Badlands Bride. Cheryl St.John

to my father first.” She scribbled on a piece of paper. “Do you have an envelope?” she asked the station manager.

      “Nope.”

      Hallie looked at her letter in consternation.

      “Just fold it and write the name and address on the back,” he told her.

      She followed his direction and handed the letter over.

      “That’s three bits, miss,” Mr. Hallstrom informed her.

      Distressed, she glanced over her shoulder.

      DeWitt drew the change from a leather pouch and laid it on the wooden counter.

      “I’ll pay you back,” she promised.

      Hallie congratulated the women, promising to see them soon, and followed DeWitt outdoors.

      “I’ll pull the team over,” he suggested. “You show me which bag is yours.”

      Though newly married, Angus jumped to the boot and performed his job, unbuckling the trunks and cases. DeWitt raised a brow at the sight of her trunk, but lifted it to the back of the wagon effortlessly, situating her valise beside it. She accepted his assistance and climbed up onto the seat.

      Back aching, eyelids drooping, she rode beside him, desperately wanting to be able to eat and fall asleep. The man next to her made her feel even more helpless than her brothers did. If he believed her to be Tess, then he thought her a liar. If he took her word for who she was, he thought her a fool. Both assumptions got under her skin. “I’m a good reporter,” she said at last.

      From beneath the brim of his hat he cast her a sideways glance. She read neither skepticism nor belief.

      “There have been plenty of women writers, you know,” she said. “Mary Wollstonecraft wrote before the turn of the century. And there was Fanny Wright.”

      His expression didn’t change.

      “Anne Royall, too, but then she’s not a very good example, with all that Washington gossip. And of course there’s Lydia Maria Child’s antislavery book. So you see it’s not all that unheard of.”

      Hallie reached into her satchel and pulled out her clippings about the brides. “Here’s one of my articles.”

      She unfolded a column and held it up for him to look at.

      His attention flicked over the scrap of newspaper dismissively.

      The wind caught it and tugged it from her fingers. Her only copy disappeared into the vast countryside. Quickly, Hallie tucked the others safely back into her bag. “Those articles prove who I am, don’t they?”

      “Anyone could have cut them from a paper.”

      “You should have asked one of the other women who came. They could have backed up my story.” She frowned thoughtfully. “I could have shown you my silver bracelet with my initials engraved on it, but by now some thief has probably given it to his... Do thieves have wives?”

      He only glanced at her in silence.

      “Well, he’s melted it down for bullets, then,” she said.

      He turned his face away and watched the horses’ rumps and the rutted dirt road.

      Finally a few buildings came into sight, and the animals picked up their pace, heading for a long log structure with grass blowing atop the slanted roof. Hallie had never seen anything so strange.

      “Is that your house?” she asked.

      “The freight building. You can’t see the house yet.”

      “You’ve planted grass on top!”

      He cast her a cunous look. “It’s a sod roof.”

      An enormous barn sat beside it. Sectioned corrals holding horses and mules bordered the east side and the back.

      He led the team through an opening wide enough to accommodate the horses and wagon, and stopped. Inside were rows of wagons, a wall of tools and the permeating smell of dung and hay. DeWitt unhitched his horses and whacked each on the rump. Placidly, they made their way through a doorway, where a short man wearing suspenders over his shirt met them.

      “Hey, Coop! That the bride?”

      Cooper hung tack on the wall. “No, Jack. She didn’t come. This is Miss Wainwright. A reporter from Boston.”

      “Oh? Looks like this ’un would do.” He tottered off behind the horses.

      Hallie lowered her eyes and stretched her legs. Cooper had called her by her name and identified her as a reporter. Did he believe her now? Her stomach growled, loud in the open room. “Why didn’t you introduce me properly?”

      His brows lowered. “Don’t expect parlor manners out here, lady.” He beckoned with an arm that sent fringe swaying.

      Hallie followed. He led her across an open space near the big log building to a smaller one a short distance away. The logs were freshly stripped of bark. Behind it, two windowless sod houses stood, smoke curling from the chimney of one.

      He opened a new door and ushered her inside, hanging his hat on a mounted set of antlers. The scents of wood and wax met her nostrils. The room they stood in had a glass window at each end. One side was for cooking, with a stove and table and chairs, the other a sitting area, which included a wide fireplace and a stone hearth. Overhead, a loft could be reached by a sturdy ladder made of saplings.

      The stripped logs couldn’t be seen from the inside. The walls had been plastered and whitewashed. Everywhere was evidence of recent construction and meticulous care. With new eyes Hallie took stock of the simple room and regarded the man who poked sticks into the stove and started a fire.

      He’d built a home for Tess Cordell.

      Did he feel cheated that she hadn’t come? Resentful? An ache like that he must know sapped even more of her energy. Sight unseen, he’d provided the best his stark country had to offer. His preparations revealed there was more to the man than met the eye. He wanted a wife to share this home with. Hallie couldn’t identify the lonely and disturbing feeling the thought wove into her empty stomach.

      He’d only needed help, he’d said. He hadn’t expected a woman to fall at his feet.

      But he’d done all this in anticipation.

      Somehow, perhaps unfairly, Hallie thought it was only right that Tess hadn’t come. She hadn’t cared if Cooper DeWitt was old or young, hadn’t thought of anything but herself and the fact that he obviously had a little money. She wouldn’t have been happy here.

      Would she?

      He clanged a heavy black skillet on the stove and cut chunks of ham into it, his movements deft and sure. He looked different without the hat, less intimidating, more... approachable. His blond hair hung down the center of his back in a thick tail. He had a narrow waist and muscular buttocks and thighs.

      Perhaps Tess had made a big mistake.

      He glanced up and caught her looking.

      Hallie met his eyes and willed herself not to think him handsome.

      He dropped a heavy lid on the skillet. “I’ll get you some water and you can wash before we eat. There’s a privy out back.”

      “A what?”

      He stood motionless, staring at the table. “A place to relieve yourself.”

      Embarrassment buzzed up Hallie’s neck to her ears. “Oh—uh, a necessary,” she said.

      He brought water from outdoors and heated it on the stove. Carrying the metal pan through the doorway, he showed her into one of the two separate rooms. After placing the pan on a low stand, he left her alone.

      Hallie surveyed the room. It held a wide rope bed covered with a rough blanket, a chest of drawers and an armoire, all new. There was no covering