Once Upon a Mail Order Bride - Linda Broday Page 0,48

that the squatter had been the bounty hunter.

Ridge had him on the run again, but he wouldn’t be satisfied until he finished this fight.

His, Addie’s, and Bodie’s lives depended on it.

* * *

Addie gathered her broom and dust cloths and went upstairs. It was time to tackle the part of the house she’d avoided, and it was clear Ridge didn’t consider cleaning his priority. The dirt would probably be thick enough to grow turnips before he paid it any mind. Thank goodness he’d gone looking for a wife. In Addie’s experience, wives were the only ones who kept husbands from falling into total dust disasters.

It took her a moment to throw off the feeling of trespassing into his sanctuary as she stepped into the bedroom. She didn’t belong here where he undressed and slept, where he kept his private things. She called herself three kinds of crazy and reminded her feeble brain he was her husband. Addie jerked up the rug and took it outside to beat, then went to work on the dust that had gathered on the furniture other than the bed.

Intent on getting the work done as fast as possible, she lifted a small wooden box that sat on top of the tall chest of drawers, and a tintype dropped to the floor. She reached for the picture, her breath catching at the sight of the couple staring up at her.

It was Ridge and a pretty woman in a fancy dress and hat. Addie scowled at the way his arm was tight around the lady, who was practically sitting in his lap. They were smiling and happy, much too cozy for a mere acquaintance. She had to be a wife or a fiancée. Why hadn’t Ridge mentioned her?

After staring at the couple as though she could force the tintype to give her some answers, she put it back exactly as it had been, under the small box, and hurried to finish and leave the room. But the picture haunted her.

How could she ask Ridge about it without making him think she’d been snooping? No answer came to mind.

Finally, she changed into the denim trousers she’d gotten at the mercantile. The legs were too long, and the waist swallowed hers, but she loved the freedom, the comfort. She wasn’t sure if she’d wear them in town like Rebel did, doubted she had that much courage. Or even to wear them in front of Ridge! His warm chuckle when she’d laid them atop their purchases at the mercantile still brought heat to her face. Maybe she’d try them when he wasn’t around.

She removed the trousers and set to work on alterations. Bodie kept coming in to check on her as she hemmed the trousers, and the third time she finally asked him what was going on.

“I don’t think Ridge wants you to know.” Bodie glanced down at his feet.

Wants? She didn’t care two hoots what Ridge wanted. This was her life. She snatched up her paper. “Tell me. If there’s danger, I have a right to know.”

“Probably so, ma’am.” Bodie hesitated a second longer. “He found tracks the other day. Ones that led right up to the house, where someone sat outside the window and watched.”

Chills raced up her spine, and she gripped the arm of the chair, felt the color draining from her face. Whoever it was had watched her. Nothing unnerved her quite like having eyes following her every move. Just like in New Zion.

“Are you all right, ma’am?”

Slow anger built. “How long have you known about this?”

“Only since morning.”

A strange kind of calm came over her. She laid aside her sewing. “Where is Ridge?”

“He rode out to search.”

And he hadn’t said a word. Not one. Other than Bodie telling her to keep the doors locked, she’d never had so much as a hint that danger had been right outside their windows. Bodie kept avoiding her eyes, and she felt guilty. It wasn’t the boy’s fault, and directing her anger onto him would be unfair.

She scribbled. “Thank you for telling me. You can go back to whatever you were doing.”

Bodie wore a look of relief. “Gladly, ma’am.”

Addie went to cook supper, biding time, her anger simmering until the keeper of secrets rode in. She wrote out her note and waited.

At last she heard him and hurried out.

He was unsaddling Cob and glanced up when she joined him in the yard. “Addie, everything okay?”

She slapped her note to the middle of his broad chest with her question, “Why