.”

  Aaron hit the table with his fist. “Damn it, Salty, you’re probably right. I told him not to have any more conditions on my getting the ranch, but I didn’t think of that. The rascal is sneaky enough to add something that’ll keep me tied to this woman until he dies.” He drained his coffee cup and sat it on the table, none too gently. Looking around at the bar, he yelled, “I changed my mind, Hal. I’m going to have that whiskey after all.”

  Chapter 2

  Though the rain that had fallen most of the afternoon had stopped, Drina’s heart sank when the stage lumbered down the muddy main street of Hatchet Springs, Arizona. This place was nothing like Savannah. There were no trees in sight, only a few scrubby bushes at some of the unpainted houses. The main street was flanked on each side by false front buildings, and there weren’t many of these. The only thing that seemed to have any life was a building at the end of the street. The board across the front was painted in big red letters – THE SWINGING DOOR SALON.

  Maybe Pa was right. This may turn out to be a disaster and I don’t know what I’ll do if it does. Even if he’d let me come home, I can’t go back to Georgia.

  As the stage jerked to a stop, she closed her eyes, took a deep breath and muttered under her breath. “Well, as Aunt Verbena often says, you’ve chosen your bed, now you have to lie in it.”

  The stage door opened and the driver reached up for her hand. “This is Hatchet Springs, Miss. Hamilton.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Wiggins.” Drina took his hand and stepped to the street. She couldn’t help noticing the mud immediately settled on the hem of her brown cape as her feet touched ground. “Is it always this muddy in this part of Arizona?” she asked.

  “This time of year, it shore is, miss, but most folks like this early winter better than the dry hot summers. Don’t worry. If you stay around long enough you’ll get used to it.”

  Drina doubted him, but she didn’t disagree verbally.

  A slender man with a short red beard came rushing up to her. “You must be Miss Hamilton.”

  She bit her lip and nodded. If this was Aaron Wilcox, someone had certainly misled her about his appearance. His uncle’s ad in the paper had described him as a hard working rancher, six-feet tall with dark hair and brown eyes. It had also said he was clean shaven. If this man claimed to be over five-eight, she wouldn’t believe it. And his hair was a coppery red mixed with a gray as was his beard. But none of this mattered to her as long as he was a good man. One that wouldn’t beat her every time she did something he didn’t like.

  “I’m Seymour Andrews, better known as Salty, Miss. Aaron Wilcox sent me to get you. He’s tied up with some cattle buyers and couldn’t make it. He’ll meet you at the ranch.”

  In spite of herself, Drina breathed a sigh of relief and forced a smile. “I’m pleased to meet you, Mr. Andrews.”

  “Call me Salty. Everybody does. It goes back to my days as a sailor from Galveston. The men are always kidding me about having salt water in my veins, so they decided Salty was an appropriate name for me.” He didn’t give her time to answer, but went on. “Now, let’s get your trunk and anything else you have and put it in the wagon. I’m supposed to take you out to the ranch so you can prepare yourself for the wedding by the time the boss gets back in this evening. He wants the wedding to take place immediately.”

  “Do you mean it will be today?” She expected to meet the man and at least get to know him a little before the nuptials.

  “It shore will. The boss is a man who don’t believe in wasting time. He’s done told everybody that what he learned from the sound of your letters he already knowed you was the right woman for him.”

  Drina wanted to tell Salty there hadn’t been any letters to Aaron Wilcox personally, and she needed more time to see if she really wanted to marry this man, but she didn’t dare. What if he decided her stalling meant there would be no wedding and he sent her packing? She’d be stranded in this terrible place with no hopes of ever being able to help Hannah. Maybe it’s better to go along with whatever Mr. Wilcox wants. After all, as Lydia said, being married to a stranger couldn’t be any worse than living with Pa’s cruelty every day.

  The stage driver eyed her. “Why, Miss Hamilton, I never dreamed I was bringing you out here to marry Aaron Wilcox. I want to be the first to congratulate you on accomplishing something that no woman in these parts has been able to do. They won’t be a dry-eyed single gal from here to Phoenix when they hear Wilcox has gone and got married.”

  “Oh?” She was surprised at these words.

  “Yes, ma’am. Every mama within a hundred miles and with a marriageable-age daughter has been trying to get the elusive Mr. Wilcox for a son-in-law. I’ve even heard that a couple of the women down at the Swinging Door had their heart set on getting him to change their lives and take them to the preacher.”

  Salty’s voice broke into the conversation. “Wiggins, Will you quit yammering and help me get Miss Hamilton’s things down from the top of the stage? We ain’t got all day.”

  “Sorry, Salty. I guess I was taken aback by this purty young woman’s news. A man like Aaron Wilcox don’t get married every day.”

  “I guess it’ll surprise some folks.”

  “It shore does me. I figured Wilcox would be chasing skirts for several years yet.”

  “That’s enough of that kind of talk in front of the bride, Wiggins.”

  The stage driver turned a little red. “I’m sorry if I said anything out of turn, Miss Hamilton. I guess your beauty just caught me off guard.”

  Salty laughed. “Now, I can’t say as I blame you there. Miss Hamilton is plum purty and I think Aaron has done himself proud to find a woman like her to marry him, don’t you?”

  “He shore has. Look at the way them cowboys in front of the saloon are eying her. If Aaron changes his mind, I bet one of them would be willing to take over.”

  Salty frowned. “This young lady is spoken for and they might as well look in another direction. Aaron will be pulling his gun if any of them get out of line around his intended.”

  Drina listened to their yapping and couldn’t help wondering what kind of man Aaron Wilcox really was. If he is so desirable and all the single women in the area are willing to be his wife, why did he send for a mail-order bride? And how did my one letter describing myself and my need to help Hannah make him decide I was the one he wanted?

  “Well, that does it,” Salty announced, interrupting her thoughts. “Now, Miss Hamilton, if you’ll let me help you into this here wagon we’ll be on our way to the Wilcox spread.”

  Drina brushed her thoughts aside and smiled. “Thank you for your help, Salty.”

  “No need to thank me, ma’am. It’s my job. Besides, it’s a pleasure to help a purty woman like you.”

  “Best of luck with your marriage, Miss Hamilton. Don’t let Aaron push you around now. You stand up for yourself.”

  Drina wasn’t sure what he was talking about, so she only said, “Thank you for the good wishes, Mr. Wiggins.”

  As she let Salty help her into the wagon, she couldn’t help wondering what the stage driver meant by telling her not to let Mr. Wilcox push her around. As soon as she was seated on the wagon bench and had folded her cape around her for warmth, Salty had climbed up beside her and the wagon lurched forward. She grabbed the side of the seat with one hand and held her hat with the other. She didn’t have time to think any more about Wiggins or his words. She was too busy trying to stay on the wagon seat. She only ho
ped they would make it to the Wilcox ranch before she fell off, or before she lost her hat.

  They had gone a short distance out of town when Salty said, “Say, you’re from Savannah?”

  “I am. Have you ever been there?”

  “Shore have. Used to stop in the port there when I was a sailor.” He grinned at her when she almost bounced off the seat. “I know this is a rough ride, but the wagons going in and out of town have made a lot of ruts. I’m going to try my best not to lose you.”

  “I appreciate that.” She relaxed a little. “Did you like it?”

  He looked at her and she could see the confusion on his face. “Did I like what, Miss Hamilton?”

  “I’m sorry. I was thinking about Savannah and I wondered how you liked the town.”

  “I see.” He grinned. “I thought it was a right nice place, but too big for me. I don’t much like big cities like Savannah. Sometimes I think Hatchet Springs it growing too big for me.”

  Drina couldn’t help wondering how anyone could think Hatchet Springs was big. It looked like some people in Georgia called a wide place in the road. “I thought it was kind of small.”

  “I guess being from a big city like Savannah, you’d think so, but you’ll get used to it. People here are mostly nice. Oh, we get outlaws now and again, but mostly you’ll just see the local folks when you come to town.”

  “How long have you been in Hatchet Springs?”

  “Nigh on to ten years now. I started life out in Galveston where I got into working on ships. It’s a port city and I was kind of used to it, but I never really liked it much. Then my Uncle Fred came back home for a visit. He’d come further west several years before and he told such interesting tales about his exploits out here that I knew I wanted to get out of Galveston and have my own adventure. After I saved enough money from my sea going days, I struck out for the wide open spaces.”

  “And you’ve never regretted leaving your home in Galveston?”

  “Not one bit. It didn’t take me long to realize I was born to be a cowboy.”

  “Is that so?”

  “Shore is. I worked as a wrangler on several ranches afore I run into Aaron Wilcox. Though he’s hard as nails, I liked the man. He ain’t afraid of hard work and he don’t asked his men to do nothing he won’t do hisself. We met in a saloon in Phoenix and got to talking. I guess he liked me, ’cause he offered me a job that very night, and I come back to Hatchet Springs with him. That was almost nine years ago and I’ve been with him ever since.”

  Hard as nails. Drina wasn’t sure she liked the description of her future husband. She bit her lip and asked in a timid voice, “Tell me about Mr. Wilcox, Salty.”

  Salty shook his head and chuckled a little. “Ain’t a lot to tell. As I said, he’s a hard worker. He took a ranch his pa had run into so much debt they almost lost it and turned it into one of the nicest spreads in these parts. A lot of people like him, but there are the ones who envy him his success and then there’s some who plain out hate him.”

  Drina flinched at the word hate. What had she gotten herself into? Who was the man she’d agreed to share her life with? Finally she muttered, “Hate’s an awfully strong word.”

  “Yeah, but like I said there’re only a few people who feel that way about him.”

  Realizing what a talkative person Salty was, she decided to see how much more she could learn from him about the man she’d agreed to marry. “Would I be interested in knowing who these people are?”

  He shrugged. “Maybe so. It’s the Keller man and his sons. They’d do most anything they could to make his life miserable.”

  “Why so?”

  “They’re crazy for one thing. They blame him for their sister’s death. ’Course he didn’t have nothing to do with it.”

  “They why do they blame him?”

  He frowned as if he remembered he’d told her enough already. “I’ve talked enough. I better leave the telling of the rest of it up to the boss.”

  Drina could tell by the way he reached up and pulled his hat down over his eyes that he wasn’t going to say anything else about Aaron Wilcox. She took a deep breath and started asking questions about the ranch and the surrounding area. She knew this was a safe topic of conversation when he started answering with enthusiasm.

  “Aaron named the ranch when he was a little boy,” Salty said with a chuckle. “His pa liked the name and decided to stick with it. When he went to the register the brand, the folks had a good laugh. So did the people who made the branding irons.”

  “What in the world did he name it to make people laugh?”

  “Rocking Chair.”

  “So the brand is a rocking chair?”

  “It shore is. Aaron threatens to change it someday, but so far the Rocking Chair Ranch is what it is, and I figure that’s what it’ll always be. We all like it, and we think it makes us special.”

  “I must admit it’s unique.” She smiled. “Is the Rocking Chair a big place?”

  “Yep, it shore is. Biggest ranch around these parts, and it won’t surprise me if it gets bigger. Nahammer, on one of the neighboring places, is considering selling. He promised Aaron first chance to buy it, if and when he does move on.”

  Drina didn’t say anything. She knew nothing about buying and selling ranches, but she did wonder if the reason Mr. Wilcox wanted to get married was because he wanted an heir for his large ranch. On the other hand, a local woman could give him an heir. Why did he choose her to be his bride?

  Shaking the thought away, she changed the subject. “How much further is it to the Rocking Chair Ranch, Salty?”

  “We’s about half way. We’ll be there afore dark. It usually takes a couple of hours or so to get back from town in a wagon. Now, if we was on horseback, it wouldn’t take as long.” He glanced at her. “By the way, can you ride a horse?”

  “I rode the mule we used to have on the farm.”

  “I guess that counts as knowing how to ride.” He chuckled again. “I think you might find riding a horse a little better. They ain’t near as stubborn as mules. ’Specially if you ride a gentle mare, and we have several you might like at the ranch.”

  They continued to talk in this easy manner until they came to a road off to the right. Across it was built an entrance with a sign across the top proclaiming ROCKING CHAIR RANCH. On each side of the words was painted a rocking chair.

  Drina took a deep breath. She knew she’d soon be facing the man who was to be her husband, and if things worked out as she hoped and prayed they would, the place she would make her home for the rest of her life. She knew she would be a little nervous, but she didn’t expect to be scared. Yet, as the wagon entered under the sign, she realized she was both nervous and scared.

  * * * *

  Aaron came in the back door of the ranch house and tossed his hat on the hook beside the door. He didn’t look happy. “Preacher Jamison here yet, Beulah?”

  “He’s in the parlor drinking coffee and reading some papers he brought with him. He said he couldn’t stay for your wedding supper ’cause somebody died and he has to go there.”

  “I wonder who besides me decided to die today.”

  “Now listen here, Mr. Aaron, you ain’t dying. Just ’cause you’re getting married don’t mean your life is over.”

  He frowned at her. “It feels like it’s over to me, Beulah.”

  “Here, drink this. It’ll make you feel better.” She held a cup of coffee toward him. “Maybe this will turn out like the time you brought that Miss Carlton home when you found she’d fell off her horse on your ranch and was hurt. She only stayed a month or so, but you seemed to like having her here.”

  He took the coffee. “I’m afraid this is entirely different. Miss Hamilton is coming here to be my wife, not my lover, like Ariel Carlton.”

  “Miss Carlton thought she was going to be your wife, too.” She glared at him. “I still wonder if she or somebody else didn’t plan the whole thing to snag you.”

  “They ma
y have, and maybe she or whoever would’ve accomplished their goal if Uncle Walter hadn’t interfered.”

  “Good thing he did. The Carlton woman was bad news. She weren’t good wife material, and she wanted to be waited on hand and foot.”

  “But as long as she was here she was good company for me, Beulah.” He frowned. “I wonder what ever happened to her.”

  “Who knows? Last I heard she left for Santa Fe to work in a bordello.”

  He grinned but didn’t ask how Beulah learned the woman had gone to Santa Fe. He knew his housekeeper had a way of learning things, but she never told anybody how she did it. He drank a big swallow of the hot coffee. “It’s good, as usual, Beulah, but I’m afraid it’s going to take more than coffee to make me feel better about marrying this woman my uncle has chosen for me. How about putting a shot of whiskey in it? That’d do the trick for the day.”

  “You don’t need to be drinking on your wedding day, Aaron Wilcox.”

  “Will you please quit reminding me of what I’m about to do? It makes me want to run for the hills every time I think about getting married. I may say to hell with the ranch and do it yet.” He sipped the coffee again.

  “Now, you and me both know you’re not going to do such a crazy thing. You love this ranch and if it means getting married to save it, you’ll do it.” She shook her head. “Try to think of it as a good thing. You may end up falling in love with this woman.”

  “No way that’ll happen. All I want to do is get the legal part over with and then work this ranch just like I’ve been doing.” He set the empty coffee mug on the wooden kitchen table. “Did Jamison say who died?”

  “He didn’t say and I didn’t ask. I figured I wouldn’t know them.”

  “I don’t believe that for a minute. You know everybody within fifty miles of this place, including all of your people in the in the Indian camps.”

  She changed the subject. “Since the preacher man said he couldn’t stay to eat after the wedding, I fixed him up a plate.”