Page 21 of A Bride for Brodie
“You’re always safe with me. I won’t do anything to hurt you. You’re mine to protect now.” He settled an arm above her head.
She scooted back to his side and cuddled into him. “Thank you, Brodie. I know you didn’t want someone like me for your wife. I’m sorry.”
“Now, why would you say that? You’re just fine. I think you’re kind and gentle and loving and beautiful inside and out. I don’t know you well enough to say much more about you.”
She chuckled. “You could say I’m a coward.”
“Because you had a nightmare? All of us have those from time to time. It’s okay and if you don’t want to talk about it, that’s okay, too.”
“Why are you being so nice to me?”
“I’m nice to everyone?”
“Really? Do you play poker?”
He tensed up and was quiet for a moment. “I’ve been known to play a hand or two. Why?”
Lottie frowned. Brodie sounded a little guarded.Did I hit a sore spot?“Are you nice to all the other players? Do you let them win?”
“Of course not.”
His tone told her he was getting angry, which Lottie expected. “See, you’re not nice to everyone.”
“Okay, I was just making a general statement, which is mostly true.”
He was stiff, not just tense. She rolled her eyes and laughed. She could almost feel him pout. “I’m just funnin’ with you…Husband. I do that, sometimes. Ask Maisie or any of the other ladies.” She was quiet for a moment. “What do you really think of me? I mean, I was in prison. I robbed a bank.”
He stayed silent, but resumed rubbing her arm as she lay next to him. “I suppose I figured you had a reason for it and it must have been a powerful one or you wouldn’t have done it. So, why did you do it?”
She felt him relax now that the attention wasn’t on him.
I can’t tell him the real reason that I was wanted in New Mexico for an altercation at a poker table that left a man dead. Everyone at the table was suspected…including me.“Maisie needed to pay off the man Donald, her dead husband, owed money to, so he wouldn’t kill her…or me. She never told me directly, but I know if he’d just threatened her, she’d have said, “Go ahead.”
“I’m sorry. I know what it’s like to love my brothers that much. I’d die for any of them.”
“You really do, then. It’s a special kind of love siblings have for each other.”
“Exactly. And it’s not one-sided. I know my brothers would do anything for me.”
With that statement, Lottie felt Brodie emotionally move away from her. Something was wrong, but she couldn’t bring herself to ask. It was too soon.
At four o’clock Lottie awoke. She had an internal alarm that always woke her up at this time. It was time to go milk the cows. Maisie would help her, two cows each. Then breakfast to prepare.
In the kitchen, Maisie was pumping water into the big, blue coffeepot. She looked up when Lottie came in.
“Hi baby sister. How was your first night being married?”
Lottie smiled and closed her eyes, reliving every wonderful moment of her first time with Brodie. She’d already filled the first one, and it sat on the stove. She added almost a cup of grounds to the pot, stirred them up, and put the pot on the stove.
“It was wonderful. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Wonderful?” Maisie turned to her. “How can you say that? Do you enjoy pain? What about when he beat you? You enjoyed that?”
Lottie furrowed her brows. “Beat me? What are you talking about? Brodie most certainly did not hit me at all. Why would you say that? Did Donald hit you during relations? Oh Maisie, I’m so sorry, but that is not normal. You should enjoy the act not fear it.”
Maisie shook her head. “I don’t believe you.”
She walked to her sister and hugged her. “It’s true. I would never lie to you. Donald was a monster, even worse than I thought. I’m so sorry our sire sold you to him. So very sorry.”But I made sure he can never hurt you, or me for that matter, ever again. That man will never bother anyone again.
