Once Upon a Mail Order Bride - Linda Broday Page 0,7

few days?”

Panic crossed her face. Josie calmly handed her paper and pencil, and Adeline wrote, “Tomorrow.”

“Good. I have a room for you at the Diamond Bessie Hotel. Let’s get you settled, then we’ll nail down the details.” Ridge and Luke moved to the back of the wagon and lifted out two trunks. The small one was brand-new and would hold far too much for someone who’d just obtained freedom.

When Ridge lifted an eyebrow, Luke explained, “The ladies did some shopping.”

Adeline would’ve needed everything, he imagined, since people didn’t usually come out of prison with much more than the clothes on their backs.

As he lifted her small trunk on his shoulder, thoughts ran through his head. Ridge now had a purpose and someone who needed him. That was reason enough to marry Adeline Jancy.

* * *

Adeline stood with Josie, her gaze following the men as they headed to the hotel next door. Ridge hadn’t disappointed her—at least not yet. Like his letters, he truly seemed to care what she thought. He’d already given her choices. Three years ago, the law had stripped her of the ability to make choices even about the smallest things. She’d lived in a world of silence that was so loud in her head, she often thought she’d go mad. Maybe she had, to some degree. In an instant, and for three long years, she’d become a mere number instead of a person.

One bang of a gavel had left her utterly alone. Unloved. Terrified.

The family she would never again claim became strangers who stared with questioning eyes and muttered words of hate.

But then, even before prison, she’d never had much freedom to make her own choices. Her father had seen to that. “Pray without ceasing” had been drilled into her from age five.

At first, Ridge’s former occupation as a preacher had given her much worry. She didn’t want another aloof, rigid lord and master like Ezekiel Jancy. But through Ridge’s letters, she’d found him refreshingly different. He’d written at length about his distaste for those who enslaved others.

As your husband, I vow to never force you to my will. I don’t hold with those tactics, he’d written.

She blinked at the bright sunlight, the sensation still making her eyes water even after a little more than two weeks. Ridge cut quite an intriguing figure. He walked with ease, his long legs encased in denim, twin Colts hanging low from his hips. Dark brown hair touched his shoulders, a bit unkempt as one might expect of an outlaw. But his sensitive amber eyes had told her the most.

They spoke of deep hurt, of long, endless nights of the soul, and of biting disappointment and frustration. Maybe at his circumstances. At this point, she had no way of knowing.

He’d never revealed in his letters what’d happened to change him into an outlaw. Adeline only got the impression he hadn’t left his ministry willingly. Something or someone had forced him out. From the start, he’d been quite honest about his current life as an outlaw and spoke of being hunted, of waiting for the agony of the bullet that would end his life.

She knew about such a wait. Only hers had been for her body and soul to be set free. She was halfway there.

Luke and Josie had visited the prison after hearing of her plight from Nettie Mae, and after being denied access to Addie, they’d sent messages again through her kindly friend. They’d assured her that only an outlaw like Ridge Steele could provide the safety she needed. Thus, she began her correspondence with the wanted man. Addie glanced at him through the hotel window. It appeared they might be correct. He had the bearing and manner of a man who, based on that critical first impression, had the strength and courage to stand up to anyone.

“Shall we?” Josie linked her arm through Adeline’s, and they strolled up the hotel steps. “Ridge is a kind man with a caring heart, and he certainly is handsome. Oh my goodness! I get tongue-tied when I’m around him, and my brain doesn’t want to work right. I’m scared Luke will find out and be upset, so I try to avoid the man.” Josie laughed, paused a moment, and changed the subject. “My dear, we’ll stay a few days to make sure you’re all right.”

Adeline wished she could speak. She’d tell Josie that she’d chosen to marry Ridge because she liked what he’d said in his letters, not because of how handsome he