Oklahoma Wedding Bells - Softcover

Finch, Carol

3.67

54 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0373297157 ISBN 13: 9780373297153

Publisher: Harlequin Historical, 2012

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Independent Josephine Malloy is determined to stake her own claim during the latest Oklahoma land run. But to fend off the countless suitors seeking a wife and homestead she needs a fake fianc� for cover. Enter horse trader Solomon Tremain...

As an undercover Deputy U.S. Marshal investigating land fraud, Sol should probably keep his distance from this firebrand. But when Josie gets in trouble with the law it's Sol to the rescue—although he'll need to make their marriage for real. If only she'll stay out of hot water long enough to say "I do"!

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About the Author:

Connie Feddersen also writes under four pseudonyms--Carol Finch, Gina Robins, Debra Falcon and Connie Drake. She has penned one hundred novels in several genres. A published author for almost thirty years, Connie has more than ten million copies of her books in print and her books have been translated into fifteen languages. In her spare time she likes to garden, do carpentry projects, and help her husband with farming chores and cattle roundups on their 600-acre ranch.

El Reno, Oklahoma Territory

April 1892

Josephine Malloy sat on a rickety wooden bench in the tent city near the river. With practiced strokes, she replaced a button on a worn shirt that would have served better as a rag. Beside her, Muriel Wilson stitched a patch on a tattered jacket for one of their many male customers.

"Brace yourself, Josie," Muriel murmured confidentially when Orson Barnes approached.

Josie inwardly groaned when the big, burly cowboy lumbered toward her. Orson claimed to be twenty-nine, but with a woolly brown beard and mustache covering his face, and a frizzy crop of dark hair surrounding his broad head, it was hard to tell his age. She took his word for it.

Muriel nudged her discreetly. "Why don't you put the poor man out of his misery before he spends all his money ripping buttons off his shirts so you can sew them back on?"

"I'm hoping he'll run out of extra spending money before he works up the nerve to pop the question," she mumbled.

Orson was one of the self-appointed leaders in the tent community—a former soldier who was well respected by the hopeful settlers. Yet he was exceptionally bashful around women. Josie had listened to Orson stammer and hint that a man needed a wife, and that he would be a protective provider and landowner after the run. Maybe today would be the day he proposed and she rejected him....

Her thoughts trailed off when Orson halted in front of her, casting his broad shadow over her. "Mornin', Miz Malloy. You, too, Miz Wilson." His wide smile exposed the noticeable gap between his two front teeth.

Orson chitchatted about the weather and the upcoming race to stake free land in the area that had once belonged to the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes. Then he inhaled an enormous breath that made his barrel chest double in size. "Miz Malloy, as you've likely noticed, I've become quite fond of you while you've done mending for me."

Here it comes, Josie thought with an inward wince.

"If you'll do me the honor of being my wife after the run, we can stake our one-hundred-sixty-acre claims side by side and have twice as much land to start our new ranch."

Same proposal, one hundredth verse. No, she silently corrected, one hundred two. Muriel was at ninety-nine. With literally thousands of single men swarming the area to chase dreams of building ranches on free land, Josie and Muriel were constantly bombarded with marriage proposals.

It was nothing new, however, Josie reminded herself. She had rejected several hundred proposals before participating in the race for land to help her brother and sister-in-law in the Run of '89....

She was jolted back to the present when Muriel elbowed her in the ribs. Josie raised her gaze to meet Orson's expectant eyes.

"You are too kind to offer for me, Orson. But I don't consider myself good wife material and neither should you," she replied, repeating the practiced rejection speech she'd given literally hundreds of times before. "If you knew me better you would realize I'm much too independent, outspoken and contrary to be a dutiful wife. In addition, it's my dream to have a ranch all my own."

Beside her, Muriel muffled a chuckle with a cough. Josie wasn't sure which quality—her independence, frank speech or contrariness—amused her friend more. She had witnessed examples of each since they had become acquainted and formed their sewing partnership three weeks earlier. At twenty-one, Muriel was well on her way to perfecting those characteristics herself.

As Josie's older brother was fond of saying, a man who tangled with an independent, free-spirited woman had no idea what he was getting himself into. Nevertheless, Noah had married Celia, who was no shrinking violet.

Orson's buffalo-size shoulders slumped dejectedly as he curled and uncurled the brim of his sweat-stained hat in his meaty fists. "Maybe if we spent a little more private time together—"

Josie thrust his mended shirt at him. "No, Orson," she said as gently—but firmly—as possible. "I'll accept payment for repairing this garment, but I can't accept your proposal. It wouldn't be fair to you. I'm very sure that you'll be much happier with someone else."

As had happened often in the past three weeks, her rejected suitor turned to the brunette beside her and flashed his best smile. If Josie or Muriel rejected a man's proposal, he'd immediately transfer his attention to the other woman, as if they were interchangeable. Which served to prove that a man wasn't very particular about whom he acquired for his wife. One female was as good as the next, and Josie refused to let herself forget that.

There were a few exceptions, she conceded. Her brother actually loved Celia.

At twenty-three, Josie had become exceptionally cynical because of several unpleasant experiences with overeager single men who had hounded her before—and immediately after—land runs.

"How 'bout you, Miz Wilson?" Orson asked hopefully. "We would suit well, too, I believe."

"Thank you kindly, but no, Orson," Muriel replied politely. "Like Josie, I fancy being on my own, and I've learned to take care of myself. I'm chasing my own rainbows and I'm not ready to settle down."

"But you can double the amount of land—"

"No, thank you," Josie and Muriel said in unison. "Good luck staking your land claim."

After Orson glumly paid the fee, crammed his mended shirt under his arm and walked off, Josie came to her feet to work the kinks from her back. "I think I'll hike into town for lunch. Want to come along?"

Muriel tucked the patched jacket in the knapsack where they kept their sewing supplies, then tossed the bundle into the tent she and Josie shared for their protection. "One hundred proposals and counting," Muriel muttered. "And not one that interests me."

"Maybe we're too particular. Or shrewish," Josie remarked as she walked alongside her friend. "Getting to know one another doesn't appear to be a prerequisite for marriage in this territory. But I wish men would wait at least a week after making our acquaintance before proposing."

"That didn't bother Rachel Winters or Annabelle Mason." Muriel smirked, her golden-brown eyes sparkling with humor. "They paraded up and down the streets in fine fashion to snag husbands. Neither of them knew their new grooms for more than a day before getting hitched. Though I wonder why they didn't want to wait until after the run to wed. They could have staked their own claims and combined them with their husbands' to double the size of their property."

"There are opportunists galore milling about," Josie insisted as she led the way up the tree-choked riverbank to reach the bustling community. "But I don't blame the former saloon girls for trying to improve their situations, even if they hurried along their weddings. Extra land was the least of their concerns. They are in their late twenties, from the looks of them, and likely have endured a hard life. They were searching for an escape, while we are chasing our dreams of claiming homesteads of our own."

"Mercy me," Muriel muttered when they reached the edge of town. "There is that infuriating Captain Holbrook again. He's always bossing folks around and running off the Sooners that sneak in to claim prime land before the day of the race."

"I'm all in favor of routing those greedy settlers who are trying to cheat their way into acquiring the best property!" Josie insisted emphatically.

"So am I," Muriel agreed. "But Holbrook's domineering attitude riles me. He snapped at me, just because I wandered over the borderline while trying to avoid a clump of men tossing proposals left and right. The captain is too much the authoritarian and too full of himself, if you ask me."

Josie glanced back and forth between her friend and the commander of Fort Reno, who was in charge of maintaining control of thousands of people who filled the town to overflowing, and was obliged to protect the Indians on the soon-to-be-opened land. "Has the captain insulted you or made improper advances?" she asked worriedly.

Muriel thrust out her chin, causing tendrils of dark hair to ripple around her face. Her thick-lashed eyes threw sparks. "He accused me of leading men on, is what he did!" she huffed irritably. "You know perfectly well that I can't help it if ten cowboys decide to follow at my heels and toss out proposals simultaneously. The same holds true for you."

That had become the story of their lives the past three weeks, Josie acknowledged.

"I'm trying to avoid men, not attract them." Muriel snorted, and added spitefully, "I'd like to see that stuffed shirt of a soldier down on bended knee. I would smack him on the head with a skillet to punctuate my rejection."

Muriel's burst of temper befuddled Josie. She was also curious why the handsome captain cast Muriel the evil eye as he reined his horse toward her. With his shiny brown hair, brown eyes and muscular physique, Grant Holbrook was not unpleasant to look at. At age thirty or thereabout, he held a position of authority, and was highly regarded by his men. Why Muriel and the army officer provoked each other so easily was beyond Josie.

Captain Holbrook halted his roan gelding beside them and looked down from his advantageous position. He nodded politely to Josie, then focused a hard stare on Muriel. "What? No string of men trailing behind you today, Miz Wilson?" he said, and smirked.

"Off day, is it?"

Muriel tossed him a caustic smile. "I sent them away because I've decided the only proposal I'll accept is from you, Captain. I don't want you to have to compete w...

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