Читать книгу Marriage For Sale - CAROL DEVINE - Страница 8

“Next up for bid is Miss Rachel Johnson, as fine a woman as you folks will ever see,” bellowed the auctioneer. His resonant voice boomed out over the people milling around the barnyard. Hooking his thumbs under his suspenders, which curved around his ample middle, the auctioneer rocked back on his heels, sweeping the audience with his affable gaze. “At eight and twenty years of age, Miss Rachel is in her prime, and of good, hardworking Johnson stock. Do I hear a bid? The startin’ price is one hundred dollars!”

Thinking he must have misheard, Lincoln Monroe checked the rough-hewn wooden platform these people used as an auction block. The sheer volume of sights, sounds and smells made it difficult for him to see and hear what was going on. A sea of buyers and sellers flowed in uneven waves back and forth across the yard, heads covered by calico bonnets and widebrimmed straw hats. Friends stood gossiping, families strolled holding hands, and children ran laughing and chasing each other. Smells of grilling sausages, roasted corn and fresh-baked pies assaulted Linc’s senses, as well. He took his latest purchase, a spirited three-year-old Appaloosa filly, into the wooden corral, shouldered his way past a half dozen horse-drawn wagons and moved closer to the auction block.

Unbelievably, a young woman was standing there, dressed in the same old-fashioned gowns as the other women. Caught in at the waist by an unbleached-muslin apron, the long, pale-pink gown buttoned at her neck and brushed the ankles of her black-stockinged legs. Sensible, brown-leather laced boots covered her feet.

Unlike the other women, however, whose heads were covered by bonnets, their hair pinned in neat coils at the back of the neck, this woman had slipped off her bonnet, letting it hang down her back to reveal her near-white, corn silk hair—the straight type that tended to escape its bounds. She had braided hers into many strands and wrapped them like a halo around her head.

She stood up straight on the block, as tall as her short stature allowed, her covered arms hanging loosely at her sides. Wispy blond tendrils accented her heart-shaped face and pointed chin. The honey tint to her complexion, scrubbed free of makeup, was shades darker than the gold of her hair, making her turquoise-colored eyes stand out in startling contrast.

She pursed her lips in serious contemplation as she looked out over the crowd from her high vantage point. She looked nowhere near twenty-eight, but unmistakable composure and maturity kept her chin high and her shoulders thrown back. The ramrod-straight posture pulled her bodice across her breasts—generously rounded breasts that put lust in men’s hearts, his included. It made the mystery of why she was being auctioned off like this all the more appalling.

“Come on, folks,” called the auctioneer, who tipped his straw hat back on his balding head. “You don’t want to hurt Miss Rachel’s feelings, do you? When am I going to hear that bid for one hundred dollars? Turn around, honey, and show the folks out there what you have to offer.”

The sight of her obediently turning in place chilled Linc. So did the hoots and whistles from the onlookers. Ignoring the catcalls, the woman named Rachel fixed her unblinking turquoise gaze on some faraway point, determined to see her sale through, Linc thought. Her sale into slavery.

Linc wondered which disgusted him more—that a human being was being auctioned off like a piece of meat or that she was actually going along with it. Considering her defiant stance, he’d bet his last world-champion rodeo title that the woman named Rachel didn’t have a choice.

Loath as he was to interfere in other people’s business, he signaled the auctioneer of his bid in the same way he had all morning, with a tug on the brim of his black Stetson. The bidding didn’t pick up much, however, remaining slow, uninterested. Linc wondered about that, too. Even in an insulated environment like this, women like Rachel would be easy to take advantage of, if a man were so inclined.

To his left, a grizzled, gray-bearded man raised his meaty red hand in an obvious bid. A couple of women alongside grinned and elbowed each other, whispering behind their hands. Laughter rippled around them. Linc felt every muscle in his body tense. What was wrong with these people? If he had his hunting rifle, he would have fired into the air and put a stop to this. Poker-faced, he tugged the brim of his Stetson instead.

Up till now, he had cultivated a certain amount of respect for the members of The Community, as they called themselves. Like the Amish or Northern Montana’s Hutterites, members of The Community prided themselves on living an old-fashioned and reverential life, dedicated to caring for the land that supported them.

Ever since he’d bought his ranch six months ago, Linc had heard that the best livestock in the region was found at The Community’s annual auction, held every spring before planting time. His purchase today of the prize Appy filly and fifty head of mixed-breed cattle proved his sources of information were right. But that didn’t explain how supposedly God-fearing people could justify selling one human being to another.

The auctioneer’s staccato chant sped up as gray beard raised his hand again. Linc didn’t hesitate in answering. But he did hesitate when a wizened old lady shuffled forward from the crowd and rapped the tall edge of the auction block with her cane, drawing the auctioneer’s attention with her high bid, called out in a loud, gravel-edged voice. Linc had assumed all the women were little more than servants to the men.

The forcefulness of the old lady’s manner surprised him, too, especially when he bid again. She spun around and wagged the knobby-headed cane in his face. “You are an outsider, sir,” she hissed. “I’d advise you to stay out of our business.”

Linc didn’t bother to give her the courtesy of tipping his hat, and he exaggerated his West Texas drawl into sarcasm. “Well, howdy-do to you, ma’am. I may be an outsider here, but I pretty much do what I damn well please whether it’s my business or not.”

“And what I’m saying to you, young man,” she retorted, peering at him through crescents of wrinkles, “is that you don’t have the faintest idea what you are getting yourself into. All I can say is, I hope you’re a bachelor.”

“A bachelor? What for? So when you have me drawn and quartered for interfering in your so-called business, I won’t be leaving a widow?”

She snorted and thrust the cane at the middle of his chest, ruffling the leather fringe of his buff suede cattleman’s jacket. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Linc ignored her and raised his next bid considerably, proving his contempt. Clearly unimpressed, the old lady rapped the auction block again, upping her bid.

Linc tugged his hat brim again. “You’re going to lose. I don’t care what I have to pay.”

“Our laws regarding women of Rachel’s age are very specific,” she informed him while keeping the bidding alive. “You’d do well to heed my words. We take care of our own.”

Linc spoke through gritted teeth. “Is this how you take care of your own? Selling a defenseless young woman? No way can you justify this.”

She waved her cane at him in dismissal. “Yet you are bidding for her. You are participating in what you call unjustifiable.”

“I’m buying her for one reason and one reason only—to give the lady her freedom.”

“Freedom, hmm?” Her wrinkled-raisin eyes brightened in renewed consideration. “Perhaps you are not as high and mighty as you appear.”

Linc iced her with one glare. “Don’t count on it.”

“You are angry. That is good. Rachel knows how to handle anger and the single-mindedness of a beast obsessed. Instead of freeing her, perhaps you should consider keeping her for your own use.”

“My own use? What kind of people are you?”

“Simple people. That is our motto. We began as a collection of dreamers and doers, and became The Community. It is the way we choose to live.”

Linc stabbed his finger toward the auction block. “Does Rachel have a choice?”

“Of course she does. She asked to be sold in this manner. It is her right.”

“Then she must be even more brainwashed than you are.”

The old lady cackled with glee. “You speak your mind as does she. I have reconsidered. The two of you will be well matched.”

Linc shook his head in disgust at the crazy ramblings of the old woman and, determined to bring an end to this charade, signaled a huge jump in the size of his bid. The auctioneer incorporated the amount in his chant, and the audience gasped.

“Going, going, gone!” the auctioneer announced, pointing at Linc. “Sold to the clean-shaven outsider in the black cowboy hat.”

It sickened Linc to breathe the same air as these people as he pushed his way to the auctioneer. The women in their bonnets and the men in their straw hats parted before him in apparent awe.

Linc didn’t understand them. He didn’t want to understand them. All he wanted to do was pay his money and get the woman named Rachel out of here.

Rachel watched her buyer come forward to claim her.

She had noticed his tall, imposing form previously during the livestock sale. Dressed in a fringed, Western-cut cowhide coat and crisp black felt cowboy hat, he wasn’t the only rancher to visit the auction this day. Yet he stood out from the others like a rogue stallion, content to stay aloof and alone. He ignored the tables of farm produce and canned goods and the friendly overtures of the sellers who made them.

Rugged and rangy, he moved toward her with economy, the way a skilled cowboy would move, which heartened her. Appreciation of the vast land and its creatures was an important attribute in a man. If the cattle he’d bought this morning were any indication, he had a good eye for quality. His worndenim jeans and silver belt buckle also spoke of an experienced cattleman. Trim and fit, he carried himself with the authority of a substantial landowner. Another point in his favor was the three-year-old Appaloosa filly he’d bought earlier—the finest prospective cutting horse in the lot.

Rachel resisted the urge to smooth back her hair or fuss with her dress. She was through making herself conform to the needs and desires of others. Either he accepted her as she was or she would find another path to the life she was determined to set for herself.

Her buyer shook hands with the auctioneer, and Rachel examined his lean-jawed face. Harsh prairie sun and wind had burnished his skin and etched squint lines around his eyes. Thick lashes and thicker brows were as black as his hat. His straight nose matched the uncompromising lines of his mouth while day-old whiskers shadowed his cheeks. He seemed a fine specimen of a man.

But when he introduced himself and lifted his hat to her, his flint-green eyes remained cold and he didn’t smile. “Hello, Rachel. I’m Lincoln Monroe.”

He had the kind of low and dusty voice that led people to listen closely. Tremors traveled up her arm as she pumped his swallowing hand. “Pleased to meet you, Lincoln Monroe.”

“Linc is fine.”

“Linc.” Accustomed to the biblical names the people of The Community favored, his name felt foreign on her tongue. The tremors she felt were also foreign to her and traversed across and down her body, flushing it with unfamiliar warmth. She tried not to show it, acting natural as could be, but he must have sensed the power of her feeling, for his jaw tightened and he questioned her with his gaze.

She did not move. He possessed the penetrating gaze of a hunter—ever hungry and ever searching. The direct force of it pinned her in place as surely as if she were his prey.

Confusion hit her—she refused to be prey for anyone or anything. Yet the danger she felt emanating from him exhilarated her. Instinct told her he was different from everyone else, that he was worthy of trust. In spite of the fact that she was a stranger to him, he had bid for her, confirming the fact that she truly wasn’t as strange and ugly as so many claimed.

She met his gaze for a long, wordless moment before he broke it off, his jaw set more tightly than ever.

Attuned to his changing mood, Rachel straightened her backbone and watched him turn to the cashier as the people surrounding them witnessed in hushed silence. She wasn’t surprised by their reaction. No other member of The Community, man or woman, had ever been sold for such a high price.

She expected Lincoln Monroe to examine her before paying his money, as was his right, but he didn’t ask her to read anything or test the strength of her arms. Instead he pulled out his wallet and paid in one-hundred-dollar bills. That might be a problem, breaking those bills into lesser currency, she thought.

“Follow me,” he said curtly, cutting his way through the throng. She barely had time to accept her selling price from the cashier and pocket the roll of money in her skirt.

He should have ordered her to walk before him, so all in The Community could see, at last, that she was worth coveting. But he was unfamiliar with her customs and striding fast, as well, and because her legs didn’t match the long length of his, she had to trot to keep up. Some folks snickered, but she kept her gaze focused straight ahead and concentrated on the comforting solidity of her buyer’s broad back.

The denim he wore fitted his legs with little material to spare, hiding his cowboy boots down to the well-worn heels. His cowboy hat offset the thick coalblack hair at his nape. The length was trimmed neatly compared to most men she knew but Rachel decided that his matched the angular lines of his body and no-nonsense strides. The trim of his forelock in front had done little to soften the rather grim expression he had greeted her with, but she no longer cared about that. She knew how to gentle any soul, human or otherwise.

Just thinking about her future with him made her heart beat like a tiny bird’s. She had learned long ago that a person’s appearance wasn’t nearly as important as the content of their character. But when it came right down to lying together and the business of making babies, she couldn’t imagine how it might be done if the man and the woman didn’t see some sort of beauty in each other.

He halted at his rig, and Rachel had a moment to examine the large black truck, taking in the fat wheels and metal frame. It was the outsider’s version of a wagon, made for hauling heavy loads, only it roared like a bear and spewed noxious-smelling smoke. Rachel told herself to prepare to get inside it. The marriage ceremony would only take a few minutes. Then she would be his and he, hers.

She was glad to see that the horse trailer behind the truck was clean and in good repair. The filly, raised free on The Community’s pastures, deserved fine quarters and the best of care. Fortunately the truck was parked close to her corral. She already had plenty of opportunity to familiarize herself with such a modern contraption.

“Where’s your stuff?” Linc asked.

Rachel broke from her reverie. “Stuff?”

“Bags, luggage—whatever it is you want to take with you,” he replied.

“My trunk contains most of my possessions.” She pointed to a large trunk close by. “The rest I will fetch myself.”

She literally ran off. Linc examined the trunk. Bright brass rivets stretched the leather over the wooden frame. New leather, not dyed. It hadn’t had a chance to age like the one that had been passed down to him from his great-grandmother. But in every other way it was identical.

Rachel returned, lugging her saddle with both arms in front of her, with her most precious possessions tucked into the parfleche slung over one shoulder. Linc got one look at her and wrested the saddle from her. “This is way too heavy for you to carry.”

“I’ve been carrying it for most of my life,” she replied, her tone milder and more pliant than she intended. She had heard rumors about how outsiders often took their women for granted. He must not feel he had dominion over her.

Linc threw the saddle alongside her trunk in the bed of his truck. “You’ve been treated like a beast of burden. That’s not going to happen anymore.”

“Hard work soothes my soul.”

“Yeah? Is that why you agreed to be auctioned off like a piece of meat?”

“My last relation died last year.” She shrugged. “Obviously, I could not live alone.”

“Obviously.” Although he had been called a male chauvinist more than once in his life, even he understood the misogyny implied in her statement. It was one more strike against this supposed utopia, The Community. “Let’s go,” he said in a clipped voice. “The sooner we get out of here, the better.”

“I thought Granny Isaacs explained our customs to you during the auction. You and I must be married first.”

“Excuse me?”

“An unmarried man and an unmarried woman of similar age are not allowed to live together.”

He took her arm, hurrying her toward the truck. “Don’t worry. We won’t be living together.”

“But—”

The old lady who had given him such a hard time separated from the watchdog crowd and pushed her way between them. She stabbed a gnarled finger at the middle of Linc’s chest. “Are we of The Community, who have had Rachel with us for her whole life, supposed to take you at your word?” she demanded.

“You of all people know what my intentions are,” Linc retorted.

“Do I? You are little more than a stranger to us.”

“Please, Linc,” interrupted Rachel. “Granny Isaacs is right. Unless we are wed, you will not be allowed to take me with you. It is for my protection should I be ill-treated.”

“You have got to be kidding.” Tempted to just pack her into the cab of his truck, Linc realized that strong-arming her was precisely why these people were insisting on the commitment that marriage implied. “What if I’m already involved with someone else?” His casual relationships with various women didn’t exactly qualify, but he wasn’t about to back down. Not when his freedom was at stake.

“Rachel will be sold to another.”

Linc appealed to Rachel. “Look, you and I are on the same side here. I wouldn’t have spent my money if I wasn’t going to take good care of you.”

“Money is not enough of a guarantee,” interrupted Granny Isaac.

“I can’t believe this,” he said. “If the granny’s bid had won over mine, you wouldn’t have to marry her.”

“The commitment The Community requires is the same,” Rachel explained. “Both parties must pledge to treat each other with respect.”

Granny Isaacs chimed in. “Certainly we can require no less from you.”

Linc wheeled on her. “Yes, you can. You have my word.”

“We require more than your word,” she replied. “We require you and Rachel to be legally wed.”

“How in hell can this be legal? There’s no blood test, no waiting period.”

“The federal laws of this country waive such requirements when they violate certain religious practices.”

“You can’t force me to get married,” Linc said. The no-promises, no-demands, confirmed-bachelor part of him wanted to throw his hands up and leave the place. But he refused to walk away, not when a human being’s freedom was at stake.

“There is nothing forced about this marriage,” Granny Isaacs informed him. “Rachel gave her consent when she agreed to be sold at the auction. You, on the other hand, are free to refuse.”

Their little discussion was drawing quite a crowd. Linc folded his arms over his chest in disgust. “What’s to stop me from going through with this idiotic marriage bit, then annulling the thing the minute we hit the nearest town?”

“An annulment requires both your consent. If it is granted, there is nothing I can do to prevent it.”

The noise of a sharply rude whistle ripped through the air. “Rachel Johnson!” yelled a woman, her face sneering. “He doesn’t want you, after all.”

“Give ’im back his money!” another woman screamed.

Linc grabbed Rachel’s hand and tugged her toward the truck. “I’m taking you away from this crazy place.”

Rachel twisted from his grasp. “I won’t go unless we are married. Please, Linc. It is our law.” Desperation shadowed those extraordinary eyes.

He pulled her aside, out of earshot of the others.

“If I have to marry you to get you out of here, then we’ll do it. But I want an annulment as soon as we hit town.”

Faced by his clear reluctance, Rachel shook her head. “It is unfair to hold you to traditions that were unknown to you at the time of the auction.”

“That isn’t what I asked you. Do you want to marry me or not?”

Rachel didn’t have to check the curious expressions of those witnessing to know that she, too, wished to understand what made him bid for her in the first place. That was what she wanted. “Of course I want to marry you.”

“Good.” To shut up the rude naysayers, he sealed the bargain with a sudden kiss.

Surprise dropped Rachel’s mouth. Amused, he brushed the hair off her forehead and flashed his first smile, brilliant white in the sun. “Everybody is watching us, but I don’t think they’re convinced of my sincerity. Why don’t we give them a show?”

He then kissed her with far more intent. He shaped her mouth, parting her lips, causing tingles to shoot down her legs. Caught off-balance, she clutched at his arms. The tip of his tongue teased her and all sense of equilibrium fled. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she clung to him.

He ended the kiss abruptly, searching her expression. The wariness in his gaze made her instinctively hold her breath, and she wondered what he might do next. Hunger underscored his wariness, hunger far sharper and raw than what she had witnessed earlier. And she had aroused it, Rachel realized.

The arousal went both ways. The heady yearning she felt must have been transparent, for his wariness flared into warning. “The deal is,” he said softly so only she could hear him, “marriage, then annulment. Don’t expect anything more.”

He faced the murmuring onlookers, giving her no time to argue. But she wouldn’t argue in front of these people. She’d been singled out and ridiculed at one time or another by most of them, and she had no intention of giving anyone reason to talk about her now.

As a young child, it was her supposedly albino hair they commented on. Positively ghostly, they’d said. When her parents replied that she was simply light blond, the focus shifted to the uncanny color of her eyes. Even her father declared them unreal. Once she started school, she didn’t know how to defend herself when other kids called her “spooky” for seeming to look right through them.

Contributing to the problem was her habit of staring out the windows, daydreaming. Many times she was forced to sit in front of the class with horse blinders on, big black square ones that kept her focused straight ahead. She supposed the punishment was intended to teach her a lesson. It simply gave the other children more reason to call her names.

After she’d grown up and left school, she learned to forget her old hurts by roaming the range lands for hours at a time. When questioned by her parents about what she was doing out there, she described a band of wild horses roaming the hills. Her plan to tame some of those horses and sell them at auction did not go over well. To her family, it was an impossible task because her help was needed at home on the farm. Even the few friends she’d managed to make said she needed to improve her dismaying lack of cooking skills and learn a trade rather than waste her time running around the countryside. After all, as an adult member of The Community, she was expected to do her share of the work.

But Rachel believed deep in her heart that she was doing her share. Horses had a language all their own, a language she had learned to speak. Surely that was more valuable than anything else she could possibly do.

Her claim to be able to speak to horses turned out to be the biggest mistake she’d ever made. Even Granny Isaacs took her aside and told Rachel she was far too old for such fantasies.

Admittedly, “speak” may not have been the best word to use when describing what she did. Listening to horses would have been more accurate. But in the end, she definitely got the message. No one wanted to listen to her. And Linc was proving to be no exception.

He packed her under his arm and looked over their audience. “Make no mistake about it. I wanted Rachel from the moment I saw her,” he announced. “You want me to prove it by seeing us married? Then do it now or forever hold your peace.”