Lucky Bride

“Don’t touch them or they might fall off,” she said quickly, and he pulled his hand away as if he had been burned.

He tried to bring the rest of the room into focus at the same time as he tamped down another wave of sickness. “Have you been beside me all night?” he asked her.

She hesitated a moment. “Molly was helping, too,” she said finally.

He smiled. “I owe you a big debt.”

She stood and leaned across the bed, putting a cool hand against his forehead. “Last night you were burning up with fever. You seem cool enough now.”

He wasn’t feeling cool. Her chest pressed gently against his arm as she bent over him. She smelled faintly of lemon. Even still weak from a night of fever he felt a surge of desire. He bit his lip until she pulled back. It might be harder than he had thought to keep his promise to Molly Hanks through the long winter.

She was looking at his ears. It was odd, but he couldn’t feel them. He carefully touched first one side, then the other. “You were serious about cutting them off?” he asked.

Susannah nodded. “They’ve got the chilblains, Smokey says, and the pizens are what made you go out of your head.”

“Do you have a mirror?”

“I… I don’t think you want to see them, Mr. Prescott. They’re just about every shade of the rainbow this morning.”

Parker grinned. “Sounds pretty. But didn’t we agree that you’re to call me Parker?”

Susannah nodded. “Molly might have something to say about it, though. She gets nervous when we start getting too familiar with anyone wearing pants—except for her, of course,” she added with a giggle.

“Well, at least you can call me Parker when we’re by ourselves, Susannah.”

“Which isn’t going to be often,” a blunt voice said from the doorway.

Parker jumped, sending a spiral of pain from the base of his neck up to the top of his head. Molly Hanks stalked across the room and looked down at him. “You look as if you plan on sticking around for the winter after all, Mr. Prescott,” she said. Her blunt comment from the door had made him expect to see her upset, but she actually sounded pleased to see that he was recovering.

“Thanks to you and your sister,” he said. “I’m beholden to you both.”

“Just get yourself healthy enough to help out around here and remember what we talked about yesterday. That’s all the thanks I ask.”

He started to nod but thought better of it. He wouldn’t move his head again unless he had to. “I probably owe you my life,” he said. “And I understand that I definitely owe you my ears.” Smiling didn’t hurt, so he turned the full force of one of his best on Molly. He saw immediately that it had some effect. She might dress tough and talk tough, but he had the feeling that underneath, Molly Hanks was not so very different from her two sisters.

“We’ll keep putting on the glycerine,” she said, ducking her head to hide the flush that had crept over her face. “But the swelling’s gone down some from last night. I think they’ll be all right.”

Smokey appeared in the doorway. “He’s doing better?” he asked in his gravelly voice.

Molly turned around with a smile.. “Yes. I think we’ve got those pizens on the run.”

The cook gave a satisfied nod. “You’ve got a visitor.”

“A visitor? Through this snow?”

“Mr. Dickerson. The son.”

“Jeremy or Ned?”

Smokey grimaced. “Mr. High-and-Mighty. Jeremy.”

Without appearing aware of her actions, Molly smoothed her hair with both hands. “Tell him I’ll be down directly,” she said.

“I told him to wait in the parlor, but he says he wants to come—”

From behind him an authoritative voice interrupted. “What’s going on here, Molly? They told me you’re caring for a stranger in your father’s room.”

The man who pushed past Smokey to enter the room was about Parker’s size. He was dressed well in a black pin-striped suit and string tie. His boots were polished and the hat he held in his hand would have set most cowboys back three months’ pay.

Molly straightened at his approach. “I don’t mean to be rude, Jeremy, but if Smokey asked you to wait downstairs, you should have done so.”

Parker felt oddly proud to hear her stand up to him. The man was obviously not used to following orders. Gritting his teeth against the pain in his head, he sat upright in the bed. He didn’t want to be flat on his back when he made Jeremy Dickerson’s acquaintance.

Dickerson smiled at Molly. Both his straight black hair and black mustache were neatly trimmed. In spite of riding from somewhere through fields of new snow, he had not a hair out of place. “Forgive my eagerness to see you, my dear,” he said to her. She did not flush as she had when Parker had smiled at her earlier.

“It’s no matter,” she muttered.

Dickerson strode over to the bed and stared at Parker, then addressed Molly as if he were some sort of dumb animal. “ Where’d he come from? And why have you got him here in Charlie’s room?”

Parker couldn’t tell if Molly was irritated by the tone of authority. She was not bristling as she had upon occasion with Parker himself. She answered evenly, “He’s our new hand, and he’s recovering from frostbite.”

Jeremy looked down his nose. “He looks healthy enough to me.”

Hoping he wouldn’t be sick, Parker leaned forward and extended his hand. “Parker Prescott,” he said. “Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

Dickerson looked taken aback by Parker’s move, but he recovered and halfheartedly shook his hand. Then he turned back to Molly. “I don’t like the idea of a stranger staying here in the house with you girls. It’s not the same as when your father was under the same roof to protect you.”

Now there was a definite bristle in the set of Molly’s shoulders. She ignored his comment, but stayed calm as she said, “Why don’t we go on downstairs and have some hot coffee, Jeremy?” She started moving toward the door. “I can’t believe you came here through all this snow.”

“I just wanted to be sure everything was all right….”

Dickerson followed Molly out the door, and Parker said to his back, “Nice to meet you, too.”

Susannah giggled and stuck her tongue out at the retreating pair.

“Who was that charming fellow?” Parker asked.

Susannah’s expression grew sober. “That charming fellow,” she said, “is my future brother-in-law.”

Chapter Four (#ulink_b5ae591a-8a68-5f29-b49a-c9391d385d1b)

Parker’s dark eyebrows shot up. “He’s engaged to your sister?”

“Well, not exactly. But he expects to marry her. The Dickerson ranch adjoins ours, and it’s something our pa always talked about with Jeremy’s pa, Hiram.”

Parker sank back into his pillow. He’d been holding himself up with his arms and they were starting to quiver. It was amazing how weak a man could grow in just a couple of days. He couldn’t say why the news that Molly Hanks had a serious suitor seemed so astounding, but it did. “We are talking about Molly?” he asked Susannah.

“Molly’s the one he wants, all right. You see, even though Papa left the Lucky Stars to the three of us, Molly is—how do they say it legally?—executor of the property, even if Mary Beth and I get husbands of our own, which isn’t likely the way she greets every man coming within a mile of the place with that rifle of hers.”