Mail Order Bride: Westward Dance Read Free

and it ate at
him that he couldn’t get justice for her.
    Their social life had ground to a halt
with the exception of smaller dinners with their close friends and
a few business associates. They did their best to avoid the Wilson
family because Geoff wouldn’t have been able to control himself.
Before accepting any invitations to parties and the like, they
always made sure the Wilsons were not invited. It would seem as
though many people had stopped invited the Wilsons, a sign that
they believed Theo guilty of the crime. They didn’t want him around
their daughters.
    Thinking of all this now, Maureen let
herself cry. She allowed the tears to flow once per day, but
otherwise tried to appear positive for her family. However, Claire
wasn’t fooled and would often give her mother comfort with a
spontaneous hug or kind words. Claire was also able to made Maddie
smile by reading her the more amusing articles in the paper in the
mornings.
    Geoffrey had taken to coming home
earlier in the day to be there to support his family. The tragedy
had drawn them all closer and they worked their hardest to heal
their daughter and sister. They all did their best, but it wasn’t
easy and Maureen feared that Maddie would never fully
recover.
     

Chapter Two
     
     
    Tessa laid the letter from her mother
down on her lap and wiped away tears from her eyes as her husband
Dean entered the parlor. He saw Tessa’s distress and crossed the
room to her.
    He knelt next to her chair and asked,
“Bad news?”
    Tessa looked into his caring blue eyes
and said, “I’m afraid so. Maddie is not improving much. She doesn’t
want to go out and when she does it’s only for a short period of
time because she’s terrified that she’ll see him . Once in a
while she’ll come down to one of Papa’s dinners, but only eats and
then retreats back upstairs to her room.”
    Dean rubbed her shoulder in sympathy.
“I’m sorry, honey. I feel so bad about this happening to
her.”
    Tessa smiled and laid a hand on his
cheek. “You are such a good man, Dean Samuels.”
    “Thanks. And you’re a good woman, Tessa
Samuels. And a great wife and mother.”
    “You are too kind, but I thank you. Oh,
Dean, I wish there was some way to help, but it’s so hard from so
far away,” Tessa said.
    “Do you want to go there for a visit?”
Dean said.
    Tessa shook her head. “I don’t think it
would help. She needs to get out of the city for a while, I think.
It would be good for her to get away from the situation, but Mama
says Maddie won’t go to our country home because the Wilson’s
country home isn’t far from ours. Papa wants to sell it and buy
another one far away from theirs and I think that’s
best.”
    “Yeah, me, too. You know, maybe she
could come here. It would be somewhere completely new and a
different kind of life. There’s no way she’d run into that monster
here. She’d be able to meet her niece and nephews and her
brother-in-laws. It’s quiet here and maybe it’d give her a chance
to get her strength back.”
    “You mean brothers-in-law ,”
Tessa said and planted a passionate kiss on Dean’s sensual
mouth.
    When she drew back, Dean grinned at her
and asked, “What was that for?”
    “For being the best husband and such a
smart man! That’s a wonderful idea. I’ll write Mama back
immediately,” she said. She gave Dean another kiss and hurried off
to their room to begin her letter.
    Dean smiled and rose from his knees. He
loved how impetuous and excitable his wife was. It certainly kept
things interesting and he never had to guess at how Tessa felt
about something.“Oh, by the way, I know what the correct way to say
it is, I just like driving you crazy by sayin’ it wrong,” he called
after her and then left Tessa to her task. He had to check on a
mare that was close to giving birth.
     
    Seth Samuels, Dean’s older brother by
one year, sat on his horse, a big chestnut gelding named Hank, and
watched the herd of fifteen Holstein